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A tenant administrator or catalog administrator can specify information about the service such as the
service hours, support team, and change window. Although the catalog does not enforce service-level
agreements on services, this information is available to business users browsing the service catalog.
Catalog Items
Users can browse the service catalog for catalog items that they are entitled to request.
Some catalog items result in an item being provisioned that the user can manage through its life cycle.
For example, an application developer can request storage as a service, then later add capacity, request
backups, and restore previous backups.
Other catalog items do not result in provisioned items. For example, a cell phone user can submit a
request for additional minutes on a mobile plan. The request initiates a workflow that adds minutes to the
plan. The user can track the request as it progresses, but cannot manage the minutes after they are
added.
Some catalog items are available only in a specific business group, other catalog items are shared
between business groups in the same tenant.
Actions
Actions are operations that you can perform on provisioned items.
Users can manage their provisioned items on the Items tab. The View Details option is always present in
the Actions menu. Additional options might be available depending on the type of item and the user's
entitlements. For example, Power On can be available for machines but not for HR services such as
provisioning a new hire.
You can perform request actions and immediate actions. Request actions initiate requests, which you can
track on the Requests tab and which can be made subject to approval. Statuses shown on the Requests
tab indicate the success or failure of the request, and do not indicate the successful completion of an
action. Immediate actions do not create requests and are always run immediately.
Built-in actions are available to all tenants and cannot be edited, although they can be enabled or
disabled. Custom actions can be created at a per-tenant level and shared across all business groups in
that tenant.
Entitlements
Entitlements determine which users and groups can request specific catalog items or perform specific
actions. Entitlements are specific to a business group.
Business group managers can create entitlements for the groups that they manage. Tenant
administrators can create entitlements for any business group in their tenant. When you create an
entitlement, you must select a business group and specify individual users and groups in the business
group for the entitlement.
Foundations and Concepts
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