Forrester Service Catalog 2013.pdf

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Master The Service Catalog Solution Landscape In 2013by Eveline Oehrlich and Courtney Bartlett, June 12, 2013 | Updated: June 21, 2013

For: Infrastructure

& Operations

Professionals

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Shift From IT To BT Requires A Service Catalog As A Catalyst

Business technology (BT) is essential for success today. "e path to BT involves

identifying, and mapping together, business and technology strategies, which need to be

expressed in business and IT services. A service catalog is a catalyst for this intersection.

Service Catalog Benefits Are Both Unique And Standard

No two service catalog initiatives are alike, as they support a variety of IT and business

needs. But all initiatives streamline the supply chain of services consumed by and

provided to business users with various service types, levels, and providers. Some bene#ts

are unique to your business, while others come from standard supply chain models.

Choose A Vendor Relative To Your Maturity Level

Managing via a service portfolio requires the implementation of service catalogs

with the right automation tools. "e process begins with the goals, associating and

prioritizing of the business goals, and demands and problems to solve, then continues

with identifying automation solutions that provide a service catalog solution to support

the goals.

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FOR INFRASTRUCTURE & OPERATIONS PROFESSIONALS

WHY READ THIS REPORT

"e successful IT organization no longer just keeps the lights on this organization enables the business

with technology, and it partners with the business to achieve organizationwide goals. To facilitate this shi$,

IT organizations must now focus on the support, delivery, and operations of services rather than IT

technologies. To do this you must have a service catalog. But most service catalogs today simply describe

the capabilities and available services that IT o%ers to the business. Forrester recommends IT infrastructure

and operations (I&O) leaders evolve their service catalog into a strategic control point for the business to

enable visibility, agility, and control. Without one, your business will struggle. "is report examines the

service catalog imperative and helps I&O professionals understand their maturity level and get a hold on

the diverse service catalog solution landscape, as choosing the proper tool is vital to catalog success.

Table Of Contents

As IT Evolves, The Demand For Services

Catalogs Increases

Service Catalogs Deliver Benefits That

Foster The IT To BT Transition

The Service Catalog Reference Architecture

And Maturity Levels

The Service Catalog Vendor Landscape

RECOMMENDATIONS

Take An Iterative Approach To Service

Catalog With The Right Vendor

WHAT IT MEANS

Service Catalog Shifts To A Strategic Control

Point

Supplemental Material

Notes & Resources

Forrester incorporated feedback from

numerous end user and vendor interactions,

as well as various other client inquiry and

consulting engagements.

Related Research Documents

Five Steps To Transform Your IT Service

Management Strategy Today

August 29, 2012

Role Overview: Service Catalog Manager

November 6, 2009

Master The Service Catalog Solution Landscape In 2013Use Your Service Catalog As A Strategic Control Point

by Eveline Oehrlich and Courtney Bartlett

with Doug Washburn, Stefan Ried, and Elizabeth Langer

2

7

10

17

14

18

19

JUNE 12, 2013

UPDATED: JUNE 21, 2013


Master The Service Catalog Solution Landscape In 2013 2

2013, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited June 12, 2013 | Updated: June 21, 2013

AS IT EVOLVES, THE DEMAND FOR SERVICES CATALOGS INCREASES

Long ago IT evolved from being a peripheral part of organizations internal systems and technology

to playing a central and important role within the business. Ever-increasing business demands,

availability of new technologies, and new business models for acquiring technology have changed

how technology is managed today; Forrester calls this new era business technology (BT).1

"e shi$ from IT to BT requires new models for how technology is delivered, operated, and

supported. Services must be de#ned, and there is no right or wrong way to do this. "e intersection

between what technologies the business consumes and what IT delivers is called a service, and

di%erent organizations will have di%erent preferences, approaches, and maturity levels for de#ning

their services. Forrester believes services should be primarily de#ned from a customer point of view,

or with a particular business outcome in mind.

As IT moves from being a provider of technologies to a broker of services involving technology, a

comprehensive service catalog becomes imperative for the health and future of the business.

The Service Catalog And Its Relationship To Service Portfolio Management

Based on nearly 300 inquiries over the past 18 months with Forrester clients about service catalogs,

weve observed a lot of confusion, especially as to how the service catalog relates to the service

portfolio, service models, and service assets. "is section sets the stage for how to de#ne a service

catalog and the value it brings.

ITIL v3 de#nes a service catalog as a structured database or document with information about all

live services, including those available for deployment.2 "e service catalog should be published

in an easy to read and use format. But its important to remember that the catalog is only part of a

broader concept called service portfolio management (SPM), which ITIL v3 de#nes as:

A complete list of the services managed by a service provider; some of these services are visible

to the customers, while others are not. It contains present contractual commitments, new service

development, and ongoing service improvement plans initiated by Continual Service Improvement.

It also includes third-party services which are an integral part of service o"erings to customers.3

In other words, SPM is the process of managing all of the components of the service portfolio. Its

the interrelationship of these components that de#nes the value of a service, depending on context

and related assets. To make sure were all speaking the same language for the remainder of this

report, here are the key components of the service portfolio, including the service catalog:

#e service models are the capabilities. Service models are high-level constructs, or families of services relevant and valuable to the business and IT. "ey are a way to organize di%erent

relative IT capabilities and are building blocks for the service catalog. Within ITIL, service




models are known as portfolio principles, which can be translated to the lines of services.

