In mid-market companies, typically 20 to 40 percent of procurement spend runs outside formal purchasing processes. When a department needs something, they bypass the requisition system and call the supplier directly — a phone call, an email, a personal relationship. This is called Maverick Buying and represents one of the most persistent problems in modern procurement.
The good news: it's not a discipline problem, and it's not a people problem. It's a systems problem. And systems problems have systems solutions.
Why Maverick Buying Happens
Maverick Buying isn't intentional defiance. It's a rational response to a cumbersome formal process.
The typical scenario: A department needs something. They open the ERP and face ten forms, approval cascades, and processing delays. Or worse: procurement is reachable, but won't respond for two days — yet the order is needed tomorrow. The logical response: a direct call to the preferred supplier, bypassing the system entirely.
This is rational from the user's perspective. But from procurement's perspective, it's a blind spot. They don't see what's being bought. They can't consolidate. They have no negotiating leverage. And at year-end, they can't prove how much they saved.
The Cost of Maverick Buying
The numbers are clear: companies with poor visibility into their requisition processes lose 15 to 20 percent of their procurement spend to uncontrolled purchases. For a mid-market company with €20M in annual procurement spend, that's €3-4M without proper procurement support.
Beyond the direct cost loss, there are secondary effects: suppliers not registered in contracts, too many suppliers for similar products (losing volume discounts), poor visibility into supply chain risk, and compliance gaps — every off-system purchase is a potential audit problem.
The Better Approach: Requisitions, Not Restriction
The standard IT response is always: "We need to force users to use the system." That doesn't work. Force creates workarounds.
The better approach is the opposite: make the digital path so simple that users choose it voluntarily. This is the principle of structured requisition management.
A good requisition system should be:
Faster than calling the supplier directly. This is non-negotiable. When a user thinks "Should I call the supplier or use the system?", the answer must be unambiguously: use the system. That means 3-5 clicks, under a minute to complete, instant confirmation.
Asynchronous, not synchronous. The user submits a requisition. They don't have to wait for approval before submitting. Procurement handles it later.
Translated into the user's language. Procurement thinks in SKUs, categories, suppliers. Users think "I need office supplies," "We're running low on packaging," "The printer needs toner." Start in the user's language — then translate automatically to procurement's terminology.
Structured Requisitions in Practice
How does this work in reality?
A production supervisor realizes a critical material is running low. They open the requisition app (or a link on the intranet). It asks:
- What do you need? (free text or category selection)
- How much?
- When?
- Cost center / project?
That's it. 40 seconds.
Behind the scenes:
- The system recognizes "Material X" and maps it to the correct SKU
- Checks purchase history: who did we last buy from?
- Checks stock: do we have it on hand?
- Routes accordingly: approved, or "procurement will follow up"
The result: the user never calls the supplier directly. Their requisition is in the system. Procurement sees everything. They can act strategically — consolidate, negotiate frameworks, leverage volume.
The KPIs That Matter
When procurement introduces structured requisitions, these metrics drive improvement:
Percentage of structured requisitions. Target: 70-80 percent of spend through formal processes. Anything below that signals opportunity.
Average order size after implementation. Structured requisitions drive consolidation — bigger orders, better discounts.
Time from need to order. Measure whether the digital path is actually faster than calling suppliers. If not, users won't use it.
Contract coverage rate. What percentage of orders go through contracted suppliers? Structured requisitions push this number up.
Two Scenarios
Scenario 1: Mid-market with multiple sites
A machinery manufacturer with four production plants has a serious Maverick problem. Each site buys independently. Different suppliers, different prices.
With requisition management: Procurement aggregates demand. "We have total need for 500 units of Component X this quarter" — not four separate orders of 125 each. Now procurement can run a real RFQ. Result: 12-15% cost reduction through consolidation.
Scenario 2: Regulated industry
A company in a highly regulated sector (pharma, automotive) has the problem that significant spend runs outside controlled systems. Maverick Buying = audit risk.
With requisition management: all purchases are traceable. Full audit trail. Every order tied to a person, project, cost center. That's not just cost control — it's risk control.
cusoso Requisitions: Simple, Structured, Visible
The requisition module in cusoso Target is built on exactly this logic: simplicity for end users, transparency for procurement.
Employees submit requisitions without needing procurement knowledge. They say what they need. The system maps it to categories and suppliers using AI. Procurement gets an aggregated view — and can act strategically.
Result: less Maverick Buying. More negotiating leverage. Real visibility into true spend.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between Maverick Buying and authorized direct purchases?
Maverick Buying is uncontrolled — purchases procurement doesn't see. Authorized direct purchases (for SME vendors or small volumes) are part of the control system: procurement knows them, approved them, can analyze them. One is the problem; the other is part of the solution.
What's a typical Maverick percentage in mid-market companies?
Studies show typically 20 to 40% in companies without structured requisition processes. With digital requisitions, this drops below 15%.
How long does implementation take?
Structured requisition management isn't a 12-month project. With a modern cloud platform like cusoso, a pilot is immediately ready to use and integrated with your ERP system in the shortest possible time.
What if our ERP can't integrate?
