高知特 (CTSH) 2022 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Cognizant Technology Solutions Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Thank you.

女士們、先生們，歡迎參加 Cognizant Technology Solutions 2022 年第三季財報電話會議。 （操作說明）謝謝。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Tyler Scott, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

現在我將會議交給投資者關係副總裁泰勒‧史考特先生。請您開始吧，先生。

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. By now, you should have received a copy of the earnings release and investor supplement for the company's third quarter 2022 results. If you have not, copies are available on our website, cognizant.com.

謝謝接線員，大家下午好。您現在應該已經收到公司2022年第三季業績的獲利報告和投資者補充資料。如果您還沒有收到，可以造訪我們的網站cognizant.com取得。

The speakers we have on today's call are Brian Humphries, Chief Executive Officer; and Jan Siegmund, Chief Financial Officer.

今天參加電話會議的發言人有：執行長 Brian Humphries；以及財務長 Jan Siegmund。

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。本公司發布的獲利報告以及向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件中，均提供了非GAAP財務指標與相應GAAP指標的調節表（如適用）。

With that, I'd like to now turn the 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。請開始吧，布萊恩。

Thank you, Tyler. Good afternoon, everyone. Third quarter revenue was $4.9 billion, up 5.6% year-over-year in constant currency, short of our expectations. Adjusted operating margin grew 90 basis points sequentially and 60 basis points year-over-year to 16.4% of revenue. While a non-certain macroeconomic backdrop impacted bookings and revenue, the primary driver of the revenue shortfall relates to a reduction in U.S. onshore billable resources in recent quarters, following a period of elevated attrition, a reduction in visa travel and a COVID-induced shift in the near and offshore delivery centers. Financial impact of this headcount reduction is magnified given this is our highest revenue and margin dollar per head population.

謝謝泰勒。大家下午好。第三季營收為49億美元，以固定匯率計算年增5.6%，低於預期。調整後營業利益率較上季成長90個基點，較去年同期成長60個基點，達到營收的16.4%。雖然不確定的宏觀經濟環境影響了訂單量和營收，但營收下滑的主要原因是近幾季美國本土可計費人員減少，此前一段時間人員流失率較高，簽證旅行減少，以及新冠疫情導致的近岸和離岸交付中心轉移。鑑於目前員工人均營收和利潤率最高，此次裁員對財務的影響更為顯著。

To reverse this trend, we have already initiated a series of actions that are intended to increase U.S. onshore billable resources, including enhanced focus on lateral hires and subcontractors, accelerated visa travel and targeted compensation programs. While these actions are gaining traction, it is somewhat slower than previously anticipated. We, therefore, expect these headwinds to continue in the fourth quarter ahead of clearer progress in Q1.

為了扭轉這一趨勢，我們已啟動一系列旨在增加美國本土可計費資源的措施，包括更加重視橫向招聘和分包商，加快簽證辦理速度以及推出有針對性的薪酬方案。雖然這些措施正在取得成效，但速度略低於預期。因此，我們預計這些不利因素將在第四季度持續，並在第一季取得更明顯的進展。

Let me now turn your attention to global third quarter voluntary attrition, which was a little higher than expected in the quarter. Voluntary attrition fell 2 points sequentially to 29% on an annualized basis and fell 3 points sequentially on a trailing 12-month basis.

現在，我想把大家的注意力轉向全球第三季的自願離職率，該季度的自願離職率略高於預期。以年率計算，自願離職率較上月下降2個百分點至29%；以過去12個月計算，自願離職率較上月下降3個百分點。

We've taken extensive actions to increase employee engagement and reduce attrition over the past year. These initiatives, coupled with an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop, have led to reduced daily resignations, a leading indicator of voluntary attrition across the globe in the last 4 months. We expect sequential reductions in voluntary attritions to be more meaningful in the fourth quarter.

過去一年，我們採取了多項措施來提高員工敬業度並降低員工流動率。這些舉措，加上宏觀經濟環境的不確定性，導致過去四個月全球每日離職人數（衡量員工自願離職率的領先指標）下降。我們預期第四季員工自願離職率的季減幅度將更加顯著。

To maintain positive momentum on resignations, we are continuing our comprehensive effort to attract, retain and rally employees. We remain focused on our people strategy, which includes our refined promotion initiative, learning and development, and enhanced compensation and benefits programs. For instance, we recently communicated to our associates that we will accelerate next year's merit cycle to the second quarter of 2023, meaning we will have 2 merit cycles in the space of 6 months for most of our associates.

為了維持員工離職率的正面勢頭，我們正持續推動各項吸引、留住和激勵員工的措施。我們將繼續專注於人才策略，其中包括完善的晉升機制、學習與發展計劃以及更優厚的薪資福利方案。例如，我們近期已通知員工，明年的績效考核週期將提前至2023年第二季度，這意味著大多數員工將在6個月內經歷兩次績效考核。

I would like to now discuss the macroeconomic environment, which Jan will also address in our fourth quarter guidance. We see clients closely scrutinizing and slowing their investment decisions faced with a backdrop of uncertain economic conditions. Then it's been reduced on lower-priority projects or those with a longer return on investment. We're seeing some early signs of slowing in discretionary digital projects.

接下來我想談談宏觀經濟環境，Jan也會在第四季業績展望中提及這一點。我們看到，在經濟情勢不明朗的背景下，客戶正在密切關注並放緩投資決策。他們減少了對優先順序較低或投資回報週期較長的項目的投資。我們已經看到一些非必需的數位化專案出現放緩的早期跡象。

Industry-wise, we've seen weakness in banking, especially in the mortgage segment, health sciences and retail. In our international business, the U.K. remains solid, but deal cycles are slowing, while Continental Europe is showing signs of weakness.

從產業層面來看，銀行業（尤其是抵押貸款領域）、醫療保健和零售業均表現疲軟。在國際業務方面，英國市場依然穩健，但交易週期正在放緩，而歐洲大陸市場則顯露出疲軟跡象。

From a commercial point of view, despite a strategy to sell solution and deliver client outcomes, we remain exposed to time and material engagements across all industries. We've seen clients curtailing their spending, and we expect furloughs to impact the fourth quarter. These factors contributed to a decline in bookings of 2% year-over-year in the third quarter, representing an in-period book-to-bill ratio of 1.0x and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.2x on a trailing 12-month basis.

從商業角度來看，儘管我們採取了銷售解決方案並交付客戶成果的策略，但我們仍然面臨著各行各業按工時和材料計費的專案。我們看到客戶正在縮減支出，預計員工休假將對第四季產生影響。這些因素導致第三季訂單量較去年同期下降2%，當期訂單出貨比為1.0倍，過去12個月的訂單出貨比為1.2倍。

Turning now to our industry segment performance. Financial Services grew 1.6% year-over-year in constant currency, led by growth in our insurance business. This includes a negative impact of 180 basis points from the exit of Samlink. In insurance, carriers of all lines of business are enhancing their digital capabilities, driven by demand for new insurance products and improved user experience. For example, Resolution Life U.S. turned to us to execute several digital transformation initiatives that include large-scale data and application core modernization and cloud migrations. We're also helping them develop and scale advanced capabilities in data and analytics to drive significant operational efficiencies in our closed book portfolio.

現在來看我們各行業板塊的業績表現。金融服務類以固定匯率計算年增1.6%，主要得益於保險業務的成長。這其中包含了因出售Samlink而產生的180個基點的負面影響。在保險領域，各業務線的保險公司都在提升其數位化能力，這主要受新保險產品需求和使用者體驗提升的驅動。例如，Resolution Life U.S.委託我們執行多項數位轉型計劃，其中包括大規模的數據和應用核心現代化改造以及雲端遷移。我們也正在幫助他們開發和擴展數據與分析方面的高階能力，以顯著提高我們封閉式業務組合的營運效率。

We were selected by AXA UK & Ireland as a technology partner to help consolidate, modernize and manage a part of their IT operations. AXA is transforming its technology ecosystem to create a more digitally enabled modern and agile environment that's data-rich, secure and sustainable.

我們被安盛英國及愛爾蘭公司選為技術合作夥伴，協助其整合、現代化改造並管理部分IT營運。安盛正在轉型其技術生態系統，旨在打造一個更數位化、現代化且敏捷的環境，該環境數據豐富、安全可靠且可持續。

Health Sciences revenue grew 5.5% year-over-year in constant currency, driven by digital services among pharmaceutical and health care payer clients. I'm pleased to note that our shared investigator platform, a SaaS solution for pharmaceutical companies that streamlines clinical trials to improve the speed of drug discovery, has surpassed 250,000 users across 100 countries worldwide. Kyowa Kirin, a Japanese pharmaceutical and biotechnology company, has signed a multiyear agreement with Cognizant to provide global pharmacovigilance services and help improve patient health through the analysis of adverse reactions across its products.

受製藥和醫療支付方客戶的數位化服務推動，健康科學業務收入按固定匯率計算年增5.5%。我很高興地宣布，我們面向製藥公司的共享研究者平台（一款SaaS解決方案，旨在簡化臨床試驗流程，加快藥物研發速度）的用戶數量已突破25萬，遍布全球100個國家。日本製藥和生物技術公司協和麒麟已與Cognizant簽署多年協議，後者將提供全球藥物警戒服務，並透過分析其產品的不良反應，幫助改善患者健康。

In Products and Resources, revenue grew 8.2% year-over-year in constant currency. Growth was driven by demand for our digital services among logistics, automotive, consumer goods and travel and hospitality clients. During the quarter, we extended our long-standing relationship with Centrica, the U.K.'s largest supplier of energy and energy services, deliver business-critical services encompassing application testing, client infrastructure support and IT infrastructure management.

在產品與資源業務方面，以固定匯率計算，營收年增 8.2%。成長主要得益於物流、汽車、消費品以及旅遊和酒店業客戶對我們數位化服務的需求。本季度，我們深化了與英國最大的能源及能源服務供應商 Centrica 的長期合作關係，為其提供涵蓋應用測試、客戶基礎設施支援和 IT 基礎設施管理等關鍵業務服務。

Communications, Media and Technology revenue grew 10.4% year-over-year in constant currency, driven by strength among digital-native clients. We're expanding our collaboration with Qualcomm to accelerate digital transformation through a new 5G experience center in Atlanta. The collaboration combines our deep expertise in 5G, IoT, cloud and data analytics with Qualcomm's intelligent edge devices, AI and 5G connectivity solutions.

