#vendormanagement

Sorry peeps, but this is therapeutic… doing the work for the reporters so they don’t have to. 🤷‍♂️

Centene expects to spend $315 million to $365 million on employee separation costs while reportedly committing $500 million to as much as $1 billion to Cognizant for technology services involving TriZetto, claims, billing and customer service. Source: https://www.beckerspayer.com/workforce/centenes-buyouts-could-have-a-315m-price-tag-for-the-rest-of-the-year/

Here’s the important part… *Investors, CMS, and the state agencies sending billions of taxpayer dollars to Centene** should ask whether the work is actually disappearing or whether Centene is trading internal capability, institutional knowledge, and direct accountability for vendor dependency.

A point of comparison: Citi is moving in the opposite direction, reducing its reliance on technology contractors from approximately 50% to 20% to strengthen data governance, risk management, and operational control. Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/citigroup-plans-slash-it-contractors-hire-staff-improve-controls-2025-03-13/

Why is Centene increasing vendor dependency at exactly the moment its execution risk is increasing? Why did Citi decide to do the opposite? Both are highly regulated industries. United Healthcare is also investing heavily internally and is quarters or years ahead of Centene in that regard.

I’ve had a lot of time to think about Centene over the weekend. I’ve talked about most of this in pieces before, but when you put it all together, the picture doesn’t look good.

Well-run companies are building their own technology, automation and AI skills because those things will run the business in the future. UnitedHealthcare said on its July 16 earnings call that AI is already used across its administrative work and in nearly every provider and member interaction. It is even automating complex claims that once required people to review them. UnitedHealth is investing about $1.5 billion in AI and wants 80% of prior authorizations processed in real time by the end of 2027. Like them or not, they built much of that capability through Optum and they own it.

Centene is going the other way. It is pushing out thousands of people who understand its systems, data, business rules, and history. Then it is reportedly paying Cognizant between $500 million and $1 billion to use TriZetto for claims, billing, and customer service. At the same time, cut-rate SOW tech jobs are showing up for work that looks a lot like what former Centene employees were doing. The jobs didn’t disappear. They were moved somewhere cheaper, with less ownership and less accountability.

Centene’s Q2 filing says it expects to spend $355–$405 million on severance and contract exits, plus another $85–$115 million on outside companies helping with “enterprise optimization.” That doesn’t include the full reported Cognizant deal. This isn’t cutting costs as much as moving them from employees to vendors.

Here’s the scary part. Centene already has the highest ACA prior-authorization denial rate among major insurers at 25%. In Medicare Advantage, 93% of its appealed denials were overturned. Those numbers suggest the decisions already need work. Now Centene wants to automate more of them through a system run by someone else.

What happens when that system is wrong thousands of times? Who checks the rules? Who stops it? Who can reverse the decisions? Who inside Centene will know enough to push back when Cognizant says everything is working as designed?

UnitedHealthcare has publicly said doctors will still be involved when care is denied and that its call centers will never be fully automated. What has Centene promised? Who will make sure it happens after so many of the people who understand the work are gone?

A Cognizant TriZetto business also had a data breach affecting roughly 3.4 million people. It was not necessarily the same TriZetto platform Centene may use, but it is still a fair reason to ask hard questions about security and giving one vendor this much control.

The board and leadership changes add another piece. Lauren Tyler, who has experience in audit, investor relations, HR and private equity, joined the board in June. Paul Diaz, a healthcare private-equity leader and former CEO of Kindred and Myriad, joined in July. That same day, former WellCare CEO and Centene executive Ken Burdick left the board. Now Drew Asher is leaving the CFO job. Maybe none of this is connected. But add the buyouts, layoffs, new leadership structure, board changes, Cognizant deal, and replacement SOW jobs, and it sure looks connected.

Reporters and analysts have plenty to cover with earnings, membership and medical costs. But somebody should also be asking what the full Cognizant deal includes, how many Centene jobs are being replaced by vendor jobs, who will own the rules and data, what all of this will really cost, and how Centene gets out if TriZetto doesn’t work.

There are still missing pieces. If you’re seeing public SOW postings, job titles, rates, vendor names, work moving offshore or teams being replaced, share what you know. No names or confidential information. Just help fill in the picture.

