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Knowledge management systems

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Knowledge management system: The complete guide

Last updated February 5, 2025

For businesses delivering good customer service, agents can only talk, type, and handle so many interactions at once. They can’t meet all customer needs, demands, and requests without the help of a knowledge management system (KMS).

With tools like AI-powered knowledge bases, KMSs make it easy for reps and users to quickly find information. Knowledge management tools promote internal and external self-service practices, improving operational efficiency and business outcomes. Plus, according to Zendesk benchmark data, more than two-thirds of users prefer using KMS self-service over speaking directly with an agent.

Continue reading our guide to learn more about KMS basics, their benefits and use cases, the top knowledge management software, and system best practices.

More in this guide:

What is a knowledge management system?

A knowledge management system is an IT system that enables businesses to gather, store, update, and access company data in a centralized location. Knowledge management systems manage many forms of knowledge, including:

  • Troubleshooting guides
  • FAQs
  • Tutorials

A KMS also supports customer self-service portals and additional self-service options for employees, business partners, and more, making finding and sharing information easy.

What is the difference between knowledge management and a knowledge management system?

The difference between knowledge management and a knowledge management system is that one is an approach while the other is a technological tool.

  • Knowledge management is a comprehensive approach to identifying, capturing, organizing, storing, and sharing an organization's knowledge and expertise.
  • A knowledge management system is a tool that helps teams manage internal and external knowledge.

As knowledge management is a concept, a KMS is the specific platform that makes this concept possible.

Who uses a knowledge management system?

A wide range of individuals and organizations, including customers, employees, and businesses of all sizes, will use a knowledge management system.

Within an organization, the most common types of people who use KMSs are:

  • Customer service agents: who use the system to create self-service resources and find answers to customer questions
  • Human resources professionals who use KMSs to store and share information about employee benefits, policies, and procedures
  • IT professionals who use knowledge management solutions to create FAQs and tutorials to increase ticket deflection

However, if your goal is to collect, store, and share organizational knowledge, you can use a knowledge management system.

What types of knowledge should be included in a knowledge management system?

The five types of KMS knowledge, including, explicit, tacit, implicit, declarative, and procedural knowledge.

A comprehensive knowledge management system will generally contain five types of knowledge.

Explicit knowledge

Explicit knowledge is easily shareable information, like data. This information is structured and is typically helpful for customer and employee learning, including:

  • Written documents and reports
  • Standard operating procedures (SOPs)
  • Policies and procedures
  • Training materials

This tangible knowledge should be readily available and accessible to others.

Tacit knowledge

Tacit knowledge is intangible and unique information, like personal customer experiences. This type of knowledge can include:

  • Personal stories and anecdotes
  • Informal problem-solving strategies
  • Expert understanding of tools and industries

This type of knowledge is often called “know-how” information, and people will learn this through experience.

Implicit knowledge

Implicit knowledge is the information used for problem-solving and implementing explicit knowledge. This type of knowledge can include:

  • Videos of users experimenting with and using industry best practices
  • Recorded calls or customer interactions from a contact center
  • Case studies about organizational successes

Implicit knowledge is similar to tacit knowledge, which is learned through practice and difficult to codify.

Declarative knowledge

Declarative knowledge refers to factual information and statistics, including but not limited to:

  • A company’s founding year
  • The name of your CEO
  • Product features

This type of knowledge is easily written or verbalized and is typically more generalized than other forms of knowledge.

Procedural knowledge

Procedural knowledge describes the steps for doing a certain task or action. In a KMS, this type of knowledge is:

  • How-to articles and videos
  • Task manuals
  • Product and service demos

This knowledge focuses on the actions necessary to achieve a specific result.

The components of a knowledge management system

A comprehensive knowledge management system is built of various components. Below, we list the most common features.

