IT Services Catalogue
The simplified generally accepted definition of a "Service Catalogue" is a list of services provided or received by an entity (organization, customer, individual, etc.) that includes some or all the details necessary to maintain an accurate record.
In our case, we maintain an IT Services Catalogue to define the list of services a business generally receives from various technology providers for managing, maintaining and supporting said services to help enterprises better manage their technology footprint.
The Services Catalogue helps businesses have a more straightforward relationship with IT organisations by enabling a common language regarding technology. It also helps by allowing the IT to better manage various sections of the IT infrastructure by creating the framework to categorise, manage, and automate the management of incidents and change requests in an ITSM environment.
Our IT Services Catalogue is not a list of services we provide as an IT provider, but a list of services we manage, maintain and support, on behalf of our customers. It is an important distinction we decided to make because this simplifies our relationship with our customers: we manage all our customers' IT services, even when we are not the provider of said services.
Covering everything required to manage the local network, as well as Internet connectivity, security and resilience. This critical IT service needs to be monitored and optimised for all the other services to function.
The IT Service Management related to server systems, from server racks and UPS systems, server hardware and operating systems, virtualization and containerization required to ensure this layer of infrastructure is up to the demands.
File sharing is an important IT service allowing employees to collaborate on documents and share information quickly and without fuss. It requires good security policies to protect against malicious attacks such as viruses and ransomware and efficient configuration for ease of use.
With an increasing online presence demand due to the shift in focus towards online marketing, the domain registrations and DNS setup, as well as correct configurations of web hosting is increasingly needed. Many companies tend to regard this as a lower importance IT service, with negative results in marketing and sales.
Companies now use various online messaging platforms, from SMS to Skype and even Facebook messaging. The same requirements and support needs are in place as any other service from techology.
Email services have become the backbone of communications for most businesses, irrespective if it is about internal or external – emplaoyees need to communicate between themselves as well as with customers and suppliers. Well managed email communications keep a business in touch with the world and efficient.
The need to research and gather information from the enormous pool of the Internet requires proper configuration, fast connections and good security practices. With many applications now in the cloud, the Internet browser has become a central element of the user experience, which makes this another important IT Service.
With the onset of VoIP and cloud-based Unified Communication Systems, telecommunications have completely become an IT Service, hence subject to IT Service Management activity.
Irrespective if they are provided by an external third-party or installed on one of the servers or hardware devices owned by the business, Business Applications are yet another service provided by technology and require continuous support and management.
The ongoing maintenance and support of printers and scanners may be sometimes provided by the suppliers themselves. But, like with many other managed services, the direct business unit and user support falls under the IT Service Management control.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic it has become clear that Remote Desktop Services are an important part of the IT support activities. Ensuring service continuity, security and fast recovery in case of incidents is of outmost importance.
Sometimes part of the telecommunication services, other times completely separate and relying on third party services, video conferencing requires many times special attention, in order to support business processes and communications.
We consider Business Resilience to be one of the critical services provided by IT to the business. Just imagine what would happen if technology services were not provided continuously or would require days to recover from a disastruous event.
Yet another critical service provided by the IT infrastructure, allowing users to access all the business resources and applications in a secure manner and with the appropriate permissions.
