True or False: You Need 100's of Catalog Items

Short answer, you shouldn't. A common downfall that a lot of people new to ServiceNow (and especially when migrating from other solutions) is creating an incredibly bloated service catalog straight out of the gate. Instead of a new, clean, and easy-to-find central hub, you quickly have a spiraling mess that end users aren't able to keep up with (along with a handful of other reason listed below!).

Problems with Hundreds of Catalog Items

• User Experience (UX) Overload
  • End users get lost when scrolling through dozens or hundreds of items.
  • Search results become noisy, making it harder for employees to quickly find what they need.
  • The risk is employees submit the wrong item or give up entirely.
• Maintenance Complexity
  • Each catalog item may have workflows, approvals, SLAs, and integrations attached.
  • More items = more work to update when policies, forms, or business rules change.
  • It becomes hard to ensure consistency in wording, design, and compliance.
• Duplication & Redundancy
  • Different business units often create similar catalog items (e.g., "Request Laptop" vs "Order New Computer").
  • This creates confusion, duplicated effort, and inconsistent fulfillment processes.
• Performance Issues
  • Very large catalogs (hundreds of items with complex variables) can slow down catalog search and indexing.
  • Performance impacts are especially noticeable if dynamic filters, catalog UI policies, and client scripts are widespread.
• Governance & Control Challenges
  • Harder to track ownership and responsibility for each item.
  • Approval and audit processes become inconsistent across catalog items.
  • It becomes a sprawl problem — people don’t know what’s still valid or what’s obsolete.

Avoid fueling technical debt through catalog sprawl; invest time in more sustainable design choices

Best Practices Instead of “Hundreds of Catalog Items”

• Bundle into Categories / Order Guides: Use order guides to group related items (e.g., "New Hire Bundle" with laptop, accounts, phone).
• Abstract into Request Types: Create fewer catalog items with variable-driven options (e.g., a single “Request Hardware” item with choices for laptop, monitor, mouse).
• Use Employee Center (EC): EC provides a portal-like experience with content, search, and topic pages — reducing the need for a catalog item for everything.
• Governance Model: Assign catalog owners and regularly review items for redundancy and relevance.
• Focus on Top-Used Requests: Build catalog items for the high-volume, high-value requests, not for every possible scenario.