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Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for standing by, and welcome to the CTG first-quarter 2014 earnings call. (Operator Instructions). As reminder, today's call is being recorded.
I'll now turn the conference over to Mr. James Culligan, Director of Investor Relations at CTG. Please go ahead, sir.
James Culligan - Director of IR
Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. We certainly appreciate your time and your interest in CTG. On the call today, we have CTG's Chief Executive Officer, Jim Boldt; and Brendan Harrington, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Jim and Brendan are going to review the results of the first quarter of 2014, and then update you on the Company's strategies and outlook. We'll follow with an opportunity for Q&A. If you don't have the news release discussing our financial results, you can access it at the Company's website, CTG.com.
Before we begin, I want to mention that statements in the course of this conference call that state the Company's or management's intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations, and predictions for the future are forward-looking statements. It's important to note that the Company's actual results could differ materially from those projected.
Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in our earnings release, as well as in the Company's SEC filings. You can find these at our website, or the SEC's website at SEC.gov. Please review our forward-looking statements in conjunction with these precautionary factors.
With that, I would like to turn it over to Jim to begin the discussion.
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone. This is Jim Boldt. I want to thank you for joining us this morning for our first-quarter earnings conference call. As you saw in our news release, revenue for the quarter was slightly below the low end of our guidance, and EPS was at the midpoint of our guidance. The shortfall from the midpoint of our revenue guidance occurred in our staffing business. Revenue from our fraud, waste, and abuse project from a small payer for work that we performed in late 2013, helped earnings to reach the midpoint of our EPS guidance. I'm going to talk more about our results and what we see for the 2014 second quarter and the full year.
But first, I'm going to ask Brendan to start us off with a review of our financial results. Brendan?
Brendan Harrington - SVP and CFO
Thanks, Jim. Good morning, everyone. For the first quarter of 2014, CTG's revenue was $97.9 million, a decrease of $10.6 million compared with the first quarter of 2013. First-quarter 2014 had 62 billing days, one less than the first quarter of 2013. Solutions revenue in the first quarter of 2014 totaled $38.6 million, a decrease of $4.1 million or 9.5% compared with the first-quarter 2013, primarily due to lower revenue from electronic medical record projects. As a percentage of total revenue, solutions revenue was 39%, the same as a year ago.
Staffing revenue in the quarter decreased $6.5 million or 9.9% to $59.3 million, reflecting reductions in staffing requirements from a large client that began in the second quarter of 2013. These reductions were slightly offset in the quarter by higher demand for technical resources from several other clients.
In the vertical markets on which we primarily focus, revenue as a percentage of total Company revenue in the first quarter was as follows: healthcare decreased to 30.2% from 31.8%; technology service providers decreased to 24.9% from 30.1%; financial services increased to 8.1% from 6.6%; energy was relatively flat, at 6.2% compared with 6%; while general markets increased to 30.6% from 25.5%.
First-quarter revenue from IBM, our largest customer, was $21.5 million compared with $28.9 million in first-quarter 2013. As a percent of total revenue, revenue from IBM decreased to 22% in the 2014 first quarter compared with 26.7% of total revenue in the 2013 first quarter.
Revenue from our European operations was $20.8 million, a 7% increase from the $19.4 million recorded in last year's first quarter. The effect of foreign currency fluctuations during the first quarter of 2014 increased consolidated revenue by approximately $0.8 million. On a local currency basis, our European revenue increased by 3.1% compared with the 2013 first quarter.
Direct costs as a percentage of revenue were 78.6% in the first quarter compared with 79.2% in the first quarter of 2013. SG&A expenses decreased approximately $960,000 from the first-quarter 2013, primarily as a result of fewer non-billable personnel and lower incentive compensation expenses. The billable travel expenses included in the first-quarter 2014 revenue in direct costs were $2.5 million. The billable travel expenses for the first quarter of 2013 totaled $3.1 million.
First-quarter operating income was $5.5 million, a decrease of approximately $700,000 or 11.4% year-over-year. Operating margin in the first quarter was 5.6% of revenue, 10 basis points lower than the first-quarter 2013. The year-over-year decrease in operating income was due primarily to decreases in our health solutions revenue, offset by lower SG&A expenses.
Net income in the first quarter was $3.2 million, a decrease of $891,000 or 22% compared to the first quarter of 2013. On a per diluted share basis, net income was $0.19 for the quarter, a $0.05 decrease compared to the first quarter of 2013. The decrease in earnings per share is due to lower operating income, and a much higher income tax rate in the first-quarter 2014.
