Mining Mavericks - A data-driven approach to detect spend leakage

Abstract

Spend leakage in the procure-to-pay process is one of the prominent challenges that organizations across the globe face. Given the complex dynamics of the procurement process, spend analysis heavily relies on the tacit knowledge of experts. In this paper, we address the problem of detecting maverick spends using a data driven approach. We present approaches to model the behavior dynamics of the procurement process, detect mavericks, and recommend alternate procurement options. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this solution through a real-world case-study.