OCI suppliers
OCI stands for "Open Catalog Interface," which can be roughly translated as "Making the ordering process available from a supplier's own familiar environment."
Through an OCI connection in Spend Cloud, you can go to a supplier's webshop to assemble an order. Subsequently, this order is transferred to Spend Cloud, where it can be processed through the configured procurement process.
Read more about Spend Cloud OCI connections in the factsheet which is attached to this article.
Before your organization can use an OCI supplier, you need to go through the following steps:
Check if the supplier is already available as an OCI linkage or request it
Start by checking if the specific supplier is already available as an OCI connection. You can do this through Application Management / Procurement / Available Webshops. Depending on whether the supplier is available or not, different steps are needed to set up an OCI connection. Refer to the portal article "Request for a New OCI connection" for a step-by-step explanation of how to request an OCI connection in different scenarios.
Note: There may be additional costs associated with using an OCI connection. For more information, contact your Visma | ProActive account manager.
Set up the supplier as an OCI supplier
After the OCI connection has been requested and made available by someone from Visma | ProActive, there are still some additional steps to make the OCI connection available to buyers. The supplier needs to be created and marked as an OCI supplier.
There are different setup variants:
- One OCI account (username and password) for the entire Spend Cloud environment.
- One OCI account per administration: This may be necessary if a supplier has limitations, such as being able to invoice only to one email address with an OCI account. Sending invoices to different email addresses would not be possible in this case.
- One OCI account per delivery address: This is often desired when different locations (delivery addresses) want their webshop environment with a different assortment than other locations. In some cases, location-specific accounts can display order history, favorites, or specific order lists.
- A combination of variants 2 and 3: In this case, it must be indicated for each OCI account for which administration and/or which delivery address it is intended.
Keep in mind that the third and fourth variants may require more application management due to coordination with all suppliers in case of changes, such as the addition of a new location. Therefore, weigh the pros and cons carefully when choosing these variants. The first variant is the least complex and most commonly used.
Depending on your setup choice, you can specify the connection per supplier through the "Specify connection per" field for variants 2, 3, or 4. This means that you need to set up the OCI login credentials per administration and/or per delivery address. For example, if you choose 'Address,' you must add an OCI account (username and password) for each delivery address. The purchaser will be logged in under the OCI account set for the specific delivery address.
Here is an example of the supplier fields that need to be set up to define the supplier as an OCI supplier:
Delivery time
This field can be used to adjust the desired delivery date (standard is set to tomorrow, 1 day).
Relation
The "Relation" field is essential for matching invoices with orders (2 and/or 3-way matching). If you work with a creditor list per administration and don't see this field, you will need to link the relationship by searching for the supplier in the Supplier menu and choosing "Link relationships" via the three dots.
Add an OCI Account
Once the supplier is configured as an OCI supplier, you can display the supplier in the "Suppliers" main menu using the magnifying glass icon.
Within the "External links" section, you can then add an OCI account using the plus icon.
Fill in the external connection details as shown in the example below (optionally specific to administration and/or delivery address). In this example, we illustrate an administration-specific OCI account only:
If you do not see the desired supplier information in the "OCI Information" field, the OCI request, as described earlier, may not have been completed. In such a case, you need to request the OCI connection.
Most suppliers (99%) send prices to Spend Cloud as exclusive of VAT amounts. Therefore, it is advisable to set the "OCI amounts including VAT" field to "No."
If you have already been in contact with the supplier, they may have provided a username and password. Some suppliers may also provide a customer number or other specific values, which you can enter in this step. If a supplier does not provide these last two values, they may not be applicable, and you can leave the fields empty.
After saving the previous step, you will return to the supplier display, and you will see that the external link has been added (in this example, an OCI account per delivery address):
As shown in the image above, location numbers can also be specified for each delivery address. Ideally, we provide delivery address details (street, number, addition, postal code, city, and country) to the supplier on the PDF order or cXML order, eliminating the need for additional setup. However, some suppliers work differently and require a location number for each delivery address to successfully process and deliver the order.
TIP: When adding an additional OCI account for an existing OCI supplier, pay attention to how other OCI accounts are configured and set up the new one in a similar way. If an existing OCI account works, but the newly added account does not, review the fields once more.
Option 2: OCI Accounts per Administration
In some cases, it is desirable to create a unique OCI account per administration. In the supplier's settings, you can specify based on which data the connection should be configured: administration and/or address. In this case, choose "Administration":
Option 3: OCI Accounts per Delivery Address
As described earlier, in some cases, it is desirable to create a unique OCI account per delivery address or per administration. In the supplier's settings, you can specify based on which data the connection should be configured: administration and/or address. Here are more details on the situation when you select "Address":
To create a unique account for the OCI connection per delivery address, you need to create an external link for each respective delivery address.
Providing a Location Number/Location Code
Certain suppliers, especially those with automatic order processing, can only correctly process orders based on a location number, determining the delivery address. Spend Cloud typically provides the location number set for a delivery address with the order unless a different location number is defined for the supplier.
If necessary, you can set the supplier's location codes here:
Note: The delivery addresses in both the External Links and the created Location Numbers must match for the correct location number to be provided to the supplier when placing an order.
Supplier-Specific Value
Some suppliers require an additional value to be included in the order, such as your organization's Global Location Number (GLN). The supplier may use this number to better identify which customer is placing an order.
You can include this number in the "Supplier-specific value" field, which can be edited in the created External Links.
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