ISO 20000-1 without audit: certificate based on a self-assessment

In the classic route, an auditor comes to your office or data centre, interviews your staff and inspects records. On Zertify, the same ground is covered by a structured questionnaire. You answer it from your own knowledge of how your IT services are run.

The assessment follows a fixed sequence. Nobody travels, and nobody has to be released from operations for a day or two of interviews.

1. 01

   Answer 36 questions

   Each question is a yes/no question about a requirement of ISO 20000-1:2018. You can start without registration.

2. 02

   Meet the pass rule

   All 13 mandatory questions must be answered yes. Among the other 23 questions you need at least 16 yes answers.

3. 03

   SICE reviews the assessment

   The Swiss Institute of Certification and Education checks every assessment before a certificate is issued.

4. 04

   Receive the certificate

   G6 Agency AG issues it under licence from SICE. The PDF carries a certificate number and a QR code that leads to the verification page.

5. 05

   Confirm it every year

   A short online re-audit keeps the certificate current. The certificate is valid for 3 years.

• See how it works step by step

ISO 20000-1:2018 describes a service management system for IT services. It draws on ITIL practices, but unlike ITIL it can be certified. The questions follow its core requirements, so you can see before you start whether your service management is in shape.

Service portfolio and catalogue

Which services you offer, to whom, and how they are described to customers.

Service level agreements

Agreed targets for your services, and how you measure and report against them.

Incident and problem management

How disruptions are recorded, resolved and traced back to their causes.

Change and release management

How changes to live services are assessed, approved and rolled out.

Capacity and availability management

How you plan resources and keep services available at the agreed level.

Continual improvement

How findings from operations and reviews lead to documented improvements.

• ISO 20000-1 requirements in detail

The certificate confirms that your company has assessed its IT service management against ISO 20000-1:2018, met the pass rule, and had that assessment reviewed by SICE. It is a statement about your service management system, backed by a record that anyone can look up.

Mandatory requirements

All 13 mandatory requirements were answered yes. None can be offset by other answers.

Overall result

At least 16 of the remaining 23 questions were answered yes.

Independent review

SICE reviewed the assessment before issue, so the certificate does not rest on your answers alone.

Public verification

A purchasing department or customer can enter the number or scan the QR code and see the certificate on the verification page.

Yearly confirmation

The online re-audit shows that the certificate is renewed each year and not simply left standing for 3 years.

• Guide: certification without an on-site audit
• Compare the certification routes

The route suits IT businesses that need a recognised ISO 20000-1 certificate for customer questionnaires and quotes, and that already run their services in a structured way. Managed service providers are the typical case: a customer sends a supplier questionnaire, and the answer "certified to ISO 20000-1" with a verifiable number settles the question.

Software-as-a-service providers, cloud providers, data centres and IT consulting firms are in the same position. So are internal IT departments that must show a parent company or a regulator that their services are managed to a standard.

The route is a poor choice if a customer has stated in writing that only an on-site audit will be accepted. In that case, the classic route is the one to take.

• ISO for small and medium businesses

The figures for the classic route are indicative ranges. Actual quotes depend on company size, number of sites and the certification body.

• Guide: what ISO certification costs

Zertify is the online platform where the self-assessment takes place. You take the assessment for ISO 20000-1 free of charge and without an account. If you pass, you pay and the certificate is issued. An account is not needed for the purchase either.

The fee 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 paid year. Prices include 8.1% Swiss VAT for customers in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

If you certify more than one standard, you get 20% off for two standards and 30% off for three or more. The discount also applies to the yearly fee. Providers that run ISO 27001 next to ISO 20000-1 often combine the two.

• ISO 20000-1 at Zertify
• Prices and discounts
• Start the free self-assessment