This week I spent a few days at Incisive's headquarters in London, and attended our monthly board meeting. Whatever you may think is the state of the US economy, it looks like London is in at least as bad shape. The banks over there have succumbed to the same problems as we've seen here--too many poor performing loans, government bailouts, not enough credit being extended. And lots of concern about what 2009 may bring.

Not surprisingly, our board has urged Incisive management on both sides of the Atlantic to approach the coming year with great caution. Because we are all uncertain about what will happen with our revenues, we're being advised to be even more careful about our expenses.
That explains why our budget submission is as tight as it is--as close to a "status quo" spending plan as we could create while still finding ways to invest in new products and technology for the future.

And I think that's the good news here. Even while we ride out the economic storms, we still need to be investing in the products and services which will carry us through the next cycle. That includes building new websites--with supporting technology for access control, registration, ecommerce, content tagging, video and the rest--so that we can more aggressively build up our digital revenues. It includes our investment in substantive law products--both print and digital--which can be sold directly to users. And business information products that meet the data needs of our clients. So "status quo" for the budget won't mean standing still--there will be plenty of new projects to sink our teeth into, and lots of ways to excite our customers.