Service models are further detailed with service components, deliverables, prices, contact points,

ordering, and requesting procedures completed via a service catalog (see Figure 1).

#e service archetypes are the activities. Service archetypes describe what the service model is and how it is used. "ey are business models, or activities, which act on the service models

and can be reused for di%erent models or families. For example, within an application service

service model, the service archetypes are leasing, design, and development (see Figure 2).

#e service assets are the ingredients. "e next component that plays an important role within the service portfolio is the service asset. At the highest level, these are the resources or

capabilities needed to support the activities (service archetypes) in the ongoing management of

the service models. Taking our application service model a step further, an example of a service

asset under the development service archetype would be a data warehouse application.

#e service catalog is the o$ering. "e service catalog is how di%erent service models, including service assets, are exposed to business users. "e most basic version of a service

catalog is o$en compared to a restaurant menu: "e service catalog is how IT (the cooks in

the kitchen) communicates to the business (restaurant goers) what services (food and drink

options) are available for consumption, at what price and service level. "e future of the service

catalog is as a much more dynamic strategic control point, like a highly sophisticated vending

machine that works with automated chefs, in hybrid kitchens, 24x7.

#e service portfolio is the life cycle. "e service portfolio is the representation of all a business service o%ering across various phases: planned, currently designed, already in operation, retired.

"e management of this life cycle is called the service portfolio management process.




Figure 1 Break Down Your Service Model First: Service Model Examples

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.93821

Service model type Denition Target audience Example Service archetype

Technical services Describes thetechnical type of the primarycomponent

Business user

IT user

Network

Database

Server

Desktop

Manage, operate,maintain

Application services Describes theapplication that thebusiness userleverage

Business user Email

Sales automation

CRM

Lease, license,provide

Business services A combination orcross-discipline ofother servicessupporting abusiness process

Business user Online shop

Payroll

Quarterly "nancialcycles

Process, ful"ll,record

Support services Capability of aspeci"c IT capability

Business user

IT user

Desktop support

Mobile user support


Infrastructureservices

Core servicestypically supportingother service models

IT user File spacemanagement

System access

Security services


Role-based services Services that arerelated to a particularrole play

Business user

IT user

Consulting services

Project managementservices

Reporting services

Facilities services

Design, develop,engineer

Actionable services Services that ful"lla speci"c need

Business user

IT user

Softwareprovisioning

Hardwareprovisioning

IMAC installation,moves, and changeservices

Connect, integrate




Figure 2 Business Service Example: Onboarding Of Employee


Technical service:

assign desktop

Application service:

establish email

Support service:

enable desktop service

Infrastructure service:

enable security

Facility service:

set up physical workspace

Service Catalog Initiatives Are Fueled By The Business

No matter what kind of service catalog service request, service automation, or strategic control

point there must be a compelling business reason behind the initiative. "e needs and goals of

the business will not only determine the purpose of the service catalog, they will also aid in building

a business case. Here is a range of important reasons for a service catalog e%ort:

#e need to le%-shi% the service support function. Le$-shi$ing is the process of identifying where issues are resolved in the tiered support model (i.e., who resolves what), and then

targeting repetitive and reoccurring issues for resolution closer to the customer. One example is

implementing a self-service capability where business users can log their own incidents, check

the progress of those incidents, or skip the incident log altogether by use of knowledge articles.

"e success and purpose rests in eliminating calls into the service desk. Self-help is an example

of le$-shi$ing and can be implemented via a service catalog. A recent Help Desk Institute

(HDI) study showed that 12% of support centers have received a nearly 32% decrease in ticket

volume due to the introduction of self-help.4

#e need for a central service request system. A central service requests system provides a service request management process. "is not only improves IT operational e+ciency, but

it also drives down both request ful#llment times and costs while giving business users a




single place to submit requests. "is single point of contact bene#ts business users and IT, as

it streamlines all IT and business requests, allowing the business to track forecasted demand

patterns and analyze service request metrics to optimize service delivery. One community

council uses its service catalog as a single source the community can consult for all public

services, from reporting road faults to severe weather information.5 Its sometimes di+cult

to show the bene#ts or cost savings of a central request system, but the community council

attached a dollar #gure to ensuing reductions in full-time equivalents (FTEs), change requests,

incidents, and service request tickets.

#e need for central brokering and orchestration of technology. Todays business users want frictionless IT and the autonomy to choose and use whatever they want, while IT is concerned

with growing complexity and loss of control due to the fast development of new cloud and hybrid

service models. "is is precisely where service catalogs become mechanisms of orchestration and

standardization, providing both choice and value. "e term standardization here means the

de#nition of standard o%erings in a catalog, described with clari#cation that a business user can

understand, con#gure, and order via self-service. "ese services can then be automatically

translated into speci#cations to drive automation of delivery of the services, while at the same

time allowing IT to govern the services relative to demand, service levels, cost, and performance.

