Accredited Partner – Accreditation Process

Organisations wishing to use SFIA to support the management of their staff may do so, obtaining the framework and an end-user licence free of charge from elsewhere on this web site. That licence does not cover commercial exploitation of SFIA, which is dealt with here.

SUMMARY

The SFIA Foundation is pleased for the Skills Framework for the Information Age to be used to support businesses active in the field of IT. This arrangement is formalised through the SFIA Accredited Partner scheme. Contact details of SFIA Accredited Partners are displayed on the SFIA web site.

The guiding principles are

• The Partner is genuinely using SFIA
• The Partner has at least two people who have become SFIA Accredited Consultants (this implies experience not only of IT, but of skills and capability management beyond that level acquired in the normal course of business by managers of IT staff).
• The Partner signs a licence permitting commercial exploitation.
• The Partner pays a fee or royalty to the SFIA Foundation.

If you would like to proceed with this, please read the information below and then contact us on ops@sfia.org.uk  We will be very pleased to hear from you.

DETAILS

USE OF SFIA
The Foundation will satisfy itself that the organisation is using genuine SFIA information in an appropriate manner ( i.e. the information has been correctly interpreted and represented, with proper acknowledgement of intellectual property rights).

It may be necessary for a representative of the SFIA Foundation to visit the intending Partner’s offices in order the check this out.

ACCREDITED CONSULTANTS
At least two staff should become SFIA Accredited Consultants. The steps for achieving Accredited Consultant status are described elsewhere on this web site.

LICENCES AND FEES
Two licences are available, depending on the style of use.

Distributing Partner licence
This deals with the situation where the Partner wishes to incorporate the SFIA information into a product or service offering and distribute it to clients. In these circumstances the SFIA Foundation will require a royalty relating to the value of the goods delivered (based on standard pricing). The licence will probably have to be worded to fit the particular situation.

Standard Partner licence
Most Partners have this type of licence. It covers the situation where the partner is using SFIA information to support the definition or delivery of a product or service, but is not actually delivering SFIA to the client. A royalty based on the value of the Partner’s sales would be inappropriate here, so the Standard Partner licence requires a licence fee of £1,000 per annum.

AFTER ACCREDITATION
Having become an Accredited Partner, an organisation can:

• display the SFIA Accredited Partner logo on literature describing conformant products or services
• have the organisation's logo, name and contact details displayed on this web site.