Certification for Information Technology Service Management - Assignment Example

Manji- Proctter ABC Consultants 125 Edwin Street Toowoomba QLD 4350 1 September 2009 Mr Allan Cruff The CEO of Sodexco Inc Company P O Box 3459 Melbourne – 1149 Australia Dear Mr Cruff. Following your request early this month, we now submit a copy of our report findings on the company’s status in line with ISO /IEC 20000 certification. As it emerged in our previous encounter, our report has paid special attention to the benefits associated with the ISO /IEC 20000 certification. Yours faith fully Manji- Proctter. ABC consultants IT ASSIGNMENT REPORT Prepared For: Mr Cruff. Submitted: 1 September 2009 Prepared by: Manji- Proctter Activity A: Data Sources Date of the Research Activity: 1st September 2009. Type of Activity: Case Study. Name of the Activity: IT-ISO/IEC 20000 CERTIFICATION. Data Sources on ISO/IEC CERTIFICATION; ISO/IEC 20000 certification website: http://www.isoiec2000certification.com. Content What ISO/IEC 20000 certification is? Bodies registered with ISO/IEC certification Organizations that have been certified by ISO/IEC 2OOOO Certification Frequently asked questions on the ISO/ IEC 20000 certification. What it takes to attain the ISO/IEC 2OOOO Certification. The standards for ISO/IEC 2OOOO Certification. Firms that have been attained the certification in North America. The sodexo Inc. company website: http://www.sodexousa.com/usen/press. Content of information from the website; Current information about the company. Background of the company. ISO/IEC 20000 certification of the company. The company’s scope of operation The confirmatory company that was involved with the issuance of the certification. The scope of the ISO /IEC Certification issued. Why the company sought for the ISO/IEC 20000 Certification. The current position of the company The future of the company The goal/ objective of the company. The company’s mission statement The type of management strategy incorporated in the company since its inception. The type of environment fostered by the company. Innovative solutions adopted by the company since its inception. Challenges that the company has faced and how it plans towards overcoming them. The Washington business journal The content of the information Sodexo Inc. Company. How the company plans to grant disabled farmers the okay to plow their own fields of land. How the search for technology by the company has been transformed in to a talent. Washington firms taking the lead role in diversity. The major firms in Washington D.C that have taken the best place in black enterprise in diversity. The adoption of a new director in the Sodexo Inc. Company. Sodexo articles that have made it for publication in the business journal The sale of comfort keepers to a French renowned firm. How firms in Washington are planning towards the overcoming the effect of the looming economic crunch. The business week. Website: http://www.bxbusinessweek.com/green-energy. Content of information. Green energy. Sodexo’s effort to foster green energy. Sodexo and partner firms in the move to shift to green energy. Associated press. Date of publication 27th April. 2007. Topic; how the food service firm, sodexo plans to fully settle the case on racial bias. Bharat book review. Website; http://www.bharatbook.com/market-research/sodexo inc. Content of information The location of the company Strategic analysis review of the sodexo food company in North America. Summary on the scope of production of the company. Why and how the company should be rated among he best performing firms in food technology. The history of the company. The growth of the Sodexho Inc Company to the current position. The competitive advantage enjoyed by the company. How the slowing growth in the US economy has impacted on the company. The strategic partnership that the company has put in place. Duration of the activity; 1 day. Activity B: The case study Executive summary The report was requested by the CEO of the Sodexco Inc Company in an effort to elucidate the company’s status in line with the ISO\IEC 20000 certification and the related benefits. This paper examines the Sodexo Inc Company in North America in its quest to attain the certification. This is in line with the background f the company, the current position, the scope of the certification and the background of the certification. In line with the background of the company, the size, location and scope of operation shall also be highlighted. “The report has been written under the authorization of the Mr Allan Cruff the CEO of the Sodexco Company” (Carson 2009, p.12). Introduction ISO/IEC 20000; the international standardization organization/ the international electro technical commission is a renowned world wide body of certification. The main goal of this organization is vested towards the adoption of ideal information technology strategies in the management of firms. The organization thus offers a number of processes that can be adopted by companies in the quest to foster both business and customer effective service delivery. The processes advocated by this organization are found to be in line with the measures fostered by the ITIL within the office of government commerce. The organization is made up of two major parts; the ISO/IEC 20000-1:2005 which defines the necessary requirements to be adopted by any organization in the quest to deliver quality customer services. This section thus encompasses what is expected of the management system, how to plan towards implementing such management strategies, the type of service delivery, the resolution process and the control process among other aspects. The second part of the organization covers the expected code of practice. This is a strategy that describes the most appropriate practices to be enhanced with regard to the management of service delivery. This aspect if known to be of a certain importance to a particular organization in its quest to attain the certification. This paper examines the Sodexo Inc Company in North America in its quest to attain the certification. This is in line with the background f the company, the current position, the scope of the certification and the background of the certification. In line