6 wins in adapting KCS for your whole organization 

Always acting on informed decisions, using the combined knowledge of all agents, maintaining and distributing this knowledge on the fly while solving tasks. This is the promise of Knowledge Centered Service (KCS), a standard published and maintained by the Consortium for Service Innovation. KCS aims to achieve this through a shift in work culture. avato has adapted this approach to fit not only for service teams resolving tickets, but all organizations. 

What is KCS? 

The first building block of KCS is to never act without information. Whenever an agent starts working on a ticket, they will check the corresponding documentation, even if they work on that exact type of ticket 7 times a day. 

If there is documentation, they use it. If they encounter any issues, they update the documentation. If they can’t find a solution, they flag the content, so an expert can review it. This proactive, collaborative approach creates shared ownership of knowledge. This is the second building block of KCS. It fosters knowledge sharing and encourages agents to use the documentation. 

If there is no information on the case, the agent creates it while trying to resolve the ticket. They note down what they try, what works and what issues they face. These notes are already available to the rest of the team. If someone encounters a similar case, they can join the creation process. Once the case is closed, they rework the notes and publish the new documentation. Thus, documentation is created when needed, the process is fully demand-driven. Information gaps are closed once they become relevant and nothing unnecessary is created. That’s the third building block of KCS. 

The main benefits of KCS: 

• Low error rates thanks to information-based working 

• High efficiency in serving information demand 

• Consistent service quality, as information hiding is prevented and everyone has access to the collective knowledge 

Sounds great. Why do I need KCO then? 

Unfortunately, KCS has some drawbacks, most of which stem from the lack of coordination and oversight. avato Knowledge Centered Organization approach introduces the role of Knowledge Manager and lightweight governance processes to fill this gap. Here are some examples how this improves KCS. 

 1. What if there is no ticket?

The KCS approach only works in service organizations. Development, controlling and other organizations that don’t work solemnly ticket based will struggle. With the standard KCS approach you cannot create design documents, organizational information, disaster recovery plans or application overviews. 

avato KCO adds a top-down approach to run in parallel with the demand-driven documentation. This approach is used to gather all the information that cannot be covered by the default method. Knowledge Managers, a central role in KCO, assist the stakeholders in identifying what needs to be created and how to structure it. 

 2. Aligning with strategy

The lack of unification of planning in information creation makes it hard to enforce alignment with strategic goals. What works is documented, what is documented is repeated. Whether this practice aligns with strategic goals is not considered. 

In avato KCO, the Knowledge Managers monitor alignment of the content with the organization’s strategy and trigger changes if deviations occur. 

 3. Breaking Silos

Another drawback of KCS is the high risk of hardening knowledge silos. Knowledge is created by agents for agents – for agents in the same domain, working on similar tickets. The Knowledge Manager in avato KCO prevents this by keeping an overview of the topics in all domains, making agents aware of possible synergies and linking related content.

4.  Preventing duplicates

The success of KCS is strongly coupled with the effectiveness of the methods used to check for existing information. Thus, there is a high risk of creating content that already exists. Not only does this mean unnecessary effort. Once introduced, duplicates create issues like inconsistent quality due to contradicting, badly maintained information. 

Duplication also happens on smaller scales. The scope of each documentation article is one ticket. While this allows for reuse of the article, it does not allow reusing parts of it, e.g. a given step that is relevant to several cases. In KCS, this information will be duplicated. Being unable to unify such activities is a missed opportunity to improve efficiency and consistency. 

In avato KCO, the Knowledge Manager will keep an overview of what exists and what is needed where. Thus, they can step in when duplication emerges and can break down content into smaller chunks fitting multiple use cases. They are aware of overlapping needs and other contact points in separate domains, optimizing the creation process for efficiency. 

5. Reduced training efforts

In KCS, everyone creates information, thus everyone needs to be trained to do so at a sufficent level quality. All agents must learn how to write clearly and concisely, how to tag or where to place what kind of information, how to create relevant visualizations and how to ensure the content fits the target audience. Especially in organizations with high employee turnover, this is a considerable invest. 

KMs reduce the burden on agents by assisting in content creation. This decreases the extensive training requirements and ensures higher quality documentation. 

 6. Review before it’s too late

Lastly, updating information only when used is a risk on its own. It might not be obvious that the proposed solution is no longer working, which leads to errors. Rarely used documentation on emergency procedures is especially likely to be outdated when needed, with possibly catastrophic results. Reviews tend to get due in phases of fast, extensive change, when resources are already strained and cannot spend time on updating information. This creates serious disruption. 

avato KCO adds a regular review process with clearly defined responsibles. This prevents review tasks from popping up at the wrong time. The four-eye principle for releasing new content and significant changes adds an extra layer of reliability. It also ensures the content fits all relevant target audiences.  

To sum it up: KCS and KCO –  what’s the difference? 

In summary, avato KCO transforms the reactive, task-oriented nature of KCS into a proactive, strategically aligned approach that is not limited to service organizations. By addressing the core issues of coordination and oversight, avato KCO provides a robust framework that enhances the effectiveness, efficiency, and strategic value of knowledge management within complex organizations. 

Imprint:

Date: August 2024
Contact: marketing@avato.net

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