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Record B2B SaaS subscriber tenancy and Stripe billing source notes. Resolve the Customer Account open question: reject it as canonical, add Commercial Record and Commercial Relationship to the Record and relationship layers, and document Subscriber as a convenience term only.
102 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
102 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
# B2B SaaS Subscriber and Organization Tenancy
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## Source Type
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Product documentation and industry practice synthesis. Auth0 Organizations and
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B2B SaaS multi-tenancy guidance; Stytch B2B Auth School org-tenancy model.
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## Domain
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B2B SaaS identity, organization tenancy, subscriber administration, and
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vendor/customer delineation in IAM products.
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## Why This Source Matters
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IAM vendors explicitly separate the subscribing party (customer/subscriber) from
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login accounts and from billing records. This source clarifies why "customer
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account" overloads identity, commercial, and access semantics.
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## Key Concepts
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- **Subscriber**: Auth0-preferred term for the immediate B2B customer — the
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party that holds a provisioned tenant and subscription.
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- **Vendor**: provider of the B2B SaaS application (platform operator).
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- **Organization tenancy**: architecture where organizations are first-class
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entities; members are scoped to their organization.
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- **Member**: end user with membership in an organization (Stytch); distinct
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from platform-wide user identity.
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- **Tenant / tenancy holder**: operational partition occupied by a subscriber.
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- **Org discovery**: determining which organization a user authenticates into.
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- **Membership control**: granting/revoking which users may access a subscriber's
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tenant.
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- **Identity isolation**: per-subscriber credential and IdP configuration vs.
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platform-wide user population.
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- **B2B2C / B2B2B variants**: additional "customer" and "consumer" layers below
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the subscribing organization.
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## Relevant Terminology
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| Term | Source meaning |
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| --- | --- |
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| Subscriber | B2B customer occupying a tenant; Auth0 avoids "customer" label. |
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| Vendor | SaaS platform provider. |
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| Organization | First-class customer entity; "the organization is the customer" (Stytch). |
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| Member | Employee or invited user within an organization. |
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| Tenant | Isolation boundary for subscriber data, branding, and config. |
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| Customer (informal) | Often used interchangeably with subscriber or organization. |
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| User | Login identity; may belong to multiple organizations. |
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| Consumer | End user in B2B2C scenarios below the subscriber org. |
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## Modeling Assumptions
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- **The subscribing company is modeled as an organization**, not as a user
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account or billing record.
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- **One human can be a member of multiple subscriber organizations** (contractors,
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agencies).
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- **Platform stores users globally**; membership scopes them to subscriber orgs.
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- **Billing is subscription-based** but handled outside core IAM in most products.
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- **Vendor administration** may cross tenant boundaries with subscriber consent;
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subscriber administration does not.
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- **No IAM product defines "Customer Account"** as a separate entity type.
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## Identity-Canon Implications
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- **Subscriber** maps to **Organization** actor in **Customer Relationship**
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with vendor + **Tenant** Scope — not a canonical noun.
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- **Member** maps to **Account** + **Membership Relationship** to Organization.
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- **Vendor** maps to **Vendor Relationship** role on vendor Organization actor.
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- Supports S04, S05 without Customer Account concept.
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- Individual (B2C-style) subscriber maps to **Natural Person** + **Tenant**
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Scope, still without Customer Account.
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## Terminology Conflicts
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- **Customer vs. Subscriber vs. Organization**: three labels for overlapping B2B
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party; IAM prefers organization or subscriber.
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- **Customer vs. Consumer**: B2B2C uses both; subscriber org vs. end consumer.
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- **Tenant vs. Organization**: Stytch equates customer to organization; tenant
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is the isolation fabric they occupy.
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- **Account**: must not be used for subscriber org or billing party.
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## Candidate Canonical Mappings
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| B2B SaaS IAM concept | Candidate canonical concept |
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| --- | --- |
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| Subscriber | Organization + Customer Relationship role |
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| Organization (tenant holder) | Organization + Tenant Scope |
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| Member | Account + Membership Relationship |
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| Vendor (platform) | Organization + Vendor Relationship role |
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| Tenant | Tenant (Scope) |
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| User (login) | Account |
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| Consumer (B2B2C) | Natural Person or Account (context-dependent) |
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## Open Questions
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- None blocking Customer Account resolution. Commercial billing layer documented
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separately in `stripe-customer-billing.md`.
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## References
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- Auth0: Demystifying Multi-Tenancy in B2B SaaS — https://auth0.com/blog/demystifying-multi-tenancy-in-b2b-saas/
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- Auth0 Organizations — https://auth0.com/docs/manage-users/organizations
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- Stytch: Organization tenancy — https://stytch.com/blog/organization-tenancy/ |