Reference
PunchOut and eProcurement glossary
50 terms your buyer’s supplier documentation will use, from ANID to UNSPSC. Each term has its own link.
A
- ANID
- Ariba Network ID: the unique identifier of a company on SAP Business Network. In cXML it appears in the From, To and Sender credentials.
- ASN
- Advance Ship Notice: a message telling the buyer what has been shipped and when. In cXML it is a ShipNoticeRequest.
- Approval workflow
- The rules in the buyer’s procurement system that decide who must approve a requisition before it becomes a purchase order.
B
- BrowserFormPost
- The cXML element in a PunchOutSetupRequest that contains the URL where the cart must be posted at the end of the session.
- BuyerCookie
- A value sent by the buyer’s system at session start and returned unchanged with the cart, so the system can match cart and session.
C
- Catalogue (punchout)
- A supplier’s online store opened from the buyer’s procurement system during a PunchOut session.
- CIF
- Catalog Interchange Format: a static catalogue file format, mainly used with SAP Ariba, uploaded into the buyer’s system instead of a live PunchOut.
- Classification
- The product category code attached to every cart line (for example UNSPSC or ECLASS), used for approvals and spend reporting.
- ConfirmationRequest
- The cXML message a supplier sends to confirm, change or reject a purchase order.
- Contract price
- The price agreed between buyer and supplier, shown to that buyer in the PunchOut session instead of the public price.
- Credential
- An identity in a cXML header (From, To, Sender), made of a domain such as NetworkID or DUNS and an identity value.
- cXML
- Commerce eXtensible Markup Language: an XML standard for procurement documents, used by SAP Ariba, Coupa and most source-to-pay systems for PunchOut and orders.
D
- DTD
- Document Type Definition: the public file that defines the structure of every cXML document version.
- DUNS
- A nine-digit company identifier issued by Dun & Bradstreet, sometimes used as a cXML credential domain.
E
- ECLASS
- A product classification standard maintained by ECLASS e.V., common in German industry and with SAP buyers.
- EDI
- Electronic Data Interchange: structured exchange of business documents between systems. Different from PunchOut, which is an interactive shopping session.
- End customer
- In PunchOut Rocket, a buyer configured in the gateway: one buying organisation linked to a customer in your store.
- eProcurement
- Software that manages a company’s purchasing process online: catalogues, requisitions, approvals, purchase orders and invoices.
- ERP
- Enterprise Resource Planning: the system that runs a company’s finance, logistics and production, such as SAP S/4HANA.
G
- Gateway
- In PunchOut Rocket, the managed service between the buyer’s procurement system and your store that handles protocols, sessions, frames and cookies.
- Guided buying
- A simplified shopping interface in procurement systems such as SAP Ariba that steers users towards preferred suppliers and catalogues.
H
- HOOK_URL
- The address in the buyer’s SAP system that receives the cart at the end of an OCI session. It is passed to the supplier at session start.
I
- Identity
- The value of a cXML credential, for example an ANID such as AN01000000001.
- Iframe
- An HTML element that shows one website inside another. Many procurement systems open PunchOut catalogues in an iframe.
- Invoice (cXML)
- An InvoiceDetailRequest: the cXML message a supplier uses to send an electronic invoice to the buyer’s system.
L
- Level 1 / Level 2 PunchOut
- Level 1 opens the supplier’s store at its home page; Level 2 lets the buyer search inside the procurement system and opens a specific product or category.
M
- Marketplace (procurement)
- A platform that aggregates many supplier catalogues for buyers, such as Meplato or Simeno, often connected via OCI or cXML.
N
- Network ID
- The cXML credential domain used on SAP Business Network, whose identities are ANIDs.
- NEW_ITEM fields
- The OCI form fields (NEW_ITEM-DESCRIPTION, NEW_ITEM-PRICE, NEW_ITEM-UNIT…) used to return each cart line to SAP.
- NEW_ITEM-MATGROUP
- The OCI field that carries the product classification code (material group) of a cart line.
O
- OCI
- Open Catalog Interface: SAP’s PunchOut protocol, used by SAP S/4HANA, SRM and ECC. The cart is returned as HTML form fields to a HOOK_URL.
- OrderRequest
- The cXML purchase order sent to the supplier after the buyer approves the cart.
P
- P2P
- Procure-to-pay: the full purchasing cycle from requisition to purchase order, receipt, invoice and payment.
- Payload ID
- The unique identifier of each cXML document, used to detect duplicates and trace messages.
- Purchase order (PO)
- The buyer’s formal order to a supplier, generated after approval. Its number is what the supplier references on delivery and invoice.
- PunchOut
- A connection that lets a buyer open a supplier’s online store from inside their procurement system, fill a cart and return it for approval.
- PunchOutOrderMessage
- The cXML message that returns the cart from the supplier’s store to the buyer’s procurement system.
- PunchOutSetupRequest
- The cXML message the buyer’s procurement system sends to open a PunchOut session with a supplier.
- PunchOutSetupResponse
- The supplier’s cXML answer to a setup request, containing the StartPage URL of the session.
R
- Requisition
- A request to buy, created by a user in the procurement system from the PunchOut cart, before it becomes a purchase order.
- Reverse proxy
- A server that sits in front of another server and forwards requests to it. The PunchOut Rocket gateway uses one to serve your store to the buyer with the right headers.
S
- SameSite
- A cookie attribute that controls whether a cookie is sent from inside another site. PunchOut sessions in a frame need SameSite=None; Secure.
- SAP Business Network
- SAP’s supplier network, formerly Ariba Network, where buyers and suppliers connect and exchange cXML documents.
- ShipNoticeRequest
- The cXML message for an advance ship notice (ASN).
- Source-to-pay (S2P)
- A procurement suite covering the whole cycle from sourcing and contracts to purchasing and payment, such as SAP Ariba or Coupa.
- StartPage
- The URL in a PunchOutSetupResponse that the buyer’s browser opens to start shopping.
- Supplier documentation
- The documents a buyer sends its suppliers with the technical and catalogue rules for PunchOut and orders.
U
- UAT
- User acceptance testing: the buyer’s test of your PunchOut catalogue and cart return before go-live.
- UNSPSC
- United Nations Standard Products and Services Code: a four-level, eight-digit product classification widely used in procurement.
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