This economy is requiring us all to reduce costs and this is no different for IT.  This mandates that IT looks for opportunities to automate and rationalize service delivery while at the same time communicate value to the business.  The last release of ITIL^® the Service Catalog gained significant prominence as a unique process as part of the Service Design volume and is one of the primary conduits between the Business and IT. 

The service catalog should provide the business information relating to the services that are available whether "live" or available for deployment to the business expressed in business terms.  The content of the service catalog should contain information about deliverables of the service, prices, contact points, quality metrics, service levels and ordering and request processes.  This paradigm is similar to purchasing any other service where you agree a price, level of service and timeframe up front such as a car or a meal in the restaurant.  This provides the consumer the ability to choose based on metrics that they understand.

With end user expectations established, IT can then focus on the automation of back-end, service provisioning and focus on reducing costs and choosing the correct vehicle to deliver the service at the appropriate costs.  More importantly, if IT understands consumption and can relate the IT components to a business service then can communicate back to the business in terms of value.

To learn more about how to achieve Lean IT with new CA solutions launched April 20 and today visit the Lean IT site:  www.ca.com/LeanIT