#e need for agile business enablement. Business process management (BPM) solutions have teamed up with document imaging and work/ow to automate and streamline paper-

intensive business process. "ese solutions have their place in the enterprise and provide and

support the automation of business processes.6 But in many organizations, BPM solutions cant

be changed or adopted fast enough to tackle simpler business challenges to improve business

users e+ciency and worker productivity. "is is where business service catalogs can augment

or complement business process management solutions, as they can provide the automation

and correlation of a business service such as the onboarding of an employee, and all related IT

services are being implemented by business users and IT folks in conjunction with each other.

#e need for IT governance. End-to-end process governing and tracking the way assets enter and exist in the organization are essential to achieve the highest return on investment (ROI)

for the lowest cost. One vendor stated that IT governance is imperative because you must have

a way to manage and document things, and service o%erings within the service catalog are

a means to do this. Governance helps you understand the relationships and dependencies of

assets relative to the services they support, and it allows you to improve service availability and

reliability. As assets travel across the life cycle, from procurement to end-of-life, a service catalog

can be used to support vendor, contract, license, and #nancial managers, along with other IT

governance bodies, to manage and control IT assets.




#e need to map business capabilities to business services. "is is perhaps the most important need and reason for a service catalog. A business service is set of processes, technologies, and

people, combined in an e%ort to enable a particular business capability. For example, an order-

to-cash business service requires people, processes, and technology resources to ensure cash

is received by the appropriate party when an order is placed. Business capabilities are typically

managed and supported by enterprise architecture groups, which understand how to map IT

assets to business services in support of business capabilities. Business service catalogs are top-

down capabilities that describe and de#ne ITs deliverables from a business perspective.7

SERVICE CATALOGS DELIVER BENEFITS THAT FOSTER THE IT TO BT TRANSITION

Having a service catalog means you can go from being the department of no to the department

of know. "e bene#ts of the service catalog depend on its goals, purpose, scope, and the owner

of the initiative. In an October 2012 joint survey with the itSMF user group, Forrester found that

26% of organizations claim to have realized or exceeded the anticipated bene#ts (see Figure 3). "e

following lists the most common types of bene#ts all service catalogs can deliver:

Standard o$erings and improved e&ciency. Standardizing service o%erings means maintaining fewer items, fewer images, and fewer con#gurations. It also allows for version

control. Standardization helps BT organizations reduce or eliminate ad hoc requests that

otherwise require special handling. Because all services are de#ned and mapped to business

needs, you know exactly what you have, support only what you need, and o%er only what is

available. "is streamlining improves e+ciency in service delivery and support, and it ultimately

reduces the cost of operations.

An empowered sta$ through self-service. Giving your employees the ability and autonomy to solve their own problems via a uni#ed self-service platform not only increases their productivity

and job satisfaction, but it alleviates stresses on other areas of the business as well. Especially when

your service catalog is integrated and automated on the back end, calls into the service desk

decrease, as do request handling times. For example, one client cited an 80% reduction in handling

time. An engineering company always striving to help customers help themselves is constantly

adding self-service items to its catalog; the company has seen a signi#cant reduction in level-one

support costs as a result. Self-service options allow business users to engage IT at their own

convenience, and they inspire rather than inhibit communication between the two. External

customers can also be empowered via an external service catalog with self-service options.

Service governance. Service governance gives you visibility that allows you to take proactive control of your environment by understanding service demand, cost, and quality. Automated

approval processes enable intelligent asset provisioning and tracking to help you plan. You also

know what is in production, what versions are currently supported, and what has been retired.

Costs can be tied to di%erent service levels (e.g., gold, silver, bronze), distributed across the




organization, and tied back to the service catalog. Service-level agreements (SLAs), operational-

level agreements (OLAs), contracts, and ownership are maintained more easily because you

know whats available and who is accountable. You are constantly learning about your o%erings

and environment and can therefore continuously improve both.

End-to-end value chain management. When the service catalog is not just an accessible front end but also automated and integrated with a variety of IT processes (like problem, change, and

con#guration management), IT operations teams are able to monitor, manage, and report on

requests from start to #nish. A service request from a business user sets o% a value chain that

can be tracked within the entire IT organization, from the storefront request initiation to

product delivery or ful#llment. Many departments, providers, and partners are involved, and

the service catalog acts as service broker among service providers.

Enablement of new delivery models. When your service environment is streamlined and agile, it can /uctuate with the business and embrace impending IT advancements. Opportunities such

as private and public clouds, data center migrations, and a growing mobile workforce can be

quickly leveraged and can be used as building blocks to a more successful future rather than as

obstacles to business operations.

Knowledge management. Knowledge management takes self-service a step further by giving business users even more ways to solve problems on their own. Imagine typing a problem into

a search bar and being immediately presented with articles written by your peers relevant to

your issue, ranked by e%ectiveness. Knowledge management capabilities add convenience for

your employees, and they take even more stress o% IT sta% by allowing more time to be spent

on innovation. A midsized manufacturing organization credits its service catalog to freeing

up employees time to work on more strategic projects rather than #re-#ghting. Over time, the

catalog only gets more sophisticated as more empowered employees add to the knowledge base.

