What is a PunchOut Catalog?

PunchOut catalogs allow a buyer (a user within an organization leveraging an e-procurement system that supports PunchOut) to shop a vendor's website from within their own purchasing procurement system. Most companies that come to us are generally driven by their customer's requirements or demands to be able to provide PunchOut catalog functionality. 

How does a PunchOut Catalog work?

There are three general steps with a PunchOut catalog that make it possible for PunchOut catalogs to function:

1. A buying organization's user selects the vendor they wish to PunchOut to right from within their own e-procurement system. This could be a simple click of the vendor's logo or perhaps through a search from within the e-procurement system or Marketplace.
2. The user shops normally, adding items to their online shopping cart. 
3. The user then clicks to transfer the requested items back into their respective procurement system.

Simplified explantation of what conceptually happens behind-the-scenes:

• Knock, knock - let me in - On click, the user posts data to the vendor to gain authentication
• Come on in - The vendor's e-commerce application uses the data from the initial post to authenticate the user and direct the user's browser to the appropriate landing page
• Transfer of cart - The user shops as normal building a shopping cart, and rather than a traditional "checkout" on the vendor's e-commerce site, the user will instead, with a single click, transfer the line item details back into their e-procurement system as a requisition, which then will go through approvals, and ultimately will dispatch a purchase order to the vendor