Service offerings are documented in ServiceNow as service offering records. One of the responsibilities of a service offering manager is to ensure that the information in the service offering record is correct, and to periodically update the record as circumstances require. This article is a guide for service offering managers, describing how to maintain a service offering record.

To find your service offering record enter the phrase “my service offerings” in the filter at the top of the application navigator on the left side of the ServiceNow screen and click on the My Service Offerings link. You may also click on the right side of the link to add it to your favorites list for quick access.

Once you find the service offering that you want to edit, click on the offering's name to open the record. Once you have finished editing the record, click on the 'Update' button at the upper right corner of the screen.

The Service Offering Record

A service offering record in ServiceNow contains a number of fields that you are expected to maintain, as well as a number of optional fields.

Additionally, there are four fields—Name, Parent, Phase and Service classification—that you can not edit. These fields are maintained by the service portfolio management team. If you need these fields updated please get help using the IT Service Portal. (help.ncsu.edu)

The service offering record contains two main sections. The upper part of the form contains mostly administrative fields, such as 'Managed by', 'Status' and 'Support group'. The lower section, titled "Service Offering Display Information", contains fields that will appear in service offering's page on the IT Service Portal. Be careful when editing these fields to ensure that the information is clear, concise and useful.

Fields that you are expected to maintain

• Department - The unit that is primarily responsible for the service offering. (Typically the owner's department.)
• Description - A description of what the service offering provides, intended for internal consumption. (I.e. not for display on the IT Service Portal.)
• Internal use only - If selected, the service offering will not appear on the IT Service Portal.
• Managed by - The individual primarily responsible for managing the service offering. (I.e. the service offering manager)
• Owned by - The person that is primarily accountable for the service offering; the person that makes strategic decisions for the service offering.
• Service status available - If selected, the service offering will be displayed on the Service Status page, and will be available for creating an ‘outage’ notification.
• Status - The current status of the service offering, depending on the Phase that the offering is in. This is typically 'Operational'. but other options include 'Build/Test/Release' and 'Retiring'.
  Note: Once the record is moved to the 'Operational' status it may not be reverted to an earlier state.
• Support group - The group that is responsible for resolving incidents related to the service offering.
• Service Offering Display Information
  • Service offering short description - A very brief description of the service offering that will appear on the IT Service Portal.
  • Service offering description - A complete description of the service offering that will appear on the IT Service Portal.

Optional fields

• Approval group - The group responsible for approving changes to the service offering.
• Business criticality - The importance of this service offering to NC State University. This field is frequently used to determine business continuity strategies for the offering.
• Change group - The group responsible for implementing changes to the service offering.
• Comments - Provide any additional information related to the service offering that is not covered by other fields. This is generally for internal use by the service owner/manager.
• Service level requirement - Describe the service level expectations that the service offering should meet.
• Service offering delegates - A list of individuals, other than the owner and manager, that are allowed to edit the service offering record.
• Used for - The environment that contains this instance of the service offering, typically Production. Other examples include Development, QA and Training.
• Service Offering Display Information
  Note: If these fields are left blank they will not appear on the service offering's page in the IT Service Portal.
  • Features - A detailed list of features provided by the service offering. Use this field if the information is too lengthy to include in the Service offering short description field.
  • Audience - Categories of people that may be interested in or eligible for use of the service offering.
  • Costs - The cost of the service offering as a whole or of individual components thereof.
  • Available for - This field allows users of the IT Service Portal to filter for service offerings intended for a particular class of people. E.g. Students.

Note: Major changes to a service offering may require that the current offering be retired and replaced by a new offering. This is frequently the case when both the old and new versions of a service offering need to run in parallel during a transition period.

Fields that you can not edit

These fields are maintained by the service portfolio management group, and are not available for editing once the service offering becomes operational.

• Name - A unique name that reflects the nature of the service offering.
• Parent - The service that includes this offering. This is determined by the service portfolio management group.
• Phase - Service offerings move through three phases:
  
  • Pipeline - Service offerings that are in the process of being designed.
  • Catalog - Service offerings that are in production, or are in the process of being implemented or retired.
  • Retired - Service offerings that have been retired.

Related articles:

See "Retiring a service offering" for information about moving a service offering from the Operational status to Retired.

See "The IT service offering manager role" to view the duties and responsibilities of the service offering manager role.

See "The service offering lifecycle" for an overview of the service offering lifecycle, from the Pipeline phase through Retired.