PunchCommerce Insights:
The 5 biggest mistakes: What small suppliers reall...
Findings from more than 1000 connections - and why most fears are unfounded
The email often comes without warning: "From Q3, we need a PunchOut catalogue from you - OCI or cXML." For many smaller suppliers, this is the first contact with a topic that sounds more technical than it is.
Other suppliers are well aware of the importance of a PunchOut connection and want to tackle the issue directly with the upcoming shop upgrade.
In both cases, there is often a lack of experience - and sometimes an in-house IT department that could take on the topic.
Over the last five years, I have supported more than a thousand such connections. I still encounter the same mistakes today. Here are my top 5.
Many suppliers think that a PunchOut is some kind of special ordering process in their own shop when they first come into contact with the topic. And if no order is then visible in the system, confusion reigns at first. It is therefore important to understand the following:
A PunchOut is not an internal order, but an external procurement process that is initiated and controlled externally.
The actual order is only placed downstream via EDI or often by e-mail.
This is how a PunchOut works
You connect the e-procurement system of a buyer - for example Ariba or SAP - with the catalogue of a supplier. This works as follows:
The buyer starts in their procurement system (e.g. SAP Ariba, Newtron, Onventis, Coupa)
He selects the supplier there (which was previously created as a PunchOut catalogue)
The system automatically opens the supplier's catalogue via the PunchOut connection
The buyer selects products and places them in the shopping basket
The shopping basket is transferred back to his procurement system via the same connection
The actual order is only placed after internal approval workflows
This also explains why the requirements are different from a normal shop checkout. The supplier does not sell directly to the buyer. He delivers a shopping basket to their system. That is the decisive difference.
What is actually needed: an interface between the two worlds. Not a new shop functionality, but a bridge.
I often hear this assumption and it couldn't be more wrong.
Around 40 per cent of the companies we connect do not have their own online shop. Nevertheless, they are able to deliver within a few days. The solution is called a hosted catalogue: You upload your product data - usually as an Excel or CSV file - to a platform. This creates a streamlined catalogue that customers can access directly.
The misconception probably arises because PunchOut sounds like e-commerce. Many people therefore think: first set up a shop, then integrate PunchOut. This is not necessary.
In practice, I see small specialist manufacturers with 500 to 5000 items using Hosted Catalogs successfully. **No shop project, no design, no maintenance. Just upload product data and you're done.
You can always set up a fully-fledged shop later if the business grows or it becomes necessary.
PunchOut sounds like a major IT project. That may have been the case in the past, but not today.
**The technical connection via a modern platform takes around 20 minutes.
The real time waster is therefore not the technology, but the data quality. If product data has to be prepared - missing article numbers, inconsistent prices, incorrect units - then this costs time. If the customer also requires classification, for example according to eCl@ss or UNSPSC, this can mean an extra week.
**When it comes to data quality, the more structured the product data is, the faster everything runs.
Suppliers are not alone in this. We are happy to advise on the preparation of the data. And this pays off beyond PunchOut: good data quality is crucial for e-commerce as a whole - from search engine optimisation to the use of AI tools. Those who invest here benefit in several ways.
Another system, even more work - this concern is understandable, but completely unnecessary. In fact, the opposite is true.
Without PunchOut, a catalogue is often sent cyclically to the buyer, from which they then compile specific orders and send them to the supplier by email or EDI.
**The problem: the article data, availability and prices are then not up to date.
This changes fundamentally with a PunchOut connection:
Real-time prices (no outdated catalogues)
Real-time availability
No manual transmission errors
Order data arrive structured and correct
Ergo: The administrative effort is reduced and the initial investment pays off through significantly more efficient processes.
I regularly hear that a PunchOut is only for large companies with their own IT. The figures clearly speak a different language.
More than 40 per cent of the companies we connect have between 5 and 50 employees. Typical profile: specialised manufacturers without an IT department. They don't have the technical expertise - and don't need it.
With PunchCommerce, the platform takes care of all the technology. You configure, we take care of the rest. No development, no servers, no maintenance.
The market is changing fast. Two years ago, cXML - Ariba's standard - accounted for around 20 per cent of our requests. Today it is over 50 per cent. More and more companies are using e-procurement systems and expect suppliers to go along with them.
In two years' time, PunchOut will be standard - just as the online shop became standard ten years ago. Those who are prepared today will gain a clear advantage. Those who wait will be left behind.
**The question is no longer "if", but "when".
Would you like to know what a PunchOut connection would look like in your case?
Then book a 30-minute consultation with me and we'll work out together how we can make you PunchOut-ready quickly and easily.
Patrick Dornbusch is the founder of netzdirektion and developer of PunchCommerce. He has been connecting suppliers with the procurement systems of their major customers for more than 20 years.
If you have any questions or suggestions, just send us an email hallo@punchcommerce.de or call us at +49 6142 / 953 80 - 60. We appreciate your feedback!
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