Maverick spend is purchasing activity that occurs outside an organization’s approved procurement policy, contract, supplier, channel, or workflow. The label should be applied against a clearly defined rule and reviewed for valid exceptions. Analysis can reveal usability, availability, training, policy, catalog, or operational problems rather than simply attributing every deviation to requester behavior.
In plain English
It is buying that bypasses an approved route, subject to the organization’s defined exceptions.
Illustrative example
At Northstar Industrial Systems, analytics identifies maintenance purchases made outside the negotiated catalog, and procurement checks whether availability or policy design caused the behavior.
- Related terms
- Guided buying; Contract compliance; Spend analysis; Tail spend
- Lifecycle stages
- Request; Execute; Optimize
- Stakeholders
- Procurement; Finance; Requester