Cost savings at the right place. According to #ndings from HDI, 66% of surveyed organizations saw an increase in ticket volume throughout 2012.8 Growth of number of

customers, changes in infrastructure, and number of applications were the top three key reasons

for ticket growth, which is just a fact of business growth. However, 31% of organizations

experienced an increase of ticket volume due to supporting a mobile workforce. Forrester

Research data shows a growth from 15% to 29% in US and European information workers

working anytime and anywhere.9 Inserting a service catalog that allows this mobile workforce

to receive, manage, and consume business and IT services will certainly reduce the cost of the

service support team.

Customer satisfaction. According to HDIs 2012 survey, 33% of all surveyed support centers are conducting ongoing surveys of all closed tickets and another 36% respondents are conducting

ongoing surveys with random samples of closed tickets.10 "is seems to indicate that IT is




interested in customer satisfaction. Customer experience is more than just closing tickets.

Establishing a single place for your business users to go where they can request and receive

services from either a business team or IT has immediate impact on customer satisfaction and

customer experience.

Figure 3 2012 Service Catalog Maturity Levels


Which of the following best describes your service catalog initiative?

We are not interested in a service catalog 2%

We are interested but currently lack the funds tocommence an initiative

12%

We are planning for a service catalog 16%

We are currently working on ourservice catalog initiative 24%

We have a service catalog and have realized orexceeded the anticipated bene"ts 18%

We have a service catalog but have notrealized the anticipated bene"ts

16%

We have killed our failed service catalog initiative 2%

Other 4%

Dont know 6%

Base: 192 IT service management professionals

Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2012 US ITSM Online Survey

But Lack Of Purpose, Proper Tools, Ownership, And Buy-In Inhibit Value

Along with service catalog successes, weve also seen service catalog failure. "ere are a number of

common barriers to adopting a service catalog, and, much like the bene#ts of adoption, they vary

from business to business. Here are a few common inhibitors to be aware of:

Lack of purpose. If a builder approached you with a mind to build a skyscraper but had no architectural plan, no design conception, and no clue what materials were going to be used for

construction, youd be willing to bet that project would fail, right? Approaching a service catalog

with no clear goal, no clear purpose, and no desired outcome is just as crazy an undertaking,

and just as likely to fail. Understanding the purpose behind your service catalog is phase one

of your initiative. Its the blueprint and foundation. As maturity varies from one business to the

next, so will the sets of issues to solve, but a solid de#nition of goals, scope, and purpose is both

paramount and constant for all organizations.11




Lack of proper tools. Weve all heard the saying there are no bad cars, only bad drivers. "e same goes for service management and support tools. Many organizations struggle with a

history of bad tools and investments, a struggle that can be traced back to a purchase without

purpose. What tool your organization commits to is not a snap judgment, but one dependent on

the goals, scope, and purpose unique to your business. What works for one company may not

work for another, since maturity levels and purpose could di%er. "e proper tool can help you

mature. For example, start with a set of tools that enable service request management, then grow

to service orchestration, and then to a service brokering model.

Lack of ownership. When we interviewed a large banking corporation on its IT service management (ITSM) overhaul, it attributed an established and engaged team as the most

important component to the projects success. Why? Because it established ownership. Ownership

lends itself to accountability and pride, two ingredients for success. Without clearly de#ned roles,

management, governance, and maintenance lose direction. A service catalog owner or project

team responsible for the initiative itself, followed by the continuous re#nement of existing services

and adding new services as needed, is vital to service catalog adoption and success.12

Lack of executive buy-in. Executive sponsorship of your service catalog initiative opens a number of doors. It enables funding, people, resources, and tools, and it is imperative for

success. Without it, you risk failure. But garnering executive support can be di+cult. Build your

business case with a solid foundation (i.e., purpose).

THE SERVICE CATALOG REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE AND MATURITY LEVELS

To reap the most reward in the future from your service catalog initiative and the service catalog

vendor, you need to understand where you are today relative to your current maturity level. "e next

section describes the three levels of service catalog maturity, along with Forresters suggested service

catalog reference architecture. "e reference architecture is the ecosystem, and how the service

catalog communicates with that ecosystem determines the maturity level.

Three Levels Of Service Catalog Maturity

"e demand for a service catalog comes from a variety of constituencies, both in and outside of IT.

Depending on your organizations goals and reliance on technology, the demand and type of service

catalog will vary. Forrester de#nes three levels of service catalog maturity, which build on each other:

Level 1: the service catalog as a service request model. "is is a catalog based on the typical infrastructure and operations model focusing on delivering IT services to consumers through

a standard set of choices and or requests. Choices are de#ned by families of either IT or

businesses services and include SLAs, costs, service options, and service owners. Abstract IT

o%erings are expressed in human, understandable terms and choices. Examples of static service




catalog o%erings are the ability to request help around a speci#c problem, the ability to log a

ticket, or even the ability to request an application or a so$ware package (e.g., Microso$ Visio).

Static service catalogs are a single point of entry both for requests from business users and for

the management of IT and the rest of the value chain. While automation can be focused on

certain tasks, its important to know that static service catalogs are just a front end to a variety of

activities and processes not yet automated.

