Procurement System Integration with CobbleStone Software

Procurement System Integrations 

Procurement systems are systems that handle financial metadata related to invoicing and purchasing.  Some examples of popular procurement systems include Coupa, Oracle Services procurement, and Workday Spend Management.  

Common Use Case Scenarios

Typically, these Procurement systems are integrated with the CobbleStone® platform to provide a myriad of functions.  Some of the typical use case scenarios are: (diagrams below) 

• Syncing Customer/Vendor Metadata between systems 
• Syncing E-Sourcing Metadata between systems 
• Syncing Purchase Order/Invoicing between systems 
• Automating workflow between systems 
  • Ex: Updated PO triggers Requisition in Coupa 
  • Ex: An inactive Vendor in Coupa updates corresponding record in CobbleStone® to show inactivity. 

Setup

Once connections are established linking the CobbleStone® platform with the client’s Procurement system, the integration setup can commence. 

Each system has its records identified by an Internal key.  CobbleStone® will automatically auto-increment new records and assign them their own unique identifier (i.e.: 1st new Purchase Order “New Widgets” will have POID 1 when created.  No new Purchase order records will have that POID).  The same process applies to the records created within Procurement systems (i.e.: Coupa creates an Internal Key for new records within the system).   

For the integration to properly function, a record sync must be performed.   The unique identifier for a record must be appended to the correct record between systems.  If a system cannot correctly identify existing records, the results are normally erroneous (i.e.: duplicate records, incorrect amendments, etc.). 

To ensure that these keys match up, there are actions that can be taken: 

• New fields must be created to store external record identifiers (Ex: Coupa Internal ID created in CobbleStone® system/CobbleStone® ID created in Coupa) 
• CSV Files containing the unique identifiers for records from one system matched to records in the integrated system and imported to be stored on those records

Integration Maintenance

To ensure ongoing automation and accuracy with these integrations, record syncing must remain constant.  Depending on the frequency of record changes in a system, the frequency of the sync of the records between the systems must match. 

Ex: Purchase Orders are constantly being added and updated within the client’s system and the changes need to reflect quickly in CobbleStone®.  A sync of the records should trigger in real-time or in small intervals of every 5-10 minutes.  

Ex: Vendor records in a client’s system rarely change.  The sync of record metadata between that system and CobbleStone® system doesn’t need to happen as frequently. A daily or weekly sync may be all that is necessary. 

Procurement Systems Common Functionality Diagrams