Concentrix Corp (CNXC) 2025 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to Concentrix third-quarter 2025 financial results conference call.

大家好，歡迎參加 Concentrix 2025 年第三季財務業績電話會議。

(Operator Instructions) Please note that this conference is being recorded.

（操作員指示）請注意，本次會議正在錄音。

Now, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to the Vice President of Investor Relations, Sara Buda. Please go ahead.

現在，我很高興將電話轉給投資者關係副總裁 Sara Buda。請繼續。

Great. Thank you, operator, and good evening. Welcome to the Concentrix third-quarter 2025 earnings call. This call is the property of Concentrix and may not be recorded or rebroadcast without the written permission of Concentrix.

偉大的。謝謝接線員，晚上好。歡迎參加 Concentrix 2025 年第三季財報電話會議。本次通話屬於 Concentrix 的財產，未經 Concentrix 書面許可不得錄製或轉播。

This call contains forward-looking statements that address our expected future performance and that, by their nature, address matters that are uncertain. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future expectations, events, or developments.

本次電話會議包含前瞻性陳述，涉及我們預期的未來業績，並且就其性質而言，涉及不確定的問題。這些不確定性可能會導致我們未來的實際結果與前瞻性陳述中表達的結果有重大差異。我們不承諾根據新資訊或未來預期、事件或發展來更新我們的前瞻性陳述。

Please refer to today's earnings release and our most recent filings with the SEC for additional information regarding uncertainties that could affect our future financial results. This includes the risk factors provided in our annual report on Form 10-K and our other public filings with the SEC.

有關可能影響我們未來財務業績的不確定因素的更多信息，請參閱今天的收益報告和我們最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件。這包括我們在 10-K 表格年度報告和向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他公開文件中提供的風險因素。

Also during the call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted free cash flow, non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP operating margin, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP EPS, and constant currency revenue growth. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures is available in the news release and on the company's Investor Relations website under Financials.

此外，在電話會議期間，我們將討論非公認會計準則財務指標，包括調整後的自由現金流量、非公認會計準則營業收入、非公認會計準則營業利潤率、調整後的 EBITDA、調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率、非公認會計準則淨收入、非公認會計準則每股收益和固定貨幣收入增長。這些非公認會計準則指標的對帳表可在新聞稿和公司投資者關係網站的「財務」部分找到。

With me on the call today are Chris Caldwell, our President and CEO; and Andre Valentine, our Chief Financial Officer. Chris will provide a summary of our operating performance and growth strategy, and Andre will cover our financial results and business outlook. Then, we'll open the call up for your questions.

今天與我一起參加電話會議的還有我們的總裁兼執行長克里斯·考德威爾 (Chris Caldwell) 和財務長安德烈·瓦倫丁 (Andre Valentine)。Chris 將概述我們的經營業績和成長策略，Andre 將介紹我們的財務表現和業務前景。然後，我們將開始回答您的問題。

And so now, I'll turn the call over to Chris.

現在，我將把電話轉給克里斯。

Thank you very much, Sara. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our third-quarter 2025 earnings call.

非常感謝，薩拉。大家好。感謝您今天參加我們的 2025 年第三季財報電話會議。

In Q3, we exceeded our revenue guidance once again, with solid year-on-year growth across the board. We are gaining share in securing new wins by combining AI, CX, and IT services into a powerful, tightly integrated solution. Our adjacent offerings continue to scale and complement our traditional business. We believe our iX suite is giving us clear competitive differentiation in front of clients. Overall, I am pleased with our strong market position and our revenue momentum.

第三季度，我們的營收再次超出預期，全面實現年比穩健成長。透過將 AI、CX 和 IT 服務整合成一個強大且緊密整合的解決方案，我們正在獲得新的勝利。我們的相關產品不斷擴大並補充我們的傳統業務。我們相信我們的 iX 套件為我們在客戶面前帶來了明顯的競爭優勢。總體而言，我對我們強大的市場地位和收入成長勢頭感到滿意。

Turning to profit, margins were below plan in the quarter, which Andre will provide more details in his comments. What is important to understand is that we have line of sight to modest sequential quarterly margin improvement over the next few quarters, even as we continue to lean into growth; and believe we can drive further margin expansion from there.

談到利潤，本季的利潤率低於計劃，安德烈將在他的評論中提供更多細節。重要的是要明白，即使我們繼續傾向於成長，我們也有望在未來幾個季度內實現季度利潤率的適度連續改善；並且相信我們可以從那裡進一步推動利潤率的擴大。

Now, let's dive into the details of our demand environment and how we see our business evolving. The positive revenue momentum we've seen this year is a direct reflection of our commitment to establish Concentrix at the forefront of the change happening in our industry. We believe we are becoming a leader in solutions to combine practical AI, human intelligence where applicable at global scale.

現在，讓我們深入了解需求環境的細節以及我們如何看待我們的業務發展。我們今年看到的積極的收入動能直接反映了我們致力於將 Concentrix 打造為產業變革前沿的承諾。我們相信，我們正在成為在全球範圍內將實用人工智慧與人類智慧相結合的解決方案的領導者。

As a result, we are well positioned to be a trusted strategic partner clients rely on to support their business in these times of change. In fact, almost 40% of our new wins this year include our AI technology platforms as part of the solution. This percentage only increases as we include our partners' technology.

因此，我們有能力成為客戶值得信賴的策略夥伴，在變革時期支持他們的業務。事實上，在我們今年新贏得的成果中，幾乎有 40% 都包含我們的人工智慧技術平台作為解決方案的一部分。當我們納入合作夥伴的技術時，這一比例只會增加。

As a reminder, our iX AI technology suite addresses clients' needs for both fully automation of tasks that can be handled completely autonomously and for partial automation using AI and agentic to supercharge human advisers to make them more effective and efficient. Within a year of commercial availability, our iX suite of AI solutions are ramping and on track to be accretive as we exit this year. This achievement, in its own right, sets us apart from many of our pure AI players and from traditional CX players in this space.

提醒一下，我們的 iX AI 技術套件既可以滿足客戶對完全自主處理的任務的完全自動化的需求，也可以滿足客戶對使用 AI 和代理進行部分自動化的需求，從而增強人類顧問的能力，使他們更加有效和高效。在商業化的一年內，我們的 iX AI 解決方案套件正在蓬勃發展，並有望在今年年底實現增值。這項成就本身就使我們在該領域中脫穎而出，從眾多純 AI 參與者和傳統 CX 參與者中脫穎而出。

Clients recognize that they need partners to help them convert AI promises into reality. A recent study from MIT showed that only 33% of AI projects built internally are succeeding on plan. Conversely, the same study showed that externally sourced AI projects with strategic partners succeeded about 67% of the time, more than double the success rate.

