In this video, we take a high-level look at service catalogs from the perspective of users and administrators.
We also look at the service catalog management roles you can assign to other users to delegate service catalog administrative tasks.
Later videos in this series provide more details on the topics you’ll see here.
Linked time codes for these topics appear in the YouTube description for this video.
With the Service Catalog application...
... you can create one or multiple catalogs of products and shared services that your organization offers to its employees, customers, suppliers, and others.
A service catalog can contain almost anything...
... products—like computer equipment, software, furniture, or office supplies…
... and services—like work requests, password reset, or support to resolve issues across different departments in the organization.
The products and services in a catalog are organized into categories and subcategories.
The base system includes several useful categories, and you can define your own.
To submit a request in a service catalog...
... users navigate through the categories to find the specific items they want.
First let’s look at a service catalog from the perspective of an end user.
Here, we’re logged into our service portal, which is where most users view the service catalog.
To see how categories work, here’s how the user might find a laptop computer.
…Hardware…
…Laptops…
…Sales Laptop.
And here’s the catalog page for that laptop.
It’s much like a page on a typical e commerce site, with a picture…
…a description…
…options or accessories…
…and fields for ordering the item.
Now let’s see what that catalog page looks like for the system administrator.
To see our list of catalog items, we navigate to Service Catalog > Catalog Definitions > Maintain items.
To find our sales laptop, we search for items whose Name field contains laptop….
…And here it is.
This is the form that defines the catalog page users see.
Here’s where you define the elements of the page, like the Short description and Description…
…the picture…
…the price…
…and variables that offer optional features or accessories.
You can also define a fulfillment process, or how the item is processed, via a flow or workflow.
The fulfillment process defines what happens when someone orders an item or requests a service from a catalog.
It specifies the various people and groups required to perform a series of tasks to fulfill the request.
Now let’s look at service requests.
The service catalog also contains items that let users request services...
... like reporting an IT issue, or changing a password.
In general, these items are simplified versions of the full forms that are used to create such requests.
Let’s look at an example: creating an incident to report an issue.
Here’s the full form that IT personnel use to create an incident.
Now we’re logged in to the service portal as an end user again.
Create Incident is in the "Can we help you?" category.
The logical place to look.
This form is simplified for users...
... making it easy for them to report issues and request services quickly, on their own, without contacting IT.
These forms are called record producers because they add a record to a system table, like the Incident table.
The service catalog in the base system includes several record producers.
To see the list, we’ll go back to our system administrator account…
…and navigate to Service Catalog...
... Catalog Definitions...
... Record Producers...
Here’s the one we just saw, for creating an incident.
This form defines the page that users see, including the descriptions…
…and the variables for user input.
On the Accessibility tab, the item is associated with the service catalog, or catalogs, in which it will appear.
Specifying a Category here allows users to search for the item where they would expect to find it.
On the Generated Record Data tab...
... you can define a template to assign one or more static field values for all records created by the record producer.
We didn’t make any changes to the record producer...
... so it’s fine for us to leave this form to open the template.
This template sets the Short description to Reset my password...
... sets the record to Active...
... and the Contact type to Self service.
Finally, let’s look at the roles you can assign to users to delegate service catalog management tasks.
There are several roles, providing different levels of access.
See the product docs for details.
Administrators can manage all aspects of the Service Catalog application...
... including catalogs…
… categories...
… catalog items...
... and scripting functions, such as creating business rules.
Catalog administrators also can manage all aspects of the Service Catalog application…
…except scripting functions.
Catalog managers assigned to a service catalog can edit and update it, …
…including its categories and catalog items.
Catalog managers can also assign catalog editors…
…and assign the catalog to a different manager.
Catalog editors assigned to a service catalog can perform the same functions as a catalog manager...
…including assigning other editors to the catalog...
... but they cannot reassign the catalog manager.
For more information, please see our product documentation, knowledge base, or podcast.
Or ask a question in the ServiceNow Community.