While Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) is not exactly a new best practice, it is not as widely adopted as other best practices, such as the more widely-known ITIL 4. KCS is not in competition with ITIL, but rather it complements what ITIL 4 lacks in the Knowledge Management world, and provides a best practice methodology. Please note a subtle difference between the two: KCS is a methodology and as such all pieces must be accounted for best results, whereas for a framework, such as ITIL 4, you can more readily pick and choose what you need. ServiceNow has embraced the use of KCS with free plugins that are KCS compliant and the ServiceNow Customer Service Management has achieved KCS v6 verification from the Consortium for Service Innovation, the KCS governance body.
In this article we will explore some of the features within ServiceNow and how they can aid your organization, whether you currently follow KCS, or are trying to improve your knowledge management through this best practice. In addition, we will take a look at some additional features that you may want to consider. As with any initiative, you must consider the impacts on people & the organization, information technology, vendors & suppliers, and processes & value streams. In other words, make an OCM plan as well. KCS is certainly no different.
A Brief KCS Overview
KCS is a methodology for achieving best practices within Knowledge Management. KCS is not something that you can simply spend a day creating and applying and then on to the next thing. Rather, it needs to be an organizational change in how you approach Knowledge Management. In most organizations this is the movement from tribal knowledge to swarming knowledge. The basic idea is to create a shift-left approach, allowing consumers and your Service Desk (tier 1 depending on your maturity level) to access the key information that they need to solve issues.
We need to make this knowledge available in the consumers’ context as soon as it comes in, for example, from the Incident Management perspective it would be right upon ticket resolution/closure. The idea being that not only will your consumers have access to the information they need faster, but your Service Desk analysts will as well. This will also enable your Service Desk analysts to provide the same answer to the same questions in a quick and efficient manner by searching your KCS systems early and searching them often. Searching knowledge becomes the way that your organization does business.
For a more in-depth overview, check out the first in our KCS series (Knowledge-Centered Service: An Overview with ServiceNow) or our webinar (The Beginner’s Guide to KCS).
Article Quality Index (AQI)
The Knowledge Article Quality Index is an very important part of KCS. You can use it as a way to grade a knowledge article to determine if it meets the needs of the organization. Below is an out-of-the-box (OOTB) example AQI survey checklist that may be used in your organization:
Figure 1: Article Quality Index Checklist
We give each of these true/false questions an order and weight that then determines their overall score, which in this example is out of 100. Knowledge articles may have multiple AQI scores as they pass through the KCS lifecycle and we edit them to ensure they remain current.
Where Additional Development May be Needed (AQI)
ServiceNow comes with its own AQI system as an OOTB implementation. But, if your organization is already more mature than this, you will have additional needs that could require further development. The OOTB AQI checklist is strictly True or False; it does not lend itself to a more holistic approach such as a Likert Scale. For example, your organization may want to not only attach grades to articles, but also to individuals. As well, your organization may also want to do trend analyses on individuals and identify users that may need additional coaching. There is so much more sophistication that we can add to the process beyond the OOTB configuration.
Create Knowledge Article from an Incident (ITSM) or Case (CSM)
With the KCS plugin installed, and a couple of system properties checked to utilize KCS, you can quickly and easily create knowledge articles in ServiceNow – from an Incident (if you are using ITSM), or a Case (if you are using CSM). This allows you to have the need-to-have knowledge generated at the speed-of-ticket creation, which is another huge thumbs up for the OOTB functionality of ServiceNow and KCS.
Where Additional Development May be Needed (Creating Knowledge Articles)
As you mature along your KCS journey, you may want to integrate with additional ServiceNow processes, such as Change Management, Problem Management, Project Management, etc. This may require additional development through the use of business rules and potentially UI Actions, depending on your organization’s needs.
Use it, Flag it, Fix it, Add it (UFFA)
If you are familiar with KCS, UFFA should be second nature to you, but if you have not gone through any KCS training yet, UFFA stands for Use it, Flag it, Fix it, Add it, (as you may have already guessed from the heading). This acronym is to remind agents who have the ability to make changes. Assuming you have enabled the roles sufficiently, using knowledge articles, flagging articles, fixing articles, and adding articles is a straightforward process within the Knowledge module, even from Incident or Case, as mentioned above.
Where Additional Development May be Needed (UFFA)
Unfortunately, flagging knowledge articles is not the most straightforward process. The UI action to flag an article appears when you preview a knowledge article, however, if you want flag to be available on the edit screen, you have to complete some simple customization. This would be beneficial if you open a knowledge article and notice a small issue like spelling or punctuation, you’d simply flag the article and go back to fix it when time affords.
KCS Roles
ServiceNow did a great job at capturing the various roles needed in KCS:
- Candidate
- Contributor
- Publisher
- Knowledge Domain Expert
- Knowledge Coach.
Each of these roles has different responsibilities and are necessary if your organization has taken the plunge to fully utilize the potential of KCS.
Where Additional Development May be Needed (KCS Roles)
Based on your organization’s needs, you may have to adjust the Access Control Lists (ACLs) to further identify what these roles have the capability of seeing and doing within the KCS. The out-of-the-box (OOTB) configuration provides an excellent starting point, but as mentioned before, as your organization matures, you will most likely need to adjust these settings.
Publishing KCS Articles
Articles should be reviewed before they are published to ensure that they comply with the standards of your organization and don’t contain any technical or grammatical errors. The OOTB configuration utilizes approvals to handle this, with articles being placed in review and requiring an approval before they can be published. Once published, the system automatically creates a new version of that article, viewable in these related lists. If you need to see what has happened with past versions of the article, you have the ability to revert to a previous version of the article if circumstances require.
Conclusion
ServiceNow’s OOTB tools offer a great starting point, whether you are brand new to KCS or if your Knowledge Management is more mature. As with most of the modules in ServiceNow, OOTB should get you at least 80% of the way there, but each organization will have their own unique processes and needs. While the base ServiceNow OOTB configuration will meet the vast majority of your KCS needs, you can work with a ServiceNow partner to properly customize the KCS system to your unique needs.