(ALYA) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Alithya's Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2023 Results Conference Call.

早上好，女士們，先生們。歡迎參加 Alithya 2023 財年第四季度業績電話會議。

I would now like to turn the meeting over to Alithya's management. Please go ahead.

我現在想將會議轉交給 Alithya 的管理層。請繼續。

Good morning, and thank you once again for joining us at Alithya's fourth quarter fiscal 2023 results conference call. The press release and MD&A with complete financial statements and related notes as well as annual regulatory documents were issued this morning and are now posted on our website. The webcast presentation can also be found on our website in the Investors section.

早上好，再次感謝您參加 Alithya 2023 財年第四季度業績電話會議。新聞稿和 MD＆A 以及完整的財務報表和相關說明以及年度監管文件已於今天上午發布，現已發佈在我們的網站上。網絡廣播演示也可以在我們網站的投資者部分找到。

Please be advised that this call will contain statements that are forward-looking and, which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These statements include, without limitation our estimates, plans, expectations, and other statements regarding the future growth, results of operations, performance and business prospects of Alithya that do not exclusively relate to historical facts or which refer to the characterizations of future events including statements regarding our expectations of clients' demands for our services and our ability to take advantage of business opportunities and meet our goals set in our three-year strategic plan. For more information, please refer to the cautionary note in our presentation and to the forward-looking statements and risks and uncertainties section of our MD&A available on our website.

請注意，本次電話會議將包含前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受到許多風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與預期結果存在重大差異。這些陳述包括但不限於我們的估計、計劃、預期和有關 Alithya 未來增長、運營結果、業績和業務前景的其他陳述，這些陳述不完全與歷史事實相關或涉及未來事件的特徵，包括陳述關於我們對客戶對我們服務的需求的期望以及我們利用商業機會並實現三年戰略計劃中設定的目標的能力。欲了解更多信息，請參閱我們演示文稿中的注意事項以及我們網站上的 MD&A 的前瞻性陳述以及風險和不確定性部分。

All figures discussed on today's call are in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise stated. And we may refer to certain indicators that are non-IFRS measures. Please refer to the cautionary note in our presentation and to the non-IFRS measures section of our MD&A for more details.

除非另有說明，今天電話會議中討論的所有數字均以加元為單位。我們可能會參考某些非 IFRS 衡量指標。請參閱我們演示文稿中的警示說明以及 MD&A 的非 IFRS 措施部分，了解更多詳細信息。

Presenting this morning are Paul Raymond, Alithya's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Claude Thibault, Chief Financial Officer.

今天上午出席會議的有 Alithya 總裁兼首席執行官 Paul Raymond；和首席財務官克勞德蒂博。

I will now turn the call over to Paul Raymond. Paul?

我現在將把電話轉給保羅·雷蒙德。保羅？

(foreign language) Good morning, and thank you all for joining us on the call this morning to discuss Alithya's robust fourth quarter and fiscal 2023 financial performance. First off, I would just like to take a moment to mention our new recently launched brand platform. As part of our ongoing integration efforts, the new platform consolidates our vast competencies and collective intelligence behind a powerful singular voice that will better resonate with our clients, employees and shareholders.

（外語）早上好，感謝大家今天早上參加我們的電話會議，討論 Alithya 強勁的第四季度和 2023 財年財務業績。首先，我想花點時間提一下我們最近推出的新品牌平台。作為我們持續整合工作的一部分，新平台整合了我們強大的能力和集體智慧，形成強大的單一聲音，更好地與我們的客戶、員工和股東產生共鳴。

Years of sustained growth has led to a proliferation of knowledge and expertise. Our redesigned website now offers a more concise picture of who we are and what we can do for our clients as they navigate through a rapidly evolving digital world. The robust performance that we will be highlighting this morning demonstrates how the collective intelligence of our teams contributes to the continued health and relationships with our clients, which ultimately creates greater long-term value for our shareholders.

多年的持續增長導致了知識和專業知識的激增。現在，我們重新設計的網站可以更簡潔地介紹我們是誰，以及在客戶瀏覽快速發展的數字世界時我們可以為他們做些什麼。今天早上我們將重點介紹的強勁業績表明，我們團隊的集體智慧如何有助於我們與客戶的持續健康和關係，最終為我們的股東創造更大的長期價值。

That noted, let's start by highlighting a few milestones for this quarter that we are particularly proud of. First off, we passed the $0.5 billion milestone in terms of annual revenues, which brings us closer to our strategic plan target and provides us with the scale we need to better accompany our clients and their largest, most critical initiatives.

儘管如此，讓我們首先強調本季度我們特別引以為豪的幾個里程碑。首先，我們的年收入突破了 5 億美元的里程碑，這使我們更接近我們的戰略計劃目標，並為我們提供了更好地陪伴客戶及其最大、最關鍵的計劃所需的規模。

Secondly, our pipeline and bookings continue to grow with Q4 bookings reaching $124 million. Our clients have demonstrated an unwavering loyalty and trust in our people. In fact, over 80% of our revenues we're generating from existing clients we had at this time last year. We are -- and we started working with 32 new clients in the fourth quarter. Those additions brings our fiscal 2023 total to 144 new clients.

其次，我們的渠道和預訂量繼續增長，第四季度預訂量達到 1.24 億美元。我們的客戶對我們的員工表現出了堅定不移的忠誠和信任。事實上，我們 80% 以上的收入來自去年此時的現有客戶。我們在第四季度開始與 32 個新客戶合作。這些新增客戶使我們 2023 財年的新客戶總數達到 144 家。

Thirdly, we continue to improve our year-over-year gross margins as a percentage of revenue, which stands at 29.9%. This represents a 400 basis points increase over last year. And finally, our adjusted EBITDA grew from Q3 to end Q4 at $10.5 million. This represents a 73% increase compared to the same quarter last year.

第三，我們的毛利率佔收入的比例繼續提高，達到29.9%。這比去年增加了 400 個基點。最後，我們的調整後 EBITDA 從第三季度到第四季度末增長了 1050 萬美元。與去年同期相比增長了 73%。

Now let's look at these achievements in some greater detail. Our fourth quarter revenues increased by 13.5% over Q4 fiscal 2022 and sequentially by 4.2% over Q3, raising our revenues to $136.2 million for the quarter. That achievement was largely driven by growth in all areas of our operations. Our Canadian Q4 revenues experienced a year-over-year increase of 7.5% or $5.7 million in Q4. And as predicted in previous meetings, we are starting to see pressure, especially in the banking sector to focus on efficiency driven projects and longer decision-making on larger projects.

現在讓我們更詳細地看看這些成就。我們第四季度的收入比 2022 財年第四季度增長 13.5%，比第三季度增長 4.2%，使我們該季度的收入達到 1.362 億美元。這一成就很大程度上是由我們業務所有領域的增長推動的。我們的加拿大第四季度收入同比增長 7.5%，即 570 萬美元。正如之前會議所預測的那樣，我們開始看到壓力，尤其是在銀行業，需要關注效率驅動的項目以及對大型項目進行更長時間的決策。

Based on conversations with senior leadership of those clients, we remain confident in our long-term technology investment commitments. In the United States, our enterprise solutions implementation business unit had a great quarter. This, despite recently -- recent quarterly results from top cloud infrastructure providers, indicating that businesses are looking for ways to trim cloud costs. April and May are also showing strong bookings as those are the year-ends for both Microsoft and Oracle. It should also be noted that we are seeing some software providers getting out of the services business to focus on higher-margin product sales. We see this as a very positive development for us.

