BP10 – Provider bills Consumer based on resource consumption
To help understand the content of this document, readers should familiarize themselves with the key definitions and actors.
Overview
This business process covers the billing related to the consumption of resources in Simpl-Open. The resource description published in the catalogue includes a billing schema which clarifies the billing process to the Consumer:
- Billing model: Provides information to the Consumer on how they will be billed;
- Billing unit: The measure based on which the Consumer will be billed if billing is pay-per-use (e.g. amount of MB transferred, amount of data transfers), or a fixed price for a billing model subscription or one-off;
- Billing schedule: Description of the billing trigger which can be time-based (e.g. monthly) or consumption based (e.g. Bill generated after consumption of 5 data transfers);
- Payment actions: Description of the actions the Provider can take in the case of non-compliance of the credit status of the usage contract (e.g. suspension of the usage contract in the case of non-compliance).
By signing the usage contract, both the Provider and Consumer formalise their commitment to the billing process. This applies for usage contracts either within the same data space or from a federated data space.
Billing process
During the consumption of the resource, the consumed billing units are measured in the case of pay-per-use billing.
The billing trigger is time-based (e.g. billing every month based on the consumption in the past month) or consumption based (e.g. billing after 5 data transfers).
When the bill is triggered, the following billing data will be made available to the Provider's billing system:
- Billing data generated as per the billing schema (e.g. billing model, billing unit, consumed billing units);
- Information about the Consumer and Provider;
- Reference to the usage contract.
The billing data that is made available to the Provider's billing system is stored in the Simpl-Open agent for auditing and traceability purposes. This data is also sent to the Simpl-Open agent of the Consumer where it is also stored for the same purposes.
Outside of the scope of Simpl-Open, invoices are generated based on the sent billing data and presented to the Consumer for payment.
Contract enforcement
Even though payment handling of invoices is outside of the scope of Simpl-Open, the Provider can (optionally) establish a connection with their billing system, so that they can track the credit status (All due invoices paid/not paid) of the usage contract.
In case of non-compliance of the credit status, both the Consumer and the Provider of the usage contract are notified, and any required actions described in the usage contract are taken, such as a suspension of the usage contract
These checks and follow up actions are covered in more detail in BP11 - Consumer and Provider manage a usage contract.
Outside scope Simpl-Open
Invoice generation, presentment and payment are outside the scope of Simpl-Open.
Actors
The following actors are involved:
- Provider
- Consumer
Assumptions
The following assumptions are made:
- Logging & monitoring: The information required to generate the billing data is available to the Provider;
- The Provider has an external billing system available for generating invoices and following up on payments.
Prerequisites
The following prerequisites must be fulfilled:
- Data space is configured: The Governance Authority has configured the data space catalogue with the corresponding vocabulary and schemas to have the general structure of a resource description, contract clauses, and other vital components (Business Process 2);
- Participant onboarded: Before the Participant can log & monitor its Simpl-Agent, they should have successfully completed the onboarding business process (Business Process 3A);
- Policies and contract related metadata are configured: The Provider has defined the contract clause billing schema, which clarifies the billing process to the Consumer. (Business Process 5B);
- Usage contract established for the resource. An active usage contract for the resource that covers the billing process following the consumption of the resource (Business Process 7);
- Logged data available: When a resource is consumed by the Consumer, consumption logs are captured and made available to both the Consumer and the Provider of the usage contract (Business Process 12B).
Details
The following shows the detailed business process diagram and gives the step descriptions.
Trigger billing
The time-based billing trigger or a consumption based billing trigger determines the moment when the bill data calculation is triggered.
BP10.01 Prepare and store billing data
The Provider prepares the following billing data at the moment determined by the billing schedule (Time-based or consumption-based):
- Billing data generated as per the billing schema;
- Information about the Consumer and Provider;
- Reference to the usage contract.
The Provider stores this billing data as a reference for auditability and traceability.
BP10.02 Make billing data available to Provider's billing system
The Provider makes the prepared billing data available to their billing system so that the invoice can be generated.
The generation of the invoice is outside of the scope of Simpl-Open.
BP10.03 Send billing data to Consumer
The Provider sends the prepared billing data to the Consumer.
BP10.04 Store Consumer's billing data
The Consumer stores the received billing data as a reference for auditability and traceability.
BP10.05 Contract enforcement (BP11)
The Provider regularly checks the credit status of the usage contract (All due invoices paid/not paid) (BP11.11) and takes follow-up actions in the case of non-compliance:
- Perform follow-up actions such as suspending the usage contract. The actions that can be taken in the case of non-compliance are stated in the usage contract (BP11.12).
- Send notification to the Consumer and Provider of the usage contract (BP11.13).
Outcomes
- Billing data is stored: Billing data is stored by the Provider and Consumer for auditability and traceability.
- Billing data is made available: The prepared billing data is made available to the billing system of the Provider, so that the invoice can be created and sent to the Consumer from there.
Usage contract enforced: The Consumer and Provider of the usage contract are notified and the follow-up actions for non-compliance defined in the usage contract are performed (e.g. suspension of the usage contract).
High Level Requirements
10.1 - A Provider manages the billing process of their usage contract
Simpl-Open shall support a Provider to manage ...10.2 - A Consumer keeps track of the billing data of their usage contract
Simpl-Open shall support a Consumer to keep ...
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