Alight Inc (ALIT) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and thank you for holding. My name is Stacy, and I will be your conference operator today. Welcome to Alight's Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, today's call is being recorded, and a replay of the call will be available on the Investor Relations section of the company's website.

下午好，感謝您的支持。我叫史黛西，今天我將擔任你們的會議操作員。歡迎參加 Alight 2023 年第二季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）謹此提醒，今天的電話會議正在錄音，電話會議的重播將在公司網站的投資者關係部分提供。

And now I would like to turn the call over to Jeremy Cohen, Vice President of Investor Relations at Alight. Please go ahead.

現在我想將電話轉給 Alight 投資者關係副總裁傑里米·科恩 (Jeremy Cohen)。請繼續。

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. Earlier today, the company issued a press release for second quarter 2023 results. A copy of the release can be found on the Investor Relations section of the company's website at investor.alight.com.

下午好，感謝您加入我們。今天早些時候，該公司發布了 2023 年第二季度業績的新聞稿。該新聞稿的副本可以在該公司網站 Investor.alight.com 的投資者關係部分找到。

Before we get started, please note that some of the company's discussion today will include forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors.

在我們開始之前，請注意，公司今天的一些討論將包含前瞻性陳述。此類前瞻性陳述並不是對未來業績的保證。由於多種因素，實際結果可能與前瞻性陳述中明示或暗示的結果存在重大差異。

These factors are discussed in more detail in the company's filings with the SEC, including the company's most recent Form 10-K, and such factors may be updated from time to time in the company's periodic filings. The company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements.

這些因素在公司向 SEC 提交的文件中進行了更詳細的討論，包括公司最新的 10-K 表，並且這些因素可能會在公司的定期文件中不時更新。該公司不承擔任何更新前瞻性陳述的義務。

Also, throughout this conference call, the company will be presenting non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of the company's historical non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures appear in today's earnings press release.

此外，在整個電話會議中，該公司將介紹非公認會計準則財務指標。該公司歷史上的非公認會計原則財務指標與其最直接可比的公認會計原則財務指標的調節表出現在今天的收益新聞稿中。

On the call from management today are Stephan Scholl, CEO; and Katie Rooney, CFO. After their prepared remarks, we will open the call up for questions.

今天，首席執行官 Stephan Scholl 接聽了管理層的電話；和首席財務官凱蒂魯尼。在他們準備好發言後，我們將開始提問。

I will now hand the call over to Stephan.

我現在將把電話轉給斯蒂芬。

Good afternoon, and thank you all for joining us. Earlier today, we released our second quarter results and are pleased to close out the first half of 2023 with double-digit growth across revenue, adjusted EBITDA and operating cash flow. We believe these results, coupled with a consistent track record and increasing levels of visibility, leave us well positioned to achieve our 2023 and midterm growth outlook.

下午好，感謝大家加入我們。今天早些時候，我們發布了第二季度業績，並很高興以營收、調整後 EBITDA 和運營現金流兩位數的增長結束了 2023 年上半年。我們相信，這些結果，加上一貫的業績記錄和不斷提高的知名度，使我們能夠很好地實現 2023 年和中期增長前景。

During the quarter, we delivered revenue and BPaaS growth of nearly 13% and 40%, respectively. As a result, recurring revenue represented nearly 85% of total revenue for the quarter. The mix towards tech-enabled revenue coupled with investments to improve our operating model, our enhancing returns with adjusted EBITDA up almost 11% for the quarter. As we drive our profitable growth agenda forward, we're also generating stronger operating cash flow, which was up 37% for the first half.

本季度，我們的收入和 BPaaS 增長分別接近 13% 和 40%。因此，經常性收入佔該季度總收入的近 85%。技術驅動的收入加上改善運營模式的投資，我們的回報不斷提高，調整後的 EBITDA 在本季度增長了近 11%。在我們推動盈利增長議程的同時，我們還產生了更強勁的運營現金流，上半年增長了 37%。

Our strong performance is led by the collective components of BPaaS and non-BPaaS solutions, which have created a resilient book of business. And taken together allows us to sit here today with over 90% of our 2023 revenue under contract and already an unprecedented amount of backlog of $2.5 billion for 2024.

我們強勁的業績得益於 BPaaS 和非 BPaaS 解決方案的集體組件，這些組件創造了富有彈性的業務記錄。總而言之，我們今天坐在這裡，2023 年收入的 90% 以上是在合同範圍內的，而且 2024 年的積壓金額已經達到前所未有的 25 億美元。

Let me briefly explain our recipe and how each component contributes to the totality of our business. First, our non-BPaaS revenue, led by professional services and stand-alone core administration, represents nearly 80% of total revenue and is seeing higher-than-normal growth rates of 8% in the first half.

讓我簡要解釋一下我們的配方以及每個組件如何為我們的整體業務做出貢獻。首先，我們的非 BPaaS 收入以專業服務和獨立核心管理為主導，佔總收入的近 80%，並且上半年增長率高於正常水平 8%。

Our recent growth was driven by onetime project work supporting the go-lives of large BPaaS deals. It is these mission-critical stand-alone solutions that are the foundation for our moat, characterized as highly recurring and with long-term contracts, and they are the feeder enabling us to upgrade our customers into larger platform deals that are driving better outcomes. And the platform Alight Worklife is the backbone of BPaaS, which as a reminder, our tech-enabled solutions wrapped with our service capabilities that drive improved engagement and outcomes for our customers. Since 2020, bookings for these solutions have grown over 80% per year, resulting in revenue up 45% during the first half of 2023.

我們最近的增長是由支持大型 BPaaS 交易上線的一次性項目工作推動的。正是這些關鍵任務的獨立解決方案構成了我們護城河的基礎，其特點是高重複性和長期合同，它們是使我們能夠將客戶升級到更大的平台交易的支線，從而推動更好的結果。 Alight Worklife 平台是 BPaaS 的支柱，提醒您的是，我們的技術支持解決方案與我們的服務能力相結合，可提高客戶的參與度和成果。自 2020 年以來，這些解決方案的預訂量每年增長超過 80%，導致 2023 年上半年收入增長 45%。

BPaaS bookings were $149 million for the second quarter. And as we have noted previously, there will be lumpiness in our sales cycle. To effectively evaluate our bookings, you need to take a longer-term view that isn't captured in a quarter-to-quarter movement.

第二季度 BPaaS 預訂額為 1.49 億美元。正如我們之前指出的，我們的銷售週期將會出現波動。為了有效評估我們的預訂，您需要採取更長期的觀點，而這種觀點不能通過季度變化來體現。

Cumulatively, we have sold $1.7 billion of BPaaS TCV bookings since 2021, well ahead of initial expectations and a key driver of higher sustainable growth. And speaking to the lumpiness, the total bookings exclude a large deal with a Fortune 10 company that we've already closed here in July. Once again, deal timing may fluctuate, but it's the totality of these great deals that drive the long-term performance of the business.

自 2021 年以來，我們已累計銷售了 17 億美元的 BPaaS TCV 預訂，遠遠超出了最初的預期，也是實現更高可持續增長的關鍵驅動力。就目前的情況而言，總預訂量不包括與一家財富 10 強公司的大宗交易，我們已於 7 月份在此完成了該交易。再次強調，交易時機可能會波動，但正是這些偉大交易的整體推動了業務的長期業績。

The investments we have made and are continuing to make in our platform and products have resulted in a tremendous opportunity in our pipeline with a number of transformational deals. We also continue to monetize our offerings through a modernized pricing model that is being rapidly accepted by customers and provides upside going forward. This gives us confidence in our medium-term guidance of BPaaS growth of 15-plus percent, coupled with the non-BPaaS growth of 2% to 4% with an improving margin profile.

我們已經和正在繼續對我們的平台和產品進行的投資通過一系列轉型交易為我們的管道帶來了巨大的機會。我們還繼續通過現代化的定價模型將我們的產品貨幣化，該模型正在迅速被客戶接受，並提供未來的上升空間。這讓我們對 BPaaS 增長 15% 以上、非 BPaaS 增長 2% 至 4% 以及利潤率狀況改善的中期指導充滿信心。

So with that important context, let me now turn to the strategic investments that are driving the success of our transformation and overall trajectory. At the center is an ongoing focus of executing on our platform strategy, and engaging people in a truly personal way that eliminates complexity, drives better participant outcomes and yields better ROI for customers. To accomplish this, the Alight Worklife platform has been constructed as a recommendation engine of one by unlocking the value of data within our core administrative services and leveraging AI in a meaningful way.

因此，在這一重要背景下，現在讓我談談推動我們轉型和整體軌跡成功的戰略投資。其核心是持續關注執行我們的平台戰略，並以真正個性化的方式吸引人們，從而消除複雜性，推動更好的參與者成果並為客戶帶來更好的投資回報率。為了實現這一目標，Alight Worklife 平台被構建為一個推薦引擎，通過釋放我們核心管理服務中的數據價值並以有意義的方式利用人工智能。

So let me talk more about how we're doing this. Starting with product. Early in the quarter, we announced a major upgrade to our SmartSelect MD search engine and launched new behavioral health services, both enhancing our navigation capabilities.

