Multi-Context and Single-Context Sales Reports
Traditionally sales/usage reports were sent from one licensor to one licensee in respect of:
One territory;
Based on one commercial model;
One use type;
One service type (sometimes called a service tier); and
In one currency.
An example would be a sales/usage report for Luxembourg, relating to pay-as-you-go downloads from the licensee’s “premium service”, with the accounting made in Euros. Such reports are referred to as Single-Context Sales Reports.
When a multi-national licensee is reporting sales/usage to a multi-national licensor in a Single-Context Sales Reports, they will need to send multiple reports, for example, one for each territory represented by the licensor. This leads to a significant duplication of data. Instead, licensee and licensor can agree to combine these different territorial reports into a single Multi-Context Sales Report.
The same principle applies for licensees wishing to report, for example, multiple service tiers in a single sales/usage report.