What Is A Knowledge Management System

What is a knowledge management system? It is a structured place for the operational knowledge an organisation depends on, kept where people can find it rather than in individual heads and inboxes.

The knowledge at risk is rarely the documented kind. It is the workarounds, the reasons behind decisions, the client history, and the answers to questions that come up every few months and get solved from scratch each time.

That knowledge leaves with people. A resignation in a small team can take years of context with it, and the cost appears slowly as things take longer and mistakes repeat.

What makes a system work is capture at the moment of use rather than a documentation project. If the answer gets written where it was asked, it accumulates. If it requires a separate task, it does not.

The Fair Work Ombudsman covers record-keeping obligations. This is general information rather than legal advice.

See Sentrient’s learning management system and records management software.