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Top 7 Ways A Knowledge Base Program Can Improve Your Office

One of your employees has just tried to print something and he/she
gets a printer error. The error says, "Out of paper." Well the
employee knows that the printer is not out of paper and it does not
have a paper jam. What to do? Well the traditional answer is to call
technical support. But wait. Hasn't someone else in the office seen
this error before? Can it be corrected faster with the help of a
co-worker? In this article we will review 7 ways a Knowledge Base
program can improve overall office communication.

1. The biggest reason to use a Knowledge Base program is to keep track
of software problems. Almost all offices have three dynamics to their
software: Operating System, Productivity Software, and custom built
software for your business. Entrusting all your business computers to
all of this software is indeed a brave move. A Knowledge Base program
allows your employees to enter detailed information on a variety of
software topics including; how-to(s), program errors, settings and
options, hardware settings, and many others.

2. A Knowledge Base program is perfect for storing… well, knowledge.
Quite often your office will have an employee who has been with the
business for several years and then suddenly submits their two week
notice for a variety of reasons. This employee takes all of his/her
knowledge with them. This leaves other less informed employees to fill
their shoes. Not an easy task. It doesn't need to be that way any
more. With a Knowledge Base program, an employee can be required to
make at least one entry a week. If you have 5 employees, that is 260
entries in your Knowledge Base per year!

3. How does one define knowledge? A Knowledge Base can be basically
anything you desire. Quite often we have contact information, vendor
information, and policies and procedures stored in hundreds of files
over the whole hard drive; or worse, papers all over the office. A
Knowledge Base makes it easy to have all that information in one
place. If the Knowledge Base has a robust search engine; a search can
be completed in a few seconds.

4. Customer Relations. A Knowledge Base can improve customer
relations. Customers can now have advanced knowledge of polices and
procedures and well as product and service pricing, and with a quick
response from the employee.

5. More accurate answers. Often, you simply give up trying to find the
information and take your best guess at what you think the material
contained. While this may be acceptable to you some of the time, it
may not be acceptable to the customer or client you are talking to.

6. Improve Office productivity. The same employee that had the "out of
paper" error message found out from the Knowledge Base that he/she
needed to re-install the printer driver. This saved the employee
twenty minutes out of the work day.

7. Beat the competition. The competition may have never even
considered using a Knowledge Base program in the office. By having
this basic idea and software in place, you will be able to work
smarter, save time, and save money. The competition will be left in
the dust!

Bonus Tip:

Research the best Knowledge Base software for your business. Knowledge
Base(s), sometimes called Knowledge Management comes in many different
flavors. Check out the vendors! Make sure they have a free demo or
product information on their website.

Doyle Publishing
http://www.freewebs.com/doyle