  • Content: refers to the actual assets held in a knowledge base, including reports, best practices, training materials, and more.
  • Artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities: The AI-powered tools and solutions, including AI agents, help users use a KMS.
  • Access restrictions: The processes and procedures that restrict who can access and use information to protect data privacy.
  • People: The experts, knowledge contributors, users, and information seekers who make up the KMS foundation.
  • Processes: The structured methods and workflows used to capture, store, organize, share, and analyze knowledge.
  • Analytics: The reporting and analysis capabilities of a KMS, which helps teams improve processes and strengthen guidelines.
  • Integrations The ability of a knowledge management solution to integrate with other solutions, specifically customer service software.
  • Strategy A knowledge management initiative's overall vision and objectives, including alignment and improvement.

These are also the components teams need to consider and look for before investing in a knowledge management system.

Knowledge management system benefits

The benefits of a knowledge management system.

From internal to external operations, knowledge management systems offer various benefits to employees and customers.

24/7 support

With resources and solutions like troubleshooting guides, FAQ software, and video tutorials, a KMS’s self-service library provides customers with 24/7 support. No matter the question or the time of day, automated knowledge management systems can help customers in need.

A comprehensive customer-facing KMS can also offer multilingual support through language translation features, ensuring constant accessibility for a global audience.

Increased customer retention

When the buyer’s journey is frictionless, customers are more likely to stick around. With an external KMS, teams can streamline interactions by providing quick, accurate answers to common questions, preventing the frustration that arises from waiting on hold for an agent.

A knowledge management system can also improve customer retention by recommending relevant knowledge base articles and providing targeted solutions to customers' problems. This can positively impact customer loyalty by proving to users that their needs matter—even when a human agent is unavailable.

Improved operational efficiency

With date centralization and organization options, KMSs enhance customer and employee experiences (EX). By empowering customers to find answers and fix issues independently, external knowledge management systems minimize the need for agent intervention and enable teams to dedicate more time to complex cases and personalized care.

Internal KMSs improve agent productivity and efficiency and efficiency with a similar level of support by allowing users to easily access accurate information independently. This increased efficiency helps them achieve operational goals, like reducing first reply times and resolution rates.

Enhanced employee onboarding and training

As it’s not always practical or feasible to assign individuals to guide new hires through employee onboarding, an internal KMS can streamline the process and simplify how users access company policies, best practices, and training materials. This frees up experienced colleagues to focus on their primary responsibilities and allows new hires to learn at their own pace without waiting for guidance from their managers.

Knowledge management solutions also help streamline customer service training. Whether teams need to cover knowledge gaps or individual employees are interested in improving their customer service skills, a KMS can support training videos, documents, and other materials to be accessed when needed.

Improved team alignment

An internal KMS acts as your company’s single source of truth, helping to ensure everyone is on the same page. Instead of departments operating within data silos, each team references the same up-to-date information, eliminating confusion and conflicting document versions.

It’s also possible to use knowledge management systems as a team productivity tool, facilitating collaboration and communication between teams. By keeping document updates, notes, and questions in a centralized location, companies can improve team productivity by simplifying where and how they source internal knowledge every day.

Reduced operational costs

Knowledge management systems drive cost savings through organizational improvement by:

  • Minimizing redundant and repetitive work
  • Preventing internal knowledge loss and data silos
  • Improving team efficiency
  • Providing quick access to comprehensive, centralized information

When team members spend less time searching for knowledge or resolving problems that have already been addressed, they can focus on customer-centric, empathy-driven interactions.

KMSs also provide instant access to best practices, historical data, and expert insights, enabling faster problem-solving and reducing time spent reinventing solutions. By capturing and systematically organizing knowledge, companies reduce expenses associated with elongated training times, excess resource use, and productivity losses associated with employee turnover.

Boosted expertise and information capture

In a dynamic, centralized repository, KMSs enable organizational experts to document their specialized knowledge, insights, and problem-solving strategies. This allows teams to transform tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge and ensures businesses create scalable, adaptable solutions for preserving critical organizational knowledge.

Structured knowledge capture tools—such as expert profiles, detailed documentation features, and collaborative spaces—also ensure valuable employee insights are saved when users retire, transfer, or exit. Plus, a KMS’s internal knowledge base is accessible across all organizational levels, so less experienced employees can learn from seasoned professionals.

