Introduction to KnowledgeCentered Support KCS

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Introduction to Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS)

• Melissa George
• Consortium for Service Innovation

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• KCS is a methodology and a set of practices and
  processes that focuses on knowledge as a key
  asset of the support organization.
• KCS seeks to
• Create content as a by-product of solving
  problems
• Evolve content based on demand and usage
• Develop a KB of our collective experience
  to-date
• Reward learning, collaboration, sharing and
  improving
• KCS is not something we do
• in addition to solving problems
• KCS becomes the way we solve problems

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• KCS originated in 1992 with a simple premise
• To capture,
• Structure, and
• Re-use support knowledge
• With 10 years in development and over 45
  million invested, KCS has been tried and tested
  by early adopters that include 3Com, Oracle,
  Novell, and VeriSign. KCS is now recognized by
  HDI (Help Desk Institute) as a knowledge
  management best practice.

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Tangible Benefits

• Operational efficiency
• 30-60 improved time to resolve
• Increased support capacity gt100
• Improved time to proficiency months to weeks
• Efficient creation of content to enable web
  self-help
• Identification/elimination of root causes
• Increased job satisfaction
• Less redundant work
• More confidence
• Reduced training time
• Increased customer satisfaction

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Two Examples

• Internet security services, high volume
  environment
• Time to resolve from 7.0 min to 5.5 min (-28)
• Customer sat 28
• Time to proficiency from 3 months to 1 month
  (-66)
• Software Support
• Time to relief -50
• Time to proficiency from 6 month to 1 month
  (-83)

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Who Has Invested in KCS?

• Lucent
• Nortel Networks
• Motorola
• 3Com
• Unisys
• EHPT
• Intel
• Network App.
• Mapics

• Microsoft
• Baan Solutions
• Mosaix
• Compaq
• Novell
• HP
• Oracle
• Legato
• Lexmark

• QAD
• SGI
• SMS
• Sun
• Attachmate
• EMC
• VeriSign
• HDS
• Progress

Partial list
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Double Loop Process

• B loop
• Organization level
• Processes across many events

• A loop
• The event level
• Solving Problems

B
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KCS Processes
Knowledge
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KM Measurement and Teenage Sex

• The reality is that when you finally do it, you
  are never satisfied
• The few who are doing it are probably not doing
  it well
• Those who say they are doing it are probably
  lying
• No one is sure what it is, but they hear that it
  is great
• Everyone thinks everyone else is doing it