Principles of Partner accreditation

Principles for Partners selling our SMB software and services:

  • Individuals are certified, and companies or organisations are accredited.
  • There are only 2 levels of accreditation:

          1. Sage Business Partner

          2. Sage Developer Partner

Only Accredited Sage Business Partners may sell and support Sage products.  Sage will not authorise purchase orders for products or services where Business Partners do not hold current accreditation.
  • Accreditation is awarded to Business Partners who gain and maintain a mandated number of certifications for each product they wish to sell and support.
  • The minimum numbers required are set per certification.
  • Escalated support calls to Sage can only be accepted if originated by an appropriately certified member of staff.
  • Only the core product in each area will be mandatory for Accreditation.
    However, certification must be gained for any 'optional' products the Business Partner wishes to sell and/or support.
  • Certification of individuals will lapse over time but will be determined by new product release enhancements. Relevant certifications must be updated within a mandated time in order to remain valid - usually 3 months.
  • Gaining certification will in most instances involve an invigilated exam and/or some post course assessment.
  • Generally, certification exams are taken at the end of the training course, with the exception being Sage 200 Commercials Product Professiona.  Delegates are invited back to take a practical exam when they are confident and have gained some experience of Sage 200 Commercials.

 

 

Principles for Partners working with our Small Business (SBD) software and services:

The Accreditation Process

Accreditation for small business software is made up of three key modules:

  • A Sales Skills for Sage BP's sales and marketing course
  • Sage 50 Accounts annual exam
  • Sage 50 Payroll annual exam

In order to become accredited, a new Partner will need to take the one-day Sales Skills for Sage BPs course. Following this, software accreditation will be undertaken to ensure that Partners have the necessary knowledge to pro-actively support and advise their customers on our software and services.

Existing Partners must have previously taken the Sales Skills for Sage BPs course and must also sit each of the software accreditation exams annually. Partners can choose to attend the classroom course and sit the exam or to take the exam online.

SBD Accreditation Rules

Accreditation is split into two areas:

  • A Sales Skills for Sage BP's sales and marketing course
  • Two software-based exams - Sage 50 Accounts and Sage 50 Payroll

The Sales Skills for Sage BPs course (or equivalent) must be sat by a member of staff from each company in order to initially gain accreditation. However, there is no renewal period on this. Software Accreditation is annual and, as such, must be renewed by the Partner to maintain accreditation.

Any Partner without each of these three components is not entitled to accredited status.

Accredited status and margin will not be given to any Partner without all three of these components, or prior to completing each component.

Each component does not need to be held by the same member of staff.

Each component is separately certificated to the individual – software certification sat by an individual on behalf of the company allows the Partner to achieve fully accredited status.

The certification sits with the individual, should they leave, but remains valid for the original period of certification only. In this scenario Partners should certificate a different member of staff in order to maintain all three components of accreditation.

Margin will not be applied retrospectively.

Accredited Partners are able to renew software accreditation for a period of approximately 3 months following the release of a new version. If the software exam is taken within the specified period that the recertification exams are available, the accreditation validity will simply roll forward until the next release. Any Partner that does not complete the recertification by the recertification deadline will lose their accredited status (and margin) and will need to sit the full certification exams to regain accreditation.

Accreditation must be taken by an individual working for the company and not a consultant, independent accountant, etc. One way to ensure that this is the case is to ensure that the individual is on the company payroll. Any Partner found to be attempting to circumvent this stipulation would immediately lose accreditation status.

Any Partner who loses their accreditation has one year to renew it with the required software exams. If accreditation is lost for a longer period of time then the Partner must also resit the Sales Skills for Sage BPs course.