How a punch-out catalogue works
OCI stands for Open Catalog Interface, a standard for electronic procurement established by SAP. How it runs: a buyer punches out of their e-procurement or ERP system straight into your shop, sees their own prices and their own product range there, and assembles a basket. Instead of ordering in the shop, they transfer that basket back into the procurement system in a structured form — the order itself then runs there, with all of the customer's approval workflows and budget checks.
In SAP environments OCI is the standard. Systems such as Ariba or Coupa use cXML PunchOut instead — technically different, in principle the same thing. The advantage over static catalogue files: you maintain prices and product range in one place, in your shop. No catalogue export, no version that quietly goes stale at the customer's end.
Your existing shop becomes the catalogue
We do not build a second shop for procurement. We make your existing Shopware 6 shop or custom shop OCI and punch-out capable. After the punch-out the buyer lands in an environment with their own terms: customer-specific prices, released product ranges, no registration, no separate login.
The real work is in the transfer back. Every procurement system expects the basket in a particular structure — material numbers, product groups, units of measure, sometimes classifications such as eCl@ss. We map the fields properly onto the target system and test against your customer's real environment, not against an assumption.
One shop can serve many large customers this way. Different procurement systems, different field requirements, different product ranges — done properly, that is configuration, not a new project per customer.
Through to sign-off by your customer
An OCI connection is only finished once your customer's e-procurement team has signed it off. We settle the field specification directly with the customer's IT department, set up test accounts and run test transfers until the basket arrives correctly in the target system. You do not have to translate in between — we talk to SAP administrators and Ariba consultants directly.
The same goes for the public sector. When a tender requires an OCI connection, that is many suppliers' first contact with the subject. Not ours.
After go-live
A punch-out connection does not simply keep running because it was signed off once. Procurement systems get updated, field requirements change, certificates expire. We monitor the interface in operation and adjust it before your customer's purchasing department reports a fault.
Transferring the basket back is only half the distance. If your customer's order should then run automatically into your ERP, that is handled by an ERP connection from our interface and API development. And if a large customer is demanding an OCI connection right now: call before you promise a delivery date — Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 16:00 CET, +49 441 21 21 63 0.