Operational entity is an individual (not an agent), enterprise, or organization that holds ownership of a business venture. It acts as a stakeholder in the regular business and takes care of the business operations. In a distribution system, usually product is sold to the customers through operational entities.
Operational entity can be a Branch Office, Dealer, Reseller, Last Mile Operator, Multi-system Operator, etc. Depending on the business requirement, an operational entity can perform the following functions:
Maintains Stock Point
Acts as a Collection Agent (for collecting receivables)
Books customers (on behalf of the service provider)
Sales hardware to customers
In order to establish smooth organizational process flow, hierarchies are maintained within the operational entities. Operational entity can be of the following two types:
Internal: Internal entities are internal units to the service provider and operate within a specific region. Internal entities are part of the company that acts as branch office. Internal entities are also responsible for making payments from hierarchy below. These are generally “employees” of the company who report to the service provider.
For example: Corporate Office, Head Office, Regional Office etc.
External: External entities are business partners/business associates/external agencies who are authorized to perform sales, payments, or other activities on behalf of the service provider.
For example: Dealer, Reseller, Franchisee, Sister/Associate Organization.
Following provisions are available in the system to configure operational entity:
Define operational entity type in Operational Entity Type screen (as each operational entity must belong to a particular entity type)
Define operational entity in Operational Entity screen
Revenue Settlement:
Service provider does settlement with the operational entity based on the sales done by self and hierarchy.
For example, Operational entity OPEntity1 sold 60 Gold packages to customers in a month. Service provider pays the settlement amount based on the agreement between them. Settlement agreement could be on the number of sales or sale amount.
Revenue settlement between a service provider and an operational entity is done through Revenue Settlement Rule Mapping screen.