Punch out catalogs were supposed to make procurement easier. They moved catalog maintenance to suppliers and gave requesters a faster way to shop, but they did nothing to fix fragmented spend data. The result is a buying process that feels compliant while managing the underlying spend remains as difficult as ever.
In this on-demand session, Joël Collin-Demers, Consulting Principal at
Pure Procurement, and Alistair Cane, Co-founder of Axiom, unpack why the problem is architectural, not simply operational. They explain how, in most catalog programs, the same item can be bought through an ERP material record, a supplier catalog or a free-text requisition, with no reliable way to group and reconcile the resulting spend data.
You’ll see why post-purchase spend enrichment and manual mapping cannot solve the issue at scale, and how characteristics-based AI matching can solve the problem at the point of purchase.
Watch the on-demand session for a practical look at how to fix the architecture of your catalog program and get the results you’ve been looking for.
You’ll walk away knowing:
- Why OCI punch-outs solved catalog maintenance but left buying data fragmented across material-master, catalog and free-text channels
- Why supplier SKUs, UNSPSC codes and ERP material numbers are not enough to identify the same physical item
- How point-of-purchase, characteristics-based matching and inventory integration improve buying decisions before any order is raised
- How to create a unified view of materials, supplier options, stock, pricing and material-level spend