埃森哲 (ACN) 2002 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by.

女士們，先生們，謝謝你們的支持。

Welcome to Accenture fourth quarter fiscal year 2002 earnings call.

歡迎參加埃森哲 2002 財年第四季度財報電話會議。

At this time, all participant lines are in a listen-only mode.

此時，所有參與者線路都處於只聽模式。

Later, there will be an opportunity for questions.

稍後，將有機會提問。

If at that time you do wish to ask a question, please remember to touch the number one on your touch-tone phone.

如果那時您確實想提出問題，請記住按您的按鍵式電話上的數字 1。

If you should require assistance from an operator, just press zero, then star.

如果您需要操作員的幫助，只需按零，然後加星號。

As a reminder, the call is being recorded.

提醒一下，通話正在錄音中。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Director of Investor Relations Carroll Meyer.

我現在想將會議轉交給投資者關係總監 Carroll Meyer。

Please go ahead.

請繼續。

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today.

謝謝接線員，謝謝大家今天加入我們。

With me are Joe Forehand, Accenture's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Harry You, our CFO.

與我同行的還有埃森哲董事長兼首席執行官 Joe Forehand 和我們的首席財務官 Harry You。

We're pleased that all of you are joining us today for our Q4 and QC '02 quarterly and earnings announcements.

我們很高興大家今天加入我們的 Q4 和 QC '02 季度和收益公告。

We also appreciate you joining us an hour earlier.

我們也感謝您提前一小時加入我們。

We picked this time so that those of you who follow first data can participate in their call later on this morning.

我們選擇了這個時間，以便那些關注第一批數據的人可以在今天早上晚些時候參與他們的電話會議。

By now, I hope that you've had an opportunity to review the news release that we issued earlier this morning.

到目前為止，我希望您有機會查看我們今天早上早些時候發布的新聞稿。

First, Joe will provide you with his comments on the current market conditions, our overall results and key priorities, and then Harry will speak to the detailed numbers and we'll have some time at the end for questions and answers.

首先，Joe 將向您提供他對當前市場狀況、我們的總體結果和關鍵優先事項的評論，然後 Harry 將講述詳細的數字，最後我們將有一些時間進行問答。

As a reminder, when we discuss revenues during today's call, we are talking about revenues before reimbursements, or net revenues.

提醒一下，當我們在今天的電話會議中討論收入時，我們談論的是報銷前的收入或淨收入。

Some of the matters we will discuss on this call are forward-looking, and I'd like to advise you that these forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements.

我們將在本次電話會議上討論的一些事項是前瞻性的，我想建議您，這些前瞻性陳述受已知和未知風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與表達或表達的結果大不相同。此類陳述所暗示的。

Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, general economic conditions, and those factors set forth in today's press release and discussed under the heading "risk factors" in our registration statement on form S-1 filed with the SEC.

此類風險和不確定性包括但不限於一般經濟狀況，以及今天新聞稿中列出並在我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的 S-1 表格的登記聲明中的“風險因素”標題下討論的那些因素。

Accenture assumes no obligation to update the information presented on this conference call.

埃森哲不承擔更新本次電話會議上提供的信息的義務。

So now, I'm pleased to turn it over to Joe Forehand.

所以現在，我很高興把它交給 Joe Forehand。

Thank you, Carroll, and good morning to all of you, and thanks for joining us.

謝謝你，卡羅爾，大家早上好，感謝你加入我們。

On August 31, we ended our 2002 fiscal year and fourth quarter.

8 月 31 日，我們結束了 2002 財年和第四季度。

The fourth quarter was challenging, certainly, as we'll discuss, but we did meet our bottom-line expectations, and generated very strong cash flow.

正如我們將討論的那樣，第四季度當然充滿挑戰，但我們確實達到了我們的底線預期，並產生了非常強勁的現金流。

Revenues for the fiscal year were $11.57 billion, an increase of 1% in U.S. dollars, 2% in local currency.

本財年收入為 115.7 億美元，按美元計算增長 1%，按當地貨幣計算增長 2%。

In the fourth quarter, revenues were $2.69 billion, a decrease of 3% in U.S. dollars and 6% in local currency from the fourth quarter last year.

第四季度收入為 26.9 億美元，以美元計算，以當地貨幣計算，比去年第四季度下降 6%。

Despite the economic challenges, we continued to outperform our industry at large.

儘管面臨經濟挑戰，我們仍然在整個行業中表現出色。

We're proud of our continued ability to provide our clients with the highest level of service.

我們為能夠持續為客戶提供最高水平的服務而感到自豪。

Diluted earnings per share for the fiscal year, excluding investment write-downs and a real estate consolidation charge that Harry will discuss, were 91 cents compared to 85 cents the prior fiscal year.

本財年每股攤薄收益（不包括哈利將討論的投資減記和房地產整合費用）為 91 美分，而上一財年為 85 美分。

Diluted earnings per share on the same basis for the fourth quarter were 16 cents compared to 15 cents for the fourth quarter last year.

第四季度相同基礎上的稀釋後每股收益為 16 美分，而去年第四季度為 15 美分。

Operating income for the fiscal year, excluding the real estate consolidation charge, was $1.5 billion, or 12.9% of net revenues.

本財年的營業收入（不包括房地產整合費用）為 15 億美元，占淨收入的 12.9%。

Operating income for the fourth quarter on the same basis was $258 million or 9.6% of net revenues.

在同一基礎上，第四季度的營業收入為 2.58 億美元，占淨收入的 9.6%。

Looking geographically, our business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, had a strong year, with revenue growth of 11% in U.S. dollars and 9% in local currency.

從地域上看，我們在歐洲、中東和非洲的業務表現強勁，以美元計算的收入增長了 11%，以當地貨幣計算的收入增長了 9%。

Revenues in the Americas declined 5% in U.S. dollars, and 3% in local currency over the prior year.

美洲地區的收入以美元計算下降了 5%，以當地貨幣計算下降了 3%。

The Asia-Pacific region faced continued challenges this fiscal year, with revenues declining 8% in U.S. dollars and 4% in local currency.

本財年亞太地區面臨持續挑戰，以美元計算的收入下降了 8%，以當地貨幣計算的收入下降了 4%。

Let me now turn to our operating group results.

現在讓我談談我們的運營組結果。

For the second quarter in a row, communications and high-tech grew revenues at 8%, though for the year it had a 2% decline.

連續第二個季度，通信和高科技的收入增長了 8%，但今年下降了 2%。

This decline was primarily due to the global economic weakening in the electronics and high-tech industries.

這一下降主要是由於電子和高科技行業的全球經濟疲軟。

The communications industry led the growth in the fourth quarter, due to several long transformal outsourcing contracts.

由於幾份長期的轉型外包合同，通信行業在第四季度引領了增長。

Financial services felt the greatest impact this fiscal year with revenues declining 9% for the year and 10% for the fourth quarter.

金融服務在本財年受到的影響最大，全年收入下降 9%，第四季度下降 10%。

This decline was due largely to ongoing pressure in capital markets.

這種下降主要是由於資本市場的持續壓力。

That industry has reduced or delayed spending on IT services in all three of our major geographic areas.

該行業已經減少或延遲了我們所有三個主要地理區域的 IT 服務支出。

Resources grew revenue for the year by 4% as the result of strong growth in our chemicals and utilities industries.

由於我們的化學和公用事業行業的強勁增長，資源今年的收入增長了 4%。

Revenues declined 14%, however, in the fourth quarter, which is the first decline for resources this fiscal year, due to the impact of the economic challenges experienced in the energy trading industry and a slowdown in chemical industry revenues in North America from earlier in the year.

然而，由於能源貿易行業經歷的經濟挑戰以及北美化工行業收入較早前放緩的影響，第四季度的收入下降了 14%，這是本財年資源方面的首次下降那一年。

Products also grew 4% for the fiscal year, reflecting continued growth in consulting and outsourcing in Europe, particularly in the retail industry and the travel and transportation industry.

本財年產品也增長了 4%，這反映了歐洲諮詢和外包業務的持續增長，特別是在零售業和旅遊和運輸業。

In the fourth quarter, products revenues declined 9%, its first quarterly decline this fiscal year, as the result of softness in most industries served by products, particularly in the Americas.

第四季度，產品收入下降了 9%，這是本財年首次出現季度下滑，原因是產品服務的大多數行業疲軟，尤其是在美洲。

Finally, government had an exceptional year, growing revenues 31% for the fiscal year and 19% for the fourth quarter.

最後，政府度過了非凡的一年，本財年的收入增長了 31%，第四季度增長了 19%。

The increase was driven by strong growth in North America and Europe, including work from some very large sales in the second half of the year.

這一增長是由北美和歐洲的強勁增長推動的，包括下半年一些非常大的銷售工作。

Government also achieved significant milestones related to some large value-based contracts.

政府還實現了與一些基於價值的大型合同相關的重要里程碑。

Growth in the fourth quarter came primarily from work with national governments in the U.K., U.S., France, Canada, and Spain, as well as Australia, as well as state and local governments in California, New York, Texas, and Florida.

第四季度的增長主要來自與英國、美國、法國、加拿大和西班牙以及澳大利亞的國家政府以及加利福尼亞州、紐約州、德克薩斯州和佛羅里達州的州和地方政府的合作。

So that gives you a feel of how each operating group performed.

這樣一來，您就可以了解每個運營組的表現。

I also want to let you know that effective September 1, we moved our health services practice from financial services to products, and within the U.S. we combined health services with the pharmaceutical and medical products industry group into a new unit called health and life sciences.

我還想讓您知道，自 9 月 1 日起，我們將健康服務業務從金融服務轉向產品，在美國，我們將健康服務與製藥和醫療產品行業集團合併為一個名為健康和生命科學的新部門。

We see some significant opportunity ahead in having an integrated team focused on the growing health economy.

我們看到了一個重要的機會，那就是組建一個專注於不斷增長的健康經濟的綜合團隊。

Let me make a few additional comments on our overall financial results.

讓我對我們的整體財務業績做一些補充評論。

First, our contingent emphasis on transformational outsourcing is one key element of our growth strategy.

首先，我們對轉型外包的重視是我們增長戰略的一個關鍵要素。

It helped us achieve a 33% growth in outsourcing for the fiscal year, while at the same time we had a 7% decline in consulting revenue.

它幫助我們在本財年實現了 33% 的外包增長，同時我們的諮詢收入下降了 7%。

I will talk more about our view of our industry in a moment.

稍後我將更多地談談我們對行業的看法。

Although outsourcing this year was 23% of our total revenue, and that is up from 17% from last fiscal year.

儘管今年外包占我們總收入的 23%，但比上一財年的 17% 有所上升。

Secondly, our balance sheet is very strong.

其次，我們的資產負債表非常強勁。

We ended the year with $1.3 billion of cash.

我們以 13 億美元的現金結束了這一年。

That's up $203 million from the third quarter.

這比第三季度增加了 2.03 億美元。

We paid down $32 million of debt, so total debt at August 31 was only $67 million.

我們償還了 3200 萬美元的債務，因此 8 月 31 日的總債務僅為 6700 萬美元。

Third, the new bookings for the fourth quarter were $2.8 billion.

第三，第四季度的新預訂額為 28 億美元。

We finished the fiscal year with an all-time record of $16 billion in new bookings.

我們以 160 億美元的新預訂量完成了本財年的歷史記錄。

That is an increase of 23% over the prior fiscal year.

這比上一財年增長了 23%。

As I travel and meet with client CEOs, they continue to tell me we're unique in bringing them creative value propositions and delivering innovation, and from what I see, you know, much of the work we're getting is not in IT budgets, and I believe that our ability to proactively take new ideas to clients, which is a core element of our strategy, has contributed to our record new bookings this year.

在我旅行和與客戶 CEO 會面時，他們繼續告訴我，我們在為他們帶來創造性價值主張和提供創新方面是獨一無二的，據我所知，你知道，我們所做的大部分工作都沒有包含在 IT 預算中，而且我相信，我們主動向客戶提出新想法的能力是我們戰略的核心要素，這為我們今年創紀錄的新預訂做出了貢獻。

While we're on the topic of accomplishments, let me highlight a few others, since fiscal year '02 was our first full fiscal year as a public company.

當我們談到成就的話題時，讓我強調一些其他的，因為 02 財年是我們作為上市公司的第一個完整財年。

We won 19 deals that were over $100 million each.

我們贏得了 19 筆超過 1 億美元的交易。

Our return on invested capital was about 90% at the end of the fiscal year, a significant increase over last year despite a larger capital base.

截至本財年末，我們的投資資本回報率約為 90%，儘管資本基礎更大，但比去年有顯著增長。

Since our July 2001 I.P.O.

自我們 2001 年 7 月首次公開募股以來

And interestingly, comparing some of our key financial metrics against the S&P 100, Accenture would rank first on return on invested capital, second on return on assets, third on return on equity, 11th on revenue growth, and 43rd on 5 earnings growth.

有趣的是，將我們的一些關鍵財務指標與標準普爾 100 指數進行比較，埃森哲的投資資本回報率排名第一，資產回報率排名第二，股本回報率排名第三，收入增長排名第 11，盈利增長排名第 43。

Again, compared to the S&P 100.

同樣，與標準普爾 100 指數相比。

So, looking back, we're pleased once again with our ability to deliver solid results in a very difficult economic environment.

因此，回顧過去，我們再次對我們在非常困難的經濟環境中取得穩健成果的能力感到高興。

I certainly want to acknowledge our people and their commitment to serving our clients and helping to manage our business during this tough time.

