高知特 (CTSH) 2019 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Cognizant Technology Solutions Fourth Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

女士們、先生們，歡迎參加 Cognizant Technology Solutions 2019 年第四季財報電話會議。 （操作說明）

And I will now turn the conference over to Katie Royce, Global Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Katie.

現在我將把會議交給全球投資者關係主管凱蒂·羅伊斯。請開始吧，凱蒂。

Thank you, Rob, and good afternoon, everyone. By now, you should have received a copy of the earnings release for the company's fourth quarter 2019 results. If you have not, a copy is available on our website, cognizant.com. The speakers we have on today's call are Brian Humphries, Chief Executive Officer; and Karen McLoughlin, Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝羅伯，大家下午好。各位現在應該都已經收到公司2019年第四季業績報告了。如果沒有，可以造訪我們的網站cognizant.com查看。今天電話會議的發言人是執行長布萊恩·漢弗萊斯和財務長凱倫·麥克勞克林。

Before we begin, I would like to remind you that some of the comments made on today's call and some of the responses to your questions may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to the risks and uncertainties as described in the company's earnings release and other filings with the SEC.

在開始之前，我想提醒各位，今天電話會議上的一些發言以及對各位提問的一些回答可能包含前瞻性陳述。這些陳述受到公司獲利報告和提交給美國證券交易委員會（SEC）的其他文件中所述的風險和不確定性的影響。

Additionally, during our call today, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe provide useful information for our investors. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures, where appropriate, to the corresponding GAAP measures can be found in the company's earnings release and other filings with the SEC.

此外，在今天的電話會議中，我們將提及一些我們認為對投資者有用的非GAAP財務指標。在適當情況下，非GAAP財務指標與相應的GAAP指標的調節表可在公司發布的盈利報告以及提交給美國證券交易委員會（SEC）的其他文件中找到。

With that, I'd now like to turn this call over to Brian Humphries. Please go ahead, Brian.

接下來，我將把電話交給布萊恩漢弗萊斯。布萊恩，請開始。

Thank you, Katie. Good afternoon, everybody. As I stated on prior calls, Cognizant is in the midst of a multiyear project whose aim is to reposition the company to realize its full growth potential. And today, I'd like to briefly cover our Q4 performance and then turn our attention to 2020.

謝謝凱蒂。大家下午好。正如我在之前的電話會議中提到的，Cognizant 正在進行一項為期多年的項目，旨在重新定位公司，以充分發揮其成長潛力。今天，我想簡要回顧一下我們第四季的業績，然後我們將目光轉向 2020 年。

After a challenging start to 2019, we're seeing higher levels of engagement from our leaders and optimism as we rally behind client centricity and revenue growth. We're making progress, but there's more work to do in the quarters ahead. Q4 revenue grew 4.2% year-over-year in constant currency with $4.28 billion. Non-GAAP EPS was $1.07, and we delivered strong cash flow.

經歷了充滿挑戰的2019年初之後，我們看到領導階層展現出更高的參與度，並且隨著我們齊心協力以客戶為中心並實現營收增長，大家也更加樂觀。我們正在取得進展，但未來幾季仍有許多工作要做。第四季營收以固定匯率計算年增4.2%，達42.8億美元。非GAAP每股收益為1.07美元，並且我們實現了強勁的現金流。

Macro demand remained stable but challenging. There is a distinction between traditional work versus digital. Legacy services are subject to meaningful pricing pressure at renewals, competition and, indeed, in-sourcing. Meanwhile, clients continue to invest in digital to become modern, data-enabled, customer-centric and differentiated businesses. These trends are set to continue through our strategic posture, and operational and financial initiatives are aligned to address this market reality.

宏觀需求保持穩定，但充滿挑戰。傳統工作與數位化工作之間存在顯著差異。傳統服務在續約、競爭以及內部外包方面都面臨著巨大的價格壓力。同時，客戶持續投資數位化，力求轉型為現代化、數據驅動、以客戶為中心且具差異化優勢的企業。這些趨勢將透過我們的策略佈局得以延續，營運和財務舉措也將與此市場現實相契合。

On a geographic basis, Q4 revenue in North America grew 3.1% year-over-year, while revenue in our growth markets region grew 7.4% in constant currency. In both geographies, we are determined to accelerate growth. But the opportunity is especially significant in our international business where we remain underpenetrated and we must do better.

從地理來看，北美地區第四季營收年增3.1%，而我們成長型市場區域營收以固定匯率計算成長7.4%。我們決心在兩個地區都加快成長。但國際業務的機會尤其巨大，因為我們在該領域的滲透率仍然較低，必須做得更好。

From an industry segment view, in Q4, Financial Services global revenue grew 1.5% year-over-year in constant currency. Both banking and insurance were weak throughout 2019. Full year insurance revenue growth slowed primarily due to a modest decline in North America, albeit with a return in the second half of the year where we saw growth in Q3 and indeed Q4 year-over-year. In banking, we continued to see particular weakness in capital markets and commercial banking, offset by growth in payments and retail, with retail having benefited from the Samlink deal. Both global accounts and local accounts declined for the full year. North America performance, while still declining, has been improving throughout the year, and we see that trend continuing. Europe remains weak with some macro uncertainty and some Cognizant-specific issues.

從產業類股來看，第四季金融服務全球營收以固定匯率計算較去年同期成長1.5%。 2019年全年銀行業和保險業表現疲軟。全年保險收入成長放緩主要是由於北美地區的小幅下滑，儘管下半年有所回升，第三季和第四季均實現了同比增長。銀行業方面，資本市場和商業銀行業務持續疲軟，但支付和零售業務的成長抵消了部分疲軟，其中零售業務受益於Samlink的收購。全年全球帳戶和本地帳戶均出現下滑。北美地區的業績雖然仍在下滑，但全年都在改善，我們預計這一趨勢將持續下去。歐洲市場依然疲軟，存在著一些宏觀經濟不確定性以及Cognizant自身特有的問題。

In Healthcare, we reversed 2 quarters of decline with constant currency growth of 1.8% year-over-year. I remain pleased with our performance in life sciences, which delivered double-digit growth. However, this was offset by ongoing declines in our health care vertical, which continues to be impacted by contract renegotiations at some of our largest clients, following industry consolidation and by in-sourcing at a large client.

在醫療保健領域，我們扭轉了連續兩季的下滑局面，以固定匯率計算年增1.8%。我對生命科學領域的業績依然感到滿意，該領域實現了兩位數的成長。然而，這被醫療保健業務的持續下滑所抵消。醫療保健業務持續受到產業整合後，部分最大客戶合約重新談判以及一家大型客戶內部業務重組的影響。

Our other 2 segments, Products and Resources and Communications, Media and Technology, posted high single-digit revenue growth in constant currency year-over-year, down from double digits in prior quarters. Revenue growth in the technology segment slowed meaningfully in the quarter, following our recent announcement to exit a subset of the content services business over the coming quarters. Later in our call, Karen will take you through the details of the quarter.

我們另外兩個業務板塊——產品與資源以及通訊、媒體與技術——以固定匯率計算，年比營收成長接近兩位數，低於前幾季的兩位數。由於我們近期宣布將在未來幾季逐步退出部分內容服務業務，技術板塊的營收成長在本季顯著放緩。稍後，Karen 將在電話會議上詳細介紹本季業績。

Let's now turn to 2020, including executing the recommendations of the transformation office as they relate to strategy, operating and commercial models, our cost base and more. We enter 2020 with a two-pronged strategy that aims to expose Cognizant to faster-growing market categories. The first element is to protect and optimize our core business while scaling internationally. The second part is to invest to compete and win in 4 key digital battlegrounds: data, digital engineering, cloud and IoT.

現在讓我們展望2020年，包括落實轉型辦公室提出的各項建議，這些建議涉及策略、營運和商業模式、成本結構等諸多面向。 2020年伊始，我們採取雙管齊下的策略，旨在讓Cognizant進軍成長更快的市場領域。首先，在拓展國際業務的同時，保護並優化我們的核心業務。其次，加大投資，力求在四大關鍵數位化領域——數據、數位工程、雲端運算和物聯網——贏得競爭優勢。

Our strategy leverages our technology services heritage whilst accelerating our position in digital where our brand recognition and commercial momentum can improve. This strategy resonates well with our clients who've always cited our strength in the run and operations side, who want us to further strengthen our digital portfolio to assist them in their innovation agenda.

我們的策略充分利用我們在技術服務領域的深厚積累，同時加速拓展數位化業務，以提升品牌知名度和商業發展動能。這項策略與我們的客戶高度契合，他們一直以來都對我們在營運和運維方面的優勢讚賞有加，並希望我們進一步強化數位化產品組合，助力其實現創新目標。

We're determined to help our clients become fully digital, data-enabled, customer-centric businesses. We will continue to use M&A to execute this strategy. This week, we announced 2 acquisitions focused on expanding our cloud capabilities. On Monday, we announced the acquisition of Code Zero Consulting, a firm that specializes in helping companies digitally transform by providing strategy, implementation and migration capabilities to evolve legacy systems to cloud-based, configure price quote and billing system. And earlier today, we announced that we've entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire the French operations of EI-Technologies, a Paris-based, privately-held digital technology consulting firm.

我們致力於協助客戶轉型為全面數位化、數據驅動、以客戶為中心的企業。我們將繼續透過併購來執行這項策略。本週，我們宣布了兩項旨在擴展雲端能力的收購。週一，我們宣布收購 Code Zero Consulting，該公司專注於透過提供策略、實施和遷移能力，幫助企業將傳統系統升級到雲端，並配置定價、報價和計費系統，從而實現數位轉型。今天早些時候，我們宣布已就收購總部位於巴黎的私人數位技術諮詢公司 EI-Technologies 的法國業務展開獨家談判。

Cloud has changed the way that IT is delivered across infrastructure applications and platforms. Both of these acquisitions are Salesforce Platinum partners and will help us build upon one of our most strategic and fastest-growing practices. In addition, in Q4, we closed our previously announced acquisition of Contino, a leading consultancy that specializes in enterprise DevOps methodologies and advanced data platforms.

雲端運算改變了IT在基礎設施應用和平台上的交付方式。這兩項收購均來自Salesforce白金合作夥伴，將協助我們鞏固最具策略意義且成長最快的業務之一。此外，在第四季度，我們完成了先前宣布的對Contino的收購。 Contino是一家領先的顧問公司，專注於企業級DevOps方法論和進階資料平台。

The transformation office also recommended changes to our operating and commercial model. After months of detailed analysis, on January 1, we implemented a series of measures to accelerate our commercial momentum as part of our sales transformation initiative. These include: a new customer segmentation that prioritizes account and ensures we get the right resources on the right accounts at the right time, new sales compensation plans that reward overperformance encourage greater upsell and cross-sell in our existing accounts and increase our focus on new logos and the alignment of our specialist sales teams to our service line to increase our subject matter expertise by key practices.

