IT Services have proactive, financial leverage power. 

Enterprises that use pricing, charge backs or show backs can influence the demand for any given Service.  It’s a proven economic principle and can be used to specifically and proactively direct customers to desired choices such as a particular mobile phone type, operating system, application choice, etc. 

Requests on the other hand are generally not influenced or governed by price or cost. The decision has already been made – the customer needs whatever the request fulfills. Requests are part of the operational overhead. Business customers presume that any request is part of daily operations and do not carry a separate cost.

Want to learn more? Download the slides and webinar recording
" Service Catalog vs. Request Portal: 6 Characteristics That Set Them Apart."
It covers this topic in greater depth

Just like we do as consumers, the business customer prefers choices with “cost transparency.”  In today’s marketplace where more and more the business can choose vendors outside the IT department, it is ever more critical that Services in the Service Catalog are cost transparent.

Please check back on Monday, February 8 when I will discuss: "IT Services vs. Requests: Services are Configuration Items; Requests generally aren’t."

About the Author

Don Casson is CEO and co-founder of Evergreen Systems, an IT consulting firm leading 
Fortune 500 companies to dramatically transform their IT operations. Feel free to contact Don at 
dcasson@evergreensys.com.