客戶認識到他們需要合作夥伴來幫助他們將人工智慧的承諾轉化為現實。麻省理工學院最近的一項研究表明，內部建構的人工智慧專案只有 33% 能夠按計劃成功。相反，同一項研究表明，與策略合作夥伴合作的外部人工智慧專案的成功率約為 67%，是成功率的兩倍多。

Our rate of success with our deployments is even higher, with early data showing that the vast majority of our use cases result in a documented positive outcome for the client through improved revenue, better CSAT, or process efficiency. This is reflective of our ability to deliver pragmatic AI solutions that are aligned with what clients need and what they value most.

我們的部署成功率甚至更高，早期數據顯示，我們的絕大多數用例都透過提高收入、提高 CSAT 或提高流程效率為客戶帶來了有記錄的積極成果。這反映了我們提供符合客戶需求和最重視的實用人工智慧解決方案的能力。

The strategic role of partners that can combine AI with CX and IT services has supported our own blind study of 450 global enterprises. As stated by an overwhelming majority, clients plan to increase their outsourcing spend as they deploy AI.

能夠將 AI 與 CX 和 IT 服務結合的合作夥伴的策略角色支持了我們對 450 家全球企業的盲目研究。絕大多數人表示，客戶計劃在部署人工智慧的同時增加外包支出。

We absolutely are focused on capturing as much of this growth as we can, and I am confident that we are in a strong position to make that happen. In summary, our strategy is paying off. Despite all the market speculation about the negative impacts of AI on our business, we have shown that AI is indeed a positive tailwind. We are growing our major accounts and securing new wins with our integrated offerings.

我們絕對致力於盡可能實現這一成長，我相信我們有能力實現這一目標。總而言之，我們的策略正在發揮成效。儘管市場普遍猜測人工智慧會對我們的業務產生負面影響，但我們已經證明人工智慧確實是一個正面的推動力。我們正在透過綜合產品擴大主要客戶並獲得新的勝利。

With a strong competitive position, we are leaning into growth, delivering solutions that align with our clients' business needs, gaining share, and scaling our business. This gives us the foundation to support our progression towards a higher growth rate in coming years while generating strong cash flow.

憑藉強大的競爭地位，我們致力於成長，提供符合客戶業務需求的解決方案，獲得市場份額並擴大業務規模。這為我們在未來幾年實現更高的成長率並產生強勁現金流奠定了基礎。

Lastly, I would like to thank our game changers across more than 70 countries for their commitment to client success and welcome our new team members from SAI Digital, who joined us in September. I'm optimistic about our strategy, as we capitalize on the opportunities we have in front of us today.

最後，我要感謝我們遍佈 70 多個國家的變革者對客戶成功的承諾，並歡迎 9 月加入我們的來自 SAI Digital 的新團隊成員。我對我們的策略感到樂觀，因為我們充分利用了今天擺在我們面前的機會。

Now, let me turn over to Andre for details of the quarter and our outlook.

現在，請容許我向安德烈介紹本季的詳細資訊和我們的展望。

Thank you, Chris, and hello, everyone. I'll review the details of the third quarter and then discuss our outlook for the fourth quarter.

謝謝你，克里斯，大家好。我將回顧第三季的細節，然後討論我們對第四季的展望。

We're in a positive position for revenue growth as we enter the final months of 2025. As we focus on improving margins, we're capturing the growth opportunities in the current environment and our cash flow continues to increase. Importantly, we are winning the right kind of revenue that reflects the value of our differentiated offerings.

進入 2025 年的最後幾個月，我們的營收成長前景樂觀。由於我們專注於提高利潤率，我們正在抓住當前環境中的成長機會，我們的現金流也持續增加。重要的是，我們贏得的收入類型正確，反映了我們差異化產品的價值。

Now, let me get into some details on the quarter. We delivered revenue of approximately $2.48 billion, an increase of 2.6% year on year on a constant currency basis and 4% year on year as reported. We delivered revenue above our guidance range, as we have done for the past several quarters.

現在，讓我來介紹一下本季的一些細節。我們實現了約 24.8 億美元的收入，以固定匯率計算年增 2.6%，報告顯示年增 4%。正如過去幾個季度一樣，我們實現的收入超出了預期範圍。

Looking at growth by vertical, our growth in the quarter was led by growth in Banking, Financial Services, & Insurance. Other verticals were solid as well, driven by continued demand for our integrated offerings and ongoing growth in our adjacent solutions.

從垂直成長來看，本季我們的成長主要由銀行、金融服務和保險業的成長所帶動。其他垂直行業也表現穩健，這得益於對我們整合產品的持續需求以及相鄰解決方案的持續成長。

Specific constant currency revenue growth by vertical was as follows: revenue from Banking, Financial Services, & Insurance clients grew 8% year on year. Media & Communications clients grew 7% year on year, largely driven by clients outside of the US and global entertainment/media companies. Revenue from Retail, Travel, and Ecommerce clients grew 3%, largely driven by Travel, which continues to be a strong vertical for us. And our Technology & Consumer Electronics vertical and our Healthcare vertical were both essentially flat.

按垂直行業劃分的具體固定貨幣收入成長如下：來自銀行、金融服務和保險客戶的收入年增 8%。媒體和通訊客戶年增 7%，主要受美國以外的客戶和全球娛樂/媒體公司的推動。來自零售、旅遊和電子商務客戶的收入成長了 3%，這主要得益於旅遊業務，而旅遊業務仍然是我們強勁的垂直領域。我們的技術與消費性電子垂直領域以及醫療保健垂直領域基本持平。

Turning to profitability, our non-GAAP operating income was $305 million, which was below the guidance range we provided on our last call. This was largely due to two factors: first, excess capacity. For context, when we set our guide for the quarter, we expected a faster return to stability with a handful of clients impacted by tariffs in the second quarter and expect a consolidation of additional client volume to occur more quickly to optimize the resources we were holding.

談到獲利能力，我們的非公認會計準則營業收入為 3.05 億美元，低於我們上次電話會議提供的指導範圍。這主要有兩個因素：第一，產能過剩。就背景而言，當我們設定本季的指導方針時，我們預計第二季度少數受關稅影響的客戶將更快地恢復穩定，並預計額外客戶量的整合將更快地進行，以優化我們持有的資源。

We are doing the right thing for our clients long term but in-quarter volumes didn't materialize how the clients or we envisioned. This excess capacity accounted for the majority of the shortfall. A distant second factor for the margin variance was some in-quarter decisions to accelerate transformation opportunities to help clients realize technology benefits more quickly.

我們長期為客戶做正確的事情，但季度交易量並未達到客戶或我們的預期。產能過剩是造成缺口的主要原因。造成利潤率差異的第二個因素是一些季度決策，旨在加速轉型機會，幫助客戶更快實現技術優勢。

We are confident that we can deliver modest sequential quarter profitability improvement in the next few quarters as we resolve the capacity issue, as committed volume migrates to us or we remove the excess capacity proactively. On a year on year basis, our non-GAAP operating income was impacted by the factors I just mentioned, as well as $8 million in additional investments in cybersecurity for Generative AI and a $4 million negative currency impact. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $359 million, a margin of 14.5%.

