KM in Large Corporations

What is the most popular organizational knowledge management tool?

Confluence, developed and marketed by Atlassian, is one of the most popular platforms for corporate knowledge management. However, if you look at some forums and memes - you might get some doubts. 

It is common for Atlassian products to get some criticism, but due to a well balanced product offer and seamless integration across the tools (e.g. with Jira, Bitbucket) - Atlassian manages to satisfy a wide range of needs and stay market leader. Many companies get dependent on the tech stack and even if there might be a better tool for one of the functions - it is not an easy decision to compromise the overall integration.

What is Confluence?

Confluence is a collaboration tool that allows teams to get organized (calendar, minutes of meeting, task assignment etc.), create and share knowledge, lead discussions, and even capture process diagrams, mind maps, and technical documentation. 

What is my experience?

I do like Confluence as a collaborative space for knowledge sharing. For me it is an interesting combination of wiki functionality and customized team spaces. It could be a perfect solution for middle sized companies with user base of 50-500 people. 

For smaller companies, I might rather go for Notion. And for larger organizations - content management with Confluence gets a little tricky due to a lack of control mechanisms (reporting, statistics, taxonomy, approval workflows etc.).

Who uses Confluence?

83% of Fortune 500 companies use Atlassian products. They serve some large clients like LinkedIn, NASA, and GoPro among others. Interestingly, Facebook and Netflix are also referenced in older sources as Confluence users - I wonder if they have moved to a different platform and to which one in that case.

How much is Confluence?

There is an opportunity to try Confluence with the free plan for up to 10 users. The cost for larger teams goes to 5USD per user/month for Standard and 10USD for Premium packages.

With which other products can be integrated Confluence?

Seamless integration with other tools (3,000+ Marketplace apps) is definitely among the main reasons for steady growth and popularity of Confluence. 

What tools are similar to Confluence?

In case of corporations, one of the main alternatives to Confluence is SharePoint. 

What is Confluence used for apart of KM?

Some of the uses: Collaboration, Content Management, Document Management, Enterprise Content Management, Idea Management, Knowledge Management, Product Management, Product Roadmap, Project Management, Project Planning, Requirements Management, Team Management (Read here more on useful features)