Vendor Landscape Plus:
Customer Service Knowledge Management
Executive Summary
•
Providing best-of-breed customer service is no accident: it requires a concerted strategy for leveraging relevant knowledge throughout the organization. Customer Service Knowledge Management (CSKM) is about facilitating timely solutions to customer service problems by getting the right information to the right person at the right time.•
Organizations with a high degree of product complexity and/or customer service complexity should strongly consider adopting a standalone platform for Customer Service Knowledge Management. CSKM platforms provide a host of tools for successfully resolving customer service issues. Common tools include knowledgebases, advanced search, and resolution workflow tools like decision trees and service wizards.•
Tier-1 customer service representatives are not knowledge workers – they are process-oriented. Therefore, it’s important to equip them with solutions focused on expedient resolution of customer problems rather than unfocused knowledge sharing or internal collaboration. CSKM solutions must be integrated directly into service channels to succeed, such as Web self-service, e-mail, chat, and phone support.•
Standalone CSKM platforms can improve a variety of key customer service metrics, such as customer retention and cost-to-serve. Larger organizations with significant customer service operations and deep product lines are the most likely to realize a high ROI from adopting a standalone platform that is integrated across all service channels.•
The market for CSKM tools is rich, with a variety of vendors and products to choose from. In its Vendor Landscape evaluation process, Info-Tech found that KANA provided the most well-rounded platform. eGain provided the best knowledgebase solution, while Moxie was the leader in social channel integration.•
Implementation considerations include putting together the deployment team, establishing points-of-integration, creating platform security policies and executing initiatives aimed at end-user adoption. Organizations must also dedicate full-time resources to ongoing management of the knowledgebase content and structure.Customer Service Knowledge Management (CSKM) can be a daunting task:
select the right platform to support users and agents across all channels.
Introduction
IT managers and technical staff who support
call center operations, including upkeep of
customer support Websites.
Customer Service Managers involved in the
selection process for customer service
applications.
Product and knowledge professionals
responsible for service resolution content.
Senior management involved in customer
service steering committees.
Understand how effective knowledge
management is a critical customer service
activity, and how a dedicated CSKM platform
can improve key customer service metrics.
Build an effective strategy for leveraging
customer service knowledge across all service
channels.
Evaluate and select from a shortlist of vendors.
Implement and optimize the selected platform.
The Info-Tech Customer Service Roadmap
Customer Service Strategy Taking Customer Service Social Customer Service Solution SelectionDesign a Customer Service Strategy that Services the Social Customer
• Providing world-class customer service is a critical differentiator in a competitive marketplace. Organizations are taking advantage of both traditional and social interaction channels to serve customers (though adoption of Web 2.0 channels for service lags behind sales and marketing).
• Building a robust customer service strategy that addresses issues like channel switching, migration, and escalation is a critical starting point.
Customer Service Management Suites
• Customer Service Management (CSM) suites provide a range of functionality for effectively resolving service inquiries, such as skills-based routing and case management tools.
Customer Service Knowledge Management Platforms
• Supporting knowledge management in the customer service organization is critical for successful resolutions.
• This set will help you select the right CSKM platform.
Leverage Social Media for Enhanced Customer Interaction
• New customer interaction channels (social media) require alignment with your existing CRM strategy.
• Build a plan for leveraging these channels in marketing, sales and customer service.
Implement a Social Media Strategy
• Implementing wide-scale social initiatives requires moving from “listening post” to “command center.” Organizations must embed opportunities for social engagement at various touch points (including customer service).
What’s in this Section:
Sections:
Build a Strategy for Customer Service Knowledge Management
Build a CSKM Strategy
Create a Selection Roadmap Select the Right Platform Implement and Optimize
•
Understand what CSKM is and why it’s a necessity
for organizations with complex service requirements.
•
Understand how using a standalone CSKM platform
can improve key customer service metrics.
•
Decide whether a standalone CSKM platform is right
for your organization.
•
Develop a set of best practices for supporting
multi-channel customer service with specific CSKM tools.
You need a strategy for managing & leveraging organizational
knowledge in order to resolve service issues
•
Many organizations face market pressures that make providing world-class customer service a necessity. In a competitive marketplace, the ability to quickly and accurately address customer issues is a prerequisite for ensuring customer satisfaction and retention.•
Knowledge Management (KM) is the stewardship of information, ideas and insights. KM practices can be applied to a variety of an organization’s processes, both internal (i.e. employee collaboration) and external (for customer/partner relationship management).•
CSKM is focused on how to leverage organizational knowledge to effectively and efficiently resolve customer issues. There are a number of standalone softwareplatforms available to assist organizations with this facet of
KM. KM crosses many business domains. This research
focuses on external-facing KM for customer service.
Customer Service Knowledge Management (CSKM)
is the capture, retention, categorization, and
dissemination of information to resolve customer issues: It’s all about getting the right information
to the right person at the right time (and with the right amount of cost and effort).
Partner-Facing Knowledge Management (i.e. strategic partnerships) Internal-Facing Knowledge Management (i.e. employee collaboration) External-Facing Knowledge Management (i.e. customer service) Enterprise Knowledge Management
Organizations that excel at customer service have a common dedication to developing processes and systems for organizing and managing service-relevant knowledge. If your firm has sizeable customer service operations that warrant a standalone platform, this research will help you select a vendor.
A breakdown in CSKM means poor resolution of problems –
and customer defection!
Organizations need to give consistent resolutions to queries and problems across all channels, from self-service to assisted-service. The lack of a common knowledgebase across service channels causes frustration for both agents and customers because it leads to inconsistent and uneven solutions.
As product lines grow in size and complexity, simple search
solutions and FAQs cannot support customer demands.
