Factset Research Systems Inc (FDS) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the FactSet Q1 Earnings 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 FactSet 第一季財報電話會議。 （操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Ali Van Nes, SVP IR. Please go ahead.

現在我想將會議交給今天的發言人，IR 高級副總裁 Ali Van Nes。請繼續。

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to FactSet's First Fiscal Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. Before we begin, the slides we reference during this presentation can be found through the webcast on the Investor Relations section of our website at factset.com and are currently available on our website. A replay of today's call will be available via phone and on our website.

謝謝大家，大家早安。歡迎參加 FactSet 2024 年第一財季財報電話會議。在開始之前，我們在本次簡報中引用的幻燈片可以透過我們網站factset.com 投資者關係部分的網路廣播找到，並且目前可以在我們的網站上找到。您可以透過電話和我們的網站重播今天的電話會議。

After our prepared remarks, we will open the call to questions from investors. The call is scheduled to last for 1 hour. (Operator Instructions)

在我們準備好的發言之後，我們將開始接受投資人提問。通話預計為期 1 小時。 （操作員說明）

Before we discuss our results, I encourage all listeners to review the legal notice on Slide 2, which explains the risks of forward-looking statements and the use of non-GAAP financial measures.

在我們討論我們的結果之前，我鼓勵所有聽眾查看投影片 2 上的法律聲明，其中解釋了前瞻性陳述的風險以及非 GAAP 財務指標的使用。

Additionally, please refer to our Forms 10-K and 10-Q for a discussion of risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements.

此外，請參閱我們的表格 10-K 和 10-Q，以了解可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述有重大差異的風險因素的討論。

Our slide presentation and discussions on this call will include certain non-GAAP financial measures. For such measures, reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are in the appendix to the presentation and in our earnings release issued earlier today.

我們在本次電話會議上的投影片簡報和討論將包括某些非公認會計準則財務指標。對於此類衡量標準，與最直接可比較的公認會計準則衡量標準的對帳位於簡報的附錄和我們今天早些時候發布的收益報告中。

Joining me today are Phil Snow, Chief Executive Officer; and Linda Huber, Chief Financial Officer. We will also be joined by Helen Shan, Chief Revenue Officer; and Kristy Karnovsky, Chief Product Officer, for the Q&A portion of today's call.

今天加入我的是執行長菲爾·斯諾 (Phil Snow)；和財務長 Linda Huber。首席營收長 Helen Shan 也將加入我們；首席產品官克里斯蒂·卡諾夫斯基 (Kristy Karnovsky) 負責今天電話會議的問答部分。

I will now turn the discussion over to Phil Snow.

我現在將討論轉交給菲爾·斯諾。

Thank you, Ali, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. In the first quarter, we grew organic ASV plus professional services by 7.1% year-over-year, delivering adjusted diluted EPS of $4.12 and an adjusted operating margin of 37.6%.

謝謝阿里，大家早安。感謝您今天加入我們。第一季度，我們的有機 ASV 加上專業服務年增 7.1%，調整後稀釋每股收益為 4.12 美元，調整後營業利潤率為 37.6%。

This quarter, we closed 2 marquee deals that serve as proof points for our long-term strategy even as macro conditions remain challenging. The first was a large wealth win at a major U.S. firm where we displaced a competitor. As a result of this deal, our user count increased by more than 17,000 seats. The second was a significant trading win at one of the largest U.S. asset managers, highlighting the strength of our open platform and portfolio life cycle solutions.

本季度，我們完成了兩筆重大交易，這些交易成為我們長期策略的證據，儘管宏觀條件仍然充滿挑戰。第一個是我們取代了競爭對手，在美國大公司贏得了巨額財富。此次交易後，我們的用戶數量增加了 17,000 多個席位。第二個是美國最大資產管理公司之一的重大交易勝利，凸顯了我們開放平台和投資組合生命週期解決方案的實力。

We ended this quarter with almost 8,000 clients and 24 net new logos. ASV retention remained greater than 95% and client retention was 90%. Nevertheless, since our last earnings call in September, sales cycles have continued to lengthen, challenging our near-term forecast. Client budgets remain restricted due to lower deal-making volume, layoffs and geopolitical uncertainty. So while the recent Federal Reserve commentary may be positive for the macro environment, we are revising our fiscal 2024 top line guidance to reflect ASV growth of $110 million to $150 million or 6% growth at the midpoint.

截至本季末，我們擁有近 8,000 名客戶和 24 個淨新標誌。 ASV 保留率維持在 95% 以上，客戶保留率為 90%。然而，自 9 月我們上次召開財報電話會議以來，銷售週期持續延長，對我們的近期預測構成挑戰。由於交易量減少、裁員和地緣政治不確定性，客戶預算仍受到限制。因此，儘管最近聯準會的評論可能對宏觀環境有利，但我們正在修改 2024 財年的營收指引，以反映 ASV 成長 1.1 億至 1.5 億美元，即中位數成長 6%。

We will also be implementing a cost-reduction program in the second quarter of FY '24. This program will support our investments in multiyear initiatives, such as deep sector and real time, and allow us to accelerate our AI strategic investments. We expect to review variable costs and personnel-related costs with the goal of delivering adjusted operating margin within our original guidance range of 36.3% to 36.7%. Linda will say more about this later in the call.

我們也將在 24 財年第二季實施成本削減計畫。該計劃將支持我們對深度部門和即時等多年計劃的投資，並使我們能夠加快人工智慧策略投資。我們預計將審查變動成本和人員相關成本，目標是將調整後的營業利潤率控制在我們最初的指導範圍 36.3% 至 36.7% 之內。琳達稍後會在電話中詳細介紹這一點。

Turning now to our performance by region. Growth this quarter was driven mainly by the large wealth win in the Americas as well as solid demand for Data Solutions, offsetting weaker results in other parts of the business.

現在談談我們按地區劃分的表現。本季的成長主要是由美洲的巨大財富成長以及對數據解決方案的強勁需求推動的，抵消了其他業務部門較弱的業績。

Americas ASV growth accelerated 88 basis points over the prior quarter to 7.9%, where outside of wealth, lower net hiring and banking and asset managers led to softer demand for workstations compared with a year ago.

美洲 ASV 成長較上一季加快 88 個基點，達到 7.9%，其中除財富之外，銀行和資產管理公司淨招聘人數下降導致對工作站的需求較去年同期疲軟。

In EMEA, organic ASV growth decelerated to 5.4%, mainly due to a slowdown in our core buy-side markets in the U.K. and France. Our clients are experiencing reduced revenues and margin pressures, which led to delays in planned projects and slower sales cycles. Higher demand for Data Solutions partially offset these headwinds.

在歐洲、中東和非洲地區，有機 ASV 成長放緩至 5.4%，這主要是由於英國和法國的核心買方市場放緩。我們的客戶正在經歷收入減少和利潤壓力，這導致計劃項目的延遲和銷售週期的減慢。對數據解決方案的更高需求部分抵消了這些不利因素。

In Asia Pac, we delivered organic ASV growth of 8%, driven by solid gains with asset owners, partially offset by seasonal banking layoffs.

在亞太地區，我們實現了 8% 的有機 ASV 成長，這得益於資產所有者的穩健收益，但部分被季節性銀行裁員所抵消。

From a firm type perspective, wealth accelerated the most compared with last quarter due to the marquee deal I mentioned earlier. While pipeline visibility remains limited until the broader market recovers some momentum, ongoing C-suite conversations at several firms point to continued opportunity to displace wealth competitors.

從公司類型的角度來看，由於我之前提到的大額交易，與上季相比，財富成長最快。儘管在更廣泛的市場恢復一些勢頭之前，管道的可見度仍然有限​​，但幾家公司正在進行的高管對話表明，仍有機會取代財富競爭對手。

For dealmakers, we added new logos in private equity and corporates, but not at the rate we saw last year. Churn and lower seasonal hiring led to erosion in banking. On the institutional buy side, cost cutting and headcount reductions at institutional asset managers caused a deceleration in workstation sales. For asset owners and hedge funds, elongated sales cycles further dampened results.

