戴爾 (DELL) 2018 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2018 Earnings Conference Call for Dell Technologies Inc. I'd like to inform all participants this call is being recorded at the request of Dell Technologies.

早上好，歡迎來到 Dell Technologies Inc. 2018 財年第三季度收益電話會議。我想通知所有參與者，應 Dell Technologies 的要求，本次電話會議正在錄音。

This broadcast is the copyrighted property of Dell Technologies Inc. Any rebroadcast of this information, in whole or part, without the prior written permission of Dell Technologies is prohibited. As a reminder, the company is also simulcasting this call at investors.delltechnologies.com. A replay of this webcast will be available at the same location for 1 year.

此廣播是 Dell Technologies Inc. 的版權財產。未經 Dell Technologies 事先書面許可，禁止全部或部分轉播此信息。提醒一下，該公司還在 investors.delltechnologies.com 上同時直播了此次電話會議。該網絡廣播的重播將在同一地點提供 1 年。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

I'd like to turn the call over to Rob Williams, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Williams, you may begin.

我想把電話轉給投資者關係高級副總裁 Rob Williams。威廉姆斯先生，您可以開始了。

Thanks, Regina. Good morning, and thanks for joining us. With me today is our Chief Financial Officer, Tom Sweet; and our Vice Chairman, Products and Operations, Jeff Clarke. Jeff has primary responsibility for Client Solutions Group and Infrastructure Solutions Group segments, in addition to leading our supply chain function. Also joining us from Europe for Q&A is our Treasurer, Tyler Johnson.

謝謝，里賈納。早上好，感謝您加入我們。今天和我在一起的是我們的首席財務官 Tom Sweet；以及我們的產品和運營副主席 Jeff Clarke。除了領導我們的供應鏈職能外，Jeff 主要負責客戶解決方案部門和基礎設施解決方案部門。我們的財務主管 Tyler Johnson 也從歐洲加入我們的問答環節。

We posted our third quarter press release and web deck on our website, where this call is also being webcast. Q3 financial results will be filed on Form 10-Q on Tuesday, December 12. I encourage you to review these documents for additional perspective.

我們在我們的網站上發布了第三季度新聞稿和網絡平台，該電話會議也在該網站上進行了網絡直播。第三季度的財務結果將於 12 月 12 日星期二以 10-Q 表的形式提交。我鼓勵您查看這些文件以獲得更多觀點。

Consistent with prior periods, our Q3 non-GAAP operating income includes approximately $2.5 billion of adjustments. The majority of these are noncash and relate to purchase accounting and amortization of intangible assets.

與前期一致，我們的第三季度非 GAAP 營業收入包括約 25 億美元的調整。其中大部分是非現金的，與無形資產的採購會計和攤銷有關。

As a reminder, due to the EMC merger and, to a lesser extent, the Dell go-private transaction, there will continue to be significant bridging items between our GAAP and non-GAAP results for the next few years, although the impact will decline in each subsequent quarter. Please refer to the web deck as well as our SEC filings for more details on our total non-GAAP adjustments. Please note that our third quarter fiscal 2017 historical results include only a portion of EMC's results, and unless otherwise specified, all growth percentages refer to fiscal year-over-year change, which may not be comparable due to the merger. Beginning in Q4, we will get to fully comparable year-over-year quarterly results.

提醒一下，由於 EMC 的合併以及較小程度上的戴爾私有化交易，未來幾年我們的 GAAP 和非 GAAP 結果之間將繼續存在重要的銜接項目，儘管影響會下降在隨後的每個季度。有關我們的非 GAAP 調整總額的更多詳細信息，請參閱網絡平台和我們的 SEC 文件。請注意，我們 2017 財年第三季度的歷史業績僅包括 EMC 業績的一部分，除非另有說明，否則所有增長百分比均指的是財年同比變化，由於合併可能無法比較。從第四季度開始，我們將獲得完全可比的同比季度業績。

During this call, we will generally refer -- or we will generally reference non-GAAP financial measures, including non-GAAP revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, operating income, net income, EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA on a continuing operations basis. A reconciliation of these measures to its most directly comparable GAAP measure can be found on Form 10-Q and in the supplemental material of our web deck.

在本次電話會議中，我們通常會參考——或者我們通常會參考非 GAAP 財務指標，包括非 GAAP 收入、毛利率、營業費用、營業收入、淨收入、EBITDA 以及在持續經營的基礎上調整後的 EBITDA。這些措施與其最直接可比的 GAAP 措施的對賬可以在 10-Q 表格和我們的網絡平台的補充材料中找到。

Finally, I'd like to remind you that all statements made during this call that relate to future results and events are forward-looking statements based on current expectations. Actual results and events could differ materially from those projected due to a number of risks and uncertainties, which are discussed in the cautionary statement section in our web deck. We assume no obligation to update our forward-looking statements.

最後，我想提醒您，本次電話會議期間所做的與未來結果和事件相關的所有陳述都是基於當前預期的前瞻性陳述。由於存在許多風險和不確定性，實際結果和事件可能與預測的結果和事件存在重大差異，這些風險和不確定性在我們網絡平台的警告聲明部分進行了討論。我們沒有義務更新我們的前瞻性陳述。

Now I'll turn it over to Tom.

現在我將把它交給湯姆。

Thanks, Rob. Overall, I was pleased with the third quarter results and the momentum we're seeing in the business. We continue to see growth on the top line, and we're seeing increasing customer acceptance of our broad solutions portfolio. We also had solid cash flow generation and improved profitability.

謝謝，羅布。總的來說，我對第三季度的業績和我們在業務中看到的勢頭感到滿意。我們繼續看到收入增長，我們看到客戶越來越接受我們廣泛的解決方案組合。我們還產生了穩定的現金流並提高了盈利能力。

GAAP revenue for the third quarter was $19.6 billion, with a GAAP operating loss of approximately $530 million. Non-GAAP revenue was $19.9 billion with strong results from client, servers and VMware. Overall, we were generally pleased with the balance of top line growth and better profitability. As we've highlighted over the last few quarters, we are working to improve our storage business velocity. And while we have begun to see some progress, we believe this will be a gradual recovery over the coming quarters as we ramp go-to-market resources and introduce new and innovative product features.

第三季度 GAAP 收入為 196 億美元，GAAP 營業虧損約為 5.3 億美元。非 GAAP 收入為 199 億美元，來自客戶端、服務器和 VMware 的業績強勁。總的來說，我們對收入增長和更好的盈利能力之間的平衡總體上感到滿意。正如我們在過去幾個季度強調的那樣，我們正在努力提高我們的存儲業務速度。雖然我們已經開始看到一些進展，但我們相信隨著我們增加進入市場的資源並引入新的創新產品功能，這將在未來幾個季度逐步恢復。

Gross margin was $6.4 billion or 32.2% of revenue, which was a 110 basis point improvement over the second quarter, driven by pricing discipline and improved overall cost of goods sold. OpEx was $4.4 billion or 22.3% of revenue, which was down 90 basis points sequentially as we continue to drive OpEx discipline across the business as we focus on optimizing our cost structure.

毛利率為 64 億美元，佔收入的 32.2%，比第二季度提高 110 個基點，這得益於定價紀律和整體銷售成本的改善。運營支出為 44 億美元，佔收入的 22.3%，連續下降 90 個基點，因為我們在專注於優化成本結構的同時，繼續推動整個企業的運營支出紀律。

Operating income was $2 billion or 10% of revenue, up 210 basis points from the prior quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was up 24% sequentially to $2.3 billion or 11.6% of non-GAAP revenue. Please see Slide 19 in the web deck for more details on our EBITDA adjustments.

營業收入為 20 億美元，佔收入的 10%，比上一季度增長 210 個基點。本季度調整後的 EBITDA 環比增長 24%，達到 23 億美元，佔非 GAAP 收入的 11.6%。有關我們的 EBITDA 調整的更多詳細信息，請參閱網絡平台中的幻燈片 19。

Now let me give you our summary view of the financial performance of the business segments, and then I will turn it over to Jeff who will go into more detail on the segment operational highlights. Revenue for the Infrastructure Solutions Group was $7.5 billion, up 2% quarter-on-quarter. The sequential increase was driven by servers and networking with revenue of $3.9 billion, up 32% year-over-year. Servers delivered its second consecutive quarter of record revenue with double-digit growth from both PowerEdge and cloud servers on strong demand. We delivered solid unit performance while also seeing expansion of server ASPs. Our storage revenue was $3.7 billion and was roughly flat quarter-on-quarter as growth in all-flash and newer solutions like hyperconverged infrastructure was offset by softness in traditional storage.

現在讓我向您簡要介紹各業務部門的財務業績，然後我將把它交給 Jeff，他將更詳細地介紹該部門的運營亮點。基礎設施解決方案集團的收入為 75 億美元，環比增長 2%。環比增長是由服務器和網絡推動的，收入為 39 億美元，同比增長 32%。由於強勁的需求，服務器業務連續第二個季度實現創紀錄的收入增長，PowerEdge 和雲服務器均實現兩位數增長。我們提供了穩定的單位性能，同時也看到了服務器 ASP 的擴展。我們的存儲收入為 37 億美元，環比基本持平，因為全閃存和超融合基礎設施等更新解決方案的增長被傳統存儲的疲軟所抵消。

Operating income for ISG was $678 million or 9% of revenue, which is a 320 basis point increase over the prior quarter, driven by better profitability for servers and storage as well as OpEx discipline. ISG operating income is moving in the right direction, but we still have more work to do to improve the overall profitability profile of the business. We are working on balancing velocity and profitability within servers and building momentum in storage and data protection going forward.

ISG 的營業收入為 6.78 億美元，佔收入的 9%，比上一季度增長 320 個基點，這得益於服務器和存儲的盈利能力提高以及運營支出紀律。 ISG 營業收入正朝著正確的方向發展，但我們仍有更多工作要做，以改善業務的整體盈利狀況。我們正在努力平衡服務器內的速度和盈利能力，並在未來的存儲和數據保護方面建立動力。

Revenue for the Client Solutions Group was $10 billion, up 8%. Commercial revenue grew 8% due to strength in commercial notebooks, workstations, displays and attached services. Consumer revenue was up 10%, driven by growth in notebooks and the benefits of our investments in gaming and our consumer and small-business key country expansion program.

客戶解決方案集團的收入為 100 億美元，增長 8%。由於商用筆記本電腦、工作站、顯示器和附加服務的強勁表現，商業收入增長了 8%。消費者收入增長了 10%，這得益於筆記本電腦的增長以及我們在遊戲領域的投資以及我們的消費者和小型企業主要國家/地區擴張計劃帶來的收益。

CSG operating income was up 6% to $672 million, which was 6.7% of revenue as the team continues to execute on profitable growth despite ongoing challenges from the component costs and competitive environments. Going forward, we're focused on continuing to drive profitable growth, especially in commercial client.

