The Hidden Cost of Manual Work—and How to Fix It

As technology evolves, knowledge will exist in more and more disparate places. Information gets stuck in email, social media interactions, forum discussions, comments, tickets, and even in the brains of individual service desk agents. If you don't already have one, it's time to aggregate your knowledge in a single repository or system.

What is a knowledge base?

A knowledge base is a self-serve online library of information about a product, service, department, or topic. The data in your knowledge base can come from anywhere. Typically, contributors who are well versed in the relevant subjects add to and expand the knowledge base.

The content can range from the ins and outs of your HR or legal department to an explanation of how a product works. The knowledge base may include FAQs, manuals, troubleshooting guides, runbooks, and other information your team may want or need to know.

Why Do you need a knowledge base?

Many knowledge bases are structured around artificial intelligence that can interact and respond to user input. Others are simply indexed encyclopedias. There are also machine-readable knowledge bases that store content in system-readable forms.

Solutions are based on what we call automated deductive reasoning. When a user enters a query, software helps narrow down a solution.