AudioCodes Ltd (AUDC) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the AudioCodes' fourth-quarter 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note this conference is being recorded.

大家好，歡迎參加 AudioCodes 2024 年第四季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）請注意，本次會議正在錄音。

I will now turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Roger Chuchen, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

現在，我將會議交給主持人、投資人關係副總裁 Roger Chuchen 先生。先生，您可以開始啦。

Thank you, operator. Hosting the call today are Shabtai Adlersberg, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Niran Baruch, Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝您，接線生。今天主持電話會議的是總裁兼執行長 Shabtai Adlersberg；以及財務副總裁兼財務長 Niran Baruch。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that the information provided during this call may contain forward-looking statements relating to AudioCodes' business outlook, future economic performance, product introductions, plans, and objectives related thereto and statements concerning assumptions made or expectations as to any future events, conditions, performance, or other matters are forward-looking statements as the term is defined under US federal securities law.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒您，本次電話會議中提供的資訊可能包含與 AudioCodes 的業務前景、未來經濟表現、產品介紹、計劃和相關目標有關的前瞻性陳述，以及有關對任何未來事件、條件、表現或其他事項的假設或期望的陳述，這些陳述均屬於美國聯邦證券法定義的前瞻性陳述。

Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated in such statements. These risks, uncertainties, and factors include, but are not limited to, the effect of global economic conditions in general and conditions in AudioCodes' industry and target markets, in particular, shifts in supply and demand, market acceptance of new products and the demand for existing products; the impact of competitive products and pricing on AudioCodes and its customers' products and markets; timely product and technology development, upgrades and the ability to manage changes in market conditions as needed, possible need for additional financing, the ability to satisfy covenants in the company's loan agreements, possible disruptions from acquisitions, the ability of AudioCodes to successfully integrate the products and operations of acquired companies into AudioCodes business; possible adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business results and results of operations.

前瞻性陳述受各種風險、不確定性及其他因素的影響，這些因素可能導致實際結果與此類陳述中所述的結果有重大差異。這些風險、不確定性和因素包括但不限於全球總體經濟狀況以及 AudioCodes 行業和目標市場狀況的影響，特別是供需變化、市場對新產品的接受度以及對現有產品的需求；競爭產品和定價對 AudioCodes 及其客戶的產品和市場的影響；及時的產品和技術開發、升級和根據需要管理市場條件變化的能力、可能需要的額外融資、滿足公司貸款協議中約定的能力、收購可能帶來的中斷、AudioCodes 成功地將收購公司的產品和運營整合到 AudioCodes 業務中的能力； COVID-19 疫情可能對我們的業務成果及經營績效造成不利影響。

The effects of the current terrorist attacks by Hamas and the war and hostilities between Israel and Hamas and Israel and Hezbollah as well as the possibility that this could develop into a broader regional conflict involving Israel with other parties may affect operations and may limit our ability to produce and sell our solutions. Any disruption in our operations by the obligations of our personnel to perform military service as a result of current or future military actions involving Israel; and other factors detailed in AudioCodes' filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. AudioCodes assumes no obligation to update this information.

目前哈馬斯發動的恐怖攻擊，以及以色列與哈馬斯、以色列與真主黨之間的戰爭和敵對行動，以及這可能發展為以色列與其他各方捲入的更廣泛的地區衝突的可能性，都可能影響我們的運營，並可能限制我們生產和銷售解決方案的能力。由於目前或未來涉及以色列的軍事行動，導致我方人員必須履行兵役義務，從而對我方的行動造成任何干擾；以及 AudioCodes 向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中詳述的其他因素。AudioCodes 不承擔更新此資訊的義務。

In addition, during the call, AudioCodes will refer to non-GAAP net income and net income per share. AudioCodes has provided a full reconciliation of the non-GAAP net income and net income per share to its net income and net income per share according to GAAP in the press release that is posted on its website.

此外，在電話會議中，AudioCodes 將參考非 GAAP 淨收入和每股淨收入。AudioCodes 在其網站上發布的新聞稿中提供了非 GAAP 淨收入和每股淨收入與根據 GAAP 的淨收入和每股淨收入的完整對帳表。

Before I turn the call over to management, I would like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded. An archived webcast will be made available on the Investor Relations section of the company's website at the conclusion of the call.

在我將電話轉交給管理階層之前，我想提醒大家，本次通話正在被錄音。電話會議結束後，公司網站的投資者關係部分將提供存檔的網路直播。

With all that said, I'd like to turn the call over to Shabtai. Shabtai, please go ahead.

說了這麼多，我想把發言權交給 Shabtai。沙布泰，請繼續。

Thank you, Roger. Good morning and good afternoon, everybody. I would like to welcome all to our fourth quarter and year-end 2024 conference call. With me this morning is Niran Baruch, Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance of AudioCodes. Niran will start off by presenting a financial overview of the quarter. I will then review the business highlights and summary for the quarter and discuss trends and developments in our business and industry.

謝謝你，羅傑。大家早安，下午好。歡迎大家參加我們的 2024 年第四季和年終電話會議。今天早上和我一起的是 AudioCodes 的財務長兼財務副總裁 Niran Baruch。Niran 將首先介紹本季的財務概況。然後，我將回顧本季的業務亮點和摘要，並討論我們的業務和行業的趨勢和發展。

We will then turn it into the Q&A session. Niran?

然後我們會將其轉變為問答環節。尼蘭？

Thank you, Shabtai, and hello, everyone. Before I start my formal remarks, I would like to remind everyone that in conjunction with our earnings release this morning, we will post shortly on our Investor Relations website an earnings supplemental deck.

謝謝你，Shabtai，大家好。在我開始正式發言之前，我想提醒大家，結合我們今天早上的收益發布，我們很快就會在投資者關係網站上發布一份收益補充文件。

On today's call, we will be referring to both GAAP and non-GAAP financial results. The earnings press release that we issued earlier this morning contains a reconciliation of the supplemental non-GAAP financial information that I will be discussing on this call. We will be comparing our fourth quarter 2024 results to the prior quarter as we believe it provides a better gauge of our financial performance.

在今天的電話會議上，我們將參考 GAAP 和非 GAAP 財務結果。我們今天早上發布的收益新聞稿包含我將在本次電話會議上討論的補充非 GAAP 財務資訊的對帳。我們將把 2024 年第四季的業績與上一季進行比較，因為我們相信這可以更好地衡量我們的財務表現。

Revenues for the fourth quarter were $61.6 million, an increase of 2.2% over the $60.2 million reported in the third quarter of the current year. Full year 2024 revenues were $242.2 million, a decrease of 0.9% over the $244.4 million reported in 2023. Services revenues for the fourth quarter were $34.2 million, an increase of 5.4% over the $32.5 million reported in the third quarter of the current year.

第四季營收為 6,160 萬美元，較去年第三季的 6,020 萬美元成長 2.2%。2024 年全年營收為 2.422 億美元，比 2023 年報告的 2.444 億美元下降 0.9%。第四季服務收入為 3,420 萬美元，較去年第三季的 3,250 萬美元成長 5.4%。

Services revenues in the fourth quarter accounted for 55.6% of total revenues. On an annual basis, service revenues were $130.2 million, an increase of 8.2% over the $120.4 million reported in 2023. The amount of deferred revenues as of December 31, 2024, was $84.4 million compared to $78.6 million as of September 30, 2024.

第四季服務收入佔總收入的55.6%。以年度計算，服務收入為 1.302 億美元，比 2023 年報告的 1.204 億美元增長 8.2%。截至 2024 年 12 月 31 日的遞延收入金額為 8,440 萬美元，而截至 2024 年 9 月 30 日的遞延收入金額為 7,860 萬美元。

Revenues by geographical region for the quarter were split as follows: North America, 47%; EMEA, 34%; Asia Pacific, 14%; and Central and Latin America, 5%. Our top 15 customers represented an aggregate of 64% of our revenues in the fourth quarter, of which 48% was attributed to our 10 largest distributors.

