As discussed in part one of this blog series, service catalogs are not only limited to IT. They can be used to bring together service offerings that collaborate multiple departmental efforts. When executed properly, a service catalog can help coordinate functions and capabilities across the organization.
When an organization decides to streamline service delivery and support across the organization for any service to their employees using capabilities already implemented for IT service management (ITSM), this is considered enterprise service management (ESM).
Building a service catalog for ESM
To leverage a requestable service catalog for ESM, functional service catalogs (i.e., an HR catalog based on the services HR delivers) should be created. Alternately, a multi-functional service catalog can be created for services that inter-relate across functions (such as when supplier management, asset management, HR, and facilities management work together for a common service).
Benefits of Implementing ESM
Some of the benefits of implementing ESM across an organization are:
- Gaining further opportunity to improve ITSM performance
- Providing metrics for continual service improvement across the organization
- Driving efficiency and collaboration across departments
And Don’t Forget…
Update your Service Catalog. The beauty of a service catalog is that it is a dynamic, living document, not a static reference tool. Over time, the offered services will mature or new services will need to be added, and the catalog needs to continuously annotate these changes to prevent stagnation.This is especially important for organizations that are rolling out ESM. As different departments come on board and begin introducing or improving services, the catalog must be updated accordingly.
Categorize services from a business perspective. As you build out your catalog, services should be categorized and articulated as business services, based on how end users see the services, not from an IT terminology perspective.
And, of course, as your build out your catalog, make sure to approach it with best practices:
- Have a well defined goal
- Clearly define the scope of services that will be included
- Gather data and knowledge to help set it up in the most successful way
- Automate as much as possible
- Gather feedback from others on how it’s working
- Maintain and improve your service catalog over time
Anthony Orr, ITSM best practice director at Samanage and ITIL 2011 author, recently hosted a webinar on this topic. To learn more, watch the full webinar on enterprise service management and the service catalog.