根據與這些客戶高層領導的對話，我們對我們的長期技術投資承諾仍然充滿信心。在美國，我們的企業解決方案實施業務部門的季度業績表現出色。儘管最近頂級雲基礎設施提供商的最新季度業績表明企業正在尋找削減云成本的方法。四月和五月的預訂量也很強勁，因為微軟和甲骨文都在年底。還應該指出的是，我們看到一些軟件提供商退出服務業務，專注於利潤率更高的產品銷售。我們認為這對我們來說是一個非常積極的發展。

In the U.S., our clients across the board continue to grow their projects beyond enterprise cloud implementations with strong new demand for additional strategy and post-implementation services. Our Oracle practice had a strong finish in terms of revenue, with Q4 being the highest grossing quarter of the fiscal year. Many of the clients requesting our help in implementing the Oracle suite of apps are in the healthcare sector, where Gartner is forecasting a 9.5% increase in spending in the coming year. That positions us very nicely for further growth.

在美國，我們的所有客戶都在繼續將他們的項目擴展到企業雲實施之外，並對額外策略和實施後服務提出了強烈的新需求。我們的 Oracle 業務在收入方面取得了強勁的成績，第四季度是本財年收入最高的季度。許多請求我們幫助實施 Oracle 應用程序套件的客戶都來自醫療保健行業，Gartner 預測該行業明年的支出將增長 9.5%。這為我們的進一步發展奠定了良好的基礎。

As for our Microsoft practice, our strong Q4 revenue performance includes fresh revenue generated by the integration of our 2 most recent acquisitions, both completed during the 2022 calendar year. That said, we are also seeing growing demand for hyper-automation services, which is a disciplined approach that clients use to rapidly identify a best and automate as many business and IT processes as possible. Thanks to our data acquisition in July 2022, we are well positioned in robotic process automation, modern BI platforms and intelligence document processing, which incorporates the latest AI developments.

至於我們的 Microsoft 業務，我們第四季度強勁的收入表現包括通過整合我們最近的兩次收購而產生的新收入，這兩項收購均在 2022 年完成。也就是說，我們還看到對超自動化服務的需求不斷增長，這是一種嚴格的方法，客戶可以使用它來快速識別最佳服務並自動化盡可能多的業務和 IT 流程。得益於 2022 年 7 月的數據採集，我們在機器人流程自動化、現代 BI 平台和智能文檔處理（融合了最新的 AI 發展）方面處於有利地位。

According to Gartner, the process agnostic technologies enabling hyper-automation will experience a 15% to 30% increase in terms of worldwide revenues between 2021 and 2026. It should also be noted that the last 2 acquisitions contributed $45.9 million to our fiscal 2023 year or approximately 50% of our growth. The U.S. now represents over 36% of our overall business. Our performance continues to advance towards the realization of the milestone established by our strategic plan. In fiscal 2023, our revenues increased by an industry-leading 19.5% to $522.7 million compared to $437.9 million last year.

據 Gartner 稱，從 2021 年到 2026 年，實現超自動化的流程無關技術的全球收入將增長 15% 至 30%。還應該指出的是，最近兩次收購為我們的 2023 財年或 2023 財年貢獻了 4590 萬美元。約占我們增長的 50%。美國目前占我們整體業務的 36% 以上。我們的業績繼續向實現戰略計劃所確立的里程碑邁進。 2023 財年，我們的收入增長了 19.5%，達到 5.227 億美元，高於去年的 4.379 億美元。

Now looking at gross margins. We experienced a 31% year-over-year increase in Q4. Gross margin as a percentage of revenue increased to 29.9% and those achievements were driven by continued increases in revenues from permanent employees versus subcontractors and an ongoing focus on higher-value business. This has also resulted in higher average revenue per employee. Another contributor to gross margin improvement is our push to increase sales of subscription-based services. Subscription, software and other revenues now represent 12% of our total revenues compared to 6.7% a year ago for the same period.

現在看毛利率。第四季度同比增長 31%。毛利率佔收入的百分比增至 29.9%，這些成就的推動因素是固定員工收入相對於分包商的收入持續增長以及對高價值業務的持續關注。這也導致每名員工的平均收入更高。毛利率改善的另一個貢獻者是我們推動增加訂閱服務的銷售。訂閱、軟件和其他收入目前占我們總收入的 12%，而去年同期為 6.7%。

In terms of adjusted EBITDA, we are proud to report a 73% increase over our Q4 2022 performance or $10.5 million for the 3 months ended March 31, 2023. Once again, contributions from our latest acquisitions were also incremental. Our business continues to be fueled by strong bookings in all of our geographies. During the last quarter of our fiscal year, we continued to fill our healthy pipeline and projects for the quarters to come. Fiscal 2023 bookings reached $525.4 million, which translates into a book-to-bill ratio of 1.15 when we exclude the 2 large 10-year contracts signed in April 2021. And we now have a backlog which represents over 16 months of revenue. We also took great strides towards the fulfillment of objectives outlined in our long-term strategic plan.

就調整後 EBITDA 而言，我們很自豪地報告，我們的業績較 2022 年第四季度增長了 73%，即截至 2023 年 3 月 31 日的三個月增長了 1,050 萬美元。我們最新收購的貢獻也是增量的。我們所有地區的強勁預訂量繼續推動著我們的業務。在本財年的最後一個季度，我們繼續充實未來幾個季度的健康管道和項目。 2023 財年的預訂量達到 5.254 億美元，如果我們排除 2021 年 4 月簽署的兩份大型 10 年期合同，則訂單出貨比為 1.15。現在我們的積壓訂單相當於超過 16 個月的收入。我們在實現長期戰略計劃中概述的目標方面也取得了長足進步。

As we continue to implement measures designed to move us up the value chain and to improve efficiencies, we see continued opportunities ahead to increase our profitability profile. We continue to closely monitor global economic factors and potential shortening variations across our markets, and we remain focused on a disciplined approach to our long-term plan of building a trusted global digital transformation advisory firm. With 32 new clients added in the fourth quarter and 144 added this past fiscal year, we believe that our mission, vision and business approach are conducive to achieving that long-term goal.

隨著我們繼續實施旨在提升價值鏈並提高效率的措施，我們看到了提高盈利能力的持續機會。我們將繼續密切關注全球經濟因素和各個市場中潛在的縮短變化，並繼續專注於以嚴格的方法來實施我們的長期計劃，即建立一家值得信賴的全球數字化轉型諮詢公司。第四季度新增 32 家新客戶，上一財年新增 144 家客戶，我們相信我們的使命、願景和業務方法有利於實現這一長期目標。

I would now like to turn the meeting over to Claude Thibault, Alithya's Chief Financial Officer, who will expand on the financial highlights that I have outlined. Claude?

現在我想將會議交給 Alithya 首席財務官 Claude Thibault，他將詳細介紹我概述的財務要點。克勞德？

Thank you, Paul. Good morning. Revenues for the quarter amounted to $136.2 million, an increase of 13.5% or $6.2 million compared to revenues of $120 million for the fourth quarter of last year. Our last 2 acquisitions completed respectively on February 1 and July 1, 2022, contributed revenues of $11.9 million during this fourth quarter. Excluding the impact of the 2 acquisitions, organic growth in Q4 was 8.1%. For the full fiscal year, revenues amounted to $522.7 million, including $45.9 million from the 2 latest acquisitions, representing an increase of 19.4% year-over-year and passing the $0.5 billion mark for the first time.

