Level 2 Punchout Support in

Self Service Procurement Cloud

An enhanced search and requisitioning experience for punchout
content.

February 20, 2020 | Version 1.00

Copyright © 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates
Confidential - Public
PURPOSE STATEMENT
This document provides an overview of the Level 2 punchout support in Oracle Self Service Procurement Cloud. It is
intended solely to help you assess the business benefits and understand the steps to enable this functionality.

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information contained herein may not be disclosed, copied, reproduced or distributed to anyone outside Oracle without
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This document is for informational purposes only and is intended solely to assist you in planning for the implementation
and upgrade of the product features described. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and
should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or
functionality described in this document remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.
Due to the nature of the product architecture, it may not be possible to safely include all features described in this document
without risking significant destabilization of the code.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Purpose Statement 1
Disclaimer 1
Introduction 3
What is level 2 punchout 3
Why use level 2 punchout 4
Set up punchout search items 5
Troubleshooting 9

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INTRODUCTION
Most organizations today integrate their ERP systems with their suppliers through punchout, where suppliers host catalog
content that are available to the buying organization. This integration not only reduces the administration and maintenance
costs for buying organizations, but provids their internal users a broad set of goods and services to request.
By onboarding different suppliers for different categories of spend, organizations often run into challenges where their
internal users require training or guidance to know which punchout catalogs to access for the goods and services they need.
Oracle Self Service Procurement Cloud supports the ability to load a list of goods and services for a punchout catalog, which
serves as a search index for requesters (or preparers) to search against without first punching out to a supplier site. When
the punchout search items are returned, requesters can drill down on the item and directly access the specific product on
the supplier’s website for suppliers who support the Level 2 punchout capability.

WHAT IS LEVEL 2 PUNCHOUT

When you define a punchout catalog in Self Service Procurement Cloud, it enables your requesters to access the supplier’s
punchout site and perform a search on the punchout site to find goods and services. This type of punchout is also known as
Level 1 punchout.
With Level 2 punchout, you can load a catalog index file in Self Service Procurement for a punchout catalog. It enables your
requesters to search within Self Service Procurement Cloud across punchout catalogs to locate the goods and services they
need. Requesters can search against the index if they have access to the punchout catalog through content security. When
requesters find the desired product, they can drill down on the item to access the punchout site.
Self Service Procurement sends the supplier item number information when establishing a punchout connection. If the
supplier supports a product level catalog punchout, the requester can go directly to the product on the punchout site. The
requester can then return to Self Service Procurement with the selected item in their requisition.

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Figure 1. Level 2 Punchout flow

There are two other punchout levels that suppliers can support.
 Aisle Level: It enables requesters to see a list of multiple items corresponding to related products and services when
they punch out to the supplier site.

 Store Level: It enables requesters to access punchout catalog of a supplier, but they have to search the supplier site
to find the desired product.

For more details about the cXML punchout documents, please see the latest cXML User’s Guide on cxml.org.

WHY USE LEVEL 2 PUNCHOUT

When your catalog content resides in external punchout sites, your requesters may have a hard time trying to figure out
where they need to go to find the product or service they are looking for. When you enable the capability to search within
Self Service Procurement, it helps requesters to discover the available content and guide them towards the right punchout
site. This search capability reduces support and training costs for your Procurement organization.
Suppliers, who support product level catalog punchout, enable your requesters to land directly on the item details on the
punchout site without re-executing the same search. This support provides your requesters with a better shopping
experience.
In many cases, you maintain a list of goods and services for your punchout supplier, or your supplier maintains such a list.
You can leverage this existing list to build the search index for a punchout catalog.

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SET UP PUNCHOUT SEARCH ITEMS
Obtain the punchout source and connection information from your supplier and create a punchout catalog in Self Service
Procurement Catalogs. You can follow these steps to upload a set of punchout search items for a punchout catalog.
1. On the Create or Edit Punchout Catalog page, click Upload Punchout Search Items.

Figure 2. Upload a set of punchout search items for a punchout catalog.

2. On the Upload Punchout Search Items dialog box, click Download Resources to download a tab-delimited text file
template (Text Template.txt) to use for populating items and services for a punchout catalog.

Figure 3. Download a tab-delimited text file.

3. Populate the spreadsheet with the list of items and save the .txt file with Unicode Text format.

Example of a Spreadsheet with Three Items

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 These are the four sections in the spreadsheet.
 #ENCODING: It specifies the character encoding code such as UTF-8. You can also leave this field blank.
 Language section: It specifies the language that you’re using to load the items. For example, en-US for
American English.
 File Section: It enables you to capture description and information about this file. Note that this
information doesn’t get uploaded.
 Item Section: It contains the list of products and services with attribute information that you can search for.

Supported Punchout Search Item Attributes

ATTRIBUTE DESCRIPTION SEARCHABLE REQUIRED MAX.

NUMBER OF
CHARACTERS

Line Type Line type such as goods or amount- Y

based.

Item Description Description of the punchout item. Y Y 240

Long Description Long description of the punchout Y 1000

item.