Not having effective practices or solutions for Customer Service Knowledge Management leads to excessive service times,
increased cost to serve, and high customer churn. A
standalone CSKM platform can remedy many of these concerns by providing unified knowledgebase, advanced search and resolution workflow capabilities.
Enterprises are investing considerable resources to provide service that exceeds customer
expectations. Don’t get left behind: poor customer service results in decreased customer
satisfaction, high attrition and – if left unchecked – anemic top-line revenue growth.
Negative Impact of Poor Customer Service Knowledge Management:
Resolutions to the most common problems are not easily available, resulting in manual hunting for the “right” answer: this wastes agents’ time
and increases labor costs.
Agents do not give uniform answers to similar service inquiries. If these inconsistencies are brought to light (i.e. via social channels), it undermines the service organization’s credibility and damages brand equity. This increases
customer defections and retention costs.
Information can’t be easily transferred between representatives. If your agents can’t reference a common knowledge base, there is no unifying point-of-reference. This increases
administrative and overhead expenses.
Proper CSKM can be beneficial for all organizations, because customers are what make organizations exist in the first place. Without customers, where would businesses be? Nowhere!
Don’t design your CSKM processes around Tier-1 Customer
Service Agents like they are knowledge workers!
Cases may occasionally be escalated to traditional knowledge workers, but Tier-1 agents are process-driven: traditional
enterprise knowledge management and search solutions, designed for researchers, are inappropriate for CSKM: a
specialized platform is required.
Design to support transactions: the goal is to provide process
workers with the embedded tools they need to resolve customer service issues. Select tools that are designed with ease-of-use, process and channels integration in mind – CSKM platforms are not designed for internal collaboration (look to this Collaboration & Teamware research for information on internal collaboration).
To create and maintain a professional knowledgebase requires a
specific skill set above that of the typical call center agent.
Degreed library science professionals often excel at this job.
The majority of workers in any given organization are process-oriented. This holds
particularly true for call center operations.
Customer Service Representatives in call centers are process-centric: they need a platform that
embraces this reality and enables rapid problem identification and solution retrieval.
Sr.
Mgmt
.
Knowledge
Workers
Process Workers
Deploying traditional knowledge management tools to front-line customer service representatives is a strategic mistake: Tier-1 reps must focus on expedient processing and resolution of customer service issues, not activities like research, ideation and knowledge-sharing. Select a dedicated CSKM platform with a toolset that reflects this reality: do NOT extend traditional search tools to these workers.
Don’t rely on search engines alone if your organization has a
high degree of product and service complexity
•
There are two approaches to CSKM content management: search indexing of external sources and using a built-in CSKM knowledgebase.•
A common mistake is simply adding a search engine layer over top of existing content (i.e. from a product page or SharePoint site). This approach is unsuitable for any company that considers customer service to be a core activity.•
Having a discrete customer service KB means that resolutions are always being pulled from a common source. There is “one version of the truth”. It also makesauthoring, updating, organizing and retiring content a
straightforward task, since articles in the KB are managed in a single place.
•
Most CSKM platforms do provide indexing of content other than that found in the knowledgebase – this is fine (in fact, desirable). But external context indexing should be usedin conjunction with a dedicated knowledgebase, not as
a substitution to one.
Successful customer service requires a discrete knowledgebase in which to
author, manage, and optimize content specifically for service resolution.
Opt for a centralized CSKM platform to gain access to a variety
of powerful features for enhancing customer service initiatives
Standalone CSKM platforms offer a variety of features aimed at facilitating quick resolutions to customer problems. These features go “above and beyond” what is offered in Customer Relationship Management platforms.
There are five broad feature categories that are included in most CSKM platforms:
• Content Repositories: knowledgebases that hold
customer service resolution articles; typically include tools for authoring and editorial workflows.
• Advanced Search and Indexing: allow queries to be run against internal knowledgebases and external content that’s been indexed; provide ability to easily navigate search results.
• Resolution Workflow Tools: tools that aid agents and customers in rapidly resolving issues – common examples include decision trees and wizards.
• Reporting and Analytics: provide information on CSKM knowledgebases (e.g. highlighting gaps in the taxonomy). • Social and Mobile Tools: social sharing, social analytics,
mobile platform access.
CSKM platforms bring many features under one roof.
CSKM
Platform
Content Repositories Advanced Search and Indexing Resolution Workflow Tools Reporting and Analytics Social and Mobile ToolsBase your strategy for service knowledge management on the
myriad of benefits provided by standalone CSKM platforms
External Facing (Self-Service):
Internal Facing (Assisted-Service):
Effec
tiv
ene
ss
-Base
d
:
Efficiency
-Ba
se
d:
CSKMs allow agents to more effectively handle customer service inquiries. Clunky searches are replaced by well-organized knowledgebases that can be continually updated and refreshed with the most accurate content.
Key metrics improved by a CSKM platform:
Increased customer satisfaction rate through all assisted service channels
Increased consistency of resolutions
Customers using self-service channels want to get at the information they need with a minimal amount of headaches. Supporting your self-service initiatives with a CSKM back-end means that they can quickly access relevant information.
Key metrics improved by a CSKM platform:
Increased customer satisfaction through self-service channels Increased customer retention rate
Decreased coverage gaps in critical self-service taxonomies
Having a CSKM platform also increases agent
productivity. Agents spending less time worrying about processes will have more time to directly serve customers.
Key metrics improved by a CSKM platform:
Decreased time-to-resolution for customer service inquiries through assisted-service channels (chat, telephony).
Increased agent-utilization rates
Decreased average cost-to-serve for agent-assisted customer service.
CSKMs cut down the time it takes for customers to get at “need-to-know” information. They also provide customers with tools for providing feedback to the organization on the usefulness of their support (i.e. ability to rate and comment on knowledgebase articles).
Key metrics improved by a CSKM platform:
Decreased time-to-resolution for customer service inquiries through self-service channels.