謝謝你，保羅。早上好。本季度收入為 1.362 億美元，比去年第四季度的收入 1.2 億美元增長 13.5%，即 620 萬美元。我們的最後兩次收購分別於 2022 年 2 月 1 日和 7 月 1 日完成，在第四季度貢獻了 1190 萬美元的收入。剔除兩次收購的影響，第四季度有機增長率為 8.1%。整個財年，收入達5.227億美元，其中包括最近兩次收購帶來的4590萬美元，同比增長19.4%，首次突破5億美元大關。

Back to the fourth quarter. In Canada, revenues increased organically by 7.5% to $81.2 million due to growth in all areas. In the U.S., revenues increased 22% to $49.3 million, due primarily to increased revenues from the acquisition of Vitalyst, which contributed 1 additional month of revenues in the fourth quarter compared to the prior year. Revenues from Datum's U.S. business, organic growth in all areas and a favorable U.S. dollar exchange rate impact of $3.1 million between the 2 periods. As for our international operations, they also reported a strong quarter in terms of growth, increasing 41.2% due to good organic growth in activity levels and revenues from the acquisition of Datum's International businesses.

回到第四季度。在加拿大，由於所有領域的增長，收入有機增長了 7.5%，達到 8120 萬美元。在美國，收入增長 22% 至 4,930 萬美元，主要是由於收購 Vitalyst 帶來的收入增加，與去年同期相比，該公司第四季度的收入增加了 1 個月。 Datum 美國業務的收入、所有領域的有機增長以及兩個時期之間 310 萬美元的有利美元匯率影響。至於我們的國際業務，由於活動水平和收購 Datum 國際業務帶來的收入的良好有機增長，他們也報告了強勁的季度增長，增長了 41.2%。

Now let's look at our Q4 gross margin, which overall increased by 31% or by $9.6 million to $40.7 million, up from $31.1 million last year. As a percentage of revenues, our fourth quarter consolidated gross margin increased to 29.9% from 25.9% for the same period last year. The increase in gross margin percentage in Canada is derived from increased revenues from permanent employees relative to subcontractors and from higher margin offerings. In the U.S., gross margin as a percentage of revenues increased as a result of positive margin impact from the acquisition of Datum's U.S. business, higher average revenue per employee and improved project performance in other areas of the business.

現在讓我們看看第四季度的毛利率，總體增長了 31%，即 960 萬美元，達到 4070 萬美元，高於去年的 3110 萬美元。按佔收入的百分比計算，我們第四季度的綜合毛利率從去年同期的 25.9% 增至 29.9%。加拿大毛利率的增長源於長期僱員相對於分包商的收入增加以及更高的利潤率。在美國，由於收購 Datum 美國業務帶來的積極利潤影響、每名員工平均收入的提高以及其他業務領域項目績效的改善，毛利率佔收入的百分比有所增加。

Gross margin as a percentage of revenues also increased on a sequential basis compared to the third quarter, mainly due to improved project performance in certain areas of the business. Our consolidated gross margin percentage on a sequential basis remains very close to the third quarter despite the fact that employer benefits reset on January 1, which always weighs notably on margins in Q4 and which means we had compensating improvements at different other levels.

與第三季度相比，毛利率佔收入的百分比也環比上升，這主要是由於某些業務領域的項目績效有所改善。儘管雇主福利於 1 月 1 日重置，但我們的綜合毛利率環比仍然非常接近第三季度，這總是對第四季度的利潤率產生顯著影響，這意味著我們在其他不同層面上都有補償性的改進。

Now looking at SG&A. Total gross SG&A expenses in the fourth quarter totaled $36 million, an increase of $9.8 million or 37.3% compared to $26.2 million in the same quarter last year. The increase is mainly explained by our latest acquisitions for $1.5 million. The special noncash impairment charge of $2.8 million, stemming from our reduced real estate footprint, an increase in share-based compensation of $2 million and an unfavorable U.S. dollar impact of $0.9 million. We also had increases in certain discretionary elements partially offset by ongoing reductions to our cost structures.

現在看SG&A。第四季度銷售、管理及行政費用總額為 3600 萬美元，比去年同期的 2620 萬美元增加了 980 萬美元，即 37.3%。這一增長主要是由於我們最近以 150 萬美元進行的收購所致。特殊非現金減值費用為 280 萬美元，原因是我們的房地產足跡減少、股票薪酬增加 200 萬美元以及 90 萬美元的不利美元影響。我們還增加了某些可自由支配的要素，部分被成本結構的持續削減所抵消。

Overall, as a result of increased revenues and gross margin, partially offset by increased SG&A expenses, our fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA amounted to $10.5 million, an increase of 73% or $4.5 million compared to an adjusted EBITDA of $6 million during the same quarter last year. We are introducing a new financial metric with our Q4 reporting. In recent years, mainly due to our strategy of growth by acquisitions, Alithya has been reporting net losses on an accounting basis. This accounting net loss is mainly created by amortization of intangibles by acquisition, integration and reorganization front and by share-based compensation, most of which are noncash and nonrecurring expenses directly attributable to past individual acquisitions.

總體而言，由於收入和毛利率的增加（部分被 SG&A 費用的增加所抵消），我們第四季度調整後 EBITDA 達到 1,050 萬美元，與上一季度調整後 EBITDA 600 萬美元相比，增長了 73%，即 450 萬美元。年。我們在第四季度報告中引入了一項新的財務指標。近年來，主要由於我們的收購增長戰略，Alithya 一直在會計上報告淨虧損。該會計淨虧損主要是由收購、整合和重組方面的無形資產攤銷以及股權激勵產生的，其中大部分是直接歸因於過去個別收購的非現金和非經常性費用。

In addition, we had in this fourth quarter 2 notable specific P&L charges, which are also noncash and nonrecurring, mainly the write-down in right-of-use assets and the recording of an earn-out consideration payable related to the data and acquisition, totaling $13 million. Adjusting our accounting net loss for the above, we are reporting in Q4 of fiscal 2023 and adjusted net earnings of positive $4.1 million or $0.04 per share compared to an adjusted net earnings of $2.2 million or $0.02 per share for Q4 of last year.

此外，我們在第四季度有 2 項值得注意的特定損益費用，這些費用也是非現金和非經常性的，主要是使用權資產的減記以及與數據和收購相關的應付盈利對價的記錄，總計1300萬美元。調整上述會計淨虧損後，我們將在 2023 財年第四季度報告，調整後淨利潤為正 410 萬美元，即每股 0.04 美元，而去年第四季度調整後淨利潤為 220 萬美元，即每股 0.02 美元。

The quarter-over-quarter increase in adjusted net earnings represents $1.8 million or 81.3%. For the whole fiscal year, Alithya is reporting an adjusted net earnings per share of $0.16, up from $0.12 per share last year. We will be going forward reporting this number, which we believe provides a better appreciation of Alithya's ongoing performance.

調整後淨利潤環比增長 180 萬美元，即 81.3%。 Alithya 報告整個財年調整後每股淨利潤為 0.16 美元，高於去年的每股 0.12 美元。我們將繼續報告這一數字，我們相信這可以更好地評估 Alithya 的持續表現。

Looking at long-term trends on Slide 9. We can see the impact of our acquisitions, and more importantly, of our sustained organic growth achieved over the past several quarters. We can also see an even stronger progression in terms of gross margin dollars. Our long-term adjusted EBITDA trend also reflects our growth and gross margin improvements. With sustained organic and acquisition growth, our continuing long-term initiatives to generate higher gross margins and a steady focus on SG&A, we believe that we remain on target to achieving our 3-year financial objectives.

