Knowledge Base Upgrades Customer Self-Help Portal

KnowledgeBase Solutions Inc., a provider of knowledge management software for customer self-help and support, today announced the availability of KnowledgeBase.net Version 3.0.

According to Los Angeles-based KnowledgeBase, Canon U.S.A.'s Systems and Technical Support Division will be the first customer to upgrade to the new version, which includes portal customization, added search options, foreign language support and other features designed to improve KnowledgeBase.net's front and back end functionality.

Applications such as KnowledgeBase have the potential to offer the double benefit of both providing end-users with better service while also reducing support costs. “Self-service applications allow customers to quickly gain access to information without the bother of contacting a service representative, decreasing costs associated with helping customers by phone,” said Esteban Kolsky, senior research analyst for customer service and support strategies at Gartner.

KnowledgeBase.net Version 3.0, which is available as either on-premise software or a hosted service, includes three new search options including Subcategory, Wild Card, Exact Word and Stemming searches as well as Smart Synopsis.

The new and enhanced standard capabilities of KnowledgeBase.net 3.0 include the following, according to the company:

• Portal Snap-Ins are designed to enable customers to “snap” their preferred
  portal features into any Web page without having to launch a separate
  knowledgebase portal. For example,
  components such as Search, Top 10, FAQs, Hot Topics, and Solution
  Finder can be integrated into a desired Web page
  location separately, according to the company.

• Personalized Portals allow customers to create one portal for
  various sets of end-users based on entitlements and permissions..

• Batch Uploads are designed to enable thousands of legacy documents to be
  automatically loaded into a knowledgebase at one time. This new
  feature assists in the creation of new knowledgebases from legacy
  systems and documents.

• Enhanced Back-end Searching is now available from
  within the administration control panel to help administrators and
  knowledge workers find and edit their documents.

• Article Work-Flow and User Details Reports offer two new ways to
  help manage the usage, accuracy and performance of KnowledgeBase.net
  and responsible personnel.

• Dynamic Portal Caching is designed to boost the performance of high-traffic
  portals. Caching can now be used to reduce the Web-server-to-database
  transactions and improve page load times, according to KnowledgeBase.

• Storage Area Network Support enables knowledgebase portals
  to find and serve up knowledge stored in a SAN environment, in addition
  to Network Attached Storage (NAS) environment making it easier for
  customers to use their current database and Web page environments in
  conjunction with KnowledgeBase.net.

In addition to the enhanced capabilities of KnowledgeBase.net 3.0, two new add-on modules are now available:

KB Portal Builder, an add-on component to the KnowledgeBase.net Enterprise Edition, is an API module designed to provide new levels of portal customization. HTML and ASP code can now integrate with any of KnowledgeBase.net's portal, search or article display, according to the company. The KB Portal Builder is sold separately for $7,500.

KB Global Language Pack is also an add-on component to the KnowledgeBase.net Enterprise Edition and now a standard feature of KnowledgeBase.net Hosted Edition. This new addition enables customers to present portals in up to ten different languages. Additionally, customers can store and search for documents in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and English. The KB Global Language Pack is sold separately for $10,000.

Pricing for KnowledgeBase.net Version 3.0 is as follows: