As you’ve probably found, Acumatica is a solid, robust ERP. But no ERP can be all things to all businesses. That’s why it’s great that Acumatica’s modern architecture makes it easy to integrate additional technologies.
One such technology that can be incorporated to expand the requisition and procurement capabilities of Acumatica is PunchOut.
PunchOut is an ecommerce website hosted by your suppliers. But what makes it different from a typical ecommerce experience is that you access the PunchOut catalog from within your procurement software. It includes your negotiated pricing and real-time product availability, and purchase-related transactions are automatically integrated with your procurement data.
How Does it Work?
PunchOut catalogs communicate with your Acumatica-integrated procurement application using cXML (commerce eXtensible Markup Language), which is a widely accepted standard for the online exchange of business transactions in common formats.
Your suppliers’ ecommerce PunchOut catalog can be accessed directly from your procurement software. At checkout, items in the cart are used to generate requisition line items in your procurement software. Once approved, the PO is created in Acumatica, and also transmitted electronically to your supplier for fulfillment.
Why Do Acumatica Users Use PunchOut?
- Faster order processing because everything is handled electronically
- No need to maintain your own product catalogs – let your suppliers do the work for you and connect to them automatically
- No surprises or vendor disputes resulting from pricing or product changes. You access real-time product availability and price information from the vendor, so everyone is on the same page.
Do My Suppliers Offer PunchOut?
Large national suppliers are, of course, more likely to offer PunchOut catalogs to their customers, particularly in industries where pricing and products are subject to frequent changes like office supplies and healthcare.
However, as this technology has become more affordable and easier to implement and more suppliers are seeing the cost savings and customer service improvement it offers, PunchOut has found its way into more and more suppliers of all sizes and industries.
Download this handy infographic to learn more about the uses and benefits of PunchOut.
acu-connect founding member Paramount WorkPlace is an Acumatica Certified ISV offering procurement software with PunchOut capability.
