Many IT organizations are looking to move from the traditional IT siloed model to a true service-oriented model. Because of this the concept of a Service Catalog has gotten a lot of press lately. The big reason for this is because it is tangible…It’s our Enterprise App Store!
However, keep this in mind….a Service Catalog is simply what it is. It’s an artifact…a tool. There is quite a bit of pre-work to develop a successful catalog. One of the key pre-requisites for your Service-oriented initiative is to take the time to develop a Service Portfolio and a process to manage the services within the portfolio. Think of your Service Portfolio as a requirement foundation that lays the groundwork for you to develop your Service Catalog. ITIL says the Service Catalog is a subset of the Service Portfolio and it surely is…it’s the one you market to your internal customers. Would Apple provide services or products through it’s app store prior to them being vetted? Probably not. When building your Service Portfolio it is important to:
1) Set goals for your portfolio
2) Evaluate customer demand
3) Determine your organization’s core competencies to meet demand
4) Research competing services (i.e. cloud, outsourcing, etc)
5) Identify revenue and costs associated with core services
6) Develop a process-to-service map for increased confidence to deliver services (this will require previous development of key processes)
After you complete these exercises (keeping in mind that this can be done iteratively for service groups at a time) you can work on your first version of your Service Catalog. I also do realize that we do not live in a perfect world and you may have started your catalog prior to your portfolio. That’s okay. It’s never too late to begin your portfolio project and map it back to the services you have already developed in your catalog. After all, these two are highly related and dependent upon one another.