The tax rate for the 2014 first quarter was 41.1% compared with 33.2% in the 2013 first quarter. This lower rate in the first quarter of 2013 was primarily the result of the recognition of a research and development tax credit for both 2012 and for one quarter of 2013, in the first quarter of 2013. These credits were not recognized in the first quarter of 2014, since the legislation to extend these tax credits for 2014 has not yet passed. We expect the tax rate for the second-quarter 2014 to be between 39% and 41%. We expect the tax rate for the full-year 2014 to be between 38% and 40% compared to 35.6% for 2013.
Both the 2014 and 2013 first-quarter results include equity compensation expense of approximately $0.02 per diluted share, net of [net]. Our headcount at the end of the first quarter was 3700, the same as at the end of the fourth-quarter 2013, and 300 fewer than at the end of the first-quarter 2013. Of that 3700 employees at the end of the first-quarter 2014, 91% were billable resources.
At the end of the first quarter of 2014, we had no debt and $32.3 million of cash on the balance sheet, compared to no debt and $30.7 million of cash at the end of the first quarter of 2013. Both the first quarter of 2014 and 2013 ended on US biweekly payroll dates.
Our day sales outstanding were 65 days at the end of the first-quarter 2014 compared with 61 days at the end of the first-quarter 2013. The increase in DSO was due to timing of cash proceeds received at the end of the comparative quarters.
Our cash used in operations in the first quarter of 2014 was approximately $9.3 million, as compared with cash used in operations of approximately $7.1 million in the first quarter of 2013, with the difference primarily attributable to lower net income and changes in working capital. In the quarter, we had $801,000 in capital expenditures, and recorded depreciation expense of $837,000.
We repurchased 211,000 shares of CTG common stock during the first quarter of 2014, and no shares in the first quarter of 2013. We also repurchased 50,000 shares in the second quarter of 2014, in the time period leading up to today. Our current repurchase authorization is for approximately 0.9 million shares. As it remains accretive to our earnings, we intend to continue our repurchase program during the remainder of 2014.
Jim?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
Thanks, Brendan. In aggregate, revenue declined by 10% in the 2014 first quarter. Revenue from our solutions business, which represents 39% of our total revenue, also decreased 10%. The decline in our solutions business came from our healthcare vertical, where our hospital clients continue to delay or reduce spending, in response to a reduction in income and cash flows due to the sequestered cuts in Medicare; reductions in other government reimbursement; and the resulting reduction in inpatient days of care.
On our last conference call, we mentioned we had received two RFPs for electronic medical record projects, which the hospitals have not decided what IT services firms will be awarded those projects. Reflecting the slowdown in spending on new EMR projects, we received one new RFP for an EMR project in the last [two] months. We won one of these three projects, and one RFP was withdrawn by the hospital. We're still waiting the decision on one RFP, as to what IT services firm will be chosen for that project.
When we started the first quarter of 2014, we had 15 active EMR projects. During the first quarter, there were two projects that started and four projects that ended. Therefore, at the end of the first quarter of 2014, we had 13 active EMR projects.
In the short term, we believe that our EMR business growth will be constrained, due to hospitals having to deal with the reimbursement cuts that have occurred. In the long-term, there is still significant opportunity for growth in our EMR business. There are many hospitals who currently do not have EMR applications, and others that have applications that will not meet the more stringent standards that are about to be imposed under Meaningful Use Stage 2.
The health information exchanges will have to be built to facilitate the exchange of records, and we are positioned in Europe to participate in their adoption of EMR as when it occurs. Given the work that needs to be done, we remain optimistic in the long-term about growth prospects for our EMR business.
Fortunately for CTG, EMRs are not our only healthcare offering. We've recently seen an increase in the number of RFPs we are receiving for healthcare outsource and engagement. In the current tight provider spending market, we see an excellent opportunity for us in application outsourcing, as it creates significant immediate savings for hospitals without them making a large financial investment. CTG also has an outstanding reputation in this area, and these engagements are typically for multiple years, providing an annuity-like revenue stream.
Our data analytics offerings added approximately $0.01 to earnings per share in the first quarter of 2014. We do not forecast any revenue or profit in the first quarter from our data analytics offering. As reported on our last call, we've done fraud, waste, and abuse work in late 2013 for a small payer; who, at the time of our last conference call, was concerned about what impact pursuing these claims might have on their relationship with their provider network, and had not processed any of the FWA claims that we had presented to them. Later in the first quarter, the payer decided how they were going to proceed, and paid us for a portion of the FWA claim that we had identified.