我們有信心，隨著產能問題的解決、承諾產量轉移給我們或我們主動消除過剩產能，我們可以在未來幾季內實現季度盈利能力的適度提升。與去年同期相比，我們的非公認會計準則營業收入受到了我剛才提到的因素的影響，以及對產生人工智慧網路安全的 800 萬美元額外投資和 400 萬美元的負面貨幣影響。本季調整後的 EBITDA 為 3.59 億美元，利潤率為 14.5%。

Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share was $2.78 per share, $0.02 below our guidance range, as a lower effective tax rate partially offset the non-GAAP operating income variance. GAAP net income was $88 million for the quarter. GAAP diluted earnings per share was $1.34 per share. Reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP measures are provided in today's earnings release.

非公認會計準則每股攤薄收益為 2.78 美元，比我們的指導範圍低 0.02 美元，因為較低的有效稅率部分抵消了非公認會計準則營業收入差異。本季 GAAP 淨收入為 8,800 萬美元。GAAP 稀釋每股收益為 1.34 美元。今天的收益報告中提供了非 GAAP 指標與可比較 GAAP 指標的對帳。

Adjusted free cash flow was $179 million in the quarter, an increase of about $44 million year on year. Year to date, our adjusted free cash flow increased $83 million. We returned approximately $64 million to shareholders in the quarter, which included repurchasing $42 million of common shares or approximately 800,000 shares at an average price of approximately $53 per share. The remaining $22 million in shareholder return was in the form of our quarterly dividend. I'm pleased to share that our Board has authorized an increase to our quarterly dividend to $0.36 per share.

本季調整後的自由現金流為1.79億美元，年增約4,400萬美元。年初至今，我們的調整後自由現金流增加了 8,300 萬美元。本季我們向股東返還了約 6,400 萬美元，其中包括以平均每股約 53 美元的價格回購價值 4,200 萬美元的普通股或約 80 萬股。剩餘的 2,200 萬美元股東回報是以季度股息的形式發放的。我很高興地告訴大家，我們的董事會已批准將季度股息提高至每股 0.36 美元。

At the end of the third quarter, cash and cash equivalents were $350 million and total debt was $4.8 billion, bringing our net debt to $4.5 billion. We also reduced the amount of our off-balance sheet factored accounts receivable to approximately $127 million at the end of the quarter.

第三季末，現金和現金等價物為 3.5 億美元，總債務為 48 億美元，使我們的淨債務達到 45 億美元。我們也於本季末將表外應收帳款金額減少至約 1.27 億美元。

To summarize, in Q3, we delivered strong revenue above expectations. We are lessening our exposure to low-complexity transactions and growing our higher-complexity integrated solutions. We continue to be on our front foot with Generative AI, using it to our advantage to secure highly strategic tech-enabled CX programs while scaling our adjacent services.

總而言之，在第三季度，我們實現了超出預期的強勁收入。我們正在減少對低複雜度交易的接觸，並增加更高複雜度的整合解決方案。我們繼續在生成式人工智慧方面處於領先地位，利用它來確保高度策略性的技術支援的 CX 計劃，同時擴展我們的相關服務。

Now, I'll turn to our outlook. For Q4 and the full-year 2025, we expect the following: Q4 revenue of $2.525 billion to $2.550 billion. Based on current exchange rates, these expectations assume an approximate 160 basis points positive impact of foreign exchange rates in Q4 compared with the prior year period. This guidance implies constant currency revenue growth for the quarter, ranging from 1.5% to 2.5%.

現在，我來談談我們的展望。對於第四季和 2025 年全年，我們預計：第四季營收為 25.25 億美元至 25.50 億美元。根據當前匯率，這些預期假設第四季度外匯匯率與去年同期相比將產生約 160 個基點的正面影響。該指引意味著本季貨幣收入將保持穩定成長，範圍在 1.5% 至 2.5% 之間。

As we've said, our goal is to be conservative in our revenue guidance. This leads to fiscal year 2025 revenue of $9.798 billion to $9.823 billion, based on current exchange rates, which assumes an approximate 10 basis points positive impact of foreign exchange rates compared with the prior year. As such, we're increasing our guidance for the full year to 1.75% to 2% constant currency revenue growth.

正如我們所說，我們的目標是在收入預期上保持保守。根據當前匯率，這意味著 2025 財年的收入將達到 97.98 億美元至 98.23 億美元，假設外匯匯率與前一年相比產生約 10 個基點的正面影響。因此，我們將全年營收成長預期上調至 1.75% 至 2%（以固定匯率計算）。

For Q4, we expect non-GAAP operating income of $320 million to $330 million. This drives full-year non-GAAP operating income to $1.25 billion to $1.26 billion. This translates into expected non-GAAP earnings per share of $2.85 to $2.96 for Q4, assuming approximately $67 million in non-GAAP interest expense, 62.4 million diluted common shares outstanding, and approximately 5.5% of net income attributable to participating securities.

對於第四季度，我們預計非 GAAP 營業收入為 3.2 億至 3.3 億美元。這使得全年非公認會計準則營業收入達到 12.5 億美元至 12.6 億美元。這意味著第四季度預期非公認會計準則每股收益為 2.85 美元至 2.96 美元，假設非公認會計準則利息支出約為 6,700 萬美元，流通在外的稀釋普通股為 6,240 萬股，且歸屬於參與證券的淨收入約為 5.5%。

For fiscal year 2025, we expect full-year non-GAAP EPS of $11.11 per share to $11.23 per share, assuming non-GAAP interest expense of $273 million, approximately 63.1 million diluted common shares outstanding, and approximately 5% of net income attributable to participating securities. The non-GAAP effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 25% for Q4 and 24% for the full year.

對於 2025 財年，我們預計全年非 GAAP 每股收益為 11.11 美元至 11.23 美元，假設非 GAAP 利息支出為 2.73 億美元，流通在外的稀釋普通股約為 6,310 萬股，且歸屬於參與證券的淨收入約為 5%。預計第四季非公認會計準則有效稅率約為 25%，全年非公認會計準則有效稅率約為 24%。

And finally, we've modified our expectations for full-year adjusted free cash flow to be between $585 million to $610 million, an increase of between $110 million to $135 million year on year. This implies a continuation of our year-over-year improvement in adjusted free cash flow in the fourth quarter.

最後，我們將全年調整後自由現金流預期調整為 5.85 億美元至 6.1 億美元之間，年增 1.1 億美元至 1.35 億美元。這意味著我們在第四季度調整後的自由現金流將繼續同比改善。

Regarding capital allocation priorities, we are on track to meet our commitment to return over $240 million to shareholders this year, a combination of over $150 million in spending to repurchase our shares and approximately $90 million in dividends. And today, we repaid the EUR700 million sellers' note related to the Webhelp combination through our previously committed new term loan borrowings that we discussed in our last earnings call. Looking to next year, we will prioritize debt repayment while supporting our dividend and our share repurchase program.

