KnowledgeBase.net unearths corporate data treasures

Effective, automated knowledge management has become hugely critical to enterprise survival. Without it, business call centers lose valuable productivity and customer satisfaction suffers. The face of the problem has grown in orders of magnitude as the sheer volume of digital information has exploded along with the variety of knowledge file formats, delivery channels, legacy systems, and IT platforms that must be supported. KnowledgeBase.net Enterprise Edition 3.0 goes a long way toward solving the chaos by providing a scalable solution for self-service customer support, help desk, document management, and project management applications, as well as contact center and FAQ management.

A Microsoft-based platform that handles commonly used file formats such Word, Excel, Notepad, HTML, and PDF, the product scales to an unlimited number of users and is based on an “n-tier” architecture. Business-critical features that have been added include back-end customization capabilities, bulk processing of articles, and document management features, a Language Module (separately priced at $10,000 for ten languages), Portal Snap-ins that allow an author to take elements out of one portal and apply them to another Web site, and an API (priced at $7,500) that gives companies the ability to customize the portal to its own brand. The Language Module will take a portal with multiple language databases and present it in multiple foreign languages, but it does not translate languages.

This newest iteration of KnowledgeBase demonstrates a cohesive maturity, reflected by the inclusion of user-recommended extras such as an option for a document reader to send suggestions to the author alongside options for sending the article to a colleague via e-mail and creating a printer-friendly version. The product includes many administrative must-have management and oversight capabilities for a large business, such as the ability to designate access levels to specified users and authors, document check-in and check-out, version control, and full tracking of article history.

KnowledgeBase received an overall score of 8.8 because of its feature-rich environment, comprehensive approach to knowledge management, and superior value compared to other available solutions that can cost up to $450,000 to deploy. Competitor RightNow Technologies offers support within its self-service CRM solution for multiple platforms such as Linux and Unix, in addition to the Microsoft option, but its product is more of an incident-management-based solution, whereas KnowledgeBase.net is a back-end document management framework that supports knowledge delivery in multiple formats.

To host or keep in-house?

Because KnowledgeBase is available as both a hosted solution and an in-house product, we tested both environments. We ran Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Microsoft Office 2000, Acrobat 5.0, and Microsoft SQL Server on our lab test bed, designed to emulate an internal knowledge management environment such as a human resources database or a corporate library. Although we tested the software on one server, KnowledgeBase can be installed on multiple servers, such as one database server, one Web/application server, and additional portal servers as needed for load balancing or other scalability requirements.

An inherent difference between the hosted version and the boxed solution is that the hosted site will be on a shared server with other customers, while the boxed solution is running on your dedicated, on-site hardware. The hosted version is also less customizable: For instance you can’t

use the API to get into the presentation layer and tweak the portals. Scalability is also hampered with the hosted solution due to a 5MB file-size limitation. On the Enterprise Edition, the user sets the file-size limit. The base price for the Enterprise Edition is $50,000 without the API or Language Module, whereas the hosted version is based on article blocks for which pricing begins at 200 articles for $200. The base-priced hosted solution also includes as many as 10,000 portal visits per month, with a surcharge of $750 for the next 10,000 visits. With this pricing, the hosted version is a better deal for smaller companies if they don’t require dedicated hardware to meet possible internal security policy concerns.

Speedy, straightforward setup

Once all our support applications, such as SQL and Acrobat, were in place, we found installation to be fairly straightforward, requiring less than an hour, excluding configuration time. Configuration time obviously will vary depending on an organization’s requirements. The Home Page allows single-click access to the Knowledge Base, Portal, Administration, and Reports windows. Your first step is to create a new Knowledge Base and populate it with articles and data files. You can either choose to create a new article, use a template, or import an existing file, which can be found via a browser. You can also import a Windows HTML Help (.chm) file as large as 3.5MB for the ASP version that can be translated into a Knowledge Base. You can even incorporate a Knowledge Base into a CRM application such as Remedy, so that users see a pop-up window with a search button they can then use to search the Knowledge Base.

Articles can be categorized within the Knowledge Base if appropriate and may be ordered either alphabetically, in order of popularity, or manually within a category. It’s important to remember that if you decide to delete a Knowledge Base, all articles and data will be lost and irretrievable. But before you can delete one, you will get a couple of warning windows. If you want to export data out of the Knowledge Base, you can either back up the E drive where files are stored or download each file independently.

Enterprise-class extras

The new server-side bulk management feature is a valuable time-saver that allows you to manage and upload multiple files. We found this feature to be relatively easy to use. You select the next Workflow step in the pull-down menu and check the designated articles to be moved forward. If you change a Workflow process, articles not in the New, Live, or Expired steps are automatically moved to the New step in the new Workflow process — so your articles won’t get lost in the shuffle of updating Workflow processes. Workflow administration is straightforward but does require focus.

Additional administrative features that we consider must-haves for an enterprise-class solution include the designation of Workflow Processes, article group restrictions and individual user permissions, and automated e-mail notifications when an article has been checked out or sitting in a queue for a designated time.

KnowledgeBase.net 3.0 combines a set of business-critical features that solves the problem of accessing and integrating multiple, disparate file formats and legacy systems with an easy-to-use, pleasant user interface. We recommend deployment for a multinational enterprise searching for a self-service CRM, help desk, or document and project management solution that will maintain a corporate identity while providing globalization capabilities.