With a centralized service catalog, users can request new catalog items, IT services, project requirements, product enhancements, office supplies, or any other business service –all from one user‑friendly portal.

System administrators can use the intuitive user interface to add items and item‑specific details and forms, along with corresponding workflows so services are delivered promptly and all compliance conditions are met.

Service Catalog workflows enable administrators to easily define a complex, multi‑step process for fulfilling and approving the request. Each catalog item can have a unique workflow and business rules with built‑in automation.  

Define workflows by using the graphical workflow editor to: 

• Edit workflows graphically 
• Modify activities and conditions 
• Define transitions between workflow activities 
• Summarize workflow progress through stages 
• Validate workflows to identify potential problems 
• Publish workflows for other users 

Manage multiple service catalogs that provide services to different teams within your organization, such as IT, Human Resources, and Facilities. Users will be able to access multiple catalogs from a single homepage, search across all catalogs, or search directly within each catalog. 

The same catalog item can also be made available across multiple catalogs and categories. For example, a laptop carrying case can be available from both Laptops and Cases as well as from Accessories categories. 

ServiceNow Service Catalog provides you with an option to save catalog items to your wish list and visit them later to complete the ordering process. 

An example would be ordering a laptop with a specific configuration that requires a list of software to be installed. Adding the software to your wish list allows you to revisit the complete order before proceeding to checkout. Partially entered data is also saved when you add items to your wish list. 

Minimize delays and track request activity using the ServiceNow notification system and automatic audit trail. Requestors and approvers can check status anytime, and managers can handle approvals using email or any smart mobile device.

The Service Catalog item designer enables non‑administrators to create, maintain, and publish catalog items. A structured design and publishing process ensure consistent usage.  

The item designer is best suited to managing items that have basic questions, approvals, and tasks. Catalog editors can use the catalog item designer to create, modify, and publish items within their categories. For example, a facilities team leader can manage a Facilities category. 

• Administrators or catalog administrators set up the design environment to enable a controlled item design process, and process category requests 
• Catalog managers request and manage their categories 
• Catalog managers and catalog editors create, edit, and publish catalog items within their categories  

Catalog administrators can write automated tests to validate their catalog items in the Automated Test Framework (ATF). The ATF allows you to build automated test cases across the platform and reuse them multiple times. 

Test cases can be bundled together into Test suites to test more meaningful and end‑to‑end use cases. Including the Service Catalog front end in the ATF provides a powerful mechanism to automate test cases centered around customer facing services, such as record producers and catalog items.  

The framework allows you to build test cases around the following aspects of the Service Catalog: 

• Search a service or catalog item and specify assertion rules to ensure valid search results  
• Open a catalog item or record producer and populate it with values 
• Submit/Order items from the catalog 
• Automate approval requests 
• Automate complete fulfillment workflows 

ServiceNow Service Catalog makes diagnostics and troubleshooting easy. Some of the troubleshooting capabilities included in the Service Catalog are:

Item diagnostic report ‑ The item diagnostic report identifies possible issues with item data and configuration. It measures the item health and provides a list of diagnostic result entries. These entries include a rule, a document (record that violates the rule), and the number of violations in the record.

UI macro customization ‑ Service Catalog upgrades are simpler to manage with ServiceNow’s troubleshooting capabilities. With a single click, highlight any UI macro customizations you may have made. This allows you to easily identify any UI macros that may have been skipped due to local customizations.

The functionality allows you to access these changes with one click and revert back to expected behavior or incorporate the new changes, as desired. 

Variable action logger ‑ Quickly identify and correct violations for optimal performance and to maintain expected behavior with the Variable Action Logger. The logger provides a detailed account (sorted by time) of the scripts that have been triggered on an item and the resulting actions and their consequences. 

You’ll get detailed insights into all the Client Scripts, UI Policies, and Data Lookups that are executing on a catalog item. With a simple action, administrators can gain valuable insight into the catalog item behavior.