Exlservice Holdings Inc (EXLS) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome to the ExlService Holdings, Incorporated Q3 2024 earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) Also, as a reminder, this conference is being recorded today. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time.

您好，歡迎參加 ExlService Holdings, Incorporated 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。（操作員說明）另外，提醒一下，今天正在錄製本次會議。如果您有任何異議，請此時斷開連接。

I will now turn the call over to John Kristoff, Vice President of Investor Relations.

我現在會把電話轉給投資者關係副總裁約翰‧克里斯托夫 (John Kristoff)。

Thanks, Leila. Hello, and thank you for joining EXL's third quarter 2024 financial results conference call. On the call with me today are Rohit Kapoor, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Maurizio Nicolelli, Chief Financial Officer. We hope you had an opportunity to review the third quarter earnings press release we issued yesterday afternoon. We also have posted a slide deck and investor fact sheet in the Investor Relations' section of our website.

謝謝，萊拉。您好，感謝您參加 EXL 2024 年第三季財務業績電話會議。今天與我通話的是董事長兼執行長 Rohit Kapoor；尼可利 (Maurizio Nicollelli)，財務長。我們希望您有機會閱讀我們昨天下午發布的第三季財報新聞稿。我們也在網站的投資者關係部分發布了幻燈片和投資者情況說明書。

As a reminder, some of the matters we'll discuss this morning are forward-looking. Please keep in mind that these forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements.

提醒一下，我們今天早上將討論的一些問題是前瞻性的。請記住，這些前瞻性陳述受到已知和未知的風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與此類陳述明示或暗示的結果有重大差異。

Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, general economic conditions, those factors set forth in today's press release discussed in the company's periodic reports and other documents filed with the SEC from time-to-time. EXL assumes no obligation to update the information presented on this conference call today.

此類風險和不確定性包括但不限於總體經濟狀況、公司定期報告以及不時向 SEC 提交的其他文件中討論的今天新聞稿中列出的因素。EXL 不承擔更新今天電話會議中提供的資訊的義務。

During our call, we may reference certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe provide useful information for investors. Reconciliation of these measures to GAAP can be found in our press release, slide deck and investor fact sheet.

在我們的電話會議中，我們可能會參考某些非公認會計準則財務指標，我們認為這些指標為投資者提供了有用的信息。這些措施與公認會計準則的協調可以在我們的新聞稿、幻燈片和投資者情況說明書中找到。

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Rohit.

然後，我會將電話轉給羅希特。

Thanks, John. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EXL's third quarter 2024 earnings call. I'm pleased to be with you this morning reviewing our strong financial results. In the third quarter, we generated revenue of $472 million, an increase of 15% year-over-year. We also grew third quarter adjusted EPS by 16% to $0.44 per share. The sound execution of our data and AI-led strategy enabled us to further accelerate our growth momentum across both our Analytics and Digital Operations and Solutions businesses during the quarter.

謝謝，約翰。大家早安。歡迎參加 EXL 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。我很高興今天早上與您一起回顧我們強勁的財務表現。第三季度，我們營收4.72億美元，年增15%。第三季調整後每股盈餘也成長了 16%，達到每股 0.44 美元。我們的數據和人工智慧主導策略的良好執行使我們能夠在本季度進一步加快分析、數位營運和解決方案業務的成長勢頭。

In Analytics, we delivered revenue of $204 million for the quarter, up 5% sequentially and 11% year-over-year. This marks the strongest sequential quarterly growth for Analytics in six quarters. And we are delivering on our previously stated objective to accelerate our analytics growth both sequentially and year-over-year in the second half of 2024.

在 Analytics 方面，本季我們實現了 2.04 億美元的收入，季增 5%，年增 11%。這標誌著 Analytics 六個季度以來最強勁的季度連續成長。我們正在實現先前提出的目標，在 2024 年下半年加速我們的分析季比和年比成長。

We continue to drive strong double-digit growth across health care payment services and data management. While we remain cautious on overall demand for discretionary projects, we are seeing growth in analytics services across our vertical markets, including insurance, health care and banking.

我們持續推動醫療保健支付服務和數據管理領域實現兩位數的強勁成長。儘管我們對全權委託專案的整體需求保持謹慎態度，但我們看到保險、醫療保健和銀行等垂直市場的分析服務有所增長。

In our Digital Operations and Solutions business during the third quarter, we delivered strong double-digit growth as we leverage our domain, data and AI capabilities to win in the market. We grew revenue 5% sequentially and 18% year-over-year to $268 million. This revenue acceleration was driven by double-digit growth across all three of our digital operations segments.

在第三季的數位營運和解決方案業務中，我們利用我們的領域、數據和人工智慧能力贏得了市場，實現了兩位數的強勁成長。我們的營收季增 5%，年增 18%，達到 2.68 億美元。這種收入加速是由我們所有三個數位營運部門的兩位數成長所推動的。

We continue to experience a stable and favorable demand environment in digital operations, driven by our clients' focus on cost efficiency and digital transformation. Our strategy to leverage our domain expertise, data management capabilities and AI services delivery not only helps our clients achieve real-world benefits from AI, but it also differentiates us from our competitors, expands our total addressable market and extends our runway for growth.

在客戶對成本效率和數位轉型的關注的推動下，我們在數位化營運方面繼續經歷穩定和有利的需求環境。我們利用領域專業知識、資料管理能力和人工智慧服務交付的策略不僅可以幫助我們的客戶從人工智慧中獲得現實利益，而且還使我們與競爭對手區分開來，擴大我們的總目標市場並延伸我們的增長跑道。

This is beginning to manifest itself in our sales pipeline, which is up strong double digits year-to-date. We have grown the number of large deals over $25 million in total contract value by more than 25% year-over-year. This gives us confidence that our solutions and capabilities are being recognized as industry-leading by our clients. While it is still early innings, particularly with generative AI, I would like to provide details on how we are building new revenue streams across two of our primary capabilities: Data Modernization and AI Implementation.

這已經開始在我們的銷售管道中體現出來，今年迄今為止，我們的銷售管道強勁地增長了兩位數。我們的合約總價值超過 2500 萬美元的大型交易數量同比增長了 25% 以上。這讓我們相信我們的解決方案和能力被客戶視為行業領先。雖然現在還處於早期階段，特別是在生成人工智慧方面，但我想詳細介紹我們如何透過資料現代化和人工智慧實施這兩個主要功能建立新的收入流。

Let me describe our business model in each area. To implement AI, we start with data modernization by securing and structuring high-quality data, the foundational asset for any AI application. This includes all aspects of optimizing our clients' data estate, including helping them gather data, structure data, migrate data to the cloud and build more reliable, robust data pipelines. We have continued to enhance our data management capabilities during the quarter with the acquisition of ITI Data and our expanded partnership with Databricks.

讓我描述一下我們在每個領域的商業模式。為了實施人工智慧，我們從數據現代化開始，保護和建立高品質的數據，這是任何人工智慧應用程式的基礎資產。這包括優化客戶資料資產的各個方面，包括幫助他們收集資料、建立資料、將資料遷移到雲端以及建立更可靠、更強大的資料管道。透過收購 ITI Data 以及擴大與 Databricks 的合作夥伴關係，我們在本季持續增強我們的資料管理能力。

The acquisition of ITI Data not only enhances our data engineering capacity but also grows our existing client footprint in banking. Under our expanded partnership with Databricks, we are building a robust team of Databricks-certified talent and deploying new data management and generative AI solutions into the Databricks ecosystem. Together, these strategic actions are speeding the development and implementation of cutting-edge data modernization solutions for our clients.

收購 ITI Data 不僅增強了我們的資料工程能力，也擴大了我們在銀行業的現有客戶規模。根據我們與 Databricks 擴大的合作夥伴關係，我們正在建立一支強大的 Databricks 認證人才團隊，並將新的資料管理和生成人工智慧解決方案部署到 Databricks 生態系統中。這些策略行動共同加速了我們客戶尖端資料現代化解決方案的開發和實施。

Once the data foundation is in place, we select and embed the best combination of AI models into the workflow in order to optimize for cost, latency and accuracy. Our repertoire of AI models includes advanced pretrained language models, domain-specific fine-tune models and intelligent AI agents suited for targeted tasks. These models are then integrated into the workflow, along with human in the loop. This not only requires technical expertise in designing the most effective AI architecture but also deep domain knowledge to provide context and increase adoption to deliver superior business outcomes.

