ISO 20000-1 benefits: what the certificate does for your IT services

ISO 20000-1:2018 sets requirements for a service management system for IT services. It builds on ITIL practices, but unlike ITIL it can be certified. That is the point: you get a document that a third party can check, instead of a claim in your brochure.

The benefits fall into five areas. Which one matters most depends on whether you sell IT services or run them for your own company.

Customer trust

A customer who hands you their servers, helpdesk or application can see that you work to a recognised service management standard.

Access to tenders

Some tenders and supplier questionnaires ask for ISO 20000-1 or an equivalent. With a certificate you can answer that question with a document.

Internal efficiency

Defined processes for incidents, problems and changes mean fewer improvised fixes and fewer questions about who is responsible.

Lower risk

Controlled changes and a tested incident process reduce the chance that an update takes a customer system down.

A visible asset

The certificate carries a number and a QR code. Customers can verify it themselves, which makes it usable in quotes and on your website.

• ISO 20000-1 certificate at a glance

Purchasing departments compare many providers on paper. A question such as "Do you hold a certificate for IT service management?" is easy to score, and a yes with a verifiable number is easy to accept. Without a certificate, you have to explain your processes in free text, and the reader has to take your word for it.

The table shows where the certificate is used in practice.

• ISO for small and medium businesses

The standard does not ask for more paperwork for its own sake. It asks you to define how the service runs and then to follow that definition. Most of the benefit comes from six requirements, mostly in clause 8 (Operation), with measurement in clause 9 and improvement in clause 10.

1. 01

   Service catalogue

   You write down what you offer and to whom. Sales, support and customers then work from the same list, and disputes about scope become rarer.

2. 02

   Service level agreements

   Agreed response and resolution targets give your team a clear measure and give the customer something to hold you to.

3. 03

   Incident and problem management

   Incidents are logged and resolved in a set order. Problem management looks for the cause, so the same fault does not return every month.

4. 04

   Change and release management

   Changes are assessed, approved and recorded before they go live. This is where most avoidable outages are stopped.

5. 05

   Capacity and availability management

   You watch load and uptime before customers complain about them.

6. 06

   Continual improvement

   Reviews of your own results feed back into the service. The system does not stand still after the certificate is issued.

Every Zertify certificate has a number and a QR code. Both lead to a public verification page where anyone can confirm that the certificate exists and is valid. For a customer, that is quicker than writing to you and waiting for a scan of a document.

Put the certificate PDF in your tender folders and attach it to quotes. Add the verification link to your email signature, your website footer and your standard supplier questionnaire answers. Name the standard in full, ISO 20000-1:2018, so a reader can find it.

Describe it accurately. The certificate is based on a self-assessment confirmed online each year, without an on-site audit. Customers who ask how it was obtained should get that answer directly.

• Certification without an on-site audit

Zertify is the online route to an ISO 20000-1 certificate. You complete a self-assessment with 36 yes/no questions. Thirteen of them are mandatory requirements of the standard and must all be answered yes. Among the other 23 questions you need at least 16 yes answers.

The certificate is issued by G6 Agency AG under licence from SICE, and SICE reviews every assessment before it is issued. Once you have passed and paid, you receive the certificate within 4 hours. You do not need an account to buy.

The price is CHF 799 (€799) in the first year, then CHF 529 (€529) per year including the yearly online re-audit. The certificate is valid for 3 years. The yearly subscription can be cancelled at any time in your customer account, to the end of the current year. If you hold two standards, you get 20% off, and 30% off for three or more, also on the yearly fee.

• Start the free self-assessment
• See pricing
• ISO 20000-1 on Zertify

It does not run your service desk. The benefits above only appear if your team really works to the processes you describe. A certificate on the wall with a different reality behind it will show in the first customer audit.

It also may not satisfy every buyer. Some customers insist on the classic route with an on-site audit by a certification body. If you are unsure which your key customers expect, ask them before you decide. The guide below compares the routes.

• Compare the certification routes
• What certification costs