• This isn’t simplification. Centene may be handing over its ability to run itself, one SOW at a time.*

Are we all not going to address that 3p is taking a lot of the work. Who is even supporting them and watching what they do? How is USAA okay with so many 3p overseas and in Mexico taking care of military families.

It’s sad how supervisors can assist vendors by falsifying invoices, approve them for payment, receive kickbacks, wrongfully accuse and frame pumpers / foreman of spills and misplaced “stolen” loads. Make it through layoffs, continue to hide costs with zero visibility to partners. Bill partners to death because COP working interest owners aren’t aware of the internal atrocities and horrific expense mismanagement. Lie to the public with fictional SPIRIT values, goals and beliefs then go to church on Sunday as a cherry on top of this delicious sundae. Why do what is morally right when you can make millions lying to the public and yourself? Upper management is better than the mob! #staypoor #orgetrich #justice #money

For me, it's the procurement team. A $1000 payment can go over 6 months without any update. And they always direct me to another team A, and team a pointed me to team B and C. And finally it’s all of these 3 teams. Then they told me the payment is controlled by SHI. When I called SHI, they told me the vendor should have access to the link they provided.
Vendor provided invoice, then PO went to procurement again, one week before the deadline.

I escalated to VP, then they started to chase me down with PO.

What ridiculous

Verizon isn’t a tech company. It’s a vendor-management company.

Strip away the marketing and the glossy 5G ads and what do you actually own?
• Spectrum licenses
• Some real estate (towers, buildings, fiber easements)

Everything else—core network gear, handsets, billing platforms, even the “innovative” services—is rented, outsourced, or white-labeled from someone else. Verizon doesn’t build; it integrates, negotiates, and marks up.

For a decade-plus that was more than enough. Mobile-device penetration went from ~60 % to nearly 90 % and then kept climbing. All the company had to do was count the cash. Hundreds of billions—bordering on trillions in cumulative revenue—rolled in with almost no heavy lifting. The network largely ran itself, churn was low, and Wall Street rewarded the steady dividend growth.

Then the hands came off the wheel.
Greed set in. Prices crept up, customer service eroded, and the attitude became “we’re Verizon—we’re great, right?”

Meanwhile, hyperscalers quietly swallowed the home: they own the routers, the streaming boxes, the smart TVs, the voice assistants. Cable operators and upstarts kept building fiber and fixed-wireless networks. Suddenly every carrier looks the same to the average customer. The only variable left is price.

And that’s exactly where we are today: a commoditized, stagnated industry where differentiation has vanished and the only remaining game is who can squeeze the last margin out of the pipe.

The easy-money era is over. The gig is up.
And now the board and execs woke from their stupor and are taking it out on loyal employees with the temporary, non-sustainable, oldest trick in the book: mass layoffs to “cook” the books for a short-term stock pop.

What is new, Dan?
What’s the plan and the big idea? Keep firing people?
AI may be part of it, but what else are you going to bring to build real, sustainable growth?

I just had a candid conversation with band 5 director offline. They said no on-shore hiring at all, first look for HIH if you can't find there, then contract one of the vendors. Some of the vendors already moved to fixed bid and to provide unlimited resources, i.e. whether you get 5 contractors or 10, the pay will be set once, fixed. The goal is not 70 HIH and 30 On shore, it's way less, only select managers will be around supervising HIH - When are we going to stop this? do we even have a government that cares about American workers anymore.

A post was made of: “Using the same tools.. a dev shouldn’t be building a system using xyz tools and another dev building with abc tools. Reduce the amount of redundant tools”

The problem is that someone up top needs to show growth and innovation, a year end bullet point is needed. Some vendor takes them to lunch and shows them a pamphlet of their product. The next thing you know a “high valued important product has been purchased for the company to do ”, but wait it gets better.

They then goal, or force, MD’s an their reports to use new and improved said tool. After a few months of this enforcement, it’s hailed as a gleaming success. It doesn’t matter if there’s other tools being used already that does the same thing…this is new, but wait it gets better.

