Who Needs a CIECA License (Membership)
Any company that is sending or receiving data with a trading partner that uses the CIECA standards, (data dictionary, code lists, schemas, etc.) requires a CIECA license.
If you initiate a process, or receive information back into your system from a trading partner, and you are using CIECA Standards to do so, you need a CIECA license.
The CIECA license is included through membership in CIECA, which is a non-profit organization, owned by it's membership.
What if we use an external contractor?
The CIECA Membership / License needs to be in the name of the organization that is going to use and derive long-term benefit from the integration.
Member companies can request contractors working on their behalf to be Authorized Users, although the scope of that license is limited to the company that owns the membership. In other words, a contractor who is an Authorized User for a member company, cannot use CIECA Standards to build software / APIs for non-member companies.
Example: Company A hires a software contractor to build an integration with Company B. The CIECA Membership / License needs to be in the name of Company A, who will be the long-term beneficiary of that integration. The independent software contractor can be authorized to access CIECA Intellectual Properties to build the integration, however, the scope of those permissions is limited to that particular engagement.
