Posts Tagged ‘knowledge management’
What would you do in case of a knowledge blackout?
January 17, 2012 | 
Author Beginning tonight at midnight Wikipedia will be closing down its US site for twenty four hours to protest the federal anti-privacy legislation known as SOPA, warning it is a threat to free speech.
Whether you agree with or oppose the proposed legislation this action raises a lot of issues. Free speech governance concerns aside, an intended consequence is that many who rely on wikipedia for information are going to be disappointed when they cannot get to what they are looking for. Instead visitors will be directed to contact their congressmen to oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) legislation.
Knowledge management and ownership is a serious issue that must be addressed. But this kind of action also raises the question “What would happen if you could not get to needed company information”? It brings to light our vulnerability to how we access important ‘knowledge’.
Many times companies and organizations do not think about the value of company knowledge unless it is compromised. A fire or physical disaster can destroy paper documentation or even local PC’s and servers, not to mention undocumented knowledge that is dependent on a person.
A web-based knowledge base is an essential tool for storing valuable knowledge. With the proper credentials it can be retrieved anywhere, anytime. This can make your everyday operations smoother and even save your company in a crisis.
We will have to see what happens with SOPA and PIPA. By all means if you have an opinion please tell your legislators. In the meantime YOU have control over your data. Guard it well!
For information on the Novo Knowledge Base or for a free trial see: http://www.novosolutions.com/knowledge-base-software/
Posted in General, Knowledge Base | 
Tags: Knowledge Base Software, knowledge management, knowledge privacy, PIPA, SOPA | 
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Did you ‘Novo it’ today?
Who would have thought we would be speaking words in the workplace such as “tweet’, ‘wiki’, ‘blog’, and ‘google’? Technology sure does wear a face of humor doesn’t it? I guess they are really no different than words of the past such as ‘Xerox’ and ‘Kleenex’, but they do have silly rings to them.
Take google for example. This company name has become a verb. How often have you heard (or said), “have you tried googling that”? Around here we say that a lot.
Imagine our delight when our customers tell us that they ‘novo’ at their workplaces. When they need to retrieve knowledge they will ask, ‘did you novo that’? That has become the term for looking for something in their Novo Knowledge Base.
Now we are not google, but we are happy that our software has become the mainstay of getting quick information for many organizations. This is what we have dreamed of since we developed our foundation knowledge base application.
So the question is, “have you novo-ed today”? If not please contact us and we will set you up with a free trial so you can try it out for yourself.
Wiki or Managed Knowledge Base – what’s right for you?
All of us know the value of accessible, stored knowledge. Not that long ago few of us used words like wiki or knowledge base, now they have become common words in our workplaces and in everyday life.
Many of us have learned the hard way that with knowledge comes responsibility. In order to be effective one has to build & maintain organizational knowledge to its end goal to be accurate, easy to access, &helpful. Organizing knowledge does not happen by itself – it has to be regularly managed.
Consider the wiki. Someone had the great idea that assembling knowledge could be a shared effort. Why not let people who may be experts contribute their knowledge so it can be shared with others? This would allow experts to play a part, and take the burden off management to be required to compose all of the desired information.
For many a wiki is a good solution, but it is not without its Problems.
Wiki submissions:
- Must be reviewed and/or approved for accuracy
- Must be reviewed and/or approved when edits are made
- May be subjective to the writer’s motivation
- May not provide a thorough answer
So for those who are counting on a wiki to be a big timesaver you may need to think again. There is still a significant time investment to manage a wiki.
For many organizations a knowledge base is still the best solution. Today’s new features, such as workflow automation makes article management easier than ever. Workflow automation:
- Offers the capability of defining workflows with various completion or approval paths.
- Empowers administrators to easily view pending task status, assignments, predecessor relationships & deadlines
- Email notifications can be automatically sent to the appropriate person or group when tasks are completed or rejected.
This flexibility allows management the ability to manage article creation through administrators’ and others as needed.
For information on the Novo Knowledge Base see http://www.novosolutions.com/knowledge-base-software/.
Posted in General, Knowledge Base | Tags: customer support, Customer Support Software, knowledge base, knowledge management, Novo Solutions | No Comments »
Knowledge Base Software | Managing Your Company Data
Whether it is the beginning of your fiscal year or you are approaching year end, now is a great time to work towards managing your business goals. Organizing company-wide goals into a searchable, central knowledge repository is a great way to categorize and keep track of essential business data.
