ISO 20000: The International Standard for Service Management

What is ISO/IEC 20000?

ISO/IEC 20000 is the international standard for service management. Part 1 of the ISO/IEC 20000 standard lays out a specification for a service management system (SMS). Part 2 provides guidance on SMS implementation. On this page you'll find information on the ISO/IEC 20000 standard itself, as well as relevant books, training and resources.

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Benefits of ISO 20000

ISO 20000 can help your organisation benchmark its ITSM, improve services, demonstrate its ability to meet customer requirements and create a framework for independent assessment.

Some of the most common benefits of ISO 20000 certification for service providers are that it:

• Offers competitive differentiation by demonstrating reliability and high quality of service;
• Gives access to key markets, as many organisations in the public sector mandate that their IT service providers demonstrate compliance with ISO 20000;
• Provides assurance to clients that their service requirements will be fulfilled;
• Enforces a measurable level of effectiveness and a culture of continual improvement by enabling service providers to monitor, measure and review their service management processes and services;
• Drives down the costs of conformance to a multitude of regulations, including the PCI DSS and Sarbanes-Oxley;
• Helps leverage ITIL practices to optimise resources and processes.

ISO 20000 parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

ISO 20000 uses a process-based approach for continual improvement and is split into five parts.

Parts 1 and 2 outline the requirements for implementing a service management system (SMS) that enables IT service providers to enhance the quality of service they deliver to internal and external customers.