一旦資料基礎到位，我們就會選擇最佳的人工智慧模型組合並將其嵌入到工作流程中，以優化成本、延遲和準確性。我們的人工智慧模型包括先進的預訓練語言模型、特定領域的微調模型和適合目標任務的智慧人工智慧代理。然後，這些模型與循環中的人員一起整合到工作流程中。這不僅需要設計最有效的人工智慧架構的技術專業知識，還需要深厚的領域知識來提供背景並提高採用率，從而實現卓越的業務成果。

An illustrative client example involves a large multinational pharmaceutical client where we have integrated Agentic AI into their audit processes to drive significant improvements. The AI multi-agent system we developed handles various aspects of the audit process. One AI agent specializes in anomaly detection by analyzing documents for compliance issues, while another AI agent focuses on summarizing findings for auditors. Together, these AI agents collaborate to cover all audit stages from identifying risks to generating actionable recommendations and contextualizing them against industry frameworks based on the specific needs of each audit.

一個說明性的客戶範例涉及一個大型跨國製藥客戶，我們將 Agentic AI 整合到他們的審計流程中，以推動重大改進。我們開發的人工智慧多代理系統處理審計過程的各個方面。一個人工智慧代理程式專門透過分析文件中的合規性問題來進行異常檢測，而另一個人工智慧代理則專注於為審計人員總結調查結果。這些人工智慧代理商共同協作，涵蓋從識別風險到產生可行建議的所有審計階段，並根據每次審計的具體需求將其與行業框架結合。

The result for our client has been a 60% reduction in their audit completion time and improvement in compliance accuracy and overall greater assurance. This is just one example of how EXL is leveraging its domain, data and AI expertise today to deliver real-world tangible benefits to our clients. In addition to our capabilities in data modernization and AI implementation services, we have developed a number of proprietary generative AI solutions.

為我們的客戶帶來的結果是，審計完成時間縮短了 60%，合規準確性提高，整體保證能力提高。這只是 EXL 如何利用其領域、數據和人工智慧專業知識為我們的客戶帶來現實世界的實際利益的一個例子。除了我們在資料現代化和人工智慧實施服務方面的能力外，我們還開發了許多專有的生成式人工智慧解決方案。

One prominent example is our recently announced insurance LLM, which is specifically designed to handle the nuances of auto bodily injury, workers' compensation and general liability claims. Our LLM was built on EXL's 25 years of experience in the insurance industry and more than a decade of proprietary claims-related data. We currently have two clients live with this LLM: a large US-based casualty and life insurer and a regional casualty insurer.

一個突出的例子是我們最近推出的保險法學碩士，它是專門為處理汽車人身傷害、工人賠償和一般責任索賠的細微差別而設計的。我們的法學碩士建立在 EXL 在保險業 25 年的經驗和十多年的專有索賠相關數據的基礎上。目前，我們有兩名客戶擁有該法學碩士學位：一家位於美國的大型傷亡和人壽保險公司以及地區性傷亡保險公司。

As we implement our proprietary insurance LLM across multiple clients, we can access additional data sets to further fine tune our LLM and improve its performance. The combination of enhanced productivity and faster claim resolution with lower indemnity costs and claims leakage is a powerful value driver for our clients. We intend to continue to build out our IP going forward by developing new proprietary solutions, including additional domain-specific LLMs and autonomous agents.

當我們在多個客戶中實施自營保險法學碩士時，我們可以存取其他資料集以進一步微調我們的法學碩士並提高其績效。提高生產力、加快索賠解決速度、降低賠償成本和索賠洩漏，對我們的客戶來說是強大的價值驅動力。我們打算透過開發新的專有解決方案，包括其他特定領域的法學碩士和自主代理，繼續建構我們的智慧財產權。

We recently launched the new EXL enterprise AI platform to accelerate development of these solutions, leveraging NVIDIA AI software. And I'm pleased to say that our Insurance LLM, Smart Agent Assist and Code Harbor solutions are now live on this platform.

我們最近推出了新的 EXL 企業 AI 平台，利用 NVIDIA AI 軟體加速這些解決方案的開發。我很高興地說，我們的保險法學碩士、智慧代理協助和 Code Harbor 解決方案現已在該平台上上線。

From a revenue perspective, we can embed these proprietary AI solutions into long-term services contracts as an integral part of the overall solution or we can offer them as stand-alone solutions based on client needs. One of the keys to maintaining our competitive advantage in data and AI is our ability to attract, develop and retain the best talent in the industry. Our goal is to foster an environment conducive to continuous innovation amongst our more than 57,000 employees. To that end, we continue to attract top talent to EXL.

從收入的角度來看，我們可以將這些專有的人工智慧解決方案嵌入長期服務合約中，作為整體解決方案的組成部分，或者我們可以根據客戶需求將它們作為獨立的解決方案提供。維持我們在數據和人工智慧方面的競爭優勢的關鍵之一是我們吸引、培養和留住行業最優秀人才的能力。我們的目標是為超過 57,000 名員工創造一個有利於持續創新的環境。為此，我們繼續吸引頂尖人才加入 EXL。

We recently welcomed Sanjay Joshi as Senior Vice President and Global Leader for our data management practice. Sanjay comes to EXL with extensive leadership experience building data practices across large, diverse clients. He most recently served as a senior data practice leader at Accenture.

最近，我們迎來了 Sanjay Joshi 擔任我們資料管理實務的高級副總裁兼全球領導者。Sanjay 加入 EXL 時擁有豐富的領導經驗，在大型、多元化的客戶中建立資料實踐。他最近擔任埃森哲的高級數據實踐領導者。

In addition, Sarat Varanasi recently joined EXL as Senior Vice President and Global Leader for insurance analytics. Sarat has nearly 30 years experience as a consulting leader in the insurance industry. He joins us from Cognizant where he most recently led their North America Insurance business unit.

此外，Sarat Varanasi 最近加入 EXL，擔任保險分析資深副總裁兼全球負責人。Sarat 作為保險業的諮詢領導者擁有近 30 年的經驗。在加入我們之前，他在 Cognizant 任職，最近負責領導北美保險業務部門。

We also continue to invest heavily in employee development. Our employees have completed nearly 1 million hours of training this year. Nearly 800 of our engineers have completed certification training on our partners' data and AI platforms, and we have another 1,200 enrolled.

我們也持續大力投資員工發展。今年我們的員工已完成近100萬小時的培訓。我們有近 800 名工程師完成了合作夥伴資料和人工智慧平台的認證培訓，另外還有 1,200 名工程師已註冊。

These critical certifications include partner platforms from NVIDIA, Databricks, Google, AWS and Microsoft Azure. We are not only creating career opportunities for our employees by helping them add marketable skills, but we are also enabling them to work with a purpose in a growth environment. The result has been stable attrition levels and a growing pool of highly skilled AI talent.

這些關鍵認證包括來自 NVIDIA、Databricks、Google、AWS 和 Microsoft Azure 的合作夥伴平台。我們不僅透過幫助員工增加適銷對路的技能來為他們創造職業機會，而且還使他們能夠在成長環境中有目標地工作。其結果是穩定的人員流失水準和不斷增長的高技能人工智慧人才庫。

In summary, we delivered strong results in the third quarter, and we are encouraged by the continued acceleration of growth across our analytics and digital operations and solutions businesses. The investments we are making in developing new AI-based solutions expanding our industry partnerships and developing our employees puts us in a strong position to successfully execute on our data and AI strategy and continue our growth trajectory.

總而言之，我們在第三季取得了強勁的業績，我們對分析、數位營運和解決方案業務的持續加速成長感到鼓舞。我們在開發新的基於人工智慧的解決方案方面進行的投資，擴大了我們的行業合作夥伴關係並培養了我們的員工，使我們能夠成功執行我們的數據和人工智慧策略並繼續我們的成長軌跡。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Maurizio to cover our financial performance in detail.