對於交易撮合者，我們在私募股權和企業中添加了新徽標，但速度沒有達到去年的水平。客戶流失和季節性招聘減少導致銀行業受到侵蝕。在機構購買方面，機構資產管理公司的成本削減和員工人數減少導致工作站銷售放緩。對於資產所有者和對沖基金來說，銷售週期的延長進一步削弱了績效。

Finally, new business and sales of Data Solutions drove growth with partners across regions. Overall, retention was flat in the first quarter with the positive effect of the fiscal 2023 price increase, partially offset by higher cancels and erosion.

最後，數據解決方案的新業務和銷售推動了跨地區合作夥伴的成長。總體而言，由於 2023 財年價格上漲的正面影響，第一季的保留率持平，但部分被取消和侵蝕的增加所抵消。

Over FactSet's 45-year history, new product releases have driven our strong market position. These included Universal Screening in 1986, Portfolio Analytics in 1995 and FactSet Fundamentals in 2008. Last week, we added to this list with the beta release of FactSet Mercury, our new conversational AI interface.

在 FactSet 45 年的歷史中，新產品的發布推動了我們強大的市場地位。其中包括 1986 年的通用篩選、1995 年的投資組合分析和 2008 年的 FactSet Fundamentals。上週，我們將新的對話式 AI 介面 FactSet Mercury 的測試版新增到此清單中。

FactSet Mercury is a large language model-based knowledge agent. It uses natural language to request company information, provide supporting context and also suggest next steps. Users can also ask for any chart using natural language which is then prepared and delivered into Microsoft Office.

FactSet Mercury 是一個基於大型語言模型的知識代理。它使用自然語言來請​​求公司資訊、提供支援上下文並建議後續步驟。使用者還可以使用自然語言請求任何圖表，然後將其準備好並交付到 Microsoft Office 中。

FactSet Mercury is part of FactSet Explorer, a product preview program. We are working on Explorer with our leading banking clients and will soon offer it to institutional buy side and wealth clients. Also, last quarter, we released AI-enhanced transcript highlights and news summaries, which received positive reviews from our users. These are just the first of many workflows that will use generative AI to improve our clients' efficiency.

FactSet Mercury 是產品預覽程式 FactSet Explorer 的一部分。我們正在與領先的銀行客戶合作開發 Explorer，並將很快將其提供給機構買方和財富客戶。此外，上季度，我們發布了人工智慧增強的文字摘要和新聞摘要，並獲得了用戶的正面評價。這些只是使用生成式人工智慧來提高客戶效率的眾多工作流程中的第一個。

And along with these AI initiatives, work continues on deep sector and real time, the wealth workstation and the portfolio life cycle. Each of these multiyear investments is driving growth, including last quarter's big wins in banking and asset management.

除了這些人工智慧措施之外，深度部門和即時、財富工作站和投資組合生命週期的工作也持續進行。這些多年投資中的每一項都在推動成長，包括上季銀行和資產管理領域的巨大勝利。

Finally, the private credit market is growing fast and is almost the size of the leveraged loan market. It is well served by both our Data Solutions and our middle office analytics. For example, Cobalt can be used for private credit fund portfolio monitoring. We can also extend our fixed income capabilities to private credit risk assessments, benchmarking and performance monitoring.

最後，私人信貸市場成長迅速，幾乎與槓桿貸款市場規模相當。我們的數據解決方案和中台分析都為它提供了良好的服務。例如，Cobalt 可用於私人信貸基金投資組合監控。我們還可以將固定收益能力擴展到私人信用風險評估、基準測試和績效監控。

In summary, I remain confident in our strategy and the health of our business, and I am optimistic about the opportunity ahead of us. Demand for our high-value products remain strong, demonstrated by our marquee wins this quarter and increased interest from global firms consolidating to FactSet's open platform.

總而言之，我對我們的策略和業務的健康發展仍然充滿信心，並對我們面前的機會感到樂觀。對我們高價值產品的需求仍然強勁，這從我們本季度取得的重大勝利以及整合到 FactSet 開放平台的全球公司的興趣增加就可以看出。

I'll now turn it over to Linda to discuss our first quarter performance in more detail.

現在我將把它交給琳達，更詳細地討論我們第一季的業績。

Thanks, Phil, and hello to everyone. As you've seen from our press release this morning, Q1 organic ASV and revenue growth exceeded 7%. I will now share additional details on our fiscal first quarter performance. As Ali noted, a reconciliation of our adjusted metrics compared to GAAP is included at the end of our press release.

謝謝菲爾，大家好。正如您從我們今天早上的新聞稿中看到的，第一季有機 ASV 和收入增長超過 7%。我現在將分享更多有關我們第一財季業績的細節。正如阿里指出的那樣，我們的調整後指標與公認會計準則的比較包含在我們新聞稿的末尾。

First, a few observations on macro conditions. Last Wednesday, the Federal Reserve decided to hold rates constant and signaled three 0.25-point rate cuts next year. Inflation has eased, but remains higher than the Fed's 2% target. Equities rallied on the news as rates fell across the yield curve. While this news was helpful, it will take time for capital markets and deal activity to pick up. As Phil mentioned, we expect that market recovery will come later than we anticipated in our September fiscal year 2024 guidance.

首先，對宏觀條件的一些觀察。上週三，聯準會決定維持利率不變，並暗示明年將三次降息 0.25 個基點。通膨有所緩解，但仍高於聯準會 2% 的目標。隨著利率在殖利率曲線上下降，股市因這項消息而上漲。雖然這項消息很有幫助，但資本市場和交易活動需要一段時間才能回升。正如 Phil 所提到的，我們預期市場復甦將晚於我們在 2024 財年 9 月指引中的預期。

For the quarter, GAAP revenue increased 7% to $542 million. Organic revenue, which excludes any impact from acquisitions and dispositions over the last 12 months and foreign exchange movements, increased 7% to $541 million, due to higher wealth sales and increased sales of data. For our geographic segments, organic revenues grew by 8% in the Americas, almost 6% in EMEA and 8% in Asia Pacific.

本季 GAAP 營收成長 7%，達到 5.42 億美元。由於財富銷售增加和數據銷售增加，有機收入（不包括過去 12 個月收購和處置以及外匯波動的影響）增加了 7%，達到 5.41 億美元。對於我們的地理細分市場，美洲的有機收入成長了 8%，歐洲、中東和非洲地區成長了近 6%，亞太地區成長了 8%。

Turning now to expenses. GAAP operating expenses increased 6% year-over-year to $353 million, driven by higher employee expense, technology costs and royalties. Compared to the previous year, GAAP operating margin increased by approximately 80 basis points to 35%. This was due to a decrease in professional fees, personnel and facilities costs, partially offset by higher technology-related expenses.

現在轉向費用。由於員工費用、技術成本和特許權使用費增加，GAAP 營運費用年增 6% 至 3.53 億美元。與前一年相比，GAAP 營業利潤率增加約 80 個基點，達到 35%。這是由於專業費用、人員和設施成本的減少，部分被技術相關費用的增加所抵銷。

On an adjusted basis, operating expenses grew 9%, primarily driven by technology expense, which increased 28% year-over-year. We've continued to invest in technology to drive growth with technology costs now representing about 9% of revenue, consistent with our medium-term outlook.

經調整後，營運支出成長 9%，主要由技術支出推動，技術支出較去年同期成長 28%。我們繼續投資技術以推動成長，技術成本目前約佔收入的 9%，這與我們的中期前景一致。

Employee expense grew 8% year-over-year, primarily due to increased salaries for existing employees.

員工費用年增 8%，主要是由於現有員工薪資增加。

Third-party data content costs increased 12% due to lapping a onetime accrual release in the first quarter of fiscal 2023 as well as higher variable fee expenses.

由於 2023 財年第一季的一次性應計釋放以及較高的變動費用支出，第三方數據內容成本增加了 12%。

Finally, our continued efforts to rightsize our real estate footprint resulted in a 1% decrease in year-over-year facilities expenses.