The top knowledge management systems

H2: The top knowledge management systems

Reaping the benefits of a knowledge management system requires choosing the right one. Below, we cover the features and pricing of some common knowledge management tools.

  • Zendesk: Best for AI-powered knowledge management
  • Atlassian Confluence: Best for internal collaboration
  • Document360: Best for technical documentation
  • Notion: Best for customization
  • Microsoft SharePoint: Best for Microsoft users
  • Guru: Best for knowledge verification

Zendesk

Best for: AI-powered knowledge management

A view of the knowledge management system from Zendesk.

Zendesk is a comprehensive knowledge management system that supports internal and external data capture and organization. With our solution, you can also streamline knowledge management in a centralized location, saving agents time when sourcing, collecting, organizing, and accessing information. Zendesk AI also helps you turn ideas into full-length articles and documents while simplifying publishing.

By integrating with the customer service functions of Zendesk, our KMS helps users find exactly what they need without assistance from a human agent. This integration also allows Zendesk AI agents, the next generation of AI-powered bots, to solve complex problems, find and deliver useful documents, and identify customer sentiment quickly. Plus, our advanced analytics allow you to monitor which articles are most used and which topics lack an appropriate article. This allows you to easily create new articles and ensure your customers are able to find the answers they need.

Pricing: Plans start at $19 per agent/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

Explore more Zendesk pricing plans.

Atlassian Confluence

Best for: Internal collaboration

A view of Atlassian’s knowledge management system, Confluence.

Atlassian Confluence is a digital workspace where teams can house internal knowledge and collaborate on projects. This knowledge management system provides templated pages for users to take notes, plan projects, and store conversations. With Confluence, teams can also collect and access real-time data, configure databases, and toggle through different fields.

This system houses data in a centralized location to reduce context-switching. Plus, its AI capabilities allow teams to automate data collection, organization, and updates. However, Confluence’s external knowledge management capabilities require additional support through other systems like Confluence Cloud.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $650 per year for up to 10 users. A free plan and a seven-day free trial are available.

Learn more: Discover how Atlassian integrates with Zendesk.

Document360

Best for: Technical documentation

A view of Document360’s knowledge management system.

Document360 is a knowledge management platform that allows teams to store, access, and share software documentation, APIs, user manuals, and more. This system uses a centralized repository to streamline technical document storage. Plus, Document360 supports multilingual documentation with search capabilities.

The system’s analytics tools analyze external and internal traffic, identifying sources and commonly searched topics. Plus, Document360’s AI tools enable the system to generate knowledge base content, adjust tone and voice, and respond to queries.

Pricing: Contact Document360 for pricing. A 14-day free trial is available.

Learn more: Discover how Document360 integrates with Zendesk.

Notion

Best for: Customization

A view of Notion’s knowledge management system.

Notion is a productivity software with a centralized space for capturing, storing, and sharing knowledge. The system supports more than 100 content templates, allowing users to customize documents to suit their needs. Plus, Notion’s flexible building blocks allow users to design their own storage systems.

Notion’s customization options also allow teams to create toggles, organize and share videos, bookmark content, and more. Moreover, with Notion’s KMS, teams can simultaneously collaborate, edit, and comment on new and old documents.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $10 per seat/month, billed annually. A free plan for individuals is available.

Learn more: Discover how Notion integrates with Zendesk.

Microsoft SharePoint

Best for: Microsoft users

A view of Microsoft SharePoint’s knowledge management system.

Microsoft SharePoint is a web-based platform for storing and sharing organizational data. This KMS can support the collaboration, communication, and compliance of teams in enterprise companies. SharePoint also houses various pre-existing templates, allowing users to customize content and its organization.

Microsoft SharePoint’s AI tools can summarize information, create knowledge-based documents, and make personalized recommendations. Plus, this KMS’s content management capabilities allow teams to control data access and governance policies.

Pricing: Plans start at $5 per user/month, billed annually. A one-month free trial is available.