我當然要感謝我們的員工以及他們在這個艱難時期為客戶服務和幫助管理我們業務的承諾。

Our fundamentals are sound.

我們的基本面是健全的。

We have a strong balance sheet, a commitment to controlling cost, we have solid business prospects, and the right people.

我們擁有強大的資產負債表、控製成本的承諾、穩固的業務前景和合適的人才。

So we're counting on these factors, as well as our experience in helping clients improve their business performance, to fuel continued gains in market share.

因此，我們依靠這些因素以及我們在幫助客戶提高業務績效方面的經驗來推動市場份額的持續增長。

Let me turn to the road ahead.

讓我轉向前面的路。

We're in for a continued bumpy ride, given the ongoing uncertainty and volatility in world equity markets and, quite frankly, the instability of the world's geo political situation.

鑑於世界股票市場的持續不確定性和波動性，以及坦率地說，世界地緣政治局勢的不穩定性，我們將繼續經歷坎坷。

As I look at the consulting and systems integration marketplace overall, I see no new technology wave on the near-term horizon that will stimulate technology spending and drive industry growth beyond those of the early adopters.

縱觀整個諮詢和系統集成市場，我認為近期內不會出現新的技術浪潮來刺激技術支出並推動行業增長，超出早期採用者的範圍。

Companies just don't seem to have the business confidence needed to initiate new programs.

公司似乎沒有啟動新項目所需的商業信心。

They clearly are more focused on short-term payback projects.

他們顯然更關注短期回報項目。

So given that, we believe consulting and systems integration project work will have no growth for the remainder of calendar year '02 and frankly limited prospects for any growth in calendar '03.

因此，鑑於此，我們認為諮詢和系統集成項目工作在 '02 日曆年的剩餘時間內將沒有增長，坦率地說，在 '03 日曆年的任何增長前景有限。

Turning to the outsourcing market, we still see some very strong opportunity in this area.

談到外包市場，我們仍然看到該領域的一些非常強大的機會。

Growth here is unpredictable, though, given the long lead times in closing deals.

不過，鑑於完成交易的準備時間很長，這裡的增長是不可預測的。

As we look at our own business, our probability-adjusted pipeline related to outsourcing is up 69% since the last quarter, with a mix of about 50-50 business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing.

從我們自己的業務來看，我們與外包相關的概率調整管道自上個季度以來增長了 69%，其中包含約 50-50 個業務流程外包和 IT 外包。

We're particularly excited about the growth in the B.P.O. market, which we believe we're well positioned to lead, with our value-based offerings in such areas as finance, learning management, customer contact transformation, as well as human resources.

我們對 B.P.O. 的增長感到特別興奮。市場，我們相信我們有能力在金融、學習管理、客戶聯繫轉換以及人力資源等領域提供基於價值的產品來引領市場。

So that's a brief view of how we see our industry.

這就是我們如何看待我們的行業的簡要看法。

I want to give you my view of now what we've been doing to ensure that we're prepared to continue leading the market during what appears to be a critical inflection point.

我想告訴你我現在的看法，我們一直在做什麼，以確保我們準備好在看似關鍵的拐點期間繼續引領市場。

As we discussed on our last earnings call, we've taken a number of actions to ensure we start fiscal year '03 with a lower cost base and get fit for a slower growth environment ahead, and Harry will describe the results of these cost savings soon.

正如我們在上次財報電話會議上所討論的那樣，我們已經採取了一些措施來確保我們以較低的成本基礎開始 '03 財年並適應未來較慢的增長環境，Harry 將描述這些成本節約的結果很快。

I will tell you also the economic downturn has confirmed the importance of how we manage our business.

我還要告訴你，經濟低迷已經證實了我們如何管理業務的重要性。

Very simply, our people deliver quality client service and value-based outcomes, and we follow our historical strategy of keeping fixed costs very low, with a variable cost structure that generates earnings growth when revenue growth is difficult.

很簡單，我們的員工提供優質的客戶服務和基於價值的成果，我們遵循將固定成本保持在極低水平的歷史戰略，採用可變成本結構，在收入增長困難時產生收益增長。

We've been using the downturn to get our organization galvanized around our strategy.

我們一直在利用經濟低迷讓我們的組織圍繞我們的戰略進行激勵。

In fact, we held our annual partners meeting six weeks ago to get our 2600 strong partner team mobilized to bring our newest value propositions and capabilities to our clients.

事實上，我們在六週前召開了年度合作夥伴會議，動員我們的 2600 名強大的合作夥伴團隊為我們的客戶帶來我們最新的價值主張和能力。

We do believe we have a differentiating strategy as we continue to transform our business model.

我們確實相信，隨著我們繼續轉變我們的商業模式，我們有一個差異化的戰略。

That strategy combines our industry value creation capabilities with our unique solutions to deliver real business outcomes to clients.

該戰略將我們的行業價值創造能力與我們獨特的解決方案相結合，為客戶提供真正的業務成果。

It's a strategy that goes beyond projects and programs.

這是一種超越項目和計劃的戰略。

We believe our strategy has allowed us to hold onto our valuable consulting clients, even when they've reduced spending, while also allowing us to build a strong V.P.O. business and overall pipeline.

我們相信我們的戰略使我們能夠留住我們寶貴的諮詢客戶，即使他們減少了支出，同時也使我們能夠建立強大的 V.P.O.業務和整體管道。

And finally, we're using our resources to invest in tomorrow's growth.

最後，我們正在利用我們的資源投資於未來的增長。

We have continued to focus on innovation through our Accenture technology labs and our business consulting service lines.

我們通過埃森哲技術實驗室和業務諮詢服務線繼續專注於創新。

We simply must stay ahead on the innovation cycle to differentiate ourselves and command the margins we desire.

我們必須在創新周期中保持領先，以使自己與眾不同並獲得我們想要的利潤。

Also, we will be rolling out a new core training curriculum for our consulting workforce this year, and as we've mentioned before, we're building a solutions workforce to provide a lower-cost technology delivery capability to client projects around the world.

此外，今年我們將為我們的諮詢員工推出新的核心培訓課程，正如我們之前提到的，我們正在建立一個解決方案員工隊伍，為全球客戶項目提供低成本的技術交付能力。

So in spite of the economic challenges, these actions position us well, and we're starting the fiscal year in a good position.

因此，儘管存在經濟挑戰，但這些行動使我們處於有利地位，我們在本財年開始時處於有利地位。

It's certainly early in the year, but we had a very solid September, and although we certainly can't declare an upturn, we are entering this new fiscal year with a pristine balance sheet and solid results.

這當然是今年年初，但我們的 9 月非常穩健，雖然我們當然不能宣布好轉，但我們正在進入這個新的財政年度，資產負債表完好，業績穩健。

Let me pause here and turn the call over to Harry, to give you more details behind our results.

讓我在這裡暫停一下，把電話轉給哈利，給你更多關於我們結果的細節。

Thank you, Joe.

謝謝你，喬。

I will go through a lot here, so I thank you in advance for your patience.

我會在這裡經歷很多，所以我提前感謝您的耐心等待。

Let me first go through our results for the fiscal year '02 and then I will go through our results for the fourth quarter.

讓我先介紹一下我們 02 財年的業績，然後再介紹一下我們第四季度的業績。

Our first full year as a public company was a financially solid one, especially in the face of some of the most difficult economic conditions our firm has seen in the last 30 years.

作為一家上市公司，我們的第一個全年財務狀況良好，尤其是在我們公司在過去 30 年中遇到的一些最困難的經濟狀況面前。

Pro forma diluted EPS for the full year was 91 cents.

全年備考攤薄每股收益為 91 美分。

This compares to the analysts consensus estimate at the time of the I.P.O. of 85 cents, and pro forma EPS for last fiscal year 2001 of 85 cents per share.

這與首次公開募股時分析師的共識估計相比。 85 美分，2001 財年的備考每股收益為 85 美分。

G.A.A.P. diluted EPS for the full year was 56 cents because of our conversion from a partnership to a public company last year.

G.A.A.P.由於我們去年從合夥企業轉變為上市公司，全年攤薄每股收益為 56 美分。

There is no comparable G.A.A.P. number.

沒有可比的 G.A.A.P。數字。

Revenue growth for the full year, including the results of awful avanon [phonetic] and E-people serve, which were first consolidated in the second and third quarters, respectively, was 1%.

全年收入增長，包括糟糕的 avanon [語音] 和 E-people serve 的結果，分別在第二和第三季度首次合併，分別為 1%。

The quarterly revenues know after avanon one were 7 million in the second quarter, 17 million in the third quarter, 8 and 18 million in the fourth quarter.

季度營收知道，繼 avanon one 之後，第二季度為 700 萬，第三季度為 1700 萬，第四季度為 8 和 1800 萬。

The quarterly revenues for E-people serve, which is now called Accenture HR services, were 30 million in the third quarter and 27 million in the fourth quarter.

E-people service（現在稱為埃森哲人力資源服務）的季度收入在第三季度為 3000 萬，在第四季度為 2700 萬。

Excluding these two acquisitions, we had flat revenue growth, which we believe met our objective of outgrowing our competitors, although this revenue growth was far less than our partners and employees desire.

排除這兩項收購，我們的收入增長持平，我們認為這符合我們超越競爭對手的目標，儘管這種收入增長遠低於我們的合作夥伴和員工的期望。

Pro forma operating income for the full year, absent the real estate consolidation charge, was 1.496 billion, or 12.9% of revenue, which compares favorably to fiscal year '01 pro forma operating margin of 1.452 billion or 12.7% of revenue, although slightly short of our goal of 50 basis points of margin expansion.

不計房地產合併費用的全年備考營業收入為 14.96 億美元，佔收入的 12.9%，與 01 財年的備考營業利潤率 14.52 億美元或收入的 12.7% 相比，儘管略顯不足我們將利潤率擴大 50 個基點的目標。

We experienced significant pricing pressure from weaker competitors struggling to retain market share.

我們經歷了來自實力較弱的競爭對手努力保持市場份額的巨大定價壓力。

Despite some significant reductions in certain line items and SG&A, we experienced an increase in selling costs related to transformational outsourcing proposals and some moderate bad debt expense which in prior years had been close to zero.

儘管某些項目和 SG&A 顯著減少，但我們經歷了與轉型外包建議相關的銷售成本增加，以及一些適度的壞賬費用，在前幾年接近於零。

We believe that some of our investment in additional selling expense will carry through in outsourcing contracts we hope to sign and announce in the first half of the new fiscal year.

我們相信，我們對額外銷售費用的部分投資將用於我們希望在新財年上半年簽署和宣布的外包合同。

We are increasingly looking at selling expense as a percentage of new booking to look at our true sales efficiency in garnering multi-year outsourcing contracts that create long-term recurring revenue and backlog.

我們越來越多地將銷售費用視為新預訂的百分比，以了解我們在獲得創造長期經常性收入和積壓的多年外包合同時的真實銷售效率。

Our government operating group performed best in fiscal '02 with growth of 31%.

我們的政府運營集團在 02 財年表現最好，增長了 31%。

Resources and products are next, both growing 4% over last year.

接下來是資源和產品，均比去年增長 4%。

Communications and high-tech rallied significantly in the second half of the year to finish with a 2% decline, which is significantly better than most, if not all, our competitors.

通信和高科技在下半年大幅回升，最終下降了 2%，這明顯好於我們的大多數（如果不是全部）競爭對手。

Financial services finished the year with a 9% decline.

金融服務業以 9% 的跌幅結束了這一年。

Our outsourcing business, including business transformation outsourcing, grew at 33% for the year, whereas consulting and systems integration declined by 7%.

我們的外包業務，包括業務轉型外包，全年增長 33%，而諮詢和系統集成則下降了 7%。

Communications and high-tech led the way with 75% growth in outsourcing, along with government at 76%.

通信和高科技以 75% 的外包增長領先，政府部門增長 76%。

Financial services, products, and resources saw outsourcing grow at 11%, 9%, and 7%, respectively.

金融服務、產品和資源外包分別增長了 11%、9% 和 7%。

Europe led the way in fiscal year '02 as it did the previous year with 11% growth in U.S. dollars and 9% growth in local currency.

歐洲在 02 財年領先，與上一年一樣，美元增長 11%，當地貨幣增長 9%。

The Americas declined 5% in U.S. dollars and 3% in local currency.

美洲地區以美元計價下跌 5%，以當地貨幣計價下跌 3%。

Asia-Pacific declined by 8% in U.S. dollars and 4% in local currency.

亞太地區以美元計算下降 8%，以當地貨幣計算下降 4%。

Growth in Europe in fiscal 2002 was due, in part, to strong performance in our government operating group, driven by significant work with the national governments of the U.K., France, and Spain, and by strong performance in most industry groups within our product operating group.

2002 財年歐洲的增長部分歸因於我們的政府運營部門的強勁表現，這得益於與英國、法國和西班牙國家政府的重要合作，以及我們產品運營中大多數行業部門的強勁表現團體。

Let me explain the footnote on our income statement.

讓我解釋一下我們損益表的腳註。

You will see that we report reimbursements and reimbursable expenses as an in and out on our financial statements.

您會看到我們在財務報表中報告報銷和可報銷費用作為進出。

We recently identified a calculation error in the reporting of reimbursements.

我們最近在報銷報告中發現了一個計算錯誤。

As all of you who follow us closely understand, net revenue or revenues before reimbursements is our key revenue metric and we do not consider reimbursements, which are expenses we incur for which we are reimbursed by our clients, to be a significant measure of economic reality, but we report them as required by G.A.A.P. as components of revenues and cost of services.