最後，我們不斷努力調整我們的房地產足跡，導致設施費用比去年同期下降了 1%。

Looking at margin. Adjusted operating margin decreased by 70 basis points to 37.6%, driven by the previously mentioned higher technology expenses, partially offset by lower facilities, professional services and T&E expenses. As always, you'll find an expense walk from revenue to adjusted operating income in the appendix of today's earnings presentation.

看邊際。調整後的營業利潤率下降 70 個基點至 37.6%，原因是前面提到的技術費用增加，但設施、專業服務和差旅費用的減少部分抵消了這一影響。像往常一樣，您會在今天收益報告的附錄中找到從收入到調整後營業收入的費用分析。

As a percent of revenue, our cost of services was about 140 basis points higher than last year on a GAAP basis and about 220 basis points higher on an adjusted basis, largely due to technology and personnel costs. And SG&A as a percentage of revenue was 230 basis points lower year-over-year on a GAAP basis and about 150 basis points lower on an adjusted basis. This was due to decreases in professional fees, facilities expenses and personnel expenses.

以 GAAP 計算，我們的服務成本佔收入的百分比比去年高出約 140 個基點，按調整後的基礎計算則高出約 220 個基點，這主要是由於技術和人員成本。 SG&A 佔營收的百分比以 GAAP 計算年減 230 個基點，以調整後的計算下降約 150 個基點。這是由於專業費用、設施費用和人員費用的減少。

Turning now to tax. Our tax rate for the quarter was 15.2% compared to last year's rate of 13.4%. This increase was primarily due to lower benefits related to stock option exercises and restricted stock vesting. The remainder of the increase was due to higher pretax income and a higher foreign tax rate, partially offset by foreign tax credits.

現在轉向稅收。我們本季的稅率為 15.2%，而去年的稅率為 13.4%。這一增長主要是由於與股票選擇權行使和限制性股票歸屬相關的福利減少。其餘成長是由於較高的稅前收入和較高的外國稅率，部分被外國稅收抵免所抵消。

Turning now to EPS. GAAP EPS increased 9.1% to $3.84 this quarter versus $3.52 in the prior year. This was driven by higher revenue and margin expansion, partially offset by a higher tax rate. On an adjusted basis, EPS increased 3.3% to $4.12, driven by revenue growth, partially offset by margin compression and a higher tax rate. EBITDA increased to $219 million, up 9.3% year-over-year, due to higher net income and higher income tax add-backs.

現在轉向每股收益。本季 GAAP 每股收益成長 9.1%，達到 3.84 美元，去年同期為 3.52 美元。這是由較高的收入和利潤率擴張所推動的，但部分被較高的稅率所抵消。調整後的每股盈餘成長 3.3%，達到 4.12 美元，主要受到營收成長的推動，但部分被利潤率壓縮和稅率提高所抵銷。由於淨利潤增加和所得稅返還增加，EBITDA 增至 2.19 億美元，年增 9.3%。

And finally, free cash flow, which we define as cash generated from operations less capital spending, was $139 million through the quarter, an increase of 56% over the same period last year. This was driven by significantly higher net cash from operating activities, which was nearly $50 million greater year-over-year due to higher cash collections.

最後，自由現金流（我們將其定義為營運產生的現金減去資本支出）在本季為 1.39 億美元，比去年同期成長 56%。這是由經營活動產生的淨現金大幅增加所推動的，由於現金回款增加，淨現金年增了近 5,000 萬美元。

Turning to share repurchases. For the quarter, we repurchased 135,950 shares for $59.9 million at an average price of $440.67. We intend to continue our share repurchases during fiscal 2024 with a target of $250 million of purchases spread ratably throughout the year.

轉向股票回購。本季度，我們以 5,990 萬美元的價格回購了 135,950 股股票，平均價格為 440.67 美元。我們打算在 2024 財年繼續進行股票回購，全年回購目標為 2.5 億美元。

We remain disciplined in our buyback program and committed to returning long-term value to our shareholders. Combining our dividends and share repurchases, we returned $378.6 million to our shareholders over the last 12 months. As a reminder, we also increased our dividend by 10% to $0.98 per share in the third quarter of fiscal 2023.

我們在回購計畫中保持紀律，並致力於為股東回報長期價值。結合我們的股利和股票回購，我們在過去 12 個月內向股東返還了 3.786 億美元。提醒一下，我們也將 2023 財年第三季的股利提高了 10%，達到每股 0.98 美元。

And finally, turning to our revised guidance for fiscal 2024. As Phil mentioned earlier, we expect that the market recovery will happen later in the year than anticipated when we first gave guidance for fiscal 2024. Given this revised view, we are guiding to incremental organic ASV plus professional services growth of $110 million to $150 million, reflecting 6% growth at the midpoint, down from our original 7% growth guidance.

最後，轉向我們修訂後的2024 財年指引。正如Phil 之前提到的，我們預計今年市場復甦的時間將晚於我們首次給出2024 財年指引時的預期。鑑於這一修訂後的觀點，我們正在引導增量有機 ASV 加上專業服務成長 1.1 億美元至 1.5 億美元，中間值成長 6%，低於我們最初 7% 的成長指引。

Given the headwinds in ASV and the lagged timing of ASV in the first half of the fiscal year, we are lowering our expected revenue range to $2.2 billion to $2.21 billion. At the midpoint, revenue growth is also expected to be approximately 6%, a deceleration of about 75 basis points from our previously issued guidance.

考慮到 ASV 的不利因素以及 ASV 在本財年上半年的滯後時間，我們將預期收入範圍下調至 22 億美元至 22.1 億美元。中點時，營收成長預計也約為 6%，較我們先前發布的指引下降約 75 個基點。

We've reduced our GAAP operating margin guidance to 32.5% to 33%, which is down from 33.1% to 33.5%. However, it should be noted that we have not changed our adjusted operating margin guidance of 36.3% to 36.7%. At the midpoint, this provides 30 basis points of continued margin expansion. While we have already met our adjusted operating margin medium-term outlook of 36%, we are committed to balancing continued sustainable margin expansion with investments to drive top line growth.

我們已將 GAAP 營業利潤率指引從 33.1% 至 33.5% 下調至 32.5% 至 33%。然而，值得注意的是，我們並未改變調整後的營業利潤率指引，即 36.3% 至 36.7%。在中點，這提供了 30 個基點的持續利潤擴張。雖然我們已經實現了 36% 的調整後營業利潤率中期前景，但我們致力於在持續可持續的利潤率擴張與投資推動收入成長之間取得平衡。

It is also worth noting that our effective tax rate guidance has been reduced by 50 basis points to 16.5% to 17.5%. And finally, adjusted EPS is expected to range from $15.60 to $16, which represents 7.8% growth at the midpoint and a $0.10 reduction from guidance at the midpoint.

另外值得注意的是，我們的有效稅率指引已降低50個基點至16.5%至17.5%。最後，調整後每股收益預計在 15.60 美元至 16 美元之間，這意味著中點增長 7.8%，比中點指引減少 0.10 美元。

As Phil mentioned, we continued to execute disciplined expense management to support strategic investment to grow our top line. Accordingly, we expect to take a $10 million to $15 million charge in the second quarter of fiscal 2024. Focus areas for expense reduction include both variable and personnel-related costs.

正如菲爾所提到的，我們繼續執行嚴格的費用管理，以支持策略性投資以增加我們的收入。因此，我們預計在 2024 財年第二季收取 1,000 萬至 1,500 萬美元的費用。費用削減的重點領域包括變動成本和人員相關成本。

Despite the uncertain environment, we remain confident in our long-term growth. We have a diverse pipeline and are seeing improved price realization and increased interest in our products. In addition, our enterprise contracts and diverse end markets provide us with downside protection in an uncertain market. As a result, we are confident that we are positioned well for the future.

