Charles Fraser Freelance IT Service Excellence Consultant

ISO/IEC 20000 Certification


I have considerable experience of helping IT organisations to achieve ISO/IEC 20000 certification.

ISO/IEC 20000 is the first international standard for IT service management. The standard was first published in December 2005 with an update in 2011. ISO/IEC 20000 shares many principles and practices with ITIL, but unlike ITIL it offers the opportunity for an IT organisation to achieve formal (globally recognised) certification.

Today there are almost 600 certified organisations throughout the world – and because of the growing awareness of the benefits of ISO/IEC 20000 certification this number is growing quickly.

All IT organisations stand to gain significant benefits from achieving ISO/IEC 20000 certification. These benefits apply to IT organisations that already use ITIL and those that are considering the use of ITIL.

If you already use ITIL then achieving ISO/IEC 20000 will deliver the following benefits:

  • Achieving ISO/IEC 20000 certification will improve your reputation as an IT organisation by demonstrating to your customers, suppliers, partners etc that you are a truly professional IT organisation that employs globally recognised IT Service Management Best Practices
  • Achieving ISO/IEC 20000 certification ensures that you are using ITIL in the correct way - to drive continual improvement in service quality – and that your ITIL processes are truly fit for purpose
  • Achieving ISO/IEC 20000 certification demonstrates that as an IT organisation you truly care about quality
  • As a senior IT Manager who has helped an organisation to achieve ISO/IEC 20000 certification your professional reputation and career prospects will be considerably enhanced.

If you do not yet use ITIL, but are considering it then achieving ISO/IEC 20000 will deliver the following benefits:

  • Achieving ISO/IEC 20000 certification provides justification for your (often very significant) investment in ITIL
  • Achieving ISO/IEC 20000 certification ensures that your use of ITIL will be ‘valid’ – it will ensure that the process you put in place are both effective and justified
  • Achieving ISO/IEC 20000 certification provides you with a real and meaningful goal to help you focus your use of ITIL in those areas that really matter (that deliver real benefits)

Here are just a few examples of organisations that have already achieved ISO/IEC 20000 certification.

  • Oxford University Press - UK
  • National Bank of Greece
  • Office of the Government Chief Information Officer – Hong Kong
  • National Stock Exchange of India
  • The Bank of Korea
  • Taiwan Stock Exchange
  • Chiao Tung University – China
  • Florida Department of Revenue – US
  • BNP Paribas Fortis – Belgium
  • Mannai Corporation - Qatar
  • Lockheed Martin Information Systems
  • Eversheds - UK
  • Hampshire County Council - UK
  • Dubai Customs
  • Roads & Transport Authority – UAE
  • Shanghai Municipal Housing, Landing & Resource Administration Bureau – China
  • CSC Singapore
  • Government of Tamil Nadu State – India
  • Hong Kong Housing Society


So how can I help? Well because of my knowledge of the ISO/IEC 20000 standard and my experience of helping other organisations achieve certification I can help you achieve certification quickly and with the minimum of effort.

The activities that I can undertake as part of your certification process include:

  • Developing your business justification (defining benefits, costs etc) for achieving certification
  • Training your key staff on the requirements of the standard, and the benefits of certification
  • Undertaking a Gap Analysis between your ‘As Is’ situation and the requirements of the ISO/IEC 20000 standard (see below)
  • Managing the required process improvements to meet the requirements of the standard


The ISO/IEC 20000 Gap Analysis. is the ‘core’ consultancy activity that I provide to help you with ISO/IEC 20000 certification. This is a 10-15 day on-site activity that analyses the gap between your ‘As Is’ situation and the requirements of the ISO/IEC 20000 standard. The result is a clear understanding of where your existing areas on non conformity (to the requirements of the standard) are, and a granular roadmap of what you need to do in order to address these non conformities and achieve certification.

Even if you decide not to go ahead and achieve formal certification the Gap Analysis will prove invaluable because it will identify your relative strengths and weaknesses (and potential areas to improve) as an IT Service provider and it will show the relative maturity and effectiveness of any ITIL process that you might have implemented.

If you would like to know more about ISO/IEC 20000 and how I can help you to achieve certification then please contact me at Charles.Fraser@CharlesFraser.net