An MSP must think like a product manufacturer and design products from the ground up. Specifications, pricing, ideal customers, benefits, etc. should be documented for internal use so that EVERY employee in the organization knows what the company sells whether they are technical individuals or not. And, this should be done prior to rolling out the product no matter how tempting it is to do otherwise…

Good post.

A Service Catalog is one of the best things an MSP can do for their business. It is also one of the most difficult things for a busy MSP to finish. A word or two of advice for MSP’s who either don’t have a Service Catalog, or have stalled in creating one.

1. Chances are, you already have, or do things you would outline in a service catalog. You should know what you sell. Someone on staff has an idea of the deliverables involved in selling your subscriptions (Managed services has a service desk component, support, monitoring, proactive maintenance, etc….). You’ve done alot of the hard work already, now its time to write it down in a coherent format.

2. Don’t try and eat the whole elephant at once. Determine what the fastest payoff might be for you and focus on that part first. There are a few compnents of a service catalog: The Customer Facing Portfolio (these are the service subscription you sell to the decision makers), Then you underpin that with the meat of the catalog: The Service descriptions, which department delivers on the services, how you’ll manage agreements, how you’ll deliver the service, then the measurement of success/failure. We underpin all the various service components with a reference to an SOP telling how the services are performed/managed at a more detailed level.

Joe has it right, one person needs to own it, but everyone needs to contribute to it.