轉型辦公室也建議對我們的營運和商業模式進行調整。經過數月的詳細分析，1月1日，我們實施了一系列措施，以加速商業發展，作為銷售轉型計畫的一部分。這些措施包括：新的客戶細分策略，優先考慮客戶，確保我們在合適的時間為合適的客戶配備合適的資源；新的銷售薪酬方案，獎勵超額業績，鼓勵在現有客戶中進行更多追加銷售和交叉銷售，並更加專注於開發新客戶；以及調整專業銷售團隊與服務實踐線的匹配度，透過關鍵實踐提升我們的專業知識。

To date, I'm pleased with what we've seen in our sales force initiative. We have renewed energy, and our win rates continue to improve. Our previously announced hiring of 500 revenue-generating associates is on track and in line with modeled assumptions. In addition to these 500, we plan to double the number of associates supporting our most strategic alliances with all 3 leading hyperscale companies and SaaS vendors.

到目前為止，我對銷售團隊建立的進展感到滿意。我們煥發了新的活力，成交率也持續提升。先前宣布的招募500名創收員工的計畫進展順利，符合預期。除了這500名員工之外，我們還計劃將支持我們與三大領先超大規模企業和SaaS供應商建立策略聯盟的員工人數增加一倍。

Complementing these commercial changes, our recently appointed Chief Marketing Officer has been working diligently to better align our marketing spend to a growth priority. This includes strengthening our point of view by industry segment, improving targeting via account-based marketing and digitizing our customer engagement strategy. Our marketing spend will increase in 2020 as we aim to support our revenue aspiration and better position Cognizant as a leader in digital.

為了配合這些商業調整，我們新任命的行銷長一直在努力使行銷支出更好地與成長重點保持一致。這包括強化我們按產業區隔領域的視角，透過以客戶為基礎的行銷改善目標定位，以及實現客戶互動策略的數位化。 2020年，我們將增加行銷支出，以支持我們的營收目標，並進一步鞏固Cognizant在數位化領域的領導地位。

In parallel, we've also worked to simplify the organization, empowering our client partners for speed of execution and account P&L ownership and clarifying responsibilities and decision rights for all roles across the sales life cycle. To ensure we have the right digital skills in a supply constrained environment, we've doubled our investments in Cognizant Academy in 2020 to reskill and redeploy talent towards our digital imperative. To accelerate our digital momentum, we believe we need to hire or reskill approximately 25,000 resources in 2020 alone, and we started to operationalize this.

同時，我們也致力於簡化組織架構，賦予客戶合作夥伴更多權力，以加快執行速度並掌控客戶損益，同時明確銷售生命週期中所有角色的職責和決策權。為了確保在人才供應緊張的環境下擁有合適的數位化技能，我們在2020年將對Cognizant Academy的投資增加了一倍，用於人才再培訓和重新部署，以滿足我們的數位轉型需求。為了加速數位化進程，我們認為光是2020年就需要招募或再培訓約25,000名員工，並且我們已經開始著手落實這項計畫。

Finally, as we make these investments in automation, training, marketing and sales, we've been diligently reducing our cost structure to ensure we can be fit for growth. Karen will bring you through the details of our restructuring program later in the call.

最後，在增加對自動化、培訓、行銷和銷售的投資的同時，我們也一直在努力降低成本結構，以確保公司能夠適應未來的成長。稍後，Karen 將在電話會議中詳細介紹我們的重組計劃。

Engagement and confidence are essential in a people business. Therefore, we've been energetically communicating and contextualizing the reasons for the changes we're going through and engaging the organization to rally everyone behind our goal. I'm pleased to see the mood in the company continue to pick up, both at an executive level and throughout the broader organization. Our annualized attrition rate fell 3 points sequentially to 21%. Some of this can be accounted for by normal seasonality, so the fact that voluntary attrition rates declined year-over-year is actually even more encouraging. Of course, as we execute our restructuring program, we will remain diligent and stay focused on increasing employee engagement and reducing attrition.

在以人為本的企業中，員工的敬業度和信任至關重要。因此，我們一直在積極溝通，解釋我們正在經歷的變革的原因，並動員整個組織團結一致，朝著共同的目標前進。我很高興地看到，公司上下，無論是高階主管還是整個組織，士氣都在持續好轉。我們的年度員工流動率季減了3個百分點，至21%。其中一部分原因可以歸因於正常的季節性因素，因此，員工自願離職率比去年同期下降這一事實實際上更加令人鼓舞。當然，在我們執行重組計畫的過程中，我們將繼續保持嚴謹的工作態度，並始終專注於提高員工敬業度和降低員工流失率。

We also recognize that we need to rally the organization behind a common purpose that goes beyond financial returns. We've therefore spent a great deal of time in recent months defining a compelling company purpose statement, which will serve as our north star that guides and inspires us to make the right strategic move in the years ahead. We've also refined our company's values and behaviors that define what will be celebrated and tolerated. We will unveil this to the broader organization in the coming months.

我們也意識到，我們需要凝聚整個組織的力量，圍繞著一個超越財務回報的共同目標來開展工作。因此，近幾個月來，我們投入了大量時間，制定了一份引人注目的公司宗旨聲明，它將如同指路明燈，指引和激勵我們在未來幾年做出正確的戰略決策。此外，我們也完善了公司的價值觀和行為準則，明確了哪些行為值得讚揚，哪些行為應該被容忍。我們將在未來幾個月內向全體員工公佈這些內容。

We're determined to stay true to the heart and soul of our company. And having recently attended our annual global planning summit, one held in Dallas, the other in Dubai, where the executive team and I spoke to thousands of associates around the company's strategy and expectations for 2020, I can tell you that I came away from these summits filled with optimism about our collective ability to move the company forward.

我們決心堅守公司的核心價值。最近，我參加了公司年度全球規劃高峰會，一場在達拉斯，另一場在杜拜。在高峰會上，我和高階主管團隊與數千名員工交流了公司2020年的策略和預期。我可以告訴大家，高峰會讓我對我們共同推動公司發展的能力充滿信心。

Let me conclude by saying that after a challenging first quarter, we've become a more focused, determined and confident company as we move through 2019. There's a great deal of urgency in Cognizant these days. It starts with me. Any distractions we've had are now behind us. Our team is energized by the clarity of our strategy, the magnitude of the market opportunity, our renewed client centricity and our increased employee value proposition focus.

最後我想說，在經歷了充滿挑戰的第一季後，我們已成長為一家更專注、堅定和自信的公司，並積極邁入2019年。如今，Cognizant 上下都充滿緊迫感。這首先要從我做起。我們之前遇到的所有乾擾都已成為過去。清晰的策略、巨大的市場機會、重新聚焦客戶以及對員工價值主張的日益重視，都激勵著我們的團隊不斷前進。

While our hard work in the past year will serve us well in 2020, there remains some important areas that require progress in the years ahead. Pricing in our heritage business continues to pressure gross margin. We have efforts underway to address renewal pricing strategy as well as our cost of delivery efficiency, including pyramid management, automation and other measures. Meanwhile, as more work shifts to project-based digital engagements, we are implementing refinements in our digital pricing strategy and continuing to optimize resource planning and allocation.

儘管過去一年的辛勤付出將在2020年為我們帶來益處，但未來幾年仍有一些重要領域需要繼續推進。傳統業務的定價持續對毛利率構成壓力。我們正在努力改進續費定價策略，並提高交付效率，包括金字塔式定價管理、自動化和其他措施。同時，隨著越來越多的工作轉向基於專案的數位化合作，我們正在完善數位化定價策略，並持續優化資源規劃和分配。

The leadership team and I are fully aware that we have a multiyear project ahead of us, and we are united in our resolve to work with rigor and tenacity to achieve our goals and once again make Cognizant the industry bellwether.

領導團隊和我完全意識到，我們面前有一個多年期的項目，我們團結一致，決心以嚴謹和堅韌的態度努力實現我們的目標，並再次使 Cognizant 成為行業的風向標。

Before I turn the call over to Karen, I want to acknowledge a Cognizant co-founder, former CEO and long-time director. Frank D'Souza had let us know of his plan to resign from Cognizant Board of Directors effective March 31. Along with his remarkable track record of success as Cognizant's CEO for a dozen years, Frank has served with distinction on Cognizant's Board since 2007 and Vice Chairman since June 30, 2019. On behalf of the entire Board, I want to extend our deep gratitude to Frank for his pioneering leadership and quarter-century of dedication to Cognizant. Today, we also announced that Vinita Bali will be joining our Board of Directors later this month. I look forward to her contributions and partnership.

在將電話轉給凱倫之前，我想特別感謝Cognizant的聯合創始人、前執行長兼長期董事弗蘭克·德索薩先生。他已告知我們，他計劃於3月31日辭去Cognizant董事會職務。弗蘭克先生在擔任Cognizant首席執行官的十二年間取得了卓越的成就，自2007年以來，他一直擔任Cognizant董事會成員，並自2019年6月30日起擔任副董事長，表現傑出。我謹代表全體董事會成員，對弗蘭克先生的開創性領導和二十五年來對Cognizant的奉獻表示由衷的感謝。今天，我們也宣布維尼塔·巴利女士將於本月晚些時候加入我們的董事會。我期待她的貢獻和合作。

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Karen who will give you an update on our operational and financial performance as well as a view of how we see the year ahead. Karen?

接下來，我將把電話交給凱倫，她將向大家報告我們的營運和財務業績，以及我們對未來一年的展望。凱倫？

Thank you, Brian, and good afternoon, everyone. For the full year 2019, revenue increased to $16.8 billion and represented growth of 4.1% year-over-year or 5.2% in constant currency. Fourth quarter revenue of $4.3 billion was above the high end of our guided range and represented growth of 3.8% year-over-year or 4.2% in constant currency. The revenue outperformance versus guidance was broad-based across our industry. Digital revenue continues to grow above 20% year-over-year and represented approximately 38% of total revenues for the quarter.