with the background of the company, the size, location and scope of operation shall also be highlighted. The background of the company The company was started way back as a French food offering and service firm in 1966. At the time of its inception, the company went by the name Sodexho Inc. This name was later dropped in a merge between the former and Marriot management services. This move led to the adoption of its current name in 1998. The other company in the merger was a well established hotel firm started in 1928 in Washington D.C. The distribution of the share holding was not definite until June the year 2001 when the company that initially owned the former household company Sodexho moved in to purchase 48 percent of the total share holding of the company. The company has then transformed itself in to a giant food and services firm around the globe. The company does not only provide services related to food but also offers a range of other customer friendly services. These other services include laundry, custodial and ground keeping and management to over six thousand people. The services are preferably offered in the United States of America, Canada and in Mexico. Most of the potential customers come from learning institutions, the marine department in the United States of America, prisons and health care institutions. It is also evident that the company has a long term service provision regime with the Time Warner Company alongside the World Bank. With reference to service provision to the US marine department, it emerges that the company has earned itself two contracts. One of the two contracts revolves around the provision of meal services to the marine troops while the second contract is vested towards the provision of logistic services to the United States marine department (The Bharat Book review 2007). These two contracts have been in operation since 1993. The company is known to have offered employment opportunities to over a hundred and ten thousand people in various capacities. Currently the company operates in an estimated fifty states. Sodexo is a leading food technology industry in North America. The company is renowned for exemplary service delivery and was the first in food technology to earn the certification. The company is currently ranked among the best fifty in the globe with reference to green energy. The mission of the company is vested towards offering the most ideal type of services to people at all times. With reference to the impact of the company to the economy, it has been established that the company covers a wide geographical scope in most of the United States of America (Carson 2009). The company has also emerged in both Canada and Mexico. The revenue collection of the company is estimated to be at $7.7 billion in North America. The total number of clients served in this region alone is estimated to be nearly six thousand. The company is thought to serve nearly ten billion meals in each day of its service. The company holds facilities in seven hundred locations. The operation of this company to its current position has been met with a number of challenges. Such challenges include various law suits where the company has been implicated in food safety with regard to sanitation and the racial discrimination of its labor force. A major blow to the company was a publication that emerged in September 1999 implicating the company in a scandal on dirty hospital linen. The food services also met another blow in 2001 when a high school student reported to have found a human thumb remnant in a sandwich bought from the company’s premises. Other negative allegations on the company involved a food poisoning case by several high school students. Most of this negative implication amounted in to the termination of the contract for the company’s line of service provision (The Bharat Book review 2007). Owing to the company’s world wide recognition, it has received a number of tenders to offer its services. In 2002, the company is said to have received a tender from Afghanistan which was apparently not acted upon. The company is known to have maintained very good connections with the government. The top management is said to be held by officials that have previously held very influential positions in the government. Reginald E. Gilliam who happened to have joined the management team is said to have been the vice president of American government affairs. The chief executive officer of the Marriott international company that equally owns the Sodeco Inc Company is a member of the presidential council on exports. Such influential leaders enable the company to enjoy the privilege of political back up and protection. It also emerges that these influential individuals use their previous marketing bases to acquire more clients for this company (The Bharat Book review 2007). The company is currently under the leadership of George Chavel who is serving as both the chairman and the chief executive officer of the company. Leadership trends in the company With reference to the 2007 world wide out sourcing, this company was rated the best in the category of service provision. The ranking was done by the renowned international association of out sourcing professionals. This report was published by the fortune magazine. In addition to this recognition, the company was also chosen by the Dow Jones sustainability as an index component. With reference to travel and leisure, the company was ranked for three consecutive years as a world wide super sector leader. The trend in leadership management Sodeco Inc is one among a few companies in its line of operation that has earned the economic development leadership award. This is an award that was offered by the Montgomery county department. It is a company that is thought to have been the first to attain a United Nations signatory. This company has also set the pace in the campaign against the onset of lifestyle diseases especially obesity in young children. In line with quality service delivery, the company is known to utilize the best range of products in both food processing and cleaning. It is established that the leadership of the company is geared towards fostering safe environmental practices. In line with safe environmental