8x8 Inc (EGHT) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q1 2024 8x8, Inc. Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

美好的一天，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 2024 年第一季度 8x8, Inc. 收益電話會議。 （操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。

And I would like to hand the call over to your speaker today, Kate Patterson of Investor Relations.

我想將今天的電話轉交給您的發言人、投資者關係部的凱特·帕特森 (Kate Patterson)。

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone. Today's agenda will include a review of our first quarter results with Sam Wilson, our Chief Executive Officer; and Kevin Kraus, our Chief Financial Officer. Following our prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session.

謝謝你，接線員。大家下午好。今天的議程將包括與我們的首席執行官 Sam Wilson 一起回顧我們的第一季度業績；和我們的首席財務官凱文克勞斯。在我們準備好的發言之後，將進行問答環節。

Before we get started, let me remind you that our discussion today includes forward-looking statements about future financial performance, including our increased focus on profitability and cash flow as well as our business, products and growth strategies. We caution you not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as they involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to vary materially from forward-looking statements as described in our risk factors in our reports filed with the SEC.

在開始之前，請允許我提醒您，我們今天的討論包括有關未來財務業績的前瞻性陳述，包括我們對盈利能力和現金流以及我們的業務、產品和增長戰略的更多關注。我們提醒您不要過度依賴這些前瞻性陳述，因為它們涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與我們向 SEC 提交的報告中的風險因素中描述的前瞻性陳述存在重大差異。

Any forward-looking statements made on this call and in the presentation slides reflect our analysis as of today, and we have no plans or obligation to update them. Certain financial measures that will be discussed on this call, together with year-over-year comparisons in some cases, were not prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. A reconciliation of those non-GAAP measures to the closest comparable GAAP measures is provided in our earnings release and on the Investor Relations website at investor.8x8.com.

本次電話會議和演示幻燈片中所做的任何前瞻性陳述均反映了我們截至今天的分析，我們沒有計劃或義務對其進行更新。本次電話會議將討論的某些財務指標，以及某些情況下的同比比較，並未按照美國公認會計原則（GAAP）制定。我們的收益報告和投資者關係網站 Investor.8x8.com 提供了這些非 GAAP 衡量標準與最接近的可比 GAAP 衡量標準的對賬。

With that, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Samuel Wilson.

接下來，我會將電話轉給我們的首席執行官塞繆爾·威爾遜 (Samuel Wilson)。

Much appreciated, Kate, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. This is my first earnings call as the CEO of 8x8. Over the past 6 months, I've spoken at length to our customers, employees and investors about the future direction of the company. As you will recall, we made the decision a year ago to balance our innovation-led growth strategy with a focus on improving profitability and cash flow through disciplined capital allocation.

非常感謝凱特，感謝大家今天加入我們。這是我作為 8x8 首席執行官的第一次財報電話會議。在過去的六個月裡，我與我們的客戶、員工和投資者詳細談論了公司的未來方向。您可能還記得，我們一年前就做出了平衡我們以創新為主導的增長戰略的決定，重點是通過嚴格的資本配置來提高盈利能力和現金流。

In our Q1 results, you will see both progress on this journey as well as areas for further improvement. I plan to give you our investors, who own the company, a transparent view of how the business is doing today and where it's headed tomorrow. To this end, we will add some commentary about the long-term financial path of the company at the end of my remarks.

在我們第一季度的結果中，您將看到這一過程中的進展以及需要進一步改進的領域。我計劃讓我們的投資者（即公司所有者）清楚地了解公司今天的經營狀況以及明天的發展方向。為此，我們將在發言的最後添加一些關於公司長期財務路徑的評論。

Now let's get into some Q1 highlights. The increased investment in R&D drove the introduction of new products and enhancements to existing solutions. The reception from customers has been very positive. We increased our win rates, closed significant new customers and expanded our base of XCaaS contact center users. We remained the direct routing solution of choice for customers deploying Microsoft Teams, expanding our 8x8 voice for team seats by over 80% year-over-year.

現在讓我們來看看第一季度的一些亮點。研發投資的增加推動了新產品的推出和現有解決方案的增強。客戶的反響非常積極。我們提高了獲勝率，贏得了重要的新客戶，並擴大了 XCaaS 聯絡中心用戶群。我們仍然是部署 Microsoft Teams 的客戶首選的直接路由解決方案，將我們的 8x8 語音團隊席位同比擴大了 80% 以上。

We formally launched our contact center ecosystem and expanded the number of partners, extended our global industry reach to 59 countries, hosted innovation roadshows in the U.S. and U.K. and strengthened our management team with the hiring of Lisa Martin as Chief Revenue Officer, and we delivered record non-GAAP operating profit and cash flow.

我們正式啟動了聯絡中心生態系統並擴大了合作夥伴數量，將我們的全球行業覆蓋範圍擴展至59 個國家，在美國和英國舉辦了創新路演，並通過聘請Lisa Martin 擔任首席營收官來加強我們的管理團隊，我們交付了記錄非公認會計準則營業利潤和現金流。

Our innovation-led strategy seems to be resonating with customers, driving new business and awareness in the industry. As we focus on the right customers, lead with contact center as a service and demonstrated the value of our integrated platform, we are building a higher quality pipeline and closing larger deals. Average ARR per enterprise customer, excluding CPaaS, was at an all-time high. And we also closed our largest new business win ever with a multimillion dollar total contract value.

我們以創新為主導的戰略似乎與客戶產生了共鳴，推動了新業務和行業意識的發展。當我們專注於正確的客戶、以聯絡中心即服務為主導並展示我們的集成平台的價值時，我們正在構建更高質量的渠道並完成更大的交易。每個企業客戶的平均 ARR（不包括 CPaaS）處於歷史最高水平。我們還贏得了有史以來最大的新業務，合同總價值達數百萬美元。

Ending ARR increased year-over-year in all 3 customer segments. The growth rates for small business and mid-market, both increased sequentially and small business posted its best year-over-year growth performance in a while. These metrics all demonstrated the continued progress we're making on our strategic initiatives. Our results were partially offset by a sequential decline in CPaaS usage revenue and higher-than-expected churn and down sell in the Fuze enterprise installed base. These headwinds resulted in service revenue and total revenue about $3 million below guidance ranges.

所有 3 個客戶群的最終 ARR 均同比增長。小型企業和中型市場的增長率均連續上升，小型企業創下一段時間內最好的同比增長表現。這些指標都證明了我們在戰略舉措方面所取得的持續進展。我們的業績被 CPaaS 使用收入的連續下降以及 Fuze 企業安裝基礎的流失和降價高於預期所部分抵消。這些不利因素導致服務收入和總收入低於指導範圍約 300 萬美元。

Let me give you a brief explanation of what happened with CPaaS infuse and what we are doing to turn the tide in each. First CPaaS. We thought the CPaaS business had stabilized last quarter, but carrier pricing actions during fiscal Q1 had a negative impact on SMS traffic. We were forced to choose between passing along price increases to customers or accepting negative margins. We made the sound decision to forego negative margin business, and higher prices caused some traffic to move to other channels. We didn't lose the customers.

讓我向您簡要解釋一下 CPaaS Infuse 發生的情況以及我們正在採取哪些措施來扭轉局面。第一個 CPaaS。我們認為 CPaaS 業務上季度已趨於穩定，但運營商在第一財季的定價行為對 SMS 流量產生了負面影響。我們被迫在將價格上漲轉嫁給客戶或接受負利潤之間做出選擇。我們做出了放棄負利潤業務的明智決定，而更高的價格導致一些流量轉移到其他渠道。我們沒有失去客戶。

In fact, the number of CPaaS enterprise customers increased sequentially, but usage declined. With new leadership in place, we are transitioning from an SMS traffic intermediary to a strategic business partner to our customers. We have identified white space opportunities to add value with dynamic routing, fraud detection and authentication while continuing to maintain cost advantages due to our volumes. As in other areas of our business, we believe the innovation-led approach will result in a more resilient business model and durable growth.

事實上，CPaaS 企業客戶數量環比增加，但使用量卻下降。隨著新領導層的就位，我們正在從短信流量中介轉變為客戶的戰略業務合作夥伴。我們已經發現了通過動態路由、欺詐檢測和身份驗證來增加價值的空白機會，同時繼續保持由於我們的數量而帶來的成本優勢。與我們業務的其他領域一樣，我們相信以創新為主導的方法將帶來更具彈性的業務模式和持久增長。

Regarding the increase in churn and downsell within the Fuze space. As we've said on calls over the last year, the Fuze acquisition has outperformed our expectations. It has been accretive to gross margins, operating margins and cash flow. However, we did see a sequential increase in customer churn and downsell in Q1. This resulted in lower-than-expected revenue from the Fuze platform in Q1 as well as a decrease in the more forward-looking ARR metric. I believe some of this is due to smaller customers actually moving off the platform. But a significant portion of lost ARR was due to rightsizing the customer subscription as they came up for renewal for upgrades.

關於 Fuze 領域內客戶流失和降價銷售的增加。正如我們在去年的電話會議上所說，收購 Fuze 的表現超出了我們的預期。它增加了毛利率、營業利潤和現金流。然而，我們確實看到第一季度客戶流失和降價銷售連續增加。這導致 Fuze 平台第一季度的收入低於預期，並且更具前瞻性的 ARR 指標有所下降。我認為其中部分原因是較小的客戶實際上離開了該平台。但 ARR 損失的很大一部分是由於客戶續訂升級時調整了訂閱規模。

To be clear, the retention of Fuze customers is still above our original forecast. While it may take a few quarters to rightsize all the customers, the acquisition has been a major success for us. We doubled the resources focused on innovation, expanded our enterprise customer base and increased our operating margins and cash flow.

需要明確的是，Fuze 客戶的保留率仍然高於我們最初的預測。雖然調整所有客戶規模可能需要幾個季度的時間，但這次收購對我們來說是一次重大成功。我們將用於創新的資源增加了一倍，擴大了我們的企業客戶群，並增加了我們的營業利潤和現金流。

In combination, the headwinds from CPaaS and Fuze caused us to fall below our service revenue and total revenue guidance ranges for Q1 by less than 2%. The roll forward of the Q1 run rate and lowering beginning ARR caused us to reduce full year guidance for total and service revenue by 3% at the midpoint. Hedging the exact revenue performance of $0.75 billion revenue company is complex at the best of times. It is infinitely more difficult during tougher economic times, integrating the operations of another company and shifting spending priorities.

