Most organizations are bursting at the seams with information: internal documents, content guidelines, past projects – you name it. All of this company knowledge has to go somewhere… but where?

Knowledge management software (KMS) is the answer

KMS systems benefit organizations by expanding access to information and expertise, which improves productivity, innovation, and growth. 

Luckily, there are several excellent software options on the market that serve as collaborative knowledge bases for organizations like yours. Below, we’ll highlight the benefits of using quality KMS and detail 12 of our favorites!

What is knowledge management software?

Knowledge management software (KMS) gives organizations a centralized means of creating, managing, and distributing information companywide. This makes it easier for your teams to quickly access the information they need to perform their jobs effectively – no matter where they’re located. 

Some platforms are specifically designed for knowledge management; storing and organizing information is the only service they provide. Other knowledge management systems come bundled with project management software or intranet software.

Workvivo is a social intranet with knowledge management capabilities. This allows your employees to enjoy all the communication and collaboration tools of an intranet while seamlessly managing your company’s valuable data.

Benefits of knowledge management software for businesses

Using KMS can offer your business some significant advantages that greatly improve productivity and the overall employee experience. Let’s take a look at some of the greatest benefits that KMS can offer.

Improves access to information and expertise

The first and most obvious benefit of knowledge management software is easier access to information and expertise. After all, at its core, this is why KMS exists: to broaden your employees’ access to the information they need when they need it.

While this might sound simple, it’s a factor that makes a significant impact. Easy access to the right resources at the right time enables employees to perform their jobs more efficiently, stay on deadline, and make more informed decisions. 

Fast access is key, too: when your employees can find the right information with a quick search instead of sifting through disorganized folders and files, it gives them more time to focus on more important tasks. 

Elevates productivity by reducing information silos and duplicated effort

Information silos occur when information from one department or team isn’t widely shared with others – which can be a huge drain on employee time and energy. Who can afford to spend an hour hunting down information that another department may have right at their fingertips?

This is especially common in remote work environments where team members can’t pop into another department to find what they need. A knowledge management system opens up information for everybody – no information silos and no duplicated efforts (multiple people doing the same work). 

Communication is absolutely essential among your teams, and with good knowledge management software, everyone can stay in the loop and easily access any resources they may need.

Increases innovation by promoting the sharing and reuse of ideas

The more information we know, the more ideas we can come up with – and this is where knowledge management and creativity meet. KMS makes knowledge and information readily available so users can combine that information into new ideas. 

One study finds a positive correlation between knowledge application and innovation speed in US firms. All this innovation helps foster growth and profit: Companies that embrace innovation see a 59% higher revenue growth rate than companies that don’t.

Promotes organizational and employee growth

Finally, a strong knowledge management system will help both your employees and your company see more growth. Better productivity and better innovation are two of the biggest keys in business growth. Knowledge management also simply makes your employees’ jobs easier, increasing their satisfaction. Employees who are engaged with their jobs will grow and advance in the market more quickly.

The 12 best knowledge management software for businesses

There are plenty of KMS options available, but it can be hard to cut through the noise to pick the one that best aligns with your organizational goals. Below, we’ll highlight 12 popular KMS options to help you understand what each software offers and how it can benefit your teams.

1) Workvivo

Workvivo is a social intranet (an internal company network designed for employees to communicate and collaborate) with excellent knowledge management capabilities. Communication features make it easy for your support team to share information with whoever needs to be in the know, while employee engagement will skyrocket, too.

From personalized activity feeds to powerful workplace insights to supercharged third-party integrations, Workvivo gives you endless ways to manage your team. Host all of your corporate news, documents, apps, and resources in one place. Using Workvivo as a single source of truth makes it simple to give all your employees access to up-to-date, consistent information – regardless of their location.

Key features and capabilities

• Gives you the option to require that employees read and acknowledge important updates and articles
• Sends important business updates as push notifications direct to employee devices
• Enables Q&A for employees to ask or answer questions directly within documentation
• Fosters inclusivity by allowing team members to vote on responses
• Centralizes information to reduce back-and-forth email/chat communications
• Measures content reach and engagement metrics to monitor trends
• Allows users to communicate with live streaming, video, podcasts, and more
• Integrates with Slack, Google Drive, Salesforce, etc.
• Ensures data protection by maintaining ISO 27001 and SOC 2 security certifications.

