Building a Global Knowledge Base
Case Study
Transforming Complexity into Clarity for a Worldwide Operations Team
🏢 About the Client
A Fortune 500 technology company with a decentralized, international operations team and a footprint that spans across continents. Headquarters in California, with teams located around the world.
The Challenge
The client’s internal operations teams were relying on a sprawling, outdated knowledge base hosted on an on-prem SharePoint platform. With over 1,000 critical documents — policies, checklists, diagrams, and more — the system was hard to navigate, inconsistently maintained, and filled with outdated or duplicative content.
Staff struggled to find the “single source of truth,” and the tool itself was slowing them down instead of supporting their work. The legacy platform had simply not kept up with the pace of global operations or evolving user needs.
Our Approach
We kicked off the engagement with a full discovery and current-state assessment:
- Conducted a deep analysis of the existing content library
- Interviewed nearly 50 staff across global locations
- Evaluated how people, process, and technology intersected in day-to-day knowledge sharing
We focused on leveraging existing platforms and licenses to avoid unnecessary costs — prioritizing Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online — while designing a solution that could scale and evolve.
Just as critical as the technology: governance. We helped define clear roles, processes, and content lifecycles to ensure the new system would remain usable and sustainable long after launch.
The Solution
We designed a modern, intuitive SharePoint Online-based knowledge base, including:
- A streamlined information architecture with custom taxonomy and site navigation
- Dynamic search and filtering for better discoverability
- Mobile-friendly design for global accessibility
- Embedded on-the-fly translation into multiple languages
- Clear ownership and review processes to keep content fresh
Our team also worked hands-on:
- Built wireframes and site templates
- Refreshed and rewrote 1,000+ articles for clarity and consistency
- Served as content curators and implementation partners
The Impact
Within 6 months, the new knowledge base was live. In under a year, we had fully transitioned operations to the internal team — equipped with training, governance guidance, and support materials.
Key outcomes:
- Massive time savings for global staff locating the right information
- Real-time translation of content into all major operating languages — eliminating costly delays and reducing translation spend by thousands (if not millions)
- Improved engagement from subject matter experts, who now regularly update and manage content
- Positive feedback from teams across the globe, paired with measurable success metrics
Why It Worked
This wasn’t just a platform upgrade — it was a strategic rethinking of how knowledge flows across a global organization. By addressing the people, process, and platform aspects together, we helped our client shift from chaos to clarity — and made knowledge a competitive advantage.