本季依地理區域劃分的收入分佈如下：北美，47%；歐洲、中東和非洲地區，34%；亞太地區，14%；中美洲和拉丁美洲為 5%。我們前 15 大客戶合計佔第四季度我們收入的 64%，其中 48% 來自我們最大的 10 家經銷商。

GAAP results are as follows: Gross margin for the quarter was 66.2% compared to 65.2% in Q3 2024. Operating income for the fourth quarter was $4.1 million or 6.7% of revenues compared to operating income of $4.9 million or 8.1% of revenues in Q3 2024. Full year 2024 operating income was $17.2 million compared to operating income of $14.4 million in 2023.

GAAP 結果如下：本季毛利率為 66.2%，而 2024 年第三季為 65.2%。第四季營業收入為 410 萬美元，佔營收的 6.7%，而 2024 年第三季的營業收入為 490 萬美元，佔營收的 8.1%。2024 年全年營業收入為 1,720 萬美元，而 2023 年營業收入為 1,440 萬美元。

EBITDA for the quarter was $5.2 million compared to EBITDA of $5.9 million for Q3 2024. Full year 2024 EBITDA was $21.1 million compared to EBITDA of $17 million in 2023.

本季的 EBITDA 為 520 萬美元，而 2024 年第三季的 EBITDA 為 590 萬美元。2024 年全年 EBITDA 為 2,110 萬美元，而 2023 年 EBITDA 為 1,700 萬美元。

Net income for the quarter was $6.8 million or $0.22 per diluted share compared to net income of $2.7 million or $0.09 per diluted share for Q3 2024. Full year 2024 net income was $15.3 million or $0.50 per diluted share compared to $8.8 million or $0.28 per diluted share in 2023.

本季淨收入為 680 萬美元或每股攤薄收入 0.22 美元，而 2024 年第三季淨收入為 270 萬美元或每股攤薄收入 0.09 美元。2024 年全年淨收入為 1,530 萬美元，即每股攤薄收入 0.50 美元，而 2023 年為 880 萬美元，即每股攤薄收入 0.28 美元。

Non-GAAP results are as follows: Non-GAAP gross margin for the quarter was 66.5% compared to 65.6% in Q3 2024. Non-GAAP operating income for the fourth quarter was $7.5 million or 12.2% of revenues compared to $7 million or 11.7% of revenues in Q3 2024. Full year 2024 non-GAAP operating income was $28.1 million compared to operating income of $28.9 million in 2023.

非 GAAP 結果如下：本季非 GAAP 毛利率為 66.5%，而 2024 年第三季為 65.6%。第四季非 GAAP 營業收入為 750 萬美元，佔營收的 12.2%，而 2024 年第三季為 700 萬美元，佔營收的 11.7%。2024 年全年非 GAAP 營業收入為 2,810 萬美元，而 2023 年營業收入為 2,890 萬美元。

Non-GAAP EBITDA for the quarter was $8.5 million compared to non-GAAP EBITDA of $7.9 million for Q3 2024. Full year 2024 non-GAAP EBITDA was $31.4 million compared to non-GAAP EBITDA of $31 million in 2023.

本季非公認會計準則 EBITDA 為 850 萬美元，而 2024 年第三季非公認會計準則 EBITDA 為 790 萬美元。2024 年全年非 GAAP EBITDA 為 3,140 萬美元，而 2023 年非 GAAP EBITDA 為 3,100 萬美元。

Non-GAAP net income for the fourth quarter was $11.6 million or $0.37 per diluted share compared to $4.9 million or $0.16 per diluted share in Q3 2024. Full year 2024 non-GAAP net income was $27.3 million or $0.87 per diluted share compared to $25 million or $0.77 per diluted share in 2023.

第四季非公認會計準則淨收入為 1,160 萬美元或每股攤薄收入 0.37 美元，而 2024 年第三季為 490 萬美元或每股攤薄收入 0.16 美元。2024 年全年非 GAAP 淨收入為 2,730 萬美元或每股攤薄收入 0.87 美元，而 2023 年為 2,500 萬美元或每股攤薄收入 0.77 美元。

At the end of December 2024, cash, cash equivalents, bank deposits, marketable securities and financial investments totaled $93.9 million. Net cash provided by operating activities was $15.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2024 and $35.3 million for the year 2024. Days sales outstanding as of December 31, 2024, were 106 days.

截至 2024 年 12 月底，現金、現金等價物、銀行存款、有價證券及金融投資總額為 9,390 萬美元。2024 年第四季經營活動提供的淨現金為 1,530 萬美元，2024 年全年營運活動提供的淨現金為 3,530 萬美元。截至 2024 年 12 月 31 日的應收帳款天數為 106 天。

During the quarter, we acquired 635,000 of our ordinary shares for a total consideration of approximately $6 million. In December 2024, we received court approval in Israel to purchase up to an aggregate amount of $20 million of additional ordinary shares. The court approval also permits us to declare a dividend of any part of this amount. The approval is valid through June 14, 2025.

本季度，我們收購了 635,000 股普通股，總對價約為 600 萬美元。2024 年 12 月，我們獲得以色列法院的批准，可以購買總額最多 2,000 萬美元的額外普通股。法院的批准也允許我們宣布從該金額中任意部分派發股息。該批准有效期至 2025 年 6 月 14 日。

Earlier this morning, we also declared a cash dividend of $0.18 per share. The aggregate amount of the dividend is approximately $5.3 million. The dividend will be paid on March 6, 2025, to all of our shareholders of record at the close of trading of February 20, 2025.

今天早些時候，我們也宣布每股派發 0.18 美元的現金股利。股息總額約530萬美元。股息將於 2025 年 3 月 6 日支付給 2025 年 2 月 20 日交易結束時登記在冊的所有股東。

Our guidance for the full year 2025 is as follows: We expect revenues in the range of $246 million to $254 million and non-GAAP EBITDA in the range of $34 million to $38 million.

我們對 2025 年全年的預期如下：我們預計營收在 2.46 億美元至 2.54 億美元之間，非 GAAP EBITDA 在 3,400 萬美元至 3,800 萬美元之間。

I will now turn the call back over to Shabtai.

我現在將電話轉回給 Shabtai。

Thank you, Niran. I'm pleased to report solid fourth quarter performance with healthy growth in key business lines. Now, before I delve into reporting the fourth quarter financial and business, I would like to start off by offering a perspective on our journey over the recent years, reflecting on our past, current position, and our future direction.

謝謝你，Niran。我很高興地報告第四季業績穩健，主要業務線實現健康成長。現在，在我深入報告第四季度的財務和業務之前，我想先對我們近年來的發展歷程做一個回顧，回顧我們的過去、當前的狀況以及未來的方向。

First, let's take a moment to acknowledge the achievements of '22, which was an exceptional year for us with revenue reaching a record level of $275 million and profits at $45 million non-GAAP EPS. However, in 2023, our business experienced a slowdown. The challenging economic environmental and global crisis had a significant impact on sales of our hardware products, primarily due to the high interest rate environment and our transition from perpetual sales to a recurring business model driven by shift towards cloud services. This has resulted in an 11% decrease in revenue, a notable decline in earnings in '23.

首先，讓我們花點時間來回顧一下 22 年的成就，這對我們來說是非凡的一年，收入達到創紀錄的 2.75 億美元，非 GAAP 每股收益達到 4500 萬美元。然而，2023年，我們的業務經歷了放緩。嚴峻的經濟環境和全球危機對我們的硬體產品的銷售產生了重大影響，這主要是由於高利率環境以及我們從永久性銷售轉向由轉向雲端服務推動的經常性業務模式的轉變。這導致收入下降11%，1923年的收益明顯下降。

Then turning to '24. While we anticipated similar trends continuing, I'm pleased to report that year 2024 had a stabilization in comparison to the drop we faced in 2023 with a minimal revenue decline of about 1% and a comparable effect on earnings. 35% of net cash flow from operations further underlines our success in 2024. Furthermore, in 2024, we began a new journey driven by combining the power of AI and business voice application to explore new opportunities for the company.

然後轉向'24。雖然我們預計類似的趨勢將會持續下去，但我很高興地報告，與 2023 年面臨的下降相比，2024 年已經趨於穩定，收入下降幅度僅為 1% 左右，對收益的影響也相當。 35% 的營業淨現金流進一步凸顯了我們在 2024 年的成功。此外，2024年，我們將開啟以人工智慧與商業語音應用結合為驅動的新旅程，為公司探索新的機會。

As you will hear shortly, we are embarking on a new direction, gradually shifting our focus from connectivity business to a new AI and generative AI-powered value-added services business. This area appears to hold significant potential for our growth. Consequently, we are optimistic that 2025 will mark a year of reversal with plans in place for renewed revenue growth and increased profits. More importantly, we aim to establish a leading position in the emerging market focused on AI-driven value-added services within the UCaaS and CX segments.

