Design and Build a User-Facing Service Catalog
Improve user satisfaction with IT with a convenient menu-like catalog.
Contributors
- Boyd Gaming
- James Hardie
- Vidant Health
- Los Alamos Public Schools
Your Challenge
- Business users don’t know what breadth of services are available to them.
- It is difficult for business users to obtain useful information regarding services because they are often described in technical language.
- Business users have unrealistic expectations of what IT can do for them.
- There is no defined agreement on what is available, so the business assumes everything is.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Define services from the business user’s perspective, not IT’s perspective.
- A service catalog is of no use if a user looks at it and sees a significant amount of information that doesn’t apply to them.
- Separate the enterprise services from the Line of Business (LOB) services.
- This will simplify the process of documenting your service definitions and make it easier for users to navigate, which leads to a higher chance of user acceptance.
Impact and Result
- Our program helps you organize your services in a way that is relevant to the users, and practical and manageable for IT.
- Our approach to defining and categorizing services ensures your service catalog remains a living document. You may add or revise your service records with ease.
- Our program creates a bridge between IT and the business. Begin transforming IT’s perception within the organization by communicating the benefits of the service catalog.
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise executive brief to understand why building a Service Catalog is a good idea for your business, and how following our approach will help you accomplish this difficult task.
1. Launch the project
The Launch the Project phase will walk through completing Info-Tech's project charter template. This phase will help build a balanced project team, create a change message and communication plan, and achieve buy-in from key stakeholders.
2. Identify and define enterprise services
The Identify and Define Enterprise Services phase will help to target enterprise services offered by the IT team. They are offered to everyone in the organization, and are grouped together in logical categories for users to access them easily.
3. Identify and define Line of Business (LOB) services
After completing this phase, all services IT offers to each LOB or functional group should have been identified. Each group should receive different services and display only these services in the catalog.
4. Complete the Services Definition Chart
Completing the Services Definition Chart will help the business pick which information to include in the catalog. This phase also prepares the catalog to be extended into a technical service catalog through the inclusion of IT-facing fields.
Guided Implementations
This guided implementation is a nine call advisory process.
Guided Implementation #1 - Launch the project
Call #1 - Identify the project leader with the appropriate skills.
Call #2 - Assemble a well-rounded project team.
Call #3 - Develop a mission statement and change messages.
Guided Implementation #2 - Identify enterprise services
Call #1 - Create a comprehensive list of enterprise services that are used across the organization.
Call #2 - Create a categorization scheme that is based on the needs of the business users.
Guided Implementation #3 - Identify line of business services
Call #1 - Walk through the two Info-Tech methodologies and understand which one is applicable.
Call #2 - Define LOB services using the appropriate methodology.
Guided Implementation #4 - Complete service definitions
Call #1 - Decide what should be included and what should be kept internal for the service record design.
Call #2 - Complete the full service definitions.
Info-Tech Academy
Get Info-Tech Certified
Train your staff and develop a world-class IT team.
An active membership is required to access Info-Tech AcademyNew to Info-Tech Academy? Learn more here
Manage Service Catalogs
Improve user satisfaction with IT by letting business users know exactly what is available to them in a convenient menu-like catalog.
This course makes up part of the Service Planning & Architecture Certificate.
Course information:
- Title: Manage Service Catalogs
- Number of Course Modules: 5
- Estimated Time to Complete: 2-2.5 hours
- Featured Analysts:
- Paul Brown, Sr. Research Director, CIO Practice
- Gord Harrison, SVP of Research and Advisory
- Now Playing: Academy: Manage Service Catalogs | Executive Brief
Book Your Workshop
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Launch the Project
The Purpose
- The purpose of this module is to help engage IT with business decision making.
Key Benefits Achieved
- This module will help build a foundation for the project to begin. The buy-in from key stakeholders is key to having them take onus on the project’s completion.
Activities
Outputs
Assemble the project team.
- A list of project members, stakeholders, and a project leader.
Develop a communication plan.
- A change message, communication strategy, and defined benefits for each user group.
Establish metrics for success.
- Metrics used to monitor the usefulness of the catalog, both from a performance and monetary perspective.
Complete the project charter.
- A completed project charter to engage users in the initiative.
Module 2: Identify and Define Enterprise Services
The Purpose
The purpose of this module is to review services which are offered across the entire organization.
Key Benefits Achieved
A complete list of enterprise services defined from the user’s perspective to help them understand what is available to them.
Activities
Outputs
Identify enterprise services used by almost everyone across the organization.
- A complete understanding of enterprise services for both IT service providers and business users.
Categorize services into logical groups.
- Logical groups for organizing the services in the catalog.
Define the services from the user’s perspective.
- Completed definitions in business language, preferably reviewed by business users.
Module 3: Identify and Define Line of Business (LOB) Services
The Purpose
The purpose of this module is to define the remaining LOB services for business users, and separate them into functional groups.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Business users are not cluttered with LOB definitions that do not pertain to their business activities.
- Business users are provided with only relevant IT information.
Activities
Outputs
Identify the LOBs.
- A structured view of the different functional groups within the business.
Determine which one of two methodologies is more suitable.
- An easy to follow process for identifying all services for each LOB.
Identify LOB services using appropriate methodology.
- A list of every service for each LOB.
Define services from a user perspective.
- Completed definitions in business language, preferably reviewed by business users.
Module 4: Complete the Full Service Definitions
The Purpose
- The purpose of this module is to guide the client to completing their service record definitions completely.
Key Benefits Achieved
- This module will finalize the deliverable for the client by defining every user-facing service in novice terms.
Activities
Outputs
Understand the components to each service definition (information fields).
- A selection of information fields to be included in the service catalog.
Pick which information to include in each definition.
- A selection of information fields to be included in the service catalog.
Complete the service definitions.
- A completed service record design, ready to be implemented with the right tool.
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this Blueprint, and what our clients have to say.
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Fullerton College
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
1
Rosens Diversified
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
City Of Hamilton
Guided Implementation
9/10
$10,000
55
Kleinfelder Group
Guided Implementation
9/10
$7,640
10
Surgical Care Affiliates
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
5
Association of American Medical Colleges
Guided Implementation
7/10
$8,913
7
Rotary International
Workshop
8/10
$12,733
10
Alabama Department of Corrections
Guided Implementation
10/10
$60,484
110
County of Tulare
Workshop
10/10
N/A
N/A
Pima Community College
Guided Implementation
9/10
$2,546
2
Highlands County Clerk of Courts
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
University of the Fraser Valley
Workshop
9/10
$17,500
20
The University of Texas at San Antonio
Workshop
10/10
$127K
120
University of Texas - Arlington
Workshop
10/10
$2,419
20
Saint Paul Public Schools
Workshop
8/10
$31,833
20
Inchcape Australia
Guided Implementation
10/10
$24,492
2
Hawaii National Bank
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
Columbia Mutual Insurance Company
Guided Implementation
4/10
N/A
N/A
College Of Nurses Of Ontario
Guided Implementation
6/10
N/A
N/A
County of Los Alamos
Guided Implementation
10/10
$14,643
20
ECMI GP INC
Workshop
10/10
$60,000
120
University of Texas - Arlington
Guided Implementation
10/10
$2,546
10
Thermo Fisher
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
Japan Canada Oil Sands Limited
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
State of Michigan
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
60
Government of New Brunswick
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
Selkirk College
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
N/A
City of Kelowna
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
N/A
Employment and Social Development Canada
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
University of Exeter
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
