ISO 20000-1:2018
ISO 20000-1 certification online: IT Service Management by self-assessment
With the ISO 20000-1 certificate from Zertify, you demonstrate your management system online. ISO 20000-1 certification works by self-assessment: you receive the certificate within 4 hours and pay once, CHF 799. It is not an accredited certificate and does not replace an audit.
- Questions
- 30
- Validity
- 3 years
- One-time price
- CHF 799
01: Overview
What is ISO 20000-1?
ISO 20000-1:2018 is the international standard for service management systems (SMS) in IT. It builds on ITIL best practices and defines requirements for planning, delivering and continually improving IT services. The standard helps IT organizations deliver high-quality services that meet business requirements.
02: Benefits
Your benefits
- Higher IT service quality and customer satisfaction
- More efficient IT processes and less downtime
- Clear service level agreements and measurability
- Better alignment of IT with business objectives
- Structured incident and problem management
- Competitive edge in IT tenders
03: Who it is for
Who is ISO 20000-1 for?
- IT service providers and managed service providers
- Internal IT departments
- Cloud service providers
- Data centres
- Software-as-a-service providers
- IT consulting firms
04: Requirements
Key requirements
Define the service portfolio and catalogue
Establish service level agreements (SLAs)
Set up incident and problem management
Implement change and release management
Operate capacity and availability management
Ensure continual service improvement
05: Demand
Who asks for ISO 20000-1?
ISO 20000-1 is asked for when IT is sold as a service and customers want to check that operations are dependable.
- Customers of managed service providers
- Banks, hospitals and industrial firms outsource operations and support and want proof that incident, change and service levels are under control.
- IT operations tenders
- For operations, hosting and help desk, ISO 20000-1 is a typical suitability criterion, sometimes together with ISO 27001.
- Internal IT and group companies
- Internal IT departments use the standard to make performance and costs transparent towards the business units.
06: Cost
What does ISO 20000-1 cost? Audit, consulting or self-assessment
With ISO 20000-1 the number and complexity of services drive the price. For an IT provider with 10 to 50 employees, these orders of magnitude apply.
| Route | Indicative range | What is behind it |
|---|---|---|
| Accredited audit | CHF 10,000 to 25,000 initial audit, then 5,000 to 10,000 per year | Audit days depend on the number of services, sites and people in scope. A narrow service catalog keeps the price low. |
| Consulting and implementation | CHF 20,000 to 60,000 one-off | Building a service catalog, service levels, incident, problem and change processes, plus adapting tools. The processes have to be lived, not just exist. |
| Zertify self-assessment | CHF 799 once, valid 3 years | You check whether service catalog, service levels, incident, problem and change management demonstrably run. It does not replace an auditor's sampling in your ticket system. |
All amounts are non-binding indicative ranges for Swiss SMEs, not quotes. The offers of the individual providers are what counts.
07: Duration
How long does ISO 20000-1 take?
An accredited ISO 20000-1 process usually takes nine to eighteen months, because processes first have to generate evidence over several weeks.
| Phase | Accredited | Zertify |
|---|---|---|
| Build processes | 6 to 12 months for service catalog, service levels and processes, then several months of operating evidence | None. You rate the current state of your services |
| Assessment | Stage 1 (documents) and stage 2 (samples from tickets and changes) | About 20 to 30 minutes online, scored immediately |
| Certificate | Release after 2 to 6 weeks, then annual surveillance audits | PDF with QR verification within 4 hours |
08: Sample questions
Sample questions from the ISO 20000-1 assessment
Four of 30 questions from the catalog, with the reason each one counts.
Are service requirements defined?
Without defined service requirements nobody knows what a service is measured against. They are the basis of every service level.
Is there a service level management process?
Service levels make performance measurable and contractually binding. Auditors check whether the figures are actually collected and discussed.
Is there a problem management process?
Incident management fixes symptoms, problem management the cause. Those who separate the two see recurring disruptions fall.
Are changes carried out in a controlled manner?
Many major outages are the result of badly planned changes. Approval and a rollback plan are the core of change management.
09: Assessment
How the assessment works
The assessment consists of 30 yes/no questions. You answer them online, at your own pace. With 20 or more yes answers you pass.
| The questions are grouped by these topics: | Questions |
|---|---|
| Context of the organization | 4 questions |
| Leadership | 5 questions |
| Planning | 4 questions |
| Support | 6 questions |
| Operation | 5 questions |
| Performance evaluation | 3 questions |
| Improvement | 3 questions |
10: Price
Price and validity
What is included
- Online assessment with 30 questions
- Certificate as PDF, issued by SICE
- QR code for public verification
- 3 years of validity
- Support by email
The certificate is based on a self-assessment. It is not an accredited certification. Read more in the FAQ
11: More standards
More standards
Many companies combine several standards. From two standards you get a discount.
- ISO 27001:2022: View standard
Information Security Management
IT providers are often asked about service quality and security together, and incident and change are central in both standards.
from CHF 849
- ISO 9001:2015: View standard
Quality Management
If you run services to ISO 20000-1, you can use the same audit and improvement processes for quality across the whole company.
from CHF 599
12: Questions
Frequently asked questions about ISO 20000-1
ISO 20000-1 certificate within 4 hours.
Start the assessment for free. You only pay after you pass.
The certificate is based on a self-assessment. It is not an accredited certification.