Service Catalogue - Setting Customer Expectation is Key to Success

A service catalogue provides a clear and documented understanding of what IT products and services currently run or are being prepared to run and can be delivered to employees or customers; along with the conditions around them. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want, from a printed list of services offered, to in-depth documentation to intricate web pages or microsites.

Why do you need a service catalogue?

• To align IT to business requirements
• To inform people of what you offer – an unambiguous register of services you offer
• To improve the management of your resources
• To ensure delivery of a repeatable and standardised quality of customer service
• To enable you to set and better manage customers’ expectations
• To effect/modify customer behaviour
• To deliver customer choice
• To make and keep your promises - the service catalogue underpins your promises

Primary types of services customer facing services

• External Business Services (external customers) Business products and services e.g. online tax return system, procurement
• Internal Business Services (internal customers) e.g. payroll, HR, invoicing, email, website, stationery and supplies Supporting services
• Technical Services e.g. hardware / software installation and upgrades, desktop support, backups, restore
• Components e.g. PCs, servers, printers, applications

Creating a service catalogue

• First identify the customer-facing services that you deliver to facilitate the customer’s business processes and add value
• Describe the service in easy to understand plain English
• Package and document those customer-facing activities as ‘business services’ in line with business language, thinking and agreements (TIP: Focus on the value that the service offers to the customer’s business outcomes)
• Identify and document ownership and responsibilities of each service from both IT and the business
• Analyse, identify and document the resources, time and skills required to deliver each service – provide a common understanding of IT services to improve customer relationships
• Agree a service level agreement to the service – clearly setting customer expectations along with the terms of service delivery
• Market what you do – ensure customers are familiar with the services offered within the service catalogue (TIP: hit your target audience)

Supporting your change process in addition to ensuring customers know what services are available, or soon to be available, the service catalogue supports and facilitates the change process.

It is important to know when making a change to a business service:

• What are the critical business services and their periods of operation
• What are the critical dependencies and relationships that underpin the service
• Who you need to inform/seek approval
• What documentation is affected and may need changing
• If you need to take the service down, what other services or infrastructure components will be affected
• The workload estimates for the change
• What is the minimum acceptable outage period for the service
• The risk rating for the service

So, what is all the fuss about a service catalogue? It is merely a directory of services that are provided by the service delivery team to the wider organisation.

Want to learn more about Marval MSM's service catalogue? Click Here