What is a knowledge base?

A knowledge base is a centralized repository where an organization stores useful information to help people find answers on their own. 

It typically includes how-to articles, FAQs, process documentation, troubleshooting guides, and policies. Depending on who it’s meant for, it can be either internal (used by employees and teams) or external (used by customers, partners, or end users).

The goal is to make knowledge easy to find, maintain, and use across the organization. Instead of relying on informal channels or repeatedly answering the same questions, teams can point to documented knowledge that stays consistent.

Why organizations need knowledge bases

When information is not documented, teams rely on verbal knowledge transfer, emails, or scattered chat conversations. Over time, this approach creates inefficiencies, increases the likelihood of inconsistent responses, and leads to knowledge gaps when experienced staff are unavailable or leave the organization.

Developing a knowledge base allows organizations to preserve accumulated expertise and make it reusable. It provides a stable foundation for onboarding, training, and operational consistency. It also supports autonomy, allowing both staff and customers to solve problems independently.

In practice, a knowledge base becomes an operational asset — one that helps reduce reliance on memory or informal channels and improves how knowledge is accessed and applied across the organization.

5 benefits of having a knowledge base

Once a knowledge base is in place and maintained regularly, the impact becomes visible across different parts of the organization. The following are key benefits:

1. Lower support volumes: Customers and employees can resolve issues themselves by looking up information instead of filing a ticket or asking someone else. It reduces repetitive questions and frees up support staff to focus on more complex problems.
    
2. Reduced onboarding time and costs: New hires don’t have to rely solely on peer guidance or ad hoc training sessions. With documented processes and answers in place, they can quickly find what they need to understand procedures, tools, and workflows. 
    
3. Consistent information: A shared source of knowledge helps teams avoid contradictory instructions or outdated practices. For example, an IT support team can respond to similar incidents in the same way if they’re all using a shared troubleshooting guide.
    
4. Knowledge continuity: As personnel change, organizations risk losing operational knowledge. A knowledge base helps preserve and transfer that information, reducing the impact of turnover or role changes.
    
5. Improved cross-team efficiency: When departments maintain accessible documentation, other teams can refer to it directly. This reduces delays and minimizes back-and-forth requests between functions like IT, HR, and Finance.

"Knowledge should be a quick question and answer. Somebody asked the question; here is the answer. And it should be easy to consume. I understand when you get into these more technical things, there are a lot of steps. But it should still be easy to consume.”

Liz Bunger, KCS Program Manager at Motive

Knowledge base types

Organizations typically maintain two main types of knowledge bases, depending on who needs access to the information and how it's used.

• Internal knowledge base
  Created for employees and internal teams, this type of knowledge base supports day-to-day operations and reduces reliance on verbal instructions or ad hoc communications. It often contains step-by-step procedures, configuration guides, policies, onboarding material, known error records, and internal FAQs. Internal knowledge bases help standardize practices, reduce errors, and enable faster resolution of internal requests.
   
• External knowledge base
  Built for customers, partners, or end users, an external knowledge base is focused on providing clear, accessible information about products, services, and common issues. It typically includes setup instructions, feature guides, account management help, service policies, and troubleshooting articles. A well-structured external knowledge base reduces support volume and improves customer satisfaction by offering consistent, self-service support 24/7.

Some organizations manage both types separately, while others integrate them using role-based access, depending on the audience and the level of information sensitivity.

Knowledge base components

An effective knowledge base depends not just on its content, but on how easily people can access and use it. These are some components that support usability, organization, and long-term scalability.

Core functionality

These are the baseline components every knowledge base should have:

• Search bar: A simple, responsive search is non-negotiable. Users should be able to type a keyword or question and get accurate, ranked suggestions. Search should work even when people don’t phrase things exactly as written in the articles.
• Categorization, tags, and identifiers: Organizing content into logical categories or sections makes it easier to browse, especially when users aren’t sure what to search for. Grouping by department, product, or task type can keep the structure scalable. The knowledge base articles should also support labels, tags, or other metadata that help connect related topics. This improves filtering, surfaces related content, and enables targeted suggestions in tickets or request forms.
• Version history: For organizations that update policies or procedures regularly, it’s important to track changes over time. Version control lets you compare edits, maintain accountability, and revert when necessary.
• Feedback and ratings: A built-in way to mark articles as helpful or outdated gives contributors useful signals for improvement. Some tools also let users leave quick comments or suggest edits.

Advanced capabilities

Depending on the software you choose, a knowledge base can also include more advanced features designed to support governance, content accuracy, and scale:

• Analytics and reporting: Usage data helps teams see which articles are used most, where people drop off, and what’s missing. This informs decisions about what to write next or when to archive outdated entries.
• Metadata control: Being able to define custom fields—like audience type, document owner, or lifecycle stage—adds structure and supports more detailed filtering or automation.
• AI-powered features: Some tools use AI to assist with content creation or recommendations. For example, AI can draft article content from support tickets, suggest improvements based on similar documents, or surface articles automatically during ticket triage.

