Olivier Audino
In many organizations, spend control remains an ongoing challenge. Purchases made outside established processes, an increasing number of suppliers, orders scattered across multiple departments, and difficulties in consolidating data create an environment where deviations can easily go unnoticed. These discrepancies, often minor when viewed individually, generate a significant loss of visibility and a gradual increase in costs, as highlighted by several studies on cost management and procurement performance, including insights from McKinsey.
The most sensitive spend categories are generally those related to class C purchases, where high request frequency, low unit value, and the absence of strict rules foster fragmentation and non-compliant behaviors. To better understand these areas of dispersion, you can refer to our dedicated guide on analyzing class C purchases, which helps structure your data and identify critical spend segments.
The purpose of this guide is to provide a complete method to improve spend control, reduce budget deviations, and strengthen internal governance. By combining data consolidation, clear validation workflows, and relevant indicators, organizations can regain control of their purchasing flows and turn spend control into a strategic lever for securing budgets and supporting internal decision-making.
In many companies, purchasing flows are spread across different departments, locations, or users, which creates significant fragmentation and makes it difficult to identify the truly critical cost drivers. This dispersion encourages the appearance of non-referenced suppliers and increases the risk of spend deviations. A study by Gartner on spend visibility shows that organizations lacking centralization often face year-over-year increases in unmanaged spend. To better understand these dispersion mechanisms, you can consult our guide on analyzing class C purchases.
Off-process purchases are one of the main sources of budget leakage. Performed outside established procedures, they bypass validation workflows, negotiated conditions, and optimization strategies. These deviations generate additional costs, compliance risks, and duplicate orders. You can explore concrete methods to limit these practices in our guide on reducing off-process purchases, along with recommendations from the CIPS on procurement compliance.
Another major challenge lies in data quality and structure. Incomplete supplier information, inconsistent categories, manual entries, or siloed tools make any analysis slow and sometimes impossible. Without data normalization, visibility deteriorates and decisions become less reliable. Our guide on optimizing supplier relationship management outlines best practices for strengthening data reliability and improving procurement governance, in line with recommendations from Deloitte on procurement data & analytics.
Reliable spend control starts with a consolidated and consistent purchasing data set. As long as information remains scattered across multiple tools, Excel files, or local systems, budget deviations are difficult to detect and decisions are made on a partial view. Centralization makes it possible to group spend flows by category, supplier, or department, while normalizing item descriptions and purchasing families simplifies analysis. To structure this approach, you can refer to our article on optimizing supplier relationship management, as well as recommendations from Deloitte on procurement data & analytics.
Once data has been made reliable, spend control relies on a concise set of KPIs that help quickly identify deviations: share of off-process purchases, price variation by supplier, process compliance rate, supplier service level, and frequency of incidents or disputes. The goal is not to track dozens of indicators, but to select those that truly support decisions. Our white paper on structured supplier relationship management provides a framework for selecting and managing these KPIs, complemented by CIPS resources on procurement performance indicators.
Finally, spend control cannot be sustainable without a clear and shared validation process. Defining approval thresholds, simple validation workflows, and limited exception rules helps reduce bypass behaviors and increase compliance. The challenge is to balance control and operational agility so as not to slow down the business. To prioritize actions and structure decision-making, you can rely on our resource dedicated to the best prioritization tools for procurement decisions.
The first step is to map all purchasing flows in order to understand where spend risks and budget deviations actually occur. This mapping should cover purchasing categories, suppliers, cost centers, and sites, highlighting recurring volumes, irregular expenses, and gaps versus planned budgets. To structure this analysis, you can refer to our guide on analyzing class C purchases, along with recommendations from McKinsey on spend optimization and value creation in procurement.
Once risk areas have been identified, the priority is to reduce purchases made outside approved channels. This involves clarifying internal rules, simplifying purchase request steps, providing easy access to preferred suppliers, and communicating regularly with operational teams. Our guide on reducing off-process purchases offers concrete levers to manage these behaviors, complemented by resources from the CIPS on procurement compliance and internal controls.
Spend control is not only about the volumes committed; it also depends heavily on supplier performance. Implementing a structured supplier performance management process enables you to monitor quality, delivery timeliness, document compliance, price stability, and incident management. Poor performance generates hidden costs such as returns, logistics overruns, and operational disruptions. To better frame this monitoring, you can refer to our article on the prerequisites of a supplier quality audit, as well as analyses from Gartner on supplier performance management.
