As a
supplier, are you looking for a way that would make it easy to do B2B business
with your customers? Well, you can completely depend on PunchOut, commonly
referred to as Level 1 PunchOut. It is a protocol that has eliminated the
drudgery associated with CIF catalog. If you want to sell your products to
Fortune 500 companies or government/state organizations, it has become
mandatory to make your site PunchOut-enabled.
Level 1 PunchOut catalog
is extremely important if you are serious about growing your business with B2B
customers. These large customers use a procurement system for purchasing
products. PunchOut integrates the procurement application with the supplier’s
site.
The protocol
gives customers direct access to his Contract catalog (that contain the agreed
negotiated items and prices) with a single click. They have access to up to
date and accurate list of catalog items. Moreover, B2B customers find it
incredibly simple to place orders using PunchOut solution.
In a PunchOut
session, the connection is maintained even after the customer checks out from
the supplier’s site. As a result, the shopping cart comes back to the
procurement system. This step is necessary as the cart will require approval
from the higher authority in a B2B environment. Upon receiving approval, a
purchase order (PO) is electronically sent to the supplier.
Thus, the
approval workflow of B2B customers is maintained when using this protocol. No
wonder, more and more enterprise level customer want to connect with their
suppliers using the PunchOut protocol.
Apart from
the standard cXML format, PunchOut connectivity can also be initiated using OCI,
XML and XCBL. On the whole, Level 1 PunchOut makes your website usable for B2B
customers using procurement system. It will surely help to earn the confidence
of large customers and moreover make it easy for you to expand this business.
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