儘管環境不確定，我們對長期成長仍充滿信心。我們擁有多元化的產品線，價格實現有所提高，人們對我們產品的興趣也有所增加。此外，我們的企業合約和多樣化的終端市場為我們在不確定的市場中提供了下行保護。因此，我們有信心為未來做好準備。

We are now ready for your questions. Operator?

我們現在已準備好回答您的問題。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Seth Weber from Wells Fargo.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自富國銀行的 Seth Weber。

I guess I just wanted to ask -- get a little bit more clarity on the updated outlook. Can you just talk about whether deals are falling out of the pipeline? Are deal sizes getting smaller? Any pressure on the pricing side? Or do you really feel like this is all just kind of getting pushed to the right just while your customers try to navigate the macro environment?

我想我只是想問一下——更清楚地了解更新後的前景。能談談交易是否正在退出嗎？交易規模是否越來越小？定價方面有壓力嗎？或者您真的覺得這一切只是在您的客戶試圖駕馭宏觀環境時被推向正確的方向嗎？

Seth, thanks. It's Phil. I'm going to say a few words, and then I'm sure Helen has more detail. So I think, clearly, we had a good Q1. We had a great win there on the wealth side. Q2 looks to be a little bit weaker than we originally anticipated. And it's always hard to predict when market sentiment is going to turn around, essentially.

賽斯，謝謝。是菲爾.我要說幾句話，然後我相信海倫會提供更多細節。所以我認為，顯然，我們第一季表現不錯。我們在財富方面取得了巨大的勝利。第二季看起來比我們最初預期的要弱一些。從本質上講，總是很難預測市場情緒何時會好轉。

So we're still very optimistic about Q4. And as usual, we have a tale of two halves. So I think we have the product, the strategy, the competitive positioning to really do well, but we are facing some headwinds in the market just in terms of clients, their budgets. Obviously, they're looking very closely at their own headcount.

所以我們對第四季仍然非常樂觀。像往常一樣，我們的故事分為兩個部分。因此，我認為我們擁有真正做得很好的產品、策略和競爭定位，但我們在市場上僅在客戶及其預算方面面臨一些阻力。顯然，他們正在非常密切地關注自己的員工人數。

Yes. And maybe I can add a little bit to that. Thanks for the question. So as Phil just said, I do think that the continued demand for our middle office offering and data and middle office services has really been strong, and similarly for data feeds. Right now, the total cost of ownership has been the differentiator for us. But there are the exogenous events that are impacting budgets and timing and hiring.

是的。也許我可以補充一點。謝謝你的提問。正如菲爾剛才所說，我確實認為對我們的中台產品以及數據和中台服務的持續需求確實很強勁，數據源也是如此。目前，總擁有成本已成為我們的差異化因素。但有些外部事件正在影響預算、時間表和招募。

So what changed from 90 days ago? Let me try to break that down a bit for you. I would look at around 40 basis points coming from the impact from pricing pressures and lower price realization. We definitely see that being a part of the dynamic that's playing out. We're seeing some impact from higher erosion. That's about 30-some basis points.

那麼與 90 天前相比，發生了什麼變化呢？讓我試著為你解釋一下。我會考慮來自定價壓力和較低價格實現的影響的大約 40 個基點。我們確實看到這是正在發生的動態的一部分。我們看到了侵蝕加劇帶來的一些影響。這大約是30多個基點。

And then 25 basis points coming from what we view as delayed decisions in spend. We're seeing more of that coming into the fourth quarter. And from that perspective, that makes it a little bit tougher to gauge exactly when that will come to fruition.

然後 25 個基點來自我們認為延遲的支出決策。我們在第四季看到更多這樣的情況。從這個角度來看，這使得準確判斷何時實現這一目標變得更加困難。

We have not seen a lot of fallout. So that again helps us think about the strength of our business, but not necessarily the timing of it.

我們還沒有看到太多的後果。因此，這再次幫助我們思考我們業務的實力，但不一定是它的時機。

If you think about the reduction by firm type, the way we look at it is about half of it will come from dealmakers, which is largely banking. And we can see right now weaker net hires. But it's very difficult to tell until we get into the second half, as you know, for seasonal hiring.

如果你考慮公司類型的減少，我們的看法是，其中大約一半將來自交易撮合者，其中主要是銀行業。我們現在可以看到淨招聘人數較弱。但如你所知，在季節性招募進入下半年之前，很難說清楚。

From the buy side, that's about 25% of our total. There, we're seeing a bit of the higher erosion due to cost realization -- cost rationalization rather, and also delayed decisions. We're actually seeing good opportunities in the 6-plus figure, but those take longer to come about.

從買方來看，這大約占我們總數的 25%。在那裡，我們看到由於成本實現（而不是成本合理化）以及延遲決策而導致的侵蝕程度較高。我們實際上看到了 6 個以上數字的好機會，但這些機會需要更長的時間才能實現。

And then lastly on wealth strength. Like was mentioned, very strong on the wealth side, of a great win this quarter. But if I take a look at what else is happening there, is that we're seeing some slowdown in adviser hiring and then some losses on smaller firms.

最後是財富實力。正如所提到的，在財富方面非常強勁，本季度取得了巨大的勝利。但如果我看看那裡發生的其他事情，我們發現顧問招聘有所放緩，然後小公司出現了一些損失。

We still see a path to hit the higher end of our revised range, which would put us back into the midpoint, things such as higher conviction on the improvement in the capital markets, so that we would see more investments that are in flight go back into technology; higher investment banking flow, that we think would drive higher seasonal hiring. And then we've got a number of large competitive opportunities in our pipeline, all in that 6- and 7-figure deal range. And those can change and determine whether or not we hit the high end as well.

我們仍然看到一條達到修訂區間高端的道路，這將使我們回到中點，例如對資本市場改善的更加堅定的信念，這樣我們就會看到更多正在飛行的投資返回進入技術領域；投資銀行業務流量增加，我們認為這將推動季節性招聘增加。然後，我們的管道中有許多巨大的競爭機會，所有交易金額都在 6 到 7 位數的範圍內。這些都可以改變並決定我們是否也能達到高端。

So hopefully, that gives you a sense of what drives the delta between our guidance.

希望這能讓您了解是什麼推動了我們的指導方針之間的差異。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Toni Kaplan from Morgan Stanley.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的托尼卡普蘭（Toni Kaplan）。

I was hoping you could talk a little bit about the price increase that you're implementing for the upcoming calendar year. I know, Helen, you just mentioned some difficulties in passing through price. But I guess, what's the sort of list price increase, and what your expectation is for how that flows through?

我希望您能談談您在即將到來的日曆年實施的價格上漲。我知道，海倫，你剛才提到了價格傳遞中的一些困難。但我想，標價上漲的幅度是多少？您對漲價的預期是什麼？

Yes, sure. Thank you, Toni. You're right. We -- the Americas is done on Jan 1. And then our international, we'll see that come through in April.

是的，當然。謝謝你，托尼。你說得對。我們——美洲賽將於 1 月 1 日完成。然後我們的國際賽，我們將在 4 月看到它的完成。

So interestingly, the actual rate cards, we have not increased. What we do is we have an annual price increase based off of our contracts. And quite frankly, up until now, we've seen everything go through pretty well. In other words, clients are not pushing back on the price increase per se. They understand it. They understand the improvements we've made and the enhancements we made.

有趣的是，實際的價目表我們並沒有增加。我們所做的是根據合約每年提價。坦白說，到目前為止，我們看到一切進展順利。換句話說，客戶本身並沒有抵制價格上漲。他們明白。他們了解我們所做的改進和增強。

The issue that we have a little bit more of is clients are taking the opportunity then to perhaps go through a review of their list, so we see some erosion that comes from -- as a result. And also from a price realization perspective, so in other words, we're seeing some down shift. We have to kind of approve deals that are a bit lower on our price realization, about 1 point lower than we saw in Q4, for example, and that's driving some of that delta.

