Commvault Systems Inc (CVLT) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Commvault's Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

女士們，先生們，感謝你們的支持，歡迎來到 Commvault 2023 財年第三季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker host today, Michael Melnyk, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

我現在想把會議交給今天的演講主持人，投資者關係主管 Michael Melnyk。請繼續。

Good morning, and welcome to our earnings conference call. I'm Michael Melnyk, Head of Investor Relations, and I'm joined by Sanjay Mirchandani, Commvault's CEO; and Gary Merrill, Commvault's CFO.

早上好，歡迎來到我們的收益電話會議。我是投資者關係主管 Michael Melnyk，Commvault 的首席執行官 Sanjay Mirchandani 也加入了我的行列；和 Commvault 的首席財務官 Gary Merrill。

And the infographic with key financial and operating metrics is posted on the Investor Relations website for reference. Statements made on today's call will include forward-looking statements about Commvault's future expectations, plans and prospects. All such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Please refer to the cautionary language in today's earnings release and Commvault's most recent periodic reports filed with the SEC for a discussion of the risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to be materially different from those contemplated in the forward-looking statements. Commvault does not assume any obligation to update those statements.

包含關鍵財務和運營指標的信息圖發佈在投資者關係網站上以供參考。在今天的電話會議上發表的聲明將包括有關 Commvault 未來預期、計劃和前景的前瞻性聲明。所有此類前瞻性陳述均受風險、不確定性和假設的影響。請參閱今天的收益發布中的警示性語言和 Commvault 向美國證券交易委員會提交的最新定期報告，以討論可能導致公司實際結果與前瞻性陳述中預期的結果存在重大差異的風險和不確定性。 Commvault 不承擔更新這些聲明的任何義務。

During this call, Commvault's financial results are presented on a non-GAAP basis. The reconciliation between non-GAAP and GAAP measures can be found on our website. Thank you again for joining us.

在此次電話會議中，Commvault 的財務業績是在非 GAAP 基礎上公佈的。非 GAAP 和 GAAP 措施之間的對賬可以在我們的網站上找到。再次感謝您加入我們。

Now I'll turn it over to Sanjay for his remarks. Sanjay?

現在我將把它交給 Sanjay 聽取他的意見。桑傑？

Thank you, Mike. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. Earlier this month, we noted delays and deferrals in our customer spending, which were particularly acute in December. We are not alone. It's increasingly clear that customers and prospects are more calculated and cautious around spending decisions in the current macroeconomic environment. That said, we have built our company on a foundation of responsible growth for the long run, which we expect will allow us to navigate the current economic environment.

謝謝你，邁克。早上好，感謝您今天加入我們。本月早些時候，我們注意到客戶支出的延遲和延期，這在 12 月尤為嚴重。我們並不孤單。越來越明顯的是，在當前的宏觀經濟環境下，客戶和潛在客戶在支出決策方面更加謹慎和謹慎。也就是說，我們已將公司建立在長期負責任增長的基礎上，我們預計這將使我們能夠駕馭當前的經濟環境。

There are several solid indicators in the quarter that reflect strength in our future growth potential. For starters, Q3 was the best quarter for new customer wins in 5 years. Total ARR increased 18% year-over-year in constant currency. More importantly, subscription and SaaS ARR grew 43% and now represents 70% of total ARR. This bodes well for future expansion possibilities.

本季度有幾個可靠的指標反映了我們未來增長潛力的實力。首先，第三季度是 5 年來贏得新客戶的最佳季度。按固定匯率計算，總 ARR 同比增長 18%。更重要的是，訂閱和 SaaS ARR 增長了 43%，現在佔總 ARR 的 70%。這預示著未來的擴展可能性。

And we delivered healthy free cash flow growth while steadily returning cash through share repurchases. I'll discuss Metallics in more detail shortly. But during the quarter, Metallic approached 3,000 customers and is proving to be a powerful customer acquisition and expansion engine. We also saw very healthy growth in Metallic ARR, which sets us up nicely for our next milestone, $100 million in SaaS ARR.

我們實現了健康的自由現金流增長，同時通過股票回購穩步返還現金。稍後我將更詳細地討論金屬。但在本季度，Metallic 接觸了 3,000 名客戶，並被證明是一個強大的客戶獲取和擴展引擎。我們還看到 Metallic ARR 的健康增長，這為我們的下一個里程碑做好了準備，即 1 億美元的 SaaS ARR。

While large software deals came in below our initial expectations for Q3, we are confident in our long-term future because, first, data protection remains a strategic priority as customers transition to the hybrid cloud while dealing with the challenges of ransomware and other risks to their business; second, the market views our portfolio as best-in-class, and our customers see us as critical on their journey to the cloud.

雖然大型軟件交易低於我們對第三季度的最初預期，但我們對我們的長期未來充滿信心，因為首先，隨著客戶向混合雲過渡，同時應對勒索軟件和其他風險的挑戰，數據保護仍然是戰略重點。他們的生意；其次，市場認為我們的產品組合是一流的，我們的客戶認為我們在他們的雲之旅中至關重要。

First, let's discuss data protection to the strategic customer priority. The journey to the hybrid cloud is different for every customer, and it will be ongoing for years. The pace of change and innovation is constantly accelerating, creating uncertainty for those charge of protecting the data. This is even more pronounced in today's uncertain environment. Ransomware, skill shortages, supply chain and the evolving macro, these are all threats to organization's ambitions and objectives.

首先，讓我們以戰略客戶優先權來討論數據保護。每個客戶的混合雲之旅都是不同的，並且會持續數年。變革和創新的步伐不斷加快，給負責保護數據的人員帶來了不確定性。這在當今不確定的環境中更加明顯。勒索軟件、技能短缺、供應鍊和不斷發展的宏觀經濟，這些都是對組織的雄心和目標的威脅。

Customers need the flexibility to balance costs and risks to maximize business outcomes. We are uniquely positioned to give them choice and flexibility in how they consume technology required to protect their critical data in this difficult world.

客戶需要靈活地平衡成本和風險，以最大限度地提高業務成果。我們處於獨特的位置，可以讓他們選擇並靈活地使用在這個艱難的世界中保護其關鍵數據所需的技術。

This brings me to my second point. Our portfolio is leading edge and future-proof. This has enabled us to win new customers and expand our footprint by offering industry-leading capability, capacity, scalability and solutions. Our support for new workloads and new environment is unmatched. For instance, as customers build cloud-native workloads and applications, they often use Kubernetes. Our support for Kubernetes is best in class. In fact, just last week, Commvault was named a leader and outperformer in the new GigaOm radar for Kubernetes data protection for the third year running.

這就引出了我的第二點。我們的產品組合處於領先地位且面向未來。這使我們能夠通過提供行業領先的能力、容量、可擴展性和解決方案來贏得新客戶並擴大我們的足跡。我們對新工作負載和新環境的支持是無與倫比的。例如，當客戶構建雲原生工作負載和應用程序時，他們經常使用 Kubernetes。我們對 Kubernetes 的支持是一流的。事實上，就在上週，Commvault 連續第三年被評為 Kubernetes 數據保護新 GigaOm 雷達的領導者和表現出眾者。

It's a matter of pride for us that we engineer our products to support and integrate with the broadest ecosystem in the industry. This gives customers peace of mind as they protect the data for applications in the cloud today and as they evolve in the future. We do this so our customers don't have to. And we give our customers the choice of software and SaaS on one platform under a single pane of glass.

令我們感到自豪的是，我們設計的產品能夠支持並集成行業中最廣泛的生態系統。這讓客戶高枕無憂，因為他們保護當今雲中應用程序的數據以及未來的發展。我們這樣做是為了讓我們的客戶不必這樣做。我們讓我們的客戶在單一管理平台下的一個平台上選擇軟件和 SaaS。

For instance, the breadth of our Metallic SaaS platform helped us land a new customer, VistaJet. VistaJet was exploring a significant multi-cloud strategy. Rather than rely on inadequate native tools within the cloud, this digest shows multiple Metallic offerings, including Kubernetes backup to strengthen its cyber resilience in the cloud, simplify and reduce its costs, and enable them to pursue their growth ambitions.

