What are knowledge management tools?

Knowledge management tools ensure your organization can capture information and apply that knowledge for maximum value to your business. Different knowledge management tools focus on different knowledge types and are designed to improve efficiency in specific parts of your business.

Learn more about how knowledge management and knowledge sharing can help your company’s bottom line.

Why are knowledge management tools important?

Knowledge management tools offer a wide range of benefits, and each option has different strengths (and weaknesses). But here are the four key benefits that you should expect from whatever knowledge management tool you choose:

• Improve your profitability and efficiency 
• Organize critical company information in a single source of truth
• Facilitate collaboration across teams, wherever they are
• Promote continuous learning

Types of knowledge management tools

Knowledge management tools are essential for businesses seeking to improve organizational efficiency, streamline communication, and foster innovation. These tools come in various types, each designed to serve different purposes. Document management systems, one of the key knowledge management tools, enable easy storage, organization, and retrieval of crucial files and documents. Collaboration platforms facilitate seamless teamwork and knowledge sharing among employees, while content management systems provide a central repository for creating, editing, and distributing digital content.

Additionally, decision support systems help with data analysis and problem-solving, while social networking tools promote informal knowledge sharing and relationship building. Implementing the right knowledge management tools can significantly enhance a company's productivity and overall performance.

Here’s a helpful list of knowledge management tool types:

1. Knowledge bases

A knowledge base is a searchable information repository that stores your company’s data for internal or external access. It serves to capture, manage, and organize key organizational information in order to help your teams or customers find the information they need, when they need it. There are two types of knowledge bases. A machine-readable knowledge base stores data that can only be analyzed by artificial intelligence systems. A human-readable knowledge base stores documents and physical texts that are accessible to people. Human-readable knowledge bases are more interactive, but searches are often more time-consuming.

2. Learning management systems (LMS)

Learning management systems help businesses build a strong foundation of knowledge management by allowing them to create customized training and educational programs. Through this system, company leaders can design and manage lessons, courses, quizzes, and other training materials and deliver those resources to employees, students, or partners. 

3. Knowledge-Centered Service® (KCS)

These tools support knowledge centered service, also known as knowledge-centered support, which describes how customer service and support teams access and use knowledge to deliver greater value to customers, employees, and stakeholders. Each time a problem is solved in a KCS organization, that knowledge is stored in a way that is easily accessible to others. KCS empowers everyone in the organization to share collective responsibility for maintaining the knowledge base and informs how people in the organization solve problems.‍

4. AI knowledge management

AI knowledge management tools can capture, filter, represent, or apply knowledge. They include applications that can select, analyze, and classify text; conduct automated reasoning; and create visualizations – all of which can enhance decision-making capabilities. AI can help organizations process human input, such as handwriting and voice recognition, using natural language processing. These systems can also deal with “big data,” traditionally deemed unwieldy and difficult to maintain, by using new methods for data storing such as decentralized blockchain.

5. Customer relationship management (CRM)

Designed to help all teams involved in marketing, sales, and customer service, CRM systems track prospect and customer information over the course of customer relationships. Using a CRM, your company can track everything from the first contact with a prospect and how they came to you, to interactions they have with your sales team throughout the buying process, to repeated purchases. This customer data is stored in the CRM tool, which your team can now access at any time to understand the context of the relationship and respond appropriately to any issues that may arise. This translates to a better customer experience. 

6. Content management

Content management systems encompass the creation, management, and distribution of your organizational content on your company’s intranet or website. An effective content management system provides templates for publishing content, enables easy editing and metadata tagging, tracks changes and allows access to various versions of content, allows for collaborative work and parallel content development, integrates document management systems, and provides extensions and plug-ins for enhanced functionality.

What knowledge management tool is right for your team?

One thing's clear: there are a lot of good knowledge management tools available. So, careful consideration and research are needed to find the right platform for your company. It's important to assess your goals, priorities, and budget before getting started. And don't compromise. Your knowledge management tool should drive collaboration, innovation, and business growth for years to come.

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The best knowledge management tools to use in 2024 

There are a wide variety of KM tools available, including more comprehensive paid versions for corporate or small businesses and more basic free versions. Commonly used tools include a content library or knowledge sharing databases.  

