Service Catalog use case

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Service Catalog use case

    The Service Catalog use case enables you to create customized catalogs for requesting specific services or products within ServiceNow. It leverages the Common Service Data Model (CSDM) to connect Service Catalog items to related service offerings and services, facilitating a structured and efficient service request experience. Two main catalog types can be created: Request Catalogs, which list business and technical offerings for order, and Product Catalogs, which serve as centralized repositories of detailed product model information.

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    Key Features

    • Digital Portfolio Management (DPM) Integration: Uses the CSDM framework to navigate the Service Portfolio, making it easy to locate services, offerings, dependencies, metrics, costs, and initiatives.
    • Catalog Items: Items or services that users can request. Each catalog item is linked to a single service offering and is accessible based on user subscriptions or roles. Catalog items include detailed information such as descriptions, fulfillment processes, images, pricing, and portal interaction settings.
    • Product Catalog: Maintains detailed information about product models (specific versions or configurations of assets). Asset managers use it as a centralized repository. Models in the Product Catalog automatically publish to the Service Catalog, ensuring consistency between goods and services.
    • Model Management: Supports multiple vendor listings per model and integrates with Asset Management, procurement, requests, contracts, and vendor information.

    Key Outcomes

    • Provides a structured and user-friendly way to request services and products aligned with business and technical needs.
    • Ensures catalog items and product models are well-defined, linked to service offerings, and maintained within a consistent framework (CSDM).
    • Enables asset managers to coordinate product information across multiple ServiceNow modules, supporting streamlined asset and service lifecycle management.
    • Facilitates accurate aggregation of service metrics and costs, enhancing portfolio visibility and management through Digital Portfolio Management.

    You can create customized catalogs where you can request items such as a specific service or product. With this use case, CSDM provides Service Catalog connection to the service offerings and services.

    Service Catalog use case

    Catalogs contain catalog items and are the starting points for accessing available services. Request Catalogs and Product Catalogs are two of the customized catalogs you can create from the Service Catalog. For details, see Service Catalog.

    • A Request Catalog is a list of business and technical products, services, service commitment options, and offerings that you can order.

    • A Product Catalog is a set of information about individual models. A model is a specific version or configuration of an asset. Asset managers use the Product Catalog as a centralized repository for model information.

    Key features of the Service Catalog use case

    Digital Portfolio Management (DPM) uses the CSDM framework to navigate the Service Portfolio. You can then use the Service Portfolio to locate the services and their related service offerings, catalog items, dependents, dependencies, metric roll-ups, costs and initiatives. The associated metrics are aggregated using the CSDM framework with the related tables.

    Catalog items

    A catalog item is an item or a service that you can request from the catalog. A service can contain multiple catalog items. Catalog items are listed on the catalog portal and are available to the users who need them (either through subscription or job responsibility). Each catalog item is linked to one service offering.

    The Catalog Item form includes the following tabs.

    • Item Details: Description of the catalog item.
    • Process Engine: The defined process used to fulfill the catalog Item request.
    • Picture: Picture used to represent the catalog item when it appears in the catalog.
    • Pricing: Pricing details for the catalog item.
    • Portal Settings: Provides specific settings on how you interact with the catalog item in the catalog portal.
    Figure 1. Catalog Item form
    Catalog Item form with numbered fields.

    Product Catalog use case

    Use the Product Catalog to specify information about a product model. Product models are specific versions or configurations of an asset. Asset managers use the Product Catalog as a centralized repository for model information.

    A detailed and well-maintained Product Catalog can coordinate with the Service Catalog, asset, procurement, request, contract, and vendor information. Models published to the Product Catalog are automatically published to the Service Catalog. The Service Catalog includes information about goods (models) and services. If the model is available from multiple vendors, a model can be listed more than once. Models are included with Asset Management.

    Key features of the Product Catalog use case

    This use case lets you include hardware and software product information as items in the Product Catalog.
    Figure 2. Product Catalog items
    Product Catalog items.

    Results of Product Catalog use case

    The CSDM framework ensures that product models are available in the catalog and that there are processes defined to consume the models.