What is ITIL service catalogue management?

The ITIL service management catalogue ensures essential information on all services the organisation has to offer, is available to the required audience and customised as a single source of information.

As a subset of the entire list of services monitored in the service provider's portfolio, the service catalogue represents a list of services currently offered and to support stakeholders and service delivery, Service catalogue management must make sure that descriptions of the product are visually clear and concise to the targeted audience it's aimed at.

A list of services that can be transmitted to the public is provided by the service catalogue, which can be an online web portal, a document, or a tool.

Publishing, revising, and maintaining service and product descriptions as well as the offerings that go along with them are all part of the activity of managing service catalogues. It offers insight into the range of services that are offered and under what conditions. The service owner and other roles in charge of managing, amending, and maintaining the list of available services as they are introduced, modified, or retired support the service catalogue management practice.

Throughout the service value chain leverage of the service, the catalogue needs to facilitate the production of value. As a result, depending on its intended usage, it must be adaptable in the service information and attributes it offers. Therefore, organisations would want to think about offering several catalogue views for various audiences.

It's possible that not all clients and/or users will be eligible for the entire set of services in a service catalogue. The different characteristics of services, including their technical requirements, offerings, agreements, and fees, may not all apply to all sorts of service consumers. This implies that the service catalogue should be able to offer various perspectives and depths of information to various stakeholders. Some examples of viewpoints are:

User views describe the service offerings available and the specifics of provisioning details.

Customer views Data on service performance, cost, and level of service should be provided.

IT to IT customer perspectives To aid in the delivery of services, and provide technical, security, and process information.

Although different service catalogue perspectives are feasible, it is best to avoid creating distinct or isolated service catalogues within various technology systems since this will encourage segregation, variability, and complexity.

The service catalogue needs to do more than just offer a static platform for publishing details about IT services if it wants the client organisation to find it valuable.

The chances of the service catalogue continuing to be used as a valuable and significant resource are slim unless it supports client interaction through talks about standard and non-standard service offers and/or automates request and order fulfilment procedures.

Due to this, many businesses' opinions on the service catalogue are primarily concerned with the consumable or orderable components of service offerings.

What do we mean by request catalogue?

An illustration of the service catalogue showing information about service requests for Services, both new and old, is made available to the user.

Plan By providing information on current service breadth and offerings, the service catalogue facilitates strategy and service portfolio investment decisions.

Improve To promote continuous development, alignment, and value generation, service catalogue descriptions and demand patterns are continuously tracked and assessed.

Engage By facilitating and possibly automating many facets of activities including relationship management, request management, and the service desk, the service catalogue facilitates strategic, tactical, and operational partnerships with customers and users.

Transition and design The service catalogue makes sure that both the utility and warranty components of services, such as the information security policy, IT service continuity levels, service level agreements, and service offerings, are taken into account and publicised. The definition and creation of service descriptions, request models, and published views are additional tasks.

Obtain/build By offering service catalogue views for the purchase of components and services, service catalogue management aids in this value chain activity.

Provide and back The service catalogue publishes expectations linked to agreements and performance and offers context for how the service will be delivered and supported.