With this issue of TPAtlanta, we celebrate our coming to you each month for one year. And what a year it has been!

We started with a very simple goal: we wanted to create a virtual fraternity where each of us can gather to read what is going on with our peers, to share information about our organizations, and to see who is doing what or moving where.

Why did we undertake this initiative? One thing that motivated us is because the Transaction Processing Industry is an over $7 Billion industry in Georgia. We knew that the top 10 Transaction Processing companies in Atlanta alone employed over 33,000 people. We believed that a collection of professionals that large in a concentrated market area needed a single source for information dedicated to their industry.

Your reception to this newsletter has validated our hypotheses. And we thank you for allowing us to share our thoughts with you for a year now. We hope that you have enjoyed reading this newsletter as much as we have enjoyed putting it together for you each month.

So what really has transpired in the Transaction Processing Industry over these past 12 months? A quick review of TPAtlanta shows us a lot of interesting news events as well as some thought provoking issues that we have brought to your attention.

We began this adventure by looking back into our collective pasts and by chronicling how the Transaction Processing Industry in Georgia got its starts. Those efforts from over 30 years ago are still influencing us even today! If you missed some of these early issues, we invite you to visit the Archives section of our web site www.TPAtlanta.com where you can find each and every past edition of this newsletter.

We spent a good bit of time during our first year with you discussing a variety of fraud and security issues impacting our industry. In this regard, we documented the plights of CardSystems Solutions and of ChoicePoint. There, in a microcosm, we were able to learn about how to behave when bad things happen to good people, as well as how not to react in times of trouble. One of these companies was publicly vilified through no fault of its own but seems to be on the road to recovery because it had the courage to acknowledge its problems and mistakes. But the other company is no longer with us due to its own mishandling of its customers' trust, not to mention, really botching its own media relations activities after their misdeeds came to light.

We also covered topics like globalization and some of the Transaction Processing developments in other countries. Being aware of what is going on elsewhere helps us all do our jobs better. We will continue to follow these international developments and plan to update you on these industry activities in the coming months.

During this past year, we also discussed topics ranging from developments in credit cards and debit cards to anti-phishing techniques to direct deposit marketing campaigns as examples of what is going on in our industry. Some are rather basic; some are ground breaking. All are important in what we do for our customers!

All this just goes to show the breadth of the types of business functions that make up the Transaction Processing Industry. And this is why we are just as excited as we begin our second year with you as we were when we started TPAtlanta a year ago!

So just what is in store for this coming year at TPAtlanta? In one sense, we will just have to wait and see because sometimes news just happens. But on the other hand, we do have some inkling of some things that will be important to companies in this industry.

Many organizations are scrambling to figure out how to be compliant with regulatory mandates related to customer authentication practices that must be in place by the end of 2006. We will certainly be following these developments.

As we perused various earnings releases for the first quarter of 2006, particularly those of financial institutions, we could not help but note how many of those singled out their various Transaction Processing services as major contributors to their revenues and profits. This fact bodes well for all of us that provide Transaction Processing products and services.

As we cover the news in our industry, we hope to help you find that next great product or service to sell to your customers. Who knows, one of us just might discover the Holy Grail of the Transaction Processing Industry and become an overnight millionaire!

And, as always and most importantly, we want to cover the topics that are of interest to you, our special audience.

So as we at TPAtlanta embark on our second year together with you, we invite you to share your thoughts and ideas with us about what you would like to read in this space and how we can make this newsletter even more valuable to each of you.

Thank you for inviting us into your homes, your offices, and your cubicles for this past year.

We look forward to serving you again during our second year together.

Happy Anniversary to all of us!

Calvin D. Johnson, Publisher
publisher@tpatlanta.com
Trans Atlantic Systems, Inc.