Vendor Landscape - Knowledge Management For Customer Engagement

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals
Vendor Landscape: Knowledge Management For

Customer Engagement
Eighteen Solutions For Delivering Differentiated Experiences
by Kate Leggett
September 30, 2015
Why Read This Report
Key Takeaways
Customers today want effortless engagement,

and they increasingly leverage web or mobile
self-service as a first point of contact with a
company. Knowledge management solutions
power self-service interactions and support
customer-facing personnel in providing
relevant answers to customer questions to
drive efficiencies and revenue. Knowledge
management vendors offer a range of capabilities
to create, maintain, and make knowledge
accessible. These solutions support a broad set
of scenarios that application development and
delivery (AD&D) pros supporting customer service
or customer engagement operations can choose
from. This report spotlights the capabilities of 18
knowledge management vendors and offers a
decision framework for choosing the right type of
knowledge management solution for your needs.
Web-Self Service Becomes Increasingly

Important
Customers today simply want efficient, effortless
engagement. They increasingly leverage web
self- service as a first point of contact with a
company. In 2014, web self-service was the most
commonly used communication channel for
customer service.
Knowledge Management Solutions Aim To
Deliver Relevant And Contextual Experiences
A variety of stakeholders -- from eBusiness
to eCommerce to customer service and the
contact center -- purchase and use knowledge
management solutions to support their customers
and their customer-facing personnel with relevant
and consistent answers to customer questions.
Requirements span customer service, retention,
and revenue-generation goals.
Knowledge Management Solutions Fall Into
Five Broad Categories
The knowledge management vendor landscape is
mature and crowded. Forrester groups knowledge
management vendors into five broad categories:
social knowledge, standalone structured
knowledge, online engagement, omnichannel
customer service, and customer service process
guidance vendors. Map your needs to vendors
within this context.
forrester.com
Vendor Landscape: Knowledge Management For Customer

Engagement
by Kate Leggett
with Stephen Powers, Arelai Ephraim, and Ian McPherson
September 30, 2015
Table Of Contents
2 Knowledge Management Critical For
Effortless Engagement
4 Zero In On Vendors With The Right Vertical
Focus And Track Record
12 Answer Four Questions To Narrow The
Vendor Field
13 Profiles Of Five Knowledge Management
Vendor Solution Categories
Recommendations
33 Build A Knowledge Vendor Strategy With A

View Toward The Future
34 Supplemental Material
Notes & Resources

Forrester analyzed data from Forresters North
American Consumer Technographics Customer
Life Cycle Survey, Q4 2014 (US) and Forresters
Global Business Technographics Networks And
Telecommunications Survey, 2015. Forrester
interviewed 21 knowledge management vendors
to solicit input for this report including: [24]7,
Aptean, Astute Solutions, Bloomfire, Coveo
Solutions, Creative Virtual, eGain, Genesys,
Lithium Technologies, Microsoft (Parature),
MindTouch, Moxie, Mvine, nanorep, Oracle,
Pegasystems, RightAnswers, Salesforce,
Transversal, Verint, and Zendesk.
Related Research Documents

Channel Management: Core To Your Customer
Service Strategy
Contact Centers Must Go Digital Or Die
Modernize Your CRM In Six Steps
Forrester Research, Inc., 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140 USA

+1 617-613-6000 | Fax: +1 617-613-5000 | forrester.com
2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester,
Technographics, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester
Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. Unauthorized copying or
distributing is a violation of copyright law. Citations@forrester.com or +1 866-367-7378
September 30, 2015
Vendor Landscape: Knowledge Management For Customer Engagement

Knowledge Management Critical For Effortless Engagement

Customers today want efficient, effortless engagement. Fifty-five percent of US online adults say
that they are very likely to abandon their online purchase if they cannot find a quick answer to their
question, and 77% say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide
them with good service.1
Customers increasingly leverage web self-service as a first point of contact with a company. In fact, in
2014, web self-service was the most commonly used communication channel for customer service,
exceeding phone use.2 Companies increasingly invest in knowledge management solutions to add order
and easy access to content for customer-facing personnel. Sixty-two percent of telecommunications
technology decision-makers report that they have implemented or are expanding their implementation,
and 21% plan to implement their knowledge implementation in the next 12 months.3
Forrester defines knowledge management solutions as:
Software used to create, publish and maintain curated content, enabling employees to answer
internal and customer-facing questions, and customers to find answers via web or mobile selfservice.4
Knowledge delivered to the customer or the customer-facing employee at the right time in the
customer engagement process is critical to a successful interaction. When done correctly, deeper
knowledge can be used to personalize an interaction, increase customer satisfaction, reduce call
handle time, lead to operational efficiencies, increase customer engagement, and ultimately drive
conversion and revenue (see Figure 1). For example:
Dignity Health uses knowledge to reduce costs. Dignity Health, a California medical group, uses
the RightAnswers knowledge base to support its 20,000 monthly visitors of healthcare providers
with accurate answers that are easily found. The knowledge base helps the health network
maintain a 73% call resolution rate and has resulted in a $580,000 annual savings.
Virgin Mobile uses knowledge to improve the consistency of customer service. Virgin Mobile,
a UK telecom carrier, struggled to contain costs due to the growing sophistication of mobile
handsets and increased number of services. The company now uses eGains knowledge solution
to advance its goal of consistent service quality. Agent-facing knowledge improves the accuracy
of diagnosing customer issues. As a result, after six months of use, Virgin Mobile realized a 38%
reduction in handset exchanges because of better issue resolution, a 23% improvement in call
quality, and a 19% increase in first call resolution.
Xerox leverages embedded knowledge for fast issue resolution. Xerox, a global document
technology and services provider, embeds a knowledge base from Kana, (part of Verint Systems)
within its Internet connected devices. Xerox continually monitors the performance of these devices
and makes real-time performance information available. When an issue occurs, Xerox customers
2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law.
Citations@forrester.com or +1 866-367-7378
September 30, 2015