關於資本配置優先事項，我們預計將履行今年向股東返還超過 2.4 億美元的承諾，其中包括超過 1.5 億美元的回購股票支出和約 9,000 萬美元的股息。今天，我們透過上次財報電話會議上討論過的先前承諾的新定期貸款償還了與 Webhelp 合併相關的 7 億歐元賣方票據。展望明年，我們將優先償還債務，同時支持我們的股利和股票回購計畫。

In summary, our overall demand environment remains positive as we enter the last part of 2025. We had some margin headwinds in the quarter but see a path to modest sequential quarter improvement moving forward. We continue to drive strong cash flow growth year on year. And as Chris mentioned, we are in a strong competitive position to drive long-term outperformance. With all of this, we are feeling positive about 2026 and look forward to providing detailed guidance for 2026 on our next call.

總而言之，進入 2025 年末，我們的整體需求環境仍然保持積極。本季我們的利潤率遇到了一些阻力，但未來將實現連續幾季的適度改善。我們持續推動現金流逐年強勁成長。正如克里斯所說，我們處於強大的競爭地位，可以推動長期的卓越表現。有了這些，我們對 2026 年充滿信心，並期待在下次電話會議上為 2026 年提供詳細的指導。

Now, operator, please open the line for questions.

接線員，現在請打開提問熱線。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Luke Morrison, Canaccord Genuity.

盧克·莫里森 (Luke Morrison)，Canaccord Genuity。

So maybe we can start with the margin guide down. You obviously highlighted excess capacity from tariff-impacted clients as the main driver there, along with some drag from those accelerating transformation programs. Can you just unpack that in a little more detail? Were there any additional tariff-related headwinds from the new round that went into effect in August? Or was this impact all carryover from last quarter's client posited?

因此，也許我們可以從邊距指南開始。您顯然強調了受關稅影響的客戶的過剩產能是主要驅動因素，同時也帶來了加速轉型計畫的一些阻力。能更詳細地解釋一下嗎？8 月生效的新一輪關稅是否還會帶來其他不利因素？還是這種影響都是上個季度客戶提出的影響所遺留的？

And then, on the excess capacity, how quickly do you expect that to normalize? Is this more of a one- or two-quarter issue or something that can linger? And then, finally, on the transformation programs, can you just give us more color on what those were and whether they should be thought of as near-term margin headwinds or flipped to revenue over time?

那麼，關於產能過剩，您預計多久才能恢復正常？這是一個一兩個季度的問題，還是會持續下去？最後，關於轉型計劃，您能否向我們詳細介紹這些計劃是什麼，以及它們是否應該被視為短期利潤阻力，還是隨著時間的推移轉化為收入？

Yeah. For sure, Luke. It's Chris. So if you remember what we talked about in Q3, we talked that we were under from a year-over-year profitability perspective, when the tariffs were first announced, with the excess capacity that we had. And our expectations were and what our clients were messaging us was that they thought that they would be more normalized in Q3. And we talked about being a little under in the first month of the quarter, on par in the second month, and over on the third month.

是的。當然，盧克。是克里斯。因此，如果您還記得我們在第三季度討論的內容，我們說過，當關稅首次宣佈時，從同比盈利角度來看，我們的盈利能力處於劣勢，因為我們擁有過剩的產能。我們的預期是，我們的客戶向我們傳達的訊息是，他們認為第三季的情況會更加正常化。我們談到了本季第一個月的銷售額略低於預期，第二個月銷售額持平，第三個月銷售額超過預期。

What happened was with some of the additional noise with tariffs within the third quarter, by the second month, we still weren't seeing that uptick coming through from the clients. The clients aren't seeing that uptick either. We were also seeing that they were taking a little longer to move volume that they committed to consolidating to us just from ability to move it from other providers to us. That's already started. But it delayed us from getting that kickstart.

實際情況是，由於第三季關稅方面出現了一些額外的波動，到了第二個月，我們仍然沒有看到客戶出現上漲。客戶也沒有看到這種上升趨勢。我們還發現，他們花了更長的時間來轉移他們承諾整合給我們的數量，只是因為他們有能力將其從其他供應商轉移到我們這裡。這已經開始了。但它卻耽誤了我們的啟動。

We had multiple conversations with them on a daily basis saying, okay, do you want us to remove capacity? Do you want to keep capacity? And really, the overall belief was to keep capacity because these are highly trained individuals and they're in global roles and they're tightly integrated with the supply chain. They needed to balance this out.

我們每天都會與他們進行多次對話，問他們，好的，您想讓我們減少產能嗎？您想保留容量嗎？事實上，整體信念是維持產能，因為他們都是訓練有素的人員，擔任全球職務，並且與供應鏈緊密結合。他們需要平衡這一點。

So from our perspective, we are seeing the momentum we want. We do think it will be a multi-quarter normalization. As Andre pointed out, if we don't see and we're measuring this on a daily basis, we don't see the expectations come in and our clients don't see the expectations and then we'll start to rationalize the excess capacity through the quarter and into next quarter.

因此從我們的角度來看，我們看到了我們想要的動力。我們確實認為這將是一個多季度的正常化過程。正如安德烈所指出的那樣，如果我們沒有看到並且每天都在衡量這一點，我們就看不到預期，我們的客戶也看不到預期，那麼我們將開始在本季度和下個季度合理化過剩產能。

There was a of additional noise before August on tariffs, frankly. The additional noise in August was only slightly uptick. But really clients are looking at this more holistically about some of the new reality of where they're operating in.

坦白說，8 月之前，關稅問題上還存在一些其他的噪音。八月份的額外噪音僅略有上升。但實際上，客戶正在更全面地看待他們經營所在地的一些新現實。

And so it didn't get worse by any stretch of the imagination. It didn't get any better as the clients or we expected. And again, just to be very clear on this, there's a small group, a handful of clients, very-defined clients that we're working through with this.

因此，無論如何，情況都沒有變得更糟。情況並沒有像客戶或我們期望的那樣好轉。再次強調，為了明確這一點，我們正在與一小群、少數、非常明確的客戶合作。

On your second question -- sorry, that talks to your second question whether there would be a lingering impact. We don't believe so. From a transformation perspective, we have some clients who were in the process of looking at different AI technology partners, we were able to present and put in our technology into the solution right away. The clients were excited about it. And so they wanted to get it in the quarter. We were able to achieve that.

關於您的第二個問題——抱歉，這涉及到您的第二個問題，即是否會產生持續的影響。我們不這麼認為。從轉型的角度來看，我們的一些客戶正在尋找不同的人工智慧技術合作夥伴，我們能夠立即將我們的技術展示並應用到解決方案中。客戶對此感到非常興奮。因此他們希望在本季實現這一目標。我們能夠實現這一目標。

Similarly, what happens when we put that in and we're able to remove headcount, normally, that would be a couple-of-quarter process and planning our guidance. What happened was we were able to put the technology in successfully. We had some overcapacity, which we're already in the process of dealing with.

