The Importance Of Creating An Internal Wiki For A Tech Start-Up

Knowledge base has become an important part of every company in the world. The reasons for this are much easier collaboration amongst employees, better productivity, time efficiency, higher profits and free knowledge sharing within a company. This makes knowledge base an integral part of any startup, as a wiki can greatly help in the time of every startup’s growth phase. This transition requires all the above benefits that a knowledge base offers, however, there are some things that need to be thought off before it is implemented within the company.
Performing a research

Before making any type of business decision, it is very important to perform detailed research in order to avoid making mistakes. The same goes for picking the right knowledge base software for creating an internal wiki for a startup.

There are plenty of different knowledge management companies out there that promote their specific software solution. However, even though these software solutions are from the same niche, each of them is different in some way. [pullquote]This is why research is important – not all the solutions have the same features.[/pullquote] Each of them is created for specific purposes and the best ones include a variety of features, which makes them useful for a number of business tasks.

One of the biggest mistakes that one can make is to subscribe to a solution or purchase one and implement it only to find out that the knowledge base does not have a particular feature that is best for a company. This is not a simple financial mistake, but a great sacrifice of time, which is the most valuable asset of startup companies. So before you pick a knowledge base to create an online wiki, make sure that it has all the required features.

Two Important Different Types Of Knowledge Base For Startups

Even though startups often have relatively big budgets at the beginning, it is necessary to optimize expenses, and enterprise knowledge base is an expense that should definitely be avoided. Luckily there are two other solutions that will get the job done efficiently, without lacking any feature that enterprise solutions have to offer:

Open Source Solutions – These knowledge-based solutions are very attractive to people at first glance mainly due to the fact that it can get the job done for free. But it is important to take a step back and look at the whole picture. Opens Source knowledge bases are free to use, however, they are quite complex to implement and require a hardware solution on the company’s end, which can only further complicate matters.The mentioned complexity means that it is necessary to hire a team of professionals who are going to implement the solution, and who are going to be there at all times in case a problem occurs. Hiring a team to support the internal wiki is an expense that is not quite necessary at the beginning stages of a company, not to mention that implementation of this software requires a lot of time, and it also takes a lot of time for employees to grasp how the whole system works. So, even though it looks like a great option, open source has its flaws.

The mentioned complexity means that it is necessary to hire a team of professionals who are going to implement the solution, and who are going to be there at all times in case a problem occurs. Hiring a team to support the internal wiki is an expense that is not quite necessary at the beginning stages of a company, not to mention that implementation of this software requires a lot of time, and it also takes a lot of time for employees to grasp how the whole system works. So, even though it looks like a great option, open source has its flaws.

Software as a Service (SaaS) – This is the perfect solution for startups, as it comes at a reasonable cost while offering a set of features that are perfect for any type of a company. Everything is completely set up for use as soon as you subscribe to or purchase this solution (depending on the payment method). The first thing that you are not going to need is an IT crew that would be responsible for maintaining the platform.

Another important fact is that SaaS solutions can perfectly follow the fast pace of startup growth, as the whole platform is very scalable, meaning that you can add as many documents and information as the whole company grows and new team members start arriving. The fact that you can immediately start building your internal wiki is also important because it saves a lot of time, which is an important company asset, especially during the establishment and growth period. Therefore, if you are looking for a knowledge base to create an internal wiki for your tech startup, you should definitely rely on the SaaS type. Because it is easy to use, there is no need for a specific IT team to manage the wiki and it is immediately ready for use.

Creation Of Internal Wiki: What Is The Role Of The Knowledge Base

This platform plays an important role within a company because it directly affects how easy it is to create the internal wiki, and can speed up the workflow within the company. Whole teams of people can set up a schedule of tasks, they can create documents with important notes for future reference, they can simultaneously participate and contribute to a project from a variety of devices.

As the company grows, employees can enrich the internal wiki with short tutorials for the new employees of the company, this will greatly speed up the adaptation of new workers within a company. All this information is centralized and accessible to all the employees of the company, making it a tremendously important tool for employees.

A knowledge base is the best tool for internal wiki creation, it is easy to use and it requires no special efforts from your team to make it work. Setting up concrete rules about how information should be sorted comes in a natural and logical way, dictated by the employees of the company. Once the solution is implemented, the company can function more efficiently as the rich features of a knowledge base are going to increase the productivity of the whole company through data organization.

Author Bio: Robin is a Technical Support Executive with a combined experience of 6 years. He is well acquainted with various Knowledge base tools and is currently associated with ProProfs. In his free time, Robin enjoys reading and traveling.

IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK