ServiceNow Service Catalog Changes

On a most basic level, the high-level changes to the service catalog (September 22, 2020) are simple and easy to understand, but since the catalog is the foundation for many ServiceNow processes, the changes will have profound and broad implications on the work that will be done by the unit/department service catalog managers (as well as other ServiceNow users).

This article will describe some of those changes at a high level and implications of those changes. The Catalog Playbook will include more details.

Comments and questions should be directed to the Service Management Office.

On a basic level, the biggest part of the catalog update will be the removal of a largely redundant layer, but the removal of this layer will result in a number of other required changes.

Current State

The current catalog, although loosely based on ECAR behind the scenes, largely includes two fields--business services and service offerings--that are largely redundant and cause confusion for users.

Future State

Removing the largely redundant business service layer, along with making two now behind-the-scenes categories visible, the catalog will simplified and re-organized in a way that's much easier for users to understand and interact with.

For instances, instead of approximately 700 services, the catalog will house roughly 45 services.

Catalog Implications

The simplification of the catalog will result in a number of other changes that will affect catalog process managers and the catalog process.

Key items will be highlighted here.

Service Owners and Service Managers Required

Service owners and service offering managers will be required for all services and service offerings; however, owners will not need to be identified as part of the Q3 release. This will be a separate project completed after the release.

In most cases, the owner will be filled be someone at the director level (remember, there will be 40 to 45 high-level services, not 700-plus like today), and many of the current service managers will make the transition from the current service manager to the new service offering manager role in the new paradigm.

Additional information is available in the Service Owner and Service Offering Manager article, including definition of roles and  responsibilities and expectations.

Changes to the Catalog

Service Structure

The main change to the catalog will be the elimination of the business service layer within ServiceNow, which will result in a three-level paradigm for the catalog, based on the ECAR model (updated in 2019).

• Service Category
• Service
• Service Offering

The Service Categories are:

• Administrative and Business
• Communication and Collaboration
• Desktop and Mobile Computing
• Infrastructure
• IT Professional Services
• Research
• Information Security
• Teaching and Learning

The second level will be the Service, which will be a more high-level service than in our current catalog.

For example, these are the services listed under the Administrative and Business category:

• Alumni and Advancement
• Auxiliary Systems
• Business Capability and Process Automation
• Facilities Management
• Faculty Information Systems
• Financial and Procurement Systems
• Human Resource Systems
• Library Systems
• Data, Reporting, and Analytics
• Student Information Systems

The third level will be composed of the service offerings, which are too numerous to list here.

Required Information

Specific information (attributes) will be required for each service offering, including description (including audience, service levels, requirements, charges to customer), service owner (if not already identified), service offering manager, support contact, etc.

The specifics will be identified in the Service Catalog Playbook.

Elimination of Business Service

The elimination of the business service level will require some changes to the structure of the catalog.

• Categories and Technical Services
  Categories and technical services will remain available to help facilitate the routing of tickets and reporting on incidents and requests that come into a given service offering; however, these will now exclusively be connected to the service offering rather than the business service level (since the business service level is being eliminated).
• Other Items
  Other items, mainly behind the scenes, that are connected to the business service will need to be re-connected elsewhere in the tool, such as resolution codes, alerts (additional information below), script fields, and icons. 

Other Processes

The catalog is the foundation for many things in ServiceNow, so the catalog update will affect many processes and procedures. Use the links below for details:

• Penn State IT Service Catalog Update
• New Roles for Service Owners and Service Offering Managers
• Changes for Service Catalog Managers
• Improved Portfolio Management
• Penn State Alerts Improvements
• Reports, Dashboards, and Filters Changes
• Email Ingestion into ServiceNow Changes
• Changes to the Incident Form for Logged-In ServiceNow Users

Questions

If you have any questions, please contact the Service Management Office.

• ECAR model (updated in 2019).