Guide: Enterprise Resource Planning
➡️ To the ERP-API.
The bwCloud-OS provides an ERP with a RESTful API that allows our customers to overview and manage the accounting data and resources of their members. Mainly, this means to manage entitlements and eligibilities.
Motivation
The bwCloud-OS negotiated only contracts with institutions (customers) but not with individual members (users). This is a crucial difference compared to other known cloud providers. Further, there are several different types of sponsors (e.g., faculties, research projects) located at the institutes that need to be enhanced to manage the resources of sub-groups of their members (e.g., students of a faculty).
Access Control
For registration to the bwCloud-OS several Condition of use need to be fulfilled. By rolling out the access entitlement home organizations can manage by themselves who is allowed to access the bwCloud-OS.
Automated resource provisioning
Registration is streamlined through entitlements:
- Entitlements are automatically evaluated during registration.
- Users receive immediate access and resources (project quota) once their entitlement is confirmed. No manual activation is required.
Charging
All consumptions within the bwCloud-OS, within projects, are charged. Hence, for each project, a customer is required, which differs from the user or owner.
Charging will be based on the projects booking units (BEH) and will be addressed to the project owner's home organization.
Delegating resposibility
The institutes can define an internal process so their members can set entitlements in the home IdP.
Reimbursement
Entitlements also help define who is financially responsible for producing BEH.
- Defining cost centers to separate costs into different cost positions, allowing institutions to reimburse the costs internally.
- bwCloud-OS will generate aggregated usage reports and invoices per institution—no individual billing.
Budget
Sometimes resources should only be consumed up to a certain level or amount of time.
- Constraints can be used to manage the valid period for eligibility.
- After reaching an eligibility constraint, no more costs can be produced within the associated project.
Central eligibility platform
The gimmic with the eligibility enhances (later) the bwCloud-OS local support to manage quota privileges within the bwCloud-OS environment. Such a central service could simplify local processes within the customers.
Contract relationship bwCloud-OS
The contract is closed between the bwCloud-OS and the institutes (customers), as illustrated in the picture. Due to this, one bill will be sent to the customer, including all generated costs from members/ projects related to this institute. Therefore, it is possible that an additional organizational or technical process within each institution may be necessary to manage the accounting relationship between the institution and its members.