正如您很快就會聽到的，我們正在邁向一個新的方向，逐步將我們的重點從連接業務轉向新的人工智慧和生成性人工智慧驅動的增值服務業務。這個領域似乎對我們的成長有著巨大的潛力。因此，我們樂觀地認為，2025 年將是扭轉局面的一年，我們將製定計劃，實現收入和利潤的新增長。更重要的是，我們旨在專注於 UCaaS 和 CX 領域人工智慧驅動的增值服務的新興市場中確立領先地位。

Now, to fourth quarter results. Our enterprise UCaaS and CX business did very well in the quarter. Related revenue accounted for 92% of revenues in the fourth quarter, highlighted by Microsoft business at 13%, up 30% in the quarter. This represents the highest quarterly growth rate this year. Full year Microsoft Business increased 6%.

現在來看看第四季的業績。我們的企業 UCaaS 和 CX 業務在本季表現非常出色。相關營收佔第四季總營收的92%，其中微軟業務營收佔13%，比本季成長30%。這是今年以來最高的季度成長率。全年微軟業務成長 6%。

In the Customer Experience business, we made progress as planned and our growth in our CX Live business and healthy pipeline for CX Live services supports positive outlook for 2025. We also did very well in our services business. Overall services grew 10.9% year-over-year and accounted for 54.5% of revenues. Professional and managed services grew 23.1% year-over-year. With the UCaaS market continued growth of above 15% CAGR for coming years, we expect our Live managed services growth to continue at such rates in coming years.

在客戶體驗業務方面，我們按計劃取得了進展，CX Live 業務的成長和 CX Live 服務的健康管道為 2025 年的積極前景提供了支持。我們的服務業務也做得很好。整體服務業務年增10.9%，佔營收的54.5%。專業及管理服務年增23.1%。隨著 UCaaS 市場在未來幾年繼續保持 15% 以上的複合年增長率，我們預計我們的即時託管服務在未來幾年仍將保持這樣的成長速度。

Going back to enterprise, Live Teams grew 30% in the quarter and accounted for 47% of the overall Microsoft business. Full year 2024 Live Teams increased 33% and represented 47% of Microsoft business. This growth, coupled with 30% growth in Voice.ai business for the full year 2024, contributed to us ending 2024 with an annual recurring revenue at $65 million, representing 35% year-over-year growth. It is important to note that at this stage, the majority of revenue from the UCaaS and CX markets are associated with our connectivity gear.

回到企業領域，Live Teams 在本季成長了 30%，佔微軟整體業務的 47%。2024 年全年，Live Teams 成長 33%，佔微軟業務的 47%。這一成長，加上 2024 年全年 Voice.ai 業務 30% 的成長，促使我們在 2024 年底實現年度經常性收入 6,500 萬美元，年成長 35%。值得注意的是，在現階段，UCaaS 和 CX 市場的大部分收入都與我們的連接設備相關。

What's been developing already in 2024, and we should see more of it growing in the years ahead is a shift in the market demand to focus on complementary value-add services for the same UCaaS and CX markets. Just to name a few such services, this include, among others, call analytics, contact center solutions, recording solution, meeting room solutions, CRM connectivity and more. As such, with the shift in our focus to offer business voice applications coupled with value-added services, we expect to see a rise in demand for our Voice.ai applications.

2024 年已經開始發展，我們應該看到未來幾年會有更多成長，那就是市場需求將轉向專注於為相同的 UCaaS 和 CX 市場提供互補的增值服務。僅舉幾種這樣的服務，其中包括呼叫分析、聯絡中心解決方案、錄音解決方案、會議室解決方案、CRM 連線等。因此，隨著我們的重點轉向提供商業語音應用程式和增值服務，我們預計對我們的 Voice.ai 應用程式的需求將會增加。

We are preparing to launch services based on live services platform, a SaaS unified service delivery platform that has been in development in our company for the past three years. This platform integrates connectivity, management and value-add services into a single AudioCodes solution, which we believe positions us with a competitive market advantage. As previously mentioned, our land and expand strategy, supported by our leading SBC connectivity solution and complemented by additional solution and services has consistently demonstrated our potential for growth. We are now moving into the second phase of this strategy, utilizing our strong network of enterprise customers to cross-sell value-add services specifically within the realm of voice application that we classify broadly as conversational AI.

我們正在準備推出基於即時服務平台的服務，這是我們公司過去三年來一直在開發的 SaaS 統一服務交付平台。該平台將連接、管理和增值服務整合到單一的 AudioCodes 解決方案中，我們相信這將使我們在市場上佔據競爭優勢。如前所述，我們的登陸和擴展策略在我們領先的 SBC 連接解決方案的支持下，並輔以額外的解決方案和服務，始終展現出我們的成長潛力。我們目前正進入該策略的第二階段，利用我們強大的企業客戶網路交叉銷售增值服務，特別是在我們大致歸類為對話式人工智慧的語音應用領域。

To provide some context, our investment in conversational AI began back in 2018 with the establishment of our Voice.ai business unit well before the rise of Gen AI. With the introduction of Gen AI, we have observed a notable increase in customer interest and expansion of use cases, which has justified a significant portion, approximately one-third of our R&D budget dedicated to this area. We believe that our Voice.ai portfolio has reached a level of maturity and is now receiving increased market recognition for our solution, leading us to expect accelerated revenue growth starting in 2025 and continuing thereafter. Consequently, as we approach 2025, we will concentrate our internal operation on managing two distinct business units, connectivity and value-add services.

具體來說，我們對對話式人工智慧的投資始於 2018 年，當時我們已成立 Voice.ai 業務部門，遠早於 Gen AI 的興起。隨著 Gen AI 的引入，我們觀察到客戶興趣的顯著增加和使用案例的擴展，這證明我們將很大一部分（約三分之一）研發預算投入這一領域是合理的。我們相信，我們的 Voice.ai 產品組合已達到一定成熟度，而我們的解決方案正在獲得越來越多的市場認可，這使得我們預計從 2025 年開始收入將加速成長並持續下去。因此，隨著 2025 年的臨近，我們將集中內部營運來管理兩個不同的業務部門，即連接和增值服務。

Now, I will provide an overview and outline some financial characteristics of these two business units to enhance investors' understanding of the AudioCodes' current operations. Starting with our connectivity business. This business encompasses our traditional voice infrastructure solution and service operations, which are designed for large enterprises in the UC and CX markets.

現在，我將概述這兩個業務部門的一些財務特徵，以增強投資者對 AudioCodes 當前營運的了解。從我們的連接業務開始。該業務涵蓋我們的傳統語音基礎設施解決方案和服務運營，專為 UC 和 CX 市場的大型企業而設計。

In 2024, this segment has generated approximately 95% of the company revenue. Operating for the past 15 years, this is a well-established operation that holds a strong market position, particularly within the Microsoft Teams and Genesys ecosystems and achieving attractive non-GAAP operating margins that are between 16% and 18%, fairly mature and solid business, which continues to grow roughly at above 10% annually.

2024年，該部門創造了公司約95%的收入。該公司已運營 15 年，業務完善，擁有強大的市場地位，尤其是在 Microsoft Teams 和 Genesys 生態系統中，非 GAAP 營業利潤率達到 16% 至 18% 之間，業務相當成熟和穩健，每年繼續以大約 10% 以上的速度增長。

As a leading player in this area, we anticipate consistent long-term growth in the years ahead. With the advancement of cloud services, we have adopted our voice infrastructure solution, shifting from hardware-focused products to software solution and services. Transitioning from traditional capital expenditures or perpetual sales to recurring managed services model is expected to improve both revenue visibility and stability while supporting sustained long-term growth. Consequently, we view this business as highly profitable with promising growth potential and significant cash flow from operations, which will allow us to invest and fund the evolution for our value-added services and Voice.ai.

