Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator instructions) And our first question comes from Banc of America’s Kirk Materne. Please go ahead, sir.
Kirk Materne – Banc of America
Yes, thanks very much. I guess, Bob or Pete, whoever wants to take this, could you just fill in a little bit more detail on – I realize September is an unusual and hurtfully unique time. But could you just go into sort of the discussions where these big mainframe contracts that were coming out for renewal, they get pushed out or they – I mean, was it across the spectrum in terms of product lineup? And then in terms of your sort of your confidence in getting those deals back, clearly, I guess unfortunately things had gotten not much better. What gives you the confidence to believe that these deals need to close? Is it capacity restrictions? I’m just trying to get a sense on where your confidence level comes from, given the macro environment?
Bob Paul
Sure. Kirk, this is Bob. I’ll take a stab at this. In the last few weeks, actually specifically even closer than that, probably last four or five days of the quarter, there was not one business line solution category or even geography that really stood out as being part of the problem. When you look for operational weaknesses, up to two weeks before the end of the quarter we felt that we are going to have a pretty decent quarter. And then as documented, we have – I have a list of every single opportunity that slips and categorize whether there is one reason or another reason, specifically whether it’s due to the financial crisis or not. So it was across the board, which is unfortunate. But the good news is I think that that points to no sort of major weakness in the operations of the business, except for the fact that I think we should be doing a better job at bringing the deals in earlier into the quarter and also work on some other sales disciplines we are putting in the place now on pipeline creation. Relative to the confidence, so – on a daily basis with our two senior vice presidents and nine regional vice presidents across the world, I have a list that we review. And the expectation is that in the first two weeks of this quarter, we had every single one of these accounts contacted with an establishment of a close plan. And of those close plans, which required an agreement by the customer, there were a very small percentage that were permanently taken off the list or moved beyond the rest of this fiscal year. So that doesn’t mean that all the rest of these opportunities are going to hold. But right now, it’s looking quite strong. And so we’ll continue that discipline for the duration of the quarter to make sure that we are not leaving any stones unturned.
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