Your firm’s office supplies contracts are an easy way to save money and improve services. What key items should your Office Supplies contract contain?
1. Defined and limited price increases – Limited to annual and limited to % increase. Don’t leave your price increases undefined.
2. Firm cancellation terms – You want terms that allow you cancel for convenience, merger, and firm downsizing.
3. Contract/Core List – Best pricing on most frequently purchased items – top 200, should equate to 80% of your spend.
4. Incentives – Signing incentives, discounts for large orders, early payment and incremental growth. Signing incentives can be huge – we recently had a firm receive a One Million Dollar cash signing incentive right before year end.
5. Monthly or quarterly reporting/scorecards for monitoring spend, Service Level Agreements (on-time deliveries, order fulfillment), incentives and adjusting contract/core list.
How can you get there? Here are some office supplies contract basics:
Get competitive – Over 70% of firms do not get competitive proposals when their contracts expire leaving a tremendous amount of savings and improved terms on the table – something you cannot afford in this day and age.
Think from the ground up –
a. What is “Office Supplies” – Not trying to sound like Bill Clinton, but what exactly is in your office supplies contract? Would you be better off if hospitality supplies were included or should that be a separate contract?
b. Think outside the “paper” box – A big impact item. many firms include this under their outsourcing contracts but you may be able to leverage this spend better under your office supplies contract.
Every firm of course, is unique. Give us a call today at 610.459.7750, to discuss your specific situation.
