The Role of Enterprise Search in Successful Knowledge Management
Updated June 29, 2023.
Easy access to relevant knowledge is key to workplace productivity. That’s where efficient knowledge management comes in. Knowledge management involves gathering, storing, and disseminating information along channels throughout an organization. Research shows that the majority of these systems are for document management (77%) and search (68%).
An enterprise search is an invaluable internal company search engine that combines internal data with web-focused search tools to yield the most relevant results and insights quickly. It involves an intranet search of an organization’s databases. And its importance is reflected in the global enterprise search market's projected 10.2% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) until 2030.
So, here's how enterprise search supports knowledge management.
What Is Knowledge Management?
Effective knowledge management processes allow companies to stay competitive. Plus, companies can make better-informed decisions, identify skill gaps, increase efficiency, and promote better collaboration among team members.
When setting up a knowledge management system, you first have to classify the types of knowledge already existing within your organization. These include:
- Explicit knowledge: This is the most easily accessible. Explicit data is created when it's processed, organized, and structured for dissemination. Examples include training manuals, annual reports, and customer surveys.
- Implicit knowledge: This refers to experience or know-how that helps a company meet its goals. Implicit knowledge is not formally codified but can be passed between team members through informational exchanges.
- Tacit knowledge: This is challenging to capture and is acquired through personal experience. Because of its subjectivity, tacit knowledge can't usually be shared or taught. For example, interpersonal skills or basic social etiquette.
✶ Discover the importance of AI in knowledge management
Benefits of Enterprise Search for Knowledge Management
While tacit knowledge cannot be recorded or examined purposefully, explicit and implicit knowledge combined represents a formidable mountain of data to sift through. An enterprise search tool, however, lets employees find the information they need by scanning databases, document management systems, and other stores of knowledge.
An enterprise knowledge management tool offers the following benefits:
Saves Time
Gone are the days of thumbing through musty ledgers or scrolling through endless spreadsheets. Enterprise search tools provide smart, relevant responses to search queries within seconds so employees can focus their time on other tasks that help boost team performance.
This saved time helps the company overall with:
- Productivity
- Proficiency
- Employee satisfaction
Reduces Gaps in Knowledge
A large organization often has valuable information spanning across years, clients, and projects. Its knowledge base can become segregated into data silos. This is not ideal as it causes data duplication and slows down work since employees may struggle to access information.
Enterprise search tools turn all existing records into a knowledge base that employees easily can comb through without encountering clutter from human error, like unnecessary document duplications or redundant files.
Supports Teams
An enterprise search tool boosts productivity in every department by ensuring the smooth flow of information at all levels of the organization. Not having to trawl for information helps with the following:
- New employees work faster because knowledge is more accessible
- Experts can be identified quickly and easily
- Teams spend less time on repetitive tasks so there's more time to apply knowledge and deliver value to customers
- Efficiently stored knowledge ensures easier decision-making
Fun fact: Knowledge management helps improve data security by offering insight into potential data integrity risks so companies can enforce tighter protection and management measures.
✶ Want to know more? See how enterprise search improves internal communication
Unleash Efficiency With Enterprise Search
By granting all departments access to a useful body of knowledge, knowledge management systems add value at every level of a company. Advanced search tools, like enterprise search, can help facilitate this, especially for large-scale organizations that hold and use large quantities of information.
Unleash is a robust enterprise search option for a company looking to streamline its productivity. It integrates with popular workplace apps, supports multimedia formats, and promotes intra-organizational collaboration. So, why not activate the hidden potential of your knowledge system and watch your organization’s efficiency skyrocket?
