Knova Knowledge Management vs. Salesforce Service Cloud

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Knova
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Knova KM is a full-featured knowledge management software solution for large customer service and support organizations, especially those that must handle complex queries across channels in industries such as high tech, telecommunications, financial services, and the IT help desk. It is supported by Avolin headquartered in Austin, the company created from the sale of Aptean Vertical Business Applications to ESW Capital in 2018.N/A
Salesforce Service Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Service Cloud is a customer service platform that helps businesses manage and resolve customer inquiries and issues. It provides tools for case management, knowledge base, omni-channel support, automation, and analytics, enabling companies to deliver exceptional customer service experiences.
$25
per month
Pricing
Knova Knowledge ManagementSalesforce Service Cloud
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Starter Suite
$25
per month
Professional
$80
per month
Enterprise
$165
per month per user
Unlimited
$165
per month per user
Unlimited+
$165
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
KnovaSalesforce Service Cloud
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Knova Knowledge ManagementSalesforce Service Cloud
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Knova Knowledge ManagementSalesforce Service Cloud
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Knova Knowledge Management
-
Ratings
Salesforce Service Cloud
8.8
68 Ratings
11% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.866 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings8.547 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings9.256 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.452 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.266 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings8.865 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Knova Knowledge Management
-
Ratings
Salesforce Service Cloud
9.0
64 Ratings
15% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings9.157 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings9.062 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Knova Knowledge Management
-
Ratings
Salesforce Service Cloud
8.9
68 Ratings
15% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings8.948 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings8.531 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings8.642 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings9.367 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings9.259 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Knova Knowledge ManagementSalesforce Service Cloud
Small Businesses
Notion
Notion
Score 8.8 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Tridion
Tridion
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Tridion
Tridion
Score 9.0 out of 10
SAP Service Cloud
SAP Service Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Knova Knowledge ManagementSalesforce Service Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
3.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(74 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.5
(6 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(12 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(19 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(7 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(20 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Knova Knowledge ManagementSalesforce Service Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
Avolin
We expereienced an upgrade by Aptean in March 2014 and it actually created issues with our interfaces to Word and well as performance issues. As of November, we have most of the performance issues resolved, however our interface with Word is still not working. It takes alot of upfront work to convert with Word and with the upgrade that was affected. Authors are still frustrated with many issues in the formatting and editing of existing data. A vital tool to update the product home pages has not been available except for sporadic late night periods since the upgrade in March. Overall, many authors are not happy with this knowledge management tool
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Salesforce
This is great for cold calling and starting clients from scratch. A lot of entry is required to build a customer profile, but if you are diligent in entering this information, then it can be extremely useful, and you will thank yourself down the road for having an organized database with as many or few details stored. It is a little more challenging for existing customers who have a wealth of information on their files because the transfer of information can be quite tedious.
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Pros
Avolin
  • Aptean offers simple access to Knowledge Management for our Clients, Customer Support teams as well as internal support teams. Allows our knowledge management team the ability to provide consistent and up-to-date processes and troubleshooting tips for our associates as well as ADP Clients.
  • Aptean provides an easy to use user interface with tools for authors that mimic Microsoft Word (Cut, Paste, Spell Check, Bullets, Indentation etc). It also provides an easy to user user interface for our associates in accessing the Knowledge Management solutions. The Search tool is very powerful and allows the users quick access to the information they need!
  • In the more than 3 years that we have been using Consona/Aptean, we have had very little down time. This is important to our authors as well as end users in being able to access the information. Allowing the authors the ability to update the information in near real time is another key feature of keeping our information current.
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Salesforce
  • Allows us to make changes quickly and with relative ease
  • Can be flexible enough to use among several teams who do very different work
  • Salesforce in general provides SO much training that anyone on the team can skill up and help maintain the system
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Cons
Avolin
  • We have experienced some slowness with importing pictures into our Aptean application. While they do eventually complete, it is very timeconsuming when several images are needed. Definitely tries our patience, or consider not including them at all!
  • Some of the formatting issues transfering our information from Word to Aptean are still challenging and require too much manual intervention than necessary.
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Salesforce
  • Incredibly complex to set up and configure.
  • Multiple points of potential failure.
  • Things Desk.com did out-of-the-box require customized code and components in Service Cloud.
  • Front-facing community is extremely difficult to configure and comes with many limitations.
  • No help is provided by Salesforce without expensive Premiere Support plans.
  • Expensive! Hidden costs and development costs are going to make Service Cloud far more expensive than almost any other Help Desk provider out there.
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Likelihood to Renew
Avolin
Many business units are using the Aptean product for knowledge management and a change now would be too crucial to the processes that the associates are becoming familiar with using. We have spent a lot of time promoting our Aptean Knowledge Management tool and interfaced it with our call tracking system.
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Salesforce
Professional edition works best for a small company with lower call volumes and is very useful but as you grow exponetially I think it has limited ability to do all the things we want to - SLA management, defect, release management to name a few. Reports and dashboards being available in real time.
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Usability
Avolin
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
I had Salesforce experience prior to using Service Cloud which made it a little easier to learn and navigate, but overall my team (some who had no Salesforce experience) caught on very quickly and found Service Cloud to be easy to use.
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Reliability and Availability
Avolin
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Salesforce has a more than 99% uptime rate and Salesforce Service Cloud is no exception. I have never had any issues experiencing outages or service degradation when it comes to using the Service Cloud product (that I can remember). Always reliable and easy to use, I would recommend this product as your go-to for helpdesk, service desk, incident management, call center, and other business process needs.
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Performance
Avolin
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
There are issues with page load performance and database performance for sure, but we are a very complex setup with a lot of automation and processing for 2000+ users so this is not surprising. We are also global, so the issue with distance from the regional servers is a problem.
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Support Rating
Avolin
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
It depends on what support package you buy from Salesforce. That can be good or bad. It's highly flexible to your needs pricing wise. If you have devs on staff then don't buy support. If you don't, then sfdc offers support for a cost.
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Implementation Rating
Avolin
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
We are still working through issues with the implementation. Things are also always changing so the original implementation required many changes
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Alternatives Considered
Avolin
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Salesforce service cloud is more configurable than Zendesk and Freshdesk. It has its own inbuilt AI chatbot also which further improves service agent efficiency. Salesforce is more integration agnostic and has pre-built connectors with multiple 3rd party systems. However, in terms of pricing it is priced at a premium compared to the other solutions
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Return on Investment
Avolin
  • Increased Employee Effciency adding ability to look up processes and troubleshooting tips is invaluable.
  • Ability to share information with our Client Facing interface, which results in better customer service. Encouraging ADP associates and clients to become more self sufficient is what we're all about!
  • Ability to keep the information current with the effciency of the product.
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Salesforce
  • Because this is a cloud service, the security, implementation framework and feature list is very mature and you don't have to develop these during implementation.
  • The larger the implementation programme the better the licensing arrangements
  • Free developer toolkit for proof of concepts or showcasing features
  • Limited to annual subscription model
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ScreenShots

Salesforce Service Cloud Screenshots

Screenshot of Workflows and OrchestrationScreenshot of Service CatalogScreenshot of Contact Center