An IT Service catalog is the storefront of IT: the place where employees come to request the tools, software, access, and help they need. But like any storefront, the catalog only succeeds if it delivers on expectations. A polished catalog with poor delivery is just window dressing. That’s why metrics and KPIs are critical, not just to measure performance, but to guide where IT teams should focus their improvement efforts.
When combined with Jira Service Management (JSM), service catalog metrics become more than reports. They provide a roadmap to identify bottlenecks, align IT services with business needs, and continuously evolve how IT delivers value. This is where ITSM best practices shine, turning metrics into actionable insights that improve the employee experience and demonstrate IT’s role as a trusted service provider.
Discover more about IT Service catalogs in Jira
Why metrics matter for service catalog management
The IT Service catalog is a cornerstone of IT service management. It helps IT teams standardize requests, clarify service delivery expectations, and provide visibility into available offerings. But without tracking its performance, the catalog risks becoming outdated or irrelevant.
Metrics and KPIs ensure IT can:
- Align services with business priorities.
- Improve customer experience by reducing delays.
- Identify bottlenecks in fulfillment workflows.
- Optimize resources across teams and departments.
In other words, a catalog is only valuable if its management is data-driven.
Key KPIs for IT service catalog performance
Before exploring how to act on them, here are the core KPIs organizations tend to monitor:
- Request volume by service: shows which services are most in demand.
- Average fulfillment time: indicates how efficiently requests move through the delivery process.
- SLA compliance: tracks reliability and trust.
- First contact resolution rate: highlights opportunities for automation or self-service portals.
- Customer satisfaction (CSAT): reflects user perception and overall quality.
- Cost per request: measures financial efficiency.
These metrics are common in ITSM, but their real power comes when tied directly to service catalog workflows in Jira.
Read more about IT service desk metrics
Turning metrics into action in Jira
KPIs are only useful if can be used as inputs to drive initiatives and improvements. Jira Service Management, which tightly map service requests to workflows, allows IT teams to act on these insights:
Dashboards for visibility
Create dashboards that track SLA breaches, fulfillment times, and catalog usage trends. This gives managers and business teams an overview of service delivery at a glance.
Automation for efficiency
If approval queues are slowing things down, automation rules can reroute or auto-approve common requests. This reduces friction and accelerates fulfillment.
Workflow optimization
By mapping KPIs to specific steps, IT can spot where workflows fail. Streamlining handoffs, simplifying approvals, or updating technical practices directly enhances the delivery process.
Reporting for stakeholders
Custom reports show executives how IT services align with business priorities, improving trust and reinforcing IT’s strategic role.
Practical scenarios: How KPIs drive improvements
Employee onboarding
- Challenge: Onboarding involves multiple catalog items: accounts, tools, laptops, and software. Long delays reduce productivity for new hires.
- Action: Bundle requests into a single workflow, automate approvals, and use a self-service portal.
- Result: Faster delivery, happier employees, and stronger cross-team collaboration.
Laptop requests
- Challenge: Fulfillment averages 10 days, frustrating end users and missing SLAs.
- Action: Maintain pre-configured laptops, automate routing, and improve communication.
- Result: Delivery drops to 3 days; CSAT improves significantly.
Software access
- Challenge: Many software access requests are misrouted, creating escalation work.
- Action: Improve forms with clearer categories, mandatory fields, and workflow rules.
- Result: Reduced errors and a smoother customer experience.
These examples show that service catalog KPIs are not just numbers: they guide IT toward meaningful, measurable improvements.
Service portfolio vs. Service catalog
A common source of confusion in ITSM is the difference between the service catalog and the service portfolio. While the catalog lists active offerings available to users, the portfolio includes all services across their lifecycle: planned, active, or retired.
- Service Catalog: employee-facing, operational, focused on daily delivery and support.
- Service Portfolio: management-facing, strategic, used for planning, budgeting, and evaluating solutions.
By measuring both, organizations gain full visibility: the catalog shows how requests are fulfilled, while the portfolio highlights long-term alignment with business management goals. Together, they help IT leaders prioritize investments and retire outdated offerings.
Best practices for service delivery
To maximize value from your service catalog in Jira:
- Engage business teams: collect feedback to align offerings with real needs.
- Leverage the portal: guide employees with clear categories and contextual help.
- Standardize workflows: consistency improves efficiency and transparency.
- Apply technical practices: integrate automation, templates, and configuration rules.
- Benchmark performance: compare against ITIL and industry best practices.
- Review regularly: quarterly reviews keep the catalog aligned with evolving priorities.
These practices help IT providers deliver reliable, scalable, and user-friendly services.
Technical practices for better fulfillment
Improving fulfillment is not only about speed: it’s about quality. Jira Service Management combined with ITSM principles allows teams to refine delivery with technical practices such as:
- Workflow templates for common requests (e.g., access management, software installation).
- Knowledge base integration to give users self-service answers through the portal.
- Automation triggers for escalations, reminders, and approvals.
- Customer feedback loops built into the platform to monitor satisfaction.
By embedding these practices into the service catalog, IT can scale delivery without sacrificing quality.
Collaboration across departments and teams
Managing a service catalog requires coordinated effort across IT and the wider organization:
- Service Owners define offerings and maintain relevance.
- IT Support Teams handle day-to-day fulfillment and incident resolution.
- Business departments provide input to keep offerings aligned with evolving needs.
- Customers and end-users validate whether the catalog truly improves their daily work.
This cross-functional collaboration ensures the catalog reflects reality and continuously improves the employee and customer experience.
How Elements Catalyst helps
Managing service catalog performance is easier with the right tools. That’s where Elements Catalyst comes in.
The app is built for Jira Service Management to help IT teams design and maintain a structured, scalable service catalog. Its key features include:
- Flexible building blocks to model business-specific services.
- Custom templates that standardize request forms and reduce errors.
- Guided request experience that helps end users submit accurate information through the Jira portal.
- Reporting integration that connects catalog items with SLA tracking, CSAT, and delivery data.
- Automation-ready design that links catalog items with Jira workflows for faster fulfillment.
- Cross-team visibility so departments can share insights and continuously improve solutions.
By combining these features, Elements Catalyst helps IT teams improve service delivery, reduce manual work, and enhance the overall customer experience. It’s more than a catalog manager: it’s a solution that connects platform, processes, and people.
Conclusion
An IT Service catalog should be more than a static list: it should be a dynamic tool that grows with the business. By tracking KPIs like request volume, fulfillment time, SLA compliance, CSAT, and costs, IT teams can pinpoint weaknesses and prioritize improvements that matter most.
With Jira Service Management as the platform, and Elements Catalyst as the structuring solution, IT can move beyond measurement to continuous improvement. The result is a catalog that not only organizes services but also improves the way organizations deliver value.
In the end, the goal isn’t just faster resolution: it’s creating a seamless, reliable customer experience, one that strengthens trust in IT and positions the service catalog as a strategic asset in the ITSM ecosystem. Backed by strong technical practices and business collaboration, the catalog becomes part of the broader service portfolio, helping providers align IT delivery with long-term business outcomes.