例如，我們 Metallic SaaS 平台的廣度幫助我們贏得了新客戶 VistaJet。 VistaJet 正在探索一項重要的多雲戰略。與其依賴雲中不充分的本地工具，這份摘要展示了多種 Metallic 產品，包括 Kubernetes 備份，以加強其在雲中的網絡彈性，簡化和降低其成本，並使他們能夠實現他們的增長目標。

We also landed a multimillion dollar deal with a large European energy company. We displaced an incumbent vendor to protect on-prem workloads like Oracle and SQL Server and safely migrate data to the public cloud, all while reducing the risks of a ransomware attack, our competitors could not scale to protect the customers' vast amount of data. You see these are 2 customers at different stages of the hybrid cloud journey. One focus on existing on-premise workloads, the other on multi-club. We met them both where they were, and we'll be able to take them to where they want to go.

我們還與一家大型歐洲能源公司達成了數百萬美元的交易。我們取代了現有供應商來保護 Oracle 和 SQL Server 等本地工作負載，並將數據安全地遷移到公共雲，同時降低勒索軟件攻擊的風險，我們的競爭對手無法通過擴展來保護客戶的海量數據。您會看到這 2 個客戶處於混合雲之旅的不同階段。一個專注於現有的本地工作負載，另一個專注於多俱樂部。我們在他們所在的地方遇見了他們，我們能夠將他們帶到他們想去的地方。

Now a little more on Metallic. Our Metallic offerings continue to gain momentum with 70% of Metallic additions in the quarter being new to Commvault. This sets the stage for our robust cross and upsell motions as we're laser-focused on driving world-class NRR. In fact, 30% of Metallic customers now have more than one Metallic offering, such as our newly released ThreatWise, which is showing good early traction.

現在更多關於金屬。我們的金屬產品繼續保持增長勢頭，本季度新增的金屬產品中有 70% 是 Commvault 的新產品。這為我們強大的交叉和追加銷售動作奠定了基礎，因為我們專注於推動世界級的 NRR。事實上，30% 的 Metallic 客戶現在擁有不止一種 Metallic 產品，例如我們新發布的 ThreatWise，它顯示出良好的早期牽引力。

Metallic customers are also expanding to new offerings as their workloads grow or change. For instance, Linamar Corporation, a global manufacturing company and an existing Metallic customer recently expanded with Metallic to protect up to 15,000 Microsoft Exchange mailboxes. This is another notable example of how Commvault helps customers protect their data, accelerate their cloud journey, simplify their environment and minimize TCO, be it with software or SaaS or both.

隨著工作負載的增長或變化，Metallic 客戶也在擴展到新產品。例如，Linamar Corporation 是一家全球製造公司，也是 Metallic 的現有客戶，最近擴展了 Metallic 以保護多達 15,000 個 Microsoft Exchange 郵箱。這是 Commvault 如何幫助客戶保護他們的數據、加速他們的雲之旅、簡化他們的環境並最大限度地降低 TCO 的另一個著名示例，無論是通過軟件還是 SaaS 或兩者兼而有之。

Metallic's increasing contribution to customer and ARR growth is a positive indicator that reinforces that our bet on SaaS is the right long-term move for Commvault. As we close the year and Metallic becomes a more material part of our business, we look forward to providing more detail at an upcoming investor event.

Metallic 對客戶和 ARR 增長的貢獻越來越大，這是一個積極的指標，強化了我們對 SaaS 的押注是 Commvault 的正確長期舉措。隨著年末的到來，Metallic 成為我們業務的重要組成部分，我們期待在即將舉行的投資者活動中提供更多詳細信息。

Now I'll turn it over to Gary for a discussion of our financial results.

現在我將把它交給加里討論我們的財務結果。

Thanks, Sanjay, and good morning, everyone. I will start with a quick recap of the quarter with growth rates on a year-over-year basis, unless otherwise stated. Total revenues for the quarter were $195 million, an increase of 1% on a constant currency basis. Software and products revenue for the quarter was approximately $90 million, a decline of 5% on a constant currency basis.

謝謝，Sanjay，大家早上好。除非另有說明，否則我將首先快速回顧一下本季度的同比增長率。本季度總收入為 1.95 億美元，按固定匯率計算增長 1%。本季度的軟件和產品收入約為 9000 萬美元，按固定匯率計算下降 5%。

The variance against our Q3 guidance was the result of a weaker than forecasted enterprise market and execution on close rates. Revenue from large deals, which we define as transactions with greater than $100,000 of software and products revenue was down $10 million versus the prior year and represented 72% of software revenue in the current quarter compared to 76% in Q3 of the prior year.

與我們第三季度指引的差異是企業市場弱於預期和收盤價執行的結果。大型交易的收入（我們定義為軟件和產品收入超過 100,000 美元的交易）與上一年相比下降了 1000 萬美元，佔本季度軟件收入的 72%，而去年第三季度為 76%。

The average deal size in the quarter for large deals was $312,000. This shortfall in large deals was particularly evident in the Americas, where total software revenue was down 20%. Our international region delivered strong software revenue results, increasing 17% on a constant currency basis.

本季度大型交易的平均交易規模為 312,000 美元。這種大型交易的短缺在美洲尤為明顯，那裡的軟件總收入下降了 20%。我們的國際區域取得了強勁的軟件收入結果，按固定匯率計算增長了 17%。

On a consolidated view, software revenue transactions under $100,000 increased 6% as we saw a modest acceleration in the velocity side of our software business, driven by new customer transactions.

綜合來看，100,000 美元以下的軟件收入交易增長了 6%，因為我們看到在新客戶交易的推動下，我們軟件業務的速度方面出現了適度加速。

Now that I've discussed the large deal headwind, I'd like to provide more color on some positive trends in the quarter, particularly around our subscription and SaaS momentum. Subscription software revenue was approximately $70 million and represented 78% of total software revenue, which compares to only 71% of total software revenue in Q3 of the prior year. Our subscription transition has been driven by new customer acquisition and the strategic conversion of existing perpetual customers to a subscription model.

既然我已經討論了大筆交易的逆風，我想為本季度的一些積極趨勢提供更多色彩，特別是圍繞我們的訂閱和 SaaS 勢頭。訂閱軟件收入約為 7000 萬美元，佔軟件總收入的 78%，而去年第三季度僅佔軟件總收入的 71%。我們的訂閱轉型是由新客戶的獲取和現有永久客戶向訂閱模式的戰略轉變推動的。

Services revenue, which includes revenue from our customer support agreements, professional services and Metallic, was $106 million, an increase of 7% on a constant currency basis, driven by the continued acceleration of Metallic revenue. From a customer perspective, we had our best quarter for new customer count in many years. We saw new customer growth in subscription software customers, Metallic SaaS customers, and the combination of both. As Sanjay noted, we are the only provider that can offer customers the best of software and the best of SaaS.

服務收入（包括來自我們的客戶支持協議、專業服務和 Metallic 的收入）為 1.06 億美元，按固定匯率計算增長 7%，這主要受 Metallic 收入持續加速增長的推動。從客戶的角度來看，我們迎來了多年來新客戶數量最多的一個季度。我們在訂閱軟件客戶、Metallic SaaS 客戶以及兩者的組合中看到了新的客戶增長。正如 Sanjay 指出的那樣，我們是唯一可以為客戶提供最好的軟件和 SaaS 的供應商。

I will now give some insights into our annualized recurring revenue or ARR metrics. Our total ARR increased 14% to $641 million as reported, an 18% year-over-year growth in constant currency. Subscription and Metallic software revenue ARR increased 43% to $443 million and now represents approximately 70% of our total ARR balance.