那麼讓我更多地談談我們是如何做到這一點的。從產品開始。本季度初，我們宣布對 SmartSelect MD 搜索引擎進行重大升級，並推出新的行為健康服務，兩者都增強了我們的導航能力。

In addition, yesterday, we announced our second major annual release of Alight Worklife. The latest release leverages Alight's robust proprietary data to deliver AI-driven personalization and automation capabilities across the Alight Worklife platform and provides customers with advanced tools to increase the ROI of their benefit programs.

此外，昨天，我們還宣布了 Alight Worklife 的第二個主要年度版本。最新版本利用 Alight 強大的專有數據在 Alight Worklife 平台上提供人工智能驅動的個性化和自動化功能，並為客戶提供先進的工具來提高其福利計劃的投資回報率。

I am particularly excited to share our improved virtual chatbot experience, which will offer users greater access to AI-based personalization and the ability to answer specific inquiries efficiently and in a digital environment. Improving the Chatbot experience will allow us to continue reducing the need for participants to use the call center channel and improvement that drives greater client satisfaction and underscores our long-term margin expansion by driving down our service costs.

我特別高興能夠分享我們改進的虛擬聊天機器人體驗，這將使用戶能夠更好地訪問基於人工智能的個性化服務，並能夠在數字環境中高效地回答特定查詢。改善聊天機器人體驗將使我們能夠繼續減少參與者使用呼叫中心渠道的需求，並進行改進，從而提高客戶滿意度，並通過降低服務成本來強調我們的長期利潤擴張。

Though the advancement in our chatbot is exciting, Alight has been investing in and utilizing AI for years. AI has been core to powering individual benefit decisions and delivery automation. Our experienced models, highly leveraged data sets and established connections with data sources are driving better engagement and improving ROI for our customers, and this is the foundation for our BPaaS growth.

儘管我們的聊天機器人的進步令人興奮，但 Alight 多年來一直在投資和利用人工智能。人工智能一直是推動個人福利決策和交付自動化的核心。我們經驗豐富的模型、高度利用的數據集以及與數據源建立的聯繫正在推動更好的參與並提高客戶的投資回報率，這是我們 BPaaS 增長的基礎。

Still, we're just scratching the surface of what is possible. We're unlocking concrete generative AI use cases by building internal applications. For example, given the many millions of interactions, and hard to digitize PDF documents that we handle annually, generative AI provides the ability to, at scale, ingest, comprehend and answer questions about these documents in a faster self-service format.

儘管如此，我們還只是觸及了可能性的表面。我們通過構建內部應用程序來解鎖具體的生成式人工智能用例。例如，考慮到我們每年處理的數百萬次交互以及難以數字化的 PDF 文檔，生成式 AI 提供了以更快的自助服務格式大規模攝取、理解和回答有關這些文檔的問題的能力。

While we were busy this quarter improving our platform, we also were hard at work on the commercial side as our ongoing investments are translating to customer wins and new partnerships. In the case of Weis Markets, a Mid-Atlantic food retailer with nearly 23,000 employees, our new relationship has grown from an original remit of taking over a complex Workday deployment led by a competitor, to a [OneAlight] engagement that includes benefits administration and services work. And with Siemens Healthineers, a multinational with nearly 70,000 employees, they were seeking a solution that prioritized employee health and well-being while also driving sustainable engagement. Through our OneAlight solution, Siemens will have the tools to address its objectives and positively impact while being retention and cost.

雖然本季度我們忙於改進我們的平台，但我們也在商業方面努力工作，因為我們持續的投資正在轉化為客戶的勝利和新的合作夥伴關係。以Weis Markets 為例，這是一家擁有近23,000 名員工的大西洋中部食品零售商，我們的新關係已從最初的接管由競爭對手領導的複雜Workday 部署的職責，發展到[OneAlight] 參與，其中包括福利管理和服務工作。西門子醫療是一家擁有近 70,000 名員工的跨國公司，他們正在尋求一種解決方案，優先考慮員工的健康和福祉，同時推動可持續的敬業度。通過我們的 OneAlight 解決方案，西門子將擁有實現其目標的工具，並在保留和降低成本的同時產生積極影響。

These wins underscore the continued strength in our commercial pipeline and the need for employers to drive better outcomes for their people and together serve as a powerful foundation for our new Chief Commercial Officer, Greg George. Greg joined us midway through the quarter, and I'm excited for our organization as his background in driving growth for cloud-based systems and in the HCM space fits with our transformational initiatives and will serve as a catalyst to accelerate our momentum.

這些勝利凸顯了我們商業管道的持續實力，以及雇主為員工帶來更好成果的需要，並共同為我們新任首席商務官格雷格·喬治奠定了強大的基礎。 Greg 在本季度中期加入了我們，我對我們的組織感到興奮，因為他在推動基於雲的系統和 HCM 領域的增長方面的背景符合我們的轉型計劃，並將成為加速我們發展勢頭的催化劑。

Another lever for commercial growth is through our numerous partnerships across the globe. This quarter, we announced an expanded partnership with Workday to help companies in various European countries source, manage and pay their global workforce with a simple, unified offering. This software partnership is in the early stages of its rollout with the joint teams, focusing on sales enablement, account planning and our collective go-to-market strategy.

商業增長的另一個槓桿是通過我們在全球範圍內的眾多合作夥伴關係。本季度，我們宣布擴大與 Workday 的合作夥伴關係，以幫助歐洲各國的公司通過簡單、統一的產品尋找、管理和支付其全球勞動力。這種軟件合作夥伴關係正處於與聯合團隊推出的早期階段，重點關註銷售支持、客戶規劃和我們的集體上市戰略。

And finally, although much of our transformation is growth-oriented, we're also well along the path of improving the efficiency of our back-end infrastructure, migration of our data centers to the cloud is progressing to plan, with high-priority applications being moved in advance of annual enrollment and final applications migrating in the first half of 2024. The end result of this program will be significant cost savings, better delivery for our customers and an accelerated pace of innovation.

最後，儘管我們的大部分轉型都是以增長為導向的，但我們也在提高後端基礎設施效率的道路上走得很好，我們的數據中心向雲的遷移正在按計劃進行，其中包括高優先級的應用程序在年度註冊和 2024 年上半年最終申請遷移之前進行轉移。該計劃的最終結果將是顯著節省成本、為我們的客戶提供更好的服務並加快創新步伐。

I also want to take a moment to share more on the leadership changes announced this afternoon. Katie Rooney will be expanding her responsibilities to take on the role of Chief Operating Officer, focused on running Alight's professional services segment and our global payroll capabilities. Many of you have gotten to know Katie well and I can attest her strong leadership abilities built from over 14 years with Alight and its predecessors.

我還想花點時間分享更多有關今天下午宣布的領導層變動的信息。 Katie Rooney 將擴大她的職責，擔任首席運營官，專注於運營 Alight 的專業服務部門和我們的全球薪資能力。你們中的許多人都非常了解 Katie，我可以證明她在 Alight 及其前任超過 14 年的工作中積累的強大領導能力。

In addition to her new role, Katie will continue to serve as Global CFO; and Jeremy Heaton will move into the operating CFO role, accountable for many of the day-to-day responsibilities across the finance function. Jeremy was Executive Vice President of FP&A and has been part of Katie's team for over 3 years. Before Alight, he was a divisional CFO for GE and spent over 20 years there. Many of you have had the opportunity to spend time with him, and you'll be seeing much more of him in the future.

除了新職位外，凱蒂還將繼續擔任全球首席財務官；傑里米·希頓 (Jeremy Heaton) 將擔任運營首席財務官，負責財務部門的許多日常職責。 Jeremy 曾擔任 FP&A 執行副總裁，並已加入 Katie 團隊超過 3 年。在 Alight 之前，他擔任 GE 部門首席財務官，並在那里工作了 20 多年。你們中的許多人都有機會與他共度時光，將來你們還會更多地見到他。

Adding operational experience to Katie's skill set and elevating Jeremy's role will deepen the expertise of our executive leadership team and give our Board, colleagues, shareholders and customers confidence in our long-term success.

為 Katie 的技能組合增加運營經驗並提升 Jeremy 的角色將加深我們執行領導團隊的專業知識，並使我們的董事會、同事、股東和客戶對我們的長期成功充滿信心。

Additionally, Cesar Jelvez will be leaving Alight. I want to thank him for his contributions in moving the business forward, and I wish him well.

此外，Cesar Jelvez 將離開 Alight。我要感謝他為推動業務發展所做的貢獻，並祝他一切順利。

Before I hand it over to Katie, I also want to express my gratitude for our colleagues around the world who in just 2 years as a public company have made tremendous progress transforming Alight, building upon our strong foundation and setting us up for sustainable long-term success.

