Knowledge Work-flow

“The review team looked at multiple systems. . . . The solution we chose gave our call center agents the ability to update the knowledgebase in real time, so new solutions are immediately available on a global basis — a real value for the engineers. Solutions could be drafted, developed, and quality-checked within the workflow and simultaneously made available for access and reuse . . . .”

— Angela McAllister, Manager of Services and Knowledge Technologies, 3Com

Many software initiatives have failed because of the increased burden placed on the users they were intended to help. Where they promised efficiency, they have often resulted in more work. This has certainly been the case for many support centers adopting knowledge management initiatives, where extra work for an already overtaxed workforce has resulted in poor user adoption and, ultimately, in disappointing results.

For a support center like a police operations center to succeed with knowledge management, the solution must mimic the natural work processes of the operators, whereby knowledge is accessed, captured, and improved as an intrinsic part of how operators and users interact with those in need to solve problems. In other words, the system must not only assist the operator with the problem at hand, but extract additional knowledge from the interaction to improve content for subsequent interactions.

As an example, we will consider a possible heart attack with a student who is in class to show how a knowledge-based support system life-cycle works as it relates to operators, in a typical POC with a medical call. As the operator gathers information about the exact nature of the of the call and identifies the type of medical emergency, they then search for a suitable solution and the location to call EMS. To expedite this process and narrow the range of possible solutions, the Web help system displays a range of answers based on user query. The operator may or may not find the answer from existing solutions in the knowledgebase, but either way, the missing content should be recorded as a question that needs an answer and the answer would then be added to the Web help system database.

In a call center, if there are no existing solutions, the level 1 agent escalates the problem to a higher-level agent. In policing, operators ask each other, patrol officers and shift supervisors. Once the documentation team troubleshoots the problem or identifies that the solution does not exist in the database, they will provide the solution and commit it to the knowledgebase system for access the next time the problem arises. As a best practice, each step is integrated with the standard tasks that each operator would have done to solve the problem. In other words, the knowledge management system has managed the process as a by-product of that interaction and added value to the existing body of knowledge to benefit subsequent operators and callers.

Next: Relevant Knowledge Accessible