Dear clients and partners,

At the end of each year we have a tendency to ask questions about last year and expectations for the year to come. We could do this every month and even every day but we take the end of the year more solemnly. In Flagship we start the budget work in October each year and make more decisions than we do in the rest of the year. Why we do this I don’t know, it may be because we also have our financial reporting or could it be that we learned this in our home from our parents and grandparents? This year we do more work than normal due to the financial environment, technological changes and feedback from you as clients and partners.

Flagship is at a crossroad after more than 24 years in business serving the shipping industry. For us the crossroad is represented by a change of technology, upgrade of our hardware platforms and also the user friendliness of our applications to a number of new requirements from the Customs and Boarder Protection Agency under Homeland Security. In 2009 we have been working on these new changes, first of all the new Security Filing and for next year a new generation applications known as ACE – a decentralized server solution on web based applications. For Flagship and all our clients these changes will represent a close attention and a lot of work. We are proud to announce that we benefit from a long relationship with you as our clients and also with the CBP staff. For the technology itself we have started the conversion to our next generation of applications to answer the demand from you to re-new our service by offering new design and functionality.

A company like Flagship had their mission statement implemented more than 20 years ago and we have been focusing on customer satisfaction and return on investment for our customers since. This year we present the new mission statement to take us into the next 10 years – no major changes but still an important message to our staff, clients and partners:

Flagship’s mission is to be the most successful service partner for the trade community at delivering the best customer experience in markets we serve.

We like to receive feedback from you as often as you like, how we perform towards this ambitious mission. In order to improve the communication with you, we have implemented a new tool. By using a Group Network on www.LinkedIn.com you can apply for membership and share information from Flagship, updates and feedback, and view communication within the group. Go to www.flagship.com and log on to our new user group.

In 2008 Flagship entered into a strategic relationship with Gat-Ship in Norway for a Port Call System. During this last year we have presented this application to many of you and also new segments within the shipping industry. By the end of this year we will introduce a new strategic partner from Germany, VesselTracker, allowing our users to view the position of all ships with data about the sailing and current position. Please, allow our representatives to present to you what these new applications can do for you.

For 2010 we will focus on profitable growth in an environment still under pressure from the global financial market and we plan for a recovery to come. Our shareholders have asked us to gain competitive advantage and prepare for a quick start when the market is ready to start growing again. We hope you, our client and partner will do the same by letting us present our new offerings and plans.

We thank you all for the support in 2009 and wish you all a happy holiday season and with the best wishes for the New Year.

Lasse Syversen
CEO and President

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