通訊、媒體和技術業務收入以固定匯率計算年增10.4%，主要得益於數位原生客戶的強勁成長。我們正在擴大與高通的合作，透過在亞特蘭大新建的5G體驗中心加速數位轉型。此次合作將我們自身在5G、物聯網、雲端運算和數據分析領域的深厚專業知識與高通的智慧邊緣設備、人工智慧和5G連接解決方案結合。

We've also had our first substantial win in the legal sector, which has traditionally been a latecomer to outsourcing and digital services. Freshfields selected us to manage their global IT operations and support their ambitious global expansion plans. We'll be providing 24/7 managed service of the firmed IT infrastructure applications as well as managing its service desk. Cognizant will also help define Freshfields' technology transformation road map.

我們在法律行業也取得了首個重大勝利，該行業歷來在IT外包和數位化服務方面起步較晚。富而德律師事務所選擇我們來管理其全球IT運營，並支持其雄心勃勃的全球擴張計劃。我們將為其IT基礎設施應用提供全天候託管服務，並負責其服務台的管理。此外，Cognizant也將協助富而德律師事務所製定技術轉型路線圖。

As I mentioned in our last earnings call, targeted M&A remains an important tool for enhancing our competitiveness. We have several M&A targets in the pipeline in line with our strategy and capital allocation framework. As always, we continue to focus on opportunities which are value-accretive to Cognizant shareholders and align with our strategy.

正如我在上次財報電話會議上提到的，有針對性的併購仍然是我們提升競爭力的重要工具。根據我們的策略和資本配置框架，我們目前有多個併購目標正在籌備中。我們將一如既往地專注於那些能夠為 Cognizant 股東創造價值並符合我們策略的機會。

Yesterday, we announced an agreement to acquire the professional services and application management practices of OneSource Virtual, a Workday partner based in Dallas. These practices will complement our existing finance and HR advisory services on the Workday Cloud Platform. The acquisition is anticipated to close by year-end 2022, subject to satisfaction of closing conditions. At which stage, we expect to welcome nearly 400 new employees to our strategic Workday practice.

昨天，我們宣布達成協議，收購位於達拉斯的Workday合作夥伴OneSource Virtual的專業服務和應用程式管理業務。這些業務將與我們現有的基於Workday雲端平台的財務和人力資源諮詢服務形成互補。此次收購預計於2022年底完成，但需滿足相關交割條件。屆時，我們預計將有近400名新員工加入我們的策略性Workday業務團隊。

Importantly, we continue to strengthen our leadership team. Last month, we named Ravi Kumar President of Cognizant Americas. He will join us in mid-January from Infosys, where he served as President for the past 6 years. Ravi brings client centricity and a growth mindset that we believe will help improve our U.S. revenue trajectory.

重要的是，我們持續加強領導團隊建立。上個月，我們任命 Ravi Kumar 為 Cognizant 美洲區總裁。他將於一月中旬加入我們，此前他在 Infosys 擔任總裁六年。 Ravi 以客戶為中心，並擁有成長型思維，我們相信這將有助於提升我們在美國的營收成長。

We also announced Prasad Sankaran as the new Head of our Software & Platform Engineering Practice. Prasad joined us yesterday from Bain, where he was a Senior Vice President in the firm's Enterprise Technology Global Practice. Prior to that, he spent 25 years in senior leadership roles with Accenture. Both announcements speak highly of our ability to attract world-class talent and support 2 key strategic areas for Cognizant, the Americas region and leading enterprise technology transformation.

我們也宣布任命 Prasad Sankaran 為軟體與平台工程業務負責人。 Prasad 於昨日加入我們，此前他曾在貝恩公司擔任企業技術全球業務資深副總裁。在此之前，他曾在埃森哲擔任高階領導職務長達 25 年。這兩項任命充分體現了我們吸引世界級人才的能力，以及我們支持 Cognizant 兩大關鍵策略領域——美洲地區和引領企業技術轉型——的能力。

Before passing the call to Jan, I would like to stress that while we're in a period of economic uncertainty, the entire leadership team knows we must execute better on things that we can control, including optimizing resources globally and getting the right mix on- and offshore in a dynamic demand environment.

在將電話轉給 Jan 之前，我想強調，雖然我們正處於經濟不確定時期，但整個領導團隊都知道，我們必須更好地執行我們可以控制的事情，包括在全球範圍內優化資源，並在動態的需求環境中實現合適的在岸和離岸組合。

We will continue to focus on and hone our operational discipline, which is intended to enable us to adapt quickly to demand changes. While we're in an uncertain macroeconomic environment, we remain highly optimistic on the key services market and our opportunity within it.

我們將繼續專注於提升和完善營運紀律，以期快速適應市場需求的變化。儘管宏觀經濟環境充滿不確定性，但我們對關鍵服務市場及其蘊藏的機會仍保持高度樂觀。

Finally, following sustained progress in reducing voluntary resignation rates, we expect sequential reductions in voluntary attrition to be more meaningful in the fourth quarter, allowing us to repivot client conversations from fulfillment to innovation, strategic transformation and growth.

最後，隨著自願離職率持續下降，我們預計第四季度自願離職率的連續下降將更有意義，這將使我們能夠將與客戶的對話從履行職責轉向創新、策略轉型和成長。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Jan, who will cover the details of our quarter and our fourth quarter financial outlook before we take your questions.

接下來，我將把電話交給 Jan，她將詳細介紹我們本季的業績以及第四季的財務展望，之後我們將回答大家的問題。

Thank you, Brian, and good afternoon, everyone. Q3 revenue was below our guidance range, driven primarily by lower billable headcount in North America. Higher-than-expected attrition, coupled with strong competition for talent in North America, made it challenging for us to maintain required staffing levels to meet our revenue forecast. An uncertain macroeconomic backdrop led to pockets of bookings and revenue weaknesses in certain industries.

謝謝布萊恩，大家下午好。第三季營收低於預期，主要原因是北美地區可計費的員工人數減少。高於預期的員工流動率，加上北美地區人才競爭激烈，使我們難以維持所需的員工人數以實現營收預測。宏觀經濟情勢的不確定性導致某些產業的訂單量和營收出現疲軟。

The weaker-than-expected revenue performance was offset by commercial discipline, the benefit from the depreciation of the Indian rupee and SG&A leverage, which resulted in sequential and year-over-year operating margin expansion.

低於預期的收入表現被商業紀律、印度盧比貶值帶來的好處以及銷售、管理及行政費用槓桿作用所抵消，從而實現了環比和同比營業利潤率的增長。

Now moving on to the details for the quarter. Q3 revenue was $4.9 billion, representing an increase of 2.4% year-over-year or 5.6% in constant currency. Year-over-year growth includes approximately 40 basis points of growth from our acquisitions and a negative 60 basis points impact from the sale of Samlink completed at the beginning of this year.

接下來是本季的具體數據。第三季營收為49億美元，年增2.4%，以固定匯率計算成長5.6%。年比成長中包含約40個基點的收購成長，以及年初完成的Samlink出售帶來的60個基點的負面影響。

In Q3, digital revenue, as reported, grew 7% year-over-year or 11% at constant currency. Digital represented approximately 51% of total revenue for the quarter, up 2 points from the prior year period. Our slower digital revenue growth reflected the expected lower inorganic contribution we discussed last quarter and the lower billable headcount in North America mentioned earlier.

第三季度，數位業務營收年增7%，以固定匯率計算成長11%。數位業務收入約佔當季總營收的51%，較上年同期成長2個百分點。數位業務收入成長放緩反映了我們上季度討論的預期中非自然成長貢獻下降，以及前文提及的北美地區可計費員工人數減少。

These factors and softening demand environment also contributed to a bookings performance below our expectations. Q3 bookings declined 2% year-over-year and represented an in-period book-to-bill of approximately 1x. This resulted in a trailing 12-month bookings of $23.1 million and a book-to-bill of approximately 1.2x, unchanged from Q2.

這些因素以及疲軟的需求環境也導致訂單量低於預期。第三季訂單量較去年同期下降2%，當期訂單出貨比約1倍。這使得過去12個月的訂單量為2,310萬美元，訂單出貨比約為1.2倍，與第二季持平。

Brian has already taken us through the segment performance, but I will spend a minute discussing several trends we are seeing emerge across our 2 largest segments. Within Financial Services, banking revenue growth slowed this quarter. This portfolio has a higher mix of time and material business, which we believe is more vulnerable to changes in the economic outlook of our clients.

Brian 已經向我們介紹了各業務板塊的業績表現，但我將花一點時間討論我們在兩大業務板塊中觀察到的幾個趨勢。在金融服務領域，銀行業務的收入成長在本季有所放緩。此業務板塊中以工時和材料計費的業務佔比較高，我們認為這類業務更容易受到客戶經濟前景變化的影響。

Additionally, mortgage clients have been impacted by rising interest rates, which has a negative impact on our results. These headwinds were offset by continued growth within insurance, particularly within property and casualty, where we are seeing good traction in both middle market and large global carriers. We're continuing to invest and strengthen our banking and financial services portfolio to improve the revenue trajectory over the medium term.

此外，抵押貸款客戶也受到利率上升的影響，這對我們的業績產生了負面影響。但保險業務的持續成長，特別是財產和意外保險業務，抵消了這些不利因素。我們在中型市場和大型全球保險公司中都看到了良好的發展動能。我們將繼續投資並加強我們的銀行和金融服務業務組合，以改善中期收入成長動能。

Within Health Sciences, our growth was again driven by demand for digital services among pharmaceutical companies. Health care payer growth was consistent with last quarter, and we have seen the ramp-up of integration-related services following the softer product growth earlier this year. However, the health care industry has not been immune to pressures driven by the macro uncertainty as we have seen softer demand both across health care payer and life sciences.

在健康科學領域，我們的成長再次得益於製藥公司對數位化服務的需求。醫療支付方的成長與上季持平，我們看到，在今年稍早產品成長放緩之後，與整合相關的服務需求有所回升。然而，醫療保健產業也未能倖免於宏觀經濟不確定性帶來的壓力，我們看到醫療支付方和生命科學領域的需求均有所疲軟。

Clients are slowing discretionary spending as they await greater clarity on the economy and navigate an increasingly complex regulatory environment.