CSG 營業收入增長 6% 至 6.72 億美元，佔收入的 6.7%，因為儘管組件成本和競爭環境帶來持續挑戰，但團隊繼續實現盈利增長。展望未來，我們專注於繼續推動盈利增長，尤其是在商業客戶方面。

VMware had another strong quarter as revenue from the VMware segment was up 2% sequentially to approximately $2 billion and operating income was $639 million or 32.7% of revenue. Standalone VMware reported a strong Q3, which included the enterprise agreement with DXC Technology announced on VMware's Q2 earnings call. Its growth rate for license revenue plus the sequential change in total unearned license revenue was up double digits year-over-year. License bookings for NSX grew over 100% year-over-year in Q3. The DXC enterprise agreement included a large commitment to NSX, underscoring the strategic importance of NSX to customers. VSAN license bookings were once again up over 150% year-over-year.

VMware 又迎來了一個強勁的季度，VMware 部門的收入環比增長 2%，達到約 20 億美元，營業收入為 6.39 億美元，佔收入的 32.7%。獨立的 VMware 報告了強勁的第三季度，其中包括在 VMware 第二季度財報電話會議上宣布的與 DXC Technology 的企業協議。它的許可收入增長率加上未實現許可總收入的連續變化同比增長兩位數。 NSX 的許可證預訂在第三季度同比增長超過 100%。 DXC 企業協議包括對 NSX 的大量承諾，強調了 NSX 對客戶的戰略重要性。 VSAN 許可證預訂再次同比增長超過 150%。

I also want to congratulate VMware for being named to the Fortune Future 50 list of companies best positioned for breakout growth. VMware ranked #6 in the Leaders category, which is a testament to the company's forward-looking and innovative company culture.

我還要祝賀 VMware 入選《財富》未來 50 強公司名單，這是最有可能實現突破性增長的公司。 VMware 在領導者類別中排名第 6，這證明了該公司具有前瞻性和創新性的企業文化。

Revenue from our other businesses, which includes SecureWorks, RSA, Pivotal and Boomi, was $475 million. Pivotal again delivered strong top line results. The team has also seen nice momentum across its platform partner ecosystem, having recently announced over 100 global and regional system integrators and consultancies as part of its Pivotal Ready Partner Program. Additionally, in November, Pivotal and Accenture announced that they formed a new business group, the Accenture Pivotal Business Group, to help enterprises accelerate cloud migration and software innovation.

我們其他業務的收入為 4.75 億美元，其中包括 SecureWorks、RSA、Pivotal 和 Boomi。 Pivotal 再次取得了強勁的頂線業績。該團隊還在其平台合作夥伴生態系統中看到了良好的勢頭，最近宣布了 100 多家全球和區域系統集成商和諮詢公司作為其 Pivotal Ready 合作夥伴計劃的一部分。此外，在 11 月，Pivotal 和埃森哲宣布他們成立了一個新的業務集團——Accenture Pivotal Business Group，以幫助企業加速雲遷移和軟件創新。

SecureWorks released its stand-alone earnings yesterday, where it reported approximately 10% revenue growth to $118 million and continued gross margin expansion. RSA had solid orders growth in the quarter. Customers are embracing our RSA security solutions as evidenced by the positive year-to-date growth for all of its 4 product suites.

SecureWorks 昨天發布了其獨立收益，報告收入增長約 10% 至 1.18 億美元，毛利率繼續擴大。 RSA 本季度的訂單增長穩健。客戶正在接受我們的 RSA 安全解決方案，其所有 4 個產品套件年初至今的積極增長就是明證。

Before I jump to the balance sheet, I want to mention the flexible consumption models that we offer customers. We continue to see strong demand for these solutions as we remain focused on providing customers with flexibility and building a larger recurring revenue stream for Dell Technologies. We saw a lower level of these frameworks in Q3 versus last quarter as the multiyear strategic nature of these offerings resulted in variability quarter-to-quarter.

在我跳到資產負債表之前，我想提一下我們為客戶提供的靈活消費模式。我們繼續看到對這些解決方案的強勁需求，因為我們仍然專注於為客戶提供靈活性並為 Dell Technologies 建立更大的經常性收入來源。我們在第三季度看到這些框架的水平低於上一季度，因為這些產品的多年戰略性質導致季度與季度之間存在差異。

Now turning to the balance sheet and capital allocation. In Q3, cash from operations was $1.6 billion, predominantly due to improved profitability and working capital benefits. Our cash and investments balance was $18 billion, up approximately $2.7 billion versus the prior quarter and includes debt proceeds from VMware's recent debt issuance. Also, as a reminder, you will see our cash balance grow as we position our balance sheet for approximately $3 billion of debt maturities coming due in the first half of fiscal '19.

現在轉向資產負債表和資本配置。第三季度，運營現金為 16 億美元，這主要是由於盈利能力和營運資本收益的提高。我們的現金和投資餘額為 180 億美元，比上一季度增加約 27 億美元，其中包括 VMware 最近發行的債務收益。另外，提醒一下，隨著我們為 19 財年上半年到期的約 30 億美元債務安排資產負債表，您將看到我們的現金餘額增長。

As we did last quarter, we discuss our debt consistent with how we discuss it with the rating agencies, which is total debt including subsidiary debt; total debt excluding subsidiary debt; and total core debt, which excludes subsidiary debt, DFS-related debt and the margin loan. For additional detail on what's included or excluded in these balances, please see Slide 7 of the web deck.

正如我們上個季度所做的那樣，我們討論我們的債務與我們與評級機構討論的方式一致，即包括附屬債務在內的總債務；不包括附屬債務的總債務；核心債務總額，不包括附屬債務、DFS 相關債務和保證金貸款。有關這些餘額中包含或不包含的內容的更多詳細信息，請參閱網絡平台的幻燈片 7。

During Q3, we paid down $1.7 billion in debt, including $1.2 billion from VMware's repayment of legacy intercompany notes as well as approximately $500 million from cash on the balance sheet. We ended the third quarter with $52.5 billion in total debt, up $2.6 billion from the prior quarter. Our total debt balance increased as a result of VMware's $4 billion bond issuance mentioned above as well as an increase of approximately $300 million in structured financing debt that funds Dell Financial Services.

在第三季度，我們償還了 17 億美元的債務，其中包括 VMware 償還遺留公司間票據的 12 億美元以及資產負債表上約 5 億美元的現金。我們在第三季度末的總債務為 525 億美元，比上一季度增加了 26 億美元。由於 VMware 上述 40 億美元的債券發行以及為 Dell Financial Services 提供資金的結構性融資債務增加了約 3 億美元，我們的總債務餘額有所增加。

During the quarter, we repriced $14.2 billion of term loan debt and revolving credit facility and also took the opportunity to reposition the tranches. The combined effect of this resulted in approximately $60 million of annualized interest rate savings and enhanced liquidity management. Our core debt ended the quarter at $40.3 billion, down from $40.5 billion at the end of Q2 and $48.8 billion as of September 2016, which is when we closed the EMC transaction. Since closing the transaction, we've paid down $9.7 billion of gross debt excluding DFS-related debt and remain fully committed to paying down debt and delevering the balance sheet.

在本季度，我們對 142 億美元的定期貸款債務和循環信貸額度進行了重新定價，並藉此機會重新定位了這些部分。這帶來了大約 6000 萬美元的年化利率節省和加強的流動性管理。我們的核心債務在本季度末為 403 億美元，低於第二季度末的 405 億美元和截至 2016 年 9 月的 488 億美元，當時我們完成了 EMC 交易。自交易完成以來，我們已經償還了 97 億美元的總債務，不包括與 DFS 相關的債務，並將繼續完全致力於償還債務和去槓桿化資產負債表。

In Q3, DFS originations were approximately $1.6 billion, up 48%, and financing receivables now stand at another record high of $7 billion, up 28%, driving an increase of DFS-related debt by approximately $300 million in the quarter. Demand for DFS remains strong and continues to grow across our business segments as customers respond to our innovative financing offerings. As we see the financing receivable balance grow, so will our DFS-related debt as we continue to fund the business.

第三季度，DFS 發起金額約為 16 億美元，增長 48%，而應收融資款目前再創歷史新高，達到 70 億美元，增長 28%，推動本季度與 DFS 相關的債務增加約 3 億美元。隨著客戶對我們創新的融資產品的反應，對 DFS 的需求依然強勁，並在我們的業務部門繼續增長。正如我們看到應收融資餘額增長一樣，隨著我們繼續為業務提供資金，我們與 DFS 相關的債務也會增長。

Jumping to our DVMT share repurchase program. We recently completed our latest $300 million program, which was announced in August and was solely funded through a Class A stock purchase agreement with VMware. To date, we have repurchased approximately 23.4 million shares of Class V Common Stock. This includes 16.8 million shares under the Class V group repurchase program. We are generally pleased with our continued cash flow generation and remain focused on balance sheet management and debt repayment.

跳轉到我們的 DVMT 股票回購計劃。我們最近完成了最新的 3 億美元計劃，該計劃於 8 月宣布，完全通過與 VMware 的 A 類股票購買協議獲得資金。迄今為止，我們已經回購了大約 2340 萬股 V 類普通股。這包括 V 類集團回購計劃下的 1680 萬股股票。我們總體上對持續產生現金流感到滿意，並將繼續專注於資產負債表管理和債務償還。

Let me now turn it over to Jeff to walk you through the operational highlights of CSG and ISG.

現在讓我把它交給 Jeff，向您介紹 CSG 和 ISG 的運營亮點。

Thanks, Tom, and hello, everyone. It's great to be here to discuss CSG, ISG and our supply chain. As Rob mentioned, I now lead a combined products and operations organization, the only one of its kind. As one product and operations organization, we will be able to drive a more holistic set of integrated, innovative solutions for our customers from the edge to the core to the cloud.

謝謝，湯姆，大家好。很高興來到這裡討論 CSG、ISG 和我們的供應鏈。正如 Rob 提到的，我現在領導著一個產品和運營聯合組織，這是同類中唯一的一個。作為一個產品和運營組織，我們將能夠為我們的客戶推動一套更全面的集成創新解決方案，從邊緣到核心再到雲端。

I've been in the new ISG part of my role for a little less than 3 months. I thought it might be helpful if I share some of my initial observations. First, our strategy to be the essential infrastructure provider is resonating well with our customers who are looking to us to transform and digitize their environments. Second, our portfolio is second to none across the breadth of the IT spectrum, from the edge to the core to the cloud. Third, we have more complexity in our offerings than is needed and simplification is required. And lastly, we need to continue to enhance feature functionality and add new capabilities to our storage and data protection offerings, sharpen our engineering and product execution focus to ensure we're meeting customers' needs and expectations and execute to our go-to-market initiatives.

