What this article covers
- What ITSM is
- An image of how Service Catalog, a basic ServiceNow function, is used
ServiceNow has many features, and each is introduced on the official website, but we often hear that it is hard to picture them and people ask us for a demo.
So in this article, we introduce Service Catalog, one of the most basic features of the ServiceNow environment known as the Now Platform.
In this article, you will
- get a picture of how ServiceNow is used
- learn about its features
What is ITSM?
ITSM stands for IT Service Management. It is not a ServiceNow term in particular. It means planning, delivering, and supporting IT services through people and IT.
An IT service is, for example, the support desk for an app you use. Managing the processes around IT services, such as handling bug reports, errors, and complaints, with IT itself is surprisingly difficult.
ServiceNow bundles the features related to ITSM and offers them as one service contract. This is the ServiceNow ITSM license, a popular product that accounts for nearly half of initial ServiceNow introductions.
What is Service Catalog?
Service Catalog is part of the Now Platform, the standard ServiceNow environment. Roughly speaking, it is an internal online store.
Any kind of internal request can be registered like a product and offered as a catalog, for example:
- We need a computer for a new employee.
- Please set up a cloud environment.
- I want to take paid leave.
- I want to report a change in my dependents.
It can actually be offered outside the company too, but this article covers only ITSM.
What are the benefits of Service Catalog?
ServiceNow has many strengths, and one of the biggest is progress tracking. After submitting a request, you can instantly see what stage it has reached.
ServiceNow also helps shorten the work that follows approval. For example:
- An employee orders a set of equipment for a new mid career hire from the administration department.
- The administration department approves the request.
- The person in charge of devices in the administration department is assigned the tasks of preparing the device set (including keyboard and monitor) and making an ID card.
- The person in charge in the information systems department is assigned the task of preparing the employee account and IDs for each service.
Once steps 1 and 2 are done, ServiceNow can automate what follows, including task assignment. A big strength is that the requester and their manager can check the progress of each task.
There are many other features and uses, which we will explain in other articles.
Summary
In this article, we focused on ITSM, and in particular on Service Catalog.
The real value of Service Catalog is not that it works like an online store, but that you can track progress.
In daily life, we track progress all the time, such as the delivery status of an order or the progress of a repair request, but building this inside a company is hard. ServiceNow makes it easy.
SYSLABO will continue to share information on new releases. If you would like to know more, please feel free to contact us.