由於客戶仍在等待經濟狀況更加明朗，並努力應對日益複雜的監管環境，因此他們正在放緩可自由支配的支出。

Continuing with the year-over-year revenue growth in constant currency, from a geographic perspective in Q3, North America revenue grew 4%. Growth was led by CMT and Health Sciences. Our global growth markets, or GGM, which consists of all revenue outside of North America, grew approximately 10%, including a negative 220 basis point impact from the sale of Samlink. Growth was again led by the U.K., up 19%, which had a strong double-digit growth within Financial Services, including public sector clients.

以固定匯率計算，第三季營收年增，北美地區營收成長4%。成長主要由CMT和健康科學業務帶動。全球成長市場（GGM，涵蓋北美以外的所有營收）成長約10%，其中包括出售Samlink帶來的220個基點的負面影響。英國再次成為成長的領頭羊，成長19%，其中金融服務業務（包括公共部門客戶）實現了強勁的兩位數成長。

Now moving on to margins. In Q3, our GAAP and adjusted operating margins were 16.4% as there were no non-GAAP adjustments in the quarter. On a year-over-year basis, GAAP operating margin increased by 100 basis points, and adjusted operating margin increased by 60 basis points.

接下來我們來看利潤率。第三季度，由於本季沒有非GAAP調整，我們的GAAP營業利潤率和調整後營業利潤率均為16.4%。與去年同期相比，GAAP營業利潤率成長了100個基點，調整後營業利益率成長了60個基點。

Year-over-year, margin expansion was primarily driven by SG&A leverage, while gross margin pressure from increased compensation costs was partially offset by delivering efficiencies and disciplined pricing. We also experienced a meaningful tailwind from the depreciation of the Indian rupee, delivering an approximate 80 basis points of benefit, net of hedges year-over-year.

與去年同期相比，利潤率的提升主要得益於銷售、管理及行政費用（SG&A）的槓桿作用，而薪酬成本上升帶來的毛利率壓力則被效率提升和嚴格的定價策略部分抵消。此外，印度盧比貶值也為我們帶來了顯著的利好，扣除對沖收益後，年比淨收益約為80個基點。

Our GAAP tax rate in the quarter was 22.5%, which included the benefit from a discrete tax item in the quarter. Adjusted tax rate in the quarter was 25.2%. Q3 diluted GAAP EPS was $1.22 and Q3 adjusted EPS was $1.17, up 18% and 10% year-over-year, respectively.

本季GAAP稅率為22.5%，其中包括本季一項特殊稅收項目的收益。本季調整後稅率為25.2%。第三季稀釋後GAAP每股收益為1.22美元，第三季調整後每股盈餘為1.17美元，分別較去年同期成長18%和10%。

Now turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with cash and short-term investments of $2.7 billion or net cash of $2.1 billion. Free cash flow in Q3 was $953 million, representing approximately 150% of net income, in line with our expectation. This brings year-to-date free cash flow to $1.6 billion or 92% of net income. DSO of 74 days was flat sequentially and increased by 2 days year-over-year.

現在來看資產負債表。本季末，我們持有現金及短期投資27億美元，淨現金為21億美元。第三季自由現金流為9.53億美元，約佔淨利的150%，符合預期。年初至今的自由現金流累計達16億美元，佔淨利的92%。應收帳款週轉天數（DSO）為74天，較上季持平，較去年同期增加2天。

During the quarter, we repurchased 5 million shares for $300 million under our share repurchase program and returned $141 million to shareholders through our regular dividend. This brings total capital return to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends to approximately $1.5 billion through the first 9 months of 2022.

本季度，我們根據股票回購計畫回購了500萬股，總額達3億美元，並透過常規股息向股東返還了1.41億美元。截至2022年前9個月，透過股票回購和股利向股東返還的總資本約為15億美元。

Turning to our forward outlook. We are revising our full year guidance downward, which reflects headwinds from currency, lower North America billable headcount, which we expect to take several quarters to improve, and softer-than-expected bookings growth. Offsetting these factors are several tailwinds, including sustained reductions in resignations globally and our expectation for lower attrition in the fourth quarter.

接下來談談我們的未來展望。我們下調了全年業績預期，這反映了匯率波動、北美可計費員工人數減少（預計需要幾季才能改善）以及訂單成長低於預期等不利因素。不過，也有一些利多因素抵消了這些不利影響，包括全球離職人數持續下降以及我們預期第四季度員工流失率將降低。

For Q4, we expect revenue in the range of $4.72 billion to $4.77 billion, representing year-over-year decline of 0.2% to 1.2% or growth of 2% to 3% in constant currency. Our guidance assumes currency will have a negative 320 basis points impact as well as an inorganic contribution of approximately 30 basis points.

我們預計第四季營收將在47.2億美元至47.7億美元之間，年減0.2%至1.2%，以固定匯率計算則較去年同期成長2%至3%。我們的預測基於以下假設：匯率波動將對營收產生320個基點的負面影響，同時非內生性成長也將貢獻約30個基點。

Together, these factors contribute to our revised full year revenue guidance of approximately $19.3 billion, representing year-over-year growth of approximately 4.5% or 7% in constant currency. This assumes approximately 100 basis points of inorganic contribution. Our reported revenue outlook now assumes a negative 260 basis points of impact from currency versus 220 basis points previously. This compares to our prior full year revenue guidance of $19.7 billion to $19.9 billion, which represented growth of 6.3% to 7.3% or 8.5% to 9.5% in constant currency.

綜合以上因素，我們將全年營收預期調整為約193億美元，年增約4.5%，以固定匯率計算成長約7%。此預期包含約100個基點的非內生性成長貢獻。我們目前的營收預期受匯率影響為負260個基點，高於先前的220個基點。相較之下，我們先前的全年營收預期為197億美元至199億美元，年增6.3%至7.3%，以固定匯率計算成長8.5%至9.5%。

We expect our full year operating margin to be approximately 15.6% at the low end of our prior range. This implies Q4 adjusted operating margin of around 15.3% at the midpoint of our EPS range, reflecting the reduced revenue outlook and the annual merit cycle for most employees that is effective October 1.

我們預計全年營業利潤率約為15.6%，處於先前預期範圍的下限。這意味著第四季度調整後營業利潤率約為15.3%，處於我們每股收益預期範圍的中點，這反映了收入預期下調以及大多數員工將於10月1日生效的年度績效考核機制。

Our full year outlook assumes interest income of approximately $50 million versus $35 million previously, reflecting higher interest rates. We still expect average shares outstanding of approximately 519 million, unchanged. Our tax guidance of 24% to 25% is unchanged.

鑑於利率上升，我們全年業績展望預計利息收入約為5,000萬美元，高於先前預期的3,500萬美元。我們仍預期平均流通股數約為5.19億股，維持不變。稅率預期也維持在24%至25%之間。

Finally, our revised full year adjusted EPS guidance of $4.43 to $4.46 represents growth of approximately 7% to 8%. This compares to prior guidance of $4.51 to $4.57. Our longer-term capital allocation framework remains unchanged.

最後，我們修訂後的全年調整後每股盈餘預期為4.43美元至4.46美元，較先前預期的4.51美元至4.57美元成長約7%至8%。我們的長期資本配置架構維持不變。

We are pleased to announce our agreement to acquire the professional services and application management practices of OneSource Virtual yesterday, and we expect our acquisition pipelines to remain active. Our share repurchase assumption for the full year is unchanged at $1.2 billion. As always, this remains subject to market conditions and other factors.

我們很高興地宣布，已於昨日達成協議，收購 OneSource Virtual 的專業服務和應用程式管理業務，並預計我們的收購計劃將繼續保持活躍。我們全年的股票回購預期維持不變，仍為 12 億美元。當然，這項預期仍會受到市場狀況和其他因素的影響。

In support of our balanced capital deployment strategy, the Board has also approved a $2 billion increase in our share repurchase authorization, which brings our total remaining authorization to over $3 billion as of today. We are also still targeting full year free cash flow conversion of approximately 100% of net income.

為支持我們均衡的資本配置策略，董事會已批准將股票回購授權額度增加20億美元，使截至今日我們剩餘的授權總額超過30億美元。我們仍將全年自由現金流轉化為淨利潤的目標設定為約100%。

Before opening the call for questions, I want to reinforce that the leadership team is focused on addressing the operational challenges impacting our recent results. We are also closely monitoring macroeconomic factors to help enable us to quickly respond to changes in the demand environment. Longer term, we remain confident in our market opportunity.

在正式開始提問環節之前，我想再次強調，領導團隊正集中精力應對影響我們近期業績的營運挑戰。同時，我們也密切關注宏觀經濟因素，以便能夠快速回應市場需求的變化。從長遠來看，我們對自身的市場機會依然充滿信心。

With that, we will open the call for your questions.

接下來，我們將開放提問環節。

(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from the line of Lisa Ellis with MoffettNathanson.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自 Lisa Ellis 與 MoffettNathanson 的對話。

I'll start on the attrition point that you've raised that seems to, I guess, be at the root cause of some of the challenges you're having both on revenue and on bookings. In the past, you've focused a lot on the initiatives you're undertaking in India related to attrition and haven't spent as much time on the dynamics of what's going on in North America. Can you just elaborate a bit on what exactly is happening in North America? Is this recent? Have you pinpointed like specifically what's causing the elevated attrition and maybe elaborate a bit on the time frame and the steps you're taking to address it?

我先從您提到的員工流失問題說起，這似乎是您目前在收入和預訂方面遇到一些挑戰的根源所在。過去，您主要關注的是在印度開展的與員工流失相關的舉措，而對北美的情況關注較少。能否詳細說明一下北美目前的具體情況？這種情況是最近才出現的嗎？您是否已經明確指出導致員工流動率上升的具體原因？能否詳細說明時間跨度以及您正在採取的應對措施？

Lisa, it's Brian. So look, at a global level, I would say we're doing similar things in North America as we're doing in India. Clearly, on a weighted basis, India had the biggest impact on our attrition historically. So we put inordinate efforts and war rooms in place over there. And frankly, in India as well as in North America and our international business in Europe and Asia, we have seen resignations come down pretty much for 4 to 5 months in a row now. So those efforts are kicking in, and those efforts are broad-based, including the obvious compensation elements. And as we announced, we just announced our second merit increase in 6 months. But on top of comp, there's merit, there is career path progression, promotion process overall, learning and development initiatives, et cetera. And so the North America efforts are somewhat similar to what we're doing globally.

