Three years ago, Starbucks' IT department found its services as muddled as a "venti soy, decaf mocha, double shot, one pump, sugar-free vanilla, no whip." The business side was frustrated, and IT was in jeopardy of earning a reputation as a black hole. "We were really ineffective," admits Ray Schutte, Starbucks' recently retired IT manager. "It took us days or weeks to deliver the simplest, rudimentary IT services," he says. The mandate was clear. Fix this.

Schutte's solution was to create a comprehensive IT service catalog, embarked upon in early 2002 and fully launched in May. The catalog gave him a clear view into IT workflow, improved customer satisfaction and proved once and for all IT's value to the business side of the house.

Starbucks' situation isn't unique. The new mandate in corporate America might be "align IT with the business," but decoding and applying this imperative has been a challenge. "That's what every IT organization is struggling with right now," says Bill Fine, vice president for newScale, a provider of IT portfolio management services.

Network executives need to figure out how to transform IT from a repository of technical competence to an organization that manages customers well and has sound marketing strategies in place, he says.

The service catalog is primarily a method to describe and sell IT services to users, early adopters say. In the process, the catalog can demonstrate the value of IT to the business side, make it easier to worth with the IT department and improve the efficiency of IT service delivery.

The first step to a successful service-catalog initiative is to document a comprehensive list of the services that IT offers, and in terms the business can understand. Schutte was so serious about this step that at the start of work on the catalog, he turned to process consultants, who specialize in defining processes. "Spend the real money on analysis," Schutte advises. "You really have to understand what you're doing, so you can shop for a tool that fits your operation."