Having covered healthcare, I'd also like to talk about the other three vertical markets on which we focus. Our technology service provider market, which is all lower-margin staffing business, declined in the first quarter of 2014 based upon a reduction in a significant customer's need for external IT resources. Our financial services vertical had another excellent quarter, with most of the revenue coming from our European operations. Our energy business revenue was flat when compared to the first quarter of 2013.
Turning to our staffing business, its revenue declined by 10% compared with the first quarter of 2013. The decline in staffing business from the significant customer I just mentioned was modestly offset by increase in demand from other client.
Looking at our second quarter of 2014, we're forecasting total revenue to be in the range of $101 million to $103 million. We're forecasting earnings per share in the second quarter of 2013 (sic - see press release, "2014") to be in the range of $0.21 to $0.23 per diluted share. For the 2014 full year, we currently expect a revenue range of $393 million to $407 million, or a 5% decrease in the midpoint of our guidance when compared to 2013.
Based upon our revenue forecast and anticipated mix of business, we expect our 2014 net income per diluted share to be in the range of $0.83 to $0.91, or a 5% decrease from 2013 at the midpoint of our guidance.
I would like to take a couple minutes to talk about the change in our guidance. We mentioned on our last call that we expected our healthcare revenue to decline this year, as we would have $30 million less electronic medical record work. Offsetting the decline will be $15 million of new business related to outsourcing, ICD-10, and other consulting work. We still believe that our EMR business will decline by $30 million this year, but the estimate of the new business has changed.
For several quarters now, our ICD-10 business has been growing. When we set our previous guidance, we anticipated that the ICD-10 business would continue to grow as the October 1, 2014, conversion deadline approached; and after conversion date, we would be engaged in revenue cycle management engagements related to the code conversion. When Congress, a couple of weeks ago, unexpectedly postponed the date for the ICD-10 conversion by a year, our clients postponed their projects. We literally had clients calling up and canceling (technical difficulty).
Primarily because of the postponement in the ICD-10 date, we have lowered our solutions revenue guidance for the year by $5 million. Most of the reduction in our EPS estimate for the year is related to the reduction in revenue guidance for our healthcare solutions business. We had also expected by now to see a pickup in demand from a significant staffing customer that has had reduced requirement for the last few quarters. As we have not seen any pickup in demand, we lowered our guidance for our revenue in the staffing business for 2014 by $10 million.
Consistent with what we said on the last conference call, for our staffing business and our traditional IT solutions business, we set the guidance in the same way that we have in the past, by estimating engagements that we're currently working on, as well as engagements we anticipate will be signed later in the year.
As the technology is similar, we've grouped three of our newer solutions offerings together as our data analytics product suite. The three data analytics offerings are our big data offering and our two [SaaS] offerings, which are the clinical decisions support business for chronic kidney disease, and our fraud, waste, and abuse offering.
For these data analytics offerings, we have only included two engagements in our guidance for the year, where the client has given us a verbal commitment that they want to proceed with the project. In addition, we have included the revenue that we received in the first quarter for the fraud, waste, and abuse project that I mentioned at the start of the call.
Our forecast for 2014 for data analytics revenue remains at $6 million, and the forecast for earnings per share contributions from these projects has increased to $0.18 per share. We do believe that we'll sell more $6 million of data analytics services in 2014, but cannot precisely forecast this business, because these offerings are still in the introductory stage of the product lifecycle, and we do not have enough history to project with reasonable certainty which opportunities will be closed.
In addition, because of the high margins, a small amount of revenue from these offerings has a large impact on our EPS. We have included in our guidance that our new big data engagement that we previously discussed will begin in the second quarter of 2014. As the year progresses, we will adjust our guidance accordingly for additional wins.
Looking at our revenue guidance for the year, we currently think our healthcare business will decline by approximately 15% in 2014. That assumes the government's reduction in reimbursements to hospitals will continue throughout 2014, limiting EMR start. Offsetting some of the decline in EMR revenue are expected increases in our revenue from other offerings, such as outsourcing and consulting services tied to health care reform.