我在 ISG 的新角色中擔任不到 3 個月的時間。我認為如果我分享我的一些初步觀察可能會有所幫助。首先，我們成為重要基礎設施提供商的戰略與我們的客戶產生了很好的共鳴，他們希望我們改造和數字化他們的環境。其次，我們的產品組合在 IT 範圍內首屈一指，從邊緣到核心再到雲。第三，我們的產品比需要的更複雜，需要簡化。最後，我們需要繼續增強特性功能並為我們的存儲和數據保護產品添加新功能，加強我們的工程和產品執行重點，以確保我們滿足客戶的需求和期望並執行我們的上市舉措。

Now let me provide some third quarter highlights for ISG and CSG. As Tom mentioned, ISG's revenue for the third quarter was $7.5 billion and operating income was $678 million. Both saw positive growth from the prior quarter. As a reminder, due to the fact that the EMC transaction closed during Q3 last year, I'll be making reference to demand data where appropriate to facilitate a more meaningful year-over-year discussion.

現在讓我為 ISG 和 CSG 提供一些第三季度的亮點。正如湯姆所說，ISG 第三季度的收入為 75 億美元，營業收入為 6.78 億美元。兩者都比上一季度實現了正增長。提醒一下，由於 EMC 交易在去年第三季度結束，我將在適當的地方參考需求數據，以促進更有意義的同比討論。

ISG demand continued to grow trajectory in Q3, with orders up in high single digits on a year-over-year basis. Server revenue and unit growth were strong for both PowerEdge and cloud servers. We are seeing higher memory and storage content in servers as customers look for more computing power to run big data and software-defined solutions. We have effectively managed pricing to mitigate ongoing memory cost inflation, resulting in higher selling prices. Additionally, we've also seen higher ASPs as we ramp our 14th generation of PowerEdge servers, demonstrating we are capturing the value of our industry-leading R&D capabilities and innovation.

ISG 需求在第三季度繼續增長，訂單同比增長個位數。 PowerEdge 和雲服務器的服務器收入和單位增長都很強勁。隨著客戶尋求更多的計算能力來運行大數據和軟件定義的解決方案，我們看到服務器中的內存和存儲容量越來越大。我們有效地管理定價以減輕持續的內存成本通脹，從而導致更高的銷售價格。此外，隨著我們推出第 14 代 PowerEdge 服務器，我們還看到了更高的 ASP，這表明我們正在獲取行業領先的研發能力和創新的價值。

In calendar Q3, the overall x86 server industry grew in both units and revenue. We outgrew the market in units and revenue for both the mainstream and hyperscale markets, and we are a worldwide leader for servers based on both units and revenue. Looking at revenue share, we gained 250 basis points of share on a year-over-year basis for total x86 revenue and 400 basis points of share in mainstream revenue.

在第三季度，整個 x86 服務器行業的出貨量和收入均有所增長。我們在主流和超大規模市場的單位和收入方面都超過了市場，並且我們是基於單位和收入的服務器的全球領導者。從收入份額來看，我們在 x86 總收入中的份額同比增長了 250 個基點，在主流收入中的份額增長了 400 個基點。

Moving to storage. Orders declined in the mid-single digits with solid growth in our newer storage solutions. Our market-leading hyperconverged portfolio continues to grow triple digits with strength in VxRail. Demand for Isilon scale-out NAS and our all-flash arrays continue to grow in double digits. As discussed on last quarter's earnings call, we have implemented actions to improve storage growth, particularly in the midrange, and expect benefits of these actions to materialize through the next year.

移動到存儲。隨著我們更新的存儲解決方案的穩步增長，訂單以中等個位數下降。我們市場領先的超融合產品組合憑藉 VxRail 的優勢繼續實現三位數增長。對 Isilon 橫向擴展 NAS 和我們的全閃存陣列的需求繼續以兩位數增長。正如在上一季度的財報電話會議上討論的那樣，我們已經實施了改善存儲增長的措施，特別是在中端，並預計這些措施的好處將在明年實現。

We increased our go-to-market capacity by adding storage specialists, and we are ensuring our sales compensation plan spurs the appropriate behavior to drive long-term strength in our results. In addition, we continue to evaluate our portfolio and are focused on developing world-class products to solve our customers' needs. For example, in our midrange portfolio, we recently introduced two Dell EMC SC all-flash appliances, along with key application upgrades -- excuse me, along with key software upgrades for our Dell EMC Unity that include in-line data deduplication, synchronous file replication and the ability to perform online data-in-place storage controller upgrades. The Dell EMC SC all-flash products will be available this month, and the Unity upgrades will be available later this quarter.

我們通過增加存儲專家來提高我們的上市能力，並且我們正在確保我們的銷售補償計劃刺激適當的行為以推動我們的業績長期增長。此外，我們繼續評估我們的產品組合，並專注於開發世界一流的產品來滿足客戶的需求。例如，在我們的中端產品組合中，我們最近推出了兩款 Dell EMC SC 全閃存設備，以及關鍵應用程序升級——抱歉，還有我們 Dell EMC Unity 的關鍵軟件升級，包括線內重複數據刪除、同步文件複製和執行在線數據就地存儲控制器升級的能力。 Dell EMC SC 全閃存產品將於本月上市，Unity 升級版將於本季度晚些時候上市。

As the same time, we introduced our Future-Proof Storage Loyalty Program, offering storage customers investment protection and multiple cost-saving benefits. The early feedback from customers and partners has been very positive. We continue to drive hard against our operational improvements in ISG, targeting our go-to-market, product portfolio and cost-out initiatives.

同時，我們推出了面向未來的存儲忠誠度計劃，為存儲客戶提供投資保護和多項成本節約優勢。客戶和合作夥伴的早期反饋非常積極。我們繼續努力推動我們在 ISG 中的運營改進，以我們的上市、產品組合和成本削減計劃為目標。

Moving on to CSG. We had another strong quarter as we maintained our focus on profitable growth, balance the -- balancing velocity and share gain with margin improvement. CSG revenue in Q3 was $10 billion, which was up 8% while operating income was $672 million, up 6%.

轉到 CSG。我們有另一個強勁的季度，因為我們繼續關注盈利增長，平衡速度和份額收益與利潤率的提高。 CSG 第三季度收入為 100 億美元，增長 8%，營業收入為 6.72 億美元，增長 6%。

The overall PC market moved back to positive year-over-year unit growth in calendar Q3 2017 according to IDC. Dell outperformed the worldwide market growing units 1% in calendar Q3 and delivering above-market growth in desktops and in the commercial segment. We increased our global PC share on a year-over-year basis for the 19th consecutive quarter. We continue to be the leading provider of workstations worldwide. In calendar Q3, Dell outgrew the industry for workstation units and had a positive year-over-year growth in every region.

根據 IDC 的數據，整個 PC 市場在 2017 年第三季度恢復了同比增長。戴爾在日曆第三季度的表現優於全球市場增長單位 1%，並在台式機和商業領域實現了高於市場的增長。我們連續第 19 個季度實現了全球 PC 份額的同比增長。我們仍然是全球領先的工作站供應商。在日曆的第三季度，戴爾在工作站單元方面的增長超過了行業，並且在每個地區都實現了同比正增長。

Our investments in gaming were evident at PAX West, where we announced a new mainstream gaming laptop and gaming desktop featuring a new clear panel with polar blue LED lighting and Alienware 34-inch curved gaming display. These new products demonstrate our commitment to deliver world-class gaming products for every player at every level in the marketplace. We are also seeing success in CSG S&P and attached services. Displays were a highlight in Q3, and Dell continues to be the #1 display provider in the world.

我們在 PAX West 上對遊戲的投資是顯而易見的，我們在那裡發布了一款新的主流遊戲筆記本電腦和遊戲台式機，配備了帶有極地藍色 LED 照明的新透明面板和 Alienware 34 英寸弧形遊戲顯示器。這些新產品表明我們致力於為市場上各個級別的每位玩家提供世界一流的遊戲產品。我們也看到了 CSG S&P 和附加服務的成功。顯示器是第三季度的亮點，戴爾繼續成為全球排名第一的顯示器供應商。

We saw higher attach rates for our premium client service offerings, ProSupport Plus, for both commercial and consumer clients. During Q3, we announced a new top-tier Premium Support Plus to deliver the most comprehensive support service available for consumer and gaming PCs. Powered by Dell's exclusive SupportAssist technology, it's the first and only consumer service to proactively find issues, predict problems before they start and automatically remove viruses and optimize performance of consumer PCs. Dell continued investment in innovation -- Dell's continued investment in innovation is helping Dell drive across CSG -- drive growth across CSG. We expect to continue to take share while maintaining our focus on balancing growth and profitability.

我們的高級客戶服務產品 ProSupport Plus 為商業和消費者客戶提供了更高的附加率。在第三季度，我們宣布了一項新的頂級 Premium Support Plus，為消費者和遊戲 PC 提供最全面的支持服務。由戴爾獨有的 SupportAssist 技術提供支持，它是第一個也是唯一一個主動發現問題、在問題開始之前預測問題並自動刪除病毒和優化消費 PC 性能的消費者服務。戴爾對創新的持續投資——戴爾對創新的持續投資正在幫助戴爾推動整個 CSG——推動整個 CSG 的增長。我們希望繼續佔據份額，同時保持我們對平衡增長和盈利能力的關注。

From a global operations standpoint, we've made good progress over the past 14 months integrating our supply chain, reducing cycle times and inventory, and we continue to look for areas of improvement, working closely with the various teams on multiple working capital initiatives. It's been an unprecedented year of inflationary memory pricing, and we believe memory will continue to be a slowly moderating headwind through the first half of next year.

從全球運營的角度來看，過去 14 個月我們在整合供應鏈、縮短週期時間和庫存方面取得了良好進展，我們將繼續尋找改進領域，與多個團隊密切合作開展多項營運資本計劃。這是前所未有的內存定價通脹年，我們相信內存將在明年上半年繼續緩慢緩和逆風。

Overall, we have a number of areas that we are working to improve, including storage sales velocity, storage product performance and positioning and ramping up sales productivity, but I want to be clear that we've also made significant progress over the last year. We're a leader in servers, storage, displays, workstations and gaming. We continue to see strong demand for hyperconverged infrastructure and software-defined data center solutions, and the client business continues to gain profitable share.

總的來說，我們有許多方面正在努力改進，包括存儲銷售速度、存儲產品性能和定位以及提高銷售效率，但我想明確一點，我們在去年也取得了重大進展。我們是服務器、存儲、顯示器、工作站和遊戲領域的領導者。我們繼續看到對超融合基礎設施和軟件定義數據中心解決方案的強勁需求，客戶業務繼續獲得盈利份額。

I believe we offer more holistic view and set of solutions for our customers, allowing us a higher level of innovation and integration across the edge, the core to the cloud, and it's unmatched in the industry. I like our hand, and I'm optimistic about our future.