接下來，我會將電話轉給毛里齊奧，詳細介紹我們的財務表現。

Thank you, Rohit, and thanks, everyone, for joining us this morning.

謝謝羅希特，也謝謝大家今天早上加入我們。

I will provide insights into our financial performance for the third quarter and nine-months ended September 30th, followed by our revised outlook for the full year.

我將深入了解我們第三季和截至 9 月 30 日的九個月的財務業績，然後是我們修訂後的全年展望。

We delivered a strong third quarter with revenue of $472.1 million, up 14.9% year-over-year on a reported basis. On a constant currency basis, we grew revenue 14.5% year-over-year and 4.9% sequentially. Approximately 1% of our revenue this quarter came from non-recurring revenue that is not expected to repeat in the subsequent quarter. Adjusted EPS for the quarter was $0.44, a year-over-year increase of 16.3%.

我們第三季的營收表現強勁，營收為 4.721 億美元，按報告數據年增 14.9%。以固定匯率計算，我們的營收年增 14.5%，季增 4.9%。本季我們約有 1% 的收入來自非經常性收入，預計下個季度不會出現這種情況。該季度調整後每股收益為 0.44 美元，年增 16.3%。

All revenue growth percentages mentioned hereafter are on a constant currency basis. Revenue from our digital operations and solutions businesses as defined by three reportable segments, excluding Analytics was $268.1 million, which represents year-over-year growth of 17.1%. Sequentially, from the second quarter of 2024, we grew revenue 4.8%.

下文所述的所有收入成長百分比均以固定匯率計算。我們的數位營運和解決方案業務（由三個可報告部門定義，不包括分析）的收入為 2.681 億美元，年增 17.1%。從 2024 年第二季開始，我們的營收成長了 4.8%。

In the Insurance segment, we generated revenue of $157.6 million, an increase of 15.1% year-over-year and 5.2% sequentially. This growth was driven by the expansion of existing client relationships and ramp-up of new client wins. The insurance vertical consisting of both our digital operations and solutions and analytics businesses grew 14.9% year-over-year with revenue of $197 million.

在保險業務領域，我們營收 1.576 億美元，年增 15.1%，季增 5.2%。這一增長是由現有客戶關係的擴大和新客戶的增加所推動的。由我們的數位營運、解決方案和分析業務組成的保險垂直業務年增 14.9%，收入達 1.97 億美元。

In the Emerging segment, we grew revenue 21.7% year-over-year and 2.8% sequentially to $80 million. This growth was primarily driven by expansion of existing client relationships and ramp-up of new client wins in 2024. The Emerging vertical consisting of both our digital operations and solutions and analytics businesses grew 12.4% year-over-year with revenue of $166.9 million.

在新興市場，我們的營收年增 21.7%，季增 2.8%，達到 8,000 萬美元。這一增長主要是由於現有客戶關係的擴大以及 2024 年新客戶數量的增加所推動的。由我們的數位營運、解決方案和分析業務組成的新興垂直產業年增 12.4%，營收達 1.669 億美元。

The Healthcare segment reported revenue of $30.5 million, growing 16.5% year-over-year and 8.5% sequentially. This growth was driven by higher volumes and expansion of existing client relationships in our clinical services business. The Healthcare vertical consisting of our digital operations and solutions and analytics businesses grew 17.2% year-over-year with revenue of $108.1 million.

醫療保健部門報告收入為 3050 萬美元，年增 16.5%，環比增長 8.5%。這一增長是由我們臨床服務業務中現有客戶關係的增加和擴展所推動的。由我們的數位營運、解決方案和分析業務組成的醫療保健垂直領域年增 17.2%，營收達到 1.081 億美元。

In the Analytics segment, we generated revenue of $204 million, up 11.3% year-over-year and 5% sequentially. Growth in Analytics was driven by higher volumes in payment services, new client wins and expansion in existing client relationships in our data management and analytics services businesses. SG&A expenses as a percentage of revenue were down 10 basis points year-over-year to 20.1%, driven by operating leverage.

在分析領域，我們實現了 2.04 億美元的收入，年增 11.3%，季增 5%。分析業務的成長是由支付服務量的增加、新客戶的贏得以及資料管理和分析服務業務中現有客戶關係的擴大所推動的。在營運槓桿的推動下，SG&A 費用佔營收的百分比年減 10 個基點至 20.1%。

Our adjusted operating margin for the quarter was 19.9%, down 10 basis points year-over-year, driven by higher depreciation on new operating centers opened in 2024. Our effective tax rate for the quarter was 22.8%, down 60 basis points year-over-year. This was driven by higher profits in lower tax jurisdictions. Our adjusted EPS for the quarter was $0.44, a 16.3% increase year-over-year on a reported basis.

由於 2024 年開設的新營運中心折舊率上升，本季調整後營運利潤率為 19.9%，年減 10 個基點。本季我們的有效稅率為 22.8%，年減 60 個基點。這是由低稅收管轄區更高的利潤推動的。我們本季調整後的每股收益為 0.44 美元，按報告數據年增 16.3%。

Turning to our nine-months performance; our revenue for the period was up $1.36 billion, up 11.5% year-over-year on a reported basis and 11.4% on a constant currency basis. Year-over-year, on a constant currency basis, Digital Operations Solutions grew 14.6% and analytics 7.4%. Adjusted operating margin for the period was 19.6%, down 20 basis points year-over-year. Our first nine months adjusted EPS was $1.22, up 12.1% year-over-year on a reported basis.

轉向我們九個月的表現；我們這段期間的營收成長了 13.6 億美元，按報告數據計算年增 11.5%，以固定匯率計算成長 11.4%。以固定匯率計算，數位營運解決方案年增 14.6%，分析成長 7.4%。調整後營業利益率為 19.6%，較去年同期下降 20 個基點。據報告，我們前 9 個月調整後每股收益為 1.22 美元，年增 12.1%。

Our balance sheet remains strong. Our cash, including short- and long-term investments as of September 30th was $335 million, and our revolver debt was $345 million for a net debt position of $10 million. We generated cash flow from operations of $110.1 million in the third quarter compared to $68.6 million a 60% increase year-over-year driven by profitability and improved working capital management.

我們的資產負債表仍然強勁。截至 9 月 30 日，我們的現金（包括短期和長期投資）為 3.35 億美元，循環債務為 3.45 億美元，淨債務部位為 1,000 萬美元。在獲利能力和營運資金管理改善的推動下，我們第三季的營運現金流為 1.101 億美元，較去年同期的 6,860 萬美元成長了 60%。

During the first nine months, we spent $36 million on capital expenditures and repurchased approximately 6 million shares at an average cost of $30.70 per share for a total of $184.7 million. This includes approximately 4.2 million shares received as part of our previously announced $125 million accelerated share repurchase plan.

前 9 個月，我們花了 3,600 萬美元的資本支出，並以每股 30.70 美元的平均成本回購了約 600 萬股股票，總計 1.847 億美元。這包括作為我們先前宣布的 1.25 億美元加速股票回購計畫的一部分收到的約 420 萬股股票。

Now moving on to our outlook for 2024. Based on our strong year-to-date performance and our current visibility for the remainder of the year, we are raising the full year revenue and earnings guidance. We now anticipate revenue to be in the range of $1.825 billion to $1.835 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 12% to 13% on a reported basis and approximately 12% on a constant currency basis. This represents an increase of $12 million at the midpoint from our previous guidance of $1.805 billion to $1.83 billion.

現在我們展望 2024 年。基於我們今年迄今為止的強勁表現以及目前對今年剩餘時間的能見度，我們正在上調全年收入和盈利指引。我們目前預計營收將在 18.25 億美元至 18.35 億美元之間，以報告數據計算，年增 12% 至 13%，以固定匯率計算，年增約 12%。這意味著從我們之前指導的 18.05 億美元增加到 18.3 億美元，中間值增加了 1200 萬美元。

The current guidance still assumes $7 million to $9 million of revenue from ITI Data. We expect a foreign exchange gain of approximately $1 million, net interest expense of $3 million to $4 million and full year effective tax rate to be in the range of 22.5% to 23.5%. We also anticipate increased investments in data and AI in the fourth quarter similar to the pattern last year.

