Punchout Company Stores
Procurement or spend management software is used by many large corporations use to control purchasing, vendors and payment. But for the type of items a corporate customer might buy in a company store – lots of variations in size and color, or picking from a variety of logos or name drops – these procurement systems often fall short. The company needs their buyers to access the company store while still maintaining control over the purchasing process.
A Little Bit About the Process
These systems use a technique called the “punch-out” process. Punch-out is a method for a person using a procurement or spend management system like Coupa or SAP Ariba to “punch out” of that system and enter an external site to complete the purchase. If you’ve ever had to implement SSO (single sign on) for a company store, a punch out is a similar idea. The primary difference is that SSO is designed to pass a user’s identity to an external site (using dozens of possible identity providers), where punchout is a simpler method designed around transactions that uses a single technology: cXML.
cXML is a “language” that contains the information needed to pass a transaction from a company store into a spend management system. When your storeBlox company store talks to a spend management system, it uses cXML to communicate. That communication can either be one way or a complete round trip:
- For Level 1 punchouts, the user exits the procurement system, enters the company store and then is routed back into the procurement system (along with all the data about their purchase) to complete the transaction.
- For Level 2 punchouts, the above process is completed, then the transaction is also passed back into the company store.
Punchout Providers
The beauty of cXML is that it works with any procurement or spend management system that supports it. While most of our company store punch out integrations use Coupa or SAP Ariba (also known as SAP Business Network), storeBlox supports any cXML punchout integration for any company store, points store, redemption store or popup store.
Perhaps most importantly, our experts can help walk you through the process of prospecting and quoting punchout company stores, or assist you when an RFQ comes your way requiring this kind of integration. Just drop us a line – we’re always happy to help!