Technology Services World: Knowledge Management Content and Exhibitors

Capturing, sharing and maintaining knowledge is always a popular topic at TSIA Conferences, and at our upcoming Technology Services World in Las Vegas, October 20-22, there will be a lot of great content on this hot topic. Our 2nd annual knowledge management survey was completed in August, and I’ll be revealing the findings and publishing the results at the event. I’ve had mulitple inquiries over the last week asking what KM content will be featured at the show, and what exhibitors in the Expo offer knowledge management tools and services, so here’s a peak at KM-releated sessions and exhibitors so you can start planning your time now.

First up are the breakout sessions focusing on knowledge management. For detailed sessions descriptions, see the TSW agenda online.

• Transforming Knowledge Management: Hot KM Trends. In this Power Hour session on Monday at 4:15, I’ll walk through the results of the KM survey, including information on KM across service divisions, and emerging technology areas such as mobility, video, unified search, expertise management, etc.
• Three Months, 300% Productivity Improvement: Transforming Customer Success Using Rapid Knowledge Sharing. Phil Verghis, Klever; Mitchell Spence, Tyler Technologies, Inc. Tuesday, 2:00 PM.
• Using KCS and Discovery Based Consumption Analytics to Generate Proactive Support Deliverables and Guaranteed Customer Outcomes. Rob Baker, Akamai Technologies, Inc. Tuesday, 3:30 PM.
• OK, We’ve Done KCS. What’s Next? David Kay, DB Kay & Associates; Sean Murphy, Riverbed Technology, Inc. Tuesday, 3:30 PM.
• From Knowledge Hoarding to Solve-Once: Aligning Support around a Knowledge Culture. Linda Hartig, Avaya; Dan Pratt, Avaya; Joey Fister, Avaya. Tuesday, 4:45 PM.
• Knowledge: Experience Sharing of KCS Implementation. Nicolas Brunel, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. Wednesday, 11:30 AM.

Here’s a look at KM-related partners participating in the Expo:

• Aptean/Knova. Knowledgebase, search
• Coveo. Unified search, expertise management
• DB Kay & Associates. KM and KCS assessment and training
• GeoFluent/Lionbridge. Translation services
• Klever. KM and KCS assessment and training, Knowledge as a Service
• Jive. Employee and customer collaboration, crowdsourcing KM
• LivePerson. Self-service knowledgebase, multi-channel service
• Radialpoint. Knowledge management, search, mobile self-service
• Stone Cobra. KM implementations, assessments, training
• SYSTRAN. Translation services
• Transversal. Knowledgebase, self-service, collaboration
• Verint/Kana. Knowledgebase, self-service, multi-channel, crowdsourcing KM

If you are attending TSW and would like to discuss your KM strategy, I have open slots for 1:1 meetings on Tuesday, 10/21. When you arrive at registration, ask to schedule a 1:1!

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas!

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IT Shoves Content Management Down Services’ Throat–How to Prepare for Battle

CIOs are on alert: Beginning January 1st, 2011, more than 10,000 Baby Boomers will reach the age of 65 every single day. That will happen every single day for the next 19 years. The “brain drain” this will cause technology companies is worrying–that is lots of knowledge walking out the door. As a result, most CIOs are on a warpath to capture more tacit knowledge to protect against the brain drain.

It is no surprise then that spending on knowledge management tools is up. As seen in this chart from my 2011 Member Technology Survey, planned spending on knowledge tools is high across all service disciplines, with 50% of support services and field service organizations having budget for additional KM tools this year. Even PS–our most technology-phobic group of members–has high spending, with 28% of PS groups planning KM purchases to help document customizations and integrations and other best practices for onsite engagements.

Percent of members with budget for KM tools in 2011-2012

But here comes the challenge: with CIOs focusing on content management systems (CMSs) for the enterprise, I’m hearing from more service leaders that their search for specialist KM tools for service is being thwarted by IT, who is pushing everyone to adopt their generic enterprise tools. In fact, according to my technology survey, 21% of service organizations are now stuck with an enterprise content management tool (SharePoint, Lotus Notes, Documentum, etc.) instead of a specialized tool for capturing problem/resolution scenarios.

On this Thursday’s webcast, “Can’t We Just Use SharePoint? A Knowledge Manager’s Guide to Productive Conversations with IT,” we are going to discuss why these generic tools do not fit the needs of support. As one TSIA member said to me, “SharePoint is a black hole of content. We keep entering information, but we can’t retrieve it.” Examples include:

• Workflow. Generic CMSs are not Knowledge Centered Support certified and are missing the workflow rules for capturing and sharing content KCS mandates.
• Search. CMSs use very generic keyword search, not intelligent search. The difference? Try asking Google a question–you don’t get the answer, you get websites with the same words. Support specialists need search tools specifically designed to understand the intent of the question and offer an answer.
• Analytics. Specialist KM tools include analytics for duplicate and missing content, actually flagging you for content being searched that doesn’t exist, as well as consumption reporting on hot trends and topics for creating dynamic FAQ lists.
• Self-service. Even if employees can be trained to use CMS tools, they will never be intuitive enough for customers attempting self-service. This is one of the reasons we are seeing self-service success continually trending down.

Someone who battles this every day is Tim Hines, Vice President of Product Management for Consona, whose Knova knowledge management platform is highly adopted by TSIA members. On the webcast, I’ll have a conversation with Tim about the differences between service-specific KM tools and generic content and document management. We’ll also talk about how to present your case to IT for the tools you need, including making the business case with ROI.

With 2012 looking like a tight budget year, attend this important webcast so when IT comes calling with tool recommendations that will dumb down your project, you are prepared!

Balancing Quality and Innovation: 2010 Consona Connect

I am at the 2010 Consona Connect User Conference at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and what a successful event this is! Over 800 attendees across the multiple product lines Consona sells: Axis, Cimnet Systems, Configuration Solutions, Consona CRM Customer Management, Consona CRM Knowledge Management, Consona CRM Live Assistance/Dynamic Agent, DTR, Encomplix, Intuitive, and Made2Manage. I attended this morning’s opening keynote for CRM attendees by Consona CRM General Manager, Tom Millay. Tom gave an overview of the business and talked about product roadmaps.

Interestingly, though 2009 was definitely a wretched year for closing new business, Consona continued to grow. The CRM division has grown from 141 to 249 employees since 2008, with 70 new customer accounts added. And there are some exciting new product features on the horizon, including a new UI, more granular search controls and in-line editing for grids coming in Consona CRM 7.1; new features and improved response time in KM 7.3; prepackaged solution content being added for Dynamic Agent 7.1; integrated knowledge and chat interface in Live Assistance 6.6, etc.

Milay also presented the Summit Awards for excellence among their customer base. The first was the Transformation Award, for a company showing dramatic ROI in a short period of time. The winner was ADP, who consolidated 17 support centers and 17 KB’s  into a single operation. The next awards were for Best Overall Use, for customers that have leveraged multiple Consona products with dramatic effects. Winners were VM Ware, who tripled customer visits to their self-service site; TechSoup Global, a non-profit serving 300,000 non-profits and libraries; and Marriott, with 3,420 properties across 18 brands in 68 countries, who increased call deflection by 10% with self-service knowledge tools.

Later today David Kay of DB Kay & Associates is leading a session on generating revenue within customer service and support, there are multiple deep dives into product futures, and my preso at 2:15 on the top trends impacting service and support today. I’m excited about getting to preview some of my research before I’m back in Vegas next week for our Technology Services World (TSW) Conference!

Thanks for reading, and hope to see all of you next week in Las Vegas for TSW!