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Who can use this feature?
- Global Administrators and Client Portal Application Admins can make a Knowledge Bases available to their Client Portal users.
- Depending on their permission level, Work Management and Client Portal users can create, edit, approve/publish, and submit feedback on Knowledge Base articles.
- Available on TDX Work Management
The TeamDynamix knowledge base is part of the Client Portal features, and can be used to help manage knowledge for both internal and external use cases.
- External: Where customers can go to learn any and everything they would ever need to know about an organization’s products, services, or processes.
- Application Security Role permissions allow admins to give certain people access to approve articles that have been submitted for review.
- Approved articles can be published, which means they can be visible to client portal users.
- Internal: Typically created so employees can share, collaborate, and distribute all organizational knowledge and information within the organization.
- Work Management users can create articles from a ticket update.
- It is common for organizations to create a top-level category called "Internal," that can only be seen by people who are members of the IT organization. By default, any articles in this category would inherit the category's permissions and therefore only be visible to internal employees.
In this article we'll cover basic info on:
To access a Client Portal's Knowledge Base:
- When you sign-in to TDX Work Management, click Client Portal.
- In the Client Portal Toolbar, click Knowledge Base.
To get to the Knowledge Base from Work Management (TDNext):
- In the Work Management Toolbar, click View Applications.
- Click the Client Portal application tile.
- In the Client Portal Toolbar, click Knowledge Base.
To access Knowledge Base settings as a Global Administrator:
- When you sign-in to TDX Work Management, click Administrators.
- In the TDAdmin navigation menu, click Applications.
- Click the specific Client Portal application.
- In the navigation menu, click Knowledge Base.
To access Knowledge Base settings as an Application Admin:
- In top right of the Client Portal, click your user name.
- Select Admin.
- In the navigation menu, click Knowledge Base.
To be able to write a knowledge base article and submit it for review, you must have permission to Add Articles, and have Work Management access.
To create a new article:
- In the Client Portal, navigate to the category where the new article will live.
- Click the + New Article button.
- Once the New Article page, you could select a Category.
- Enter the Subject, Body, and Summary of the article.
- Add Tags.
- Select whether to be notified on feedback.
- Click Save.
If you have the permission to Review all articles, you will be able to select the Status of the article to choose whether it will be created as Submitted, Not Submitted, Approved, or Rejected.
Learn how to use article templates, and use revisions to see past versions of an article.
After your article is saved, you will see the article page that will display in the knowledge base. This lets you review the article you just wrote.
Along the right side of the page is a Details section that gives the article ID, submission status, information on whether it is Published or Public, the Owner, and the Created and last Modified dates.
Above this Details section you will see an Edit Article button and a Submit Article button.
To submit an article for review, click the Submit Article button.
Once submitted, a user without the Always Edit Articles permission cannot edit the article again unless the reviewer rejects and send it back to them. Just being the owner/creator of an article does not inherently give a user the ability to edit their articles.
A knowledge owner with permission to publish articles will review and publish the article.
You can add related articles to your knowledge base article to quickly link readers to other related materials. Related articles appear on the right side of the article page beneath the Details panel.
To add a related article:
- In the Client Portal, open the knowledge base and navigate to the desired article.
- Click Edit Article.
- Click the Related Articles tab.
- Search for the article you would like to link, either by typing in the search or clicking the magnifying glass.
- Once you have selected an article to link, click Add.
To delete an article, you must have the ability to edit an article as well as the Delete KB Articles permission. If you do not have these permissions, consult with your organization's TeamDynamix administrator. Alternatively, if you are the creator of an article, have access to Work Management, and have not yet submitted your article for review, it can be deleted.
Instead of deleting articles, we recommend using the Archived status to keep the old article in the event that you need to refer back to it. This can be found on the article Settings tab.
To delete an article:
- In the Client Portal, open the knowledge base and navigate to the desired article.
- Click Edit Article.
- On the Edit page, click Delete Article.
- You will be prompted with a confirmation box. You cannot undo this action.
Q. How can I limit knowledge base articles to be visible only to my department/division?
A. There are several settings that affect knowledge base article visibility: the status of the article; whether it's Published; and the article's security settings. Some organizations give their department's users the View all articles security role permission, which lets people see every single article. Others rely on the Published flag--if an article is approved but not published, then it will be visible only to people with Work Management access. Others create a knowledge base category called something like "Internal knowledge" and share that category with a group representing internal staff. Furthermore, you can add specific knowledge bases to specific client portals apps, which also can help reduce visibility to people who may not have access to that client portal app.
Q. How can I report on articles?
A. There is a Knowledge base article report source, which you can access in Work Management from ticketing applications as well as from Analysis.
Q. Who can see knowledge base feedback?
A. Depending on your settings, logged in users (or anyone in the world) can provide feedback including whether an article is helpful along with notes. Only Work Management users can see the feedback details.
Q. How should we handle knowledge base feedback?
A. In the knowledge base, there is a Feedback option. This lets you review feedback and filter for feedback that is Not Addressed. You can click on this feedback to mark it addressed. This is a simple workflow for ensuring that all feedback is reviewed.
Q. How can I ensure my permissions are set appropriately?
A. In the knowledge base, there is a Permissions Audit option. This will show all unique knowledge base permissions, including a broken link icon whenever the permissions are changed.
Q. Can I add inline images to knowledge base articles?
A. Yes. Using the knowledge base editor, click the picture icon. In the dialog box that appears, one of the tabs is called Upload. This lets you upload a picture that you can then insert into the knowledge base article.
Q. How does the 'publish' check box work?
A. In general, a published item will be visible to users who only have read-only access to the Client Portal. The Client Portal user may be able to interact with that item, such as add comments or attachments, but they will not be able to edit/delete that item. An item may be unpublished at any time, thus removing access to that item from the Client Portal user. Unpublishing items has no affect to a user with access to the Work Management application.
Gotchas & Pitfalls
- Organizations often find importing knowledge base articles challenging both for technical and editorial reasons.
- There are several mechanisms to import articles, but they cannot handle categories.
- The need to review old articles or make updates to content or metadata can make bulk importing impractical.
- Keeping content up to date requires regular care. To combat this, the TDX system allows clients to leave feedback on knowledge base articles. This enables clients to provide suggestions on how articles can be improved, or comment upon which parts of the document are successful. It is, however, up to the article's owner to ensure that feedback is addressed. When editing an article, the Notify Owner on Feedback option in the Settings tab can be selected so that the article’s owner receives an email whenever the article receives feedback.
Examples
To get some ideas of what the knowledge base application can do for you, have a look at:
Below are example knowledge base article titles.
Organization A
- Adding a picture to Office 365 Exchange Account
- Best Practice - Student Worker Time Approval Process
- Bomgar Basics
- Forgot Password?
- Media Services Equipment: Wireless Microphones
- Student Worker Walk-In Script
- Troubleshooting Procedures - Software
Organization B
- Cell Phone Stipend FAQ
- Change Telephone Service
- DocuSign: Managing Forms/Signatures
- Install Office on a Personal Computer
- OneDrive Best Practices
- Remote Wipe