Sneak peek at new IT Service Catalog; Go-live December 13, 2016

On December 13, 2016, users of the University’s IT Service Portal will notice a new interface.

"The development team has built a state-of-the-art portal through which customers can find and order IT services that enable creativity and productivity, in addition to having access to a number of new features," said Deputy CIO Ken Pink.

The online catalog is a one-stop shop for ordering IT-related services fulfilled by University Information Technology (UIT) and Information Technology Services (ITS). The new instance is a deliverable from Phase Two of the IT Service Management Initiative. Phase One released an enhanced version of ServiceNow, the common UIT/ITS service management platform.

The new IT Service Portal, which links to a variety of IT service-related sites including the Service Catalog, will be located at https://uofu.service-now.com/it. The current portal – https://uofu.service-now.com/cf – will remain live for a month, allowing users to update bookmarks as needed.

The updated IT Service Portal will feature four buttons: Knowledge Base, Request Services, Report an Issue and View My History. The current portal contains buttons for only the Knowledge Base and Service Catalog.

Knowledge Base

The self-service Knowledge Base now encompasses IT service information related to campus, and hospital/clinics. The KB interface has been slightly refined, and will feature top user-rated and most-viewed articles. A listing of popular categories remains.

Request Services (Service Catalog)

The simplified Service Catalog interface will be better aligned with University brand standards, featuring new icons and greater functionality. Users may also notice more intuitive terminology for service categories, stemming from a series of user experience and card-sorting tests conducted by the usability group in University Support Services (USS).

"Our user experience professionals spent months working with focus groups to design a new and dynamic IT Service Catalog," Pink said.

Service Catalog users will be able to search by category or via an A to Z index. A Systems Status sidebar will show any real-time IT system disruptions. Users will also notice a rotating Featured Service section, a Favorited Services box for fast access to commonly used services, and a Help contact information area.

"This is going to change the end user's entire experience," said Project Manager Clay Postma. "It's easier to navigate and now provides multiple methods of searching."

Online order forms have undergone minor changes designed to enhance the user experience as well, most notably a Required Information block at the bottom of the form and an option to add attachments.

Pink said that service options will continue to evolve after the December launch.

"Over the coming days, weeks, and months, users will see a continually growing menu of services as our IT teams work tirelessly to roll out an ever- expanding support catalog, including support for our hospital IT partners," Pink said. "Keep an eye out on the Featured Services area of the catalog as new services come online."

Report an Issue

This new feature will allow users to open an online incident ticket using a web-based form to quickly and easily alert support teams of an issue. In addition, when the user begins entering information into the short description field, related search results will pop up.

"This potentially allows users to answer their concern without the need to submit a ticket," Postma said.

Users can also track the status of their incidents and Service Catalog orders from their ServiceNow Service Management dashboard.

View My History

This page displays any tickets that the user currently has open.

 

 

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