©2001 cedar™ all contents confidential and proprietary direct connect supplier integration...

©2001 Cedar™All contents Confidential and Proprietary

Direct Connect Supplier Integration

Integrating Suppliers with PeopleSoft eProcurement using Direct Connect Supplier Integration


What is Direct Connect?

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

Users connect to the supplier’s 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.


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


Situations before PeopleSoft

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


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


Process Flow for Direct Connect Using PunchOut

1) The system saves all levels of the current requisition to a global rowset

3) After building the XML, the system sends it to the supplier’s URL as defined in the supplier's node definition.

5) PeopleSoft eProcurement receives this response, in the form of a message object. Integration Broker runs a transformation from the PunchOutSetupResponse to the message behind the scenes.

4) The system returns a response to PeopleSoft eProcurement, if the user is successfully authenticated, that contains the supplier’s URL for redirection.

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.


Process Flow for Direct Connect Using PunchOut

This preserves the state of the requisition so that changes made since the creation or the last save of the requisition are not lost.

6) PeopleSoft eProcurement redirects the user to the URL sent in the response from the supplier.

7) The user browses the supplier’s 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 supplier’s 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.

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.


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


Direct Connect Demonstration

Log into PeopleSoft eProcurement



Search the Catalog



Search catalog for merchant



Select vendor - custom website is displayed



Select from one of the Standard Configurations



Customize your Order (Dell computer in this case)



Add to Cart



Complete your Order



Confirm your Order



Add Shipping and Speedtype information Requisition is now ready for submission



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


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


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


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)


Major Configuration Steps #1

Create Merchant Categories Configure Merchant Profile

Enable merchant, set up logo etc. Configure Merchant Authentication

Company identifier, authentication token and initial B2B website URL

Configure Merchant Business Interlink Overrides

Set up Sign On and Purchase Order Business Interlinks

Assign Merchant Category to Vendor


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. Direct Merchant Search Information

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.

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


Security Concerns

All client machines (browsers) must have HTTP/HTTPS access in order to add items from a Supplier’s 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 user’s browser session.


Tips and Techniques #1

Educate Direct Connect vendors on your processes so their customer support can help

Transmit the requester’s 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


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 PO’s in complete status which benefits Year End

Closing process. Vendors get paid in a speedy manner.


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 Sending Requestor P Card Info in PO

Not used at DPS Lose budgetary and approval controls

Do not bring down PeopleSoft during Batch Dispatch!

©2001 cedar™ all contents confidential and proprietary direct connect supplier integration...

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