How to build a knowledge base?

Building a knowledge base is an ongoing process that involves defining responsibilities, maintaining quality, and aligning with how your teams work. Here’s a step-by-step approach to set up a knowledge base that supports both usability and long-term scalability:

1. Define the purpose and scope

Start by identifying who the knowledge base is for — internal teams, customers, or both — and what types of information it should include. This will help determine the structure, tone, and access model.

2.. Select the right platform

The software you choose should match your operational needs and the scale of your knowledge base. Some organizations prefer standalone Knowledge Management tools, especially when content spans multiple teams or departments. Others benefit from using platforms where the knowledge base is integrated into broader systems, like IT Service Management tools, so it works in context with requests, incidents, and support workflows.

3. Assign roles and responsibilities

Decide who will create, review, approve, and maintain content. Assigning clear ownership helps avoid outdated or conflicting information. Defining approval workflows for both publishing and updates will be key to maintaining content quality.

4. Establish editorial standards

Define templates, writing guidelines, and content structures to keep entries consistent. A shared approach reduces confusion for both authors and readers.

5. Build a logical structure

Set up categories, folders, or tags before creating articles. A clear structure reduces clutter and helps users find information without relying solely on search.

6. Create and publish high-value articles first

Focus on frequent requests, known errors, onboarding materials, or customer-facing issues. Prioritize topics that already consume a lot of time from support teams or frequently show up in tickets.

7. Gather feedback and iterate

Allow readers to rate articles or submit suggestions. This feedback helps identify gaps, unclear explanations, or outdated content that needs review.

8. Automate and maintain

Once your knowledge base is in use, keeping it consistent and up to date becomes part of the ongoing effort. Instead of handling articles manually or depending on individual contributors, you can standardize the process with a workflow. This is especially useful when multiple people are involved in approvals, edits, or publishing.

We have a Knowledge Management process workflow template to help you formalize how requests are submitted, drafts reviewed, and content published. It applies the same structure to both new articles and updates, which helps maintain accountability and reduce duplication.

Leveraging AI in your knowledge base

Using AI for your knowledge base can reduce the time and effort needed to build and maintain it, especially when integrated directly into service management tools.

InvGate uses AI to support the Knowledge Management process in several ways:

• Automatic article creation from resolved tickets: You can convert incident resolutions directly into knowledge articles with AI assistance. This helps reduce duplicated work and keeps the knowledge base updated with relevant content.
• Knowledge article summaries: Summarizing articles with AI makes complex information easier to digest and helps users find answers quickly without scanning long articles. Using natural language processing (NLP), InvGate identifies key ideas and condenses content into short, readable summaries.
• Contextual knowledge: AI can surface summaries of relevant knowledge base articles during user interactions with InvGate’s virtual agent for Microsoft Teams. It provides fast, accurate answers in the user’s preferred channel, helping reduce ticket volume.

Of course, AI doesn’t replace human oversight, but it accelerates knowledge creation and allows teams to focus their time on reviewing and fine-tuning rather than starting from scratch.

Using InvGate as your knowledge base software

While there are standalone Knowledge Management tools on the market, not every organization needs a separate platform. InvGate Service Management, for instance, includes a built-in knowledge base module that aligns with Service Management processes, a practical choice for teams that want to manage knowledge and service delivery in one place.

It supports approval workflows, role-based access, categorization, feedback collection, and integration with service requests — all within the same system. That means support agents and users can both access the knowledge they need without switching tools or duplicating efforts.

For teams looking to establish or formalize Knowledge Management practices, InvGate offers a structured and scalable way to comply with ITSM best practices, without needing to maintain a separate tool.

4 knowledge base best practices

To help the knowledge base stay useful and scalable over time, it’s important to set a few foundational practices:

• Prioritize clarity over coverage: Avoid overloading the knowledge base with lengthy or overly detailed articles. Focus on making information clear, specific, and relevant to recurring needs. Articles should be written for the reader, not just to document everything known about a process.
• Standardize article structure: Consistent formatting helps readers find what they need faster. Define templates or article types that suit different use cases(such as how-to guides, troubleshooting steps, or policy references) and apply them across teams. This also simplifies reviewing and updating later.
• Assign ownership per article or topic: Every article should have a clear owner responsible for keeping it current. Without this, content tends to fall out of date quietly, even in active systems. Assigning accountability helps maintain quality as the knowledge base scales.
• Keep internal and external content separate: Publishing both types of articles in the same space can create confusion or expose information that shouldn’t be public. Use permission settings, separate categories, or distinct knowledge bases to keep audiences and intent clearly defined.