practices, the company has heavily invested in the quest to adopt ideal waste treatment measures. This is a move that is incorporated in line with the adoption of organic food production technologies. The company has thus earned the recognition and award in setting the pace in innovation. These honors have been awarded by various bodies including the five star employer and the US department of defense. It also emerges that the company is the leading source of employment. Owing to its scope of operation, the company has offered several employment opportunities to dietitians and several nutrition specialists (Sodexho Inc Co. 2009). The ISO/IEC 20000 Certification This certification is presumed to be a quality standard measure for the adoption of IT infrastructure in the management of companies. This is a move that has very attractive and currently being advocated for by all companies. The basis of the struggle to attain the certification lies not only within benefiting the organization but also attaining and enhancing the confidence of both suppliers and partner investors in the organization. Any firm that seems to have attained the outlined standards is justified to document the move. However the status is not recognized until when it is approved by a certification company or group. The verification scheme was created and is currently being managed by the itSMF in an effort to foster consistency in the adoption and implementation process. For a company to be certified on meeting the certification requirements and regulations, it has to be registered with a registration certification body. This former body is an affiliate of the itMSF. This registration body is empowered to issue a certificate of confirmation on approving that the laid out requirements and regulations of the certification procedure have been met. The certificate issued by the itMSF registration company empowers the issued company the legal entity to use the ISO/IEC 20000 logo. This logo is worldly recognized as a symbol of great achievement. On confirming the credibility of any organization in line with the confirmation of the registration process, the company registered to uphold the certification on behalf of the ISO/IEC 20000 certification checks for the compliance to the Information technology infrastructure in the management of the firm to be certified. A number of firms have been registered with this organization for this responsibility. Among them is AFNOR Certification Company, the BSI management systems in the United Kingdom and the CESI certification firm .All these companies are fully registered and recognized as registered certification organizations (Mackenzie 2009). The registration and confirmation of Sedexo Inc Company This came on the 23rd of March 2009. This was the first time the certification was being offered to a food service company. The company is said to have effectively collaborated with its staff in the incorporation of a number of highly sophisticated information technology infrastructure. This company thus becomes the very first in food service delivery to attain this certification (ItMSF 2000). This is a demonstration of competency in customer service delivery. Its certification in line with the adoption of the IT infrastructure is geared at fostering industrial leadership. This is a trend that is thought to greatly improve the culture of good service delivery. The registration and confirmation of the company was done by a group of auditors from the Underwriter Labs. The International Standard Organization Certification is geared at enabling the company to effectively adopt and make use of information technology structures in its planning and management. Such structures have thus been given world class recognition. A company that certifies the requirements and regulations of this organization is known to have attained international recognition. The infrastructure has been proved to be ideal in the promotion of both prolonged and continuous improvement. With such an advanced information and technology infrastructure in place, it becomes possible for the company to effectively monitor and deliver its services as per the emerging trends in the same technology (ItMSF 2000). The rate at which the world is being transformed with the emergence of information and technology software calls for a quick transformation of the systems in place. This is the goal being advocated by this certification. It is geared towards enabling the companies that adopt the system to effectively fit and gain the benefits of the emerging trends in information technology. With the adoption of such infrastructure; it becomes possible for the companies to focus on effective customer ser vice delivery. This is a move that is thought to enhance the concept of relationship marketing. This is because with the incorporation of such an infrastructure, it becomes possible for the company to effectively monitor the buying trends of the potential customers. This is a move that will in the long term translate in to the retention of customers (Sodexho Inc Co. 2009). The reasons as to why the Sodexho Inc Company sought to be ISO/IEC 20000 Certified Owing to the broader marketability of the company, it became obvious that the effective delivery of services required proper record keeping and management. The use of manual recording systems involved lots of the human resource that would definitely have been channeled to other sectors. Time wastage in the service delivery with reference to the retrieval of such records was alarming. This thus pushed the company towards the adoption of up to date information and technology systems that would enable the company to deliver with the utmost efficiency. The systemization of the service delivery system in the adoption of this system tools was also geared at saving on the cost implicated in the manual record keeping. It emerged that the functionality of the firm was greatly impaired and complicated without a proper service delivery mechanism. The adoption of these information and technology system enabled the firm to upgrade its service delivery in all the sectors of the company. In line with effective service delivery, the adoption of this infrastructure was a move that translated in to