What Is a PunchOut Catalog?
A PunchOut catalog is a supplier's online catalog that buyers open directly from their own procurement or ERP system: they select items at their negotiated prices and transfer the cart back instead of checking out. The purchase order is then created, approved and sent from the buyer's system; shop and procurement system exchange the data via cXML or OCI.
This entry walks through a punchout session step by step, compares cXML and OCI, and explains how punchout differs from a hosted catalog and what Level 1 and Level 2 mean.
- Definition in two sentences
- Process step by step
- cXML vs. OCI compared
- Punchout or hosted catalog
Punchout in Brief
A punchout catalog is a supplier catalog that is hosted by the supplier and opened from within the customer's procurement system. The user selects items in the supplier's shop and transfers the cart back to the procurement system, where it becomes a purchase order once approved.
How a Punchout Catalog Works: the Session Step by Step
The term describes leaving your own system for someone else's and coming back with data. Whatever the protocol, every session follows the same pattern.
Start in the procurement system
The user begins a purchase requisition or shopping cart and selects a supplier's punchout catalog.
Session setup
The procurement system tells the shop who is asking and where the cart should be returned. With cXML this is a server-to-server PunchOutSetupRequest; the shop checks the credentials and replies with a PunchOutSetupResponse containing the start address for the browser. With OCI the browser calls the shop directly with login parameters and the HOOK_URL return address.
Selection in the shop
The user's browser is sent to the shop. There the user sees the assortment agreed for their employer at the negotiated prices and adds items to the cart.
Return of the cart
Instead of checking out, the user transfers the cart. The shop sends the items back to the procurement system through the browser: as a PunchOutOrderMessage with cXML, as a form with NEW_ITEM fields with OCI.
Requisition and approval
The procurement system creates a purchase requisition from the items. Account assignment, budget check and approval follow the customer's rules.
Purchase order to the supplier
Only the approved purchase order goes to the supplier, depending on the agreement as a cXML OrderRequest, via EDI or by email. The supplier recognizes the items by its own part numbers.
Besides creating a new cart, cXML also supports reopening one that has already been returned: with the edit and inspect operations the user can change the cart in the shop or just view it, provided the shop supports this.
cXML vs. OCI: the Two PunchOut Protocols Compared
Punchout is the principle; OCI and cXML are the two common protocols for it. Which one is used is generally determined by the customer's procurement system.
| Criterion | OCI punchout | cXML punchout |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | SAP | Ariba |
| Data format | HTML form fields (name-value pairs) | XML documents with a defined structure (DTD) |
| Session setup | The browser calls the shop address with parameters | Server sends PunchOutSetupRequest, shop replies with PunchOutSetupResponse and start address |
| Authentication | Credentials as parameters of the call | Identities and shared secret in the header of the XML document |
| Return | HTML form with NEW_ITEM fields posted to the HOOK_URL | PunchOutOrderMessage as XML, sent to the procurement system through the browser |
| Reopening a cart | Not defined as a separate operation | Operations edit and inspect |
| Purchase order and follow-on documents | Not part of the standard | Separate documents, such as OrderRequest for the purchase order |
| Typical procurement systems | SAP SRM, SAP ERP and S/4HANA, many systems in the German-speaking market | SAP Ariba, Coupa and many international e-procurement systems |
Punchout Catalog or Hosted Catalog?
With a hosted or static catalog, the product data sits in the customer's system. The supplier delivers it as a file, and procurement checks and approves it. With punchout, the data stays with the supplier.
| Criterion | Punchout catalog | Hosted catalog |
|---|---|---|
| Where is the product data? | In the supplier's shop | In the customer's catalog system |
| Who maintains prices and assortment? | The supplier, continuously | The supplier delivers versions, procurement approves them |
| Strengths | Very large assortments, current availability, configurators | Checked content, fixed prices, comparison across suppliers in one search |
| Weaknesses | Search stays within each shop, content changes without approval | Maintenance effort with every update, unsuitable for configurable products |
| Typical use | Broad assortments for C-parts, IT, office and laboratory supplies | Negotiated core assortments and contract items |
Punchout Level 1 vs. Level 2
The terms come from the cXML world and describe how deeply the supplier catalog is integrated into the search of the procurement system.
With Level 1, the supplier appears in the procurement system as a single catalog entry. The user has to know which supplier to look at, jumps to the shop's start page and searches there.
With Level 2, the supplier additionally provides index data on items or categories that is loaded into the catalog of the procurement system. The items then show up in the customer's own search next to those of other suppliers. Only a click on a result starts the punchout, and the user lands directly on the matching product or category page in the shop.
| Criterion | Level 1 | Level 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Entry point | Start page of the shop | Product or category page matching the search result |
| Search | Only in the supplier's shop | Already in the search of the procurement system |
| Effort for the supplier | Punchout integration | Punchout integration plus ongoing provision of index data |
| Comparison with other suppliers | Only after several punchouts | Possible at search result level |
What Matters During Rollout
- The shop's units of measure and material groups have to match the master data of the procurement system, otherwise the items cannot be taken over.
- Assortment and pricing rules belong in the contract, because the supplier changes the content itself.
- Time can pass between return and purchase order. Clarify how long the returned prices remain valid.
- Pass the shop only the user data it needs for the session.
- Define which user groups see which punchout catalogs and from what value approval is required.
Related Terms and Matching Ovenca Modules
- OCI (Open Catalog Interface)
The SAP standard for punchout, with field list and example.
- cXML
The XML protocol for punchout and document exchange.
- OCI catalog
The punchout catalog in SAP environments, compared with static catalogs.
- Maverick buying
Why well-integrated catalogs reduce purchases that bypass procurement.
- Catalog shop with a central punchout cart
Several supplier shops and your own catalogs in one cart.
- Punchout in the source-to-pay process
Where catalog and purchase requisition sit in the overall process.
Punchout in Four Points
The essentials for procurement and IT
Out and back
The user leaves the procurement system only to select items. The cart comes back as structured line items.
- Start from the purchase requisition
- Selection in the supplier's shop
- Transfer instead of checkout
Two protocols
OCI transfers form fields, cXML transfers XML documents. Both lead to the same result in the procurement system.
- OCI in SAP environments
- cXML with a server-to-server setup request
- Many shops support both
Level 1 and Level 2
Level 1 leads to the shop's start page. Level 2 makes items findable in the procurement system's own search.
- Level 1: one catalog entry per supplier
- Level 2: index data in your own search
- Punchout straight to the item
Complement to the hosted catalog
Punchout suits large and configurable assortments; hosted catalogs suit checked core assortments.
- Combine both forms
- Agree pricing rules contractually
- Approval in your own system
Punchout Shops and Your Own Catalogs in One Cart
Ovenca connects supplier shops via OCI and cXML and combines their items with imported catalogs.
- Central punchout cart
- Items from several supplier shops end up in one cart together with catalog and free-text items.
- OCI and cXML
- Both protocols are supported as equivalent punchout routes.
- Access per user
- Permission management in the admin area controls which punchout catalogs a user sees.
- Multi-level approval
- Every cart runs through the same multi-level approval process with comments, whatever its source.
- Handover to the ERP
- Ovenca hands the approved requisition or order to your ERP via an interface.
- Hosted catalogs included
- Catalogs in CSV or BMEcat format are imported, validated and, once approved, offered in the same shop.
Punchout Catalog: Questions and Answers
Related pages
Bundle Punchout Catalogs Centrally
We show you how requesters punch out to supplier shops from one catalog shop and how the cart enters your approval process.