我現在將對我們的年度經常性收入或 ARR 指標給出一些見解。據報導，我們的 ARR 總額增長了 14%，達到 6.41 億美元，按固定匯率計算，同比增長 18%。訂閱和金屬軟件收入 ARR 增長了 43%，達到 4.43 億美元，現在約占我們總 ARR 餘額的 70%。

Moving on, I will discuss expenses and profitability. Gross margins for the third quarter of 83% reflect a lower mix of software revenue versus our Q3 expectations. Total operating expenses were $121 million, down 5% year-over-year. During Q3, our global head count was down 4% to 2,820 employees compared to 2,933 at the start of the quarter. We are managing our people, facilities and third-party expenses by focusing investment on our most critical priorities. We will continue to elevate -- we will continue to evaluate our resource base against the market demand environment.

接下來，我將討論費用和盈利能力。第三季度 83% 的毛利率反映出軟件收入組合低於我們對第三季度的預期。總運營費用為 1.21 億美元，同比下降 5%。在第三季度，我們的全球員工人數從本季度初的 2,933 人減少 4% 至 2,820 人。我們通過將投資集中在我們最關鍵的優先事項上來管理我們的人員、設施和第三方費用。我們將繼續提升——我們將繼續根據市場需求環境評估我們的資源基礎。

Non-GAAP EBIT was $38.5 million, resulting in an EBIT margin of 19.7%. The decline in non-GAAP EBIT was primarily attributable to our lower software revenue results.

非美國通用會計準則息稅前利潤為 3850 萬美元，息稅前利潤率為 19.7%。非 GAAP 息稅前利潤的下降主要歸因於我們較低的軟件收入結果。

Moving on to some key balance sheet and cash flow metrics for the quarter. We ended the quarter with no debt and $273 million in cash. $117 million of this balance or 43% of total cash is now in the United States. Quarter end deferred revenue was up 20% on a constant currency basis, driven by the continued acceleration of the (inaudible). Q3 free cash flow was $29 million, up 15%. On a 9-month year-to-date basis, we generated $100 million of free cash flow, an increase of 16% versus the same 9-month period of the prior year. As a reminder, fiscal second half cash flow will be burdened by approximately $7 million of federal tax payments related to the TCJA capitalization of R&D provisions.

繼續本季度的一些關鍵資產負債表和現金流量指標。我們在本季度結束時沒有債務和 2.73 億美元的現金。此餘額中的 1.17 億美元或現金總額的 43% 現在在美國。在（聽不清）持續加速的推動下，按固定匯率計算，季末遞延收入增長了 20%。第三季度自由現金流為 2900 萬美元，增長 15%。從年初至今的 9 個月來看，我們產生了 1 億美元的自由現金流，與去年同期的 9 個月相比增長了 16%。提醒一下，與 TCJA 研發條款資本化相關的大約 700 萬美元聯邦稅款將給下半財年現金流帶來負擔。

While our software and Metallic models diverge and how they are accounted for in our P&L, they are both strong cash flow-generating businesses. As our Metallic business becomes a more meaningful part of our results, we believe ARR growth and cash flow will be key operating metrics to demonstrate the strength of our business model.

儘管我們的軟件和 Metallic 模型以及它們在損益表中的計算方式存在差異，但它們都是產生現金流的強大業務。隨著我們的金屬業務成為我們業績中更有意義的一部分，我們相信 ARR 增長和現金流將成為展示我們業務模式實力的關鍵運營指標。

During Q3, we repurchased 507,000 shares of our common stock for $31 million. Fiscal year-to-date, we repurchased 1.5 million shares of common stock, returning $90 million to our shareholders, representing 90% of free cash flow. Today, we are also announcing our intent to sell our corporate headquarters in Tinton Falls, New Jersey and lease back only a small footprint of the existing space. We believe this is fiscally responsible. Like many companies in our industry, we have evolved into a more flexible hybrid workplace. The sales transaction is expected to close in the first half of fiscal 2024 with proceeds of approximately $40 million.

在第三季度，我們以 3100 萬美元回購了 507,000 股普通股。本財年至今，我們回購了 150 萬股普通股，向股東返還了 9000 萬美元，佔自由現金流的 90%。今天，我們還宣布打算出售位於新澤西州廷頓瀑布的公司總部，並僅租回現有空間的一小部分。我們認為這在財政上是負責任的。與我們行業中的許多公司一樣，我們已經發展成為一個更加靈活的混合工作場所。銷售交易預計將於 2024 財年上半年完成，收益約為 4000 萬美元。

Now I will discuss our outlook for the fiscal fourth quarter. We are diligently monitoring the macroeconomic outlook and customer spending on large transformational projects. We believe new business may continue to take longer to close, especially if it is part of larger IT consolidation and transformation projects. We expect Q4 software revenue will be flat quarter-on-quarter at approximately $89.5 million. Services revenue, which includes revenue from our customer support agreements, professional services and Metallic, is expected to be approximately $107.5 million with sequential revenue growth driven by our Metallic business. As a result, fiscal Q4 total revenue is expected to be approximately $197 million.

現在我將討論我們對第四財季的展望。我們正在認真監測宏觀經濟前景和客戶在大型轉型項目上的支出。我們認為新業務可能需要更長的時間才能關閉，尤其是如果它是更大的 IT 整合和轉型項目的一部分。我們預計第四季度軟件收入將環比持平，約為 8950 萬美元。服務收入，包括來自我們的客戶支持協議、專業服務和金屬的收入，預計將達到約 1.075 億美元，而我們的金屬業務將推動收入連續增長。因此，第四財季總收入預計約為 1.97 億美元。

At these revenue levels, we expect Q4 consolidated gross margin to be approximately 82%. We will see some incremental pressure on our gross margins due to the forecasted increase in services revenue, which includes Metallic SaaS at lower margins relative to our current software outlook.

在這些收入水平下，我們預計第四季度綜合毛利率約為 82%。由於服務收入的預期增長，我們將看到我們的毛利率面臨一些增量壓力，其中包括相對於我們當前的軟件前景而言利潤率較低的 Metallic SaaS。

Q4 operating expenses are expected to be approximately $122 million, down 3% year-over-year. We expect Q4 EBIT margins will be approximately 19%. We continue to be maniacally focused on managing people, facilities and third-party expenses, balancing profitability while investing in growth initiatives such as Metallic.

第四季度運營費用預計約為 1.22 億美元，同比下降 3%。我們預計第四季度息稅前利潤率約為 19%。我們繼續瘋狂地專注於管理人員、設施和第三方費用，平衡盈利能力，同時投資於 Metallic 等增長計劃。

Moving to cash flows and share repurchases. We expect cash flows will sequentially improve in Q4 and continue to believe that share repurchases currently represent the best use of excess cash. Given the year-to-date cash flow results and current U.S. cash balance, our Q4 share repurchases will increase from Q3 levels. Our projected share count for Q4 is approximately 45 million shares. Our team is focused on execution and we will maintain a responsible growth operating [losses].

轉向現金流和股票回購。我們預計現金流量將在第四季度依次改善，並繼續認為股票回購目前是對多餘現金的最佳利用。鑑於年初至今的現金流量結果和當前的美國現金餘額，我們第四季度的股票回購將從第三季度的水平增加。我們預計第四季度的股票數量約為 4500 萬股。我們的團隊專注於執行，我們將保持負責任的增長運營[虧損]。

I will now turn the call back to Sanjay for his closing remarks. Sanjay?

我現在將把電話轉回給 Sanjay，聽取他的結束語。桑傑？

Thanks, Gary. As a long-standing market leader, we've endured economic and technology cycles like this by supporting our customers wherever they are in their journeys. They need the flexibility that only Commvault can provide in today's difficult world.

謝謝，加里。作為長期的市場領導者，我們通過在旅途中的任何地方為我們的客戶提供支持，從而忍受了這樣的經濟和技術週期。他們需要只有 Commvault 才能在當今艱難的世界中提供的靈活性。

Over the past 2 years, we've made significant progress in delivering a subscription and SaaS-based recurring revenue model while continuing to innovate and build our industry-leading products. I'm confident that we're on track to continue to deliver shareholder value and look forward to sharing more with you at an upcoming Investor Day.

