The DPS allows you to offer digital services that your users can subscribe to in order to access value-added features for their products.
Digital services are not just for your customers, but can also be offered to your channel partners (resellers, technical support centers, etc.).
These main concepts are referring to the new subsction management feature, which replace the old one based on Service Levels.
Here are the main concepts involved in subscription management:
Subscriber: The entity that is paying for the Subscription (Customer or Partner).
A Customer or Partner can have only one Subscription active at a time. The Subscription is always paid to the root Organization.Provider: The entity that collects the subscription income and provides the Digital Services.
Subscription: The set of services (plans, add-ons) that have been activated on products/machines.
It defines the billing cycle (1 year), the renewal date, the total cost, and the payment method.
It acts as the container for all plans and add-ons the customer has activated over time.Digital Services: The definition of Plans, Add-ons, Availabilities, and Pricings that a Customer or a Partner can subscribe.
Plan: A base service tier that determines the core set of features available to the customer's machines (e.g., Base or Premium).
A plan is applied at the thing level and defines the features available on the product/machine.
Only one Plan at a time can be activated for a product/machine or customer (according to the selected Subscription Mode).
There is always a default plan named Base, which is free of charge.Add-on: An optional, paid extension that can be activated on top of a plan.
Add-ons provide specialized capabilities beyond the plans (e.g., Aided Production, AI Assistant) and can be priced.
Multiple add-ons can be activated for a product/machine or customer (according to the selected Subscription Mode).Feature: A specific functional capability made available within a plan or add-on.
Features are what the customer actually uses day-to-day (e.g., real-time alerts, remote monitoring, AI-driven insights).
Plans and add-ons are essentially bundles of features.Availability and Pricing Model: The availability and cost structure associated with plans and add-ons.
A plan or add-on can be made available only to a specific Product Model or Segment.
Pricing can vary based on the product model and Segment.Segment: A grouping or classification of machines (or customers) used to make plans/add-ons available, or redefine the default pricing.
Segments allow the platform to differentiate offerings based on deployment country. At the moment, a segment can reference multiple countries.
Everything that is not inside any segment is automatically applied to the default segment, which defines availability and pricing per model.Subscription Mode: Define how the digital services (Plans and Add-ons) are configured
By Thing: Each product/machine can have its own plan and add-ons (e.g., Machine-1: Premium + Performance Advisory, Machine-2: Base + Performance Advisory).
Flat: All the products/machines under the customer or managed by a partner are associated with the same selected plan and add-ons.
Trial: It is a time-limited period (e.g., one month) during which Subscribers can try all available features without paying immediately.
Subscription Fee: The recurring amount the customer or partner will pay yearly to the OEM to keep using the included Features.
Payment: The amount paid by the Subscriber from time to time. For instance, each time the Subscription is upgraded or renewed.
Payment Method: It defines how a Subscriber pays for a Subscription (upgrade or renewal).
It is possible to leverage one of the integrated payment gateways (e.g., Stripe), or manage payment externally, and in this case, it is up to the OEM's back office to verify and update the payment status.
A subscription has a default Payment Method, which will be used for recurring fee collection.
This schema reports how the various subscription elements are interconnected.
In the DPS, the Subscription management involves different users (the Subscriber and the Provider), each one with their dedicated view:
For more details on how to configure the Digital Services, you can refer to the Digital Services Configuration article.