Level 2: the service catalog as an enterprise service automation model. Two levels of automation come into play in this second kind of catalog: process and decision. In addition,

policies and knowledge are leveraged from the con#guration management database/service

information system (CMDB/SIS) throughout the process; all necessary updates and information

are stored in the asset management database, federated into the CMDB/SIS.

A great example of this is new employee onboarding. When a hiring manager enters a request

via the service catalog, a variety of IT or business services are initiated. One could be the

provisioning of a new laptop. "e request goes to the new hires manager for automatic approval

(decision automation), setting o% a work order that enables a workforce computing member to

provision and ship a laptop (process automation) with all necessary con#gurations and so$ware

applications according to the individuals pro#le right to his or her desk.

Level 3: the service catalog as a service broker and strategic control point. "is third model is less a catalog and more a strategic control point. Task, process, and decision automation

orchestrate to manage a variety of processes and resources. Processes are integrated.

Information relative to actual workload, future workload, sourcing options, service agreements,

and other necessary details is available to the service consumer to balance supply and demand.

Service governance processes enable management of contacts, service levels, and policies, and

service integration is managed via tools spanning cloud and non-cloud resources. "is cloud

broker model is a new business paradigm casting the service catalog as a strategic control point.13

The Service Catalog Reference Architecture

Service catalogs comprise a variety of building blocks, which vary depending on the maturity and

goals of an organization. At the highest level, the service catalog focuses on demand from the

business and supply from IT. "is is then supported by a number of other attributes. In all, this

creates the service catalog reference architecture, which includes three categories (see Figure 4).

"e highest level service catalog architecture comprises:




Demand side from the business. "is is the highest level of the service catalog. Its the front end, the portal, or the menu that presents only services that solve business user problems

relevant to the demand of the business. It should be simple, intuitive, and in laymans terms

too much detail complicates user experience. Less is more. "e services should encapsulate all

underlying capabilities such as assets, equipment, applications, and IT processes, as well as tie in

SLAs and aggregate costs. "e demand side of a service catalog is focused on business demand,

not technical needs.

Supply-side capabilities of IT. "is aspect of the service catalog is built to meet the demands of the business; it is an ecosystem of what the business is capable of delivering. Again, less is more:

"is side of the catalog should be established in as simple a structure as possible, be able to

capture contributions from business users, and be able to adapt when business and technology

drivers change. "e technical service catalog and the business service catalog (described in

greater detail below) reside here as communication platforms both visible to and requiring

input from business stakeholders: executives, users, account managers, service managers,

enterprise architects, #nancial controllers, and system technicians.

"e middle level service catalog architecture comprises:

Consumers of the service catalog. Consumers can be anyone, from internal non-IT employees, to technical support sta%, to C-level executives, business partners, contractors, external

customers, and beyond. "ese service catalog stakeholders all require services, and the service

catalog is where they will come to get them. Service catalogs o%er and encourage business

users to use a one-stop-shopping model for all consumers and therefore avoid the shadow IT

investments happening in many organizations.14

Interfaces. "e interface is the access point for the service catalog users. Its through an interface that a service is kicked o% and the ful#llment process begins. "e interface could, and should,

be available from a desktop, laptop, mobile device, web browser, or any other kind of technology

used for communication purposes by the business during all hours. "e anytime, anywhere

workers trend is driving the adoption of service catalogs even more, as these workers are

consuming services from anywhere at any time.15

#e business service catalog. "e business service catalog is what the business users and external customers will see. It must be clearly organized, designed, de#ned, and aligned with

the needs of the business. Each business service can comprise any number of IT or technical

services. During the ful#llment process, requests move from the business service catalog to the

technical service catalog and vice versa.

#e technical service catalog. "e technical service catalog contains all of the IT services the IT organization provides to the business or to other members of IT. O$en these are building blocks




for the services o%ered within the business service catalog, but they can also be made available

directly to the business user or IT users. However, non-IT employees rarely work directly with

the technical services catalog. Technical service catalogs are typically used by (and can be

designed by) enterprise architecture, infrastructure, sourcing and vendor management, and

application development teams.

"e lower level service catalog architecture comprises:

#e service information system. "e SIS is the brain of your IT infrastructure; it contains the details of all con#guration items (CIs) in your environment.16 When built and managed

correctly, this entity is continuously discovering the IT assets that are the building blocks of your

technical and business services. Once discovered, these assets are used to describe and detail the

di%erent kinds of service models (described above). Service levels, operational levels, and other

details are part of the service asset, and they are described and communicated to the business

via the SIS.

External service providers and service delivery systems. IT portfolio management is continuously changing. Forrester is seeing hybrid models of the data center, multiple

outsourcing partners, and cloud service providers emerging.17 "is portfolio of external service

providers and service delivery system inevitably complicates the service portfolio, as in many

organizations, cloud services complement internal service environments. "e service catalog

intermixes in-house resources and data with externally hosted resources and data, gathering all

of those choices under one clear roof.

