the state and federal level, and a very specific contract with
the HHSC.  "The challenge from our perspective was that the
contract vehicle was very detailed and prescriptive," he said.
"It was very inflexible."  The HHSC built the call centers into
its plans with the federal government so it wouldn't have to
start a separate approval process for the call centers,
according to the report.  "We spent a lot of money on the
application, so we just didn't want to throw it away," said Gary
Gumbert, the HHSC's CIO. "Why go out and have to go through
certification again? It's a waste of money."  Deadline Pressure
The first call centers were scheduled to open in late January
2006 - a pace that became a problem when TIERS wouldn't
cooperate with another program slated to power the call centers,
according to Flood's report. Instead of pushing back the
schedule to allow more time for getting the programs working
together, managers stuck with the original timetable and had
call-center workers enter enrollment data into T