2) Happeo

Happeo is a knowledge management solution that helps reduce your ramp-up time, improve productivity, and give all employees equal access to vital knowledge.

Key features and capabilities

• Self-service company wiki
• Universal and federated search functions to search for content across all company tools (including databases, emails, and Google Workspace, and beyond)
• Lifecycle management that archives outdated content (or reminds you to update it)
• Community-focused features like Intranet Channels

3) Notion

Built for both project management and knowledge management, Notion creates the perfect space for your work and your knowledge to live side-by-side. Build your customized workflow and connect projects or documents so your team can work together in real time.

Key features and capabilities

• Focused on note-taking, helping create a repository of information
• Intuitive user interface with simple drag-and-drop functionality
• Heavy customization options.

4) Guru

Guru’s collaborative knowledge management software features are designed to give users access to the right knowledge in the right location at the right time. With Guru,  you can assign information to be verified by experts within your organization, so you don’t have to worry about knowledge being outdated or inaccurate. Guru captures knowledge from anywhere you’re working on the web or from Slack – no need to pause your workflow – and then proactively pushes that knowledge when you need it at a later date.

Key features and capabilities

• Integrates with Slack to pull information directly into Guru Cards
• Syncs with existing tools like Google Docs and Confluence
• Uses AI to surface duplicate information
• Suggests tags for content automatically to streamline categorization.

5) Confluence

Developed and owned by project management software Atlassian, Confluence is a remote-friendly team workspace where knowledge and collaboration meet. Through features like team pages, personal spaces, and more, Confluence helps you create a knowledge-sharing culture so everyone can get their work done better. 

Key features and capabilities

• Informative team homepage with additional pages available to users who need them (change permissions as needed)
• Set up team spaces to centralize your team’s collective knowledge
• Search tools that improve the relevancy of your search 
• ‘Best practice’ templates to help keep the system streamlined
• Multiple plans available with tiered pricing for customized functionality.

6) Microsoft SharePoint

Microsoft SharePoint collects, stores, and organizes information in a single central location. Use the desktop platform or mobile app to share and manage content, knowledge, and applications. While some users say this platform has more of a learning curve, accessing and editing shared documents is extremely helpful. SharePoint is also a good option for small businesses that don’t have hundreds or thousands of users.

Key features and capabilities

• Improves productivity through automation features
• Offers site page pinning to follow users through Office 365 as they work
• Supports large files (no size limit).

7) Tettra

Available as a free team wiki, Tettra is a knowledge base software that aggregates scattered company information to answer your team’s repetitive questions directly in Slack or MS Teams. What else makes this knowledge-sharing tool unique? Let subject matter experts verify information, request new pages to fill knowledge gaps, and clean up any clutter content with ongoing maintenance. 

Key features and capabilities

• Users can ask a question in Slack and the answer can be pulled straight from Tettra via the Slack integration
• Questions can be routed to subject-matter experts so they can respond asynchronously
• Users can request content on various subjects; an interactive process where coworkers have the option to ‘upvote’ to agree.

8) Helpjuice

Helpjuice is a user-friendly knowledge base software intended to help you scale your customer support and collaborate better with your team. Helpjuice believes that the future for your team lies in instant knowledge, and the software carries this out through features like keywords (apply keywords to knowledge base articles) and searching through API. Your relationship manager is a call away and users say the product is well-priced for everything you receive.

Key features and capabilities

• Google-like search engine built from the ground up specifically for knowledge management software
• Extremely customizable with dozens of custom-made themes
• No training required – very simple to immediately start using.

9) ServiceNow

ServiceNow’s knowledge base helps you refine your workflow to create a better employee experience and a better customer experience. Features powered by machine learning help you empower agents through knowledge sharing and continuous improvement. 

Key features and capabilities

• Give users a familiar writing experience with seamless Microsoft Word Online integration
• Use machine learning to automatically identify and visualize knowledge gaps for assignment
• Give users a powerful, consumer-grade AI search experience with relevant, personalized results
• Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) certified. 