麗莎，我是布萊恩。你看，從全球層面來看，我們在北美和印度採取的措施類似。顯然，從歷史數據來看，印度對我們的人員流失影響最大。因此，我們在那裡投入了大量精力，並設立了專門的緊急指揮中心。坦白說，無論是在印度、北美，還是我們在歐洲和亞洲的國際業務部門，我們都看到離職率連續四、五個月下降。所以這些努力正在奏效，而這些努力涵蓋面很廣，包括顯而易見的薪酬因素。正如我們所宣布的那樣，我們剛剛宣布了六個月內的第二次績效加薪。除了薪酬之外，還有績效獎勵、職涯發展路徑、整體晉升流程、學習和發展計畫等等。因此，我們在北美採取的措施與我們在全球範圍內採取的措施在某種程度上是相似的。

I think in North America, we've gone through a pretty material visa, I would say, a process in the last 3 years as we reduce our visa dependency. But obviously, in a tough market environment where digital skills were at a premium, we've been suffering attrition in North America, and by definition, obviously going out as fast as we can to recruit talent simultaneously. And those factors, coupled with what's effectively happened across the industry and ours, was no different. A shift to nearshore and offshore during COVID has led us to have a, I would say, suboptimal level of onshore billable resources in North America, and it catches up quickly with you because of the order of magnitude of the difference in terms of revenue and margin dollar per head in North America versus in India. So it's a question of rebalancing that.

我認為在北美，過去三年我們經歷了一個相當實質的簽證流程，降低了對簽證的依賴。但顯然，在數位化技能炙手可熱的嚴峻市場環境下，我們在北美的人員流失率居高不下，因此我們必須竭盡全力在全球招募人才。這些因素，再加上整個產業（包括我們所在的產業）普遍面臨的困境，都讓我們不堪負荷。新冠疫情期間，業務重心轉向近岸和離岸，導致我們在北美的本地可計費資源不足，而北美和印度的人均收入和利潤率存在巨大差異，因此這種不足會迅速顯現出來。所以，現在的問題是如何重新平衡這個資源配置。

We have major initiatives underway, operational rigor behind it. We had hoped to make more progress in the quarter. It's a little slower than we anticipated, but we're putting a lot of effort behind that to correct it. And it's all of the factors we mentioned above. At a global level, we're expecting, I would say, significant voluntary attrition reductions now going into the fourth quarter. The good news of the last 4 months will kick in, in Q4.

我們正在推動多項重大舉措，並有嚴格的營運機製作為支撐。我們原本希望本季能取得更大進展。目前的進展比預期稍慢，但我們正在全力以赴地糾正這個問題。這都是上述所有因素共同作用的結果。在全球範圍內，我們預計進入第四季後，員工自願離職率將大幅下降。過去四個月的利多消息將在第四季顯現。

Got it. Okay. Okay. And then I know last quarter, you had commented on kind of the relationship between the attrition challenges and bookings, and you were taking some actions to sort of address the bookings issues or kind of that linkage. I think you're having challenges that some of your salespeople perhaps were concerned they wouldn't be able to staff a project or something. And so we're delaying it, right? So -- but then I guess it persisted into this quarter. So can you just also -- yes.

明白了。好的。好的。我知道上個季度您曾提到人員流失問題和訂單量之間的關係，並且您也採取了一些措施來解決訂單量問題或這種關聯。我想您遇到的挑戰可能是，一些銷售人員擔心他們無法為某個專案配備足夠的人員。所以我們推遲了項目，對嗎？但是——我想這個問題一直延續到了這個季度。所以您能再補充一下嗎——是的。

Yes. Look, I mean, let me start with the facts first on bookings. They were down 2% year-over-year, a little below what we had hoped for the quarter, to be honest. It is important, I'd say, to recognize the tough comparison in the second half of last year with 20%-plus bookings growth. So that leads to even an in-quarter bookings book-to-bill of 1.0, and on a trailing 12-month basis, still at 1.2. So healthy enough, although, frankly, we lost some deals in the quarter that slipped out quarters. And that's, I think, somewhat indicative of an uncertain macroeconomic demand environment. We've seen lengthening purchase cycles and clients being a little bit more judicious in their approval of expenses.

是的。首先，我想先說說預訂量的情況。年比下降了2%，說實話，比我們預期的季度業績略低。我認為，重要的是要考慮到去年下半年預訂量成長超過20%，這是一個很高的基數。因此，本季的預訂量與實際出貨量之比為1.0，而過去12個月的比例仍為1.2。所以整體情況還不錯，儘管坦白說，我們本季失去了一些原本應該在下個季度完成的交易。我認為這在某種程度上反映了宏觀經濟需求環境的不確定性。我們看到採購週期延長，客戶在審批支出時也更加謹慎。

But Lisa, specific then to the impact of attrition, by definition, as people were dialoguing with clients around price increases, which has been one of our success stories, helping margin as well as addressing fulfillment challenges, it's made the commercial team somewhat hesitant, I think, to go to full mild to get the commercial momentum as strong as it needs to be in terms of increasing pipeline and accelerating bookings.

但麗莎指出，具體到人員流失的影響，從定義上講，當人們與客戶討論價格上漲時（這是我們的成功案例之一，有助於提高利潤率並解決履行挑戰），這讓商業團隊有些猶豫，我認為，他們不願全力以赴，以獲得所需的強勁商業勢頭，從而增加銷售渠道並加速預訂。

The good news now is we're quite vocal with our team in terms of what we're seeing from a resignation point of view, and therefore, what they should be anticipating in Q4 in terms of attrition levels, which, as I said, will be meaningfully down from Q3 voluntary attrition levels. So I think we're starting now to get confidence in the commercial team that the effort we put in place around attrition and resignations will kick in. Of course, this is happening in a period where, as I said on the call, we're a little more concerned now than we were 3 months ago in terms of the macro demand environment. So that's probably been a bigger impact on bookings this quarter than previously, the whole concern amongst the C-suite as they're scrutinizing their spends, and it's not clear to me that we'll see a budget flush at the end of this year, and we'll certainly anticipate furloughs at the end of this year relative to last year. So it remains to be seen, and we factor that into our guidance.

好消息是，我們已就離職情況與團隊進行了充分溝通，並告知他們第四季度的人員流失率預期。正如我之前所說，第四季的人員流失率將顯著低於第三季的自願離職率。因此，我認為我們開始讓銷售團隊相信，我們為降低人員流失率和離職率所做的努力將會奏效。當然，正如我在電話會議上提到的，目前我們對宏觀需求環境的擔憂程度比三個月前要高一些。因此，高階主管正在仔細審查支出，這可能對本季的預訂量產生了比以往更大的影響。我不確定今年年底預算是否會大幅增加，而且我們預計今年年底的員工休假人數肯定會比去年增加。所以這還有待觀察，我們會將此因素納入我們的指導方針中。

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。

So you have 4% constant currency growth in North America and essentially 10% outside of North America. So I wanted to ask how you feel about your progress and outlook in ramping your international revenue presence and also ask if your efforts in doing that are detracting from your efforts in North America or perhaps it's just that your talent challenges are more pronounced in North America. But some color on that would be really helpful.

所以，你們在北美地區的固定匯率成長率為4%，而北美以外地區的成長率則接近10%。我想了解您對提升國際營收的進展和前景有何看法，以及您在國際市場所做的努力是否會影響到您在北美的業務，或者僅僅是因為北美的人才挑戰更為突出。如果您能就此提供一些細節，那就太好了。

No. I'll start with the international business, which we expect very good things in the coming years there. We've refreshed some leaderships over there. We've added -- with the seniority of the people we've recruited, we've added M&A to complement their capabilities. And examples of that include the U.K., Germany and Australia. And I've spent a large part of the last year going around the world, and I'm pretty optimistic around our potential internationally. So we're optimistic, but I don't think it's really taken away from the North America focus.

不，我先說國際業務，我們預期未來幾年國際業務會有非常好的發展。我們已經對一些領導層進行了調整，並根據新招募人員的資歷，增加了併購業務，以增強現有能力。例如，我們在英國、德國和澳洲的業務都得到了拓展。去年我花了大量時間在全球各地奔走，我對我們在國際市場的潛力非常樂觀。所以我們很樂觀，但我認為這並沒有分散我們對北美市場的關注。

In North America, Canada, there has been a shift more to offshore and nearshore. We're building out capabilities in Canada. But candidly, a shift towards India has happened. Our net headcount has materially increased in India on a year-over-year basis, and we have to -- we get the balance right. Three years ago, we were over visa-dependent in North America. We've been pretty disciplined around that as we are trying to land that at the right level. Candidly, what's been happening in a COVID world is that consulates internationally are just not functioning at the same capacity as before. So we've gone a little bit too far in that.

在北美，尤其是加拿大，離岸和近岸外包的趨勢日益明顯。我們正在加拿大拓展業務能力。但坦白說，我們也確實轉向了印度。我們在印度的員工淨人數逐年大幅成長，我們必須找到合適的平衡點。三年前，我們在北美過度依賴簽證。我們一直非常謹慎地控制簽證需求，力求將其調整到適當的水平。坦白說，在新冠疫情的影響下，國際領事館的運作能力遠不如以往。因此，我們在這方面做得有點過頭了。

That's actually a good news, by the way, in terms of reversing that for our attrition because that has hurt our attrition in the last 2, 3 years as people saw that opportunity be less available than previously, but now that we're turning that tap on a little bit to rebalance subject to the capacity of consulates that will not only help onshore headcount, but actually help morale and I believe attrition in India as well. So I think the U.S. onshore situation is independent of the international positivity that I have, and I'm very optimistic around our potential there in the years to come.

順便說一句，就扭轉人員流失率而言，這其實是個好消息。過去兩三年，由於人們覺得機會不如以前多了，我們的人員流失率確實上升。但現在，隨著我們逐步放寬限制，在領事館容量允許的情況下重新平衡人員配置，這不僅有助於增加美國本土員工人數，還能提振士氣，我相信也能降低印度的人員流失率。所以我認為，美國本土的情況與我所看到的國際情勢無關，我對我們未來幾年的發展潛力非常樂觀。

Great. And let me ask a follow-up about the cloud services market. We definitely see some changes happening in that market. So I just wanted to ask about what you're seeing in that market, particularly your competitive position there, and to what extent some of the recent macro challenges are having an impact in cloud or maybe not so much. It'd be great to hear some thoughts on the cloud market.