我們遇到的問題是，客戶可能會藉此機會審查他們的清單，因此我們看到了一些侵蝕。從價格實現的角度來看，換句話說，我們看到了一些下降。我們必須批准價格實現略低的交易，例如比我們在第四季度看到的低約 1 個百分點，這推動了部分增量。

So we expect to have to continue to be competitive, especially on new deals. And -- but the actual annual price increase so far has been received pretty much in line with what we've seen in the past.

因此，我們預計必須繼續保持競爭力，尤其是在新交易方面。而且，到目前為止，實際的年度價格上漲與我們過去看到的情況基本一致。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Alex Kramm from UBS.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 UBS 的 Alex Kramm。

Maybe a little bit too short-term focus here. But talking about the second quarter a little bit more in detail, you said that was the biggest change of your outlook. So when I look at last year, I think you added $54 million in the quarter organically, and I think $31 million of that was pricing. So are you basically saying pricing should be fairly consistent, but then you may actually have a negative elsewhere? Or how would you think about the second quarter specifically? Because I know there's a lot of things going on, including at my firm.

也許這裡的關注有點過於短期化。但更詳細地談論第二季度，您說這是您觀點的最大變化。因此，當我回顧去年時，我認為該季度有機增加了 5,400 萬美元，其中 3,100 萬美元是定價。那麼，您基本上是說定價應該相當一致，但實際上在其他地方可能會出現負面影響？或者您具體如何看待第二季度？因為我知道有很多事情正在發生，包括在我的公司。

Alex, it's Helen. Thanks for your question, and thanks for the specifics. So you've hit the nail on the head on a number of your points. So yes, last year, we had a very strong Q2. And so this year, while we've not changed our rate card, the actual annual price increase is a little bit lower than last year. So that is part of the reason, so you're spot on there.

亞歷克斯，這是海倫。感謝您的提問，也感謝您提供的具體資訊。所以你的很多觀點都一針見血。所以，是的，去年我們的第二季表現非常強勁。所以今年，雖然我們沒有改變價目表，但實際的年度物價漲幅比去年低。所以這是部分原因，所以你就在那裡。

The other is that we do know or anticipated a couple of material headwinds. One is the impact of the acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS and the downsizing that occur there. Now we might be a little bit conservative there, but that's going to have a pretty material impact to our growth year-over-year. And that's where the Q2, we will see a much more weak Q2 growth rate.

另一個是我們確實知道或預期會出現一些重大阻力。一是瑞銀收購瑞士信貸及其裁員的影響。現在我們可能有點保守，但這將對我們的同比增長產生相當大的影響。這就是第二季度，我們將看到第二季度成長率更加疲軟。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Faiza Alwy from Deutsche Bank.

（操作員指示）我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Faiza Alwy。

I wanted to follow up on the cost savings that you mentioned. So maybe, Linda, can you talk a little bit more about the timing of those savings and how we should think about that as we go through the year? And maybe in general, sort of how do you think about just your flexibility as it relates to EPS and flexibility around level of investments and what your priorities are?

我想跟進您提到的成本節約。那麼，琳達，您能否多談談這些節省的時間以及我們在這一年中應該如何考慮這一點？也許總的來說，您如何看待與每股收益相關的靈活性以及圍繞投資水平的靈活性以及您的優先事項是什麼？

Faiza, yes, we are thinking through what it means to have at the midpoint of $15 million reduction in revenue. So obviously, we would like to offset that, and it is our intention to hold adjusted operating margin where we said at about 36.5% midpoint. So we've got to adjust our expenses. We've talked about taking a charge, which we will have more details on in the second quarter earnings call. So that's at the half year mark, if you will.

Faiza，是的，我們正在思考收入減少 1500 萬美元的中點意味著什麼。顯然，我們希望抵消這一影響，並且我們打算將調整後的營業利潤率保持在我們所說的約 36.5% 的中點。所以我們必須調整我們的開支。我們已經討論過收取費用，我們將在第二季的財報電話會議中提供更多細節。如果你願意的話，現在已經是半年了。

So we're shooting for about $30 million in cost cuts. And we're looking at $10-ish or so million of cost cuts. The first thing you do is look at your variable costs. The easiest one is T&E, so we're looking at sort of $1 million to $2 million of a cut there. Professional services is another one we're looking at, call that $3 million to $4 million. So call that bucket sort of $5 million in total.

因此，我們計劃削減約 3000 萬美元的成本。我們正在考慮削減 10 美元左右的成本。您要做的第一件事就是查看可變成本。最簡單的是 T&E，因此我們考慮削減 100 萬至 200 萬美元。專業服務是我們正在關注的另一項服務，價值 300 萬至 400 萬美元。因此，我們稱這一桶的總金額為 500 萬美元。

And then we're looking also at our bonus calculation. So we've just taken our guidance down a bit, and we would expect that our bonus pool will come down a bit as well. Maybe about $5-ish million, but we don't know until we get to the end of the year. So that would be about a total of $10 million.

然後我們也會查看獎金計算。因此，我們剛剛將指導方針下調了一點，我們預計我們的獎金池也會有所下降。也許大約有 500 萬美元左右，但我們要到年底才能知道。所以總共大約是 1000 萬美元。

And then we've talked about a $10 million to $15 million charge, which would probably lean more toward personnel and headcount reduction thoughts. We're working through that right now. We have not made any final decisions on that.

然後我們討論了 1000 萬至 1500 萬美元的費用，這可能更傾向於人員和人數削減的想法。我們現在正在解決這個問題。我們尚未就此做出任何最終決定。

And of course, that process has to be handled very, very carefully with an eye toward holding our investment funding, which is incredibly important to us, particularly given AI, which we'll be talking about in a bit. But we want to make sure that we bring our expenses back into line with our revenues.

當然，這個過程必須非常非常謹慎地處理，著眼於持有我們的投資資金，這對我們來說非常重要，特別是考慮到人工智慧，我們稍後會討論這一點。但我們希望確保我們的支出與收入一致。

Now if you look at our bucket, we had talked before about -- if you look at our third-party data costs, they're up a bit in the first quarter because we lapped a really good audit release last year, but those will be about flat for this year.

現在，如果你看看我們的桶，我們之前討論過 - 如果你看看我們的第三方數據成本，它們在第一季度有所上升，因為我們去年發布了非常好的審計版本，但這些將今年基本持平。

And if you look at our real estate costs, we've taken pretty close to $90 million in charges to rightsize our real estate footprint. So on that one, those costs will actually be flat to down a bit year-over-year.

如果你看看我們的房地產成本，我們已經花了近 9000 萬美元的費用來調整我們的房地產足跡。因此，就這一點而言，這些成本實際上將同比持平或略有下降。

Technology costs are going up. We've talked a lot about that. This is a technology company. And 3 big drivers for the tech costs, amortization coming through because we're building more of our software, as we've talked about; also more cloud expense; and also more third-party software purchases.

技術成本正在上升。我們已經就此談了很多。這是一家科技公司。技術成本的三大驅動因素是攤銷，因為我們正在建立更多的軟體，正如我們所討論的；還有更多的雲端費用；以及更多的第三方軟體購買。

Footnote there on cloud expense. Please watch that carefully. If Kristy and the team are successful with what they're trying to do for AI, cloud expense may go up. We have to watch that carefully, but that's an important area of investment for us. So we'll keep our eyes on that.

關於雲端費用的註腳。請仔細觀看。如果克里斯蒂和團隊在人工智慧方面取得成功，雲端費用可能會增加。我們必須仔細觀察，但這對我們來說是一個重要的投資領域。所以我們會密切注意這一點。

Which leaves people, which is about 65% of our expense base. So we're going to have to make sure we've got everyone in the right place for what we're trying to do going forward. And I think that probably would provide about enough detail.

這就剩下了人，這約占我們支出基礎的 65%。因此，我們必須確保每個人都處於正確的位置，以完成我們接下來要做的事情。我認為這可能會提供足夠的細節。

In terms of the ramp for expenses. We put up $338 million for the first quarter. We would expect that to jump up to the neighborhood of $350 million for the second quarter. And then as a result of the charge, sort of flatten out through the rest of the year. And yes, our margin tends to be a bit higher in the first quarter. We would see it might come off a bit as we move through the year, so the sort of normal trend that you see at FactSet.