正如所有關注我們的人所了解的那樣，淨收入或報銷前的收入是我們的關鍵收入指標，我們不認為報銷是我們產生的由客戶報銷的費用，是衡量經濟現實的重要指標，但我們按照 G.A.A.P. 的要求報告它們。作為收入和服務成本的組成部分。

We are revising down our reported reimbursements as a result of recent analysis that highlighted a calculation error outside our core financial and client billing systems.

由於最近的分析強調了我們核心財務和客戶計費系統之外的計算錯誤，我們正在修改我們報告的報銷。

These amounts are still subject to final review and audit.

這些金額仍有待最終審查和審計。

The correction had no impact on revenue before reimbursements, operating income, earnings per share, or the economics of our business.

更正對報銷前的收入、營業收入、每股收益或我們的業務經濟沒有影響。

Our cash flow and credit ratios generally showed strong improvement last fiscal year.

上一財年，我們的現金流量和信用比率普遍出現強勁改善。

As Joe described, ROIC increased from 50% to 90% for the fiscal year, reflecting the introduction of a formal capital committee process for transactions using capital, and our partners working together to use capital efficiently and effectively.

正如喬所描述的那樣，本財年的投資回報率從 50% 增加到 90%，這反映了為使用資本的交易引入了正式的資本委員會流程，以及我們的合作夥伴共同努力有效地使用資本。

The capital committee approved 42 such transactions last year, with an aggregate fiscal year '02 planned margin above our corporate EBIT margin and an aggregate average ROIC of 80%.

資本委員會去年批准了 42 筆此類交易，02 財年的總計劃利潤率高於我們的企業息稅前利潤率，總平均投資回報率為 80%。

These transactions have total contract value of 8.2 billion.

這些交易的合同總價值為 82 億美元。

Operating cash flow for the year was 1.063 billion.

全年經營現金流10.63億元。

Free cash flow for the year, net of capital expenditures, was 800 million, as we were very parsimonious on P.P.& E. expenditures and in using capital for transformational outsourcing deals as I explained earlier.

扣除資本支出後，當年的自由現金流為 8 億美元，因為我們在 P.P.&E. 支出和將資本用於轉型外包交易方面非常節儉，正如我之前解釋的那樣。

In fact, we ended fiscal year '02 with 265 million of client capital on our balance sheet, up only 82 million from the 183 million figure at August 31, 2001.

事實上，我們在 02 財年結束時資產負債表上的客戶資本為 2.65 億，僅比 2001 年 8 月 31 日的 1.83 億增加了 8200 萬。

I cannot think of more conclusive evidence of the difference of our transformational outsourcing model of V.P.O. compared to infrastructure outsourcing.

我想不出更確鑿的證據來證明我們的 V.P.O. 轉型外包模式的差異。與基礎設施外包相比。

We signed over 16 billion renewed bookings this past year, with 44% of them coming from outsourcing. 38% of our new bookings were in the communications and high-tech sector, contributing to the turnaround that we started to see in the second half of fiscal year '02.

去年，我們簽署了超過 160 億份續訂訂單，其中 44% 來自外包。我們 38% 的新預訂來自通信和高科技領域，促成了我們在 02 財年下半年開始看到的好轉。

We are not buying assets from our clients, which is in stark contrast to the traditional infrastructure outsourcing model.

我們不向客戶購買資產，這與傳統的基礎設施外包模式形成鮮明對比。

Un-billed services ended the year at 774 million, which is only 42 million above last year.

年末未開票服務為 7.74 億，僅比去年增加 4200 萬。

While we expect un-billed services to increase over time as we expand our transformational outsourcing business, early indications of the trend line in the past year are favorable.

雖然隨著我們擴大轉型外包業務，我們預計未開票的服務會隨著時間的推移而增加，但過去一年趨勢線的早期跡像是有利的。

Deferred revenues finished the year at 544 million, decreasing by 266 million, also because of the stress on our clients emanating from the global economy, but with a significant fourth quarter improvement which I will detail later.

全年遞延收入為 5.44 億美元，減少了 2.66 億美元，這也是因為全球經濟給我們的客戶帶來了壓力，但第四季度有顯著改善，我將在後面詳細介紹。

Given the pressures on our clients, it will continue to be a challenge to be efficient on working capital, but our partners will push for the best possible results for you, our partners and shareholders in the investment community.

鑑於我們客戶面臨的壓力，提高營運資金的效率仍將是一項挑戰，但我們的合作夥伴將為您、我們的合作夥伴和投資界的股東爭取盡可能好的結果。

Days services outstanding finished the year at 44 days, which increased by 3 days during the year because of tougher economic conditions, but decreased by 4 days in the fourth quarter.

全年未完成服務天數為 44 天，由於經濟形勢嚴峻，全年增加了 3 天，但第四季度減少了 4 天。

As all of you know, our DSOs are still several orders of magnitude ahead of many of our competitors, because of our partners' financial discipline and alignment of public shareholder values.

眾所周知，由於我們合作夥伴的財務紀律和公眾股東價值觀的一致性，我們的 DSO 仍然比我們的許多競爭對手領先幾個數量級。

We ended up with 1.4 billion in cash and restricted cash balances for the year, even with market repurchases of 250 million of stock for general corporate purposes and $220 million of stock bought by our share employee compensation trust for new partners.

儘管我們為一般公司目的回購了 2.5 億股股票，並通過我們的股票員工薪酬信託為新合作夥伴購買了 2.2 億美元的股票，但我們今年最終獲得了 14 億現金和受限現金餘額。

Total debt at year end stands at 67 million, and we have committed bank credit facilities of 1.075 billion.

年末總負債6700萬，承諾銀行授信額度10.75億。

We have no off balance sheet financing entities whatsoever.

我們沒有任何表外融資實體。

Finally, Q4 weighted average diluted shares outstanding is 1.006 billion, compared to 1.008 billion the year prior, reflecting our commitment to our public shareholders and partners not to be significantly dilutive if our financial performance does not warrant it.

最後，第四季度加權平均攤薄流通股為 10.06 億股，而去年同期為 10.08 億股，這反映了我們對公眾股東和合作夥伴的承諾，如果我們的財務業績不能保證，我們不會大幅稀釋。

Total shares, restricted share units and options outstanding, both vested and un-vested, actually decreased by 23 million shares or share equivalents for the year.

已歸屬和未歸屬的已發行股份、限制性股票單位和已發行期權的總數在本年度實際減少了 2,300 萬股或股票等值物。

Our management chose not to issue any performance options to our partners in fiscal year '02, even though 15 million were authorized.

我們的管理層選擇在 02 財年不向我們的合作夥伴發布任何績效選項，即使授權了 1500 萬個。

We limited option grants totaling 2.3 million to our non-partner employees who were promoted last year.

我們將總計 230 萬筆期權授予限制給去年晉升的非合作夥伴員工。

Our pipeline, which is probability adjusted to reflect opportunities with an equal to or greater than 70% win probability, is up by 60% over last year, although the average days to close stands at 168 days versus 136 days to close at the time of our initial public offering.

我們的管道經過概率調整以反映獲勝概率等於或大於 70% 的機會，比去年增加了 60%，儘管平均結束天數為 168 天，而截止日期為 136 天我們的首次公開募股。

There has been improvement since Q3's close period of 231 days and Q2's close period of 248 days.

自第三季度 231 天的收盤期和第二季度 248 天的收盤期以來有所改善。

We are also working to be more efficient at ramping up outsourcing contracts to their full run rate as quickly as possible.

我們還在努力提高效率，盡快將外包合同提高到全速運行。

Our current head count at August 31, 2002, stands 12 at approximately 76,900, of which 65,700 are billable and 11,200 are support personnel.

截至 2002 年 8 月 31 日，我們目前的員工人數為 12 人，約為 76,900 人，其中 65,700 人是可計費的，11,200 人是支持人員。

The billable head count breaks down across our different workforces as follows: Consulting and solutions head count at 47,500; outsourcing head count at 15,000; and consolidated affiliates at 3,200.

我們不同員工的可計費人數細分如下： 諮詢和解決方案員工人數為 47,500；外包人數為 15,000 人；和合併的附屬公司為 3,200 家。

We finished the year at over 76% chargeability.

我們以超過 76% 的收費率結束了這一年。

All in all, in our corporate culture that emphasizes stewardship, we believe that we have delivered financial results that have strengthened Accenture's shareholder value even over a period of unusual economic duress and technology challenge.

總而言之，在我們強調管理的企業文化中，我們相信即使在不尋常的經濟脅迫和技術挑戰時期，我們所交付的財務業績也增強了埃森哲的股東價值。

Let me now turn to the fourth quarter.

現在讓我談談第四季度。

Q4 was a challenging quarter for us but we are pleased that for the fifth quarter in a row since becoming a public company, we have achieved analyst consensus EPS estimates.

第四季度對我們來說是一個充滿挑戰的季度，但我們很高興自成為上市公司以來連續第五個季度實現了分析師的每股收益預期。

Net revenues for the quarter were at 2.69 billion, which represents a 3% decline year over year.

本季度淨收入為 26.9 億美元，同比下降 3%。

Excluding revenues consolidated from avanon and Accenture HR services, the decline would have been 4.7%.

不包括來自 avanon 和埃森哲人力資源服務的合併收入，下降幅度為 4.7%。

For the quarter, revenues in the Americas declined 5% in U.S. dollars and 3% in local currency.

本季度，美洲收入以美元計算下降 5%，以當地貨幣計算下降 3%。

Revenues in Europe grew 2% in U.S. dollars and declined 7% in local currency.

歐洲的收入以美元計算增長 2%，以當地貨幣計算下降 7%。

European revenues were held back by 17% decline in Germany.

歐洲收入因德國下降 17% 而受阻。

All other major countries grew from the U.K. and France at 1%, Italy at 15%, Sweden at 16%, Spain at 18%, and Belgium at 30%.

所有其他主要國家的增長率均來自英國和法國，增長率為 1%，意大利為 15%，瑞典為 16%，西班牙為 18%，比利時為 30%。

Revenues in Asia-Pacific declined 16% in U.S. dollars, and 19% in local currency.

亞太地區的收入以美元計算下降了 16%，以當地貨幣計算下降了 19%。

Asia-Pacific results reflect soft market conditions in the Asia-Pacific region overall.

亞太地區的業績反映了整個亞太地區疲軟的市場狀況。

The markets are experiencing an increase in competitive activity, and adverse economic conditions.

市場正在經歷競爭活動的增加和不利的經濟狀況。

This is particularly the case in the fourth quarter, where we saw increased competitive pressures in Australia and Singapore.

第四季度尤其如此，我們看到澳大利亞和新加坡的競爭壓力增加。

Our Japanese partners, however, grew their business in the fourth quarter.

然而，我們的日本合作夥伴在第四季度的業務有所增長。

For the quarter, consulting and systems integration revenues declined by 15% year over year, while outsourcing had its second straight quarter of 38% year over year growth.

本季度，諮詢和系統集成收入同比下降 15%，而外包業務連續第二個季度同比增長 38%。

The consulting and systems integration decline was exacerbated by tough comparison in Europe, where we experienced 32% growth in local currency in the fourth quarter of last year, with our people in Europe working significant overtime.

與歐洲的艱難對比加劇了諮詢和系統集成的下降，去年第四季度，我們在歐洲經歷了 32% 的當地貨幣增長，我們在歐洲的員工大量加班。

New bookings for the quarter were 2.8 billion, representing 23% growth over the fourth quarter of last year.

本季度的新預訂量為 28 億，比去年第四季度增長 23%。

In the fourth quarter, we took a restructuring charge of 111 million related to consolidation of excess real estate space.

第四季度，我們承擔了 1.11 億美元的與過剩房地產空間整合相關的重組費用。

As we mentioned to you last year, we are continuing to consolidate our usage of real estate through hoteling and through continued changes in travel and office usage patterns.

正如我們去年向您提到的那樣，我們將繼續通過酒店服務以及旅行和辦公室使用模式的持續變化來鞏固我們對房地產的使用。

We want to strategically minimize our fixed cost base.

我們希望戰略性地最小化我們的固定成本基礎。

We have taken a onetime non-cash charge, which represents the net present value expectation of the cost of abandoning and then subleasing properties in over 50 of our office locations in 11 countries around the world.

我們採取了一次性非現金費用，這代表了我們在全球 11 個國家/地區的 50 多個辦公地點放棄然後轉租物業的成本的淨現值預期。

We abandoned approximately 1 million square feet of real estate, which represents 15% of our total square footage globally.

我們放棄了大約 100 萬平方英尺的房地產，占我們全球總面積的 15%。

We will give you quarter-by-quarter detail of how operating expenses relative to the restructured real estate declined so that you can separate the impact from our financial targets for the coming fiscal year.

我們將按季度向您提供與重組房地產相關的運營費用如何下降的詳細信息，以便您可以將影響與我們下一財年的財務目標區分開來。

We expect at least 32 million of cash flow benefits over the next five years from taking this charge, and subleasing the space.

我們預計未來五年內至少有 3200 萬的現金流收益來自承擔這項費用並轉租該空間。

It made sense for us to take the charge because the benefits of this onetime non-cash charge will extend several years.

收費對我們來說是有意義的，因為這種一次性非現金收費的好處將延長數年。

Also, noteworthy in the fourth quarter are the costs of severance.

此外，第四季度值得注意的是遣散費。

We have readjusted our personnel levels at different seniority levels.

我們重新調整了不同資歷級別的人員級別。

In particular, at our manager and senior manager levels, we have experienced abnormally low attrition in the past year.

