We are extremely surprised at this sudden announcement by the CMA, which overlooks the fact that there are legitimate methods of migrating data from SIMS to the systems provided by our competitors. Guidance on these methods has long been available and we have made multiple communications to competitors, customers (and their support providers) explaining this.
That some competitors have chosen to ignore these methods and have instead created a “workaround” that accesses our core code, is the only abuse in this situation.
It simply cannot be correct that the only way to sustain a competitive market is for one organisation to be forced to allow its competitors open access to its core intellectual property, which it has invested large amounts of time and money in developing.
Notes
The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) communicated on 14 May 2024 that it will commence an investigation into the actions of Education Software Solutions Limited (“ESS”) and ParentPay (Holdings) Limited (“PPH”). The CMA allege an abuse of a dominant position in the school MIS market, which they believe may have limited competition within the UK.
ESS and PPH completely reject the allegations which will be robustly defended.