IT Service Catalog Examples

The Service Catalog Is the Central Pillar of an IT Service Organization

 I would like to share a conversation I recently had with a class focused on Integrated Service Management. The class was discussing the evolution of an IT organization’s culture and customer engagement approach as they moved from a technology lifecycle or asset mindset to one focused on holistic products and services that support customer outcomes. One of the students in the class made this very bold statement of dependency. 

“It seems to me that an organization’s successful adoption of a Service Management model is dependent and linked to the maturity of their Service Catalog or its existence!”

Wanting to provide some encouragement to those organizations in the class that had yet to adopt and deploy a service catalog I said that while that may be true to some extent there are serval areas of improvement that can be addressed without this dependency. I listed a few practices such as Incident Management, Asset Management, Problem Management, Change Enablement, etc.. to prove my point. 

However, the more I reflected on the student’s comment the more I had to acknowledge it’s accuracy. So many of the best practices that we discuss as critical to IT Service Management rely on the fact that the internal service organization self identifies as a service organization and can describe its value proposition related to the products and services it provides to its customers. This means moving beyond a discussion focused on technology optimization to one focused on customer mission goals and how the IT service organization best supports those goals through services supported by systemic products either managed on premise or brokered through third party providers.  

Consider critical practices such as:

•    Service Request Management
•    Service Validation and Testing
•    Service Level Management
•    Service Configuration Management
•    Service Continuity Management 
•    Service Financial Management

Each with the key word “Service” in the name or the following list:

•    Availability Management
•    Monitoring and Event Management
•    Portfolio Management
•    Architecture Management
•    Information Security Management

While these practices do not specifically contain the word “service” IT practitioners fully understand the need to take a holistic or systemic view of these concepts as opposed a narrow device or domain-based orientation. 

So yes, I have to fully agree that much of we aspire to achieve and how we wish to present ourselves as strategic partners to our business partners requires our organization to speak the language of products and services.

This is the reason that many years ago I wrote this initial blog post to provide examples and why it remains to this day one of the most linked and visited sites on Pink Elephant’s website.

Someone once shared with me that it is always easier to edit than to create from scratch.

So, for this reason I have for many years managed a collection of links to publicly available service catalogs for you to check out. Also, many other readers have added links to their own collections in the comments of this blog which I encourage you to check out as well.

However, before you go on to navigate to the links in search of example service catalogs, I want to qualify that these links do not necessarily represent best practices. However, that being said, they do provide you with a glimpse at some real organizations that are kind enough to put their cookies on the table for all to sample.

Another Great Site for Service Catalog Examples: HEIT Management I trust that you find these sites useful

If you are on your own journey to develop your service catalog I would highly reccomend taking our  IT Service Catalog Specialist Certification Course. It's the only one of it's kind in the industry. You'll gain the knowledge to define, create, implement and manage the ongoing process associated with building and maintaining a service catalog. I encourage you to check it out.

Troy Thoughts What Are Yours?

I like to say that everyone has some version of a service catalog. It is either a very large cost showing up on your customer’s balance sheet described as the cost of IT. Or you present a service catalog that describes the value-based outcomes that you provide as a service partner for the revenue you receive. Whether you submit an invoice for to your customers or you request continued funding of your budget, either way you are receiving revenue for services rendered. How you present yourselves as either a large cost center or a value based service organization via a service catalog is your choice! 

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Comments

Hey troy,

who would that “someone” be?  A little credit where credit is due.

wink

Hope all is well.

Anthony.

Anthony Nantes | March 1, 2007 at 3:52am

PS:

I’d also add this one to the mix:

http://its.ucsc.edu/service_catalog/index.php

(From UC Santa Cruz)

Anthony Nantes | March 1, 2007 at 3:54am

Quite Right Anthony

Folks I want to thank Anthony Nantes who is a Service Management Champion at the University of Melbourne for the gentle prod to post these links.