同樣，當我們把這一點考慮進去並且能夠裁員時會發生什麼，通常這將是一個幾個季度的過程和規劃我們的指導。事實上，我們成功地應用了這項技術。我們的產能過剩，目前我們已經在著手解決。

So to your point, we don't see it as impacting our margins, going forward. You wouldn't normally notice it if we had made the decision pre-quarter and they would have been in line or accretive to our existing underlying business margins. A lot of color but hopefully, that explains where we're at.

所以就你的觀點而言，我們認為這不會影響我們未來的利潤率。如果我們在季度前做出決定，你通常不會注意到這一點，而且它們會與我們現有的基礎業務利潤率一致或增加。顏色很多，但希望這能解釋我們所處的位置。

Yeah. Super, super helpful. And then, maybe just a follow-up, I'd love to get a little more color on how your iX suite is ramping here. What does pipeline and win rates look like here? What's the relative demand between Hello and Hero? To what extent are those deployments being priced discreetly versus being bundled into the broader deals?

是的。超級、超有幫助。然後，也許只是後續問題，我很想更多地了解您的 iX 套件在這裡是如何發展的。這裡的管道和贏率是什麼樣的？Hello 和 Hero 之間的相對需求是什麼？這些部署的定價在多大程度上是謹慎的，而不是捆綁到更廣泛的交易中？

Yeah. For sure, Luke. A couple of things. When we look across the course of the year -- and you have to remember, we probably started at a smaller percentage when we first announced to where we are now -- but literally, 40% of our new wins have our technology, our platforms integrated into the new wins. And it's a combination of both where it's discreet billing, as well as where it's bundled in.

是的。當然，盧克。有幾件事。當我們回顧這一年時——你必須記住，當我們第一次宣布我們現在的狀況時，我們的起步比例可能還比較小——但實際上，我們 40% 的新勝利都得益於我們的技術和平台。它是單獨計費和捆綁計費的組合。

The majority still, at this point, are where we're bundling it in and using it as a differentiated service. But we see that inflection point coming relatively quickly where there will be more discreet billing than from a bundled offering, even though, frankly, the clients see the value in it because they're giving us the business to do it.

目前，我們仍將其捆綁在一起並將其用作差異化服務。但我們看到拐點來得相對較快，屆時將會有比捆綁產品更謹慎的計費，儘管坦白說，客戶看到了其中的價值，因為他們給了我們做這件事的業務。

In terms of the two products, we're seeing far more traction with Hero than Hello. I just want to explain this a little bit. Hello is the fully autonomous product where we're putting in a product, which basically removes human interaction -- so think of a mult-imodal bot that can be called out, can take calls coming in, or chats, or whatever the case may be.

就這兩款產品而言，我們發現 Hero 比 Hello 更受歡迎。我只是想稍微解釋一下這一點。Hello 是一款完全自主的產品，我們正在推出一款產品，它基本上消除了人機互動——因此，可以想像它是一個可以被呼叫、可以接聽來電、可以聊天或進行其他任何情況的多模式機器人。

The commercial model for that product is evolving where it's much more gain share, where we're putting it in. And similarly, I think pure AI competitors are doing the same thing, where it's more of a -- we'll take this out, we'll take a percentage of the transactions that we're saving you being fully autonomous. And we think that we'll continue on with that revenue model.

該產品的商業模式正在不斷發展，我們將在更大程度上獲得市場份額。同樣，我認為純人工智慧競爭對手也在做同樣的事情，更多的是——我們會把這個拿出來，我們會從完全自主為您節省的交易中抽取一定比例。我們認為我們將繼續採用這種收入模式。

On the Hero product, we're seeing much stronger traction because clients see this product as being able to work immediately in their environment, drive significant benefits from a quality and automation perspective and proficiency perspective, meaning that they are able to sell more, be more efficient, take out more costs, drive CSAT, and we have so many demonstratable cases of that. It's very, very, very, very compelling.

對於 Hero 產品，我們看到了更強勁的吸引力，因為客戶認為該產品能夠立即在他們的環境中工作，從品質和自動化角度以及熟練程度角度帶來顯著的效益，這意味著他們能夠銷售更多產品、提高效率、降低更多成本、推動 CSAT，我們有很多可證明的案例。這非常非常非常引人注目。

And what we're happy about is that clients are now starting to see, hey, I can deploy this across my entire infrastructure, including my internal capabilities as well as other partner capabilities. And that is as a SaaS model, a typical SaaS model where we're charging per seat, and we'll continue that model based on what we're seeing with it.

令我們高興的是，客戶現在開始看到，嘿，我可以在我的整個基礎設施中部署它，包括我的內部功能以及其他合作夥伴功能。這就是 SaaS 模型，典型的 SaaS 模型，我們按座位收費，我們將根據目前的情況繼續採用該模型。

Our pipeline just continues to build and get stronger. As I mentioned at the beginning, while 40% of new wins of that, you have to imagine that in the last quarter, it was a lot higher, and we're going to continue to drive that forward. And as we talked about in the prepared remarks, I expect it to be mildly modestly, whichever modifier you want, accretive at the end of Q4.

我們的管道正在不斷建造並變得更加強大。正如我在開始時提到的，雖然其中 40% 是新勝利，但你必須想像，在上個季度，這個數字要高得多，我們將繼續推動這一進程。正如我們在準備好的評論中所討論的那樣，我預計它會在第四季度末溫和地增長，無論你想要哪種修正。

Dave Koning, W. Baird.

戴夫·科寧、W.貝爾德。

And I guess my first question, just kind of the bridge to margins and how we get back. I think we were at 13.4% or around there was your previous guidance. Now, we're maybe a 12.8% margin guidance, something in that ballpark. So we've come down 60 bps.

我想我的第一個問題就是如何實現利潤率的橋樑以及我們如何回歸。我認為我們的成長率達到了 13.4% 左右，與您之前的指導值差不多。現在，我們的利潤率指導價大概是 12.8%，大概是這個水準。因此我們降了 60 個基點。

Is it fair to say -- these sound pretty like one-off type things. Is it fair to say that 13.4% or somewhere around there, what your old guidance would be the baseline from which to grow next year? And then, as you leave some of the GenAI projects on, that should carry a higher margin, we could have a pretty outsized margin improvement next year as things normalize? Or is some of the one-off stuff really going to recur for a little bit?

可以這麼說嗎——這些聽起來很像一次性的事。是否可以說，13.4% 或該數字左右是您以前的指導方針，是明年成長的基準？然後，當您繼續進行一些 GenAI 專案時，這些專案應該會帶來更高的利潤，隨著情況正常化，明年我們的利潤率可能會有相當大的提高？或者一些一次性的事情真的會再發生一段時間嗎？

Dave, so let me talk about the market environment. I'll let Andre do the bridge.

