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Using KM to Make Problem-Solving Reusable

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Vertical-Specific Resources

Another characteristic of contemporary KM solutions for making this knowledge reusable for problem-solving is incorporating resources pertinent to respective industries. As Allen noted, workflows and other solutions are available in such offerings for individual verticals. A critical facet of their applicability to workflows is the respective catalyst mechanisms, what Smith referred to as “triggers,” for advancing content, or processes, through various phases in a workflow.

“Hooks are actions where you’re listening for something to happen, and when that does, it triggers something without a human having to do it,” Smith commented. Workflows for industry-specific use cases often involve forms tailored to those activities, which might entail obtaining information from clients in financial services, for example. “Forms are when you still have to get information from a human, and then, when you’ve got those three fields off a human, that then triggers a workflow,” Smith indicated.

Integrations and Connectors

Often, the integrations KM solutions provide are pivotal for making them applicable to specific verticals. Kato mentioned that one of the integrations Foxit supports is with iManage. In this case, users can access Foxit’ s PDF functionality in a manner in which “you can automatically set up, open, and do saves directly into those systems,” Kato said.

The viability of KM solutions may hinge on such integrations. For example, iManage has a significant customer base in the legal sector. “[Law firms] don’t want you to save your PDFs on your desktop,” Kato added. “They want you to save PDFs in their repository that’s fully protected, fully compliant.”

Metadata Models by Industry

Some of the most helpful KM toolsets supply metadata models or taxonomies for particular industries. In addition to providing an adjustable basis for tagging, classifying, and searching content, these predefined taxonomies are accompanied by “workflows for it, for things like client onboarding, client management, asset management,” Taliano divulged. “And within that taxonomy is a sort of permission model. It’s a structure of assets within the solution to get started with the most common processes we come across in those industries.”

Regulatory Compliance

KM vendors also have a range of mechanisms to enable organizations to solidify regulatory adherence. Some of them pertain to facets of storage, including regulations specific to data sovereignty, data privacy, and data security. KM platforms can provide what Smith characterized as an “object of truth” that complies with regulations as far as where information is stored or accessed.

In fact, because of these concerns, many KM practitioners “are keen on either us creating AI or search capabilities within our knowledge platform, or they really want those startups, as they become more mature as an organization, to integrate with us in a way that means that security is maintained, policy is maintained, and even where the data goes,” Smith said. There are some fundamental best practices for ensuring that enterprise knowledge is sufficiently governed to adhere to regulations pertaining to how and where it’s accessed. According to Taliano, “When you’re sharing documents, you’re sharing links, so you’re not creating copies of documents. It’ s those things that we’ve been doing for a long time.”

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