The Purpose

This is an introduction to out-of-the-box functionality within Dynamics 365 CRM using the Interactive Services Hub.  This will serve as the first in a series of posts that will introduce and demonstrate the advantages of using Knowledge Articles for your organization’s knowledge base.

Capturing Knowledge Using Microsoft Dynamics 365

Organizing the customer support knowledge that an organization has accumulated over time is a challenging task, therefore, it usually ends in one of the following ways:

• The knowledge collected isn’t actionable.
• The user buy-in rate is low.
• The information captured doesn’t improve or assist in any business operations.

With Dynamics 365 CRM Knowledge Articles, you can avoid the pitfalls that organizations normally face when developing a knowledge base.

Referencing Knowledge

Customer service personnel create and work cases. They will encounter many similar challenges in support of your client’s interaction with your products and services. There may also be obscure resolutions that only the most senior personnel have experienced and resolved. Dynamics 365 CRM provides the ability to link Knowledge Articles directly to cases.  Using these features, service personnel can create Knowledge Articles, associate them with relevant cases, and finally, reference them while supporting your clients.  Repeatable and actionable knowledge.

Interactive Services Hub

The Interactive Services Hub is an additional user interface that is used to interact with the services module within CRM.  This hub was built using the mobile client and takes into consideration mobile service technicians and their growing use of tablets in the field.  This interface is designed as a quick one-stop shop for support personnel, providing them the essentials needed to support their clients.  There are many features that can be explored within the Interactive Services Hub, however, we will be focusing on how you can use Knowledge Articles to build your company’s knowledge base.

Working with cases in the Interactive Services Hub

Launch the interactive services hub by navigating to Settings -> Application -> Interactive Services Hub

The services hub may take a few seconds to load. After the services hub loads you will be presented with a dashboard that looks similar to the following:

You can then navigate to Cases via the ribbon.

Opening up a case will present you with a form designed specifically for the interactive services hub.

Associating Knowledge Articles with a Case

At the far right of the Case form, you will find a Related Information section. (see image)

• Select the tab with the book icon (representing Knowledge Articles)
• Use the search box to search for applicable articles containing information relevant to resolving your case.
• Use the link (green box)  or  unlink (blue box) to associate or disassociate an article with the case.

Summary

This post introduces some of the benefits of compiling a company knowledge base, the Interactive Services Hub, and how you can utilize Dynamics 365 CRM Knowledge Articles to support your customer support staff.

Future

Part II in this series will cover Knowledge Article creation and management in detail.  Knowledge base management is an area that organizations often neglect when jumping into the knowledge base and internal wiki game.  Poor knowledge base management will yield outdated articles and a frustrating experience for your users, resulting in low employee adoption.  Dynamics 365 CRM provides many tools to ensure that your knowledge base stays up-to-date and relevant, increasing buy-in and providing value to your support staff.