作為該領域的領導企業，我們預計未來幾年將實現長期持續成長。隨著雲端服務的進步，我們採用了語音基礎架構解決方案，從以硬體為中心的產品轉向軟體解決方案和服務。從傳統資本支出或永久銷售轉變為經常性託管服務模式有望提高收入的可見度和穩定性，同時支持長期持續成長。因此，我們認為這項業務利潤豐厚、成長潛力巨大、營運現金流可觀，這將使我們能夠投資和資助我們的增值服務和 Voice.ai 的發展。

Now, let's discuss our Voice.ai business. We initiated the investment in this area back in 2018. From an operational standpoint, we are still in an investment phase as the number of Voice.ai applications we support is rapidly increasing in value-added services sector, largely due to the emergence of Gen AI technology launched by OpenAI back in November 2022.

現在，讓我們討論一下我們的 Voice.ai 業務。我們早在2018年就開始在該領域進行投資。從營運的角度來看，我們仍處於投資階段，因為我們支援的 Voice.ai 應用程式數量在增值服務領域正在迅速增加，這在很大程度上歸功於 OpenAI 於 2022 年 11 月推出的 Gen AI 技術的出現。

In 2023 and 2024, we allocated around $8 million to $10 million of investment each year which has influenced the company's overall financial performance and bottom line. The Voice.ai business saw growth of approximately 30% in 2024 and contributing about 5% to total revenue. We expect that this continuous annual investment will further facilitate annual growth rate of 30% to 50% for the Voice.ai business in coming years.

2023 年和 2024 年，我們每年分配約 800 萬至 1,000 萬美元的投資，影響了公司的整體財務表現和底線。Voice.ai業務在2024年將成長約30%，並為總營收貢獻約5%。我們預計，這項持續的年度投入將進一步促進Voice.ai業務在未來幾年實現30%至50%的年增長率。

As the Voice.ai business offers its voice application and SaaS solution, we foresee an increase in gross margins that will exceed the current company average, resulting in enhanced gross margin over the next few years. Over the last year, our Voice.ai business lines have garnered multiple industry accolades, including Voca CIC winning the award for the best Microsoft Teams Contact Center solution from CX Today in February 2024, recognition for best use of AI by the Meeting Insights solution by UC Today in July 2024 and just yesterday, an award for Meeting Insights from Frost & Sullivan for competitive strategy leadership in the AI business meetings market.

由於Voice.ai業務提供其語音應用程式和SaaS解決方案，我們預計毛利率將超過目前的公司平均水平，從而在未來幾年內提​​高毛利率。在過去的一年裡，我們的 Voice.ai 業務線獲得了多項行業讚譽，包括 Voca CIC 在 2024 年 2 月榮獲 CX Today 頒發的最佳 Microsoft Teams 聯絡中心解決方案獎、2024 年 7 月榮獲 UC Today 頒發的 Meeting Insights 解決方案。

Why we believe we will emerge a leader in the conversational AI field among established players and start-ups? We are uniquely positioned to succeed due to several key factors. First, we possess extensive domain expertise in VoIP telephony and networking built over the past 20 years. Also, since 2019, we have made significant investment in cognitive services technology and AI. Our team has vast experience in developing and delivering SaaS cloud and on-premises services. We have proven record in UCaaS and CCaaS managed services, and we have extensive experience in deploying AI solutions further that will further strengthen our position.

為什麼我們相信我們將在對話式人工智慧領域的老牌企業和新創企業中成為領導者？由於幾個關鍵因素，我們具有獨特的優勢以獲得成功。首先，我們擁有過去 20 年來在 VoIP 電話和網路領域累積的豐富專業知識。此外，自 2019 年以來，我們對認知服務技術和人工智慧進行了大量投資。我們的團隊在開發和交付 SaaS 雲端和內部部署服務方面擁有豐富的經驗。我們在 UCaaS 和 CCaaS 託管服務方面擁有良好的記錄，並且在進一步部署 AI 解決方案方面擁有豐富的經驗，這將進一步鞏固我們的地位。

Moreover, the brand trust that we have established with major enterprises is noteworthy, our voice solution are deployed in mission-critical UCCX voice infrastructure of 65 out of the Fortune 100 companies and four out of the top 10 multinational banks. We believe these strengths collectively position us favorably within the competitive landscape of conversational AI or business voice application.

此外，我們與主要企業建立的品牌信任值得關注，我們的語音解決方案部署在財富 100 強公司中的 65 家和十大跨國銀行中的 4 家的關鍵任務 UCCX 語音基礎設施中。我們相信，這些優勢將使我們在對話式人工智慧或商業語音應用的競爭中佔據有利地位。

Now, before turning into more detailed business line discussion, let me quickly shift into the fourth quarter profitability metrics. Our non-GAAP gross margin for the quarter was 66.5%, falling within our long-term target range of 65% to 68% and an improvement from the previous quarter of 65.6%. In the fourth quarter, non-GAAP operating expenses rose to $33.4 million, up from $32.5 million in the third quarter. This increase is mainly attributed to increase investment in marketing, travel and cloud services aimed at bolstering business growth as we move towards 2025. The hike in expenses can be primarily linked to enhanced participation in marketing events and expanded sales team and higher travel costs, all focused on driving revenue growth, especially in live managed services and Voice.ai.

現在，在進入更詳細的業務線討論之前，讓我快速轉到第四季度的獲利指標。本季我們的非公認會計準則毛利率為 66.5%，在我們 65% 至 68% 的長期目標範圍內，較上一季的 65.6% 有所提高。第四季度，非公認會計準則營業費用從第三季的3,250萬美元上升至3,340萬美元。這一成長主要歸因於對行銷、旅遊和雲端服務的投資增加，旨在邁向 2025 年時促進業務成長。費用的增加主要與加強參與行銷活動、擴大銷售團隊和增加差旅費用有關，所有這些都是為了推動收入成長，尤其是即時管理服務和 Voice.ai。

In terms of workforce, we concluded 2024 with 946 employees, an increase from 935 in the third quarter, but a slight decline from 950 in the fourth quarter of 2023. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $8.5 million, reflecting a 13.7% margin compared to $7.9 million or 13.1% in the previous quarter. For the entire year, adjusted EBITDA reached $31.4 million.

在員工數量方面，截至 2024 年，我們共有員工 946 人，較第三季的 935 人有所增加，但較 2023 年第四季的 950 人略有下降。第四季調整後 EBITDA 為 850 萬美元，利潤率為 13.7%，而上一季為 790 萬美元或 13.1%。全年調整後EBITDA達3,140萬美元。

Lastly, in a positive development, net cash from operation activities was $53 million for the quarter and $35.3 million for the full year 2024. Clearly, this robust cash flow generated supports our positive outlook regarding our capacity to keep investing in and expanding our business moving forward.

最後，一個積極的發展是，本季的營運活動淨現金為 5,300 萬美元，2024 年全年的營運活動淨現金為 3,530 萬美元。顯然，強勁的現金流支持了我們對未來繼續投資和拓展業務的能力的積極看法。

Now, to the guidance front. Concerning our growth strategies for connectivity and value-added services sector in 2025, we aim to sustain growth of 20% to 26% in the connectivity sector with a target annual recurring revenue of $78 million to $82 million. In the value-added services sector, we anticipate booking will increase by over 40% year-over-year to exceed $17 million.

現在，進入指導前沿。關於我們 2025 年連結和增值服務領域的成長策略，我們的目標是將連結領域維持 20% 至 26% 的成長率，目標年經常性收入達到 7,800 萬至 8,200 萬美元。在加值服務領域，我們預計預訂額將年增 40% 以上，超過 1,700 萬美元。

In light of this planning, along with operational momentum and strong pipeline in our Live managed services and Voice.ai, we are setting our guidance, as Niran mentioned earlier, to revenue guidance of $246 million to $254 million for 2025, with full year non-GAAP EBITDA guidance of $34 million to $38 million. These projections take into account continued strong growth in the conversational AI space and stable connectivity outlook, assuming no significant changes in the macroeconomic landscape.

