Stanley Steemer International Inc., a carpet cleaning company with $117 million of 2003 revenues, provided its 50 company-owned branches with procurement cards to make it easier for them to buy the supplies they needed. Now, in its second year of using the cards, Stanley Steemer has found that they not only make life easier for its branch managers, but also save its accounts payable staff a considerable amount of time.

To date, Stanley Steemer has moved $3.5 million, or about 3.5% of its total spending, onto the cards, and Corporate Controller Joel Karg calls that "the tip of the iceberg." He predicts that the cards will eventually handle 10 times that much spending. "We've encouraged [branches] to put whatever they can on the cards," he says.

Killing fewer Trees