Beginning of year: Now is the time to layout goals for the year. From mission and vision statements to business plans to policies and procedures, having important information in an easy to access tool is vital. With a knowledge base you are able to easily add, edit and remove content; workflows allow you to automate reviews and approvals so correct information is always at hand.
End of Year: Managing company knowledge in to a single area is a great way to not only organize data so that everyone can see it, but also allows you bring everyone on board with goals of what needs to be done to finish well. You can review goals to see where you are, set end of year goals, and have valuable data on hand to set goals for next year. Automated review reminders will notify you to clean up outdated content to ensure company data is current and accurate.
Here are some examples of information that can be managed in a knowledge base:
- Mission/vision statements
- Company policies
- Human resource documents
- Business plans
- Security reviews
- Safety regulations
- Images, rss feeds, videos
- Searchable attachments: MS Word, Excel, pdf’s, etc.
For more information on the Novo Knowledge Base see: www.novosolutions.com/knowledge-base-software/
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Procedures Management | Knowledge Base Software
Some people only think of Knowledge Base Software as a tool for customer support operations, but if you have a KB system in-house you have an excellent tool for Human Resources.
All kinds’ company information can be placed into a knowledge base for easy access. A quality system will allow you to set permissions so that only management can view restricted data, making it perfect for storing key employee resources. With other features such as article review and workflows, HR can ensure that company information is constantly reviewed & up-to-date.
Let’s take a look at a common HR component – Procedures Management:
Whether documented or not, almost all organizations have ‘procedures’ on how day-to-day business tasks are completed. Some attempt to document as many procedures as possible while others rely on verbal knowledge and training on how tasks are accomplished. Imagine the value of being able to easily retrieve data on how procedures are performed! This would:
- Ensure procedures are current and correct
- Serve as an ideal training tool
- Preserve Knowledge when an employees leaves
Check with your IT dept. and see if they are using a knowledge management system. If they are you could share the software in what is called a Shared Services environment. This environment allows you to share one application across multiple departments. Data is categorized among the various departments, so you only see your information and they only see their information – this ensures data is kept secure!
Typically all that is needed to expand the system is to purchase additional licenses for other departments and make easy configurations. Additional modifications, such as customized templates are easily done to personalize the look and feel for different departments.
For more information on the Novo Knowledge Base see: www.novosolutions.com/knowledge-base-software/
Posted in Knowledge Base | Tags: knowledge base, Knowledge Base Software, knowledge management, procedure management, shared services | No Comments »
Managing Today’s Communication Tools – Knowledge Management
Knowledge Management
The information age has changed the world of communication. Just remember, it wasn’t that long ago that if you wanted to know something you had to pick up the telephone and call someone – hoping to reach them. Now with the Internet you can communicate with friends, coworkers, and businesses – all from the convenience of your desktop, laptop, or mobile device.
This new technology has created words we never had before; knowledge base, texting, google, blogging, tweeting, etc. In addition new jobs have been created to manage all of this new communication.
Some organizations have created entire new departments around this, while many have simply tasked specified individuals to manage certain aspects of the new technology. Needless to say, it has greatly affected the way we all do business.
We regularly get calls from people needing a knowledge base for their organization. They may need it so that their customers can find answers 24/7 on their company website, or for internal communication, or both. Unfortunately because this is still relatively new, many environments or companies do not have a solid plan in place as how to manage the knowledge base. It is a sad thing to purchase a powerful tool, but then not use it to its full capacity because of poor planning.
Here are some guidelines to have in place when building a company Knowledge Base:
- Who is going to be able to view the information?
- Who are the contributors? Who will create the articles?
- Who is responsible for reviewing content?
- Who manages the content to ensure it is not out of date?
- Who reviews suggestions from end users?
- Who reviews the logs to learn valuable business data? Are you getting the same searches over and over? Maybe communication could be improved?
We get very excited when we deliver our knowledge management software to a new customer because we know that is it going to greatly save time and improve operations. We encourage all our customers to take the time to make the most of our software solutions, as well as all new technology available today.
For more information on the Novo Knowledge Base, or our suite of support products please visit us at www.novosolutions.com
Mobile Applications Growth
There has been an explosion in apps for mobile devices over the past few years. Spearheading this assault on the minds and pocketbooks of mobile users are a myriad of apps for managing most aspects of one’s personal life. Personal apps run the gamut from those enabling the purchase of movie tickets, social networking, GPS navigation, managing multimedia, and much more.