1. Guru

Best for: Guru is an AI-powered knowledge management platform best suited for organizations that want to centralize their company's collective knowledge and make it easily accessible to employees. It helps teams capture, organize, update, and share information more efficiently, enhancing collaboration and productivity.

Key features

• Announcements
• Simple and powerful editor
• Powerful integrations
• Intuitive browser extension
• Captures knowledge anywhere on the web
• Native integration with Slack
• Expert verification
• Syncs with existing software tools
• Smart organization for knowledge, content, and more
• Deep insights to track and improve knowledge
• Customizable knowledge triggers and alerts
• AI-powered system-wide suggestions 
• User permissions and personalizations
• Community help center
• 200+ professionally designed templates 

2. Confluence

Best for: Confluence is a system for organizations looking to create a centralized workspace for team collaboration, documentation, and project management. Developed by Atlassian, Confluence is particularly suitable for businesses already using other Atlassian products, such as Jira, as it seamlessly integrates with these tools.

Key features

• Pages & project plans
• 75+ practice templates
• Jira integration
• Third-party apps & integrations
• Macros for interactivity
• Advanced search & page tree
• Real-time editing and commenting
• Notifications
• Permissions and feed personalization
• Announcements and blog

3. Stack Overflow for Teams

Best for: Stack Overflow for Teams is a platform for organizations with a strong focus on software development, programming, and technical problem-solving. This platform allows developers and engineers to create a private, searchable knowledge base where they can ask questions, share solutions, and collaborate on technical challenges.

Key features

• Collections and user groups
• Content health
• Dashboard
• Articles
• SSO
• Question-based knowledge sharing
• Chatops integrations - Slack & Microsoft Teams 
• Private hosting
• Structured and searchable knowledge base

4. Notion

Best for: Notion is a flexible tool for new and small organizations that require a versatile and highly customizable tool for managing tasks, documentation, and collaboration.

Key features

• Customizable workflows
• Integrations
• Dashboard
• Articles
• SSO
• Question-based knowledge sharing
• Chatops integrations - Slack & Microsoft Teams 
• Private hosting
• Structured and searchable knowledge base

5. ClickUp

Best for: ClickUp is for organizations looking for a comprehensive project management and productivity tool, as it effectively combines task management, documentation, and team collaboration features.

Key features

• Project management
• Real-time chat 
• 20+ dashboard views
• Collaborative whiteboards
• In-house doc editor
• Automations
• Import and integrations
• Mobile and desktop apps
• Customization for team-specific users

6. Document360

Best for: Document360 is a customer-focused knowledge platform designed for organizations that require a robust and user-friendly solution for creating and maintaining knowledge bases, particularly for customer support.

Key features

• Knowledge base site, assistant, and portal
• Cataloging & categorization
• Integrations and extensions
• Workflow management
• User permissions 
• Reporting
• Editor and collaboration tools
• Activity dashboard

7. Bloomfire

Best for: Bloomfire is a knowledge management tool for organizations seeking a user-friendly and powerful solution to centralize their collective knowledge and facilitate easy access to information for employees.

Key features

• Content import and utilization
• In content feedback & commenting system
• Notifications
• Topic subscriptions
• Chrome extension
• File syncing integrations
• File virus scanning

8. Nuclino

Best for: Nuclino serves as a unified workspace, allowing team members to collaborate on documents, projects, and tasks in real-time.

Key features

• Drag and drop editor
• Content collaboration
• Multiple work views
• Project and task management
• Searchability
• User permissions
• Keyboard command and hotkeys
• Desktop & mobile app
• Integrations

9. Slite

Best for: Slite is a knowledge management and team collaboration platform that serves as a centralized hub for teams to collaborate on documents, notes, and projects.

Key features

• Flexible editor
• Collaborative cursors
• Drag and drop features
• Inline commenting and markdowns
• Organized collections
• Discussions dashboard
• Sharing and privacy features
• Searchability
• Document and file import
• Integrations and embeds
• Mobile and desktop apps

10. Trainual

Best for: Trainual is a training platform specifically designed to help organizations create, organize, and share training materials, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and onboarding resources.

Key features

• Designed as a 2-in-1 employee training and project management tool
• Centralized employee handbook, policies, and processes 
• Company org chart, directory, and user profiles
• Standardized index for HR
• Reporting
• Integrations
• 250+ templates