目前的指引仍假設 ITI Data 的收入為 700 萬至 900 萬美元。我們預計外匯收益約為 100 萬美元，淨利息支出為 300 萬至 400 萬美元，全年有效稅率為 22.5% 至 23.5%。我們也預計第四季數據和人工智慧方面的投資將會增加，與去年的模式類似。

Based on these assumptions, we anticipate our adjusted EPS to be in the range of $1.61 to $1.63, representing year-over-year growth of 13% to 14%. This is an increase from our prior adjusted EPS guidance of $1.59 to $1.62. The ITI Data acquisition is expected to be neutral to adjusted EPS in 2024. We expect capital expenditures to be in the range of $48 million to $52 million.

基於這些假設，我們預計調整後每股盈餘將在 1.61 美元至 1.63 美元之間，年增 13% 至 14%。這比我們之前調整後的 EPS 指導值 1.59 美元增加至 1.62 美元。 ITI Data 收購預計對 2024 年調整後每股盈餘產生中性影響。我們預計資本支出將在 4,800 萬美元至 5,200 萬美元之間。

In summary, we are pleased with our third quarter results and encouraged by the acceleration of our growth momentum across all of our business segments. By continuing to invest in our data and AI-led strategy, we are confident in our ability to maintain our double-digit growth trajectory into the fourth quarter and beyond.

總之，我們對第三季的業績感到滿意，並對我們所有業務部門的成長勢頭加速感到鼓舞。透過持續投資我們的數據和人工智慧主導的策略，我們有信心在第四季及以後保持兩位數的成長軌跡。

With that, Rohit and I would now be happy to take your questions.

至此，羅希特和我現在很樂意回答你們的問題。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Surinder Thind, Jeffries.

蘇林德·辛德，傑弗里斯。

Thank you. I'd like to start a question about the build-out of the proprietary AI models. Can you talk about the strategy here at this point? Is the idea to build as many of these proprietary models yourself? And how does that fit in with the broader ecosystem of maybe what the hyperscalers are building in terms of their models as well as maybe more industry-specific solutions that are also being built by third-parties in the sense of the traditional software developers. So, I guess, essentially, are you becoming much more of a software company at this point?

謝謝。我想提出一個關於專有人工智慧模型建構的問題。能談談此時此刻的策略嗎？您是否有自己建立盡可能多的專有模型的想法？這如何適應更廣泛的生態系統，可能是超大規模企業根據其模型構建的生態系統，以及第三方在傳統軟體開發人員意義上構建的更特定於行業的解決方案。所以，我想，從本質上講，您現在是否正在變得更像軟體公司？

Sure, Surinder. So let me try and take that. So first off, our belief is that you will have an ecosystem of large language models, Agentic AI, autonomous agents and proprietary AI models. So you're going to have a whole host of these types of capabilities that are going to be there.

當然，蘇林德。所以讓我試著接受這一點。首先，我們相信您將擁有一個由大型語言模型、代理人工智慧、自主代理和專有人工智慧模型組成的生態系統。因此，您將擁有一整套此類功能。

Each one on its own is going to be relevant and useful for either being able to undertake a task or manage a process are ultimately using a combination of these different capabilities being able to achieve an entire goal or an objective.

每個功能本身對於能夠承擔一項任務或管理一個流程來說都是相關且有用的，最終使用這些不同功能的組合能夠實現整個目標或目標。

At EXL, we are thinking about building out our own proprietary AI models in those areas where we have domain competency and we have access to data sets which are proprietary. What we have seen is, as we build out our first insurance LLM that the productivity of that LLM is far greater than what's available today in the marketplace.

在 EXL，我們正在考慮在我們擁有領域能力並且可以存取專有資料集的領域中建立我們自己的專有人工智慧模型。我們所看到的是，當我們建立第一個保險法學碩士時，該法學碩士的生產力遠高於當今市場上的法學碩士。

The latency is very low, and therefore, we can get real-time responsiveness and the cost is a fraction of what would be paid for using anything that the hyperscalers or any of the other LLMs that might be available in the marketplace.

延遲非常低，因此，我們可以獲得即時回應，而且成本只是使用超大規模提供者或市場上可能提供的任何其他法學碩士所支付的費用的一小部分。

So frankly, our strategy is twofold: one, to build proprietary AI models where we can create differentiation and we can create capability that cannot be developed by others in the marketplace; and two, for us to be able to stitch together the appropriate balance of large language models agenetic AI capabilities, autonomous agents and embed our own proprietary AI models to be able to optimize the best benefit for the client in terms of productivity, latency and cost. Does that make sense?

坦白說，我們的策略有兩個：一是建立專有的人工智慧模型，我們可以在其中創造差異化，並創造市場上其他人無法開發的能力；二是建立專有的人工智慧模型。第二，我們能夠將大型語言模型遺傳人工智慧功能、自主代理的適當平衡結合在一起，並嵌入我們自己的專有人工智慧模型，以便能夠在生產力、延遲和成本方面為客戶優化最佳利益。這樣有道理嗎？

Yes. That's helpful. And then just from perhaps a bit more of a near-term view. Can you talk about the investment that's required? Is it you kind of continue with the traditional level of CapEx, R&D to kind of build this out? Or do we enter a period of slightly elevated investments where there's a bit of an arms race to be the first to build some of these models?

是的。這很有幫助。然後只是從近期的角度來看。您能談談所需的投資嗎？您是否會繼續採用傳統的資本支出和研發水準來建構這個專案？或者我們會進入一個投資略有增加的時期，在這個時期，會出現一些軍備競賽，以成為第一個建造其中一些模型的人？

Sure. I'm happy to address that, and Maurizio can add to that as well. So in general, our viewpoint is with the rapidly evolving technological landscape, there is going to be a need for a much greater level of investment. And at EXL, we will be significantly stepping up our investments both on OpEx and on CapEx to be able to create these capabilities and to be able to build proprietary models as well as tools that can be leveraged in our client processes.

當然。我很高興解決這個問題，毛里齊奧也可以補充這一點。因此，總的來說，我們的觀點是，隨著技術格局的快速發展，將需要更大程度的投資。在 EXL，我們將大幅增加對營運支出和資本支出的投資，以便能夠創建這些功能，並能夠建立專有模型以及可在我們的客戶流程中利用的工具。

As we've highlighted and Maurizio can talk about this, we will be investing a significant amount in the fourth quarter this year and continue that investment going forward. because that's the only way in which we can stay ahead on capability. And because the landscape is changing so rapidly, these are necessary investments that we will need to make as we go forward.

正如我們所強調的，毛里齊奧可以談論這一點，我們將在今年第四季進行大量投資，並在未來繼續進行投資。因為這是我們在能力上保持領先的唯一方法。由於情況變化如此之快，這些都是我們在前進過程中需要進行的必要投資。

Sure, Rohit. Really to add to what Rohit just said. When you really look at just kind of the overall P&L, we will be making more investments, particularly in OpEx in our investment line in our P&L over the next one to three years. And that's really going to be funded by us driving value from gross margin. Our gross margin needs to grow an increase in order to fund this investment.

當然，羅希特。確實要對羅希特剛才所說的話進行補充。當你真正關注整體損益表時，我們將進行更多投資，特別是在未來一到三年的損益表投資線中的營運支出方面。這實際上將由我們透過毛利率推動價值來提供資金。我們的毛利率需要成長才能為這項投資提供資金。

But if we do that by driving price on higher value services that we really start to provide to our clients particularly in data and AI. So what you'll end up seeing going forward is a higher gross margin offset by a higher amount of investments going forward and that flowing into an incremental increase in our AOPM on an annual basis, not a significant increase, but an increase on an annual basis going forward.

但如果我們透過提高更高價值服務的價格來做到這一點，我們就真正開始向客戶提供服務，特別是在數據和人工智慧領域。因此，您最終會看到未來更高的毛利率被未來更多的投資所抵消，並且這些投資將流入我們的 AOPM 逐年增量增長，不是顯著增長，而是逐年增長。

Thank you. That's helpful.

謝謝。這很有幫助。

Bryan Bergin, TD Cowen.