鑑於這項規劃，加上我們的營運勢頭以及 Live 託管服務和 Voice.ai 的強大管道，正如 Niran 之前提到的，我們將 2025 年的收入預期設定為 2.46 億美元至 2.54 億美元，全年非 GAAP EBITDA 預期為 3,400 萬美元至 3,800 萬美元。這些預測考慮到了對話式人工智慧領域的持續強勁成長和穩定的連結前景，假設宏觀經濟格局沒有發生重大變化。

Let me move a bit to give more background on Microsoft business. Regarding strategic business segments, as previously noted, Microsoft Teams experienced 13% increase year-over-year in the fourth quarter, marking the highest quarter growth of the year. The full year growth for Microsoft business was 6%.

讓我稍微介紹一下微軟業務的背景。在策略業務部門方面，如前所述，Microsoft Teams 第四季年增 13%，創下今年最高的季度增幅。微軟業務全年成長率為6%。

Looking at the recurring versus capital expenditure aspects, our live booking in the fourth quarter surged by 30% year-over-year with live booking constituting 47%, an increase from 40% in the same year last year. Consequently, this time, CapEx segment of Teams accounted for 53%, down from 60% in the previous year quarter. The activity regarding new Live Teams contracts remained robust in fourth quarter. with total contract value booking exceeding $20 million.

從經常性支出與資本支出來看，我們第四季的現場預訂量年增了 30%，現場預訂佔比為 47%，高於去年同期的 40%。因此，本次 Teams 的資本支出部分佔比為 53%，低於去年同期的 60%。第四季有關新的 Live Teams 合約的活動依然強勁。合約總價值超過2000萬美元。

For the entirety of 2024, we observed annual contract value growth surpassing 25% compared to prior year. A significant factor in success within this domain is the live services platform, which combines connectivity management and value-added services. This platform facilitates faster development for large enterprise accounts on one end and then enables quick onboarding for small- and medium-sized businesses.

就整個 2024 年而言，我們觀察到年度合約價值成長率與上一年相比超過 25%。該領域成功的一個重要因素是即時服務平台，它結合了連接管理和增值服務。該平台一方面有利於大型企業帳戶的更快發展，另一方面也有利於中小型企業的快速入職。

As we look out to 2025 and beyond, market forecasts indicate that the UCaaS market will likely continue to expand its rates exceeding 20% throughout 2027. The Microsoft Teams phone ecosystem has shown robust growth, adding over 3 million new seats in the past year, reaching a total of about 22 million, which is a small fraction of the estimated 300 million potential for Teams seats.

展望 2025 年及以後，市場預測表明，UCaaS 市場在 2027 年的成長率可能會繼續超過 20%。Microsoft Teams 手機生態系統表現出強勁成長勢頭，在過去一年中新增了 300 多萬個新席位，總數達到約 2,200 萬個，這只是 Teams 預計 3 億個潛在席位的一小部分。

Also, I'm pleased to share that we have recently been focusing on creating a valuable opportunity for ourselves as we prepare to offer a comparable successful connectivity solution for the Cisco Webex Calling program. With an estimated 16 million seats and an additional 3 million seats in the past year, we view this new market segment as an excellent chance to expand our market presence.

此外，我很高興地告訴大家，我們最近一直致力於為自己創造寶貴的機會，我們準備為 Cisco Webex Calling 計畫提供類似成功的連線解決方案。目前預計座位數為 1600 萬個，去年又增加了 300 萬個座位，我們認為這個新的細分市場是擴大我們市場份額的絕佳機會。

In the previous discussion, we highlighted the ongoing strength of the Microsoft ecosystem, especially within the education sector. I'm happy to report that this momentum has not only persisted, but has also intensified. Here are a few significant achievements from the quarter. The first success involves a major state university system comprising of over 50 campuses. Recently, we finalized a master agreement with the IT administration, which designates us as the preferred communication partner as the campuses aim to enhance their UCCX infrastructure in coming years.

在先前的討論中，我們強調了微軟生態系統的持續實力，尤其是在教育領域。我很高興地報告，這種勢頭不僅持續了下來，而且還有所加強。以下是本季的一些重要成就。第一個成功案例涉及一個由 50 多個校區組成的大型州立大學系統。最近，我們與 IT 管理部門達成了一項總協議，該協議指定我們為首選通訊合作夥伴，因為校園的目標是在未來幾年增強其 UCCX 基礎設施。

In the fourth quarter alone, we secured contracts value in the low single-digit million, which includes Live Pro managed services, professional services and capital expenditures for IP phones. Notably, this figure represents the initial commitment from nine campuses only out of the 50 and it is just a small part of the total number of university available. We anticipate that more campuses will join us in upcoming months.

僅在第四季度，我們就獲得了價值數千萬的合同，其中包括 Live Pro 託管服務、專業服務和 IP 電話的資本支出。值得注意的是，這個數字僅代表了 50 所大學中的 9 所大學的初步承諾，而且它只是可用大學總數的一小部分。我們預計未來幾個月將有更多校園加入我們。

Getting to our CX business. In the fourth quarter, CX revenue increased by 12% compared to the third quarter. Throughout the fourth quarter, we successfully finalized several significant agreements with partners and clients across North America, CALA, and India. Despite the challenges associated with getting call center voice infrastructure to the cloud, many customers are choosing our Live CX service.

了解我們的 CX 業務。第四季度，CX營收較第三季成長了12%。在整個第四季度，我們成功與北美、中美洲及加勒比海地區和印度的合作夥伴和客戶達成了幾項重要協議。儘管將呼叫中心語音基礎架構遷移到雲端面臨挑戰，但許多客戶仍然選擇我們的 Live CX 服務。

During fourth quarter, we secured a contract exceeding $1 million for Live CX in Brazil with a banking institution to assist in their network migration to the cloud. In North America, we established multiple Live CX agreements in Q4 with leading banking and financial organizations. By beginning of fourth quarter, we established a CX partnership with an Indian BPO to transition their multi-region voice infrastructure to the cloud. They went live within a few weeks using our live service delivery platform, which typically takes months with traditional deployment methods.

第四季度，我們與巴西的一家銀行機構簽訂了一份價值超過 100 萬美元的 Live CX 合同，以協助他們將網路遷移到雲端。在北美，我們在第四季度與領先的銀行和金融機構建立了多項 Live CX 協議。到第四季初，我們與一家印度 BPO 建立了 CX 合作夥伴關係，將其多區域語音基礎設施轉移到雲端。他們使用我們的即時服務交付平台在幾週內就開始上線，而使用傳統的部署方法通常需要幾個月的時間。

Our efforts to encourage partners to adopt our live platform resulted in a new contract with the North American Tier 1 SI system integrator that has major Genesys and Cisco CX practices. We will continue working to onboard more partners onto our platform to expand the reach of our Live CX service.

我們努力鼓勵合作夥伴採用我們的即時平台，最終與擁有主要 Genesys 和 Cisco CX 實踐的北美一級 SI 系統整合商簽訂了新合約。我們將繼續努力將更多的合作夥伴納入我們的平台，以擴大我們的 Live CX 服務的覆蓋範圍。

Now, moving to details about Voice.ai business. Voice.ai business, as I mentioned before, grew 30% in '24, contributing nicely to the overall company revenue growth. Development of Gen AI technologies and increasing customer demand for AI-driven business voice application play a significant role in adoption of Voice.ai application. With new opportunities emerging in this sector and booking nearly reaching $15 million in '24, it is anticipated that demand will remain steady, and this segment is projected to grow by 40% to 50% in 2025.

現在，談談 Voice.ai 業務的詳細資訊。正如我之前提到的，Voice.ai 業務在 24 年成長了 30%，為公司整體營收成長做出了巨大貢獻。新一代人工智慧技術的發展和客戶對人工智慧驅動的商業語音應用日益增長的需求在 Voice.ai 應用的採用中發揮著重要作用。隨著該領域出現新的機會並且24年的預訂額接近1500萬美元，預計需求將保持穩定，預計2025年該領域將增長40%至50%。

Let me make a quick run through two or three businesses in the Voice.ai area. First is the VoiceAI Connect, a primary target or large enterprises in North America and Europe that develop and deploy multiple custom voice bots and agent-assist solution to serve contact center solutions. Following over three, four years of development, the solution, which is SBC-based has reached a mature stage and is highly appealing to large corporation.