就費用而言。我們為第一季投入了 3.38 億美元。我們預計第二季這一數字將躍升至 3.5 億美元左右。然後，由於收費的影響，今年剩餘時間的情況基本上持平。是的，我們第一季的利潤率往往會更高一些。我們會發現隨著這一年的推移，它可能會有所下降，所以這是你在 FactSet 上看到的正常趨勢。

So that's a lot of information. I hope that's helpful. And really appreciate your question, Faiza.

這是很多資訊。我希望這有幫助。非常感謝你的問題，Faiza。

(Operator Instructions) our next question comes from the line of Manav Patnaik from Barclays.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Manav Patnaik。

I just wanted to follow up on kind of the macro discussion. Usually, when you have these times of cost pressures, budget pressures, et cetera, there's a lot of talk around vendor consolidation as well. So I was just hoping, are you seeing any opportunities in terms of maybe winning business from the lower end? Or maybe there's some M&A opportunities because of that? Just hoping you could address that.

我只是想跟進宏觀討論。通常，當您面臨成本壓力、預算壓力等時，也會有很多關於供應商整合的討論。所以我只是希望，您是否看到任何可能贏得低端業務的機會？或者因此可能存在一些併購機會？只是希望你能解決這個問題。

Manav, thanks for the question. It's Phil. We certainly are seeing opportunity. So as we go through these periods of market uncertainty, it's always a great opportunity for FactSet to work with our clients who typically want to do more with us and trust us. So that's become an even more sophisticated conversation as our product suite has expanded.

馬納夫，謝謝你的提問。是菲爾.我們當然看到了機會。因此，當我們經歷這些市場不確定的時期時，對於 FactSet 來說，與通常希望與我們合作並信任我們的客戶合作始終是一個絕佳的機會。因此，隨著我們產品套件的擴展，這已成為一個更複雜的對話。

And just in the last few weeks, I've heard a couple of very encouraging situations where it just feels like there's more of a top-down push now at the bigger clients to really save -- to drive cost savings in our direction. So that is encouraging to me.

就在過去的幾周里，我聽到了一些非常令人鼓舞的情況，感覺現在有更多自上而下的推動力，要求大客戶真正節省開支——朝著我們的方向推動成本節約。這對我來說是鼓舞人心的。

I think at some firms, there was still a bit of choice given to users. But we are an anchor partner of choice for our clients based on our strategy. And our open platform, our investments in generative AI and our approach there is lending really well. So I just feel more optimistic than I have in a long time about the long-term prospects of FactSet and our competitive position.

我認為在一些公司，仍然給用戶一些選擇。但根據我們的策略，我們是客戶選擇的主要合作夥伴。我們的開放平台、我們對產生人工智慧的投資以及我們的貸款方法都非常好。因此，我對 FactSet 的長期前景和我們的競爭地位感到比長期以來更樂觀。

I'm happy to go through this firm type by firm type, either on the call today or some other time with you. But overall, I think it's just a timing thing for us and getting through this period of uncertainty in the markets, and I think then, we're in really good shape.

我很高興在今天的電話會議或其他時間與您一起逐一了解該公司的類型。但總的來說，我認為這對我們來說只是一個時機，我們要度過這段市場不確定的時期，我認為那時我們的狀況非常好。

Maybe I can just add a little bit, Manav, just along what Phil just said. So like he was talking about, clients are going through rightsizing exercises, that's been happening for several quarters.

也許我可以補充一點，馬納夫，就像菲爾剛才所說的。正如他所說，客戶正在進行規模調整，這已經持續了幾個季度。

And most clients, their budgets are more flat. But what they're being asked is to provide more sophisticated tools and reporting to their clients, and yet they have not enough people or dollars; or their current technology and processes, some of which can be internal, just can't scale. And that's why we're so well positioned on that front. And that's why also from an open platform perspective, you can do replacement pieces, not need the entire piece of higher workflow replace, but pieces, and that's worked into our advantage as well.

對於大多數客戶來說，他們的預算更加固定。但他們被要求提供更複雜的工具並向客戶報告，但他們沒有足夠的人力或資金；或者他們當前的技術和流程，其中一些可能是內部的，只是無法擴展。這就是為什麼我們在這方面處於如此有利的位置。這就是為什麼從開放平台的角度來看，您可以進行替換零件，不需要替換整個更高工作流程，而是替換零件，這也成為我們的優勢。

So that really goes to what Phil was just talking about, which is there's a lot of good activity and timing is really the question because of how complex they are.

這確實符合菲爾剛才所說的，即有很多好的活動，而且時機確實是問題，因為它們非常複雜。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Heather Balsky from Bank of America.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Heather Balsky。

I was just hoping you could talk a little bit about how you're thinking first half versus second half and the different drivers between the two, I guess, parts of the year. Prior -- I guess, last earnings, you kind of had us think about the recovery into the back half. It sounds like it's maybe pushed out a bit. But when do you see capital markets come back? Kind of what's baked into the first half versus the second half?

我只是希望你能談談你對上半年和下半年的看法，以及我想在今年的部分時間裡，兩者之間的不同驅動因素。此前——我想，在上一份財報中，你讓我們考慮了下半年的復甦。聽起來可能有點被推出了。但你認為資本市場什麼時候會回歸呢？上半場和下半場有什麼不同？

Heather, it's Linda. I actually listened to an interview with Brian Moynihan on the way up this morning. So maybe we'll quote you back your own firm's information here.

希瑟，是琳達。事實上，我今天早上起床的時候聽了布萊恩·莫伊尼漢的採訪。因此，也許我們會在這裡引用您自己公司的資訊。

I think the question is the timing of the turn. And I don't think anyone can predict that particularly clearly. If they can, they should be of course running a hedge fund. But in any case, we have thought this might come a little bit sooner. What we're trying to say is that the turn is going to come a little bit later in the year than we had thought.

我認為問題在於轉向的時機。我認為沒有人能夠特別清楚地預測這一點。如果可以的話，他們當然應該經營對沖基金。但無論如何，我們認為這可能會來得早一點。我們想說的是，今年的轉變將比我們想像的晚一些。

It should be noted that investment banking and banking hiring is a lagging indicator, okay? So we've had 500 basis points of interest rate increases. Times got tougher, and so hiring is in fact a lagging indicator. There is a view that I also heard this morning, not from your boss, that Jay Powell shot the bears last week.

應該指出的是，投資銀行和銀行招聘是一個落後指標，好嗎？所以我們已經升息了 500 個基點。時代變得更加艱難，因此招募實際上是一個落後指標。我今天早上也聽到了一種觀點，即傑伊·鮑威爾上週射殺了熊，但不是從你的老闆那裡聽到的。

So how long will it take for capital markets to come back? If you speak to various institutions, they're saying they're seeing much greater activity right now. The 10-year this morning was at 3.9%, which beats the heck out of 5%. So we would expect that things will turn up. How quickly will that happen? Very difficult to say. So we're trying to be realistic about what we think about the pacing of that turn.

那麼資本市場還需要多久才能恢復呢？如果你與各個機構交談，他們都會說他們現在看到了更大的活動。今天上午，10 年期公債利率為 3.9%，遠高於 5%。所以我們預計事情將會出現。這會多快發生？很難說。因此，我們試著現實地看待這一回合的節奏。

But we do -- particularly with the Fed announcement last week, we do think that it is coming. It just may take a bit longer than we thought. And there's a lot of focus on AI. We have incredible conversations going on with our clients, and we'll be speaking more about that as others might want to ask about it. But we do see the turn coming, it's just a question of when. So I hope that makes things a bit clearer, but we appreciate your boss' interview this morning.

