Glossary

Second uses e-commerce concepts applied to services. The Glossary provides a definition to these concepts

A-D / E-K / L-O / P-S / T-Z

A-D

Name	Definition
Attributes	Attributes are additional information provided for each listing or user. They can be linked to different categories and are dynamically displayed according to the selected category of the listing or user. Attributes must be in attribute groups or user attribute groups, which assemble attributes by themes to facilitate their understanding and improve their visibility. Attributes have no hierarchy and can be deleted easily even if they are linked to listings or users because they are additional information.
Back-office	The backoffice is an interface destined to be used by super-administrators and operators. The purpose of the interface is to enable the supervision of users, offers, transactions, messages, and more generally all actions carried out by users on the platform. The backoffice also offers tools to configure the platform.
Booking	A booking is a Customer initiated request for a commoditized service from a Vendor. Bookings are initiated through Listings. Although often involving a payment, bookings are also available for non-transactional marketplaces. Furthermore, some bookings may concern a free service (such as a demo).
Customer	The Customer is the user type that manifests interest in purchasing or booking a service from a vendor. Interest in purchasing a service can be as concrete as paying for a service on the platform, but may also be more informal such as engaging in a discussion with a vendor (while never concluding in a purchase). Several factors may create ambiguities: Customers are not required to pay on the platform to be a customer. These users are considered customers because of their intent, not because of the outcome (eg. a payment). To avoid ambiguity, end-users that pay commissions to the platform are not labelled “customers”, as they may be Vendors on which a commission is applied.
Categories	Categories are used to broadly group the listings of a platform. They are used to determine the search criteria for listings and are linked to attributes and attribute groups. Categories can be created and managed by authorized administrators.

E-K

Name	Definition
End-user	An End-user is a third-party user that accesses the platform and its services through public facing interfaces. End Users can be either Vendors, Customers, or both at the same time. Disambiguation: An operator is not considered an End-user as he is the party offering the platform services, not the beneficiary of the platform services (both customers and vendors benefit of the platform services).

L-O

Name	Definition
Listing	A listing acts as a storefront that contains and displays each vendors' services. Each Vendor may create ”n” Listings, each Listing containing “n” services. Listings are created by Vendors, they are the entity that is searched by Customers when they seek to book a (commoditized) service.
Operator	The Operator acts as an administrator and/or supervisor on the platform. Among the Operator’s responsibilities are the act of moderating vendors and their offers, to offer support to customers, and to supervise transactions. Operators may be broken down into subgroups with different roles and permissions for each group.

P-S

Name	Definition
Payin	A Payin is a Customer payment to the benefit of a Vendor, which is sequestered by the platform on a wallet.
Payout	A Payout is a movement of funds from the wallet containing the sequestered funds towards and to the benefit of the Vendor.
PSP	Payment Service provider
Review	A Review is an assessment made by a Customer regarding a Vendor, or by a Vendor regarding a Customer. On Second, reviews can only be be given once a transaction is complete (irrespective of whether a payment exists or not). Reviews are expressed by way of a star ranking (1 to 5 stars) and an associated comment.
RFX	A RFX is the entity that contains and displays a Customer request. RFXs are created by Customers, and are the entity that is searched by Vendors when they seek to bid for Customer requests. The acronym RFX refers to an uncommoditized service request initiated by 1 customer to “n” vendors. Customers do not know in advance which vendors will respond to their requests. RFX refers collectively to a RFI, a RFQ, or a RFP. What is an RFI? The acronym RFI stands for request for information. A request for information is a questionnaire used to ask vendors about their products and services. Often, RFIs gather general information, market details and solution ideas for planning purposes. What is an RFP? RFP is the acronym for request for proposal. A request for proposal is a detailed questionnaire used by buyers to collect decision-critical information from potential vendors. The RFP is one of the most commonly used tools for evaluating vendors and documenting selection justification. What is an RFQ? RFQ is an acronym that stands for request for quote or quotation. A request for quotation is a document that details a buyer’s needs and asks vendors to respond with a detailed pricing proposal. Generally, a buyer issues an RFQ when looking for the lowest possible price.
Super-administrator	The “Super-administrator” refers to a specific user role. The Super-administrator has the highest elevation of permissions available in the application and therefore carries a broad set of roles and responsibilities to create permission schemes, invite operators, and potentially supervise users and transactions. This user is particular as it is the only required account of the application.

T-Z

Name	Definition
Translation key	A Translation key is string of text which is used to indicate where a text should appear on the frontend interface. Translation keys are replaced on the fly by corresponding texts in each language available on the platform. As a result, multiple translations of a same text all refer to the same Translation key. Example: the menu “Bookings” in the vendor dashboard uses the following key: nav.dashboard.bookings.link. They Translation key is replaced with the term “Bookings” in English and “Réservations” in French.
UID	Unique identifier. Second user non-sequential and randomized UIDs except for invoice UIDs. UIDs are displayed for user entities, listings, bookings, payments… They enable the unique identification of each item.
Vendor	The Vendor is the user type that manifests interest in selling a service to a Customer. Interest in selling a service can be as concrete as offering a commoditized service for sale directly on the platform, but may also be more informal such as posting a vendor profile on the platform without any specific service offerings. Several factors may create ambiguities: Vendors are not required to accept a payment on the platform to be a vendor. These users are considered vendors because of the intent they have on the platform, not because they complete a sale. A Vendor that pays a commission to the platform becomes the “customer” of the platform, however the term “Patron” is used to designate end-users that have paid a commission.