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Newsletter - February 2019

Technical Integrator Newsletter Feb 2019

NEW Partner Portal

We are pleased announce that our Technical Integrator Portal is now Live!

The Portal is a resource hub where Integrators and Potential Integrators can access key resources such as API documentation, code and other supporting materials in one location. The integration resources are structured by the product you may wish to integrate with.

This includes the newer ESS DeX which aims to provide a centralised data exchange platform that reflects industry standards and best practice that transects the ESS Education Software Solutions product set exposing a unified set of data to authorised consumers in a cost-effective, legal and ethical way; empowering bidirectional data transfer.

ESS Dex provides integrators with access to a subset of data drawn from SIMS 7, SIMS Primary and FACILIT-e keeping the customer in control of their data and providing Integrators with a consistent single integration point irrespective the original data source.

Take a look today – feedback is always welcomed and we are keen to continually improve our support for Integrators.

NEW - Technical Integrator Programme (TIP) for 2019

We have released an updated TIP for 2019 including a revised pricing schedule effective from the 1st Jan 2019.  The document, pricing calculator and FAQs are available here. The new pricing is available to all NEW integrators and existing integrators at the point of their annual renewal. Larger integrators are better served by this new pricing as we try to offer services to support our ever-expanding Integrator eco-system. 

As well as revised pricing an increased range integration services are offered to help support you in integrating with the wider Education Software Services product set.

End of Life for the old Partner Management service model

Many partners/technical integrators will have joined our programme on the pre-2018 service and pricing model as detailed in the now obsolete ‘Partner Management Guide’. This has now been replaced by the Technical Integrator Programme (TIP) as detailed above.   As this model has been obsoleted and closed to new entries for over 12 months, we are now announcing that we are withdrawing the partner model on 31st May 2019

Existing Partners, that are currently on the obsolete model and are due to renew prior to the closure date have the choice to renew for a further 12 months on this agreement if their next renewal falls on or during June 2019. All renewals after this date will be required to renew on the new TIP model. We appreciate that many of you have already chosen to move to this model and are benefiting from the discounts available.

The TIP model providers integrators cheaper access to services and support whilst continuing to enjoy all the benefits you have become accustomed too. The new model sees the removal of the old writeback charging schedule. This is replaced with a combined per site charge for reading and writing data that’s starts from as little as £15 per site per annum.

Accreditation 2019/2020

Congratulations to all of you that gained an Accreditation status this past year. The current list of Accredited partners is available online here. Our customers are requesting that we expose more detail on the areas of Accreditation that our Partners have declared. To support this, we intend to publicise the detail over the coming months.

New Accreditation logos for 2019/2020 in line with our new branding now available on request.   

Guidance on use of the logos can be found here

Technical Updates

We have a few important updates that may impact some integrators in the coming months.

Further details are available as always by contacting the Partner Support team or by visiting the new update pages within the Partner Portal.

  • SPRING BETA 2019 BETA - Now available
    • Our BETA versions of SIMS/FMS and Discover are now available for qualifying partners. Partners have been asked to test their integration and feedback any detail to the partner support team before 1st March 2019. More information is available via the Partner Support Team
  • DFE school ID changes
    • Schools in Dorset are set to have their school IDs updated. This change could impact any partners who are dependent on this type of data. This could include the batch import process for photo uploads as used by schools and photographers. See the MyAccount article for more information.
  • Third Party Connector
    • A change planned in April 2019 could impact the Third Partner Connector that is used by SIMS Hosted schools. Schools are being advised to apply the update to avoid any connection issues. Partners who are dependent on the connector are also encouraged to remind schools to take the updates to support a continued integration.  More information is available via the Partner Support Team