讓我快速介紹一下 Voice.ai 領域的兩三家企業。首先是 VoiceAI Connect，主要目標是北美和歐洲的大型企業，這些企業開發和部署多個客製化語音機器人和代理商輔助解決方案來服務聯絡中心解決方案。經過三、四年多的發展，基於SBC的解決方案已經趨於成熟，對大型企業有強烈的吸引力。

Additionally, we have created a derivative product, a cloud self-service SaaS application named Live Hub. This platform enables both developers to rapidly test or onboard both application within minutes, making it highly attractive to developers of both solution.

此外，我們還創建了一個衍生產品，名為Live Hub的雲端自助服務SaaS應用程式。該平台使雙方開發人員能夠在幾分鐘內快速測試或加入兩個應用程序，這對雙方解決方案的開發人員都具有極大的吸引力。

Another exciting development is our recent soft launch of our real-time translation capability in mid-November. We have seen strong market interest, resulting in multiple proof of concepts with existing and new customers. In 2024, sales grew by over 30%, and we anticipate maintaining the same growth rate in '25.

另一個令人興奮的進展是我們最近在 11 月中旬試運行了即時翻譯功能。我們看到了強烈的市場興趣，並向現有和新客戶進行了多項概念驗證。2024 年，銷售額將成長 30% 以上，我們預期 2025 年將維持相同的成長率。

Turning to Voca CIC. This is our AI-first Azure-based contact center solution for Microsoft Teams. When combined with our calling solution for Microsoft Teams Phone, Voca CIC offers a comprehensive and advanced calling and contact center solution. In 2024, we successfully delivered and expanded deployments with large enterprises in North America, EMEA, and APAC. In some of these deployments, we were successfully displacing and winning against key competitors. In its third year of operation, this business bookings grew by approximately 35%. We are now planning for a growth of 50% in 2025.

轉向 Voca CIC。這是我們針對 Microsoft Teams 推出的基於 Azure 的 AI 優先聯絡中心解決方案。與我們的 Microsoft Teams Phone 呼叫解決方案相結合，Voca CIC 可提供全面且先進的呼叫和聯絡中心解決方案。2024 年，我們成功與北美、歐洲、中東和非洲地區以及亞太地區的大型企業實現了部署並擴展。在某些部署中，我們成功取代並戰勝了主要競爭對手。在營運的第三年，該業務的預訂量增加了約35％。我們目前計劃在 2025 年達到 50% 的成長。

Now, turning into Meeting Insights. This has been an eventful past few months for Meeting Insights on all fronts. First, we are thrilled to have Frost & Sullivan present us with Best Practices Competitive Strategy Leadership Award in the AI for business meetings market. The announcement was made yesterday, and we will make it public in coming days. We believe this validates the vision of serving a centralized organizational knowledge hub, breaking down silos by unlocking valuable insights from meetings across major UC platforms.

現在，轉向會議見解。過去幾個月對 Meeting Insights 各方面而言都是多事之秋。首先，我們很高興Frost＆Sullivan向我們頒發商務會議人工智慧市場的最佳實踐競爭策略領導獎。該公告已於昨天發布，我們將在未來幾天內公佈。我們相信，這驗證了服務於集中式組織知識中心的願景，透過從主要 UC 平台的會議中獲得有價值的見解來打破孤島。

Even before this recognition, we already saw a step function increase in customer interest in Meeting Insights across all geos with fourth quarter proof-of-concept trials at nearly 2.5 times the level from the previous quarter. January proof of concept is off to a new good start and so would expect another record for proof of concept in the first quarter of 2025.

在獲得這項認可之前，我們就已經看到各個地區的客戶對 Meeting Insights 的興趣呈階梯式增長，第四季度的概念驗證試驗幾乎是上一季的 2.5 倍。一月份的概念驗證有了一個新的良好開端，因此預計 2025 年第一季的概念驗證將再創紀錄。

In terms of product development and operational updates, I'll name a few. We recently unveiled Intelligent Room solution by powering populating our own video conference devices with Meeting Insights such that all meeting participants will automatically receive auto-generated AI meeting summaries. This move enhances value proposition to users by bringing to bear the full capabilities of our portfolio and can spare further interest and adoption of Meeting Insights.

在產品開發和營運更新方面，我舉幾個例子。我們最近推出了智慧會議室解決方案，為我們自己的視訊會議設備提供會議洞察，以便所有會議參與者自動收到自動產生的 AI 會議摘要。此舉充分發揮我們產品組合的全部功能，增強了對使用者的價值主張，並能節省人們對 Meeting Insights 的進一步關注和採用。

We are also adding Bring Your Own Storage option, which expands the addressable market to customers who are required to have the recording storage on their preferred or private cloud. Since the announcement of Zoom Meeting support in late October, we have seen a good number of meetings conducted in Zoom environment, validating our vision and value proposition of centralized knowledge repository. In the next few weeks, we will look to offer integrated major CRM platform, starting with Salesforce to Meeting Insights. We believe this will be a very important functionality, meeting high demand in the market.

我們還添加了自帶儲存選項，這將可尋址市場擴展到需要在自己喜歡的或私有雲上儲存錄音的客戶。自 10 月下旬宣布支持 Zoom Meeting 以來，我們已經看到大量會議在 Zoom 環境中進行，驗證了我們集中知識庫的願景和價值主張。在接下來的幾週內，我們將著眼於提供整合的主要 CRM 平台，從 Salesforce 到 Meeting Insights。我們相信這將是一個非常重要的功能，滿足市場高需求。

We have announced a week ago, a new and quite exciting solution in Israel. We're talking about operating Meeting Insights on-prem. This is a meeting solution for organizations seeking highly secured environment for meeting solution and complete disconnect from the Internet. It is in first stages of evolution, already selling nice in the government application area in Israel, and we intend to offer it in international markets in coming months. Very unique offering. We have seen high demand for the solution as it touches the most sensitive areas for management in the government, defense, finance and healthcare markets.

一週前我們宣布了以色列的一項新的、令人興奮的解決方案。我們正在討論在本地操作會議見解。這是一個會議解決方案，適合尋求高度安全的會議解決方案環境且完全斷開與網路連接的組織。它目前處於發展的初始階段，已經在以色列政府應用領域取得了良好的銷售業績，我們打算在未來幾個月內將其推向國際市場。非常獨特的產品。我們看到對該解決方案的需求很高，因為它涉及政府、國防、金融和醫療保健市場管理最敏感的領域。

To wrap up my presentation, we exited 2024 with good operational momentum, particularly with the continued strong growth in our two primary engines, our Live family of managed services and Voice.ai. With the progress we are making in increasing our recurring revenues and that Live currently nearing half of Microsoft Teams bookings, we believe we have laid the foundation to support sustainable and healthy top line and margin expansion in '25 and beyond.

總結我的演講，我們在 2024 年取得了良好的營運勢頭，特別是我們的兩個主要引擎、Live 託管服務系列和 Voice.ai 繼續保持強勁增長。隨著我們在增加經常性收入方面取得的進展，以及 Live 目前接近 Microsoft Teams 預訂量的一半，我們相信我們已經為支持 25 年及以後可持續、健康的營收和利潤率擴張奠定了基礎。

And with that, I've concluded my presentation and I'd like to move over to the Q&A session.

我的演講到此結束，我想進入問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) Ryan MacWilliams, Barclays.

（操作員指示）巴克萊銀行的 Ryan MacWilliams。

Hey, guys, this is Damian Cogen on for Ryan MacWilliams. Thanks the question. Great to see solid growth in services revenue in the quarter. Can you help us understand what is driving your confidence for improved top line growth in 2025 and beyond? Are customers more optimistic about their spend in 2025? Or is this being driven by AudioCodes' AI opportunity? Thanks.

嘿，大家好，我是 Ryan MacWilliams 的 Damian Cogen。謝謝您的提問。很高興看到本季服務收入穩定成長。您能否幫助我們了解是什麼促使您對 2025 年及以後營收成長有信心？消費者對 2025 年的支出是否較樂觀？或者這是由 AudioCodes 的 AI 機會推動的？謝謝。

As I've mentioned in my previous presentation, we have seen a pickup in the fourth quarter in new projects and bookings. And I believe in the fourth quarter, we saw a record backlog of total contract value signed for more than $20 million. That compares roughly to an average of $15 million throughout the year. So we have seen nice pickup in the fourth quarter.