特別是在我們的經理和高級經理級別，我們在過去一年經歷了異常低的流失率。

As an aside, our attrition for the fourth quarter, on an annualized basis, was 12%.

順便說一句，我們第四季度的年化減員率為 12%。

Because of the low attrition in the mid-and upper levels of our pyramid, we did not have the optimal workforce mix relative to maximizing the job content for our people and optimizing margin.

由於我們金字塔中上層的人員流失率較低，相對於最大化員工的工作內容和優化利潤，我們沒有最佳的勞動力組合。

As a result, we have incurred severance costs of 93 million in the fourth quarter.

因此，我們在第四季度產生了 9300 萬美元的遣散費。

We expect some additional 25 million in severance costs to spill over into the first 14 quarter.

我們預計第 14 季度將額外增加 2500 萬的遣散費。

I want to emphasize, however, that our severance actions are financially similar to last year, and do not reflect underlying demand conditions as much as they reflect our desire to go into a new year with the proper workforce pyramid of seniority and with counseling out of low performers.

然而，我想強調的是，我們的遣散行動在財務上與去年相似，並沒有反映潛在的需求狀況，而是反映了我們希望以適當的資歷金字塔進入新的一年，並提供諮詢服務。表現不佳的人。

As we detailed in our first investor meeting, we expect to increase our head count this fiscal year in the range of 2,000 to 8,000 people.

正如我們在第一次投資者會議中詳述的那樣，我們預計本財年的員工人數將增加 2,000 至 8,000 人。

Joe and I have committed to you not to take charges on severance or any other line items that are not truly extraordinary.

喬和我已向您承諾，不會對遣散費或任何其他並非真正特別的項目收費。

I'm very proud that our partners and associate partners have, in effect, funded the severance costs by the reversal of annual bonus and accumulated quarterly variable compensation.

我很自豪我們的合作夥伴和準合夥人實際上通過沖銷年度獎金和累積的季度可變薪酬來支付遣散費。

In addition to our commitment to you, our public partners, this commitment is a signal in our confidence in how we run our business and the relatively short-term cash on cash returns we get from prudent reshaping of our workforce.

除了我們對您和我們的公共合作夥伴的承諾之外，這一承諾表明我們對我們的業務運營方式以及我們從謹慎地重塑員工隊伍中獲得的相對短期現金回報充滿信心。

Moreover, with the payroll profile for the new fiscal year, which is generally flat with some declines in certain segments of our workforce, our partners and associate partners have also funded 32 million in retention payments for our highest non-partner performers in geographies where we froze base salaries.

此外，由於新財年的薪資狀況總體上持平，我們的某些員工隊伍有所下降，我們的合作夥伴和合作夥伴還為我們在我們所在地區表現最好的非合作夥伴提供了 3200 萬美元的保留金。凍結基本工資。

Looking at our financial results for the fourth quarter, operating income stood at 148 million, or 258 million absent the real estate consolidation charge, which compares to 257 million in the fourth quarter of last year.

從我們第四季度的財務業績來看，營業收入為 1.48 億美元，不計房地產合併費用為 2.58 億美元，而去年第四季度為 2.57 億美元。

The net effect of workforce actions and the reduction of variable compensation was of benefit to operating income of 15 million.

勞動力行動的淨效應和可變薪酬的減少有利於 1500 萬的營業收入。

Operating margin for the fourth quarter was 5.5%, or 9.6% absent the real estate consolidation charge.

第四季度的營業利潤率為 5.5%，如果不計入房地產整合費用，則為 9.6%。

Operating cash flow for the quarter was an impressive 517 million, with un-billed services decreasing by 124 million and deferred revenue increasing by 72 million.

本季度的運營現金流達到了令人印象深刻的 5.17 億美元，未開票服務減少了 1.24 億美元，遞延收入增加了 7200 萬美元。

As I described earlier, DSOs declined by 4 days in the quarter.

如前所述，本季度 DSO 下降了 4 天。

Joe and I owe a lot to our partners for hitting the Finish Line in fiscal year '02 hard and fast.

Joe 和我非常感謝我們的合作夥伴，因為他們在 02 財年的努力和快速地擊中了終點線。

Let me give you some other important updates on our business and financials.

讓我給你一些關於我們業務和財務的其他重要更新。

As you have probably seen, we are in the process of selling a substantial portion of our venture and investment portfolio.

正如您可能已經看到的那樣，我們正在出售我們的大部分風險投資和投資組合。

The 212 million write-off we took in the second quarter turned out to be quite accurate and we are executing the sale of a 95% interest in the portfolio with no material investment gain or loss.

我們在第二季度進行的 2.12 億美元的註銷結果證明是非常準確的，我們正在出售投資組合中 95% 的權益，沒有重大投資收益或損失。

As we announced in early August, we've reached an agreement to sell the 95% interest in our venture and investment portfolio to CIBC World Markets, the investment and merchant banking arm of Toronto's [inaudible] Financial Services Company CIBC.

正如我們在 8 月初宣布的那樣，我們已達成協議，將我們在風險投資和投資組合中 95% 的權益出售給 CIBC World Markets，這是多倫多 [聽不清] 金融服務公司 CIBC 的投資和商業銀行部門。

Accenture will retain a 5% stake in the portfolio, which is comprised of approximately 80 early and mid-stage technology companies primarily in the software area.

埃森哲將保留該投資組合 5% 的股份，該投資組合由大約 80 家主要在軟件領域的早期和中期技術公司組成。

Accenture will continue its existing alliances and client relationships with companies in the portfolio.

埃森哲將繼續與投資組合中的公司建立現有聯盟和客戶關係。

In addition, Accenture and CIBC World Markets plan to enter into an alliance intend to provide CIBC World Markets with access to Accenture's expertise and knowledge of the technology sector, while enabling Accenture to continue to build on its relationships with the portfolio companies.

此外，埃森哲和 CIBC World Markets 計劃結成聯盟，旨在為 CIBC World Markets 提供埃森哲在技術領域的專業知識和知識，同時使埃森哲能夠繼續建立與投資組合公司的關係。

The terms of the transaction, which is expected to close by the end of this calendar year, are not public.

該交易的條款預計將在今年年底完成，但尚未公開。

At year end, we also wrote down some of the remaining equity positions not included in the investment portfolio sale.

在年底，我們還減記了一些未包括在投資組合出售中的剩餘股權頭寸。

Because we came into possession of material insider information about two of these companies, we could not sell or hedge our position.

由於我們掌握了其中兩家公司的重要內幕信息，我們無法出售或對沖我們的頭寸。

With these two actions, our total corporate investments, excluding the pension plan investments, are slightly below $12 million.

通過這兩項行動，我們的企業總投資（不包括養老金計劃投資）略低於 1200 萬美元。

As we have committed to you, part of the $1.05 EPS target and the growth over fiscal year '02 EPS of 91 cents comes from our partners' reduction of budgeted cash compensation to ensure that we have complete alignment and symmetry with our public shareholders.

正如我們向您承諾的那樣，1.05 美元的每股收益目標和 02 財年每股收益 91 美分的增長部分來自我們的合作夥伴減少預算現金補償，以確保我們與公眾股東完全一致和對稱。

Our fiscal year '03 budgets include a 6 to 8% reduction in partner compensation.

我們的 03 財年預算包括將合作夥伴薪酬減少 6% 到 8%。

Once again, we take full responsibility for the results of our pre-I.P.O. investments and their impact on 16 our public shareholders.

再次，我們對首次公開募股前的結果承擔全部責任。投資及其對我們 16 位公眾股東的影響。

You may have seen that the non-U.S.

您可能已經看到，非美國

Andersen firms and Andersen worldwide have settled the Enron claims against them and Accenture will be released as part of that settlement once it is finalized in the next several months.

安達信公司和全球安達信公司已經解決了安然對他們的索賠，埃森哲將在未來幾個月內最終確定後作為該和解的一部分予以釋放。

We did not contribute to the settlement.

我們沒有為和解做出貢獻。

We believe this result validates our prior statement that any action of this nature against us would be misdirected and without merit.

我們相信這一結果驗證了我們之前的聲明，即任何針對我們的此類性質的行動都將被誤導且毫無根據。

We also previously told you that we had settled the Fox Meyer lawsuit and the court has now approved that settlement which was covered by insurance and previously established reserves.

我們之前還告訴過您，我們已經解決了 Fox Meyer 的訴訟，法院現已批准該解決方案，該解決方案由保險和先前建立的儲備金承保。

In connection with our incorporation in Bermuda, we continue to monitor legislative activities.

關於我們在百慕大的註冊，我們繼續監測立法活動。

To date, there has been no legislation enacted that affects our business.

迄今為止，尚未頒布任何影響我們業務的立法。

As we told you in July, we also have been working on contingency plans to be prepared for any outcome.

正如我們在 7 月告訴你們的那樣，我們也一直在製定應急計劃，為任何結果做好準備。

We are certainly heartened by the U.S. general accounting office report last week on this issue.

我們當然對美國總會計師辦公室上週關於這個問題的報告感到鼓舞。

I would also note that Bermuda has never been on the OECD list of abusive tax havens.

我還要指出，百慕大從未出現在經合組織的濫用避稅天堂名單上。

We have always paid our fair share of taxes in each of the countries in which we generate income, including the U.S., and our disclosed G.A.A.P. effective tax rate is comparable to our higher than large U.S. companies although we are not a U.S. corporation.

我們始終在我們產生收入的每個國家（包括美國）繳納公平份額的稅款，以及我們披露的 G.A.A.P.儘管我們不是美國公司，但有效稅率與我們相比高於美國大公司。

We have not experienced any loss of business, as far as we are aware, because of this issue.

據我們所知，我們沒有因為這個問題而遭受任何業務損失。

As I described in our investor meeting, we are making continued progress in our new SAP-based financial system and expect to have it in place by fiscal year '04.

正如我在我們的投資者會議上所描述的，我們在基於 SAP 的新財務系統方面不斷取得進展，並希望在 04 財年之前將其投入使用。

Joe and I believe this is critically important to ensure that we have the right realtime data to monitor our business and, in particular, our large complex outsourcing contracts.

Joe 和我認為這對於確保我們擁有正確的實時數據來監控我們的業務，特別是我們的大型複雜外包合同至關重要。

We believe that the new system will be a quantum leap ahead of the rest of the industry, and we are told by SAP that it will be among one of the most sophisticated SAP-based financial systems in the world.

我們相信新系統將是行業其他公司的巨大飛躍，SAP 告訴我們，它將成為世界上最複雜的基於 SAP 的財務系統之一。

Let me also comment on some of the ongoing discussion on percentage of completion accounting.

讓我也評論一些正在進行的關於完工百分比的討論。

We use percent of completion accounting for the majority of our consulting revenues in compliance with long-established G.A.A.P.

我們根據長期確立的 G.A.A.P. 使用占我們大部分諮詢收入的完成百分比。

We have a several-year track record of having regularly updated and accurate estimates to complete, which show a consistent pattern of modest net upward revenue in margin adjustments.

我們有幾年的定期更新和準確估計完成的記錄，這表明利潤率調整中淨收入適度增長的一致模式。

We also follow established G.A.A.P. for outsourcing contracts and are monitoring developments in that arena.

我們還遵循已建立的 G.A.A.P.外包合同，並正在監測該領域的發展。

Outsourcing contracts are recognized as services are performed or as transactions are processed, in accordance with G.A.A.P.

根據 G.A.A.P.，外包合同在執行服務或處理交易時確認。

As you've seen in our financials as a public company, we have a strong correlation between earnings and cash flow, and we tightly manage client financing, which amounts to 265 million at August 31, '02, on our balance sheet.

正如您在我們作為一家上市公司的財務狀況中看到的那樣，我們的收益和現金流之間存在很強的相關性，並且我們嚴格管理客戶融資，截至 02 年 8 月 31 日，我們資產負債表上的融資總額為 2.65 億美元。

Our controllership, internal audit, and our external auditors, regularly audit our largest engagements.

我們的控制權、內部審計和外部審計師會定期審計我們最大的業務。

In the most recent annual period, KPMG completed audit procedures on engagements covering 27% of total revenues.

在最近一個年度期間，畢馬威完成了涵蓋總收入 27% 的業務的審計程序。

The engagements covered 42 of our top 100 clients, and of the remaining 58 clients, 10 were covered by our internal audit group and an additional 17 were covered by PWC, our former auditor, and our internal audit group, during fiscal year '01.

在 01 財年，我們的前 100 名客戶中的 42 家，其餘 58 家客戶中的 10 家由我們的內部審計小組負責，另外 17 家由我們的前任審計師普華永道和我們的內部審計小組負責。

We are very comfortable with our revenue recognition.

我們對收入確認感到非常滿意。

Another legitimate point of investor concern in our sector has been customer credit quality, particularly for outsourcing clients.

我們行業投資者關注的另一個合理點是客戶信用質量，尤其是外包客戶。

As of August 31st, our total non-investment grade inventory and receivables balances from our top 200 clients stands at only 63 million.

截至 8 月 31 日，我們來自前 200 名客戶的非投資級庫存和應收賬款總額僅為 6300 萬。

Of these receivables, only 28 million are over 1 month in age.

在這些應收賬款中，只有 2800 萬筆賬齡超過 1 個月。

Finally, on the cost-cutting front, we have made significant progress, which I will detail later.

最後，在削減成本方面，我們取得了重大進展，稍後我將詳細介紹。

As Steve James, our C.O.O. described, in our investor meeting this past July, we have a comprehensive program for reducing our short-term costs and for creating an efficient long-term consulting systems integration and V.P.O. business model.

