How PunchOut Catalog Streamlines Procurement Process of B2B Buyers

As a B2B buyer are you fed up of entering orders manually into your procurement application so that the orders are processed by your buying organization? This is a common procedure followed by B2B buyers who are not using PunchOut functionality. However, with PunchOut, the need to process orders manually is completely eliminated. The functionality is designed to automate, simplify and streamline your procurement process.

As we all know, a PunchOut catalog is a direct link between the buyer’s procurement application and the supplier’s site. The buyer simply has to ‘PunchOut’ from his procurement system to access the supplier’s online catalog. No login credentials are required to reach to the supplier’s Contract catalog. A single click gives them direct access to the site.

Moreover, the supplier’s catalog is designed as per buyer’s needs and its access is limited only to the authorized buyer. This means pre-approved products and negotiated pricing are accessible only to that designated buyer. In simple words, buyer has access only to what he is contractually permitted to purchase.

In a B2B environment, purchases are never done on the supplier’s site. B2B buyers never follow the traditional checkout process of B2C buyers. Every shopping cart created in a B2B environment requires approval from the higher authority. PunchOut mechanism allows B2B buyers to transfer their shopping cart back to the procurement application for approval. Once the shopping cart receives approval from the higher authority, a purchase order (PO) is created in the procurement application and sent electronically or via mail to the supplier.

On the whole, a buying organization will certainly benefit from using PunchOut solutions. It will simply their purchasing process, eliminate manual entry and most importantly allow them to quickly create a purchase order without browsing through thousands of products. No wonder, PunchOut-enabled sites are considered user-friendly for B2B organizations.