在我把它交給Katie 之前，我還想對我們世界各地的同事表示感謝，他們作為一家上市公司，在短短兩年內，在Alight 轉型方面取得了巨大進展，奠定了我們堅實的基礎，並為我們的可持續長期發展奠定了基礎。術語成功。

Katie, over to you.

凱蒂，交給你了。

Thank you, Stephan, and good afternoon, everyone. Our second quarter performance was highlighted by double-digit growth in total revenue, BPaaS revenue, adjusted EBITDA and operating cash flow. In addition, the strength of our foundational non-BPaaS business is also driving increasing levels of long-term visibility, with Stephan noting earlier that we now have over 90% of 2023 revenue under contract and $2.5 billion of 2024 revenue under contract as well. The line of sight we have from our backlog is what enables us to confidently invest to sustain profitable growth.

謝謝斯蒂芬，大家下午好。我們第二季度的表現突出的是總收入、BPaaS 收入、調整後 EBITDA 和運營現金流的兩位數增長。此外，我們基礎非 BPaaS 業務的實力也推動了長期可見性的提高，Stephan 早些時候指出，我們現在 2023 年收入的 90% 以上是合同收入，2024 年收入中有 25 億美元是合同收入。我們從積壓訂單中獲得的視野使我們能夠自信地進行投資以維持盈利增長。

Let me now turn to our performance. Starting with our consolidated results. During the second quarter, we achieved revenue growth of 12.7%, highlighted by BPaaS revenue growth of nearly 40% as prior bookings continue to translate into higher contracted revenue. This is resulting in an ongoing shift towards higher-quality recurring revenues, which were up 13.6%. Recurring revenue comprised 84.7% of total revenue, a 70 basis point increase from the prior year.

現在讓我談談我們的表現。從我們的綜合結果開始。第二季度，我們實現了 12.7% 的收入增長，其中 BPaaS 收入增長近 40%，因為之前的預訂繼續轉化為更高的合同收入。這導致經常性收入持續轉向更高質量，增長了 13.6%。經常性收入佔總收入的84.7%，比上年增加70個基點。

Adjusted EBITDA increased 10.6% to $157 million, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 19.5%. With strong growth across the board, we are generating increasing levels of cash flow, which strengthens our balance sheet and funds our transformation.

調整後 EBITDA 增長 10.6%，達到 1.57 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 19.5%。隨著全面的強勁增長，我們產生的現金流量不斷增加，這增強了我們的資產負債表，並為我們的轉型提供了資金。

For the first half, we generated operating cash flow of $162 million with a conversion rate of 52%, up significantly versus prior year as we continue to make improvements in working capital.

上半年，隨著我們繼續改善營運資本，我們產生了 1.62 億美元的運營現金流，轉換率為 52%，較上年大幅增長。

As a reminder, our second half cash flow tends to be seasonally stronger, and we would expect the same this year. And as planned, both investments and restructuring activity are projected to slow compared to the first half, which will impact both profitability and cash flow.

提醒一下，我們下半年的現金流往往會季節性更強，我們預計今年也會如此。按照計劃，投資和重組活動預計將比上半年放緩，這將影響盈利能力和現金流。

Let me now expand on our bookings performance, both for the quarter and more holistically. To start with the results. BPaaS bookings for the quarter were $149 million, and cumulatively, we're pleased to report we have now achieved over $1.7 billion in total bookings since we began our transformation in '21.

現在讓我詳細介紹一下我們本季度和更全面的預訂業績。從結果開始。本季度的 BPaaS 預訂量為 1.49 億美元，我們很高興地報告，自 21 年開始轉型以來，我們的總預訂量已超過 17 億美元。

As BPaaS revenue is long term and recurring in nature, this foundational backlog will continue improving our overall quality of revenue as we leverage the Alight Worklife platform.

由於 BPaaS 收入是長期且經常性的，因此當我們利用 Alight Worklife 平台時，這一基礎積壓工作將繼續提高我們的整體收入質量。

For 2023, we now expect BPaaS bookings to be in the range of $700 million to $900 million, which implies a strong second half and well over $2 billion of cumulative bookings, more than $500 million ahead of our original 3-year plan.

目前，我們預計2023 年BPaaS 預訂量將在7 億至9 億美元之間，這意味著下半年的強勁勢頭，累計預訂量將遠遠超過20 億美元，比我們最初的3 年計劃提前了5億美元以上。

As you may recall, we will see lumpiness in our bookings from large deals. For example, the 2 we closed in the fourth quarter of 2022. The GE deal is a great example of this dynamic.

您可能還記得，我們會看到大額交易的預訂出現混亂。例如，我們在 2022 年第四季度完成的 2 筆交易。通用電氣的交易就是這種動態的一個很好的例子。

Our engagement is designed to drive long-term BPaaS revenue starting in 2024 through our Alight Worklife platform and comprehensive payroll and benefit solutions. However, this year, our team is hard at work implementing the core platform and systems across GE's 3 companies, and this work is driving higher non-BPaaS revenue in 2023.

我們的參與旨在通過我們的 Alight Worklife 平台和全面的薪資和福利解決方案，從 2024 年開始推動長期 BPaaS 收入。然而，今年，我們的團隊正在努力在 GE 的 3 家公司實施核心平台和系統，這項工作將在 2023 年推動非 BPaaS 收入的增長。

The closing of OneAlight deal such as this are lucrative, but the size and complexity of finalizing these offerings typically means they take longer to close. Another case was for a deal closed in July as Stephan discussed. And as you evaluate Alight, it remains an important reason to take a longer-term view of bookings.

像這樣的 OneAlight 交易的完成是有利可圖的，但最終確定這些產品的規模和復雜性通常意味著它們需要更長的時間才能完成。正如斯蒂芬所討論的，另一個案例是七月份完成的交易。當您評估 Alight 時，它仍然是以更長遠的眼光看待預訂的一個重要原因。

We also continue to have a very strong pipeline across our business with over $2 billion in opportunity just within our installed base. We're making progress with new logos, and we've introduced our new pricing model, which is not yet contemplated in our total backlog.

我們還在整個業務中繼續擁有非常強大的渠道，僅在我們的安裝基礎中就擁有超過 20 億美元的機會。我們正在新徽標方面取得進展，並且引入了新的定價模型，這尚未在我們的總積壓訂單中考慮。

Our pricing model is being implemented in new deals and will enable us to monetize new products more effectively. Overall, the implications of building our platform and driving value-based pricing will be multifold. We'd expect increased revenue growth, improved margin potential and faster cash collections as we prove out a better model for our customers. Overall, these levers taken collectively are driving growth for our business and position us well to achieve our midterm outlook.

我們的定價模式正在新交易中實施，這將使我們能夠更有效地通過新產品獲利。總體而言，構建我們的平台和推動基於價值的定價的影響將是多重的。隨著我們為客戶證明了更好的模式，我們預計收入增長會增加，利潤潛力會提高，現金回款也會更快。總體而言，這些槓桿共同推動了我們業務的增長，並使我們能夠很好地實現中期前景。

With that, let me now turn to our segments, starting with Employer Solutions. Second quarter revenue was up 13.5%, with recurring revenue up 14.3% and project revenue of 5.5%. Contributing to our growth was 2 months of Federal Thrift as well as increased net commercial activity, volumes and the impact from the ReedGroup acquisition.

現在讓我談談我們的細分市場，從雇主解決方案開始。第二季度收入增長 13.5%，其中經常性收入增長 14.3%，項目收入增長 5.5%。兩個月的聯邦儲蓄計劃以及淨商業活動、交易量的增加以及收購 ReedGroup 的影響對我們的增長做出了貢獻。

Our strong growth, coupled with productivity savings are driving better profitability with second quarter adjusted gross profit up 21.3% to $268 million. Adjusted gross margin increased by 250 basis points to 38.5%.

我們的強勁增長加上生產率的節省正在推動盈利能力的提高，第二季度調整後毛利潤增長 21.3%，達到 2.68 億美元。調整後毛利率增加250個基點至38.5%。

Turning to our Professional Services segment. Second quarter revenue growth accelerated sequentially and was up almost 10% from the prior year to $100 million. This was driven by a 10% increase in project revenue and a 9% increase in recurring revenue, building from a strong backlog. On a profitability basis, adjusted gross profit was slightly off from the prior year, down $1 million.

轉向我們的專業服務部門。第二季度收入增長環比加速，比上年同期增長近 10%，達到 1 億美元。這是由於項目收入增長了 10%，經常性收入增長了 9%，而這得益於大量的積壓訂單。在盈利能力的基礎上，調整後的毛利潤比上年略有下降，減少了 100 萬美元。

Turning to our balance sheet. Our quarter end cash and cash equivalents balance was $271 million, and our total debt was $2.8 billion. We continue to actively manage our debt and our hedge portfolio is 84% fixed through 2024 and 60% through 2025. Our net leverage ratio at the end of the second quarter was 3.7x, down from 3.8 at the end of the first quarter. And as a reminder, we are targeting midterm net leverage of approximately 3x.