綜合而言，CPaaS 和 Fuze 的不利因素導致我們第一季度的服務收入和總收入指導範圍低於 2%。第一季度運行率的前滾和期初 ARR 的降低導致我們將全年總收入和服務收入指引中點降低了 3%。即使在最好的情況下，對沖 7.5 億美元營收公司的確切營收業績也是很複雜的。在經濟困難時期，整合另一家公司的業務並改變支出重點會變得更加困難。

While we aim to achieve our forecast and guidance, moving forward, I believe the most important takeaways from our quarterly results are: one, our core 8x8 UC and CC business was solid and growing and is seeing the green shoots of early successes in our innovation-led strategy. The challenges that resulted in the revenue shortfall versus the guidance are fixable, and we have heightened management attention on them. Two, we still expect to achieve 12% to 13% non-GAAP operating margin for the year, representing operating income growth of at least 40% compared to fiscal 2023. Three, we expect to generate significantly higher cash from operations in fiscal 2024 compared to last year. More on that in a second.

雖然我們的目標是實現我們的預測和指導，但展望未來，我相信我們季度業績中最重要的收穫是：第一，我們的核心8x8 UC 和CC 業務穩健且不斷增長，並且正在看到我們創新的早期成功的綠芽主導戰略。導致收入低於指引的挑戰是可以解決的，我們已經提高了管理層對這些問題的關注。第二，我們仍預計今年的非公認會計原則營業利潤率將達到12% 至13%，這意味著與2023 財年相比，營業收入增長至少40%。第三，我們預計2024 財年的運營現金將顯著高於2024 財年。到去年。稍後會詳細介紹。

That's a quick review of our Q1 results. Let's talk about the 3 lanes we presented last quarter. One, we enable Azure workplaces; two, we empower users across an organization to deliver great customer experiences; and three, we harness the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning. For one, I'll quickly say, our Microsoft Teams integration continues to be a stellar product for us. We grew seat count 80% year-over-year and more than 10% of total seats are connected to Microsoft Teams.

這是對我們第一季度業績的快速回顧。讓我們來談談上個季度我們展示的 3 條車道。第一，我們啟用 Azure 工作場所；第二，我們使整個組織的用戶能夠提供出色的客戶體驗；第三，我們利用人工智能和機器學習的力量。首先，我會很快說，我們的 Microsoft Teams 集成對我們來說仍然是一款出色的產品。我們的席位數量同比增長了 80%，超過 10% 的席位連接到 Microsoft Teams。

Further, we continue to evolve the product. Last quarter, we added new user onboarding capabilities to speed up time to value. We believe we are the leading UCaaS vendor that offers true cloud-to-cloud teams integration. And let's not forget, we were the first Microsoft Teams certified contact center. Simply put, I believe we are still the best by far.

此外，我們繼續改進產品。上季度，我們添加了新的用戶引導功能，以加快實現價值的速度。我們相信我們是提供真正的雲到雲團隊集成的領先 UCaaS 供應商。我們不要忘記，我們是第一個獲得 Microsoft Teams 認證的聯絡中心。簡而言之，我相信我們仍然是迄今為止最好的。

Turning to Lanes 2 and 3, empowering users and harnessing AI. As we discussed in prior quarters, our strategy is to increase R&D investments in high ROI innovation to drive durable growth, reduce investments in low ROI promotional activity and focus the sales organization for greater efficiency. It is simple in creation, but difficult to execute. While the decline in promotional activity shows up in revenue immediately, it takes time for investments in R&D to show up in new products and even more time to drive growth on our income statement.

轉向第 2 條和第 3 條，賦予用戶權力並利用人工智能。正如我們在前幾個季度所討論的，我們的戰略是增加對高投資回報率創新的研發投資，以推動持久增長，減少對低投資回報率促銷活動的投資，並專注於銷售組織以提高效率。創建起來很簡單，但執行起來卻很困難。雖然促銷活動的下降會立即反映在收入中，但研發投資需要時間才能體現在新產品上，甚至需要更多時間才能推動損益表的增長。

Take Supervisor Workspace, our dynamic new UX for Contact Center. First, this product was built by the engineering teams we acquired via Fuze, again, showing the value of this transaction added to our organization. We started work on it a year ago. We released to early adopters in March, and we released enhancements based on customer feedback last week. The early customer response has been fantastic with adoption on track to rival agent workspace as our fastest new product adoption ever. It should now begin to have a meaningful influence on our sales process, ultimately resulting in higher retention, cross-sell and more customers.

以主管工作區為例，這是我們面向聯絡中心的動態新用戶體驗。首先，該產品是由我們通過 Fuze 收購的工程團隊構建的，這再次顯示了這筆交易為我們的組織帶來的價值。我們在一年前就開始了這方面的工作。我們於三月份向早期採用者發布了該版本，並於上周根據客戶反饋發布了增強功能。早期客戶的反應非常好，我們的新產品採用速度很快，有望與競爭對手的座席工作空間相媲美。它現在應該開始對我們的銷售流程產生有意義的影響，最終導致更高的保留率、交叉銷售和更多客戶。

The time from the first dollar invested to the time showing up in revenue could be as long as 18 to 24 months. As we continue to invest in innovation, we are building a competitive moat that can last for years. I believe this will drive revenue growth and deliver value to our customers and our shareholders for an extended period.

從投入第一美元到產生收入的時間可能長達 18 至 24 個月。隨著我們不斷投資創新，我們正在打造一條可以持續多年的競爭護城河。我相信這將推動收入增長，並在較長一段時間內為我們的客戶和股東創造價值。

Let me walk through a couple of examples how 8x8 solutions are transforming customer processes to deliver better customer experiences. The first example highlights how customers with field services can transform their processes to reduce costs and improve their customer experiences through the full XCaaS capabilities of UC plus CC plus CPaaS.

讓我通過幾個示例來介紹 8x8 解決方案如何轉變客戶流程以提供更好的客戶體驗。第一個示例強調了擁有現場服務的客戶如何通過 UC 加 CC 加 CPaaS 的完整 XCaaS 功能來轉變其流程，以降低成本並改善客戶體驗。

Platform Housing Group's before and after case study shown in the earnings slide is a visual representation of this triple play use case. For those that don't know, Platform Housing Group is one of the largest housing associations in the U.K. Midlands with over 48,000 homes and more than 120,000 customers and has ambitious plans to build around 1,300 new homes every year. Platform Housing Group elevates employee and customer engagement using 8x8.

收益幻燈片中顯示的 Platform Housing Group 的前後案例研究是這個三重播放用例的直觀表示。也許您不知道，Platform Housing Group 是英國中部地區最大的住房協會之一，擁有超過 48,000 套住房和超過 120,000 名客戶，並製定了每年建造約 1,300 套新住房的雄心勃勃的計劃。 Platform Housing Group 使用 8x8 提高員工和客戶的參與度。

When a customer calls the Platform Housing's contact center, which runs on our XCaaS, a video consultation is offered via SMS link, so the customer can show their problem to a representative. If the visit is needed, HQ can send SMS messages to field service personnel, including pictures, videos and notes related to the issue. Reminders are sent to the customers so they are home and a follow-up CSAT survey via SMS concludes the interaction. Details are automatically saved in the 8x8 contact center as well as Platform Housing's Microsoft Dynamics 365 system.

當客戶致電在我們的 XCaaS 上運行的 Platform Housing 聯絡中心時，會通過短信鏈接提供視頻諮詢，以便客戶可以向代表展示他們的問題。如果需要上門，總部可以向現場服務人員發送短信，包括與問題相關的圖片、視頻和註釋。我們會向客戶發送提醒，讓他們回家，並通過短信進行後續 CSAT 調查來結束互動。詳細信息會自動保存在 8x8 聯絡中心以及 Platform Housing 的 Microsoft Dynamics 365 系統中。

Following implementation, Platform Housing Group has been able to close almost 40% of the repair calls remotely without requiring a visit from field service personnel. Further, over 1/4 of calls no longer need a diagnostic visit, reducing the total number of visits and speeding up time to resolution. Platform Housing is saving nearly 600 home repair visits per month at an industry average cost of GBP 200 per visit. This can mean realized savings over GBP 100,000 per month and achieving faster resolution times.

實施後，Platform Housing Group 能夠遠程關閉近 40% 的維修電話，而無需現場服務人員上門。此外，超過 1/4 的呼叫不再需要診斷訪問，從而減少了訪問總數並加快了解決時間。 Platform Housing 每月可節省近 600 次上門維修次數，行業平均每次上門成本為 200 英鎊。這意味著每月可節省超過 100,000 英鎊，並實現更快的解決時間。

This type of integrated solution can be replicated across all kinds of service industries, think insurance, health care, maintenance and repair businesses. The cross-sell opportunities for 8x8 is large. Adding CPaaS to just half our contact center customers could add tens of millions in annual usage revenue.

這種類型的集成解決方案可以在各種服務行業中復制，例如保險、醫療保健、維護和維修業務。 8x8 的交叉銷售機會很大。為我們一半的聯絡中心客戶添加 CPaaS 就可以增加數千萬的年使用收入。

Another recently introduced product, digital Intelligent Customer Assistant, or ICA, has the potential to drive revenue directly through increased subscriptions and usage fees. ICA is our generative AI-enabled digital chatbot. Early customers are finding it easy to deploy and incredibly effective at reducing resolution times for simple inquiries. We have quickly gone over 100,000 interactions since April and are growing double digits month-to-month and we are still in the early adopter phase.

最近推出的另一個產品是數字智能客戶助理（ICA），有可能通過增加訂閱和使用費來直接增加收入。 ICA 是我們的生成式人工智能數字聊天機器人。早期客戶發現它易於部署，並且在減少簡單查詢的解決時間方面非常有效。自 4 月份以來，我們的互動量很快就超過了 100,000 次，並且每個月都在以兩位數的速度增長，而且我們仍處於早期採用階段。

In one use case, a U.K.-based shuttle and taxi service deployed ICA initially to schedule pickups. Within weeks of deployment, more than 50% of the cases that previously went to the call center were being handled without live agent interaction. In another case, a major PC manufacturer deployed ICA for the single use case around warranty authentication via SMS. It was so successful that within weeks, they were adding more channels and adding more use cases.

