Choosing a knowledge management platform in 2025 isn’t just about adopting new technology – it’s about finding a solution that turns scattered information into real business value. With a crowded market full of bold claims and AI buzzwords, knowing what truly matters makes all the difference.

The decision has been made to introduce a new knowledge management solution to handle the scattered bits of information within the company, the individual experiences gained by each department and specialist, the company practices, and the data accumulated during business operations to date. This first step is often difficult, but once we recognize that this leap is necessary to increase the efficiency of our colleagues and strengthen the company's competitiveness, we are already on the right track.

Let's also consider that the renewal of internal processes is not only a technological task but also requires a transformation of corporate culture, detailed communication of changes and benefits, and a functioning feedback system. We handle this transformation well: now both decision-makers and employees are ready for the organization to keep pace with the latest challenges and even stay ahead of them by purchasing, integrating, and using a new KM platform. We have already gone through these steps in previous posts, so now it's time to decide which solution from the multi-player KM market is the best in terms of the recommended features and in light of our company's specific requirements.

Too many options and too little help

When corporate decision-makers first look at the market for knowledge management solution providers, they can easily become uncertain. This is no surprise, as this area has become one of the most important in recent years. New solutions have also entered the market, such as generative AI, which is considered the latest technological sensation. With all the fancy marketing texts, shiny ads promising to solve every problem, and a sea of unfamiliar technical terms, it's not easy to figure out which could be the best real solution for our organization. That's why it's worth summarizing the most essential features of today's KM solutions and then looking for the platform that performs best in these areas based on expert analysis and honest feedback.

In such cases, it is worth relying on independent, reliable sources to see the whole market and the specifics of what the players offer. Forrester's impartiality and professional background are unquestionable, which is why the recently published Forrester Wave: Knowledge Management Solutions, Q4 2024 report, which analyzes the most essential players in the KM market individually, evaluating and weighting the most critical characteristics separately, not only provides a simple final result on who is the best, but also shows the exact strengths of each platform and how they perform in the most critical areas.

Choosing the best solution: general benefits and customized options

Overall, it can be beneficial for decision-makers considering implementing a KM system to know that Atlassian was clearly ranked in the leading category in the Forrester Wave analysis, which summarizes expert opinions and user feedback, and even took first place based on the strength of the offering. However, to choose not just the best but also the one that is best suited for our organization, we need to dig deeper. So, let's see what areas experts consider most important in a KM platform and how Atlassian's solutions perform in each of them!

The Forrester Wave report breaks down the detailed analysis of KM solutions into dozens of areas and indicates the percentage importance of these areas within the overall picture. One of the most critical areas is knowledge reporting, analytics, and insights, which is no surprise, as it shows how a platform helps turn the information gathered by a company's departments and professionals into a systematic, easily searchable knowledge base that is valuable to everyone. Atlassian performs well in this area but excels in one of the newest areas, generative knowledge creation.

This is finally an area for which artificial intelligence was truly invented! Although AI has tried to amaze people in many forms of use with wonders ranging from images created out of thin air to animated deepfake videos, its true power lies in its ability to help people in their everyday work. The essence of generative knowledge creation, rated 5 out of 5 by Forrester experts, is to form the knowledge gathered by individuals into an easily searchable and usable system with as little manual work as possible.

Another key area is ML, AI, or cognitive services, which also falls under the umbrella of artificial intelligence. This refers to solutions that make it easier for everyone to use the KM platform. Users must have as little new learning as possible when using the new solution, that they can formulate their questions and searches in spoken language, and that the knowledge base is available to them in an easily understandable form, so that they only must worry about what problem they are looking for a solution to, rather than how to find it.

Atlassian also performed excellently in other key areas in Forrester's report, such as knowledge artifacts, community and collaboration, content ingestion and suggested answers, and automation. All of these are paramount in ensuring that introducing a KM platform is not just a necessary modernization step but a real solution.

The above topics fall under the category of current offerings, but the report also deals with strategy separately. Within this, the most critical areas are vision and innovation, but the partner ecosystem and community are equally important, and Atlassian also received the highest score in these areas. Why is all this important? Because before introducing a KM platform, it is worth considering not only the specific functions and current offerings, but also the vision of the system, how it will help in new areas of application that arise during use, how closely it follows developments in the business world and technology, and the partner solutions and community resources available for customizing the system to meet specific needs. What partner solutions and community resources are available to customize the system?

Read the full report and don't hesitate to ask

The Forrester Wave: Knowledge Management Solutions, Q4 2024 is free to view and download. Click on the link to read the summary and access the complete analysis of each industry player – this gives a clear picture of the composition of today's KM market, the strengths and potential challenges of each platform, and we are proud that Atlassian has finished at the top of the range. 

But this may still not be enough, as an analysis cannot show in a comprehensive way how a platform performs based on an organization's specific requirements, how well it can be tailored to create real value, actually be able to boost employee performance, and generate a visible competitive advantage for the business. So, after reading this report, get in touch with us! With the help of our experts, you can assess how your company can leap ten steps up the efficiency ladder instead of just one!

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