A Third Of Organizations State ‘Defining And Designing’ Their Services, As The Biggest Challenge In Setting Up A Service Catalog

United Kingdom, 26th January, 2010 – Axios Systems, the world’s leading provider of IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions, including the assyst software, today reveals further results of a recent global survey that details the main challenge organizations find, or expect to find, with a Service Catalog project is the defining and designing of their services.

Axios recently revealed that 64 per cent of organizations are implementing or looking to implement a Service Catalog in the next 6 months and with this type of project, although there are definite benefits, there are also some challenges that need to be overcome.

When asked about the challenges that organizations had faced, or expected to face, with a Service Catalog project, 36% of respondents considered the task of defining and designing their services as the biggest hurdle.

Ailsa Symeonides, Sales & Marketing Director at Axios Systems, says, “A tool, such as the assyst Service Designer within the assyst Service Catalog, enables organizations to intuitively design services using a pre-defined template library, which can be used for all business departments including IT, HR and Facilities Management. Since the assyst Service Catalog fully integrates with the CMDB it helps organizations achieve end-to-end lifecycle management of services.”

The second biggest challenge for IT, with 20% of respondents agreeing, is changing their approach and mindset to look at services in a non-technical way. It is essential that IT does this in order to provide the services on offer in a way that appeals to all customers, who may have a variety of needs. If customers do not understand the services on offer, and if the catalog is not user-friendly, this may risk poor buy-in of the Service Catalog.

In a recent white paper, Sharon Taylor, ITIL V3 Chief Architect, says, “How the service is depicted in the Service Catalog carries a major significance for appealing to customer needs. This will not only please existing customers but may be the reason new customers are attracted to you as a service provider!” 

Although each project will have its challenges, the benefits that can be achieved from the implementation are far greater. Almost half (44%) of survey respondents expected the biggest benefit of a Service Catalog to be the improvement in management of services and 35% felt the clarity of the services provided to the customers was another advantage.

Sharon continues, “The validity and usefulness of the Service Catalog relies on a solid foundation of information and management. Having a well structured and functioning Service Catalog can link business needs directly to IT services and then into the technical infrastructure. This improves the awareness, understanding and positive cultural behaviors that make effective Service Value Management possible.”

The study was conducted in November and December 2009 and is based on over 1200 IT professionals from North America, Europe and Asia.