can troubleshoot via content that is proactively pushed to the small screen on a device, as well as
accessible via a PC or mobile phone. If self-service fails, they can escalate via a phone call or chat
to a tech support experts who can remotely diagnose and fix issues.
Lenovo uses social knowledge to increase reach. Lenovo, a Chinese multinational computer
hardware company, uses Lithium Technologies for its community platform which is tied to its
tribal knowledge base. They identify superfans company advocates and incentivize them
to manage their community, which includes tagging threads as accepted solutions which are
promoted to the knowledge base. These community-generated solutions helped reduce US
support calls by 20% in the first year of operation. Superfans are also trusted with pinpointing new
questions from social media streams and translating and publishing content which extends the
reach of Lenovos web self-service.
Singtel Optus uses knowledge management to increase web self-service. Singtel Optus, an
Australian telecom company, uses the [24]7 Virtual Agent solution in conjunction with a knowledge
base for all customer interaction channels web, customer portal, search, mobile, Facebook
including its 5,000 phone and chat agents. Customers and agents ask over 20 million questions per
year. The system has transformed their customer contact model in the first year of operation the
percentage of customers contacting Optus online compared to live agent channels increased from
16% to over 65%, and the handle time of agents using [24]7 Virtual Agent was reduced by 10%.
Zuora uses knowledge to drive customer engagement and ultimately renewal rates. Zuora, a
US-based subscription billing provider, struggled to provide web self-service beyond mere support.
They now use MindTouch to deliver knowledge relevant to the stage in the customer journey
including sales and onboarding to drive product adoption and decrease churn. Zuora structures
knowledge to encourage customers to learn how to use the product, instead of simply providing
a fix. Increased customer engagement moved Zuoras NPS by 20 points, increased site traffic by
nearly 100% year-over-year, with 55% of traffic driven by their self-service site.
CabinetParts.com uses knowledge to increase conversion and revenue. CabinetParts.com,
a US hardware supplier, found that their highly qualified reps who are ex- handymen and builders,
spent too much time fielding repetitive questions instead of focusing on giving professional
advice or helping shoppers build their carts. The company now uses web self-service and agent
knowledge from nanorep to provide contextual answers. They use real-time text analytics to
address most frequent unanswered questions. Prospects using web self-service are three times
more likely to convert; and also realized a 30% decrease of agent time spent on repetitive issues.
September 30, 2015

FIGURE 1 Benefits Of Knowledge Management
Deflect incoming calls

Reduce call handle times
Increase employee
productivity
Decrease
Decre
operational
erationa
costs
Improve
compliance
Standardize answers
Comply with company policies
Comply with regulatory policy
Improve
customer
satisfaction
Resolve issues more quickly

Contextualize answers
Fully answer questions with
relevant content
Drive revenue
Increase reach
Improve engagement
Decrease customer churn
Increase conversion
Zero In On Vendors With The Right Vertical Focus And Track Record
When choosing a knowledge management vendor, the first questions you should ask relate to the
vendors background and high-level focus areas. Ask questions about its vertical focus, its success
in a particular vertical, the size of deployment that the vendor is most comfortable supporting, the
supported deployment options, typical knowledge management scenarios that the vendor supports
(agent-facing, web and/or mobile self-service or both), and customer references (see Figure 2).
September 30, 2015

FIGURE 2 Eighteen Knowledge Management Vendors Offer A Range Of Uses And Vertical Expertise
Vendor
name
Number of
Average
Largest
knowledge knowledge knowledge
customers deployment deployment
size (number (number of
of agents)
agents)
Main usage
scenarios
Is knowledge
typically
purchased
separately or
standalone?
Social knowledge management vendors

Bloomfire
400
200
200,000
Agent-facing (65%);
agent- and customerfacing (35%)
Standalone (100%)
Lithium
150
N/A
N/A
Agent-facing (20%);
customer-facing (80%)
Integrated (100%)
Aptean
Forrester
estimates
500
150
Oracle
(Knowledge)
Forrester
Forrester
estimates
estimates
approx. 300 2,000 seats
Structured knowledge vendors
RightAnswers 475
500
Approx.
2,000
Agent-facing (50%);
Standalone (90%);
customer-facing (20%); integrated solution (10%)
Approx.
35,000
Agent-facing (50%);
customer-facing (2%);
8,000
Customer- and agent- Standalone (100%)

facing (72%); agentfacing (19%); customerfacing (9%)
Standalone (100%)
September 30, 2015

FIGURE 2 Eighteen Knowledge Management Vendors Offer A Range Of Uses And Vertical Expertise (Cont.)
Vendor
name
Vertical
focus
Deployment
options
Knowledge customer
example
Software- Managed
Onas-a-service services premises
Social knowledge management vendors
Bloomfire
Technology, finance,
healthcare, manufacturing,
retail, franchise
Lithium
Telecommunications (40%);
high-tech (30%); financial
services (20%); retail (10%)
Aptean
65% in financial services

and banking, corporate
services, high-tech; 35% in
healthcare and insurance,
manufacturing, IT help desk
Oracle
(Knowledge)
Concentrated focus in
B2C financial services
(banking, insurance) and
telcos, B2B and B2C
high-tech with complex
products and services
Bank of America, Burberry,

Dominos, Dun & Bradstreet,
MuleSoft, OgilvyOne
Worldwide
x
Autodesk, Cisco, Google

AdWords, Lenovo,
MicroStrategy, Tech Zone,
Virgin Mobile France
Structured knowledge vendors
RightAnswers Technology/software (48%);

banking and financial
services (16%); retail (10%)
CNH Industrial, VMware
Vendor did not disclose
Corptax, Dignity Health,

ExpenseWatch, First
American, NNIT, Paychex,
Staples, Texas Tech
University
September 30, 2015

Vendor
name
Number of
Average
Largest
of agents)
agents)
Main usage
scenarios
Is knowledge
typically
purchased
separately or
standalone?
Online engagement vendors

Standalone (>90%)
[24]7
470
200
5,000
Customer-facing
(50%); agent- and
customer-facing (50%)
Astute
Solutions
100
200
300
Standalone (50%);
Agent-facing (20%);
Creative
Virtual
45
150
250
Agent-facing (20%);
Standalone (50%);
nanorep
250
50
500
Agent-facing (5%);
Standalone (80%);
customer-facing (93%); integrated (20%)
Transversal
100
250
2,000
Agent-facing (10%);
Standalone (100%)
MindTouch
300
N/A
20,000
Customer-facing
Standalone (100%)
(includes authenticated
customer) (100%)
September 30, 2015

Vendor
name
Vertical
focus
Deployment
options
Knowledge customer
example
Software- Managed
Online engagement vendors
[24]7
Concentration in financial
services, utilities, retail,
and telecommunications
Canadian Imperial Bank of

Commerce (CIBC), Copa
Airlines, Duke Energy,
Toronto Dominion Bank,
Optus
Astute
Solutions
CPG (50%); consumer

durables (20%); retail (20%);
other (10%)
Estee Lauder, Ford Motor

Company, The Kroger Co.,
Unilever
Creative
Virtual
Financial services (30%);

telco (30%); travel (15%);
high-tech (10%); government
(5%)
Autodesk, JPMorgan
Chase, IHG (International
Hotels Group), RSPCA,
Time Warner Cable
nanorep
Retail and eCommerce

(22%); financial services
(20%); hospitality and travel
(13%); education (9%);
software (14%);
telecommunications
(8%); other (14%)
Build.com, Intuit Mint Bills,

