ProTips: The Purchasing Power of PunchOuts

In any other corporate setting, surfing Amazon while on the clock would be frowned upon.

Fortunately, for procurement specialists using Procurify PunchOuts, online shopping on Amazon or The Home Depot is actually a sign of fiscal responsibility and work efficiency.

Bulk purchasing from your favorite suppliers is simple and quick – as soon as the request is approved, a purchase order is generated and items are automatically purchased. Vendor catalogs are vast and easy to compare with competing suppliers. And, for finance leaders, there is full visibility and approval power.

“PunchOuts streamline the procurement process by allowing users to access supplier catalogs directly from Procurify, eliminating manual data entry and reducing errors,” said Amrit Saggu, Senior Product Manager at Procurify. “They also provide users with real-time pricing and availability, ensuring that users always have access to the most current and accurate information.”

Leveraging Procurify PunchOuts will accelerate your organization’s requesting and purchasing workflows, helping your company save time and money, all while making informed financial decisions based on real-time procurement data.

Below, we explore further how Procurify PunchOuts can elevate your procurement strategies.

For PunchOuts, Procurify has partnered with 24 global vendors across 36 unique domains – including Amazon Business (which has five domains), Staples Business Advantage, Thermo Scientific, and The Home Depot – to enable swift and convenient purchasing through a supplier’s website or a custom Procurify PunchOut catalog.

“We have made improvements to the PunchOut supplier onboarding process by making the technical implementation more streamlined so we can onboard other suppliers with a much faster development turnaround,” said Osanna Hui, Engineering Team Lead at Procurify.

Procurify can also assist companies with curating, adding, vetting, and onboarding new suppliers.

“We ensure the supplier’s technical implementation is aligned with Procurify’s,” Hui said. “This is very important to ensure our customer’s data is secure while creating a reliable user experience.”

Part of the user experience is streamlining requesting workflows to ensure procurement teams get their correct items on time. Users can browse supplier catalogs directly from Procurify’s intuitive user interface.

“For example, an employee purchasing office supplies can browse a supplier’s up-to-date catalog, select items, and have the order details automatically transferred back to Procurify for approval, all without manually entering product information into Procurify,” said Saggu.

Part of PunchOuts’ superpowers are their automated capabilities. Product information (pricing, availability) is sourced in real-time directly from a vendor’s catalog. By automating the transfer of cart details back to Procurify, the potential for costly data entry errors such as inaccurate pricing and product availability is minimized.

“PunchOuts automate the requesting process by connecting with suppliers while alleviating users from manually inputting information about the items they want to purchase,” said Hui, adding automation is one of the feature’s most popular capabilities with customers.

PunchOuts help provide visibility to finance leaders. Without automated systems, procurement teams spend extra time trying to track down information about item pricing and availability. With the PunchOuts visibility and personalized approach for organizations, there are opportunities for negotiation and bulk savings.

From a supplier standpoint, PunchOuts automate the purchasing process between Procurify and the vendor by automatically submitting the order to the supplier once an order has been approved.

It would not be a smart online shopping platform if you didn’t have the ability to compare.

With Procurify PunchOuts, procurement specialists can see all their options at once, browsing millions of items and easily comparing prices across thousands of suppliers.

For organizations, finance leaders can maintain better control over which products are purchased by employees by customizing catalogs that their users can select products from, ensuring compliance with procurement policies.

“PunchOuts allow our users to connect directly from Procurify to the supplier’s purchasing portal and automatically bring all the necessary purchasing information back into Procurify to submit an order,” said Hui.

Upon successful order approval, Procurify automatically updates the supplier and purchases the requested items. An additional feature unlocked by PunchOuts is supplier support order confirmation.

“This allows suppliers to send Procurify updates on order item statuses in case an item is no longer available, this will be automatically reflected in our system,” said Hui.

Leveraging PunchOuts is just a better way to purchase from your suppliers. In today’s advanced landscape for e-commerce, online consumers are provided with the tools to make educated, efficient, and safe purchases – all while having a pleasant and interactive journey. Why can’t procurement specialists enjoy those same standards and user experience?