Avoid assisted service as first contact or escalation to assisted service through good self-service.
Use knowledge tools for mobile self-service or to support field
technicians in order to have higher CSKM tool success
The overall customer service knowledge management tool success was calculated by taking the average of the following questions:
•Customers are able to solve problems on their own
•Consistency in solutions conveyed by service agents has improved •Average time to resolution has decreased
•It is easier to capture and retain service knowledge
•It is easier to disseminate service knowledge across the enterprise •It is easier to detect potential product defects based on service queries •Our customer service costs have been reduced
To increase the amount of success you have with your customer service knowledge management tools you
should leverage two things: Support mobile customer self-service
Support field technician assisted customer service
85%
of companies are not using
CSKM tools for mobile service and
69%
fail to leverage them with their
field technician assisted customer
service.
They are losing out.
Among all customer service channels,
Info Tech found these two had the
highest customer service success
correlations. If your organization isn’t
currently leveraging CSKM tools in
mobile or field assisted service,
it’s
The majority of organizations are lagging in knowledge tool adoption. Don’t follow their example.
This does NOT mean you should disregard the value of knowledge tools for your service
channels. Being one of the few companies to use them will give your organization a
competitive advantage. With this low adoption rate, knowledge tools offer your company a
chance to establish a competitive advantage through customer service.
Don’t follow the path others have taken; chart your own course and arrive ahead.
Determine fit first: adopting a standalone CSKM can be
extremely valuable, but it’s not for every organization
Not all organizations will find a CSKM equally valuable. Segment by product and service complexity to determine if using a dedicated platform is the right option for your organization.
Adopting a standalone CSKM platform can positively impact a number of key customer service metrics.
However, not all organizations will see the benefits of adopting a standalone. For example, smaller firms with
a relatively straightforward product line are unlikely to realize a positive return on investment. Follow
these guidelines for assessing if a standalone CSKM platform is a natural fit for your organization.
Adopt a standalone CSKM platform if:
Bypass a standalone CSKM platform if:
• Your organization is smaller. B2B firms that rely on only a few key clients are unlikely to require a standalone
CSKM platform due to a low volume of customer
service interactions.
• Your product line is straightforward and
uncomplicated: you sell relatively few kinds of products.
Organizations that sell commodities or near-commodities fall into this category.
• Service complexity is low: most customer service
inquiries are of a process-related nature, such as
RMAs. Inquiries can be handled by a small team, or passed directly to relevant employees in the business. • Your organization is a medium-to-large enterprise that
focuses predominantly on the consumer marketplace (either directly or through channel partners). Firms that use the B2C and B2B2C model are good candidates. • Your organization has a high degree of product
complexity: multiple business units, brands, and product
lines are offered.
• Your organization a high degree of service complexity: there’s a high volume of customer service requests, and/or requests tend to be of a technical or domain-specific nature. Organizations with a large, dedicated contact center are high on the support complexity dimension.
Use your organization’s product complexity and customer
service complexity as a guideline for assessing CSKM fit
•
Nearly all organizations need some degree of customer service, but a standalone CSKM option is not always the right fit. Realizing business value through a standalone CSKM solution will only occur under given circumstances.•
Organizations can gain clarity around the “go, no-go” decision by focusing on where they fall on a scale of product complexity and customer service complexity. Those with a high degree of both product and customer servicecomplexity are strong candidates for acquiring a standalone CSKM platform.
Product Complexity encompasses both the breadth and depth of the organization’s product portfolio. Firms that rate highly for product
complexity exhibit the following characteristics: a large number of brands and individual SKUs, technologically complex products (i.e. industrial or consumer electronics) or products with a large number of potential add-ons or complementary products.
Customer Service Complexity refers to the degree of effort involved with providing customer service. Low complexity organizations have primarily transactional inquiries. High complexity organizations handle service workflows requiring symptom analysis, problem identification and solution delivery.
Product and Customer Service Complexity
Product Complexity
Cu
stome
r Service
Comp
le
x
it
y
Standalone
CSKM Platform
CRM or CSM Built-in
Functionality
Manual Customer
Service Management
CRM or CSM Built-in
Functionality
+
-
+
-
Organizations with a shoe-string budget should consider using
an IT Service Management Platform as a CSKM substitute
Some organizations have recruited internal helpdesk software to the customer service battle.
If your organization needs more functionality than your CRM solution offers, but does not
require a dedicated CSKM platform, this could be your ideal middle ground.
For information on choosing Help Desk Software Solutions,
Assess which CSKM opportunities exist for your
organization with an opportunity assessment
Use Info-Tech’s Customer Service Knowledge Management Opportunity Assessment Tool to determine, based on your unique criteria, where opportunities exist for your organization.
1. Organizations with complex product offerings or customer service goals will be most likely to benefit from the adoption of a standalone CKSM platform.
2. Medium to large organizations are typically better positioned to take advantage of a standalone platform, especially when they have rate highly on product and service complexity.
A CSKM platform must complement your existing channel
interaction strategy– use it to support your channel mix!
•
As more customer interaction channels become available, organizations must ensure that all channels are aligned into a cohesive multi-channel strategy. For customer service, this means allowing customers to easily transition between different channels for migration and escalation purposes.•
A customer should be able to start in one channel (for example, Web self-service or social media) and seamlessly transition to another. Information should be handed off at each transition point. If a customer has to reiterate the same information each time they jump channels, the process is inefficient and bound to be frustrating to customers. Avoid this by establishing clearpoints-of-integration between channels.
•
A multi-channel customer service strategy should be supported by a unified CSKM platform. It is absolutely critical that ALLcustomer interaction channels are using the same
underlying CSKM platform (knowledgebases, resolution tools,
etc.). Failing to have a unified CSKM platform supporting these channels results in solution inconsistency, inefficiency and low customer satisfaction.