Thomas Cook
Transversal
65% of customers are in

financial services,
insurance, and retail
MindTouch
Technology (70%);
manufacturing (15%);
services (15%)
Allianz, BBC, John Lewis

Partnership, Marks &
Spencer, Standard Life,
Volkswagen
Accenture, Avalara,
Blackboard, Cisco Meraki,
Intuit, Newmar, Remington
Arms Company, SAP,
TUI Group, Zuora
September 30, 2015

Vendor
name
Number of
Average
Largest
of agents)
agents)
Main usage
scenarios
Is knowledge
typically
purchased
separately or
standalone?
Omnichannel customer service vendors

eGain
650
1,600
20,000
Agent-facing (50%);
Standalone (60%);
Microsoft
(Parature)
372
Forrester
estimates
<50
100,000
Agent-facing (5%);
Standalone (15%);
integrated solution (85%)
Moxie
200
400
10,000
Agent-facing (75%);
Standalone (71%);
integrated solution (29%)
Oracle
(Service
Cloud)
Vendor did Forrester

not disclose estimates
200 seats
2,000 to
Agent-facing (20%);
Standalone (20%);
10,000 seats customer-facing (30%); integrated solution (80%)
Salesforce
Forrester
estimates
9,000
Forrester
estimates
100
10,000
Agent-facing (40%);
Standalone (25%);
Zendesk
20,000
24
1,000
Agent-facing (25%);
Integrated solution
customer-facing (50%); (100%)
September 30, 2015

Vendor
name
Vertical
focus
Deployment
options
Knowledge customer
example
Software- Managed
Omnichannel customer service vendors
eGain
Insurance and financial

services, telco, and retail
have accounted for ~75%
of recent revenue
Microsoft
(Parature)
Concentration in retail,
software tech, financial
services, telecommunications, public sector
Moxie
High-tech (16%); financial

services (14%); services
(11%); government (11%);
retail (10%); healthcare (9%);
media/telecom (6%);
other (23%)
Oracle
(Service
Cloud)
consumer brands, financial
services, telecommunications, travel, retail, and
hospitality
Beachbody, Jackson
Hewitt, Orbitz, Tok&Stok
Salesforce
Broad industry focus.

Concentration in financial
services/insurance,
healthcare, life sciences,
telecommunications, public
sector, retail, manufacturing,
education, and nonprofit
Allscripts, Honeywell, KLM,

Rosetta Stone, Vodafone
Group
Zendesk
Broad industry focus.

Concentration in software
(14%); web applications
(11%); retail/eCommerce
(11%); education (5%);
media/telecommunications (4%)
Box, ModCloth, Rockstar

Support
Absa, Bell Aliant,

Virgin Mobile
Ask.com, nTelos
3M, Aeroplan, Crocs, Digital

UK, Epson, Lebara, OTC
Direct (Oriental Trading Co),
Staples, Student Loans
Company, Tesco.com,
United Airlines, Vertex, VOO
10
September 30, 2015

Vendor
name
Number of
Average
Largest
of agents)
agents)
Main usage
scenarios
Is knowledge
typically
purchased
separately or
standalone?
Customer service process guidance vendors

Pegasystems
1,000
1,500
Verint
Vendor did Forrester

not disclose estimates
approx.
1,000
Integrated solution
(100%)
130,000
Agent-facing (15%);
Forrester
estimates
approx.
80,000
Integrated (>90%)
Forrester estimates:
agent-facing (60%);
11
September 30, 2015

Vendor
name
Vertical
focus
Deployment
options
Knowledge customer
example
Software- Managed
Customer service process guidance vendors
Pegasystems
Financial services (29%);

communications and media
service providers (18%);
insurance (17%); healthcare
(22%); government (9%);
other (5%)
Verint
financial services,
insurance, public sector,
telecommunications,
retail, and utilities
American International Group

(AIG), Commonwealth Bank
of Australia, Royal Bank
of Canada, TalkTalk,
UnitedHealth Group,
U.S. Bank
City of Buffalo, eircom,

International Financial Data
Services (IFDS), London
Borough of Camden, SNS
Bank, Sky UK, Sprint.com,
Xerox
Answer Four Questions To Narrow The Vendor Field

For this report, we surveyed 18 key vendors that offer representative capabilities for each category and
support a breadth of enterprise deployment sizes in industry verticals that have embraced knowledge
management solutions. Organizations must narrow the field to what category of vendor solution is
most appropriate for their knowledge experience initiatives by asking such questions as:
What is your knowledge strategy? Define upfront the strategic goal of a knowledge
implementation such as web self-service knowledge to deflect simple, repetitive inquiries;
standardizing agent knowledge to reduce incident handle times and increase consistency of
service; driving customer engagement and loyalty; or supporting prepurchase scenarios to drive
conversions. Then, define high-level capabilities to support your end goal. For example, if you offer
agent knowledge for complex products where information rapidly changes, focus on vendors that
offer customizable authoring workflows and deep decision-tree support.
What is the end-to-end customer journey that you want to facilitate? Decide whether to
support a discrete customer knowledge journey or whether knowledge will be part of a broader
customer engagement journey. For example, determine if a customer can start their journey as a
web or mobile self-service interactions and easily escalate to a live agent without having to restart
the conversation. Decide as well what type of information you need to pass to the live agent during
an escalation to preserve the context of the customer journey.
12
September 30, 2015

Do you need proactive knowledge? Decide whether you want to focus on offering reactive
knowledge where customers or agents must search to find relevant content or whether you want
to proactively push knowledge to agents and customers based on their profile and details about
their customer service case. If contextual, proactive knowledge is part of your strategy, focus on
vendors that offer knowledge as part of an omnichannel customer service or CRM solution.
What is your knowledge philosophy? Decide how you will author and publish knowledge For
example, decide whether only a small group of knowledge workers will be responsible for authoring
and publishing, or whether certified agents or perhaps any agent will be allowed to author
knowledge, or whether customers will be able to create knowledge or flag community content to
be added to a knowledge base. Define the publishing workflows and review processes to ensure
that customer and regulatory policies are supported for your industry.
Profiles Of Five Knowledge Management Vendor Solution Categories

