Ardent Partners on Procurement Compliance in 2025

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Introduction: Why Contract Compliance Matters Now More Than Ever

In an era marked by global supply chain volatility, economic uncertainty, and AI-led procurement transformation, organizations can’t afford to leave value on the table. Yet, according to the 2025 Ardent Partners Procurement Metrics That Matter report, only 62.2% of enterprise spend is contract compliant, leaving nearly 38% vulnerable to inefficiencies and inflated costs due to maverick spend.

These non-compliant expenditures—purchases made outside approved contracts—can silently erode savings, disrupt supplier relationships, and expose enterprises to risk. Research shows that every dollar of maverick spend costs 12% to 18% more than compliant spend, creating budgetary leaks that are often hidden in plain sight.

This blog explores why contract compliance must be elevated from an afterthought to a strategic imperative—and how modern procurement leaders are using intelligent automation to plug these costly leaks.

The Compliance Gap: Understanding Maverick Spend

Maverick spend typically occurs when employees bypass approved purchasing channels, either due to lack of awareness, system complexity, or urgency. The consequences? Increased supplier proliferation, missed volume discounts, exposure to non-compliant terms, and weakened negotiating power.

As highlighted by Ardent Partners, while CPOs rank contract compliance as a top-tier performance metric, average compliance remains flat. This gap is not due to lack of intention but rather fragmented systems, poor visibility, and low end-user adoption of procurement tools.

Root Causes of Maverick Spend:

Complex, non-intuitive procurement systems
Lack of visibility into available contracts
Manual or disconnected intake and sourcing workflows
Ineffective change management and training

Plugging the Leaks: Technology-Driven Strategies

To contain and reduce maverick spend, procurement teams must embed compliance directly into the purchasing process—making it seamless, automated, and intuitive.

1. Intelligent Intake Management with Merlin

The first touchpoint of procurement—the business request—is often where leakage begins. Zycus’ Merlin Intake Management automates this entry point using AI-driven smart forms and workflows that ensure users are guided toward preferred contracts, suppliers, and categories from the start.

Key Benefits:

Real-time policy enforcement
Reduction in rogue requests
100% visibility into demand signals

2. Contract Authoring and Monitoring with Merlin Contract Management

Even the best-negotiated contracts lose value if not enforced during execution. Zycus’ Merlin Contract Management leverages AI to ensure active clause-level monitoring, renewal alerts, and post-award compliance. It flags deviations and ensures sourcing decisions map back to executed agreements.

Key Benefits:

AI-powered contract clause benchmarking
Real-time compliance tracking
Seamless linkage with sourcing and invoicing platforms

3. Tail Spend Automation with Autonomous Negotiation

Maverick spend often hides in tail categories—low-value but high-frequency transactions. Zycus’ Autonomous Sourcing Agent tackles this by executing rule-based negotiations autonomously, bringing tail spend under compliant frameworks.

Key Benefits:

Automated negotiation for off-contract categories
Reduction in unmanaged supplier base
Increase in strategic sourcing bandwidth

Case for Change: The ROI of Compliance

Ardent’s research shows that Best-in-Class procurement teams—those in the top 20%—achieve 79.5% contract compliance, compared to just 56.2% for others. This 23% delta delivers outsized savings and lowers risk.

Moreover, contract compliance correlates directly with:

Improved spend under management (91.7% in Best-in-Class firms)
Higher savings rates (8.0% vs. 6.4%)
Greater supplier enablement (61.7% vs. 44.2%)

In other words, compliance isn’t just a governance metric—it’s a value multiplier.

Building a Compliance-First Culture

While technology plays a pivotal role, sustainable compliance requires a shift in mindset across procurement and business users alike. Here’s how:

1. Embed Compliance in Daily Workflows

Make compliance the path of least resistance through intelligent design. Every request, PO, and invoice should naturally flow through preferred channels.

2. Partner with Stakeholders

Educate business units on the cost of non-compliance. Share dashboards that highlight leakage and lost savings.

3. Continuously Monitor and Improve

Deploy AI to analyze patterns in non-compliant spend and fine-tune controls. Zycus’ Spend Analysis Software delivers deep visibility into spend behaviors and anomalies.

The Future of Contract Compliance is Autonomous

In 2025 and beyond, contract compliance can no longer rely on manual policing. As procurement matures into a strategic, AI-powered function, compliance will be embedded, monitored, and enforced autonomously across the Source-to-Pay lifecycle.

Zycus is leading this evolution. With its Merlin AI Platform, compliance becomes not just a checkbox but a competitive advantage—enabling procurement teams to focus on innovation, not intervention.

Cross-Referenced Zycus Solutions

Final Thoughts: Don’t Let Contracts Leak Value

Maverick spend and poor contract compliance are not inevitable—they are symptoms of disconnected systems, unclear policies, and legacy mindsets. With the right AI-driven tools, change management, and data visibility, procurement leaders can plug the leaks and reclaim lost value.

2025 is not just the year of savings; it’s the year of smart, contract-centric procurement. Are you ready?

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Amit Shah

Amit is a seasoned business leader who brings to Zycus about 18 years of experience in strategic marketing and communications, business management, and strategy. As CMO and Head Global BD, he is responsible for all aspects of global marketing and demand generation. He also leads other strategic functions like sales ops, bid desk and sales enablement. Before joining Zycus, Amit was based in London and served as Managing Director at OakNorth, a B2B SAAS unicorn and supported large enterprise engagements across the US, Europe, and Australasia. Amit holds an MBA from IIM Mumbai and B.E from REC Surathkal (NIT Karnataka). He has also completed an executive program in strategic marketing from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was recognized as 40under40 by Reputation Today in 2017, has been a Power Profile on LinkedIn in 2018 & 2016, and has served on the advisory board of S.P.Jain Institute of Management & Research and Fintech committee of FICCI.