Integration with IT systems and business applications. Both the business service catalog and technical service catalog require work/ow integrations with other business and IT applications

to e%ectively support business users and IT. "ese integrations can be grouped into two key

areas: integration with IT systems, and integration with business applications. An IT system

integration could be an ITSM solution integration aiding in back-end process management;

these kinds of integrations are key for supporting service availability and performance. For

example, a business user could kick o% an incident management process via the catalog by

reporting an issue with application response time. Business application integrations augment

the service catalogs with additional process /ows. One example is the human resources (HR)

system integration used to kick o% an employee onboarding request.




Figure 4 "e Service Catalog Reference Architecture


CMDB/SIS

External service providers

Se

rvic

e d

eliv

ery

sys

tem

Employees Contractors PartnersService providers

Demand Requests SLAsPrices Knowledge KPIs

Any interface mobile and web

Customers

State/health

Business service catalog Technical service catalog

Cloudservices

Departmentservices

Supplierservices

IT services

OLAs

Costs

Work"ow OCs

Databases Release

Middlew.Network Apps

Hardware

IntegrationERP

LDAP

ITSM

CRM HRPPM

BPM

Asset management Homegrown

BC/DR

Software BC/DR

De

ma

nd

Su

pp

ly c

ap

ab

ility

Business processes

THE SERVICE CATALOG VENDOR LANDSCAPE

"e service catalog vendor landscape is diverse. From standalone solutions to ITSM vendors large

and small, service catalog solutions are de#ned relative to the problem and maturity of the client

they are designed for and target (see Figure 5). No one vendor is better than another. Some vendors

focus on service request management needs, while others cater toward more mature customers with

clearly de#ned business and IT processes who are looking to hook them into a single self-service

portal. In Forresters assessment, the vendor landscape can be divided into the following categories

(see Figure 6):

Enterprise service request solutions. "ese are front-end solutions, capable of automating a variety of tasks ranging from self-service requests to simple work/ows that kick o% process-

based solutions to ful#ll speci#c requests. Enterprise service request solutions can be standalone

solutions that can be integrated with other business systems and applications like customer

relationship management (CRM), ITSM, or HR to allow requests and actions to be automated

and ful#lled. Many have a set of frequently occurring out-of-the-box service requests, and they




can therefore manage and orchestrate the demand side from business users. "is solution is best

suited for customers in the service request service catalog model.

Enterprise service catalog solutions. "is type of solution is either part of a larger ITSM suite or a standalone function that enables the orchestration of any variety of processes, from request

submission to ful#llment. Enterprise service catalog solutions have the ability to either de#ne

their own service models or receive models from the CMDB/SIS. Typically, these solutions are

found within mega IT management and ITSM vendor portfolios, as other service management

processes such as incident, problem, and change are required to take action on the services

within the service models. Many of these solutions can partner with other vendors, which

alleviates mobile, desktop, and partnering challenges. Customization requiring little coding to

build service models is another valuable aspect of this group. "is solution is leveraged by more

mature customers looking to tie de#ned business processes and IT services into a single self-

service portal.

Enterprise strategic control point solutions. "ese solutions industrialize the delivery of any variation of business technologies necessary to source and ful#ll the requirements of the business.

Not only can enterprise strategic control point solutions automate service processes and requests,

they can also be leveraged to enable, manage, and optimize hybrid environments including

di%erent cloud options. Brokering solutions are typically decoupled from ITSM solutions, but

they can be and o$en are integrated with other IT management solutions like performance

monitoring, workload, and provisioning solutions. Enterprise service brokering solutions are in

their #rst stage of evolution, and they will continue to evolve given the growing need to advance

in the cloud management space. Customers of this solution are of the highest maturity.

Todays vendor landscape is focused on the immediate need to help business users manage the

demand and supply side of the services available. Some solutions can broker the demand and

supply of resources available from the di%erent cloud models and internal available resources. "ese

solutions are extending their capabilities at the same time that new cloud business models are being

developed. "e future of service catalog does lie in the opportunity to bring together a variety of

cloud management infrastructure and automation process solutions that function as cloud brokers.

"e purpose of these solutions is to manage spare resource capacity of all three cloud domains

private, virtual private, and public clouds and to #nd enough resources to o%er to clients.




Figure 5 A Large Service Catalog Vendor Landscape

Vendor Solution name

Servicerequest

management

Enterpriseservice catalog

solutions

Enterpriseservice

brokeringsolutions

HP Service catalog part of IT servicemanagement solution/HP service manager

O O

SerenaSoftware

Serena Request Center

Serena Enterprise Service Catalog

O O

CA Technologies

CA Service Catalog O O O

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk O O O

CherwellSoftware

Service catalog as part of ITSM solution O O

Axios Systems Axios assyst O O

EasyVista Service catalog as part of ITSM solution O O

ServiceNow Service catalog as part of ITSM solution O O

ITRP Service catalog as part of ITSM solution O

Enstratius*

Kinetic Data Kinetic Request request management O O

FrontRange Service catalog as part of ITSM solution O O

ASG Service catalog and requestmanagement (CloudFactory) O O

PMG O O

Cisco Systems Cisco Prime Service Catalog O

BMC Software Service catalog capabilities as part of

BMC Remedy ITSM Suite

BMC FootPrints Service Catalog

BMC Remedyforce Service Catalog

O

O

O

O

O

O

Biomni FrontO"ce Essential

FrontO"ce Express

FrontO"ce Enterprise

FrontO"ce Service Provider

O

O

O O

O O

O

O

O

Jamcracker* O

ServiceMash* O

O

*Evaluations of select vendors were based on published information, rather than interviews.