Learn more: Discover how Microsoft Teams integrates with Zendesk.

Guru

Best for:Knowledge verification

A view of Guru’s knowledge management system.

Guru is a knowledge management system supported by AI and a centralized information database. Guru’s single platform combines AI search and a knowledge base, which allows teams to quickly access insights and internal knowledge while supporting software verifies knowledge accuracy. This KMS can also integrate with existing systems, including CRMs and file storage software.

Guru’s AI bots provide personalized recommendations to users and help teams create branded content. Automated reminders allow users to consistently verify and update information. Plus, Guru offers customization options for data organization and a training center for user accuracy.

Pricing: Plans start at $15 per user/month, billed annually. A 30-day free trial is available

Learn more: Discover how Guru integrates with Zendesk.

Knowledge management use cases

There are plenty of practical uses for KMSs in an organization. Below, we explain the most common knowledge management system use cases and their benefits.

Employee onboarding

With a knowledge management system, teams can create own-pace onboarding and training systems. This allows employees to learn at the pace that works best for them without waiting for or interrupting higher-level coworkers with questions or training sessions. Additionally, employees can revisit these systems to remind themselves of training initiatives or learn about new products, services, features, and more.

Product launches

Knowledge management systems can store and share product-specific documentation, training, and answers to FAQs. Customers learning a new product or feature can use a KMS to access self-service materials before contacting a company representative.

Moreover, a knowledge management system can help support teams deflect tickets. after a company launches a new product. For example, if a company releases a new product filter, an article or how-to video in the KMS can answer customer inquiries about where to find, toggle, and use this filter.

Self-service

With a client portal and external KMS at their fingertips, customers can access organizational knowledge at the click of a button. Comprehensive knowledge management systems with organized data and thorough sharing processes enable customer self-service, where users can access the data they need without agent intervention.

Internal KMSs also support employee self-service, allowing teams to access all types of data, from internal training and FAQs to HR and IT-specific information.

Team communication

While knowledge management software differs from instant messaging software, it’s still designed to help teams collaborate and communicate easily. This centralized solution enables teams to instantly share and transfer information, eliminating team-specific information silos and improving document version control. A KMS also enhances transparency, reducing communication barriers and ensuring everyone can access the same day-to-day information.

Best practices for using knowledge management systems

To get the most out of your KMS, follow these knowledge management best practices:

  • Understand current information-sharing models. Assess how data currently flows through your organization. Identify existing communication channels, informal knowledge-sharing networks, and successful and ineffective information exchange practices.
  • Set measurable goals. Develop clear, specific, and quantifiable objectives for your KMS. Use SMART customer service goals to track its effectiveness and value for stakeholders.
  • Reward collaboration and teamwork. Provide tangible rewards, public recognition, and other incentives to create a culture that actively incentivizes knowledge sharing and internal collaboration
  • Choose the best knowledge management software. Evaluate which KMS aligns with your needs, considering factors like integrations, scalability, security, search functionality, and more.
  • Build a management team. Choose and assemble representatives from your IT, HR, leadership, and other department teams to implement, maintain, and improve the KMS.
  • Keep your system updated: Prioritize content audits, continuous contributions, version controls, content verification, and maintenance or quality guidelines to keep the KMS current, relevant, and valuable.

These best practices ensure knowledge management systems become strategic assets that deliver value rather than unutilized tools.

Frequently asked questions

AI systems can enhance knowledge management systems with features like personalized recommendations, proactive customer service, and automated updates.

Unity

Unity saves $1.3 million with Zendesk automations + self-service

“Last year we deflected almost 8,000 tickets due to self-service enabled by Zendesk. That amounts to about $1.3M saved due to the reduction in tickets.”

David Schroeder

Senior Manager of Services Support

Read customer story
Unity

Choose the right knowledge management system today

A comprehensive KMS supports automated customer service, allowing teams to do more in less time. With powerful AI tools, Zendesk excels at knowledge management system integration and internal support. Don’t wait: Discover how Zendesk knowledge management software makes information and resources more accessible for your team today!

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