在過去的 2 年裡，我們在提供訂閱和基於 SaaS 的經常性收入模式方面取得了重大進展，同時繼續創新和構建我們行業領先的產品。我相信我們正在繼續為股東創造價值，並期待在即將到來的投資者日與您分享更多信息。

Now let's open it up for questions.

現在讓我們打開它來提問。

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Now first question coming from the line of Aaron Rakers with Wells Fargo.

謝謝。 （操作員說明）現在第一個問題來自 Wells Fargo 的 Aaron Rakers。

I guess I want to start with maybe just thinking about what's going on in the macro and kind of the impacts to your business, specifically around the renewal opportunity as we start to think about fiscal '24. What assumptions or what have you seen from a renewal perspective in the business as some of those opportunities come to fruition? Are you seeing any changes of renewal rates? Any changes of net dollar retention? Anything you can share on that front?

我想我想首先考慮宏觀上發生的事情以及對您的業務的影響，特別是在我們開始考慮 24 財年時圍繞更新機會。隨著其中一些機會的實現，您從業務更新的角度看到了什麼假設或什麼？您是否看到續訂率有任何變化？淨美元保留有任何變化？在這方面你有什麼可以分享的嗎？

Aaron, it's Gary. A couple of things. Our renewals, especially related to the software subscription business, they largely met our expectations for fiscal Q3. So we're on track with some of the metrics around renewals, both our retention rates that we've discussed historically, we are still in those historical ranges, which is good. And as we look forward into fiscal Q4, we have a slightly bigger [renewal] population quarter-on-quarter, Q3 versus Q4 as well. So we're on track there.

亞倫，是加里。幾件事。我們的續約，尤其是與軟件訂閱業務相關的續約，在很大程度上滿足了我們對第三財季的預期。因此，我們正在跟踪一些關於續訂的指標，包括我們在歷史上討論過的保留率，我們仍然處於那些歷史範圍內，這很好。當我們展望第四財季時，我們的 [更新] 人口環比略大，第三季度與第四季度相比也是如此。所以我們在那裡走上正軌。

What really drove the mix as we talked about in the prepared remarks was really some of those large IT enterprise transformational projects driven really on the land and expand business.

正如我們在準備好的評論中談到的那樣，真正推動這種組合的實際上是一些真正在土地上推動並擴展業務的大型 IT 企業轉型項目。

And as far as kind of those opportunities have pushed out this last quarter kind of delayed, maybe you can help us appreciate what is underlying your assumptions with regard to the guide this quarter around that? Are you expecting those deals to come in into revenue this quarter? Or do you see further pushouts embedded in your guidance?

就這些機會推遲了上個季度的某種延遲而言，也許您可以幫助我們了解您對本季度指南的假設基礎是什麼？您預計這些交易會在本季度產生收入嗎？或者您是否在您的指南中看到了進一步的推出？

Yes. Aaron, so the expectation that we have as we look out into fiscal Q4, is that the current dynamics that we saw during fiscal Q3 as it relates to the software side of the business, we're expecting them largely to continue as we move into fiscal Q4. The impact that we saw in some of the multiyear big deal purchasing decisions, we expect that will continue. The deals that pushed in our fiscal Q3, the good news is they're not lost. The vast majority of them are still in play. We continue to work on them. We continue to dialogue with our customers, and we expect a good portion of that actually to close in this fiscal Q4.

是的。亞倫，所以我們對第四財季的期望是，我們在第三財季看到的與業務軟件方面相關的當前動態，我們預計隨著我們進入財政Q4。我們在一些多年的大交易採購決策中看到的影響，我們預計這種影響將持續下去。推動我們第三財季的交易，好消息是它們沒有丟失。他們中的絕大多數仍在發揮作用。我們繼續努力。我們繼續與客戶對話，我們預計其中很大一部分實際上將在本財年第四季度結束。

Great. And then just real quickly, the final question. As I look at kind of Metallic, what's interesting is you're talking about what sounds like an acceleration of the ARR momentum relative to, I think, last quarter, you said $75 million, and I think exiting fiscal '21, it was $50 million on the ARR balance. If I look at your total kind of recurring services revenue and I strip out the support piece of it, it looks like Metallic is growing well north of 100%. (inaudible). Is that a good way to think about how quickly Metallic is actually growing within that services line?

偉大的。然後很快，最後一個問題。當我看某種金屬時，有趣的是你在談論什麼聽起來像是 ARR 勢頭的加速相對於，我認為，上個季度，你說的是 7500 萬美元，我認為退出 21 財年，它是 50 美元萬美元的 ARR 餘額。如果我看一下你們的經常性服務總收入，並剔除其中的支持部分，Metallic 的增長率似乎遠超 100%。 （聽不清）。這是考慮 Metallic 在該服務線中實際增長速度的好方法嗎？

Yes, Aaron, actually, relative, if you look at quarter-on-quarter from a Q3 even versus Q2, the sequential growth we saw in Metallic accelerated in fiscal Q3. So that makes us really happy with the results that we're seeing. Last quarter, we mentioned that our next milestone for Metallic on the ARR basis was that kind of $100 million ARR. We're well on track to be able to hit that in the near term.

是的，Aaron，實際上，相對而言，如果你從第三季度看季度環比，甚至與第二季度相比，我們在第三財季看到的 Metallic 連續增長加速。所以這讓我們對我們看到的結果非常滿意。上個季度，我們提到我們在 ARR 基礎上的 Metallic 下一個里程碑是 1 億美元的 ARR。我們有望在短期內實現這一目標。

The Metallic business continues to provide us an amazing new customer acquisition engine as well. Now the deal sizes are smaller, right? So they show up, it's lower ASPs. Obviously, they're not recognized in period from a P&L perspective. But if you look at that combination of what's happening sequentially in ARR, which was up, I think, even 6% sequentially, combined with our deferred revenue growth, which was 20% year-over-year, it shows you that we're capturing great financial stability through that Metallic business that will kind of drive that future predictability in our revenue stream, which makes us really excited about what's to come as we kind of continue to build that business out.

金屬業務也繼續為我們提供了一個驚人的新客戶獲取引擎。現在交易規模變小了，對吧？所以他們出現了，它是較低的 ASP。顯然，從 P&L 的角度來看，它們沒有按期確認。但是，如果你看看 ARR 連續發生的事情的組合，我認為即使連續增長 6%，再加上我們的遞延收入增長，同比增長 20%，這表明我們通過金屬業務獲得巨大的財務穩定性，這將在某種程度上推動我們收入流中的未來可預測性，這讓我們對繼續發展該業務的未來感到非常興奮。

And our next question coming from the line of James Fish with Piper Sandler.

我們的下一個問題來自 James Fish 和 Piper Sandler 的台詞。

Maybe on the cost side, trying to understand the impact of the headcount reduction as well as the OpEx savings you get from the sale of the headquarters there separately. Is there a way to think about both? And then additionally, with this kind of headcount reduction that you talked about in the preannouncement, how are you guys thinking about the impact to the top line in fiscal '24? What amount was kind of [quota] carrying?

也許在成本方面，試圖分別了解裁員的影響以及出售總部所節省的運營支出。有沒有辦法考慮兩者？此外，通過您在預告中談到的這種裁員，你們如何看待對 24 財年收入的影響？攜帶多少[配額]？

Jim, it's Gary. Good to hear from you again. A couple of things I'll hit, especially on the cost side. As we mentioned, our headcount was down sequentially about 4%. That -- some of the benefits we will see related to those reduced salary levels will start in fiscal Q4. What we have here in fiscal Q4, though is there's a couple of things that offset it just kind of temporarily. This quarter is the start over for our employer FICA related portion of the taxes. So some of the savings we naturally would see this quarter are offset by some of the just the calendar year payroll reset. And last quarter was also our merit increase review for existing employees. So we had a little bit of bump up there.