看看幻燈片 9 上的長期趨勢。我們可以看到收購的影響，更重要的是，我們在過去幾個季度實現的持續有機增長的影響。我們還可以看到毛利率的增長更為強勁。我們的長期調整後 EBITDA 趨勢也反映了我們的增長和毛利率的改善。憑藉持續的有機增長和收購增長、我們持續採取的旨在提高毛利率的長期舉措以及對銷售、管理和行政費用的穩定關注，我們相信我們將繼續實現我們的 3 年財務目標。

Now turning to liquidity and financial position on Page 11. Net cash generated from operating activities was $4.4 million and $8.1 million improvement from $3.7 million used during the same period last year. Also, cash flow for operations before working capital variations amounted in Q4 to $8 million. Out of $10.5 million of adjusted EBITDA, which represents a notable cash flow conversion percentage. With the corresponding overall debt reduction and considering our improved trailing 12-month EBITDA performance, Q4 marks another quarter with declining leverage ratios.

現在轉向第 11 頁的流動性和財務狀況。經營活動產生的淨現金為 440 萬美元，比去年同期使用的 370 萬美元增加了 810 萬美元。此外，第四季度營運資金變動前的運營現金流達 800 萬美元。調整後 EBITDA 為 1,050 萬美元，現金流轉換百分比顯著。隨著相應的整體債務減少，並考慮到我們過去 12 個月 EBITDA 業績的改善，第四季度標誌著槓桿率又一個季度下降。

Now back to you, Paul.

現在回到你身上，保羅。

(foreign language). So Q4 takeaways, continued revenue growth, margins growing faster than revenues, solid bookings and backlog, improving revenue per employee, strong DSO and cash flow. We have a solid client base with over 80% repeat business, and we are adding important strategic plans every quarter. We are very happy with our long-term perspective, but always keeping an eye on possible temporary slowdown in the late projects we are seeing in the banking sector. We are entering the new fiscal year with many efficiency opportunities ourselves, and we have a strong cash generation profile that positions us well to be patient.

（外語）。因此，第四季度的要點是，收入持續增長、利潤增長快於收入、穩定的預訂和積壓、每名員工的收入提高、強勁的 DSO 和現金流。我們擁有堅實的客戶基礎，重複業務超過 80%，而且我們每個季度都會增加重要的戰略計劃。我們對我們的長期前景感到非常滿意，但始終關注我們在銀行業看到的後期項目可能出現的暫時放緩。我們正在進入新的財政年度，我們自己擁有許多提高效率的機會，而且我們擁有強大的現金生成能力，這使我們能夠保持耐心。

More importantly, we are maintaining our focus and efforts on gradually improving gross margin and SG&A performance, which should lead to an improved bottom line, even in the current economic context we are all witnessing. As you can see by our rapid deleveraging, we are very well positioned to execute on the last year of our strategic plan and to continue our disciplined approach to quality acquisitions.

更重要的是，我們將繼續關注並努力逐步提高毛利率和銷售、一般行政管理（SG&A）績效，這應該會帶來利潤的改善，即使在我們都目睹的當前經濟背景下也是如此。正如您從我們快速去槓桿化中看到的那樣，我們完全有能力執行最後一年的戰略計劃，並繼續我們嚴格的高質量收購方法。

We will now take questions. Lara?

我們現在將接受提問。拉拉？

(Operator Instructions) First question comes from Gavin Fairweather at Cormark Securities.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自 Cormark Securities 的 Gavin Fairweather。

Congrats on your progress. Just maybe to start out on the macro. It sounds like kind of on balance, the demand picture remains pretty positive and the backlog is certainly quite healthy. But just given the evolving environment, maybe you can just touch on any kind of segments of the business where you're starting to see a bit more sluggishness. And you touched on the financial sector, I'm kind of curious how big of a vertical that is for you? And any other areas that maybe you would call out?

祝賀你的進步。也許只是從宏觀開始。聽起來好像有點平衡，需求情況仍然相當樂觀，積壓的訂單也相當健康。但考慮到不斷變化的環境，也許您可以觸及開始看到更加低迷的業務領域。你談到了金融領域，我有點好奇這對你來說有多大的垂直領域？您可能會提到的任何其他領域？

Gavin, it's an ongoing concern of mine every day. I read the newspapers like everybody, keep asking our team what they're seeing where our bookings keeping getting solid. I think we expect to see some slowdowns in banking just because of everything that we're seeing in the U.S. I think the banking crisis in the U.S. is not over. You saw with another increase in Canada yesterday. So to me, it's kind of inevitable that we'll see some slowdown in banking at some point.

加文，這是我每天持續關心的問題。我像其他人一樣閱讀報紙，不斷詢問我們的團隊他們在我們的預訂不斷增加的情況下看到了什麼。我認為，由於我們在美國看到的一切，我們預計銀行業會出現一些放緩。我認為美國的銀行業危機尚未結束。您昨天看到加拿大再次出現上漲。所以對我來說，我們不可避免地會在某個時候看到銀行業放緩。

So -- but again, it's a small portion of our business today. It's more in Canada than the U.S. for us. We don't have banking clients in the U.S. today. We have a few in Canada. But everybody that we talk to, and I talk to clients and senior executives there on a regular basis at these institutions, and they're all committed to their long-term plans. I think they're all kind of triaging out what they're going to do short term and how to focus on more efficiency initiatives like RPA, robotic process automation and things like that. So far so good. But I'm definitely keeping an eye on it.

所以，但同樣，這只是我們今天業務的一小部分。對我們來說，加拿大比美國更重要。目前我們在美國沒有銀行客戶。我們在加拿大有一些。但我們所交談的每個人，以及我定期與這些機構的客戶和高級管理人員交談的人，他們都致力於自己的長期計劃。我認為他們都在對短期內要做的事情進行分類，以及如何專注於提高效率的舉措，例如 RPA、機器人流程自動化等。到目前為止，一切都很好。但我肯定會密切關注它。

Okay. Great to hear. And then maybe just on your new kind of backlog calculation. Is that -- so that 16 months, is that just kind of the aggregate value of backlog compared to kind of your current production. Maybe just help us about how to think about that metric? Is some of that backlog kind of longer term as part of the R3D contracts, maybe a bit of context there.

好的。很高興聽到。然後也許只是你新的積壓計算。那麼 16 個月就是積壓訂單與當前產量相比的總價值。也許只是幫助我們如何思考這個指標？作為 R3D 合同的一部分，某些積壓的項目是否屬於長期項目，也許有一些背景信息。

So yes. So this is what I would qualify as hard backlog. These are signed contracts with confirmed commitments. It does not include what I would call an MSA or a blanket contract where we renew every year, very large engagements. So this is really committed hard backlog that we have contracts with committed revenue. And we believe it's a bit understated. This is the first time we do it. So we try to be on the conservative side. So as we integrate the new acquisitions and get a better handle on it, we think is conservative for now.

所以是的。所以這就是我所說的硬積壓。這些是已簽署的合同並已確認承諾。它不包括我所說的 MSA 或一攬子合同，我們每年都會續簽非常大的合同。因此，這確實是承諾的硬積壓，我們簽訂了承諾收入的合同。我們認為這有點低調。這是我們第一次這樣做。所以我們盡量保持保守。因此，當我們整合新收購併更好地處理它時，我們認為目前是保守的。

Okay. That's great. And then maybe just on Smart storing. Can you just provide an update on your proportion of resources, which were kind of offshore exiting fiscal '23, kind of your hiring efforts year-to-date and maybe if you have a target you could share for the next fiscal year on where you can move that to?