布萊恩·伯金，TD·考恩。

Hi, good morning. Thank you. I wanted to start with Digital Operations, another strong quarter here on organic growth. Let's ask on your conviction and potential sustainability of this elevated growth relative to the medium-term outlook for the segment. And it's been good to see all industries contributing here. Do you have a higher level of conviction in the near-term and sustaining higher growth in any particular digital ops industries?

嗨，早安。謝謝。我想從數位營運開始，這是有機成長的另一個強勁季度。讓我們詢問您對這一增長相對於該細分市場中期前景的信念和潛在可持續性的看法。很高興看到所有行業都在這裡做出貢獻。您是否對近期在任何特定數位營運產業保持較高成長抱有更高的信念？

Sure, Bryan. So first of all, we are very pleased with the growth of our digital operations business. And I think that's been at this elevated growth rate for a number of quarters. And actually, we've seen a bit of acceleration of the growth rate. When we take a look at the demand environment for our services in digital operations that continues to be strong.

當然，布萊恩。首先，我們對數位營運業務的成長感到非常滿意。我認為這個成長率已經持續了好幾個季度了。事實上，我們已經看到成長率有所加快。當我們審視數位化營運服務的需求環境時，我們的需求環境仍然強勁。

When we take a look at our pipeline, the pipeline is actually growing very nicely. And as we've shared previously, what we also see is that the number of large deals and the value of large deals in our pipeline continues to increase.

當我們查看我們的管道時，管道實際上增長得非常好。正如我們之前所分享的，我們也看到，我們管道中的大宗交易數量和大宗交易的價值持續增加。

So frankly, all of these are very encouraging signs about the demand environment, the pipeline and our ability to generate revenue growth in digital operations. There are a couple of things which I would like to kind of highlight. Number one, everything that we do in terms of selling pure digital revenue is included as part of our Digital Operations segment.

坦白說，所有這些都是關於需求環境、管道以及我們在數位營運中實現收入成長的能力的非常令人鼓舞的跡象。有幾件事我想強調一下。第一，我們在銷售純數位收入方面所做的一切都包含在我們的數位營運部門中。

So the growth and the revenue in our Digital Operations segment includes all the revenue that we derive from operations, but it also includes all the revenue that we derived from digital capabilities that are sold to clients on a stand-alone basis.

因此，我們數位營運部門的成長和收入包括我們從營運中獲得的所有收入，但也包括我們從獨立銷售給客戶的數位功能中獲得的所有收入。

Obviously, the digital capabilities are growing much more rapidly than the digital operations core piece on a stand-alone basis. In terms of industry segments, frankly we're seeing broad strength across the board. And we're seeing strength in insurance. We're seeing it in health care and in our emerging business unit. We see this trend take place globally. So we are seeing this strength in the US as well as in UK, Europe and in Australia and New Zealand. So there seems to be a broad secular shift in terms of moving forward on this.

顯然，數位能力的成長速度遠遠快於獨立的數位營運核心部分。就行業細分而言，坦白說，我們看到了全面的廣泛實力。我們看到了保險業的實力。我們在醫療保健和新興業務部門中看到了這一點。我們看到這種趨勢在全球範圍內發生。因此，我們在美國、英國、歐洲、澳洲和紐西蘭看到了這種優勢。因此，在這方面的進展似乎出現了廣泛的長期轉變。

Going forward, our expectation is still that we should be able to grow our digital operations business in a low double-digit kind of a trajectory. And that would be something that would be sustainable for us, and that's what we would be targeting.

展望未來，我們的期望仍然是我們應該能夠以低兩位數的軌跡成長我們的數位營運業務。這對我們來說是可持續的，也是我們的目標。

Okay. Understood. And then just shifting to analytics, it sounds like Payment Integrity and Data Management remains solid. What about the balance of analytics, any notable changes in just the customer marketing view and decisioning analytics? And just how are you forecasting the fourth quarter growth in analytics?

好的。明白了。然後轉向分析，聽起來支付完整性和資料管理仍然很可靠。分析的平衡如何？您如何預測第四季分析的成長？

Sure. So look, I think we are very, very happy that in analytics, the business growth has accelerated. We are seeing analytics services to be growing as well alongside with our Payment Integrity, business line as well as our data management business line. I think some of the strength that we are seeing again is reflected very nicely in the pipeline, and we see a lot many more deals out there.

當然。因此，我認為我們非常非常高興在分析領域業務成長加速。我們看到分析服務與我們的支付完整性、業務線以及資料管理業務線一起不斷成長。我認為我們再次看到的一些實力在管道中得到了很好的體現，而且我們看到了更多的交易。

The only thing to note here is the analytics business will always be a shorter cycle business. And therefore, there will be a fairly higher level of volatility associated with this business, but the underlying fundamentals and the traction that we are seeing with our clients and the business value that they derive from our services here, that's resonating very, very nicely.

這裡唯一要注意的是，分析業務始終是週期較短的業務。因此，與這項業務相關的波動性將會相當高，但我們在客戶中看到的基本面和吸引力以及他們從我們的服務中獲得的業務價值，這引起了非常非常好的共鳴。

Any comments on the fourth quarter?

對第四季有何評論？

Sorry. For the fourth quarter, look, I think we would expect the business momentum to continue. When we had guided for calendar year 2024, we had guided that our digital operations business will grow slightly faster than our analytics business this year. But we do see both our business lines getting to low double-digit growth rates going forward. And therefore, we would expect that trend to kind of maintain itself in the fourth quarter.

對不起。對於第四季度，我認為我們預計業務動能將持續下去。當我們預測 2024 年時，我們預測今年的數位營運業務成長速度將略快於分析業務。但我們確實看到我們的兩條業務線未來都將實現兩位數的低成長率。因此，我們預計這種趨勢將在第四季度維持下去。

And keep in mind, Bryan, when you look at the prior year, we were fairly flat on revenue and analytics between Q2 to Q4. So as we continue this momentum going into Q4, as total revenue continues to increase, you do see an increase in the growth rate, and that's been reflected now Q2, Q3 and you would see that in Q4.

請記住，布萊恩，當你回顧上一年時，我們在第二季度到第四季度的收入和分析方面相當持平。因此，當我們在第四季度繼續保持這種勢頭時，隨著總收入繼續增加，您確實會看到成長率的增加，這已經在第二季、第三季得到了反映，您會在第第四季看到這一點。

Okay, helpful. Thanks guys.

好的，有幫助。謝謝你們。

Maggie Nolan, William Blair.

瑪吉諾蘭、威廉布萊爾。

Hi, thank you. How are you assessing the risk of a change in conversion rates of larger deals for your digital ops business? Is there anything to note there?

你好，謝謝。您如何評估數位營運業務中較大交易的轉換率變化的風險？那裡有什麼需要注意的地方嗎？

Hi Maggie, so actually, our conversion rates and our win rates in large deals is about the same as what we see with the rest of the portfolio. Clearly, the large deals tend to be a little bit more lumpy but it takes a fair amount of time for us to be able to ramp up and implement the large deals.

嗨，瑪吉，實際上，我們在大型交易中的轉換率和獲勝率與我們在投資組合的其餘部分中看到的大致相同。顯然，大宗交易往往比較混亂，但我們需要相當長的時間才能加速和實施大宗交易。

So far, we seem to be in a very good place in terms of our competitiveness and our win rates associated with large deals. And I think we've got a fair amount of traction in the pipeline, and we've got a fair amount of deals that we won as we've kind of shared in terms of the client wins, which still need to be implemented going forward into 2025.

到目前為止，我們在競爭力和大宗交易的勝率方面似乎處於非常有利的位置。我認為我們已經在管道中獲得了相當多的牽引力，我們已經贏得了相當多的交易，因為我們在客戶勝利方面分享了這一點，但這些仍然需要實施邁入 2025 年。

Thank you. And can you give some commentary on your success in the data and analytics segment organically and in data management, in particular, organically versus what the acquisition is adding in terms of synergies so far?

謝謝。您能否對您在數據和分析領域以及數據管理方面的成功發表一些評論，特別是在有機方面與迄今為止收購在協同效應方面所增加的方面？

Sure. So in data analytics, the organic growth for us largely has been on analytics services. And frankly, out there, we are seeing a reversion of the demand coming back, and therefore, growth of that business taking place. Marketing analytics for us certainly had declined, but now is less than 10% of our portfolio and therefore is not really having much of a material impact on our data analytics business.