吉姆，是加里。很高興再次收到你的來信。我會說幾件事，尤其是在成本方面。正如我們所提到的，我們的員工人數環比下降了約 4%。那 - 我們將看到與降低工資水平相關的一些好處將在第四財季開始。我們在第四財季所擁有的，雖然有幾件事只是暫時抵消了它。本季度是我們雇主 FICA 相關部分稅收的重新開始。因此，我們自然會在本季度看到的一些節省被日曆年工資重置中的一些所抵消。上個季度也是我們對現有員工的加薪審查。所以我們在那裡有一點點顛簸。

So some of the muted impact does happen in Q4. But really, when I look out into fiscal '24, that's when we start to see the benefit of that.

因此，一些微弱的影響確實發生在第四季度。但實際上，當我展望 24 財年時，我們就會開始看到它的好處。

Sorry. One other thing I'll delve into -- Go ahead.

對不起。我將深入研究的另一件事——繼續。

(inaudible) towards fiscal '24 rather than fiscal Q4.

（聽不清）面向 24 財年而不是第四財季。

Yes. Yes, so I mean, you can model out what you would expect in that fiscal '24 perspective based on that 4% reduction. We'd expect to see those savings as we roll into fiscal '24. As it relates to the building, it's going to take 1 to 2 quarters to close, Jim. We have to go through some regulatory approval even with the state to get consent on a few things related to the building. So therefore, we will see a modest kind of savings impact when we get into maybe the second quarter of fiscal '24. It won't be material, but it will be modest, that we'll start to see some savings as well there.

是的。是的，所以我的意思是，你可以根據 4% 的減少，模擬出你在 24 財年的角度所期望的。我們希望在進入 24 財年時看到這些節省。吉姆，由於它與建築物有關，因此需要 1 到 2 個季度才能關閉。我們必須通過一些監管部門的批准，即使是在與該建築相關的一些事情上，我們也要獲得州政府的同意。因此，當我們進入 24 財年的第二季度時，我們將看到適度的儲蓄影響。它不會很重要，但會很適度，我們也將開始在那裡看到一些節省。

And on the quota carrying -- and this is Sanjay, Jim. Just to touch on that on the quota carrying heads, we're obviously very focused on making sure we don't affect the top line.

關於攜帶配額——這是桑傑，吉姆。只是談及配額方面的問題，我們顯然非常專注於確保我們不會影響頂線。

Yes. Nothing, Jim, we've done will impact our outlook for fiscal '24 and the top line. This is about efficiency across the business.

是的。吉姆，我們所做的一切都不會影響我們對 24 財年和頂線的展望。這關乎整個企業的效率。

Fair enough. Last one for me. We're kind of hearing different things across tech around duration of contracts. Are you guys seeing customers look to lock in term deals for longer at all or shorter? And how often when the customer is renewing a term deal, are you seeing that contract go from, let's say, a 3-year term down to 1-year term on the renewal?

很公平。最後一個給我。關於合同期限，我們在技術上聽到了不同的聲音。你們看到客戶希望鎖定長期交易的時間更長還是更短？當客戶續簽定期交易時，您是否經常看到該合同在續籤時從 3 年期限縮短為 1 年期限？

In our business, Jim, it's happening, I'd say, in the fringes. We do see pressure on term length. Our average term, we've talked about somewhere is between that 2 to 3 years on an average term. And we're holding pretty well. We do see some pressure in certain spots, but we're managing through it, which gives us some confidence that our renewal businesses continue to meet the expectations in the quarter and even in the outlook.

在我們的業務中，吉姆，我想說，它發生在邊緣。我們確實看到了任期長度的壓力。我們的平均任期，我們在某個地方談到過，平均任期在 2 到 3 年之間。而且我們保持得很好。我們確實在某些方面看到了一些壓力，但我們正在克服它，這讓我們有信心我們的續訂業務在本季度甚至展望中繼續滿足預期。

And next question coming from the line of Howard (inaudible).

下一個問題來自霍華德（聽不清）。

I have one question for Sanjay and one for Gary. So first for Sanjay. We acknowledge that increased budget scrutiny and deal pushouts, I mean, those are certainly not unique to Commvault in this environment. We also acknowledge that data protection has become an increased priority in recent years as you pointed out in your prepared remarks. But in your customer conversations and as we consider near-term purchasing decisions, are there any signs that more recently Commvault or data protection in general is being put on the back burner relative to other IT projects? I understand you said that data protection is part of broad larger IT transformations, but within the relative ranking, has there been any change? And then -- so that's kind of one part.

我有一個問題要問 Sanjay，一個要問 Gary。首先是 Sanjay。我們承認，增加預算審查和交易推出，我的意思是，在這種環境下，這些肯定不是 Commvault 獨有的。我們還承認，正如您在準備好的發言中指出的那樣，近年來數據保護已成為越來越重要的優先事項。但是在您的客戶對話中以及我們考慮近期的採購決策時，是否有任何跡象表明最近 Commvault 或一般數據保護相對於其他 IT 項目正在被擱置？我知道你說數據保護是更廣泛的 IT 轉型的一部分，但在相對排名中，是否有任何變化？然後 - 所以這是一部分。

And then how are you factoring those potential demand changes in evaluating your pipeline and close rates?

那麼在評估您的管道和收盤價時，您如何考慮這些潛在的需求變化？

Got it. Howard, good to talk to you. So let me see. If I was to parse your question out and if you looked at some of the metrics we shared on Metallic, you'll see that the demand on Metallic is healthy. The business is growing well. We're growing sequentially. Obviously, we're growing year-on-year. We're adding -- we've had one of the best quarters of customer additions. So the Metallic business, which is largely cloud-based workloads, is doing really -- is in a good place.

知道了。霍華德，很高興和你交談。所以讓我看看。如果我要解析你的問題，如果你查看了我們在 Metallic 上共享的一些指標，你會發現對 Metallic 的需求是健康的。業務發展良好。我們正在按順序增長。顯然，我們每年都在增長。我們正在增加 - 我們擁有最好的客戶增加季度之一。因此，主要是基於雲的工作負載的 Metallic 業務確實做得很好。

And if I was to sort of give you a Sanjay thesis on where I think things are broadly with data protection to your question, I think customers -- we saw, as an industry, we saw a lot of tailwind over the past, let's say, 2 years because of the pandemic customers' journey to the cloud being accelerated, ransomware being at an all-time high. That caused -- we saw a lot of large transformation projects where data protection was looked at after many years from a left-to-right point of view to make sure that the entire sort of fleet of technology that was being protected was modern, it was protected with the modern suite like ours. Where I think we are is the first phase of ransomware protection for many customers is done, they feel like they've got the havens at some level in. And now it's a matter of optimizing and really going up the stack with the rest of the fleet. So there is that, if you would, change in momentum.

如果我要給你一篇 Sanjay 的論文，我認為關於你的問題的數據保護廣泛存在的問題，我認為客戶 - 我們看到，作為一個行業，我們在過去看到了很多順風，比方說, 2 年，因為大流行病客戶的雲之旅正在加速，勒索軟件處於歷史最高水平。這導致 - 我們看到了許多大型轉型項目，在這些項目中，從左到右的角度來看多年後的數據保護，以確保受到保護的整個技術系列都是現代的，它受到像我們這樣的現代套房的保護。我認為我們所處的位置是對許多客戶的勒索軟件保護的第一階段已經完成，他們覺得他們已經在某種程度上獲得了避風港。現在這是一個優化問題，並真正與其他客戶一起提升堆棧艦隊。所以，如果你願意的話，勢頭會發生變化。

The second piece is a lot of customers bought into the cloud and bought into the futures and capacity and where they were seeing their architecture go, infrastructure go. And I think they're at the point where, at least in calendar Q4, fiscal Q3, we saw customers stop, pause and say, we routinely see a budget flush, you see sort of are we using what we purchased from a storage point of view, from a cloud provisioning point of view, from a capacity point of view. And I think there was a little pause there.

第二部分是很多客戶購買了雲，購買了期貨和容量，他們看到他們的架構走向何方，基礎設施走向何方。而且我認為，至少在日曆第四季度、第三財季，我們看到客戶停下來，停下來說，我們經常看到預算超支，你看我們是不是在使用從存儲點購買的東西從雲配置的角度，從容量的角度來看。我認為那裡有一點停頓。

So we think that the demand and the future for data protection continues to be top of mind to customers. In my conversation, I don't see that in any way being less of a priority. What I think customers are doing is like most companies at this point with the macro where it is, it's like, where are we with what we've already committed to? Are we using it right? Are we well covered? And there's a little bit of that look-and-see going on. I think things will, as Gary said, come back to where things were shortly.

