REM Service Catalog

Service catalogs allow you to create an ordered structure of internal and external services provided to consumers. The "out-of-the-box" solution contains at least one service catalog for the Self-Service Portal. Customize it and offer your customers the most relevant products. Provide a way to raise incidents and requests in a standardized, enterprise-wide way.

The service catalog architecture implements Record Extended Model principles allowing customizing categories and request templates with minimal effort.

The scheme below illustrates service catalog working principles.

To configure a service catalog, follow a simple procedure:

1. Create a service catalog.
2. Create service catalog categories.
3. Create catalog request models.
4. Extend request models with record attributes.
5. Configure request models forms.
6. Make changes to portal configuration (create and configure portal nodes).

All these steps are described below.

Create a service catalog

A service catalog record is the highest-level entity that groups all other elements (categories, subcategories, items).

To create a new service catalog, complete the steps below:

1. Navigate to Request Model Catalog → Catalogs.
2. Create New and fill in the fields.
3. Click Save or Save and exit to apply the changes.

Service catalog form fields

Create a catalog category

A catalog category is an entity that contains request models of a similar subject. For example, you can create a category "IT Assistance" and then create request templates "New Laptop Request", "Equipment replacement" in this category. Thus, this category is a container for these request templates.

The category hierarchy can be multi-level, so you can create an extensive structure by setting up parent-child relationships for the categories.

To create a catalog category, complete the steps below:

1. Navigate to the catalog record for which you need to create a category record.
2. In the Related Lists area, select the Categories tab.
3. Click New and fill in the fields.
4. Click Save or Save and exit to apply the changes.

Catalog category form fields

Create a request model

Request models are templates used for creating new request objects. Request models can be extended with the Record Extended Model functionality.

To create a request model, complete the steps below:

1. Navigate to a category record for which you need to create a request model.
2. In the Related Lists area, select the Request Models tab.
3. Click New and fill in the fields.
4. Click Save or Save and exit to apply the changes.

Request model form fields

Extend a request model with record attributes

A request models contain a limited set of predefined attributes. You can extend it upon your task requirements.

For example, you need to add a Comment field to the model so that it should map to the Additional Comments field in the record.

To do so, complete the steps below:

1. Navigate to a request model record that you need to extend with an attribute.
2. In the Related Lists area, select the Attributes tab.
3. Click New and fill in the fields.
4. Click Save or Save and exit to apply the changes.

Configure request model form

You can configure the elements of the request model in the Model Form Elements related list on the model form. By default, this related list is not added to the form, so you need to add it manually.

To change the order of the displayed attributes, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to Request Model Catalog → Request Models.
2. Open the request model you need.
3. In the Related Lists area, select the Model Form Elements tab.

4. Arrange the attributes by changing the value in the Position field. The attributes are displayed on the form in the ascending order.

To add new elements to the request model layout (such as splits), perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to Request Model Catalog → Request Models.
2. In the Related Lists area, select the Model Form Elements tab.
3. Click New and fill in the fields.
4. Click Save or Save and exit to add the element.

Model Form Element form fields

Example of request model form configuration

Configure a portal

You can implement several service catalogs in your company infrastructure. To bind these catalogs on the Self-Service Portal, set up and configure a dedicated portal node for each catalog.

Portal node configuration

Set up multiple catalogs

As mentioned above, it is necessary to configure a dedicated node for each catalog. To do so, complete the steps below:

1. Navigate to Tree Structures → Nodes.
2. Click New and fill in the fields.
3. Click Save and Save and exit to apply the changes.

Node form fields

* Parent item 1

** Child item 1

** Child item 2

** Child item 3

* Parent item 2

** Child item 4

** Child item 5

Add translations

In the current version, the Translations related list is not displayed in the Catalog, Category and Request Model forms. However, a translation in the current system language is automatically created for each new record. To add translations into other languages, complete the following steps:

1. Navigate to System Localization → System Translations.
2. Open the automatically created translation record. Find it by the record ID or by the translation text.
3. Enter the required values into the Language and Value fields. Don't save the record.
4. In the burger menu, click Make a copy. Click OK in the warning window that appears.
5. Repeat for other languages, if required.

To add translations to a REM attribute, complete the following steps:

1. Navigate to the REM attribute record you need to translate.
2. Scroll down to the Translations related list and click New.
3. Fill in the fields and click Save or Save and exit to apply the changes.
4. Repeat for other languages, if required.

Access control

You can configure access to either a catalog category or a catalog request model using the User Criteria engine. Thus, you can set flexible conditions and vary catalog items displayed to the audience.

How it works

An administrator defines the access, as described below, to the catalog elements (categories and request models) allowing or denying access for certain audience segments. User criteria are used to separate segments from each other.

When a user navigates to a service catalog, he or she is processed by the User Criteria engine according to the pattern below to decide whether this user is allowed or denied to display the specified catalog elements.

Configure access to a category

To configure a category access, complete the steps below:

1. Navigate to the category you need to configure.
2. In the Related Lists area, select the User Criteria tab.
3. Click New and fill in the fields.
4. Click Save or Save and exit to apply the changes.

Category User Criteria form fields

Configure request model access

To configure request model access, complete the steps below:

1. Navigate to the request model you need to configure access.
2. In the Related Lists area, select the User Criteria tab.
3. Click New and fill in the fields.
4. Click Save or Save and exit to apply the changes.

You have no permission to create a record with the selected request model