好的。那太棒了。然後也許只是智能存儲。您能否提供有關您的資源比例的最新信息，這些資源是 23 財年的離岸退出資源，是您今年迄今為止的招聘工作，也許您有一個目標，可以分享下一個財年的目標可以把它移到嗎？

Yes, it's just over 6% today. Our objective is to be at 10% by the end of the fiscal year.

是的，今天剛剛超過 6%。我們的目標是到本財年結束時達到 10%。

Great. And then maybe just before I pass the line, Claude, you mentioned the health and benefit and payroll tax was a reset in the first calendar quarter, which provides a headwind to sequential gross margins. Can you just quantify that impact so we can get some kind of the underlying margin trend?

偉大的。然後，也許就在我通過這條線之前，克勞德，你提到健康、福利和工資稅在第一季度被重置，這給連續毛利率帶來了阻力。您能否量化這種影響，以便我們獲得某種潛在的利潤趨勢？

Sorry, I missed the beginning of the question.

抱歉，我錯過了問題的開頭。

Just the reset of the health and benefit taxes, maybe for Claude, can you quantify that? So when we look at the sequential gross margin in health and benefit for the underlying trend?

只是重置健康稅和福利稅，也許對克勞德來說，你能量化嗎？那麼，當我們查看基本趨勢的健康和福利的連續毛利率時呢？

Well, the -- my calculations are Q3 to Q4 of Alithya, which is calendar Q4 to calendar Q1. So the reset occurs on Jan 1. So we're easily talking a couple percentage points on gross margin. So anywhere 1.5% to 2.5% depending on mix of revenues and geographies, but it's in that ballpark, yes. So then it eases off, we have new employees being hired all the time. So those are not affected. So it's a partial impact. As you go into the year, it depends on the salary of the employees, higher paid employees, hit the ceiling before and vice versa. So the -- there's probably not much really occurring from Q4 to Q1. A little bit, not much. It's mainly then into Q2 and Q3.

嗯，我的計算是 Alithya 的第三季度到第四季度，即日曆第四季度到第一季度。所以重置發生在 1 月 1 日。所以我們很容易談論毛利率幾個百分點。因此，根據收入和地理位置的組合，任何地方都是 1.5% 到 2.5%，但這是在這個範圍內，是的。然後事情就緩和了，我們一直在僱用新員工。所以那些不受影響。所以這是部分影響。當你進入這一年時，這取決於員工的工資，工資較高的員工在達到上限之前，反之亦然。因此，從第四季度到第一季度可能沒有發生太多事情。一點點，不多。接下來主要是進入第二季度和第三季度。

Next question comes from Deepak Kaushal at BMO Capital Markets.

下一個問題來自 BMO 資本市場的 Deepak Kaushal。

Just Paul, you mentioned you still feel confident about your strategic targets. I think you -- in the past, you mentioned $600 million target for fiscal '24. Can you give us a sense of how much you're expecting that to come from GAAP M&A? And maybe just a bit of an update on the M&A environment as you see it?

保羅，您提到您仍然對自己的戰略目標充滿信心。我認為您過去提到過 24 財年 6 億美元的目標。您能否告訴我們您對 GAAP 併購的預期程度是多少？也許只是您所看到的併購環境的一些更新？

Sure. So thanks for the question, Deepak. Historically, we've been 50-50. So that's kind of the ballpark we look at. It varies because some years, we've done more acquisition. Right now, we haven't done any in the past 12 months. So we usually target 50-50. We've been very patient. As you can see, we're generating a lot of cash. We're deleveraging fast. There's some nice targets out there. And the environment right now, we find is getting extremely favorable to us because the -- in the past, there were a lot of private equities, very aggressive in our industry in acquiring some targets that we might have looked at in the past that we passed because the multiples were kind of crazy.

當然。謝謝你的提問，迪帕克。從歷史上看，我們一直是50-50。這就是我們所看到的大概情況。它有所不同，因為有些年我們進行了更多的收購。現在，過去 12 個月我們還沒有做任何事情。所以我們通常的目標是50-50。我們一直非常有耐心。正如您所看到的，我們正在產生大量現金。我們正在快速去槓桿化。那裡有一些不錯的目標。我們發現現在的環境對我們非常有利，因為過去，我們行業中有很多私募股權公司非常積極地收購我們過去可能考慮過的一些目標。通過是因為倍數有點瘋狂。

We're actually seeing that kind of reverse and come around. So we're seeing a lot of funds deleveraging and then a little bit like what you're seeing in the commercial real estate market right now. We're seeing some interesting opportunities coming to the table that people want to move fast on. So I think we're in a great position. We demonstrated and show the chart that we can do very accretive acquisitions and deleverage very fast. We're very disciplined. So I kind of like the environment out there right now for us to find some interesting targets. And we know we have the balance sheet to be patient. So I like where we are right now."

我們實際上看到了這種逆轉並出現了轉變。所以我們看到很多基金去槓桿化，有點像你現在在商業房地產市場看到的情況。我們看到一些有趣的機會出現，人們希望迅速抓住這些機會。所以我認為我們處於有利地位。我們用圖表展示並展示了我們可以非常快速地進行增值性收購和去槓桿化。我們非常有紀律。所以我有點喜歡現在的環境，讓我們能夠找到一些有趣的目標。我們知道我們的資產負債表值得耐心等待。所以我喜歡我們現在的處境。”

Okay. Fantastic. That's helpful. And then just on the margin targets, I think your target was 9% to 13% EBITDA margin, still have aways to go there, but it sounds like you have some improvements in gross margin and your target to get to 10% of -- I think target to go from 6% to 10% that's versus contract employees. Is that right?

好的。極好的。這很有幫助。然後就利潤率目標而言，我認為你們的目標是 9% 到 13% 的 EBITDA 利潤率，還有很長的路要走，但聽起來你們的毛利率有一些改進，你們的目標是達到 10%——我認為目標是從 6% 提高到 10%（與合同工相比）。是對的嗎？

Yes. So we're close to 8% right now. So we think we're within striking distance to getting there, Deepak.

是的。所以我們現在接近 8%。因此，我們認為我們距離實現目標已經很近了，迪帕克。

Okay. And so where is the other improvement coming from? Is there any coming from SG&A or is it all on the permanent versus (inaudible)?

好的。那麼其他改進來自哪裡呢？是否有任何來自 SG&A 的信息，還是全部都在永久與（聽不清）之間？

Yes. There are 3 main things. The SG&A portion, there's a lot of onetime stuff in this past quarter that kind of creates a little bit of a disturbance, but we see some significant upside there. We've set our target is to get to 20% and lower of SG&A. So you have a few points -- a couple of points right there. We think that we have a big upside on gross margins by moving more of our work to smart shoring. We're at 6% right now. The objective is get to 10% by the end of the fiscal year and also in the change of the business mix, right?

