Create and Manage Catalog Items

This article contains the following topics:

Every support organization has some frequently raised requests, which can be easily predicted. The administrator can configure catalog items for such requests to speed up the ticket submission process. 

A catalog item is a specially designed template which includes the following attributes:

• Fields with prepopulated baseline information.
• Fields for more information.
• An image to identify the template.

Example

A catalog item to report a hardware failure includes fields to capture the information that is related to the device.
Configuring the catalog items has the following benefits:

• The effort that is required to log the request is eased because all the essential fields are prepopulated on the catalog item. 
• The request formation is standardized and ensures that all essential information is captured before the ticket is submitted.
• The ticket handling process is expedited.

For Incident and Change tickets, configure catalog items. You can enable the access permission for these templates to Self-Service Group. The Self-Service users can access catalog items from the Service Catalog section. To create a ticket, fill the required data, and submit. 

Considerations

Consider the following points for catalog items:

• A catalog item can be related to only one ticket type.
• The users can access only those catalog items which they are authorized to.
•  You can configure a catalog item to:
• Automatically assign a workflow action when a task ticket is created.
• Automatically assign values to selected ticket fields.

• Categories are used to filter the list of templates available in the Service Catalog workspace for analysts and end-users. For the end-users Service Catalog workspace, navigate to the Service Catalog section, Service Center, and Overview.

• You can modify existing templates by adding or removing Set Fields on the template or by deleting the template. You can also create a new catalog item using the Manage catalog item form.

• If you modify an existing catalog item, the changes become applicable to all new transactions using the template. Older records, however, remain unchanged. 

• A template can be deleted only if the template has no dependent data.

Prerequisites

Verify the following prerequisites:

• To assign permissions, the roles, support groups, and contacts are configured.
• To assign automatic workflow actions, the workflow actions are configured.
• To set the value of a custom field through the catalog item, the custom fields are configured.

Create Catalog Items

You can create catalog items to populate the Service Catalog. You can create a catalog item for the following ticket types:

• Service Request
• Incident
• Problem
• Change Request
• Task Ticket

Follow these steps:

1. Log in to the application as an Administrator or Service Owner.
2. Navigate to Manage, ADMINISTRATION, Tools, and from the list of Tools click Service Catalog Configuration.
   A list of active catalog item displays in the list. You can modify an existing catalog item or can configure a new catalog item.
3. Click New Catalog.
   The Quick Wizard to create a new catalog item displays.
4. Basic Properties: Specify the following properties for the service:
   1. Click Browse to add an image to the catalog item.
   2. Specify the Catalog Name.
   3. Describe Your Catalog.
   4. Select the Ticket Type. You can create catalog items for Service Requests, Incidents, Problems, Change Requests, and Task Tickets.
   5. Select the Is Attachment Mandatory checkbox, only if the attachment is mandatory for the specific catalog item.
   6. Select the Catalog Category. The catalog categories appear on the Service Catalog workspace and allow you to filter the catalog items that are based on a specific category.
      The following categories are available:
      • General
      • Employee Services
      • IT Services
        Note: You can also create a new category. The new category will be available under the Service Catalog workspace.
   7. Click on Classify the Catalog item. The classification allows the users to filter the Service Catalog on Request Catalog workspace and use the same to log tickets. For more information refer Request Catalog.
      1. Click on the  button.
      2. You can now Search and Select for the desired Request Catalog (classification) and click Select.
      3.  Alternatively, you can add the classification values as required
         1. Click on .
         2. Add values for the classification levels. At least, value for Level 1 and Level 2 must be populated to create a new classification.
         3.  Once information is added, click on . The new record will be available in the classification list.

         4. Select the classification(s) and click on Select.

            Note :

            'How do you want to classify it?' is used to classify and use the catalog on Request Catalog workspace. If you are not planning to use the Request Catalog option then you may ignore the field.

   8. Click Save & Proceed To Next Step.
5. Define Attributes: Assign default values to the ticket attributes. The Define Attributes section on the catalog item lets you select fields on a ticket form and prepopulate it with relevant information. You can set either the standard ticket fields or custom fields on the ticket.
   Note: For information about the attributes that correspond with each ticket type, see Define the Attributes.
6. Click Save & Proceed To Next Step.
7. Viewers: Provide user permission in the Viewers section. The viewer's field governs who can use this catalog to create the ticket. You can provide permissions to:
   • Users. For example, Analysts, Administrators, or SSUs.
   • Groups. For example, the incident management support group.
   • Roles. For example, KB Analysts.
     Note: Only the administrator has permission to provide or revoke these permissions.
8. Click Proceed To Next Step.

9. Attach Process: Select a process that you want to attach to this catalog item. You can also create a new process to attach to this catalog item. Based on the steps defined in the Process Workflow, the Workflow Actions are displayed in the specific catalog item.

   Note

   • While attaching a process that is already defined and published to ensure that the process matches the ticket type of the Catalog Item.  For more information, see Design a Process Workflow.
   • You can attach only one process to a catalog item.
10. Click Save & Exit.

Define the Attributes

The Define Attributes section on the catalog item lets you specify fields on a ticket form and prepopulate them with relevant information. You can set the standard ticket fields or the custom fields on the ticket.

You can select a relevant field for the ticket from the drop-down list in the Define Attributes. All fields on a ticket are listed in the drop-down list. The standard fields on the ticket are listed at the top; followed by the custom fields.

You can select appropriate standard fields like Status, Reason Code, Phase, Impact, Priority, Urgency, Description, and set values for these fields. The following table lists the allowed attributes that are available on the Create Ticket form.