戴夫，那麼讓我來談談市場環境。我會讓安德烈來做橋。

These are one-off items. And as we talked about, they're pretty defined about where we're seeing them. And when we look at our business, clients outside of these impacted clients are providing and driving the margins that historically we see; and then, also new wins that are coming in as they ramp and get to scale are providing the margins that we want to see and are driving.

這些是一次性物品。正如我們所說的，它們對於我們在哪裡看到它們有著非常明確的定義。當我們審視我們的業務時，這些受影響客戶之外的客戶正在提供和推動我們歷史上看到的利潤率；然後，隨著他們的擴張和擴大規模而來的新勝利也提供了我們希望看到和正在推動的利潤率。

We do expect that the AI platforms will continue to help us as they become more accretive. I don't know how accretive they will be in the 2026 timeframe. I just want to temper that a little bit. What we're focused on doing is driving back to where historically we were as we talked about. And then we do see additional opportunity to grow our margins.

我們確實希望，隨著人工智慧平台的增值能力不斷增強，它們將繼續為我們提供幫助。我不知道到 2026 年它們會成長多少。我只是想稍微緩和一下。我們所關注的是回到我們談論的歷史位置。然後我們確實看到了增加利潤的額外機會。

That's a combination, though, of not only our tech solutions, also the areas where we're winning new deals and the solutions and transformation deals that we're winning and some of the new auxiliary services that we've talked about that are higher margin around AI enablement.

然而，這不僅是我們的技術解決方案的結合，也是我們贏得新交易的領域、我們贏得的解決方案和轉型交易以及我們談到的一些圍繞人工智慧支援利潤更高的新輔助服務的結合。

Andre, I'll pass to you for the bridge.

安德烈，我會把這座橋交給你。

Yeah. You pretty much covered it. And yes, David, I think it will take a couple of quarters, as we've said, to take care of these one-off items, which are with just a handful of clients. So I don't know that I would say that they go away completely and we're completely at run rate as we enter 2026. So there'll be a bit of a build there. From there, I think, though, the margin lovers and the things that give us the confidence that we can get margins moving back in the right direction are most of the things that Chris has just alluded to.

是的。您幾乎已經涵蓋了所有內容。是的，大衛，正如我們所說的，我認為需要幾個季度的時間來處理這些一次性項目，這些項目只涉及少數客戶。所以我不知道我是否會說它們會完全消失，而當我們進入 2026 年時，我們的運行速度將完全達到正常水平。所以那裡會有一些建設。不過，我認為，從那時起，利潤愛好者和那些讓我們有信心讓利潤回到正確方向的事情就是克里斯剛才提到的大部分事情。

We should see some contribution as software revenue ramps. We'll see more contribution as we deploy more technology into our solutions. We're reducing the low-complexity commoditized work and replacing it with faster growth, higher-margin work, including the work in some of the adjacent areas that we've talked about.

隨著軟體收入的增加，我們應該會看到一些貢獻。隨著我們在解決方案中部署更多技術，我們將看到更多的貢獻。我們正在減少低複雜度的商品化工作，並用成長更快、利潤更高的工作取而代之，包括我們談到的一些相鄰領域的工作。

Shore movement continues to be a driver for us with margin improvement. And then, as we continue to move our growth rate up from where we'll exit this year, we should be able to start seeing some leverage on our G&A. So all of those things have us confident that while we will work for a quarter or two here to get margins back related to these onetime one-off items on these handful of clients, once we get there, we can keep margins moving in the right direction.

岸上運動繼續成為我們利潤率提高的驅動力。然後，隨著我們繼續提高今年的成長率，我們應該能夠開始看到我們的 G&A 的一些槓桿作用。因此，所有這些事情都讓我們有信心，雖然我們需要花一兩個季度的時間來為這些少數客戶的一次性項目收回利潤，但一旦我們做到了，我們就可以讓利潤率朝著正確的方向發展。

Got you. And then, maybe my follow-up, you had really good sequential movement in your Retail, Travel, Ecom business and then your Communications & Media. Those two segments had big sequential step-ups, Anything to that? Anything one-off? Or is that sustainable? Are those maybe some lower-margin businesses and maybe created a little bit of a mix pressure?

明白了。然後，也許我的後續問題是，您的零售、旅遊、電子商務業務以及通訊和媒體業務都有非常好的連續發展。這兩個部分都有很大的連續提升，有什麼原因嗎？有一次性的事情嗎？或者說這是可持續的嗎？這些可能是一些利潤率較低的業務，可能會產生一些混合壓力嗎？

You're right. We have seen nice sequential step-ups in those. Those are not one-off things. It's pretty broad-based across the verticals you've mentioned. I talked a little bit, commented a little bit on the drivers of the growth in Media & Comms; again, mostly clients outside of the US, as well as some media/entertainment -- global media/entertainment companies. In Retail, Travel, Ecommerce, that has been pretty broad based as well, spread between Travel and Ecommerce clients.

你說得對。我們已經看到了這些方面良好的連續提升。這些都不是一次性的事情。它涵蓋了您提到的各個垂直領域，範圍相當廣泛。我談了一點，評論了媒體和通訊行業成長的驅動因素；同樣，主要是美國以外的客戶，以及一些媒體/娛樂——全球媒體/娛樂公司。在零售、旅遊、電子商務領域，其基礎也相當廣泛，涵蓋旅遊和電子商務客戶。

And then, from a margin profile perspective, it's something we really want to emphasize: The work that we're winning, we're winning at the right long-term margins. And so while we maybe see some constructs where there's a bit more upfront investment, on our part to get to that run rate, the deals as they are priced, when they get to full scale are at the right margins and should be accretive as we go forward.

然後，從利潤率的角度來看，這是我們真正想要強調的一點：我們正在贏得的工作，我們正在以正確的長期利潤率贏得勝利。因此，雖然我們可能看到一些結構需要更多的前期投資，但就我們而言，為了達到這樣的運行率，這些交易的定價以及全面展開時都處於正確的利潤率，並且應該會隨著我們的前進而增值。

And then the only other comment I'll make is that when we look at the adoption of some of our iX technology platforms, we're doing well in Travel with them. We're doing well in E-commerce with them. We're doing well in Consumer & Electronics with them. Because they tend to be faster at adopting this new technology, while we're making good inroads in BFSI with it, and that's actually driving some wins. Those deployments are a little behind just because of the regulatory and compliance that you have to go through with any wins within that space.

然後我要說的另一點是，當我們看看我們的一些 iX 技術平台的採用情況時，我們在旅行方面做得很好。我們與他們在電子商務方面的合作非常順利。我們與他們合作在消費品和電子產品領域做得很好。因為他們往往更快地採用這項新技術，而我們在 BFSI 領域也取得了良好的進展，這實際上帶來了一些勝利。這些部署稍微落後了，因為在該領域取得任何勝利都必須經過監管和合規性審查。

Vincent Colicchio, Barrington Research.

文森‧科利奇奧 (Vincent Colicchio)，巴林頓研究公司。

Yeah. Chris, curious if the consolidation situation remains robust and if we're still in the early innings there.

