The service
catalogue is a data base or structured document with information about all live
IT services, including those available for deployment. The service catalogue is the only part of the
service portfolio published to customers and is used to support the sale and
delivery of IT services. The service
catalogue includes information about deliverables, prices, contact points,
ordering and request processes.
Service catalogs act as knowledge management tools for
the employees of an organization, allowing them to route their requests for and
about services and services to the subject matter experts who own, are
accountable for, and operate them.
It is a means of centralizing all services that are important to the
employees, users and management of the organizations which use it. The service
catalog acts as a digital registry and a means for highly distributed businesses
to see, find, and execute services regardless of where they exist in the world.
This means that people in one part of the world can find and utilize the same
services that people in other parts of the world use, eliminating the need to
develop and support local services.
By centralizing services, the service
catalogs also allows leadership and management to more easily
identifying service gaps and redundancies that can then be addressed and
continual service improvement practices applied. This allows for more effective and efficient
use of resources. Additionally it puts
centralized request and access controls in place.
Every organization will need to develop a policy of what a service is
and how it will be defined and documented in the service catalogue. Over time an organization’s policy of
defining and naming services will evolve.
The key critical success factor is the extent to which the policy
supports increased effective and efficient service provisioning.
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