top of page
WHITE LOGO.png

                                   |              |                 |                                      |                                        |                               |                                         

PORTALINK VENDOR EXCHANGE

Portalink Vendor Exchange is purpose built to simplify the bi-directional data exchange between Suppliers and Universities that use Technology One's hosted internal catalogues.

​

Integrates with TechnologyOne - Finance and Procurement Suites

​

Eliminates waste – faster, easier, cost effectively

 

Less overhead and fewer headaches

Anchor 1

Portalink is a solution that provides unprecedented efficiency gains for the University and its Vendors

Portalink Vendor Exchange is a new system that automates product data exchange between a University's Supplier Community and their CiAnywhere internal catalogue/s and finance modules. Portalink also simplifies end-to-end EDI connectivity for the full transaction cycle, enabling quicker and more cost effective onboarding of trading partners - regardless of their EDI capability - and a richer experience for users.​

​

  • Links all supplier product data to CiAnywhere internal calalogue/s … with minimal effort … and without additional resources

​

  • Achieves greater financial control

​

  • Facilitates two and three-way matching (purchase order, goods received and invoices)

​

  • Automates e-Invoice processing for ALL vendors

​

  • Reduces costly leakage

​​

  • Enables more granular reporting

Sandra Matthews | Deputy Chief Financial Officer

University of New England

HOW

how it works

Portalink works with your preferred suppliers to build rich catalogue data. 

​

  • If we are not already working with any of your vendors, we will reach out and get the process underway. 

​

  • There are no barriers to entry for your supplier community. Portalink will help to ensure that contract pricing is correctly represented and that all the critical data fields are captured, regardless of the technical capabilities of each supplier: 

 

​

Portalink makes the process as easy as possible for each Supplier by adapting to their existing Master Product Data lists rather than expecting them to build special files. We even go the extra mile to capture as much rich data as possible by capturing images and specifications from their websites to create a great user experience for your staff.

 

Portalink appeals to big and small vendors with an engagement model that enables them to become part of your CiAnywhere online community without incurring any fees. Suppliers have an option to subscribe to an integration plan to achieve additional transaction automation benefits.

 

​

Portalink simplifies the work needed to manage your online catalogue/s.

​

  • Having eliminated the hassle of chasing suppliers and manipulating data, the Vendor Exchange portal makes the process of loading data to the CiAnywhere catalogues as simple as it can be. Portalink has worked closely with Technology One to simplify the process of preparing and exporting product data:

 

​

First - select the products you want to make available to your staff

 

Then - add the remaining attributes such as Categories and UoM.   

 

Finally - Export the data file from your Vendor Exchange Catalogue Management portal to your CiAnywhere catalogue/s - WITH A SINGLE CLICK. In a few seconds, your staff can start ordering the new products online without having to navigate in and out of multiple websites. Together with TechnologyOne, we have eliminated seven or more steps that would otherwise be required to upload product data and images to first, the CiAnywhere supplier products module and then the internal catalogue end point.

The Vendor Exchange portal simplifies the whole EDI cycle.

​

  • The electronic exchange of Purchase Orders, ASNs, Invoices and Credit Notes between CiAnywhere and the Vendor Exchange portal is seamless and turnkey

​​

  • Portalink has unique capabilities to capture and convert any type of supplier EDI, PDF, Excel or flat files into an EDI format that can be automatically imported into CiAnywhere. Your Vendor Exchange portal will automate Advanced Shipping Notifications (ASNs), invoices and credit notes from end-to-end, without manual data entry and regardless of each suppliers technical capabilities.

 

​

step one

product management

step two

transaction automation

IMG1.png
IMG2.png

step two

transaction automation

without

Portalink-2-CiAnywhere

with

Portalink-2-CiAnywhere

A high percentage of procurement will occur without a Purchase Order 

  • No control

  • Too many orders placed with uncontracted suppliers

  • High waste

​

Managing the product data from Supplier to CiAnywhere internal catalogue is timeconsuming, resource-heavy and hard to scale

​

Setting up traditional EDI connectivity is costly and can take six to twelve months per Supplier to achieve an EDI-compliant state.

A high percentage of Purchase Orders will be raised in a rich, user-friendly online environment

  • Greater workflow controls for authorisation 

  • Tightly integrated GL Business Intelligence and reportability

  • Improved budgeting and financial controls

​

By simplifying the demands and resources of product data management, Portalink provides a scalable solution that frees up staff for more productive activities

​

Portalink one-connect EDI is seamless and turnkey for you and your Suppliers. ALL ASNs, invoices and credit notes can be automated without costly integration with each Supplier.

PRODUCT

MANAGEMENT 

Portalink enables the University to dynamically receive and upload rich supplier product data from Suppliers to their internal eCatalogue

DATA

CLEANSING 

Portalink provides a gateway to prevent products passing to the eCatalogue without the correct contract pricing, codes, search filters, images etc.

TRANSACTION

ENGINE

Portalink automates ALL transactions, including Purchase Orders, Invoices and ASN’s between the University and the Suppliers in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional EDI.

ENHANCED USER

EXPERIENCE 

By filling the gaps between the (ERP) systems at either end of the supply chain, Portalink compliments and enhances the user experience.

WHY

why?

In the past, Procure-to-Pay solutions have been limited to external Punch-Out systems which have minimal data integration, compromising financial controls, and provide a less than perfect user experience. 
 