10) Bloomfire

Bloomfire is another knowledge management software option that offers one central, searchable place for insights and information. No more knowledge silos – instead, team members can make decisions with confidence by easily finding, sharing, and collaborating on the knowledge that exists across your organization. Find information with AI-powered search, curate and share knowledge to keep employees engaged, and use the built-in analytics to provide feedback when necessary.

Key features and capabilities

• Allow everyone to access the same knowledge, no matter their department, role, or location
• Use curation tools to identify duplicate content, schedule content reviews, and flag posts for review
• Find the content that’s most relevant to you through a personalized feed

11) ClickUp

ClickUp for knowledge management is a great tool for managing your documents and other work. This all-in-one productivity platform can replace all of your team’s productivity tools and step in as your new project management system. 

Key features and capabilities

• Document management lets you store Docs in the same place as your work
• Link anything together with the Relationships feature
• User-friendly interface with online and offline mode, plus mobile apps for on-the-go access.

12) Knowledge Base

ProProfs Knowledge Base is a system that provides 24/7 help for employees who have questions. Start with the internal knowledge base, where you can create an online repository to store information related to your work (100% customizable to your needs, but simple enough to create in five minutes). You can also design a corporate wiki for organizational use. Plus, easily create and manage online documentation. 

Key features and capabilities

• Use across several devices and browsers, with password and privacy controls for extra safety
• Streamline content management with an intuitive, easy-to-use editor
• Use a customizable template to design your knowledge base.

Boost your employees’ development with Workvivo’s intranet solution

Knowledge management tools are important for companies of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises. When you can easily store, organize, and share information in real time, you’ll enjoy benefits like higher productivity, more innovation, and overall organizational growth.

To reap the benefits of better knowledge management, look for internal communications tools, like Workvivo’s social intranet, that can provide knowledge management capabilities. 

Workvivo features like regular email digests, important updates such as push notifications, and third-party integrations promote ease of use as your employees work together daily. Request a demo to see how our knowledge management platform can work for you.

Most organizations are bursting at the seams with information: internal documents, content guidelines, past projects – you name it. All of this company knowledge has to go somewhere… but where?

Knowledge management software (KMS) is the answer.

KMS systems benefit organizations by expanding access to information and expertise, which improves productivity, innovation, and growth. 

Luckily, there are several excellent software options on the market that serve as collaborative knowledge bases for organizations like yours. Below, we’ll highlight the benefits of using quality KMS and detail 12 of our favorites!

What is knowledge management software?

Knowledge management software (KMS) gives organizations a centralized means of creating, managing, and distributing information companywide. This makes it easier for your teams to quickly access the information they need to perform their jobs effectively – no matter where they’re located. 

Some platforms are specifically designed for knowledge management; storing and organizing information is the only service they provide. Other knowledge management systems come bundled with project management software or intranet software.

Workvivo is a social intranet with knowledge management capabilities. This allows your employees to enjoy all the communication and collaboration tools of an intranet while seamlessly managing your company’s valuable data.

Benefits of knowledge management software for businesses

Using KMS can offer your business some significant advantages that greatly improve productivity and the overall employee experience. Let’s take a look at some of the greatest benefits that KMS can offer.

Improves access to information and expertise

The first and most obvious benefit of knowledge management software is easier access to information and expertise. After all, at its core, this is why KMS exists: to broaden your employees’ access to the information they need when they need it.

While this might sound simple, it’s a factor that makes a significant impact. Easy access to the right resources at the right time enables employees to perform their jobs more efficiently, stay on deadline, and make more informed decisions. 

Fast access is key, too: when your employees can find the right information with a quick search instead of sifting through disorganized folders and files, it gives them more time to focus on more important tasks. 

Elevates productivity by reducing information silos and duplicated effort

Information silos occur when information from one department or team isn’t widely shared with others – which can be a huge drain on employee time and energy. Who can afford to spend an hour hunting down information that another department may have right at their fingertips?

This is especially common in remote work environments where team members can’t pop into another department to find what they need. A knowledge management system opens up information for everybody – no information silos and no duplicated efforts (multiple people doing the same work). 