正如我在之前的演講中提到的，我們看到第四季度新項目和訂單量有所回升。我相信在第四季度，我們簽署的合約積壓總額創下了超過 2000 萬美元的記錄。相比之下，全年平均收入約為 1500 萬美元。因此我們看到第四季出現了良好的回升。

Again, we believe that with the advent of Gen AI and Copilot technology, there will be more reason for enterprises to adopt AI and Gen AI to deal with Teams meetings and Teams calls. And therefore, we believe that there will be more deployments of Microsoft Teams phone in the market.

再次，我們相信隨著 Gen AI 和 Copilot 技術的出現，企業將有更多的理由採用 AI 和 Gen AI 來處理 Teams 會議和 Teams 通話。因此，我們相信市場上將會有更多的 Microsoft Teams 手機部署。

Great. Thanks. And then for the CCaaS demand in the quarter, how did that fare compared to 3Q? And then are you seeing increased attention from buyers on voice AI?

偉大的。謝謝。那麼本季的 CCaaS 需求與第三季相比如何？那麼，您是否看到買家對語音 AI 的關注度有所提高？

So the answer is yes. Well, first, we are substantially increasing the capacity of the Live CX services we're offering. Prior to moving to cloud, enterprises were usually aided by partners who really took care of most of the installation and operations day two and on. With the move to cloud, much of these partners were left with no ability to support the enterprises. And therefore, that support needs to come from the vendor themselves, which created kind of a gap in the market. We have identified that mid-2024.

所以答案是肯定的。首先，我們正在大幅增加我們所提供的 Live CX 服務的容量。在遷移到雲端之前，企業通常會得到合作夥伴的幫助，他們會在第二天及之後負責大部分的安裝和營運工作。隨著向雲端的轉移，許多合作夥伴不再具備支援企業的能力。因此，這種支援需要來自供應商本身，這在市場上造成了一種空白。我們已確定是2024年中期。

Now, we have a substantially fuller portfolio of Live CX services. And I think we just had a very substantial win. I think I've mentioned it. It is with one of the largest North American system integrator that deals with CX projects, mainly in the Genesys and Cisco environment. So that offering really represents substantially faster deployments of voice networks within the move, the migration from on-prem to cloud. And this is where we find a lot of interest.

現在，我們擁有更全面的 Live CX 服務組合。我認為我們取得了一次非常重大的勝利。我想我曾經提到過它。它是北美最大的系統整合商之一，主要處理 CX 項目，在 Genesys 和 Cisco 環境中。因此，該服務確實代表了在遷移過程中語音網路部署速度的大幅提升，即從本地到雲端的遷移。這正是我們發現許多興趣的地方。

Also, as you have mentioned, there's a trend of applying AI to contact center recordings. Gen AI technology allows analysis and analytics of all those calls just to find out more information. So analysts that will be analyzing agent calls will be able to hand over to management trends and more important insights into what's going on. And we're not talking about single sessions, but also when you talk about multitude of sessions, you can talk about tens and hundreds of sessions where Gen AI helps you to identify patterns and trends.

另外，正如您所提到的，將人工智慧應用於聯絡中心錄音是一種趨勢。Gen AI 技術可以對所有這些通話進行分析，以便找出更多資訊。因此，分析代理呼叫的分析師將能夠向管理層提供正在發生的事情的趨勢和更重要的見解。我們談論的並不是單一會話，而且當您談論多個會話時，您可以談論數十個和數百個會話，其中 Gen AI 可以幫助您識別模式和趨勢。

Great. Thanks, guys.

偉大的。謝謝大家。

Ryan Koontz, Needham & Company.

瑞安·孔茨 (Ryan Koontz)，Needham & Company。

Thanks for the question. Great to hear the traction on Microsoft picking up there around Teams. And what kind of trend you're seeing relative to operator voice connections into Teams? Are you seeing a trend over toward this new Operator Connect capability or still a lot of direct routing? And how does that impact your attach rate for Teams? Thank you.

謝謝你的提問。很高興聽到微軟在 Teams 方面取得進展。您看到與 Teams 中的操作員語音連線相關的什麼樣的趨勢？您是否看到了這種新的 Operator Connect 功能的趨勢，還是仍然有很多直接路由？這對 Teams 的附加率有何影響？謝謝。

Right. Well, we've seen a shift in the encouragement of using Operator Connect over a direct route. So we do see smaller organization mainly interested more. Is it an overwhelming trend? We have not been exposed to such trends. So yes, the trend is moving from SBC direct route to Operator Connect. But at this stage, we still do not see a big increase in usage in the market.

正確的。嗯，我們已經看到了使用 Operator Connect 而不是直達路線的鼓勵轉變。因此，我們確實看到較小的組織主要對此更感興趣。這是一個壓倒性的趨勢嗎？我們還沒有接觸過這樣的趨勢。所以是的，趨勢正在從 SBC 直連路線轉向 Operator Connect。但現階段，我們仍沒有看到市場使用量的大幅成長。

Got it. Great. And just at a high level, you talked about some big customer wins here in Brazil and the systems integrator in North America. I wonder if you're seeing a trend toward fewer larger customer wins? Or are you seeing more activity down market where you maybe have a higher number of smaller customer opportunities in the pipeline? Thanks.

知道了。偉大的。在高層，您談到了巴西的一些大客戶以及北美的系統整合商的成功。我想知道您是否看到了大客戶贏利數量減少的趨勢？或者您看到低端市場有更多活動，您可能擁有更多數量的小型客戶機會？謝謝。

Okay. Thanks for the question because that really allows me to elaborate a bit about segmenting the market into two key areas. On the enterprise space, we see here a continued trend of large enterprises adopting Teams year-by-year. And as I've mentioned before, we believe that the advent of AI and Copilot solution will drive more enterprise seats towards using Teams meetings and calls. But in this space, we are generally a very dominant leader, and we do not see much competition. So here, the growth is well.

好的。感謝您的提問，因為這確實讓我能夠詳細說明將市場細分為兩個關鍵領域。在企業領域，我們看到大型企業逐年採用 Teams 的趨勢持續存在。正如我之前提到的，我們相信人工智慧和 Copilot 解決方案的出現將推動更多企業使用 Teams 會議和通話。但在這個領域，我們總體上是主導的領導者，而且我們沒有看到太多的競爭。所以這裡的成長情況很好。

Now, touching the SMB space as you allude to it, there's definitely competition over there, right? I mean we know that Cisco is leading the space with its relationship with the world's largest service providers. And then you have Zoom playing in that area and Microsoft Teams also trying. There, I believe it's going to be more competition. However, we believe that the platform we will be introducing second core, the live platform delivering value-add services with so many unique AI-driven applications such as contact center, recording, meeting solution, analytics, CRM connection, and stuff.

現在，正如您所提到的，觸及 SMB 領域，那裡肯定存在競爭，對嗎？我的意思是，我們知道思科憑藉與全球最大服務供應商的關係而處於該領域的領先地位。然後你讓 Zoom 在該領域發揮作用，Microsoft Teams 也在嘗試。我相信那裡的競爭將會更加激烈。然而，我們相信我們將要引入的第二個核心平台是即時平台，它透過許多獨特的人工智慧驅動的應用程式提供增值服務，如聯絡中心、錄音、會議解決方案、分析、CRM 連接等等。

We believe that being very strong technologically we do have an advantage with coming up with one of the best platform you'll see in the market. And therefore, we believe that we will be a strong player in that. So all in all, I mean, we have a two-pronged strategy, and we believe we'll be successful in both.

我們相信，憑藉強大的技術，我們確實有優勢推出市場上最好的平台之一。因此，我們相信我們將成為該領域的強大參與者。總而言之，我們有一個雙管齊下的策略，我們相信我們將在兩個方面都取得成功。

Great. Thanks for your time.

偉大的。感謝您的時間。

Samad Samana, Jefferies.

薩馬納（Samad Samana），傑富瑞（Jefferies）。

Hey, guys, this is Billy Fitzsimmons on for Samad. Maybe to start, a couple of months back, you announced support for AudioCodes Meeting Insights for Zoom Meetings. Obviously, Zoom also has their internal AI companion. Shabtai, can you just talk about differentiation between your solution and Zoom's in-house solution and maybe traction you're seeing since launch with customers?

