For the last several years we have followed a strategic planning process where we identify between seven and 10 major strategic initiatives. These are projects or goals for our organization to be accomplished within the next fiscal year. It's been a very good process and one that we've been able to use and refine and perfect year after year. I believe our board of directors is comfortable with this methodology and it's also a very good way to help our employees understand how they fit into and can contribute to the future success of our organization. Now as we close out this fiscal year and report on the progress of our initiatives for the fiscal year 2018, our planning process for the fiscal year 2019 is also well underway. We always try to discipline ourselves and limit the number of strategic initiatives. We found it is very easy to get all carried away and end up with more initiatives or goals than even in our most optimistic view for the next year we can reasonably accomplish. Our experience is that when we have too many goals we end up thrashing in actually spending more time when reporting our progress or lack thereof than we actually do working on the goals. With that in mind, we have made the decision to enter this fiscal year with a single goal. One. This goal is to be a rallying point or a mantra for our employees. And the goal is the acceleration of iVUE Connect. Every single employee at NISC should know the answer to the question What is the most important initiative for our organization in 2019? The answer should be a consistent and a unanimous iVUE Connect. While we have tackled many projects here at NISC. I'm comfortable in saying that iVUE Connect is by far the most significant development effort in our 50-year history. This project is combining our industry-specific solutions into a unified product that will serve both telecommunications and the utility industries. The efficiencies that iVUE Connect will bring our organization are very significant. Gone are the days when we have two of everything, two customer care, and billing products. Two e-commerce, mobile, and engineering products. iVUE Connect will develop and deliver a single multi-service product. Will this be easy? Certainly not. It will be by far the most complex project we have ever tackled and I'm guessing there are skeptics some saying that this simply cannot be done. But there were many naysayers inside and outside of NISC. When we made the decision to have a single accounting and business solution that serves both industries. Not only was that a successful initiative but today that Accounting and Business Solution product is the most widely distributed and the largest installed base of any product that NISC has brought to market. A single product serving both industries. So iVUE Connect will be the most robust configurable product in our history and make no mistake. Every one of our competitors is on the same path and has the same aspirations for a multi-service product. The question is who will be the first to successfully bring this product to market? The demand in the market is already there today. Our members are patiently sometimes not so patiently waiting for this product. It is very important that every NISC employee understands that this race to bring iVUE Connect to market is like a war. It's a horse race, it's a battle, just choose your analogy but our ability to focus all 1200 employees on the single goal of iVUE Connect is an advantage that no other competitor can muster, But NISC can. We have the subject matter expertise and 50 years of experience in both industries to successfully bring this product to market before our competitors can. Our ability to deliver a quality comprehensive product to market with a solid reference-able base of sites using the product will without question establish NISC as an industry leader, the number one provider in both industries. You may ask why is that important. The success of NISC and our continual progress in the marketplace is one of the single most important factors in establishing NISC financial strength and stability. I cannot think of an organization that was able to significantly cut or slash their way to prosperity. That's why growth at NISC is so important and its growth in a consistent, calculated manner where we pay as much attention to the satisfaction of our members in the engagement of our employees as we do to the bottom line. And this type of culture, this philosophy will ensure that our next 50 years will be even more successful than the first and that NISC will be a market leader. Now I know all this talk about being a leader in the industry, well it sounds like bragging. Something that doesn't fit well with our culture here at NISC. We prefer to let our members and employees do the talking about their perceptions of our organization because we learned a long time ago that having our members and employees speak positively about our organization in the long term much more effective than us trying to toot our own horn. The reality that we are dealing with is that everyone loves a winner and no one wants to be associated with a loser. When a company is recognized as having the premier product whether it's a vehicle, a food, an eating place, a piece of software, or technical hardware, and the product is getting great reviews by third parties there is a piling on effect. Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. Everyone wants that product and in many cases, they're willing to pay more for the product because it is viewed as best in class. That's why people camp out in front of an Apple store to get the latest iPhone or why 600,000 individuals put a thousand dollars down, sight unseen, and are willing to wait 24 to 36 months for a Tesla Model 3. Now I don't expect any of our members or prospective members to be camped out in front of our office waiting for the release of our unified product iVUE Connect. I do know that being first to successfully bring a multi-service product to market will absolutely solidify and NISC is a market leader and that will be very good for our members, our organization, and ultimately our employees. In that same respect, I believe our employees want to be working for an organization that is viewed as the leader. No one wants to work for a loser organization, a company that is number two, because who we work for, the organization that we devote our time and talents to, is a direct reflection on each of us personally. We are at a critical point with iVUE Connect. Multiple teams are concurrently working on various parts of this product across all NYSE locations. This project requires a very high degree of collaboration and work across not only the industries but also the disciplines of customer care and billing, accounting, and engineering. And unfortunately, it is in our human nature to be a bit territorial and to spend too much time talking about and debating how we used to do things as separate industries rather than what we need to do for the future. All of this bantering and resistance slows the project down and jeopardizes our ability to successfully bring this product to market. On December 6, 2000, I received an email from Dan Wilbanks our vice president of research development and quality. At that time we were in the early stages of iVUE development and frankly, we were struggling. Struggling with dissension within our newly merged organization. There was the St. Louis way of doing things and then there was the Mandan way of doing things and many times those perspectives were in direct conflict. This email is the longest email I've ever received from Dan and he concluded towards the end of the mammal and I quote "We have to strengthen our decision making. It currently seems that there are too much committee and too much compromise. Is this the reason we aren't making more progress? I don't know for sure.". Well, I think if we are all honest with ourselves back in 2000 the answer to Dan's question was "absolutely yes". Our inability to make critical decisions quickly and comprehensively was slowing the project down. What is concerning is that almost 17 years later, on an equally as important project, it appears that we are making some of the exact same mistakes. Progress is being slowed. We're trying to make every decision by committee and every decision has to be a compromise. Look this is not our first rodeo. Within the ranks of NISC, we have some of the very best subject matter experts in the business. Individuals that have gone through multiple iterations and generation of software development and we have to trust their judgment. This is time for decisive leadership where individuals stand up with conviction, make decisions, break Juggernauts, and keep this project moving. Will all of the decisions we make be perfect? No, certainly not. We'll make some mistakes. I'd rather make a few mistakes along the way mistakes that we can refactor and correct than I would have this project be paralyzed and brought to a crawl because we feel all decisions need to be made by a committee and we refuse to move on without a complete consensus on every topic or every piece of functionality in question. Now please understand. These are general observations about this project. I'm not directing my comments towards any individual industry, but I do see the incredible possibility that we have to position NISC in the market as a leader with this product and I want to make certain we're successful. Now, not all of you may feel that you are directly involved in this project. You may not be working on the design, the usability, coding testing, implementation of iVUE Connect, or support of that product. But the truth is that we are all involved, and all have an essential role. If you work in a service center, or you're adding enhancements supporting our legacy iVUE product, you have a very important role in making sure our members are taken
