ISO 20000-1:2018 for the education sector
ISO 20000-1 for education: prove that your IT services run to a standard
Schools, universities and training providers depend on IT services that must work on a fixed timetable: enrolment, learning platforms, exams. ISO 20000-1 shows that you manage these services in a defined way. With Zertify you answer 36 questions online and receive the certificate within 4 hours after passing and payment.
01: Demand
Why education customers ask for ISO 20000-1
A school authority, a university or a private training provider that buys IT services wants to know who answers when the learning platform is down, who approves a change before the exam week and which availability has been agreed. A tender or supplier questionnaire often turns these questions into one line: do you hold ISO 20000-1?
The providers who get this question are managed service providers running school networks, software-as-a-service vendors of learning and administration platforms, hosting companies for exam systems and IT consultancies. Internal IT departments of universities and large training institutions are asked as well, usually by their own management or by an audit.
The standard is certifiable, which ITIL is not. A purchasing department can therefore check a certificate number instead of reading a description of your practices. On the Zertify verification page it finds the certificate by number or by the QR code on the PDF.
02: Risks
Which processes and risks in education the standard addresses
Education has a calendar that IT cannot move. Load peaks, quiet periods and hard deadlines follow the term. ISO 20000-1 asks you to manage your services against exactly this kind of pattern.
- Enrolment and registration period
- Thousands of users log in within a few days. Capacity and availability management require you to plan for this peak and to monitor it.
- Exam sessions
- A change to the platform on the evening before an online exam can invalidate the exam. Change and release management make you assess, approve and schedule such changes.
- Platform outage during the term
- Teachers cannot open course material, students cannot hand in work. Incident management defines who responds, how fast and how the user is informed.
- Login failures at the start of every semester
- The same fault returns each year. Problem management looks for the cause instead of resetting passwords again.
- Accounts and devices for staff and students
- Password resets, new accounts, access to shared rooms. A service catalogue lists these requests and says what the customer can expect.
03: Requirements
How an education IT provider meets the key requirements
The operational requirements sit in clause 8 of the standard, evaluation of results in clause 9 and improvement in clause 10. The table shows what they can look like for a provider or IT department serving educational institutions.
| Requirement | Example in education |
|---|---|
| Service portfolio and catalogue | A catalogue with learning platform operation, account administration, classroom devices and helpdesk, each with a named owner. |
| Service level agreements | Agreed support hours during term time, a response time for faults during exams and a target availability for the platform. |
| Incident and problem management | A ticket system that records every fault, escalation rules for exam days and a monthly review of recurring faults. |
| Change and release management | A change calendar with a freeze during exam weeks and an approval step before each platform update. |
| Capacity and availability management | Load tests before enrolment opens and monitoring of the login service. |
| Continual service improvement | A list of improvements drawn from user feedback and incident data, reviewed after each term. |
Many providers already do most of this. What is usually missing is the written evidence: the catalogue, the agreed targets, the change records.
04: Preparation
What to prepare before the self-assessment
The certificate applies to the services you put in scope. A provider of a learning platform for vocational schools might scope platform operation and user support. A university IT department might scope the services it delivers to faculties and administration.
Define the scope
Name the services, the customers and the locations that the certificate should cover.
Write the service catalogue
One page per service is enough: what it includes, who owns it, when it is supported.
Agree service levels
Put response times and availability targets in writing, in a contract or a service description.
Describe your core processes
Incident, problem, change and release handling, each with a responsible person and a record.
Answer the questions
Go through the assessment with the documents at hand and answer each question honestly.
05: Zertify
Getting ISO 20000-1 certified with Zertify
The route is an online 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. There is no on-site audit.
SICE reviews every assessment. The certificate is then issued by G6 Agency AG under licence from SICE and reaches you within 4 hours after you have passed and paid. It carries a number and a QR code, and anyone can verify it publicly. Each year a short online re-audit confirms that it still applies.
If a customer insists on an audit on site by a certification body, you will find the comparison in our guide to the routes.
06: Cost
What the ISO 20000-1 certificate costs
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. For customers in Switzerland and Liechtenstein the prices include 8.1% Swiss VAT. You can buy without creating an account.
Billing is an automatic yearly subscription. You can cancel at any time in your customer account, effective at the end of the current year. If you cancel, the certificate ends with the year you have paid for.
Providers to education often need a second standard as well, for example for information security. Two standards earn a 20% discount, three or more earn 30%, and the discount also applies to the yearly fee.
07: FAQ
Questions about ISO 20000-1 for education
08: Guide
Related pages
Check your ISO 20000-1 readiness for education
Answer 36 yes/no questions and see whether your service management meets the standard.
Free and without registration.