The Need to Use Ariba PunchOut Catalog

As a B2B customer using Ariba procurement system, do you face a hard time procuring products from your supplier? Are products updates released from suppliers not available to you in real time? Are you tired of loading CIF catalogs into your procurement system, each time it is updated? Looking for an easy way to make smart purchases? Are you fed up of looking at the cluttered looking line item list in CIF catalog? Has CIF catalog made you a frustrated customer? If the answer to all the above questions is ‘Yes’, it is time to switch over to Ariba PunchOut catalog.

The PunchOut catalog protocol developed by Ariba is designed to simply the procurement process. The protocol provides seamless integration of the contract catalog into the supplier’s site. It gives customers the opportunity to automatically log into the PunchOut catalog with a single click. The supplier catalog is now within the procurement system. Moreover the customer gets access to his contract catalog, thereby eliminating the risk of purchasing non-contract products. It gives you the ability to interact with an external supplier website through your procurement system.

Once you login automatically, you can browse through the catalog, search the product and then add it to the shopping cart. The shopping cart in Ariba PunchOut does not follow the usual steps of B2C checkout process. In other words, a typical B2C shopping workflow is not followed. The Cart requires approval from the higher authority, hence returns to the procurement application. At this moment, the PunchOut session is disconnected. The approval authority then checks the Cart contents and if they are within the established order value, it is approved.

Once the cart gets approved, the B2B customer creates a purchase order, indicating confirmation of the Cart. The purchase order can be sent via mail or electronically to the supplier depending upon the agreement.