Backhouse: Your Dream Equipment Procurement Assistant

The email arrives at 6:47 AM: a franchisee in Phoenix needs a new reach-in cooler at their highest-volume unit. By 9, you've reached out to three approved equipment vendors, but by noon, you've only heard from one. You write your fifth email clarifying specs and negotiating express delivery rates. At 3, the franchisee is back in your inbox, asking if they can just buy from a local supplier instead.

This is daily reality for enterprise procurement teams. These communication problems compound across hundreds and thousands of units, each with their own equipment needs, timelines, and compliance requirements. You're experts, and yet you're spending all your time managing administrative chaos instead of building strategic vendor relationships, negotiating better contracts, or optimizing equipment lifecycles across your portfolio.

The system isn't broken because you aren't working hard enough, it's broken because manual equipment sourcing simply can't keep pace with enterprise scale. You need more than headcount to keep up: you need an assistant that doesn't sleep or take PTO and has the best research and multi-tasking capabilities you've seen in your career.

That assistant isn't a human. It's Backhouse.

Backhouse is an AI-powered marketplace that does what no human procurement assistant could: it processes equipment requests against a catalog of 500,000+ items, autonomously collects bids from approved vendors, and delivers franchise-compliant quotes within 24 hours so you can spend more time on tasks that impact the bottom line. Here's what that means for enterprise sourcing teams.

Around-the-Clock Ops

Human procurement teams work standard business hours, but equipment failures don't follow a schedule. A broken walk-in cooler on a Saturday night in Seattle can't wait until Monday morning in Dallas to be replaced.

Backhouse runs 24/7, processing requests and collecting quotes regardless of time zones, holidays, or weekend emergencies. When procurement teams log in for the work day, quotes have been collected, vendors have been vetted, and franchise-compliant options are already set for review. It doesn't just save time for the franchisor; it can reduce downtime for your locations.

And unlike expanding your procurement team to cover more hours or handle more volume, Backhouse scales without adding headcount. Whether you're buying for 50 locations or 5,000, our solution handles the increased workload without requiring additional staff, training, or overhead costs.

Efficiency That Actually Scales

As we illustrated at the start, manual procurement creates bottlenecks. Each equipment request requires too many touchpoints: clarifying specs, identifying vendors, requesting quotes, following up, comparing options, checking availability, coordinating delivery…

Even the most seasoned procurement professionals can only manage so many requests before things slip through the cracks. But in Backhouse, those cracks just don't exist. We process every sourcing request simultaneously while simplifying communications with vendors. Your franchisee in Miami gets the same comprehensive research as your corporate-owned location in Minneapolis, all without adding strain to your team's workload.

This efficiency extends to compliance, too. For enterprise brands, maintaining spec compliance across franchisees is non-negotiable. Backhouse allows franchisors to set exact equipment requirements for each franchise, down to SKUs, dimensions, and manufacturer requirements. And every purchase is immediately visible and accessible to the overarching corporate office, offering real-time insight without manual audits.

You know exactly which equipment is being purchased, by whom, from which vendors, and at what price; you have quick access to warranty details; you have data to analyze which SKUs are lasting the longest across units. Finally, you have a procurement system that actually works the way you need it to.

All of this, from around-the-clock operations, simultaneous multi-location sourcing, to automated compliance, would require a team you literally can’t build.

Empowerment for Everyone

Just like POS makes kitchen staff more efficient and labor management tools give managers scheduling support, Backhouse handles the repetitive, time-consuming work of sourcing so procurement teams can focus on the strategic work that requires their expertise.

The benefits don’t stop at the main office. Franchisees are able to access their franchisor’s product catalogs so there’s no question about which products are approved for use. Plus, they can refine those catalog results by each individual unit’s needs, or their own personal preferences of manufacturers or suppliers within the approved list. When they submit a request, Backhouse automatically collects all of the information they need to make a purchasing decision.

With Backhouse, the next time that high-volume unit in Phoenix has an emergency, the franchisee can immediately jump into action, and your enterprise procurement team can have confidence that the issue is handled promptly.