Knowledge Bases & Knowledge Hubs: connect, find and use knowledge intelligently.
When key people leave IT, more than a user account often disappears: context disappears. That is exactly what our session at the WIMA Webconference on 24.06.2026 is about: how organizations make critical infrastructure knowledge visible, traceable and permanently usable.
Under the title „When the admin leaves, the knowledge must not disappear" Thomas Gomell and Rüdiger Massih show why modern IT documentation should not be maintained after the fact, but has to be created directly within the work process.
Why IT knowledge has to be secured differently today
In many organizations, IT knowledge is not really documented. It is embedded in group structures that have grown over time, historical permissions, old file server paths, SharePoint sites, Teams, scripts, exceptions and the personal routines of individual administrators. As long as all key people are available, this is barely noticeable. It becomes critical when someone is unavailable, changes role or leaves the company.
A classic inventory list is then no longer sufficient. It may show that a group exists. But it does not answer the decisive questions: why does this group exist? Which data is attached to it? Who is responsible on the business side? Which decision led to this permission? And who approved the last change?
The central question
How do scattered technical details become a robust knowledge model that will still be understood tomorrow?
The distinctive MAX approach: knowledge emerges from relationships
migRaven.MAX does not regard IT documentation as an isolated repository for technical states. The approach goes further: MAX links information from Active Directory, Entra ID, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and file servers into a coherent picture. This makes visible how users, groups, data, systems, applications, departments and responsible people are connected with one another.
That is the difference between „collecting data" and „making knowledge usable". Only when relationships become visible is it possible to trace what effects a change has, which permission is critical or where responsibilities are missing.
Analyze
MAX makes visible which identities, groups, permissions, data areas and Microsoft 365 structures exist.
Link
Individual pieces of information form a Knowledge Graph: relationships between users, groups, data, systems and owners become traceable.
Document
Changes are not only carried out, they are also linked to comments, justifications, approvals and responsibilities.
Documentation becomes part of the IT process
The strongest lever is not another documentation obligation, but a guided work process. When changes are made to users, groups, permissions or data structures, it should not only be the technical state that is updated. At the same time it must become traceable why this change was necessary, who requested it, who approved it and which business context it belongs to.
The added value for IT, security and compliance
MAX creates an additional knowledge layer above the technical state: a traceable decision history. This turns a change from a merely administrative operation into a documented building block of corporate knowledge.
The result: Handovers become easier, audits more robust, responsibilities clearer and decisions traceable even years later.
What we show in the Webconference
The talk deliberately stays close to practice. It focuses on typical situations in IT environments that have grown over time: unclear groups, inherited permissions, unknown data owners, distributed Microsoft 365 structures and documentation that quickly becomes outdated in everyday operations.
The topics at a glance
- Why implicit IT knowledge becomes a real risk for operations, security and compliance
- How technical data from AD, Entra ID, Teams, SharePoint and file servers is related to one another
- How a Knowledge Graph works as a knowledge hub for infrastructure information
- Why comments, justifications, approvals and responsibilities should be documented directly within the change process
- How organizations make handovers easier, prepare audits and keep decisions traceable in the long term
The core of the MAX approach: Infrastructure knowledge must not depend on who happens to be with the company. It has to be visible in the system, maintained within the process and usable in context.
Who the session is particularly relevant for
IT management and administration
For teams that have to understand, clean up and permanently control AD, Microsoft 365 and file server structures that have grown over time.
Security and compliance
For those responsible who want to make permissions, changes and decisions traceable and to improve audit readiness.
Knowledge management and digitalization
For organizations that do not only look for knowledge in documents, but want to make technical, business and organizational relationships usable.
Date and speakers
WIMA Webconference: Knowledge Bases & Knowledge Hubs
Date: 24.06.2026 Our slot: 11:00 to 11:30 Talk: When the admin leaves, the knowledge must not disappear Speakers: Thomas Gomell and Rüdiger Massih
Anyone who wants to understand how a living Knowledge Hub for infrastructure knowledge emerges from grown IT structures will find a compact, practical introduction in this talk.
