IT Service Management - ISO 20000

ISO 20000 is a management system for service providers. It defines the principles and guidelines that organizations need to follow to provide services effectively, efficiently, and continually improve their performance. In addition, ISO 20000 provides practical guidance on managing your business processes, including customer satisfaction, risk management, and continual improvement of business processes.

IT service management is a process that most companies follow to ensure the smooth operation of their IT infrastructure. However, there are many different components involved in this process, and it can be challenging to manage all of them without an effective IT service management system.

IT service management is a big responsibility. Companies need to have the ability to provide IT services that are of high quality and ensure customer satisfaction. Here are some tips on how you can manage your IT Service more effectively:

• Establish an IT service strategy – Effective IT service strategy is one of the most critical aspects of an organization’s success. It can be challenging to keep up with all the latest and greatest technology and even harder to stay ahead of coming next. There are several different approaches that you could take to establish your own IT service strategy for your business; you can follow these four steps that will help you:

1. Identify what services your company needs now.
2. Determine which services will become necessary soon.
3. Consider long-term growth strategies for future needs.
4. Create a plan based on those findings.

• Formulate agreements with vendors – Establish Service Level Agreements with your vendors. Make sure that you determine the quality of service before any deal is signed with a vendor or partner, and then set out to enforce it in your SLA by monitoring metrics like uptime and downtime, latency, and throughout.
• Implement change management processes – Create a change management process that will help you track, approve, and deploy changes to your IT infrastructure in a controlled manner. Modifications can often cause disruptions if not managed properly, so it’s essential to have a strict process in place to minimize the chances of negative impacts on your services. The change management process should also include rolling back changes if they cause problems.

IT service management processes

ITSM Processes are used to organize and manage IT services. The goal is to streamline ordering IT operations, improve service delivery, and reduce costs. A few of them include:

• Service request management – A service request management system is software that automates managing customer requests. These systems help organizations solve customer problems by tracking, assigning, and prioritizing their requests for services.
• Knowledge management – Knowledge management is the process of identifying, capturing, storing, organizing, sharing, and applying information. The rise of knowledge management systems has made it possible for companies to keep and move information across their organization while employees can access the best resources at any time.
• Problem management – Problem management is a process that helps an organization maintain its production and delivery of services in the face of obstacles, like server errors.
• Change management – Change management is a process of managing change in an organization. It involves the systematic identification and analysis of issues, options for addressing them, and plan implementation to drive change throughout the organization. The goal is to minimize resistance to change while maximizing acceptance of it.

How can your organization benefit from ISO 20000 certification?

• Offers competitive advantage by providing a high quality of service and reliability.
• Builds trust and assurance with clients that their service requirements will be met.
• The certification builds a culture of effectiveness and improvement in your organization. The service providers monitor, measure and improve the service management process.
• Reduces the expenses incurred on breaching regulation by staying compliant with industry and government regulations.
• Opens up markets to new locations globally since ISO 20000 is a worldwide accepted certification.

ISO 20000 Audit process:

If your organization needs to be ISO 20000 certified, you need to be evaluated by a registered certified body (RCB). RCB will issue conformance certification once the organization demonstrates compliance with the ISO 20000 requirements. The auditor verifies the related documents like processes, service management policies, and other documented information. The auditor also interviews the staff to ensure they are well trained and adhere to the guidelines. The certification audit will be divided into two stages:

• In the first stage, the auditor will determine your readiness for the certification. A list of areas of improvement will be prepared that need to comply with the standard’s requirements. Once these issues are corrected, you can go ahead with stage 2.
• Stage 2 audit assesses compliance with ISO 20000 requirements. Once the stage 2 audit is completed successfully, your organization is certified with ISO 20000.

Steps leading to ISO 20000 certification

• Create awareness – Communicate what you expect from the certification and a process that will be followed to achieve it. Ensure everyone related to the process should at least have a basic understanding of the standard.
• Determine the scope – Decide the areas of your organization, services, and locations that ISO 20000 standards will cover.
• Assessment – conduct an ISO 20000 assessment to identify conformant and non-conformant areas and implement measures to address the issues.
• Set up the project – Choose a project manager to take up the responsibility to determine resources, create a plan and implement the ISO20000 standards. Assign an external advisor or auditor to guide the team.
• Prepare for certification audit – Address the issues found during the assessment. This phase may be time-consuming depending upon the level of non-conformity; the processes need to be modified or updated. During the audit, keep a checklist to track the fulfilled requirements.