As we already know, B2B commerce takes place when companies try to buy products or services from a supplying company. As an example, we have been looking at the company Rustic, which is trying to buy products from the supplying company ACME.
In the past, Rustic’s employees have just logged into ACME’s B2B storefront and made their purchases based on spending limits, budgets, cost centers, quotes, and approval processes maintained in SAP Commerce Cloud.
But let’s assume that Rustic has invested in its infrastructure and is now running a procurement system like SAP Ariba. Now, Rustic can benefit from SAP Commerce Cloud’s PunchOut feature to access ACME’s products and services.
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What is PunchOut?
The term PunchOut refers to the process by which a buyer leaves their procurement system to access the supplier site. The system uses the shopping cart on the supplier site as a basis for creating a purchase requisition in its own procurement system, which is then sent for approval within the buyer's company. After the system approves the purchase, it sends the actual order back to the supplier site for processing.
Behind-the-scenes communication between the buyer’s procurement system and the PunchOut-Ready B2B site of the supplier handles the process seamlessly.
Buyers at Rustic no longer need to log in to ACME's website. Instead, they can access it directly through their procurement system. They are now able to search the supplier's catalog and save selected items as a requisition, which is a formal request, within Rustic's procurement system. After the requisition is approved internally by Rustic, the actual order is sent back to ACME, the supplier site, for fulfillment.
SAP Ariba Level 1 PunchOut Functionality
SAP Commerce Cloud supports PunchOut, which means that customer companies can punch out from their procurement systems into SAP Commerce Cloud’s B2B storefront. In our example, our customer company Rustic uses Ariba as its procurement system.
SAP Ariba Level 1 PunchOut allows buyers from a customer organization to search for items directly on a supplier's website through a link within SAP Ariba. This means a buyer can access the supplier's online store from within Ariba, browse and select items, put them in their cart, and then return these cart items to their Ariba requisition. The key characteristic is that the user is taken from their procurement system to the supplier’s site to begin their search.
A typical Level 1 PunchOut session for users of SAP Ariba may appear as follows:
Alejandro, the buyer from the customer side, starts a purchase requisition in his company system, Rustic. In our case, he chooses to view the catalog of ACME, a supplier that provides a PunchOut site. The desired shopping site loads in a web browser and automatically logs the buyer in. Essentially, the user has punched out of their procurement system and punched into the supplier's site.
Alejandro looks for items and chooses which ones to purchase. After he has finished adding items to the cart for purchase, he clicks the Checkout button to view their shopping cart. Instead of offering the option to start the checkout process, the site displays choices to Cancel Requisition and Return to Requisition.
Alejandro clicks Return to Requisition, and the cart content is passed from the supplier ACME to the procurement system Ariba.
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If the user clicks Cancel Requisition from the checkout page, the shopping session is abandoned, and the user will be returned to the procurement system with no items selected for purchase.Ariba comes back into Alejandro’s view, displaying the items he had selected on the supplier site.
He submits the purchase for approval in the procurement system. When Alejandro’s requisition is successfully approved, Ariba submits the actual purchase order requisition to the supplier.
Finally, the order is placed on the supplier side, ACME, for processing and fulfillment.
This workflow is illustrated in the following diagram:
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If Rustic is using a procurement system other than Ariba, SAP Commerce Cloud is ready for it, but further configuration may be necessary.
SAP Ariba Level 2 PunchOut Functionality
Let’s now assume the buyer’s procurement system would support Ariba Level 2 PunchOut functionality.
Compared to the previous example, SAP Ariba Level 2 PunchOut functionality allows users to search for and select items from several different supplier catalogs within the SAP Ariba interface, then punch out to a supplier's website for more detailed product information, configuration, and potentially to add the item to their cart and return to SAP Ariba. This provides a more integrated and efficient purchasing experience compared to Level 1 PunchOut, where users immediately go to the supplier's site.
Therefore, Level 2 enhances the accessibility of supplier products for customer organizations by eliminating the need to navigate to multiple supplier websites, which streamlines the procurement process and reduces time spent on purchasing.
A typical Level 2 PunchOut session for users of SAP Ariba may appear as follows:
Alejandro, the buyer from the customer side, starts a purchase requisition in his company's (Rustic’s) system.
Rustic’s procurement system is connected to several supplier B2B sites via SAP Ariba Level 2 PunchOut. In our case, Alejandro wants to buy from the catalog of ACME, a supplier that uses SAP Commerce Cloud to run a Powertools store.
Instead of loading ACME’s storefront in a browser, Rustic’s procurement system would show all relevant content from ACME for Alejandro.
He chooses one of ACME’s products and clicks Buy from Supplier.
Alejandro finally punches out of his procurement system and punches into the supplier store. ACME’s PunchOut site logs the user in automatically. It also displays the current price and more product details for the specific item.
The remaining steps are the same as those described in the section, SAP Ariba Level 1 PunchOut Functionality.
Summary
PunchOut Functionality: Allows buyers to access supplier sites directly from procurement systems to enhance purchasing efficiency. Involves browsing, selecting, requisition approval, and final order placement through seamless SAP Commerce Cloud integration. SAP Commerce Cloud supports various procurement systems, possibly requiring configuration beyond Ariba for optimal use.
SAP Ariba Level 1: Enables buyers to search for items directly on a supplier's website through a link within SAP Ariba. Then, selected items are transferred back to the buyer's procurement system for requisition approval.
SAP Ariba Level 2: Offers integrated product search across multiple supplier catalogs within Ariba, streamlining procurement and saving time.