嘿，大家好，我是 Billy Fitzsimmons，代替 Samad 發言。也許首先，幾個月前，您宣布支援 AudioCodes Meeting Insights for Zoom Meetings。顯然，Zoom 也有其內部的 AI 伴侶。Shabtai，您能談談您的解決方案與 Zoom 內部解決方案之間的差異嗎？

Right. So Meeting Insights is targeting to become a UC-agnostic solution, meaning that our solution is an enterprise level solution. And in every enterprise, you have no matter what type of UC solution that enterprise has adopted takes us as an example, we're using Microsoft Teams.

正確的。因此，Meeting Insights 的目標是成為與 UC 無關的解決方案，這意味著我們的解決方案是企業級解決方案。在每個企業中，無論企業採用哪種類型的 UC 解決方案，以我們為例，我們都會使用 Microsoft Teams。

We have often a lot of Zoom calls we are called in and/or sometimes when we need to talk to the government here in Israel, it's a Google Meet session. So you want one centralized solution, enterprise solution that should be able to basically contain all of the different sessions from both Microsoft Teams, Cisco WebEx calling, Zoom Meetings, and Google Meet meetings. And therefore, our solution will allow that. Anyone using just Zoom will simply not be able to add to it calls coming from different environments. So that is a major strategy in our solution of becoming UC-agnostic.

我們經常會接到很多 Zoom 電話會議，有時當我們需要與以色列政府通話時，也會透過 Google Meet 會議進行。因此，您需要一個集中的解決方案，企業解決方案應該能夠基本上包含來自 Microsoft Teams、Cisco WebEx 呼叫、Zoom Meetings 和 Google Meet 會議的所有不同會話。因此，我們的解決方案將允許這一點。僅使用 Zoom 的任何人都無法新增來自不同環境的通話。所以這是我們成為 UC 不可知論者的解決方案的一個主要策略。

And also, we believe that the fact that we are dealing with larger enterprises, which have finer requirements, and they can find executives with different research and market and business-driven questions that we can answer within Meeting Insights because we use custom prompts. We believe that we will see that less in other solutions. One of them could be Zoom AI companion. So we believe that the fact that we're dealing with large enterprises will make our solutions substantially more extensive and providing more detailed solutions.

此外，我們相信，事實上，我們面對的是擁有更精細要求的大型企業，他們可以找到擁有不同研究和市場以及業務驅動問題的高階主管，我們可以在 Meeting Insights 中回答這些問題，因為我們使用自訂提示。我們相信，在其他解決方案中這種情況會較少出現。其中之一可能是 Zoom AI 伴侶。因此，我們相信，與大型企業打交道這一事實將使我們的解決方案更加廣泛，並提供更詳細的解決方案。

And then more broadly, obviously, the business has been going through this kind of subscription transition shift to more recurring ratable revenue. Can you just help us think a little bit more next year about kind of the revenue mix? And longer term, is there a point where the product revenue and some of the legacy stuff in there should start to bottom? Or should we expect perennial declines there for the services support side to make up for that in terms of growth?

從更廣泛的角度來看，顯然，業務一直在經歷這種從訂閱式轉型到更具經常性可評估收入的過程。您能幫我們進一步思考明年的收入結構嗎？從長遠來看，產品收入以及其中的一些遺留內容是否應該開始觸底？或者我們應該預期服務支援方面的長期下滑將透過成長來彌補？

Right. So as I mentioned earlier in the call, we're glad that in 2024, we saw the drop in legacy business drop stabilizing, meaning contrary to the 11% drop in '23, we went down only 1% in '24. We believe that the trend will continue in '25, meaning we'll have less and less drop in legacy gear such as gateways and hardware-based routers and SBCs. So on that front, the business will stabilize. We then see increased use of services. And as I mentioned before, I think we're stepping into a new era of business voice application, which is all software and cloud services, SaaS solutions.

正確的。因此，正如我之前在電話會議中提到的那樣，我們很高興看到在 2024 年，傳統業務的下滑趨於穩定，這意味著與 23 年 11% 的下滑相比，24 年我們僅下滑了 1%。我們相信這種趨勢將在25年繼續下去，這意味著我們將越來越少使用傳統設備，例如網關、基於硬體的路由器和 SBC。因此從這方面來看，業務將會穩定下來。我們看到服務的使用量增加。正如我之前提到的，我認為我們正在進入商業語音應用的新時代，這全是軟體和雲端服務、SaaS 解決方案。

And for example, we ended 2024 with Voice.ai revenues at about, I believe, it was $12 million, and we're targeting $18 million. So we're targeting 50%. And quite frankly, I believe that we are not yet in a phase where those solutions are mature enough. So as those solutions gets more and more mature, I believe that the growth rate will intensify. So we're building much upon our ability to drive Voice.ai business revenue. So combining the two, halt of the drop decline in legacy and emerging of Voice.ai. And obviously, as we said before, the Live business, which is growing 35% a year, I think we're set for a good year in '25.

例如，到 2024 年底，Voice.ai 的營收約為 1,200 萬美元，我們的目標是 1,800 萬美元。因此我們的目標是50%。坦白說，我認為我們尚未達到這些解決方案足夠成熟的階段。因此，隨著這些解決方案變得越來越成熟，我相信成長率將會加快。因此，我們正在大力提升 Voice.ai 業務收入的能力。因此，將兩者結合起來，可以阻止傳統和新興 Voice.ai 的下滑。顯然，正如我們之前所說，Live 業務每年以 35% 的速度成長，我認為 25 年我們將會迎來豐收的一年。

And then if I could sneak in one final question. You guys obviously guided to EBITDA for next year, but could you maybe go a step further and just help us think even high level about kind of the individual OpEx lines next year? Where are you making kind of incremental headcount investments and maybe where are you kind of paring back spending? Obviously, there have been a lot of AI products, but R&D spend is actually down over the past couple of years. Could we expect that line, for example, to pick up a little bit next year in terms of OpEx spending?

然後我可以偷偷問最後一個問題嗎？你們顯然對明年的 EBITDA 進行了指導，但你們能否更進一步，幫助我們更高層次地思考明年的各個營運支出項目？您在哪些方面增加了員工投資？顯然，已經有許多人工智慧產品，但過去幾年研發支出實際上有所下降。例如，我們是否可以預期明年營運支出 (OpEx) 方面的支出會略有增加？

Yes. In terms of OpEx, we are planning to invest more only at the area of sales and marketing. definitely not at the G&A and the R&D. And all in all, OpEx at 2024, we ended $131 million. We believe for 2025, and that's how we budgeted it, the growth at OpEx will be 1%, maybe 2%, not more. And it mainly will be at the sales and marketing area.

是的。在營運支出方面，我們計劃僅在銷售和行銷領域投入更多。絕對不是在 G&A 和 R&D。總的來說，到 2024 年，我們的營運支出將達到 1.31 億美元。我們相信到 2025 年（這就是我們的預算），營運支出的成長將是 1%，也許 2%，不會更多。它主要會集中在銷售和行銷領域。

Awesome. Super helpful. Thank you. I appreciate the answers.

驚人的。超有幫助。謝謝。我很感激您的回答。

Thank you. As we have no further questions at this time, I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Adlersberg for any closing remarks.

謝謝。由於我們目前沒有其他問題，我想將電話轉回給阿德勒斯伯格先生，請他做最後發言。

Thank you, operator. I would like to thank everyone who attended our conference call today. With continued good business momentum in our enterprise operations and good underlying market growth trends in the UCaaS CX and Voice.ai, we believe we are transitioning the business towards growth and growing profitability in coming years.

謝謝您，接線生。我要感謝今天參加電話會議的所有人。隨著我們企業營運繼續保持良好的業務勢頭以及 UCaaS CX 和 Voice.ai 良好的潛在市場成長趨勢，我們相信未來幾年我們的業務將轉向成長和獲利能力的提高。

We look forward to your participation in our next quarterly conference call. Thank you all. Have a nice day.

我們期待您參加我們的下一次季度電話會議。謝謝大家。祝你今天過得愉快。

Thank you. This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.

謝謝。今天的會議到此結束，各位可以掛斷電話了，感謝您的參與。