在一個用例中，英國的一家班車和出租車服務公司最初部署了 ICA 來安排接送服務。在部署後的幾週內，超過 50% 的先前發送給呼叫中心的案例都在沒有實時客服互動的情況下得到了處理。在另一個案例中，一家大型 PC 製造商針對通過 SMS 進行保修驗證的單一用例部署了 ICA。它非常成功，以至於在幾週內，他們就添加了更多渠道並添加了更多用例。

Our advantage with ICA extends beyond the chatbot technology itself to the tight integration of the chatbot into the contact center workflow. While bots are good at resolving simple issues, even the most advanced best trained AI bots cannot resolve every issue. And sometimes, the customer just wants to deal with a live agent. When this happens, we can seamlessly transfer the customer to the live agent with all the metadata attached, meaning no reauthentication, no redoing the same steps over again and no more customer frustration.

我們在 ICA 方面的優勢不僅限於聊天機器人技術本身，還包括聊天機器人與聯絡中心工作流程的緊密集成。雖然機器人擅長解決簡單的問題，但即使是最先進、訓練有素的人工智能機器人也無法解決所有問題。有時，客戶只想與現場代理打交道。發生這種情況時，我們可以將客戶無縫轉移到實時代理並附加所有元數據，這意味著無需重新身份驗證，無需再次重做相同的步驟，也不會再讓客戶感到沮喪。

Further, we can feed any information given to the chatbot into the agent assist product, even if it's from a different vendor. So the live agent is better prepared and can successfully resolve the issue in less time. The bot becomes part of a fully orchestrated customer journey rather than an island off to the site, resulting in higher CSAT and retention. Our voice version of ICA is moving into early adoption beta phase now with the same amazing integration into our contact center.

此外，我們可以將提供給聊天機器人的任何信息輸入到代理輔助產品中，即使它來自不同的供應商。因此，現場客服人員可以做好更好的準備，並可以在更短的時間內成功解決問題。該機器人成為完全精心策劃的客戶旅程的一部分，而不是遠離網站的孤島，從而提高 CSAT 和保留率。我們的 ICA 語音版本現在正進入早期採用測試階段，並以同樣驚人的方式集成到我們的聯絡中心中。

Our open platform approach is based on delivering superior customer outcomes. In these examples, both the customer and the live agent have a better experience. Further, the business is able to effectively leverage existing agent productivity tools, which can increase ROI on prior investments. We can't possibly build great tools for every possible use case, but we can't enable them through our integration capabilities with UI/UX widgets, APIs or Webhooks.

我們的開放平台方法基於提供卓越的客戶成果。在這些示例中，客戶和人工客服人員都獲得了更好的體驗。此外，企業能夠有效地利用現有的座席生產力工具，從而提高先前投資的投資回報率。我們不可能為每種可能的用例構建出色的工具，但我們無法通過與 UI/UX 小部件、API 或 Webhooks 的集成功能來啟用它們。

With our platform providing core services like intelligent routing, orchestration, analytics and reporting, customers can build solutions tailored to their needs. They can use our bots and apps, build their own or choose to deploy third-party solutions purpose-built for the specific use case. Our multiple ways to integrate with partners bring to life a whole new way of making integrations feel native versus loosely stitch together as is often the case with other contact center software. There appears to be no trade-off between functionality and ease of use for the customer and the technology partners love it because we don't compete with them.

借助我們提供智能路由、編排、分析和報告等核心服務的平台，客戶可以構建適合其需求的解決方案。他們可以使用我們的機器人和應用程序，構建自己的機器人和應用程序，或選擇部署專為特定用例構建的第三方解決方案。我們與合作夥伴集成的多種方式帶來了一種全新的方式，使集成感覺是原生的，而不是像其他聯絡中心軟件那樣鬆散地拼接在一起。對於客戶來說，功能和易用性之間似乎沒有權衡，技術合作夥伴喜歡它，因為我們不與他們競爭。

We started our partnership journey in January and formally announced it in early July. We have been overwhelmed with the positive response and have more than 40 partners today and even more onboarding. These are recognizable, highly funded companies doing some amazing things. We have fully functional integrations released today and a lot more coming.

我們於一月份開始了合作之旅，並於七月初正式宣布。我們對積極的回應感到不知所措，今天已經有 40 多個合作夥伴，甚至還有更多的合作夥伴加入。這些都是知名的、資金雄厚的公司，正在做一些令人驚奇的事情。我們今天發布了功能齊全的集成，並且即將推出更多功能。

Our ecosystem will naturally expand as the use cases for AI in the contact center mature. For now, customers want reliability, security, ease of use and a road map that protects their investment. They may recognize the potential of artificial intelligence in the contact center, but they want the flexibility to adopt new solutions and technologies at their own pace. Customers like Healthfirst, Sotheby's, Horizon Hobby, United Neuroskeletal Partners (sic) [United Musculoskeletal Partners] and Sovereign Housing are embracing our approach and committing to the 8x8 platform. These wins some with TCVs of 7 figures are detailed in our earnings deck. Although they vary by industry, geography and size, these customers chose 8x8 to improve their customer outcomes today and well into the future.

隨著聯絡中心人工智能用例的成熟，我們的生態系統將自然而然地擴展。目前，客戶需要可靠性、安全性、易用性以及保護其投資的路線圖。他們可能認識到人工智能在聯絡中心的潛力，但他們希望能夠按照自己的節奏靈活地採用新的解決方案和技術。 Healthfirst、Sotheby's、Horizo​​n Hobby、United Neuroskeletal Partners (sic) [United Musculoskeletal Partners] 和 Sovereign Housing 等客戶正在接受我們的方法並致力於 8x8 平台。這些勝利的 TCV 高達 7 位數，詳情請參閱我們的收益表。儘管這些客戶因行業、地理位置和規模而異，但他們選擇 8x8 來改善當前和未來的客戶成果。

Don't take our word for it. On July 31, Metrigy released its inaugural Contact Center as a Service, MetriRank. Based on market share, financials, market share momentum, product mix, customer sentiment and the customer business success, 8x8 ranked fifth, higher than I believe most listeners would have guessed and ahead of Amazon, Dialpad, Talkdesk, Vonage, Avaya, Content Guru, UJET and Zoom. Additionally, we ranked highest in customer sentiment. We live customer obsession. Our contact center rocks, and it's constantly getting better.

不要相信我們的話。 7 月 31 日，Metrigy 發布了其首個聯絡中心即服務 MetriRank。根據市場份額、財務狀況、市場份額勢頭、產品組合、客戶情緒和客戶業務成功，8x8 排名第五，高於我相信大多數聽眾的猜測，領先於 Amazon、Dialpad、Talkdesk、Vonage、Avaya、Content Guru 、UJET 和Zoom。此外，我們在客戶情緒方面排名最高。我們對客戶的痴迷。我們的聯絡中心非常出色，並且不斷變得更好。

Let's turn to what all this means for us as a company and you, the investors. Creating value for our customers and our shareholders over an extended period of time is fundamental to everything we do. I believe we will achieve this by continuing to invest in innovation while managing within a financial framework where revenue growth exceeds expense growth and excess cash flow is returned to investors.

讓我們來看看這一切對我們公司和投資者意味著什麼。長期為我們的客戶和股東創造價值是我們所做一切的基礎。我相信，我們將通過繼續投資創新，同時在收入增長超過支出增長並將多餘現金流返還給投資者的財務框架內進行管理來實現這一目標。

I want to lay out our financial path for fiscal year '24 through fiscal year '26 time period. This is not guidance, rather the path we want to be on. We expect to increase our cash flow from operations by an average of more than 20% per year. This will be driven by a combination of margin expansion, debt paydown and revenue growth. We remain committed to returning $250 million to investors over the period, mainly through debt retirement. We have already returned $25 million and have $225 million to go.

我想列出我們 24 財年到 26 財年期間的財務路徑。這不是指導，而是我們想要走的道路。我們預計運營現金流每年平均增加 20% 以上。這將由利潤率擴張、債務償還和收入增長共同推動。我們仍然致力於在此期間向投資者返還 2.5 億美元，主要是通過債務清償。我們已經返還了 2500 萬美元，還有 2.25 億美元尚未返還。

Since value accrues on a per share basis, we have taken the pioneering step to reduce the dilution from our employee stock programs over time. While the full benefit is expected to take 3 years to be realized as we work through the vesting of previous grants. We expect the annual increases in diluted shares outstanding to be roughly 6% per year through fiscal '26. This will depend on the actual stock price and excludes any acquisitions. This does include employee stock purchase, or ESPP. We remain believers that having employees and stockholders aligns well with shareholders' interest. Over the long term, we want to reduce annual growth to 4% or less.

由於價值以每股為基礎累積，我們採取了開創性的舉措，以減少員工股票計劃隨著時間的推移而產生的稀釋作用。雖然我們正在努力兌現之前的贈款，但預計需要 3 年時間才能實現全部效益。我們預計，到 2026 財年，稀釋後流通股的年增長率將約為 6%。這將取決於實際股價，不包括任何收購。這確實包括員工股票購買（ESPP）。我們仍然相信，擁有員工和股東符合股東的利益。從長遠來看，我們希望將年增長率降低到4%或更低。

These 3 items combined will drive what I consider to be the most important metric for shareholder value, cash flow from operations per share. Increasing cash from operations while reducing share dilution is our financial north star. As a proof point, over the last 4 quarters, we have generated cash flow from operations of $69 million while our reported fully diluted share count is down by over 3 million shares over that time period. This is not to say we are not concerned about service revenue growth. We are. We expect to exit fiscal '24 with low single-digit growth and then show acceleration in fiscal '25 and fiscal year '26 with a goal of getting to 8% to 12% year-over-year revenue growth as soon as possible.

