December 1, 2008
By Christopher Musico, Contributor, CRM magazine

Tech Solution: Knowledge Management Tools

Ever called into a contact center only to wait on hold for an agent who couldn’t call up records, find the right information, or even determine the best person to speak with? Frustration mounts, and consequently customer satisfaction—even loyalty—is at risk. It’s often not even the agent’s fault. With myriad applications and products to keep tabs on, it can be nearly impossible to instantaneously know every answer. Improve agents’ productivity and customers’ experiences with a knowledge management solution that enables agents to locate the right information seamlessly, answer the question, and move on to the next inquiry.

Helpstream Community and Solutions Management

Delivery Model: on-demand
Price: Corporate Edition with five agents starts at approximately $8,000 per year.
Business Benefits: Helpstream’s offering speeds the creation of solution articles, allowing agents
to quickly fix any problems in existing content. All information essential to a customer service representative’s job is easily accessible, and evergreen content can be stored by taking advantage of built-in enterprise and community resources.
Functionality: Seamless access to information comes in any type of digital format. Solution articles can be authored from multiple sources, including community discussion forums, case histories, and product documentation. Any set of instructions can be transformed into an interactive process, allowing users to instantly transition to and from assisted mode at any point in the interaction.
Contact: Helpstream at 1-650-605-6800; or visit www.helpstream.com.

Kana IQ

Delivery Model: Web-accessed managed service or installed
Price: Starts from $200,000 depending on the number of agent seats and servers deployed for self-service use.
Business Benefits: Kana IQ delivers the right answers into every interaction across all channels, seeking to stem the tide of increasing call volumes and plummeting customer satisfaction due to inconsistent or ineffective knowledge. The offering differs from other search-only solutions that don’t offer a resolution to an issue, content management systems without definitive answers, and case management tools that lack effective search.
Functionality: The solution offers self-service with seamlessly integrated escalation channels, allowing for the use of the optimal channels for each phase of resolution. A problem-centric content model aids in finding and recognizing good solutions, while in-process authoring allows for guided creation, review, and publication of content. Reporting and analytics built into the offering show which issues are being served and how well they’re being resolved.
Contact: Kana at 1-817-237-4050; or visit www.kana.com.

Consona Knowledge Management 7.2 (formerly Knova)

Delivery Model: hosted or installed software
Price: The cost depends on the number of agent users and applications desired. The contact center module is $1,000 per agent while self-service and forum modules start at $50,000 per central processing unit.
Business Benefits: Intelligent customer experience applications reduce service costs, increase revenues, and improve satisfaction by enabling root-cause analytics to improve products, better problem resolution, and more-effective knowledge transfer. Consona’s forums enable peer support while self-service tools deflect calls and improve the user experience. Analysis with QlikView offers the ability to view operational trends and knowledge usage in a simple but robust analytics solution.
Functionality: Process-driven applications deliver support through customer service agents and support analysts, the Web site, and communities of experts. The offering’s shared knowledge platform provides value-added access to any content source, while CRM integration lets entitled users escalate unsolved issues directly to the technical support center. Root-cause analytics offers structured feedback to drive ongoing product enhancements.
Contact: Consona at 1-888-8-CONSONA; or visit www.consona.com.

Contact Editorial Assistant Christopher Musico at cmusico@destinationCRM.com.

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