是的。主要有3件事。 SG&A 部分，上個季度有很多一次性的事情造成了一點干擾，但我們看到了一些顯著的上升空間。我們設定的目標是 SG&A 達到 20% 或更低。所以你有幾點——有幾點。我們認為，通過將更多的工作轉移到智能支撐，我們的毛利率會有很大的上升空間。我們現在是 6%。目標是在本財年結束時達到 10%，同時也改變業務組合，對吧？

You've seen we're doing more and more of the higher value stock as we reduce, again, the subcontractors focus on our people and high-value projects. So those things combined, we think that we think we can get there. I mean, if you look at the cash generation that we have right now, even if revenues were flat, I mean, let's say, the whole industry melting down for everybody, revenues were flat, we would still be generating $30 million of cash, which means we'd be deleveraging really fast. And at some point, if I look at the stock of our company, we're probably the best deal out there.

您已經看到，隨著我們減少分包商對我們的人員和高價值項目的關注，我們正在做越來越多的高價值庫存。因此，將這些因素結合起來，我們認為我們可以實現這一目標。我的意思是，如果你看看我們現在擁有的現金產生能力，即使收入持平，我的意思是，比方說，整個行業對每個人來說都在崩潰，收入持平，我們仍然會產生 3000 萬美元的現金，這意味著我們會非常快地去槓桿化。在某些時候，如果我看看我們公司的股票，我們可能是最好的交易。

So I think we have all the tools to get to where we want to be on the strat plan. We're still looking at the 50-50 M&A and organic growth. We still have some -- we see some very interesting improvement opportunities from an efficiency perspective given our scale that we have today. So we like the position we're in right now.

因此，我認為我們擁有實現戰略計劃目標的所有工具。我們仍在關注 50-50 的併購和有機增長。考慮到我們今天的規模，我們仍然有一些——從效率的角度來看，我們看到了一些非常有趣的改進機會。所以我們喜歡我們現在所處的位置。

Okay. That's fantastic. And if I may ask one last question. Pretty strong growth in Europe, maybe if you can unpack that a bit, what's organic, what's inorganic? And what are the segments in Europe you're seeing and the opportunities there going forward?

好的。這太妙了。我可以問最後一個問題嗎？歐洲的增長相當強勁，也許你能稍微解釋一下，什麼是有機的，什麼是無機的？您所看到的歐洲細分市場以及未來的機遇是什麼？

Maybe Claude just the what's organic versus M&A in Europe.

也許克勞德只是討論歐洲的有機與併購。

In Europe?

在歐洲？

Yes.

是的。

It's very small. The acquisition part Datum's revenue base was largely in the U.S. So they had a few customers in U.K. and a few customers in Australia, it's really minimal. So the bulk of the increase is really our French operation really turning the corner and doing well. It's probably 4:1 or something like that to -- if you split up the increase.

它非常小。收購部分 Datum 的收入基礎主要在美國，因此他們在英國有一些客戶，在澳大利亞也有一些客戶，這真的很小。因此，增長的大部分實際上是我們的法國業務真正扭轉了局面並且表現良好。如果你將增量分開的話，可能是 4:1 或類似的比例。

Okay. And how do you see opportunities to expand in Europe? Again, this is all a lot of this aviation industry. Are you looking at more verticals or geographies beyond France? How should we think of that?

好的。您如何看待在歐洲擴張的機會？再說一遍，這就是航空業的全部內容。您是否正在考慮法國以外的更多垂直行業或地區？我們應該如何看待這一點？

I think we're -- we have a good foothold in Europe. I think there are opportunities to expand that significantly. We would look to expand Europe if it could come with an expansion of our smart shoring operations at the same time, right? So we see significant opportunities for growth in Europe and in North America. Each time we grow that, we have the opportunity to grow our Smart Shoring capability at the same time. So we're looking -- the sweet spot would be acquisitions that do both, right, that complete our offering, high margin that add to both our on-site and smart shoring capabilities. And there are some of those in Europe as well. They're going through the exact same economic cycle we're seeing in North America. So we're seeing some nice opportunities there as well.

我認為我們在歐洲擁有良好的立足點。我認為有機會大幅擴展這一範圍。如果能夠同時擴大我們的智能支撐業務，我們會尋求擴大歐洲，對吧？因此，我們看到歐洲和北美存在巨大的增長機會。每次我們的發展，我們都有機會同時發展我們的智能支撐能力。因此，我們正在尋找 - 最佳時機是既能完成我們的產品，又能增加我們的現場和智能支撐能力的高利潤的收購。其中一些在歐洲也有。他們正在經歷與我們在北美看到的完全相同的經濟周期。所以我們在那裡也看到了一些很好的機會。

Next question comes from Jerome Dubreuil at Desjardins.

下一個問題來自 Desjardins 的 Jerome Dubreuil。

Thanks for the color on backlog. We're asking on this -- in these macro -- with this macro uncertainty at this time. So good to hear that backlog is rather firm. Just taking another point, how easy is it for clients to defer the orders that are in the backlog at this time?

感謝積壓訂單上的顏色。我們正在詢問這個問題——在這些宏觀方面——目前存在宏觀不確定性。很高興聽到積壓訂單相當充足。換個角度來說，客戶此時推遲積壓的訂單談何容易？

Thanks, Jerome, for the question. It's not as much of the orders in the backlog that are easy to defer because most of those are already booked their projects undergo and things that are already on the go is the new bookings. We had one client that we signed recently. They committed to a multimillion-dollar ERP project. It's signed, but they want to start in September. All right. So, it's that type of it.

謝謝杰羅姆提出的問題。積壓訂單中的訂單並不容易推遲，因為大多數訂單已經被預訂，而他們的項目正在進行中，而已經在進行中的是新預訂。我們最近簽署了一位客戶。他們致力於一個價值數百萬美元的 ERP 項目。協議已經簽署，但他們希望在九月開始。好的。所以，就是這樣的。

So it's the newer contracts that we're signing. We're seeing some of them saying, I've heard you to book right now and sign, but I want to start in a couple of months. So I think it's going to be more on newer bookings of large projects that you're going to see those types of things, Jerome. And that's in fact anecdotal, it's 1 project, but still.

所以我們正在簽署的是較新的合同。我們看到他們中的一些人說，我聽說你現在就預訂並簽字，但我想在幾個月後開始。所以我認為，杰羅姆，您將看到更多大型項目的新預訂。這實際上是軼事，它是 1 個項目，但仍然如此。

Yes. Interesting. And then a bit of a cleanup item here. Were there particular costs related to the rebranding in the quarter? And is it material at all?

是的。有趣的。然後這裡有一些清理項目。本季度是否有與品牌重塑相關的特殊成本？它到底是物質的嗎？

It was not material. It was all done internally by our own people.

這並不重要。這一切都是我們自己的人在內部完成的。

Okay. And then just to clarify your point on the pressure in banking, you point out pressure is mostly in the U.S., but then you're mostly exposed to Canada. I just want to clarify how exposed do you think you are to this trend.

好的。然後為了澄清你對銀行業壓力的觀點，你指出壓力主要來自美國，但你主要面臨加拿大。我只是想澄清一下您認為自己對這一趨勢的暴露程度如何。

That's what I'm saying. I'm kind of cautiously optimistic because right now, we have little exposure in the U.S. But as you all saw, the quarterly reporting from the Canadian banks, they're all taking massive write-downs, and they're all being very cautious. So I'm being very cautious as well. I'm following this. So I think there is some collateral damage in Canada from what we're seeing in the U.S. Interest rates are still rising in Canada. So at some point, I think there's going to be some impact on the real estate industry in Canada, which -- and that's going to have an impact on the bank. So we're keeping a really close eye on it. I think everybody is being very cautious right now in the Canadian banking side.