因此，我們認為數據保護的需求和未來仍然是客戶最關心的問題。在我的談話中，我不認為這在任何方面都不重要。我認為客戶正在做的是像大多數公司一樣，在這一點上，宏觀在哪裡，就像我們已經承諾的那樣？我們用對了嗎？我們覆蓋得好嗎？並且有一些觀察和觀察正在進行。正如加里所說，我認為事情很快就會回到原來的狀態。

But on the second part of your question, I'll let Gary take that. On I guess on how we'll be factoring some of that into...

但是關於你問題的第二部分，我會讓 Gary 接受。我想我們將如何將其中的一些考慮在內......

Yes. So Howard, how we thought about factoring that into our Q4, our outlook for Q4 assumes that the dynamics that we saw, especially a little bit of the uptick we saw in the Americas quarter-on-quarter continues at those levels. So from a close rate perspective, we assume roughly similar close rate projections. And now we're focused on the pipeline we have in front of us for Q4 and making sure we do the inspection to basically ensure that we have the ability to close it and exceed our expectations.

是的。所以霍華德，我們如何考慮將其納入我們的第四季度，我們對第四季度的展望假設我們看到的動態，特別是我們在美洲看到的季度環比增長繼續保持在這些水平。因此，從接近利率的角度來看，我們假設大致相似的接近利率預測。現在我們專注於第四季度擺在我們面前的管道，並確保我們進行檢查以基本上確保我們有能力關閉它並超出我們的預期。

Okay. And my follow-up for you is that, I mean the total ARR 80% constant currency growth, that held pretty strong, right? And that implies that both subscription and services were pretty strong. But can you help us reconcile that with total revenue growth of only 1% and the 5% constant currency decline in software products. And specifically, I mean, does that mean that the license shortfall was weighted more -- because the difference really is license. So was that weighted more towards perpetual or in subscription license? You just called out the lower contract duration. Like were there any other factors that would have impacted subscription license? Really just trying to reconcile the overall business with ARR.

好的。我對你的後續行動是，我的意思是總 ARR 80% 的恆定貨幣增長，這非常強勁，對吧？這意味著訂閱和服務都非常強勁。但是你能幫助我們調和總收入僅增長 1% 和軟件產品持續下降 5% 的情況嗎？具體來說，我的意思是，這是否意味著許可證短缺的權重更大——因為差異確實在於許可證。那麼它更傾向於永久許可還是訂閱許可？你剛剛宣布了較短的合同期限。是否有任何其他因素會影響訂閱許可？真的只是試圖協調整體業務與 ARR。

That's fair. So ARR continues to be very strong, as you see at that 18% year-over-year growth. The biggest contributor to our ARR 18% is Metallic. So Metallic becomes the biggest contributor, which has no in-period recognition on our P&L. That will help us as we move forward. So when you look back at reconciling the software revenue results tied to ARR, it comes down to basically a handful of large IT transformational projects. We talk frequently here, and Sanjay just stated about, maybe a little bit of a slowing and a pause on optimization. We still did over 200 of those large deals. So we're still seeing great momentum in that space. It comes down to about a $10 million population that drove the shortfall. And many of our larger IT enterprise transformational projects are multiyear transactions, right? So the impact of that is actually 3x when you look at it on an in-period recognition.

這還算公平。所以 ARR 繼續非常強勁，正如你看到的那樣，同比增長 18%。對我們的 ARR 18% 貢獻最大的是金屬。因此 Metallic 成為最大的貢獻者，它在我們的 P&L 中沒有期間內確認。這將有助於我們前進。因此，當您回顧協調與 ARR 相關的軟件收入結果時，它基本上歸結為少數大型 IT 轉型項目。我們在這裡經常交談，Sanjay 剛剛說過，優化可能會有所放緩和暫停。我們仍然完成了 200 多筆這樣的大交易。因此，我們仍然看到該領域的強勁勢頭。歸結為大約 1000 萬美元的人口導致了短缺。我們許多較大的 IT 企業轉型項目都是多年交易，對嗎？因此，當您查看期間內識別時，其影響實際上是 3 倍。

Yes. And again, coming back to the earlier part of your question, Howard, it's a lot of the low-hanging fruit of the [lifted shift] workloads are done, or customers feel like they've gotten through that. Now it's the tougher workload, the mission-critical workloads. It's the stuff that runs the business day-to-day that you have to be more cautious about and it takes more time. So I think in many conversations we have with customers, they're sort of working through that and those are obviously more complicated and take longer.

是的。再一次，回到你問題的前面部分，霍華德，[提升輪班]工作量的很多低調成果已經完成，或者客戶覺得他們已經完成了。現在是更艱鉅的工作負載，關鍵任務工作負載。這是日常經營業務的事情，您必須更加謹慎，並且需要更多時間。所以我認為在我們與客戶的許多對話中，他們正在努力解決這個問題，而這些顯然更複雜，需要更長的時間。

And our next question coming from the line of Eric Martinuzzi with Lake Street Capital.

我們的下一個問題來自 Eric Martinuzzi 與 Lake Street Capital 的合作。

Just looking to see if there was any indication in the month of January as far as what you would have seasonally expected given the shortfall in December. Was January an improvement in buyer sentiment? Or was it in line with the December?

只是想看看 1 月份是否有任何跡象表明，考慮到 12 月份的短缺，您會根據季節性預期做出什麼。一月份是買家情緒的改善嗎？還是與12月份一致？

Eric, it's Gary. What we start to see to the fiscal year is reflected kind of in our outlook in the guidance. And I think the best way to frame it, it continued on at similar levels from fiscal Q4. It started the new calendar year. Many companies are refreshing their budgets. We were in line with what we thought we would do in month of January, but it's more of a continuation of some of the buying patterns we saw during the last quarter.

埃里克，是加里。我們開始看到的財政年度在某種程度上反映在我們對指南的展望中。而且我認為構建它的最佳方式是，它從第四財季開始繼續保持類似水平。它開始了新的日曆年。許多公司正在更新他們的預算。我們與我們在 1 月份的預期一致，但這更像是我們在上個季度看到的一些購買模式的延續。

Okay. And then in the press release, you talked about just trying to navigate the current macro conditions but still committed to a philosophy of responsible growth. If we look at the the December quarter, roughly flat. I guess we're plus 1% on a constant currency basis. But the guidance for Q4 would be down 4%, and then seasonally, Q1 -- not that I'm looking for a FY '24 guide here --- but seasonally, Q1 is down from Q4. So when you talk about responsible growth, when do we see that growth?

好的。然後在新聞稿中，你談到只是試圖駕馭當前的宏觀環境，但仍然致力於負責任的增長理念。如果我們看一下 12 月季度，大致持平。我想我們在固定匯率的基礎上增加了 1%。但是第四季度的指導將下降 4%，然後是季節性的，第一季度——並不是說我在這裡尋找 24 財年的指導——但從季節性來看，第一季度比第四季度有所下降。所以當你談到負責任的增長時，我們什麼時候會看到這種增長？

Yes. So Eric, we're not going to comment yet in fiscal '24. As we head through the end of the current quarter we're in, we'll talk about some of our outlook at that point in time. We're keeping our guidance tied to now as what we see in fiscal Q4. Our fiscal Q4 reflected in some of the continuing.

是的。所以埃里克，我們不打算在 24 財年發表評論。當我們進入當前季度末時，我們將及時討論我們的一些展望。正如我們在第四財季看到的那樣，我們將我們的指導與現在聯繫在一起。我們的第四財季反映在一些持續的。

We continue to maniacally focus on all of our expenses, right? So whether it's the people cost, our third-party facility costs like we talked about today, and even contractors, we'll make sure that we continue to optimize our expense base relative to the top line demand that we see, even on a 9-month basis from a Q3 perspective as well. Our revenues in the 9-month period are up 3%. Our OpEx is flat. So we're trying to make sure we keep our OpEx growth muted relative to the top line. And in Q4, OpEx will obviously be down year-over-year.