當然。因此，在數據分析方面，我們的有機成長主要來自於分析服務。坦白說，我們看到需求回升，因此業務正在成長。我們的行銷分析確實有所下降，但現在只占我們投資組合的不到 10%，因此並沒有真正對我們的數據分析業務產生太大的實質影響。

The data management part, there are a number of capabilities that we have built over the last five years that continue to grow very nicely on an organic basis. The acquisition of ITI did add to our revenue growth in the third quarter. But if we excluded the revenue that came from ITI, our growth of the Analytics segment would have been between 9% to 10% growth still. So actually, it's still continues to accelerate and it's still a pretty healthy growth rate even after excluding the acquisition of ITI.

在資料管理部分，我們在過去五年中建立了許多功能，這些功能在有機的基礎上繼續良好地增長。收購 ITI 確實增加了我們第三季的營收成長。但如果我們排除來自 ITI 的收入，我們分析部門的成長仍將在 9% 到 10% 之間。所以實際上，即使不包括對 ITI 的收購，它仍然在繼續加速，並且仍然是一個相當健康的成長率。

Thank you. Congrats on the results.

謝謝。祝賀結果。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Puneet Jain, JP Morgan.

普尼特‧賈恩 (Puneet Jain)，摩根大通。

Hey. Thanks for taking my question, great quarter. Excuse me. I wanted to follow up on the question that Maggie asked about like the data and analytics. So the overall segment, like the analytics segment, do like 9% to 10% on an organic basis, like you mentioned, Rohit.

嘿。感謝您提出我的問題，很棒的季度。打擾一下。我想跟進瑪吉提出的數據和分析等問題。因此，整個細分市場，如分析細分市場，在有機基礎上確實佔 9% 到 10%，就像您提到的，Rohit。

How much of that segment stems from services that you didn't offer two or three years ago? Like the data management, for example, came through Play Point and ITI, AI models and the stuff that you're building right now. So how much of that overall segment comes from services that you didn't offer three years ago?

該細分市場中有多少來自於您兩三年前未提供的服務？例如，資料管理是透過 Play Point 和 ITI、AI 模型以及您現在正在建立的東西實現的。那麼，整個細分市場中有多少是來自三年前您未提供的服務呢？

Thanks Puneet. Look, I think the data analytics business is changing quite rapidly. And the kind of services and the kind of capabilities that we have continue to evolve. In the past, there used to be a fair amount of data visualization that used to be done, a lot of reporting that used to be done. All of that has completely changed, and we've moved much more towards AI and much more complex analytical services.

謝謝普內特。看，我認為數據分析業務正在迅速變化。我們擁有的服務類型和能力不斷發展。過去，曾經做過大量的數據視覺化，做過很多報告。所有這一切都已經完全改變，我們已經更多地轉向人工智慧和更複雜的分析服務。

The data management part for us continues to build out very nicely and rapidly. The partnership that we have with the data bricks that adds to our ability to grow this but also the partnership that we have with each of the hyperscalers with Google, with Amazon, with Microsoft, these are all adding to the growth rate of our data analytics business.

我們的數據管理部分繼續非常好且快速地建立。我們與資料區塊的合作關係增加了我們發展這項能力的能力，而且我們與Google、亞馬遜、微軟等每個超大規模供應商的合作夥伴關係都增加了我們資料分析的成長率商業。

I think the big thing is as clients gain confidence with us in this space and the buying center which is shifting from the Chief Analytics Officer to also include the Chief Information Officer and the Chief Technology Officer. I think that's helping us build and grow this business also very nicely.

我認為最重要的是，客戶對我們在這個領域和購買中心的信心正在從首席分析官轉向還包括資訊長和首席技術長。我認為這也很好地幫助我們建立和發展這項業務。

So frankly, there's a lot of evolution that's taking place in our Decision Analytics business. Hard for me to say how much of that growth is coming from new services versus old way. We don't really have data that we share on that externally right now on that.

坦白說，我們的決策分析業務正在發生很多變化。我很難說這種增長有多少來自新服務與舊方式。我們現在確實沒有與外部共享的資料。

That's fair. But thanks for the explanation. And then you talked about Insurance LLM earlier. So as you build some of these models, like which are not tied to any specific client, like what data do you use to train those models? I know you had some proprietary data, but are you allowed to use client's data to build some of these industry-specific LLM? And a follow-up on that would be like how much automation of like existing tasks or processes can be achieved using these AI solutions?

這很公平。但謝謝你的解釋。然後您之前談到了保險法學碩士。因此，當您建立其中一些模型時，例如不依賴任何特定客戶端的模型，例如您使用哪些資料來訓練這些模型？我知道您有一些專有數據，但是您是否可以使用客戶的數據來建立一些特定行業的法學碩士？後續問題是使用這些人工智慧解決方案可以實現多少現有任務或流程的自動化？

Sure. So first off, we absolutely have contractual permissioning rights by our clients to be able to use the data, and we only use that data, which our clients give us expressed and written permission to be able to use. And the Insurance LLM has been trained on that data set.

當然。因此，首先，我們絕對擁有客戶的合約許可權，能夠使用這些數據，並且我們只使用客戶給予我們明確書面許可的數據。保險法學碩士已經接受過該資料集的訓練。

If you take a look at it over the last 10 years, we've got a lot of claims-related data from insurance carriers and those insurance carriers that allow us to use this data, that's the data set that we've used to train our Insurance LLM. This work is on auto bodily injury, workers' compensation and medical liability. So basically, what the data sets that we have is when a claim comes in, what is the incidents that took place and what was the outcome that was finally settled as a result of that incident and what was a claim that got paid out.

如果你看一下過去 10 年的情況，我們從保險公司獲得了很多與索賠相關的數據，而那些允許我們使用這些數據的保險公司，這就是我們用來訓練的數據集我們的保險法學碩士。這項工作涉及人身傷害、工人賠償和醫療責任。基本上，我們擁有的資料集是何時收到索賠、發生了哪些事件、該事件最終解決的結果是什麼以及支付的索賠是什麼。

Now that data set is really, really valuable because we can use it to train our models so that the next time a new claim comes in, we already know what is the best pathway for that claim to be settled, negotiated and paid out. And from a client perspective, we are very willing to share that data with us because it's not personal identified information. It's not personal health information, so it's not PII and PHI. It is basically a derivative data set, which allows you to be able to continuously improve the accuracy of that LLM.

現在該資料集確實非常有價值，因為我們可以用它來訓練我們的模型，以便下次收到新索賠時，我們已經知道解決、談判和支付該索賠的最佳方法是什麼。從客戶的角度來看，我們非常願意與我們分享這些數據，因為它不是個人識別資訊。它不是個人健康訊息，因此不是 PII 和 PHI。它基本上是一個衍生資料集，使您能夠不斷提高 LLM 的準確性。

And as we deploy these LLMs in our client operations, we are actually going to be getting more and more data sets from them, and therefore, we can continue to fine tune and train our insurance LLM and become really an expert in terms of the productivity and the accuracy that these LLMs can be deployed in.

當我們在客戶運營中部署這些法學碩士時，我們實際上將從他們那裡獲得越來越多的數據集，因此，我們可以繼續微調和培訓我們的保險法學碩士，並成為生產力方面真正的專家以及這些法學碩士可以部署的準確性。

Now keep in mind that it's going to be for a pretty narrow use case and our ability is that how do we take it from that narrow use case and then we expand it into other use cases. And because we are in a privileged position where we do so much of work with carriers in a particular industry or payers in a particular industry or banks and financial institutions in the banking industry, having access to that data set makes us a unique player to be able to develop these types of LLMs.

現在請記住，它將適用於一個相當狹窄的用例，我們的能力是如何從這個狹窄的用例中獲取它，然後將其擴展到其他用例。而且由於我們處於特權地位，我們與特定行業的運營商或特定行業的付款人或銀行業的銀行和金融機構進行了大量合作，因此能夠訪問該數據集使我們成為一個獨特的參與者能夠開發這些類型的法學碩士。

And what we are finding is our knowledge about handling the process and our domain expertise, combined with our ability to access this data. That's what's creating the differentiation for us, and that's what is allowing us to be able to build these proprietary models for our clients.