Cheers

Troy

Troy DuMoulin, VP Research & Development | March 1, 2007 at 10:29am

Note that it’s “Purdue” University… smile
at least it’s spelled that way on *my* diploma. wink

Dave Pickens | March 28, 2007 at 8:11pm

Thanks for the catch Dave

I have updated the post

Best Regards

Troy

Troy DuMoulin, VP Research & Development | March 30, 2007 at 1:58pm

Troy,

From an ITIL Service Manager newbie, thank-you for the links they have come in handy.

Julian

Julian | April 7, 2008 at 12:55pm

Thanks Troy.
That was a very useful post.

I am currently working on formalizing the IT Architecture of a client and plan to build the framework around views of the Service Catalogs.

So these references were just the thing I needed.

Best regards
Gautam Sarnaik

Gautam | April 15, 2009 at 7:59am

I’ve been collecting these URLs on my delicious links:
http://delicious.com/Batand/service_catalog
As of this posting, there are about two dozen on the list.

Andrea Murschel | November 26, 2009 at 4:04pm

Great blog - Also thought you should know the following three links go to page not found:

University of New South Wales

Griffith University

Kentucky Commonwealth

R.L. Spuler | July 20, 2010 at 5:23pm

Thanks RL for the notice, can you imagine that they would not let me know of the website updates. smile

Looks like Griffith has put their service catalog behind an internal portal and the other two site have updated their page address which I have adjusted.

Cheers

Troy

Troy | July 20, 2010 at 10:48pm

Hey, thanks Troy. These are some handy links for sure. You are always on top of it.

Tony | January 24, 2011 at 10:09pm

Can someone please share the reasons for tracking Service Versions in the Service Portfolio?  Today we have ‘active’ and ‘retired’, but it would seem valuable to actually track a version number.  Thanks.

Techie Paul | March 15, 2013 at 1:05pm

Hello Paul

In my perspective a Service and its level of detail grows throughout its lifecycle.

A service starts with a a definition of requirement, and the outcomes that it will provide in support of a business goal. (directly or indirectly)

This is sometimes fleshed out in a business case or ROI evaluation. Both of these sources move forward to flesh out the Service Design Package. (A detailed understanding of the functional and warranty elements of the service).

These are reflected as attributes in the Service Portfolio. I would think that you will want to have a version attribute for all services along with a Status Attribute describing its state. (Approved, Development, Active, Retire)

Both would be needed from my perspective.

Troy

Troy DuMoulin, VP Research & Development | March 17, 2013 at 10:39pm

Hello Troy,

Bought (and read!) your book, Defining IT Success Through The Service Catalog: A Practical Guide. Congratulations on that book, it really provides for a lot of practical information, and has certainly helped us.

Now I am looking for a couple of examples for setting up our own Service Catalog. The above list really helps with that, but as we’re an MSP targeted at SMBs we’re also looking for a couple of examples of Service Catalogs that are more suitable for SMBs.

Do you think you (or anyone) might have some tips or links for us?

Thanks in advance, best regards,
Rene Verhagen

Rene Verhagen | February 20, 2014 at 10:50am

Hello Rene

These are the links that I and others have collected over time but there are more being added to the web all the time. Most are from Higher Education of Government Agencies which operate under a full disclosure.

I am not aware of an example of an MSP catalog but doing a quick search on that concept I googled a couple such as this one from Amdocs http://bit.ly/1eXgSey

Troy

Troy DuMoulin, VP Research & Development | February 20, 2014 at 11:00am

Great advice.

Adil | January 15, 2015 at 11:40pm

Hey Troy,

Thanks for the links and advice.

Appreciate it smile

Bets | March 8, 2015 at 11:12am

Many of these service catalogues describe what IT does to provide the service to the business - not the actual service provided to the business. Database and Network are not services unless you’re an Infrastructure as a service provider which the Universities for example are not. .

