i3 Verticals, Inc.

and welcome to the I3 Vertical's second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Today, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Today's call is being recorded, and a replay will be available starting today, May 17, or starting today through May 17. The number for the replay is 877-344-7529, and the code is 685. The replay also may be accessed for 30 days at the company's website. At this time, I would like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Jeff Smith, SVP of Finance. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, and welcome to the second quarter 2024 conference call for I3 Verticals. Joining me on this call are Greg Daly, our Chairman and CEO, Clay Woodson, our CFO, Rick Stanford, our president, and Paul Christians, our COO. To the extent any non-GAAP financial measure is discussed in today's call, you will also find a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure reviewing yesterday's earnings release. It is the company's intent to provide non-GAAP financial information to enhance understanding of its consolidated GAAP financial information. This non-GAAP financial information should be considered by each individual in addition to, but not instead of, the GAAP financial statements. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements, among others, regarding the company's expected financial and operating performance. For this purpose, any statements made during this call that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. You are hereby cautioned that these forward-looking statements may be affected by the important factors, among others, set forth in the company's earnings release and in reports that are furnished with the SEC. Consequently, actual operations and results may differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Finally, the information shared on this call is valid at today's date, and the company undertakes no obligation to update it, except as may be required under applicable law. I will now turn the call over to the company's chairman and CEO, Greg Daley.

Thanks, Jeff, and good morning to everyone on the call. Before getting in the results of second quarter fiscal year 24, I'd like to provide a brief update on what we announced last quarter, namely the exploration of the sale of the merchant services business. As previously announced in February, the company's board of directors have directed I-3 management to explore the sale of certain discrete assets related to our merchant services business. The process for considering this transaction is ongoing. We would intend to use the proceeds from the sale of this business to pay down debt. Any decision by the Board to engage in any transaction involving the merchant services business would be aligned with the Board's objectives to maximize long-term shareholders' value. I don't have any further updates on the process at this time. With that addressed, I'm pleased to share with you some of our results from the second quarter of fiscal year 24. In a minute, Rick will elaborate on the realignment we began last year and how that has better positioned us for sustainable growth. Before he does, I'd like to reemphasize our commitment to highly recurring revenue streams. This quarter, several of our non-recurring lines are lower than last year, especially professional services and software licenses. Some of our revenue here has been impacted by delayed projects in our backlog, such as the Manitoba driver's license project we've discussed with you, or the very large and exciting new utilities opportunity. The utilities opportunity has required us to build a complex new project. It is going great. However, we have not been able to recognize any revenue related to it. That's fine with us because we believe that in the long term, this project is going to open up new markets and be highly accretive to our shareholders. In the interim, as we go through a period of lower professional services and license revenue, We benefit greatly from our excellent financial profile. ARR is well north of 80 percent. Our margins grew over 100 basis points despite lower higher margin license revenue. We think that's fantastic results which we are proud of. Our future is very bright and we are excited about the second half of our fiscal year. I'll now turn the call over to Clay, and he'll provide you more details on our financial performance. When he is finished, Rick will add commentary on the business, and then we'll open up the call for questions.