As any great contact center leader knows, knowledge management is a vital—and potentially overwhelming—part of working in a large organization.

It’s vital because it helps your agents stay on track and address issues correctly, which in turn makes your business more successful. It can be overwhelming because the “knowledge” in knowledge management, or KM, includes everything from training documents, to illustrative call recordings, to customer databases and more. In other words, KM brings together—or at least, is supposed to bring together—all of the information that an organization possesses.

In order to manage all that information, contact centers often turn to KM software. As these software systems continue to develop, they’re becoming more robust, more user-friendly, and more capable of handling and disseminating diverse types of knowledge.

Here are a few trends to look for in 2016.

1. Interfaces will become more visual. Instead of file names, lists, and long blocks of text, KM systems will begin catching up to the rest of the internet by incorporating visuals to communicate. Nearly everything, from a simple blog post to instructional documents, are moving toward more visual communication, and KM is finally following suit. Icons and images will show up to replace those long file names to click on.
2. We’ll see a focus on mobile technology. Now that people are working on their tablets, phones, and laptops they expect a seamless experience when it comes to switching from one to the other—whether they’re at work or not. KM is responding to this trend by upping mobile abilities.
3. KM is moving into the cloud. Cloud-based systems are becoming more and more popular, as they both cost less and eliminate the need for specialized, on-site staff to manage the system.
4. KM is becoming more important to a company’s bottom line. With the ability to track and process huge amounts of data, KM is becoming ever more important to a contact center’s productivity. That data contains precious bits of insight into why customers behave the way they do, and managers know this. Where KM was once seen as a sort of by-product that came out of documenting training processes, protocols, and other pieces of information, it’s now seen as a very purposeful element of managing a company’s success.
5. Social media will play a larger role.  Communicating via social media has become second nature for employees, and not just in their personal lives. Messaging platforms like Slack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook—all have different characteristics that can be integrated into KM systems. This allows employees to communicate more easily and intuitively, making it more that they’ll use the system—which, after all, is the whole point of having it.
6. KM is becoming more collaborative and engaging. This goes hand in hand with the integration of social media elements into KM. Organizational culture is gradually shifting from one of strict hierarchy and knowledge protection, to one that fosters more collaboration and knowledge sharing, and KM systems are reflecting that. Employees want to contribute their thoughts and ideas in the workplace—more flexible permissions systems and better communications tools are making that possible.
7. Troubleshooting will become easier. As with any software system, bugs and glitches are inevitable in KM systems. Previously, good ways to track these issues didn’t exist, making it difficult to solve problems and ensure that they remained solved. Today, however, KM systems have begun integrating ticket systems, similar to project management sites, that allow users to easily see where an issue is in the troubleshooting process.

Contact centers are benefiting greatly from implementing knowledge management systems, and those benefits only stand to increase. With more user-friendly interfaces and functions, better ability to collaborate, and more focus on mobile capabilities, knowledge management will be even better in 2016.

If your organization is in need of software to streamline your processes, increase collaboration, or gain insight into your company’s customer service success, KOVA can help. Contact us about our Verint Media Recorder Workforce Optimization Suite today!