What is PunchOut?
PunchOut (aka Procurement Punchout, cXML PunchOut, OCI Roundtrip) is a B2B industry-standard protocol that supports secure online shopping and ordering between e-commerce platform web stores and e-procurement systems.
Most e-procurement and ERP systems are “PunchOut-ready” today. If you want to sell to customers who use e-procurement (or ERP) systems for online ordering, you'll need to be “PunchOut-ready,” too.
How do I get my e-commerce web store PunchOut-Ready?
You can build PunchOut capability into your web store by yourself, but this can be expensive and time-consuming, especially if you aren’t familiar with the technical specification (visit www.cxml.org for more information).
Or you can use the Vurbis Plugin, which for a few thousand dollars a year makes your existing web store PunchOut-ready quickly and non-invasively
PunchOut aka cXML Punchout, OCI roundtrip
Why is my customer asking for PunchOut?
Your customer is using (or planning to use) an e-procurement system (or ERP system) to order online from suppliers. But unlike the basic online ordering process supported by your web store today, the e-procurement ordering process requires, among other things, pre-approval of orders before the creation of the order – capabilities not supported by web store platforms today without customization.
aka Procure-to-Pay
What’s e-procurement?
Companies implement e-procurement systems (Ariba, Coupa, iValua, Jaggaer, Oracle, etc.) to automate their online purchasing processes, which allow their employees to feel empowered to place orders directly with suppliers on behalf of the company.With an e-procurement system’s configurable “approval workflow” engine, it ensures orders are within the companies purchasing policies, budgets, contracts and best practices – basically replacing the purchasing departments of yesteryear.
In addition to that, there are multiple benefits to using an e-procurement system, including:
- lower costs,
- better data analysis,
- fewer errors and exceptions,
- less inventory
- and better pricing.
But for an e-procurement system to pay off, for both the buying organization and the suppliers, both need to be involved. More specifically, they need to be integrated into the e-procurement system and processes. That’s where PunchOut fits in – it basically puts supplier’s online web stores directly onto the e-procurement system user’s desktop.
What are the benefits of having cXML PunchOut (or OCI Roundtrip) capability in my Web Store?
If you can’t support Punchout, your customer could replace you with a supplier who can (including possibly Amazon Business). This is because your customer’s e-procurement ROI is based on getting as many orders as possible processed by the e-procurement system.
The good news is that PunchOut also provides great benefits to your business, including:
Low Processing Costs
lower-order processing costs
Less Error
reduction in errors and exceptions
E-Invoicing
automated e-invoicing
Have questions? We have answers.