這三項結合起來將推動我認為最重要的股東價值指標，即每股運營現金流。增加運營現金，同時減少股權稀釋是我們的財務北極星。作為一個證明，在過去 4 個季度中，我們從運營中產生了 6900 萬美元的現金流，而我們報告的完全稀釋股票數量在此期間減少了超過 300 萬股。這並不是說我們不關心服務收入的增長。我們是。我們預計 24 財年將以低個位數增長結束，然後在 25 財年和 26 財年呈現加速增長，目標是盡快實現 8% 至 12% 的同比收入增長。

While doing all of the above, we continue to invest in the future of the company. Growth will come by building innovative products, expanding our channel and developing our employees. This road may not always be smooth or linear, but we believe that is very doable for us. My confidence is built on the accelerated pace of new product introductions, the early customer response to these new products, our recent financial performance and the improvements in the sales process and go-to-market we will achieve under the leadership of our new Chief Revenue Officer, Lisa Martin. So while the quarter was not perfect and we know we have more work to do, it was a step in the right direction, and we have a plan.

在完成上述所有工作的同時，我們繼續投資於公司的未來。增長將通過打造創新產品、拓展渠道和培養員工來實現。這條路可能並不總是平坦或線性的，但我們相信這對我們來說是非常可行的。我的信心建立在新產品推出速度的加快、客戶對這些新產品的早期反應、我們最近的財務業績以及在新任首席營收官的領導下我們將實現的銷售流程和上市方面的改進警官，麗莎·馬丁。因此，雖然這個季度並不完美，而且我們知道我們還有更多工作要做，但這是朝著正確方向邁出的一步，我們有一個計劃。

Lastly, I want to thank our customers, our partners, our employees and you, our investors, for going on this journey with us. And with that, I will turn the call over to Kevin.

最後，我要感謝我們的客戶、合作夥伴、員工以及您，我們的投資者，與我們一起踏上這段旅程。這樣，我會將電話轉給凱文。

Thank you, Sam, and good afternoon, everyone. We remained financially disciplined and delivered strong operating income and cash flow in the fiscal 2024 first quarter, exceeding our guidance range for non-GAAP gross margin and non-GAAP operating margin and exceeding our expectations for cash flow from operations. We have delivered positive non-GAAP operating income and cash flow from operations for 10 consecutive quarters, and we have prepaid $58 million of debt, more than 10% of the total outstanding balance since August 2022.

謝謝你，薩姆，大家下午好。我們保持財務紀律，在2024 財年第一季度實現了強勁的營業收入和現金流，超出了我們對非GAAP 毛利率和非GAAP 營業利潤率的指導範圍，也超出了我們對運營現金流的預期。我們已連續 10 個季度實現正的非 GAAP 營業收入和運營現金流，並預付了 5800 萬美元的債務，佔 2022 年 8 月以來未償餘額總額的 10% 以上。

Total revenue for the quarter was $183.3 million, and service revenue was $175.2 million, both decreasing 2% year-over-year and slightly below our guidance range. Our revenue performance was impacted by continued challenges in our CPaaS business in the Asia Pacific region and higher-than-expected churn in our Fuze customer base. Other revenue for the quarter was $8 million, slightly above the prior quarter and in line with expectations.

該季度總收入為 1.833 億美元，服務收入為 1.752 億美元，均同比下降 2%，略低於我們的指導範圍。我們的收入表現受到亞太地區 CPaaS 業務持續挑戰以及 Fuze 客戶群流失率高於預期的影響。該季度的其他收入為 800 萬美元，略高於上一季度，符合預期。

Total ARR was $703 million at quarter end, up 2% year-over-year reflecting CPaaS headwinds and churn and downsell in our inorganic customer base. Excluding CPaaS usage, our total ARR grew approximately 4% year-over-year. Most CPaaS ARR is in the enterprise segment. And consequently, the CPaaS headwinds did disproportionately affect the enterprise ARR. Enterprise customers accounted for 58% of total ARR, and enterprise ARR was flat sequentially and flat versus the prior year given the aforementioned headwinds.

截至季度末，總 ARR 為 7.03 億美元，同比增長 2%，反映出 CPaaS 的逆風以及我們無機客戶群的流失和降價。不包括 CPaaS 使用情況，我們的總 ARR 同比增長約 4%。大多數 CPaaS ARR 屬於企業領域。因此，CPaaS 的不利因素確實對企業 ARR 產生了不成比例的影響。企業客戶佔總 ARR 的 58%，考慮到上述不利因素，企業 ARR 環比持平，與上年持平。

Turning to gross margin, operating expenses and operating profit, please remember that all items discussed are non-GAAP unless otherwise noted. Service revenue gross margin came in at 76.2%, up 90 basis points sequentially and 280 basis points higher than Q1 '23. We are continuously managing our cost of goods sold and expect service revenue gross margins to remain healthy. Part of the year-over-year increase in service gross margin has been that we have reduced investments in low-margin portions of our business.

關於毛利率、營業費用和營業利潤，請記住，除非另有說明，否則討論的所有項目均非公認會計準則。服務收入毛利率為 76.2%，比上一季度增長 90 個基點，比 23 年第一季度高 280 個基點。我們持續管理銷售成本，並預計服務收入毛利率保持健康。服務毛利率同比增長的部分原因是我們減少了對業務低利潤部分的投資。

As we have said, we are currently focused on improving profitability over revenue growth, and this quarter again shows that. Other revenue gross margin came in at positive 4% for the quarter compared to negative 35.3% in Q1 '23 and 8.6% in Q4 '23, again, a sign of improved profitability versus pure growth. Other revenue gross margin has improved in recent quarters and will vary due to the timing of professional services deployments as well as product mix.

正如我們所說，我們目前的重點是提高盈利能力而不是收入增長，本季度再次證明了這一點。該季度其他收入毛利率為正 4%，而 23 年第一季度為負 35.3%，23 年第四季度為 8.6%，這再次表明盈利能力相對於純增長有所改善。其他收入毛利率在最近幾個季度有所改善，並將因專業服務部署的時間以及產品組合而有所不同。

Overall, fourth quarter gross margin was 73%, an increase of 450 basis points year-over-year and up 50 basis points sequentially. For the first quarter of 2024, gross profit dollars grew approximately 4% year-over-year, significantly higher than overall revenue growth as we focused on improving profitability of our highest value products and services.

總體而言，第四季度毛利率為73%，同比增長450個基點，環比增長50個基點。 2024 年第一季度，毛利潤同比增長約 4%，明顯高於整體收入增長，因為我們專注於提高最高價值產品和服務的盈利能力。

Turning to operating expenses. Research and development was 14.9% of revenue, in line with our 15% target and indicative of the continued investment we are making in product innovation. Just a quick comment about R&D. Some of the investments we are making will not show an ROI for multiple quarters as it takes time to build world-class software, generate awareness and close deals. We believe that making these product innovation investments will lead to sustainable long-term growth.

轉向運營費用。研究與開發佔收入的 14.9%，符合我們 15% 的目標，並表明我們在產品創新方面持續投資。關於研發的簡短評論。我們正在進行的一些投資不會顯示多個季度的投資回報率，因為構建世界一流的軟件、提高知名度和達成交易需要時間。我們相信，進行這些產品創新投資將帶來可持續的長期增長。

Sales and marketing expense was 32.8% of revenue, down from 38.2% of revenue in Q1 '23. Sales and marketing expenses were down $11.7 million from Q1 '23 as we realize synergies from the integration of Fuze and 8x8 sales and marketing organizations and realigned our resources to focus on target markets and improve efficiency. General and administration as a percentage of revenue was down 50 basis points and $1.1 million sequentially as we incurred lower compensation, employer taxes and benefits costs.

銷售和營銷費用佔收入的 32.8%，低於 23 年第一季度收入的 38.2%。銷售和營銷費用比 23 年第一季度減少了 1170 萬美元，因為我們實現了 Fuze 與 8x8 銷售和營銷組織整合的協同效應，並重新調整了我們的資源以專注於目標市場並提高效率。由於薪酬、雇主稅和福利成本降低，一般和行政管理佔收入的百分比比上一季度下降了 50 個基點，下降了 110 萬美元。

Total non-GAAP spending as measured by COGS plus R&D, plus sales and marketing plus G&A was down more than $20 million or approximately 12% year-over-year and reflected our strategic cost realignment actions in the second half of the prior fiscal year. At this point, we believe our overall cost structure is where it should be to drive our strategy. Our guidance will include the step-up of expenses for pay increases.

以銷貨成本加研發、銷售和營銷加一般管理費用衡量的非公認會計準則總支出同比下降超過2000 萬美元，即約12%，這反映了我們在上一財年下半年的戰略成本調整行動。目前，我們相信我們的整體成本結構應該能夠推動我們的戰略。我們的指導將包括增加加薪費用。

The combination of improved gross margins and lower operating expense resulted in non-GAAP operating profit of $26.4 million, up approximately 160% year-over-year and up over 6% sequentially. We achieved 14.4% operating margin in fiscal Q1 versus our guidance of 12.5% to 13%.

毛利率的提高和運營費用的降低相結合，實現了非 GAAP 運營利潤 2,640 萬美元，同比增長約 160%，環比增長超過 6%。我們在第一財季實現了 14.4% 的營業利潤率，而我們的指導值為 12.5% 至 13%。

Starting this quarter, we are adding a commonly used operating metric, adjusted EBITDA, which is reconciled to GAAP results in our Q1 '24 press release. Q1 '24 adjusted EBITDA was $33.8 million, 18.5% of revenue and up 79% year-over-year. Additionally, we have generated well over $100 million of adjusted EBITDA over the past 4 quarters.

從本季度開始，我們將添加一個常用的運營指標，即調整後 EBITDA，該指標已與我們 24 年第 1 季度新聞稿中的 GAAP 結果進行了調整。 2024 年第一季度調整後 EBITDA 為 3,380 萬美元，佔收入的 18.5%，同比增長 79%。此外，過去 4 個季度我們的調整後 EBITDA 遠超 1 億美元。

Cash flow from operations was $26.5 million for the quarter. a multiyear record driven by strong profitability, strong cash collections and lower-than-expected cash interest paid due to the timing of interest payment dates. Cash flow from operating activities has been positive for 10 consecutive quarters and increased more than 90% quarter-over-quarter.

