# Practice Source: https://akholi.com/research-lead-outsourcing-gcc-advisory/
Akholi Practice / Phil Hatch

Outsourcing and Global Capability Center Advisory

Phil Hatch works with financial institutions to examine delivery and controls, prepare before major commitments, and lead recovery when engagements underperform. The practice covers outsourcing and global capability centers, with particular expertise in agentic artificial intelligence (AI).

Discuss an engagement with PhilUrgent problem? Crisis Response

Phil Hatch / Principal-led advisory / Financial institutions

Core Advisory Services

01 / Establish the evidence

Independent Audit

Commission an institution-specific framework, a Phil-led independent review, or neutral interviews with financial institution and vendor personnel.

Scope an independent audit
02 / Correct the problems

Engagement Recovery

Bring executive leadership to material service, reporting, workforce, and control problems in an outsourcing engagement or GCC.

Explore engagement recovery
03 / Prepare before commitment

Preparation and Readiness

Address material gaps before an outsourcing request for proposal, or test the case and operating model for a GCC investment.

Explore preparation and readiness

Governance, Oversight, Control, and Risk

Formal arrangements need to hold when work changes, decisions are disputed, or an agent produces an unreliable result. Akholi examines the operating evidence and helps correct weaknesses in ownership, authority, oversight, and execution.

  • Ownership and authorityNamed owners, reachable decision makers, escalation, and authority to suspend operation.
  • Reporting integrityDefinitions, underlying work, exclusions, and the human effort behind reported results.
  • Human oversight and changeReview capacity, meaningful approval, controlled changes, and evidence that actions were completed.
  • Manual alterationHuman changes to data, processes, AI outputs, or reporting, and third-party work done by hand, with appropriate authorization and records.
Governance and control services

Crisis Response

For an active outsourcing or GCC crisis, contact Phil Hatch for a personal response within 24 clock hours, including weekends. Scope, acceptance, authority, and mobilization are agreed directly. The response commitment is not a promise of resolution within 24 hours.

Contact Phil about a crisisHow Crisis Response works

Executive Leadership and Assignment Responsibilities

Executive leadership

Direct involvement by Phil

Phil leads the sponsor discussions, difficult interviews, executive challenge, and interpretation. His published background includes more than 30 years in outsourcing, workforce development, and service delivery. Read Phil’s biography

Delivery capacity

A defined institutional team

The institution names accountable workstream owners and provides agreed access. Specialist support is identified and scoped when technical, legal, regulatory, or local operating expertise is required.

Independence

Separate audit and recovery mandates

Audit conclusions are not conditional on buying follow-on work. A recovery assignment is a management mandate. Material corrections led by Akholi are verified by qualified personnel who did not implement them.

Outsourcing and GCC Applications

Before procurement

Outsourcing preparation

Establish requirements, owners, evidence, and approval conditions before issuing the request for proposal.

Prepare before RFP
An investment decision

GCC planning

Test the delivery choices, investment case, operating model, and preparation requirements.

Plan a GCC
An owned delivery center

GCC performance and recovery

Address the gap between the center’s purpose and its actual service, capability, cost, and control performance.

Improve a GCC
Continuing executive support

Retained Sponsor Advisory

Reserve defined executive capacity for decisions, challenge, and oversight after a project or within an established relationship.

Discuss retained advice
The research

The executive action plan

Seven proposed controls and a phased program of review, correction, and independent verification.

Read Part 6

Research Basis and Scope

Agentic AI Outsourcing at Tier 1 Financial Institutions: full study report coverDownload the complete study PDF

Phil Hatch’s 2026 study examines 150 agentic AI outsourcing engagements through accounts from 850 vendor delivery-team respondents. It identifies reported weaknesses in preparation, shared management, controls, reporting, and the visibility of human work.

At least one form of manual alteration was reported on all 150 engagements. Written accounts classified as governance weaknesses also occurred on all 150. These findings support examination of actual delivery and control operation. They do not establish failure of every control.

The Executive Action Plan proposes independent review, direct access to delivery personnel, corrective action, and independent verification of material closure. Akholi translates those recommendations into a scoped institutional assignment.

Related evidence: financial institution readiness, co-management, and manual alteration.

The sample is not industry-representative. The findings are observational. They do not establish causation or legal breach, and the study did not test the proposed remedies or measure GCC performance.

Assignment Enquiries

Start with the concern, the decision you need to make, and the people responsible. Agree scope, access, responsibilities, timing, and fees directly with Phil Hatch.

Contact Phil HatchContact details and enquiry options