Developing a multi-channel customer service strategy comes first: the next step is to support this strategy with a unified knowledgebase and tools from a dedicated CSKM platform. See this research for more details on crafting a strategy that optimizes escalation, channel switching, and channel economics.
An optimized framework for customer interaction:
Support e-mail and live interaction with a CSKM platform to
strengthen resolution consistency & time-to-results
Different channels will leverage the CSKM platform in different ways. Follow the best
practices below to achieve the full potential of your tools.
Live Interaction (voice, chat, face-to-face)
CSKM Platform
E-mail is a mainstay of most customer service organizations, and one that
benefits significantly from having a full knowledge base in place. A unified KB
allows consistency between representatives answering e-mail. It also allows for
auto-reply from a KB lookup, before allowing the customer to submit their inquiry
to assisted service.
Resolution workflow tools are indispensible for telephony-based assisted
service. Use an agent-facing decision tree or support wizard to guide your
Tier-1 customer service representatives in capturing symptoms. A
designated knowledge manager should engineer the resolution workflow
in the CSKM platform, then make the tools (decision trees/wizards)
available for all service representatives. When a customer calls in, the
tools can be used to quickly pinpoint relevant solutions.
Web Self-Service, Social and Mobile channels are optimized by
backing them up with a dedicated CSKM platform
Different channels will leverage the CSKM platform in different ways. Follow the best
practices below to achieve the full potential of your tools.
Web Self-Service
Social and Mobile
CSKM Platform
Beyond a certain size, providing Web self-service via a list of Frequently Asked
Questions or individual KB pages is inappropriate. Implement a CSKM in order to
provide a powerful front-and-back end to your Web self service channels. The front end
should utilize self-service portals with the ability to favourite and suggest content; the
back-end should be a well-categorized knowledgebase with robust search capabilities.
CSKM provides customers with an easy method to share helpful articles via one-click
social sharing functionality. Some CSKM platforms are notable for providing the
ability to build micro-portals on social networking services like Facebook. On the
mobile side, integrate dedicated customer-facing mobile apps with CSKM knowledge
bases in order to ensure consistency for resolutions.
Senior management at a mid-sized provider of consumer
electronics fingered poor service as a major source of
customer churn: a CSKM platform helped turn that around.
Example: One consumer electronics provider realized a
dramatic boost in customer satisfaction with a CSKM platform
Industry: Segment:
Consumer Electronics
Specialized Audio Recording Devices
• A mid-sized provider of
specialized audio recorders had a significant problem with
customer churn. Customers frequently defected to other brands after purchasing the company’s products.
• Customer service was
haphazard: a small list of FAQs was the only real source of Web self-service. E-mail and
telephone inquiries were handled by a dedicated call center, but one that lacked formal CSKM processes.
Situation: High Customer Churn
• Following a report from a well-known consulting film, senior management realized that customers were simply not getting the basic level of support they needed to use their
products. The recorders were often complicated enough that at least one service touch point was required.
• A standalone CSKM platform was adopted, and a full-time knowledge manager was hired to resolve the situation.
Action: CSKM Adoption
• Although initial deployment was not without its obstacles (for example, populating the KB took longer than expected), the results were highly encouraging. • Resolution consistency was
heightened within product lines and representatives. Customers were substantially more satisfied with the service they were
receiving.
• After one year, churn decreased more than 40%.
What’s in this Section:
Sections:
Create a Roadmap for Platform Selection
Build a CSKM Strategy
Create a Selection Roadmap
Select the Right Platform Implement and Optimize
•
Follow Info-Tech’s model for selecting a CSKM
platform.
•
There are three pillars to the section process:
◦
Knowing your end-users.
◦
Understanding your goals.
◦
Selecting a platform that aligns that business
needs and technical requirements.
Follow Info-Tech’s model for Selecting a CSKM Platform
Determine
business
requirements
Translate into
functional
requirements
Determine
evaluation
criteria
Evaluate
vendors
against
criteria
Perform
vendor
review &
select a
vendor
Before evaluating and selecting vendors, be sure to sit down with relevant
stakeholders in the business (call center managers, front-line service personnel, etc.)
to ascertain the necessary business requirements that the platform must meet.
Even if IT is leading the charge on CSKM selection, the process MUST involve
ongoing consultation with different departmental stakeholders!
Selection of a CSKM Platform falls to call center technical
staff, but needs involvement of business stakeholders
•
The selection of a platform for CSKM typically falls to the technical staff supporting call center or contact center operations. These staff have intimate first-hand knowledge of the processes and culture of the call center, and are well positioned to serve as a valuable technical advisor.•
However, the business MUST be a partner in the selection – after all, it’s the business (service organization) that will be using the platform. Don’t lose sight of the business objectives that the platform must meet (superior customer service).•
The selection committee must consist of representatives from both the business (e.g. customer service managers) and IT(e.g. call center technical staff).
Business
• Responsible for high-level requirements (preferably in relation to specific metrics). • Ultimately responsible for
chosen solution – ownership of the platform rests with the business.
IT
• Translate business
requirements into functional criteria.
• Identify points-of-integration. • Serve as technical advisor. • Assist with implementation and
Choose the right platform by having a thorough understanding
of user & business requirements
Select a platform that aligns with the needs of your users and business goals and requirements. Evaluation
criteria must be clearly linked to an
understanding of your workforce dynamics and the goals of the customer service organization.
The next section of this solution set outlines a number of vendors and
provides a series of tools for aiding you in selecting a vendor that meets your
business needs and technical requirements.
Recall: the vast majority of Tier-1 customer service representatives are NOT knowledge workers. They are process-oriented: CSKM solutions need to focus on expedient customer service resolution, rather than
employee collaboration or new content generation.