While this explosion has undoubtedly occurred on the personal side of mobile device interaction, it seems a more sedate pace has taken place on the business side of things. While many providers have released mobile apps for such things as Sales CRM or even GPS mapping for the dispatch of technicians, mobile apps have not become as prevalent in the business world.
The Information Economy has seen the advent of the dissolution of the difference between the private and the business realms. The ability to do pretty much anything anywhere has seen a convergence of what we consider ‘work’ and what we consider ‘personal.’ Business apps on mobile devices may only further accelerate this convergence.
Despite potential social ramifications, developers might instead think in terms of the huge gains in productivity this enables business users and deliver more options for work related tasks.
Novo Solutions | www.novosolutions.com
Posted in Knowledge Base | Tags: applications, CRM, knowledge base, knowledge management, mobile | No Comments »
Preparing for Disaster – Knowledge Management
Being situated on the East Coast of the US, we are no strangers to the effects of hurricanes and tropical storms. As of today we are watching hurricane ‘Earl’, which is slated to bring us bad weather at the very least –and hopefully nothing worse. But as cautioned, we take the time around here to be prepared for the worst….just in case.
Nobody likes to have to think about disaster preparedness, but among other catastrophic losses, it can mean the difference between your business making it or going under with ‘the storm’. Critical company knowledge must be retained and readily accessible to return your business to its ‘normal’ operating state as quickly as possible.
Examples of critical knowledge are:
- Employee knowledge – employees may not be able to get to work; others may need to perform their tasks. Documented knowledge empowers others to step in and do essential jobs.
- Emergency procedures – this is critical to every business. Having documented emergency procedures for physical facilities, customer/employee care, financial, and organizational management will not only help reduce crisis, but for some businesses may reduce injury and harm (not to mention law suits).
- Legal Documentation – copies of tax and legal documents, licenses, warranties, insurance documents, etc.
- Business recovery – document what is involved in restoring your business to normal conditions, such as employee communications, customer communications, and data communications (logins/passwords, setting up computers/servers, etc.).
It is essential that the knowledge is web-based, so that it is accessible everywhere. You may not be able to get to your physical building….anything stored there may be useless if you cannot access it. In addition, if you are prepared you have more to offer the community (who may not be as prepared). This is one way we can all support one another.
So take the time to ensure your business is prepared for any unexpected disaster, whether it be hurricane, flood, fire, or earthquake. You have invested so much of your time and resources building your business….ensure you are protecting your investment.
For informationon our knowledge management software see: http://www.novosolutions.com/knowledge-management-software
Posted in Knowledge Base | Tags: crisis management, knowledge base, knowledge management | No Comments »
What is Normal Anyway? – Customer Support Software Solutions
It seems like here at Novo Solutions we are always telling everyone how our software helps organizations ‘Do more with less’. More tasks in less time – More information sharing with less fall through – More productivity with less manpower. Well, this mindset seems to be the trend in businesses today.
With recent economic challenges organizations across the globe have had to make [sometimes drastic] manpower cuts. Many of us have found ourselves working harder and smarter than ever before. And while recent reports show many businesses producing second quarter profits – still businesses are not hiring and thus unemployment is not going down? Why is this? Businesses are learning to work ‘leaner’ – and economists are projecting that this may continue to be the case for awhile, as we are all mindfully sober of the vulnerable business climate of these times.
As you find yourself ‘still having to do more than less’, take the time to review all of your internal processes. Consider implementing solutions that automate common tasks and improve efficiency in your organization. As some economists say – this is the ‘New Normal’ …at least for the meantime.
For more information on the Novo Solution’s suite of support products please visit our website – www.novosolutions.com
Grow Your Novo App
January….it’s that time of year to take a thoughtful look at your tools and procedures to see where performance can be improved. We recommend you take a good look at your Novo software.
Many people purchase our software for an initial purpose and later learn that it can do so much more. For some this means adding modules to increase functionality within a single department while for other is means rolling it into other departments. Here are some ways to grow your Novo App to get the most out of it:
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Check out our companion modules: The scalability of our software allows many of the tools to be used independently, but used together you can have a powerhouse of functionality. Give us a call and we can show you how adding modules can streamline tasks and save you time.
- Invite other departments in: The software you are using to manage IT requests works great in Human Resources, as well as other departments. Flexible permission settings allow each department to keep their data secure, and your company will be saving money managing a single app.
- Grow your administrator base: Need more administrator licenses? Adding more administrators to your existing app is just a phone call away.
We are committed to your continued success. Please give us a call for a free evaluation of how you are using your Novo software and suggestions on ways to improve your processes.