Policy in Place Isn’t the Same as Policy in Practice

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Having a procurement policy is only half the battle – learn how to bridge the gap between written guidelines and day-to-day purchasing behavior.

Your organization may have a robust procurement policy on paper, but do your employees actually follow it? Too often, the answer is no. Maverick spending – purchases made outside of approved processes – remains a persistent challenge, even in companies with well-defined policies. Simply put, a policy in place doesn’t guarantee a policy in practice, and that gap can cost millions in lost value.

Key insights from this whitepaper include:

The True Cost of Non-Compliance: Eye-opening data on how much maverick spend is occurring and what it’s costing businesses.
Why Policies Fail: An analysis of the five root causes of why a great policy on paper can break down in practice – from convoluted procedures and unfriendly systems to poor communication and accountability.
How AI Can Help: How modern AI-driven tools address each of these failure points. For example, introducing guided buying interfaces to make compliance easy, automating approvals and validations to enforce policies in real-time, and using analytics to catch and correct off-contract spending early.
Merlin Intake in Action: What an AI intake agent like Merlin Intake does – providing employees a convenient, conversational way to submit requests that automatically follow policy, checking for compliance and exceptions on the fly, and preventing rogue purchasing before it happens.
Real-World Proof: A case study of how Delta Air Lines bridged the policy-vs-practice gap. See how this global company dramatically increased compliance and curbed maverick spend by addressing root causes and leveraging AI.

Don’t let “policy on paper” be where things stop in your organization. Take action to ensure every purchase aligns with your guidelines. Download the whitepaper now and turn your procurement policy into practice – for good.