Service Catalogue – Central Pillar of an IT Service Organisation
A Service Catalogue is one of the most powerful and visible tools available to an IT department, playing a crucial role in supporting the organisation’s work and aligning IT services with business needs.
Who is Troy DeMoulin?
Troy DeMoulin, Pink Elephant Canada’s VP of Research and Development, has long been a respected voice in IT service management. Fifteen years ago, he wrote a popular blog post titled IT Service Catalog Examples, which he has recently updated as The Service Catalog Is the Central Pillar of an IT Service Organisation.
Class Discussion: The Evolution of IT Organisations
In this updated post, Troy reflects on a recent discussion with a class on Integrated Service Management. The conversation centred on how IT organisations have evolved from a technology or asset-focused mindset to one that prioritises holistic products and services supporting customer outcomes. One student made a bold statement:
“It seems to me that an organisation’s successful adoption of a service management model is dependent upon and linked to the maturity of their service catalogue or its existence.”
Initially, Troy challenged this statement, pointing out that organisations without a service catalogue can still improve through practices like Incident Management, Asset Management, and Change Enablement. However, after reflection, Troy acknowledged the accuracy of the student’s comment.
Beyond Technology Optimisation
Troy highlights that many critical IT service management practices rely on an organisation recognising itself as a customer-facing service provider. This shift moves the conversation from pure technology optimisation to a focus on supporting customer mission goals through services supported by systemic products, either managed in-house or through third-party providers.
Critical ITSM Practices
Troy lists key ITSM practices, many of which include the term ‘service,’ underscoring the need for a holistic approach:
- Service Request Management
- Service Validation and Testing
- Service Level Management
- Service Configuration Management
- Service Continuity Management
- Service Financial Management
He also highlights the importance of other practices such as Availability Management, Information Security Management, and Portfolio Management, all of which require a broad, systemic view to be effective.
Speaking the Language of Products and Services
To position themselves as strategic partners to their business counterparts, IT organisations must learn to speak the language of products and services. Troy’s blog post from 15 years ago remains one of the most linked-to and visited pages on the Pink Elephant website because this need for alignment remains as relevant today as ever.
Publicly Available Service Catalogues
Troy also shares a list of publicly available Service Catalogues (though he notes that not all are best practice examples):
- University of California
- University of Santa Cruz
- State of North Carolina
- University of New South Wales
- DCU
- Purdue
- University Kentucky Commonwealth
- National Institute of Health
- University of California at Santa Cruz
- Stanford University
- Clemson University
- The Ohio State University
- The University of Texas
- MIT Information Services
- Cornell University
- State of Maine
- University Arizona
- New Mexico Dept. of IT
- University of Alaska
- HEIT Management