Direct Connect Supplier Integration

Integrating Suppliers with PeopleSoft eProcurement using Direct Connect Supplier Integration
2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

What is Direct Connect?

An implementation of accepted standards that enables eProcurement users to interact directly with a suppliers website to order items.

Users connect to the suppliers site from the Requisition application, and select items on the site that flow back into the Requisition. After approval, the Purchase Order can be dispatched electronically directly to the vendor.

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Situations before PeopleSoft

Absence of pre-encumbrance accounting and funds checking at requisition level Separate inventory and accounting systems with poor integration High volume of purchase orders Purchase orders had many errors

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Situations before PeopleSoft

Very labor intensive, paper dependent processes with lots of deviations from standard business practices!

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Implementation Goals

Guarantee accurate pricing, quantity & UOM Eliminate catalog maintenance Drastically reduce Req to PO turnaround time Eliminate Purchase Order errors Implement budget checking at requisition Reduce overall paper usage

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Process Flow for Direct Connect Using PunchOut

1) The system saves all levels of the current requisition to a global rowset
2) Based on the direct connect method registered to the selected supplier, the system loads the appropriate application class and runs the code to connect to the supplier. 3) After building the XML, the system sends it to the suppliers URL as defined in the supplier's node definition.

4) The system returns a response to PeopleSoft eProcurement, if the user is successfully authenticated, that contains the suppliers URL for redirection.
5) PeopleSoft eProcurement receives this response, in the form of a message object. Integration Broker runs a transformation from the PunchOutSetupResponse to the message 2001 Cedar behind the scenes. All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Process Flow for Direct Connect Using PunchOut

6) PeopleSoft eProcurement redirects the user to the URL sent in the response from the supplier. 7) The user browses the suppliers site, and places an order. Based on sign-on information, the supplier can maintain customer specific pricing. 8) After the order is complete and the user checks out, the suppliers site packages the shopping cart into an XML string and places it in an HTML hidden form field. 9) The PeopleSoft eProcurement component that has been redirected to extracts the XML string from the hidden form field. The string is parsed into a PeopleSoft message using another Integration Broker transformation. This preserves the state of the requisition so that changes made since the creation or the last save of the requisition are not lost. 10) When the requisition component Is reinitialized, the global rowset from step 1 containing the original requisition information is reloaded. The items from the external item message, containing the shopping cart data, are added as new rows to the requisition.
2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Requisition Process

Direct Connect business processes follow the standard eProcurement requisition process.

Requisition entry including budget checking Requisition approvals Requisitions are sourced to Purchase Orders Purchase Orders are document tolerance & budget checked Purchase Order batch dispatched via XML over HTTPS
2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Direct Connect Demonstration

Log into PeopleSoft eProcurement

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Direct Connect Demonstration

Search the Catalog

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Direct Connect Demonstration

Search catalog for merchant

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Direct Connect Demonstration

Select vendor - custom website is displayed

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Direct Connect Demonstration

Select from one of the Standard Configurations

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Direct Connect Demonstration

Customize your Order (Dell computer in this case)

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Direct Connect Demonstration

Add to Cart

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Direct Connect Demonstration

Complete your Order

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Direct Connect Demonstration

Confirm your Order

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Direct Connect Demonstration

Add Shipping and Speedtype information Requisition is now ready for submission

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Direct Connect Demonstration

Once the order has been placed, it will be assigned a requisition number in PeopleSoft Every requisition requires at least one level of approval through PeopleSoft workflow Direct merchant requisitions are dispatched at different times of the day as XML purchase orders

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Key Concepts

This is not a PeopleSoft Interface Project It is an EAI Project 2 way electronic exchange of business documents Two parties with distinct business processes and technical architectures Functional Business Process Integration

Business Process Re-engineering required by both parties to establish unified business process eProcurement & eBilling processes are linked

Technical Integration
2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Direct Connect Key Enablement Technologies

XML The universal data solvent for integration Two main B2B standards

Ariba cXML Punchout. Commerce One xCBL/OCI Roundtrip

Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) PeopleSoft Business Interlinks

Run-time pshttpenable.dll Interface Drivers

Sending XML over HTTPS protocol

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

PeopleSoft Direct Connect - Integration

Five business documents are exchanged

Punch Out Set Up Request (Sign In) Punch Out Set Up Response (Authentication) Punch Out Order Message (Shopping Cart sent to create PeopleSoft Requisition) Punch Out Order Request (Electronic PO) Punch Out Order Response (Guarantee of PO delivery)

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Major Configuration Steps #1

Create Merchant Categories Configure Merchant Profile

Enable merchant, set up logo etc. Company identifier, authentication token and initial B2B website URL Set up Sign On and Purchase Order Business Interlinks

Configure Merchant Authentication

Configure Merchant Business Interlink Overrides

Assign Merchant Category to Vendor

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Major Configuration Steps #2

Configure Merchant Application Attributes

Dispatch Ship To. Header PO to be delivered to one location. Line multiple locations. Vendor system capabilities determines if Header or Line. Direct Connect Method vendor system determines if PUNCHOUT, ROUNDTRIP or OCI. XML Schema cXML, xCBL, ebXML. Set search words to merchant & vendor name. Requestors trained to enter merchant when searching catalog for easy access to all Direct Merchants. Customer Service vendor email/phone/fax information.
2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Direct Merchant Search Information

Set up Vendor with Default PO Dispatch type EDX

Implementation Challenges

Working with Vendors to debug issues Requesters will have a hard time moving away from paper catalogs Processing delayed delivery orders (for example, orders for new school year) Replacing phone orders with Internet process for users not used to web interface

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Security Concerns

All client machines (browsers) must have HTTP/HTTPS access in order to add items from a Suppliers website. All Application Servers that will initiate Punchout must have HTTP/HTTPS access.

RoundTrip does not require app server HTTP/HTTPS access for browser.

No inbound holes in the firewall are needed as the XML is sent in the users browser session.
2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Tips and Techniques #1

Educate Direct Connect vendors on your processes so their customer support can help Transmit the requesters email address to the vendor and request that vendor e-mail order & shipping confirmation messages Schedule batch processes so that dispatched Orders reach vendors before warehouse cutoffs Ask vendor to validate for a duplicate Purchase Order ID
2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Tips & Techniques #2

XML supports Unicode vendor legacy back end systems may not Vendors should not accept phone/fax/email orders eProcurement enables eBilling benefits are

Reduces workload on Accounts Payable & Procurement. Eliminates data entry errors. More POs in complete status which benefits Year End Closing process. Vendors get paid in a speedy manner.

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Tips & Techniques #3

Need to have the following skills in house

XML (Extensible Markup Language) EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) Web based order management, back end eBusiness systems Not used at DPS Lose budgetary and approval controls

Sending Requestor P Card Info in PO

Do not bring down PeopleSoft during Batch Dispatch!

2001 Cedar All contents Confidential and Proprietary