Four51 cXML PunchOut Integration

Prerequisites
PunchOut is an additional interoperability service. Contact Four51 if you are interested in enabling it on your account.

Details
PunchOut enables users of procurement applications to access and purchase products that reside on their Four51 websites. PunchOut-enabled procurement applications include Ariba, PeopleSoft, Oracle, SAP, CommerceOne/PerfectCommerce, Ketera, SciQuest and others.

Understanding PunchOut
PunchOut is a protocol for interactive sessions managed across the internet. PunchOut is a communication from one application to another, achieved through a dialog of real-time, synchronous cXML messages which support user interaction at a remote site. It is the best way to manage user sessions distributed across web applications.

Four51 supports Procurement PunchOut, which specifically supports interactions between a procurement application and the Four51 application. Procurement PunchOut describes the traditional PunchOut scenarios that use the regular PunchOut Setup Request and PunchOut Setup Response. The PunchOut session is initiated with a "PunchOutSetupRequest" and terminates with a posting of a "PunchOutOrderMessage," which contains the initiating transaction's cookie and a shopping cart or "quote." The final purchase order is delivered from the procurement application to Four51 in an OrderRequest cXML document.

PunchOut Event Sequence

A PunchOut session is composed of several distinct steps:

1. Users logon to their procurement application and open a new purchase order. 
2. Users click a link to shop in your Four51 website, which opens a web browser and logs them into your Four51 website automatically. 
3. Users shop on Four51 and place items in their shopping carts. 
4. When finished, they click "Submit" in the shopping cart. 
5. Four51 sends the order back to the procurement application in cXML format. The user is simultaneously redirected back to the procurement application.
6. The order is routed through the procurement application's established requisition and approval process. 
7. The procurement application confirms the order with Four51 via a cXML transaction. You receive the customer's order in your Four51 administrative interface.