Common considerations that stem from this paradigm should include: • Ensuring that knowledgebases
support an intuitive and easy-to-understand taxonomy.
• A focus on resolution workflow tools like decision trees that take the guesswork out of problem-solving.
The return is proportional to the effort and planning put in; resourcing this properly can be a challenge.
- IT Manager, re: requirements and deployment
“
”
Define specific business goals (end-user requirements) and translate them into functional criteria that will be supported by the platform. Common business goals that are encountered for CSKM deployments include:
• Increasing customer service
effectiveness (i.e. resolution efficacy and consistency)
• Increasing customer service
efficiency (i.e. time-to-resolution and cost-to-serve)
• Increasing key growth and retention metrics (i.e. customer churn and new acquisitions)
Issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to ensure that the
vendor fits your needs; not the other way around!
Use Info-Tech’s
CSKM RFP Template
to conduct
this critical step in your vendor selection process.
The Statement of Work
Proposal Preparation Instructions Scope of Work
Basic Feature Requirements Advanced Feature Requirements Sizing and Implementation
Vendor Qualifications and References Budget and Estimated Pricing
Vendor Certification Approval Sign-Offs
Info-Tech’s CSKM RFP Template is populated with critical elements including:
Issue RFP
Score RFP
Conduct
Evaluate RFP Responses!
The CSKM RFP Scoring Tool is pre-built with essential criteria complementing the CSKM RFP Template.
Use the tool to drive the procurement meeting with your procurement department
To get the most value out of the RFP process, use the
RFP Scoring Tool as a benchmark for evaluation
Use Info-Tech’s
CSKM RFP Scoring Tool to:
A standard & transparent process for
scoring individual vendor RFP
responses
will help ensure that internal team biases are minimized.
Issue RFP
Score RFP
Conduct
The CSKM Vendor Demo Script provides evaluators with a consistent set of
instructions for examining different feature sets. The script is segmented by three user scenarios, asking that vendors demonstrate capabilities and functions for each group: 1. Customer Service Knowledge Managers 2. Customer Service Agents
3. Customers
Take charge of vendor finalist demos with the
CSKM Platform Vendor Demo Script
This tool is designed to provide vendors with a consistent set of instructions for key scenarios from the perspective of IT and departmental managers.
A
product demo
helps enterprise decision-makers better understand the
capabilities & constraints of various solutions.
Issue RFP
Score RFP
Conduct
What’s in this Section:
Sections:
Evaluate and Select the Right Platform
Build a CSKM Strategy Create a Selection Roadmap
Select the Right Platform
Implement and Optimize
•
Overview of how the CSKM platform market has
grown and where it’s going.
•
Review of the major vendors in the CSKM platform
space, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.
•
Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape
TMand evaluation of
collaboration vendors.
CSKM Market Overview
• Customer service organizations started adding searchable “notes” to mainframe CIS platforms, in addition to providing agents with service call scripts. • Eventually, dedicated collections of notes were
maintained by product specialists for agent use. • Then best of breed vendors began to recognize the
need for a specific product that addressed companies’ organizational pain. They began to offer
knowledgebases, search and structural (taxonomy, category) capabilities.
• Later, vendors began to merge external sources into the query layer, along with more complex service and
support.
• Major CRM and CSM vendors now have “good enough” built-in, basic CSKM capabilities for low to medium complexity needs.
• Vendors are beginning to recognize mobile as a rapidly emerging area of customer service and are extending their offerings to account for it. Some dedicated mobile applications have already entered the market, and more are on the horizon.
• Social media is another area gaining attention in customer service. Consequently, vendors have turned attention toward that as well in the form of social listening and social-sharing of popular service resolutions
• SaaS is making CSKM more affordable for smaller organizations, but the best fit for CSKM remains high product complexity and high service complexity scenarios, not organizational size alone.
• Convergence of self-service and assisted service at
the smartphone level is the next big trend that will impact CSKM, and will require agents to have access to a customer’s self-service history before escalating to assisted service.
How it got here:
Where it’s going:
Basic CSKM has become a commodity feature of CRM and CSM platforms. However, the market demand for high complexity service needs of larger organizations is strong and being reinforced by social
Feature Basic/Adv. What we looked for:
Content Repository (Knowledgebases)
Basic Native knowledgebases are present in the platform.
Advanced Knowledgebases support rich media; content syndication capabilities present.
Advanced Search Basic Able to search the platform’s knowledgebase.
Advanced Able to index and search other content repositories (for example, SharePoint).
Taxonomic Navigation
Basic Content repositories organized by specific taxonomies (administrator or user-defined)
Advanced Ability to actively refine search results through taxonomy.
Resolution Workflow Tools Basic Guided search results are provided.
Advanced More symptom capture tools, such as decision trees and service wizards, are provided. Authorship and Editorial
Controls
Basic Ability to define authorship and editing permissions by user level.
Advanced Support for advanced editorial and approval workflows.
Reporting and Analytics
Basic Provides reports demonstrating knowledge gaps and content utilization.
Advanced Real-time analytics and an interactive dashboard is provided. Customer Involvement and
Peer to Peer Support
Basic Customers are able to rate and comment on individual pieces of content.
Advanced Forums and communities are provided where customers can help each other.
Web Portals
Basic The platform supports customer-facing and agent-facing portals.
Advanced Portals are highly customizable; they can be tailored to user needs (i.e. search histories)
Social and Mobile Support Basic Provides a mobile-optimized site; provides social sharing
Advanced Provides access via dedicated mobile applications
Globalization Basic Applications are available in multiple languages.
Advanced Search engine and knowledgebase can support multilingual content.
Info-Tech evaluated a range of features: basic points were
awarded for table stakes, more for advanced functionality*
CSKM Platform Criteria & Weighting Factors
15% 20% 15% 50% Features Usability Affordability Architecture 40% 60% Product VendorVendor Evaluation
Vendor is committed to the space and has a future product and portfolio roadmap.