好的。我想就雲端服務市場再問一個問題。我們確實看到這個市場正在發生一些變化。所以我想問您對這個市場的看法，特別是您在該市場的競爭地位，以及最近一些宏觀挑戰對雲端服務的影響程度，或者說影響不大。非常期待您能分享一下對雲端市場的看法。

Well, first of all, I'll actually call out Prasad Sankaran, who joined us yesterday. He's got a very strong background in cloud as well. So he and I spent a great deal of time talking about where that market is going. And ironically, in the client Advisory Board last week, it was a great topic of discussion amongst, I think, clients, too.

首先，我要特別提一下昨天加入我們的Prasad Sankaran。他在雲端運算領域也擁有非常深厚的背景。所以我和他花了很多時間討論雲端運算市場的未來發展方向。巧合的是，在上週的客戶諮詢委員會上，這似乎也是客戶們熱烈討論的話題。

I would say our position with some of the packaged application players like Salesforce, Workday is stronger than it's been for many, many years. And so we feel good about the progress there. And yesterday's announcements of OneSource Virtual, we'll continue to strengthen our Workday practice. Vis-a-vis the hyperscalers, it's kind of interesting. I'm seeing clients clearly accelerate their path to the cloud. Within the same vein, Rod, I see a growing dialogue amongst clients around how to optimize your position in the cloud as in lifting and shifting your current suite of applications, whether that refactoring or another way, transforming ahead of the transition. It doesn't necessarily always give them the efficiencies that they would have anticipated.

我認為，我們與 Salesforce、Workday 等一些打包應用廠商的關係比以往任何時候都更加穩固。因此，我們對這方面的進展感到滿意。昨天 OneSource Virtual 的發布，也預示著我們將繼續加強 Workday 業務。至於超大規模雲端服務商，情況就比較有趣了。我看到客戶明顯加快了向雲端遷移的腳步。同樣，Rod，我也看到客戶之間越來越多地討論如何優化他們在雲端的部署，例如如何遷移現有應用套件，無論是重構還是其他方式，在遷移之前進行轉型。但這並不一定總是能帶來他們預期的效率提升。

So there's more dialogue around how to optimize your cloud journey. And so what you'll see us do and continue to do is stand up capabilities and resources behind that, both in the cloud practice as well as in our consulting business as we anticipate cloud modernization journeys or tech mod more generally, you'll see us add more advisory capabilities there as well.

因此，關於如何優化雲端轉型之旅的討論越來越多。所以，你會看到我們正在做並將繼續做的，就是為此建立相應的能力和資源，無論是在雲端實踐領域還是在我們的諮詢業務領域。隨著我們預見到雲端現代化轉型之旅或更廣泛的技術改造，你還會看到我們在這方面增加更多的諮詢能力。

Our next question is 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。

Could you talk about what you're seeing in digital, especially since you mentioned slowing discretionary spend? Is that more of a company-specific positional thing because other companies have spoken to have not yet mentioned anything specific with regards to digital specifically slowing down?

您能否談談您在數位化領域觀察到的情況，特別是考慮到您提到了可自由支配支出放緩？這是否更多是公司自身狀況的問題？因為我們採訪過的其他公司尚未提及數位化支出放緩的具體情況。

So look, the first thing on a broader macroeconomic environment, I'd say it's difficult to be conclusive or dogmatic at this moment in time. It's certainly what we determine uncertain macroeconomic environment. And the outlook is a little more concerning now than it was 3 months ago if you go back to my comments back then. We are seeing spend being reduced in lower priority projects or those with longer ROI periods. And even discretionary cloud projects, as I referenced in my prepared remarks, are selectively being reduced. So we still have a lot of confidence in our digital capabilities.

首先，就宏觀經濟環境而言，我認為目前很難下定論或做出武斷判斷。我們當然認為宏觀經濟環境充滿不確定性。如果你回顧我三個月前的評論，你會發現現在的前景比那時更令人擔憂。我們看到，一些優先順序較低的項目或投資回報週期較長的項目正在削減支出。正如我在準備的發言稿中提到的，即使是可自由支配的雲端專案也在選擇性地縮減。因此，我們仍然對我們的數位化能力充滿信心。

Our portfolio is now 51%, digital up 2 points year-over-year. But some of the challenges we talked about, the macro demand picture as well as the U.S. onshore situation are equally applicable to this. And then as you know, yesterday's announcement of acquisition -- the first acquisition we've done this year. So we haven't had the tailwind in our digital momentum that we had last year from the series of acquisitions that we did.

我們目前的投資組合佔比為51%，其中數位化業務年增2個百分點。但我們之前討論的一些挑戰，例如宏觀需求情勢以及美國本土市場狀況，同樣適用於此。此外，正如您所知，我們昨天宣布了一項收購——這是我們今年的首次收購。因此，我們今年並沒有像去年那樣，憑藉一系列收購帶來的數位化發展勢頭。

That being said, as Jan pointed out, we are committed to our framework of extending our portfolio in line with our digital strategy, and we have a series of deals in the pipeline as we speak. So I'd expect that ultimately over time to get back in a more normal course for us. But I don't believe that all digital projects will be immune from the current economic climate.

話雖如此，正如Jan所指出的，我們致力於按照數位化策略拓展業務組合，目前我們也有一系列交易正在洽談中。所以我預計，隨著時間的推移，我們的業務最終會恢復正常。但我並不認為所有數位化專案都能免於當前經濟環境的影響。

And maybe in addition, Ashwin, to give you a little bit more the framework on the M&A side. Our full year guidance assumes approximately 100 basis points of contribution from M&A, approximately half of what we typically see. So if you multiply that type of share of digital revenues, you'll see there is an impact on, just [automatically] on the lack of M&A fueling digital growth.

阿什溫，或許我還可以補充一點，再從併購的角度給你一些更詳細的解釋。我們全年的業績預期是，併購貢獻約為100個基點，大約是我們通常水準的一半。因此，如果你把這個數位收入佔比乘以其他因素，你會發現，併購的不足會對數位成長產生直接影響。

And then aside from the demand -- market demand that Brian mentioned, obviously, in North America, we are also affected by our fulfillment challenges that we experienced in the quarter, which proportionately affected our non-digital business as well as our digital business. So it's a combination of all these factors together.

除了布萊恩提到的北美市場需求之外，我們還受到本季物流配送挑戰的影響，這些挑戰對我們的非數位業務和數位業務都造成了一定程度的影響。所以，這是所有這些因素共同作用的結果。

Got it. Got it. And what does this lower exit growth rate for the year means in terms of achieving sort of your medium-term targets? And I completely appreciate the high level of macro uncertainty that we have, but any granular thoughts how you're planning for next year would be greatly helpful.

明白了，明白了。那麼，今年較低的退出成長率對實現其中期目標意味著什麼？我完全理解目前宏觀經濟情勢存在高度不確定性，但如果您能詳細闡述明年的計劃，那就太好了。

Yes. So somehow I thought the question would come up. So number one is we feel our growth framework that we discussed with you in basically pretty much a year ago -- a little bit more than a year ago, it's still intact overall. Maybe a few pointers. The growth framework sees our revenue growth, which you're referring to, really in light of a CAGR over the 3-year time horizon. So it's a compounding growth. And obviously, we didn't quite anticipate at that point the economic uncertainty that we're facing today, but we think the framework from our perspective is intact. And then we will give guidance, obviously, for next year in our fourth quarter earnings call in January.

是的。所以我覺得這個問題遲早會被問到。首先，我們認為我們大約一年前（或一年多前）和您討論過的成長框架總體上仍然有效。或許可以簡單說明幾點。這個成長框架將我們收入的成長（您提到的這一點）視為三年複合年增長率（CAGR）。也就是說，這是一個複合成長。顯然，當時我們並沒有預料到如今面臨的經濟不確定性，但我們認為從我們的角度來看，這個框架仍然有效。當然，我們會在明年一月的第四季財報電話會議上給出明年的業績指引。

The next question is from the line of Bryan Keane with Deutsche Bank.

下一個問題來自德意志銀行的布萊恩·基恩。

Just on the fulfillment challenges. I know that kind of was an issue last quarter, and it seems like it got pushed into this quarter. And then it caused you to miss the guidance, that and maybe the economy a little bit. Just trying to figure out, is the fourth quarter -- how comfortable are you with those numbers? Or could we still have some of these fulfillment issues lingering that could push us into lowering expectations again?

關於履約方面的挑戰。我知道上個季度就存在這個問題，而且似乎延續到了這個季度。這導致你們未能達到預期，當然，經濟情勢也可能是影響因素。我想了解的是，你們對第四季的業績數字有多大信心？或者說，這些履約方面的問題是否仍然存在，導致我們不得不再次下調預期？

Yes. Maybe I'll start with it, and then I'll let Brian jump on top of it. If we think about the mix, as Brian mentioned and as we talked on our call, it had a number of factors in it, and fulfillment is fairly logical. So we misjudged or we had a little bit -- a faster improvement in the third quarter of our attrition anticipated. And so about that, that miss attrition improvement made about 1/3 of our miss relative to our expectations.

是的。也許我會先從這部分開始，然後讓布萊恩接手。正如布萊恩所提到的，也正如我們在電話裡討論的那樣，如果我們仔細考慮各種因素，就會發現其中有很多因素，而業績的實現也相當合乎邏輯。所以我們之前對流失率的預期有所偏差，或者說，我們原本預期第三季的改善速度會更快一些。因此，流失率的改善速度比預期慢了約三分之一。

And then we have a number of initiatives in place to accelerate the hiring and inflow, in particular, in North America of initiatives. And that represents approximately also 1/3 of our miss to revenue guidance. And here, we obviously saw the North American challenge to grow our headcount and initiatives in place from funding our -- and ensuring we have full capacity of hiring in place to focusing on the full fledge of resources available to us, including the utilization of subcontractors and accelerating visa travel and increasing employee referral product. So we have a set of initiatives in place. These initiatives have shown initial momentum, but they were scaling slower than we anticipated.