作為史蒂夫·詹姆斯，我們的首席運營官。在我們去年 7 月的投資者會議上，我們有一個全面的計劃來降低我們的短期成本，並創建一個高效的長期諮詢系統集成和 V.P.O.商業模式。

As we have entered into fiscal year '03 this past September, we have focused on the actions that Steve described in our investor meeting in July to reduce our costs by 5 to 6% against our FY '02 cost base.

隨著我們在去年 9 月進入 03 財年，我們專注於史蒂夫在 7 月的投資者會議上描述的行動，以將我們的成本相對於 02 財年的成本基礎降低 5% 到 6%。

Let me reinforce the actions that we are taking.

讓我強調我們正在採取的行動。

Related to consulting solutions, enterprise professionals and their payroll, we estimate a net savings of roughly 500 to 600 million as follows: As it relates to labor costs, we expect to see, as described earlier, about a 200 million savings in partner payroll.

與諮詢解決方案、企業專業人員及其工資單相關，我們估計淨節省大約 500 到 6 億如下： 由於與勞動力成本相關，如前所述，我們預計合作夥伴工資將節省約 2 億。

It is also a result of having a net reduction in the number of partners.

這也是合作夥伴數量淨減少的結果。

As it relates to our consulting workforce, we also expect to see around 350 million in savings from this workforce.

由於它與我們的諮詢勞動力有關，我們還預計從這些勞動力中節省約 3.5 億美元。

The third piece related to payroll savings that we are focused on in fiscal year '03 is $100 million in additional savings within our administrative support area.

我們在 03 財年關注的與工資節省相關的第三個方面是在我們的行政支持領域內額外節省了 1 億美元。

In addition, as a slight offset to these savings, as we expand our solutions workforce, there will be an additional $100 million of payroll that will be additive against these above savings.

此外，作為對這些節省的輕微抵消，隨著我們擴大解決方案員工隊伍，將額外增加 1 億美元的工資單，以抵消上述節省。

Related to non-payroll actions during fiscal year '02, we did, in fact, cut back on training for about a 7 to 8-month period.

與 02 財年的非工資行動相關，事實上，我們確實減少了大約 7 到 8 個月的培訓。

We did pick back up on training during the summer, and started the fall in '02.

我們確實在夏天恢復了訓練，並在 02 年秋季開始。

We are committed to investing an additional 90 million this fiscal year over what we spent in '02 on training.

在本財年，我們承諾在 02 年培訓支出的基礎上再投資 9000 萬美元。

As a contingency, we have also recently identified 150 to $250 million of contingencies that could be leveraged that do not impact our short-term or long-term business profile.

作為應急措施，我們最近還確定了 150 至 2.5 億美元的應急措施，這些應急措施不會影響我們的短期或長期業務狀況。

In this volatile economic environment, we believe we must have several layers of cost contingency and flexibility.

在這種動蕩的經濟環境中，我們認為我們必須具備多層次的成本應變能力和靈活性。

Let me now give you an update on our partner share management plan.

現在讓我向您介紹我們的合作夥伴股份管理計劃的最新情況。

We have now introduced our family and charitable trust program to our partners.

我們現在已經向我們的合作夥伴介紹了我們的家庭和慈善信託計劃。

We are pleased because it offers our partners estate planning benefits while maintaining existing restrictions on further sale or transfers of their stock.

我們很高興，因為它為我們的合作夥伴提供了遺產規劃的好處，同時保持了對進一步出售或轉讓其股票的現有限制。

We are going to roll out other financial instruments for our partners.

我們將為我們的合作夥伴推出其他金融工具。

I want to remind you that six months ago, we surveyed our partners and they expressed their long-term desire to hold roughly 45 to 50% of their I.P.O. shares rather than the 25% minimum required as an active Accenture partner.

我想提醒您，六個月前，我們對我們的合作夥伴進行了調查，他們表示長期希望持有大約 45% 到 50% 的 I.P.O.股份，而不是作為活躍的埃森哲合作夥伴所需的最低 25%。

I also want to clear up some confusion on the shelf registration for 2.9 million shares filed on behalf of our Japanese partners.

我還想澄清一些關於代表我們日本合作夥伴提交的 290 萬股股票上架登記的困惑。

The Japanese partners did not, for personal tax reasons, participate in the secondary offering last May and could not efficiently liquidate their shares before now.

去年5月，日本合夥人因個人稅務原因未參與二次發行，此前未能有效清算其股份。

We have filed the shelf covering all shares these partners could have sold in the prior secondary.

我們已經提交了貨架，涵蓋了這些合作夥伴在上一中學可能出售的所有股份。

Only a portion of these shares will likely be sold prior to the end of December.

這些股票中只有一部分可能會在 12 月底之前出售。

In a few weeks, we will execute our first quarterly partner liquidity opportunity that we previously described in the prospectus for our secondary offering.

幾週後，我們將執行我們之前在第二次發行的招股說明書中描述的第一個季度合作夥伴流動性機會。

Our final design for this plan consists of a combination of organized broker sales by our partners who hold limited shares and redemptions and repurchases from partners holding S.C.A. shares.

我們對該計劃的最終設計包括由持有有限股份的合作夥伴進行的有組織的經紀人銷售以及從持有 S.C.A. 的合作夥伴處贖回和回購的組合。分享。

The two metrics we will use to size these partner liquidity opportunities are that no more than approximately 1% of limited shares held by partners will be entering the market in any quarter per Rule 144 and S.C.A. shares will be repurchased from operating cash flow after first taking into consideration the cash needs of our business.

我們將用於衡量這些合作夥伴流動性機會的兩個指標是，根據規則 144 和 S.C.A.，在任何季度，合作夥伴持有的有限股份中將不超過約 1% 進入市場。股份將在首先考慮我們業務的現金需求後，從經營現金流中回購。

Workpaper we have no intention of filing further shelf registrations to facilitate future quarterly partner share transactions.

工作文件我們無意提交進一步的貨架註冊以促進未來的季度合作夥伴股票交易。

To refresh your memory, our partners amended their I.P.O. agreements to only sell unrestricted shares through the company.

為了刷新您的記憶，我們的合作夥伴修改了他們的 I.P.O.僅通過公司出售非限制性股票的協議。

Our senior management team is committed to maintaining an orderly market for Accenture's shares that can give our stock the ability to track our business and financial performance.

我們的高級管理團隊致力於維護埃森哲股票的有序市場，使我們的股票能夠跟踪我們的業務和財務業績。

Most important, our partners are indicating only a small interest in selling stock at these price levels.

最重要的是，我們的合作夥伴僅表示對以這些價格水平出售股票的興趣很小。

In July, our board of directors authorized the use of up to 600 million for redemptions and repurchases of partners' shares over the next several years of our plan.

7 月，我們的董事會授權在我們計劃的未來幾年內使用多達 6 億美元用於贖回和回購合作夥伴的股份。

Our share management plan is buttressed by a shift in our compensation policy away from options.

我們的股票管理計劃得到了我們薪酬政策從期權的轉變的支持。

Our new partners admitted last month are receiving restricted stock units which cliff vest and have sales restrictions that go out beyond any of the I.P.O. shares.

我們上個月承認的新合作夥伴正在接收限制性股票單位，這些單位的銷售限制超出任何首次公開募股。分享。

These R.S.U.s are experienced through our P&L and give our new partners a feeling of true equity ownership.

這些 R.S.U.s 通過我們的損益表獲得經驗，並讓我們的新合作夥伴感受到真正的股權所有權。

We are also applying our traditional models of partner affordability to ensure that stock is granted to new partners in a paradigm that is accretive to all shareholders based on the demonstrated margin-generating capability of any new partner.

我們還應用我們傳統的合作夥伴負擔能力模型，以確保股票授予新合作夥伴的範式，基於任何新合作夥伴所證明的產生利潤的能力，對所有股東來說都是增值的。

On free cash flow, we are targeting $1 billion for the coming fiscal year before partner or public stock repurchases.

在自由現金流方面，我們的目標是下一財年在合作夥伴或公共股票回購之前達到 10 億美元。

We do not expect significant increases in capital expenditures, client capital or working capital.

我們預計資本支出、客戶資本或營運資本不會顯著增加。

We will continue to repurchase stock through effect to be available for future generations of Accenture partners as well as to minimize any dilute impact of any new options or RSU grants which we expect will be modest given the soft economic environment and our commitment to minimal dilution.

我們將繼續回購股票，以供埃森哲的後代合作夥伴使用，並儘量減少任何新期權或 RSU 贈款的任何稀釋影響，鑑於疲軟的經濟環境和我們對最小稀釋的承諾，我們預計這些影響將是適度的。

Our [inaudible] activity will continue to offset, to some extent, unrestricted active and retired partner stock sales which can only be affected with Accenture's consent.

我們的 [聽不清] 活動將在一定程度上繼續抵消無限制的活躍和退休合作夥伴股票銷售，只有在埃森哲同意的情況下才會受到影響。

Joe and I are committed to balance sheet quality, and we relish being in a position of industry leadership with strong cash flow, cash balances, and no net debt when our industry is in a major strategic inflexion point.

喬和我致力於資產負債表質量，當我們的行業處於重大戰略拐點時，我們很高興能夠以強勁的現金流、現金餘額和無淨債務處於行業領先地位。

Our industry leadership on credit and cash flow ratios has widened in the past year.

過去一年，我們在信貸和現金流比率方面的行業領先地位有所擴大。

We have reduced our investments exposure to de minimus levels and we engage in virtually no derivative transactions except to hedge for certain expected inter-country transactions.

我們已將投資風險降至最低水平，除了對某些預期的跨國交易進行對沖外，我們幾乎不進行衍生交易。

The fair value of foreign exchange derivative contracts at August 31st was less than $2 million.

截至 8 月 31 日，外匯衍生品合約的公允價值不到 200 萬美元。

Joe and I are also excited about rolling out EVA metrics to our partners this fiscal year.

喬和我也很高興在本財年向我們的合作夥伴推出 EVA 指標。

Working with Stearns Stuart, we are going to base a significant portion of our partners' performance evaluation on EVA contribution.

與 Stearns Stuart 合作，我們將根據 EVA 貢獻對合作夥伴的大部分績效評估進行評估。

We hope this will keep our ROIC at high levels and our current EVA as a percentage of revenue stands at 9%, similar to fiscal year '01, and is near the top 10% of the global 1,000 and is at the top of the IT services industry.

我們希望這將使我們的 ROIC 保持在高水平，我們目前的 EVA 佔收入的百分比為 9%，與 01 財年相似，接近全球 1000 強的前 10%，並且在 IT 領域處於領先地位服務業。

As we stated in our investor meeting, our zero to 2% top-line guidance is based on outsourcing growth being comfortably in the 20 to 40% range.

正如我們在投資者會議上所說，我們 0 到 2% 的收入指導是基於外包增長舒適地在 20 到 40% 的範圍內。

There is serial correlation in outsourcing growth as the last two quarters of 38% growth positively indicate.

正如過去兩個季度 38% 的增長正向表明的那樣，外包增長存在序列相關性。

We believe this growth offsets the downside case of consulting, experiencing double-digit declines for the year.

我們認為，這種增長抵消了諮詢業務的下行情況，今年出現了兩位數的下降。

We continue to be comfortable with $1.05 earnings per share as our target.

我們繼續以每股 1.05 美元的收益為目標。

We believe this is an appropriate target, even in this tough environment, because of the improvements we believe we can continue to make to improve our cost efficiency of delivering services and in our SG&A.

我們相信這是一個合適的目標，即使在這種艱難的環境中，因為我們相信我們可以繼續做出改進，以提高我們提供服務的成本效率和我們的 SG&A。

As Joe described, we are transforming our business, and are making fundamental changes in how we deliver our work.

正如喬所描述的，我們正在改變我們的業務，並且正在對我們交付工作的方式進行根本性的改變。

As a new public company, there are also improvements we can make in making our business model more efficient.

作為一家新上市公司，我們還可以在提高業務模式效率方面做出改進。

Relative to our earnings target, while there is some flexibility below the zero to 2% revenue goal, there is not an unlimited ability to cut costs in the face of a significant demand shortfall or unusual pricing pressures.

相對於我們的盈利目標，雖然在零至 2% 的收入目標之下存在一定的靈活性，但面對嚴重的需求短缺或異常的定價壓力，削減成本的能力並非無限。

Because of this, Joe and I wanted to make sure that you were aware that an outbreak of prolonged hostilities in the Middle East could jeopardize our top and bottom-line targets, as well as a pronounced second dip in a global double-dip recession.

正因為如此，喬和我想確保你意識到中東爆發長期敵對行動可能會危及我們的最高和最低目標，以及全球雙底衰退中明顯的第二次下滑。

We believe that a downside case for '03 EPS is 91 cents per share, which is where we finished fiscal year '02.

我們認為，03 年每股收益的下行情況是每股 91 美分，這是我們在 02 財年完成的情況。

We have enough layers of contingencies to at least keep earnings flat, even with all the negatives the market is expecting, and if the economy can stabilize at these levels to make $1.05 cents.

我們有足夠多的突發事件層級，至少可以保持盈利持平，即使市場預期會出現所有負面因素，並且經濟能否穩定在這些水平上以賺取 1.05 美分。

All that being said, September was a good month and though although one month does not a year make, we are on track towards $1.05.

話雖如此，9 月是個好月份，雖然一個月不是一年，但我們正朝著 1.05 美元前進。

September was ahead of plan on top-line and bottom-line, and we continue to see unique opportunities for Accenture to help our clients in innovative consulting and outsourcing engagements, which we hope to disclose to you in coming months.

