Knowledgebase recommendations

August 26, 2011 5:35 AM

Knowledgebase software recommendations needed - what software are you using to maintain a knowledgebase for your customers?

I'm the tech writer at a small web hosting company, and as part of my job I maintain our knowledgebase. This contains all the customer-facing user guides, release notes, FAQs, policies, etc. Currently we're using the knowledgebase that comes with Kayako Fusion, who make a fantastic ticket system, but a crappy KB. I've been asked to look for a replacement, and wanted to see if anyone here had any particular product to recommend.

Some requirements:

Web based/self-hosted - this must live on our servers
All in one solution - this needs to be a standalone product, not a dozen or so WordPress/Drupal/Joomla modules hammered together
Linux/Apache - we're not a Windows shop, which means no IIS or Sharepoint
Language requirements - we can do PHP/perl/Python, Ruby on Rails, and Java (Tomcat, JBoss, GlassFish, Liferay)
Allows branding - our colors, logo, theme, etc

If this product also had access controls that would let me move all our internal tech guides and company procedures from our aging intranet to it, and keep those private, that would be a plus.

My preference is to purchase or license a product that meets our needs, but if there is a well-maintained open source solution that will work, I would be glad to take a look at that also.

posted by ralan to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Best answer: I use Atlassian Confluence. I'm pretty sure it supports all your requirements, except possibly the "all in one" (there is an option to use an embedded database but they don't advise it for production environments, it's pretty easy to setup Postgres or MySQL for it instead). Their own web pages are a good example of some of the things you can do with it, most (all?) of it's built on Confluence.
posted by Runes at 6:39 AM on August 26, 2011

Best answer: I've used different KB solutions and I also recommend Confluence wiki, especially regarding the security requirements you have. What format are your internal docs in? You can attach them to the wiki pages and permission those pages (or highest-level 'spaces') private. The search might only work for attached Office files though, I'm not sure.

And I'm just throwing this out there: Consona KM integrates both ticketing and KB solutions. It's pretty neat though maybe you don't need it if you are happy with Kayako.
posted by methroach at 7:15 AM on August 26, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks for the replies.

I looked at Confluence about a year and a half ago while researching project management apps, but for some reason didn't think of it as a knowledgebase replacement. I'll give it another look to see if it can fit our needs.

My workflow is to write in markdown, then convert to HTML (and do lots of fiddly things to the images to make them work in Kayako), and then paste that into the WYSIWTF (not a typo) editor that comes with the Kayako KB. If the editor in Confluence sucks less than theirs does, that will be a big selling point in its favor.

I'll also take a look at Consona KM. That is one that hasn't come up yet in my searching. The big boss is frustrated enough with the direction Kayako is taking their entire product that he might be willing to start fresh on a totally new system.
posted by ralan at 1:44 PM on August 26, 2011