F: Import and Export Utilities

Appendix F: Import and Export Utilities

PECOS P2P provides standard import and export utilities for the management of data. Bulk load files and imports are accompanied by excel templates and are usually undertaken as flat file (csv) data loads. Please contact your implementation consultant or Elcom Support for further information.

Bulk Loads

The following bulk load utilities are available for the bulk loading of system configuration data into PECOS P2P.

• Bulk Address Load (csv only)
• Bulk User Load (csv only)
• Bulk Supplier Load (XML and csv)
• Bulk Account Load (XML and csv)
• Bulk PCard Load (XML only)
• Bulk Business Rule Group Load (XML only)

Import Utilities

Inbound interfaces allow external system to push information to our systems without being asked. There are two methods for data handoff to PECOS P2P: one active and one passive.

• Active: Customer’s own internal systems invoke ASP pages and deal directly with the responses and notifications thereafter received. The customer is able to POST payload documents using the HTTP protocol, directly and in real-time. A web server will route them accordingly.
• Passive: The second supported method allows the customer to leverage Elcom’s feature rich automations to do the work. The customer simply transmits the payload documents via secure FTP or eMail, or alternatively posts direct to the online service desk, and automated routines do the rest. The intelligence in these interfaces will maintain the files to ensure they are delivered, archived, and loaded complete with notifications.

The following import utilities are available for the bulk import of procurement data into PECOS P2P.

• Invoice Import (cXML and csv)
• Requisition Import (cXML only)
• Receipt Return Import (XML only)
• External Process Interface: During the requisition workflow routing phase of processing an order, external systems can make changes to the order just as a user would. This HTTP based interface is used in combination with approval plans and allows a customer to invoke external routines such as a web services call (WSDL) using SOAP or the more recent RESTful services to contact a Payment Gateway or Credit Card Validation service. The interface also accepts notifications in order to allow objects to be progressed through the workflow process and ensures that changes are recorded in the audit trail for an order just as if an approver had made the change

Export Utilities

PECOS P2P contains procurement information that is both required and useful for external systems. Three standard outbound interfaces offer a mechanism for those systems to perform either a ‘GET’ or ‘POST’ of this information. PECOS P2P provides the information in an XML formatted document, using ELCOM specific DTD’s. There is also a User Interface provided in PECOS P2P for customers to see the export history or manually request the next or a previous batch for all the exports.

The following XML export utilities are available for exporting procurement data out of PECOS P2P.

• Order Export: This interface allows the transfer of full purchase order information
• Receipt Return Export: This interface offers a way of extracting a list of orders that have been receipted and returned.
• Accounts Payable Export: This interface is designed to allow an external system to automatically query PECOS via an HTTP GET command and run a batch containing payable invoice information. The data in this interface contains purchase order and invoice information and includes all additional charges or price changes.