9 月的收入和利潤都超出了計劃，我們繼續看到埃森哲幫助我們的客戶進行創新諮詢和外包業務的獨特機會，我們希望在未來幾個月內向您披露。

Most significantly, our unaudited September results are showing tens of millions of cost improvements relative to prior months, revealing early signs of real traction for our cost reduction efforts.

最重要的是，我們未經審計的 9 月份業績顯示，與前幾個月相比，成本提高了數千萬，這表明我們降低成本的努力真正具有吸引力的早期跡象。

For the first quarter, similar to what we said relative to the fourth quarter, we are expecting a 1 to 6% decline in revenues, centering around the analysts consensus estimate of $2.89 billion.

對於第一季度，與我們相對於第四季度所說的類似，我們預計收入將下降 1% 至 6%，以分析師普遍估計的 28.9 億美元為中心。

We expect earnings per share to be in the range of 23 to 26 cents per share.

我們預計每股收益將在每股 23 至 26 美分之間。

This is consistent with the low end and midpoint of analysts estimates as we expect to process residual severance expense in the first quarter of about 25 million.

這與分析師估計的低端和中點一致，因為我們預計第一季度將處理約 2500 萬的剩餘遣散費。

Also, as we indicated in our investor meeting, the first quarter has seven-tenths of one percent fewer workdays than the first quarter of last year.

此外，正如我們在投資者會議上指出的那樣，第一季度的工作日比去年第一季度減少了十分之七。

Most importantly, we want to be properly conservative on first-quarter guidance by giving a range, because of the continuing multi-year lows currently being experienced in global equity markets.

最重要的是，我們希望通過給出一個區間來適當保守第一季度的指引，因為目前全球股市正在經歷多年低點。

Because of our cost reduction actions, we anticipate that earnings will be disproportionally higher as the fiscal year unfolds.

由於我們採取了降低成本的行動，我們預計隨著財年的展開，收益將不成比例地提高。

We are planning to have 52% of our earnings in the second half of this fiscal year.

我們計劃在本財年下半年獲得 52% 的收益。

As a housekeeping matter, I want to give you our earnings release dates for this fiscal year.

作為家政事務，我想向您提供本財政年度的收益發布日期。

These dates are set to mesh with our board meetings and work around major holidays.

這些日期將與我們的董事會會議相吻合，並圍繞主要假期開展工作。

Our earnings release dates will be January 9th, April 15th, July 15th, and October 9th of 2003.

我們的收益發布日期將是 2003 年 1 月 9 日、4 月 15 日、7 月 15 日和 10 月 9 日。

Finally, Joe and I believe that we have made exceptional progress, removing investment downside risk for you, apart from the economy or markets, and that we are poised to have strong operating leverage once economic growth returns.

最後，喬和我相信我們已經取得了非凡的進展，為您消除了經濟或市場之外的投資下行風險，並且一旦經濟增長恢復，我們將擁有強大的經營槓桿。

Underestimating or selling short Accenture and its people is the real risky proposition.

低估或賣空埃森哲及其員工是真正有風險的提議。

All of our employees have put us in an unique and enviable position of having strong cash flow and earnings, lots of cash in the bank, potential for expanding margin, platforms for strong growth and V.P.O. and other emerging IT services areas, clean accounting and simple financials, no derivative exposure or pension issues, with a significantly receding profile of exogenous events or issues.

我們所有的員工都使我們處於一個獨特而令人羨慕的位置，擁有強大的現金流和收益、大量的銀行現金、擴大利潤的潛力、強勁增長的平台和 V.P.O.和其他新興的 IT 服務領域，乾淨的會計和簡單的財務，沒有衍生品敞口或養老金問題，外生事件或問題顯著減少。

We have prudent and transparent executive compensation based on the partnership model.

我們擁有基於合夥人模式的審慎和透明的高管薪酬。

While the environment, as Joe described, is undoubtedly tough, we at Accenture are prepared to continue to gain market share, enhance our fundamental financial soundness, while being sober about the impending economic and geo political risks in the environment.

正如喬所描述的那樣，環境無疑是艱難的，但我們埃森哲準備繼續獲得市場份額，增強我們的基本財務穩健性，同時對環境中迫在眉睫的經濟和地緣政治風險保持清醒。

We cannot be more pleased about our ability to deliver industry-leading financial results and our potential to deliver our financial metrics that will once again this year compare very favorably to the major indices.

我們對我們提供行業領先財務業績的能力以及我們提供財務指標的潛力感到非常高興，這些指標今年將再次與主要指數相比非常有利。

Thank you, everyone, for your patience.

謝謝大家，謝謝你們的耐心。

We had a lot to cover.

我們有很多東西要講。

Operator, can you open it up for questions?

接線員，你能打開它來提問嗎？

Thank you.

謝謝你。

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, please queue up with your questions by pressing the number one.

再次，女士們，先生們，請按一號排隊回答您的問題。

Our first question is from the line of David [inaudible], Morgan Stanley.

我們的第一個問題來自摩根士丹利的大衛 [聽不清]。

Please go ahead.

請繼續。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

Just two quick questions.

只是兩個簡單的問題。

First, Joe, if you could provide your view on the impact of industry consolidations.

首先，Joe，如果您能就行業整合的影響發表您的看法。

We've seen quite a bit in the last few months.

在過去的幾個月裡，我們已經看到了很多。

You know, what you see as the major risks and opportunities for Accenture.

你知道，你認為埃森哲的主要風險和機遇是什麼。

And then just a quick second question.

然後只是一個快速的第二個問題。

On the pipeline, which you indicated includes a fair amount of IT outsourcing.

您指出的管道包括相當數量的 IT 外包。

How do you plan to address that opportunity from a capital or a partnering perspective?

您打算如何從資本或合作的角度來把握這個機會？

Thanks.

謝謝。

Thanks, David.

謝謝，大衛。

First, on industry consolidation, certainly.

首先，當然是關於行業整合。

This is something that, you know, even going back to some of our decisions when we decided that it would be important for us to move to the partnership model to a public company, we believe that they would be 2 to 3 key hub players in the industry, as it consolidated that would really have the type of client relationships, the global scale and scope, to be the leader, and I think we're certainly starting to see that.

你知道，即使回到我們的一些決定，當我們決定將合夥模式轉移到一家上市公司對我們來說很重要時，我們相信他們將成為 2 到 3 個關鍵樞紐參與者這個行業，隨著它的整合，將真正擁有客戶關係類型、全球規模和範圍，成為領導者，我認為我們肯定已經開始看到這一點。

I think, you know, if you look at the risk side, I think they're well known, and in terms of just being able to integrate different types of cultures, different types of operations in a very people-intensive business, we continue to look at the landscape to see where we are in this consolidation picture.

我認為，如果你看風險方面，我認為它們是眾所周知的，並且就能夠在一個非常人員密集的業務中整合不同類型的文化、不同類型的操作而言，我們繼續看看景觀，看看我們在這張整合圖中的位置。

We have no immediate plans, but we're continuing to look at it and as we should, are continuing to assess what it means to us.

我們沒有立即的計劃，但我們正在繼續研究它，並且我們應該繼續評估它對我們意味著什麼。

But I'm very confident we have the capabilities to drive our strategy we've outlined, and do that on an organic basis.

但我非常有信心，我們有能力推動我們概述的戰略，並在有機的基礎上做到這一點。

If you look at the pipeline, the second question if you look at the I.T. outsourcing, most of the I.T. outsourcing that we do is driven from a -- more of a transformative approach, where our clients see an opportunity to add value.

如果你看一下管道，第二個問題如果你看一下 I.T.外包，大多數 I.T.我們所做的外包是由一種更具有變革性的方法驅動的，在這種方法中，我們的客戶看到了增加價值的機會。

A lot of it is in transforming applications.

其中很多是在轉換應用程序。

And so we have the capability to do that in a very non-asset intensive way through our abilities to improve productivity, and drive higher results and economic value to the business through better management of applications, and with the ability to be able to operate infrastructure but we are not in the broad business of being infrastructure led.

因此，我們有能力以非資產密集型的方式做到這一點，通過我們提高生產力的能力，並通過更好地管理應用程序為業務帶來更高的結果和經濟價值，並且能夠運營基礎設施但我們並不從事以基礎設施為主導的廣泛業務。

So we don't see that as a major drawback.

所以我們不認為這是一個主要缺點。

It's increasingly as we look at the importance of V.P.O. and our ability to be able to drive business process outsourcing.

當我們看到 V.P.O. 的重要性時，它變得越來越重要。以及我們能夠推動業務流程外包的能力。

Being able to manage the process and as we've done in a number of -- and shown with a number of contracts, that really is where a lot of the value can be added anyway.

能夠管理流程，正如我們在許多 - 並通過許多合同展示的那樣，這確實是可以增加很多價值的地方。

And so we're comfortable with the balance that we've got between business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing at this time.

因此，我們對目前在業務流程外包和 IT 外包之間取得的平衡感到滿意。

Next question, Adam Frisch with UBS Warburg.

下一個問題，瑞銀華寶的亞當弗里施。

Thanks, guys, for your comments.

謝謝，伙計們，您的意見。

Harry, just wanted to talk about September for a quick second.

哈利，只是想快速談談九月。

A few points of clarification.

澄清幾點。

You said you were ahead of plan.

你說你超前了。

Does that mean you're growing top line faster than the guidance you gave?

這是否意味著您的收入增長速度超過了您提供的指導？

And then also, are we correct to assume that EPS was double-digit in the month?

然後，我們假設當月每股收益為兩位數是否正確？

Adam, we can't comment on unaudited results, but I think that's a reasonable inference based on the cost savings that, as I mentioned before, we've shown some significant early signs of traction on. 25

亞當，我們不能對未經審計的結果發表評論，但我認為這是基於成本節約的合理推斷，正如我之前提到的，我們已經顯示出一些重要的早期跡象。 25

Okay.

好的。

On the outsourcing pipeline, taking David's questions at a different angle, some deals are slipping, some are happening faster than you expected.

在外包管道上，從不同的角度看待大衛的問題，有些交易正在下滑，有些交易的發生速度比您預期的要快。

The deal cycles, as we all know, are kind of sketchy here.

眾所周知，交易週期在這裡有點粗略。

Can you talk about how you incorporate revenues from potential deals in your guidance for-I guess, you know, the subject at hand here is for fiscal '03?

您能否談談您如何將潛在交易的收入納入您的指導中——我猜，您知道，這裡的主題是 03 財年的嗎？

We're very conservative about that, Adam.

我們對此非常保守，亞當。

I think as we, you know, look at potential outsourcing deals, sign letters of intents, and then ultimately close on them, you know, we make sure that we are putting in sufficient time relative to being able to execute and set up these outsourcing deals properly.

我認為我們，你知道，看看潛在的外包交易，簽署意向書，然後最終完成它們，你知道，我們確保我們投入足夠的時間來執行和建立這些外包妥善處理。

While we're certainly, as I described before, working keenly here to get outsourcing contracts to ramp up faster relative to our properly recognizing revenues, we're being very, very conservative in terms of how we budget large outsourcing deals and when we expect to get revenues.

正如我之前所描述的，雖然我們肯定會在這裡積極工作以使外包合同相對於我們正確確認收入的速度更快，但在我們如何預算大型外包交易以及何時預期方面，我們非常非常保守來獲得收入。

And I would just say -- and this is very, very qualitative and rough, but I think we try to make sure that we have a two-quarter budgeting lag in our operating groups, to make sure that we aren't counting any chickens before they hatch here.

我只想說 - 這是非常非常定性和粗略的，但我認為我們會努力確保我們的運營團隊有兩個季度的預算滯後，以確保我們沒有計算任何雞在他們在這裡孵化之前。

Okay.

好的。

And then last question here and then I'll turn it over.

然後是最後一個問題，然後我會翻過來。

The 91 cents you said was kind of a disastrous scenario here.

你說的 91 美分在這裡是一種災難性的情況。

What goes into that 91 cents and I guess what would have to happen in order for us to get there.

那 91 美分是什麼，我猜為了讓我們到達那裡必鬚髮生什麼。

It seems you were pretty solid on the $1.05 but what gets us to 91?

看起來你在 1.05 美元上相當穩固，但是是什麼讓我們達到 91？

I think 91, Adam, would be some really serious price deterioration, as well as revenue erosion from a geo political disturbance or, as I mentioned, you know, the second dip in a significant global double-dip recession.

我認為 91，亞當，將是一些非常嚴重的價格惡化，以及來自地緣政治動蕩的收入侵蝕，或者正如我所提到的，你知道，這是全球雙底衰退中的第二次下滑。

And I think when you add up the more than several hundreds of millions of potential reductions in our cost base, which are healthy for our business as well as the contingencies and flexibility that we have, you can see how, in a worst case we could also weather, you know, several hundred basis points of revenue decline or pricing-induced revenue decline, and still keep earnings flat.

而且我認為，當您將我們的成本基礎中超過數億的潛在減少加起來時，這對我們的業務以及我們所擁有的意外事件和靈活性都是健康的，您可以看到，在最壞的情況下我們可以你也知道，數百個基點的收入下降或定價導致的收入下降，仍然保持盈利持平。

And I think, frankly, a pretty good benchmark was this past year.

坦率地說，我認為過去一年是一個非常好的基準。

It was certainly one of the worst years we've experienced.

這無疑是我們經歷過的最糟糕的年份之一。

We were able to squeeze out some cost reductions.

