ISO365 becomes one of the first in AU to achieve ISO42001 for AIMS

ISO365 has achieved ISO42001 certification for Artificial Intelligence Management Systems, distinguishing the organisation as one of a select few globally—and among the first in Australia—to attain this standard.

ISO365 managing director Jason Maricchiolo said it set an annual priority last year to build the best AI Management System that is powerful to use, easy to maintain, and conforms to the ISO standard.

Maricchiolo said it was built based on a Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) design to be at the core. Plans are now in place to take a handful of MSPs on this journey to become AI certified.

“It’s the first of it’s kind, and the only way to ensure proper AI use and Governance of AI in an organisation,” he said.

“We look forward to rolling out AIMS to our partner base – some of which are at the bleeding edge of AI use and development.” 

Earlier this year, ISO365, turned two. Maricchiolo started the business after spending 15 years working for MSPs.

“I started ISO365 with the sole intent to help MSPs achieve their ISO 27001 certification,” he said. I never thought that it would take off.”

“I initially wanted it to be myself and a handful of partners, but it turned out that there was a lot more of a need out there than I anticipated.”

As the business kept gaining traction, ISO365 has since grown to six staff working with about 85 MSPs.

 “We are basically their virtual compliance officers,” he said. 

One of the biggest challenges that Maricchiolo sees in the market is that often MSPs wait until there’s a need for them to be ISO certified – usually at the customer’s request. 

“The intent is to help these guys continue to run their business and not miss out on customer opportunities,” he said. 

“If they attempt to do a project like this internally, it just burns time and they get distracted from their day-to-day, when they should be servicing their clients and helping to build their client environments and making them more secure.

“And if the ISO person leaves the organisation, their whole ISO framework is up in limbo because no one wants to take it on, or they’re not trained and it’s a lot of work.”

Of the lessons learnt in business, Maricchiolo said was underestimating how much help MSPs need in this area of the market. 

“I pivoted my approach from wanting to do their ISO to helping build their business with ISO,” he said. “MSPs don’t have all the answers, they need to partner with people in all sorts of areas to help prop them up, build their framework, or their foundation as an MSP.”

Advice for MSPs treading down this path? Maricchiolo says there’s MSPs that sit in two buckets in need versus want. 

“They know that it’s coming and can see a commercial benefit in being able to play in some of these arenas or being able to bid for some government work and entering conversations that they’ve never had. That’s more of the ‘want’ side. 

“Then there’s the ‘need’ where there’s either an existing client or they want a piece of work, but they have to become certified. 

“I encourage all MSPs, whether you’re in the ‘need’ or the ‘want’ area, is to start planning for it, because it is going to come for you, whether or not it’s you that pulls the trigger, or a client of yours or a prospect that requires you to become certified.”