There are many vendors in the knowledge management space with a broad range and wide variety of
characteristics like background, capabilities, size, and focus areas. Forrester groups these vendors
into five categories based on their primary uses in the marketplace: 1) social knowledge management
vendors; 2) structured knowledge vendors; 3) online engagement vendors; 4) omnichannel customer
service vendors; and 5) customer service process guidance vendors. Each vendor category appeals to
a specific type usage scenario. However, many vendors listed have capabilities that could allow them
to be well positioned to support alternate usage scenarios.
Social Knowledge Management Vendor Solutions Drive Customer Engagement
Social knowledge management vendors provide lightweight SaaS solutions to support crowdsourced
knowledge where employees and customers typically author knowledge or use knowledge sourced
from community answers. The community of users takes collective responsibility for the health of the
knowledge base and optimizes knowledge without arduous review cycles. Users of social knowledge
solutions leverage these collaborative capabilities to drive engagement and loyalty within their
employee and customer base.
Companies typically deploy social knowledge management solutions separate from existing CRM
solutions and customer or product databases, yet they can support such integrations. Typical buyers of
these solutions include marketing, sales, or customer service organizations (see Figure 3).
13
September 30, 2015

FIGURE 3 Profile Of Two Social Knowledge Management Vendors
Bloomfire
Company Bloomfire provides social learning, social knowledge, and sales enablement
description solutions aimed at organizing company knowledge and expertise and making it
accessible and shareable.
Knowledge product Bloomfires crowdsourced knowledge management solution provides Q&A
description functionality. Users can ask and answer questions. The historical trail of
interactions is keyword tagged, indexed, searchable, and easily updated.
Knowledge creation Via curation; user generated, including video content; or via migration from other
systems.
Knowledge Via contribution types (posts, questions), groups, communities, categories (news,
organization product, support, etc.), tags, and contributors.
Knowledge quality Via high-fives, follows, shares, and reports (e.g., engagement and content usage).
measurement and
evolution
Knowledge Includes keyword search. Searches return matching and related content; content
retrieval feeds based on user preferences and behavior. Also supports video search where
every word in the video is searchable.
Other vendor products Bloomfire is a standalone product. It is often integrated with CRM and content
that can be bundled management systems such as Dropbox, Box, SharePoint, etc.
with knowledge
Typical organizational Sales, marketing, customer service and support, HR
buyer
Pricing models Agent-facing: per agent
Customer-facing: tiered pricing based on statistical size of website activity
14
September 30, 2015

FIGURE 3 Profile Of Two Social Knowledge Management Vendors (Cont.)
Lithium technologies
Company Lithium provides social software to manage social inquiries and to build and
description manage trusted community content.
Knowledge product Lithiums Tribal Knowledge Base allows customers and employees to collectively
description write, edit, and repurpose community content into knowledge articles.
Knowledge creation Via nomination of content for inclusion from the community; automatically from
accepted community solutions; via creation by community managers.
Knowledge Via customer-defined categories.
organization
Knowledge quality Via content usage reports, ratings, kudos, and gamification values. Content is
measurement and optimized via community ownership.
evolution
Knowledge Includes keyword search across the knowledge base and forums. Best answers are
retrieval determined by marking solutions as the accepted solution or by ratings.
Other vendor products Always bundled with the full Lithium Community Solution.
that can be bundled
with knowledge
Typical organizational Customer service
buyer
Pricing models Pricing based on a per module add-on plus a usage model based on visits.
Structured Knowledge Vendors Support Complex Knowledge Scenarios

Structured knowledge vendors provide standalone knowledge solutions geared to organizations that
handle complex queries across channels in industries such as high-tech, telecommunications, financial
services, and the IT help desk. They are available in a breadth of deployment options, and many
implementations remain on-premises. These solutions have deep capabilities to create and manage
content, import content from external sources, federate content across multiple sources, and support a
breadth of options to locate relevant knowledge via search, as well as decisioning.
Typical buyers for these solutions are contact center, customer service, tech support, and technology
management organizations. Deployments tend to be midsize to large. Knowledge solutions tend to be
implemented as agent-facing only or a combination of agent and customer-facing, which draw content
from a single repository of knowledge (see Figure 4).
15
September 30, 2015

FIGURE 4 Profile Of Three Structured Knowledge Vendors
Aptean
Company description Aptean is an enterprise application provider of ERP, CRM, and SCM
software, formed by the merger of CDC Software Corporation and
Consona Corporation in 2012.
Knowledge product description Knova is a full-featured knowledge management solution for large
customer service and support organizations, geared to the organizations
that handle complex queries across channels in industries such as hightech, telecommunications, financial services, and the IT help desk.
Knowledge creation Via authoring using templates (e.g., how-to templates); via
spidering/indexing existing external content from websites, file systems,
SharePoint, databases, and other data repositories; via agent suggestion;
or by promoting discussion threads.
Knowledge organization Via customer-created taxonomies.
Knowledge quality Via analytics (e.g., knowledge effectiveness scores, feedback ratings,
measurement and evolution document views, number of times the document solves a support
ticket/incident, and the number of times the document is linked to other
knowledge base documents); via reports (e.g., content usage, traffic
patterns, content coverage, gap, and content relevance).
Knowledge retrieval Includes keyword search; natural language search; federated search;
guided resolution and collaboration with product experts. Users can
drill into matching content by selecting words, phrases, and categories
that are meaningful to them. Also supports subscription to content, alerts
and notifications, microsites tailored to customer segments that deliver
personalized push content, user experiences, and branding.
Other vendor products that Knova is a standalone knowledge management solution but can be
can be bundled with bundled with Aptean CRM and chat.
knowledge
Typical organizational buyer Customer service and support
Pricing models Agent-facing: per named or concurrent agent
Customer-facing: per CPU core
16
September 30, 2015

FIGURE 4 Profile Of Three Structured Knowledge Vendors (Cont.)
Oracle Knowledge
Company description Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud
and in the data center.
Knowledge product description Oracle Knowledge is a full-featured knowledge base that provides
semantic search that analyzes the structure of documents during
indexing and annotates each word with related meaning based on
ontologies and dictionaries; full-fledged authoring, analytics, decision
trees, integration into CRM systems, and a web self-service reference
application.
Knowledge creation Via authoring, using a WYSIWYG editor; via import, using APIs or other
tools.
Knowledge organization Via taxonomies related to product, categories, and topic areas that can
be created standalone or synchronized with CRM products and
categories or automatically organized based on meaning.
Knowledge quality Via ratings, feedback, reports (such as search result accuracy), and
measurement and evolution reuse by agents.
Knowledge retrieval Includes keyword search; natural language search with conceptbased industry dictionaries, translated into multiple languages.
Supports federated search with built-in crawlers for web, file system, and
database. Single integrated semantic index that is also classified
(faceted) using various classification mechanisms. Supports rules-based
guided resolution flows to guide to the next action or article.
Other vendor products that can Oracle Knowledge is a standalone product. It has native integration with
be bundled with knowledge Oracle Siebel and Oracle Service Cloud and integration adapters into
other CRM solutions.
Typical organizational buyer Contact center, eBusiness, IT help desk, HR help desk
Pricing models Agent-facing: per named user
Customer-facing: per processer
17
September 30, 2015

