5 key benefits of ISO 20000 implementation

Once implemented, ISO 20000 requirements to continuously improve IT organization’s Services Management System. The ISO implementation is continuous process and is a never-ending story. But, to start the effective system implementation, you need to start somewhere. The ISO 20000:2018 offered by experienced ISO 20000 consultant will help you to carefully develop the system that covering every requirement for the system implementation, documentation process that results in creating the effective system with ISO 20000 certification. The ISO 20000 documents that help during process and must be designed as per ISO 20000-1:2018 requirements are service management system plan, IT services policies, procedures, ISO 20000 manual, application formats, SOPs, job descriptions, ISO 20000 audit checklist, etc.

The implementation of ISO 20000 includes the management of the company’s business, as well as the management of services, indicating several options. We can argue about every single process and what ISO 20000 brings, but it will lead to endless discussion. Let’s stay on the service, i.e. the process level. In that case, the advantages of applying ISO 20000 are:

• Competitiveness and credibility – implementing ISO 20000 is your way to improve your company’s reputation, competitive edge, perception and image, and credibility (e.g., your customers will trust you when they see that your internal organization and processes are aligned with ISO 20000).

• Compliance – by your implementation of an ISO 20000-1:2018 standard, your customers know what they should expect; i.e., there are clear evaluations. Additionally, ISO 20000 takes care of legal or other regulation.

• Customer satisfaction – is there anything better in business than a satisfied customer? Well, implementing ISO 20000 makes it much easier to control IT service delivery processes and fulfilment of SLA targets. That improves the efficiency of your service management team and organization – a fact that makes your management happy.

• Productivity – let’s assume you are responsible for the whole IT service management team. Imagine a situation where everyone is clear about who does what and when, processes are defined, documented and in place, interfaces between them are clear… etc.

• Benchmark and improvement – ISO 20000 is a recognized standard for IT service management. By having it implemented, you can compare your organizational setup, processes, and services with those of other organizations. And, as with all other ISO standards, continual improvement is a cornerstone of the implementation and ensures that your Service Management System (SMS), and the IT services it supports, is regularly monitored, measured, and reviewed. That opens the possibility to be better day-by-day and helps your management get a clear picture about performance and efficiency. In real life, that means that you are able to respond to the changing business requirements, which are so commonplace in today’s dynamic business environment.

So, as you can see, the advantages of the ISO 20000 implementation relate to both the business and operational ends. Your management is aware that excellence in delivery of services enables business excellence.

ISO 20000 internal audit – What is it and why is it important?

Once implemented, ISO 20000 sets requirements in order to continually improve your SMS . And, this is a never-ending story. But, to start improvements, you need to start somewhere. The internal audit is one of the sources you can use. It’s an excellent source of information needed for the internal audit. But, there are some requirements in the ISO 20000 standard itself that need to be fulfilled in order to get certified. Consequently, there are also side effects of an internal audit.

Whom do you need?

The ISO 20000 Audit Training is a mandatory requirement of the standard. Therefore, the company must ensure that all requirements related to the internal audit are fulfilled. For that, there are two persons who are crucial for the internal audit to succeed.

First of all, you need someone responsible for the internal audit, as such. This person will be responsible for:

• Creating an internal audit plan/program – usually once a year, so we are talking here about an Annual Audit Plan.
• Appointing the auditor.
• Review of the results of the previous audit and follow-up actions.
• Analysis of the audit results and preparing a report for the management review meeting (a formal meeting with company’s management) – this includes the audit report, list of nonconformities, and actions to be performed.
• Taking care that corrective actions are made without undue delay and that they eliminate the targeted nonconformity, i.e., their causes. Also, the timing of implementation needs to be followed and monitored.

And the benefits…

Here are a few benefits of the internal audit:

• Know where you are – an objective and impartial internal audit will show you how good or bad your SMS is and your fulfilment of ISO 20000 requirements.
• Know what to do – during the audit you will detect many improvement points. Some of them will be officially noted, but some of them will not be that obvious, but you will know what to do (e.g. standard’s requirement is officially fulfilled, but something can be done more efficiently).
• Independence – people inside the organization have lots of information from the past; they know the organization and relationships between people, departments, etc. Performing an internal audit with, e.g., an external auditor will give you an independent opinion and a lot of facts.
• Management involvement – internal audit results are one of the inputs for the management review. In such way, you ensure that management is involved in the SMS and service delivery.