For our non-healthcare solutions business, we're projecting a revenue increase of approximately 3% in 2014. We're forecasting a 1% decrease in our staffing business in 2014. Although we're projecting revenue and earnings to decline by approximately 5% this year, we continue to remain optimistic about CTG's long-term growth potential. While our healthcare business is going through a transition period at this time; longer-term, we expect it to return to growth, as spending for large, mission-critical work tied to reimbursement rates and regulatory compliance resumes.
In the short term, we expect to see growth in our outsourcing and healthcare IT consulting work. In addition, we positioned CTG to participate in the adoption of US (technical difficulty) software by European hospitals.
We are pleased we have already been able to line up $6 million in data analytics sales for 2014, and we'll adjust our guidance for further wins as the year progresses. Clearly, future sales of our high-margin data analytics products will contribute significantly to CTG's earnings growth going forward.
If you look at how well CTG is positioned in healthcare, one of the fastest-growing US industries, you can see why we remain optimistic about our long-term growth opportunity.
With that, I'd like to open the call for questions, if there are any. Operator, would you please manage our question-and-answer period?
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Brian Kinstlinger, Sidoti.
Brian Kinstlinger - Analyst
A question on EMR. I'm wondering, given some of the hospitals out there have systems in place that probably don't need, as you said, the stringent requirements -- what's your thought on, given the cost is so great, think it's then to upgrade several versions of the software instead to maybe -- maybe they'll use the systems integrator to build some kind of reporting application, and other software programs to help them meet this mandate.
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
Well, I think if you were to do that, it would probably cost about the same as if you switched to another EMR system that would work. Because the EMR system captures the documentation while a physician is actually doing it, and rolls it through the system. It also stores the data and allows you to share data, which is the part of the Meaningful Use that most of these applications that are out there are having a hard time with.
So, given the choice, I think -- I honestly believe it will be cheaper to put in an existing EMR system that would work, than trying to figure out yourself how to create an EMR system. The software that's out there -- the larger people, I mean the Cerners and the Epics, et cetera -- have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the software, getting it up to the standards that it needs to be. And I really don't see a hospital being able to jury-rig the system to be able to do (technical difficulty). Not that somebody might not try doing it, but it would be very complicated.
Brian Kinstlinger - Analyst
And then maybe talk about your expectations on the analytics business. I guess in terms of the forward look of new business, has anything changed in terms of the pushbacks you're getting? Obviously you're getting some push backs from fraud, waste, and abuse, or medical IT management.
Do you think you're making progress at these clients? Or do you think you're stuck in a stalemate, trying to convince some people to use it, while others may be interested in using it at that same client. Just take us through -- has anything changed in the last 3 to 6 months, in terms of their desire to take these applications?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
I think what's changed, really, is we've added some additional option for the fraud, waste, and abuse application. So one of the additional options -- the hesitancy that the small payers have, just so everybody knows, is that they have a provider network; and if they go back a year or two years and hit them with a claim, they're afraid that the provider network is going to get upset with them and leave their network. For a larger payer, it's not as much of a concern because they're not that dependent on any one particular provider network.
What we've done is we've come up with an offering that is prospective instead of looking back. So, instead of going to the payer and saying, okay, we're going to run these claims, and you'll pay us the percentage of what you collect in the past, we'll run our application and we'll tell you what to change in your processing so that, prospectively, you can adjust.
And from the payers that I've talked to -- and I've talked to some of them personally -- they are all adamant that they have a lot better chance of changing a payment at the time of adjudication, that it's more difficult and it annoys the provider a lot more if they go back in history.
Now, the two small payers that we ran this for actually did pay us money. They did find value before we did. It's just that they're hesitant to put all their claims through. So, for fraud, waste, and abuse, we are kind of optimistic that, as long as they're looking forward, they would be willing to go to a provider and basically telling them -- you're abusing the system, or you're outright committing fraud here; and we've got to stop you from doing it, than asking them for their money back.
On the IT medical management model, I think that we're moving forward at the pace that we thought that we would. It's a brand-new technology. It involves getting Chief Medical Officers comfortable with it. Also getting the finance department comfortable with taking established trends and then (technical difficulty). So that one's probably moving at the pace that I would have expected. And we're going back to -- on the fraud, waste, and abuse, a lot of smaller payers, particularly in offering this new (technical difficulty).
Brian Kinstlinger - Analyst
Just a follow-up on the small payers, on the one that you recently collected money on, just wanted to be clear -- did they actually pay you for your service, or did they actually pay you because they collected money? Or, sorry, they went after the money that was fraudulent or waste or abuse. And then in the future, when you look at it, will it be more real-time payment as opposed to lumpy? Where as they realize they will deny a claim, that's when you'll get paid?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
I believe that they went back and actually collected the money, but only from certain providers. That is what we have been told they were going to do. So that means that as that part -- I don't think this will ever be a smooth, annuity-type business. It's always going to be lumpy.
