Salesforce Service Cloud Knowledge Management LifeCycle

Navigating the complexities of Knowledge Management within Salesforce can dramatically transform how organizations create, manage, and leverage their knowledge base to enhance customer service and internal processes. 

This blog provides a comprehensive overview of the Knowledge Management Lifecycle, elucidating how knowledge articles are created, maintained, and utilized to bolster a company’s information repository. By delving into this guide, you’ll gain insights into:

• The Creation Process: Learn the steps to initiate knowledge articles, from drafting to publication readiness.
• Publishing Dynamics: Understand the nuances of making your articles available to the intended audience, including scheduling and visibility considerations.
• Article Evolution: Discover how to keep your content fresh and relevant through updates and version control.
• Lifecycle Management: Grasp the procedures for archiving, deleting, and managing permissions of knowledge articles to ensure content integrity and compliance.

Let’s get started!

Knowledge Management Lifecycle Overview

Knowledge Articles are documents of information that act as building blocks for a company’s knowledge base. Knowledge Articles follow a defined lifecycle that allows writers to draft, publish, and edit while maintaining version history and archive knowledge articles.

Create

• Select the record type, and enter Title, URL, and article content.
• Article remains in Draft status till Published.
• The Article is not visible to users while in Draft state.

Publish

• Articles can be published now or scheduled to be published later.
• Article Status is updated to Published when the article has been Published.

Update

• Published articles can be edited as drafts to keep the content up-to-date.
• Published version remains online until the draft is published.
• Flag the article as a new version to create a new version number.

Archive

• Archiving articles removes the knowledge article from customers, partners, and internal users’ views.
• Archived articles, if not deleted and can be restored and republished.

Delete

• Deleting articles moves the article into the recycle bin for 14 days.
• Deleting articles removes the knowledge article from cases.

Knowledge Article Versions

When the admin updates and publishes an existing article, the older article records are stored as Article versions. Versions allow admins to save and view which version of an article is associated with a case-selecting the ‘Flag as new version’ checkbox publishes the article as a new version of the existing article.

Key Features

• When a new version of an article is published, the older version that was attached to cases is flagged as outdated. For example, ‘Article A’ Version 2 (outdated).
• The Version History list on an article record shows the list of all the archived versions of the article.
• Salesforce restores up to ten versions of an article and any version attached to a case.
• Versions are also visible in case reports. This allows the admins to find and read the exact versions attached to cases.
• The older versions of an article can be restored and republished.

Knowledge Article Permissions

• Allow View Knowledge – Allows users to read, search published knowledge articles, and attach published articles to cases.
• View Draft Articles – Allows users to read, search unpublished knowledge articles and be an article owner.
• View Archived Articles – Allows users to read and search archived knowledge articles.
• Archive Articles – Allows users to archive and restore or delete archived articles.
• Publish Articles – Allows users to publish articles.
• Manage Articles – Allows users to create, edit, delete, change record type, change the owner of articles, assign articles, archive, publish, edit published articles, and delete draft translations.
• Manage Salesforce Knowledge – Allows users to manage Salesforce Knowledge Settings and create, edit and delete article types.

Insert Articles into Channels

The Lightning Knowledge component and related list actions allow agents to embed articles directly in social, chat, messaging conversations, and the body of customer emails. Communication Channel Mappings can be defined to specify which article fields are included for each channel and record type.

Feature & Considerations

• Agents with special permissions can choose to share internal or draft articles while sharing articles through a channel.
• Email-to-case must be enabled to share articles in emails.
• Social Customer Service must be enabled to share articles in social posts.
• Chat or Messaging must be enabled to share articles via chat or messages.
• Agents can change the article content before sharing the articles via any channel.

Use Case 1 

Auto Car has designated a few experienced service agents to retire published knowledge articles when the article reaches the end of their lifecycle. The agents can also restore any retired article but not publish or edit published articles. Which permission should be given to these service agents?

Solution: Archive Articles

Reason: Knowledge articles can be retired or made non-accessible to users by archiving them. The Archive Articles permission will suffice as the requirement is only to allow users to archive and restore articles. The Manage Articles permission would have allowed agents to create, edit, delete, publish, edit published articles, and delete draft translations.

Use Case 2

Sun Solar wants to allow service agents that are relatively new to the company. They use articles to answer customer queries. The agents should be able to associate articles with cases. Which permission will suffice this requirement?

Solution: Allow View Knowledge

Reason: The Allow View Knowledge permission allows users to read, search published knowledge articles, and attach published articles to cases.

Conclusion 

In wrapping up our journey through the Knowledge Management Lifecycle in Salesforce, it’s clear that mastering these processes is key to unlocking the full potential of your organization’s knowledge base. Whether you’re drafting, publishing, updating, or managing knowledge articles, each step plays a crucial role in ensuring that your content remains relevant, accessible, and impactful.

Ready to elevate your Salesforce expertise? Dive into saasguru’s comprehensive suite of resources designed to supercharge your learning journey. Sign up with saasguru for a free trial and gain access to over 18 Salesforce Certification Courses, 50+ Mock Exams, and 50+ Salesforce Labs for an immersive hands-on experience. 

Begin your path to Salesforce mastery with saasguru and transform your professional future.