我們發現的是我們處理流程的知識和領域專業知識，以及我們存取這些數據的能力。這就是為我們創造差異化的原因，也是我們能夠為客戶建立這些專有模型的原因。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

David Koning, RW Baird.

大衛·科寧，RW·貝爾德。

There we go. Can, can you guys hear me?

我們開始吧。可以，你們聽得到我說話嗎？

Okay. Sorry about that. So I guess, just from a high-level perspective, it seems like a lot of the industry has struggled recently, both IT, BPO, et cetera, yet you guys seem to be growing significantly faster than most, is it just functionality like some of the stuff you're doing is better? Is it the mix of clients that you're serving and just industries you're serving? Like what do you think are the two or three like biggest differentiators that you're doing compared to a lot of your competitors?

好的。對此感到抱歉。所以我想，僅從高層次的角度來看，似乎很多行業最近都在苦苦掙扎，無論是IT、BPO 等等，但你們的成長速度似乎比大多數人都要快得多，這只是功能嗎？是您所服務的客戶和您所服務的行業的組合嗎？與許多競爭對手相比，您認為您正在做的兩三個相似的最大差異化因素是什麼？

Yes, Dave. So look, I think in our business, it ultimately boils down to two essential ingredients. One is execution and two is capability. On execution, we've been absolutely maniacal in terms of being able to deliver to the commitments that we make to our clients. And we believe that we have one of the highest customer satisfaction scores in the industry. And we just completed our annual customer satisfaction survey in the third quarter, and we've got outstanding results.

是的，戴夫。所以，我認為在我們的業務中，它最終歸結為兩個基本要素。一是執行力，二是能力。在執行方面，我們在兌現對客戶的承諾方面絕對是瘋狂的。我們相信我們是業內客戶滿意度得分最高的公司之一。我們剛剛在第三季完成了年度客戶滿意度調查，並且取得了出色的結果。

And that kind of acceptance and referenceability by our existing clients to our prospects and to other players in the industry, I think stands out, and it generally results in us being able to grow our business at a faster pace.

我認為，我們現有客戶對我們的潛在客戶和行業其他參與者的這種接受和參考是很突出的，這通常會讓我們能夠以更快的速度發展我們的業務。

The second aspect is capability. I think we were just a little bit early in terms of investing in analytics, investing in digital and building up market relevant capability that can be embedded into the operations and processes of our clients. So today, when every single client is trying to embed AI into the workflow, they find our capability, our ability to execute on that capability and integrate that in to be differentiated and therefore, our win rates are very healthy and we've been able to build and grow our business.

第二個方面是能力。我認為我們在投資分析、投資數位化和建立可嵌入到客戶營運和流程中的市場相關能力方面還為時過早。因此，今天，當每個客戶嘗試將人工智慧嵌入工作流程中時，他們發現我們的能力，我們執行該能力的能力並將其整合到差異化中，因此，我們的勝率非常健康，我們已經能夠建立和發展我們的業務。

So these two things are very important. And I think on a go-forward basis, we will need to continue to execute well, and we will continue to invest much more to be able to stay ahead on the capability front and be a relevant partner for our clients.

所以這兩件事非常重要。我認為，從長遠來看，我們需要繼續良好執行，我們將繼續投入更多資金，以便能夠在能力方面保持領先地位，並成為我們客戶的相關合作夥伴。

Got you. Thanks. Yes. I mean you guys are crushing it. And I guess my follow-up question, insurance analytics, that had been flattish, give or take, on a year-over-year basis for the last four quarters or so, but it accelerated to about 15% or so growth this quarter. Is that where ITI falls? And it seems like organically, it's also doing better. But why didn't insurance analytics accelerate so much?

明白你了。謝謝。是的。我的意思是你們正在粉碎它。我想我的後續問題，即保險分析，在過去四個季度左右的時間裡，與去年同期相比，保險分析一直持平，但本季加速成長至 15% 左右。這就是ITI 的落腳點嗎？而且看起來有機地，它也做得更好。但為什麼保險分析沒有加速這麼多？

So ITI firstly, is largely focused in on banking and a little bit on health care, but that's where most of the revenue stream came in from. Insurance analytics has a couple of different pieces to it. It's got insurance analytics services. It did have marketing analytics in it. And the marketing analytics, as we've shared with you previously was something that declined year-over-year and that pretty much has stabilized.

因此，ITI 首先主要關注銀行業，還有一點醫療保健，但這才是大部分收入來源。保險分析有幾個不同的部分。它有保險分析服務。它確實有行銷分析。正如我們之前與您分享的那樣，行銷分析數據逐年下降，但基本上已經穩定下來。

So that's something which is no longer a drag. There is a huge amount of work that we do around actuarial work. We do work around insurance indemnity spend. And therefore, analytics services are a critical aspect of the services and the value that we provide to our insurance clients.

所以這不再是個拖累。我們圍繞著精算工作做了大量的工作。我們確實圍繞著保險賠償支出開展工作。因此，分析服務是我們為保險客戶提供的服務和價值的關鍵方面。

That seems to be resonating nicely and is growing well. And like we said, we've also invested in building up leadership capacity out here and being able to kind of continue to grow that. One other aspect is data management within insurance analytics that's growing strongly as well. And most of the insurance carriers have got legacy platforms and systems, and therefore, data management for them becomes a critical element, and we're seeing good traction on that as well.

這似乎引起了很好的共鳴並且發展良好。正如我們所說，我們也投資建立了這裡的領導能力，並且能夠繼續發展這種能力。另一方面是保險分析的數據管理也在強勁成長。大多數保險公司都擁有遺留平台和系統，因此，他們的資料管理成為關鍵要素，我們也看到了良好的牽引力。

Great. Thank you.

偉大的。謝謝。

David Grossman, Stifel Europe.

大衛·格羅斯曼，Stifel Europe。

Yes, thank you. Rohit, perhaps you could further refine the elements of growth in the digital ops business? As you mentioned, it's been fairly strong for several quarters now. And I know you mentioned it includes some of the pure digital revenue. I'm not quite sure what exactly you're including in that bucket. But anything you could do to kind of help us better understand the growth dynamics there versus the legacy core pricing units, whatever it is that you can help us better understand that.

是的，謝謝。羅希特，也許您可以進一步完善數位營運業務的成長要素？正如您所提到的，幾個季度以來它一直相當強勁。我知道你提到它包括一些純數字收入。我不太確定你到底在那個桶子裡放了什麼。但是，您可以採取任何措施來幫助我們更好地了解那裡的成長動態與傳統核心定價單位的比較，無論是什麼，您都可以幫助我們更好地了解這一點。

Sure, David. So first of all, the digital revenue that we have, you can broadly break up the digital revenue into two pieces. One is digital solutions that we have created, which our clients buy from us on a stand-alone basis. So think about this as digital platforms or tools or solutions that our clients want to leverage across the enterprise, regardless of whether they give us their operations or not. And therefore, that's one bucket, and that bucket for us has been growing very nicely and very sharply.

當然，大衛。首先，我們擁有的數位收入，您可以將數位收入大致分為兩部分。一是我們創建的數位解決方案，我們的客戶從我們這裡單獨購買。因此，請將其視為我們的客戶希望在整個企業中利用的數位平台、工具或解決方案，無論他們是否向我們提供營運。因此，這只是一個桶，對我們來說，這個桶一直在快速成長。

The second part on the digital side is work that we embed, and we combine with the workflow and therefore, it gets embedded into the digital operations work that we are doing, and it's digitizing our clients' operating workflow. So both of these and this is much more of an integrated service that they tend to buy from us. So those are the two elements within digital.

數位方面的第二部分是我們嵌入的工作，我們與工作流程結合，因此，它嵌入到我們正在做的數位營運工作中，並將客戶的營運工作流程數位化。因此，這兩者更多的是他們傾向於從我們這裡購買的綜合服務。這些是數位化的兩個要素。

And what we are seeing is that clients, when they think about how the future of work should be managed for them they naturally gravitate towards those players that can not only execute and deliver operations at high service delivery, low cost and deliver exceptional value, but also those that are forward thinking that can apply data, can apply analytics, can apply digital and be able to deliver incremental value to them. And we've been fortunate that we've been winning a large number of deals out there and our growth rate there has accelerated and is presently at elevated levels.