FIGURE 4 Profile Of Three Structured Knowledge Vendors (Cont.)
RightAnswers
Company description RightAnswers is a cloud-based knowledge management software vendor,
offering web self-service solutions and services for enterprise customer
service and IT support. RightAnswers also helps with content creation
and knowledge optimization.
Knowledge product description RightAnswers delivers an enterprise knowledge hub allowing all parts
of the organization to access and/or create and update knowledge.
This provides consistent knowledge to service and support teams.
Knowledge creation Via authoring; via content promotion from forums; or via import.
Knowledge organization Via collections, taxonomies, and attributes. Groups define content
access, authoring, and reviewing rights.
Knowledge quality Via reports (e.g., content authoring, usage, and quality reports) and
measurement and evolution automated content gap analysis. Knowledge is assigned a customized
quality index that is used to manage updates. It analyzes and clusters
activity and session success rates. It recommends knowledge to be
created and starts knowledge creation.
Knowledge retrieval Includes keyword search; natural language search; phrase match;
synonym search; and/or searches; and multilingual search. Supports
automatic stemming and removal of stop words; relevancy boosting
based on date range, view and usage count, or custom parameters; and
the ability to customize search relevancy. Supports federated search
(communities, websites, document management systems and
repositories). Also supports guided resolution flows.
Other vendor products that can RightAnswers is a standalone product. It delivers packaged in-line
be bundled with knowledge integrations to Salesforce, ServiceNow, SAP, Oracle, Zendesk, NetSuite,
Sugar, and Microsoft Dynamics.
Typical organizational buyer Contact center, technology management
Customer-facing: two options named-user licenses with unlimited
usage or session-based (session can have multiple actions)
Online Engagement Knowledge Vendors Support Deeply Personalized Service

Online engagement vendors provide proactive and personalized customer interactions throughout a
customer journey. They often provide conversational assistance to customers and engage them in
interactive dialogs to better understand their specific needs, delivering answers contextual to the
customer and product in order to drive customer loyalty, conversions, and revenue. As such, companies
often deploy these knowledge solutions in conjunction with virtual agents or have broad Ai or machinelearning capabilities to optimize the organization and the content and relevance of search results.
Typical buyers for these solutions are customer service, customer experience, marketing, eBusiness,
and online/eCommerce organizations. Vendors support the breadth of deployment options, which tend
to be midsize in number of agents deployed and primarily customer-facing (see Figure 5).
18
September 30, 2015

FIGURE 5 Profile Of Six Online Engagement Knowledge Vendors
[24]7
Company [24]7 provides cloud-based customer engagement software and services. The [24]7
description platform engages customers across web, chat, mobile, social, and phone channels
with predictive analytics, natural language, optimal channeling, and learning at scale.
Knowledge product The [24]7 IntelliResponse knowledgebase is a component of the virtual agent
description technology platform. It uses machine learning and natural language understanding
to pinpoint the intent of questions and map questions to a single correct answer.
Knowledge creation Via authoring question/answer pairs of potential customer inquiries; via training the
virtual agent, leveraging industry-specific templates, or utilizing inputs from voice of
the customer analytics.
Knowledge The client chooses how the content is organized, typically by business, channel,
organization language, etc. Organized in question/answer pairs. The product does not use
taxonomies.
Knowledge quality Via user ratings, feedback, and reports. Uses machine learning to evolve content,
measurement and which optimizes question and answer pairs. This process is managed by a business
evolution user and does not require a natural language processing expert.
Knowledge Includes keyword search; natural language search with a predictive search
retrieval capability; federated search and guided resolutions. The knowledgebase presents
a single answer with related answers for additional information as well as the
ability to automatically display the appropriate page from the clients website.
Other vendor products Always bundled with the IntelliResponse virtual agent. Can also be bundled with
that can be bundled [24]7 predictive analytics and enterprise chat products.
with knowledge
Typical organizational Customer care, customer service, customer experience, marketing, eBusiness,
buyer and online/eCommerce
Pricing models Volume of questions answered
19
September 30, 2015

FIGURE 5 Profile Of Six Online Engagement Knowledge Vendors (Cont.)
Astute Solutions
Company Astute Solutions provides CRM solutions for B2C companies.
description
Knowledge product Astute Knowledge combines virtual agent technology, learning, and external content
description awareness to optimize content delivery. It can engage customers in an interactive
dialogue to better understand their specific needs and deliver an answer contextual
to the customer and product.
Knowledge Via authoring
creation
Knowledge Via topics
organization
Knowledge quality Via user ratings, feedback, and reports (e.g., engagement and content usage);
measurement and linguistic scoring, viewed in the authoring tool, that determines the confidence level
evolution of the response to the question posed. Machine learning identifies, summarizes, and
presents missing content topics to authors.
Knowledge Includes keyword search; natural language search; guided resolution; and federated
retrieval search across external content such as puff, website pages, videos. Uses linguistic
and AI algorithms to determine the users intent. Search results are assigned
confidence values, and only solutions with high values are presented to the user.
Other vendor products Astute ePowerCenter CRM, Astute Social Relationship Management
that can be bundled
with knowledge
Typical organizational Consumer relations, marketing, eCommerce
buyer
Customer-facing: tiered pricing based on statistical size of website activity
20
September 30, 2015

Creative Virtual
Company Creative Virtual offers self-service customer and call center solutions.
description
Knowledge product V-Portal knowledge base is part of the V-Person product set and is used to manage
description content and analytics for the vendors virtual agent technology.
Knowledge Via authoring; from chat transcripts or IVR utterances
creation
Knowledge Via business, service, products, and channel
organization
Knowledge quality Via user feedback and reports (customer satisfaction, first interaction resolution,
measurement and containment, breakdown by topics, unanswered questions, etc.).
evolution
Knowledge Includes keyword search; natural language search; federated search and guided
retrieval resolutions. Suggested answers are presented in a weighted order. Users can drill
into matching content by selecting words, phrases, and categories. Can present
sales offers based on profile or questions asked. Also has support for users
speaking their requests.
Other vendor products None. V-Person is a standalone product.
that can be bundled
with knowledge
Typical organizational eBusiness, call center, digital operations, innovation operations
buyer
Pricing models Agent-facing: per agent per month
Customer-facing: unlimited or per conversation
Perpetual or term-based
21
September 30, 2015

