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A Survey of Industry Data Models and Reference Data Libraries
12 Data models for trading
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12.1 Two parallel initiatives
There are two parallel initiatives:
- the Linux Foundation’s Cloud Information Model;
- Microsoft’s Common Data Model.
These data models have a much in common as follows:
- they have Internet trading as a major focus;
- they are largely “bottom up” specifying largely separate schemas for particular applications;
- they envisage implementation via JSON or related languages.
The relationships between these data models and other industrial data models are shown in Figure 12.1.
Figure 12.1. - Data models for trading and industrial data models
The digital twins for building and construction are discussed in section 11. The Smart Cities for Digital Twins ontology is discussed in section 14.
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12.2 Linux Foundation’s Cloud Information Model
https://cloudinformationmodel.org/
12.2.1 Defining organization
The Linux Foundation.
The Cloud Information Model working group has a steering committee which consists of Amazon Web Services, Google, Genesys, and Salesforce. Genesys and Salesforce are both specialists in “cloud” software.
12.2.2 Objectives and scope
The introduction to the Cloud Information Model says:
CIM is an application-agnostic data model produced by an open consortium that delivers a standards-based solution for connecting enterprise products.
The scope divided into domains, which are then further divided into subject areas. The domains of the model are the columns shown in Figure 12.2, and the boxes are subject areas.
Figure 12.2 – Scope of the Cloud Information Model
12.2.3 Structure of the model
Each subject area of the model has an entity-relationship “crows foot” diagram. A typical diagram is shown in Figure 12.3.
Figure 12.3 - Entity-relationship diagram for a sales order
In Figure 12.3, the white boxes are entities which are defined in other subject areas.
Equivalent to the diagram are serialisations in:
- JSON
- JSON-LD - (JSON for Linked Data)
- YAML
- RAML (RESTful API Modelling Language)
- SQL
- R2RML (RDB to RDF Mapping Language)
The data model does not have an overall top structure which distinguishes between physical things, activities, documents, etc..
12.2.4 Documentation
The documentation consists of clear entity-relationship diagrams, and the corresponding serialisation files. There are good text descriptions of the entities and relationships within the YAML files. All the serialisation files are downloadable from GitHub.
12.2.5 Maintenance and usage
The Cloud Information Model is under active development. The parts of the model most relevant to selling products over the Internet are already in place, and are likely to be in use by the steering committee members Amazon and Google.
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12.3 Microsoft’s Common Data Model
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/common-data-model/
12.3.1 Defining organization
Microsoft.
The Common Data Model has extensions for particular domains developed by “Industry Accelerator Forums”, however it is unclear who the participants in these forums are.
12.3.2 Objectives and scope
The introduction to the Common Data Model says:
Common Data Model simplifies this process by providing a shared data language for business and analytical applications to use. The Common Data Model metadata system makes it possible for data and its meaning to be shared across applications and business processes such as Microsoft PowerApps, Power BI, Dynamics 365, and Azure.
The subject areas within the Common Data Model is shown in Figure 12.4.
Figure 12.4 - Common Data Model subject areas
The Common Data Model website allows navigation to the entities shown for each subject area. The entity order within the sales subject area has attributes as follows:
name
description
createdOn
Date and time when the record was created.
createdBy
Shows who created the record.
modifiedOn
Date and time when the record was modified.
modifiedBy
Shows who last updated the record.
createdOnBehalfBy
Shows who created the record on behalf of another user.
modifiedOnBehalfBy
Shows who last updated the record on behalf of another user.
overriddenCreatedOn
Date and time that the record was migrated.
importSequenceNumber
Sequence number of the import that created this record.
ownerId
Owner Id
ownerIdType
The type of owner, either User or Team.
owningBusinessUnit
Unique identifier for the business unit that owns the record
owningUser
Unique identifier of the user that owns the activity.
owningTeam
Unique identifier for the team that owns the record.
timeZoneRuleVersionNumber
For internal use only.
UTCConversionTimeZoneCode
Time zone code that was in use when the record was created.
versionNumber
Version Number
salesOrderId
Unique identifier of the order.
emailAddress
The primary email address for the entity.
name
Type a descriptive name for the order.
processId
Contains the id of the process associated with the entity.
stageId
Contains the id of the stage where the entity is located.
traversedPath
A comma separated list of string values representing the unique identifiers of stages in a Business Process Flow Instance in the order that they occur.
billToAddressId
Unique identifier of the billing address.
billToCity
Type the city for the customer's billing address.
billToComposite
Shows the complete Bill To address.
billToContactName
Type the primary contact name at the customer's billing address.
billToCountry
Type the country or region for the customer's billing address.
billToFax
Type the fax number for the customer's billing address.
billToLine1
Type the first line of the customer's billing address.
billToLine2
Type the second line of the customer's billing address.
billToLine3
Type the third line of the billing address.
billToName
Type a name for the customer's billing address, such as "Headquarters" or "Field office", to identify the address.
billToPostalCode
Type the ZIP Code or postal code for the billing address.
billToStateOrProvince
Type the state or province for the billing address.
billToTelephone
Type the phone number for the customer's billing address.
customerId
The customer account or contact to provide a quick link to additional customer details, such as account information, activities, and opportunities.
customerIdType
The type of customer, either Account or Contact.
dateFulfilled
Enter the date that all or part of the order was shipped to the customer.
description
Type additional information to describe the order, such as the products or services offered or details about the customer's product preferences.
discountAmount
Type the discount amount for the order if the customer is eligible for special savings.
