Glossary

Term	Description
Product	A service, a physical item, or an accounting item that has its own identifier and must be considered separately.
Plan	A collection of products that defines billing parameters for distribution.
Product line	A group of products from one vendor with the same fulfillment parameters.
MPN	A Manufacturer Part Number provided by a vendor.
Fulfillment / Order fulfillment	The process of actual creation or providing of a product to a customer, which is initiated by placing an order and finishes with product delivery. For a subscription business, fulfillment may include creation of a new tenant for a customer, generation of a set of credentials, allocation of data storage, and so on. The list of actions depends on the product vendor.
Fulfillment parameter	Additional information that is required for subscription creation or using a product. The additional information for subscription creation is requested from a customer or reseller and used by a vendor. The additional information for using a product is provided by a vendor and used by a customer.
Fulfillment system	A system that automates actions required to create a subscription. For the majority of products, CloudBlue Commerce requires integration with external fulfillment systems. For example, with CloudBlue Connect. When there is no fulfillment system for a product, or integration with a fulfillment system is technically impossible, CloudBlue Commerce may act as a fulfillment system for such products.
Portfolio / Product catalog	A set of products and plans configured in CloudBlue Commerce.
Operating unit	A reseller account that represents a division of a company. A company account is configured as the upper-level account in CloudBlue Commerce. Usually, operating units are configured for providers. However, each participant of a distribution chain (a provider or regular reseller) may have operating units.

Product

A service, a physical item, or an accounting item that has its own identifier and must be considered separately.

Plan

A collection of products that defines billing parameters for distribution.

Product line

A group of products from one vendor with the same fulfillment parameters.

MPN

A Manufacturer Part Number provided by a vendor.

Fulfillment / Order fulfillment

The process of actual creation or providing of a product to a customer, which is initiated by placing an order and finishes with product delivery. For a subscription business, fulfillment may include creation of a new tenant for a customer, generation of a set of credentials, allocation of data storage, and so on. The list of actions depends on the product vendor.

Fulfillment parameter

Additional information that is required for subscription creation or using a product. The additional information for subscription creation is requested from a customer or reseller and used by a vendor. The additional information for using a product is provided by a vendor and used by a customer.

Fulfillment system

A system that automates actions required to create a subscription. For the majority of products, CloudBlue Commerce requires integration with external fulfillment systems. For example, with CloudBlue Connect.

When there is no fulfillment system for a product, or integration with a fulfillment system is technically impossible, CloudBlue Commerce may act as a fulfillment system for such products.

Portfolio / Product catalog

A set of products and plans configured in CloudBlue Commerce.

Operating unit

A reseller account that represents a division of a company. A company account is configured as the upper-level account in CloudBlue Commerce. Usually, operating units are configured for providers. However, each participant of a distribution chain (a provider or regular reseller) may have operating units.