ISO 20000 is the world's first international standard for IT Service Management. ISO/IEC 20000 is an international IT standard that allows companies to demonstrate excellence and prove best practice in IT management. The standard ensures companies can achieve evidence-based benchmarks to continuously improve their delivery of IT services. ISO/IEC 20000 was released in 2005 based on the IT infrastructure library (ITIL®) best practice framework, and updated in 2011.

The standard is intended for organizations who provide managed IT services such as infrastructure and/or applications support; this can be both for external delivery e.g. to clients who have outsourced their IT support, as well as for internal IT groups. A certificate issued by third party registrar to demonstrates that your IT management system has been certified against requirements of ISO 20000 requirements. Implementation of ISO 20000-1 by setting up of internal processes gives confidence to customers about the delivering capability through use of IT infrastructure.

ISO/IEC 20000-1:2005 is the formal specification and defines the requirements for an organization to deliver managed services of an acceptable quality for its customers.

The scope includes:

• Requirements for a management system
• Planning and implementing service management
• Planning and implementing new or changed services
• Service delivery process
• Relationship processes
• Resolution processes
• Control processes
• Release processes.

Benefits of ISO 20000 certification

• Alignment of information technology services and business strategy.
• Creation of a formal framework for current service improvement projects
• Provides a benchmark type comparison with best practices
• Creates competitive advantage via the promotion of consistent and cost-effective services.
• By requiring ownership and responsibility at all levels, it creates a progressive ethos and culture.
• Supports 'interchanging' of service providers and staff by virtue of the creation of inter-enterprise operational processes.
• Reduction of risk and thus cost in terms of external service receipt
• Through the creation of a standard consistent approach, aids major organizational changes.
• Enhanced reputation and perception
• Fundamental shift to pro-active rather than re-active processes