Date posted: 17 February 2009
Author: Ambrose Burgin   Version: 1.05
Keywords: SiteSphere Store PunchOut, E-Procurement Solutions, Ariba SN, Ariba PunchOut, cXML, SAP OCI, Open Catalogue Interface

The increasing use of special purchasing software by businesses and organizations makes it essential for suppliers to provide web catalogues in a special format which can be used within organizations for their purchasing decisions. ActiveBrand is able to provide catalogues in these special formats, thus making the range of goods and services offered in a supplier’s SitesSphere web store available directly to purchasing departments through their purchasing software.

What is E-Procurement?

E-procurement is the business-to-business (B2B) buying and selling of goods and services over the internet. It accounts for a greater volume of business than the more well-known business-to-consumer (B2C) internet sales. It is the phase of the purchasing cycle connected with the day-to-day procurement and delivery of goods and services and the analysis and control of spending, the other phase being e-sourcing, where the best sources of supply are investigated and selected.

E-Procurement software enables an organization to have much better control of their spending, and also limit purchases to approved suppliers. Web catalogues must be provided by suppliers in a suitable format, to enable them to integrate with the E-procurement software used by the supplier.

Two of the most popular supplier web catalogue formats for e-procurement are SAP OCI and Ariba PunchOut:

SAP OCI

Many organizations use SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software across their organization. SAP provides a solution for e-procurement called Supplier Relationship Management (SRM). SAP SRM requires suppliers to provide web catalogues in the Open Catalogue Interface (OCI) format. These catalogues are accessed by SAP SRM, and enable staff to select products and make up purchase orders. When the products have been selected, the OCI catalogue sends the purchase order information back to SAP SRM, either as hidden form fields in a special web page, or as XML-formatted data. This enables SAP SRM to take in the purchase order information, which can be authorized and included in the analysis of corporate spending.

Ariba PunchOut

Ariba provides a very popular range of spend management solutions for businesses, including their Ariba Buyer e-procurement software. Ariba PunchOut enables purchasing staff to “punch out” from their Ariba Buyer or other purchasing software, into a selected supplier’s web catalogue, which must be provided in the PunchOut format. Staff can select goods and services from the supplier’s PunchOut catalogue, which are then placed into a purchase order for later approval. The purchase order is returned to the purchasing software in a special format called cXML. The buying organization’s purchasing software can then facilitate the approval of the purchase orders and provide reporting and analysis to the business to help control spending patterns. Thus both the catalogue and the purchase order must be provided by the supplier in a special format for PunchOut.

SiteSphere Store PunchOut E-Procurement Solutions from ActiveBrand

ActiveBrand is able to integrate both SAP OCI and Ariba PunchOut with a supplier’s SiteSphere online store using SiteSphere Store PunchOut. We can provide web catalogues in these required formats together with the transmission of the purchase order data to the buyer system. This enables suppliers to gain access to the increasing number of purchasing organizations who are using e-procurement software for their buying decisions. It also helps buying organizations by allowing them to select and approve suppliers more easily.

Contact ActiveBrand today to discuss how your SiteSphere webstore can be integrated with SAP OCI and Ariba PunchOut e-procurement solutions, giving you access to a larger market of buying organizations. We will be happy to demonstrate this technology to you.

 

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