PMG Service Catalog Suite

O

O




Figure 6 Service Catalog Maturity Model


Automationmaturity level

Low High

Businessimpact

Tactical

Strategic

Excel sheetsPowerPoints

Word documents

Enterpriserequest

managementsolutions

Enterpriseservicecatalog

solutions

Enterpriseservice

brokeringsolutions

R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S

TAKE AN ITERATIVE APPROACH TO SERVICE CATALOG WITH THE RIGHT VENDOR

A service catalog implementation can feel like an overwhelming task, starting with the de#nition

of service models, service de#nitions, and possible service costs. Its essential to understand the

immediate purpose and goal and therefore what bene#ts the service catalog will provide. To succeed

at your service catalog initiative, Forrester recommends that IT I&O professionals:

Determine goals and timelines but be realistic. When de#ning the goals for your service catalog, its necessary to understand both the short- and long-term strategic business

goals. "ese will help you balance your investment and decisions on where to focus your

initiative. For example, if enabling your mobile workforce is a top business goal, emphasize

building a service catalog that allows the provisioning and support of devices, so$ware, and

mobile support. Once youve determined your goals, the next step is to de#ne a timeline.

Service catalog initiatives require many steps: stakeholder de#nitions, service catalog

design sessions, integration planning with existing tools and processes, tool selection, and

actual implementation, to name a few. To ensure progress and success, determine a realistic

timeline for your plan.

Pick one area to work on, and expand to others. Trying to tackle all technical and business capabilities at once is a nice ambition, but its not necessarily a good goal. A better approach

is to choose one area, pain point, or domain to focus on possibly something where




you can make a di%erence, and which is a good showcase for continual improvement and

expansion and then focus. Following this #rst phase, its possible to build upon that

experience and learning with the next iteration and extension.

Assign ownership and involve stakeholders. Lack of ownership is a barrier to successful service catalog adoption. One adopter established a project team composed of individuals

who had good process background and a good understanding of business requirements.

"is team assigned roles and responsibilities and met frequently to check on progress. It

also brought in people from various departments and kept them informed of the impact to

their department relative to the service catalog initiative. Understanding the stakeholders is

a critical success factor for a service catalog initiative. Forrester recommends following the

stakeholder involvement model.18

Be iterative, continually improve, and market your successes. A service catalog is a continual improvement e%ort with a speci#c start, but it has no real end. One major

ITSM vendor shared with us its own service catalog journey; it took the vendor six

implementations, mapping its business services down to their technical components, before

it could consider the project complete. Service catalog initiatives can start small, focusing

on a particular task, organization, or process. However, there are many business and IT

partners and other stakeholders that all could bene#t from a service catalog. To grow your

service catalog into an enterprisewide initiative, its important to market and showcase the

work across the organization internally and externally of IT.

#ink tools for today and for tomorrow. "e vendor landscape is #lled with tools that allow you to make progress no matter where you are and where you want to go. Its important to

understand your goals and determine your vendor solution relative to them. Tools are there

to automate and support the use cases you have designed. Its essential to bring together all

key stakeholders in understanding their goal of service automation. In some cases, your

service catalog tied to your service desk or ITSM solution might be just good enough for

todays purpose. In other cases, you might need to grow and look at solutions that decouple

your service catalog from the service desk to support broader use cases in the management

and brokering of cloud services or beyond.

W H AT I T M E A N S

SERVICE CATALOG SHIFTS TO A STRATEGIC CONTROL POINT

In the future, the term service catalog may be rendered obsolete, as a service catalog initiative is so

much more than just a catalog its the management of the life cycle of various services demanded

and consumed by the business users and lines of business.




Todays vendor landscape is still very fractioned into solutions that are all trying to broker that

ecosystem. "e service catalog, when seen as a broker, is a strategic control point to orchestrate,

optimize, and govern a variety of business technology resources to support the demands of the

business community. "is service broker will become the one place that connects IT with the lines

of business to deliver:

Service excellence. Standard o%erings and a streamlined portfolio allow IT to o%er services more e%ectively. Compound that with intelligence gained by using demand, knowledge,

and #nancial management capabilities, and IT will be able to meet the high expectations of

business users while also lowering costs and allowing for adoption of new technologies and

business models, such as the cloud.

Operational excellence. "is goes hand in hand with service excellence. Service catalogs facilitate the automation of tasks, processes, and decisions, o%ering a sustainable foundation

on which to deliver quality services.