是的。克里斯，我很好奇整合情況是否依然強勁，以及我們是否仍處於早期階段。

Yeah, Vince. We do think that the consolidation will continue to impact our industry. And we see it as a positive, to be quite honest. And we continue to see it being primarily driven by clients who are looking for fewer partners and deeper relationships with those partners and a more robust offering for those partners.

是的，文斯。我們確實認為整合將繼續影響我們的產業。坦白說，我們認為這是一件正面的事。我們繼續看到，這主要是由那些尋求更少合作夥伴、與這些合作夥伴建立更深層次關係以及為這些合作夥伴提供更強大服務的客戶所推動的。

And so I think we're still in early innings, especially now as clients are procuring services across multiple disciplines together; and do expect that to continue for the next, frankly, 24, 36 months in probably a heightened fashion.

因此，我認為我們仍處於早期階段，特別是現在客戶正在一起採購跨多個學科的服務；並且預計這種情況在未來 24 至 36 個月內可能會繼續以更激烈的方式發展。

And then, the overall sales pipeline, I assume it's at a healthy level, is that broad-based? Or is it that the three segments that were strong this quarter will continue to be strong and some of the others will lag?

然後，我認為整體銷售管道處於健康水平，是廣泛的嗎？還是本季表現強勁的三個細分市場將繼續保持強勁，而其他一些細分市場則會落後？

No. We're really happy with our pipeline, Vince. Like, there's a couple of things that we've been doing through the course of the year that are starting to pay off. We've really brought in a lot of deep domain expertise within a number of our verticals of talent, both from a technical sales and consultation background, that's really driving some nice pipeline, both from a transformation perspective and an integrated offering perspective.

不。文斯，我們對我們的管道非常滿意。例如，我們在這一年中所做的一些事情開始獲得回報。我們確實從多個垂直領域的人才中引進了大量深厚的領域專業知識，包括技術銷售和諮詢背景，這確實從轉型角度和綜合產品角度推動了一些良好的管道。

And so that we're seeing the benefits of. And that's pretty broad-based across our strategic verticals. We're also seeing good momentum all of our geos -- or sorry, all of our major regions like EMEA and the Americas and then, Asia-Pacific. We're seeing some very, very nice momentum from that perspective.

這樣我們就看到了它的好處。這在我們的策略垂直領域中相當廣泛。我們也看到我們所有地區（或抱歉，我們所有的主要地區，如歐洲、中東和非洲地區、美洲以及亞太地區）都呈現良好的發展勢頭。從這個角度來看，我們看到了一些非常非常好的動力。

As Andre pointed out, not only the margin profile of these new deals as well of our pipeline is where we want to see it, but the length of the contracts, the stickiness of the deals and frankly, the complexity of these deals are really where we are driving as a business.

正如安德烈所指出的那樣，我們不僅希望看到這些新交易的利潤率以及我們的管道，而且合約的期限、交易的粘性以及坦率地說，這些交易的複雜性才是我們作為企業真正推動的方向。

Ruplu Bhattacharya, Bank of America.

美國銀行的 Ruplu Bhattacharya。

Chris, I want to ask a question on risk management. So obviously, volumes were lower from some clients this quarter. But the company decided to invest in some transformational items for other customers. So I'm just trying to understand, can you talk about the decision criteria for doing such investments? Like, what ROI are you expecting from those customers? And like, in terms of making such investments, obviously, it hurts margins in the near term but can you talk about what long-term benefit you expect to get?

克里斯，我想問一個關於風險管理的問題。顯然，本季一些客戶的銷量有所下降。但該公司決定為其他客戶投資一些轉型項目。所以我只是想了解一下，您能談談進行此類投資的決策標準嗎？例如，您期望從這些客戶身上獲得什麼樣的投資報酬率？並且，就進行此類投資而言，顯然，它會在短期內損害利潤率，但您能談談您期望獲得什麼長期利益嗎？

And I have a couple of follow-ups.

我還有一些後續問題。

Yeah. For sure, Ruplu. That's a great question. A couple of things.

是的。當然，魯普魯。這是一個很好的問題。有幾件事。

When we look at our business as a whole, one thing that we're very focused on is driving more share gains within a client and long, long-term relationships. If you look at our top 25 that is over a 17-year tenure, it goes to -- we believe in these long-term relationships through thick and thin because they benefit us.

當我們從整體上看待我們的業務時，我們非常關注的一件事是推動客戶獲得更多的份額並建立長期的合作關係。如果你看一下我們任期超過 17 年的前 25 名，你會發現——我們相信這些長期合作關係無論順境逆境都會為我們帶來好處。

As we've also talked about, when we look at our top 25 accounts, they're growing very well. Frankly, a little higher than the rest of the client base. These are very sophisticated buyers. They're very complex buyers. They're very large buyers. And so when we look at making those investments, you can think that the clients that we do that with are clients who we've been with a long time; have multiple different offerings in really their key go-to-market partners, and we see a lot more opportunity to grow within that business.

正如我們所討論的，當我們查看我們的前 25 個帳戶時，它們都發展得非常好。坦白說，比其他客戶群高一點。這些都是非常精明的買家。他們是非常複雜的買家。他們都是大買家。因此，當我們考慮進行這些投資時，你可以認為，與我們進行投資的客戶是我們已經合作了很長時間的客戶；他們在其關鍵的市場合作夥伴中擁有多種不同的產品，我們看到該業務中存在更多的成長機會。

As painful as it is to deal with some of these things in the period, we're really looking at longer term. And where those clients want to reciprocate our investments around either more volume, more opportunities, and consolidating out smaller partners, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so that's how we look at it. We don't do it on clients who want to RP their business every quarter or are not like-minded from a long-term partnership perspective.

儘管在這段時間內處理這些事情很痛苦，但我們確實著眼於更長遠的未來。這些客戶希望透過增加交易量、增加機會、整合較小的合作夥伴等方式來回報我們的投資。這就是我們的看法。我們不會對那些希望每個季度都進行 RP 業務或從長期合作角度來看志趣相投的客戶這樣做。

From the transformation clients, frankly, the way we look at it is that if we do the right thing with the client, they will reward us with more business over the longer term. The clients that we set up in transformation in quarter, honestly, they were focused on saying, hey, we need to do this? Can we do this right away? If we can, it would be a big benefit. We could have said, well, we can start it next quarter or whatever the case may be. That also allows the competitor to come in and say, hey, we can do it sooner.

坦白說，從轉型客戶的角度來看，我們的看法是，如果我們為客戶做正確的事情，從長遠來看，他們將為我們帶來更多的業務。說實話，我們在本季轉型中建立的客戶專注於說，嘿，我們需要這樣做嗎？我們可以立即做這件事嗎？如果可以的話，那將是一個很大的好處。我們本可以說，好吧，我們可以在下個季度開始，或其他任何情況。這也使得競爭對手有機會說，嘿，我們可以更快完成。

And so from our perspective, we want to keep these clients focused on us. We want them on our technology and our platforms. And so we're willing to take the pain to get them across to our platforms from a relationship perspective.

