Gerald shares his views on some of the topics being covered at the conference including customization, report design, delivering a global client servicing strategy, and outsourcing: Q A Kurtosys survey into investors' preferences in fund reporting showed that client satisfaction hinges on the design and quality of reporting, interactive tools and mobile capability. 98% of investors said that it was vital to have access to well designed, professionally built reports -- do you think that investment managers today are delivering the requisite quality in their reports? A I think that most reporting I have seen from my peers is of requisite quality. As we try to become more and more flexible and allow for increasingly customized/interactive reporting, we quickly get to a point where we need to constantly challenge the cost/benefit of further advancements.  There are some really powerful tools available to out there, but there can be a significant cost associated with implementing and maintaining them.  Additionally, one of the difficulties with these types of surveys is that different people have different definitions of 'good' versus 'bad' design and how interactive the tools need to be. I've found that, in general, the larger the client, the less they worry about aesthetics and interactivity and the more they focus on consistency and data quality.  For them 'design' could mean fitting into a specific format that they require, which may or may not be suitable for other clients. Q What do you think the greatest operational challenges are for those firms