但我們確實認為這一點即將到來，尤其是聯準會上周宣布的消息。只是可能需要的時間比我們想像的還要長。人們非常關注人工智慧。我們與客戶正在進行令人難以置信的對話，我們將在其他人可能想問的時候更多地談論這一點。但我們確實看到了轉變即將到來，這只是時間問題。所以我希望這能讓事情變得更清楚一些，但我們感謝你老闆今天早上的採訪。

(Operator Instructions) our next question comes from the line of Shlomo Rosenbaum from Stifel.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 Shlomo Rosenbaum。

Linda, specifically for you. You talked about what you're doing in terms of cost cutting. But I was wondering, just as I look at various levers that might still be available, when I think about it, like how much can you gain efficiency by AI? I think a lot of the AI you're talking about are for clients. What about the company's own ability to influence some AI internally? I hear from other companies that they can gain efficiency that way.

琳達，專門為你。您談到了在削減成本方面正在做的事情。但我想知道，就像我看到各種可能仍然可用的槓桿一樣，當我思考時，例如透過人工智慧可以提高多少效率？我認為你所說的許多人工智慧都是為客戶服務的。公司本身在內部影響某些人工智慧的能力又如何呢？我從其他公司聽說他們可以透過這種方式提高效率。

And then just again, the Centers of Excellence, you've got 68% of headcount over there. Is that kind of peaked out over there? Or is that another lever that can continue to be pushed? And where does that max?

再說一遍，卓越中心，那裡有 68% 的員工。那裡的情況達到頂峰了嗎？或者說這是另一個可以繼續推動的槓桿？最大值在哪裡？

Yes. Shlomo, I'll let Phil talk a little bit about how far we can go with the Centers of Excellence. But you're right, we have good representation in those Centers of Excellence, and that's working really, really well for us.

是的。什洛莫，我會讓菲爾談談我們可以在卓越中心方面走多遠。但你是對的，我們在這些卓越中心中有很好的代表，這對我們來說非常非常有效。

We do have our thoughts on efficiency coming from gen AI. Probably a little bit premature to talk about that. We're going to focus on the client side first. And that's really where we're looking hardest right now. But efficiency for engineers is really important, efficiency for our help desk kind of function is very, very important. And in future calls, we'll talk more about that.

我們確實對人工智慧時代的效率有自己的想法。談論這個可能有點為時過早。我們將首先關注客戶端。這確實是我們現在最努力尋找的地方。但效率對工程師來說確實很重要，效率對我們的幫助台功能也非常非常重要。在以後的電話會議中，我們將更多地討論這一點。

Shlomo, to answer a question you didn't ask. We did want to thank you for your noting that we had improved free cash flow and that we collected about $50 million more in cash collections than we did in the previous period last year.

Shlomo，回答一個你沒有問過的問題。我們確實想感謝您注意到我們的自由現金流有所改善，並且我們收到的現金比去年同期多了約 5000 萬美元。

So in addition to our giant macro calls that we have to make, we also have to make sure we're collecting our cash appropriately. So I appreciate your note on that, but I'm going to turn it over to Phil on CoEs and also on the Gen AI opportunity for ourselves. Phil?

因此，除了我們必須做出的巨大的宏觀調控之外，我們還必須確保我們正在適當地收集現金。所以我很感謝你對此的評論，但我將把它轉交給 Phil 關於 CoE 以及我們自己的 Gen AI 機會。菲爾？

Thanks, Shlomo. Yes. So I think there are 3 good buckets of cost opportunity internally for generative AI. One is engineering. So we have a lot of engineers at FactSet, and we've successfully piloted GitHub Copilot with a number of groups. And I think we're deploying that more broadly now. So like other firms, we're seeing great efficiency just in terms of the amount of code that someone can produce in the same amount of time. So that is a good opportunity for us.

謝謝，什洛莫。是的。所以我認為生成式人工智慧內部有 3 個很好的成本機會。一是工程。我們在 FactSet 擁有許多工程師，並且我們已經在多個小組中成功試用了 GitHub Copilot。我認為我們現在正在更廣泛地部署它。因此，與其他公司一樣，我們看到了在相同時間內某人可以產生的程式碼量方面的巨大效率。所以這對我們來說是一個很好的機會。

On the content collection side, there's also a good opportunity. And over the decades, we have continued to automate more and more of content collection. So this is just a bit of an inflection point. But I was in India a couple of months ago and sat down with a number of teams, and all of them were able to demonstrate to me in some way, shape or form really good efficiency that they could get from collecting all kinds of different databases.

在內容收集方面，也有一個很好的機會。幾十年來，我們不斷實現越來越多的內容收集自動化。所以這只是一個轉捩點。但幾個月前我在印度，與許多團隊坐下來，他們都能夠以某種方式向我展示他們可以通過收集各種不同的數據庫獲得非常好的效率。 。

And then on the sales front, similarly, I sat down with someone on our help desk. And we have a copilot for them, which is really good about generating a code that a user might want. And 50% of our help desk calls tend to be coding calls, so you can imagine that, that's a great efficiency.

然後在銷售方面，類似地，我與服務台上的某人坐下來。我們為他們提供了一個副駕駛，這對於產生用戶可能想要的程式碼非常有用。我們 50% 的幫助台呼叫往往是編碼呼叫，所以您可以想像，這是一個非常高的效率。

So the question for us and for any other firm, frankly, if you ask anyone about this, is whether or not you have that efficiency go through to margin or if you use it in other ways, right? So we have a long list of things we'd like to do on the product side. So we're still, a, evaluating how much efficiency we can get and how we'd want to spend that money. Any real impact from those three things, I wouldn't expect to see until FY '25, next fiscal year. But we might be able to recognize some of it in -- like later in the second half of this year.

因此，對於我們和任何其他公司來說，坦白說，如果你問任何人這個問題，問題是你是否將這種效率轉化為利潤，或者你是否以其他方式使用它，對嗎？所以我們有一長串想要在產品方面做的事情。因此，我們仍在評估我們可以獲得多少效率以及我們希望如何花費這筆錢。我預計要到下個財年 25 財年才能看到這三件事的任何真正影響。但我們也許能夠在今年下半年晚些時候認識到其中的一些內容。

The Centers of Excellence, we have great employees there. I think the question is, just can you continue to go up the value chain in terms of what you do in those locations? So we're always evaluating our people and location strategy. And I think we've all learned in the last 3 years that there are even more options open to us than there might have been in the past.

卓越中心，我們在那裡擁有優秀的員工。我認為問題是，就您在這些地點所做的事情而言，您能否繼續提升價值鏈？因此，我們一直在評估我們的人員和選址策略。我認為在過去的三年裡我們都了解到，我們有比過去更多的選擇。

So overall, I'm very optimistic about what we can continue to do to drive efficiency and drive the top line through more product.

總的來說，我對我們可以繼續採取哪些措施來提高效率並透過更多產品來提高收入感到非常樂觀。

(Operator Instructions) our next question comes from the line of Andrew Nicholas from William Blair.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自威廉布萊爾的安德魯尼古拉斯。

I wanted to ask on kind of the M&A opportunity set and your appetite there. It sounds like with the market -- or I would expect the market being a little bit choppier in the end markets, or client budgets rather being a bit harder to pin down, that you might be seeing maybe some more opportunities or some more reasonable multiples for potential acquisitions. So if you could touch on that.

我想問一下併購機會的類型以及您對此的興趣。聽起來就像市場一樣——或者我預計終端市場的市場會有點波動，或者客戶預算會更難確定，你可能會看到更多的機會或一些更合理的倍數進行潛在的收購。如果你能談談這一點的話。

And then maybe kind of bigger picture on the same vein. Do you think that AI and its ability to drive content collection -- I think, Phil, you said it reached an inflection point. Does that have an impact on potential multiples as you acquire data assets? Are they easier to get? Are they more valuable now? Just kind of like a bigger-picture question on the value of data assets.

然後也許是同樣的情況下更大的圖景。你認為人工智慧及其驅動內容收集的能力嗎？我認為，菲爾，你說它已經達到了一個拐點。當您獲取數據資產時，這會對潛在倍數產生影響嗎？它們更容易獲得嗎？現在它們更值錢了嗎？這有點像是關於數據資產價值的宏觀問題。

Yes, thank you. There's a lot in there. So on the M&A front, the three buckets that we continue to spend time on are wealth, wealth technology, private markets and filling out -- continuing to fill out the portfolio life cycle. So those are the three areas of higher interest. We do look at other interesting content assets.

