How do I implement a sustainable Service Catalog for a growing mid-sized company?

All answers to this question.

A successful Service Catalog must be actionable, not just informational. Avoid the PDF and build it directly into your ITSM portal (like ServiceNow or Jira Service Management). Organize it from the user's perspective, not the IT perspective. Instead of "DHCP Configuration," use "Request Guest Wi-Fi Access." Each item should have a clear price (if applicable), lead time, and an automated approval workflow. In my previous role, we automated 40% of our requests just by having the user fill out a form that triggered a script, which reduced our manual workload and improved our turnaround time by three days on average.

   Answered 2025-08-14 by Michelle Adams

Have you thought about how you will maintain the data in the catalog, or who will be responsible for the "Service Level Agreements" associated with each item?

   Answered 2025-08-17 by Brian Foster

• Brian, that's exactly where I'm stuck. I'm thinking of assigning "Service Owners" for each category. For example, our Infrastructure lead would own the "Network and Hardware" section. They would be responsible for ensuring the SLAs are realistic and that the items remain up to date. I want to build a quarterly review cycle where we look at the usage metrics for each service and retire anything that isn't being used, which should help prevent the catalog from becoming cluttered and confusing over time.

     Commented 2025-08-20 by Thomas Anderson

Start small. Don't try to list every single thing IT does. Pick the top 10 most requested items and build a "Service Portal" for those first, then expand.

   Answered 2025-08-23 by Nancy Roberts

• Nancy is right. A "Top 10" list on the homepage will solve 80% of your user's needs and prove the value of the catalog to the leadership team immediately.

     Commented 2025-08-25 by Gary Wilson