此外，我們還推出了一系列舉措，旨在加快招募和人才引進，尤其是在北美地區。這些措施約占我們營收未達預期目標的1/3。顯然，我們在北美地區面臨著擴大員工規模的挑戰，為此我們採取了一系列舉措，包括為招聘提供資金，確保我們擁有充足的招聘能力，以及充分利用現有資源，例如利用分包商、加快簽證辦理速度和增加員工推薦獎勵。這些措施已初見成效，但其擴展速度低於預期。

So we have now our trajectory, and we think we have appropriately risk-adjusted our new revenue guidance. So we're keenly interested to meet our own expectations in it. And so yes, we have assumed an improvement in attrition levels that we can see. But we also see now the trajectories of some of these initiatives clearer than we had in the third quarter.

所以我們現在有了明確的發展軌跡，並且認為我們已經對新的營收預期進行了適當的風險調整。因此，我們非常希望能夠達到預期目標。是的，我們假設員工流動率會有所改善，而且我們也看到了這種改善。此外，我們現在也比第三季更清楚地看到了其中一些舉措的發展軌跡。

Yes. And just to build on that, the resignations visibility we have, of course, differs in India versus North America because the notification period in India is slightly different. But I mentioned on last quarter's earnings call had July resignations have come down, and through August and September, it was a different plateau for those 3 months vis-a-vis the prior 6 months.

是的。此外，我們掌握的離職資訊在印度和北美當然有所不同，因為印度的離職通知期略有不同。但我在上個季度的財報電話會議上提到過，7月份的離職人數有所下降，而8月和9月的離職人數則呈現不同的平穩態勢，與前六個月相比有所變化。

Certainly, if you look at India and indeed in North America and Europe, and in the first month of this quarter, it's continued to be low, in fact, lower than the prior 3 months. So we feel, Bryan, at this stage, very, very confident about that. And as Jan rightly pointed out, we wanted to give guidance that we want to make sure we can hit. So we're in the right zone.

當然，如果你看看印度，以及北美和歐洲的情況，你會發現本季第一個月的數據仍然很低，實際上比前三個月還要低。所以布萊恩，現階段我們對此非常有信心。正如簡所指出的，我們希望給予能夠確保實現的績效指引。因此，我們目前處於正確的軌道上。

Got it. And then did the fulfillment challenges, especially in North America, will that be fixed by the time we get into the first quarter? Or could it linger into the first half of the year?

明白了。那麼，尤其是在北美地區，訂單履行上遇到的挑戰，能否在第一季前解決？還是會持續到上半年？

We're aiming. As I said on the -- in my prepared remarks, we're working through that as quickly as we can, and we aim to make progress in Q4, but I think it'll still be a headwind in Q4. We hope by the time we come out of Q4, and we'll clearly give you an update on that in next quarter's earnings call, we hope to walk into Q1 with clear progress by the time we get through Q1.

我們正在努力。正如我在事先準備好的發言稿中所說，我們正在盡最大努力盡快解決這個問題，目標是在第四季度取得進展，但我認為第四季度仍會面臨一些阻力。我們希望在第四季結束時（我們會在下個季度的財報電話會議上向大家詳細說明），能夠帶著明顯的進展進入第一季。

The next question is from the line of Bryan Bergin with Cowen.

下一個問題來自 Bryan Bergin 和 Cowen 的那條線索。

This is Zack Ajzenman on for Bryan. Another one on the fulfillment issues. Could you give us some real-time insight into the nature of conversations that you're having with clients here? And kind of just thinking about all the rebranding and repositioning that the company has done in recent years, what are you doing to reassure clients that you are a digital transformation partner of choice?

這裡是 Zack Ajzenman 替 Bryan 發言。我們又來聊聊訂單履行方面的問題。能否即時分享您與客戶溝通的內容？考慮到公司近年來進行的品牌重塑和市場定位調整，您正在採取哪些措施來讓客戶確信您是他們首選的數位轉型合作夥伴？

We actually see different stories, to be honest, Bryan, across different industries in terms of our evolution towards digital, even banking where we are, let's say, more heavily exposed to time and materials. We have been able to increase our digital mix, and we've got some good proof points with certain clients. But more fundamentally, the journey we've been on is to extend the portfolio, which we've been successfully doing in recent years, and yesterday's announcement is another example of that.

坦白說，布萊恩，就我們向數位轉型而言，不同行業的情況確實不盡相同，即使是銀行業，例如我們過去更依賴時間和材料成本的行業，也存在差異。我們已經提高了數位化業務的佔比，並且在一些客戶身上也取得了不錯的成果。但從根本上講，我們一直在努力拓展業務組合，近年來我們在這方面取得了成功，昨天的公告就是另一個例證。

To try to complement that portfolio then with a client-facing team that is more consultative in nature, as anybody who's overseen a sales force and knows that is a multiyear journey, so we're en route, but it takes time to get there. To complement then that more consultative sales force with a more industry-aligned consulting business, and so that's the space we should continue to watch in Cognizant because we will invest behind that, and we've got strong leaders in that capacity these days. And then just to make sure that there's increasing brand awareness around the capabilities we have and references and case studies that we can showcase.

為了完善現有產品組合，我們需要組建一支更注重諮詢服務的客戶團隊。任何管理過銷售團隊的人都知道，這需要多年的努力，所以我們正在朝著這個方向前進，但還需要時間。此外，我們也希望透過更貼合產業需求的顧問業務來補充這支更注重諮詢服務的銷售團隊。因此，這正是 Cognizant 需要持續關注的領域，因為我們會在這方面進行投資，而我們目前在這個領域擁有優秀的領導者。同時，我們也要確保提高品牌知名度，展現我們擁有的能力、客戶案例和相關經驗。

Last week in the Client Advisory Board was a very good example of certain clients not really been truly aware of the extent of our portfolio. So we have to do a better job marketing that ourself. But I would say brand awareness of the company is up. Digital awareness is increasing, but it's a multiyear journey, and we're in the middle of all of that. And it starts with our client-facing teams and our delivery capabilities and our partnerships. And I certainly see, in dialogue with some of our key packaged application partners like Salesforce and SAP, growing recognition that we are getting stronger. But as ever, a few years ago, we were quite low in terms of digital mix, and we've been working our way back up to 50%, which we're pleased to cross, but there's more work to do.

上週的客戶諮詢委員會會議就是一個很好的例子，說明某些客戶並不真正了解我們產品組合的廣度。因此，我們需要加強自身的市場推廣。但我認為，公司的品牌知名度正在提升。數位化意識也在增強，但這需要多年的努力，而我們正處於這個過程中。一切都始於我們的客戶服務團隊、交付能力和合作夥伴關係。在與 Salesforce 和 SAP 等一些重要的軟體包應用程式合作夥伴的交流中，我確實看到他們越來越認可我們的實力。但正如幾年前一樣，我們的數位化佔比很低，我們一直在努力將其提升到 50%，我們很高興能夠達到這個目標，但我們仍有許多工作要做。

Got it. That's helpful. And just a follow-up. The forward-looking attrition commentary is encouraging. You've been vocal about the new normal for attrition being higher than pre-COVID levels. Perhaps you can share updated views here and the time line for when, at times, it is more in a steady state mode as it relates to attrition.

明白了，這很有幫助。還有一個後續問題。您對員工流失率的前瞻性分析令人鼓舞。您一直強調，目前的員工流動率高於疫情前水準。您能否在此分享您最新的觀點，以及員工流動率何時會趨於穩定？

I think it's very hard to really be precise on that, Bryan. There's just so much going on in today's world. We've gone through a period of pretty significant disconnect between demand supply on key labor -- key digital skills. We're going through a hybrid work environment as a society where, arguably, people are less entrenched or engaged with companies as they work remotely. And now we've gone through a very different scenario that the economy is uncertain, slowing. And people are -- recruiters have been laid off across the globe. We're seeing in certain companies, people are being laid off. And so the market is suddenly perhaps less hot than it was previously. And that can also have an immediate impact on attrition trends and voluntary resignations in particular.

布萊恩，我覺得很難對此做出精確的判斷。當今世界瞬息萬變。我們經歷了一段關鍵勞動力——尤其是關鍵數位技能——供需嚴重脫節的時期。如今，我們正處於一種混合辦公模式下，人們遠距辦公，可以說，他們對公司的歸屬感和參與度有所降低。而現在，我們又面臨截然不同的局面：經濟情勢不明朗，成長放緩。全球各地的招募人員都被裁員。我們看到，有些公司也在裁員。因此，市場突然間可能不如以前那麼火熱了。這也會直接影響人員流動率，尤其是員工主動離職的情況。

So we will see where water find its own level over time. I'm encouraged by our specific actions that we've taken. Jan and I have also built that into our financial plan. So we have, notwithstanding a slowing, I would say, labor markets. We know that we want to invest on a sustainable basis in our employees in the years to come, and we factored that into our multiyear financial framework, and that will help increase our relative compensation vis-a-vis peers. And simultaneously, we're doing everything we can around training and development and career path and employee value proposition.

所以，我們會觀察情況如何發展。我對我們採取的具體行動感到鼓舞。我和簡也已將這些措施納入我們的財務計畫。因此，儘管勞動力市場成長放緩，我們仍然希望在未來幾年對員工進行可持續的投資，並將此納入我們多年的財務框架，這將有助於提高我們相對於同行的薪資水平。同時，我們也在盡一切努力提升員工的培訓、發展、職涯規劃和價值主張。

So I'm not sure when it normalizes to a new norm. I still believe there will be a new norm, and we won't go back to historical levels. And I think as a society, at large, we'll probably see attrition slow across the industry in Q4 and beyond. But time will tell.

所以我也不確定何時才能恢復到新的常態。但我仍然相信會有新的常態出現，我們不會回到過去那種層次。而且我認為，從整個社會層面來看，我們可能會在第四季及以後看到整個產業的員工流動率放緩。但時間會證明一切。

Our next question is from the line of James Faucette with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的詹姆斯·福塞特。

In terms of skills and looking at kind of -- as that relates to fulfillment, where are you seeing the most challenges in terms of finding the appropriate people and getting them into your fulfillment capabilities right now? And how are you thinking about the pyramid itself as it relates to solving for that? And I'm just wondering how that then impacts the way that you think about financial guidance. It's kind of a complicated question, but hopefully, that's clear.

