Tech to Help Improve Company Processes
Access to information is a major need that companies are always looking to fill. Employees always seek to find accurate company data to help them do their jobs well and provide the solutions that customers need.
Years ago, this type of information was stored in paper documents and disjointed sources that they would spend hours finding and putting together coherently.
In 2012, research showed that employees spent about 9.3 hours weekly (approx. 20%) simply trying to find the information they needed to do their jobs.
Today, innovation and technology have made way for companies to build a knowledge base where employees, customers, and other stakeholders can find and share information within minutes. This is what we know as Internal Wiki.
What is an internal wiki, and why does your company need one?
An internal wiki is an online knowledge base where companies can store, search for, and share relevant information. This is important for their work processes, business operations, and other important data.
It is like a mini Wikipedia page where users can edit and update the information within as more knowledge is gained.
It provides an all-in-one location that houses data such as company policies, FAQs about workflows, onboarding materials or training, project data, meeting notes, and lots more.
With a company’s internal wiki, employees can find relevant information faster, giving them the necessary tools to get things done quicker and with fewer inaccuracies. This is especially important for new employees that are not yet familiar with how the company works.
It also fosters a positive work environment because it allows for collaboration and seamless teamwork. Employees can find the best colleague to help do their work better and easier and find who is in charge of what project without hassle.
Internal wiki solutions your company will love
There are various internal wiki-building platforms to work with, but knowing the most efficient one is also part of the steps to take to create a knowledge base solution that your team will love.
If you’re looking to create a company wiki, here are the internal wiki solutions that made our top picks. They are highly rated by teams, managers, and various websites as worth their stuff.
1. Slite
This internal wiki solution is one that the whole team will find useful. Slite is that knowledge base that allows you to store all your projects, updates, discussions, team meetings, company procedures, customer information, analytics, etc.
The main goal is to make collaboration easier and more seamless, regardless of their location. This means it is perfect for both on-site and remote teams. It is simple, easy to use, and quite different from what you expect a knowledge base solution to be.
Slite acts like a knowledge management solution because you can constantly update the information within to keep the knowledge fresh and ever-growing. In addition, Slite’s intuitive features make it a favorite among many teams.
It is accessible to and usable by any team member, regardless of their technical knowledge level.
With its lightning-fast search function, Slite also makes it easy for teams to find whatever they’re looking for. It also highlights the latest updates and edits to the wiki so that every team member will be up to date.
Slite is free to use for up to 100 documents; afterward, you can upgrade to the standard plan at $6.67 per user every month.
2. Slab
Slab is another internal wiki solution that helps teams easily create, organize and discover information. It doesn’t matter how technical and complex your data is; Slab provides the opportunity for you to curate technical and non-savvy information for every member of your team.
Slab makes it super-easy for users to edit and modify with its intuitive interface. In addition, it makes your content look good by default, so you don’t have to worry about your formatting but simply focus on what you’re writing.
It makes organization easier for teammates because it categorizes information using a feature called “Topics,” and provides context for each category so that you can find what you need without any hassle.
Its Unified Search feature pulls answers you’re looking for, not only from Slab, but anywhere you store data that has been integrated into the website. This also shows that Slab is fully integrable with your most-loved work tools, including Asana, Github, Trello, etc.
3. Document360
This is another cloud-based knowledge base that can help you build your company’s internal wiki. It has a variety of collaborative features that make it highly rated among many big companies like Microsoft.
Document360’s many features are easy to use and do not require any prior technical expertise. Some of the features include a markdown editor, varying access levels, excellent search functions, performance overviews, and many more.
It also uses a minimal user interface design that keeps workflow simple and hitch-free. Document360 is great as a company internal wiki solution because it’s great for organizing information. It has a category manager that can categorize data into categories and subcategories.
Its document versioning feature makes tracking, editing, and modifying the document a breeze, while its 100% cloud-based architecture makes it difficult for you to lose information. You can have your data stored in the cloud for as long as you want.
Document360 makes a great tool if you’re not looking for a company wiki solution that also provides a customer service option. It’s also a little pricey and only offers a 14-day free trial.
4. ZenDesk
This tool is an “old but gold” tool that many companies find highly useful for their customer management processes. It is easily customizable and quite versatile for any of your company wiki needs. It can serve as your internal wiki, customer FAQs wiki, IT knowledge base, and so on.
ZenDesk is fully integrable with many apps and programs that make it easy to get all your work done in one place; no need to switch between apps. You can integrate customer ticketing functions within the app and use the chat features it provides for faster communication.
You can also import files directly from Google Docs and auto-respond to emails using the AI Bot function. ZenDesk works as the perfect comprehensive wiki because it allows customers to find solutions to their hitches, cutting down the work that your employees have to grapple with.
You can use ZenDesk as an internal and external wiki/database so that one tool caters to all your knowledge and information needs. However, this may not be the most appropriate tool if you’re looking for a simpler knowledge base solution that only offers wiki functions.
ZenDesk is more than a knowledge base tool; it is a complete customer service solution. It’s a perfect tool for bigger, well-established companies, as its pricing structure may be a bit too pricey for smaller teams.
Conclusion
There’s just so much information that companies have to deal with that could get lost forever without an internal wiki or knowledge base platform. They are valuable solutions that help you to improve your work processes and eliminate human error drastically.
Slite, Slab, Document360, and ZenDesk are some of the highly-rated internal wiki solutions you can try based on research and successes of use case stories. Take a look at their features and offerings to get a better idea of which of the tools will be best for your company so you can get started.
About the Author
Lydia Iseh is a writer with years of experience in writing SEO content that provides value to the reader. As someone who believes in the power of SEO to transform businesses, she enjoys being part of the process that helps websites rank high on search engines.
The views and opinions expressed in this post are entirely independent of The HR Gazette (Iceni Media Inc.)