Service catalogs and service broker solutions evolve todays IT closer to a true BT organization by

supplying the right service or resources at the right time and at the right price.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

Companies Interviewed For This Report

ASG

Axios Systems

Biomni

BMC So$ware

CA Technologies

Cherwell So$ware

Cisco Systems

EasyVista

FrontRange Solutions

HP

IBM

ITRP

Kinetic Data

PMG

Serena So$ware

ServiceNow




ENDNOTES

1 Forrester de#nes the new operating model of empowered BT as the relentless revolution in which the

business is sourcing and managing more and more technology outside ITs direct control. For more

information on how this movement is a%ecting infrastructure and operations, and how I&O professionals

can successfully handle it, see the April 18, 2013, Reinvent The Role Of Infrastructure And Operations

Executive In 2013 report.

2 ITIL de#nes a service catalog as: A database or structured document with information about all live IT

services, including those available for deployment. "e service catalogue is part of the service portfolio and

contains information about two types of IT service: customer-facing services that are visible to the business;

and supporting services required by the service provider to deliver customer-facing services. See also

customer agreement portfolio; service catalog management. Source: ITIL (http://www.itil-o+cialsite.com/

InternationalActivities/ITILGlossaries_2.aspx).

3 Source: ITIL (http://www.itil-o+cialsite.com/InternationalActivities/ITILGlossaries_2.aspx).

4 Source: Help Desk Institute (HDI), 2012 (http://www.thinkhdi.com).

5 "e Fife Council is a unitary authority that provides roughly 900 di%erent services to more than 360,000

residents of Fife, Scotland. Fife Council implemented a service catalog using Axios Systems enterprise

service assyst solution with great success, and Forrester will be publishing a case study on their service

catalog next quarter.

6 Business process management has not only played a substantial role in driving back-o+ce e+ciency,

process automation, and workforce productivity, but Forrester believes BPM will help businesses handle

the increasingly complex and disruptive IT environment. For more information on what Forrester has

identi#ed as the 10 most signi#cant so$ware providers in the BPM suite, see the March 11, 2013, The

Forrester Wave: BPM Suites, Q1 2013 report.

7 Business services connect people, processes, and technology resources to the business outcomes they

enable, and business service catalogs describe what o%erings IT o%ers to support the business. To ensure a

complete, connected, and successful business service catalog, you must get input from the entire business,

especially your enterprise architecture team, which can assist in mapping IT assets to business services. For

more information, see the March 26, 2009, Enterprise Architects Should Lead Business Service Portfolio

Definition report.


9 For more information and a data-driven understanding of which devices, platforms, and apps matter to an

increasingly mobile, and global, workforce, see the February 4, 2013, 2013 Mobile Workforce Adoption

Trends report.


11 We delve deeper into how to develop a service catalog to describe IT services supporting business services

that in turn support business processes. See the October 28, 2009, Service Catalog Your Prerequisite For

Effective IT Service Management report.




12 Clear ownership, not just of the services within the service catalog, but of the catalog itself, is key for

success. For more information on the role and responsibilities of the service catalog manager, see the

November 6, 2009, Role Overview: Service Catalog Manager report.

13 We de#ne the current and future business models surrounding cloud computing and outline why the cloud

broker model is the most promising cloud approach, especially when it comes to service delivery models.

See the August 10, 2011, Cloud Broker A New Business Model Paradigm report.

14 Your customers are going to go a$er what IT services they want and need to be more successful and

productive employees whether your IT department provides it or not. For more information on how I&O

professionals can make the transition from an internally focused ITSM model to a customer-obsessed,

service-focused, and automated service management and automation (SMA) paradigm, see the August 29,

2012, Five Steps To Transform Your IT Service Management Strategy Today report.

15 "e number of anytime, anywhere information workers those who use three or more devices, work from

multiple locations, and use many apps has risen from 23% of the global workforce in 2011 to 29% in

2012. With tablets tripling to 905 million in use for work and home globally by 2017, the anytime, anywhere

work trend is just getting started. See the February 4, 2013, 2013 Mobile Workforce Adoption Trends

report.

16 CMDB? SIS? Which one it is? "e SIS is the CMDB, reimagined. "e old-school con#guration management

database is indeed a failure to avoid. Pursue a SIS instead. See the December 6, 2011, Reinvent The

Obsolete But Necessary CMDB report.

17 "e future of cloud computing will be driven by the enterprise requirements of the future, not the past, and

the landscape is shi$ing to cover a broader range of needs. So$ware-as-a-service (SaaS) and infrastructure-

as-a-service (IaaS) models are becoming more /exible, cloud infrastructures are evolving to provide a

virtualized match for nearly every infrastructure combination found in data centers today, and Forrester

believes cloud services and platforms will become core members of your IT portfolio during the next #ve

years. For more information on the shi$s taking place in the cloud landscape and how it a%ects businesses,

vendors, and service providers, see the December 10, 2012, Cloud Keys An Era Of New IT Responsiveness

And Efficiency report.

18 For an interactive tool and #ve-step guide for properly identifying, assessing, and engaging key stakeholders

throughout your service catalog initiative, see the May 28, 2013, Five Steps To Assess The Real Power Of

Your Stakeholders report.

Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to

global leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 13 key roles at major companies providing proprietary

research, customer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 29 years, Forrester has been making

IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For more information, visit www.forrester.com. 93821

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IAN OLIVER, client persona representing Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

About Forrester

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