MindTouch
Company MindTouch provides knowledge-driven self-service software that converts printed
description and PDF user guides, product and support documents into micro-content,
delivering them over the web, via mobile, contextually, within a product, or via CRM
channels that helps drive pre- and post-purchase customer engagement.
Knowledge product MindTouch knowledge management solution, primarily used customer-facing, uses
description machine learning to optimize the organization, content, and relevance of
search results.
Knowledge Via authoring; via import; or captured from case notes from support channels.
creation Authors can collaboratively create and update content.
Knowledge Via a hierarchical content structure or a taxonomy structure. Users can use free-text
organization tags and also include controlled vocabulary tags (classifications). The content
dynamically generates the site navigation. Machine learning optimizes the
organization into related topic clusters and learning paths based on user and
agent behavior.
Knowledge quality Via user ratings, feedback, and reports (e.g., quality, aging, search, user history, user
measurement and contributions, site history, site activity, and popular page reports). Optimized via
evolution machine learning which promotes or flags suboptimal content.
Knowledge Includes keyword search and natural language search, including weighted search
retrieval results. Also supports guided resolution where the decision tree interface is based
on the site framework and categorization of content. Content cannot be federated.
Other vendor products MindTouch is a standalone product. MindTouch has packaged integrations with
that can be bundled Salesforce Service Cloud, Sales Cloud, Community Cloud, SAP, ServiceNow
with knowledge Zendesk, and Oracle.
Typical organizational Customer service, customer success, product management
buyer
Pricing models Based on sessions or HelpRequests
22
September 30, 2015

nanorep
Company Nanorep offers a digital customer assistant that surfaces contextual knowledge
description for customers and agents across touchpoints and channels.
Knowledge product The nanorep knowledge base delivers different content (answers, multimedia,
description articles, troubleshooting guides, and more) for different populations or use cases,
dynamically adapting to both support and user context in real time. It semantically
analyzes questions and weights words and phrasing to understand the meaning by
the context in which it is asked.
Knowledge Via automatic collection of agent responses; via bulk import.
creation
Knowledge Via natural-language, context-driven, hierarchical labeling.
organization
Knowledge quality Via ratings, feedback, reports, and correlation between content and escalations
measurement and and/or other business KPIs like conversion. Content is optimized via: 1) reporting of
evolution most-used content, searches, feedback, and interactions to detect content gaps or
suboptimal content; the system automatically groups different phrasing of the
same question into one request and prioritizes by volume and impact; 2) automated
learnings from live-agent escalations; and 3) automated voice of the customer
inputs.
Knowledge Includes keyword search; natural language search with semantic analysis to match
retrieval questions to answers. Supports reactive and proactive content display. Supports
spelling detection and correction, predictive completion of user query based on
NLP statistical analysis of user behavior and context. Also supports guided
resolutions and automated dialogues where nanorep queries the user for missing
contextual details. The contextual dialogue detects when a question has multiple
answers in more than one context and prompts the user to make a selection.
Contextual knowledge can be delivered proactively at different customer journey
points (for example, return policy at the shopping cart). Guided flows (as overlays)
can be triggered for specific questions used to guide the consumer within the
mobile app or across the website pages.
Other vendor products Can be bundled with nanoreps ticketing solution
that can be bundled
with knowledge
Typical organizational Contact center, customer service, customer experience
buyer
Pricing models Agent-facing: per agent or per usage
Customer-facing: usage-based (based on traffic) or based on degree of
personalization configured
23
September 30, 2015

Transversal
Company Transversal provides knowledge solutions for the contact center, for web self-service,
description and for the enterprise aimed at increasing employee engagement.
Knowledge product Transversal knowledge leverages Bayesian algorithms and machine learning to
description interpret the intent of questions, answer them automatically, and learn from
interactions.
Knowledge Via authoring, including videos and images; via social media monitoring to
creation automatically cluster, analyze, and suggest content to be authored in real time.
Knowledge Via automatic categorization. The knowledgebase is self-learning and automatically
organization analyzes and categorizes the semantic structure of new content.
Knowledge quality Via configurable publication workflows that ensure accuracy and tone guidelines
measurement and are met during publication, reporting, and customer feedback. Content is optimized
evolution by self-learning algorithms based on successful interactions and enhanced with
social media monitoring capabilities that recommend new solutions.
Knowledge Includes keyword search and natural language search. Machine learning
retrieval understands meaning of words and how they connect to form concepts. This allows
Transversal to match questions in natural language with the right content. Also
supports guided resolutions that are interactive process wizards to dialogue with a
customer. Returned answers are surrounded with dynamic pieces of content related
to self-service inquiries such as smart links, product promotions, service alerts, and
troubleshooting wizards. These can be intentionally configured to enrich the
experience and to predict the next question.
Other vendor products Transversal is a standalone knowledge base.
that can be bundled
with knowledge
Typical organizational Customer support, eBusiness
buyer
Pricing models Agent-facing: per agent (discounts for part-time agents)
Customer-facing: B2C: by session block; B2B: by number of employees
Omnichannel Customer Service Vendors Standardize Interactions

Omnichannel customer service vendors provide solutions for standardizing customer interactions
across a subset or the entire breadth of web self-service, digital, and social channels. They have a
central interaction hub of customer data and history, a knowledge base connected to all channels,
web self-service, and case management. As a result, buyers typically implement customer- and agentfacing knowledge that is typically part of a greater omnichannel customer service suite.
Typical buyers for these solutions are eBusiness, and increasingly eCommerce organizations in addition
to customer service organizations solely dedicated to the operational management of digital and social
channels. Deployments tend to be midsize to large (see Figure 6).5
24
September 30, 2015

FIGURE 6 Profile Of Six Omnichannel Customer Service Vendors
eGain
Company eGain provides comprehensive customer engagement capabilities over a broad set
description of communication channels and touchpoints that include voice, self-service,
digital, and social channels.
Knowledge product eGains knowledge management solution is a core component of its customer
description engagement hub suite and provides consistent knowledge across channels and
touchpoints. It combines a broad set of knowledge access methods such as
federated search and process guidance behind a single search box to simplify
user experiences.
Knowledge Via authoring; translation; importing content; or crowdsourcing content from forums,
creation blogs, and social networks.
Knowledge Via folders and articles.
organization
Knowledge quality Via usage and engagement reports that flag content gaps and poor-performing
measurement and content; via user feedback; via scheduled expiration dates.
evolution
Knowledge Includes keyword search; intent-based search; natural language search; topic tree
retrieval browsing; faceted navigation; and guided help via case-based reasoning. Supports
federated search across websites, community, and social content. Search results
include best bet answers. Uses learning to tune the search engine. Also supports
weighted search results.
Other vendor products Can be bundled with all of eGains products: eGain email, chat, mobile, case
that can be bundled manager, social, etc.
with knowledge
Typical organizational Contact center, customer service, customer experience, eBusiness
buyer
Customer-facing: per session
25
September 30, 2015

