Service Catalog examples

[Fabien]

I'm looking for Service Catalog inspiration. I've read so much on the topic that my head is spinning and my pen is dry. Yet, I haven't seen a Service Catalog that fully satisfies my thirst for business-focused service descriptions. Would you guys have some?
_________________
BR,
Fabien Papleux

Accenture
Technology Consulting | Service Excellence
Red Badge Certified

Twitter @itilgeek

[taiger]

nope,

we're setting up a service catalogue and finding it difficult to define services...

it's tempting to make a catalogue product-based,
but i would like to make a link to the business requirement and the way we support those requirements

regards
Frank
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"if you aim at nothing, that's what you're likely going to hit"

[query]

[Lola]

We're working on this right now as well and having a hard time of it, we keep getting stuck at the application level. The service's just don't seem to be inclusive enough

[Fabien]

I feel a little bit the same. For some reason, I don't think SAP is a service. Accounts Payable could be, but then it would be more a financial service... how does this all fit for you guys?
_________________
BR,
Fabien Papleux

Accenture
Technology Consulting | Service Excellence
Red Badge Certified

Twitter @itilgeek

[Lola]

We have 'Accounts Payable' as a service. But then we use SAP, mainframe, and who knows what else to support Accts payable so it gets messy.

[query]

[Lola]

So are you saying the business facing SLA would be written at the SAP level? With an OLA in place for the servers, network, etc. Or would you do write the SLA's at the component level?

[query]

[Fabien]

Are you saying that you promise an server availabilty level in your SLA, independently from the availability of the service?
_________________
BR,
Fabien Papleux

Accenture
Technology Consulting | Service Excellence
Red Badge Certified

Twitter @itilgeek

[grommitt]

I would argue that items such as 'Network' or 'SAP' are not services. Would you walk up to your customer and ask them if they would like half a pound of Network? How much would half a pound of Network cost?

Basically, a service is key to communication between IS and the business. Therefore it should be defined in terms that make sense to both parties.

This becomes particularly crucial if you plan to establish a service based costing model. To do this, you will need to determine a unit price for each service in order to charge customers based on consumption. You can then use your CMDB to understand what processes, hardware, software and personnel are required to deliver that service thereby truely understanding the cost of IT.

Gartner recently published a study showing that by 2008, 70% of companies will still confuse products, services and systems. To me, the definition is very clear:

Systems are the technologies that enable services.

Services are viewed by the customer as a cohesive whole (note that this is the customer perview!) and exist to fulfill a specific business need or process.

So for example, does your company view MS Windows Server 2003 as the service IT provides, or does it view printing as the service? The same goes for software like SAP or peoplesoft, or the network. They are there, and IT is proud of them, but they don't really provide anything in and of themselves. They are there to support the greater service - which the business actually consumes.

The best approach I've found is to zoom out as far as you can, and take a fresh perspective. Is Citrix a service? No? Well, what does Citrix do? It allows you to connect remotely. Is connecting remotely really a service? Probably not - what does connecting remotely allow me to do? Work anywhere anytime? Yes, that sounds like a service I'd be willing to pay for.

I know this is a highly debated topic, so please feel free to correct me where I've gone wrong or challenge any of these ideas.

[Fabien]

[m_croon]

[Fabien]

[Guerino1]

Hello All,

The Service Catalog we offer our clients is part of our Service Management solution and is a mechanism that:

- Allows Service Groups to define their services and quickly add/publish the new Services to the Service Catalog
- Allows Service Groups to define and publish SLA data
- Allows Service Groups to modify/edit their Services
- Allows Service Groups to create and publish documents and templates against their Services
- Allows Service Customers/End Users to easily search and find the Services they need
- Allows Service Customers/End Users the ability to generate Service Requests that generate Service-related Tasks
- Allows the Service Groups to manage their Service Requests and Tasks, such as prioritization of the work
- Allows the Service Customers/End Users to see the priority, progress, and status on the work as it changes
- Allows users and Service Groups the ability to see auditing, trending, run reports, etc.
- Allows users to see relationships between Services, Service Groups, Service Resources, End Users, Documents, Assets, Products, etc. in an integrated CMDB
- Etc.

Hence, "Service Management" is on operational area. This conflicts with ITIL's concept of Service Management, which is intended to be a concept for how to run an IT organization but seems to be right in line with what our customers expect Service Management to be, which is the Process by which you manage Services.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
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[Edited by Admin to remove link]