By defining the customer journey and who will use the catalog for what reasons, you will be able to better address their needs. This is especially helpful for remote workers, who may have a more difficult time understanding or knowing which IT services are available to them. Additionally, this step helps create more clear distinctions in IT services for all members of management who may be unclear on the expectations of IT.
When designing your IT service catalog, the user interface is central to its success. Elements such as shopping carts will drive user-acceptance and a simple design environment will enable new IT process realization that goes beyond ITIL, to fulfill a truly consumerized service culture. Part of this is realized through an IT self-service portal or app that functions similarly to the knowledge management database.
When accessible anywhere, customers are more empowered to use the catalog to find what they need. To see an example of an IT service catalog and how to build it, check out our video from EV Connect here:.
Pink Elephant has also compiled several IT service catalog examples here. You can also see more examples of an EasyVista IT service catalog and learn how to build your catalog here. Creating your IT service catalog is just one important piece of the service delivery and service management puzzle.
She has more than 14 years of global leadership experience in the ITSM software industry, bringing numerous software companies into new markets. She is a sought-after presenter at conferences and contributor to several leading industry publications. The technical service catalog, along with configuration information, outlines how business and technical services and processes work together to provide value to the customers.
It is a valuable tool for teams involved in the various value chain activities of creating, managing, and supporting the services such as service desks, developers, and support and product teams. AWS has a good example of a technical service catalog. Without a technical service catalog, there is no visibility into how underlying components support the service in order to meet customer need. Imagine a situation where a user contacts the service desk complaining about a service, and the agent has no reference point on the service, its importance, or how the service is to be handled.
Both types of service catalog views are important in the overall scheme of IT service management. Both the service provider and the consumer have a lot to gain from well-maintained service catalog information, particularly when the information is current and useful. A stale service catalog serves no one in the service lifecycle.
Here are additional service catalog best practices:. The Gartner Magic Quadrant for ITSM is the gold-standard resource helping you understand the strengths of major ITSM software vendors, insights into platform capabilities, integration opportunities, and many other factors to determine which solution best fits your needs. These postings are my own and do not necessarily represent BMC's position, strategies, or opinion.
See an error or have a suggestion? Please let us know by emailing blogs bmc. Joseph is a global best practice trainer and consultant with over 14 years corporate experience.
His passion is partnering with organizations around the world through training, development, adaptation, streamlining and benchmarking their strategic and operational policies and processes in line with best practice frameworks and international standards. September 11, 5 minute read. In this article, we will: Define a service catalog and its benefits Explain the differences between business service catalogs and technical service catalogs Provide best practices for creating and maintaining service catalogs What is a service catalog?
Defining a business service catalog The business service catalog is the service catalog view that is shared with users and customers. Service catalogue should contain two views determined for two different groups of people:. Since the services are configuration items at the same time, they have adequate interface to other ITIL processes.
This entity is used for particular services. Key atributes are name, description, status, service classification and criticality, supported processes, business owners and users, IT owners, SLA, supporting OLA and contracts, costs and other financial aspects of services, metrics and used strategy insourcing, outsourcing etc.
The above features help to keep all stakeholders in the loop and streamline your communication processes. While we indeed started by defining an "IT" service catalog, digital transformation has permeated across all enterprise business functions. Proven ITSM principles are now being increasingly applied to other business departments such as facilities, HR, and finance, giving rise to enterprise service management ESM.
In this day and age, a service catalog tool should be future-proof by incorporating ESM capabilities; one example is an integrated self-service portal for different departments' service catalogs. Be sure to undertake a detailed assessment of the ROI your organization will receive from implementing an ESM-ready service catalog tool, and proceed only after your organization has implemented a full-fledged IT service catalog.
The above report by Gartner showcases how conversational assistants are reshaping the way people interact with technology. Powered by artificial intelligence AI , chatbots boost service desk efficiency and help technicians deflect tickets and shift their focus to business-critical functions.
Automation capabilities currently offered by most ITSM solutions are static in nature and only help to define rules for specific scenarios. Chatbots, on the other hand, leverage machine learning ML , so after feeding on historic data, they can recognize patterns in the ways a service desk deals with incoming tickets. A service catalog is a great tool for organizing and delivering services seamlessly while aligning your organization's services with business goals.
However, many organizations' service catalog initiatives fall flat or fail to deliver the expected ROI due to some avoidable pitfalls. The most common mistake organizations make is defining their service catalog in technology terms instead of business terms. Avoid technical jargon when defining the service attributes to make it easier for end users to view and request services. While categorizing all the services offered by the IT department, take care to avoid very granular categorization, as this may end up making it difficult for end users to search for services and request them.
Catalog hierarchies should be concise so that the addition of new service items doesn't create deeply nested categories. Requesters expect visibility into the request fulfillment process. Many organizations don't let requesters know the status of their tickets, resulting in repeated calls or emails, or even duplicate tickets.