The final step is to establish continuous spend governance, with regular rituals (monthly reviews, supplier committees, compliance analyses) and clearly defined responsibilities across procurement, finance, and operational teams. The aim is to move from reactive issue resolution to proactive prevention of deviations. To prioritize the topics and allocate effort effectively, you can refer to our resource on the best prioritization tools for procurement decisions, along with governance best practices published by Deloitte in its studies on procurement organizations.
Spend consolidation relies on tools capable of aggregating data from ERP systems, accounting, procurement operations, invoices, and business tools. These BI solutions or dedicated platforms provide a unified view of spend flows and help identify anomalies, duplicates, or fragmentation areas. To define the right criteria for structuring your data, you can refer to our guide on analyzing class C purchases, as well as insights from Deloitte on data usage within the procurement function.
Spend control also relies on supplier performance monitoring tools, which allow organizations to track delivery quality, lead times, document compliance, incidents, and pricing variations. These supplier dashboards make it easier to detect deviations and support continuous improvement plans. Our resource on the prerequisites for a supplier quality audit outlines the key indicators to monitor, complemented by best practices published by Gartner on supplier performance management.
Finally, workflow and internal validation tools play a key role in managing spend commitments. They standardize approval processes, reduce bypass behaviors, track decisions, and ensure every purchase complies with established rules. To design effective approval workflows and align them with your budget control priorities, you can refer to our white paper on supplier relationship management, as well as the best prioritization tools for procurement decisions to focus validation efforts on the most impactful spend items.
Improving spend control requires a structured approach that combines operational expertise, the right tools, and clear internal governance. BME supports companies in building these foundations by helping structure purchasing processes, consolidate spend data, analyze purchasing flows, and define relevant performance indicators. This approach eliminates areas of deviation and reinforces budget control at every stage of the procurement process.
Our expertise is particularly suited to class C purchases, which often represent the majority of unmanaged spend. With more structured oversight, improved visibility over volumes, and enhanced governance, organizations can significantly reduce costs while maintaining operational fluidity. To better understand the core principles of this model, you can consult our resource on structured supplier relationship management, along with insights published by McKinsey on effective procurement governance models.
Through a performance-oriented approach and tools designed to improve visibility, BME helps organizations reduce spend deviations, strengthen validation workflows, and reinforce internal governance. This enables companies to establish continuous spend control and sustainably improve the quality of internal decision-making.
Spend control has become an essential lever for securing budgets, reducing deviations, and improving operational performance. By consolidating data, defining relevant indicators, and structuring internal processes, organizations strengthen their ability to anticipate variances, correct non-compliant behaviors, and build durable governance.
Class C purchases often represent a priority focus area, as they concentrate the least visible budget deviations and the highest rate of off-process behaviors. To deepen your analysis, you can also refer to insights from Gartner on procurement performance optimization.
To implement a structured approach and strengthen your internal spend governance, you can also consult with our procurement experts, who will help you design a robust and operationally aligned governance model.
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Effective spend control relies on four pillars: data consolidation, clear validation processes, relevant monitoring indicators, and structured governance. The first step is to analyze purchasing flows — particularly class C purchases — using a structured method like the one described in our guide. You can then leverage best practices published by Deloitte on governance and budget control to define internal rules and review rituals.
Key KPIs include the share of off-process spend, process compliance rate, price variation per supplier, supplier service levels (quality, delivery time, incidents), and cost evolution by purchasing category. To structure your performance dashboard, our white paper on supplier relationship management provides a clear framework, complemented by guidance from CIPS on procurement performance indicators.
Reducing off-process spend requires simplifying validation workflows, improving communication of rules, and providing easy access to approved suppliers. It is also essential to educate requesters about the budget impact of such practices. To identify effective levers, you can refer to our guide on reducing off-process purchases and resources from CIPS on compliance and internal controls.
Improving visibility requires centralizing data from multiple systems (ERP, accounting, procurement, invoicing) and normalizing purchasing categories. Reporting and BI tools then make it possible to detect deviations, duplicates, and risk areas. Our article on optimizing supplier relationship management outlines best practices for improving data reliability, complemented by analyses from Gartner on spend visibility and performance.
Organizations generally rely on three types of tools: spend consolidation and analytics platforms, supplier performance management tools, and workflow systems that structure approvals. To prioritize projects and focus investments on the highest-value levers, you can use the methods presented in our resource on the best prioritization tools for procurement decisions, as well as insights from Deloitte on digital procurement transformation.
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