轉向我們的資產負債表。我們的季末現金和現金等價物餘額為 2.71 億美元，總債務為 28 億美元。我們繼續積極管理債務，我們的對沖投資組合到2024 年固定率為84%，到2025 年固定率為60%。第二季度末我們的淨槓桿率為3.7 倍，低於第一季度末的3.8倍。提醒一下，我們的中期淨槓桿目標是大約 3 倍。

Turning to our outlook. Our strong first half keeps us on track for another successful year. With more than 90% of our revenue under contract, we are reaffirming our 2023 guidance with the exception of BPaaS bookings mentioned earlier. Our outlook includes revenue of $3.47 billion to $3.51 billion or growth of 11% to 12%; adjusted EBITDA of $735 million to $750 million or growth of 12% to 14%; adjusted EPS of $0.62 to $0.67 or growth of 9% to 18%; and an operating cash flow conversion rate of 45% to 55%, up from 43% in 2022.

轉向我們的展望。上半年的強勁表現讓我們有望迎來又一個成功的一年。由於我們 90% 以上的收入是根據合同簽訂的，因此我們重申 2023 年的指導方針，但前面提到的 BPaaS 預訂除外。我們的預期包括收入 34.7 億美元至 35.1 億美元或增長 11% 至 12%；調整後 EBITDA 為 7.35 億美元至 7.5 億美元，增長 12% 至 14%；調整後每股收益為 0.62 美元至 0.67 美元，增長 9% 至 18%；運營現金流轉化率為 45% 至 55%，高於 2022 年的 43%。

From a phasing perspective, we expect second half adjusted EBITDA to follow historic trends with higher upfront costs in the third quarter, supporting growth in the fourth quarter.

從分階段的角度來看，我們預計下半年調整後的 EBITDA 將遵循歷史趨勢，第三季度前期成本更高，從而支持第四季度的增長。

In closing, I'm so proud of what we have accomplished and continue to achieve with double-digit revenue, adjusted EBITDA and operating cash flow growth. These results demonstrate the attractiveness of our long-term strategy as we pivot towards the higher growth and higher-margin operating model, positioning us to enhance long-term shareholder value.

最後，我對我們已經取得的成就感到非常自豪，並將繼續實現兩位數的收入、調整後的 EBITDA 和運營現金流增長。這些結果證明了我們長期戰略的吸引力，因為我們轉向更高增長和更高利潤的運營模式，使我們能夠提高長期股東價值。

This concludes our prepared remarks, and we will now move into the question-and-answer session.

我們準備好的發言到此結束，現在我們將進入問答環節。

Operator, would you please instruct participants on how to ask questions.

接線員，請指導參與者如何提問。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Kyle Peterson with Needham & Company.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 Needham & Company 的 Kyle Peterson。

Great. Katie and Jeremy, congratulations on the new roles. Just wanted to start off on the guidance revisions, particularly on the BPaaS bookings. Understand and can appreciate there's some lumpiness there. But just wanted to see, is this just a few large deals shifting around here or there? Or is there any hesitation or signs of slowdown from clients, maybe wanted to push off some of these projects a little bit just given some of the macro uncertainty? Any color would be very helpful.

偉大的。凱蒂和傑里米，祝賀他們擔任新角色。只是想開始修改指南，特別是 BPaaS 預訂方面。理解並能體會到那裡有一些凹凸不平的地方。但只是想看看，這只是一些大宗交易在這里或那裡轉移嗎？或者客戶是否有任何猶豫或放緩跡象，考慮到宏觀不確定性，可能想稍微推遲其中一些項目？任何顏色都會非常有幫助。

Sure. Thanks, Kyle. Appreciate it. And listen, you got to go back to what we said almost 3 years ago, right, when our original guidance was $1.5 billion, and we all felt that was a big goal to achieve. And look where we sit. We're going to be, call it, $0.5 billion ahead of that plan. So we've had some good success early days in the last couple of years on driving that book of business.

當然。謝謝，凱爾。欣賞它。聽著，你必須回到我們大約 3 年前所說的，對吧，當時我們最初的指導是 15 億美元，我們都覺得這是一個需要實現的重大目標。看看我們坐的地方。我們將比該計劃提前 5 億美元。因此，過去幾年，我們在推動業務發展方面取得了一些良好的成功。

You've all seen how that bookings performance has translated into starting '23 with $2.9 billion of revenue under contract, which was the entire revenue book of business we did in '22. And if you translate the success of our BPaaS bookings from the beginning of when we started in '21, we started the year in '23 with almost $800 million of revenue under contract more than we did in '21. So over 2 years, almost $800 million of high-quality valuable backlog.

你們都已經看到預訂業績如何轉化為從 23 年開始的合同收入 29 億美元，這是我們在 22 年的全部業務收入。如果你把我們從 21 年開始的 BPaaS 預訂的成功轉化為 23 年伊始的合同收入，比 21 年多了近 8 億美元。兩年多來，高質量、有價值的積壓訂單已接近 8 億美元。

And then you heard Katie say, $2.5 billion of revenue under contract for next year, which we've never, at this point in time, had that much as well. So that should give confidence looking into '24 and midterm. And then Katie also said 90% of '23 revenue under contract.

然後你聽到凱蒂說，明年的合同收入為 25 億美元，目前我們還從未有過這麼多收入。因此，這應該會給 24 年和中期選舉帶來信心。然后凱蒂還表示，23 年收入的 90% 是在合同下實現的。

In terms of pipeline, we're looking at right now, over 20 deals that are over $20 million in value each one of them, and some of them, of course, significantly more than that as well. So pipeline is strong. We're seeing the same enthusiasm from clients, especially now heading into second half where CFOs and CEOs are continuing to try and look at how to take costs out of their business.

就管道而言，我們現在正在關注 20 多筆交易，每筆交易的價值都超過 2000 萬美元，當然，其中一些交易的價值也遠高於此。所以管道很強大。我們看到客戶也表現出同樣的熱情，特別是現在進入下半年，首席財務官和首席執行官正在繼續嘗試研究如何降低業務成本。

As you all know, during COVID, there was a lot of spend that happened on what I would call point solutions. We've come in with our platform capability and really stitched together an end-to-end front door kind of capability with our Alight Worklife platform and that has resonated.

眾所周知，在新冠疫情期間，在我所說的單點解決方案上發生了大量支出。我們引入了我們的平台功能，並將端到端的前門功能與我們的 Alight Worklife 平台真正結合在一起，並引起了共鳴。

So we are doing a lot of work around value engineering and process reengineering for a lot of our largest clients, which could, again, as I said, with our pipeline, yield some pretty significant transactions for us moving into the outer quarters as well. But we feel really good about where we are.

因此，我們正在為許多最大的客戶圍繞價值工程和流程再造做大量工作，正如我所說，通過我們的管道，這也可以為我們進入外圍地區帶來一些相當重要的交易。但我們對自己所處的位置感覺非常好。

Again, as I said during my segment, it's very hard to look at this business in a 30, 60, 90 or even a 6- to 12-month view. You have to take a multiyear long-term view. And again, as shareholders, I know the shareholders that I've talked to appreciate the long-term view of making sure that we drive a better quality book of business at higher margins and better contribution to the company. So we feel really good about where we are.

正如我在演講中所說，很難從 30、60、90 甚至 6 到 12 個月的角度來看待這項業務。你必須採取多年的長期觀點。再說一遍，作為股東，我知道與我交談過的股東都欣賞我們的長遠觀點，即確保我們以更高的利潤率和更好的公司貢獻來推動更優質的業務。所以我們對自己所處的位置感覺非常好。

Yes. That makes sense, and it's good color. Maybe just a follow-up on capital allocation, specifically thinking about the back half of the year as cash flow seasonally typically tends to be better for you guys in the second half versus first half.

是的。很有道理，而且顏色也很好。也許只是資本配置的後續行動，特別是考慮今年下半年，因為季節性現金流通常對你們來說下半年比上半年更好。

How are you guys thinking about whether it's kind of amping up the buyback in the second half of the year? Or are there interesting M&A opportunities you guys would look to pursue? Any additional color on how you're looking to deploy capital in the back half of the year would be great.

你們如何看待下半年是否會加大回購力度？或者你們有什麼有趣的併購機會嗎？任何有關您希望如何在今年下半年部署資本的額外信息都會很棒。

Yes. Thanks, Kyle. Great question. Our capital allocation priorities have not necessarily changed. I think if anything, they've kind of been elevated in this environment. First priority is the stability of the balance sheet, feeling good where we are from a hedge position, maturity position. So we'll continue to naturally delever, which I think is important. So then really the priority has been investing in the business organically and inorganically. But we've said, listen, there is still a lot of frothiness in the market from a valuation standpoint. And if we don't the right opportunities, then we'll absolutely consider stock buyback. So I'd say both are on the table, and we're continuing to evaluate them as we go forward.

