Beyond hosted software, e2open sells people-based services: consulting engagements, training and certification, and managed services in which e2open staff operate the customer’s e2open applications. These are separate from the software subscription, carry their own terms, and are the places where non-refundable fees, personal licences and intellectual property assignment appear.
Suites and network as context
e2open organises its applications into suites. The Channel suite lists applications such as Collaborative Channel Planning, Rewards and Funds Management, Payment Services, Incentives and Rebates, Channel Data Management and Demand Signal Management.[1] The Global Trade suite lists Due Diligence Screening, Export Management, Import Management, Duty Management, Customs Filing and Global Knowledge.[2] The Logistics suite lists Transportation Management, Logistics as a Service, Ocean Bookings, Logistics Visibility, Global Logistics Orchestration, Global Parcel, Vehicle Routing and Scheduling and Empty Container Coordination.[3] The Supply suite lists applications including Purchase Order Collaboration, Supply Forecast Collaboration, Buy-Sell Management and Product Cost Management.[4] Planning is presented as Connected Planning with multi-enterprise visibility and scenario management.[5]
All of these connect through e2net, described as a scalable multi-enterprise cloud network in which “connect once and reuse” is a stated feature, with an integrated data model that all planning and execution applications use, and an SAP-certified adapter for S/4HANA and ECC.[6] e2open’s pages do not publish which applications, user counts or transaction volumes make up a given subscription; those are Order Form items under the Service Terms.[7] Where an Order Form lists applications by name, the suite pages are useful for matching marketing names to contract line items.
Global Knowledge content
Global Knowledge is described as e2open’s proprietary database of global trade regulations, including sanctions lists, tariff schedules, export controls, product classifications and country-specific rules across more than 230 countries and territories, maintained daily through an ISO 9001:2015 certified process.[8] It supplies content to the global trade applications for screening, classification, licensing and landed cost calculations.[8] For licensing purposes, content is distinct from software: under the INTTRA General Terms, Content such as restricted party lists and harmonised commodity codes is licensed only for the customer’s internal business use and may not be redistributed.[9] Customers of trade applications should confirm in their Order Form whether similar content restrictions apply, since the Service Terms treat Vendor Materials as licensed only for internal business purposes.[7]
Consulting and Training Terms and Conditions
The Consulting and Training Terms govern consulting services and courses ordered on a Statement of Work (SOW). Together the Terms and the SOW are “the Agreement”. Commencing consulting or enrolling in courses is conditional on accepting the Terms, and the sections on enrolment, materials and certifications apply only if the SOW includes courses.[10]
Enrolment and attendees
Enrolment is completed by both parties executing the SOW, which describes courses, agenda, duration, date, venue and Attendees. Unless e2open pre-approves otherwise in writing, all Attendees must be employees of the client, and Attendees may not be substituted or supplemented without e2open’s written consent. Enrolment only entitles the named Attendees to attend.[10] The unit of entitlement is therefore the named Attendee, recorded in the catalog as Attendee. A client that wants to send a contractor or swap a delegate needs written consent. e2open will make reasonable efforts to reschedule a course on written notice from the client, which may reschedule up to two times, after which it may not cancel that course.[10]
Licence to course materials
Materials are “licensed, and not sold”. Subject to payment of Training Fees, e2open grants Attendees a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable licence to use Materials solely in connection with the courses and for personal reference, training and education.[10] Attendees may not record courses or copy Materials, except manual personal notes; modify, rent, lease, loan, sublicense, sell or distribute Materials or courses; create derivative works; or share login information for webinars or online Materials.[10] Internal re-use of course content for training colleagues who did not attend is therefore outside the licence unless e2open agrees.
Certifications
Courses may include certification programmes, and the terms name the Certified Classification Specialist and Duty Drawback Specialist programmes. Attendees must score at least 75 percent on the exam. After a failed first attempt they have two months to retake up to two more times, each with an exam fee, and exam content is confidential: leaking it can make an attendee permanently ineligible and decertified.[10]
Certification is not permanent. Certified Attendees must complete Vendor courses to earn 15 continuing education credits every 12 months, or the certification expires.[10] An expired certification can be reinstated by meeting the requirements and paying a fee that rises with lateness: 20 US dollars if completed one week or less after the deadline, 45 US dollars within one month, 90 US dollars within two months, 145 US dollars within two years and 245 US dollars after two years or more.[10] Certification marks are licensed on a limited, personal, revocable basis, and must stop being used when the agreement ends or a certification expires.[10] The marks can be revoked for breach of the code of conduct, which requires compliance with import and export rules and with intellectual property and exam confidentiality protections.[10] The catalog records this under Certification programs (CCLS and DBS).
Fees, warranty and liability
Consulting and training fees are non-refundable, are in US dollars, exclude taxes, and must be paid before any consulting service or course. A returned check carries a 50 US dollar charge. e2open may offer promotional memberships with discounts, which are also non-refundable.[10] Services and Materials are provided “as is” without warranty, and e2open does not warrant that the content is up to date, that it will enable compliance with import and export law, qualification under a free trade agreement or admission to customs programmes, and the client assumes liability for its own tariff classification.[10] e2open’s total liability is capped at the consulting or training fees paid for the affected services in the 12 months before the claim, and indirect and consequential damages are excluded.[10]
Work Product
Under the proprietary rights clause, e2open and its licensors own the deliverables and materials, and the client may not use them to create a substantially similar product or service. The client agrees that all Work Product “shall be the exclusive property of Vendor” and assigns its rights, and e2open may license or incorporate Work Product into courses, materials, products or services for other clients without royalty.[10] A customer commissioning configuration, content or custom workflows under a consulting SOW should check the SOW for carve-outs, because the default is assignment to e2open.
Managed services
Three managed or analytics offers are described on e2open pages, none with public prices.
Logistics as a Service (LaaS) pairs the customer’s e2open transportation management system with a dedicated e2open team of logistics coordinators, managers, analysts and supply chain engineers, who manage transportation planning, execution and settlement. The page states that the customer keeps relationships and pricing agreements with its carriers.[11] The catalog records the offer as the program Logistics as a Service. Because it requires an e2open TMS, the TMS licence and the service are likely to appear as separate lines on the Order Form, though the public page does not say so.
Channel Managed Services provides e2open experts who manage partner data, including Channel Data Management Services, Partner Incentive Services (rebates, ship and debit, market development funds and co-op, with specialists who speak 11 major languages), Identification as a Service, Sales Data Advanced Integrity Analysis, Channel Consulting and Ecommerce Price Monitoring.[12] The page states that e2open staff process sensitive transactional data critical for revenue, sales and partner compensation, which brings the data protection and Statistics terms of the Service Terms into view.[12][7]
Carrier Reporting as a Service builds dashboards on a carrier’s e2open TMS data and network benchmarks, including bid activity analysis, performance and receivables dashboards, and requires the carrier to have e2open TMS data.[13]
Checklist
- Record named Attendees on each SOW and obtain written consent for substitutions.
- Diary each certified person’s 12-month continuing education cycle, since certification expires without 15 credits.
- Review the SOW for ownership of Work Product before commissioning custom content or configuration.
- For managed services, identify which Order Form or SOW line covers the people and which covers the underlying TMS, channel or trade application.
- Confirm content restrictions for Global Knowledge data in the Order Form.
Out of scope
The Consulting and Training Terms page shows no effective date, and e2open does not publish fees for consulting, courses or managed services. This article does not cover third-party implementation partners, the e2open Partner Portal or alliance arrangements.[10][12]