System and method for matching revenue streams in a cloud service broker platform

Abstract

Many software vendors offer their software via online service platforms. In one embodiment of a software services distribution system, a cloud services broker is used. A cloud services broker is an organization that acts as an intermediary between subscribers/end users and SaaS vendors. Billing in a cloud services broker system is managed through the cloud services broker because the cloud services broker is the only entity capable of managing the many relationships in such a software distribution system. However, revenue matching and settlement may be problematic. For example, the complexities of billing in a cloud broker system arise because of the intermingling of the types of SaaS vendors, the influence of resellers, and the various billing schemes offered by each of these entities. Implementing such a billing scheme must account for the variations in billing rules and billing schemes from the entities throughout the hierarchy (i.e. SaaS vendors, resellers, sub-resellers, etc.). Furthermore, there may be a disparity between billing rules from upstream entities (e.g. SaaS vendors) and downstream entities (e.g. resellers), whereby billing imposed on subscriber end users based on one particular entity billing scheme is inappropriate. The present disclosure relates to an improved system and method for matching revenue streams in a cloud service broker platform.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.