Often seen as the poor cousin to ISO 9001, ISO 20000 Service Management largely gets ignored in favor of the more popular Quality Management Standard. To be fair, it’s title may have done it a disservice in the past. Being known as the IT Service Management Standard prior to 2018, it was often perceived as only applicable to IT service providers, when in actuality it could be adopted by any business! So, what is ISO 20000 exactly? The aim of the standard is to provide a framework for an effective end-to-end service management system which encompasses the entire lifecycle of a service from concept and design, through to service removal and end-of-life. It’s best adopted by businesses who provide a service, particularly those that operate a help / service desk system. In this weeks’ episode, Steve Mason joins Mel to discuss what ISO 20000 is, who can use and benefit from the Standard and how it fits in with other more widely adopted ISO Standards. You’ll learn ●      What is ISO 20000? ●      Who is ISO 20000 designed for? ●      What are the benefits of ISO 20000? ●      A brief overview of the Standard ●      How ISO 20000 integrates with other ISO Standards   Resources ●      isologyhub ●      ISO 20000   In this episode, we talk about: [00:50] Why are we talking about this Standard? We’ve had a lot of interest in a few of our informative videos available on YouTube over the past year, with ISO 20000 content constantly ranking in our top 5 most watched videos every month. [01:00]  ISO 20000-1 was previously known as the ‘IT Service Management Standard’, but since it’s most recent update in 2018, it’s simply known as the ‘Service Management Standard’ now. [03:10] Why is ISO 20000 one of Steve’s favourite Standards? – It takes some of the aspects of quality a step further and actually gives you much clearer detail on how you can improve your management systems. So, if you've got a Service Management System in any way, shape or form, this is the standard to go. It's also one of the easiest standards to audit because there's some very simple questions to ask that can highlight some very obvious weaknesses. This can lead to significant improvement when compared to the likes of ISO 9001. [04:05] What Is ISO 20000? –  ISO20000-1:2018 is a Service Management standard which has evolved from the IT industry and the ITIL Framework for Service Management; but today it can be used in all types of Service Industries particularly where there is a need for a Help Desk / Service Desk system. Some may ask, isn’t this what ISO 9001 can do? In short, no. ISO 9001 will give you a bare framework of how to create a Quality Management System, but it won't give you the fundamental details of how to improve that Service Management System, and that's where ISO 20000 comes in. [05:39] Who is ISO 20000 applicable to? – Any business that provides a service, but more specific examples include: IT Service provider, call centres, gas / electricity providers, retail ect. [07:15] A high level overview of ISO 20000 – This Standard follows the Standard structure that many other ISO Standards follow. The first 3 clauses are all informative, starting from clause 4 we have: ·       4.0 Context of the Organisation ·       5.0 Leadership ·       6.0 Planning ·       7.0 Support of Service Management System ·       8.0 Operation of the Service Management System ·       9.0 Performance Evaluation ·       10.0 Improvement Clause 8.0 is where ISO 20000 fills in the gaps for other Standards, as it covers topics such as: ·       Service Portfolio ·       Relationship and Agreement ·       Supply and Demand ·       Service Design, Build and Transition ·       Resolution ·       Service Assurance [08:20] Familiar to some – Those in Service Management may recognise some of those terms, but may not use that exact wording. For example ‘relationships and agreements’ may be more commonly known as Service Level Agreements and Operating Level