Communication is absolutely essential among your teams, and with good knowledge management software, everyone can stay in the loop and easily access any resources they may need.

Increases innovation by promoting the sharing and reuse of ideas

The more information we know, the more ideas we can come up with – and this is where knowledge management and creativity meet. KMS makes knowledge and information readily available so users can combine that information into new ideas. 

One study finds a positive correlation between knowledge application and innovation speed in US firms. All this innovation helps foster growth and profit: Companies that embrace innovation see a 59% higher revenue growth rate than companies that don’t.

Promotes organizational and employee growth

Finally, a strong knowledge management system will help both your employees and your company see more growth. Better productivity and better innovation are two of the biggest keys in business growth. Knowledge management also simply makes your employees’ jobs easier, increasing their satisfaction. Employees who are engaged with their jobs will grow and advance in the market more quickly.

The 12 best knowledge management software for businesses

There are plenty of KMS options available, but it can be hard to cut through the noise to pick the one that best aligns with your organizational goals. Below, we’ll highlight 12 popular KMS options to help you understand what each software offers and how it can benefit your teams.

1) Workvivo

Workvivo is a social intranet (an internal company network designed for employees to communicate and collaborate) with excellent knowledge management capabilities. Communication features make it easy for your support team to share information with whoever needs to be in the know, while employee engagement will skyrocket, too.

From personalized activity feeds to powerful workplace insights to supercharged third-party integrations, Workvivo gives you endless ways to manage your team. Host all of your corporate news, documents, apps, and resources in one place. Using Workvivo as a single source of truth makes it simple to give all your employees access to up-to-date, consistent information – regardless of their location.

Key features and capabilities

• Gives you the option to require that employees read and acknowledge important updates and articles
• Sends important business updates as push notifications direct to employee devices
• Enables Q&A for employees to ask or answer questions directly within documentation
• Fosters inclusivity by allowing team members to vote on responses
• Centralizes information to reduce back-and-forth email/chat communications
• Measures content reach and engagement metrics to monitor trends
• Allows users to communicate with live streaming, video, podcasts, and more
• Integrates with Slack, Google Drive, Salesforce, etc.
• Ensures data protection by maintaining ISO 27001 and SOC 2 security certifications.

2) Happeo

Happeo is a knowledge management solution that helps reduce your ramp-up time, improve productivity, and give all employees equal access to vital knowledge.

Key features and capabilities

• Self-service company wiki
• Universal and federated search functions to search for content across all company tools (including databases, emails, and Google Workspace, and beyond)
• Lifecycle management that archives outdated content (or reminds you to update it)
• Community-focused features like Intranet Channels

3) Notion

Built for both project management and knowledge management, Notion creates the perfect space for your work and your knowledge to live side-by-side. Build your customized workflow and connect projects or documents so your team can work together in real time.

Key features and capabilities

• Focused on note-taking, helping create a repository of information
• Intuitive user interface with simple drag-and-drop functionality
• Heavy customization options.

4) Guru

Guru’s collaborative knowledge management software features are designed to give users access to the right knowledge in the right location at the right time. With Guru,  you can assign information to be verified by experts within your organization, so you don’t have to worry about knowledge being outdated or inaccurate. Guru captures knowledge from anywhere you’re working on the web or from Slack – no need to pause your workflow – and then proactively pushes that knowledge when you need it at a later date.

Key features and capabilities

• Integrates with Slack to pull information directly into Guru Cards
• Syncs with existing tools like Google Docs and Confluence
• Uses AI to surface duplicate information
• Suggests tags for content automatically to streamline categorization.

5) Confluence

Developed and owned by project management software Atlassian, Confluence is a remote-friendly team workspace where knowledge and collaboration meet. Through features like team pages, personal spaces, and more, Confluence helps you create a knowledge-sharing culture so everyone can get their work done better. 

Key features and capabilities

• Informative team homepage with additional pages available to users who need them (change permissions as needed)
• Set up team spaces to centralize your team’s collective knowledge
• Search tools that improve the relevancy of your search 
• ‘Best practice’ templates to help keep the system streamlined
• Multiple plans available with tiered pricing for customized functionality.

