What is the difference between a hosted catalog and a punch-out catalog?
In a hosted catalog, The University of Iowa maintains the supplier’s part numbers, item descriptions, and prices within the eBuy system. You can use the eBuy search function to search hosted catalogs by keyword or catalog number, but items in punch-out catalogs are not included in this eBuy search. To search for items in a punch-out catalog, you must first select the specific catalog you wish to search. Then you will seamlessly leave the eBuy site and be linked directly to the punch-out supplier’s catalog. You can search for products in this catalog using the supplier’s search and add these products to your shopping cart that will be returned to eBuy for processing.
Punchout catalogs are vendor catalogs specifically designed to connect to your buyer’s eprocurement system through ecommerce protocols. There are several kinds of eprocurement systems (such as Ariba, eBuy, Oracle, SAP..) All require a specific kind of protocol to interact with their system.
From the buyer’s point of view, a vendor who provides a punchout catalog makes the buying experience life easier, because the user experience is similar to how you normally browze the web. If a vendor provides a level ii punchout , then they’re actually providing both the punchout catalog and the hosted catalog.
From the vendor’s point of view, it’s another data file transfer that has to be set up. Because punchout catalogs can vary from buyer to buyer in pricing and products shown, the best kinds of punchout catalog is one that is centrally created where the supplier or vendor only has to update one master catalog and every punchout catalog that is created from that master data is automatically updated based on the rules set for pricing and product availability. A main website can also be run off this master catalog.
A hosted catalog can reference several things. In regards to a hosted catalog in a procurement system, it usually refers to a file that’s been provided to the buyer to upload in their purchasing system. Which then allows the buyers to search within their eprocurement systerm for products. It’s time consuming for a vendor to keep updated.
Another version of a hosted catalog is basically a website that displays the suppliers catalog behind a login.
I talk more about the differences between punchout catalogs , CIF catalogs, hosted catalogs and connecting to e-procurement systems in my free report that I wrote at punchoutconnection.com .
In a hosted catalog, Penn State maintains the supplier’s part numbers, item descriptions, and prices within the eBuy system. You can use the eBuy search function to search hosted catalogs by keyword or catalog number, but items in punch-out catalogs are not included in this eBuy search. To search for items in a punch-out catalog, you must first select the specific catalog you wish to search. Then you will seamlessly leave the eBuy site and be linked directly to the punch-out supplier’s catalog. You can search for products in this catalog using the supplier’s search and add these products to your eBuy shopping cart.