我相信我們為我們的客戶提供了更全面的觀點和一套解決方案，使我們能夠實現更高水平的創新和跨邊緣、核心到雲的集成，這在業界是無與倫比的。我喜歡我們的手，我對我們的未來很樂觀。

With that, let me turn it back over to Tom.

有了這個，讓我把它轉回給湯姆。

Thanks, Jeff. In closing, I echo Jeff's sentiments that it's an exciting time to be part of Dell Technologies. We have made good progress across the family of businesses, including strong velocity in client, servers and hyperconverged infrastructure, growth from VMware in our other businesses and steady expansion of our DFS portfolio. We also recognize that there's still work to do to improve our storage and data protection business and to improve the overall profitability of the ISG business.

謝謝，傑夫。最後，我贊同 Jeff 的觀點，即加入 Dell Technologies 是一個激動人心的時刻。我們在整個業務系列中取得了良好的進展，包括客戶端、服務器和超融合基礎架構的強勁速度，VMware 在我們其他業務中的增長以及我們 DFS 產品組合的穩步擴展。我們還認識到，在改進我們的存儲和數據保護業務以及提高 ISG 業務的整體盈利能力方面，仍有許多工作要做。

I'm generally pleased with the overall state of the business 14 months into the integration and believe we're tracking in the right direction. We are the best positioned company to win in today's IT environment and meet customers' needs in their digital transformation journey. We are gaining broader acceptance as the only provider that has the flexibility and portfolio breadth that can offer a single integrated set of solutions. This was on display in New York in October when we unveiled a new IoT strategy, division and solutions to accelerate IoT adoption for customers.

我對整合後 14 個月的整體業務狀況總體感到滿意，並相信我們正在朝著正確的方向前進。我們是在當今 IT 環境中取勝並滿足客戶數字化轉型需求的最佳公司。作為唯一一家具有靈活性和產品組合廣度，可以提供單一集成解決方案集的供應商，我們正在獲得更廣泛的認可。 10 月，我們在紐約展示了這一點，當時我們推出了新的物聯網戰略、部門和解決方案，以加速客戶對物聯網的採用。

The new Dell Technologies IoT division, led by VMware CTO, Ray O'Farrell, is designed to help customers navigate and implement flexible architectures and provide tailored solutions and services across our entire family of businesses. As we move forward, we will continue to focus on growing faster than the market and gaining share in consolidating markets, generating strong cash flow to enable additional delevering of the balance sheet, balancing cost actions with investments to position the company for long-term success and bringing the full capabilities of Dell Technologies to our customers in a comprehensive and seamless experience.

由 VMware 首席技術官 Ray O'Farrell 領導的新 Dell Technologies 物聯網部門旨在幫助客戶導航和實施靈活的架構，並為我們整個業務家族提供量身定制的解決方案和服務。隨著我們向前邁進，我們將繼續專注於比市場更快的增長並在整合市場中獲得份額，產生強勁的現金流以實現資產負債表的進一步去槓桿化，平衡成本行動與投資以使公司取得長期成功並以全面無縫的體驗為我們的客戶帶來 Dell Technologies 的全部功能。

Finally, let me remind you that when we report our results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018, we will be comparing those results against our first full quarter as a combined company. In addition, note that Q4 of fiscal 2017, our previous Q4, was a 14-week quarter as compared to this year's 13-week fourth quarter, so year-over-year growth rates need to consider this.

最後，讓我提醒您，當我們報告 2018 財年第四季度的業績時，我們會將這些業績與合併後公司的第一個完整季度進行比較。此外，請注意，2017 財年第四季度（我們之前的第四季度）是一個為期 14 週的季度，而今年的第四季度為 13 週，因此同比增長率需要考慮這一點。

With that, I'll turn it back to Rob to begin Q&A.

有了這個，我會把它轉回給羅布開始問答。

Thanks, Tom. Let's go to Q&A.

謝謝，湯姆。讓我們進入問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) Regina, can you please introduce the first question.

（操作員說明）里賈納，你能介紹一下第一個問題嗎？

Our first question will come from the line of Frank Jarman with Goldman Sachs.

我們的第一個問題將來自 Frank Jarman 與 Goldman Sachs 的對話。

Great. I guess I wanted to start off just seeing if you could give us an update on the memory and input costs that you're continuing to see. There's been some market discussion about NAND prices potentially peaking over the next few months. So just as you guys work through your negotiations with the supply chain, what are you guys seeing in terms of availability? And how should we think about your ability to push on some of those costs as we move further into 2018?

偉大的。我想我想開始只是看看您是否可以向我們提供有關您繼續看到的內存和輸入成本的最新信息。關於 NAND 價格可能在未來幾個月內見頂的一些市場討論。因此，正如你們通過與供應鏈的談判一樣，你們在可用性方面看到了什麼？隨著我們進一步進入 2018 年，我們應該如何考慮您推動其中一些成本的能力？

Sure. Frank, Jeff Clarke here. A couple of things. One, I suspect, given the basis of the question, you've seen what we've gone through, which is the longest inflationary period that I can recall in memory in a decade plus, and that's a by-product of 2 things. One, there hasn't been any new DRAM capacity being brought online, and then the consumption of DRAM is at the highest rates we've seen. And in fact, our own server group, we've seen our memory density that we ship per server go up tremendously on a year-over-year basis and sequentially as well, so putting tremendous pressure on supply.

當然。弗蘭克，傑夫克拉克在這裡。幾件事。第一，我懷疑，鑑於問題的基礎，你已經看到了我們所經歷的，這是我記憶中十年多來最長的通貨膨脹期，這是兩件事的副產品。第一，沒有任何新的 DRAM 容量上線，然後 DRAM 的消耗量達到了我們所見過的最高速度。事實上，我們自己的服務器組，我們已經看到我們每台服務器出貨的內存密度在同比和連續的基礎上大幅上升，因此給供應帶來了巨大壓力。

As a result, our outlook is DRAM pricing, while moderating in its inflation, it still continues to go up through the first half of next year. And we think NAND is moderately inflationary as well through the first half of next year. We see all-flash arrays just driving tremendous demand for more NAND and we're pressuring the capacity that's available. Does that help?

因此，我們的展望是 DRAM 定價，雖然通脹有所緩和，但明年上半年仍將繼續上漲。我們認為 NAND 在明年上半年也會適度通貨膨脹。我們看到全閃存陣列正在推動對更多 NAND 的巨大需求，我們正在對可用容量施加壓力。這有幫助嗎？

Yes, that's super helpful. And then, I guess, just as a follow-up, I wanted to ask a question about tax reform since it looks like you guys have been focused on it with the BUILD Coalition announcement that was made last week. And I guess, specifically, I wanted to better understand how you're thinking about the 7.5% proposed tax on illiquid repatriated -- or unrepatriated foreign earnings. Do you know what that taxable foreign earnings amount would be for you?

是的，這非常有幫助。然後，我想，作為後續行動，我想問一個關於稅制改革的問題，因為看起來你們在上週發布的 BUILD Coalition 公告中一直關注它。我想，具體來說，我想更好地了解您如何考慮對非流動性匯回或未匯回的外國收入徵收 7.5% 的擬議稅。您知道您的應稅外國收入金額是多少嗎？

Look, I'm not going to get into -- it's Tom, by the way, Frank. So I'm not going to get into specifics about where the proposed legislation is right now. Clearly, as we have been -- we are a supporter of tax reform. We do believe that the U.S. system, which hasn't been reformed in over 30 years, does need some updating, and we're big fans of territorial tax and those types of policy changes that they're contemplating.

聽著，我不想說——順便說一下，我是湯姆，弗蘭克。所以我不打算詳細說明擬議的立法現在在哪裡。顯然，正如我們一直以來——我們是稅制改革的支持者。我們確實相信，30 多年來沒有改革的美國製度確實需要一些更新，我們非常支持領土稅和他們正在考慮的那些類型的政策變化。

Obviously, there are some headwinds in that tax proposed legislation that we're looking at and that we're making sure that our voice is heard, whether that's around the repatriation, which we're generally -- we've sort of reconciled ourself to the fact that repatriation is going to be part of this. And also things like the interest deductibility, which is a potential -- is a headwind for us that we're talking to our representatives about how we might -- how they should think through some of the impacts, given that it's effectively an antigrowth strategy as you think about how debt has funded job growth and capital growth -- or company growth here in the U.S.

顯然，我們正在研究的稅收提案立法存在一些不利因素，我們正在確保我們的聲音被聽到，無論是關於遣返，我們通常 - 我們已經和解了自己事實上，遣返將成為其中的一部分。還有像利息扣除這樣的事情，這是一個潛在的 - 對我們來說是一個不利因素，我們正在與我們的代表討論我們可能如何 - 他們應該如何考慮一些影響，因為它實際上是一種反增長戰略當你思考債務如何為就業增長和資本增長——或美國這裡的公司增長——提供資金時

So again, I'm not going to get into specifics about what are specific aspects of the bills and how we would navigate through that. I will tell you that we'll see where this lands at the end of the day, and then we'll take the appropriate actions to ensure that we're best positioned as we can to move forward.

再次重申，我不會詳細說明法案的具體方面以及我們將如何處理這些問題。我會告訴你，我們將在一天結束時看到它的著陸點，然後我們將採取適當的行動，以確保我們處於最佳位置，可以繼續前進。

Got it. I guess, just so I understand, if I were to look at your 10-K, it looks like the undistributed book earnings from your foreign subs was about $79 billion at the end of last year. We shouldn't be applying a 7.5% tax rate to that basis, should we?

知道了。我想，據我所知，如果我看一下你的 10-K，你的外國子公司的未分配賬面收益在去年年底似乎約為 790 億美元。我們不應該在此基礎上適用 7.5% 的稅率，對嗎？

No. Look, I mean, I think that's a -- there's other factors that you have to think your way through in -- from that number. So I don't think that's the appropriate calculation you should be doing at this point.

不，看，我的意思是，我認為這是一個 - 從這個數字來看，你必須考慮其他因素。所以我認為這不是你此時應該做的適當計算。

Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Harlib with Barclays.

你的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Jeff Harlib。

My question is on margins, both, I feel, very solid in CSG and ISG. And I'm wondering if you could just talk about the margin profile in both of those businesses. You're well above your 4% to 5% prior target in CSG. In ISG, we have had DRAM continue to increase recently. And your mix seems like it would be negative, with storage lagging the growth in server business, which is a lower-margin business. So if you can go through that in terms of the margins.