Category Name Purchasing category that the item Y

belongs to.

Supplier Name of supplier from which this Y

item is sourced.

Supplier Item Item identifier used by the supplier. Y Y 300

Supplier Item Auxiliary Item configuration identifier used by Y 255

Identifier the supplier.

UOM Unit of measure such as each or

dozen.

Price Price of the item, if goods-based.

Amount Item amount, if amount-based.

Currency Currency in which the price and

amount are quoted.

Manufacturer Name of the manufacturer, also Y 240

known as brand.

Manufacturer Part Item identifier used by the Y 30

Number manufacturer.

Agreement Agreement number, if applicable. Y

Image URL URL of the item image that will be 250

displayed in the search results

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 Tip: Attributes are displayed in Self Service Procurement search results and/or product details screens. While only
Line Type, Item Description, and Supplier Item are required, populating as much of the item details as possible will
provide your users with more information to make their decision on the items to request.

4. Upload the .txt file

Figure 4. Upload the .txt file.

The upload kicks off a job to process the file content. Each upload is a replacement of the punchout search index,
where previously uploaded punchout search items will be overridden with the set of punchout search items in the
current upload process.

If you edit or add new items, the new upload file must contain all the items that you want to be associated with the
punchout catalog, not just the changed items. To delete a punchout search item, you need to remove the item from
the upload file and load the updated file.

The Error Threshold field enables you to control the termination of the upload job if the upload file contains errors
that exceed the specified limit.

The Punchout Search Items section on the punchout catalog displays the upload status.

Figure 5. Check the upload status.

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 Here are possible upload statuses for the upload process.

Possible Upoad Statues

UPLOAD STATUS DESCRIPTION

Pending The upload process is waiting for other processes to complete and not
yet kicked off.

Click this status link to see the upload job details such as job number
and elapsed time.

Running The upload process has started and is in progress.

Click this status link to see the upload job details such as job number
and elapsed time.

Completed The upload process completed and the punchout search items are
loaded successfully.

Click this status link to view the list of punchout search items that are
available for this punchout catalog, and the attribute values.

Error The upload process failed. This could be due to a file level error such
as an invalid file format, or due to errors on the items.

Click this status link to view the file or line error. You can review the
errors and fix the upload file to reload the items again.

5. In the Punchout Search Items section, you can select the Enable item level punchout check box if your supplier
supports product level catalog punchout. This selection enables Self Service Procurement to send the item
identifier to the punchout site to go directly to the item details on the punchout site. This capability is only
applicable for cXML based punchout.

After you have successfully uploaded the punchout search items, requesters who have access to the punchout catalog can
now search against the attributes of these items when shopping in Self Service Procurement. The requester can click Go to
Punchout Site to go to the supplier’s web site.

Figure 6. Search items and go to the punchout site.

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TROUBLESHOOTING
If you encounter issues when uploading punchout search items, please review this troubleshooting guide to diagnose the
issue.
Steps to Resolve Issues
ISSUE
I downloaded the .txt template and modified the file with
punchout search items. The upload failed with the
following error:
“A section is either missing or isn’t in the right sequence.
Sections should appear in the order: ENCODING,
Language, File, and Item. ENCODING is optional.”
The punchout search items that I had previously loaded
have disappeared after I loaded a new set of punchout
search items.
When our requesters click Go to Supplier Site on a
punchout search item, they don’t go directly to the
specific item on the punchout site.
I have loaded punchout search items for the catalog, but
my requesters aren’t able to locate the items in Self
Service Procurement.
Why are the prices/item information returned from the
punchout site different from the punchout search item
in my search results?
Why can’t I add the punchout search item directly to my
requisition without punching out?
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STEPS TO RESOLVE
First, make sure that the upload file has all four sections, and
the order is preserved, i.e., ENCODING, Language, File, and
Item.
Also, make sure that the correct ENCODING code is used. The
most commonly used code is UTF-8. You can also try to clear
the value to the right of the #ENCODING cell.
If you’re using UnicodeLittleUnmarked encoding code, make
sure the .txt file is saved with the Unicode Text file format.
Now try to load the file again.
Each upload process is a replacement for the current search
index. The upload file needs to contain all punchout search
items for the catalog each time you perform a new upload.
Item level punchouts are only supported for punchouts using
the cXML protocol.
Make sure that your supplier supports the product level catalog
punchout. Otherwise this capability won’t be available.
Check that for your cXML based punchout, the ‘Enable item
level punchout’ check box is selected.
Ensure that the punchout catalog is available to your
requesters through the content zone.
The product information displayed in Self Service Procurement
search is based on the data that has been uploaded in the
search index.
If the information has been updated on the supplier site, you
will need to ensure that the changes are updated in the
punchout search index to present the most current information
to your requesters.
The supplier on the punchout site maintains the most current
product information and pricing details. To ensure that
requisitions are created with the most current information, the
requesters should punch out to the supplier site to get the real-
time information back to Self Service Procurement.
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