Stationery

Stationery and Office Supplies

Many companies treat stationery invoices as just another cost of doing business, yet efficient office supplies procurement can be a rich source of savings.

That's because many stationery suppliers intentionally form close relationships with their clients' purchasing staff, promoting the twin ethics of good service and good value. Yet in our experience, the latter often falls well short of the promise.

We believe it's healthy to test this relationship by putting your office supplies requirements out to tender so you can evaluate existing costs against the wider marketplace. This approach consistently delivers significant and ongoing cost savings together with improved SLAs.

Even if you're confident in your ability to negotiate a tough deal with your stationery provider, you can still fall prey to price manipulation tactics. That's because any discounts will usually be linked to specific line items, which means that if you order the same product in a different pack size, the discount won't apply. Stationery suppliers use short-term promotions to encourage these "off-contract" purchases. Then when the promotion ends, the price rockets, and unless you analyse each invoice line by line, you'll never know. 

Our invoice validation service monitors every item on every invoice, ensuring pricing and quantities remain consistent with the agreed terms.