就技能和績效評估而言，您認為目前在尋找合適人才並讓他們充分發揮自身能力方面，最大的挑戰是什麼？您如何看待金字塔結構本身與解決此問題之間的關係？我想知道這會如何影響您對財務指導的看法。這是一個比較複雜的問題，但希望我表達清楚了。

Yes. I mean there's -- it's actually quite nuanced because, first of all, our headcount has materially increased year-over-year, but most of the increase has been in India. So by definition, then you have different bill rates. Within India, the lower levels of our pyramid are actually fatter, for lack of a better word, than they were in the last few years. And that's because if you go back, this year will in about 40,000 graduates, 45,000; last year, 33,000; the year before, about 17,000; the year before, less than 10,000. We had been too narrow as attributed previously. We've done a good job, I think, addressing that. And that afforded us the opportunity to have more upward momentum in the company, which is one of the many factors that has helped us actually drive margin expansion year-over-year and sequentially in both Q2 and Q3.

是的。我的意思是，這其實相當複雜，因為首先，我們的員工人數較去年同期大幅成長，但大部分成長都發生在印度。所以，從定義上講，不同地區的收費標準就不同了。在印度，我們金字塔底層的員工人數其實比過去幾年還要多，姑且這麼說吧。這是因為，回顧過去，今年我們招收了大約4萬到4.5萬名畢業生；去年是3.3萬；前年大約1.7萬；再前年不到1萬。如同之前所說，我們之前的招募範圍太窄了。我認為，我們已經很好地解決了這個問題。這讓我們有機會在公司內部獲得更大的發展動力，這也是幫助我們在第二季和第三季實現利潤率與去年同期成長的眾多因素之一。

And -- but James, the fundamental element in terms of the demand-supply economic imbalance and key digital scales was heavily related to skills related to all the hyperscalers, things like sales force, angler, full stack engineers. I mean they've been probably the hottest parts of the market and there's been very irrational behavior, I would argue, over the last 18 months in terms of comp increases that went hand in glove with that. That's where we've seen the hottest challenges. In terms of the absolute attrition, it's fundamentally been in India and at the lower levels of the pyramid.

詹姆斯，就供需失衡和關鍵數位規模而言，根本因素與所有超大規模資料中心相關的技能密切相關，例如銷售人員、網路工程師、全端工程師等等。我的意思是，這些職位可能是市場上最熱門的，而且我認為，在過去18個月裡，與此密切相關的薪資成長出現了非常非理性的行為。這正是我們看到最嚴峻挑戰的地方。就絕對人員流失而言，主要集中在印度以及金字塔的底層。

Got it. Got it. And then I guess kind of a somewhat related question, but looking more specifically at the P&L and margin impact, can you help talk us through the impacts and mechanics of merit cycle changes? Are those accelerating? Are they going to be permanent? I guess should we expect 2 cycles a year? And just trying to make sure that we're contemplating that -- how that flows through the actual P&L appropriately.

明白了。明白了。然後我想問一個相關的問題，更具體地說，是關於損益表和利潤率的影響，您能幫我們解釋一下績效考核週期變化的影響和機制嗎？這些變化是否正在加速？它們會是永久性的嗎？我想我們是不是應該預期一年會有兩次考核週期？我只是想確保我們已經考慮到了這一點——以及這些變化是如何適當地體現在實際的損益表中的。

Yes. That's maybe for me to answer. So effectively, our acceleration of our typical merit cycle that we're just experiencing in the fourth quarter and moving it up to the second quarter has really -- a main reason for it is to better align our HR processes, evaluation processes and reward processes together. So it is a benefit from a talent management perspective to have our merit increase in the second quarter. So that's really a very important driver of it.

是的，這個問題或許應該由我來回答。實際上，我們之所以將通常在第四季度進行的績效考核提前到第二季度，主要原因是為了更好地協調我們的人力資源流程、評估流程和獎勵流程。從人才管理的角度來看，將績效考核提前到第二季是有益的。這確實是推動這項措施的重要因素。

And second important driver is obviously because we're accelerating the second -- this merit cycle by 2 quarters, we will incur a onetime shift of compensation by -- to our merit increase by 2 quarters forward. And that's going to be a onetime effect only because we're staying with an annual merit increase process. So in 2024, the normal cycle will be 4 quarters later again in the second quarter of the year.

第二個重要驅動因素顯然是，我們將第二個績效週期提前了兩個季度，這將導致薪酬一次性提前兩個季度發放。而且這只是一次性影響，因為我們仍然堅持年度績效加薪制度。因此，到2024年，正常的績效週期將推遲四個季度，再次回到當年的第二季度。

So we are capturing basically, I think, here an opportunity to improve our talent management processes, but also allows -- which also allows us to drive a faster compensation increase to our associates, which we think is timely because we really do want to be focused on attrition, and we anticipate that, that will have a positive impact on attrition, even though hard to measure, but we think it will send a positive signal of our commitment to our associates to be competitive on compensation and benefits.

所以，我認為，我們基本上是抓住了一個機會來改進我們的人才管理流程，同時也能夠加快員工薪酬的增長速度，我們認為這很及時，因為我們確實希望專注於降低員工流失率，我們預計這將對降低員工流失率產生積極影響，儘管很難衡量，但我們認為這將向員工發出一個積極的信號，表明我們致力於在薪酬和福利方面保持競爭力。

The next question is from the line of Tien-Tsin Huang with JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的黃天進。

Just thinking about the knock-on effects of the fatter pyramid plus the attrition. Just -- is there an impact there on your ability to capture price or even be competitive on pursuing new work bookings, that sort of thing? Just trying to understand sort of the collateral impact if you're seeing some of that.

我只是在思考金字塔結構變厚加上人員流失帶來的連鎖反應。例如，這會不會影響你獲取價格資訊的能力，或是在爭取新工作訂單方面保持競爭力等等？我只是想了解你是否也看到了這些附帶影響。

So what we -- maybe I'll talk a little bit about our overall maybe gross margin development, kind of what you're focusing on, Tien-Tsin, here is we did see, obviously, a decline, but I think the relative performance overall compared to the industry has been relatively good. And so a few factors I want to point out.

所以，我或許可以稍微談談我們整體的毛利率發展情況，這也是您關注的重點，天心。我們確實看到了毛利率的下滑，但我認為與行業整體相比，我們的相對錶現還是相當不錯的。因此，我想指出以下幾個因素。

When we talk about pricing, I think we need to kind of -- in particular, now that we have been added for a little while, think about them as a regular contractual increase, pricing increases with our clients, but also a discipline to price our business appropriately in the market. And with both of these things, we have seen slow start in the fiscal year. And now we have seen steady improvement and compounding impact of those initiatives. So that has been getting better and has helped us on the relative gross margin performance.

談到定價，我認為我們需要——尤其是在我們加入市場一段時間後——將其視為與客戶簽訂的常規合約價格上漲，同時也是一種在市場中合理定價的原則。在這兩方面，我們在本財年開局緩慢。但現在我們看到穩定改善，這些舉措的複合效應也日益顯現。因此，情況正在好轉，並有助於提升我們的相對毛利率表現。

Also, the shift to the -- in our pyramid has been positive. We have been able to, to a large degree, offset the impact of comp and benefit increases by streamlining our pyramid and focusing on a slimmer pyramid, as Brian mentioned, and that paired this promotion opportunities, which are positive, our associates I think will have over the next couple of years, as that is still scaling and maturing, a positive impact on how we price and how we win deals.

此外，我們在金字塔結構中向「--」方向的轉變也帶來了正面影響。正如布萊恩所提到的，透過精簡金字塔結構，我們在很大程度上抵消了薪資和福利成長帶來的影響。這種轉變結合了晉昇機會，我認為這對我們的員工來說是一個積極的信號。隨著這一轉變仍在不斷擴展和完善，未來幾年，這將對我們的定價策略和成交方式產生積極影響。

So we're feeling, I think, good. Well, we're feeling good about the improvements we're making of how we manage the business opportunities. It's a thoughtful process. It allows us actually also to make our strategic bets moving forward. I think our margin profile is in good shape, and that should offer us opportunities to make our strategic bets where we want to go and grow faster revenues on a much more solid base than we are today.

所以我覺得我們感覺不錯。我們對自身在業務機會管理方面所做的改進感到滿意。這是一個深思熟慮的過程。它實際上也讓我們能夠為未來的策略佈局做好準備。我認為我們的利潤率狀況良好，這應該能讓我們有機會在我們希望發展的領域進行策略佈局，並在比現在更穩固的基礎上實現更快的收入成長。

Yes. The only thing I would add there, Tien-Tsin, is I don't think we were doing anything except correcting what was an overly narrow pyramid back in the day. And on the contrary, I think because we had somewhat canceled the college intake in prior years, it led us having folks further up the pyramid doing work at lower billable rates than were optimal.

是的。田進，我唯一想補充的是，我認為我們當時所做的只是糾正一個過於狹窄的金字塔結構。相反，我認為正是因為我們前幾年取消了大學畢業生的招生，才導致金字塔頂端的人員以低於最佳水平的計費標準工作。

So I think what we've done in India is appropriate, and it's more in line with industry rates based on the dialogue I have with those from other companies. Where we have to do a better job on campus and college graduates, I think, is both onshore in Europe and Asia as well as in North America, where we are not adequately getting after the market opportunity there. It's -- obviously, there is a war on talent still. So we have to look at vocational colleges and not just the classic places as well, and that's an area of focus we'll have.

所以我認為我們在印度的做法是恰當的，而且根據我與其他公司交流的情況來看，也更符合業界標準。我認為，我們需要在校園招募和大學畢業生培養方面做得更好，無論是在歐洲和亞洲的本土市場，還是在北美市場，我們都沒有充分把握住這些市場的機會。顯然，人才爭奪戰依然存在。因此，我們不僅要關注傳統院校，還要關注職業院校，這也是我們將重點關注的領域。

Fortunately, with Ravi coming on board in North America, he has run a play there previously, which we will obviously aim to replicate over here. And that can help our pyramid. But generally, I feel good about our skills in our pyramid. I think we corrected something that was mis-skewed. And I don't want anybody to get off the call worried about our skill set in our pyramid where we've got very talented employees, and I feel good about that.