是的。謝謝，凱爾。很好的問題。我們的資本配置優先事項不一定會改變。我認為，如果說有什麼不同的話，那就是他們在這種環境下得到了提升。首要任務是資產負債表的穩定性，我們在對沖頭寸、到期頭寸方面感覺良好。因此，我們將繼續自然去槓桿化，我認為這很重要。因此，真正的首要任務是對業務進行有機和無機投資。但我們已經說過，聽著，從估值的角度來看，市場仍然存在很多泡沫。如果我們沒有合適的機會，那麼我們絕對會考慮股票回購。所以我想說，兩者都已擺在桌面上，我們將在前進過程中繼續評估它們。

Next question, Kevin McVeigh with Crédit Suisse.

下一個問題是瑞士信貸銀行的凱文·麥克維 (Kevin McVeigh)。

And let me add my congratulations as well to Katy and Jeremy, well deserve for sure. Stephan, I just wanted to clarify. One thing you said I just want to make sure I heard it right. You had mentioned the Fortune 10 client, are they still in that bookings number? Or did that relate to the adjustment in the bookings at all? I just -- I think you were clear, I just want to make sure that I picked it up right. I know you mentioned that big Fortune 10 client you won earlier in the year. Was there any context just could clarify for us around that?

讓我也向凱蒂和傑里米表示祝賀，他們當然值得。斯蒂芬，我只是想澄清一下。你說的一件事我只是想確保我沒聽錯。您提到了財富 10 強客戶，他們還在那個預訂號碼中嗎？或者這是否與預訂的調整有關？我只是——我想你說得很清楚了，我只是想確保我的理解是正確的。我知道您提到了今年早些時候您贏得的財富 10 強大客戶。是否有任何背景可以為我們澄清這一點？

Yes. Obviously, we get so fresh still. And as you can imagine, with NDAs and all that stuff, it's kind of complicated to be able to announce the actual name. These deals are different. This is a different transaction, a different booking than the one that we announced previously. So hopefully, that helps it.

是的。顯然，我們仍然很新鮮。正如你可以想像的那樣，有了保密協議和所有這些東西，能夠宣布實際名稱有點複雜。這些交易是不同的。這是一筆不同的交易，與我們之前宣布的預訂不同。希望這能有所幫助。

And it's not included -- yes, Kevin, it's not in our Q2 number.

它沒有包含在內——是的，凱文，它沒有包含在我們的第二季度數據中。

Yes, it's not in Q2. That's correct. That's why I mentioned the July statement. That's right. Yes.

是的，不是在第二季度。這是正確的。這就是我提到七月聲明的原因。這是正確的。是的。

Understood. But that's -- Katie, it is in the full year or Stephan, it's in the full year guidance, right?

明白了。但這是——凱蒂，這是全年的，或者斯蒂芬，這是全年指導的，對吧？

Correct.

正確的。

Great. And then, Katie, it sounds like your added responsibilities of international payroll and then professional services, is that coincidental that one of the things we're really encouraged about is a Workday partnership, does that add additional focus on that? Or maybe just help us understand what that brings to bear because it's obviously a real nice part of the story as well.

偉大的。然後，凱蒂，聽起來你增加了國際薪資和專業服務的責任，這是否巧合，我們真正鼓勵的事情之一是工作日合作夥伴關係，這是否增加了對此的額外關注？或者也許只是幫助我們理解這會帶來什麼，因為這顯然也是故事中真正精彩的部分。

Thanks, Kevin. Yes, I absolutely think that is a part of it. I mean, as you know, we've -- we're also a large client, right, as I've deployed Workday Financials across the organization. So I think very highly of the company and the partnership that the team has built. So I do think that is a good opportunity for us.

謝謝，凱文。是的，我絕對認為這是其中的一部分。我的意思是，正如您所知，我們也是一個大客戶，對吧，因為我已經在整個組織中部署了 Workday Financials。因此，我對公司以及團隊建立的合作夥伴關係評價很高。所以我確實認為這對我們來說是一個很好的機會。

I think also, I mean, as we've talked a lot about international in general, when you think about just the position we come at global payroll from a significant position of strength. There's a huge opportunity across OneAlight as we continue to bring our solutions to platform strategy to bear for our clients. So that is kind of the focus today and continuing to really work across the leadership team to bring those solutions to our clients and with our platform approach.

我認為，我的意思是，正如我們一般性地談論了很多國際問題一樣，當你考慮一下我們在全球薪資中的地位時，我們具有重要的實力地位。隨著我們繼續將我們的解決方案納入平台戰略以服務於我們的客戶，OneAlight 存在著巨大的機遇。因此，這是今天的重點，並繼續在領導團隊中真正開展工作，通過我們的平台方法將這些解決方案帶給我們的客戶。

Yes. The only thing I would add to that is, listen, we all know Workday is one of the best software companies in the business. And Aneel and Carl and Dave just built something that's absolutely incredible to be a part of as a partner. To have a software partnership speaks to kind of Kyle's earlier question around what we're seeing in the market, which is HR buying centers were left behind in this massive digital transformation to consolidation and simplification.

是的。我唯一要補充的是，聽著，我們都知道 Workday 是業內最好的軟件公司之一。阿尼爾、卡爾和戴夫剛剛建立了一些作為合作夥伴絕對令人難以置信的東西。建立軟件合作夥伴關係解決了凱爾之前關於我們在市場上看到的問題的問題，即人力資源購買中心在這場向整合和簡化的大規模數字化轉型中被拋在了後面。

And so what you see with Workday and this partnership is a view that I share and that they share, which is clients are looking for more consolidated solutions and on a platform kind of an approach. So that gives kind of credence to our kind of whole BPaaS playbook, which is how do you drive OneAlight in a lot of these accounts because a lot of these clients have 30, 40, 50 up to 80 different point solutions. And so we're both seeing the same kind of trends, which is moving to a more integrated enterprise platform type of an approach.

因此，您在 Workday 和這種合作夥伴關係中看到的是我和他們共同的觀點，即客戶正在尋找更整合的解決方案和平台類方法。因此，這為我們的整個 BPaaS 劇本提供了一定的可信度，這就是如何在許多此類帳戶中驅動 OneAlight，因為許多此類客戶擁有 30、40、50 甚至 80 個不同的單點解決方案。因此，我們都看到了相同的趨勢，即轉向更加集成的企業平台類型的方法。

Next question, Tien-Tsin Huang with JPMorgan.

下一個問題是來自摩根大通的黃天欽。

My congrats to Katie and Jeremy as well. I want to just clarify one more time forgive me on the BPaaS bookings TCV revision here. Did anything fall out of the pipeline? Is that part of it? Or is it just a timing issue into next year? And then separately, I know revenue and all the headline figures didn't change and I know that the bookings here are very long term in nature. But are you making it up anywhere else in terms of revenue that you were expecting this year as it relates to the BPaaS piece? Or is it really just, again, timing?

我也祝賀凱蒂和傑里米。我想再次澄清一下關於 BPaaS 預訂 TCV 修訂的問題。有什麼東西從管道裡掉下來嗎？這是其中的一部分嗎？或者這只是明年的時間問題？然後單獨來看，我知道收入和所有標題數據都沒有變化，而且我知道這裡的預訂本質上是非常長期的。但是，今年與 BPaaS 相關的收入是否達到了您預期的其他地方？或者這真的只是時間問題？

Yes. Good question, Tien-Tsin. Thank you. A couple of things. I think, yes, it is timing, right? When we talk about some of the lumpiness Stephan mentioned, having over 20 deals over $20 million. There's a really strong pipeline that the team is working. I think the strategy is resonating, but getting those deals over the line has taken longer. So that's really kind of where that revision comes in. Why we haven't changed the guidance is because that's obviously only one piece of the story.

是的。好問題，田津。謝謝。有幾件事。我想，是的，現在正是時候，對嗎？當我們談論 Stephan 提到的一些困難時，他有 20 多筆交易超過 2000 萬美元。該團隊正在開發一條非常強大的管道。我認為這一戰略引起了共鳴，但完成這些交易需要更長的時間。因此，這確實是修訂的切入點。我們之所以沒有更改指南，是因為這顯然只是故事的一部分。

Going back to what we've done over the past 3 years and the impact that has going forward is obviously the most important driver, coupled with, obviously, continued strong performance in the non-BPaaS areas, the new pricing model, right? All the other components we mentioned around it continues to support the guidance as well.

回顧過去 3 年我們所做的事情，以及未來的影響顯然是最重要的驅動因素，顯然，再加上非 BPaaS 領域持續強勁的表現，新的定價模式，對吧？我們提到的所有其他組件也繼續支持該指南。

Very Good. Maybe just on the...

非常好。也許只是在...

Yes, I mean, we're not -- sorry, go ahead.

是的，我的意思是，我們不——抱歉，繼續吧。

Go ahead, Stephan.