FIGURE 6 Profile Of Six Omnichannel Customer Service Vendors (Cont.)
Microsoft
Company Parature from Microsoft is a customer service and support solution. Parature offers
description a customer portal, self-service knowledge base, a help desk ticketing application,
and a breadth of digital and social channels for customer communication.
Knowledge product The Parature management solution provides content that can be easily created and
description delivered to agents and to customers across a range of communication channels.
Knowledge Via authoring using a WYSIWYG editor; via promotion from a solved ticket, a
creation completed chat, or an inbound email; or via import.
Knowledge Via a hierarchy of categories. Content can live in one or many categories, which can
organization be private or public.
Knowledge quality Via report (e.g., number of views, the number of deflections that the article
measurement and contributed to) and customer feedback. Content is optimized via gap reports,
evolution escalations to a ticket or chat, or via input from activity streams on content.
Knowledge Includes keyword search, augmented by stemming, stop words and relevant
retrieval weighting based on term density, location of matched terms, phrase match versus
partial match. Also supports guided resolution. Content cannot be federated.
Other vendor products Can be bundled with the Parature customer service solution and with Microsoft
that can be bundled Dynamics CRM.
with knowledge
buyer
Pricing models Per agent, and included in the base MS Dynamics license price. Customers receive
1 million page views per month with their subscription, and additional page views are
available in increments.
26
September 30, 2015

Moxie
Company Moxie anticipates customer needs and engages with digital channels to boost
description sales and build customer loyalty across devices.
Knowledge product Moxie knowledge is a core component of Moxies product suite and provides unified
description access to knowledge across the products channels and touchpoints.
Knowledge Via authoring in a web-based administration portal; via import from another format
creation such as PDF or Office file; via bulk import.
Knowledge Via knowledge base, category, or attribute.
organization
Knowledge quality Via ratings, feedback, and reports (including content usage and quality).
measurement and Uses reports and expiration date settings to optimize content.
evolution
Knowledge Includes keyword search; natural language search; all words, any words, Boolean,
retrieval and exact match searches; guided resolution; federated search. The search engine
can index remote websites, file systems, databases, and SharePoint sites in addition
to the native knowledge-base content. Also supports faceted search to filter search
results by knowledge base, category, attribute, content type, and file type. Solution
Finders guide users to the correct answer in a question and answer format.
Other vendor products Usually bundled with Moxie Email and Live Chat.
that can be bundled
with knowledge
Typical organizational Contact center, eBusiness
buyer
Pricing models Agent-facing: per named agent
Customer-facing: per session, sold in blocks of 250K/year
27
September 30, 2015

Oracle Service Cloud

Company Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in the
description data center.
Knowledge product The Oracle RightNow Knowledge Cloud Service is a core component of the Oracle
description Service Cloud. The Oracle Service Cloud is a component of Oracles CX product
suite, which delivers web, social, and contact center experiences in a unified, crosschannel customer service solution.
Knowledge Via authoring using a WYSIWYG editor; via import using APIs or other tools.
creation
Knowledge Via taxonomies related to product, categories, and topic areas that can be created
organization standalone or synchronized with CRM products and categories.
Knowledge quality Via ratings, feedback, reports (such as search result accuracy, gap reports) and
measurement and reuse by agents.
evolution
Knowledge Includes keyword search assisted with synonym-based concept expansion and
retrieval machine learning algorithms. Federated search is possible with add-on web indexer.
Also includes a guided assistant tool as part of the CRM workspace that allows for
quick trees to be constructed, linked to articles, and displayed to customers or
agents.
Other vendor products Usually bundled with other Service Cloud products: case management, email, chat,
that can be bundled social, etc.
with knowledge
Typical organizational Contact center, eBusiness, IT help desk, HR help desk
buyer
Pricing models Agent-facing: per agent or included as part of Contact Center Suite
Customer-facing: per session (15-minute interval with click)
28
September 30, 2015

Salesforce
Company Salesforce delivers cloud CRM solutions. Salesforces Service Cloud, a key
description component of Salesforces CRM solution, delivers multichannel customer service
and support capabilities with deep mobile and social capabilities.
Knowledge product Salesforce Knowledge is a knowledge base that supports straightforward
description knowledge scenarios. It is typically deployed as part of a Service Cloud or
Community Cloud deployment and less often a Sales Cloud deployment.
Knowledge Via authoring in a portal; via promotion of case details, community posts, and
creation chatter conversations.
Knowledge Via hierarchical data categories that often map to product hierarchy.
organization
Knowledge quality Via user ratings, and feedback gathered in activity streams associated with a
measurement and solution. Reports are available via the AppExchange.
evolution
Knowledge Includes keyword search; natural language search using natural language
retrieval processes such as tokenization, stemming, and stopword lists to deliver relevant
results. Salesforce does not support federated search or guided resolution flows.
Other vendor products Can be bundled with the Service Cloud and the Community Cloud.
that can be bundled
with knowledge
buyer
Customer-facing: page views or logins for authenticated users
29
September 30, 2015

Zendesk
Company Zendesk provides multichannel customer service and internal help desk solutions.
description
Knowledge product Zendesk knowledge is a straightforward knowledge base to support customer and
description agent FAQs.
Knowledge Zendesk does not include automated ways to create content.
creation
Knowledge Via a standard hierarchy.
organization
Knowledge quality Via user feedback and reports (e.g., knowledge base activity, community
measurement and engagement, and search behavior).
evolution
Knowledge Includes keyword search across the knowledge base and forums. Zendesk does not
retrieval support federated search or guided resolution flows.
Other vendor products Knowledge is part of Zendesks product suite.
that can be bundled
with knowledge
Typical organizational Customer support, customer experience
buyer
Customer Service Process Guidance Vendors Deliver Deeply Contextual Knowledge

Customer service process guidance vendors have very strong business process management engines
which standardize customer and interaction flows by pushing the right next step, the right information
for that step, and the right knowledge for that step to the agent or the customer. Knowledge is deeply
contextual to the issue at hand, the customers profile and the step in the process, and as a result is
typically deployed as a bundled solution.
Typical buyers for these solutions are very large B2C customer service or contact center organizations
that support complex, but reproducible, processes and deploy knowledge solutions as on premises
solutions, typically as either agent-facing or both agent- and customer-facing (see Figure 7).
30
September 30, 2015

