How does it works?

TeamKB for Outlook is installed as a COM-addin for Microsoft Outlook 2003/2007, and uses an Exchange resource such as a public folder or a shared mailbox, for storing knowledge base articles and for enabling collaboration throughout the organization. TeamKB makes working on knowledge base articles very easy by seamlessly integrating the process of submitting, assigning, reviewing and approval all inside your much used Microsoft Outlook!

Staffs with TeamKB installed, can submit new articles, review and approve/reject new pending articles assigned to the staff, or can make administrative changes in the settings. They can also browse and select an existing article and insert it into an email.   The following flowchart summarizes the overall functionalities and scope of TeamKB within your organization:

1. Administrator configures settings
Define Access Control, Authors list, drop-down lists such as problems, Email Templates for automatic notifications, Web Access

2. Staff submits new KB article
Your organization staff creates a KB article (either as new, or from an existing email) and when it is posted, TeamKB checks if the staff (author) has admin-access. If yes, the article will be published outright in the TeamKB 'Published Articles' folder, and an automatic notification will be send to all staffs on the availability of a new article. If no, TeamKB will assign the editor, who is responsible for the selected problem, to the article and will be posted under the 'Pending Articles' folder. An automatic notification of new assignment will be sent to the editor.

3. Editor reviews the pending article
Once the notification is received, the concerned editor starts reviewing the pending article. If necessary, required changes are made, and then approved. Once approved, the article is allocated a unique KB number, and is published under the 'Published Articles' folder, and is available for use. If rejected, the article will be removed the system. Either ways, notification email will be sent to the author, informing on the status of the article. When published, all staffs are automatically informed on the availability of a new article.

4. End-user emails you for support
An end-user sends a support email regarding an issue that your support team are already aware of. With TeamKB, what all the support staff has to do, is to just click the 'reply with a KB' button available in the Outlook toolbar, and the select an appropriate article from a dialog box, that has all the knowledge base articles arranged in category/type hierarchy tree. You can then either, insert the article content (along with the attachments and embedded images) directly into the reply email, or, even better, insert the select article as a PDF/XPS/DOC document attachment to the email. All these in two clicks!

Each published article in TeamKB is uniquely identified by a number. Outlook views are used to arrange these KB articles in the way, you want it. For example, the above view groups the articles in multi-tiered categories and their corresponding types such that it is easy to find the right article under a problem type.

As a knowledge base administrator, you can create a list of authors, who would be allowed to post new articles. To ease creation of authors list, you can import users directly from Active Directory. Optionally, you can specify if each author can have access to TeamKB administrative settings as well as post new article and publish it without needing proper approval from the editor.     The administrator would also define the problems list, which is nothing, but a multi-tiered arrangement of categories and types. Each category can have a list of types. Each type can have a default editor assigned. When a new article is posted by an author with non-admin access, it would be put in the pending list and depending on the problem selected, TeamKB would assign a default editor, who will review the pending article and will decide if to approve or reject. If it is approved, it is published with a unique KB number. Email notifications are then sent out automatically to the concerned author o the status of the article.