繼續吧，斯蒂芬。

No, I was just going to say, we're not wavering at all from the transformation agenda and the BPaaS piece is healthy. And as you've seen from the numbers, if you change GE bookings from December 31 to January 1, it's a different conversation. We've had that in the last quarter. So timing is one thing, but the health of the business, the health of transformation, all that is still very strong, and that's why it shows up in terms of still our midterm guidance.

不，我只是想說，我們在轉型議程上絲毫沒有動搖，而且 BPaaS 部分是健康的。正如您從數字中看到的那樣，如果您將 GE 預訂從 12 月 31 日更改為 1 月 1 日，情況就會有所不同。我們在上個季度就已經經歷過這種情況。因此，時機是一回事，但業務的健康狀況、轉型的健康狀況，所有這些仍然非常強勁，這就是為什麼它仍然出現在我們的中期指導中。

But as you can see, we also spend a lot more time because a lot of you as investors and analysts asked us that, which is what is the non-BPaaS book of business. The 2 together really drive a resilient book of business for us. And so the GE I think example, Tien-Tsin, is I think a great one, which is there's no BPaaS revenue even though it was a major booking last year at the end of the year, there's no revenue until '24, but there's a lot of non-BPaaS-type revenue. And as you heard us say, there's some impactful growth in the last couple of quarters and moving forward on some of that non-BPaaS-type revenue, but all in the name of helping drive more towards our platform book of business in the outer years.

但正如您所看到的，我們也花費了更多的時間，因為很多投資者和分析師都問我們，什麼是非 BPaaS 業務。兩者共同為我們帶來了一本有彈性的業務。因此，我認為 GE 的例子 Tien-Tsin 是一個很好的例子，儘管它是去年年底的主要預訂，但沒有 BPaaS 收入，直到 24 年前才沒有收入，但是有大量非 BPaaS 類型的收入。正如您聽到我們所說的那樣，過去幾個季度出現了一些有影響力的增長，並在一些非BPaaS 類型的收入方面取得了進展，但所有這些都是為了幫助推動我們在未來幾年的平台業務增長。

Very good. No, I understand. I think I just want to make sure, given some of the important maybe too much focus on some of the KPIs. But yes, no complaints here. So my quick follow-up, just thinking about second half, I know, again, the headline revisions was just limited to the TCV piece, which you just went through. But any other change in thinking? I know there's some questions around employment normalization and it doesn't sound -- I'm assuming you're not too influenced by that. Are you seeing anything there amongst same-store growth for your larger clients? And then same thing on -- I know pipeline is strong, but just visibility and the conversion timing, that kind of thing. We heard a lot of delays and pushouts with some of the traditional IT services providers. I'm curious if you're seeing any signs of that as well.

非常好。不，我明白。我想我只是想確定一下，因為一些重要的因素可能過於關注某些 KPI。但是，是的，這裡沒有抱怨。因此，我快速跟進，僅考慮下半部分，我再次知道，標題修改僅限於您剛剛瀏覽過的 TCV 部分。但思想上還有其他改變嗎？我知道就業正常化存在一些問題，但聽起來似乎不太對勁——我假設你並沒有受到太大影響。您在大客戶的同店增長中看到了什麼嗎？然後同樣的事情 - 我知道管道很強大，但只是可見性和轉換時間，諸如此類的事情。我們聽到一些傳統 IT 服務提供商的很多延誤和拒絕。我很好奇你是否也看到了任何這樣的跡象。

Yes. Thanks, Tien-Tsin. We're really not. When it comes to just the underlying performance, and again, the team is doing an incredible job getting clients live on time, working through that, the kind of employment trends haven't had an impact on us. I think the only area we continue to monitor, as you know, Q3 and Q4 are higher project quarters for us that we do continue to monitor. So far, you saw it in the second quarter, we've done well. But that's the one area we have a little bit less visibility to at this point. But in terms of kind of the recurring book of business and where we sit today, we feel good.

是的。謝謝田津。我們真的不是。當談到基本績效時，再說一遍，團隊在讓客戶準時完成工作方面做得非常出色，通過這一點，這種就業趨勢並沒有對我們產生影響。我認為我們繼續監控的唯一領域，如您所知，第三季度和第四季度是我們繼續監控的較高項目季度。到目前為止，你在第二季度看到了，我們做得很好。但這是我們目前能見度較低的一個領域。但就經常性的商業書籍和我們今天所處的位置而言，我們感覺很好。

Next question, Pete Heckmann with D.A. Davidson.

下一個問題，皮特·赫克曼 (Pete Heckmann) 和 D.A.戴維森。

I just had a few more questions. Thinking about those 2 large clients, GE was one of them that were signed in the fourth quarter of '22. Would we expect those to go live in '24, first half, second half midway through? Just thinking about kind of the -- both of those seem like they're big enough to influence the growth rates a little bit. So just trying to feel like you just said that you're hitting milestones, the contracted backlog is tracking -- contracted pipeline is tracking towards going live. But any additional thoughts in terms of going into 2024 about some of those big go-lives.

我還有幾個問題。想想這兩個大客戶，GE 是 2022 年第四季度簽約的其中之一。我們會期望這些在 24 年的上半場、下半場中途上線嗎？想想看，這兩者似乎都足夠大，足以對增長率產生一點影響。因此，就像您剛剛所說的那樣，您正在達到里程碑，合同積壓工作正在跟踪 - 合同管道正在跟踪上線。但對於進入 2024 年，對於其中一些大型項目的上線，還有什麼其他想法嗎？

Yes. Thanks. What I'd say is they remain on track. Again, the team has just done a fantastic job with those contracts. So how it works is we're not fully live at the start of '24. We're actually not fully through kind of like GE, we're not at a full run rate until '25. So you will see a benefit at the start of '24 that continues to grow through the year, and then we're at a full run rate actually as we enter '25.

是的。謝謝。我想說的是他們仍然走在正軌上。再說一次，團隊剛剛在這些合同方面做得非常出色。所以它的運作方式是我們在 24 年初還沒有完全上線。實際上，我們還沒有像 GE 那樣完全通過，直到 25 年我們才達到滿負荷運轉。因此，您將在 24 年初看到收益，該收益在全年中持續增長，然後當我們進入 25 時，我們實際上處於滿負荷運行狀態。

Got it. Okay. And then any thoughts about ReedGroup and its relative fit and its integration, any surprises there?

知道了。好的。那麼對於勵展集團及其相對契合度和整合有何想法，有什麼驚喜嗎？

Yes, Pete, honestly, what I'd say is it's -- when you think about the landscape of what our customers are asking for, it just fits really well within the OneAlight view in terms of their interaction with us. So we've seen really good traction in the pipeline there and the team has performed well. So no surprises. I think it's potentially even a bigger opportunity than we had anticipated, but we're still -- I would say we're still early in the pipeline there.

是的，皮特，老實說，我想說的是——當你考慮我們的客戶所要求的情況時，就他們與我們的互動而言，它非常適合 OneAlight 的觀點。因此，我們已經看到那裡的管道確實具有良好的牽引力，並且團隊表現良好。所以沒有什麼驚喜。我認為這可能是一個比我們預期的更大的機會，但我們仍然 - 我想說我們仍處於早期階段。

Yes. I'd say it's in the small but mighty category. When you think of what that actually does in terms of [leaves] capability, we've seen some large deals get swayed by a very small component with leaves because it is such a key element to helping employees get them back to work earlier, which is a huge ROI around that.

是的。我想說它屬於小而強大的類別。當你考慮到[休假]功能的實際作用時，我們已經看到一些大型交易被一個非常小的休假組件所左右，因為它是幫助員工早日重返工作崗位的關鍵因素，這這是一個巨大的投資回報率。

So as we unpack especially in the Fortune 500, the cost base of somebody leaving work on a leaves program and then getting them back, the dollars are just so significant. And so when we attach it to our platform and integrate it into navigation and into our benefits administration and the rest of work life really kind of brings it to a much more cohesive conversation and has really helped us kind of tip the scales in our favor on some really nice deals for us.

因此，當我們特別是在《財富》500 強企業中，當我們了解某人因休假計劃離開工作然後又回來時的成本基礎時，美元是如此之大。因此，當我們將其附加到我們的平台並將其集成到導航、我們的福利管理和其他工作生活中時，確實會帶來更有凝聚力的對話，並確實幫助我們在某種程度上向有利於我們的方向傾斜。對我們來說一些非常好的優惠。

Next question, Peter Christiansen with Citi.

下一個問題是花旗銀行的 Peter Christiansen。

Glad to be a part of the call. Stephan, I was just wondering if you could talk to the enterprise spending environment. I know you mentioned pipeline looks really strong, but it sounds like Alight benefits when enterprises are perhaps a bit more cost conscious or maybe the inverse. I'm just trying to understand what dynamic you see really driving that pipeline? Is it cost savings? Or is it just other kind of aspects? And then just as my follow-up, it look like the gross margin really outperformed this quarter. Just wondering if we could dig into that a little bit, what drove some of the outperformance.