該季度運營現金流為 2650 萬美元。強勁的盈利能力、強勁的現金回籠以及由於利息支付日期的時間安排而支付的現金利息低於預期，推動了多年的記錄。經營活動現金流連續10個季度為正，環比增長90%以上。

As stated in earlier earnings calls, we plan to maintain the cash and investments balance at or above $100 million and use excess cash to reduce the principal amount of our debt. In fiscal 2024, this means we will repay the remaining $63 million of the 2024 convertible notes using cash generated from operations. As we move into fiscal 2025, we will begin repaying the adjustable rate term loan as quickly as possible, which will have a significant and immediate impact on our operating cash flow by reducing cash interest payments.

正如之前的財報電話會議中所述，我們計劃將現金和投資餘額維持在 1 億美元或以上，並使用多餘的現金來減少債務本金。在 2024 財年，這意味著我們將使用運營產生的現金償還 2024 年可轉換票據的剩餘 6300 萬美元。隨著我們進入 2025 財年，我們將盡快開始償還可調整利率定期貸款，這將通過減少現金利息支付對我們的運營現金流產生重大而直接的影響。

Turning to the balance sheet. Total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash ended the fourth quarter at approximately $139 million, flat with the prior quarter despite prepaying $25 million in principal value of our term loan. This $25 million debt repayment was the first installment on our commitment to return $250 million in value to shareholders from fiscal 2024 through fiscal 2026. Given our current cash balance and expected future cash flows, we do not currently anticipate any issues with repaying the remaining 2024 convertible notes with cash when they mature in February 2024.

轉向資產負債表。截至第四季度末，現金、現金等價物和限制性現金總額約為 1.39 億美元，儘管我們預付了 2500 萬美元的定期貸款本金，但與上一季度持平。這筆2500 萬美元的債務償還是我們承諾從2024 財年到2026 財年向股東返還2.5 億美元價值的第一期付款。鑑於我們當前的現金餘額和預期的未來現金流，我們目前預計償還2024年剩餘資金不會出現任何問題。 2024 年 2 月到期時可轉換為現金的可轉換票據。

Remaining performance obligation, or RPO, was approximately $790 million for the quarter, increasing $15 million quarter-over-quarter and $90 million year-over-year on healthy multiyear customer commitments. Additionally, deferred revenue increased $5.5 million or 12% from the prior quarter. While we experienced retention challenges in our inorganic customer base, 8x8 organic customer retention continues to be the highest it has been in 4-plus years. As we noted earlier, we changed our equity cash compensation mix for employees to significantly reduce future equity grants.

本季度剩餘履約義務 (RPO) 約為 7.9 億美元，環比增加 1,500 萬美元，同比增加 9,000 萬美元，這得益於健康的多年客戶承諾。此外，遞延收入比上一季度增加了 550 萬美元，即 12%。雖然我們在無機客戶群中遇到了保留挑戰，但 8x8 有機客戶保留率仍然是 4 年多以來的最高水平。正如我們之前指出的，我們改變了員工的股權現金薪酬組合，以大幅減少未來的股權補助。

Our vesting schedule is typically 3 years, so this change will take time to appear in the income statement. But as we proceed on this path, we expect to significantly reduce dilution due to employee stock programs. As Sam stated in his commentary, increasing cash flow from operations while reducing shareholder dilution is our financial north star, and we are very focused on driving improvement in these metrics as the best way to build shareholder value over time.

我們的兌現期限通常為 3 年，因此這一變化需要一段時間才能體現在損益表中。但當我們沿著這條道路前進時，我們預計會顯著減少因員工持股計劃而導致的股權稀釋。正如薩姆在評論中所說，增加運營現金流，同時減少股東稀釋是我們的財務北極星，我們非常注重推動這些指標的改進，作為隨著時間的推移建立股東價值的最佳方式。

Before turning to guidance, I want to reiterate some of what we said today. As a company, we are very focused on creating value for our shareholders by making smart decisions, even if those decisions take time to pay off. For example, we are investing in innovation with a goal to drive long-term durable growth, we are reducing the mix of equity-based compensation, which will moderate the pace of new share issuances due to employee stock programs, we are shifting sales and marketing investment from small business to enterprise, which has a longer sales cycle and we are leading with CCaaS, which has a much higher potential long-term value from a customer.

在轉向指導之前，我想重申一下我們今天所說的一些內容。作為一家公司，我們非常注重通過做出明智的決策為股東創造價值，即使這些決策需要時間才能獲得回報。例如，我們正在投資創新，目標是推動長期持久增長；我們正在減少基於股權的薪酬組合，這將因員工持股計劃而放緩新股發行的步伐；我們正在轉移銷售和從小企業到大型企業的營銷投資，其銷售週期較長，我們以CCaaS領先，它對客戶具有更高的潛在長期價值。

All of these changes aim to build a sustainable and profitable growth business. While we are making these changes, we plan to maintain strong profit and cash flows throughout fiscal 2024, which is reflected in our guidance for the year. As I mentioned earlier, investors will notice a step-up in expenses starting in the second quarter as we implemented our annual cash compensation raises in early July. The aim is to significantly reduce future equity dilution borne by shareholders in exchange for higher cash compensation to employees.

所有這些變化都旨在建立可持續且盈利的增長業務。在我們做出這些改變的同時，我們計劃在整個 2024 財年保持強勁的利潤和現金流，這反映在我們的年度指導中。正如我之前提到的，隨著我們在 7 月初實施年度現金薪酬上調，投資者會注意到從第二季度開始支出有所增加。目的是大幅減少股東未來承擔的股權稀釋，以換取員工更高的現金報酬。

By trading cash for equity for many of our employees, we can minimize compensation volatility due to market swings, which will help us attract and retain talent in the competitive market. All employees still have the opportunity for equity ownership through our employee stock purchase plan, but this compensation change is intended to reduce stock-based compensation and shareholder dilution over time.

通過為許多員工進行現金換股權，我們可以最大限度地減少市場波動造成的薪酬波動，這將有助於我們在競爭激烈的市場中吸引和留住人才。所有員工仍然有機會通過我們的員工股票購買計劃獲得股權，但這一薪酬變化旨在隨著時間的推移減少基於股票的薪酬和股東稀釋。

This new compensation structure is factored into the guidance I'll be giving and is a primary reason for the step-down in non-GAAP operating margin guidance for Q2. For operating expenses, we plan to continue making the appropriate level of investment in sales and marketing and expect sales and marketing to be in the range of 33% to 34% of revenue throughout fiscal 2024, down from 36% of revenue in fiscal 2023.

這種新的薪酬結構已納入我將給出的指導中，也是下調第二季度非公認會計原則營業利潤率指導的主要原因。對於運營費用，我們計劃繼續對銷售和營銷進行適當水平的投資，並預計整個 2024 財年銷售和營銷將佔收入的 33% 至 34%，低於 2023 財年佔收入的 36%。

We plan to focus our R&D efforts on continued product innovation and expect R&D as a percent of revenue to remain about 15% as we continue on the path of investment in our customer-focused product strategy, which emphasizes contact center. We are focused on extracting more leverage from our G&A functions over time as we work to improve operating efficiencies in those areas.

我們計劃將研發工作重點放在持續的產品創新上，隨著我們繼續投資以客戶為中心的產品戰略（強調聯絡中心），預計研發佔收入的百分比將保持在 15% 左右。隨著時間的推移，我們致力於提高這些領域的運營效率，並致力於從 G&A 職能中獲取更多槓桿作用。

We are establishing guidance for the second quarter of fiscal 2024, ending September 30, 2023, as follows: we anticipate service revenue to be in the range of $173 million to $178 million, approximately flat from Q1 at the midpoint and representing approximately minus 2% year-over-year growth at the midpoint as we still have a challenging comparison for CPaaS, and we remain in transition in other areas.

我們正在為截至2023 年9 月30 日的2024 財年第二季度製定指引如下：我們預計服務收入將在1.73 億美元至1.78 億美元之間，與第一季度中點大致持平，約佔負2 %同比增長處於中點，因為我們與 CPaaS 的比較仍然具有挑戰性，而且我們在其他領域仍處於轉型期。

We anticipate total revenue to be in the range of $180 million to $186 million, flat with the prior quarter at the midpoint and representing approximately minus 2% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. Our midpoint of guidance implies a slight sequential decline in other revenue as other revenue can vary based on customer-specific deployment schedules.

我們預計總收入將在 1.8 億美元至 1.86 億美元之間，與上一季度中點持平，中點同比增長約-2%。我們的指導中點意味著其他收入會略有連續下降，因為其他收入可能會根據客戶特定的部署計劃而有所不同。

We anticipate gross margin to be between 72% and 73%. We are targeting an operating margin between 10.5% and 11.5% as we increased employee cash compensation as noted earlier. We expect cash flow from operations to be positive, but down sequentially as we pay greater compensation expenses and cash interest, and we are modeling a more normalized amount of cash collections.

我們預計毛利率在 72% 至 73% 之間。如前所述，隨著我們增加員工現金薪酬，我們的目標是營業利潤率在 10.5% 至 11.5% 之間。我們預計運營現金流將為正，但隨著我們支付更多的補償費用和現金利息，並​​且我們正在對更正常化的現金回收量進行建模，現金流量將連續下降。

We anticipate interest expense of approximately $9 million and cash interest payments of approximately $13 million. Note that the Q2 '24 cash interest payment includes $2 million that was paid in early July, but related to Q1 '24 accrued interest expense. Also note that interest expenses can change as our term loan is subject to monthly interest rate adjustments.

我們預計利息支出約為 900 萬美元，現金利息支付約為 1300 萬美元。請注意，2024 年第二季度的現金利息支付包括 7 月初支付的 200 萬美元，但與 24 年第一季度的應計利息費用相關。另請注意，利息支出可能會發生變化，因為我們的定期貸款會根據每月利率進行調整。

We estimate a fully diluted share count of approximately 123 million shares. The increase reflects a full quarter weighting of RSUs that vested in June as well as the purchase of shares through our ESPP program.

