To quote David Kay of DB Kay & Associates “KCS is not something we do in addition to solving problems. KCS is the way we solve problems.” Knowledge Centered Support (KCS) is a methodology and a set of practices and processes that focuses on knowledge as a key asset of the Support organization. Its premise is to capture, structure, and re-use support knowledge.
KCS seeks to:
- Create content as a by-product of solving problems. As support analysts capture information related to an incident, they create knowledge that can be reused within the support process by other support analysts as well as customers with access to a self-service knowledge base.
- Evolve content based on demand and usage. As people interact with the knowledge base within the incident management process, they must review it before delivering the knowledge to a customer. If they discover the need to correct or enhance the knowledge, they will fix it at that time or flag it for another person to fix. Under this model, knowledge is evolved just-in-time based on demand instead of just-in-case.
- Develop a knowledge base of an organization's collective experience to-date. New knowledge capture within the incident management process is an experience resulting from one interaction. The knowledge has not been validated or verified beyond the initial incident. Thus the initial knowledge is not as trusted in this state, which is referred to as Draft knowledge. It is not until reuse occurs that trust is improved.
- Reward learning, collaboration, sharing and improving. The culture of the organization must change to recognize the value of an individual based on the knowledge they share.
Based on a recent analysis performed over support customers, we see exponentially at least 15% of customers demanding better Knowledge base, better content on articles, do it yourself kits, Self-help systems, and indexed knowledge bases for them to drill down into the solutions. Having KCS helps an organization fulfill these demands as well as improve performance and helps to obtain a competitive advantage. This includes higher productivity and higher resolution rates. KCS best practices have evolved after continuous exposure to a whole assortment of challenges addressing varied communities and supporting the end to end ecosystem of the support & service businesses. KCS will help transform your current support services by incorporating well-structured, balanced and proven processes, methods and systems.
