In this paper, the authors demonstrate the suitability of IT-supported knowledge repositories for knowledge retention. Successful knowledge retention is dependent on what is stored in a repository and, hence, possible to share. Accordingly, the ability to capture the right (relevant) knowledge is a key aspect. Therefore, to increase the quality in an IT-supported knowledge repository, the identification activity, which starts the capture process, must be successfully performed. While critical success factors (CSFs) for knowledge retention and knowledge management are frequently discussed in the literature, there is a knowledge gap concerning CSFs for this specific knowledge capture activity. From a knowledge retention perspective, this paper proposes a model that characterizes CSFs for the identification activity and highlights the CSFs' contribution to knowledge retention.