Your vendor catalogs aren’t the problem. The architecture behind them is.
Punch-out catalogs were designed to solve supplier catalog maintenance, not fragmented spend data, disconnected inventory or inconsistent buying experiences. The result is a parallel buying system where the same item can be purchased through an ERP material master, a supplier catalog or a free-text requisition, without any reliable way to connect the data.
This ebook explains why punch-out-first strategies have reached a structural ceiling, why post-purchase enrichment and manual mapping cannot solve the problem at scale, and how characteristics-based AI matching can connect supplier catalog items to internal material master records at the point of purchase.
Discover how to create a unified view of materials, supplier options, stock, pricing and spend, while improving compliance, reducing duplicate purchasing and giving category teams the complete data they need to make better sourcing decisions.