因此從我們的角度來看，我們希望這些客戶能夠關注我們。我們希望他們使用我們的技術和平台。因此，我們願意付出努力，從關係的角度將他們引導到我們的平台上。

And time has shown us -- over 20 years in this industry, time has shown us, when we do the right thing with our clients, we get rewarded over the longer term. And we're seeing that even with the conversations about how to deal with this excess capacity right now. They are collaborative, they are engaged, and they're all focused about trying to make sure that we're both doing the right things for each other.

時間告訴我們—在這個行業 20 多年的經驗告訴我們，當我們為客戶做正確的事時，我們會獲得長期回報。我們看到，即使現在正在討論如何處理過剩產能。他們積極合作、積極參與，並且都致力於確保我們雙方都為彼此做正確的事。

Okay. Can I ask a similar question on the iX suite of software that you're investing in? So you're investing $50 million incremental on the software versus the $50 million base level of CapEx that you typically have or investments that you typically have, do you still expect to get to breakeven in fiscal 4Q? And what level of investment should we expect going forward? What's the criteria for you to either increase or decrease that spend? I have a follow-up final for Andre.

好的。我可以就您投資的 iX 軟體套件問一個類似的問題嗎？因此，您在軟體上投資了 5000 萬美元，而您通常的資本支出或投資基本水準為 5000 萬美元，您是否仍預計在第四財季實現收支平衡？未來我們應該期待什麼程度的投資？您增加或減少支出的標準是什麼？我為安德烈準備了一場後續決賽。

Yeah. So a couple of things. We absolutely expect to be on track, as we talked about in our prepared remarks, to be breakeven, modestly accretive at the end of in Q4 as we exit on our iX suite of products.

是的。有幾件事。正如我們在準備好的演講中談到的那樣，我們絕對希望在第四季末退出 iX 產品套件時實現收支平衡，並適度增值。

You are correct. Roughly, it's about $50 million incremental spend. It has popped up a little bit. It's gone down a little bit. But the reality is that it's in that ballpark. And so when you think of from an accretive nature perspective, that's where we're at.

你是對的。粗略地說，這大約是 5000 萬美元的增量支出。它已經彈出一點點了。它已經下降了一點。但事實是，情況確實如此。因此，當你從增值性質的角度思考時，這就是我們所處的位置。

We do expect that we're going to need to continue to increase investments. But I want to be very clear about this, it's in line with our revenue growth on the products that we're doing. As we install our iX Hello product, we absorbed the cost for that as we put it in. And so more and more projects, there will be a cost to it. And then, we get the revenue from the run rate perspective of the software.

我們確實預計我們需要繼續增加投資。但我想非常清楚地說明這一點，這與我們所生產產品的收入成長是一致的。當我們安裝 iX Hello 產品時，我們承擔了其成本。因此，越來越多的專案都會產生成本。然後，我們從軟體的運行率角度獲得收入。

On the Hello product, we get the license revenue right out of the gate as we sign those deals. So it's a bit of a difference between the products. But the criteria is as it becomes a scalable business, we're going to invest as we continue to drive scale in that business. But as you've seen us in the past, we want to make an economic return on those investments. And so we'll do so as we go.

對於 Hello 產品，我們在簽署這些協議後立即獲得了授權收入。所以產品之間還是有點差別的。但標準是，當它成為一個可擴展的業務時，我們將進行投資，並繼續推動該業務的規模。但正如您過去所見，我們希望從這些投資中獲得經濟回報。所以我們會繼續這樣做。

Okay. Maybe the last question I have for Andre. Andre, it looks like you're taking down free cash flow guidance a little bit, how should we think about cash flow going forward? It looks like you also raised the dividend. SO what was the rationale for doing that now? How should we think about capital returns, going forward?

好的。這可能是我要問安德烈的最後一個問題。安德烈，看起來你稍微降低了自由現金流指導，我們該如何考慮未來的現金流？看起來您也提高了股息。那麼現在這樣做的理由是什麼呢？未來我們該如何看待資本回報？

Thank you for all the details.

感謝您提供所有詳細資訊。

Sure. Happy to do that. SO as we think about free cash flow beyond 2025, we're still very optimistic that we can drive some increase to free cash flow in 2026. Drivers there -- we are coming to the very end of integration activities. A lot of those spending is cash. So that should be a help to us as we go out to next year.

當然。很高興這樣做。因此，當我們考慮 2025 年以後的自由現金流時，我們仍然非常樂觀地認為我們可以在 2026 年推動自由現金流增加。那裡的司機——我們即將完成整合活動。其中很多支出都是現金。所以這對我們明年的旅行應該會有所幫助。

Secondly, our cash interest should drop next year as we continue to pay down debt and maybe get some help from interest rates as well. So those things help us positively. We also think we'll continue to grow the top line and make progress with the margin, and that will help. The drop in our guidance for Q4 is being driven by the margin pressures that we've seen and the drop in our profitability expectations for the full year.

其次，由於我們繼續償還債務，也可能得到一些利率的幫助，我們的現金利息明年應該會下降。所以這些事情對我們有正面的幫助。我們還認為，我們將繼續增加營業收入並在利潤率方面取得進展，這將有所幫助。我們下調第四季業績預期的原因是利潤率壓力以及全年獲利預期的下降。

Capital allocation priorities, as we go forward, will remain balanced. So again, we're going to generate more free cash flow next year. And with that, we are going to prioritize repayment of debt, while supporting our dividend and continuing our share repurchase program. I don't know that we'll see share repurchase dollars go up dramatically next year. I think we'll probably prioritize more taking some of the increase in cash flow and putting it towards our debt.

隨著我們不斷前進，資本配置優先順序將保持平衡。因此，我們明年將產生更多的自由現金流。因此，我們將優先償還債務，同時支持我們的股息並繼續我們的股票回購計劃。我不知道明年股票回購金額是否會大幅上漲。我認為我們可能會優先考慮將部分增加的現金流用於償還債務。

And then, lastly, the dividend. Look, we have investors who are very appreciative of the dividend. They are appreciative of our cadence of annual increases. We're confident in our ability to generate strong free cash flow, not only this year, where we've driven a pretty sizable increase, but drive an increase in the next year as well. All of that is part of the decision to increase the dividend.

最後，是股息。瞧，我們的投資人非常感激股息。他們對我們每年的成長節奏表示讚賞。我們對自己產生強勁自由現金流的能力充滿信心，不僅在今年，我們已經實現了相當大的成長，而且明年也將繼續成長。所有這些都是增加股息決定的一部分。

Okay. Thanks for all the details. Appreciate it.

好的。感謝您提供所有詳細資訊。非常感謝。

Sure.

當然。

Thank you. And this concludes our Q&A session and conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

謝謝。今天的問答環節和會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。