6) Microsoft SharePoint

Microsoft SharePoint collects, stores, and organizes information in a single central location. Use the desktop platform or mobile app to share and manage content, knowledge, and applications. While some users say this platform has more of a learning curve, accessing and editing shared documents is extremely helpful. SharePoint is also a good option for small businesses that don’t have hundreds or thousands of users.

Key features and capabilities

• Improves productivity through automation features
• Offers site page pinning to follow users through Office 365 as they work
• Supports large files (no size limit).

7) Tettra

Available as a free team wiki, Tettra is a knowledge base software that aggregates scattered company information to answer your team’s repetitive questions directly in Slack or MS Teams. What else makes this knowledge-sharing tool unique? Let subject matter experts verify information, request new pages to fill knowledge gaps, and clean up any clutter content with ongoing maintenance. 

Key features and capabilities

• Users can ask a question in Slack and the answer can be pulled straight from Tettra via the Slack integration
• Questions can be routed to subject-matter experts so they can respond asynchronously
• Users can request content on various subjects; an interactive process where coworkers have the option to ‘upvote’ to agree.

8) Helpjuice

Helpjuice is a user-friendly knowledge base software intended to help you scale your customer support and collaborate better with your team. Helpjuice believes that the future for your team lies in instant knowledge, and the software carries this out through features like keywords (apply keywords to knowledge base articles) and searching through API. Your relationship manager is a call away and users say the product is well-priced for everything you receive.

Key features and capabilities

• Google-like search engine built from the ground up specifically for knowledge management software
• Extremely customizable with dozens of custom-made themes
• No training required – very simple to immediately start using.

9) ServiceNow

ServiceNow’s knowledge base helps you refine your workflow to create a better employee experience and a better customer experience. Features powered by machine learning help you empower agents through knowledge sharing and continuous improvement. 

Key features and capabilities

• Give users a familiar writing experience with seamless Microsoft Word Online integration
• Use machine learning to automatically identify and visualize knowledge gaps for assignment
• Give users a powerful, consumer-grade AI search experience with relevant, personalized results
• Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) certified. 

10) Bloomfire

Bloomfire is another knowledge management software option that offers one central, searchable place for insights and information. No more knowledge silos – instead, team members can make decisions with confidence by easily finding, sharing, and collaborating on the knowledge that exists across your organization. Find information with AI-powered search, curate and share knowledge to keep employees engaged, and use the built-in analytics to provide feedback when necessary.

Key features and capabilities

• Allow everyone to access the same knowledge, no matter their department, role, or location
• Use curation tools to identify duplicate content, schedule content reviews, and flag posts for review
• Find the content that’s most relevant to you through a personalized feed

11) ClickUp

ClickUp for knowledge management is a great tool for managing your documents and other work. This all-in-one productivity platform can replace all of your team’s productivity tools and step in as your new project management system. 

Key features and capabilities

• Document management lets you store Docs in the same place as your work
• Link anything together with the Relationships feature
• User-friendly interface with online and offline mode, plus mobile apps for on-the-go access.

12) Knowledge Base

ProProfs Knowledge Base is a system that provides 24/7 help for employees who have questions. Start with the internal knowledge base, where you can create an online repository to store information related to your work (100% customizable to your needs, but simple enough to create in five minutes). You can also design a corporate wiki for organizational use. Plus, easily create and manage online documentation. 

Key features and capabilities

• Use across several devices and browsers, with password and privacy controls for extra safety
• Streamline content management with an intuitive, easy-to-use editor
• Use a customizable template to design your knowledge base.

Boost your employees’ development with Workvivo’s intranet solution

Knowledge management tools are important for companies of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises. When you can easily store, organize, and share information in real time, you’ll enjoy benefits like higher productivity, more innovation, and overall organizational growth.

To reap the benefits of better knowledge management, look for internal communications tools, like Workvivo’s social intranet, that can provide knowledge management capabilities. 

Workvivo features like regular email digests, important updates such as push notifications, and third-party integrations promote ease of use as your employees work together daily. Request a demo to see how our knowledge management platform can work for you.