這就是我所說的。我持謹慎樂觀的態度，因為目前我們在美國的風險敞口很小，但正如你們所看到的，加拿大銀行的季度報告顯示，他們都在進行大規模減記，而且都非常謹慎。所以我也非常謹慎。我正在關注這個。因此，我認為，我們在美國看到的情況給加拿大帶來了一些附帶損害。加拿大的利率仍在上升。因此，在某些時候，我認為加拿大的房地產行業將會受到一些影響，這也會對銀行產生影響。所以我們正在密切關注它。我認為現在加拿大銀行業的每個人都非常謹慎。

Next question comes from Vincent Colicchio at Barrington Research.

下一個問題來自 Barrington Research 的 Vincent Colicchio。

Yes. Paul, a few for me. So what higher-margin areas in Canada. Hello.

是的。保羅，給我一些。那麼加拿大的利潤率較高的地區有哪些呢？你好。

Yes. Yes. We hear you, Vince.

是的。是的。我們聽到你的聲音，文斯。

Yes, yes. So what higher-margin areas in Canada had the strongest growth in the quarter? Can you give us some color there?

是的是的。那麼，加拿大哪些利潤率較高的地區本季度增長最為強勁？你能給我們一些顏色嗎？

Good question. So we have growth kind of across the board in the last quarter in Canada. The -- I'd say that the highest growth was probably in our government business, which from a gross margin perspective isn't the highest, but from a net margin perspective is actually very good. So that was a strong area of growth. Another strong area of growth was our multiyear, our very large multiyear contract that we signed 1.5 years ago, that's still growing. Both those clients are going through some significant integration.

好問題。因此，加拿大上個季度出現了全面增長。我想說，增長最快的可能是我們的政府業務，從毛利率的角度來看，這並不是最高的，但從淨利潤的角度來看，實際上非常好。所以這是一個強勁的增長領域。另一個強勁的增長領域是我們的多年期合同，我們在 1.5 年前簽署了非常大的多年期合同，該合同仍在增長。這兩個客戶都正在進行一些重大整合。

QMI recently announced the acquisition of Freedom Mobile. So there's going to be some significant integration projects coming from that and starting. Beneva is still going through the integration of the insurance companies, the merger there. So that's also generating some interesting projects. So it's really a combination of many things, Vince. It's tough to single out one thing.

QMI 最近宣布收購 Freedom Mobile。因此，將會有一些重要的集成項目由此產生並開始。 Beneva 仍在進行保險公司的整合、合併。所以這也產生了一些有趣的項目。所以這實際上是很多事情的結合，文斯。很難挑出一件事。

And regarding Datum and Vitalyst, are you cross-selling synergies meeting your expectations?

至於 Datum 和 Vitalyst，交叉銷售的協同效應是否符合您的預期？

On the Datum side, absolutely. On the Vitalyst side, it's a bit slower. Just because that's one -- and I mentioned this in the past, one of the areas where clients are reducing spend is on training right now. So we did a lot of that. However, we have 2 -- there are 2 parts of the business in that acquisition. One is the e-learning. And the other one is where we're going to be integrating. I mean, you're hearing a lot about generative AI right now.

在基準方面，絕對如此。在 Vitalyst 方面，速度要慢一些。僅僅因為這是其中之一 - 我過去提到過這一點，客戶現在減少支出的領域之一就是培訓。所以我們做了很多這樣的事情。然而，我們有 2——該收購中有 2 個業務部分。一是電子學習。另一個是我們要整合的地方。我的意思是，你現在聽到了很多關於生成式人工智能的內容。

One of the big tools that Microsoft is going to be launching is called co-pilot. That's an area that we see significant growth for us with all our clients and the rollout and leveraging of copilot in the Microsoft environment that uses generative AI for everything from Word to PowerPoint to coding to anything to do with the dynamics in Office suite. So we see a lot of potential upside on that.

微軟即將推出的重要工具之一被稱為“co-pilot”。我們在這個領域看到了我們所有客戶的顯著增長，以及 Microsoft 環境中 copilot 的推出和利用，該環境使用生成式人工智能來處理從 Word 到 PowerPoint 到編碼到與 Office 套件動態相關的任何事情。所以我們看到了很多潛在的好處。

And Claude, one for you. You did mention the organic growth in the quarter. Curious if you have that in constant currency?

還有克勞德，一個適合你的。您確實提到了本季度的有機增長。好奇你是否有固定匯率嗎？

Yes. It's around a couple of percentage points of positive impact from currency in Q4. Q4 over Q4.

是的。第四季度貨幣的積極影響約為幾個百分點。第四季度超過第四季度。

Next question comes from John Shao at National Bank.

下一個問題來自國家銀行的 John Shao。

So I understand the macro environment looks tough, and a lot of enterprises today are talking about new cost reduction efficiency improvement. I'm just curious if Alithya could actually monetize from this opportunity given there's such a rush?

所以我理解宏觀環境看起來很艱難，今天很多企業都在談論新的降本增效。我只是好奇 Alithya 是否真的可以從這個機會中獲利，因為市場如此匆忙？

John, yes, like I was saying earlier, we do a lot of that in the robotic process automation portion. So you kind of have a convergence right now that we see as very positive in that there is a shortage of qualified labor, and there's a need for efficiency. So a lot of these automation projects, which in the past weren't a very high priority, are now becoming a very high priority. So that's something that we see as very positive for us, everything to do with hyper-automation.

約翰，是的，就像我之前說的，我們在機器人過程自動化部分做了很多這樣的事情。因此，現在存在一種趨同，我們認為這是非常積極的，因為缺乏合格的勞動力，並且需要提高效率。因此，許多自動化項目在過去並不是一個非常高的優先級，但現在正在成為一個非常高的優先級。因此，我們認為這對我們來說非常積極，一切都與超自動化有關。

And the other piece, of course, is outsourcing more stuff, right? So outsourcing projects, reducing costs, transforming some CapEx in the OpEx. So all these things that we're -- that we can offer our clients that we see as very positive for us.

當然，另一件事是外包更多的東西，對嗎？因此，外包項目，降低成本，將部分資本支出轉化為運營支出。因此，我們可以為客戶提供我們認為對我們非常積極的所有這些東西。

Okay. I think you also mentioned the labor. So my question is on -- is actually on the labor market, whether it has any impact on your higher activity so far? It seems like it's been a while since people talk about this topic.

好的。我想你也提到了勞動力。所以我的問題是——實際上是在勞動力市場上，它是否對您迄今為止的更高活動有任何影響？似乎已經有一段時間沒有人談論這個話題了。

I think there's a lot of noise around many things right now out there. It's still for qualified technology people, it's still a high demand environment. I don't think people realize that now. We have the advantage now that we can leverage our smart shoring. So that's taking a bit of the pressure off. So we can hire people remotely now that they're still some of the gaps. The other piece that's also helping us right now is, as I was saying, we're reducing the subcontractors and moving that more to permanent employees.

我認為現在很多事情都存在很多噪音。對於合格的技術人員來說，這仍然是一個高要求的環境。我認為人們現在還沒有意識到這一點。我們現在的優勢是可以利用我們的智能支撐。所以這減輕了一些壓力。因此，我們可以遠程招聘人員，因為他們仍然存在一些缺口。正如我所說，現在對我們也有幫助的另一件事是，我們正在減少分包商，並將其更多地轉移給正式員工。

And the other thing that we're doing, which comes back to how we're improving gross margin is we're being very selective on profitable growth. So we're being very selective on the projects that we bid on, which puts less pressure on the hiring on the people side and brings us more benefit in terms of the type of projects we do and the value they generate. So we're trying to combine all those things to make the situation more manageable.

