Difference Between Level 1 PunchOut Catalog and Level 2 PunchOut Catalog

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Difference Between Level 1 PunchOut
Catalog and Level 2 PunchOut Catalog
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A PunchOut catalog, also referred to as level 1
PunchOut catalog is a popular way of connecting
buyers eprocurement system to the supplier
catalog. However in order to simply the buying
process further, suppliers should provide level 2
PunchOut catalog functionality. The fundamental
difference between level 1 and level 2 Ariba
PunchOut catalog lies in their search capability.
Consider this A B2B buyer is connected to
multiple suppliers and each supplier is providing
his own PunchOut catalog to the buyer. So one can
say that the buyer is connected to multiple
PunchOuts. In such circumstances, if the buyer
wants to search a specific product, he has to
open every PunchOut link and then do a Product
Search in the respective PunchOut catalog. After
comparing prices of the product from each
PunchOut catalog, he may then decide to select
the product from a PunchOut catalog that meets
his budget. This can be time consuming. A better
option is to use level 2 PunchOut catalog
functionality that allows the buyer to directly
search the product from within the eprocurement
system itself. This eliminates the need for
opening the PunchOut catalog to search the
product. This functionality is useful when the
buyer is connected to multiple PunchOut catalogs.
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With level 2 PunchOut catalog, the buyer makes
use of search function of the eprocurement
system in order to search the product in
different PunchOut catalogs. The search results
page of the eprocurement system shows the product
that you can access directly from that supplier
catalog. Although the Product Search in level 1
SAP PunchOut catalog is done within the
procurement system, the buyer has to access the
supplier catalog by clicking the PunchOut link.
This does not happen with level 2 PunchOut
catalog wherein the buyer does not have to click
PunchOut link to view the supplier catalog. With
level 2 PunchOut, the buyer can do a product
level search as well as a category level
search using the search functionality of the
eprocurement system. So whether you are searching
for a specific product like Iball Freego Blue
Eye Wireless Optical Mouse or a category-wise
search like Computer Displays, it can be easily
done using the the eprocurement system. This is
something that can never happen with level 1
PunchOut. So while level 1 PeopleSoft PunchOut
catalog enables buyer to search within the
PunchOut catalog, level 2 PunchOut allows the
buyer to search within the eprocurement system
without accessing the PunchOut link.