我的問題是關於利潤率，我覺得 CSG 和 ISG 都非常可靠。我想知道你是否可以談談這兩項業務的利潤率。你遠高於你在 CSG 中 4% 到 5% 的先前目標。在ISG中，我們最近有DRAM繼續增加。而且你的組合似乎是負面的，存儲落後於服務器業務的增長，這是一個利潤率較低的業務。所以如果你能在利潤率方面通過它。

Jeff, it's Tom. Let me do that, and then Jeff can add some color commentary, if he'd like. But look, I think, overall, there's a couple of things affecting our margins as you look at it quarter-to-quarter. Clearly, as Jeff highlighted, component costs have been inflationary on us, and so that's been a bit of a headwind clearly.

傑夫，是湯姆。讓我這樣做，然後 Jeff 可以添加一些色彩評論，如果他願意的話。但是，我認為，總體而言，當您按季度查看時，有幾件事會影響我們的利潤率。顯然，正如 Jeff 強調的那樣，組件成本對我們來說是通貨膨脹，所以這顯然有點不利。

I think, as you step back and think about it though, what -- it's pretty consistent with what we've talked about in the prior quarters, which is that we have been adjusting our pricing to ensure that we are capturing the increased input costs coming from the component cost increases. So as we look quarter-on-quarter, we have seen the effect -- our pricing effectiveness, and the stickiness of that pricing effectiveness has been helpful for us. We also have been helped by things like mix, in the sense of the mix of the business has been helpful for us. And so we've also been helped -- and we've had a little bit of FX as well from -- as you look at what's happened with currency across the globe. So those 3 have been helpful.

我認為，當你退後一步思考它時，它與我們在前幾個季度討論的內容非常一致，即我們一直在調整定價以確保我們能夠捕捉到增加的投入成本來自組件成本的增加。因此，當我們按季度看時，我們已經看到了效果——我們的定價有效性，以及定價有效性的粘性對我們很有幫助。我們也得到了混合之類的幫助，從業務混合的意義上講，這對我們很有幫助。因此，當您查看全球貨幣的情況時，我們也得到了幫助——我們也從中獲得了一點外匯。所以這 3 個很有幫助。

Against -- and then on the downside of that, we've also had continued impact on -- of component costs, which has been a bit of a headwind for us in Q3. So particularly on the ISG side, as it relates to your comment around, "Well, geez, given the fact that storage is soft and you drove servers," we got a pretty good boost on server velocity and the related pricing actions that we've done out of that. And then mix within the configurations and within the families has been helpful. So because of that, I mean, you've seen our ISG margins, they roughly went up -- were up almost 200 basis points. And then the CSG margins quarter-on-quarter were obviously less than that in terms of absolute movement but still moving in the right direction.

反對 - 然後在不利方面，我們也對 - 組件成本產生了持續影響，這在第三季度對我們來說有點不利。所以特別是在 ISG 方面，因為它與你的評論有關，“好吧，天哪，考慮到存儲是軟的並且你驅動服務器的事實，”我們在服務器速度和相關定價行動方面得到了很好的提升，我們'我已經完成了。然後在配置和家庭中混合是有幫助的。因此，我的意思是，你已經看到我們的 ISG 利潤率，它們大致上升了——上升了近 200 個基點。然後 CSG 季度環比利潤率明顯低於絕對變動，但仍在朝著正確的方向發展。

Okay, great. And just -- yes, go ahead.

好的，太好了。只是 - 是的，繼續吧。

Jeff, I had a couple of other thoughts to build on what Tom said. One would be I mentioned earlier that our average server going out the door is going out with more DRAM and going out with more NAND, bigger SSD, and that's a direct result of us selling higher up in the value stack. We're selling higher-value workloads. We are selling higher-value solutions and then extracting value for that. Our 14G servers that we just launched are selling at a premium to their predecessors. So we are seeing our ability to sell the value of our product in the marketplace. And servers continue to, I think, perform quite well.

傑夫，根據湯姆所說的，我還有其他一些想法。一個是我之前提到的，我們出門的平均服務器是用更多的 DRAM 和更多的 NAND，更大的 SSD，這是我們在價值堆棧中銷售更高的產品的直接結果。我們正在銷售更高價值的工作負載。我們正在銷售更高價值的解決方案，然後從中獲取價值。我們剛剛推出的 14G 服務器的售價高於其前身。因此，我們看到了我們在市場上銷售產品價值的能力。我認為服務器繼續表現良好。

The other part is, I think, the global supply chain that we have and its size. We have DRAM. So as much as I've said DRAM is going up in costs, we have it, and we're getting value for having it. And whether that's in our PC business, on our server business, I think that is something customers are coming to us for, knowing we have supply. And they're obviously paying for it, so we're seeing our margins continue to improve and our prices improve there. And then Tom mentioned the element of mix in the PC business. That's very true. If you look at our relative performance of commercial PCs to consumer PCs, that's a strong contributor to margin improvement in the PC business.

我認為，另一部分是我們擁有的全球供應鍊及其規模。我們有 DRAM。因此，儘管我說過 DRAM 的成本在上漲，但我們擁有它，並且我們正在從擁有它中獲得價值。無論是在我們的 PC 業務中，還是在我們的服務器業務中，我認為這是客戶來找我們的原因，因為他們知道我們有貨源。他們顯然為此付出了代價，所以我們看到我們的利潤率繼續提高，我們的價格也在那裡提高。然後 Tom 提到了 PC 業務中的混合元素。這是千真萬確的。如果您看一下我們商用 PC 與消費 PC 的相對錶現，就會發現這是 PC 業務利潤率提高的重要因素。

Great. That's very helpful. My follow-up just would be, any general commentary you can provide on the 4Q outlook given this is the first full pro forma quarter with respect to revenues, margins in each of the segments?

偉大的。這很有幫助。我的後續行動是，鑑於這是第一個關於收入和每個細分市場利潤率的完整備考季度，您可以就第四季度前景提供任何一般性評論嗎？

Jeff, it's Tom. Look, you know we don't do forward guidance, right? So let me just start with that comment. I would tell you that if you looked at historical seasonal patterns, you would expect to see roughly a 6% to 7% sequential bump in revenue if you -- if history were to be consistent with what we're seeing this quarter. So that's something you should think about. And then remember that, seasonally, we turn down in Q1 after that, right, in terms of just the nature of how the business flows.

傑夫，是湯姆。看，你知道我們不做前瞻性指導，對吧？因此，讓我從該評論開始。我會告訴你，如果你查看歷史季節性模式，如果歷史與我們本季度看到的情況一致，你會預計收入會連續增長 6% 到 7%。所以這是你應該考慮的事情。然後請記住，季節性地，我們在那之後的第一季度拒絕，就業務流動的性質而言。

So look, I mean, absent that, I would tell you that the only other thing I would put in your thinking is, we've talked about it and we talked a lot about this in Q2 -- on the Q2 call, around these flexible consumption models. And we had a fairly healthy dose of flexible consumption models in Q2. In Q3, they were less. And remember, these were models where we're typically offering the customer more flexibility and, therefore, deferring the revenue. And therefore, while I'm getting -- in some cases, getting the cash up front, I'm not recognizing the revenue upfront.

所以看，我的意思是，沒有那個，我會告訴你，我唯一會在你的想法中提出的另一件事是，我們已經討論過它並且我們在第二季度討論了很多 - 在第二季度的電話會議上，圍繞這些靈活的消費模式。我們在第二季度擁有相當健康的靈活消費模式。在第三季度，他們更少了。請記住，在這些模型中，我們通常會為客戶提供更大的靈活性，因此會推遲收入。因此，雖然我得到 - 在某些情況下，預先獲得現金，但我沒有預先確認收入。

Now we could -- we'll have to see how Q4 plays out in terms of those flexible consumption models. But seasonally, it's a pretty big quarter for us and -- from a revenue perspective. So we'll have to watch that dynamic in mix as we go through the quarter. Also, remember, and I said it in my talking points, that last year was a 14-week quarter for Q4 and this week will be a 13-week quarter. So just keep that in mind, too, as you think about the year-over-year compares.

現在我們可以——我們必須看看第四季度在這些靈活的消費模式方面的表現如何。但就季節性而言，這對我們來說是一個相當大的季度——從收入的角度來看。因此，我們將不得不在整個季度中觀察這種動態變化。另外，請記住，我在談話要點中說過，去年第四季度是一個為期 14 週的季度，而本週將是一個為期 13 週的季度。因此，在考慮同比比較時，也要記住這一點。

Your next question comes from the line of David Eller with Wells Fargo.

你的下一個問題來自富國銀行的 David Eller。

You talked a little bit about expectations for memory in 2018. But I wondered if you could provide some more color around your kind of whole basket of inputs, so maybe panels, displays and kind of maybe the whole basket for 2018.

你談到了一些關於 2018 年內存的期望。但我想知道你是否可以為你的整個輸入籃子提供更多顏色，所以可能是面板、顯示器和 2018 年的整個籃子。

Yes. We see the other commodity sets showing slight signs of deflation, not enough to offset the inflation of the memory devices. But if I was to look at batteries, LCDs, metal, printed circuit boards, discrete components, we see a slight deflationary marketplace for us next year that's helping us offset what's happening in DRAM and NAND.

是的。我們看到其他商品組顯示出輕微的通貨緊縮跡象，不足以抵消存儲設備的通貨膨脹。但如果我要看電池、液晶顯示器、金屬、印刷電路板、分立元件，我們會看到明年我們的市場略有通縮，這有助於我們抵消 DRAM 和 NAND 中發生的情況。

Great. And then can you talk maybe also about the ability to take out non-commodity-related costs?

偉大的。然後你能不能談談排除非商品相關成本的能力？

Well, we clearly are doing that across a vast number of synergy activities in the organization. I can speak specifically to the product and supply chain side, and I'm sure Tom will jump in on the rest of the portfolio -- or the business. We have a plan. We're executing to that plan. I mean, quite honestly, we're on that plan. We have applied our Dell pricing terms across the broader purchase of our entire portfolio, which you would have expected us to do. Last year, we had that done certainly on day 1. We're reaping benefits of that throughout this year.

好吧，我們顯然正在組織中的大量協同活動中這樣做。我可以具體談談產品和供應鏈方面，我相信湯姆會參與其餘的投資組合——或業務。我們有一個計劃。我們正在執行該計劃。我的意思是，老實說，我們正在執行該計劃。我們已將我們的戴爾定價條款應用於我們整個產品組合的更廣泛購買，您可能希望我們這樣做。去年，我們確實在第一天就完成了這項工作。今年我們正在從中受益。

We've seen tremendous efficiency on the supply chain, particularly through cycle time improvement, lead time improvement to our customer base and managing our working capital initiatives through our facilities, most notably in the form of inventory. So I think we're well along the path of managing our other costs outside the commodity and the supply chain and the product side.