By contrast, internally hosted catalogues are deeply integrated with University financial systems and workflow management. By eliminating the traditional challenges and resource dependencies of managing and maintaining Supplier Catalogues, and by eliminating the need to setup costly EDI connectivity with each Vendor, Portalink has made the CiAnywhere Internal Catalogue a very viable proposition. 
​
Hosted or internal catalogues have always provided greater control over products offered, pricing, GL codes, inventory management, budgeting and reporting. A well presented hosted catalogue also provides a better user experience for staff when buying with a single interface to become acquainted at one site rather than navigating across a multitude of supplier websites, as is the case with Punch-Out alternatives. Being able to easily cross reference product offers from diffrent suppliers at a single site ensures that staff are empowered to make better procurement decisions, which reduces wasted expenditure and increases the likelihood that the most appropriate product for the purpose will be ordered. 
 
Providing a great user experience also equates to higher user uptake, which helps by ramping the volume of Purchase Orders raised, which in turn facilitates better two and three way matching. Achieving such KPI's also accelerates the ROI. 
 
So why have Punch-Out systems made such an impact over the past twenty years?...

Universities around the world are searching for innovative ways to reduce cost and eliminate waste. The University Procurement Hub (UPH) is an example of how the University sector in Australia is collaborating to tackle this important challenge.  

Read More

The Procure-to-Pay suite market is growing rapidly as organisations seek automation and innovation to control spend and improve supplier collaboration. 

Gartner Report

May 2018

Vendor Exchange is being adopted by Australian Universities because it:

​

  • Empowers Universities to implement better Financial Controls with:

    • More granular accrued expenses for better budget management

    • Improved reconciliation with two & three-way matching of POs, Invoices and ASNs

    • Greater capacity to implement online approval processes

    • A more precise audit trail from order to receipt

  • Manages and maintains supplier product data

  • Reduces leakage

  • Enables faster processing and payment cycles to leverage early payment discounts

  • Automatically assigns expenses using uniform product categories

  • Empowers analytics and detailed expense reporting

  • Integrates inventory into CiAnywhere catalogues [optional] - reducing risk of re-ordering goods that are already available in stock

  • Increases utilisation of contract products - - increasing your importance to contracted suppliers and optimising ongoing mutual commitment

SECURITY
THE SUPPLIER COMMUNITY

security

Portalink and Technology One have collaborated with the four founding Universities to achieve an integrated system that meets their rigorous security standards.

the supplier community

Portalink works with your Suppliers to build your catalogues

Portalink uses sophisticated mapping tools to import each Supplier's Master Product Data without them having to create purpose-built files, making onboarding and maintenance easy for you and easy for your Suppliers

​

With a single click each Supplier's catalogue is pushed from the Portalink Vendor Exchange portal to the CiAnywhere internal catalogue - complete with images, contract pricing, categories, UoM, dangerous goods codes, specifications etc. - instantly ready for your staff to commence placing orders online.

​

The Supplier Community on Portalink Vendor Exchange is growing rapidly. More than 30 key Suppliers have already committed their support and new Supplier catalogues are continually being added. Just introduce the Suppliers you want and Portalink will do the rest.

UNI

Suppliers supporting Portalink Vendor Exchange:

the university community

Portalink Vendor Exchange is the result of close collaboration with TechnologyOne and four founding Universities.

 

Following a successful Proof-of-Concept Trial with the University of South Australia in 2018, Portalink embarked on the development of a purpose-built integration bridge with TechnologyOne and a group of four early-believer Universities. 

​

The collaboration between the Finance, IT and Procurement Teams of UniSA, Curtin University, James Cook University and the University of New England has been instrumental in enabling Portalink and TechnologyOne to achieve a purpose-built solution to suit Universities in early stages of their procurement maturity.

​

A Community Forum enables all participating Universities to exchange ideas via blog posts in an endeavor to achieve a system that can minimise wasteful duplication of effort for the sector. This ongoing, dynamic collaboration is helping to streamline workflows and solve complex challanges with a 'universal adoption where possible' attitude. This approach has already significantly reduced the complexity of managing categories, UoM, dangerous goods codes, tax codes, and more.

Heading 2

Thanks for

your support!

Click the images below to view University member quotes:

IMPEMENTATION

implementation

A good implementation process is crucial for success. Portalink and Technology One have developed a simplified implementation process for participating Universities" to "a simplified implementation pack for

participating Universities.

 

Technology One has built a customised Portalink Export Transform Load (ETL) package which is available for free download to enable the dynamic transfer of catalogue data from Vendor Exchange portal to the CiAnywhere catalogue end point

​

Portalink will work with your procurement team to add additional vendor catalogues from suppliers that we are not already engaging with.

System Requirements

Portalink Vendor Exchange (Cloud)

Product Exchange Management Module

​

EDI Exchange Modules for:

  • Purchase Orders

  • Advance Shipping Notifications (Optional)

  • Invoices and Credit Notes

Technology One CiAnywhere

(including Cloud)

Finance Module (Version 18B)

 

Procurement Module (Version 18B)

 

EDI Module

 

Portalink ETL Package

proof-of-concept

By facilitating easier maintenance and administration of their internal eCatalogue and P2P system, Portalink has unlocked the potential for better business outcomes.

Peter Prest (UniSA CFO) Talks about Portalink Proof-of-Concept

PRICING

PRICING

Portalink has a transparent enterprise fee structure.

 

Ask about our freemium plan for suppliers.

IMPLEMENTATION FEE

Portalink takes a hands-on approach to help customers reach optimal data automation success.

LICENSE FEE

Includes Hosting; Data Storage; Unlimited Users; System Upgrades and 24/7 Technical Support.

TRANSACTION FEE

A small flat fee per transaction rather than a percentage of purchase value avoids unpleasant surprises.

WHITE LOGO.png

AUSTRALIA HEAD OFFICE
Portalink Pty Ltd.
26 Gray Court Adelaide

South Australia, 5000
E: info@portalink.com
T: +61 8 8120 0930

bottom of page