謝謝布萊恩，大家下午好。 2019年全年，公司營收成長至168億美元，年增4.1%，以固定匯率計算成長5.2%。第四季營收為43億美元，高於我們先前預期的上限，年增3.8%，以固定匯率計算成長4.2%。整個產業的營收普遍超出預期。數位業務營收持續維持20%以上的年成長率，約佔本季總營收的38%。

Moving to the industry vertical. Financial Services growth was up 1.5% year-over-year in constant currency driven primarily by insurance. However, the project-based work that we benefited from in Q3 did not extend into Q4. We saw a modest slowdown in banking sequentially, reflecting typical year-end seasonality and furloughs. As Brian mentioned, within banking, our performance continues to be negatively impacted by a few of our global accounts as well as some slowness in certain regional and other clients. While macro uncertainty persists, we expect budgets within banking to be broadly stable in 2020, with North America banks better positioned relative to the U.K. and Continental Europe given continued Brexit uncertainty and our ongoing challenges with a few of our largest accounts.

接下來我們來看行業細分。金融服務業以固定匯率計算年增1.5%，主要得益於保險業務的成長。然而，我們在第三季受益的專案型業務並未延續到第四季。銀行業環比略有放緩，這反映了典型的年末季節性因素和員工休假。正如Brian所提到的，在銀行業，我們的業績持續受到部分全球客戶以及某些區域和其他客戶業務放緩的負面影響。儘管宏觀經濟情勢仍不明朗，但我們預計2020年銀行業預算將維持整體穩定。鑑於英國脫歐的不確定性以及我們與部分最大客戶之間持續存在的挑戰，北美銀行的處境將優於英國和歐洲大陸的銀行。

Against that backdrop, we continue to have a muted outlook for banking. However, we are confident in the initial steps our new head of banking has taken to reposition us for growth. We expect this client centricity to drive deeper and more robust account planning and marketing. By partnering well with digital business to ensure we increase our relevance to banks, he has also implemented a solutions team to bring ease of repeatability, ensure we develop more compelling thought leadership and better align with key partners.

在此背景下，我們對銀行業前景依然持謹慎態度。然而，我們對新銀行業務負責人為實現成長所採取的初步措施充滿信心。我們期望這種以客戶為中心的策略能夠推動更深入、更穩健的客戶規劃和行銷。透過與數位化業務部門的緊密合作，確保我們提升對銀行業的重要性，他還組建了一支解決方案團隊，旨在提高方案的可複製性，確保我們能夠樹立更具影響力的思想領導力，並更好地與關鍵合作夥伴保持一致。

Moving on to Healthcare, which returned to year-over-year growth, up 1.8% in constant currency. Life sciences again grew strong double digits year-over-year, benefiting from demand within digital operations and the contribution of Zenith Technologies. Additionally, we see continued momentum within our industry-specific platform solutions, such as the shared investigator portal for clinical trials, which has users in over 80 countries across 14,000 facilities, covering over 400 active trials.

接下來是醫療保健行業，該行業恢復了同比增長，按固定匯率計算增長了1.8%。生命科學產業再次實現了強勁的兩位數年成長，這得益於數位營運的需求以及Zenith Technologies的貢獻。此外，我們看到行業專屬平台解決方案持續保持成長勢頭，例如臨床試驗共享研究者入口網站，該入口網站的用戶遍布80多個國家/地區的14,000多家機構，涵蓋400多項正在進行的臨床試驗。

Within our Healthcare vertical, revenue declined mid-single digits year-over-year as performance continues to be impacted primarily by large clients involved in mergers and the continued shift of work through a captive at a large client. We expect similar year-over-year trends in Healthcare in Q1 and improvement in the year-over-year trends in the Healthcare vertical beginning in Q2 as we lap the headwinds that impacted the business in 2019. We expect continued cautious spend with health care payers as we approach the elections in the U.S. later this year and so are maintaining a cautious growth outlook for the health care vertical.

在我們的醫療保健業務板塊，由於大型客戶併購以及一家大型客戶持續將部分業務轉移到其內部團隊，導致業績持續下滑，收入同比下降了中等個位數。我們預期第一季醫療保健業務的年比趨勢與去年同期類似，但隨著我們逐步克服2019年業務面臨的不利因素，醫療保健業務部門的年比趨勢將從第二季度開始有所改善。鑑於今年稍後美國將舉行大選，我們預計醫療保健支付方將繼續保持謹慎的支出策略，因此我們對醫療保健業務板塊的成長前景維持謹慎預期。

Products and resources grew 8.6% year-over-year in constant currency. As we mentioned on our last earnings call, we expected slower growth on a year-over-year basis in products and resources in the fourth quarter as we locked the ramp-up of work with new logos and the contribution of acquisitions made in Q4 2018. We were pleased that the growth in the quarter continued to be broad-based growth across our industries. Results reflect demand for core modernization services of enterprise applications and for digital engineering, cloud and IoT solutions, and we expect these trends to continue in 2020.

以固定匯率計算，產品和資源年增 8.6%。正如我們在上次財報電話會議上所提到的，由於新客戶的業務量逐步增加，以及 2018 年第四季收購業務的貢獻，我們預計第四季度產品和資源的同比增長速度會放緩。令人欣喜的是，本季成長依然是各行業的普遍成長。業績反映了市場對企業應用核心現代化服務以及數位化工程、雲端運算和物聯網解決方案的需求，我們預計這些趨勢將在 2020 年持續。

Our Communications, Media and Technology segment grew 9% year-over-year in constant currency where we saw an acceleration in the communications and media vertical driven by an increase in demand for services in core modernization and cloud transformation services. We expect continued solid performance of telecom clients as traditional telco companies look to transform into digital service providers. Additionally, we see convergence across media and communications companies, driving investments in technologies and services that hyper-personalize consumption and create new and engaging experiences for consumers.

我們的通訊、媒體和技術業務板塊以固定匯率計算年增9%，其中通訊和媒體垂直領域的成長加速主要得益於核心現代化和雲端轉型服務需求的成長。我們預計，隨著傳統電信公司尋求轉型為數位服務供應商，電信客戶將繼續保持穩健的業績。此外，我們看到媒體和通訊公司之間的整合趨勢，這將推動對能夠實現高度個人化消費並為消費者創造全新且引人入勝體驗的技術和服務進行投資。

In technology, growth was negatively impacted by our decision to exit certain portions of our content services business. This negatively impacted the year-over-year growth of the CMT segment by approximately 200 basis points or $11 million. I'll provide more color on the expected impact from our decision to exit certain parts of the content services business with my Q1 and full year 2020 guidance.

在科技方面，我們決定退出部分內容服務業務，這對成長產生了負面影響。這導致CMT業務板塊的年增率下降了約200個基點，即1,100萬美元。我將在2020年第一季和全年業績指引中，更詳細地闡述退出部分內容服務業務的預期影響。

Now turning to geos. We were disappointed with growth in Europe, which grew 5.3% year-over-year in constant currency, reflecting a slowdown in both the U.K. and Continental Europe. A more cautious macro environment continues to weigh on spend across industries in the U.K., while we also have some Cognizant-specific challenges in a few large banking clients. The rest of world grew 14.5% year-over-year in constant currency, the strongest performance in 7 quarters. While our global banking relationships continue to pressure growth in Asia Pacific, we have seen improved traction in countries, such as Australia and Japan, in insurance and life sciences.

現在來看地域分佈。我們對歐洲的成長感到失望，以固定匯率計算，歐洲年增5.3%，反映出英國和歐洲大陸的成長放緩。更謹慎的宏觀經濟環境持續抑制英國各產業的支出，同時，我們在幾家大型銀行客戶中也面臨一些Cognizant特有的挑戰。世界其他地區以固定匯率計算年增14.5%，創下七季以來的最佳表現。儘管我們的全球銀行業務關係繼續對亞太地區的成長構成壓力，但我們在澳洲和日本等國家的保險和生命科學領域看到了成長勢頭。

Moving on to margins. In Q4, our GAAP operating margin and diluted EPS were 14.6% and $0.72, respectively. Adjusted operating margin, which excludes restructuring charges, was 17%, and our adjusted diluted EPS was $1.07.

接下來是利潤率。第四季度，我們的GAAP營業利潤率和攤薄後每股收益分別為14.6%和0.72美元。剔除重組費用後的調整後營業利益率為17%，調整後稀釋後每股收益為1.07美元。

Before getting into more details on margins, I want to provide an update on the enactment of a new tax regime in India that enables domestic companies to elect to be taxed with an income tax rate of 25% compared to the current rate of 35%. A company electing into the lower rate is required to forgo any tax holidays associated with the special economic zones and certain other tax incentives, including MAT credit carryforward. Our current intent is to elect into the lower rate once our existing MAT assets are substantially utilized. As a result, we recorded a onetime net income tax expense of $21 million due to the revaluations to the lower income tax rate of our existing India net deferred income tax asset. This had a negative $0.04 impact on GAAP EPS in the quarter.

在深入探討利潤率之前，我想先介紹一下印度新稅制的實施。此稅制允許印度國內公司選擇適用25%的所得稅率，而非目前的35%。選擇較低稅率的公司必須放棄與經濟特區相關的任何稅收優惠以及其他一些稅收激勵措施，包括最低替代稅（MAT）抵免結轉。我們目前的計劃是在現有MAT資產基本用盡後選擇適用較低稅率。因此，由於現有印度淨遞延所得稅資產以較低所得稅率重新估值，我們確認了2,100萬美元的一次性淨所得稅費用。這導致本季GAAP每股收益下降0.04美元。

Our adjusted operating margin was flat year-over-year, reflecting SG&A discipline offset by continued pressure on gross margins, including a $25 million write-off of certain capitalized set-up costs for a large health care customer. The write-off negatively impacted gross margins by 50 basis points and EPS by $0.04. Over the last several quarters, we have taken steps to start to rightsize our cost structure primarily focused on reducing overheads in the business, with those benefits evident in the year-over-year improvement in SG&A. These savings are necessary to fund the planned additional investments in areas such as sales resources, branding, talent and lean and automation enhancements across the company.

經調整後的營業利潤率與去年同期持平，這反映了銷售、管理及行政費用（SG&A）控制得當，但毛利率持續承壓，其中包括為一家大型醫療保健客戶計提的2500萬美元資本化設置成本。該提列對毛利率和每股盈餘（EPS）分別造成了50個基點和0.04美元的負面影響。過去幾個季度，我們已採取措施開始調整成本結構，主要著重於降低業務營運成本，這些措施的成效已體現在銷售、管理及行政費用較去年同期改善。這些節省下來的資金對於公司計劃在銷售資源、品牌建立、人才培養以及精益化和自動化改進等領域的額外投資至關重要。

However, gross margin declined year-over-year as we continued to face pricing pressure in the legacy parts of our business that require us to take additional actions in 2020 around pyramid optimization and pricing levers, such as COLA and aligning bill rates with promotions. We expect our 2020 Fit for Growth plan that we announced last quarter to drive improvements in these areas. I'll provide an update on the actions taken in Q4 under the 2020 Fit for Growth plan as well as additional details on the expected execution of this plan later in the call.

