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    OCI or content catalog

    Solution comparison of advantages and disadvantages: OCI punchout or content catalog

    OCI or content catalog - what are the advantages, what can be disadvantages?

    The decision as to whether eProcurement receives the available offers from content catalogs or via OCI punchout is a strategic one that also involves the distribution of power in the customer-supplier relationship. The following comparison provides an overview of all the advantages and disadvantages of OCI punchout and content catalogs.

    What is an OCI punchout?

    OCI stands for Open Catalog Interface and refers to a standard that was created for the exchange of catalog data in order to integrate orders from external web catalogs into your own purchasing process. The user leaves the e-procurement platform and jumps to the respective web store (this is the so-called punchout). Here they put together their shopping cart, which is then transferred to the eProcurement system. The order is processedas usual. The disadvantage of such a solution for the user: to search across several webshops, each of these stores must be searched individually, because a so-called background search is only possible from the OCI standard OCI 4.0 required for this (this means that each webshop to be searched must fulfill this standard). Only with this background search does the user remain in their own system, which makes the work correspondingly easier.

    OCI punchout has advantages and disadvantages

    An OCI punchout shifts the power to the supplier: the supplier has sovereignty over items, prices and descriptions; the customer does not have to approve any changes . Conversely , up-to-date prices are available and items can be configured according to the supplier webshop's offer.

    Further possibilities with OCI.

    OCI is much more than just an interface to a web store! Depending on the store system, many other customer-specific settings can be made: For example, which product rangeis activated for which customer, which prices apply, etc. OCI not only takes care of automatic registration, but also enables shopping cart communication into the e-procurement system. From version OCI 5.0 onwards, theValidate function is used when items are stored in the shopping cart : this checksthe price and availability of the stored products for interim changes when the ordering process is continued. Depending on the supplier's business model, the use of the OCI can therefore become as complex as desired - DIG is on hand as a specialist to assist with implementation.

    How does a content catalog work?

    A content catalog, on the other hand, is a file that is provided by the supplier and can be conveniently searched directly in eProcurement. In this file, the information on the individual articles is kept ready and standardized so that it can be further processed in eProcurement. This data is either physically transferred directly from the supplier's ERP system to the platform or exported in a specific electronically structured format. This catalog data can then be easily transferred using the DIG.catman tool; in addition to the BMEcat catalog data exchange format, DIG can also process an Excel-like file. In the onboarding process,the catalog platform experts from DIG Supplier Management initially support the setup of the catalog on the platform (regardless of the type) as well as the type and scope of data exchange (transmission of orders, etc.).

    OCI or content catalog: all the pros and cons

    Feature Content catalog OCI catalog
    Data sovereignty (article, price, description) Customer Supplier
    Preferred and/or blacklisted articles ok cross
    Searchability/comparability via eProcurement ok only if supplier supports OCI Backgroundsearch
    Article configuration only possible with effort okStandard of the supplier
    Customer controls price changes by release ok cross
    Data up-to-dateness (prices, descriptions, etc.) after upload always up to date

    Finding the ideal catalog solution.

    As already shown in the list above, it is possible to search offers across any number of content catalogs without any problems, whereas this can only be implemented via OCI if certain technical requirements are met. The biggest difference between the OCI and content catalogs, however, is the price and product range sovereignty: the supplier cannot change its catalog data in the content catalog without the customer approving new prices and articles . These catalog prices can also be negotiated individually (with OCI this is made possible with a customer-specific access).

    Another aspect of the catalog is the restriction of the range, especially for sensitive product groups (e.g. only certain protective masks permitted, etc.). However, individual articles can also be individually hidden in the OCI punchout. Nevertheless, a catalog in this example offers the customer full decision-making authority.

    Dynamic pricing in catalogs

    Daily updated prices are important for some product groups. There are two ways to have these available in the e-procurement system: With an OCI connection, these prices are updated daily by the supplier and thus retrieved from his web store. On the other hand, daily updated surcharges or discounts (e.g. depending on raw material prices) can also be dynamically taken into account in the prices in the content catalog. In a DIG project, this was implemented for a customer where weekly fluctuations in metal prices had an impact on the cost of pipes and so on. Instead of manual adjustment, DIG's solution now automatically compares the catalog data with an external server.

    IW-Standardloesung-standard-solution

    Any questions about the differences between content and OCI catalogs?

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