Often times, its realized that either:
a.) the new tool does not scale up
b.) the new tool is too expensive on the licensing renewals.
c.) the new tool does exactly what the read pamphlet says, to a point. Yes, it inventories all your servers……but not vm’s for example, you shoulda read the fine print. Remember that old chestnut.

Over time the newly purchased tool is either partially used and\or is forgotten about.
Lesson learned? NOPE! Rinse, repeat. So long as these up top decision makers, these stellar shot callers keep thinking like this and fall for the over the top sales pitch, it’ll never change. All that you need to do is take Bob out to lunch at a fancy restaurant, tell him he’s awesome to boost his ego and the sale of the new tool to Citi is as good as done.

It’s all ok though, we can just lay more people off to pay for it, right?

• Fundamentally broken and needs a full reset.
• There is no clear or credible technology roadmap.
• Leadership and hiring appear driven by internal relationships and favoritism.
• Vendor decisions often look questionable and raise concerns about incentives.
• Systems from acquisitions remain fragmented and poorly integrated.
• Deployments and upgrades move far too slowly for a modern IT organization.
• Overall execution is weak and the group is widely seen as ineffective.

Verizon is in the thick of reorganization, trying to claw back ground from T-Mobile and AT&T. The layoffs and cost programs are getting headlines, but the company is still slowed by internal issues that are structural rather than strategic.

Every major part of the business (Consumer Group, Business Group, Consumer Sales, and Network) runs like its own little kingdom. Each one has its own infrastructure team, its own asset management approach, its own platforms, and its own favorite vendors. That setup guarantees duplication: similar work gets done multiple times with slightly different tools, standards, and contracts. Then layer on several consulting firms and managed service providers tackling overlapping scopes across those same areas, plus internal supervisors whose primary role is to oversee the vendors. The result is expensive redundancy that drags down speed and inflates costs without improving outcomes.

Many of those supervisor positions actively push back against meaningful offshoring or clean outsourcing, often raising security or control objections. Yet T-Mobile and AT&T have been offshoring large pieces of retail support, IT, and back office functions for years by using proven safeguards and achieving real savings. Keeping these roles protects headcount in the short term, but it also protects bureaucracy and, in too many cases, creates space for favoritism where vendor selection has more to do with relationships than performance.

Competitors who centralize infrastructure, limit vendors, and draw clear lines between internal and outsourced work simply move faster and spend smarter.

Verizon needs to follow suit.

A Four Step Plan to Remove Internal Drag
1)Unify infrastructure under one team
Combine network, IT, cloud, security, and asset management into a single group that serves every line of business.
End the “my division, my solution” mindset. This single shift could eliminate 20% to 30% of redundant effort and sharply accelerate delivery.

2) Tighten vendor control
Move to one or two preferred vendors maximum per major category. Require open competitive bidding, publish performance scorecards, and conduct regular audits to block favoritism or kickback risks. Stop letting every group pick its own suppliers.

3) Set firm make versus buy rules
Decide once which capabilities stay fully in house, which go fully to managed services, and which are clean hybrids.

Replace layers of supervisor oversight with automated monitoring tools and exception based reporting. Phase out roles whose main purpose is to babysit outsourcing.

4) Reward company wide efficiency over silos
Change bonus structures so managers and executives are judged on cross business metrics: lower duplication, reduced vendor spend per unit, and faster project cycles, not just their own division numbers.
Support union discussions with fair retraining and severance packages so routine work can be offshored the way competitors already do successfully.

These steps are not complicated or untested; they mirror exactly what T-Mobile and AT&T execute to stay lean and quick. Putting them in place would cut the waste that quietly erodes our edge, free up capital for customer innovation and network leadership, and show the market we are finally operating like one unified and competitive company instead of a collection of mini empires.

The reorganization is the perfect window. Fix the structure now, and the turnaround stops being incremental; it becomes real.

I'm hoping to get a clearer picture of the current situation with our vendors. I've heard whispers about potential cost-cutting measures on their end, and I'm trying to understand the impact on our side.

Does anyone have any insight into whether cost-cutting is actually happening? If so, do we know which specific vendors are being impacted? Any information you can share would be greatly appreciated.

They lies so much that all you need to do is record them and use it against them. Vendors lie, companies pay! Thank you.