然而，由於傳統業務持續面臨價格壓力，毛利率較去年同期下降。這要求我們在2020年採取更多措施，例如優化金字塔結構和運用價格槓桿，如調整消費稅（COLA）以及使帳單價格與促銷活動保持一致。我們預計上季公佈的「2020年成長計畫」將推動這些領域的改善。稍後，我將在電話會議中介紹「2020年成長計畫」在第四季採取的行動，以及該計畫預期執行情況的更多細節。

Turning to our balance sheet. Our cash and short-term investment balance as of December 31 stood at $3.4 billion, up approximately $350 million from September 30 but down $1.1 billion from the year-ago period, reflecting the over $2.2 billion of share repurchases completed in 2019 and approximately $620 million deployed on acquisitions. As a reminder, our short-term investment balance includes restricted short-term investments of $414 million related to the ongoing dispute with the India income tax department.

接下來來看看我們的資產負債表。截至12月31日，我們的現金及短期投資餘額為34億美元，較9月30日增加約3.5億美元，但較上年同期減少11億美元，這反映了2019年完成的超過22億美元的股票回購以及約6.2億美元用於收購。需要提醒的是，我們的短期投資餘額包含與目前和印度所得稅部門的爭議相關的4.14億美元受限短期投資。

We generated $845 million of free cash flow in the quarter. A DSO of 73 days improved 3 days sequentially due to strong collections. On a year-over-year basis, DSO improved by 1 day. In the fourth quarter, we made a change to our accounting policy related to DSOs to better align with industry practice and better reflect amounts due from our customers on our balance sheet. Beginning in Q4, we started to net certain amounts due to customers, such as discounts and rebates, with trade accounts receivables rather than reflecting those amounts as a liability on our balance sheet. This change does not have any impact on our operating results or cash flows.

本季我們創造了8.45億美元的自由現金流。由於收款情況良好，應收帳款週轉天數（DSO）較上季改善3天，為73天。年比來看，DSO改善了1天。第四季度，我們調整了與DSO相關的會計政策，以便更好地與行業慣例接軌，並在資產負債表中更準確地反映客戶應收帳款。自第四季起，我們將部分應付客戶款項（例如折扣和返利）計入應收帳款，而不是將其作為負債反映在資產負債表中。此項調整不會對我們的經營業績或現金流量產生任何影響。

Our outstanding debt balance was $738 million at the end of the quarter, and there was no outstanding balance on the revolver. During the fourth quarter, we opportunistically repurchased approximately 2.5 million shares for approximately $150 million, and our diluted share count decreased to 548 million shares for the quarter. In 2019, we repurchased over 34 million shares for approximately $2.2 billion.

截至本季末，我們的未償債務餘額為7.38億美元，循環信貸額度為零。第四季度，我們擇機回購了約250萬股股票，耗資約1.5億美元，導致本季稀釋後股份數量減少至5.48億股。 2019年，我們共回購了超過3,400萬股股票，耗資約22億美元。

Today, we are announcing a 10% increase to our quarterly cash dividend, the second increase since we initiated the dividend in 2017. Additionally, the Board has approved a $2 billion increase in our share repurchase authorization.

今天，我們宣布將季度現金股息提高10%，這是自2017年開始派發股息以來的第二次提高。此外，董事會已批准將股票回購授權增加20億美元。

Before I turn to guidance, let me provide an update on the progress of the 2020 Fit for Growth plan as well as the content work that we're in the process of exiting. Our 2020 Fit for Growth plan is expected to run for 2 years. This program is designed to simplify the way we work, improve our cost structure and fund investments aimed at accelerating our revenue growth. As previously announced, we expect to remove 10,000 to 12,000 mid- to senior level associates from their current roles. We will make every effort to identify productive roles based on client demand and continue to assume that approximately 5,000 associates will have the opportunity to reskill for new roles within the company.

在闡述指導意見之前，我想先報告一下2020年「Fit for Growth」計畫的進度，以及我們正在逐步退出的內容項目。我們的2020年「Fit for Growth」計畫預計將持續兩年。該計劃旨在簡化我們的工作流程，優化成本結構，並為旨在加速收入成長的投資項目提供資金。正如先前宣布的那樣，我們預計將裁減1萬至1.2萬名中高級員工。我們將盡一切努力根據客戶需求尋找合適的職位，並繼續預計約有5000名員工將有機會接受再培訓，擔任公司內部的新職位。

In Q4, we incurred $48 million of charges, including $42 million of severance charges as part of the Fit for Growth plan. These charges relate to approximately 550 associates, most of whom we expect will exit the company by the end of Q1 and we expect will result in a cash impact of approximately $40 million in the first quarter with full run rate savings not achieved until Q2 for these associates. We continue to expect the majority of the remaining associates to exit the company by mid-2020. We are managing this process carefully as any time we make decisions that impact our employees, we take it very seriously.

第四季度，我們提列了 4,800 萬美元的費用，其中包括作為「Fit for Growth」計畫一部分的 4,200 萬美元遣散費。這些費用涉及約 550 名員工，我們預計其中大部分員工將在第一季末離職，預計這將導致第一季約 4,000 萬美元的現金流損失，而這些員工的全部預期收益要到第二季才能實現。我們仍然預計剩餘員工中的大多數將在 2020 年年中之前離職。我們正在謹慎處理這個過程，因為任何影響員工的決策，我們都極為重視。

Additionally, we continue to review our real estate portfolio as part of the Fit for Growth plan and expect to take further actions related to real estate rationalization in 2020. These actions are expected to be substantially complete by the end of 2020 and are expected to result in 2020 in-year gross savings of over $450 million and annualized gross run rate savings of $500 million to $550 million in the year 2021.

此外，作為「Fit for Growth」計畫的一部分，我們將繼續審查我們的房地產投資組合，並預計在2020年採取進一步的房地產合理化措施。這些措施預計將在2020年底基本完成，並預計在2020年實現超過4.5億美元的年度毛節省，並在2021年實現5億至5.5億美元的年度毛運行率節省。

Additionally, in the fourth quarter, we began the exit of a subset of our content services business. Approximately $5 million of the $48 million Fit for Growth charges in the quarter related to retention and severance for approximately 1,100 of the expected 5,000 to 6,000 total associates to be impacted by the wind-down of this work. We have updated our estimate of the number of associates to be impacted by the wind-down from 6,000 to a range of 5,000 to 6,000 as we expect to retain more work with these clients in other content and technology services than originally estimated.

此外，第四季我們開始逐步退出部分內容服務業務。在該季度4800萬美元的「Fit for Growth」費用中，約有500萬美元用於支付約1100名員工的留任和遣散費，預計受此業務終止影響的員工總數為5000至6000人。由於我們預計在其他內容和技術服務方面與這些客戶保持的業務往來將比最初預估的更多，因此我們將受影響員工人數的預估從6000人調整為5000至6000人。

We now estimate that we may lose revenues of $225 million to $255 million, down from our previous estimate of $240 million to $270 million on an annualized basis within our Communications, Media and Technology segment. We continue to anticipate revenues will ramp down over the next 1 to 2 years with an expected impact of $20 million to $25 million of revenue in Q1 on a year-over-year basis. This is expected to be modestly dilutive to our adjusted operating margin rate, subject to the timing of the ramp-down and other factors.

我們現在預計，通訊、媒體和科技業務部門的年度營收損失可能在2.25億美元至2.55億美元之間，低於先前預估的2.4億美元至2.7億美元。我們仍預計，未來1至2年內，該業務部門的營收將逐步下降，預計第一季營收將年減2,000萬美元至2,500萬美元。根據營收逐步下降的時間和其他因素，預計這將對我們的調整後營業利潤率產生輕微稀釋作用。

We also continue to expect to incur wind-down charges related to the transition of these associates and any related assets such as real estate and equipment. We are working with our partners to transition this work while continuing to meet our contractual obligations and providing impacted associates with a number of transition assistance programs, including retention bonuses, severance packages and the opportunity to participate in various reskilling programs.

我們預計仍將產生與這些員工及其相關資產（例如房地產和設備）過渡相關的清算費用。我們正與合作夥伴共同推動這項工作的過渡，同時繼續履行我們的合約義務，並為受影響的員工提供一系列過渡援助計劃，包括留任獎金、遣散費以及參與各種技能提升計劃的機會。

At the time of our Q4 earnings call, we provided an estimate of $150 million to $200 million in total expected charges associated with this Fit for Growth cost transformation plan, including the wind-down of certain content work. Based on our actions to date, attrition at the senior levels of the pyramid being slightly higher than our expectations and less impact from the exit of certain content services, we now expect to be towards the low end of that range while maintaining the annualized gross savings estimate of $500 million to $550 million.

在第四季財報電話會議上，我們曾預期與「Fit for Growth」成本轉型計畫相關的總費用為1.5億至2億美元，其中包括部分內容工作的終止。根據我們迄今採取的措施，高階主管的流失率略高於預期，且部分內容服務退出帶來的影響較小，我們現在預計實際費用將接近該範圍的下限，同時仍維持5億至5.5億美元的年度毛節省預期。

Before turning to guidance, I want to comment on a potential change in the dividend distribution tax that was announced as part of the India budget a few days ago. We are currently analyzing this proposal but believe it can, once enacted, significantly lower the cost of repatriating funds back to the U.S. The proposal is not yet law, but the expected date is April 1, 2020.

在闡述指導意見之前，我想先談談幾天前印度預算案中宣布的股利分配稅潛在變化。我們目前正在分析這項提案，但相信一旦實施，將大幅降低資金匯回美國的成本。該提案尚未正式生效，預計2020年4月1日生效。

I would now like to comment on our outlook for Q1 and the full year 2020. For the full year 2020, we expect revenue to grow in the range of 2% to 4% year-over-year to $17.11 billion to $17.45 billion on a reported and constant currency basis as, based on the current exchange rates, we are not expecting a material impact from foreign exchange. This includes our estimate of a negative impact of approximately 110 basis points to year-over-year growth from our decision to exit certain content work within our CMT segment. This guidance continues to reflect a muted outlook for Financial Services and Healthcare.

