Historically, IT organizations have focused on technology without clear accountability for adding business value, while their customers have focused on costs. Increased competition in the marketplace and increased dependence on high technology demand that IT organizations build a stronger understanding of the customers they serve, and work in a close partnership with them to deliver true value. These business alignment initiatives include having a clear definition of what services the IT organization provides, understanding the components and resources that constitute the services, and identifying the costs of the associated services. With centralization of IT services and movement toward a utility model, implementing a service catalog becomes an increasingly important necessity. Using a service catalog will lead to better IT service alignment with business goals, improved internal customer satisfaction, and standardized processes to achieve greater operational efficiency.
The ITIL™ (IT Infrastructure Library) framework stipulates that IT organizations start their process enhancement initiatives by developing a service catalog not only to list all of the services being provided, but also to provide a summary of their characteristics and details of the customers and maintainers. Many IT groups produce a service catalog as part of their ITIL Service Level Management deployment. Others see the opportunity to leverage the service catalog as the focal point for communication between IT and the business.
The purpose of this section is to introduce you to the concept of the service catalog and give you an idea of the steps involved in creating your own catalog content.
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