我們繼續瘋狂地關注我們所有的開支，對吧？因此，無論是人員成本、我們今天談到的第三方設施成本，甚至是承包商成本，我們都將確保相對於我們看到的頂線需求繼續優化我們的費用基礎，即使是在 9 -從第三季度的角度來看也是以月為基礎的。我們在 9 個月期間的收入增長了 3%。我們的運營支出持平。因此，我們正努力確保我們的運營支出增長相對於頂線保持低迷。而在第四季度，OpEx 顯然會同比下降。

our next question coming from the line Jason Ader with William Blair.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jason Ader 和 William Blair 的台詞。

I just want to play devil's advocate here just because everyone is talking about macro, and obviously, that's a challenge for everybody. But from the (inaudible), you talked to folks in the channel, I mean, it definitely seems like guys like Rubrik and Cohesity are gaining a lot of ground in this market. So I just wanted to get your thoughts on what you're seeing out of those guys today versus maybe a year or 2 ago? How are you competing head-to-head because those guys are getting pretty big and they're growing very well. And I just want to -- I don't want to sidestep the competitive pressure here just because it does seem like it could be a factor in the current environment.

我只是想在這裡唱反調，因為每個人都在談論宏觀，顯然，這對每個人都是一個挑戰。但是從（聽不清）來看，你在頻道中與人們交談過，我的意思是，看起來像 Rubrik 和 Cohesity 這樣的人在這個市場上獲得了很大的進展。所以我只是想了解一下您今天與一兩年前相比，從這些人身上看到了什麼？你是如何面對面競爭的，因為那些傢伙越來越大，而且他們成長得很好。我只是想——我不想迴避這裡的競爭壓力，因為它看起來確實是當前環境中的一個因素。

Jason, it's Sanjay. We haven't seen anything marked different from a competitive landscape from a year ago or even a couple of quarters ago. If anything, we're winning some really good business against the ones you mentioned quite all the time actually. We were up against them all the time and we win. It's hard to know -- I have to take your word for it as to how they're growing and how well they're growing because I don't have that information readily available as you may, okay? So it's kind of hard for me to say what of it is real and what isn't.

傑森，我是桑傑。我們沒有看到與一年前甚至幾個季度前的競爭格局有任何明顯不同的地方。如果有的話，我們正在贏得一些非常好的業務，而不是你實際上一直提到的那些業務。我們一直與他們對抗，我們贏了。很難知道——關於它們的生長情況和生長情況，我必須相信你的話，因為我沒有像你那樣容易獲得的信息，好嗎？所以我很難說哪些是真實的，哪些不是。

I will say to you that if you look at the combined business, if you look at how our -- notwithstanding the shortfall on the software side this quarter -- and you look at our new customer additions and you look at the SaaS growth that we've got with Metallic and you look at the combined 40% to 50% of our customers have both, you're seeing the momentum that we've got in the business. I also think that we are in larger transformational deals, which take longer because the low-hanging fruit, like I said, has been done. Now the big mission-critical workloads that need to be ported to the cloud are just more complicated. They need more time. And we are continuing to win those. If you look at our renewal rate, there's nothing there that sets us backwards.

我會告訴你，如果你看看合併後的業務，如果你看看我們的 - 儘管本季度軟件方面存在不足 - 你看看我們的新客戶增加，你看看我們的 SaaS 增長有了 Metallic，你會看到我們 40% 到 50% 的客戶同時擁有這兩種產品，你看到了我們在業務中的發展勢頭。我還認為我們正在進行更大的轉型交易，這需要更長的時間，因為就像我說的那樣，唾手可得的果實已經完成。現在，需要移植到雲端的大型關鍵任務工作負載變得更加複雜。他們需要更多時間。我們正在繼續贏得這些。如果您查看我們的續約率，就會發現沒有什麼讓我們倒退的。

So I have to take your word for it that they're growing at better than us. But as far as we're concerned, we're doing just right.

所以我必須相信你的話，他們的成長比我們好。但就我們而言，我們做得恰到好處。

Okay. And then I guess the follow-up question from me is just on execution and field coverage. You guys have been on a path to become more efficient for multiple years now. So I guess have you identified anything -- because through this process of kind of macro weakening and some of the workforce changes that you've made, where you've said, okay, well, we just need to fix this or change this or I don't know if it's a coverage issue, but where are you on sort of thinking about execution and coverage and making sure you have all the right players on the field?

好的。然後我想我的後續問題只是關於執行和現場報導。多年來，你們一直在提高效率。所以我猜你有沒有發現什麼——因為通過這種宏觀削弱的過程和你所做的一些勞動力變化，你說過，好吧，好吧，我們只需要解決這個問題或改變這個或我不知道這是否是一個覆蓋問題，但你在哪裡考慮執行和覆蓋並確保你在場上有所有合適的球員？

Thanks, Jason. It's Gary. So for us, it comes down to driving the right segmentation and inspection, right? So making sure that in this macro environment, what we're focused on is we can control the pipeline we have, and then we can control it to make sure that, as a broad go-to-market teams, that we are doing the inspection to make sure that we have the compelling event, that we have the economic buyer, and that we can work through the [reverse] timeline with the customers. So in a tough macro environment for us, it's actually going back to the basics. Going back to the basic on deal inspection and controlling the pipeline that we have.

謝謝，傑森。是加里。所以對我們來說，歸根結底是推動正確的細分和檢查，對吧？因此，確保在這個宏觀環境中，我們關注的是我們可以控制我們擁有的管道，然後我們可以控制它以確保作為一個廣泛的上市團隊，我們正在做檢查以確保我們有引人注目的事件，我們有經濟買家，並且我們可以通過 [反向] 時間表與客戶合作。因此，在對我們來說艱難的宏觀環境中，它實際上是在回歸基礎。回到交易檢查和控制我們擁有的管道的基礎。

The other key point that's really important in this, especially in this environment, is also working really closely with the partner community, right? 90-plus percent of our transactions go through partners. And where we will double down in all environments, especially macro environment, is making sure we're building those business plans with our partners.

另一個非常重要的關鍵點，尤其是在這種環境下，也是與合作夥伴社區密切合作，對吧？我們 90% 以上的交易都是通過合作夥伴完成的。我們將在所有環境中加倍努力，尤其是宏觀環境，確保我們與合作夥伴一起制定這些業務計劃。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question coming from the line of Thomas Blakey with KeyBanc.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Thomas Blakey 與 KeyBanc 的對話。

Just wanted to maybe on some of these macro questions, dive a little bit deeper on this maintenance to subscription transition, what you kind of saw in the quarter last quarter from a linearity perspective that seemed to have stepped up the transition. I think the subscription, if you kind of take out Metallic estimations for ARR accelerated just again, just subscription alone, ARR, while maintenance continues to decelerate to the downside, but that ratio seem to have gotten better. Just want to know what the impact was from the macro? Maybe customers are looking to save money or something. I don't know how that -- I know there was discounting in the past on maintenance. I'm sorry, on subscription to maintenance transition. But I just wanted to understand the dynamics there and how that could like lead to continued strength there in the coming quarters in this macro. Then I have a follow-up.

只是想就這些宏觀問題中的一些問題，更深入地探討這種維護到訂閱的過渡，你在上個季度從線性角度看到的情況似乎加快了過渡。我認為訂閱，如果你去掉金屬對 ARR 的估計，只是再次加速，僅訂閱，ARR，而維護繼續減速到下行，但這個比率似乎變得更好了。只是想知道宏觀上的影響是什麼？也許客戶是想省錢什麼的。我不知道那是怎麼回事——我知道過去在維護方面有折扣。很抱歉，訂閱維護過渡。但我只是想了解那裡的動態，以及這將如何在這個宏觀的未來幾個季度導致那裡的持續走強。然後我有一個後續行動。

It's Gary. I'll take this one. So as we've talked many times, we have a strategic program that converts and looks to work with our customers that are our older perpetual customers and strategically convert them to a subscription-based software. A couple of trends you see, and largely, I would say, unchanged on steady state. And I'll kind of walk you through maybe the best way to think about it from a financial standpoint.

