Listed below are the steps that are required to enable CGI Advantage PunchOut and e-Ordering. See the respective topics in this user guide and online help within the application for more details for each step.
Setup an entry on the PunchOut Control table. The following options are configurable on the table:
PunchOut Enabled: This field determines if the PunchOut mode is supported by the Advantage client. When this flag is checked, the system allows a buyer to initiate a PunchOut session and automatically sends the approved Delivery Order created from this session to the supplier.
Commodity Crosswalk Enabled: When this flag is checked, the system allows a crosswalk between the commodity code scheme used by suppliers and the commodity code scheme used within Advantage. Advantage assumes that the crosswalk contains a single external commodity scheme and the system does not validate the values entered in the external commodity code. When unchecked, it is assumed that the commodity code scheme used by suppliers is the same as the commodity scheme used within Advantage.
OrderRequest Enabled: This field determines if e-Ordering is supported by the Advantage client. When this flag is checked, the system allows approved e-ordering Purchase orders to be electronically transmitted to the supplier.
Order Request Mode: The OrderRequest Mode field controls if and how electronic orders (a cXML OrderRequest transaction) are transmitted from Advantage to suppliers (vendors). For test environments, the OrderRequest Mode field can be set to help prevent accidental transmission of an electronic order. The OrderRequest Mode setting applies to all electronic orders for all suppliers.
Note: Some suppliers do not support submission of ‘test’ electronic orders. Such vendors treat any electronic order as a real order to be fulfilled.
Include Shipping: This field determines if supplier PunchOut sites may calculate separate shipping fees. When checked, the system captures the shipping fees from the supplier in a separate commodity line on the Universal Requestor transaction and subsequently on the generated Delivery Order transaction.
Default Shipping Commodity: When the Include Shipping flag is checked, the system uses the commodity code value specified in this field on the commodity line created by the system to record shipping charges.
Default Tax Description: This field determines the tax description that is sent to the supplier when tax information is captured on Purchase Order transactions created in both PunchOut and Non-PunchOut mode.
External Commodity Code Scheme: This field determines the supplier commodity scheme that is supported if the commodity crosswalk is enabled.
Note: This value is not used to validate the external commodity codes defined on the commodity crosswalk tables within Advantage.
The following fields do not impact the functionality directly but are required to be configured for the cXML protocol that is used to support the functionality.
Vendor Credential Domain: The Vendor Credential Domain field specifies the domain name for supplier (vendor) credentials specified in PunchOut transactions and electronic order transactions initiated by Advantage. The combination of Vendor Credential Domain, the supplier’s Vendor/Customer Code, and the Supplier Shared Secret (specified on Vendor/Customer for each vendor) is used by the e-Commerce supplier network and supplier to direct the transaction to the appropriate supplier and to authenticate the Advantage entity’s relationship with that supplier. The typical value for Vendor Credential Domain is “NetworkID”. The same Vendor Credential Domain is used for all vendors for which PunchOut or electronic ordering transactions are enabled.
Advantage Credential Domain: The Advantage Credential Domain field specifies the domain name for the buyer (the entity running Advantage) credentials specified in PunchOut transactions and electronic order transactions initiated by Advantage. The combination of Advantage Credential Domain, Advantage Credential Identifier, and the Supplier Shared Secret (specified on Vendor/Customer for each vendor) is used by the e-Commerce supplier network to authenticate the Advantage entity’s relationship with that supplier. The typical value for Advantage Credential Domain is “NetworkID”. The same Advantage Credential Domain is used for all PunchOut and electronic ordering transactions originating from Advantage.
Advantage Credential Identifier: The Advantage Credential Identifier is used with the Advantage Credential Domain to identify the buyer (the entity running Advantage) to the e-Commerce supplier network and to individual suppliers. The combination of Advantage Credential Domain, Advantage Credential Identifier, and the Supplier Shared Secret (specified on Vendor/Customer for each vendor) is used by the e-Commerce supplier network to authenticate the Advantage entity’s relationship with that supplier. The typical value for Advantage Credential Identifier is the DUNS Number of the buyer. The same Advantage Credential Identifier is used for all PunchOut and electronic ordering transactions originating from Advantage.
Browser Form post URL: This field specifies the Advantage URL to which the shopping cart transactions (PunchOutOrderMessage cXML transactions) are posted when a buyer checks out of a PunchOut session. This URL must be the location of the AdvPunchOutServlet servlet which is designed to receive the PunchOutOrderMessage. The URL is typically similar to the regular URL for accessing the Advantage environment. For example, if Advantage is normally accessed from http://fm.entity.com/webapp/vls1/Advantage then the Browser Form Post URL will typically be http://fm.entity.com/webapp/vls1/AdvPunchOutServlet. PunchOut does not require this URL to be exposed beyond the intranet in which Advantage is available. The shopping cart is posted to this URL directly from the buyer’s (Advantage user’s) browser and not from the supplier website.
Supplier Network URL: The Supplier Network URL is the single point-of-contact e-Commerce supplier network URL used for all PunchOut and electronic ordering transactions initiated from Advantage. If the URL is an https (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) address, then additional configuration is needed within the IBM WebSphere Integrated Solutions Console to enable the secure connection to the e-Commerce supplier network. Please reference the CGI Advantage Financial Installation Guide for more information on configuring the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate for communication with the supplier network.
cXML DTD URL: This field specifies the URL for the version of cXML DTD to be specified in PunchOut and electronic order transactions generated by Advantage. The suggested value is http://xml.cXML.org/schemas/cXML/1.2.021/cXML.dtd (corresponding to cXML 1.2.021), however older or newer versions of the cXML DTD can be used if necessary.
Establish a SSL Certificate if HTTPS is used for PunchOut communication.
Note: Please refer to the CGI Advantage Financial Installation Guide – Part 4 for additional details
Setup entries on the External Commodity Crosswalk and Internal Commodity Crosswalk tables if the commodity code scheme used by your suppliers is different than the internal commodity code scheme defined on the Commodity page.
Note: Advantage assumes a single commodity code scheme is used for all suppliers. The External Crosswalk table should be used to map the commodity codes that are passed to Advantage from supplier’s PunchOut sites. The Internal Crosswalk table should be used to map the commodity codes used within Advantage to the commodity code scheme expected by the supplier.
Review the ‘PunchOut Overall Delay’ and ‘PunchOut Status Check Delay’ application parameter values.
Note: These parameters do not typically need to be adjusted but can be revised if needed.
If your site uses e-Ordering, then review the flags on the Delivery Order entry on the Procurement Transaction Control table. Confirm that e-Ordering is enabled for the Delivery Order. In addition, review and if needed revise the flag that determines if Delivery Orders can be automatically sent to the supplier on submit to Final.
For each supplier that is enabled for PunchOut and/or e-Ordering:
a. Configure the PunchOut Enabled, Electronic Order Enabled, Re-PunchOut Enabled and Supplier Shared Secret on the Vendor Customer page. These updates can be performed via a VCC/VCM transaction or directly on the Vendor Customer page.
b. If PunchOut is used then create a Master Agreement that is flagged as PunchOut Enabled in the transaction header.
i. All commodity lines must be marked as catalog lines.
ii. If the supplier site computes a separate shipping charge then a separate commodity line is required on the Master Agreement. This additional line must be marked as a Shipping Charge line and the Commodity Code must match the Default Shipping Commodity specified on the PunchOut Control table.
iii. A catalog index file must be loaded for each commodity line. The index file is similar to a standard catalog file and follows the same catalog load process. However, it typically contains one or a few line items to facilitate high level searching in Advantage for categories of information (e.g. Office Supplies) rather than containing detail line items.