我們在供應鏈上看到了巨大的效率，特別是通過週期時間的改進、客戶群的交貨時間改進以及通過我們的設施管理我們的營運資金計劃，最顯著的是庫存形式。因此，我認為我們在管理商品、供應鍊和產品方面之外的其他成本方面進展順利。

Yes. That's fair, Jeff. On the overall cost synergy, we obviously have put that $2 billion target out there. We also had told you that we had made some incremental investments back into the go-to-market in the business that we're going to probably delay the full cycle of how those cost synergies would flow through. I think we've been pretty upfront about that. We remain on track on our cost activities even with considering the investments that we've been making, and we'll continue to evaluate the business.

是的。這很公平，傑夫。在整體成本協同效應方面，我們顯然已經設定了 20 億美元的目標。我們還告訴過你，我們已經對業務的上市進行了一些增量投資，我們可能會延遲這些成本協同效應如何流動的整個週期。我認為我們對此非常坦率。即使考慮到我們一直在進行的投資，我們的成本活動仍保持在正軌上，我們將繼續評估業務。

So the goal here is to drive the right level of profitability across the combined entity. We'll do that through pulling various levers to ensure that we, over time, deliver the right EBITDA generation that we're targeting. But I'll also tell you that we're also in this for the long term, right? So we are making appropriate investments to position the company as we think about where we want to be in the 3- to 5-year range as well.

因此，這裡的目標是在合併後的實體中推動適當的盈利水平。我們將通過拉動各種槓桿來做到這一點，以確保我們隨著時間的推移提供我們目標的正確 EBITDA 一代。但我還要告訴你，我們也是長期的，對吧？因此，我們正在考慮我們希望在 3 到 5 年範圍內的位置時進行適當的投資以定位公司。

Okay, Tom. And then some -- a lot of times, I do get questions from investors around maybe the amount of incremental investments that have been invested back into the business. Is there any way you can kind of scale that for us or help us understand maybe when that $2 billion target might be achieved?

好的，湯姆。然後一些 - 很多時候，我確實從投資者那裡得到了關於可能已經投資回業務的增量投資的數量的問題。您有什麼方法可以為我們擴大規模或幫助我們了解何時可以實現 20 億美元的目標？

Well, look, I mean, I'm -- I think we've told you that the incremental investments have been in the hundreds of millions of dollars. But we haven't quantified it specifically, and I'm not really -- don't really want to go there. The dynamic that you have though, obviously, is that from -- the business continues to evolve and the environment continues to evolve. And so we're continuously looking for cost-out opportunities and efficiency opportunities. That is just part of the DNA of the company. And so what we had said earlier in the year, that we were probably delay it a year or so in terms of realization of those synergies as we move forward given the investments back into the business. So I still think that's a reasonable position to be in.

嗯，看，我的意思是，我 - 我想我們已經告訴過你，增量投資已經達到數億美元。但我們還沒有具體量化它，我不是真的 - 真的不想去那裡。不過，很明顯，您擁有的動力來自——業務在不斷發展，環境也在不斷發展。因此，我們一直在尋找成本節約機會和提高效率的機會。這只是公司 DNA 的一部分。因此，我們在今年早些時候說過，考慮到對業務的投資，我們可能會在實現這些協同效應方面將其推遲一年左右。所以我仍然認為這是一個合理的位置。

Yes. Thanks, David. (Operator Instructions)

是的。謝謝，大衛。 （操作員說明）

Your next question comes from the line of Thomas Egan with JPMorgan.

你的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Thomas Egan。

I just wanted to follow up on the margin question. I appreciate all the qualitative stuff that you've given us. But I was wondering, out of the 320 basis point sequential improvement in ISG margins, if you could help us out understanding how much of that was servers and networking and how much of that was storage because you pointed out that you had better profitability for both.

我只是想跟進保證金問題。我很感激你給我們的所有定性的東西。但我想知道，在 ISG 利潤率連續提高 320 個基點的情況下，您是否可以幫助我們了解其中有多少是服務器和網絡以及有多少是存儲，因為您指出您在這兩個方面都有更好的盈利能力.

Yes. Look, I'm not going to get down to that level of detail. I mean, we did see benefit from both the velocity in servers and the price expansion, I'll say, in servers given the configuration mix that we're seeing in the business. So I would tell you that servers -- and then we got better pricing and better mix in storage even as we drove -- even as volume wasn't quite where we wanted it. And then we've got -- Jeff highlighted it, the fact that we are loading a heavier mix of memory and NAND on some of these products, and therefore, that's helping us as well.

是的。看，我不會深入到那種程度的細節。我的意思是，考慮到我們在業務中看到的配置組合，我們確實看到了服務器速度和價格擴張的好處，我會說，在服務器中。所以我會告訴你服務器——然後我們得到了更好的價格和更好的存儲組合，即使我們開車——即使數量不是我們想要的。然後我們得到了 - Jeff 強調了這一點，事實上我們在其中一些產品上加載了更重的內存和 NAND 組合，因此，這也對我們有幫助。

I also would point out -- remember that as you look at that, we also got benefit from OpEx, right? So -- in the quarter. So I think the team did a reasonable job in managing OpEx, and very, very -- generally pretty pleased with what we saw in terms of profitability expansion. It's not where we want it yet.

我還要指出——請記住，當您看到這一點時，我們也從 OpEx 中受益，對嗎？所以 - 在本季度。因此，我認為團隊在管理運營支出方面做得很好，而且非常、非常——總體上對我們在盈利能力擴張方面看到的情況非常滿意。這還不是我們想要的地方。

So I want to be really clear about that. Yes, we made some progress. We had a lighter mix of flexible consumption models in the quarter, so therefore, I didn't defer as much revenue and profitability as perhaps that you saw in Q2. That's going to vary quarter by quarter. So you've got to keep that in mind. But I think, overall, I'm pleased with the progress this quarter, but clearly, more work to do.

所以我想非常清楚這一點。是的，我們取得了一些進展。本季度我們的靈活消費模式組合較少，因此，我沒有像您在第二季度看到的那樣推遲收入和盈利能力。這將逐季度變化。所以你必須記住這一點。但我認為，總的來說，我對本季度的進展感到滿意，但顯然還有更多工作要做。

Yes, just a reminder. When we've talked about this before, there does tend to be a bit of a lag effect on pricing, particularly with our larger customers, where we've committed to a certain level of pricing. This impacts ISG more so than CSG. So as we get a couple of quarters into some of these price moves, we tend to be able to catch up a little bit better.

是的，只是一個提醒。當我們之前討論過這個問題時，定價確實會有一些滯後效應，特別是對於我們承諾一定定價水平的大客戶。這比 CSG 對 ISG 的影響更大。因此，當我們進入其中一些價格變動的幾個季度時，我們往往能夠更好地趕上。

And you saw acceleration of a couple of our premium products. Our XtremIO X2 grew quarter-over-quarter. Our all-flash array business across the portfolio grew. They generally carry higher margins.

你看到了我們幾個優質產品的加速發展。我們的 XtremIO X2 環比增長。我們整個產品組合的全閃存陣列業務都在增長。它們通常具有更高的利潤率。

And 14G went from -- we're not going to give the percentage, but 14G increased pretty significantly as we went to the 14th generation of servers.

14G 是從——我們不打算給出百分比，但是隨著我們進入第 14 代服務器，14G 增加了相當大的數量。

Okay. And then for my follow-up, maybe, since I couldn't get a breakdown of the 320, maybe I -- if Rob would let me, I will just do sort of a 2-parter.

好的。然後對於我的後續行動，也許，因為我無法得到 320 的細分，也許我 - 如果 Rob 允許我，我會做一些 2 部分。

Go ahead.

前進。

You talked about repaying debt, and you talked about doing it with cash. So maybe you've got $11.7 billion of cash on the balance sheet as of this quarter. Could you talk about it? How much of that is in the U.S.? Remind us -- historically, is the current quarter a bigger-than-usual, average, or less-than-usual cash generator? And then the EMC bond, the $2.5 billion that come due beginning in June, are you expecting to pay all of that down with cash? Or is there any chance that you'd look to refinance?

你談到了償還債務，你談到了用現金來償還債務。因此，截至本季度，您的資產負債表上可能有 117 億美元的現金。你能談談嗎？其中有多少是在美國？提醒我們——從歷史上看，當前季度是比平常多、平均還是比平常少的現金產生者？然後是將於 6 月開始到期的 25 億美元 EMC 債券，您是否希望用現金支付所有這些債券？或者您是否有機會尋求再融資？

Why don't we let -- Tyler, why don't you take that question since this is right down your power alley.

我們為什麼不讓——泰勒，你為什麼不回答這個問題，因為這就在你的權力範圍內。

Yes, Thomas. And hopefully, you guys can hear me okay. So first, just as a reminder, right, when you're looking at that cash balance, that's also including the VMware cash. So remember, the Dell Technologies ex VMware, which is how I think about it when I'm looking at debt pay-down, is a smaller number, right? So it's, call it, somewhere around -- a little over $6 billion, $6.3 billion.

是的，托馬斯。希望你們能聽到我的聲音。所以首先，提醒一下，當你查看現金餘額時，這也包括 VMware 現金。所以請記住，Dell Technologies ex VMware，這是我在考慮償還債務時的想法，是一個較小的數字，對吧？所以它是，稱之為，大約在某個地方 - 略高於 60 億美元，63 億美元。

The geography of that cash obviously moves around kind of depending on what's happening in the business and different intercompany flows. But I think, in any given time, we have probably 35% to 45% of that sitting in the U.S. And just like we said, right, we try to keep the balances low, taking into account -- look, we do have places where maybe the cash is restricted or tied up. We've got investments on the books and that type of thing, but the focus is going to be taking that excess and paying down cash -- paying down debt. And just like Tom mentioned in the talking points, we're going to probably conserve cash.

這些現金的地理位置顯然在某種程度上取決於業務中發生的事情和不同的公司間流動。但我認為，在任何給定時間，我們可能有 35% 到 45% 的人坐在美國。就像我們說的，對，我們試圖保持低餘額，考慮到 - 看，我們確實有地方現金可能受到限製或捆綁。我們已經對賬簿和類似的東西進行了投資，但重點將放在超額和償還現金上——償還債務。就像湯姆在談話要點中提到的那樣，我們可能會節省現金。

You asked about Q4. Seasonally, Q4 tends to be a stronger cash quarter, so that would be my expectation. But then that's followed by Q1, which typically tends to be a weaker cash quarter as we pay out things like certain tax payments and bonus and compensation, that type of thing, right? So I've got to prepare for that.

