Marval South Africa now offering ISO/IEC 20000 training

With the recent introduction of the King III report and the impending

Company's Act due to come into effect this year, there has been a major shift in business thinking towards better IT governance, risk, compliance and sustainability.

ISO/IEC 20000 forms an important framework for and component of this governance, providing organisations with a set of guidelines and best practices to help them better manage their service offering.

In keeping with this growing need, Marval South Africa has extended its offering to include ISO/IEC 20000 training to South African organisations that are not only gearing for governance, risk and compliance (GRC), but also to improve efficiency and effectiveness through best practice processes and procedures.

“ISO/IEC 20000 is the international standard of service management. It is a standard against which the set of service management best practices can be audited and more importantly measured, allowing organisations to actively measure continual improvement based on the standards offered,” says Edward Carbutt, MD of Marval South Africa. “In terms of IT governance, organisations need to have business continuity, security and risk management in place, and the ISO/IEC 20000 standard allows organisations to put into place a service management and improvement plan that demonstrates evidence of this for compliance and risk management purposes.”

“Internationally, UK-based company Marval Software is the only IT service management solutions provider that is ISO/IEC 20000 certified.

Locally, training is conducted by Johann Botha, who is the only accredited ISO/IEC 20000 trainer in South Africa registered through Marval at the international IT Service Management Forum (iTSMF). Having a trainer who has this accreditation and also represents an ISO/IEC 20000 certified organisation puts us in an exceptional position to offer comprehensive practical training, that can be easily applied in real world situations,” adds Carbutt.

The first ISO/IEC 20000 Consultant Certificate course run by Marval South Africa in April 2010 was with UCS Solutions, which is the first South African company to adopt this standard of continual service improvement and achieve the ISO/IEC 20000 certification. The course itself consists of two aspects, namely the standard itself and the code of practice, which covers service delivery, control, release, relationship and resolution processes. It is held over three days and includes two one-hour exams, a multiple choice and a written examination.

Says Nigel Henderson, Managing Executive - Infrastructure Division at UCS Solutions, the largest IT outsourcing company specialising in the South African retail market: “ISO/ IEC 20000 is an audited best practice for the IT Service management industry, and we decided to adopt the standard in order to provide assurance to our customers of increased stability and higher availability. The certification is a market differentiator and positions UCS as a reputable IT service delivery company. The course conducted by Marval SA was extremely comprehensive and has ensured that our employees are fully competent to implement and practice the standard.”

“Not only does the course cover the ISO/IEC 20000 standard itself, it also provides practical guidelines on how to implement it into an organisation. This course is aimed at consultants and people who would assist an organisation to implement ISO/IEC 20000. It teaches about management responsibility, how to plan and implement service management and how to monitor it, and provides a framework of what needs to be done and how to apply the framework to each process,” Carbutt states.

Marval South Africa is favourably equipped to provide training in ISO/IEC 20000, leveraging its local expertise and experience as well as its international ties with Marval Software in the UK, representing this same quality and experience in South Africa. In fact, Marval Software's CEO, Dr Don Page, co-authored the standard and the company thus has an inside perspective and a thorough understanding of the intricacies and implementations of the standard.

ISO/IEC 20000 offers a host of benefits by allowing organisations to become more efficient and reliable with service delivery every day, as it offers a framework for continual and sustained improvement.

“By implementing this standard organisations gain visibility, accountability and are able to deliver efficient, cost-effective service, and become compliant with external requirements through standardisation, auditing and reporting. Through this there is also the knock on benefit of improved customer communication, confidence, satisfaction, and investor confidence,” concludes Carbutt.

Marval SA is a silver sponsor at the second annual IT Service Management Conference and Exhibition (SMEXA), taking place from 3-4 August 2010, at The Forum. The high-profile two-day conference and exhibition that brings together local and international IT service management professionals, practitioners, experts and analysts to share their experiences as well as the latest tools and techniques focusing on routes to recovery through IT service management strategies and technology. Book your seat at www.smexa.co.za.