BS15000, the first worldwide standard specifically aimed at IT service management (ITSM) and based around the internationally known best practice framework, ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library), will be launched in SA by NSS at its breakfast seminar on 22 June.
According to NSS Consulting Director Lynda Odendaal, the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) BS 15000 certification scheme was launched in 2003 to provide independent verification against this standard.
Written by acknowledged industry experts and practitioners, the standard is viewed abroad as a crucial step in turning best practice into reality.
"The BS 15000 standard itself consists of two parts," explains Odendaal. "The first part is the formal standard and sets out what an organisation is required to do for compliance and to achieve certification against that standard and part two - known as the `Code of Practice` - expands upon the bare requirements, offering expansion and guidance to organisations wishing to achieve the certification."
She says key business drivers of BS 15000 are to reinforce and provide formal accreditation based on internationally adopted ITIL best practice guidelines and providing a provide a formal and auditable standard for the delivery of IT services within an organisation.
"Perhaps most critically," she adds, "it is the foundation for future ISO standards and based on historical events it is probable the standard will be adopted locally as SANS15000 in the future.
"BS15000 certification allows companies to demonstrate a real commitment to IT quality, and by being BS15000 certified a company can show that they don`t just pay lip-service to the statement, 'ITIL Compliant` but that they are truly ITIL compliant."
The influence of BS15000 is rapidly spreading globally. On a global basis, industry analyst Gartner believes it is very likely that the BS15000 will be put forward to the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) for it to become an ISO standard in its own right or as part of ISO 9001.
In order to be certified an organisation needs to be audited by a Registered Certification Body (RCB) such as KPMG. Prior to applying for certification an organisation would have to do substantial amount of work, which needs to be certified. This pre-audit work can be done by Consulting Companies like NSS.
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