我們能夠擠出一些成本削減。

We'll be better at it in the coming year.

來年我們會做得更好。

But more importantly, we really set up a great base of recurring revenues.

但更重要的是，我們確實建立了一個很好的經常性收入基礎。

The outsourcing base of recurring revenues is up over 50%, and the consulting base is up double digits, if you compare fiscal year end to year end.

如果將財年末與年末進行比較，經常性收入的外包基數增長了 50% 以上，諮詢基數增長了兩位數。

So, you know, we feel like whatever we do, it's not only doing our utmost to get to that $1.05 with 91 cents as a disastrous scenario, but more important, for you, our shareholders, making sure we have a long-term base of a growing strong franchise.

所以，你知道，我們覺得無論我們做什麼，不僅要盡最大努力以 91 美分的價格達到 1.05 美元，這是一個災難性的場景，更重要的是，對於您，我們的股東來說，確保我們有一個長期的基礎越來越強大的特許經營權。

Greg Gould, Goldman Sachs.

格雷格·古爾德，高盛。

Thanks.

謝謝。

On the fourth quarter bookings, Harry, what was the mix of outsourcing versus consulting?

關於第四季度的預訂，Harry，外包與諮詢的組合是什麼？

Greg, it was very similar to what it's been in the past.

格雷格，這與過去的情況非常相似。

I think we've been trending on the consulting side in sort of the 500 to 600 million per month range, with the rest in outsourcing.

我認為我們在諮詢方面的趨勢是每月 500 到 6 億，其餘的都是外包。

There really wasn't any significant difference in the August quarter bookings, in terms of the mix.

就組合而言，8 月季度的預訂量確實沒有任何顯著差異。

Okay.

好的。

So with that kind of win rate, what kind of visibility does that give you going into the current quarter, the November quarter?

那麼，以這樣的勝率，進入當前季度，即 11 月季度，這會給您帶來什麼樣的知名度？

Is there a -- if we compare the visibility just on the consulting part of the business, entering the quarter versus prior quarters, is it in line, better, or a little bit worse?

是否存在——如果我們僅比較業務諮詢部分的可見性，進入本季度與前幾個季度，它是一致的、更好還是更差一些？

It's actually -- we look at -- as you know, we call our visibility to fill, and actually we're at historic norms, if not a little bit better, in terms of visibility.

實際上 - 我們看 - 如你所知，我們稱我們的可見度為填充，實際上我們在可見度方面處於歷史規範，如果不是更好一點的話。

I think that being said, Greg, we're seeing visibility on what is going to be a double-digit decline in consulting.

我認為話雖如此，格雷格，我們看到諮詢業務將出現兩位數的下降。

So we feel very solid in terms of, you know, where the numbers are heading in consulting, but it's still a picture which is austere here.

因此，就諮詢數字的發展方向而言，我們感到非常可靠，但這仍然是一幅嚴峻的畫面。

Okay.

好的。

And when you mention that September was a little bit better, what is it about -- is it revenue and bookings?

當您提到 9 月份的情況稍微好一些時，它是關於什麼的——是收入和預訂量嗎？

You know, aside from the expense portion that you just discussed, what about the revenue and the bookings side of the equation?

你知道，除了你剛才討論的費用部分，等式的收入和預訂方面呢？

What's different?

有什麼不同？

What's changed since August?

自八月以來發生了什麼變化？

I think as I mentioned, top-line and bottom-line, I think we've told all of you we wouldn't comment explicitly on bookings unless it was materially positive or negative, and I think we'll have a very good bookings quarter in Q1 and September was notable because we had good top line and good bottom line.

我認為正如我所提到的，頂線和底線，我想我們已經告訴你們所有人，除非它是實質性的正面或負面的，否則我們不會明確評論預訂，我認為我們會有一個非常好的預訂第一季度和 9 月的季度值得注意，因為我們有良好的頂線和良好的底線。

And at the same time I want to make sure that all of you are aware, we don't want to rest on one month making the rest of the year.

同時，我想確保你們所有人都知道，我們不想在一個月的時間裡休息一年。

I mean, we still have 11 challenging months to go, but it's great to get off to a good start.

我的意思是，我們還有 11 個充滿挑戰的月份要走，但能有一個良好的開端真是太好了。

We feel like we scored a touchdown on the opening drive of the game, and being ahead 7 to nothing is a lot better than being behind or being up only 3 to nothing in the football game here.

我們覺得我們在比賽的開場比賽中取得了達陣，並且在這裡的足球比賽中以 7 比 0 領先比落後或僅以 3 比 0 領先要好得多。

Right.

正確的。

One last question.

最後一個問題。

Products and resources were weaker this time around.

這次產品和資源較弱。

Can you give us a sense for how fiscal '03 should shape up there?

你能告訴我們 03 財年應該如何形成嗎？

Remember a year ago, financial services and telecom and communications were weak, but communications and high-tech really picked up with the outsourcing business.

還記得一年前，金融服務、電信和通信業務疲軟，但通信和高科技確實隨著外包業務的發展而回升。

Is there stuff in the pipeline that would help resources and products pick up later in the year?

是否有一些東西可以幫助資源和產品在今年晚些時候回升？

Yeah, I think, Greg, on both of those, we're hoping that the August quarter was more an aberration.

是的，我認為，格雷格，在這兩個方面，我們都希望 8 月季度更加失常。

The U.S. products business had some softness in the August quarter.

美國產品業務在 8 月季度出現了一些疲軟。

Also, there's some tougher comparisons relative to when we took on the large Sainsbury transformational deal in Europe which impacts our products comparison.

此外，與我們在歐洲進行大型塞恩斯伯里轉型交易時進行了一些更嚴格的比較，這會影響我們的產品比較。

On the resources side, I think we're seeing a little bit of almost the J-curve impact because with the higher oil prices, the chemicals business as Joe described has been negatively impacted, as well as our U.S. utility business.

在資源方面，我認為我們幾乎看到了 J 曲線影響，因為隨著油價上漲，喬描述的化學品業務以及我們的美國公用事業業務受到了負面影響。

At the same time, if oil prices remain high, then, you know, we've historically had a pickup among the large oil companies.

與此同時，如果油價保持高位，那麼，你知道，我們在歷史上在大型石油公司中有所回升。

I think really the most profound delta, as Joe mentioned, was the U.S.-based energy trading companies, which we did a decent amount of work with outside Enron.

正如喬所提到的，我認為最深刻的三角洲是美國的能源貿易公司，我們與安然公司以外的公司進行了大量的合作。

That business clearly is a much smaller business now.

該業務現在顯然是一個小得多的業務。

Okay.

好的。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

Next question from the line of Karl Keirstead, Lehman Brothers.

下一個問題來自雷曼兄弟的 Karl Keirstead。

Hi, good morning.

早上好。

I've got a question about the bonus accrual reversals.

我有一個關於獎金應計沖銷的問題。

Harry, I guess that was 140 million in the August quarter.

哈利，我猜那是 8 月季度的 1.4 億。

Can you just touch on this, whether we'll see more of those bonus accrual reversals in '03 or is what we're going to see is just the salary and bonus levels reduced now to what you think is a fair level to make that $1.05 number?

您能否談談這一點，我們是否會在 03 年看到更多的應計獎金逆轉，或者我們將看到的只是現在的薪水和獎金水平降低到您認為合理的水平1.05 美元的號碼？

Thanks.

謝謝。

Well, it's certainly the latter, Karl, because I think, you know, from a G.A.A.P. standpoint, you know, to have an accrual means that we clearly expect to meet the plan, if not to outperform the plan.

嗯，當然是後者，卡爾，因為我認為，你知道，來自 G.A.A.P。你知道，有一個應計項目意味著我們顯然希望達到計劃，如果不超過計劃的話。

I think some of the pyramid changes that we've made should help us be more cost competitive and lower payroll costs as you've described, and certainly the partners are doing their utmost in terms of the budgeted compensation decrease I described to make sure that we have a more efficient cost base going forward.

我認為我們所做的一些金字塔變化應該有助於我們更具成本競爭力並降低工資成本，正如你所描述的，當然合作夥伴正在盡最大努力減少我所描述的預算薪酬減少，以確保我們有一個更有效的成本基礎。

Edward Caso, Wachovia Securities.

愛德華·卡索，美聯銀行證券。

Hi.

你好。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

I had a question on what you're seeing in pricing in the various markets.

我有一個關於您在各個市場的定價中看到的問題。

In some of my conversations, I've heard of deep discounting by Accenture and others, including one scenario where the quote was Accenture gave the business away.

在我的一些談話中，我聽說過埃森哲和其他人的大幅折扣，包括一種情況，其中報價是埃森哲放棄了業務。

Can you sort of talk about sort of pricing environment?

你能談談定價環境嗎？

This is Joe.

這是喬。

Obviously the pricing environment is challenging, but, we look 29 at every situation with the clients in terms of that we work at and we make the right prudent decisions on a one by one basis.

顯然，定價環境具有挑戰性，但是，我們在與客戶合作的每一種情況下都審視 29，並且我們會逐一做出正確的審慎決定。

But I think overall, although in the volatile environment we're in, it's hard to understand where you're -- where you see a trend or not.

但我認為總的來說，儘管在我們所處的動盪環境中，很難理解你在哪裡——你在哪裡看到了趨勢。

Our pricing has stabilized over the last two to three months.

在過去的兩到三個月裡，我們的定價已經穩定下來。

We actually saw, just in September, just a brief uptick and improvement in pricing, so we have not seen any further deterioration, and we're going to -- we're continuing to watch it, but I think part of what we see and some of the uplift in September has been some modest improvement in pricing overall.

實際上，就在 9 月，我們看到了價格的短暫上漲和改善，所以我們沒有看到任何進一步的惡化，我們將繼續觀察它，但我認為我們看到的部分內容9 月份的一些提升是整體定價的適度改善。

Great.

偉大的。

Can you talk a little bit about -- seems like the stretching out of the signing of outsourcing agreements, do you have any sense of sort of globally why that's happening?

你能談談 - 似乎是簽署外包協議的延伸，你對全球為什麼會發生這種情況有任何了解嗎？

Well, actually, for our, you know, pipeline, as I described it, we've actually had compression in the average days to close, so we were, you know, well over 200 at the time of our investor meeting.

好吧，實際上，正如我所描述的，對於我們的，你知道的，管道，我們實際上在平均關閉的日子裡受到了壓力，所以在我們的投資者會議上，我們的人數遠遠超過 200 人。

Now we're down to 168.

現在我們降到了168。

So, look, we're also getting more Creative, just getting better at our market-making partners and our client partners getting these deals to closure, and I think ultimately it's a testament to the value propositions we're offering clients.

所以，看，我們也變得更有創造力，我們的做市合作夥伴和我們的客戶合作夥伴在完成這些交易方面做得更好，我認為最終這證明了我們為客戶提供的價值主張。

If the value proposition is longer-term or is uncertainty or murky, then clients no doubt will hesitate and take longer.

如果價值主張是長期的、不確定的或模糊的，那麼客戶無疑會猶豫並花費更長的時間。

But the empirical data for us is that we're actually moving in a good direction, rather than in the lengthening direction that some others may be experiencing.

但對我們來說，經驗數據是，我們實際上是在朝著一個好的方向前進，而不是朝著其他一些人可能正在經歷的延長方向。

Great.

偉大的。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

Our next question is from Dirk Godsey, J. P. Morgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Dirk Godsey。

Yeah, good morning, guys.

是的，早安，伙計們。

Just wondering if we could -- I couldn't quite get it down, Harry.

只是想知道我們是否可以——我無法完全理解，哈利。

You went pretty fast on it, but can you revisit some of the trends you're seeing in the EMEA countries, both in terms of the quarterly year-over-year revenue growth and then also just a comment on, you know, just following up with a conversation here about pricing, but if you can kind of talk about pricing and utilization in each of the major markets in the EMEA?

您在這方面進展得很快，但是您能否重新審視您在歐洲、中東和非洲國家/地區看到的一些趨勢，無論是在季度收入同比增長方面，還是只是評論一下，你知道，只是關注在這裡就定價進行對話，但是您能否談談歐洲、中東和非洲每個主要市場的定價和利用率？

Well, in terms of the fourth-quarter growth, I think really the head-line here is, but for Europe -- I mean, but for Germany, excuse me, we're in excellent shape in Europe.

好吧，就第四季度的增長而言，我認為這裡的頭條新聞確實是，但對於歐洲 - 我的意思是，但對於德國，對不起，我們在歐洲的狀況非常好。

We actually estimate our major competitors top-line growth in Europe, and I think we're about 900 basis points higher.

我們實際上估計了我們主要競爭對手在歐洲的收入增長，我認為我們高出大約 900 個基點。

I think we're obviously not the only ones suffering in Germany.

我認為我們顯然不是德國唯一受苦的人。

As I mentioned, there's a 17% decline in Q4.

正如我所提到的，第四季度下降了 17%。

But I think we were very heartened.

但我認為我們非常振奮。

We've continued to be -- feel that way.

我們一直是——有這種感覺。

I think it's the last six, seven quarters, everyone has been wondering if our European business would precipitously fall off and it's a real testament to our European partners that their business, although it slowed, has continued to show decent growth, and more important, just a huge gap in market share.

我認為這是過去六七個季度，每個人都在想我們的歐洲業務是否會急劇下滑，這向我們的歐洲合作夥伴證明了他們的業務雖然放緩，但繼續呈現出可觀的增長，更重要的是，只是市場份額的巨大差距。

In terms of some of the utilization trends, I think somewhat paradoxically, we're actually up recently in German utilization, so I think our partners are sizing the business there.