你問的是第四季度。從季節性上講，第四季度往往是一個更強勁的現金季度，所以這是我的預期。但緊隨其後的是第一季度，這通常是一個較弱的現金季度，因為我們支付了某些稅款、獎金和補償金之類的東西，對吧？所以我必須為此做好準備。

And we've got those 2 maturities. The one in April is a little bit smaller. And look, that June maturity, I mean, look, my expectation is that it's going to be funded through a combination of cash currently on the balance sheet, cash flow generation between now and then, and I do have the untapped revolvers. So if I need to dip into that to fund a portion of that, I have that available. And now keep in mind, if I do, do that, that's purely temporary. So we use that to kind of fund some of these inter-quarter gaps typically. And so if I did that, it would only be for a short period of time. I mean, I -- my expectation is -- once again, we've got about $5.5 billion worth of debt coming due when I include the amortization payments for next year on the term loan, and I'm looking to pay that down with cash over time.

我們有這兩個到期日。四月的那個小了點。看，那個 6 月到期，我的意思是，看，我的期望是它將通過資產負債表上目前的現金、現在和那時產生的現金流來提供資金，而且我確實有未開發的左輪手槍。因此，如果我需要涉足其中以資助其中的一部分，我可以使用。現在請記住，如果我這樣做，那純粹是暫時的。因此，我們通常使用它來為其中一些季度間缺口提供資金。因此，如果我這樣做，那隻會持續很短的時間。我的意思是，我——我的期望是——再一次，當我將明年的攤銷付款包括在定期貸款中時，我們將有大約 55 億美元的債務到期，我希望用隨著時間的推移現金。

Your next question comes from the line of David Phipps with Citi.

你的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 David Phipps。

Tyler, just following up on the last question. The next 2 maturities just happen to be investment grade -- or non-investment-grade bonds. And is there -- is that just when you're thinking about paying down things in cash? Or is it just that there happen to be non-investment-grade bonds that you're paying down? And maybe thinking about, in the future, paying down other non-investment-grade bonds and maybe refinancing some of the investment-grade bonds? And how's Dell thinking about that as they go forward?

泰勒，只是跟進最後一個問題。接下來的兩個期限恰好是投資級或非投資級債券。那裡 - 是不是就在您考慮用現金支付東西的時候？或者只是碰巧有非投資級債券需要償還？也許考慮在未來償還其他非投資級債券，並可能為一些投資級債券再融資？在他們前進的過程中，戴爾是如何考慮的？

Well, I mean, obviously, I would love to be able to pay down the most expensive debt first, but as you know, it's not all prepayables. So look, I think we'll pay things down as they come due. If it makes sense for whatever reason or there's a good opportunity to refinance, I mean, I'm not saying that's off the table. I mean, it's always a consideration as I'm trying to optimize the balance sheet and capital structure. And we'll pick a part of the term loans, right, I mean, because that's the stuff that's prepayable and easy to take out.

好吧，我的意思是，很明顯，我希望能夠先償還最昂貴的債務，但正如你所知，這並不都是預付款項。所以看，我想我們會在到期時付款。如果出於某種原因有意義或有再融資的好機會，我的意思是，我並不是說那是不可能的。我的意思是，在我試圖優化資產負債表和資本結構時，這始終是一個考慮因素。我們將選擇貸款期限的一部分，對，我的意思是，因為這是可以預付且易於取出的東西。

I've got -- the A1 is gone now, so that's nice to see that's no longer in my capital structure. I've got the A3, which is due at the end of the year, so that's embedded in that $5.5 billion number I threw out earlier. And then we've got the A2 and the term loan B down the line. So look, I think we'll continue to do what we're doing, deleveraging. Take -- paying down debt will be the focus. But I don't want to say that refinancing opportunities are non-existent or something I wouldn't consider.

我有 - A1 現在不見了，所以很高興看到它不再在我的資本結構中。我有 A3，它將於今年年底到期，所以它包含在我之前拋出的 55 億美元數字中。然後我們得到了 A2 和期限貸款 B。所以看，我認為我們將繼續做我們正在做的事情，去槓桿化。採取——償還債務將是重點。但我不想說再融資機會不存在或我不會考慮。

Sure. And just as a tag on to that, then I want to ask another one for Tyler, the Dell -- the 5 7/8%...

當然。就像上面的標籤一樣，然後我想為泰勒問另一個問題，戴爾——5 7/8%……

Only 2, guys. Pick one.

只有2，伙計們。選一個。

I will then -- Tyler, just tell me about the -- do we have a generally richer mix for servers and storage in the fourth quarter now that we look at the new Dell.

那麼我會 - 泰勒，告訴我 - 我們在第四季度有一個普遍更豐富的服務器和存儲組合，現在我們看看新的戴爾。

Let me take that. That's more of a Tom question than a Tyler question, although Tyler is welcome to jump in on that, but, look...

讓我拿那個。這更像是湯姆的問題，而不是泰勒的問題，儘管歡迎泰勒參與其中，但是，看...

I have questions on that myself. That's all I did.

我自己對此有疑問。這就是我所做的一切。

Look, I -- again, we don't get into projecting future results. But I would tell you, if you just look at the dynamics of the business right now, clearly, we are seeing extraordinarily strong server velocity and demand for lots of reasons, right? More compute-centric solutions being driven; ASPs are up, as Jeff mentioned in his talking points, because of the richer mix, the pricing actions, the component cost inputs that have gone up.

看，我 - 再一次，我們不會預測未來的結果。但我會告訴你，如果你只看一下現在的業務動態，很明顯，出於很多原因，我們看到了異常強勁的服務器速度和需求，對吧？正在推動更多以計算為中心的解決方案；正如 Jeff 在他的談話要點中提到的那樣，ASP 上升了，因為更豐富的組合、定價行為、組件成本投入已經上升。

So as we think about Q4, if you look at seasonally, historically, this would be an extraordinarily strong storage quarter. And I do think that, that's -- we do think that we'll see some of those old seasonal patterns hold. The question is, is how strong are servers going to be. And so we expect -- we'll have to see how that plays out. But historical seasonal patterns would tell you that storage should be -- this is typically the strongest quarter of the year from a storage perspective. And you do see, at times, end-of-the-year budget flush from some of the corporate customers as they're finishing their projects in their budget cycles, and therefore, you should -- we'll have to see how that plays on the server activity as well.

因此，當我們考慮第四季度時，如果從季節性和歷史上看，這將是一個非常強勁的存儲季度。而且我確實認為，那是 - 我們確實認為我們會看到一些舊的季節性模式。問題是，服務器將有多強大。所以我們期望——我們必須看看結果如何。但歷史季節性模式會告訴你存儲應該是——從存儲的角度來看，這通常是一年中最強勁的季度。有時，您確實會看到一些企業客戶在預算週期內完成項目時會出現年終預算氾濫，因此，您應該——我們必須看看這是如何發生的也在服務器活動上播放。

But to be really clear, we're not slowing down servers. Our job is to speed up storage.

但需要明確的是，我們並沒有降低服務器速度。我們的工作是加快存儲速度。

Yes. So I mean our -- I told Jeff to go fast on both. Now that's not really very helpful from Jeff's perspective, which is what he's trying to do anyway. But our job is to get this business where we want it. We've got work to do on storage, as we all have talked about. And I'm pretty happy with server performance, and we just want to keep going on that.

是的。所以我的意思是我們的 - 我告訴傑夫在這兩個方面都要快。從 Jeff 的角度來看，這並不是很有幫助，而這正是他正在嘗試做的事情。但我們的工作是把這項業務帶到我們想要的地方。正如我們都談到的那樣，我們在存儲方面還有很多工作要做。我對服務器性能非常滿意，我們只想繼續這樣做。

Your next question comes from the line of Adam Willinger with Bank of America.

你的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Adam Willinger。

So I had another question on the flexible consumption model. So I guess, first, do you think that the lower proportion of these deals in the third quarter versus second quarter is like an anomaly to kind of longer-term trends? And then do you have any visibility into how these types of deals are trending in fourth quarter?

所以我有另一個關於靈活消費模式的問題。所以我想，首先，你認為第三季度與第二季度相比較低的交易比例是否像某種長期趨勢的反常現象？那麼您是否了解這些類型的交易在第四季度的趨勢如何？

Yes. Look, I do think that you shouldn't read anything into the fact that Q3 was a little bit softer than Q2 in terms of flexible consumption models. I think these things are going to vary. They're complex. They're multiyear. They take time to negotiate with -- and they're typically the larger customers -- they're global customers that are negotiating these types of arrangements. And so I think we are going to see some variability.

是的。看，我確實認為你不應該對第三季度在靈活消費模式方面比第二季度稍微軟一點這一事實進行任何解讀。我認為這些事情會有所不同。它們很複雜。他們是多年的。他們需要時間與他們談判——他們通常是大客戶——他們是正在談判這些類型安排的全球客戶。所以我認為我們會看到一些變化。

I think all things being equal, it's entirely conceivable that we'll see an uptick in flexible consumption models in Q4 just given natural end-of-year sort of activity both from a customer and from a Dell Technologies perspective. But we'll have to see how that plays out.

我認為所有事情都是平等的，完全可以想像，我們將在第四季度看到靈活消費模式的上升，只是從客戶和 Dell Technologies 的角度來看自然的年終活動。但我們必須看看結果如何。

Okay. And then still kind of on that topic, I think you touched on it briefly in one of the prior questions. But the presence of these kind of flexible consumption models, does it impact kind of how you recognize margin for the business, both kind of on a short term and over the life of the relationship? And I'm trying to think about if it's still fair to kind of think about incremental margin for storage in kind of the 50% area.

好的。然後還是關於那個話題，我想你在之前的一個問題中簡要地談到了它。但是這些靈活的消費模式的存在，是否會影響你如何看待業務利潤率，無論是短期的還是整個關係的生命週期？我正在嘗試考慮在 50% 的區域中考慮存儲的增量保證金是否仍然公平。

Well, look, I mean, we like these flexible consumption models. They do have the effect, as you guys all know, of deferring recognition of revenue and amortizing that revenue and associated margin over a contract cycle that might be 2 to 5 years depending upon the term of the agreement.

嗯，看，我的意思是，我們喜歡這些靈活的消費模式。正如你們都知道的那樣，它們確實具有延遲確認收入並在合同周期內攤銷收入和相關利潤的效果，根據協議的期限，合同周期可能為 2 至 5 年。

So historically, what we have seen is, over time, these tend to be -- over the course of the contract period, they tend to be a better -- they tend to have a better profitability profile, but it ramps. So it starts a little lower and ramps over the course of the contract. So on an all-in basis, margin dollars generally have shown to be higher over the entire length of the contract, but it does change the timing pattern and pattern of when those are recognized.

