CX-0011 Issuing Agency v1.0.1
ABSTRACT
The issuing agency is a technical mechanism that centrally creates and assigns business partner numbers (BPNs) for a data set of a business partner. The issuing agency is specified in the prefix of the BPN according to ISO/IEC 15459. It ensures that a data set maps to a unique identifier and contributes to the sharing process of business partner data.
1. Introduction
1.1 Audience & Scope
This section is non-normative
This standard is relevant for:
- Core Service Provider
This document is focusing on the issuing agency component that is part of the business partner data management (BPDM) use case described on the BPDM Catena-X Website. It is relevant when the creation of business partner numbers for the data sharing process and golden record process to ensure the highest data quality is needed. It is also relevant to get an understanding on how the mechanism works to build and maintain the issuing agency as a core service component.
Not in scope is the logic of the business partner number itself. There is a separate standard for this: Business Partner Number Standard.
This is not relevant for consuming data sets or BPNS for another service or application in the Catena-X network.
This is not relevant for sharing data or sharing member to hand over data into the golden record process to improve the data quality of business partner data.
1.2 Context
This section is non-normative
In general, the issuing agency is important for business partner data management in Catena-X because it is responsible for creating the unique identifier that identifies a legal entity in the network. By having a centralized and responsible agency in charge of business partner data management, Catena-X and its network participants can improve the quality and reliability of its data and support its goals of operational efficiency and higher data quality.
The issuing agency is part of the whole sharing / golden record process and will not work outstanding on its own. It is one component that is mandatory to make the use case work.
1.3 Architecture Overview
This section is non-normative
This runtime view illustrates on a high level how the data sharing mechanism between a sharing member, a SaaS component, including the BPN issuing by the BPN Generator works.
An actor can be any sharing member (company) that shares data with Catena-X. The new business partner data object is transferred from the enterprise layer of the sharing member to the Catena-X gate, this gate interacts with the API of the SaaS component. The SaaS component fetches information about their synchronization process and receives the new data objects in response. The issuing agency that is in focus of this standard creates a BPN and the data objects are changed accordingly. The SaaS adapter polls the changed data and mirrors it back to the sharing member via the SaaS component.
With the initial process of sharing data, the sharing member receives an optimized business partner data object with a business partner number. After the first sharing of the data the data gets updated automatically with the same BPN.
Figure 1: Process data sharing
1.4 Conformance
As well as sections marked as non-normative, all authoring guidelines, diagrams, examples, and notes in this specification are non-normative. Everything else in this specification is normative.
The key words MAY, MUST, MUST NOT, OPTIONAL, RECOMMENDED, REQUIRED, SHOULD and SHOULD NOT in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.
1.5 Proof of conformity
This section is non-normative
All participants and their solutions will need to proof, that they are conform with the Catena-X standards. To validate that the standards are applied correctly, Catena-X employs Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs).
To proof conformity of the issuing agency usage for the business partner data management usage an operations concept must be available. The issuing agency must be aligned with the relevant components to create a unique identifier called BPN. In addition to that, created numbers must follow the business partner number standard.
Another valid point to proof the conformity is to show a license that was handed out by the Catena-X e.V.
1.6 Examples
Company A transfers a new business partner data object of a legal entity from their internal master data management system into the sharing process to improve the data quality of this data object (e.g. get the address of this business partner) and to get the BPNL for this data object back into their internal system for the usage of other use cases where they need the BPN (e.g. demand and capacity management to identify supplier of parts in the network).
1.7 Terminology
This section is non-normative
BPDM: Business Partner Data Management is the domain and use case inside Catena-X. This domain is responsible for the logic of the business partner number, the creation of the number, the sharing process of business partner data, the technological realization and other services that are built up on this component.
BPN: Business partner number is the unique identifier for companies.
BPNL Is the business partner number of a legal entity.
BPNS Is the business partner number for a site of the legal entity.
BPNA Is the business partner number for the address of a site or a legal entity.
Sharing Member: Sharing members is every company that shares their existing data objects of their business partners into the sharing process.
Sharing Process: Sharing process is the process that enables the sharing member to share their data and to proceed the data to get the data linked, harmonized. In this process the BPN will be attached to the data and the golden record is created.
Golden Record: Is the concept of high-quality business partner data.
SaaS: Means software as a service. In this context the SaaS component is part of the sharing process to create the golden records and takes care that duplicates are removed, the linkage and harmonization of the data.
BPDM Gate It´s an API that can be used to put data to the sharing process and to get the relevant data back from the process.
BPN Generator: This is another wording for the issuing agency.
Additional terminology used in this standard can be looked up in the glossary on the association homepage.
2. Issuing
In Catena-X the BPN is the unique identifier for business partners and MUST be issued by a central component that has the license by the Catena-X e.V. to issue business partner numbers.
The issuing agency MUST create BPNs for legal entities (BPNL), sites (BPNS) and addresses (BPNA). And each BPN that will be created MUST be unique and MUST follow the logic of the business partner number standard.
A location MUST always have at least one address with a corresponding BPN. If this is not the case, no number will be created and data set will be rejected by the BPDM Generator. Further additional address MAY be added.
The prefix of the BPN MUST follow to ISO/IEC 15459.
The issuing agency SHOULD be able to receive data sets and to poll them back.
3. References
3.1 Normative References
- CX - 0010 Business Partner Number (BPN)
- ISO/IEC 15459
3.2 Non-Normative References
This section is non-normative
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