Knowledge Management
The main purpose of the knowledge management process in ITIL is to share different ideas, perspectives, experiences, and information. It also has to ensure that these are available at the right place and at the right time in order to allow informed decisions to be made. It helps to improve efficiency by decreasing the necessity to rediscover knowledge.
Knowledge Management is a process inside the service transition stage of the service lifecycle, with its purpose being to:
- share information, ideas and experience
- make knowledge of the organization available to those who need it, when they need it, in order to support decision making
- eliminate the need to rediscover the knowledge
Basic Concepts of Knowledge Management
- Data: It is a set of discrete facts
- Information: It arises from providing context to the data.
- Knowledge: It is composed of experience, values, ideas, insights, values, and judgements of an individual.
- Wisdom: It makes use of knowledge to create value through correct and well informed decisions.
The Benefits of Knowledge Management[1]
By implementing knowledge management practices in the workplace, IT managers can improve their teams and provide better service. Consider these benefits:
- Decreases the amount of time that must be spent on training employees. Since your team will constantly receive accurate and up-to-date information, they will require fewer formal training sessions to continue to meet and exceed performance expectations.
- Reduces the number of errors that are made by team members. If your team has the knowledge that they need to make decisions, they are far less likely to make mistakes.
- Reduces the need to complete steps in the service process more than once. When everyone is informed about the process, it is less likely that a step will be performed incorrectly. By implementing knowledge management, you give your team the power to reduce service process time by eliminating the need to repeat steps.
- Allows IT professionals to respond to customer needs faster and more effectively. Your employees will know how to answer customer questions more often, so you will not have to intervene or respond to negative feedback about team members’ lack of knowledge.