Knowledge management software, or KM software, supports an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, retrieving, and sharing information assets that have a strong focus on—how to accomplish a task, how to handle a situation, how a process works, and how to get a job done. These assets may include text documents, presentations, images, audio and video files, and other data types.
The purpose of knowledge management software is to capture and distribute knowledge, allowing members of an organization, along with its partners and customers, to access and use the information effectively. Having a centralized repository where this knowledge is stored helps create a single source of truth in an organization, eliminating confusion and reducing the time to find information.
Knowledge management encompasses a range of specialized software products, with four subcategories—knowledge base software, Q&A platforms software, standard operating procedures software, and work instructions software. While some products are solely placed in one category, others with overlapping feature sets are placed in multiple.