很高興參加這次通話。斯蒂芬，我只是想知道你是否可以談談企業支出環境。我知道你提到管道看起來非常強大，但聽起來當企業可能更加註重成本或相反時，Alight 會受益。我只是想了解您認為真正推動該管道的動力是什麼？是節省成本嗎？或者只是其他方面？正如我的後續行動一樣，看起來本季度的毛利率確實跑贏了。只是想知道我們是否可以深入研究一下，是什麼推動了一些出色的表現。

Yes, sure. Thanks for the question. And I'll try and keep this very concise because I could talk a lot about this. We've been on this multiyear journey in COVID. As you saw, clients just threw everything at employees around these point solutions. And we knew 3 years ago -- 3.5 years ago when I got here, that was a Band-Aid, right? What employees want is more simplicity, more clarity in helping make better decisions. And in fact, all that most corporations did is add more complexity to the whole process of making the right decisions around keeping them healthy and financially secure.

是的，當然。謝謝你的提問。我會盡量保持簡潔，因為我可以就此談論很多。我們在新冠肺炎疫情中經歷了多年的歷程。正如您所看到的，客戶只是圍繞這些單點解決方案將一切都拋給了員工。我們 3 年前 - 3.5 年前，當我來到這裡時，那隻是創可貼，對吧？員工想要的是更簡單、更清晰，以幫助做出更好的決策。事實上，大多數公司所做的只是增加了圍繞保持健康和財務安全做出正確決策的整個過程的複雜性。

And so we've continued to prove out the value of a front door, which is our Alight Worklife platform integrating not only our data, I think that was a big shift culturally for us, but even for the market was we're willing to integrate our own data with our competitors' data in order in the name of platform to give the best set of information for people to make better decisions.

因此，我們不斷證明前門的價值，這是我們的 Alight Worklife 平台，不僅集成了我們的數據，我認為這對我們來說是文化上的重大轉變，但即使對市場來說，我們也願意將我們自己的數據與競爭對手的數據整合起來，以便以平台的名義為人們提供最佳的信息，以做出更好的決策。

And by the way, in my last company, I mean everybody knows my background, we did exactly the same thing for how to drive digital transformation in the business world, whether it'd be Ferrari or Nike or other major corporations, we've all seen how digital disruption has really impacted the B2C world in that sense. None of that happened in the last decade really on the employee engagement side of things.

順便說一句，在我上一家公司，我的意思是每個人都知道我的背景，我們在如何推動商業世界的數字化轉型方面做了完全相同的事情，無論是法拉利還是耐克還是其他大公司，我們已經從這個意義上來說，所有人都看到了數字顛覆如何真正影響了 B2C 世界。過去十年裡，在員工敬業度方面，這一切都沒有發生。

So we're just taking an old playbook that has worked really, really well as we've seen with all the SaaS providers. And we didn't put a label of SaaS on it because it's too complex. We put a label of BPaaS on it, business process as a service. And that's a strong combination of products and software together with services that really help us drive a platform play. And so every client we talk to in the large scale is looking to now consolidate and simplify that big spend they've had over the last 4 years. And we're the beneficiary of that, right?

因此，我們只是採用了一本非常有效的舊劇本，正如我們在所有 SaaS 提供商中看到的那樣。而且我們沒有給它貼上SaaS的標籤，因為它太複雜了。我們給它貼上了BPaaS的標籤，業務流程即服務。這是產品、軟件與服務的強大結合，真正幫助我們推動平台發展。因此，我們大規模接觸的每一位客戶現在都在尋求整合和簡化他們在過去四年中的巨額支出。我們是受益者，對嗎？

So the good news is we're in the decision room in helping clients get rid of point solutions where they're not needed, help them drive more campaigns and capability to get better value for their spend, I mean when you think of -- it's not a mystery, when you think of the rates of engagement in the low single-digit percentage points, it doesn't look -- you have to look very far to see how difficult it has been for clients to get value for their investments because employees just aren't using it.

因此，好消息是，我們正在決策室幫助客戶擺脫不需要的單點解決方案，幫助他們推動更多的活動和能力，以獲得更好的支出價值，我的意思是當你想到 -這並不神秘，當你想到低個位數百分比的參與率時，你就會發現——你必須看得很遠才能看到客戶獲得投資價值是多麼困難因為員工根本不使用它。

So our engagement rates are double, triple, quadruple in many cases when you integrate the data sets in Alight Worklife. So we're right in the middle of an exciting chapter by being on the front lines with clients, helping take out some of those costs. Hopefully that helps.

因此，當您將數據集集成到 Alight Worklife 中時，在許多情況下，我們的參與率會提高一倍、三倍、四倍。因此，我們正處於激動人心的篇章之中，我們與客戶一起站在第一線，幫助消除其中一些成本。希望這有幫助。

And Peter, I was just going to address. First thanks, Glad to have you on the call. And just on the gross margin front, we talked a lot about some of the key investments we made last year, and we continue to make into this year. But I think as we said, we have to see a return on those investments, and they will come through first in gross margin, in terms of our go-to-market, in terms of technology investments, right, how we're delivering for our customers. And so that's really what you're starting to see play through the gross margin.

彼得，我正要講話。首先感謝，很高興您接聽電話。就毛利率而言，我們談論了很多去年所做的一些關鍵投資，今年我們將繼續進行。但我認為正如我們所說，我們必須看到這些投資的回報，它們將首先在毛利率、我們的市場進入、技術投資方面實現，對吧，我們如何交付為我們的客戶。這就是你開始看到的毛利率的變化。

Next question, Heather Balsky with Bank of America.

下一個問題是美國銀行的 Heather Balsky。

I'm going to ask for another bookings question. So I apologize, but we want to just kick the tires here. You talked about that some of the shift in timing of the bookings just has to do with getting those deals, getting some of the deals over the line. I'm just curious where you might be -- what might be causing some of that timing delay? Is it internally within the company? Is it just kind of selling the BPaaS strategy to the company? I'm just curious what the feedback you're getting from these customers?

我要問另一個預訂問題。所以我很抱歉，但我們只想在這裡踢輪胎。您談到預訂時間的一些變化只是與獲得這些交易有關，以及獲得一些超額交易。我只是好奇你可能在哪裡——什麼可能導致一些時間延遲？是公司內部的嗎？這只是向公司推銷 BPaaS 策略嗎？我只是好奇您從這些客戶那裡得到什麼反饋？

Yes. I wouldn't put it as delays or timing. You have to put everything into context. And the context is we said it would be a really heroic day if in 3 years, which were coming up to the last 2 quarters of that, if we could, on a new strategy, deliver $1.5 billion of these BPaaS dollars. .

是的。我不會將其視為延遲或時間安排。你必須把一切都放在上下文中。背景是，我們說過，如果在 3 年內，即最後兩個季度，如果我們能夠根據新的戰略交付 15 億美元的 BPaaS 美元，那將是非常英雄的一天。 。

And so on its own, we're going to hit hundreds of millions ahead of that, call it, $0.5 billion ahead of that plan, and we've hit our targets early, right? So I would look at it from that point of view.

因此，就其本身而言，我們將在此計劃之前實現數億美元，稱之為 5 億美元，並且我們已經提前實現了目標，對吧？所以我會從這個角度來看待它。

Our pipelines are strong. I would say the demand from clients to want us to come in. If anything, what's happening is the deals are getting bigger. And when you start doing process reengineering not to get too technical here, but it takes a lot of work to go into a major client and say, here are the 15 steps it takes to get to 20 different applications. And here's the experience an employee has on the left side of the ledger, to now. Here's what it would look like in a consolidated integrated data set and one place to go for an experience on the right side of the ledger, here's the front to, here's the ROI and savings, which is significant. I mean we've seen some ROIs into the hundreds of millions of dollars of savings for our clients by going from the left side to the right side. Again, complex, broken, not being used costly to integrated front door platform.

我們的管道很強大。我想說的是客戶希望我們加入的需求。如果說有什麼不同的話，那就是交易規模越來越大。當你開始進行流程再造時，不要在這裡太技術化，但是需要做大量的工作才能進入主要客戶並說，這裡有 15 個步驟來獲得 20 個不同的應用程序。這是到目前為止員工在賬本左側的經歷。這是整合的集成數據集的樣子，也是賬本右側體驗的一個地方，這是前面的內容，這是投資回報率和節省的費用，這很重要。我的意思是，通過從左側到右側，我們已經看到為客戶節省了數億美元的投資回報率。再次強調，集成前門平台複雜、破碎且成本高昂。

So I would say, if anything, what you have to look at is the conversations we're having are with more senior people. The conversations are broadening from the HR department a lot now into the CFO department and into IT department. We're actually getting into a lot of conversations on front door, ServiceNow versus Alight. It's great to see that conversation. We've all seen how well ServiceNow has done with their book of business. But they're very limited as ServiceNow is on the product side of things. We have the administrative data and platform, which I've always said for the last few years, really is a unique combination that nobody else has.

