Inquiry Spotlight: The Foundation And Future Of Service Catalog, 2013 And Beyond

Forrester's infrastructure and operations (I&O) team fields hundreds of inquiries every quarter; it's through these engagements we track our clients' challenges, interests, and evolution across our various coverage areas. They are also a key source of input for our future research agenda. In 2013, Forrester answered 161 inquiries on service catalogs, a space that is swiftly evolving due to rising demand for superb service experience, options, and availability provided by technology management to the business. The most popular topics of conversation revolved around catalog templates (15%), implementing and improving self-service (23%), tool selection (22%), as well as best practices and general service catalog strategy (20%). Many of these questions were combined with concerns about customer experience, mobility, and digital disruption. "What are my peers doing?" was a consistent question, and very rarely did one inquiry touch on one topic, but rather included multiple concerns. Today, service catalogs occupy a wide spectrum of models, from an Excel file to a front-end request menu to a fully automated and orchestrated self-service portal. Service management and automation (SMA) professionals should use this report to understand the current state of service catalog, what the future holds, and how your peers are handling it.