我們估計完全稀釋後的股數約為 1.23 億股。這一增長反映了 6 月份歸屬的 RSU 的整個季度權重以及通過我們的 ESPP 計劃購買的股票。

We are updating guidance for fiscal 2024 ending March 31, 2024, as following: we anticipate service revenue to be in the range of $701 million to $711 million, representing less than 1% negative year-over-year growth at the midpoint as we expect the first half headwinds followed by low single-digit growth in the second half of the year; we anticipate total revenue to be in the range of $732.5 million to $742.5 million, representing approximately negative 1% year-over-year growth at the midpoint.

我們正在更新截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日的 2024 財年指引，具體如下：我們預計服務收入將在 7.01 億美元至 7.11 億美元之間，正如我們預期的那樣，中點同比負增長將低於 1%上半年出現逆風，下半年出現低個位數增長；我們預計總收入將在 7.325 億美元至 7.425 億美元之間，中間值同比大約負增長 1%。

Similar to service revenue growth rates, we expect total revenue growth rates on a year-over-year basis to be higher in the second half of fiscal 2024. We anticipate gross margin to be between 72% and 73%. We continue to focus on delivering a solid operating margin and anticipate achieving between 12% and 13% for the year versus the 8.4% achieved in fiscal 2023. This operating margin guidance is consistent with the guidance we provided in our prior earnings call as we are committed to delivering a healthy operating margin to our shareholders despite our current revenue headwinds.

與服務收入增長率類似，我們預計 2024 財年下半年總收入同比增長率將更高。我們預計毛利率將在 72% 至 73% 之間。我們繼續專注於提供穩定的營業利潤率，預計今年將實現12% 至13% 的目標，而2023 財年為8.4%。這一營業利潤率指導與我們在之前的財報電話會議中提供的指導一致，因為我們儘管我們目前的收入不利，但仍致力於為股東提供健康的營業利潤率。

We expect cash flow from operations to be directionally aligned with non-GAAP operating profit trends, subject to timing differences in collections, debt interest and other payables. We anticipate debt interest expense and cash paid for debt interest of $35 million to $36 million, again, noting that our term loan is subject to monthly interest rate adjustments. We estimate fully diluted share count growth averaging approximately 2 million shares per quarter from the 123 million shares guided for Q2 '24.

我們預計運營現金流將與非公認會計準則運營利潤趨勢方向一致，但會受到收款、債務利息和其他應付款項的時間差異的影響。我們預計債務利息支出和債務利息支付的現金為 3500 萬至 3600 萬美元，並再次指出我們的定期貸款每月利率調整。我們估計，完全攤薄後的股票數量平均每季度增長約 200 萬股，而 2024 年第二季度指導的股票數量為 1.23 億股。

In closing, I believe that our continued focus on operating margin and cash flow from operations is the correct financial strategy for us at this time. At the same time, we are very focused on building a sustainable growth engine for the future. Fiscal year 2024 is a period of transition. And in fiscal 2025, we expect to show some revenue re-acceleration while continuing to focus on profitability, cash flow from operations and per share metrics. This strategy enables us to remain an innovation-led company as we fund investments in key product areas.

最後，我相信，我們目前持續關注營業利潤率和運營現金流是我們正確的財務策略。同時，我們非常注重為未來打造可持續增長引擎。 2024 財年是一個過渡時期。在 2025 財年，我們預計收入將重新加速增長，同時繼續關注盈利能力、運營現金流和每股指標。這一戰略使我們能夠繼續成為一家以創新為主導的公司，因為我們為關鍵產品領域的投資提供資金。

I would like to thank the entire 8x8 team for working in concert to deliver this quarter's robust profit and cash flow growth, and I look forward to the continued execution of our strategy to capture more of the contact center market to delight our customers and to deliver on our commitment to solid profitability and cash flow generation.

我要感謝整個 8x8 團隊的共同努力，實現了本季度強勁的利潤和現金流增長，我期待著繼續執行我們的戰略，佔領更多的聯絡中心市場，讓我們的客戶滿意，並交付我們致力於實現穩健的盈利能力和現金流生成。

Operator, we are ready for questions.

接線員，我們準備好回答問題了。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question for today will be coming from Catharine Trebnick of Rosenblatt.

（操作員說明）今天我們的第一個問題將來自 Rosenblatt 的 Catharine Trebnick。

So Sam, a nice job on the Microsoft pull-through, but really, what are you seeing? Yesterday, we had RingCentral support and today you reported. And you are in this pivot, but what are you really seeing in terms of buying patterns from your target market, the SME? That's the first question, I guess I have.

Sam，在微軟的渡過難關中乾得不錯，但實際上，你看到了什麼？昨天，我們獲得了 RingCentral 支持，今天您進行了報導。您正處於這個關鍵時期，但您真正看到的目標市場（中小企業）的購買模式是什麼？這是第一個問題，我想我有。

And the second one is, congratulations on Metrigy and being in the top 5. RingCentral now, it looks like they are following your lead in terms of the Ring.cx and what's your take on how far you are with your product versus them hitting the same target market?

第二個是，祝賀 Metrigy 進入前 5 名。現在，RingCentral 看起來他們正在追隨您在 Ring.cx 方面的領先地位，您對您的產品與他們達到的目標相比有何看法？相同的目標市場？

All right. So you asked what are the buying patterns in our target market. Look, I think there's some cautiousness that's crept into the market. We see it in smaller order sizes, a little bit longer deal times the CFO, we've seen an increase in signature authority on first deals, maybe a longer POC, those kinds of things. I think we mentioned this last quarter also. So we've seen a little bit further elongation of the sales cycle in there.

好的。所以你問我們目標市場的購買模式是什麼。看，我認為市場中已經出現了一些謹慎情緒。我們看到訂單規模更小，首席財務官的交易時間更長一些，我們看到第一筆交易的簽名權有所增加，也許更長的 POC，諸如此類。我想我們上個季度也提到過這一點。因此，我們看到銷售週期進一步延長。

At the same time, it's -- we're absolutely seeing a lot of interest in the new things that we're announcing, right? And those are relatively early, but we have Supervisor Workspace that's now generally available, a lot of interest in that. Intelligent Customer Assistant digital is exiting beta here shortly in the next month or 2, probably, probably nothing promised. And we're -- I mean, we've seen just a massive increase in the amount of usage of that coming out of the beta site customers and we expect that to continue as we go to general availability.

與此同時，我們絕對看到人們對我們宣布的新事物很感興趣，對嗎？這些還相對較早，但我們現在已經普遍提供了主管工作區，人們對此很感興趣。數字智能客戶助理將在下個月或兩個月內退出測試版，可能沒有任何承諾。我的意思是，我們已經看到測試版網站客戶的使用量大幅增加，我們預計隨著我們的全面發布，這種情況將繼續下去。

So we're in that transition where the new products aren't yet a material amount of money generating revenue, but there's a lot of interest in them on a go-forward basis, and we continue to generate a lot of cash flow. So while there's some economic headwinds, I think, and just some cautiousness in our target markets, I think we're doing all the right things as a company.

因此，我們正處於轉型期，新產品還沒有產生大量收入，但人們對它們很感興趣，而且我們繼續產生大量現金流。因此，雖然我認為存在一些經濟逆風，而且我們的目標市場也有些謹慎，但我認為作為一家公司，我們正在做所有正確的事情。

In terms of RingCentral following us, I'll let them speak for themselves. I guess all I would say is we've been in the market since 2011. It's nice that they're showing up in 2023. I think by 2034, they'll be right about where we are today.

至於 RingCentral 關注我們的情況，我會讓他們自己說話。我想我想說的是，我們自 2011 年以來就一直在市場上。很高興他們在 2023 年出現。我認為到 2034 年，他們將達到我們今天的水平。

And our next question will be coming from [Jamie Reynolds] of Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題將來自摩根士丹利的[傑米·雷諾茲]。

You've got [Jamie] on for Meta. I guess just firstly, could you contextualize the uptick in deal activity that you're seeing tied to XCaaS? And then secondly, when customers are talking about adding an AI functionality, do they know what they're looking for yet? Or are they still looking for guidance? I guess another way to think about that is, is it elongating sales cycles?

你已經為 Meta 準備了 [Jamie]。我想首先，您能否將您所看到的與 XCaaS 相關的交易活動的增長聯繫起來？其次，當客戶談論添加人工智能功能時，他們知道自己在尋找什麼嗎？或者他們仍在尋求指導？我想另一種思考方式是，它是否會延長銷售週期？

Okay. So what are they looking for in AI? And what was the first part, Kate?

好的。那麼他們在人工智能中尋找什麼？第一部分是什麼，凱特？

It was the uptick in XCaaS deals.

這是 XCaaS 交易的增加。

It's on XCaaS deals. So the 2 are related to each other, right? So we announced our ecosystem in early July. We've been out on the road talking about the fact that we've got an open ecosystem. We've got a number of partners on nearly 20. We've got integrations out there on the MLAI space. We've got, for example, Cognigy, our intelligent customer assistant out there. And so there's a lot of activity. That's driving a lot of the uptick.

這是 XCaaS 交易。那麼這兩者是相互關聯的，對嗎？因此，我們在七月初宣布了我們的生態系統。我們一直在談論我們擁有一個開放的生態系統這一事實。我們有近 20 個合作夥伴。我們在 MLAI 領域進行了集成。例如，我們有 Cognigy，我們的智能客戶助理。所以有很多活動。這推動了大幅增長。

We were at CCW, Contact Center World in Las Vegas. And I would say the tone on the show floor was very much I want to deploy this in the next year or 2, help me. So to answer your first part and second part kind of combined, they are looking for help. And I think they're looking for help to not make AI an island onto itself. I think it's very easy to buy a product today that does something very specific, a chatbot, an MLAI chatbot. It's often its own world, et cetera.

我們在拉斯維加斯的 CCW，Contact Center World。我想說，展會上的基調是我非常想在未來一兩年內部署它，請幫助我。因此，為了回答你的第一部分和第二部分的結合，他們正在尋求幫助。我認為他們正在尋求幫助，以免人工智能成為一座孤島。我認為現在很容易購買一款執行非常具體功能的產品，例如聊天機器人、MLAI 聊天機器人。它通常是它自己的世界，等等。

But what happens if the user of the chatbot has a problem? Then it becomes very complicated. That's why we've entered the market with our API framework and our integration framework so that if you're on a chatbot or you're using voice bots or using these kinds of things and you need a live agent, you need to complete that circle, you can transfer with all the metadata. So no reauthentication, no repeating yourself over and over again. I was recently on a chatbot with our 401(k) provider. I had to authenticate on the chatbot, then I had to authenticate again to the agent. Irritating customer experience. We eliminate all that.