現在我想談談我們對2020年第一季和全年的展望。 2020年全年，我們預計營收將年增2%至4%，達到171.1億美元至174.5億美元（按報告匯率和固定匯率計算）。根據目前的匯率，我們預期外匯波動不會對營收產生重大影響。這其中也包括我們預計因退出CMT業務板塊的部分內容製作而導致的約110個基點的同比下降。這一預期仍然反映了我們對金融服務和醫療保健業務前景的謹慎預期。

We expect first quarter revenue growth in the range of 2.5% to 3.5% year-over-year to $4.21 billion to $4.25 billion on a reported basis. Based on current exchange rates, this translates to constant currency growth in the range of 2.8% to 3.8% year-over-year or $4.23 billion to $4.27 billion, reflecting our assumption of a negative 30 basis points for foreign exchange for the first quarter. This includes our estimate of a negative impact of approximately 60 basis points to year-over-year growth from our decision to exit certain work within the content services business, which will be reflected in the CMT segment.

我們預計第一季營收年增2.5%至3.5%，達到42.1億美元至42.5億美元（以報告基準計算）。根據目前匯率，以固定匯率計算，營收年增2.8%至3.8%，達到42.3億美元至42.7億美元，這反映了我們假設第一季外匯匯率將產生30個基點的負面影響。此外，我們預計，由於我們決定退出內容服務業務中的部分項目，將對同比增速產生約60個基點的負面影響，這將反映在CMT（內容、媒體和技術）業務板塊中。

Revenue guidance for both Q1 and the full year assumes a cautious macro outlook in the U.K., continued slow growth in Financial Services and Healthcare as well as the previously mentioned impact of exiting certain content work.

第一季和全年的收入預期均基於英國宏觀經濟前景謹慎、金融服務和醫療保健行業持續緩慢增長以及先前提到的退出某些內容工作的影響。

For the full year 2020, we expect adjusted operating margins to be between 16% and 17%, which assumes incentive compensation to be a target payout. We expect Q1 margins to be slightly below the low end of the range as we are investing in sales hiring, training, tooling and automation and marketing and branding, while the timing of the savings from the actions taken under our Fit for Growth Plan and the return on our sales investments will not have reached the full quarter run rate.

我們預計2020年全年調整後營業利益率將介於16%至17%之間，前提是激勵性薪酬達到目標水準。由於我們正在加大對銷售人員招募、培訓、工具和自動化以及行銷和品牌建立的投資，預計第一季利潤率將略低於預期區間的下限。此外，根據「Fit for Growth Plan」採取的各項措施所帶來的成本節約以及銷售投資的回報，尚未達到完整的季度運作水準。

As a reminder, our full year 2019 margin rate reflects lower incentive compensation payout given our underperformance versus target. Our guidance assumes that in 2020, we'll perform as planned, and therefore, incentive compensations will reflect target payout rate. This is a margin rate headwind of approximately 120 basis points year-over-year that we plan to absorb. The midpoint of our 2020 margin guidance of 16% to 17% therefore reflects approximately 100 basis points of improvement over the 2019 margin normalized for incentive compensation.

再次提醒，由於我們2019年的業績未達預期，激勵性薪資支出有所降低，因此我們2019年的全年利潤率也相應降低。我們的業績指引假設2020年我們將以計畫完成業績，因此激勵性薪酬將達到預期水準。這將導致利潤率年減約120個基點，我們計劃消化這項影響。因此，我們2020年利潤率指引的中位數16%至17%意味著較2019年扣除激勵性薪酬後的利潤率提升約100個基點。

We expect to deliver adjusted diluted EPS in the range of $3.97 to $4.13. Our EPS guidance anticipates a year-over-year decrease of approximately $30 million in interest income, reflecting a lower cash balance and reduced interest rate in both the U.S. and India. This is expected to impact EPS by approximately $0.04. This guidance anticipates a full year share count of approximately 548 million shares and a tax rate in the range of 24% to 26%.

我們預計調整後攤薄每股盈餘 (EPS) 將在 3.97 美元至 4.13 美元之間。由於美國和印度的現金餘額減少以及利率下降，我們的 EPS 預期利息收入將年減約 3,000 萬美元。預計這將對 EPS 產生約 0.04 美元的影響。該預期基於全年流通股數量約為 5.48 億股以及 24% 至 26% 的稅率。

Guidance provided for adjusted diluted EPS excludes restructuring charges and other unusual items, if any; net nonoperating foreign currency exchange gains and losses; clarification, if any, by the Indian government as to the application of the Supreme Court ruling related to the India defined contribution obligation; and the tax effects of the above adjustments. Our guidance does not account for any potential impact from events like changes such as immigration or tax policies.

經調整攤薄後每股收益指引不包括重組費用和其他異常項目（如有）；淨非經營性外匯損益；印度政府就最高法院關於印度固定繳款義務相關裁決的適用性作出的任何澄清（如有）；以及上述調整的稅務影響。我們的指引未考慮移民或稅收政策變化等事件可能產生的任何潛在影響。

With that, operator, we can open the call for questions.

這樣，接線員，我們可以開始接受提問了。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from the line of Bryan Keane with Deutsche Bank.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自德意志銀行的布萊恩‧基恩。

I want to ask about the cadence of revenue growth in 2020. It looks like you guided -- 1Q '20 revenue guidance, 3% to 4% constant currency. Full year fiscal year '20 growth is pretty similar at 2% to 4% constant currency. So is Cognizant expecting kind of steady revenue growth with no fluctuations? Or do you expect maybe a little bit of a drop in the middle of the year and a pickup in the fourth quarter? I guess another way to ask this is, do you see an inflection point in revenue growth on the horizon?

我想問一下2020年營收成長的節奏。你們似乎給了2020年第一季營收預期，以固定匯率計算成長3%至4%。 2020財年全年成長率也與之相近，以固定匯率計算成長2%至4%。那麼，Cognizant是預期營收將維持穩定成長，不會出現波動嗎？還是預計年中可能會略有下降，然後在第四季回升？換句話說，你們認為營收成長近期會出現轉折點嗎？

Bryan, it's Karen. So the one thing I would say is nothing particularly unusual. There's no large deals. There's no -- nothing unusual right now from a seasonality perspective. So I think it will be relatively a typical seasonality that will start to ramp as we get into Q2 and then Q3. The one thing I would say where the back half might be a little bit stronger is because of the sales investments that we're making now, right? So we launched that hiring program late last year. Those folks are coming onboard as we expected. And certainly, while we said we would expect to take about a year for them to start to ramp, but we should start to see a little bit of that benefit as we get into the back part of the year.

布萊恩，我是凱倫。我想說的是，目前沒有什麼特別不尋常的情況。沒有大單，從季節角度來看，現在也沒有什麼異常。所以我認為，這應該會是一個相對典型的季節性波動，隨著我們進入第二季和第三季度，業績會逐漸好轉。我認為下半年業績可能會略有成長的一個原因是，我們目前正在進行銷售方面的投資，對吧？我們在去年年底啟動了招聘計劃，這些員工正按預期陸續入職。當然，雖然我們預計他們需要大約一年的時間才能開始發揮作用，但隨著下半年的到來，我們應該會開始看到一些成效。

Yes. And maybe the addition I'd make to that, Karen, is obviously the content moderation ramp-down will offset that somewhat as it grows throughout the course of the year.

是的。凱倫，我或許還要補充一點，內容審核力度的逐步減弱顯然會在某種程度上抵消這種影響，因為這種情況會隨著時間的推移而加劇。

Our next question comes from the line of Ashwin Shirvaikar with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Ashwin Shirvaikar。

Appreciate the detailed commentary. Brian, I was hoping you could give more information about the sales force transformation. Where do you stand on hiring? You mentioned the words on track but a little bit more color on what on track means would be great. And on the flip side, is there perhaps any heightened attrition you expect to see for the traditional sales force that was already there given maybe the new compensation schemes or any changes there? So a sales force update.

感謝您的詳細評論。布萊恩，我希望您能提供更多關於銷售團隊轉型的資訊。您對招募有何看法？您提到“進展順利”，但如果能更詳細地解釋一下“進展順利”的具體含義就更好了。另一方面，考慮到新的薪酬方案或其他變化，您是否預期原有銷售團隊的人員流失率會上升？所以，請您提供一下銷售團隊的最新情況。

It's very interesting because, as I said, we were at our global planning summit in the last month or so, and the sales force are actually very motivated by the compensation changes because they can actually make more money than they could in prior periods. So actually, on the contrary, I actually feel there's a great deal of optimism in the sales force. People are -- when a CEO visits clients every single day, it leads to a certain cultural demand in the organization. And I think people are motivated to get the company back to an accelerated growth rate, so I feel good about where we are.

這很有意思，因為正如我之前所說，我們上個月左右召開了全球規劃高峰會，銷售團隊實際上對薪酬調整非常有動力，因為他們現在的收入比以前更高了。所以，恰恰相反，我覺得銷售團隊非常樂觀。當CEO每天都拜訪客戶時，這會在公司內部形成一種特定的文化氛圍。我認為大家都有動力讓公司重回高速成長軌道，所以我對我們目前的狀況感到滿意。

I'm not overly concerned about attrition in the legacy sales teams. We've had great luck, I would say, fulfilling the pipeline of opportunities. We don't break out on a quarterly basis where we are versus that hiring. We're less than halfway through the 500, I will tell you that, but there's a lot of work still to do. But I track it on a monthly basis at the Executive Committee, and we're pretty much in line with what we anticipated in terms of cost. I've also been keeping an eye not just on the accounts that these folks are assigned to but also the pipeline that they are building. And in some cases, I've been pleasantly surprised that the early pipeline builds have even been ahead of my expectations. So look, more work to do to continue to review that, but there's a lot of energy and urgency in Cognizant these days. And I think we're all very clear on what we're setting out to achieve, and I feel very good in terms of where we are to date.

我並不太擔心傳統銷售團隊的人員流動。可以說，我們在把握銷售機會方面非常幸運。我們沒有按季度公佈招募進度。我可以告訴你，我們目前只完成了500人的招募目標的一半，還有很多工作要做。但我每月都會在執行委員會會議上追蹤招聘情況，就成本而言，我們基本上符合預期。我不僅關注這些員工負責的客戶，也關注他們正在建立的銷售管道。在某些情況下，我驚訝地發現，早期銷售管道的建造甚至超出了我的預期。所以，我們還需要繼續審查，但Cognizant最近充滿活力，工作也非常緊迫。我認為我們都非常清楚我們的目標，我對我們目前的進展感到非常滿意。

So the broader sales force update is consistent with what I said last quarter, that's not going to change. We've implemented a RAD model, which is retention, acquisition and development. That's all about trying to get the right folks on the right accounts at the right time, aligning specialist resources, which are, by practice, such as big data or cloud, with a generalist client partner. The client partner is the quarterback on the accounts. They have decision rights. They own the P&L for the accounts. They can move with speed and accountability within the framework of authority that we have delegated to them, and they are complemented by subject matter experts, solution architects and the like. We implemented that model on January 1. So far, so good. And we've obviously got to continue to push that in the course of the year ahead, but I feel good about where we are.

