The CIT Service Catalog

In the beginning

In early 2007, seeking to improve the level of service provided to our customers, CIT committed to a new service management framework named ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library). Although there are many objectives to the ITIL framework, the most important is to deliver effective IT services to our customers.

In order to accomplish that objective, the Service Catalog was born. The Service Catalog provides a comprehensive listing of CIT services, which not only allows customers a transparent view into CIT offerings, but also provides easier access to ordering these services.

Providing benefits to our customers

The structure of the Service Catalog improves the visibility of CIT services to our customers and delineates the range of our capabilities. Services are categorized into high-level groups, highlighting our main areas of business for customers. By having an authoritative list of services in a single trusted location, our customers can makes plans and take actions knowing that CIT will provide the service they require to support their business needs. The Service Catalog also gives customers one place to easily find contact information for ordering services and learning more about CIT services.

The CIT Service Catalog – all CIT service offerings in one location.

Learning along the way

As with many organizations, we discovered that when instituting a new way of doing business, changing the culture can be one of the most difficult challenges you face. While CIT divisions were doing a great job offering and supporting our services, we discovered (through the implementation of ITIL) that despite our strengths, we had been working too much in a “stove-piped” environment. In order to provide our customers with a consistent method of service delivery from CIT we needed to collaborate more and encourage teamwork across divisions.

Teams were established, and meetings were held on a recurring basis to discuss how to better communicate our service selection to our customers. This process brought us more gains than we ever dreamed possible because we were able to combine resources and work cohesively to develop our best practices. We became better service providers because we thoroughly reviewed every aspect of services and shared information with our customers that was accessible, accurate, pertinent, and current. The Service Catalog was the result of this collaboration and teamwork.

Successes along the journey

The initial CIT Service Catalog was released in November 2007. This was the first time in CIT history that a complete listing of services was produced and shared with NIH. The listing encompassed approximately 100 services, categorized into logical groups with detailed descriptions, and the entire document was available in print and PDF format.

The next milestone occurred in August 2008, when CIT published a new level of the Catalog. Now the Catalog included 120 services in eleven different categories. Every service was broken down into key components, including: Service Description, Customer Benefits, Hours of Operation, Customer Market, and Related Links. In keeping with CIT’s focus on creating something that customers would find easy to use, this version was published on the CIT website and included a printer-friendly view.

The future is bright

The customer is always our first priority. Each step that we take on the Service Catalog is meant to not only help you find what you are looking for, but to make the whole process as easy as possible. Currently scheduled for October 2009, the newest version of the Catalog will be even more robust, with additional information for each service, including: Service FAQs, Service Level Agreement, and Service Reviews. Then in mid-2010, our authorized customers can look forward to actually ordering a service directly from the web, just as you are able to order a book or CD.

While there has been a lot of progress made in the area of Service Catalog Management, there is so much more that can be done. In the strides we take towards a state-of-the-art product, the customer is always the most significant consideration for us. After all, with every new version you are the ones most affected. Collaboration and communication are key to the Service Catalog’s success, and CIT will continue its tradition of commitment to the customer.

For more information on the Service Catalog go to: http://www.cit.nih.gov.

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