VBWebSites develops PunchOut Capabilities - First in Virginia - it's a K.O.

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After several years of planning and a year of Development, VBWebSites becomes the first web development company in the state of Virginia that has tackled the development of PunchOut capabilities with extended solutions.

Project: Harper Hardware and Tools 

The Basic Plan:

Phase 1: To take their database of 70,000 + items and populate to website.
Phase 2: Make store available to consumers worldwide
Phase 3: Develop platform to work with EVA and ARIBA Network to allow e-procurement via eva.state.va.us

Learn More about Punchout Catalog Development

Basically how this system works is the State of VA has approved vendors, Roughly 45,000. Of the 45,000 Vendors, only about 1,000 have any type of catalog established and only 40 or so have PunchOut capabilities. The companies that have these PunchOut capabilities are Fortune 500 Companies. We are now going to be able to setup PunchOut catalogs for the small businesses that until now had no clear direction on where or what to do.

On to how it works.. In a nutshell: A Buyer from the state (may include Schools, Jails, Police Departments etc.) are able to login to their EVA buyer platform. From this platform they are able to navigate the states site to find approved vendors. From there, they would be able to for instance click on Harper Hardware which would take them to the Harper Hardware site. Our system recognizes that they came from eva.state.va.us. When they go to checkout, all of their cart contents are carried back to the states website where they can now make the purchase seamlessly without the need of purchase orders, credit cards etc.

PunchOut Defined:
PunchOut is an e-procurement software application from Ariba that makes it possible for a buyer to access a supplier's Web site from within the buyer's own procurement application. The buyer leaves ("punches out" from) their company's system and goes to the supplier's Web-based catalog to locate and order products, while their application transparently maintains connection with the Web site and gathers pertinent information. A vendor catalog that is enhanced for this process is known as a punchout catalog. PunchOut enables communication between the software and the Web site so that relevant information about the transaction is delivered to the appropriate channels. Ariba based their product on commerce XML (cXML), which comprises a meta markup language and a protocol for data exchange between applications. RoundTrip, from Commerce One, and products based on Open Buying over the Internet (OBI) are similar to PunchOut, and are sometimes referred to as punchout solutions.

There are a number of different e-procurement models. The earliest model relied on a point-to-point connection such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). In this model, each buyer or seller might have to adapt their transaction mechanisms separately for each trading partner. Two other models, developed to streamline these processes, are becoming increasingly common: the sell-side model, in which the vendor's information is hosted on their own (or a service provider's) server and accessed from within the buyer's procurement system; and the buy-side model, in which the information from multiple vendors is organized into an application that resides on the buyer's server. PunchOut, and similar products based on the sell-side model, allow buyers to access all the information on the vendor's Web site, rather than the selected information that is collected for the buy-side application.

Relevant Websites for for information are:
State of VA e-Procurement - http://www.eva.state.va.us/
Ariba - http://www.ariba.com/

If you currently are affiliated with EVA, then you know and understand the importance of having a PunchOut catalog and e-Procurement. There has been no real answers on how you were to accomplish this, until now! VBWebSites is very excited to have developed this platform. Our system allows you to sell to not only EVA or State buyers but also to the general public if deemed necessary.

More Details on this project -  View Details