幸運的是，Ravi加入北美團隊後，他之前在那裡成功運作過一套體系，我們顯然會力求將其複製到這裡。這有助於我們建立人才金字塔。總的來說，我對我們人才金字塔的整體能力感到滿意。我認為我們已經糾正了一些之前存在的偏差。我不希望任何人在電話會議結束後對我們人才金字塔的能力感到擔憂，因為我們有非常優秀的員工，對此我充滿信心。

Just quickly, if you don't mind, a quick follow-up, just on the capital allocation front. I have to ask a capital allocation question. Just with the buyback of the authorization here, just your appetite to buying back stock. I know you talked about the acquisition you just announced. But just thinking about buyback here at this point in the cycle.

如果您不介意的話，我想快速問一個關於資本配置方面的問題。關於此次授權的股票回購，您是否有回購股票的意願？我知道您剛剛宣布了收購計劃，但我想在這個週期階段考慮股票回購。

Yes. For this fiscal year, we gave you basically our anticipated number of $1.2 billion. And you see over the last few quarters as we have been lacking M&A activities that we basically redirected excess cash to return to our shareholders. That's the general philosophy that we've been following with no intent to build up cash on our balance sheet. And so that flexibility is in the model. We are seeing a good pipeline, though, of our M&A activity. So it's -- this we announced the deal, but compared to last quarter, we really have moved the needle forward on our business development activity with very talented team. And we see also, I think, a little bit more realistic behavior in the market relative to acquisition opportunities. So I think for us, the goal would be to get back to normal to the capital allocation framework that we have been talking about for a long time. It's going to be the mindset for us going forward.

是的。本財年，我們基本上給了12億美元的預期數字。過去幾個季度，由於併購活動較少，我們基本上將多餘的現金回饋給了股東。這是我們一直遵循的整體理念，我們無意在資產負債表上增加現金儲備。因此，這種靈活性是我們模式的一部分。不過，我們看到併購活動正在穩定地推進。雖然我們宣布了這筆交易，但與上個季度相比，我們憑藉著一支非常優秀的團隊，在業務拓展方面取得了顯著進展。而且，我認為，市場對收購機會的態度也更務實了。因此，我認為我們的目標是恢復到我們長期以來一直在討論的正常資本配置框架。這將是我們未來發展的方向。

Next question is from the line of Darrin Peller with Wolfe Research.

下一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Darrin Peller。

Can we maybe go into a little bit more detail on the vertical specifically and just help us understand -- maybe starting with Financial Services, but any other one you think makes sense, really, what you believe is the driving force on the change in outlook, whether it's, number one, macro and just pure simple demand and bookings; number two, headcount, your billable headcount available; and number three, is there anything else that's maybe, like, either tech stack or capability or competitive dynamics? I'm just really trying to parse out what's driving the story and what can be improved on your own doing versus macro.

我們能否更詳細地探討一下具體的垂直領域，幫助我們理解——或許可以從金融服務業開始，當然也可以談談您認為相關的其他領域——您認為推動前景轉變的主要因素是什麼？是第一，宏觀層面，例如純粹的需求和訂單量；第二，人員配置，例如您可用的可計費人員數量；第三，是否存在其他因素，例如技術架構、能力或競爭格局？我只是想弄清楚究竟是什麼因素在推動這一趨勢，以及除了宏觀層面之外，您本身可以改進哪些方面。

Yes. Look, it's a good question. I mean I'll start with the 2 bigger ones, Financial Services, which is about 31% of the company. It grew about 1.6 points in constant currency, but that was impacted by the exit of the Samlink business, which was previously disclosed, to the tune of 180 basis points to normalize, let's say, 3.4 points of growth. And that's below industry. We've got a lot of work to do there, as we've cited previously.

是的。你看，這確實是個好問題。我先從兩個較大的業務部門說起，金融服務板塊占公司總業務的31%左右。以固定匯率計算，該板塊增長了約1.6個百分點，但這受到了先前披露的Samlink業務剝離的影響，剝離導致增長下降了180個基點，也就是說，原本3.4個百分點的增長被抵消了。而且，這個成長低於行業平均。正如我們之前提到的，我們在這個板塊還有很多工作要做。

There is a slowdown in certain segments there. We've touched upon in the prepared remarks the mortgage segment in particular. I'm also seeing some of the C-suite there talking about, let's say, tightening their belts as they go into the fourth quarter and beyond. So I think that will be a tougher sector for others as well.

某些領域的成長確實放緩了。我們在事先準備好的演講稿中特別提到了抵押貸款領域。我還看到一些高階主管在談到，他們計劃在第四季及以後勒緊褲腰帶。所以我認為，對其他企業來說，這也會是一個更艱難的領域。

But fundamentally, our bigger issue there that we're evolving from, it's not just the folks we have in front of those clients, but also how the clients think of us. We've very often trained them to think of us as a provider of resources. I'm pleased to say that our digital mix in Financial Services is improving, and our staff -- or time and material mix is not improving enough yet. So we have to get that balance right in the period to come. Insurance, we're doing better than banking, and that's obviously in banking area we've got to go fix.

但從根本上講，我們正在努力解決的更大問題，不僅在於我們面對客戶的人員，還在於客戶對我們的看法。我們常常讓客戶把我們視為資源提供者。我很高興地說，我們在金融服務領域的數位轉型正在改善，但我們的人員配置——或者說按時間和材料計費的模式——還有待提高。因此，我們必須在未來一段時間內找到合適的平衡點。保險業務方面，我們做得比銀行業務好，顯然，銀行業務領域是我們必須改進的地方。

In Health Services, we feel very good about our position on a relative basis or a competitive basis in both payer provider as well as life sciences. That's one of our core franchises, I would say, as a company. The business grew about 5.5% in constant currency year-over-year. It's 29% of our business. So it's catching up on Financial Services overall. We've had good momentum in the TriZetto business in the last few years. So I feel pretty good about our relative position there.

在醫療服務領域，我們對自身在支付方和生命科學領域的相對地位和競爭優勢都感到非常滿意。可以說，這是我們公司的核心業務之一。該業務以固定匯率計算年增約5.5%，占我們總業務的29%。因此，它正在迎頭趕上金融服務業務的整體水平。過去幾年，我們在TriZetto業務方面也保持了良好的發展勢頭。所以我對我們在該領域的相對地位感到非常滿意。

And then if I talk about the other 2 portions of the business where we have actually historically in the last 2 years, 3 years, been growing double digits, CMT is a good success story of ours. We've had good client acquisition there, good constant currency growth.

然後，如果我談到我們業務中另外兩個部分，這兩個部分在過去兩三年裡一直保持著兩位數的成長，CMT 就是一個很好的成功案例。我們在那裡獲得了不錯的客戶，並且實現了良好的固定匯率成長。

Products and Resources, I think we have a lot of room to continue to do well there because our penetration of large accounts is lower there than it is, as an example, in life sciences, if you think of that, or indeed, the payer business where we are heavily penetrated into the major players. So that's kind of how I think about the framework.

我認為在產品和資源方面，我們還有很大的發展空間，因為我們在大客戶領域的滲透率低於其他領域，例如生命科學領域，或者支付方業務領域，我們在支付方業務領域已經深度滲透到主要參與者中。這就是我對這個框架的思考。

The factors we touched upon today, elevated attrition across the industry and Cognizant, within that permeated across all industry segments, and indeed, the U.S. onshore situation permeated across all as well. So nothing specific to either of those.

我們今天討論的因素，包括整個行業和 Cognizant 公司普遍存在的員工流失率上升，以及美國本土業務的現狀，都對所有行業產生了影響。所以，這並非針對上述任何一方的具體情況。

All right. Just one quick follow-up on the margin side. It did come in well. And I mean your guidance is relatively unchanged also for margin. So just thinking about that in terms of going forward a little more than just the fourth quarter, it would seem that if wage inflation calms down a bit, you should be able to maintain that level. Is that a fair assumption?

好的。關於利潤率方面，我還有一個小問題。利潤率表現不錯。而且，你們對利潤率的預期也基本保持不變。所以，如果只考慮第四季度，展望未來一段時間，如果薪資通膨有所放緩，你們應該能夠維持目前的利潤率水準。這個假設合理嗎？

The -- well, I have to say the standard answer in the third quarter, we'll give guidance in the fourth quarter. But I did mention that we feel our overall framework -- our multiyear framework is intact, and that didn't refer only to the revenue, but it refers also to our margin expectations. So that's kind of as far as I want to go for today.

嗯，我必須說，第三季的標準答案是，我們會在第四季給出業績指引。但我確實提到過，我們認為我們的整體框架——我們的多年框架——依然完好無損，這不僅指營收，也指我們的利潤率預期。今天我就說這麼多。

We -- when you analyze the results on the margin, I think it's important to consider a number of factors. We have driven the margin expansion by having SG&A control and discipline. So it helped us to drive and leverage that SG&A as the company grew. We had also meaningful support from the depreciation of the rupee in our business.

在分析利潤率時，我認為需要考慮許多因素。我們透過有效控制和嚴格執行銷售、管理及行政費用 (SG&A) 來推動利潤率的提升。隨著公司的發展，這幫助我們更好地利用了 SG&A 的效益。此外，盧比貶值也對我們的業務產生了顯著的正面影響。

And then I talked already about the impact that our actions had on gross margin. Gross margin was under pressure, but I think we had a lot of activity that moderated what could have been a bigger effect on gross margin even.

我之前已經談到了我們的舉措對毛利率的影響。毛利率確實面臨壓力，但我認為我們採取的許多措施在一定程度上緩解了毛利率可能受到的更大影響。

So you heard me in the third quarter and continue -- and second quarter and now continues in the third quarter, we feel we have a relatively -- we have a good process in place to balance that business out. So our focus is to maintain that discipline, obviously, and then really accelerate revenue growth. That is the main focus that we're driving on because that's our biggest opportunity and use this -- the margin profile as a great foundation for that.

所以，正如我在第三季以及第二季（現在延續到第三季）所說，我們認為我們已經建立了一套相對完善的流程來平衡業務。因此，我們的重點顯然是保持這種自律，並真正加速營收成長。這是我們目前的主要目標，因為這是我們最大的機遇，而我們利用目前的利潤率作為實現這一目標的堅實基礎。

This will conclude today's Q&A portion of the call.

今天的問答環節到此結束。

Great. Thank you all for joining. Look forward to catching up next quarter.

太好了。感謝各位的參與。期待下個季度與大家再次相聚。

This will conclude today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines at this time.

今天的會議到此結束。感謝各位的參與。現在您可以斷開線路了。