It's challenging enough getting everyone on board the Sourcing train when your entire company is centralized in one building or complex. (I'll never forget the day we happened to look out the window of our Purchasing Department and noticed the delivery truck belonging to a competitor of our approved office supply vendor pulling up to one of our buildings.) What about when you have branch locations, franchises, or just multiple offices in different geographical locations? How do you get everyone on board?
Since it will not be possible physically to monitor deliveries, you might have to get creative. This is where good financial software and/or a productive relationship with your AP department comes in.
For example, you know how much you spend with your approved office supply vendor. You can compare that number to the GL accounts assigned to office supplies. You can investigate discrepancies by searching the AP records for competitors to your contract vendor and see if and how much they have been paid.
Another approach is to make it easy for your outlying locations to order through preferred suppliers. The easiest ways to do this are clear, concise, and continuous communications as well as utilizing the vendors' web-based ordering systems to make it easy for the end users to follow your instructions.
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