Service Catalog use case

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Service Catalog use case

    The Service Catalog use case in ServiceNow enables you to create customized catalogs for requesting specific services or products. It leverages the Common Service Data Model (CSDM) to connect the Service Catalog with service offerings and services, providing a structured way to manage and access available services.

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    Two primary types of catalogs can be created:

    • Request Catalogs: Lists of business and technical products, services, service commitments, and offerings available for order.
    • Product Catalogs: Centralized repositories of product models, representing specific versions or configurations of assets, used by asset managers.

    Key Features

    • Digital Portfolio Management (DPM): Utilizes the CSDM framework to navigate the Service Portfolio, helping locate services, related offerings, catalog items, dependencies, costs, metrics, and initiatives.
    • Catalog Items: Individual items or services available for request. Each catalog item links to a service offering and includes detailed information across tabs such as Item Details, Process Engine (fulfillment process), Picture, Pricing, and Portal Settings.
    • Product Catalog Integration: Product models maintained in the Product Catalog are automatically published to the Service Catalog, ensuring synchronization between asset management, procurement, contracts, and vendor data.
    • Asset and Vendor Support: Product models can be associated with multiple vendors and are integrated with Asset Management for comprehensive tracking.

    Key Outcomes

    • Provides a structured and efficient way to request and manage services and products within your organization.
    • Ensures that product models and service offerings are correctly linked and accessible to the right users based on subscriptions or job roles.
    • Supports digital portfolio management by aggregating relevant metrics and dependencies, improving visibility and governance of service offerings.
    • Enables asset managers to maintain detailed product model information that integrates seamlessly with procurement and vendor management.

    You can create customized catalogs where you can request items such as a specific service or product. With this use case, CSDM provides Service Catalog connection to the service offerings and services.

    Service Catalog use case

    Catalogs contain catalog items and are the starting points for accessing available services. Request Catalogs and Product Catalogs are two of the customized catalogs you can create from the Service Catalog.

    • A Request Catalog is a list of business and technical products, services, service commitment options, and offerings that you can order.

    • A Product Catalog is a set of information about individual models. A model is a specific version or configuration of an asset. Asset managers use the Product Catalog as a centralized repository for model information.

    Key features of the Service Catalog use case

    Digital Portfolio Management (DPM) uses the CSDM framework to navigate the Service Portfolio. You can then use the Service Portfolio to locate the services and their related service offerings, catalog items, dependents, dependencies, metric roll-ups, costs and initiatives. The associated metrics are aggregated using the CSDM framework with the related tables.

    Catalog items

    A catalog item is an item or a service that you can request from the catalog. A service can contain multiple catalog items. Catalog items are listed on the catalog portal and are available to the users who need them (either through subscription or job responsibility). Each catalog item is linked to one service offering.

    The Catalog Item form includes the following tabs.

    • Item Details: Description of the catalog item.
    • Process Engine: The defined process used to fulfill the catalog Item request.
    • Picture: Picture used to represent the catalog item when it appears in the catalog.
    • Pricing: Pricing details for the catalog item.
    • Portal Settings: Provides specific settings on how you interact with the catalog item in the catalog portal.
    Figure 1. Catalog Item form
    Catalog Item form with numbered fields.

    Product Catalog use case

    Use the Product Catalog to specify information about a product model. Product models are specific versions or configurations of an asset. Asset managers use the Product Catalog as a centralized repository for model information.

    A detailed and well-maintained Product Catalog can coordinate with the Service Catalog, asset, procurement, request, contract, and vendor information. Models published to the Product Catalog are automatically published to the Service Catalog. The Service Catalog includes information about goods (models) and services. If the model is available from multiple vendors, a model can be listed more than once. Models are included with Asset Management.

    Key features of the Product Catalog use case

    This use case lets you include hardware and software product information as items in the Product Catalog.
    Figure 2. Product Catalog items
    Product Catalog items.

    Results of Product Catalog use case

    The CSDM framework ensures that product models are available in the catalog and that there are processes defined to consume the models.