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Vendor Punchout lets each medical center department place supply orders through a vendor's Internet portal without leaving Supply Chain. Items ordered this way generate regular requisitions, which go through the approval process, if used. When approved, a requisition flows to a purchase order that can be authorized and sent using the vendor's normal communication method (EDI, email, FAX, or print). The purchase order provides a starting point for creating receipts, and for matching invoices from the vendor.
Setup is required for this feature.
Requisitioning and approvals: To be able to order from punchout vendors, authorization to create requisitions is needed. A site's system administrator can assign the proper role and data profile to users who work with punchout orders.
Setup: Setting up vendor punchout requires Administrator privileges, including permission to edit tables.
The vendors below are currently (as of Release 7.15) available for punchout orders. Sites that need additional vendors not on this list must contact the Help Desk, as setup steps are needed, in addition to approval and review by Premier.
Punchout Vendors |
AmerisourceBergen |
Cardinal Health |
CDW |
Dell |
Fisher |
GE Healthcare |
Grainger |
Henry Schein |
INSIGHTS |
KST Data Inc |
McKesson Extended Care |
McKesson Medical Surgical |
Medline |
Office Depot |
OfficeMax |
Officewise |
PartSource |
Staples |
Zones |
Ordering supplies:
Displaying and approving punchout vendor requisitions:
Requisitions needing approval appear in the approver's queue, as usual. For non-file item lines, because vendors code manufacturer identities differently, the system may not be able to match the vendor's manufacturer ID (MfrID) with a value from its tables. In this case, the manufacturer must be identified: the reviewer/approver can enter a value for the MfrID from a select list of options. Details on this process are in a subsequent section.
A list of available vendor sites appears (Figure 2). This example uses Office Depot.
When you check out,
- You can also display and edit requisitions from the Requisitions list. This list contains all your requisitions -- punchout orders and other requests.
The path is Materials Management > Requisitioning > Requisitions - Current Department.
- On the Requisitions list, the Punchout column (far right) contains "Yes" if the requisition was created using vendor punchout.
- If the requisition needs approval, it appears on the queue of the designated approver.
When a requisition is approved (or released, if approval is not needed), the system generates a purchase order. The PO appears on the Purchase Orders list (Figure 6). You can display, edit, and/or authorize the PO and the system will transmit it to the vendor (for EDI, FAX, and email vendors) or make it available to print. See Working with Purchase Orders for details.
Non-file item requisitions typically route to a costing buyer who fills in the manufacturer ID, manufacturer item number, price, and any missing information on the requisition. The requisition may also route for approvals, if set up at your site, depending on the item commodity code, cost, and other factors. "Requisition Approval Processing by Cost, Commodity Code and Item Type" outlines approvals in detail.
Manufacturer IDs used by punchout vendors may differ from the Mfr IDs stored in the Supply Chain manufacturer tables. To make sure that the manufacturer values match, the system uses cross references between the vendor's manufacturer ID and the manufacturer ID in Supply Chain.
When the manufacturer name from the vendor needs to be cross-referenced with the Supply Chain manufacturer, the value in the Mfr Name column on the requisition line is a link, and the Mfr ID column is blank (Figure 7).
A panel pops up for you to locate the manufacturer ID stored in the system.
If the system finds any candidate manufacturers, they appear in a select list (Figure 9). For example, in Figure 9, as a potential match for the vendor's value "Hewlett-Packard" (with a hyphen), the system found "HEWLETT PACKARD" (no hyphen).
If you need to display all the cross references for a manufacturer, and edit or add to them, the system makes the data available.
Note: This activity requires administrator privileges.
You can maintain the list as needed:
On a punchout requisition line that needs a Mfr ID, if the manufacturer does not exist, you can create a system record for the manufacturer as a new manufacturer.
Note: You need system administrator privileges to create new manufacturers.
A panel pops up for you to locate the manufacturer ID (Figure 8).
A blank manufacturer panel appears (Figure 13).
The system returns you to the Manufacturer list panel (Figure 12).
Figure 14 - Selecting the New Manufacturer
When a new punchout vendor is available, Supply Chain builds the top-level punch-out definitions for the vendor and creates the link to the vendor ordering portal.
Each medical center must individually enter network IDs and credentials -- obtained from the vendor -- into the system. These values are unique for each site. They also depend on on how a medical center site is structured for the ordering activity, and on how the vendor's ordering process works with that structure.
Note: Registering vendors and departments requires Administrator privileges.
If you do not already have one, establish a business relationship with the vendor. Obtain account numbers for any departments that will use punchout ordering, but do not have accounts.
Set up the vendor.
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Contact the vendor to get a "boarding" or "configuration" document that contains the communications settings and credentials needed for Internet purchasing.
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Then, register the vendor in Supply Chain using the settings provided in the boarding/configuration document. (Use the Punch-out Registration - Registration panel in Administration.)
Register the departments that will use vendor punchout and their vendor accounts. Users who create punchout orders must have these departments in their data profiles.
Create test orders and monitor results. Address any communications issues with the vendor. A log of punchout sessions is available to help with troubleshooting.
Obtain a "boarding" or configuration document from the vendor. This document specifies values for communication parameters and credentials needed for Internet ordering transactions. In general, these values are needed:
To Domain, From Domain, and Sender Domain: Either DUNS numbers, or network identifiers.
To Identity, From Identity, and Sender Identity: Alphanumeric or numeric values.
Sender Shared Secret: An alphanumeric value that functions as a permission for some transactions.
Ship to Account ID: A vendor account ID. Individual departments will want to place orders under their own account IDs, which are in the Punch-Out Department registration panel, Ship To Account ID Override field. You could enter a default account in this field so that departments' accounts will override it, or leave the field blank.
On the Create Punch-out Registration panel, the system populates several of the fields on the General tab with values from the vendor definition.
Punchout departments will each need a vendor account number, unless your site is structured so that all departments use the same account.
If you are running test orders through a vendor portal, you may find several values on the Punch-out Log helpful in resolving problems.
The log appears. Figure 19 is an example. (Identifiers in the figure are fictional.)
For example (Figure 19, green box), the Buyer Cookie is a string that Supply Chain sends on the order.
The vendor sends it back on all responses. It links all the transactions together. The vendor may use it when trying to debug a problem.
The column cXML Message is the actual text of the message exchanged between the system and the vendor's portal. Elements in the cXML code, such as the <Response> (red box) can help isolate problems with orders not getting communicated. You can also check <From> (and <To>) credentials and network IDs (blue box) for correctness. Basically, the text of the message should help you and the vendor identify where problems are occurring.
Punchout - The ability to access a vendor's ordering portal from within a supply chain system, and place orders that enter the system.
Cross-reference - For manufacturers in vendor punchout orders, Supply Chain uses a cross-reference value to identify a manufacturer on a requisition line when the vendor's manufacturer ID does not match any manufacturer ID in the system.
When the unmatched manufacturer (from the vendor) first appears on a requisition line, the user can activate a link to select the matching manufacturer (in Supply Chain). The system then creates the cross reference, which it uses to automatically match the manufacturer again, if missing, on other requisitions for the same vendor.
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