我們正在做的另一件事，回到我們如何提高毛利率，是我們對盈利增長非常有選擇性。因此，我們對投標的項目非常有選擇性，這減輕了人員招聘的壓力，並在我們所做的項目類型及其產生的價值方面為我們帶來了更多利益。因此，我們正在嘗試將所有這些事情結合起來，以使情況更易於管理。

The next question comes from Divya Goyal at Scotia Bank.

下一個問題來自豐業銀行的 Divya Goyal。

I had to get some color on some of the industries where you think Alethya is currently not servicing and untapped from that side. So this is an industry where you're looking to grow and expand and you did provide quite a lot of color in some of the previous questions. So if you could elaborate on that.

我必須了解一些您認為 Alethya 目前尚未提供服務且尚未開發的行業。因此，這是一個您正在尋求發展和擴張的行業，並且您確實在之前的一些問題中提供了相當多的色彩。所以如果你能詳細說明一下的話。

Yes. Thanks, Divya. So there's a few factors right now that we see where we're already there, but we see tremendous opportunity for growth. One is healthcare and health insurance, right? So Canada and the U.S., a little bit different, but we see significant opportunity for growth in the healthcare industry, both on the provider side and the payer side. It's an industry that's going through tremendous transformation right now. We're very well positioned. As you know, we're the top player in healthcare and Oracle on that side. We also are involved on the Microsoft side with some of these hospitals.

是的。謝謝，迪維亞。因此，現在有一些因素讓我們看到了我們已經達到的水平，但我們看到了巨大的增長機會。一是醫療保健和健康保險，對吧？因此，加拿大和美國略有不同，但我們看到醫療保健行業在提供方和付款方方面都有巨大的增長機會。這是一個目前正在經歷巨大變革的行業。我們處於非常有利的位置。如您所知，我們是醫療保健領域的頂級參與者，而 Oracle 是這方面的頂級參與者。我們還參與了 Microsoft 方面與其中一些醫院的合作。

And with the data acquisition that we did, we're very involved in the payer side and the modernization side. And this is an area where we actually use artificial intelligence to accelerate the modernization of a transformation and where we provide as a subscription-based service. So again, we see a big upside for that. And as you saw from the growth in our subscription-based revenue, it's also a very high-margin repeatable solution that we like. So healthcare is definitely a healthcare both payer and provider is an area that we see tremendous growth for us going forward.

通過我們所做的數據採集，我們非常參與付款方和現代化方面。在這個領域，我們實際上使用人工智能來加速轉型的現代化，並提供基於訂閱的服務。因此，我們再次看到了這一點的巨大優勢。正如您從我們基於訂閱的收入的增長中看到的那樣，這也是我們喜歡的一個利潤率非常高的可重複解決方案。因此，醫療保健絕對是醫療保健的支付者和提供者，這是我們看到未來巨大增長的領域。

This might sound counterintuitive, but I think there's going to be some growth opportunities in banking as well. I think the RPA offering that we have is going to become extremely popular in the next 12 to 24 months in the banking industry. So we're staying very close to that one. The telecom industry is also not finished with consolidation, you're seeing such significant projects happening there. So I think that's an area that we can do a lot more. And finally, manufacturing, our Microsoft business just had a stellar few months of bookings. So we think the whole process manufacturing side of the house is also another area we can -- even though we're #1 in Microsoft in that area in North America, we think we can do better there as well.

這聽起來可能有悖常理，但我認為銀行業也會有一些增長機會。我認為我們提供的 RPA 產品將在未來 12 到 24 個月內在銀行業變得非常受歡迎。所以我們非常接近那個目標。電信行業的整合還沒有結束，您會看到那裡正在發生如此重要的項目。所以我認為這是一個我們可以做更多事情的領域。最後，在製造方面，我們的微軟業務剛剛在幾個月內獲得了出色的預訂量。因此，我們認為公司的整個流程製造方面也是我們可以做到的另一個領域——儘管我們在北美該領域的微軟排名第一，但我們認為我們也可以在那裡做得更好。

Yes, that's definitely good color and definitely good growth improvement there. You briefly mentioned, Paul, about the Quebecor Freedom Mobile acquisition and like the potential projects that could come out of that. Are those potentially baked into your bookings numbers right now? And could you quantify them at all or would that come later as they start to integrate?

是的，這絕對是很好的顏色，並且絕對有很好的生長改善。保羅，您簡要提到了魁北克自由移動公司的收購，並喜歡由此可能產生的潛在項目。這些現在可能會被納入您的預訂數量中嗎？你能量化它們嗎？或者當它們開始整合時才會量化？

So some are in already, Divya, but some were still -- we want to make sure before we put them into the backlog, that it follows our definition of hard backlog, right? So I think we're conservative right now, but it's not going to differ materially.

Divya，有些已經在了，但有些仍然在 - 我們希望在將它們放入待辦事項之前確保它遵循我們對硬待辦事項的定義，對吧？所以我認為我們現在是保守的，但不會有實質性的不同。

No, that's helpful. One last one here on the integration. So for the Datum and the Vitalyst have those acquisitions or any of the other -- or all the other previous acquisitions have they all now been integrated or are you still in the process of completing the integration?

不，這很有幫助。最後一個是關於集成的。那麼，對於 Datum 和 Vitalyst 來說，這些收購或任何其他收購——或者所有其他之前的收購現在都已經整合了，還是你們仍在完成整合？

So we track integrations at multiple different levels. The administrative stuff, the benefits, the e-mail infrastructure, the tools, the financials, so the sales operators. So there's a lot of different levels of integration. So out of the operational stuff. So how do we go to clients and integrate it in the management team, the e-mail, the access to the tools that that's done. There's always some stuff to do, especially around our financial systems because you want to make sure that the employees who are coming on board aren't penalized in the change in the transition.

因此，我們跟踪多個不同級別的集成。行政人員、福利、電子郵件基礎設施、工具、財務，還有銷售人員。所以有很多不同級別的集成。所以脫離了可操作的東西。那麼我們如何去接觸客戶並將其整合到管理團隊、電子郵件、對已完成的工具的訪問中。總是有一些事情要做，特別是在我們的財務系統方面，因為你想確保即將加入的員工不會在轉型過程中受到懲罰。

And as you know, depending on which time of the year you transition into their systems, their resets with the IRS and the Canadian equivalent in somebody's paycheck, pretty bad. So we try to avoid that. So typically, we do those on January 1 or April 1 when we have a system at the end of the fiscal year. So we usually do those once a year based on the calendar. So no, the integrations are going and going forward to the plan.

如您所知，根據您在一年中的哪個時間轉換到他們的系統，他們會通過國稅局和加拿大人的薪水進行相應的重置，這非常糟糕。所以我們盡量避免這種情況。因此，通常情況下，我們會在 1 月 1 日或 4 月 1 日執行這些操作，因為我們在財政年度結束時就有了系統。所以我們通常根據日曆每年進行一次。所以不，整合正在按照計劃進行。

There are no further questions. I will now turn the call back over to Paul Raymond for closing remarks.

沒有其他問題了。現在，我將把電話轉回給保羅·雷蒙德（Paul Raymond），讓其致閉幕詞。

Thank you, Lara. Thank you, everybody, for joining us today. (foreign language) and looking forward to talking to you soon.

謝謝你，拉拉。謝謝大家今天加入我們。 （外語）期待盡快與您交談。