Brian Kinstlinger - Analyst
Okay. and then the last question I have, and I'll get back in the queue, is last quarter you talked about -- I think it was some large payers who -- maybe one, maybe two, I can't remember -- who decided not to move forward with the application. I'm wondering if you've had any feedback, since it's been a little bit of time now, to understand why the large payers didn't accept the application.
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
Those were either large payers or states, and they didn't actually tell us. They just said they didn't want to pursue it now. I think one of them came back and said, wanted to check sometime in the future.
Brian Kinstlinger - Analyst
All right. Thank you.
Operator
Kevin Liu, B. Riley and Company.
Kevin Liu - Analyst
For your guidance, what's inferred, in terms of when your large customer starts to bottom out on the staffing side of things?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
Well, we think that (technical difficulty). So kind of hard to predict, but as far as we can tell, our reduction is more than the reduction in revenue. So we're assuming that we can adjust (technical difficulty). We wouldn't get very much (technical difficulty).
So for the year, really -- and I think it's pretty obvious that the customer is IBM -- if you take IBM's revenue for the first quarter and annualize it on a daily (technical difficulty), for the year it would end up about $88.4 million, as I recall.
And that's really what we have in our projections for the year for them. That would mean -- last year, they were $100.9 million, so they'd be down $12.5 million this (technical difficulty). And when do you think about our other customers, our non-IBM staffing customers, will be up about 6.5% (technical difficulty) million dollars. And if you net those out, that's the $2.5 million roughly that (technical difficulty).
Kevin Liu - Analyst
Understood. And on the solution side, you talked about some of the ICD-10 related work and revenue cycle management stuff that would come after being pushed out. Would you expect all of those opportunities to be there for you in fiscal 2015 with the new deadline? And also just in terms of how you manage the staffing on that side of things, are there reductions or furloughs you could take, as you wait for that work to come back?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
First, we were kind of -- we didn't see this one coming, quite frankly. Even the American Medical Association had signed off on the date, so they were the biggest [lobbier] to change the date at one point. And it was really Congress who forced the administration. CMS never changed their opinion. Congress -- the House passed it by tacking it onto a law. Surprisingly, the Senate passed it 65/35, and then Obama signed it a day or two later.
The date hasn't actually been established as October 1 for 2015. The Congressional law basically says that those codes can't be used before that day. We assume that CMS is going to establish it as the date, but I don't think that's actually been done yet.
I would assume that that business is going to come back in about a year, and we probably will have to furlough people. We can't leave people for a year sitting on a bench. Fortunately, a lot of the people involved in that are high-end project managers, and we hope to be able to place some of them in other [accounts].
Kevin Liu - Analyst
And as it relates to the revenue cycle management fees, that's not necessarily contingent on winning ICD-10 work, right? Are you guys able to build any sort of business around that, as well, in the near-term?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
We are starting to build some revenue cycle management. But after the code changes, because of the number of codes is 10 times more than currently exists, we think almost every hospital is going to have to do some revenue cycle management, just to get back to where they were. So, we are expecting to see a pretty significant increase in revenue cycle management (technical difficulty).
But we are doing revenue cycle management; we just don't expect to see the work related to the ICD-10 code change happen this year.
Kevin Liu - Analyst
Okay. And just one last one on the analytics side of things. How much of the $6 million do you get with the Q2 engagement? And then any sense of the timing of when the other big engagement you have would start?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
In our forecast for the second quarter, there's $0.04 per share for the data analytics. Other engagements is probably -- I don't think it's in the forecast until the fourth quarter, actually.
Kevin Liu - Analyst
Great, thank you.
Operator
Vincent Colicchio, Noble Financial.
Vincent Colicchio - Analyst
Yes, Jim, I'm curious -- have you been actively looking at tuck-in acquisitions on the healthcare side? And if so, can you remind is what areas that would involve?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
We've been looking for quite some time, actually, for smaller acquisitions; as you referred to them, tuck-in type acquisitions. The two areas that we're looking at are data analytics, because we think that's a growth area going forward; and, also, revenue cycle management. We do have some people who do revenue cycle management, particularly after ICD-10 code conversion is still (technical difficulty).
