Peppol: Changing Service Provider

What to Consider When Changing Peppol Service Provider

Changing PEPPOL service provider does not necessarily require re-registering your company in the PEPPOL network, but it does require careful handling of your Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) records. A correct SMP migration ensures that trading partners can continue to discover your participant details and deliver documents without interruption.

In the PEPPOL network, participant discovery is handled through two key components: the Service Metadata Locator (SML) and the Service Metadata Publisher (SMP). The SML is a central registry operated on behalf of OpenPeppol that links each Participant ID (for example, 0088:123456789) to the SMP responsible for publishing that participant’s metadata. The SMP itself is where the operational details are stored, including supported document types, business processes, Access Point endpoints, certificates, and business card information used for directory visibility.

When you migrate to a new service provider, the Service Group associated with your Participant ID must be transferred to the new SMP in a controlled way. This article explains the concepts behind SMP migration, the different migration scenarios, and the practical steps involved. VATify includes a specific functionality for migration scenarios.

Participant IDs and business card data

Each PEPPOL participant is identified by a Participant ID, which consists of two parts:

• Identifier scheme – indicates the type of identifier used (for example, a national company number or VAT number)
• Identifier value – the actual company identifier

Example: 0088:123456789

• 0088 → identifier scheme
• 123456789 → identifier value

In addition to transactional metadata, the SMP also publishes business card information, such as company name, address details, Participant ID, and contact information. This information is used for visibility in the PEPPOL Directory and does not affect document routing.

What Changes During an SMP Migration

When changing PEPPOL service provider, the Participant ID itself does not change. Instead, the migration focuses on:

• Moving or updating the Service Group associated with the Participant ID
• Ensuring the SMP metadata points to the new Access Point endpoints
• Updating transport certificates provided by the new service provider
• Maintaining identical document types and process identifiers
• The goal is to ensure that trading partners experience no disruption and do not need to take any action.

Learn more about Marosa's e-invoicing and Peppol services.

VATify's Peppol e-invoicing solution

The SMP Migration Process

The migration of a Service Group from one SMP to another consists of several coordinated steps:

1. Migration initiation: The previous service provider must inform you about the migration code. Then, the migration is initiated by the receiving SMP (the new service provider).  At this stage, the SML must be informed about the upcoming migration.
2. Migration acknowledgement: The new SMP must acknowledge the migration by providing the same migration code (created by the original SMP) to the SML.
3. Migration completion: Once the migration is successfully completed, the Service Group must be deleted from the original SMP. Where possible, a temporary redirect to the new SMP is created to avoid disruption.
4. Retry if unsuccessful: If the migration is not successful, it can be retried at a later stage without impacting the Participant ID.

This process ensures continuity while maintaining the integrity of the PEPPOL network.

The previous service provider must provide you with a migration code

Common migration scenarios

Same SMP, new service provider

In many cases, the SMP itself does not change. Only the Access Point and certificates are updated. This is the simplest scenario and does not require any changes to the SML.

Typical actions include:

• Updating endpoint URLs to the new Access Point
• Replacing transport certificates
• Validating existing document and process identifiers

Changing both SMP and service provider

When both the SMP and service provider change, coordination with the SML is required. All Service Group data must be recreated in the new SMP before the SML is updated.

This scenario requires careful timing and thorough testing to avoid message delivery issues.

Testing and Go-Live

Before going live with the new service provider, it is essential to:

• Verify that the Participant ID resolves correctly via the SML
• Confirm that document types and processes are published correctly in the SMP
• Perform end-to-end message testing with the new Access Point

Only once successful testing has been completed should the old setup be decommissioned.