Stephen Hall | August 18, 2015 at 12:26am

Stephen, I agree that technologies or domains are not services but resources. The links in this blog are simply a collection of available examples.

Not all of the examples are good ones.

Troy

Troy DuMoulin, VP Research & Development | August 19, 2015 at 3:32pm

Hello Troy,

Very useful information you share about Service Catalog.

Recently, Im working with IT service catalog definition for an airline company.

I appreciate if you share some experience, recomendations and/or examples about IT service catalog for these kind of companies.

Claudia Ines Baquero | September 17, 2015 at 6:53pm

Hello Claudia, while I do not have a specific example of an Airline company it would only be the Business Application Services which would be unique.

When it comes to general IT Services there is not that much difference between different vertical. I would recommend looking at Ohio State University’s example or University of California, Davis as both good examples from a structure perspective.

Troy

Troy DuMoulin, VP Research & Development | September 17, 2015 at 10:21pm

I’m not agreee with the general idea of these examples. You are showing “accounts and passwords” as a “service” but it is only one of the activities performed by IT (the service desk, to be specific).

A Service Caatalog should show the services provided to the Business, focused on value for it, not SERVICE REQUEST. A Service Catalog is not the same as a “Service Request Catalog” neither “a list of task performed by the IT organization”. It is actually one of the lacks of ITIL.

It is actually a surprise to find this gap on this website, since i worked with PINK on a ITIL implementation and I learnt this big differences from you guys. come on! smile

I think the nexte ITIL releases should make a difference when talking about “Service Catalog” and “Service Request Catalog”.

Cris | December 29, 2015 at 1:27pm

Chris thank you for your comments however I would ask you to please read the comment in the opening paragraph. “However, before you go on to navigate the links in search of example service definitions I want to qualify that these links do not necessarily represent the best practices we discuss in our book.”

I agree that the Service Catalog should be a description of value outcomes that IT provides to enable the business or its primary service consumer. However, that very same Service Catalog needs to be actionable or else it simply becomes a static web based brochure that now one will care about or use on a daily basis. Without the ability to order off of a business and value based service catalog the website will be rarely visited or used for much of anything practical. If the Service Catalog is only a brochure to enable good conversations about demand and supply you would be better off printing out some marketing brochures a Relationship Manager could use in a customer meeting. The Term Service Catalog vs Request Catalog is something that has been created by the Software Vendors who have a very rudimentary ability and are challenged to enable both concepts in one catalog.

In short a Service Catalog must be able to present a picture of value but also provide a portal for IT to automate engagement activities with its services.

In another comment you posted a link to Rob England’s Blog: http://www.itskeptic.org/content/menu-not-service-catalogue

Rob and I know each other well and I believe we see eye to eye on this subject

You are right at ITIL does not go into much detail on this so that is why we wrote a book on these concepts. For more information on this concept I invite you to listen to the following Blog Post. 

Practitioner Radio Episode 7 - The IT Service Catalog
http://blogs.pinkelephant.com/index.php?/troy/practitioner_radio_episode_7_the_it_service_catalog/

Troy DuMoulin, VP Research & Development | December 29, 2015 at 9:51pm

Great list, Troy!

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raja | November 8, 2018 at 12:10am

I am tasked with creating a service portfolio and I looked at couple choices above like the Stanford U, UofA, UT portfoilo’s. I like those layouts. Who could I inquire with on building out ours?

James Fresquez | November 19, 2018 at 4:05pm

Hi Troy, Can you update latest IT Service catalog links here

Swapnali | December 12, 2018 at 2:17am

I would like to see service catalog examples for other industries beyond the universities.  Are there any available for utilities?

Johnny Rivera | March 13, 2019 at 5:51pm

Love this bit “This means moving beyond a discussion focused on technology optimization to one focused on customer mission goals”.

I think so many organisations miss this concept, we can get lost in the tech and forget the customer.
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Brent | June 14, 2022 at 6:27pm

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