就一些利用率趨勢而言，我認為有點自相矛盾的是，我們最近在德國的利用率實際上有所上升，所以我認為我們的合作夥伴正在評估那裡的業務。

I think if you look at the U.K., Spain, and Italy, there's a slight amount of softening in utilization.

我認為如果你看看英國、西班牙和意大利，利用率會略有下降。

In France, we're generally holding steady.

在法國，我們總體上保持穩定。

So I don't think when looking at our utilization numbers, there's any real big changes, not only in Europe but really across the globe here, over the last three months.

因此，我認為在查看我們的利用率數字時，在過去三個月中，不僅在歐洲，而且在全球範圍內都沒有任何真正的大變化。

I might add by industry, I happen to spend a couple of weeks in Europe just recently, and actually met with our U.K. leadership, which U.K. now represents about 15% of our business globally.

我可以按行業補充一下，我最近恰好在歐洲呆了幾個星期，實際上會見了我們的英國領導層，英國現在占我們全球業務的 15% 左右。

They were pretty bullish on the prospects looking forward.

他們非常看好未來的前景。

If you look at CHT, communications and high-tech certainly had some slowdown and deceleration, but that appears to be, at this point, bottoming out.

如果你看看 CHT，通信和高科技肯定會出現一些放緩和減速，但在這一點上，這似乎已經觸底。

Financial services has had a decline, but yet there's a whole host of pretty new big opportunities that are starting to emerge.

金融服務業有所下滑，但仍有大量全新的重大機遇開始出現。

Government, we don't see any slowdown in EMEA.

政府，我們沒有看到歐洲、中東和非洲地區出現任何放緩。

Products continues to do very well.

產品繼續做得很好。

And in Europe, a lot of that is driven with some good outsourcing opportunities looking forward.

在歐洲，其中很大一部分是由一些好的外包機會推動的。

Resources has some slowdown but not significant.

資源有所放緩，但並不顯著。

So that's more of the industry view in Europe.

所以這更多的是歐洲的行業觀點。

Yeah, just some numbers, Dirk, on what Joe described.

是的，只是一些數字，德克，關於喬所描述的。

I think -- I'll try to make this a positive.

我想——我會盡量使這成為積極的。

I mean, it's a similar perspective globally, but in Europe in the August quarter, you know, really only financial services declined.

我的意思是，全球範圍內的情況類似，但在歐洲，你知道，在 8 月季度，實際上只有金融服務下降了。

It declined by about 13%, but that's an improvement, actually, from the 18% decline for European financial services in the third quarter.

它下降了約 13%，但實際上，這比第三季度歐洲金融服務下降 18% 有所改善。

All other industry areas in Europe are growing.

歐洲的所有其他工業領域都在增長。

So communications and high-tech, up 16%, government up 57%, products up 4%, resources up 21%.

所以通信和高科技，上漲16%，政府上漲57%，產品上漲4%，資源上漲21%。

So, we feel like we're in good shape in Europe.

所以，我們覺得我們在歐洲的狀態很好。

Again, now, your comment about September and it's just a month as opposed to a year here, but is the improvement that you're seeing or the out-performance relative to plan, does it include your activity in Europe, and can you comment a little bit on which verticals might be participating in that better than expected performance?

再說一次，現在，您對 9 月的評論，它只是一個月而不是一年，但是您看到的改進或相對於計劃的出色表現，它是否包括您在歐洲的活動，您能否發表評論關於哪些垂直行業可能參與了比預期更好的表現？

Yeah.

是的。

I'd say, Dirk, the -- and this is as much qualitative as quantitative.

我會說，德克，這 - 這既是定性的，也是定量的。

Europe is somewhat better than expected.

歐洲的情況好於預期。

The Americas are about as expected.

美洲與預期差不多。

And I think it's just too early to tell on the breakout by our operating groups.

而且我認為現在判斷我們的運營團隊的突破還為時過早。

Uh-huh.

嗯。

Okay.

好的。

Great.

偉大的。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

Our next question, Karl Keirstead, Salomon Smith Barney.

我們的下一個問題，Karl Keirstead，Salomon Smith Barney。

Hi.

你好。

And thank you, and congratulations on the quarter in the difficult environment.

謝謝你，並祝賀本季度在困難的環境中。

From a strategic standpoint, I noticed the last couple deals, the Thames Waters and the Bank of America have included Indian offshore partners.

從戰略的角度來看，我注意到最近幾筆交易，泰晤士河水域和美國銀行都包括印度的離岸合作夥伴。

Could you talk a little bit about that in your strategy moving forward and then the second question, Harry, for you, is, you had a very 32 successful new bookings quarter a year ago in the first quarter.

您能否在您的戰略中談一談這一點，然後第二個問題，Harry，對您而言，一年前的第一季度，您有一個非常成功的 32 個新預訂季度。

Do you consider that tough comparisons as it relates to year-over-year growth this year?

您是否認為與今年的同比增長相關的艱難比較？

Thanks.

謝謝。

I'll answer the first part of that question.

我將回答該問題的第一部分。

Part of our strategy has been to build a solutions workforce to basically drive a much lower cost of delivery in technology.

我們戰略的一部分是建立解決方案員工隊伍，以基本上降低技術交付成本。

We have a network of solutions capabilities in a number of countries and are continuing to build those on a broader basis, and is a major source of where we see a good bit of our hiring this year.

我們在多個國家/地區擁有解決方案能力網絡，並將繼續在更廣泛的基礎上建立這些能力，並且是我們今年看到大量招聘的主要來源。

Currently, if you look at our operations between India, Manilla, the Czech Republic, Spain, we have some 5,000 people as part of this network.

目前，如果你看看我們在印度、馬尼拉、捷克共和國、西班牙之間的業務，我們有大約 5,000 人是這個網絡的一部分。

We also are building it aggressively in the U.S., the U.K., and some other countries, with a different career model than consulting to have a different price point.

我們還在美國、英國和其他一些國家積極建設它，其職業模式與諮詢不同，價格點也不同。

We approached this from being able to blend on-site capabilities with our solutions network.

我們通過將現場功能與我們的解決方案網絡相結合來解決這個問題。

You know, we think that broader multi-location strategy gives us the chance to provide more steady and less risky types of propositions to our clients than just concentrating in one location, and that seems to be moving well, but we have a large initiative to continue to build that part of our workforce, both in the IT area as well as in the B.P.O. area, to be able to blend the right type of low-cost resources with our consulting capabilities as we help our clients transform our business to deliver them value.

你知道，我們認為更廣泛的多地點戰略讓我們有機會向我們的客戶提供更穩定、風險更低的建議類型，而不僅僅是集中在一個地點，這似乎進展順利，但我們有一個很大的主動性繼續在 IT 領域和 B.P.O. 方面建立我們的這部分員工隊伍。領域，以便能夠將正確類型的低成本資源與我們的諮詢能力相結合，幫助我們的客戶轉變我們的業務，為他們創造價值。

Harry, you might --

哈利，你可能——

Yeah.

是的。

Pat, on the bookings question, I think, you know, we should do fine relative to Q1 of last year.

Pat，關於預訂問題，我認為，相對於去年第一季度，我們應該做得很好。

You know, Q1 of last year was about 3.3 billion, and that's certainly in the range here.

你知道，去年第一季度大約是 33 億，這肯定在這個範圍內。

I think, candidly, the tough comparison will be in Q2 where we had BellSouth, AT&T, cable and wireless, but rest assured, our partners are working on some big propositions and hopefully we'll get the timing right, but at least we have some good large prospects in our sights here.

坦率地說，我認為艱難的比較將在第二季度，我們有 BellSouth、AT&T、有線和無線，但請放心，我們的合作夥伴正在製定一些重要的提議，希望我們能把握好時機，但至少我們有我們在這裡看到了一些好的大前景。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

Andrew Steinerman, Bear Stearns.

貝爾斯登的安德魯·施泰納曼。

Hi, guys.

嗨，大家好。

Thanks for squeezing me in.

謝謝你擠我。

Could you just remind us, and review seasonality?

你能提醒我們，並回顧一下季節性嗎？

How much do you think seasonality here and in Europe affected this quarter and will -- meaning the August quarter reported -- and will help the quarter we just started?

您認為本季度和歐洲的季節性因素對本季度的影響有多大，並且將（即報告的 8 月季度）對我們剛剛開始的季度有所幫助？

Well, typically, Andrew, our fourth quarter, which we just finished, is our weakest quarter with all the holidays.

好吧，通常情況下，安德魯，我們剛剛完成的第四季度，是我們所有假期中表現最差的季度。

As I mentioned, we had a really tough compare because fourth quarter of '01, Europe had 32% local currency growth, so when you think of people working overtime in that past year and then this year, sort of having a normalized holidays, then you can see how there could be a significant revenue delta above and beyond just the normal change that you'd expect.

正如我提到的，我們進行了非常艱難的比較，因為 01 年第四季度，歐洲當地貨幣增長了 32%，所以當你想到過去一年和今年加班的人，有點像正常的假期，然後您可以看到超出您預期的正常變化的顯著收入增量。

You know, Q1 and Q3 are stronger quarters.

你知道，第一季度和第三季度是強勁的季度。

September and January are big bellwether months, especially for our European business, and we're, you know, cautiously optimistic going into October because October is a very strong workday month.

9 月和 1 月是重要的領頭羊月份，尤其是對於我們的歐洲業務而言，而且我們對進入 10 月持謹慎樂觀的態度，因為 10 月是一個非常強勁的工作日月份。

You know, the numbers I gave at our investor meeting, we also have to track just how holidays fall around the globe, and as I mentioned, Q1 of this fiscal year happens to have seven-tenths of one percent fewer workdays.

你知道，我在投資者會議上給出的數字，我們還必須跟踪全球假期的情況，正如我所提到的，本財年第一季度的工作日恰好減少了十分之七。

Q2 has 2.6% higher number of net work days.

第二季度的淨工作日數增加了 2.6%。

Q3 is 1.2% lower.

第三季度下降了 1.2%。

And Q4 is 1.3% higher.

第四季度增長了 1.3%。

So we actually have someone who helps track how all the holidays fall in the 47 countries in which we operate, and we have a global net working days number so that we can help normalize not only the seasonality issues but also some of these holiday influences which are non-trivial when making business comparisons for us internally, period to period.

因此，我們實際上有人幫助跟踪我們經營所在的 47 個國家/地區的所有假期，我們有一個全球淨工作日數，這樣我們不僅可以幫助規範季節性問題，還可以幫助規範其中一些假期影響在內部為我們進行業務比較時，這是非常重要的。

Right.

正確的。

And Harry, the days you just gave us for the workday differentials, that's year-over-year, right?

還有哈利，你剛剛給我們的工作日差額的天數，是一年比一年，對吧？

Correct.

正確的。

And so -- but if we were going to look at this 34 quarter, the first quarter versus the fourth quarter, do we pick up a notable amount of workdays this quarter?

所以 - 但是如果我們要查看這 34 個季度，第一季度與第四季度，我們是否會在本季度獲得顯著數量的工作日？

So, I like to look at the business sequentially.

所以，我喜歡按順序看業務。

You know, are we helped out by workdays as we move sequentially into the current quarter?

您知道，隨著我們按順序進入本季度，我們是否得到工作日的幫助？

Most definitely.

明確地。

Okay.

好的。

Thanks for all the comments.

感謝所有的評論。

No.

不。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

Okay.

好的。

Let me close.

讓我關閉。

One, I thank you for your ongoing interest in Accenture.

一，感謝您對埃森哲的持續關注。

While we're very cautious, as you detect, from our overall tone in terms of any broad-scale improvements in the industry and what we see, this past fiscal year has also been a rough ride for all of us, but we think we've managed our business extremely well.

正如您所發現的，雖然我們非常謹慎，但從我們對行業的任何廣泛改進以及我們所看到的整體基調來看，上一財年對我們所有人來說也是一段艱難的旅程，但我們認為我們我們的業務管理得非常好。

As we look at the future, even though we're cautious on the fundamentals in the industry, we have made some significant changes in our cost structure.

展望未來，儘管我們對行業的基本面持謹慎態度，但我們對成本結構進行了一些重大改變。

We're operating lean and frugally.

我們正在精簡和節儉地經營。

We have a strong outsourcing pipeline and a very strong cash flow and balance sheet.

我們擁有強大的外包渠道以及非常強勁的現金流和資產負債表。

So with our focus, we believe, on execution, we're going to continue to work hard at delivering value to our clients and our shareholders.

因此，我們相信，在執行方面，我們將繼續努力為我們的客戶和股東創造價值。

We're going to emerge stronger from this downturn.

我們將從這次低迷中變得更加強大。

And I want to thank all of you for joining us.

我要感謝大家加入我們。

Thank you, operator.

謝謝你，接線員。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

Ladies and gentlemen, this conference will be available for replay after 12:15 p.m. today until October 24th at midnight.

女士們，先生們，本次會議將在下午 12:15 後重播。今天一直到10月24日午夜。

You may access the replay service by dialing 1-800-475-6701 and entering the access code 651897.

您可以撥打 1-800-475-6701 並輸入訪問代碼 651897 訪問重播服務。

International participants may dial 1-320-365-3844 and entering the same access code, 651897.

國際參與者可以撥打 1-320-365-3844 並輸入相同的訪問代碼 651897。

That does conclude your teleconference for today.

今天的電話會議到此結束。

Thank you for your participation.

感謝您的參與。

You may now disconnect.

您現在可以斷開連接。