Later today I will be leaving for Boston to attend the third annual Parcel User's Conference (and the first conference since EDR acquired Parcel earlier this year). Over 75 people will be at the event representing both the environmental consulting and mortgage lending industries. There are several goals associated with this conference. First, EDR will provide attendees with an overview on how Parcel adoption has been progressing since the acquisition. Second, the EDR Solutions Group will be laying out the planned enhancements to the application for all to see and comment on. And third, Parcel users and lenders will have the opportunity to share within the community their real world experiences in using the platform.

In the 12 month period prior to the acquisition, approximately 3,900 due diligence projects were authored using Parcel. This figure equates to 2% of the total market opportunity. Since the acquisition, the annual run rate for Parcel usage has increased by almost 300% to over 15,000 projects and during the next 12 month period we anticipate usage exceeding 30,000 projects.

In addition to increased usage, over 300 unique and completely customized templates have been created that allow the final report to have the same look and feel as a report authored in MS Word or in an internally developed application.

The timing for this event could not be more perfect given the recent slow down in transactional due diligence activity resulting from the late summer's events in the capital and credit markets. It is entirely possible that we may be leaving one portion of the business cycle and entering another. For the past several years, all of us have been riding a great wave where transactional activity was increasing between 2% and 5% per year. This trend continued for most of 2007 but came to a screeching halt in September. Although the month isn't quite over yet, I expect to see year-on-year due diligence transactions decline in September for the first time since 2000.

It is anyone's guess as to how long this portion of the cycle may last but one thing is for certain: in a flat to down market, history tells us that this is exactly the time when companies look closer at internal processes and search for ways to become more efficient. This usually leads to outsourcing more non-core activities in order to spend more time developing new sources of business.

Now for the really important stuff. In addition to the above topics being covered at the conference, we will all be attending a Red Sox vs. Twins game on Thursday night at Fenway Park. Given last night's Sox win and Yankee choke (I mean tough loss), things are shaping up where we may be able to witness the AL East clinching game in person. While I hope this comment doesn't lead to too much lost business for EDR in New York, I just couldn't resist :)