Vincent Colicchio - Analyst
And in terms of a potential fix to the hospital situation, is there any people whispering that something is in the works, or just sort of who knows?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
Unfortunately, it's more, who knows? When this happened with the Balanced Budget Act, it really took voters complaining to Congress that they were bankrupting hospitals, to get Congress to restore the rate (technical difficulty) before hand. So there's not any talk right now about restoring the reimbursement. It's not just a quest for reimbursement; CMS rules, they won't pay for a one-night stay in the hospital. They won't pay the full price if somebody is readmitted to hospital within 30 days. All that is just really hurting that hospitals right now.
I honestly think that they have to do something within the next year. That's just personal. There's nothing to indicate that they're going to, but the smaller hospitals are really starting to have problems making cash flow. So it's just going to cause a huge problem if they don't let up.
Vincent Colicchio - Analyst
And I know, Europe -- you had good quarter on financial services. Does the EU-related spending continue to grow over there?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
Yes, it does. We are in Belgium, in the Flemish part, where they're establishing European Union, and that work continues to grow as well.
Vincent Colicchio - Analyst
And that should continue for the rest of the year, or --?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
We would think so. We think Europe is going to (technical difficulty).
Vincent Colicchio - Analyst
Okay. And then -- Brendan, I missed that cash from operations in the quarter. What was that number?
Brendan Harrington - SVP and CFO
That was the -- used $9.1 million.
Vincent Colicchio - Analyst
Okay. That's it for me, for now. Thanks, guys.
Operator
Bill Sutherland, Emerging Growth Equities.
Bill Sutherland - Analyst
Most of mine have actually been covered. I wanted to follow up on Kevin's question about the quarterly phasing of the data analytics. Just with that second one coming in in the fourth quarter, should that be disproportionately -- as far as the total that you expect for the year, of $0.18?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
The second quarter is the weakest, because it is actually scheduled to start off May 1. And the fourth quarter is actually the strongest.
Bill Sutherland - Analyst
And I just noticed a little thing on the guidance, Jim. You widened the revenue range and narrowed the EPS. What's the thought process there?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
Just going through scenarios, particularly on the staffing side of the business, that doesn't have as much impact on the EPS as it does on the revenue.
Bill Sutherland - Analyst
Yes, so I figured. So, on this whole ICD-10 thing, are you finding the administrators are -- or actually, I should say, the financial officers of these hospitals -- are briefly pocketing that into their budget? Or are they looking at other IT initiatives? Do you think it could help, even though it doesn't sound like you have a major change in your other healthcare solution pipeline right now -- but do you think it could help it?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
It may; but, quite frankly, a lot of them are looking just at their cash flow. And right now, even a lot of the larger systems -- which is most of our clients -- are losing money. They can't borrow any more money. They can't go to the (technical difficulty) bond market. So they were forced into spending money on ICD-10, and as soon as the legislation changed the date, they decided they'll spend it next year, when maybe they'll have more cash.
Bill Sutherland - Analyst
But I thought the spending environment was a bit better for these guys?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
For hospitals?
Bill Sutherland - Analyst
Yes. I thought they were getting a little bit of access to the markets.
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
Individually, yes. Look, we had a project start up. So as they right themselves, if they can get profitable again, they can go to the market. But most of them are losing money, and you can't really (technical difficulty).
Bill Sutherland - Analyst
Okay. And finally, are you getting any visibility on the healthcare pipeline in Europe? Or is it still just early discussion phase with those guys?
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
Yes, we have one project that we're doing some consulting work on. And other than that, it's really just early discussion phase. I don't think that's going to happen until sometime in 2015.
Bill Sutherland - Analyst
All right. I think that's it for me. Thanks, Jim.
Operator
(Operator Instructions). And to the presenters, no additional questions coming in.
Jim Boldt - Chairman and CEO
Okay. CTG has firmly established, in healthcare, one of the fastest-growing major US industries. In the short-term, our hospital clients get the deal with the reimbursement and reductions imposed on them by the US Federal Government, they still have significant long-term information technology needs.
In addition, we are aggressively marketing our data analytics product that meet the needs of healthcare organizations to lower costs, improve outcomes, and (technical difficulty) business intelligence.
But demand for big data solutions like CTG's is gaining momentum in the healthcare market. These products have the potential to significantly increase their future earnings. As such, we remain very excited about CTG's long-term growth prospects.
I would like to thank you for your continued support, and for joining us this morning. Have a great day.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude your conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.