所以，整體銷售團隊的調整與我上季所說的一致，這一點不會改變。我們實施了RAD模式，即客戶維繫、客戶獲取和客戶開發。其核心在於確保在適當的時間將合適的人員安排到合適的客戶處，並將專業資源（例如大數據或雲端運算等）與通才型客戶合作夥伴進行配對。客戶合作夥伴是客戶的統籌者，擁有決策權，負責客戶的損益。他們可以在我們授予的權限範圍內快速且有效率地開展工作，並得到領域專家、解決方案架構師等人員的協助。我們於1月1日正式實施了這項模式。目前為止，一切進展順利。當然，我們還需要在未來一年繼續推進這個模式，但我對目前的進展感到滿意。

Our next question is from the line of Lisa Ellis with MoffettNathanson.

我們的下一個問題來自 Lisa Ellis 和 MoffettNathanson。

Brian, one of the things you mentioned was that you're doubling the number of people supporting Cognizant's major strategic alliances. And I know that that is also somewhere where you have been spending your own time as well. Can you just provide a little bit more richness on where you're focused there, where maybe Cognizant is already strong, where you think there's opportunity to improve and how that sort of fits into the overall updated strategy and Fit for Growth Plan?

布萊恩，你剛才提到，你們正在將支持 Cognizant 主要戰略聯盟的人員數量增加一倍。我知道你也一直投入時間精力在這方面。你能否更詳細地說明一下你們的關注重點，Cognizant 在哪些方面已經很強，哪些方面還有提升空間，以及這些舉措如何融入到整體更新後的戰略和“Fit for Growth Plan”（適合增長計劃）中？

Yes, I will. And look, we have, Lisa, some really strong alliance partners and partnerships by key verticals, whether that's Temenos in Financial Services, Pega, Adobe or otherwise. But I've really spent a huge amount of time in the last 9 months trying to build that and foster a business plan behind Amazon, behind Microsoft. We're now working through Google Cloud practice as the hyperscale players, and it is really selectively aligning Cognizant to some of the leading SaaS-type players, as an example, such as Salesforce or ServiceNow or, indeed, Workday to make sure that we go to market with the companies that are going 20%, 30%, 40% year-over-year. Not to say we won't continue to obviously partner with others, but we are putting -- allocating even more capital to the winners in today's environment.

是的，我會的。你看，麗莎，我們在關鍵垂直領域擁有一些非常強大的聯盟夥伴和合作夥伴關係，例如金融服務領域的 Temenos、Pega、Adobe 等等。但在過去九個月裡，我確實投入了大量時間，努力建立並完善與亞馬遜和微軟的合作關係，並制定相應的商業計劃。我們現在正透過Google雲端業務，作為超大規模雲端服務商合作，並選擇性地將 Cognizant 與一些領先的 SaaS 服務商對接，例如 Salesforce、ServiceNow 或 Workday，以確保我們能夠與那些年增長率達到 20%、30% 甚至 40% 的公司一起進入市場。當然，這並不意味著我們不會繼續與其他公司合作，但我們將將更多資金投入到當今市場環境下的贏家身上。

That invariably means for us, just to be very clear, it doesn't mean hiring more alliance partners and having a bunch of coffee drinkers sitting around, feeling good about hosting meetings. This is a lot about building our business plans with solution architects and big data experts and the like aligned to each and every one of those companies I've talked about. It involves putting an operational cadence together on a rolling 4-quarter basis. So I know in a certain date, I'll be sitting in a room with the CEO of that company, reviewing not just what we're setting out to achieve as a company, which has our targets against it, which are intersected by country and vertical, but also looking at the pipeline shape, where we are in the funnel and really operationalizing that strategic alliance vision into day-to-day reality, which includes joint customer calls, joint in-person visits to clients with the leadership of those companies, joint e-mails to clients or letters to clients and the like.

對我們來說，這無疑意味著，需要非常明確的是，這並不意味著要招募更多聯盟夥伴，然後讓一群喝著咖啡的人聚在一起，自鳴得意地開會。這更多的是關於與解決方案架構師、大數據專家等人員合作，制定與我提到的每家公司都相契合的業務計劃。這需要我們以滾動四季為基礎，建立一套營運節奏。因此，我知道在某個特定日期，我將與這些公司的首席執行官坐在一起，不僅要回顧我們公司設定的目標（這些目標涵蓋了各個國家和行業），還要審視銷售渠道的現狀，了解我們目前所處的階段，並將戰略聯盟願景真正落實到日常運營中，包括與客戶進行聯合電話會議、與這些公司的領導層一起拜訪客戶、聯合向客戶發送電子郵件或信函等等。

So it's strategic. But to be very clear, it's also very operationally inclined and pragmatic with a view to successfully driving activity or cadence going forward with these clients and partners and making sure we show up better than we ever have in the past.

所以這是戰略性的。但需要明確的是，它也非常注重營運和務實，旨在成功地推動與這些客戶和合作夥伴未來的活動或節奏，並確保我們比以往任何時候都做得更好。

Our next question is from the line of Tien-tsin Huang with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的黃天進。

Everything looks, in mind, a little bit different. I know you mentioned, Karen, the 50 bps or the $25 million Healthcare write-down. Can you maybe quantify some of the pricing pressure you're seeing coming from the heritage work or anything else on delivery costs that might have surprised you? I know the Fit for Growth piece is coming in, too, so just overall, trying to get some more color on the quarter and then maybe how the year is going to play out here in 2020 for gross margin.

在我看來，一切都有些不同了。我知道你提到了50個基點的降幅，或者說是2,500萬美元的醫療保健減損。你能否量化一下你所看到的定價壓力，例如來自傳統業務或其他交付成本的壓力，這些壓力是否讓你感到驚訝？我知道「Fit for Growth」計畫也即將啟動，所以總的來說，我想更詳細地了解一下本季的情況，以及2020年全年毛利率的走勢。

I don't think -- in the quarter, Tien-tsin, I wouldn't say there was any real change in pricing trends. But as we talked about on the prepared comments, we certainly are continuing to see pressure on renewals in the heritage or legacy IT side of the business. Right now, that's being offset by higher pricing on the digital side of the business. And -- but certainly, we think we can do better on pricing in digital services and really make sure that we are pricing to the market and for the value that we are providing to clients. So that is certainly an initiative we have underway as well as do a far better job on things like COLA and getting adjusted bill rates when people are being promoted or rotating our staff to take effect of a more optimal pyramid.

我認為——就本季而言，天津先生，我不會說價格趨勢有任何實質的變化。但正如我們在準備好的評論中所提到的，我們確實持續看到傳統IT業務續約的壓力。目前，數位化業務的定價上漲抵消了部分壓力。當然，我們認為在數位化服務定價方面還有提升空間，確保我們的定價符合市場行情，並反映我們為客戶提供的價值。因此，這無疑是我們正在推進的一項舉措，同時我們也在生活成本調整（COLA）等方面做得更好，例如在員工晉升或輪調時調整計費費率，以建立更優化的金字塔結構。

Certainly, the savings that we've seen so far has been primarily in the SG&A bucket as we've been focused on the top end of the pyramid, most of which was down in SG&A. But as we move into Q1 and Q2 and further into the Fit for Growth program, we would certainly expect to see improvements in the middle to upper middle of the pyramid as well and also be able to drive improvement in some of these revenue levers, which will hopefully start to stabilize gross margin.

當然，目前我們看到的成本節約主要體現在銷售、管理及行政費用（SG&A）方面，因為我們一直專注於金字塔頂端的環節，而這些節約大多集中在SG&A上。但隨著我們進入第一季度和第二季度，以及「Fit for Growth」計畫的進一步推進，我們預計金字塔中上層和中上層的成本也會有所改善，並且能夠推動一些營收成長點的提升，這有望開始穩定毛利率。

Our next question is from the line of Edward Caso with Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題來自富國銀行的 Edward Caso。

Brian, is your team now in place? I know you had one of your execs cycle out not that long ago. But do you have the people that you need down a level or 2 at this point to drive the transformation?

布萊恩，你的團隊現在組建好了嗎？我知道不久前你的一位高階主管離職了。但你現在是否已經找到了一到兩級的合適人選來推動轉型？

Look, I'm a big believer, Ed, that A players attract A players. And the more we upskill and make sure we have the right team around me, those people, in turn, will make sure that they replicate that trend through the organization. I will say we have gems in Cognizant, really, really strong leaders. I talked about life sciences growing double digits. That's an internal promotion that happened in the last year. So it's always going to be a combination of complementing excellent internal talent with excellent additions from the outside and putting a system of meritocracy and a performance culture in place where everybody knows what we celebrate and what we condone versus what we don't tolerate. So of course, in the years ahead, there will always be refinements. I want to drive a performance culture, but we're getting there. But of course, there will be even, in the foreseeable future, ongoing refinements as we continue to attract better people from the outside to complement the internal talent.

聽著，艾德，我堅信，優秀的人才會吸引優秀的人才。我們越是提升員工技能，確保我身邊有合適的團隊，這些人反過來就會確保這種趨勢在整個組織內複製。我必須說，Cognizant 擁有許多傑出人才，他們都是真正非常優秀的領導者。我之前提到過生命科學部門實現了兩位數的成長。那是去年內部晉升的結果。所以，關鍵在於將優秀的內部人才與外部優秀人才結合，並建立一套菁英管理體系和績效文化，讓每個人都清楚我們鼓勵什麼、容忍什麼，以及哪些行為是絕對不能容忍的。當然，在未來的幾年裡，我們還會不斷改進。我希望打造一種績效文化，而我們正在朝著這個目標努力。當然，在可預見的未來，隨著我們不斷從外部吸引更優秀的人才來補充內部人才，我們將持續進行改進。

I will say one thing that's very pleasing to me. There's no shortage of people reaching out to Cognizant at this moment in time, feeling both from clients and otherwise that there's a new vigor in the company, a new urgency in the company and a confidence that we can get back to being the great company that we have been in the past. So it's very encouraging to me to know that we can still attract great talent from the outside. And in the same vein, with a new Chief People Officer, Becky Schmitt, who joined this Monday, who almost spent 2 decades in Accenture and most recently had been in Walmart, we have a very strong people agenda program lined up in the coming years to attract, motivate, develop, retain and put very sophisticated talent management programs in place internally. And I believe that that will not just make us a very appealing place to come and develop your career, but it will also have intrinsically a direct impact on our attrition rate which, as I said in the call, I'm pleased with, but we can always do better.