FIGURE 7 Profile Of Two Customer Service Process Guidance Vendors
Pegasystems
Company Pegasystems delivers a process-driven CRM suite that leverages predictive analytdescription ics to drive next-best-action scenarios in sales, marketing, and customer service.
Knowledge product Pegasystems knowledge is used to deliver contextual content to agents and
description customers in next-best-action or structured support scenarios.
Knowledge Via knowledge workers who discover, harvest, tag, and categorize content.
creation
Knowledge Via context (e.g., use case, product type, service request, type of customer, intent).
organization
Knowledge quality Via utilization rates, user feedback, reports, and A/B testing.
measurement and
evolution
Knowledge Includes keyword search; natural language search; federated search (e.g., LinkedIn,
retrieval YouTube, Wikipedia, Google Maps, etc.). Also supports guided resolution with
questions authored in a decision tree or decision table.
Other vendor products Knowledge is bundled with Pegasystems CRM suite products.
that can be bundled
with knowledge
Typical organizational Customer service, marketing, sales
buyer
Pricing models Agent-facing: Free when bundled with the Pegasystems CRM suite or priced on
content views when purchased standalone.
Customer-facing: Free when bundled with the Pegasystems CRM suite or priced
on content views when purchased standalone.
31
September 30, 2015

FIGURE 7 Profile Of Two Customer Service Process Guidance Vendors (Cont.)
Verint
Company Verint provides solutions for customer engagement optimization; security
description intelligence; and fraud, risk, and compliance.
Knowledge product The Verint-Kana Knowledge Management solution is a core component of the
description Kana Enterprise product set. It delivers context-driven search results, clarifying
questions, and guided assistance within a service process to help agents and
customers pinpoint the right answer.
Knowledge Via authoring in a rich text editor using templates; or via import.
creation
Knowledge Via tag hierarchies (e.g., product, topic, channel, audience).
organization
Knowledge quality Via reuse, user ratings, feedback, and reports (content usage and engagement). Also
measurement and uses social insights and agent desktop analytics to identify knowledge gaps.
evolution
Knowledge Includes keyword search; natural language search, Boolean queries, or parametric
retrieval inputs; topic tree browsing; bookmarks; guided process flows with scripting. Users
can filter to determine which content source(s) to search within, including all external
content. Search results can be weighted and tuned.
Other vendor products Can be bundled with Kana Enterprise.
that can be bundled
with knowledge
Typical organizational Contact center, eBusiness
buyer
Pricing models Agent-facing: base platform price, plus a price per concurrent user
Customer-facing: number of unique web visitors to the website
32
September 30, 2015

Recommendations
Build A Knowledge Vendor Strategy With A View Toward The Future

AD&D pros supporting customer engagement strategies should consider a knowledge vendor strategy
that will meet todays demands while also keeping an eye to the future. Specifically, you should:
Begin a continuous improvement strategy around knowledge management. Lay out shortand long-term improvement goals for your knowledge with clear, measurable success metrics.
Make sure that these success metrics directly align with your companys goals, which may span
the dimension of better customer engagement, reduced cost of operations, better compliance,
and increased revenue. Use our self-diagnostic tool to assess your current capabilities and
opportunities for improvement.6
Clarify your requirements. Knowledge vendors offer the breadth of capabilities from simple
authoring, retrieval, and reporting to highly complex capabilities. Be crystal-clear about the
complexity of your requirements, as a vendor solution with too many features of little use to you
often decreases its effectiveness.
Keep an eye on the greater knowledge space. New entrants keep surfacing. For example, Genesys
now has a knowledge product. Vendors not classified as traditional knowledge vendors such as
enterprise search vendor Coveo Solutions and portal vendor Mvine offer products that extend the
power of core knowledge management solutions. Other vendor solutions, such as IBM Watson,
provide heavyweight cognitive engagement solutions that are not ripe for prime time.7 Investigate the
greater knowledge vendor landscape to understand whether an ecosystem of products is needed to
address your needs.
Understand that knowledge management is a journey. Knowledge becomes stale as soon
as you stop focusing on it. Follow best practices to maintain knowledge, including adopting
relevant knowledge methodologies like Consortium for Service Innocations KCS.8 Tie knowledge
management continuous improvement activities to company KPIs to ensure that stakeholders and
executives realize the economic benefit of knowledge management.
33
September 30, 2015

Engage With An Analyst

Gain greater confidence in your decisions by working with Forrester thought leaders to apply our
research to your specific business and technology initiatives.
Analyst Inquiry
Analyst Advisory
Ask a question related to our research; a

Forrester analyst will help you put it into
practice and take the next step. Schedule
a 30-minute phone session with the analyst
or opt for a response via email.
Put research into practice with in-depth

analysis of your specific business and
technology challenges. Engagements
include custom advisory calls, strategy
days, workshops, speeches, and webinars.
Learn more about inquiry, including tips for

getting the most out of your discussion.
Learn about interactive advisory sessions

and how we can support your initiatives.
Supplemental Material
Companies Interviewed For This Report
[24]7
Moxie
Aptean
Mvine
Astute Solutions
nanorep
Bloomfire
Oracle
Coveo Solutions
Pegasystems
Creative Virtual
RightAnswers
eGain
Salesforce
Genesys
Transversal
Lithium Technologies
Verint
Microsoft Parature
Zendesk
MindTouch
34
September 30, 2015

Endnotes
Source: Forresters North American Technographics Customer Experience Survey, 2013.
For more information on understanding how to improve your customer service strategy, see the Channel
Management: Core To Your Customer Service Strategy Forrester report.
For the first time in the history of our survey, respondents reported using the FAQ pages on a companys website more
than speaking with an agent over the phone. Web self-service use by US online adults increased from 67% in 2012 to
76% in 2014. See the Contact Centers Must Go Digital Or Die Forrester report.
Only asked to those who are significantly involved with their firms contact centers and whose firms have 20+
employees and 50+ seat contact centers. Source: Forresters Global Business Technographics Networks And
Telecommunications Survey, 2015.
Knowledge management is a software category that is growing in importance due to the quantifiable business value
it delivers. See the TechRadar For AD&D Pros: Contact Center Solutions For Customer Service, Q1 2015
Forrester report.
Kana Software acquired Ciboodle in July 2012, and it has been deeply integrating product lines since this acquisition.
Source: Kate Leggett, More Market Consolidation As KANA Software Buys Sword Ciboodle. Its A Sound Strategy,
But The Proof Will Be In The Execution, Kate Leggetts blog, July 10, 2012 (http://blogs.forrester.com/kate_
leggett/12-07-10-more_market_consolidation_as_kana_software_buys_sword_ciboodle_its_a_sound_strategy_but_
the_proof_wil).
Forrester has a best practice framework for knowledge management. See the Best Practices: Knowledge
Management For Customer Service Forrester report.
Cognitive systems listen, learn, and respond using natural language and symbolic reasoning (in precisely the way that
people learn: by seeing patterns, associating concepts, then recognizing and inferring). By comparing and linking
concepts and patterns across data and content, these systems provide more powerful insights and predictions. See
the Cognitive Engagement: A New Force Of Creative Destruction Forrester report.
KCS, or knowledge centered support, is a methodology to author and maintain knowledge. Source: Consortium for
Service Innovation (http://www.serviceinnovation.org).
35
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