How to Gain ISO 20000 Certification

Do you know what the primary requirement of ISO certification is? You need to engage an authorized certification body. Certification body is an organization or company responsible for certifying the companies that request their services. If this certification body finds a business compliant with the requirements of the intended standard, they will announce them as certified to that particular standard. Every ISO standard has a different set of requirements, the certification body will investigate whether an organization has met the requirements or not. In this blog, we are going to discuss the process required for ISO 20000 certification so that you can easily make the certification body realize that you truly deserve the certification.

What is ISO 20000 Standard?

ISO 20000 standard has been designed for IT service providers so that they can plan, implement, demonstrate, operate, and monitor their IT service management system or SMS. This standard contains many principles similar to ISO 9001, ISO 17025, or ISO 13485. There is a basic difference between ISO 20000 and 900. The previous one is specific to the IT industry while the second one is applicable to all industries. Let’s find out how you should gain ISO 20000 certification.

Step 1. Request

If you want to be certified to ISO/IEC 20000, you need to request a proposal. Your request must state all the relevant information about your company. A number of people are engaged with scope, and main lines of your business, scope etc. The certification body will analyze the information so that they can calculate the number of days required for the certification process. The price of the proposal will be determined by the number of days required for the entire process. Once, this is done, the certification body sends the proposal to your company.

Step 2. Certification Audit

If you approve the proposal for ISO/IEC 20000 certification, then you should carry out the certification audit. You can hire dedicated ISO consulting services to conduct this audit. The audit is divided into two phases:

Phase 1: In phase one, the audit team will prepare an audit plan for phase one. This plan should review all of the issues. It is also important to identify the persons who will interview, and record the time and date of all the activities that need to be monitored.

Phase 2: In phase two, the audit team will prepare an audit plan for phase two. This plan must contain all the relevant things that need to be done soon. In this phase, the audit team will review everything including pending management system, PDCA+operational implementation etc. As an outcome, you will be provided with an audit report containing all the deviations from phase two. Additionally, this phase should address the deviations that have not been audited in the previous phase. These two phases are crucial for gaining ISO 20000 certification.

Step 3. Obtaining the Certification

If you successfully address all the deviations pointed by the audit team and present the necessary evidence to the certification body, they will release a decision evolution report. Finally, they approve your certification.

Step 4. Surveillance Visits

Once, you have gained the certification, it will be valid for the next three years. During this period, you need to conduct the surveillance visit. It implies that after the first certification, the company needs to face further audits for the next two years.

Step 5. Recertification Audit

Finally, after three years, when the certification will expire, you will have to deal with a recertification audit to maintain your certification. 

This is all you need to do for gaining ISO 20000. By hiring ISO consultants, you can make this process simple and easy.