How To Create an IT Service Catalog

With the rapidly evolving circumstances, the role of technology is constantly changing. To keep up with the pace of digital transformation, organizations are now relying more on IT Service Catalog as an important tool. 

It is one of the unstoppable resources that provide customers with clear and accurate information about the IT service that an organization offers. Well, the implementation of service catalogs can improve efficiency and reduce costs. 

What is an IT Service Catalog? 

In simple words, an IT service catalog functions are similar to a restaurant menu card. As menu provides a list of all available items in the restaurant. In the same way, it is a comprehensive list that an organization offers to its customers. It is used to simplify the process of making these services request.  

It is a technology service that is available for customers to guide the right solution for their needs and issues. Some of the catalogs also provide the service category (infrastructure, support, etc.), service-level agreements, the service cost, and timelines for delivery. 

•  History of the IT Service Catalog 

When businesses started to get more and more into these service catalogs for their customer services and standard processes, it became necessary to use detailed documentation to keep track of the available resources. Then, the need for an IT service catalog evolved. The concept of this catalog was formally known as “IT service management best practice” in 2007.  

• Details included in these services catalog

The service catalog is used to inform users about available services and assist them to make service requests. But what information should be included for creating these services? 

These are as follows: –  Service Name, Category, Description, Owner, availability of the service, service-level agreements, and costs of the service. 

Benefits of an IT Service Catalog 

There are many advantages of using these services catalog within an organization. Some of them are as follows: – 

• Advanced self-service: It allows a complete database of available services to customers. This helps to identify products that are best suited for them. Enhancing self-service saves time and resources that are needed to solve many issues. 

• Enhanced user satisfaction: The most crucial advantage is that it helps fulfill the user’s needs. With a complete catalog database and relevant resource information, customers can get more in less time. It means a better overall experience and a more satisfied user base. 

• Improved productivity: It allows you to move requests (such as price, description, etc.) without manual intervention from IT personnel. This saves valuable time and helps to focus on more strategic tasks. 

• Increased operational efficiency: It is a resource that details all IT services, their availability, and process execution information thus helping to improve efficiency and also reduce the time and costs of the services provided by an organization. 

• User-friendly: It allows users to choose and request services about everything without any issues. It also helps to remove many of the hurdles to finding solutions and making IT requests. 

How is an IT service catalog built? 

It is a tool that is designed to help customers to achieve some particular objectives. So, to create a catalog, it is important to identify those objectives. For this, we should consider the following steps: – 

• Stakeholders gathering: It is very important to start the process by gathering support from the decision-makers for building the catalog. This will make it easier to bring project goals into order and it can have executive backing to solve any challenges. 

• Identify customers: The next important step is to find customers who interact with an IT service catalog. Whether the customer can understand who they are and what service they will provide to them based on needs and roles. 

• Properly define the services: The company needs to define a full inventory of IT services within an organization that helps them to understand those services which are most often requested and may be updated whenever required. 

• Design a catalog: It should be detailed and informative but it should be displayed with the most vital details like costs, availability, etc. Design the service catalog with the usability of the customers. 

Conclusion 

IT service catalogs are a key element for any modern support system that provides visibility into services given by an organization. Using tools, services, and proper equipment, we can make a great difference in the productivity and efficiency of the services provided by an organization.  

See how our integrated solutions perform day-to-day IT operations while improving overall service management with its advanced features like network configuration management, fault management, user security management, and many more.