Partnerships · Founding Vendors

Founding Vendor Benefits.

Becoming a Founding Vendor is more than a licence to align a product to the standard. It is a seat at the table while the Capability Economy is still being built — and a chance to shape the rails the rest of the sector will run on.

Become a Founding Vendor See fees

01 Why a Founding Vendor relationship matters

Foundational positioning while the standard is still being built.

MortarCAPS is the independent, not-for-profit steward of MCDS. We govern the standard, convene the sector, and publish releases; we don't sell software and we don't represent any single vendor. That neutrality is precisely what makes a Founding Vendor relationship valuable — and what backs the dedicated benefits package below.

02 What Founding Vendors get

Five distinct benefits.

01

A Vendor Working Group, on a cadence you help set

Founding Vendors convene as a dedicated working group, with meeting frequency and focus shaped by the vendors themselves rather than imposed. This sits alongside our existing mainline and sub-working group structure and gives vendors a formal, documented forum to raise implementation realities, surface integration concerns, and feed directly into the design conversation.
02

Real influence over the standard

Through a vendor sub-working group, Founding Vendors can advocate for topics on the roadmap, weigh in during public draft windows before each release ships, and ensure the schema reflects what's actually buildable in production. Influence is structured and transparent — Terms of Reference are public, and contributions are on the record.
03

Joint go-to-market

We back our Founding Vendors publicly. That includes MortarCAPS speaking at joint events, co-hosting workshops, and partnering on sector-facing activity that positions aligned vendors in front of every MCDS-engaged institution across our community of 150-plus institutions in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
04

Co-branded profile and storytelling

Founding Vendors feature in coordinated PR, LinkedIn, and blog activity — partnership announcements, case studies, and thought-leadership pieces that signal early commitment to a sector-owned standard, alongside the right to use the MCDS Logo as proof of alignment.
05

Worldwide territory and a route to market

As with all aligned vendors, Founding Vendors operate under worldwide territory and gain a direct route to MCDS-aligned institutions — but as foundational partners, they do so with first-mover visibility and a documented role in how the standard evolves.

Founding Vendors don't just adopt MCDS — they help define it, and we tell that story with them.

03 The commercial details

The Founding Vendor commitment.

Founding Vendor status sits on top of the standard Vendor Licence. The full Vendor Licence tier table and the one-off Founding Vendor fee are on the Fees & Membership page.

Fees