The Modern Service Catalog and How to Design Employee Journeys That Work

Introduction: Why the Service Catalog Matters More Than Ever

In many organizations, the service catalog is treated like an afterthought. It is often a list of requests, a collection of forms, or a menu of items employees can click on. But as companies move into 2025 and embrace hybrid work, digital workflows, and employee-first cultures, the service catalog has become one of the most important parts of the internal experience.

According to Gartner:

“By 2026, more than half of digital workplace initiatives will fail if they do not simplify the employee service experience.”

Freshservice has reimagined the service catalog as more than a collection of requests. It is now a central part of how employees find answers, complete tasks, and receive support. When it is designed well, the catalog becomes the front door to every internal service team IT, HR, Finance, Facilities, Admin, and more.

At Cognigate, we treat the service catalog as a journey. Employees come with an intention, not a form number. Our goal is to make each interaction feel clear, quick and human.

The Problem: Service Catalogs Are Often Built for Systems, Not People

Many service catalogs fall short because they were created by technical teams without a full understanding of what employees actually need.

Here are the most common issues:

Employees cannot find what they need

Categories are unclear, inconsistent, or based on internal terminology. Users get lost before they even submit a request.

Forms feel long and complicated

Instead of helping employees, forms overwhelm them with unnecessary fields.

Too many options

Freshworks reports that service catalogs often become “junk drawers” full of unclear or duplicate items created over many years.

Little connection between catalog items and real workflows

A form may exist, but no one knows what happens after it is submitted. This causes delays and frustration.

Employees bypass the catalog entirely

They email IT or message HR directly, which causes missed tracking, slower resolution, and lack of reporting.

Forrester writes:

“Employee experience is directly tied to the clarity of internal service design.”

This means that the service catalog is not a technical object. It is an experience.

Cognigate’s Perspective: The Service Catalog Is the Employee’s First Point of Truth

When we design service catalogs in Freshservice, we start with a simple principle:

People do not ask for services. They ask for help completing a job.

An employee wants to set up a new laptop, get a VPN reset, request a salary letter, access a shared folder or report an issue in their office. They think in tasks, not categories.

Cognigate approaches service catalog design with three questions:

What does the employee want to achieve

How fast can they achieve it

How do we make the experience clear and confident, not confusing

This is why our service catalogs are built like guided journeys, not IT forms.

One of our guiding statements is:

“A service catalog should reduce effort, not increase it.”

How Freshservice Enables a Modern, Human-Centered Catalog

Freshservice gives organizations powerful tools to design intuitive service experiences. Here are the elements we focus on when deploying the platform.

Clean, simple categories employees understand

Categories must reflect employee language. IT words like “endpoint provisioning” or “directory services” are replaced with:

New Devices

Access Requests

Passwords and Login

Network and Connectivity

Email and Collaboration

Office and Facilities

This reduces confusion and increases adoption.

Clear, friendly, lightweight forms

Employees should be able to submit common requests in seconds, not minutes.

We remove unnecessary fields, add dynamic logic so employees only see relevant fields, and use natural language in descriptions.

Smart automation for each catalog item

Every catalog item should trigger:

Correct assignment

Correct approval

Correct workflow

Correct communication

McKinsey states:

“Automating 20 to 30 percent of service catalog workflows improves service desk productivity and employee satisfaction.”

Built-in knowledge suggestions

Freshservice can display suggested articles inside the catalog experience so employees solve certain issues themselves without raising a ticket.

Unified multi-department catalog

Freshservice supports IT, HR, Finance, Facilities, Admin and more all in one place. Employees get a single experience instead of navigating different systems.

This creates consistency, reduces confusion and increases trust in internal services.

Regional Context: How the Service Catalog Advances Digital Transformation in EMEA

Service catalogs are becoming central to transformation programs across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

UAE

Government entities are building unified internal service portals to increase employee productivity and support hybrid work.

Saudi Arabia

Large enterprises and ministries are using Freshservice to consolidate service operations previously spread across many systems.

Europe

Regulated industries such as telecom, financial services and education use standardized catalogs to improve compliance and service quality.

Africa

Growing enterprises are leapfrogging legacy systems and using cloud platforms like Freshservice to centralize internal service delivery.

Deloitte notes:

“Across EMEA, digital workplace initiatives succeed when internal services are designed around user experience.”

Executive Playbook: How to Build a Modern Service Catalog

Here is the model Cognigate uses for designing high-adoption catalogs in Freshservice.

Step 1: Map the top 50 employee requests

Talk to real employees and identify high-impact needs.

Step 2: Organize categories in employee language

Use real-world terms, not technical or departmental jargon.

Step 3: Design short, intuitive forms

Make the catalog feel effortless.

Step 4: Automate approvals and routing

Reduce manual work for IT, HR and shared services teams.

Step 5: Add knowledge articles to reduce ticket volume

Empower employees with self-service.

Step 6: Review and refine every quarter

Service catalogs are living systems, not static lists.

Conclusion: Simplicity Is the New Standard

The modern service catalog is the foundation of a great employee experience. It helps people do their work faster, reduces internal friction, and frees IT teams to focus on strategic tasks instead of repetitive requests.

At Cognigate, we build Freshservice catalogs that feel clear, intuitive and welcoming. When employees can find what they need quickly, the entire organization moves with confidence.

If you want a service catalog that actually works for your employees, start with clarity, simplicity, and a human-centered approach. Freshservice provides the tools. Cognigate brings the design, the structure and the experience.