但如果聊天機器人的用戶遇到問題怎麼辦？那麼事情就會變得非常複雜。這就是為什麼我們通過我們的 API 框架和集成框架進入市場，這樣，如果您使用聊天機器人或者您正在使用語音機器人或使用此類東西並且您需要一個實時代理，那麼您需要完成該任務圈子，您可以傳輸所有元數據。因此，無需重新驗證，也無需一遍又一遍地重複自己。我最近與我們的 401(k) 提供商使用了聊天機器人。我必須在聊天機器人上進行身份驗證，然後必須再次向代理進行身份驗證。令人惱火的客戶體驗。我們消除了這一切。

And so I think they're trying to figure out what technologies to deploy, when. I would say the biggest ones right now are chatbots. Voice bots are pretty popular in the U.S. and then agent assist. And then I would say those are the big 3 and then health scoring and some of the other stuff is coming up rapidly behind it. But they want it to be part of the overall picture, not an island unto itself.

所以我認為他們正在努力弄清楚何時部署哪些技術。我想說現在最大的是聊天機器人。語音機器人在美國非常流行，然後是代理協助。然後我會說這些是三大因素，然後是健康評分和其他一些東西正在迅速崛起。但他們希望它成為整體的一部分，而不是一個孤島。

Our next question is coming from Matthew Bullock of Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的馬修·布洛克。

I'm on for Michael Funk. I'd really appreciate some additional commentary on the CPaaS trends, specifically some incremental color on the carrier price actions taken during the quarter. Any quantification would be appreciated and how you expect those trends to manifest going forward.

我支持邁克爾·芬克。我非常感謝對 CPaaS 趨勢的一些額外評論，特別是有關本季度運營商價格行動的一些增量色彩。任何量化以及您期望這些趨勢未來如何體現將不勝感激。

Thanks, Matthew. So look, I would say we're not the only one seeing this. We've seen some of our competitors in the CPaaS business also sort of say the same commentary. I think the carriers are raising prices very aggressively, and it's kind of a mistake because I think they've raised prices so quickly and so aggressively. The people are actually moving traffic away.

謝謝，馬修。所以看，我想說我們不是唯一看到這一點的人。我們看到 CPaaS 業務的一些競爭對手也發表了同樣的評論。我認為運營商正在非常積極地提高價格，這是一個錯誤，因為我認為他們提高價格的速度如此之快，如此積極。人們實際上正在疏散交通。

Now that benefits us over the long term because we offer a whole range of channels on our CPaaS business. So what am I talking about? Moving authentication, and some of those may deal with this today, but moving authentication, for example, from SMS traffic to WhatsApp. It's a simple example, very common in Asia. We're a preferred vendor of Meta, on WhatsApp, et cetera. So we've got those capabilities. We can guide customers to that jersey -- journey. But in the meantime, it's causing some disruption in traffic volumes going through that. And that's kind of the color.

從長遠來看，這對我們有利，因為我們在 CPaaS 業務上提供了全方位的渠道。那麼我在說什麼？移動身份驗證，其中一些現在可能會處理這個問題，但是移動身份驗證，例如從 SMS 流量到 WhatsApp。這是一個簡單的例子，在亞洲很常見。我們是 Meta、WhatsApp 等的首選供應商。所以我們有這些能力。我們可以引導客戶踏上那段旅程。但與此同時，它對經過的交通量造成了一些干擾。這就是這種顏色。

I think the other thing that we're doing is we're trying to move up the stack, and this goes in line with my innovation mantra. So we're making the hard decisions in the short term to be a better business. What does that mean? We walked away from low margin or negative margin SMS direct business because it just didn't make financial sense. And we've been investing in add-on capabilities. So one product that's in beta today is a product called Fraud Shield. It's where we actually protect the customer from SMS fraud as part of the contract. We've got, I think, 15 beta sites, between 10 and 15 beta sites. Don't owe me exactly on that number, and we're seeing tremendous uptick in traffic, and that makes the product itself stickier.

我認為我們正在做的另一件事是我們正在努力提升堆棧，這符合我的創新口號。因此，我們正在短期內做出艱難的決定，以成為一家更好的企業。這意味著什麼？我們放棄了低利潤或負利潤的短信直銷業務，因為它沒有經濟意義。我們一直在投資附加功能。因此，今天處於測試階段的一款產品是一種名為 Fraud Shield 的產品。作為合同的一部分，我們實際上是在保護客戶免受短信欺詐。我認為我們有 15 個測試版網站，數量在 10 到 15 個測試版網站之間。不要完全欠我這個數字，我們看到流量的巨大上升，這使得產品本身更具粘性。

So I think all of us, I think Sinch, Twilio, us, Vonage, et cetera, all the players in CPaaS are looking at adding more value-added services on top of our CPaaS business to make it a better, more sticky business. We started on that a year ago. We're seeing the benefits now.

所以我認為我們所有人，我認為Sinch、Twilio、我們、Vonage 等等，CPaaS 領域的所有參與者都在考慮在我們的CPaaS 業務之上添加更多增值服務，以使其成為更好、更具粘性的業務。我們一年前就開始這樣做了。我們現在看到了好處。

Yes, I'll just -- I'll reiterate what Sam said. We're not going to go after bad business. And in terms of the quantification, our Q1 miss is roughly half inorganic, half CPaaS. And a big portion of that CPaaS is generated because we didn't go after the bad business.

是的，我只是——我會重申薩姆所說的話。我們不會追求糟糕的生意。就量化而言，我們第一季度的失誤大約一半是無機的，一半是 CPaaS。 CPaaS 的很大一部分是因為我們沒有去追尋不良業務而產生的。

We're focused on generating cash flow to get that margin.

我們專注於產生現金流來獲得利潤。

The next question will be coming Siti Panigrahi from of Mizuho Securities.

下一個問題將由瑞穗證券 (Mizuho Securities) 的 Siti Panigrahi 提出。

This is Abhinav on for Siti Panigrahi. I guess the question kind of is what kind of assumptions on the inorganic or Fuze renewals do you have baked into the full year guide? And at what point are we going to start seeing kind of a lapping effect after we get through them? And I guess related to that, kind of the second piece here is what are the expectations? Or what do you think to go right for revenue to reaccelerate in FY '25? Is that linked to kind of the pieces you've been discussing and new products? Or where can we kind of point to there?

我是 Abhinav，為 Siti Panigrahi 發言。我想問題是你在全年指南中對無機或引信更新做出了什麼樣的假設？當我們完成這些任務後，什麼時候我們會開始看到某種研磨效果？我想與此相關的是，這裡的第二部分是期望是什麼？或者您認為如何才能讓收入在 25 財年重新加速增長？這與您一直在討論的作品和新產品有關嗎？或者我們可以指出哪裡？

Yes, I'll answer the first part and then the second part Sam can take. This is Kevin. We don't disclose necessarily the detailed renewal rates for our -- for the portion of our business. So basically, we -- it was -- the downsells upon our upgrading the 8x8 platform was more than we expected. I think the important thing is that we've actually pivoted very, very quickly and put our whole customer success team on 100% of the Fuze base to contain the downsell and other losses we see. So in the next few quarters, we do expect -- the next couple of quarters or so, we do expect to be able to contain that over time. And then we'll start the add-on business and other things that we're going to do to cross-sell into that base.

是的，我會回答第一部分，然後山姆可以回答第二部分。這是凱文.我們不一定會透露我們部分業務的詳細續訂率。所以基本上，我們升級 8x8 平台後的降價銷售超出了我們的預期。我認為重要的是，我們實際上非常非常快地進行了轉型，並將我們的整個客戶成功團隊 100% 放在 Fuze 基礎上，以遏制我們看到的降價銷售和其他損失。因此，在接下來的幾個季度中，我們確實預計 - 在接下來的幾個季度左右，我們確實預計能夠隨著時間的推移控制這種情況。然後我們將開始附加業務和其他我們要做的事情，以交叉銷售到該基地。

All right. And I'll take the second part, which is basically, I'm going to paraphrase what gives me confidence that we can accelerate revenue in 2025? So here's kind of a laundry list of things I think about every day, right? So our ARR growth improved in all segments XCPaaS. So our core business is doing fine. XCaaS grew double digits year-over-year and was 41% of total revenue. I think that's a big positive. And we're seeing more contact center customers.

好的。我將討論第二部分，基本上，我將解釋一下是什麼讓我有信心我們可以在 2025 年加速收入增長？這是我每天思考的事情的詳細清單，對嗎？因此，我們的 ARR 增長在所有 XCPaaS 領域都有所改善。所以我們的核心業務做得很好。 XCaaS 同比增長兩位數，佔總收入的 41%。我認為這是一個很大的積極因素。我們看到越來越多的聯絡中心客戶。

So our move towards contact center led sales we're starting to see the green shoots behind that. Clearly, Metrigy saw it, top 5 ranking. And as I said in my script, I think most listeners on this call wouldn't have thought of that. And that's ahead of Amazon, Dialpad, Talkdesk, Vonage, Avaya, Zoom and a host of others, right? We've got a darn good contact center product, and that wasn't the D I was going to use.

因此，我們向聯絡中心主導的銷售邁進，我們開始看到其背後的萌芽。顯然，Metrigy看到了，排名前五。正如我在劇本中所說，我認為這次電話會議的大多數聽眾都不會想到這一點。這領先於 Amazon、Dialpad、Talkdesk、Vonage、Avaya、Zoom 和許多其他公司，對嗎？我們有一個非常好的聯絡中心產品，但這不是我要使用的 D。

We approved the Gartner Magic Quadrant for contact center. In the critical capabilities, we've improved year-over-year in 12 out of 13 categories. Our contact center is getting better. We've got 12 user awards this summer from G2, both on UC and CC. We've been investing in customer support. We saw it with Stevie Awards for our customer service team and the leader.

