Service catalog for small business: ready-made requests that become tickets

Every business has a handful of requests that arrive again and again: a new laptop, a password reset, access to a program, a desk for a new starter. When each one arrives as a free-form email, someone has to read it, ask follow-up questions and work out who should handle it. A service catalog removes that step.

What a service catalog is

A service catalog is a menu of the requests people can make. Each item on the menu knows which questions to ask, which department should handle it and how urgent it usually is. The person picks the item, answers the questions and sends it.

Why small businesses benefit

You do not need a large IT department to feel the benefit. The gains show up quickly in a small team:

• Requests arrive complete, so you stop chasing details.
• Work goes to the right department without a manager sorting the inbox.
• Common requests are easy to find, so people stop asking in chat.
• A record exists of what was asked for, by whom and when.

Which requests to put in first

Start with the requests you answer most often. Good first candidates are a new laptop, a password reset, software access, new starter setup, a repair request and building access. Add questions that answer what you would otherwise ask, such as which person the laptop is for, which program they need, or when someone starts.

In the Service catalog app, admins add, edit, hide and delete requests. Each request has a department, a priority and up to ten questions. Hide a request when you want to pause it without losing it.

Approvals without the email chain

Some requests should not start until someone agrees. You can name a person who must approve a request. Work waits until they approve or decline, and the decision is written on the ticket, so anyone looking at it later can see who decided and what they decided.

The approver gets a notice, and the catalog page shows a list of requests waiting for their approval. A bell in the header also collects approvals, so they are hard to miss.

From request to ticket

A catalog request becomes a ticket with the answers filled in. It is sorted to the right department with the right deadline, and it sits in the same queue as your other tickets. That means your reports and queues work the same way for everything your team handles.

How to roll it out

1. List the ten requests your team answers most often.
2. Turn each into a catalog item with the questions you would ask.
3. Choose which items need an approver.
4. Tell people to use the catalog instead of email.
5. After a month, look at what people still ask for by email and add it.

A service catalog is not a big project. It is a short list that saves a few minutes on every request. You can read more on the service catalog software page, or try it with a free 30-day trial.