How to become a SIMS partner

What type of Partner?

At Capita SIMS®, we believe that partners are key to our future success. Whether you are a service provider, systems integrator, independent education software vendor, reseller or other type of technology provider, we want you to provide solutions that integrate with SIMS. Our partner scheme has been designed specifically to accommodate smaller companies as well as providing benefits for larger ones.  We can provide you with assistance to help your products integrate with SIMS easily.

The Partner Management document (click here to download pdf) provides the information to help you evaluate the type of partner you may want to be, if you require data to read or be written to SIMS, and what to do next.

Commercial Partners

Partnering with SIMS offers a greater business value, including increasing your revenue opportunities; lowering your cost of doing business; speeding your time to market; and building your market recognition. A Commercial Partner has a contractual arrangement whereby Capita endorse their product, and Capita act as a Value Added Reseller or have a mutual marketing agreement. All Commercial Partners go through a rigorous evaluation process.

Technical Partners

Whether you're a solution provider or a systems integrator, this level of partnership allows you to find out how to integrate your products with SIMS without having to enter any sales agreements. A Technical Partner will typically want access SIMS through our Business Objects or Learning Gateway Web Parts but without any commercial arrangement. This access will be through a standard licence agreement. We have now introduced a new category of Technical Partner – Enterprise. This is specifically for the small start-up companies or organisations who want a Technical Partnership but without a large investment at the outset.

Premier Partners

For those partners who want to fully integrate their products and have a full commercial arrangement with us. A Premier Partner will want access to SIMS through our Business Objects and also have a commercial arrangement for the reselling or endorsement of their solution.

Third Party Users

For those organisations who want to read basic data from the SIMS database without becoming a SIMS SQL Technical or Enterprise Partner. A Third Party User will want access to SIMS through our standard, configurable data export – the Third Party Software Development Kit. Third Party Users will have neither Technical nor Commercial status.

Capita SIMS® Support Partner
These partners supply support services to our schools and may include LEAs and Regional Centres – for more information contact Pete Brown.


Partner Benefits

At Capita SIMS®, our primary objective in this program is to deliver best value to our schools and LEA customers through our partners. We focus on four key areas:

• Access to Capita SIMS® Products
  Not-for-resale SIMS software is delivered to Partners early in the product development cycle from product beta versions through to trial software.
• Technical Readiness
  Tools, training and consultancy, which enable partners to build upon our Microsoft SQL technologies.
• Technical Support
  Telephone and web based support, partner zone.
• Business Development
  Promote your business to schools based on your Capita SIMS® affiliation.