The business service catalogue
As a primary vehicle for communications between the IT service provider and its customers, the business service catalogue should be as easy to use as any good mail order catalogue. The business service catalogue will serve its purpose best if it meets its users’ requirements, and this means engaging with the user
community in requirement gathering and design. If the business service
catalogue does meet the customers’ needs, they will be unlikely to use it. Among other things, it is important that there is a common understanding of what the word ‘service’ means.
What is often a source of confusion is that what the customer sees as a single service is most likely to be seen by the IT service provider as a mix of services, with a core service underpinned by supporting services (see Figure 12.1).