所以我想說，如果有的話，你必須關注的是我們與更資深的人進行的對話。現在，對話範圍已從人力資源部門擴大到首席財務官部門和 IT 部門。實際上，我們在前門進行了很多對話，ServiceNow 與 Alight。很高興看到那次對話。我們都已經看到 ServiceNow 在他們的業務方面做得有多好。但它們非常有限，因為 ServiceNow 是在產品方面。我們擁有管理數據和平台，過去幾年我一直說，這確實是其他人沒有的獨特組合。

And so that allows us to really be much more dynamic versus static. And so we've had a lot of workshops with a lot of the largest banks and a lot of the largest companies in the United States specifically. And it's great where we're winning the front door discussion when it pertains to how to keep employees healthy and financially secure because they see the value of a platform and administrative data.

因此，這讓我們真正變得更加動態而不是靜態。因此，我們與美國許多最大的銀行和許多最大的公司舉辦了很多研討會。當涉及如何保持員工健康和財務安全時，我們贏得了前門討論，這真是太好了，因為他們看到了平台和管理數據的價值。

So super exciting. The pipeline is stronger than ever. The deal sizes are great. But as I said just a few minutes ago, getting through these more complex sales cycles, which will benefit us in the longer term, just takes a bit more time.

太令人興奮了。管道比以往任何時候都更強大。交易規模很大。但正如我幾分鐘前所說，度過這些更複雜的銷售週期，從長遠來看將使我們受益，只是需要更多的時間。

Okay. That's really helpful. And you talked about the -- that you just launched your next sort of platform. I'm curious if there's any pricing that you're taking on the back of it? And how to think about your pricing efforts going forward?

好的。這真的很有幫助。您談到了您剛剛推出的下一種平台。我很好奇你是否有任何定價？以及如何考慮未來的定價工作？

Yes, Heather, maybe I'll take that one. So you're right, we have our semi-annual releases now of the Alight Worklife platform, which is great because it's a clear product road map driven with our clients that really continues to add value. What I'd say is how to think about it is actually more how we're pricing new deals now such that we get value for platform.

是的，希瑟，也許我會選擇那個。所以你是對的，我們現在每半年發布一次 Alight Worklife 平台，這很棒，因為它是由我們的客戶驅動的清晰的產品路線圖，真正持續增加價值。我想說的是如何思考它實際上更多的是我們現在如何為新交易定價，以便我們獲得平台的價值。

So remember, we used to face price pressure. Right now we're looking at how do you build price into the contract going forward to account for those investments we're making in platform that clients can see being rolled out twice a year. So it is kind of, in essence, baked in. I think it's a key element of the strategy given the investments we're making. And we've been able to demonstrate to clients that there is value in those releases.

所以請記住，我們曾經面臨價格壓力。現在，我們正在研究如何將價格納入未來的合同中，以說明我們在平台上所做的投資，客戶可以看到每年推出兩次。因此，從本質上講，它已經融入其中。考慮到我們正在進行的投資，我認為這是該戰略的關鍵要素。我們已經能夠向客戶證明這些版本的價值。

Next question is Steve Dechert with KeyBanc.

下一個問題是來自 KeyBanc 的 Steve Dechert。

Just want to know, have there been any updates you can provide on Phase 2 of your migration to the cloud? And then has there been any feedback on your latest release of Worklife?

只是想知道，您可以在遷移到雲的第二階段提供任何更新嗎？那麼對於您最新發布的 Worklife 有什麼反饋嗎？

Yes. Go ahead, Stephan.

是的。繼續吧，斯蒂芬。

No, go ahead, Katie, please.

不，請繼續，凱蒂，拜託。

I was just going to start with just on the rollout. And then Stephan, I'll let you talk about the release, which we just rolled out yesterday. So I would say it's early, but just on the cloud migration, that is obviously a really important project for us. The team has done an incredible job. So we are really through kind of almost the first 2 phases of the rollout. The next kind of final piece will be completed in the first half of 2024. But again, the team has really done that in the right way with our clients. And now obviously, we're kind of on a pause as we enter a really important time with annual enrollment here this fall.

我正要從推出開始。然後斯蒂芬，我會讓你談談我們昨天剛剛推出的版本。所以我想說現在還為時過早，但就雲遷移而言，這對我們來說顯然是一個非常重要的項目。該團隊完成了令人難以置信的工作。所以我們實際上已經完成了推出的前兩個階段。下一種最終作品將於 2024 年上半年完成。但同樣，團隊確實以正確的方式與我們的客戶做到了這一點。現在顯然，我們有點暫停了，因為今年秋天我們進入了一個非常重要的年度招生時期。

Yes. And on the product side, again, while AI and generative AI are the topic of the day, we've been -- that's been our strategy for years. When you look at the hundreds of millions of interactions that we already undertake with almost 40 million employees around the world, that data is powerful, and that's what is important for us to integrate into moments that matter. So that's the work we've been under in this last release is really building out capability in our software to be able to recognize PDF files, for example, when somebody calls in and says, is a procedure covered under my health plan? Those documents usually are static PDF type documents. With generative AI, you can really build the capability to be able to look at the PDF formats and really sync the 2 question together with the answer without having to call our call centers, those are hundreds of thousands of calls that we get every single year. So we're building out a really strong API library integration points.

是的。在產品方面，雖然人工智能和生成式人工智能是當今的主題，但我們多年來一直是這樣的戰略。當您查看我們已經與全球近 4000 萬名員工進行的數億次互動時，您會發現這些數據非常強大，這對我們融入重要時刻至關重要。因此，我們在上一個版本中所做的工作實際上是在我們的軟件中構建能夠識別 PDF 文件的功能，例如，當有人打電話來說，我的健康計劃是否涵蓋某個程序時？這些文檔通常是靜態 PDF 類型文檔。借助生成式人工智能，您可以真正構建能夠查看 PDF 格式並真正將 2 個問題與答案同步的功能，而無需致電我們的呼叫中心，我們每年都會接到數十萬個電話。因此，我們正在構建一個非常強大的 API 庫集成點。

We're building a very robust Ask Lisa type capability, which is the AI piece to really helping people navigate the complexity of making better decisions across health and wealth and while being in general. And so we're just continuing to double down on the front door platform. And then the look and feel, just making it look easier, simpler kind of the iceberg phenomena.

我們正在構建一個非常強大的“Ask Lisa”類型的功能，這是真正幫助人們在健康和財富方面做出更好決策的複雜性的人工智能部分。因此，我們將繼續在前門平台上加倍努力。然後是外觀和感覺，只是讓它看起來更容易、更簡單，就像冰山現像一樣。

As we all know, these DBDC navigation retirement payroll benefit systems are just so complicated. And so the world of bringing that into a much more simplified front door capability in an integrated fashion. And then maybe the last piece I'll say is the value of our platform is about really making it personalized to the individual. I went back to numerous examples on the digital side for us. We're all B2C focused people in terms of how we live every day. And many of us feel like we're the only client at a Nike or the Ferrari example I gave earlier. And we want people to feel the same way here when it comes to their well-being plans.

眾所周知，這些 DBDC 導航退休工資福利系統是如此復​​雜。因此，世界將以集成的方式將其帶入更加簡化的前門功能中。也許我要說的最後一點是我們平台的價值在於真正使其針對個人進行個性化。我為我們回顧了許多數字方面的例子。就我們的日常生活而言，我們都是專注於 B2C 的人。我們中的許多人都覺得我們是我之前舉的耐克或法拉利的唯一客戶。我們希望人們在製定幸福計劃時也能有同樣的感受。

Why should I be stuck with a well-being plan or a benefits plan or retirement plan that's stuck to a job code or to a salary band or to an age or to something? Why is this specific to my individual needs based on health and family situation and financial situation? So the platform approach really is a big difference maker for us in terms of impact. And that's what's going to help continue to drive the BPaaS transformation for us.

為什麼我應該受困於受工作代碼、工資範圍、年齡或其他因素限制的福利計劃、福利計劃或退休計劃？為什麼這是針對我基於健康、家庭狀況和財務狀況的個人需求？因此，就影響力而言，平台方法確實對我們產生了很大的影響。這將有助於我們繼續推動 BPaaS 轉型。

Thank you. I would like to turn the floor over to Stephan for closing remarks.

謝謝。我想請斯蒂芬做結束語。

Great. And thank you all for joining us today. I really appreciate all the time and the questions. And I look forward to Katie and Jeremy to meet all of you at many of the upcoming investor events. So thank you very much, and have a great afternoon.

偉大的。感謝大家今天加入我們。我真的很感謝所有的時間和問題。我期待凱蒂和傑里米在即將舉行的許多投資者活動中與大家見面。非常感謝您，祝您下午愉快。

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

今天的電話會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。