Ensure that your IT service desk is in constant communication with the end user throughout the life cycle of their service request. Failing to organize the catalog around end-user expectations and business goals is one of the reasons many service catalog initiatives fail.
IT departments should not follow the inside-out approach of defining services based on their own assumptions. Instead, they need to understand how they can facilitate business outcomes using IT's resources.
In this section, we'll cover common IT terminologies that organizations often confuse with the service catalog. An IT service catalog and a self-service portal are deeply entwined together, and are quite often misunderstood as referring to the same thing.
A service catalog, as defined in the beginning of this guide, is a database of all IT services offered by an organization. A self-service portal is a transactional tool that connects the end user and the IT department. It provides an interface for raising various types of tickets and browsing the knowledge base for self-help articles. A service catalog becomes actionable when integrated with the service portal, i.
For example, an end user could log on to their self-service portal to perform a wide variety of actions. Some of them are:. In short, the self-service portal connects an organization's end users to the IT service catalog. NOTE: A service catalog can also be independent of the self-service portal, but as we discussed in the best practices section, a service catalog delivers the greatest value when integrated with other ITIL processes. To differentiate between a service catalog and a product catalog, it is essential to understand what we mean by a "service" and a "product.
A simpler explanation could be provided with an example. A printer is a product, while granting someone access to the printing services on a particular floor is a service.
Services are built on top of products in any IT organization. The target audience of a product catalog and a service catalog also varies. End users in an organization are generally the target audience for a service catalog, while other businesses are the target audience of an organization's product catalog. Let's clear that up by breaking down the concepts of a CMDB. Data stored in the CMDB include hardware and software attributes, documentation, personnel, and relationships.
Example: Let's consider an employee who needs to be granted access to their company's Wi-Fi network. The service catalog and the CMDB are locked together in a symbiotic state, where each feeds the other specific data that help each other's operations. We discussed the two views of a service catalog very briefly in the previous sections. Let's now dive deeper. Some ITSM experts prefer to call the two views the business service catalog and the technical service catalog.
However, this phrasing is troublesome since it conveys that the views are two distinct catalogs. On the contrary, these views are just two different perspectives of the same service catalog. Let's break down the differences between the two. As you can see, the technical service view helps technicians support the delivery of the services offered in the business service view. This is how the two views interact with each other and help IT drive efficiency and attain business goals.
Regardless of industry, organizations around the world have come to rely on digital solutions offered by IT for most aspects of their business. The IT department is no longer just a pitstop for employees, but a key driver in any organization's race to achieve positive business outcomes.
An IT service catalog acts as an important bridge connecting the IT department and end users, enabling efficient and satisfactory service delivery. Implementing a service catalog that is user-friendly, scalable, and future-proof is crucial if an organization intends to derive the maximum benefits from it. The end user's view of the service catalog, where service offerings are communicated in business terms. A website where an end user can access self-help articles or perform other actions, such as reporting an incident or requesting a service.
A centralized database of all active service offerings delivered by an organization's IT department. An agreement between the service provider and the consumer establishing service levels and escalation mechanisms for violations of the agreed service levels.
A formal request submitted by an end user to the IT service desk for initiating a service action. The IT technician's view of the service catalog, with underlying processes communicated in technical terms.
Zoho Corp. MENU Home. Try ServiceDesk Plus. Last updated on: April 15, Introduction Service request management and the service catalog Service request management What is a service request?
What is a service portfolio? The two perspectives Components of a service catalog The benefits of using a service catalog Service catalog examples How to build a service catalog Best practices for an effective service catalog Tips for selecting the right service catalog tool Common service catalog mistakes What's the difference?
Service catalog vs. CMDB Business service view vs. So what is required to overcome these roadblocks and deliver a fulfilling customer experience? Service request management and the service catalog. Service request management Service request management is one of the foremost functions of an IT department, along with incident, problem, and change management.
Examples are: Request for information e. The service request management workflow The service catalog: An enabler for effective service request management Service request management workflow Role of the service catalog The end user logs on to their self-service portal. The service catalog is accessible in the portal for the end user, providing a list of available service offerings. They raise a service request.
The end user browses through the catalog to get clarity on the service attributes description, costs, SLA, etc. The request is routed to the right support team. These processes in the workflow are part of the technical service view of the service catalog, which guides technicians in delivering services efficiently.
Approval mechanisms kick into action. The support rep may ask for more info from the requester. Predefined tasks are executed for service fulfillment. After the request is fulfilled, the ticket is closed and a survey is sent to the requester to gauge customer satisfaction.
What is an ITIL service catalog? The IT service catalog of Stanford University. Example Let's consider an organization where employee workstations are configured with Windows
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