所以從歷史上看，我們所看到的是，隨著時間的推移，這些往往是——在合同期內，它們往往會更好——它們往往具有更好的盈利能力，但它會逐漸上升。所以它開始時略低，並在合同過程中逐漸上升。因此，在整體基礎上，保證金美元在整個合同期限內通常表現得更高，但它確實改變了確認這些保證金的時間模式和模式。

And so remember, we like these [constructs] in the context of building a more intimate customer relationship, ensuring that we are a more strategic partner for these customers. And it builds sort of a -- more of an as-a-service or a stream or recurring revenue stream that's helpful for us. And we've got the flexibility being privately controlled to do these types of structures and not be as focused on short-term quarter-to-quarter profitability, although, clearly, we're all trying to -- we are trying to drive the profitability of the business, but we do have some incremental flexibility here.

所以請記住，我們喜歡在建立更親密的客戶關係的背景下使用這些[結構]，確保我們成為這些客戶更具戰略意義的合作夥伴。它建立了一種——更多的是一種對我們有幫助的即服務或流或經常性收入流。而且我們已經獲得了私人控制的靈活性來進行這些類型的結構，而不是專注於短期的季度盈利能力，儘管很明顯，我們都在努力 - 我們正在努力推動業務的盈利能力，但我們在這裡確實有一些增量靈活性。

Our next question comes from the line of Shannon Cross with Cross Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Shannon Cross 與 Cross Research 的合作。

Jeff, can you talk a bit about the competitive landscape on the storage side, both in terms of some of the newer technologies as well as what you're seeing in sort of legacy?

Jeff，您能否談談存儲方面的競爭格局，既包括一些較新的技術，也包括您所看到的傳統技術？

Sure, Shannon. Well, I think, a couple of things. When I look at the marketplace and as I'm learning through my first 3 months, it's a big market that we get confused, that we think is shrinking. This -- external storage market grew last quarter. It's a $24 billion market. It's a big opportunity. We have a big, big opportunity with our 30% share to grow in this market, and that's what we need to do. Clearly, the competition is NetApp and Pure, most notably. What I see about them is they have extreme focus and they have clarity in their product line. And I think they're reaping a benefit from that. If you -- some of my remarks are about pivoting our organization to that.

當然，香農。好吧，我想，有幾件事。當我審視市場並在頭 3 個月中學習時，這是一個讓我們感到困惑的大市場，我們認為它正在萎縮。這——外部存儲市場在上個季度有所增長。這是一個價值 240 億美元的市場。這是一個很大的機會。我們擁有 30% 的份額，在這個市場上有很大的發展機會，這就是我們需要做的。顯然，最引人注目的是 NetApp 和 Pure 的競爭。我對他們的看法是他們非常專注，而且他們的產品線很清晰。我認為他們正在從中獲益。如果你 - 我的一些評論是關於將我們的組織轉向這一點。

I think we mentioned last quarter that we're going to invest in more sales specialist capacity. We hired more sales specialists in Q3. We're going to hire more sales specialists in Q4. We're going to build out that investment -- Tom actually talked about investments. One of the areas we consciously have decided to do is build out more capacity for more coverage in the mid-market commercial segment, and that's not at the exclusion of the enterprise segment either. We're building out more sales capacity in the enterprise. We're moving sales leadership between the organizations so we could get more storage knowledge base in our commercial organization. We're making adjustments and continuing to tweak our sales compensation towards a -- more biased toward storage.

我想我們上個季度提到我們將投資更多的銷售專家能力。我們在第三季度聘請了更多的銷售專家。我們將在第四季度聘請更多的銷售專家。我們將擴大投資——湯姆實際上談到了投資。我們有意識地決定要做的領域之一是在中端市場商業領域建立更多的覆蓋範圍，這也不排除企業領域。我們正在企業中建立更多的銷售能力。我們正在組織之間轉移銷售領導力，以便我們可以在我們的商業組織中獲得更多的存儲知識庫。我們正在進行調整，並繼續調整我們的銷售補償，使其更偏向於存儲。

We just made 2 significant updates to the product portfolio. We added deduplication in Unity, and we added all-flash offers to our SC product line in the midrange. Our XtremIO, which is, I think, a very differentiated asset in the marketplace, particularly against the 2 competitors that I mentioned earlier, with its in-line data services and its performance attributes, is a great product.

我們剛剛對產品組合進行了 2 次重大更新。我們在 Unity 中添加了重複數據刪除，並在我們的中端 SC 產品線中添加了全閃存產品。我認為，我們的 XtremIO 是市場上非常與眾不同的資產，特別是與我之前提到的兩個競爭對手相比，它具有在線數據服務和性能屬性，是一款很棒的產品。

Another thing we just launched in the last -- I think it's a week or 10 days is a new customer loyalty program, which, if you compare it against the competitive landscape, is absolutely unmatched. Our competitors basically guarantee their product or program for 30 days. We guarantee ours for 3 years. It's got 7 key components. And it basically is an investment protection with a set of guarantees for our customers that, quite honestly, the industry analysts and our customers have responded quite well to, which I think is upping our competitive nature.

我們最近剛剛推出的另一件事——我認為這是一個星期或 10 天的時間是一個新的客戶忠誠度計劃，如果你將它與競爭格局進行比較，它絕對是無與倫比的。我們的競爭對手基本上保證他們的產品或程序 30 天。我們保證 3 年。它有 7 個關鍵組件。它基本上是一種投資保護，為我們的客戶提供一系列保證，老實說，行業分析師和我們的客戶對此反應很好，我認為這提高了我們的競爭力。

So I think we're in a big market. It's a big opportunity. We clearly have lost share. It's undeniable. The public results are out. We're not satisfied with that. We're investing in sales capacity and coverage and expertise. We continue to add to the product portfolio and its competitiveness. We needed deduplication in Unity. We needed all-flash in the SC. We need to continue to drive the performance advantage we have in XtremIO. We now have a set of loyalty programs that, again, I believe, puts us in a position to walk into customers and say, "There is no risk picking us or pulling out the competition. Here's our guarantee behind it." I hope that answers your question. I'm happy to -- if I didn't, to go into more detail.

所以我認為我們處在一個大市場中。這是一個很大的機會。我們顯然已經失去了份額。這是不可否認的。公開結果出來了。我們對此並不滿意。我們正在投資於銷售能力、覆蓋範圍和專業知識。我們繼續增加產品組合及其競爭力。我們需要在 Unity 中進行重複數據刪除。我們需要 SC 中的全閃存。我們需要繼續推動我們在 XtremIO 中的性能優勢。我相信，我們現在有一套忠誠度計劃，再次讓我們能夠走進客戶並說：“選擇我們或退出競爭沒有風險。這是我們背後的保證。”我希望這能回答你的問題。我很高興——如果我沒有，可以詳細介紹一下。

No, I think that does. I just -- I'm curious, versus prior leadership in ISG, any changes that you see in terms of how you're going to approach the -- maybe the integration between the 2 businesses? Clearly, you're investing in certain areas. It sounds like a lot of that maybe was already underway. So I'm just curious how you're working with the EMC assets.

不，我認為確實如此。我只是 - 我很好奇，與 ISG 的先前領導相比，您在處理方式方面看到的任何變化 - 也許是這兩個業務之間的整合？顯然，您正在對某些領域進行投資。聽起來很多事情可能已經在進行中了。所以我很好奇您是如何使用 EMC 資產的。

Well, Dell family of assets -- we try not to refer to them as EMC assets. It's the Dell family of assets. I'm absolutely going to integrate, top to bottom, one team. You may be aware of some of the more siloed orientation of the previous organization. That's not going to be the case going forward. We're going to look at the storage portfolio. We're going to make decisions across the portfolio in the best interest of our customers. When I look at the high-end storage stack, the midrange storage stack, the low end across data protection and ACI, we are going to work more seamlessly across the organization and build the right number of products positioned appropriately in the marketplace.

好吧，戴爾資產系列——我們盡量不將它們稱為 EMC 資產。這是戴爾的資產家族。我絕對會自上而下地整合一個團隊。您可能知道以前組織的一些更孤立的方向。未來不會是這種情況。我們將研究存儲組合。我們將以客戶的最大利益為出發點，對整個產品組合做出決策。當我審視高端存儲堆棧、中端存儲堆棧、跨數據保護和 ACI 的低端時，我們將在整個組織中更加無縫地工作，並構建適當數量的產品，使其在市場上處於適當的位置。

I mentioned in my remarks that we have a bit of complexity in the portfolio. We're going to make it clearer for our sales force and clearer for our customers which one -- what products to buy for what applications or environments. That's something we can do and we will do, and it's going to be across the entire portfolio. I don't know if that answers your question.

我在發言中提到，我們的投資組合有些複雜。我們將使我們的銷售人員和我們的客戶更清楚地了解哪一個——為什麼應用程序或環境購買什麼產品。這是我們可以做的事情，我們會做的，而且它將貫穿整個投資組合。我不知道這是否回答了你的問題。

Jeff, that's a multi-quarter journey, right? So...

傑夫，這是一個多季度的旅程，對吧？所以...

Given the cycle time of product development, given commitments we've made to customers, we will work through this. But complexity doesn't mean less products. Complexity can mean the number of offers per product, how many countries we offer our product in. Interestingly, we treat the 180th country the same way we treat the largest country in the world. It's not clear to me the 180th country in the world needs all of the entire storage breadth of our portfolio, and we can make that less complex, easier for our sales and marketing teams to communicate and much easier for our customers to buy. So you'll see us work on that over the next handful of quarters.

鑑於產品開發的周期時間，鑑於我們對客戶做出的承諾，我們將努力解決這個問題。但複雜性並不意味著更少的產品。複雜性可能意味著每種產品的報價數量，我們在多少個國家/地區提供我們的產品。有趣的是，我們對待第 180 個國家的方式與我們對待世界上最大的國家的方式相同。我不清楚世界上第 180 個國家/地區是否需要我們產品組合的所有存儲範圍，我們可以使它變得不那麼複雜，讓我們的銷售和營銷團隊更容易溝通，讓我們的客戶更容易購買。所以你會看到我們在接下來的幾個季度裡致力於此。

All right. Great. Thanks, Jeff. Thanks, Shannon. Thanks to everyone for joining. Quick reminder. In early January, we will be at CES with a full suite of consumer and gaming products and invite anyone that's out there to reach out to us. We'd be happy to speak with you. Come by our show.

好的。偉大的。謝謝，傑夫。謝謝，香農。感謝大家的加入。快速提醒。 1 月初，我們將在 CES 上展示全套消費和遊戲產品，並邀請到場的任何人與我們聯繫。我們很樂意與您交談。來看我們的節目吧。

So thanks, and have a great holiday season, everyone.

所以謝謝，祝大家假期愉快。

This concludes today's conference call. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect at this time.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。此時您可以斷開連接。