That's often more organizational than technical. Modern solutions like cusoso work via APIs — even with legacy ERPs. The key is commitment to the structured process.
The good news: it's not a discipline problem, and it's not a people problem. It's a systems problem. And systems problems have systems solutions.
Why Maverick Buying Happens
Maverick Buying isn't intentional defiance. It's a rational response to a cumbersome formal process.
The typical scenario: A department needs something. They open the ERP and face ten forms, approval cascades, and processing delays. Or worse: procurement is reachable, but won't respond for two days — yet the order is needed tomorrow. The logical response: a direct call to the preferred supplier, bypassing the system entirely.
This is rational from the user's perspective. But from procurement's perspective, it's a blind spot. They don't see what's being bought. They can't consolidate. They have no negotiating leverage. And at year-end, they can't prove how much they saved.
The Cost of Maverick Buying
The numbers are clear: companies with poor visibility into their requisition processes lose 15 to 20 percent of their procurement spend to uncontrolled purchases. For a mid-market company with €20M in annual procurement spend, that's €3-4M without proper procurement support.
Beyond the direct cost loss, there are secondary effects: suppliers not registered in contracts, too many suppliers for similar products (losing volume discounts), poor visibility into supply chain risk, and compliance gaps — every off-system purchase is a potential audit problem.
The Better Approach: Requisitions, Not Restriction
The standard IT response is always: "We need to force users to use the system." That doesn't work. Force creates workarounds.
The better approach is the opposite: make the digital path so simple that users choose it voluntarily. This is the principle of structured requisition management.
A good requisition system should be:
Faster than calling the supplier directly. This is non-negotiable. When a user thinks "Should I call the supplier or use the system?", the answer must be unambiguously: use the system. That means 3-5 clicks, under a minute to complete, instant confirmation.
Asynchronous, not synchronous. The user submits a requisition. They don't have to wait for approval before submitting. Procurement handles it later.
Translated into the user's language. Procurement thinks in SKUs, categories, suppliers. Users think "I need office supplies," "We're running low on packaging," "The printer needs toner." Start in the user's language — then translate automatically to procurement's terminology.
Structured Requisitions in Practice
How does this work in reality?
A production supervisor realizes a critical material is running low. They open the requisition app (or a link on the intranet). It asks:
- What do you need? (free text or category selection)
- How much?
- When?
- Cost center / project?
That's it. 40 seconds.
Behind the scenes:
- The system recognizes "Material X" and maps it to the correct SKU
- Checks purchase history: who did we last buy from?
- Checks stock: do we have it on hand?
- Routes accordingly: approved, or "procurement will follow up"
The result: the user never calls the supplier directly. Their requisition is in the system. Procurement sees everything. They can act strategically — consolidate, negotiate frameworks, leverage volume.
The KPIs That Matter
When procurement introduces structured requisitions, these metrics drive improvement:
Percentage of structured requisitions. Target: 70-80 percent of spend through formal processes. Anything below that signals opportunity.
Average order size after implementation. Structured requisitions drive consolidation — bigger orders, better discounts.
Time from need to order. Measure whether the digital path is actually faster than calling suppliers. If not, users won't use it.
Contract coverage rate. What percentage of orders go through contracted suppliers? Structured requisitions push this number up.
Two Scenarios
Scenario 1: Mid-market with multiple sites
A machinery manufacturer with four production plants has a serious Maverick problem. Each site buys independently. Different suppliers, different prices.
With requisition management: Procurement aggregates demand. "We have total need for 500 units of Component X this quarter" — not four separate orders of 125 each. Now procurement can run a real RFQ. Result: 12-15% cost reduction through consolidation.
Scenario 2: Regulated industry
A company in a highly regulated sector (pharma, automotive) has the problem that significant spend runs outside controlled systems. Maverick Buying = audit risk.
With requisition management: all purchases are traceable. Full audit trail. Every order tied to a person, project, cost center. That's not just cost control — it's risk control.
cusoso Requisitions: Simple, Structured, Visible
The requisition module in cusoso Target is built on exactly this logic: simplicity for end users, transparency for procurement.
Employees submit requisitions without needing procurement knowledge. They say what they need. The system maps it to categories and suppliers using AI. Procurement gets an aggregated view — and can act strategically.
Result: less Maverick Buying. More negotiating leverage. Real visibility into true spend.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between Maverick Buying and authorized direct purchases?
Maverick Buying is uncontrolled — purchases procurement doesn't see. Authorized direct purchases (for SME vendors or small volumes) are part of the control system: procurement knows them, approved them, can analyze them. One is the problem; the other is part of the solution.
What's a typical Maverick percentage in mid-market companies?
Studies show typically 20 to 40% in companies without structured requisition processes. With digital requisitions, this drops below 15%.
How long does implementation take?
Structured requisition management isn't a 12-month project. With a modern cloud platform like cusoso, a pilot is immediately ready to use and integrated with your ERP system in the shortest possible time.
What if our ERP can't integrate?
That's often more organizational than technical. Modern solutions like cusoso work via APIs — even with legacy ERPs. The key is commitment to the structured process.