1. Make Them Commit to Specific Statements (Then Preserve Them) 🧾

Goal: Turn vague lies into concrete, provable claims.

Outsourced support often lies by being non-specific (“don’t worry,” “it will be fixed,” “policy says…”).

What to do
• Ask closed, confirmable questions:
• “Can you confirm this will be resolved by [date]?”
• “Is this the official company policy?”
• “Are you stating no additional charges will occur?”
• Immediately restate their answer:
• “Just to confirm: you’re saying X will happen and Y will not happen. Is that correct?”
• Request:
• Transcript
• Case number
• Agent ID

Why this works
If they lie, you now have a timestamped company statement you can later quote word-for-word.

⸻

1. Expose Contradictions by Cross-Checking Agents 🔁

Goal: Prove internal inconsistency without accusing anyone.

Outsourced teams rotate agents and scripts change—this creates contradictions.

How
• Contact support again (chat is best).
• Say:
• “On [date], I was told [exact statement]. Can you confirm whether that is correct?”
• Let the new agent contradict the old one.
• Save both transcripts.

Key move
Do not say “you lied.”
Say:
• “These statements conflict. Which one is correct?”

Why this works
Contradictory official statements = company liability, not an agent mistake.

⸻

1. Use Their Own Records During Escalation ⚖️

Goal: Force resolution by presenting their lies as documented facts.

When escalating (supervisor, executive support, BBB, card issuer):

Structure it like this
• Timeline format:
• Date → Agent → Statement → Outcome
• Example:
“On Dec 4, I was told no fee would apply. On Dec 12, I was charged anyway. On Dec 15, support stated the prior information was incorrect.”

What to ask for
• Resolution (refund / waiver / correction)
• Confirmation in writing

Why this works
You’re not accusing — you’re demonstrating reliance on company representations.
That’s powerful in disputes.

⸻

Important Legal Safety Notes (You’re doing this right)
• Recording calls: only if one-party consent applies (varies by location)
• Chat/email transcripts are always safe
• Stick to facts, quotes, and dates
• Avoid words like “fraud” or “illegal” — use “inconsistent,” “incorrect,” or “misrepresented”

⸻

Ki-ler Phrase That’s Polite but Lethal

“I acted based on the information your company provided, and that information turned out to be incorrect. I’m asking for this to be corrected.”

That sentence alone wins disputes.

Thanks to ESRO, all Optum tech teams have to adopt a CloudFlare firewall as the entry point to their applications. As such, this company has now become a single point of failure for all of Optum. If they are down, not only is our website down, but all internal and provider facing applications.

Guess which company went down again today for the second time in the past few weeks?

But of course, im "not a team player" and not "aligned with strategic direction" for raising concerns about vendor lock in and huge increases in systemic risk to the company.

It’s time for T-Mobile to return to the efficiency of the 2014-2020 era.. or even before the Sprint merger and the sh-tshow Marcus East period. Amdocs and certain underperforming vendors, particularly in Atlanta, have delivered limited value. Moving work to talent, including at the new GCC in India, is setup in the right direction. Next attention should turn to other low-quality, high- cost vendors likes of PK, Concentrix, and HCL to ensure resources and dollars are used strategically, especially after dropping so much cash on Jeff Simon’s pipe dream “cyber defense center.” All show, all the time. 💸

Not my post - see @f6+1k8rdy748

Have heard a lot of noise around HCL

Does anyone know if L3Harris is planning to outsource the rest of their IT infrastructure/departments to InfoSys and HCL once they take over from Accenture?

Should have been using EPC firms in place of TES decades ago.

Like it or not, a lot of work is done by HCL or TCS (maybe others]? What is the view as to if these will stay. because LEX has lots of employees in low-cost countries will work done by third party now just move to them?

Is something similar happening at Nokia in TX, IL, NJ as well (for years)? Maybe not a VP but perhaps directors and managers?

Walmart VP takes money from Indian contractors
https://www.ctol.digital/news/walmart-fires-vp-kickbacks-terminates-1200-contractors/

Just announced today. Last day for Accenture folks is December 15, 2025. Merry Christmas.