Strategy
Vendor offers global coverage and is able to sell and provide post-sales support.
Reach
Vendor is profitable, knowledgeable, and will be around for the long-term.
Viability
Vendor channel strategy is appropriate and the channels themselves are strong.
Channel
Product Evaluation
The solution’s dashboard and reporting tools are intuitive and easy to use.
Usability
The delivery method of the solution aligns with what is expected within the space.
Architecture
The three year TCO of the solution is economical.
Affordability
The solution provides basic
and advanced feature/functionality.
Features
40% 15% 15% 30% Viability Strategy Reach ChannelInfo-Tech’s vendor shortlist includes market and
product-leading vendors of CSKM platforms
• Consona Veteran vendor with strong search and categorization capabilities.
• eGain An established vendor with best-of-breed knowledgebase and resolution workflow tools. • Endeca Excels at e-commerce support and supporting federated service knowledge needs.
• InQuira Strong candidate for organizations requiring robust application integration features.
• KANA An established market leader that provides a comprehensive CSKM feature set.
• Moxie A vendor that excels in the social CSKM space.
Included in the Vendor Landscape:
•
The CSKM marketplace is mature, and organizations have various options to meet their needs. A number of vendors offer solutions that span the full gamut of features: knowledgebases, advanced search, resolution workflow tools, and social and mobile functionality.•
For this Vendor Landscape, Info-Tech focused on those vendors that have a strong market presence and/or reputational presence among mid-to-large organizations (i.e. those most likely to require a standalone CSKM solution).The Info-Tech
Customer Service Knowledge
Management
Vendor
Landscape
Champions receive high scores for most
evaluation criteria and offer excellent value. They have a strong market presence and are usually the trend setters for the industry.
Market Pillars are established players with
very strong vendor credentials, but with more average product scores.
Innovators have demonstrated innovative
product strengths that act as their
competitive advantage in appealing to niche segments of the market.
Emerging players are newer vendors who
are starting to gain a foothold in the marketplace. They balance product and vendor attributes, though score lower relative to market Champions.
For an explanation of how the Info-Tech Vendor Landscape is created, please see Vendor Evaluation Methodology in the appendices.
Consona
eGain Endeca
InQuira
KANA
50 50 50 50 50 50 What is a Value Score?
The Info-Tech CSKM Market Value Index
The Value Score indexes each vendor’s product offering and business strength
relative to their price point. It does not indicate vendor ranking.
Vendors that score high offer more bang for
the buck (e.g. features, usability, stability,
etc.) than the average vendor, while the inverse is true for those that score lower.
Price-conscious enterprises may wish to give the Value Score more consideration than those who are more focused on specific vendor/product attributes.
Only KANA and Consona
provided pricing for this market. As a result, an accurate value index could not be reliably calculated.
Sources:
1. To calculate the Value Score for each vendor, the affordability raw score was backed out, the product scoring reweighted, and the affordability score multiplied by the product of the Vendor and Product scores.
Champion Moxie KANA InQuira Endeca eGain Consona
Every vendor has its strengths & weaknesses;
pick the one that works best for you
Product
Vendor
Features Usability Price Platform Viability Strategy Reach Channel
Overall Overall
For an explanation of how the Info-Tech Harvey Balls are calculated, please see Vendor Evaluation Methodology in the appendices.
Legend =Exemplary = Good = Adequate =Inadequate = Poor
KANA Endeca* eGain* InQuira* Moxie* Consona
*
Vendor declined to provide pricing.Product
Vendor
Features Usability
Afford-ability Viability Strategy Reach Channel
Architec-ture
Overall Overall
Each vendor offers a different feature set;
concentrate on what you need
Content Repository Advanced Search User-facing Portals Agent-Facing Portals Resolution Workflow Tools Taxonomic Navigation
Consona
eGain
Endeca
InQuira
KANA
Moxie
Each vendor offers a different feature set;
concentrate on what you need (continued)
Consona
eGain
Endeca
InQuira
KANA
Moxie
Reporting and Analytics Mobile Features Authorship and Editorial Controls Personalization Capabilities Globalization Social Features$1
Info-Tech Recommends:
Organizations with vast amounts of content will see a lot of value in KANA’s extensive service
resolution capabilities. However, those wishing to leverage social media will have to look elsewhere.
Product: Employees: Headquarters: Website: Founded: Presence:
SEM Knowledge Management 362
Sunnyvale, CA
kana.com 1996
Privately held company
KANA provides organizations with extensive personalization,
service resolution, authorship and editorial capabilities
Champion
• KANA was one of the first vendors to enter the CSKM space and define the market. They have stayed strong over the years and still offer a best-of-breed solution that covers a number of important bases.
Overview
• Offers the ability to crawl content both internally and externally. • Has industry leading service resolution capabilities, as well as
authorship and editorial controls.
• Extensive personalization of web portals allows customers to create UIs that seamlessly match their own website.
• Strong reporting and analytics capabilities.
Strengths
• Social features have yet to be fully developed, but their recent acquisition of Overtone (a social media listening and analytics vendors) suggests this will be greatly strengthened in future releases.
Challenges
3 Year TCO: Tier 7; between $100k and $250k
$1
Info-Tech Recommends:
Organizations making a strong play to dominate social channels will definitely want to look at Moxie.
Product: Employees: Headquarters: Website: Founded: Presence: Customer Spaces 220 Mountain View, CA moxiesoft.com 2006Privately held company
Moxie Software proves to be a solid choice for organizations
with social customer interaction as a priority
Champion
• Founded in 2006, Moxie Software plays in both the customer collaboration and employee collaboration arenas (with its Customer Spaces and Employee Spaces, respectively). • Strong emphasis on the “friend-of-a-friend” model.
