Fermilab earns ISO 20000 certification for IT services
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UL DQS Inc. CEO Ganesh Rao presented Fermilab with the official ISO 20000 certificate on Wednesday. UL DQS completed Fermilab's audit, leading to the laboratory's ISO 20000 certification in December 2012. From left: UL DQS VP of Sales and Marketing Hoss Parandeh; UL DQS Director of IT Services Subrata Guh; UL DQS CEO Ganesh Rao; Fermilab Associate Director/CIO Vicky White; Fermilab Service Manager Tammy Whited; Fermilab Director Pier Oddone. Photo: Reidar Hahn
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Fermilab recently became the first DOE national laboratory to earn ISO 20000 certification for excellence in information technology (IT) service management processes. The certification was the culmination of a five-year program led by Fermilab’s Computing Sector.
ISO 20000, an international standard for IT service management, is an approach to providing IT services that focuses on the customer. ISO 20000 requires that every stage of an IT service—from planning to delivery to improvement—meets business requirements and customer expectations. The standard was developed to reflect the best practices for IT service management within the IT Infrastructure Library, or ITIL, framework.
“Since we began the certification process several years ago, our goal has been to deliver the best possible IT-related services to the lab,” said Fermilab’s Associate Director and Chief Information Officer Vicky White. “Moving forward, we will continue to create a better computing experience for employees and users.”
The Computing Sector received the official certification in December and a ceremony was held at the laboratory on Wednesday, Feb. 13.
Fermilab’s certification included 13 core services, including FermiMail and Network Services, as well as 15 processes such as managing changes to an IT service and having procedures in place to optimize the availability of services. Maintaining certification status involves annual audits and a plan to continually demonstrate improved services and processes.
“The ISO 20000 certification journey has truly been a team effort,” said Tammy Whited, Fermilab service manager. “The staff was open to change and embraced the concept of improving the end user’s IT experience here at the lab.”
While the majority of ISO 20000-related improvements at Fermilab are behind the scenes, one improvement in particular is quite visible: the centralization and standardization of the Service Desk. Now, everyone at Fermilab has access to the Service Desk to report IT-related issues. In fact, you are encouraged to report problems to the Service Desk so they can be logged, tracked and fixed.
More service improvements by the Computing Sector that will be visible to end-users are in the works—look for a new Web tool soon that will allow employees to reset their forgotten services, Kerberos and KCA passwords. And, as a continuation of the certification process, the next IT audit at Fermilab is scheduled for November 2014.
“Fermilab should be proud of this significant accomplishment,” said Michael Weis, Fermi site manager, Office of Science, Department of Energy. “ISO 20000 certification demonstrates the lab’s continuing commitment to excellence and the staff’s ability to build strong systems to improve performance.”
—Deb Sebastian
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