有一件事讓我非常欣慰。目前，無論是客戶還是其他人士，都紛紛聯繫 Cognizant，感受到公司煥發新的活力和緊迫感，並相信我們能夠重回巔峰。因此，得知我們仍能吸引外部優秀人才，我感到非常鼓舞。同樣，本週一加入公司的人力資源長 Becky Schmitt 也令人振奮。她曾在埃森哲工作近 20 年，最近就職於沃爾瑪。未來幾年，我們將推出一項強有力的人才發展計劃，旨在吸引、激勵、培養和留住人才，並在公司內部建立完善的人才管理系統。我相信，這不僅會使我們成為一個對來此發展職涯極具吸引力的地方，而且還會對我們的員工流失率產生直接影響。正如我在電話會議中所說，我對目前的流失率感到滿意，但我們總是可以做得更好。

Our next question comes from the line of Keith Bachman with Bank of Montreal.

我們的下一個問題來自蒙特利爾銀行的 Keith Bachman。

Karen, just for clarification, could you tease out the guidance from a revenue perspective in terms of isolating what M&A contribution is expected to be? And particularly, the M&A contribution, does that include some of the recent -- very, very recent deals? And then, Brian, for you, if you could just revisit on Healthcare and how we should be thinking about Healthcare cadence, both this year and, frankly, exiting this year? As the deals anniversary in earnest in the June quarter, in particular, has the price activities of the M&A client, will that -- has that already played out? Or would that continue to play out for the year? But just more broadly, talk a little bit about Healthcare, both this year and kind of exiting the year, and how you see the opportunity there for Cognizant.

Karen，為了更清楚說明情況，您能否從營收角度解讀併購業務的貢獻預期？特別是併購業務的貢獻，是否包含一些近期完成的交易？ Brian，您能否再談談醫療保健產業，以及我們應該如何看待醫療保健業務的節奏，包括今年以及今年年底？尤其是在6月份季度，隨著交易週年紀念日的臨近，併購客戶的價格活動是否已經結束？或者說，這種趨勢會持續到年底？更廣泛地說，請您談談醫療保健行業，包括今年以及今年年底，以及您如何看待Cognizant在該領域的機會。

Well, I'll start with the Healthcare question, Keith, because actually ironically, I've been on the phone with the leadership team of, as it happens, both of those combined companies as recently as this morning, so I'm pretty current in terms of where we are in the accounts and, indeed, the opportunity. And I will say I continue to be pleased that we show up a little bit better than we have, and those executives and companies reassured me that the merger integration work is still there. And as they think about consolidating to preferred vendors, we are firmly and squarely in the go-forward strategy as well. So I do feel there's lots of opportunity for us even in those larger accounts where we've seen consolidation from 4 to 2 in the last year, and we have seen some pressure on rates as part of that. But we do want to get back, once we anniversary that, into a stronger growth trajectory in Healthcare.

好的，基思，我先回答醫療保健方面的問題。說來也巧，就在今天早上，我剛和這兩家合併公司的領導團隊透過電話，所以我對我們目前在客戶方面的情況以及未來的發展機會都非常了解。我很高興我們目前的表現比之前略有進步，而且這些高階主管和公司也向我保證，合併整合工作仍在進行中。當他們考慮將業務整合到首選供應商時，我們也堅定地將其納入未來的發展策略。因此，我認為即使在去年整合了4家供應商到2家的大客戶中，我們仍然有很多機會。我們也看到，整合過程中價格承受了一些壓力。但我們希望在合併週年紀念日之後，醫療保健業務能夠重回更強勁的成長軌道。

In the same vein, I just want to caution the amount of work that needs to be done. We've also had our Healthcare team today here in New York, about 20 people in the room reviewing last year, reviewing revenue pipeline, win rate, margin trends, a very strong call to action in terms of what we need to do in the coming years. So we're not out of the other side on that yet, but I choose to be glass half full here in terms of a lot of the actions we are doing are not specific to one vertical. Better aligning marketing spend, making sure we have the right customer segmentation strategy in place, upskilling our client partners, making sure we have the best specialists in the world to complement them, going to market with some of the hyperscale players in Financial Services or Healthcare, et cetera, et cetera, that will bear fruits in each and every one of our industries, Healthcare included. We do expect still some, I would say, modest -- we still have modest expectations for Healthcare in the coming year. But as we go through the course of the year, I'd like to think that we'll start to make some progress.

同樣，我也想提醒大家，還有很多工作要做。今天，我們的醫療保健團隊在紐約召開了會議，大約有20人參加，回顧了去年的業績，包括收入管道、成交率、利潤率趨勢，並就未來幾年需要採取的行動提出了非常明確的行動號召。所以，我們還沒有完全擺脫困境，但我選擇保持樂觀，因為我們採取的許多行動並非只針對某個垂直領域。例如，更好地調整行銷支出，確保我們擁有正確的客戶細分策略，提升客戶合作夥伴的技能，確保我們擁有全球最優秀的專家團隊來協助他們，與金融服務或醫療保健等行業的超大規模企業合作，等等。這些措施將在我們所有行業（包括醫療保健行業）中取得成效。我們對明年醫療保健產業的預期仍然比較保守。但隨著時間的推移，我希望我們能取得一些進展。

And Keith, it's Karen. Let me just comment on the guidance. So for the first quarter, there's about 120 basis points of inorganic revenue baked into the guidance. That includes only the transactions that have already been completed, so that would include Code Zero but not the EI-Technologies transaction as that has not closed yet. And then on a full year basis, the guidance, similarly only for deals closed, is about 100 basis points of revenue growth year-over-year. And that's down from -- if you recall in 2019, the impact was about 200 basis points.

基思，我是凱倫。我來談談業績指引。第一季度，業績指引中包含了約120個基點的非內生性收入成長。這只包括已完成的交易，例如Code Zero，但不包括尚未完成的EI-Technologies交易。全年業績指引同樣僅包含已完成的交易，預計營收年增約100個基點。這低於2019年的水平——如果您還記得的話，當時的增幅約為200個基點。

Our next question is from the line of Rod Bourgeois with DeepDive Equity.

我們的下一個問題來自 DeepDive Equity 的 Rod Bourgeois。

Yes. So on the last earnings call, you talked about a set of growth investments that would cost you about 150 basis points on margin. So I'm just looking at the further needs to build into the digital era. And besides the growth investments you've already articulated, are there additional growth-related investments that you'd like to start making in 2020 such that if you had more room in your margin plan, are there additional investments that you would like to make besides the ones you've talked about?

是的。在上次財報電話會議上，您提到了一系列成長投資，這些投資會使您的利潤率增加約150個基點。所以我想了解一下，為了更好地適應數位時代，您還需要做哪些其他方面的投資。除了您已經提到的成長投資之外，您是否還計劃在2020年開始進行其他與成長相關的投資？如果您的利潤率計劃還有更多空間，除了您已經提到的投資之外，您是否還想進行其他投資？

Rob, it's Brian. So listen, the way I think about it, this year, if you normalize for, let's say, target bonuses, as Karen has articulated in this call and prior calls, margins would have been in roughly mid-15%. We've guided 16% to 17% for next year. So call the midpoint, 16.5%. So -- and we're assuming, by the way, next year that our bonus structure is a normalized part of our cost base. So hence, organically, if you will, 100 basis points of margin improvement year-over-year.

羅伯，我是布萊恩。聽著，我的想法是，今年，如果把目標獎金（就像凱倫在這次電話會議和之前的電話會議中提到的那樣）正常化，利潤率大概在15%左右。我們預計明年的利潤率將在16%到17%之間。所以我們取中間值，16.5%。順便說一下，我們假設明年的獎金結構會正常化，成為成本的一部分。因此，如果你願意的話，利潤率自然會比上年提高100個基點。

Now to your point, we've made reference before of $250 million-plus of investment back into the business. A lot of that, we call that explicitly like 500 head count related just to revenue generation. We're doing more on sales and marketing. We're doing more in training, et cetera. That's approximately 1.5 points. So had we not done that, margins naturally would have been higher. But I'm not here to try to operationalize Cognizant from $17 billion to $20 billion. We're trying to make this a $25 billion, $30 billion, $35 billion company in the years ahead. And as part of that, I think it's always wrong to look at one element on a continuum and shine a spotlight there and think, well, Brian, had you not made those investments, could you deliver a higher margin rate.

回到您剛才提到的，我們之前提到將超過2.5億美元的投資重新投入業務。其中很多，我們明確地稱之為與創收相關的500名員工。我們在銷售和行銷方面投入了更多資金，在培訓等方面也投入了更多資金。這大約佔1.5個百分點。所以，如果我們沒有進行這些投資，利潤率自然會更高。但我今天來這裡不是為了把Cognizant的市值從170億美元提升到200億美元。我們的目標是在未來幾年內將其打造成為一家市值250億美元、300億美元甚至350億美元的公司。因此，我認為，如果只關注某個因素，然後質疑“布萊恩，如果你沒有進行這些投資，你的利潤率會不會更高”，這種做法是錯誤的。

And Rod, I've known your investment thesis on the stock. I certainly know that's not your intent either behind your question. What I want to do is continue to reinvest into the business. So if we can prove a strong return in these investments we're making, including the sales force hiring, and we get win rates higher, if we get a good pipeline that we convert to TCV and revenue, my inclination will be to continue to deliver and apply more of the upside back into the business and get us back into the Cognizant that was tried and tested for many, many years that made this company a great success story over the years. So that's the intention that we're setting out to deliver here in the next 5 to 10 years.

羅德，我知道你對這支股票的投資邏輯。我也知道你問這個問題並非出於這個目的。我希望繼續對公司進行再投資。如果我們能夠證明這些投資（包括銷售團隊的招聘）帶來了強勁的回報，如果我們能夠提高成交率，如果我們能夠建立起良好的銷售管道並將其轉化為總合約價值和收入，那麼我傾向於繼續取得這些成果，並將更多的收益再投資於公司，使公司重回過去多年來行之有效的Cognizant模式，多年來正是這種模式成就了公司的輝煌。這就是我們未來5到10年的目標。

I'm confident we're doing the right thing. I will tell you I'm really pleased, and I spend a lot of my time with clients and partners. Our strategy is resonating. They see the renewed energy in the company. We have lots of work to do, but I'm very pleased and optimistic with the progress we're making and know, nonetheless, that we still have more work to do in the year ahead.