fostering customer confidence. The use of such technology is thought to be a measure of how well a company manages and manipulates its information. Customer retention is further enhanced with the adoption of such information and technology infrastructure (Rambart 2009). Benefits of attaining the ISO/IEC 20000 Certification With the use of the confirmatory status, it becomes possible for a company to reassure its customers, stake holders and employees. This is formulated on the basis that the management and manipulation of the information within that particular company is highly secured. The adoption of the information and technology systems fostered by this organization is thought to positively transform in to credibility and high level trust in the company or organization that seeks to be certified. With the adoption of the ideal information and technology tools, a number of costs are effectively saved. The adoption of the outlined requirements and regulations of the certification procedure ensures that the stipulated legal provisions are being adhered to. It is thus a tool that is thought to be of great impact on fostering the conformity to legal regulations. With the adoption of such information infrastructure, it becomes relatively easy to ensure that all the relevant sectors within the company confirm to the commitment to uphold high level safety standards of its information. The adoption of such ideal tools within an organization is thought to increase recognition of the company. This is equally a measure that can positively transform in to reducing the risks implicated in the manual manipulation of information. The type of brand recognition that comes with this certification is thought to foster a competitive advantage for the company (Sodexho Inc Co. 2009). What the ISO/IEC20000 certification is all about. This international organization is thought to be the very first to set the pace and standard in the adoption of information and technology infrastructure. The organization thus describes a set of processes to be geared for in the management of the service delivery system. With the world wide recognition and acceptance of the information infrastructure library, this certification is now globally recognized. It has currently emerged that it is impossible for any company to attain any meaningful recognition without meeting the requirements and regulations of this certification. The current market situation is very competitive. This calls for the adoption of ideal mechanisms in information and technology to earn the competitive advantage. With reference to the two sections of the certification process, it emerges that the first part is the most relevant in the whole certification. The first part defines the type of specification that is required for a company to be certified. The second part is geared at providing guidelines on the type of service management that a company can use in the process of adapting to the requirements of the certification. The ISO/IEC20000 certification thus advocates for the adoption and the continued use of the latest highly competent information and technology tools in the management of companies. The certification process is thus geared at fostering the alignment of such ideal technologies in all the strategies of the company. The adoption of such standards comes with the development of a framework that is known to improve the concept of service delivery. This certification is thus known to define the exact benchmarks for overall best practice in business oriented companies. Through such measures, it emerges that the certification process and standards are geared towards enhancing a competitive advantage. This is irrespective of the scope of business that the company might be involved with. With the adoption of the certification standards, it becomes possible for a company to monitor and take charge of all of its responsibilities in the market. Monitoring and effectively reviewing the mechanisms in operation within any company are aspects that are geared towards the benefit of reduced risks. Companies that are out to develop the brand recognition are thus strongly advised to heed to the adoption of the ISO/IEC 20000 standards. Conclusion The struggle to attain the ISO/IEC 20000 certification is at its utmost peak. This is an aspect that is greatly owed to the benefits accrued from the certification. The recognition that comes with the certification by this organization is a factor that a number of certified companies are proud to be associated with. For a company to certified by this organization, it has to meet a number of requirements and regulations. These formulated policies that define the standards for the certification revolve around the adoption of recognized information and technology tools in the management of the company. It therefore emerges that this is an international organization that is out to foster the adoption of up to date information and technology mechanisms in the management of organizations. This is a measure of merit for any company to be certified. For the Sodexho Inc company, the registration and confirmation came under the auditing of the company by a group of auditors from the under writer Labs. This happens to be the very first food service industry to attain the certification .The move to attain this certification in this company was jointly engineered by the top management and the rest of the staff. This was based on the efficiency with which the company hoped to serve its many customers. The company has ever since the certification enjoyed a number of vast benefits. References Carson, J 2009, ‘ISO/IEC certified companies in North America’, The business week, vol. 46, no.23, pp. 1-13. ItMSF 2000, ISO/IEC 20000 Certification, viewed 1 September 2009, . Mackenzie, J 2009, ‘The Sodexho Inc . Company’, The Washington Business Journal, vol. 23, no.12, pp. 23-30. Rambart, P 2009, ISO/IEC 20000 Certfication, viewed 1 September 2009, . Sodexho Inc Co. 2009, Sodexo Earns ISO/IEC 20000 Certification for Information Technology Service Management, viewed 1 September 2009, . The Bharat book review 2007,How the Sodexho Inc Company plans to settle the law suits on racial discrimination, viewed 1 September 2009, . Read More