Overview
• Moxie is extremely strong on social features. It provides many options for peer-to-peer and social sharing tools, as well as tools for agents to interact with customers over social channels. Also offers social monitoring and analysis. • Moxie also provides best-of-breed mobile support, with a
number of dedicated mobile applications.
Strengths
• Moxie is not as strong on the traditional knowledgebase and search side of the equation. Enterprise search capabilities are limited to internal platform knowledgebases and some
integration with SharePoint.
• Knowledgebase authorship and editorial controls are also not as strong as some of its competitors.
Challenges
$1M+ Vendor declined to provide pricing.
Info-Tech Recommends:
Organizations that are Oracle shops or need strong integration capabilities should look at InQuira,
those needing social and mobile capabilities need not apply.
Product: Employees: Headquarters: Website: Founded: Presence: Knowledge Platform 180 San Bruno, CA inquira.com 2002 NASDAQ: CSCO FY2011 Revenue: $43B
InQuira is a strong candidate for organizations
requiring robust application integration features
Market Pillar
• In July 2011, InQuira was acquired by Oracle. Their product has three main core capabilities: knowledge base
management, natural language search, and advanced analytics and reporting.
Overview
• Strong integration capabilities, including out-of-the-box integration with Siebel and Oracle CRM on Demand. • Product is designed around KCS principles.
• Oracle’s vast resources are there to support customers – very few vendor-specific deficiencies.
Strengths
• Social features have no listening or monitoring capabilities. • No indication of mobile support.
• No strong ability to set entitlements between different users.
Challenges
Vendor declined to provide pricing.
$1
Info-Tech Recommends:
Organizations with extensive product or service lines that are in need of strong categorization abilities
will find a lot of value in Consona.
Product: Employees: Headquarters: Website: Founded: Presence: Consona KM 504 Indianapolis, IN crm.consona.com 1986
Privately held company
Consona is a veteran vendor with strong categorization and
search abilities, but lags in the reporting and analytics areas
Emerging Player
• Consona is one of the oldest vendors in this market. Their product is largely developed around the “Knowledge-Centered Support” (KCS) methodology.
Overview
• Offers the ability to crawl content both internally and externally – for example, internal service resources as well as material that exists on the Web.
• Strong categorization and natural language capabilities. • Provides superior service resolution capabilities.
Strengths
• Aging content authoring abilities.
• No dedicated mobile apps or mobile-optimized browser, though plans for it are in progress.
Challenges
3 Year TCO: Tier 10, Over $1M+
Info-Tech Recommends:
Endeca is a good fit for resellers who need e-commerce guided navigation as well as searching
across multiple manufacturers’ service knowledge sources, but lacks a native knowledgebase.
Product: Employees: Headquarters: Website: Founded: Presence: Endeca InFront 494 Cambridge, MA endeca.com 1999
Privately Held Company
Endeca excels at e-commerce support and supporting
federated service knowledge needs
Emerging Player
• Endeca InFront is a comprehensive suite for CSKM. The company focuses more on search capabilities (i.e. crawling existing content) than it does on standalone KB functionality. Endeca was recently acquired by Oracle.
Overview
• Strong vendor product focus on guided navigation.
• Very good fit for organizations needing one solution for both service and e-commerce related search.
• Federated indexing approach fits organizations that cannot control service knowledge in a single location, like channel resellers that get service content from many suppliers.
Strengths
• Endeca does not have native knowledgebase support: rather, it indexes existing content from other sources and emulates a single source of content by strong organization at the query level. Organizations looking for a platform that has a full-featured knowledgebase will want to look elsewhere.
Challenges
Vendor declined to provide pricing.
Info-Tech Recommends:
Organizations that need strong knowledgebase and search capabilities coupled with robust workflow
resolution tools will want to look at eGain.
Product: Employees: Headquarters: Website: Founded: Presence: eGain KnowledgeAgent 314 Mountain View, CA egain.com 1997 EGAN:OTC BB FY10 Revenue: $29.9M
eGain is a strong choice for those looking for best-of-breed
knowledgebase and resolution workflow tools
Emerging Player
• eGain is a well-established market leader in providing
knowledgebase and customer service solutions – the firm has been in operation since 1997, and offers a variety of tools for CSKM and service management.
Overview
• eGain’s core strength remains its knowledgebase and search capabilities. The vendor excels at providing federated search capabilities across multiple information sources
• eGain also excels at providing guided resolution workflow tools like decision trees and service wizards, making it a good pick for organizations that need tools for agent-facing service.
Strengths
• eGain is weaker at social and mobile functionality vis-à-vis its competitors.
• Recent performance in the market has been uneven. But it is not possible to compare performance to privately held
competitors, who may have experienced the same swings during recent recession.
Challenges
Vendor declined to provide pricing.
The Info-Tech
CSKM Platform Vendor Shortlist Tool
is designed to generate a
customized shortlist of vendors based on your key priorities.
Identify leading candidates with the
CSKM Platform Vendor Shortlist Tool
• Overall Vendor vs. Product Weightings
• Top-level weighting of product vs. vendor criteria
• Individual product criteria weightings:
Features
Usability
Affordability
Architecture• Individual vendor criteria weightings:
Viability
Strategy
Reach
ChannelOrganizations that need best-of-breed internal knowledgebases for customer
service should consider KANA the leader, with eGain a close second.
Scenario #1: Internal Knowledgebase Functionality
Internal Knowledgebase
Advanced Search
Social and Mobile Support
1
2
3
Exemplary Performers
Viable Performers
4
KCS Methodology
Compliant
4
With its versatile abilities to index a wide range of external content, Endeca
leads the pack for organizations needing advanced search capabilities.
