Alongside the portal's "describe your issue" submission wizard (see Self-Service Portal), there's a second, browsable way for employees to get something: the Service Catalog. Where the portal wizard is built for "something's wrong" or an open-ended request, the catalog is built for "I know exactly what I want" — a defined, requestable item with its own price, approval rule, and request form.
Requesting from the catalog
From the portal's catalog, browse by category or search, and each item shows its cost (or that it's free) and whether it needs manager approval up front. Opening an item shows its full description and either a purpose-built form for whatever details that specific item needs, or a simple notes field if it doesn't need anything extra. Submitting creates a service request — tracked the same way as any other portal request, under My Requests — and, if approval is required, walks through that before IT picks it up.
Building the catalog
From Catalog Admin, define categories (name, description, icon, sort order) and items within them: name, description, price, category, which group fulfills it, which SLA governs it, whether it requires manager approval, and — using the same field-builder used for portal category custom fields — whatever specific information the request form should collect.
Example
An admin adds "New Laptop — Standard Config" to the catalog under Hardware, priced and flagged as requiring manager approval, with a small request form asking for delivery preference. An employee finds it by browsing rather than describing their need from scratch, submits it, their manager approves, and IT fulfills it — the same tracked lifecycle as any other request, just reached through a catalog entry instead of the general wizard.