
Capitalising on the Punchout catalog Capabilities
Punchout Catalog is a fairly new concept for most Australian businesses and also for many web and application development agencies. Many medium and large enterprises and government agencies now require that their preferred suppliers provide the ability to punchout to the supplier’s website. This makes it easier for organisations to manage and control their purchasing.
A PunchOut Catalog is a method that enables suppliers to reach and integrate seamlessly with other organisations’s e-procurement stems. Punchout orders are processed using a purchasing application such as those provided by SciQuest, Ariba, Coupa, or Oracle iProcurement, to name a few.
Let’s take a closer look at the workings of the Punchout catalog mechanism and how it can be beneficial for you.
Click here for more info: Understanding Punch Out Integration to Build Seamless e-procurement Experiences
Working mechanism of Punchout catalog
It’s very simple to use a Punchout catalog. You can visit the supplier’s PunchOut catalog through your procurement network. Buyers can access a supplier’s website from the buyer’s own procurement application.
The buyer enters the supplier’s web-based catalogue that launches the supplier’s website within the buyer’s browser frame and punches out or leaves the procurement application. Thereafter, the buyer browses the catalog and adds items to the shopping cart while both applications maintain their connections.
No orders are sent to the supplier when the buyer checks out from the supplier’s Punchout site. Instead, the shopping cart is brought back to the e-procurement application with the selected items.
The buyer then continues the normal workflow steps after the shopping cart is returned. This may include adding additional items to the requisition, editing or cancelling the requisition, submitting or discarding the requisition. A purchase order can be sent to the supplier once it is approved.
Top 5 benefits of using Punchout catalog that you might not want to miss…
No Maintenance required
Punchout catalogs are maintained by the supplier in real time, so there is no fee related to the maintenance and publication of the catalog on your side.
Isn’t it great for your organisation that you are saving both time and money on the maintenance? Also, you can eliminate the risk of creating errors using Punchout catalog during maintenance process.
Simplified and Centralised purchasing process
Users can access catalogs from within their e-procurement software and enjoy negotiated prices with preferred vendors. If you use a Punchout catalogue, you can control spending and exchange documents (purchase orders and invoices) electronically.
All the catalogs are centralised in single application which promotes better spend management and purchasing consolidation.
Engaging Ecommerce like shopping experience
Buying process becomes simplified by integrating Punchout catalogs within a procurement system. This allows users to conduct product searches within their own application.
You can achieve unsurpassed user and shopping experience like what one would find on Amazon or Google.
Greater Productivity
Online automation and faster order processing has enhanced buyers’ productivity.
By optimising and automating the entire purchasing cycle, you can maximise the impact of your resources.
Better information
Since Punchout catalogs are available online and maintained by suppliers, buyers can get better details about items such as current discounts, availability and related shipping costs. Suppliers usually update such information in real-time so you can find better information about promotional products.
After going through the exceptional benefits of Punchout catalog, you must be excited to know, how can B2B customers reap benefits from Punchout catalog?
If you are a value-added reseller, then you must be aware that the major portion of revenue comes from B2B customers. Your business will certainly prosper and see better growth prospects, if you keep your customer happy.
Offering Punchout catalog can help strengthen customer relationships by simplifying the buying process. No wonder, those value-added resellers who do not offer Punchout catalog are dubious to gain new customers.
Providing Punchout capability enables B2B customers to shop from your website easily. Buyers will get better purchasing experience that will encourage them to re purchase. Every B2B customer associated with you holds a legal contract. This indicates that the product offering and pricing varies from customer to customer as per the contract.
Managing diverse contract catalogs may become difficult for Value added resellers (VARs). If you do not offer Punchout capability to consumer, it will become tedious and time consuming for them to navigate through the supplier’s entire catalog to search their contract catalog. Furthermore, despite accessing supplier’s catalog, the customer is not required to leave his procurement system. That’s probably the biggest advantage of using Punchout.
Some more benefits…
Convenience that Punchout catalog imparts is exceptional. It eliminates the time taking task of browsing through number of products to reach the right catalog. Customer is provided with a link in their procurement system that redirects the user to the desired catalog upon clicking the link.
Consequently, the customer gets immediate access to products without filling any login credentials.
Punchout catalog is tailored as per customer requirements and offers user friendly shopping experience. The Product offerings, sub-categories/categories and special pricing in the catalog are as per every B2B customer’s business requirements.
Wrapping Up,
You can rely on Punchout catalog for improving the B2B ordering process and offering real-time price and availability. It offers an unmatched personalised shopping experience as the content of catalog is customised to meet contract requirements. The best part is that it offers flexibility to suppliers so that they can process orders quickly and accurately using this functionality.
Suppliers who provide Punchout catalog for their business buyers observe dramatic improvement in their sales. At the same time, purchasing products without Punchout is a painstaking and time-consuming activity for B2B consumers.