Scenario #2: Advanced Search Capabilities
Internal Knowledgebase
Advanced Search
Social and Mobile Support
1
2
3
Exemplary Performers
Viable Performers
4
KCS Methodology
Compliant
4
Moxie offers best-of-breed social monitoring and response capabilities, while
Endeca’s native Facebook service portals allow easy channel integration.
Scenario #3: Social and Mobile Support
Internal Knowledgebase
Advanced Search
Social and Mobile Support
1
2
3
Exemplary Performers
4
KCS Methodology
Compliant
4
Firms looking to stick with a vendor with a proven adherence to Knowledge
Centered Support methodologies should go with Consona or InQuira.
Scenario #4: KCS Methodology Compliant
Internal Knowledgebase
Advanced Search
Social and Mobile Support
1
2
3
Exemplary Performers
Viable Performers
4
KCS Methodology
Compliant
4
What’s in this Section:
Sections:
Build a CSKM Strategy Create a Selection Roadmap Select the Right Platform
Implement and Optimize
Implement and Optimize the CSKM Platform
•
Successfully navigate the deployment, integration
and pilot phases of the project.
•
Ensuring adoption with adequate training programs.
•
Best practices for optimizing customer service
initiatives.
Managing and learning from the pilot project
Assigning a dedicated FTE resource
Supporting the content lifecycle
Optimizing search results
Best practices for customer service
Promoting adoption through training
Compiling the different training programs
Putting together the Selection Team
Planning maintenance strategy and
performance tracking
Securing the environment
Identifying integration points
Follow these steps for effective CSKM implementation
The Platform’s Place
Preparing the Users
Proceeding with
Deployment
Planning for Optimal Use
4
3
2
1
While you don’t want the selection team to be so large that you are unable to make efficient
decisions, getting involvement from multiple user groups has a number of benefits:
• A diverse team provide different perspectives on how employees will be using the platform as well as how customers will use it.
• Securing their involvement in the early stages will help with adoption in the later
implementation stages, especially the initial population of the KB with service articles. • Don’t forget that customers are an important
stake-holder as well. Conducting surveys on current gaps in self-service knowledge can be very valuable information for the CSKM
implement stage.
Bring users from all levels onto the selection team in
order to secure buy-in and future adoption
- Mike Kelly, Director of Enterprise Applications
CSKM Platform Selection Team
Call Center
Agents &
Managers
Field Service
Agents and
Managers
IT Staff
Sales Staff
The end-users need to want it at the end of the project; if they
are not involved in the selection process, they will just feel like
it’s pushed down their throat.
Generate enthusiasm for the project by
involving all user levels in the selection.
4 3 2 1
Customers (via
surveys and
focus groups)
Consider your organization’s place in the value chain
when designing the details of your CSKM platform
4 32 1
Place yourself in one of the scenarios below to gain an idea of what kind of service processes
and functional requirements are most relevant to your organization:
Business to
Consumer
Business to
Business
Business to Business to
Consumer
Process Functional Requirements The relationship is a simple one. To be most cost-effective, CSKM should focus on supporting self-service options for customers. Consider these features: Simple and intuitive UIs Attractive external Web portal Strong service resolution and
search capabilities
More of a relationship-centric
position, so customer service will be more complex and CSKMs should focus on assisted-service.
Consider these features: Peer to peer support – these
forums take pressure off of agents Decision trees and support wizard
to facilitate quick resolutions.
OEM and reseller will play roles in customer service. Content
management will be an important issue, since it can come from both of these sources.
Consider these features: Joint authorship and editorial
controls
Content syndication, by entitlements, to downstream. The business is the single entity
responsible for content creation, maintenance and delivery of all service to consumers.
Product support is typically more complex and customers are of higher individual value, so high-touch service and collaboration are often required.
Manufacturers create and maintain most content then deliver to
resellers based on which products the partner sells. Reseller may also create some service content.
Functional Requirements Functional Requirements
1
Establish a plan for ongoing platform
maintenance and performance tracking
Leverage the reporting and analytics built into your CSKM to maintain effectiveness of your solutions as well as look for potential product defects. Take a proactive stance toward problems – don’t wait for them to get worse. If a performance metric is lagging, conduct a root-cause analysis to find out why.
Searches with no solutions (gaps)
Make sure to monitor the platform going forward, both in terms of maintenance and
performance tracking and benchmarking.
2
The metrics you want to analyze in order
to track performance:
3
4
Technical Maintenance (troubleshooting of platform) Responsibility: ITEnd-User Skill Development
(keeping users up-to-speed) Responsibility: Call Center/Service Org
Ongoing Solution Maintenance
(upkeep of Web pages, articles, content pruning, taxonomy)
Responsibility: Business Escalation from self to assisted service Issues by product (e. g. for defect tracking) End user content ratings Volume of first-contact resolutions Peer-to-peer solutions (e. g. in forums) Physical Maintenance
(infrastructure and storage upkeep, physical search index heath)
Responsibility: IT
4 3 2 1
Create a secure environment: establish access
rights, authorized users, and guard against breaches
•
The organization may not want every customer to have complete access to all articles, or may have articles specifically intended for staff use. Safeguard the company’s proprietary information by restricting customer access to agent-centric articles (these articles may divulge confidential intellectual property).•
Different levels of access will also ensure editing/approval power is only given to those the company authorizes. This restriction keeps theknowledgebase free of any unverified or contradictory information.
•
Keep a roster of active, authorized users: when an employee leaves the company, promptly remove their access to the internal system.Integration with directory services can speed this up.
•
On-premise CSKM platforms should be secured behind the firewall in order to reduce the platform’s vulnerability to external threats. Cloud-based solutions must meet necessary compliance requirements.•
Secure the software from external threats by keeping it up-to-date with the most current patches and hot fixes at all times. For more information on security strategy, see Info-Tech’s research storyboard, Build aSecurity Architecture & Roadmap.