transactionCurrencyId
Choose the local currency for the record to make sure budgets are reported in the correct currency.
exchangeRate
Shows the conversion rate of the record's currency. The exchange rate is used to convert all money fields in the record from the local currency to the system's default currency.
discountAmountBase
Value of the Order Discount Amount in base currency.
discountPercentage
Type the discount rate that should be applied to the Detail Amount field to include additional savings for the customer in the order.
freightAmount
Type the cost of freight or shipping for the products included in the order for use in calculating the Total Amount field.
freightAmountBase
Value of the Freight Amount in base currency.
freightTermsCode
Select the freight terms to make sure shipping charges are processed correctly.
freightTermsCode_display
isPriceLocked
Select whether prices specified on the invoice are locked from any further updates.
lastBackofficeSubmit
Enter the date and time when the order was last submitted to an accounting or ERP system for processing.
opportunityId
Choose the related opportunity so that the data for the order and opportunity are linked for reporting and analytics.
orderNumber
Shows the order number for customer reference and to use in search. The number cannot be modified.
paymentTermsCode
Select the payment terms to indicate when the customer needs to pay the total amount.
paymentTermsCode_display
priceLevelId
Choose the price list associated with this record to make sure the products associated with the campaign are offered at the correct prices.
pricingErrorCode
Select the type of pricing error, such as a missing or invalid product, or missing quantity.
pricingErrorCode_display
priorityCode
Select the priority so that preferred customers or critical issues are handled quickly.
priorityCode_display
quoteId
Choose the related quote so that order data and quote data are linked for reporting and analytics.
requestDeliveryBy
Enter the delivery date requested by the customer for all products in the order.
shippingMethodCode
Select a shipping method for deliveries sent to this address.
shippingMethodCode_display
shipToAddressId
Unique identifier of the shipping address.
shipToCity
Type the city for the customer's shipping address.
shipToComposite
Shows the complete Ship To address.
shipToContactName
Type the primary contact name at the customer's shipping address.
shipToCountry
Type the country or region for the customer's shipping address.
shipToFax
Type the fax number for the customer's shipping address.
shipToFreightTermsCode
Select the freight terms to make sure shipping orders are processed correctly.
shipToFreightTermsCode_display
shipToLine1
Type the first line of the customer's shipping address.
shipToLine2
Type the second line of the customer's shipping address.
shipToLine3
Type the third line of the shipping address.
shipToName
Type a name for the customer's shipping address, such as "Headquarters" or "Field office", to identify the address.
shipToPostalCode
Type the ZIP Code or postal code for the shipping address.
shipToStateOrProvince
Type the state or province for the shipping address.
shipToTelephone
Type the phone number for the customer's shipping address.
stateCode
Shows whether the order is active, submitted, fulfilled, canceled, or invoiced. Only active orders can be edited.
stateCode_display
statusCode
Select the order's status.
statusCode_display
submitDate
Enter the date when the order was submitted to the fulfillment or shipping center.
submitStatus
Type the code for the submitted status in the fulfillment or shipping center system.
submitStatusDescription
Type additional details or notes about the order for the fulfillment or shipping center.
totalAmount
Shows the total amount due, calculated as the sum of the products, discounts, freight, and taxes for the order.
totalAmountBase
Value of the Total Amount in base currency.
totalAmountLessFreight
Shows the total product amount for the order, minus any discounts. This value is added to freight and tax amounts in the calculation for the total amount due for the order.
totalAmountLessFreightBase
Value of the Total Pre-Freight Amount in base currency.
totalDiscountAmount
Shows the total discount amount, based on the discount price and rate entered on the order.
totalDiscountAmountBase
Value of the Total Discount Amount in base currency.
totalLineItemAmount
Shows the sum of all existing and write-in products included on the order, based on the specified price list and quantities.
totalLineItemAmountBase
Value of the Total Detail Amount in base currency.
totalLineItemDiscountAmount
Shows the total of the Manual Discount amounts specified on all products included in the order. This value is reflected in the Detail Amount field on the order and is added to any discount amount or rate specified on the order.
totalLineItemDiscountAmountBase
Value of the Total Line Item Discount Amount in base currency.
totalTax
Shows the Tax amounts specified on all products included in the order, included in the Total Amount due calculation for the order.
totalTaxBase
Value of the Total Tax in base currency.
willCall
Select whether the products included in the order should be shipped to the specified address or held until the customer calls with further pick-up or delivery instructions.
onHoldTime
Shows the duration in minutes for which the order was on hold.
lastOnHoldTime
Contains the date time stamp of the last on hold time.
SLAId
Choose the service level agreement (SLA) that you want to apply to the sales order record.
SLAInvokedId
Last SLA that was applied to this sales order. This field is for internal use only.
entityImageId
accountId
Shows the parent account related to the record. This information is used to link the sales order to the account selected in the Customer field for reporting and analytics.
contactId
Shows the parent contact related to the record. This information is used to link the contract to the contact selected in the Customer field for reporting and analytics.
campaignId
Shows the campaign that the order was created from.
The corresponding JSON is downloadable from GitHub.
There is a lot of detail, but not a lot of structure. There do not appear to be any schema diagrams to give an overview.
12.3.3 Documentation
The documentation copious, but difficult to navigate and aimed principally at code writers. A web search shows that some schema diagrams have been produced by implementors.
12.3.4 Maintenance and usage
The Common Data Model is under active development. There are folders corresponding to the subject areas in Figure 12.4, with the most recent updates in December 2020.
The Common Data Model is used by Microsoft and its industrial partners.