是加里。我要這個。因此，正如我們已經談過很多次，我們有一個戰略計劃，可以轉換並尋求與我們的客戶合作，這些客戶是我們的老客戶，並將他們戰略性地轉換為基於訂閱的軟件。你看到的幾個趨勢，我想說，在很大程度上，在穩定狀態下沒有變化。我將向您介紹從財務角度考慮的最佳方式。

Even within our press release, we disclosed our customer support revenue. Our customer support revenue, which is, it's mainly the renewals from our perpetual business, that revenue was down 10% year-over-year. Now the biggest driver for that decrease year-over-year is currency. If you strip out currency, on a constant currency basis, our customer support revenue was down 5%. That's 3 quarters in a row. It's been down 5% year-over-year.

即使在我們的新聞稿中，我們也披露了我們的客戶支持收入。我們的客戶支持收入，主要是我們永久業務的續訂，收入同比下降 10%。現在，同比下降的最大驅動因素是貨幣。如果你剔除貨幣，在固定貨幣基礎上，我們的客戶支持收入下降了 5%。這是連續三個季度。同比下降 5%。

So the best way to think about it, it's kind of trending at similar levels that it always had in kind of that mid-single digit year-over-year decline in that customer support revenue is probably the best way to think about it in a steady state model that we're working towards.

因此，最好的思考方式是，它的趨勢與它一直處於類似水平的趨勢相同，即客戶支持收入的中個位數同比下降可能是考慮它的最佳方式我們正在努力的穩態模型。

Okay. So there wasn't any just any direct extra discounting in terms of switching folks over from maintenance to subscription in the quarter and...

好的。因此，在本季度將人們從維護轉為訂閱方面，並沒有任何直接的額外折扣，而且……

No, no. From a recovery standpoint -- from a recovery standpoint -- you did mention that in the initial part of the question -- recovery standpoint, we were right on target.

不，不。從恢復的角度來看——從恢復的角度來看——你確實在問題的開頭部分提到過——恢復的角度，我們是對的。

Got it. And then on Metallic, first of all, congrats on getting in the [crosshairs] that $100 million ARR that's kind of in line with our model here for next quarter, possibly. Parsing out the revenue piece there, so the decline of about 110 basis points in the services gross margin pressured by Metallic, can you just remind us where we are in terms of that transition with regard to Metallic as it grows nicely here, again, smaller revenue, much larger ARR and where you expect those gross margins to be with revenue levels in the future?

知道了。然後在 Metallic 上，首先，祝賀你獲得了 1 億美元的 ARR，這可能與我們下個季度的模型一致。解析那裡的收入部分，所以服務毛利率下降了大約 110 個基點，受到 Metallic 的壓力，你能不能提醒我們，我們在 Metallic 的過渡方面所處的位置，因為它在這裡增長得很好，再次變小收入，更高的 ARR，以及您預計未來這些毛利率與收入水平的關係？

Yes, Tom, for sure. So we're pleased with where we're at. We're on track from a margin perspective with Metallic to get to more of the best-in-class SaaS margins. We're still 12 to 24 months out, right? We're on that trajectory. If you look at other companies that have gone through this transition, we're all in the same line of trajectory. So we're pleased as we work towards getting through this fiscal quarter and into next fiscal year, there's more detail that we will share as it relates to Metallic business and Metallic margins on a consolidated basis. We do have a little bit of a headwind, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, on the acceleration of metallic revenue relative to the outlook we gave for software.

是的，湯姆，當然。所以我們對我們所處的位置感到滿意。從利潤率的角度來看，我們正在與 Metallic 取得更多一流的 SaaS 利潤率。我們還有 12 到 24 個月，對吧？我們正走在這條軌道上。如果你看看其他經歷過這種轉變的公司，我們都在同一條軌道上。因此，我們很高興在努力度過本財政季度和下一個財政年度的過程中，我們將在合併的基礎上分享更多與金屬業務和金屬利潤率相關的細節。正如我在準備好的評論中提到的，相對於我們對軟件的展望，金屬收入的加速增長確實有點不利。

So there is some margin compression on a consolidated basis. But we view that as partly positive because that means we're seeing Metallic accelerate at a very fast [clip].

因此，在合併的基礎上存在一些利潤率壓縮。但我們認為這在一定程度上是積極的，因為這意味著我們看到 Metallic 以非常快的速度 [clip] 加速。

Tom, Sanjay here. Just a little more color. I mean, the margin conversation is the #1 priority for my engineering organization on how we optimize the service. So it's a young service. It's doing very well, it's growing very quickly, it's coming at scale. We've got a host of services that we keep adding. So there's a lot of work that we're doing proactively to be best of class. So rest assured that we'll share more, but more importantly, it is the top priority for my engineering team and my operations team on how we get better at that.

湯姆，這裡是桑傑。只是多了一點顏色。我的意思是，保證金對話是我的工程組織在優化服務方面的第一要務。所以這是一項年輕的服務。它做得很好，增長非常快，並且正在形成規模。我們有很多服務，而且還在不斷添加。因此，我們正在積極做很多工作以成為一流的。所以請放心，我們會分享更多，但更重要的是，這是我的工程團隊和運營團隊的首要任務，即我們如何做得更好。

It's also scale. This is a business where we've got to scale it up. That's why Gary's point on needing 12 to 24 months to be truly best of class on that is a very normal journey. And if you look at what it took us to get to, let's say, when we get to $100 million, we're amongst the fastest-growing SaaS businesses in the history of SaaS businesses in the infrastructure space. So there's a lot there.

這也是規模。這是一項我們必須擴大規模的業務。這就是為什麼 Gary 指出需要 12 到 24 個月才能真正成為一流的人，這是一段非常正常的旅程。如果你看看我們花了多少錢，比方說，當我們達到 1 億美元時，我們是基礎設施領域 SaaS 業務歷史上增長最快的 SaaS 業務之一。所以那裡有很多。

It's a good point, and you don't want to not invest against this opportunity. 2 years ago, this business was $0 on a revenue basis, give or take. Along those lines, when do you expect -- will you just -- will you break this revenue out when it's 10% Metallic?

這是一個很好的觀點，你不想不投資這個機會。 2 年前，這項業務的收入為 0 美元，無論是給予還是接受。沿著這些思路，你預計什麼時候 - 你會 - 當它是 10% 金屬時，你會打破這個收入嗎？

Where we're headed is that more to come when we get to our next earnings call at the end of fiscal Q4, I think there's a lot of interest in the Metallic business, not just from a revenue but a margin and introductory standpoint. So I think we'll work towards that at a future call.

當我們在第四財季末召開下一次財報電話會議時，我們的目標是更多，我認為人們對金屬業務很感興趣，不僅僅是從收入方面，還有利潤率和介紹性的角度。所以我認為我們會在未來的電話會議上朝著這個方向努力。

Okay. And just my last question on churn. I know it's early in Metallic, but have there been any impacts on churn with the macro?

好的。這只是我關於客戶流失的最後一個問題。我知道它在 Metallic 的早期階段，但是對宏的流失有什麼影響嗎？

No. No. Our renewal rates are very strong, both from a gross renewal rate and a net dollar retention, very strong rates and really are pleased with where we're headed on those as well.

不，不。我們的續約率非常高，無論是從總續約率還是淨美元保留率來看，都非常強勁，我們也對我們在這些方面的進展感到非常滿意。

Now I'm showing no further questions at this time. I will now turn...

現在我不會再提出其他問題了。我現在轉...

Thank you, everyone, for joining the call today. We look forward to speaking with you following our fiscal year end usually in the May time frame. Thank you.

謝謝大家今天加入電話會議。我們期待在我們的財政年度結束後與您交談，通常是在 5 月的時間範圍內。謝謝。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

女士們，先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。