Service catalog and requests · Autessa IT Desk
Service catalog
Autessa IT Desk includes a service catalog: the list of everything employees can request, grouped in categories with icons and shown in the Help Center. Each catalog item has its own order form, approval rule, delivery time, help article and fulfillment template, so ordering a laptop or app access starts the right work automatically.
The problem
Requests arrive as vague emails
"Can I get access?" To what, with which role, approved by whom? Without a catalog, IT spends the first hour of every request asking questions. A service catalog asks them up front, routes the approval and creates the tasks.
What you get
- Catalog categories with icons, order and descriptions, such as Hardware, Software and access, People and Vendors.
- Items marked Popular show on the Help Center home page.
- Each item has a short and full description, an optional price and a delivery time in days.
- Who can order it: everyone, or IT only.
- Approval rule and mode per item, plus a fulfillment template that creates the catalog tasks.
- Due dates count from the order date, or from a start or end date on the form (perfect for new hires and leavers).
- Starter items: New laptop, Software / app access, Remove access, Peripheral, Password / MFA reset, New hire (onboarding), Offboard employee and Vendor onboarding.
- Agents can Order something on behalf of a person through the same catalog.
How it works
How does service catalog work in Autessa IT Desk?
Create categories
In Service Catalog, Categories, add the groups people browse by and pick an icon.
Add items
Give each item a name, description, category, delivery time and audience, and mark the popular ones.
Build the form
Add the variables the order form needs in the item's form builder.
Set approval and fulfillment
Choose the approval rule and pick a fulfillment template that creates the work.
Publish
Active items appear in the Help Center, in their category and in search.
Every option
Catalog item settings
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name, category, icon | How the item appears in the Help Center. |
| Short description and description | What it is, shown on the item page. |
| Who can order it | Everyone, or IT only. |
| Active, Popular, Order | Show it, feature it on the home page, and sort it. |
| Price and delivery time | Optional price and delivery time in days. |
| Approval | No approval, Requester's manager, A group, Named people, Manager then a group; any one approver or everyone. |
| Fulfillment template | The task template whose steps become catalog tasks. |
| Due dates count from | Order date, start date or end date. |
| Help article | A knowledge article linked from the item. |
| Variables | The order form (see catalog order forms). |
Permissions
Who can do what?
| Role | Can |
|---|---|
| IT administrator | Create and edit catalog items, categories and task templates. |
| IT agent | Order something on behalf of a person. |
| Employee | Browse, search and order active items they are allowed to order. |
AI assist
How the IT Desk Assistant helps
In the Help Center, employees can simply ask the assistant to "Order a monitor"; it finds the item and helps fill the form. In the workspace, agents can ask it to order on someone's behalf.
The assistant acts as you, with your role. It fills forms but never saves them, and anything risky waits for you to press Confirm.
About the IT Desk Assistant →Connected
How it connects to the rest of IT Desk
IT DESK FEATURE
Catalog order forms
Every item's order form is built from typed variables.
IT DESK FEATURE
Approvals
Each item's approval rule decides who signs off.
IT DESK FEATURE
Request fulfillment
Orders become requests, requested items and catalog tasks.
IT DESK FEATURE
Service Portal
Where employees browse the catalog.
FAQ
Questions about service catalog
What is a service catalog?
The menu of things employees can request from IT, each with a form, an approval and a delivery process. In Autessa IT Desk it appears in the Help Center.
Can some items be ordered only by IT?
Yes. Set who can order it to IT only, and employees will not see it.
Does the catalog come with starter items?
Yes. Setup can install items such as New laptop, Software / app access, New hire (onboarding) and Offboard employee, which you can edit or remove.
100% customizable, code and all
Make Autessa IT Desk fully your own.
Use it out of the box, then change anything. Ask Autobot, Autessa’s AI builder, for a new field, screen, report, workflow or agent and it builds it into your copy of the app. Or open the code and edit it yourself. Nothing is locked: the app, its data and its code are yours.
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