For companies that heavily rely on procurement, streamlining the purchasing process can save a significant amount of time and money. This is where Digi-Key's Punchout Catalog becomes useful.
By integrating with ControlHub, the purchasing software designed for hardware companies, businesses can access Digi-Key's vast inventory of electronic components from within their procurement system. This integration not only enhances the user experience but also reduces administrative tasks, lowers the risk of human error, and improves transparency in the procurement process.
In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of integrating Digi-Key and ControlHub, discuss the implementation process, and outline optional steps to make the integration more robust.
Who’s Digi-Key?
Digi-Key is one of the world's largest distributors of electronic components, offering more than 1 million in stock products from over 2,300 suppliers. They are a leading source for board-level components and offer a broad-line of in-stock semiconductors, passives, interconnects, electromechanical, power, batteries, and sensors.
In addition to their global headquarters in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, USA, they have offices in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
What’s Punchout?
Punchout catalogs are an extremely efficient way for businesses to streamline their purchasing processes. By allowing employees to shop for products on an eCommerce site and automatically adding the purchase to their company's procurement system, businesses can save a lot of time and energy.
In addition, punchout catalogs provide businesses with an easy way to compare products and make the best purchase decisions by viewing all product information and pricing in one place.
Benefits of integrating Punchout Catalog and Digi-Key
By integrating Digi-Key into your punchout catalog, you can take advantage of their extensive product selection and enjoy the benefits of a streamlined ordering process such as:
Seamless User Experience
After logging into their purchasing software such as ControlHub, users are able to access Digi-Key from within the portal and can browse, search and add parts easily to their shopping cart. All product related information is available and can be pulled directly from Digi-Key. The user experience is consistent and easy, while maintaining the purchasing power of the organization.
Less bureaucracy
Automating the purchasing process leveraging a Punchout integration with Digi-Key enables your employees to spend less time on administrative tasks, and more time on valuable activities.
Less prone to mistakes
Punchout can help improve your company's bottom line by automating the purchase process and ensuring that your employees enter accurate information into your system. This can help to avoid potential human-error problems that could result in costly mistakes. In addition, automating the purchase process can help to speed up the overall purchasing process, which can save your company time and money.
Improved Transparency
The integration of Punchout Catalog with Digi-Key can provide your company with greater visibility into its procurement process and help you to save money. Leveraging this integration you can track your company's purchases in real-time, which gives you the ability to see, among other things, which items are being ordered most frequently and where your company is spending the most money.
Additionally, you can use this information to negotiate better prices with your suppliers. This integration can help you to streamline your procurement process and reduce your overall spend.
How can I use Digi-Key PunchOut Catalog?
ControlHub is a purchasing software for hardware companies that gives companies the ability to automatically access Digi-Key PunchOut Catalogs. This allows companies to streamline their purchasing processes by reducing the time and effort needed to manually search for and compare products from different suppliers.
In addition, ControlHub provides a central repository for all purchase orders, invoices, and other documentation, which can be accessed by authorized users from any location.
With Digi-Key PunchOut Catalog, hardware companies can:
- Shop an expansive inventory of top-quality hardware components from Digi-Key.
- Enjoy real-time pricing and availability for everything in stock.
- Conveniently place orders directly from your ControlHub account.
How it works
- Import shopping cart from Digi-Key to ControlHub to make the Purchase Request using Punchout CXML
- Purchase Request is approved in ControlHub
- Once approved, ControlHub sends Purchase Order (PO) to Digi-Key
- Digi-Key sends shipping notice to ControlHub (ASN)
- Product arrives to customer to do the receiving process in ControlHub
- Digi-Key sends invoice via ControlHub
- ControlHub automatically processes the invoice and generates a 3-way match (PO - Receiving - Invoice)
- Customer pays Digi-Key via ACH or Virtual Cards
- All is documented in ControlHub and synced to ERP (Netsuite or Quickbooks)
Create a Purchase Request in ControlHub
- Name Your Purchase Request
- Select Digi-Key from your trusted vendors list
- Select the products needed
- Fill your cart
- Go to the Checkout Page
- Your Digi-Key items will be imported to ControlHub, and a Purchase Request will be automatically generated
- Submit for Approval and wait for the confirmation to purchase the requested items.
How much time does the implementation take?
Integrating with ControlHub is straightforward and can be completed in just a few business days.
Optional steps to make your McMaster integration robust:
- ERP Integration: ControlHub can connect to your existing Quickbooks or Netsuite account. This will allow us to automatically import purchase orders (POs) and Invoices from McMaster to your ERP.
- Custom purchasing policy creation: ControlHub will work with you to create custom approval policies that match your company's specific needs and workflows. This includes approval limits, spending thresholds, and any other business rule your company requires.
- User roles assignment: Within ControlHub, you can assign roles and permissions to users based on your company's functions and org-chart. This will ensure that only the appropriate people are able to make purchase requests, approvals and POs.
- Department/project/category creation for reporting purposes: We'll set up departments, projects, and categories to match your company's reporting needs. This will make it super easy to generate Reports by Department, Team, Project, Category, Expense type, etc.
- Bullet-proof Audit Logs. All purchasing activity in ControlHub is recorded, providing your team with all the documentation required for audit and compliance purposes.
Learnings
Hardware-centric startups that depend heavily on procurement can significantly benefit from streamlining their purchasing processes, which can save both time and money. One way to achieve this is through Digi-Key's Punchout Catalog, which offers a vast inventory of electronic components from over 2,300 suppliers. By integrating Digi-Key with ControlHub, a purchasing software designed for hardware companies, startups can conveniently access the electronic components they need directly from their procurement system.
The integration process provides several benefits such as improving the user experience, reducing administrative tasks, lowering the risk of human error, and enhancing transparency in the procurement process. With the integration, employees can log into their purchasing software and browse, search, and add parts easily to their shopping cart. They can access all product-related information and pricing from Digi-Key, ensuring consistency in the purchasing process while maintaining the purchasing power of the organization.
Automating the purchasing process with Punchout integration can also help startups save valuable time and effort. The integration minimizes administrative tasks and ensures that employees enter accurate information into the system. This can help avoid costly human errors that could impact the company's bottom line. Additionally, automating the purchase process can speed up the overall purchasing process, which is beneficial for startups that need to operate at a fast pace.
Moreover, integrating Digi-Key with ControlHub can improve transparency and help startups save money. With real-time tracking of purchases, startups can analyze their spending patterns and adjust their procurement strategies accordingly. They can also use this data to negotiate better prices with their suppliers. ControlHub provides a central repository for all purchase orders, invoices, and other documentation, which can be accessed by authorized users from any location.
The implementation process of integrating Digi-Key and ControlHub is straightforward and can be completed in just a few business days. Startups can also opt for additional steps such as ERP integration, custom purchasing policy creation, user roles assignment, and department/project/category creation for reporting purposes to make the integration more robust.
In conclusion, integrating Digi-Key with ControlHub offers hardware-centric startups a streamlined and efficient purchasing process, which can lead to significant cost savings, greater transparency, and improved decision-making. By leveraging the benefits of Punchout integration, startups can focus more on value-adding activities, boost productivity, and achieve their business objectives.