我們看到的是，當客戶考慮如何為他們管理未來的工作時，他們自然會傾向於那些不僅能夠以高服務交付、低成本和交付卓越價值執行和交付運營的參與者，而且還有那些具有前瞻性思維、能夠應用數據、能夠應用分析、能夠應用數位化並能夠為他們提供增量價值的人。我們很幸運，我們已經贏得了大量交易，而且我們的成長率已經加快，目前處於較高水平。

So are these stand-alone solutions that you mentioned, are those like sold as a technology tool? Is that the revenue model?

那麼您提到的這些獨立解決方案是作為技術工具出售的嗎？這是獲利模式嗎？

Yes, that's correct.

是的，這是正確的。

And how big can you dimension just how big these components are?

您能確定這些組件有多大嗎？

David, it's difficult for me to kind of do that. We've not shared the data externally, but these are tools that clients will buy. Keep in mind, they'll buy the tool and pay a license fee for the tool, as well as there are services associated with the implementation of that tool that also need to be purchased by the client. So any time we have this IP that our client is buying from us, they are paying us a software license fee for being able to use that, but they're also asking us to come in and implement this into their environment, and we charge them for that service.

大衛，我很難做到這一點。我們沒有對外共享數據，但這些是客戶會購買的工具。請記住，他們將購買該工具並支付該工具的許可費，以及與該工具的實施相關的服務也需要由客戶購買。因此，每當我們擁有客戶向我們購買的 IP 時，他們都會向我們支付軟體授權費，以便能夠使用該 IP，但他們也要求我們介入並將其實施到他們的環境中，我們會收取費用他們為這項服務。

Right. I mean is that mix shift impact in gross margin? When you talked about the need to fund incremental investment, I mean should we expect the gross margin in the ops to continue to go up?

正確的。我的意思是，混合轉變對毛利率有影響嗎？當您談到需要為增量投資提供資金時，我的意思是我們是否應該期望營運毛利率繼續上升？

So on these standalone solutions, as we get scale, we certainly would expect the gross margin to go up because once the solution is built, it should be able to kind of provide us with higher gross margins. But keep in mind that every single new tool that we introduced actually is a drag on gross margin because in the initial one or two years or when we don't have the size and scale, actually, it's a lower gross margin. So it really depends on the portfolio and how fast we are introducing new tools and solutions and how fast we are achieving scale in existing solutions.

因此，在這些獨立的解決方案上，隨著我們規模的擴大，我們當然預計毛利率會上升，因為一旦解決方案建成，它應該能夠為我們提供更高的毛利率。但請記住，我們推出的每一個新工具實際上都會拖累毛利率，因為在最初的一兩年或當我們沒有規模和規模時，實際上毛利率較低。因此，這實際上取決於產品組合、我們引入新工具和解決方案的速度以及我們在現有解決方案中實現規模化的速度。

Got it. And sorry, just one more. It's hard not to notice the volatility in margins quarter-to-quarter on the EBIT line. Is that unique to this year? Or are we going to see that kind of volatility going forward as well?

知道了。抱歉，還有一個。很難不注意到息稅前利潤率逐季度的波動。這是今年獨有的情況嗎？或者我們未來也會看到這種波動嗎？

Hi, David. It's Maurizio. You've seen a little bit of volatility this year. We started with a lower margin right around 18.7% in Q1 and increased to 20% AOPM in Q2, and now you're seeing about 19.9%. The average for the first half of the year was 19.4%, right in line with last year. Last year it was 19.3%. And we do believe the second half will be right around 19.4%. So we're a little bit higher in Q3. But as Rohit talked about, we do have a number of investments that we want to make in Q4.

嗨，大衛。這是毛里齊奧。今年你已經看到了一些波動。第一季我們的利潤率較低，約 18.7%，第二季的 AOPM 增加至 20%，現在您看到的約為 19.9%。上半年平均為19.4%，與去年持平。去年這個數字是19.3%。我們確實相信下半年將達到 19.4% 左右。因此，我們在第三季的業績略高一些。但正如羅希特所說，我們確實希望在第四季進行一些投資。

So I think you've really got to look at this on an annual basis. We will manage AOPM, so that it incrementally builds on an annual basis marginally. But the quarter-to-quarter, we'll have a little bit of volatility, but I would stress less looking at the quarters and really think about the annual margin trajectory.

所以我認為你真的必須每年檢視這個問題。我們將管理 AOPM，使其在每年的基礎上逐步增加。但從季度到季度，我們會有一點波動，但我會減少對季度的關注，並真正考慮年度利潤率軌跡。

Okay. All right guys. Thanks very much.

好的。好吧，夥計們。非常感謝。

Vincent Colicchio, Barrington Research Associates.

文森‧科利奇奧 (Vincent Colicchio)，巴林頓研究協會。

Can you hear me?

你聽得到我嗎？

Yes.

是的。

Rohit, can you talk about the new deals added in the quarter? Were any of them particularly large? Were they new to outsourcing? Any other relevant commentary?

Rohit，您能談談本季新增的交易嗎？其中有特別大的嗎？他們是外包新手嗎？還有其他相關評論嗎？

Sure, Vincent. So I think we are very happy with the new deals that we won this quarter. It's pretty well spread out between our digital operations business and our analytics business. In terms of the quality of the deals and the quality of the client logos that we won, it's pretty much similar to the past. It includes some Global 1000 names and Fortune 1000 names. So those are always great.

當然，文森特。因此，我認為我們對本季贏得的新交易感到非常滿意。我們的數位營運業務和分析業務之間的分佈相當均勻。就我們贏得的交易品質和客戶徽標品質而言，與過去非常相似。其中包括一些全球 1000 強和財富 1000 強的名字。所以那些總是很棒的。

And there are a few that we would expect to ramp up over the next couple of quarters. And therefore, there should be significant large deals for us. So nothing different from previous quarters, so pretty much the same kind of complexion and already of deals that we would have done in this quarter.

我們預計其中一些將在接下來的幾個季度內增加。因此，我們應該有重大的大宗交易。因此，與前幾季沒有什麼不同，因此我們在本季所做的交易和情況幾乎相同。

And are you seeing a substantial M&A pipeline? How valuation in the market? And Maurizio, could you reiterate your capital allocation thinking?

您是否看到大量併購管道？市場估值如何？Maurizio，您能重申您的資本配置想法嗎？

Sure. So in the M&A market, we continue to see plenty of opportunities and assets that come to market. Obviously, we're going to be very selective in terms of the strategic value to us. Going forward, we purchased ITI for a number of different reasons, particularly to really drive more capability in data management and also expand our client base.

當然。因此，在併購市場中，我們繼續看到大量的機會和資產進入市場。顯然，我們將在戰略價值方面非常有選擇性。展望未來，我們出於多種不同原因收購了 ITI，特別是為了真正提高資料管理能力並擴大我們的客戶群。

Going forward, we'll continue to allocate capital to both M&A and share repurchase. Shares repurchase, we've allocated about $185 million this year. And we've gotten a relatively very good price on that repurchase activity, just slightly north of $30 a share. So you'll see a fairly balanced capital allocation trajectory going forward, really tailored between M&A and share repurchase.

展望未來，我們將繼續在併購和股票回購方面配置資金。股票回購，我們今年撥款約1.85億美元。我們在回購活動中獲得了相對非常好的價格，略高於每股 30 美元。因此，您將看到未來相當平衡的資本配置軌跡，真正在併購和股票回購之間量身定制。

Thank you.

謝謝。

We have no further questions. At this time. I will turn the call back to John Kristoff for closing remarks.

我們沒有其他問題了。此時。我將把電話轉回給約翰·克里斯托夫（John Kristoff），讓其致閉幕詞。

Okay. Well, I'd like to thank everyone for joining us this morning. And as always, if you have additional questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly. Thank you.

好的。好吧，我要感謝大家今天早上加入我們。像往常一樣，如果您還有其他問題，請隨時直接與我聯繫。謝謝。