Global Custodian : Investor expectations have evolved throughout this time - and arguably risen - so with the trend set to continue as we manoeuvre our way back to normality , what do GPs need to do to meet and exceed these expectations ? Anne Anquillare : The market has really exploded for private capital fund managers . There ' s a lot of capital available to make use of their unique talents and space within the asset allocation mix . But like many other things in business - especially with the pandemic - more of investors ’ decisions need to be data driven as opposed to speed dating at a capital connection events . So I see the rise in the use of databases during the initial fundraising and I see the rise of investor expectations with regards to what kind of data they receive , not just while they ' re in the fundraising process , but then ongoing . Because you can ' t treat someone one way while you ' re fundraising and then all of a sudden differently . There ’ s no room for ‘ great , we have your commitment , now all you get is the standard PDFs ’. The expectation of access to data has really risen in addition to the investors ’ focus on risk mitigation and the ability for the operations to scale . With regards

to risk mitigation , not only has the initial operating due diligence exercise become critically important with the cyber threats , but also the risks associated with the operations of the general partner . Do they have the right vendor ecosystem in order to scale ? Have they selected the right partners that can grow with them ? The whole focus on all things that used to be relegated to the “ back-office ”, has really become front and centre for the entire time an investor is with a firm , not only during fundraising .

GC : How do you see the back-office helping to change mindsets when it comes to fundraising ?

AA : The entire general partner organisation has to have a mindset that fundraising is not a one and done activity . It is a constant effort by the entire firm , the front-office , back-office and middle-office , if you have one . Staying in tune with the investor expectations is critical . By doing things like surveying your existing investors and understanding what they ' re seeing in the market , general partners have a great opportunity to understand how the market and investor expectations are moving , while they ' re not actively fundraising . And that gives them the opportunity to enhance their back-office , again through either the vendor ecosystem or through just adding additional reporting . That way by the time they ' re ready to start fundraising , they ' re already performing at that higher mark for their investors and their prospective investors .

GC : What role do you see technology playing to enhance fund services and support fundraising , especially in the current environment ? AA : It has a critical role , but it does not surpass great service . At the end of the day , the GPs are in a people business .

They are offering a professional service , so it is all about the people . They have to have the right teams in place . I know this for myself for my own team – if we didn ’ t have the right technology platform so that our client services teams can do the work for their clients , they can burn out , they can get frustrated and they ' re not really providing the level of service needed to stay competitive . The GPs are in a very similar circumstance . They have to find the right technology platforms . Now that doesn ' t mean that they have to build everything themselves , they shouldn ' t , especially with regards to the back-office . That ' s not their core competency . Investors still are relying heavily on the GPs for investment performance and how they ' re managing , monitoring and realising their portfolio . But again , if they don ' t have the right technology platform , they ' ll burn out their people , they will

not put their best foot forward to their investors , and it will be very difficult for them to scale . One thing that we ' re seeing a lot of is the advent of standards within our industry between ILPA and the CFA Institute . There is a focus on how we can standardise the data that we ' re collecting . You can do a lot of great things on customised reporting , but it ' s very challenging when you ' re customising data collection . So , I think as an industry we ' re coalescing on the data standards and then we can service investors whether they ' re the institutional investors , the family office , the semi-institutional , the high net worth , the wealth managers . That can all be customised , but really what must be standardised is what data we are collecting in the first place . Then we can apply technology to collect that data more efficiently and report on it more effectively .

GC : Let ' s bring this back around to the initial question , talking about how the back-office is helping managers transform their fundraising potential : How do you see the road map looking to back-office readiness for this ? AA : Your current road map starts with your current position . The first thing a general partner needs to do is take a step back and really evaluate what are their current skills and talents , who are the people and what are they providing today for their investors ? And then again , surveying existing investors , having conversations with placement agents , having conversations with your vendors , your fund formation attorneys , your fund administrators and your auditors . Where do they need to get to , two years down the road when they start fund raising ? And then being able to prioritise those activities and make sure that they ' re assigning the correct resources in order to get there .