我相信我們正在做正確的事。說實話，我非常高興，而且我花了很多時間與客戶和合作夥伴交流。我們的策略正在產生積極影響。他們看到了公司煥然一新的活力。我們還有很多工作要做，但我對我們的進展感到非常滿意和樂觀，儘管如此，我也知道在未來一年裡我們還有更多工作要做。

Our next question is from the line of Jason Kupferberg with Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的傑森·庫柏伯格。

Just a two-pronged question on M&A. First, I know that EI-Technologies, you just said, is not in the guide at this point. But assuming that that closes in line with the timing you're expecting, roughly how much revenue would that add this year? And then can you just comment more broadly on your M&A strategy? It feels like the frequency and intensity of M&A is picking up a little bit, Brian, under your watch over the past year. Is that an accurate assessment in terms of where you intend to take that strategy as well? Obviously, these kind of tuck-in, sized digital assets really stand out.

關於併購，我有兩個問題。首先，我知道您剛才提到EI-Technologies目前不在收購計畫之內。但假設它能以您預期的時間完成交易，那麼它今年大概能帶來多少收入？其次，您能否更廣泛地談談您的併購策略？布萊恩，感覺過去一年來，在您的領導下，併購的頻率和力度都有所提升。這種感覺是否與您未來的策略規劃相符？顯然，這種規模適中的數位資產收購確實非常引人注目。

Yes. So listen, a good question. I wouldn't say to date that the frequency has picked up that much. February 6 last year, I was announced as the new CEO. So I started on April 1. And since then, we've done, until this week, 2 acquisitions, Contino, and then, prior to that, Zenith Technologies. It just so happens that we were diligently working to review our strategy and finalize that. And only with that behind is that we absolutely go -- now let's go and put our balance sheet behind us to make sure we position ourselves strongly behind our strategic intent. And as I said earlier, that's a lot about protecting and optimizing the core, including scaling internationally, but it's also about winning in e-digital battleground. And both acquisitions we made this week are firmly behind the cloud ambition that we have, and you'll see more of the same on a go-forward basis behind each and every one of those digital battlegrounds.

是的。聽著，問得好。就目前而言，我並不認為收購頻率顯著增加。去年2月6日，我被任命為新任CEO，4月1日正式上任。從那時起，直到本週，我們完成了兩項收購：Contino，以及先前的Zenith Technologies。我們一直在努力審查並最終確定我們的策略。只有完成這些工作，我們才能全力以赴——現在，讓我們把資產負債表放在一邊，確保我們能夠堅定地朝著策略目標邁進。正如我之前所說，這很大程度上是關於保護和優化核心業務，包括國際擴張，但也關乎在數位化戰場上取得勝利。我們本週完成的兩項收購都堅定地支持我們的雲端策略目標，未來您將會看到更多類似的舉措，協助我們在每個數位化戰場上取得成功。

To be very clear, I view M&A as a means to an end to achieve the strategy. While I'm pleased with the $2.2 billion we've spent on share repurchases last year, you will see an absolute conviction to returning capital to shareholders in the form of periodic dividend increases as well as share repurchases with a particular eye to offset dilution. But also potentially opportunistic, I will say that you will see us err more towards accelerating M&A on a go-forward basis as long as it is supportive of the overall company strategy. Share repurchases, while having value, do not reposition the company against the strategic intent. M&A can enable us to do that. So with almost a year behind me under my belt here in Cognizant, getting my head around the company, the industry better, the operational rigor and control we have, with the team around me, we're absolutely inclined to accelerate M&A a little more in the years ahead and make sure we use that as a means to accomplish our overall company strategy.

需要明確的是，我將併購視為實現公司策略目標的手段。雖然我對去年我們斥資22億美元回購股票感到滿意，但您會看到我們始終堅持以定期提高股息和回購股票的形式向股東返還資本，尤其註重抵消股權稀釋。同時，我也要指出，只要併購符合公司整體策略，我們未來會更傾向加快併購腳步。股票回購雖然有價值，但並不能改變公司的策略意圖。而併購則可以讓我們做到這一點。我在Cognizant工作近一年，對公司、產業以及我們擁有的營運效率和控制力有了更深入的了解。在團隊的帶領下，我們絕對傾向於在未來幾年進一步加快併購步伐，並確保將其作為實現公司整體策略的有效手段。

With regards to the details of EI-Technologies, look, we've entered into exclusive negotiations. Deal's not closed. It is material for France but is absolutely immaterial from a company perspective in terms of the dollar addition. So it's basis points in terms of growth as opposed to anything else. But as I said, that plus Code Zero is firmly behind our Salesforce ambition. And we've been spending a lot of time. I personally have met with Salesforce CEO, I think, probably now 5 times in 9 months, and these are very symbolic moves to make sure that we strengthen our capabilities behind the Salesforce practice that we're building out.

關於EI-Technologies的細節，我們已經進入獨家談判階段。交易尚未完成。這對法國來說意義重大，但就公司而言，就美元收益而言微不足道。所以，就成長而言，這只是幾個基點而已。但正如我所說，這筆交易加上Code Zero項目，都堅定地支持著我們進軍Salesforce的雄心壯志。我們為此投入了大量時間。我個人在過去九個月與Salesforce執行長會面了大約五次，這些舉措意義重大，旨在確保我們能夠加強自身在Salesforce業務方面的能力，而我們正在建立的Salesforce業務正是為此而努力。

We have time for one final question today, which will be coming from the line of Moshe Katri with Wedbush Securities.

今天我們還有時間回答最後一個問題，這個問題將由 Wedbush Securities 的 Moshe Katri 提出。

Brian, you spoke about the need to potentially accelerate growth in international where you feel that the company is underpenetrated. Can you talk a bit about what sort of actions you're taking to kind of get there? Maybe some color there, that will be helpful.

布萊恩，你之前提到公司需要在國際市場加速成長，因為你覺得公司在該市場的滲透率還不夠高。你能具體說說你們正在採取哪些措施來實現這個目標嗎？提供一些細節資訊會很有幫助。

Yes, it ultimately takes 3 portions: one is organic investments, one is partnership and another one is M&A. To be very clear, Zenith Technologies, which was at the intersection point of life sciences as one of our really strategic verticals as well as IoT was a perfect illustration of hitting many birds with one stone: geographic expansion strengthening European footprint, aligning through our IoT digital priority and aligning to one of our strategic verticals. We also announced and closed Contino, which has got a very strong international footprint in the form of DevOps and data in Q4. So those are good illustrations. And of course, EI-Technologies that we announced earlier today will be another good illustration of strengthening our footprint in Europe, in this case, in France.

是的，最終需要三個部分：一是內部投資，二是合作，三是併購。具體來說，Zenith Technologies 就是一個完美的例子，它位於生命科學（我們真正的戰略垂直領域之一）和物聯網的交匯點，完美詮釋了「一石多鳥」的理念：地域擴張鞏固了我們在歐洲的佈局，與我們的物聯網數位化戰略重點相契合，並與我們的一個戰略垂直領域保持一致。我們在第四季度也宣布並完成了對 Contino 的收購，該公司在 DevOps 和數據方面擁有非常強大的國際影響力。這些都是很好的例子。當然，我們今天早些時候宣布的 EI-Technologies 也將是另一個加強我們在歐洲佈局（這次是在法國）的絕佳例證。

Organically, of course, we're strengthening our capabilities by building out more footprint and supporting that footprint with better allocation of resources globally. As an example, we will modify our marketing mix this year to shift much more towards our international expansion. In prior years, our marketing spend was actually less in our international business than the actual current revenue mix, notwithstanding the fact that our growth opportunity was bigger there. So that seems to have been something that we wanted to rectify on a go-forward basis and, of course, part of the 500 revenue-generating head count that we've approved. A good chunk of that is in Europe, and we want to continue to go scale that to make sure we have a bigger footprint in those geographies.

當然，我們也正在穩步提升自身能力，透過擴大業務版圖，並在全球範圍內更合理地分配資源來支援這些業務。例如，今年我們將調整行銷組合，更加重視國際擴張。過去幾年，儘管我們在國際市場的成長潛力更大，但我們在國際業務的營銷支出實際上低於目前的收入佔比。因此，我們希望在未來糾正這個問題，這當然也是我們已批准的500名創收員工計畫的一部分。其中很大一部分位於歐洲，我們希望繼續擴大規模，確保在這些地區擁有更大的市場份額。

And then on the partnership side, whether it's with AWS or Salesforce or otherwise, we've been building out those linkages throughout the world, and Europe is no different with a view to go to market in a digital ecosystem aligned country by country. I firmly view partners, Lisa asked the question earlier, as an extension of our sales force. We are working on some core banking deals at this moment in time where the CEO of Temenos has actually actively engaged and brought us into deals and been a huge proponent of Cognizant given our world-class capabilities behind Temenos. So it's wonderful when a client hears not just from the CEO of Cognizant but also the CEO, in this case, of Temenos as to our capabilities and our referenceability in that regard. So we're full speed onboard, full speed ahead to go scale our international capabilities. It was a little bit disappointing this last quarter, some of it self-inflicted. We got to get that right going forward, and it's certainly an area of focus for me in the coming years.

在合作關係方面，無論是與AWS、Salesforce或其他合作夥伴，我們都在全球範圍內不斷拓展聯繫，歐洲也不例外，目標是在各國建立契合的數位生態系統，從而更好地開拓市場。正如Lisa之前提出的問題，我始終認為合作夥伴是我們銷售團隊的延伸。目前，我們正在推動一些核心銀行業務的交易，Temenos的CEO積極參與其中，促成了這些交易，並且鑑於我們為Temenos提供的世界一流支持，他一直是Cognizant的堅定支持者。因此，當客戶不僅能從Cognizant的CEO那裡聽到關於我們能力和相關案例的介紹時，我們感到非常榮幸。所以我們正全力以赴，加速拓展我們的國際業務能力。上個季度的業績略顯令人失望，部分原因是我們本身造成的。我們必須在未來解決這個問題，這無疑是我未來幾年的重點工作領域。

Okay. With that, I think we will conclude today's call. Thank you all for your questions.

好的。我想今天的電話會議就到此結束了。謝謝大家的提問。

Thank you. This concludes today's Cognizant Technology Solutions Fourth Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. You may now disconnect.

謝謝。今天的 Cognizant Technology Solutions 2019 年第四季財報電話會議到此結束。您可以斷開連線了。