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  • 1.  TMF 629 and TMF 632 - Customer vs. Consumer Intent?

    TM Forum Member
    Posted May 23, 2024 23:07

    Hello,

    We are currently looking to use TMF 629 and TMF 632 as a standards-based way to provide customer information into another system.

    Our systems currently have a mix of B2C and B2B customer information and we are looking to represent them as following.  

    • B2C entities are, TMF 632 Individuals playing the role of TMF 629 Consumers.
    • B2B entities are, TMF 632 Organisations playing the role of TMF 629 Customers.

    In looking at TMF 629 v5 spec, we have the following:

    PartyRole:

    ... 

    discriminator:

            propertyName: '@type'

            mapping:

              PartyRole: '#/components/schemas/PartyRole'

              Supplier: '#/components/schemas/Supplier'

              Producer: '#/components/schemas/Producer'

              Customer: '#/components/schemas/Customer'

              Consumer: '#/components/schemas/Consumer'

              BusinessPartner: '#/components/schemas/BusinessPartner'

    It is easy to infer the intent of Supplier and Producer.  

    The question we have is, are we correct in assuming that consumers are B2C and customers are B2B?



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    Bryn Langdown
    Aussie Broadband Limited
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  • 2.  RE: TMF 629 and TMF 632 - Customer vs. Consumer Intent?

    TM Forum Member
    Posted May 26, 2024 03:00

    Hi Bryn

    From a pure modeling perspective, there is no causal connection between market segment (B2C, B2B) on the one hand and the Party subtype (Individual or Organization) on the other hand. It's quite possible that you can have small or large organizations as Customer in the B2C world, although less common to have an individual as a customer in the B2B world.

    To be honest, I'm not familiar with the Consumer subclass of PartyRole, I think it was introduced as part of the zero-touch partnershp (ZTP) initiative, but I don't know what semantic meaning the designers gave to it.

    Hope it helps



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    Jonathan Goldberg
    Amdocs Management Limited
    Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer.
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: TMF 629 and TMF 632 - Customer vs. Consumer Intent?

    TM Forum Member
    Posted May 26, 2024 22:10

    Thanks Jonathan, 

    Yes, it did help, we were getting hung up on the use and definition of Consumer thinking it was a specific type of PartyRole that was defined for another type of customer. 

    We are going to use customer whether it be in a B2C or B2B PartyRole context.

    Regards Bryn



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    Bryn Langdown
    Aussie Broadband Limited
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: TMF 629 and TMF 632 - Customer vs. Consumer Intent?

    TM Forum Member
    Posted May 28, 2024 06:10

    Hi,

    The question we have is, are we correct in assuming that consumers are B2C and customers are B2B?

    I think GB922 - common (chapter: Party ABE) would be a great read.



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    Kind regards,

    Matthieu Hattab
    Lyse Platform
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    Original Message