Overview

Whether you provide support services for a corporate help desk, to external customers, or on behalf of a third party, you are almost certainly under pressure to extract as much productivity as possible from your front line resources. Significant time could be saved if they had access to each other’s experience.

Support organizations report that 60 to 90 percent of the problems they solve have been solved before, and that they are reinventing answers and fixes that already exist somewhere in the organization.  The opportunity to learn from our service interactions and increase the return on the investment in knowledge is huge! This comprehensive 2½ day workshop will help you to achieve this.

Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS) is a business methodology that was developed and tested by members of the Consortium for Service Innovation™ (CSI). The objective of KCS is to create an environment where resources solve a problem once and use the solution repeatedly. Organizations have shown that adoption of KCS can improve operational efficiency, customer satisfaction and employee morale. This workshop explores the need for a knowledge-centered strategy, the organizing principles of KCS, and the benefits that it delivers.

The workshop teaches attendees how to create and maintain knowledge as people solve problems and answer questions, and how knowledge best practices can improve service levels and support center efficiency. Attendees will also be introduced to the five processes needed to manage content quality and the life cycle of knowledge, the best practices for assessing individual and team contribution to the knowledge base, and how knowledge can empower customer self-service on the web.

What You Will Learn

• How to assess the value of Knowledge-Centered Support
• The difference between call-tracking and knowledge management systems
• The concept behind the re-use of knowledge and the value of tracking the re-use
• Knowledge-Centered Support principles and practices
• How Knowledge-Centered Support fits in to workflows and the structured problem solving process
• Fundamentals of solution management
• Key roles and responsibilities within the organization that impart KCS
• A new way to assess performance and contribution
• Considerations for a successful adoption and implementation of the KCS strategy

Course Benefits

The training course will help support professionals to:

• Efficiently create and maintain quality content in a knowledge base
• Motivate support analysts to use the knowledge base
• Structure knowledge to make it easy to find and use
• Minimize investments in knowledge workflow and maximize the return
• Improve service levels to customers
• Gain operational efficiencies
• Increase the organization's value to their company
• Identify and avoid the common pitfalls

Who Should Participate

The KCS workshop is for support professionals and project managers who want decrease problem resolution time and related compensation expense by utilizing a knowledge management program. It is also for individuals preparing for the Knowledge-Centered Support Principles, and all staff directly involved in and responsible for the knowledge management process.

Agenda

What is Knowledge-Centered Support?

• What It Is
• What Led to the Development of KCS?
• Why Do You Need KCS?
• What Are the Benefits of KCS?
• How Does KCS Align with ITSM?

The Knowledge-Centered Support Model

• Understanding KCS
• The KCS Process

Aligning Knowledge-Centered Support with the Business

• Aligning Business Goals and Objectives
• Providing Value with KCS
• KCS Return on Investment (ROI)

Content Vitality

• What Is Content Vitality?
• The Content Standard
• The Content Migration Process
• Knowledge Monitoring

Knowledge-Centered Support Roles and Responsibilities

• Who Are the Typical Players in KCS?
• What Is the KCS Competency Model?
• Defining Roles and Competencies

The Knowledge-Centered Support Workflow

• What Is Workflow?
• What Is Structured Problem Solving?
• Workflow and Technology
• Process Integration

Performance Assessment

• The KCS Competency Model
• Performance Assessment
• Rewards and Recognition
• Feedback and Reputation Model

Leadership and Motivation

• Leadership
• Motivation
• Defining Purpose
• Promoting Teamwork

Communication

• Communication
• Key Messaging and Elevator Pitches
• Handling Questions and Objections
• Delivery Options

Technology

• Functional Requirements
• KCS Verified

The KCS Adoption Roadmap

• The KCS Adoption Program
• Adoption Roles
• Implementation Strategy
• Investment: People, Process, and Technology
• Critical Success Factors

Performance assessment

• A framework for performance assessment
• Performance measurement scenarios

You're in Good Company

Some of the many companies that have implemented KCS include:

3Com Attachmate Compaq Ericsson

EMC HDS HP Microsoft

NCR Oracle Nortel Novell

QAD VeriSign Xerox

Certification

The Knowledge-Centered Support Principles certification verifies that support center professionals understand the KCS methodology. This certification validates that one knows how to implement steps to capture, structure, and successfully reuse knowledge through the knowledge management process.

KCS is a Service Mark of the Consortium for Service Innovation.

Registration Fees

The per student registration fee for this seminar is $1,595 and includes the seminar and course materials. Class begins at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 4:30 p.m. each day. Please arrive early the first day to sign in and meet fellow attendees. Dress is business casual.

Register securely online with confidence or please call (708) 246-0320.

Seminar Schedule

Apr 4-6, '12	Los Angeles, CA	Location to be Assigned
Apr 4-6, '12	Atlanta, GA	Location to be Assigned
Apr 22-24, '12	Orlando, FL	Location to be Assigned
May 16-18, '12	Washington, DC	Location to be Assigned
June 13-15, '12	Chicago, IL	Location to be Assigned

More Training and Certification Courses