England’s largest school management information system provider SIMS is “radically” cutting prices and undercutting long-standing local authority partners in a fresh bid to stop schools ditching it.
Schools Week can also reveal that Education Software Solutions (ESS) suffered a write-down of £36 million on an abandoned version of SIMS – and how this contributed to controversial contract changes widely seen to have fuelled a record exodus of schools last year.
Experts and trust leaders said schools now had more choice of systems than ever. But they have also become “bystanders in a turf war” between suppliers, which is spilling into legal battles and sparking regulator intervention.
