4 key points to consider before you kickstart your Service Catalogue

Many organizations today are improving their Service Catalogue…which is a core artifact required to move to a more mature service provision model…However, as for many ITSM improvements, one critical success factor is to scope very well the improvement of your catalogue, not by selecting necessarily a limited number of services, but by answering the following 4 key questions before you start:

1. What is (or are) the business objective(s) of implementing an improved catalogue? *
   • Increase revenue of the corporation,
   • Rationalize the cost of services
   • Meet legal obligations
   • Improve client/user satisfaction
   • Fix service provider organizational issues (moral, governance).
2. What are your top critical Business Processes that depend on IM/IT services (VBFs)? You should limit to your top 3 to 5 to start with.
3. Do you have an up-to-date (or at least useable) IM/IT organizational chart?
4. Does your client pay for their IM/IT services (could be notional charging)?

The following 4 questions should be answered before you embark on an improvement initiative for your Service Catalogue…

By answering these questions, you will first ensure the catalogue is built to meet a business objective that will bring value to the organization. Second, it will be linked to critical business processes and will ensure you can assign service ownership. Finally, the last question will define the level of detail you will require to make the catalogue of significant business value.