Supplier Award and Transition Governance Kit

Savings die in the transition phase when:

• award decisions are unclear
• teams keep buying from old suppliers
• service issues create panic reversals
• no one owns cutover and compliance

This kit installs a simple transition governance system.

What you will produce

1. Award decision rules and approval record
2. Cutover plan with dates and owners
3. Service guardrails for the first 60 days
4. A rollback plan for true service failures

Step-by-step implementation

Step 1: Document award rules

Your award should be defensible:

• price
• service levels
• implementation risk
• supplier resilience

Step 2: Build a cutover plan

Cutover is a project, not an email.

Step 3: Define the first 60 days guardrails

You need a short, intense window to stabilize performance.

Step 4: Define rollback criteria

Rollback should be based on objective criteria, not fear.

Templates

A) Award decision record (copy and paste)

Copyable template (TEXT)
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Award Decision Record

Category:
Supplier selected:
Date:
Approvers:

Decision factors:
- Price and benchmark comparison:
- Service levels:
- Implementation plan:
- Risk notes:

Decision:
- Award approved
- Award deferred
- Re-bid required

B) Cutover plan (copy and paste)

Copyable template (TEXT)
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Cutover Plan

| Milestone | Owner | Date | Notes |
| --------- | ----- | ---- | ----- |
| Contract signature |  |  |  |
| Rate card finalized |  |  |  |
| Supplier onboarding complete |  |  |  |
| Buying channel enforced |  |  |  |
| Old suppliers blocked |  |  |  |
| First invoice review |  |  |  |

C) First 60 days service guardrails (copy and paste)

Copyable template (TEXT)
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First 60 Days Service Guardrails

Weekly check-in:
- Service levels met: [yes/no]
- Exceptions and escalations:
- Invoice issues:
- Corrective actions:

Stop conditions:
- Any safety risk event
- Repeated missed service levels without corrective action

D) Rollback plan (copy and paste)

Copyable template (TEXT)
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Rollback Plan

Rollback triggers:
- Trigger 1:
- Trigger 2:
- Trigger 3:

Rollback steps:
1) Notify stakeholders
2) Re-enable prior supplier channel temporarily
3) Document failure mode and corrective action plan
4) Decide re-attempt timeline

Common failure modes

• no owner for cutover, so compliance collapses
• no guardrails, so early issues derail the program
• no proof system, so savings cannot be verified