A Quick Guide to Supplier Catalogs on Ariba Network

No matter what you sell, catalogs can play a crucial role in how customers view your products and services. Done right, they help you maximize visibility and sales. Done wrong, they can actually damage your brand.

The question is, how can you optimize your catalogs to deliver the results you want? It’s an ongoing process, and navigating the maze of options can be challenging—especially if you’re just getting started. So we’ve put together a quick primer on catalogs to help.

Four great resources

Click any or all of the links below to get more information on the areas that interest you. By doing so, you’ll soon be well on your way to creating best-in-class catalogs that will delight your customers and build your business.

Which Online Catalog is Right for You?

• A list of how e-catalogs can benefit your sales and service
• One supplier’s story about how e-catalogs helped them drive win-win results
• Definitions of catalog interchange format (CIF) and PunchOut catalogs, and guidelines to help you choose between them
• Directions on how to implement an e-catalog
• Links to helpful resources

Eight Best Practices to Improve Your CIF Catalog Results

• Detailed strategies for making your CIF catalogs pay off
• SAP Ariba resources you can use to quickly create, publish, and update CIF catalogs

How to Cut Catalog Management Costs and Drive Sales: A Guide to PunchOut

• A simple definition of PunchOut
• A description of the benefits PunchOut catalogs deliver over CIF or paper catalogs
• Criteria to help you decide when a PunchOut catalog would be the best choice
• Best practices to help you optimize PunchOut catalog results
• Links to additional information and support

Boost Visibility and Sales with Level 2 PunchOut

• A high-level explanation of L2 PunchOut and how it works
• A list of the benefits L2 PunchOut offers over L1 PunchOut, and what that means for you
• Information on when to implement L2 PunchOut and how to get started
• Links to additional information and support

Learn more about catalogs

If you have questions or want help taking your use of catalogs to the next level, you can:

• Sign up for any of our live demos on catalogs
• Review our tutorials, documentation, templates, and more by logging into your Ariba Network account, clicking Documentation at the bottom of the Help Center sidebar, then clicking the relevant links under Product Documentation/Catalogs and Tutorials
• Contact us at commerceassistance@sap.com