To be outsourced is very difficult psychologically to take. Oxford rejected outsourcing two years ago when trying to clean up a botched systems upgrade that triggered multimillion dollar losses in 1997 and 1998. But this time, the HMO said, outsourcing will cut IT costs while letting it upgrade technology. Several days after the initial meeting, one-page job offers from CSC arrived at the homes of Oxford employees via Federal Express. Morale is very low.
Frustration is rampant.
Most of us feel that we are about to be handcuffed. They have spent most of the past two months in transition to the CSC way. That is hard, but I think they're getting over it. Weyerhaeuser, in Tacoma, Wash., starts its EDS transition today. At Oxford Health Plans, a big change from the beginning was the way end users must be treated.