Working with PunchOut Catalogs

"We are working with a supplier who has a well established web shop. Our buyers are used to purchasing directly from the website. Right now we are trying to perform all purchasing via SAP Ariba. What we would like is for our employees to continue shopping on the website of the supplier, while we track the spend in the SAP Ariba procurement application."

"What you need is to use a PunchOut catalog setup. PunchOut catalogs (cXML) are live, interactive catalogs that are hosted on the supplier’s website instead of being uploaded to SAP Ariba Procurement solutions.

In the Catalog UI, your buyers will see a link to a supplier’s external website. Users click a "Buy from Supplier" button, and punch out of the Catalog interface to the Home Page of the supplier’s site."

• The Catalog interface shows a link to a supplier’s external website. Users click a Buy from Supplier button, and punch out of the Catalog interface, to the home page of the supplier’s site.
• The user searches the supplier’s site for items, adds the items to the shopping cart, and returns to the SAP Ariba application.
• The supplier uploads typically a single-line, comma-separated, static index file to the SAP Business Network.
• Catalogs are maintained by suppliers on their website.
• Level 1 PunchOut allows:
  • Dynamic quotes— User can work with their sales person, obtain a quote and have it loaded as a SKU on the PunchOut website for easy and accurate ordering
  • Real time information—Like pricing and availability
  • Item configuration—"Build your own" with custom pricing

When you click the Buy from Supplier button, you are taken to the main landing page of the supplier’s website, where you search and add items to the website’s shopping cart, then return to SAP Ariba.

• Real time inventory and pricing (if provided by supplier).
• Leverage supplier’s website and any features and rich content that may be there.
• E-Quotes and custom configurations.

• The user must know which supplier to buy the commodities from—cannot do an SAP Ariba search and get specific results.
• The user cannot create favorite items (on SAP Ariba interface).
• Each site has a different look-and-feel that users need to learn.
• Supplier controls the content and pricing. Audit for contract compliance is manual, outside the system.
• Somewhat more complicated for suppliers to set up.

• The Catalog interface shows search results like a CIF catalog, then users click a Buy from Supplier button, and punch out of SAP Ariba to the supplier’s site directly to the specific item or category they chose.
• Supplier uploads a CIF-like, static index file, with a line for each SKU, to the SAP Business Network.
• Catalogs are maintained by suppliers on their website, and they maintain the index file sent to SAP Ariba (can be automated).

The system punches in to the supplier's site, directly to the specific item. The site presents current pricing information, availability—anything the supplier has programmed into the website.

• User searches in SAP Ariba interface, gets results and can compare items side-by-side—CIF or PunchOut.
• User can create favorites (in SAP Ariba interface).
• Real time inventory and pricing (if provided by the supplier).
• Leverage supplier’s website and any features and rich content that may be there aisle, shelf or product level.
• Punching in at aisle level, shelf level or product level (for example: aisle—optical media, shelf—DVD-R, product—maxell DVD-R part 5435.

• More complicated to set up—must make modifications to a Level 1 site.
• Supplier has to maintain the PunchOut index file for each SKU, upload to customer to keep current (can be automated).
• If pricing is required in the index file, when the user punches out to the site, the current price of the item may be different.

Because suppliers maintain PunchOut catalogs entirely, buyers must keep in mind that their SAP Ariba Buying system will behave differently in certain situations. Click on the cards below

Your company might receive discounts and special prices when you order items from a suppliers’ punchout catalog. If you want to make changes to punchout items in your order, you must return to the suppliers’ website to do so, since your changes might affect the discounts or special pricing applied to the final order. Deleting punchout items can also affect the final cost of your order.

The actions you can take on punchout items previously added to a request depend on how the supplier has configured the punchout catalog. For example, you can return to a punchout catalog to edit and delete items if the supplier has enabled those actions, or you might only be able to view descriptions of the items.

You are not allowed to copy items from a supplier’s punchout catalog that you have previously added to a request because the price or other information might have changed since you initially added the items. If you want to add new punchout items or modify existing ones, you return to the supplier’s site to update the information in your request.

You cannot copy an individual punchout item to add it to an order.

If you copy a request that contains punchout items, a copy of your original request is created and any punchout line items are omitted from the copy.