我們批准了 Gartner 聯絡中心魔力像限。在關鍵能力方面，我們在 13 個類別中的 12 個類別中同比有所提高。我們的聯絡中心正在變得更好。今年夏天，我們獲得了 G2 頒發的 12 個用戶獎，其中包括 UC 和 CC。我們一直在客戶支持方面進行投資。我們為我們的客戶服務團隊和領導者頒發了史蒂夫獎。

Lisa Martin joined. She's a fantastic hire to be our Chief Revenue Officer, trust me. She did a lot of due diligence before joining. And then I think our new products and what we're seeing on our new products is absolutely -- I mean, it brings like -- when I get down in a moment or 2, I just look at the usage trends on our new products and a big smile gets on my face very rapidly. So I think those things just need to build to a size where they show up in the income statement and start to nudge that number higher.

麗莎·馬丁加入。相信我，她是我們首席營收官的絕佳聘用者。在加入之前，她做了很多盡職調查。然後我認為我們的新產品以及我們在新產品上看到的絕對是——我的意思是，它帶來了——當我在一兩分鐘內停下來時，我只是看看我們新產品的使用趨勢我的臉上很快就露出了燦爛的笑容。因此，我認為這些事情只需要增加到在損益表中顯示的規模，並開始推動這個數字更高。

Our next question is coming from Austin Williams of Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題來自富國銀行的奧斯汀·威廉姆斯。

This is Austin Williams on for Michael Turrin. I just wanted to go back to the hire of Lisa Martin, new Head of sales. Just anything you can add on what changes we might see with the go-to-market as a result of that? And what the biggest priorities will be to start?

我是奧斯汀·威廉姆斯 (Austin Williams)，替補邁克爾·特林 (Michael Turrin)。我只是想回到僱用新銷售主管麗莎·馬丁的問題上。您可以補充一下我們在上市過程中可能會看到哪些變化嗎？最重要的優先事項是什麼？

Well, maybe we'll bring Lisa on in a future call. I mean she's been on the job since mid-June, so I don't want to speak for her yet. Let us get her feet underneath there. But I mean, if you look at her LinkedIn profile, she's an incredibly experienced sales leader, both technically and sort of her trajectory. She knows contact center sales inside and out. And so obviously, if she's joining us, I think it's just a good validation that she did her due diligence on what we're doing and where we're going and decided to tag along.

好吧，也許我們會在以後的通話中邀請麗莎加入。我的意思是她從六月中旬就開始工作了，所以我還不想代表她說話。讓我們把她的腳放在下面。但我的意思是，如果你查看她的 LinkedIn 個人資料，你會發現她是一位經驗豐富的銷售領導者，無論是在技術上還是在她的發展軌跡上。她對聯絡中心的銷售工作瞭如指掌。顯然，如果她加入我們，我認為這只是一個很好的驗證，她對我們正在做的事情和要去的地方進行了盡職調查，並決定跟隨。

And our next question will be coming from George Sutton of Craig-Hallum.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Craig-Hallum 的 George Sutton。

This is James on for George. You are taking an interesting approach with the Open CX or open CCaaS platform, you mentioned 40 partners onboarded. Can you just sort of talk about what you're hearing from those partners? And how do you envision the open platform approach playing out over the next 3, 4, 5 years relative to some of the closed off competitors? It seems to be that sort of the longer-term bet here.

這是詹姆斯替補喬治。您正在使用 Open CX 或開放 CCaaS 平台採取有趣的方法，您提到有 40 個合作夥伴加入。您能談談您從這些合作夥伴那裡聽到的情況嗎？相對於一些封閉的競爭對手，您如何看待開放平台方法在未來 3、4、5 年的表現？這似乎是一種更長期的賭注。

So let me take that in reverse order. So how do I see this over the next 3 to 4 years? I see it, honestly, how most technology evolves. If you look at Force.com or Marketo or any of the platforms over the last 20 years, anybody that tries to go with themselves failed in the end. And so I just believe that contact center is a replay of traditional technology development. And if you look at a lot of the market research, what contact center buyers want is seamless native feeling integrations, and that's really what we're trying to do.

那麼讓我以相反的順序來理解這一點。那麼我如何看待未來 3 到 4 年的情況呢？老實說，我看到了大多數技術的發展方式。如果你看看過去 20 年的 Force.com 或 Marketo 或任何平台，就會發現任何試圖隨心所欲的人最終都失敗了。所以我認為聯絡中心是傳統技術發展的重演。如果您查看大量市場研究，就會發現聯絡中心買家想要的是無縫的本地感覺集成，而這正是我們正在努力做的。

So what we hear from our ecosystem base is, "Thank goodness, you're not trying to compete with us like those other guys. Thank goodness that you're building multi-tiered integration points." So we can integrate at the UI/UX level. We can integrate at the API level or we can integrate the Webhooks level, which allows monitoring the event bus, which is some really unique stuff. And honestly, thank goodness that there's a place where the next-generation technologies.

因此，我們從生態系統基礎中聽到的是，“謝天謝地，你們沒有像其他人那樣試圖與我們競爭。謝天謝地，你們正在構建多層集成點。”所以我們可以在 UI/UX 層面進行集成。我們可以在 API 級別集成，也可以集成 Webhooks 級別，這允許監視事件總線，這是一些非常獨特的東西。老實說，謝天謝地，下一代技術有一個地方。

One of the key things, and I think this is one of the reasons why others have gone to a close stack versus us is we've rebuilt the foundation of our contact center over the last 5 years. It's a full CI/CD stack, continuous innovation, continuous deployment. So we're making about 5 releases a day, Monday through Friday, the working week, right? So we're doing 20-plus releases a week. And what that allows us to do is work at these next-generation start-up speeds.

關鍵的事情之一，我認為這是其他人與我們勢均力敵的原因之一，是我們在過去 5 年裡重建了聯絡中心的基礎。它是一個完整的 CI/CD 堆棧，持續創新，持續部署。所以我們每週一到週五每天發布大約 5 個版本，對嗎？所以我們每週都會發布 20 多個版本。這使我們能夠以下一代啟動速度開展工作。

I think one of the problems -- and I'm guessing, to be fair, that our competitors have is they're not that full CI/CD stack. So an ecosystem partner needs an API or needs something adjusted. And they're like, great, we'll get a release to you in 60 or 90 days. We'll first start up that's a lifetime away. And I think the key that investors need to realize is that there's 1,000-plus start-ups. And our best guess is in excess of $100 billion of venture capital allocated around the contact center space in R&D. And that money is going to lead to tremendous innovation and the companies that can put that into production fast are just beneficial. So I've used a lot of words.

我認為公平地說，我猜測我們的競爭對手所面臨的問題之一是他們沒有完整的 CI/CD 堆棧。因此，生態系統合作夥伴需要 API 或需要進行一些調整。他們說，太好了，我們將在 60 或 90 天內向您發布版本。我們將首先啟動那是一生遙遠的事情。我認為投資者需要意識到的關鍵是有超過 1000 家初創企業。我們最好的猜測是，超過 1000 億美元的風險投資被分配在聯絡中心的研發領域。這筆錢將帶來巨大的創新，能夠快速將其投入生產的公司將受益匪淺。所以我用了很多詞。

Now let me give you a real-life example, right? We were -- we knew ChatGPT or Open.ai. The first week, they came out of stealth mode. They were already on our radar screen, and we've incorporated their Whisper technology -- transcription technology in-house to provide a shared common service for very high-quality transcriptions. Now what allowed us to do this differed from others is we have the technology in-house. So we're not taking the voice recording and shipping it to their cloud thereby breaking GDPR rules and federation rules and getting into all kinds of other issues. It's all staying on our cloud inside of our ecosystem. And so that's an example of us working at start-up speeds.

現在讓我給你舉一個現實生活中的例子吧？我們知道 ChatGPT 或 Open.ai。第一周，他們就脫離了隱身模式。他們已經出現在我們的雷達屏幕上，我們已經整合了他們的 Whisper 技術——內部轉錄技術，為非常高質量的轉錄提供共享的公共服務。現在，我們之所以能夠做到這一點，與其他人不同的是我們擁有內部技術。因此，我們不會將錄音傳輸到他們的雲端，從而違反 GDPR 規則和聯邦規則並陷入各種其他問題。這一切都保留在我們生態系統內的雲上。這就是我們以啟動速度工作的一個例子。

I think if you were a native stack, you couldn't do it as quickly. And so we see people announcing things, but if you read the fine print, it's frequently to take a piece of technology and push it to their cloud, which then changes the privacy rules and all kinds of other things. Everything stays within our cloud and yet we have the capabilities of deploying those next-generation technologies very rapidly, and we offer that as a service to our ecosystem partners and our customers and ourselves, obviously, today with the corporation of Open.ai technology.

我認為如果你是本地堆棧，你就不可能那麼快完成。因此，我們看到人們宣布了一些事情，但如果你閱讀細則，你會發現，通常是採用一項技術並將其推送到他們的雲端，然後這會改變隱私規則和各種其他事情。一切都保留在我們的雲中，但我們有能力非常快速地部署這些下一代技術，並且我們將其作為服務提供給我們的生態系統合作夥伴、我們的客戶和我們自己，顯然，今天與Open. ai 技術公司合作。

And so it's just a kind of a real-life example of how that speed of innovation matters when you're trying to build this next generation. And I think what you're going to find over the next 3 to 5 years is that every contact center in the world will be semi-customized for each individual use case. The customers are going to want it a certain way, small customers will want it their way. Everyone is going to want it their way. And we're going to offer the most compelling platform for building that for each individual customer.

因此，這只是一個現實生活中的例子，說明當你試圖打造下一代產品時，創新速度是多麼重要。我認為在接下來的 3 到 5 年內，您將發現世界上的每個聯絡中心都將針對每個單獨的用例進行半定制。客戶會想要某種方式，小客戶會想要他們的方式。每個人都會希望以自己的方式實現。我們將為每個客戶提供最引人注目的平台來構建這一平台。

Thank you. And this concludes the Q&A session for today as well concludes the conference for today. Thank you all for joining. You may all disconnect, and have a good evening.

謝謝。今天的問答環節到此結束，今天的會議也到此結束。感謝大家的加入。你們可以斷開連接，祝大家有個美好的夜晚。

Thanks, Lisa.

謝謝，麗莎。

Thank you.

謝謝。

You're welcome.

不客氣。