是的，謝謝。裡面有很多東西。因此，在併購方面，我們繼續花時間關注的三個領域是財富、財富技術、私人市場和填充——繼續填充投資組合生命週期。這些是人們更感興趣的三個領域。我們確實專注於其他有趣的內容資產。

And yes, your instincts are right. The market is beginning to thaw a little bit. I think a lot of sponsors are beginning to bring assets to market as they need to show some returns to their clients. I don't know about the multiples coming down part, that's still to be determined.

是的，你的直覺是對的。市場開始略有回溫。我認為許多贊助商開始將資產推向市場，因為他們需要向客戶展示一些回報。我不知道倍數會下降多少，這仍有待確定。

But we're in a much better position than we were 6 months ago just because we've executed very well on the CUSIP acquisition and effectively gotten our leverage down to the range that we said that we would. We did what we said we were going to do. So we're active. We're looking at tons of stuff.

但我們的處境比 6 個月前要好得多，因為我們在 CUSIP 收購方面執行得非常好，並且有效地將我們的槓桿率降低到了我們所說的範圍。我們做了我們說過要做的事。所以我們很活躍。我們正在研究大量的東西。

On the AI front, I mean, the -- I guess I'll answer it this way. The -- I think the winners in artificial intelligence are going to be people that own the data, right? So we're in a great position there because we have a ton of data that we collect ourselves. We obviously have a lot of third parties that contribute data into our ecosystem, and we connect that well. That's the real value there. And then clients are also trusting us with their data.

在人工智慧方面，我的意思是──我想我會這樣回答。我認為人工智慧的贏家將是擁有數據的人，對嗎？因此，我們在這方面處於有利地位，因為我們自己收集了大量數據。顯然，我們有很多第三方向我們的生態系統貢獻數據，我們之間的聯繫很好。這就是那裡的真正價值。然後客戶也信任我們提供他們的數據。

So potentially, data -- the price of data assets may go up, but also it might be easier for some newer firms to collect data. Now newer firms that have data are going to need, very often, platforms like FactSet to monetize that. It's hard to go into a bigger bank or a bigger asset management as a small company and get their attention and get through all of the different things that you need to get through to have that sale.

因此，數據——數據資產的價格可能會上漲，但對於一些新公司來說，收集數據可能會更容易。現在，擁有數據的新公司通常需要像 FactSet 這樣的平台來將其貨幣化。作為一家小公司，很難進入一家更大的銀行或一家更大的資產管理公司並吸引他們的注意力並完成完成銷售所需的所有不同事情。

So we're in a great position here. And yes, we're actively looking at what's available in the market.

所以我們在這裡處於有利地位。是的，我們正在積極尋找市場上可用的產品。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of George Tong from Goldman Sachs.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自高盛的 George Tong。

You talked about restructuring to take out variable and personnel-related costs. Can you elaborate on which parts of the business this is affecting? So how much of this is coming from the desktop business, wealth business, data feeds, et cetera? And how these cost actions are spread out geographically? Whether the actions are more concentrated in certain parts of the world versus others?

您談到了重組以消除可變成本和人員相關成本。您能否詳細說明這對業務的哪些部分產生了影響？那麼，其中有多少來自桌面業務、財富業務、資料來源等？這些成本行動在地理上是如何分佈的？與其他地區相比，這些行動是否更集中在世界某些地區？

Yes. George, it's Linda. We're not going to talk about headcount reductions via firm types. The main reason being that we haven't made our full decisions yet. We're looking to put our investments toward our higher-value and our emerging opportunities. And obviously, we're looking really closely at products that we may have had for a while or opportunities that maybe have not lived up to everything that we had hoped for them.

是的。喬治，這是琳達。我們不會討論透過公司類型來減少員工人數。主要原因是我們還沒有做出完整的決定。我們希望將投資投向更高價值和新興機會。顯然，我們正在密切關注我們可能已經擁有了一段時間的產品或可能沒有達到我們所希望的一切的機會。

Also in terms of where that headcount might come from, obviously, we have to look hard at our onshore locations to make sure we're getting the best use out of our resources there. But again, all this is in progress right now, and we'll have a little bit more information as we go into the Q2 earnings call. But we haven't made those decisions yet. And I don't think we're going to give that degree of granularity even when we get to that time.

另外，就人員來源而言，顯然，我們必須仔細研究我們的陸上地點，以確保我們充分利用那裡的資源。但同樣，所有這些現在都在進行中，當我們進入第二季財報電話會議時，我們將獲得更多資訊。但我們還沒有做出這些決定。我認為即使到了那個時候，我們也不會給出那種程度的粒度。

We're looking to take out $10 million to $15 million on cost. We're going to do it very thoughtfully. Senior management of the firm is looking at this with great caution to make sure that we're really thoughtful about what we're doing. This doesn't come easily to us, so we want to take the time and get it right. And I don't think we're going to go into too much more detail than that.

我們希望節省 1000 萬至 1500 萬美元的成本。我們會非常深思熟慮地去做這件事。公司的高階管理層正在非常謹慎地看待這個問題，以確保我們對我們正在做的事情真正深思熟慮。這對我們來說並不容易，所以我們想花時間把它做好。我認為我們不會討論更多的細節。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Craig Huber from Huber Research Partners, LLC.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Huber Research Partners, LLC 的 Craig Huber。

I was hoping you could give a little more clarity on the workflow breakdown in the quarter year-over-year by client type, dealmakers, partners, wealth and institutional buy side. And also curious are you basically assuming the second half of the year, which areas pick up significantly versus what we've seen in the first half?

我希望您能更清楚地說明本季按客戶類型、交易撮合者、合作夥伴、財富和機構買方劃分的工作流程細分。同樣好奇的是，您是否基本上假設下半年，哪些領域與我們上半年所看到的相比會顯著回升？

Well, we won't give exact numbers. But what I can say is that banking was probably affected the most. And I think you saw that in our press release, right? We saw, I think, much weaker hiring or more churn on the banking side than we did last year.

好吧，我們不會給出確切的數字。但我可以說的是，銀行業可能受到的影響最大。我想您在我們的新聞稿中看到了這一點，對嗎？我認為，與去年相比，我們看到銀行業的招募疲軟或流失更多。

On the asset management side, things came down a little bit, not dreadfully. We did see definitely weaker penetration in the front office. So we've begun to see the buy-side clients, I think, reduce headcount a little bit more than they have in the past. But overall, the growth rates of asset management, asset owners and hedge funds didn't come down dramatically.

在資產管理方面，情況有所下降，但並不嚴重。我們確實看到前台的滲透率明顯較弱。因此，我認為我們已經開始看到買方客戶比過去減少了更多的員工人數。但整體而言，資產管理、資產所有者和避險基金的成長速度並未大幅下降。

Wealth went up quite a bit because of that big deal we had in Q1. And then some of the smaller parts of our business, like private equity, venture capital and corporations in an environment like this, we did add new logos in both of those areas, but not at the rate that we might have had in previous years. So hopefully, that helps.

由於我們在第一季達成的那筆大交易，財富大幅成長。然後，我們業務的一些較小部分，例如私募股權、風險投資和在這樣的環境中的公司，我們確實在這兩個領域添加了新徽標，但沒有達到前幾年的速度。希望這會有所幫助。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Kelsey Zhu from Autonomous.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Autonomous 的 Kelsey Zhu。

So on wealth, I think you previously talked about an acceleration of growth in FY '24 and the general expectations of expanding share and expanding TAM. Obviously, we've seen a large win this quarter, but I was wondering if you can tell us a little bit more about the key drivers and strategy behind that acceleration of growth.

關於財富，我想您之前談到了 24 財年的加速成長以及擴大份額和擴大 TAM 的普遍預期。顯然，我們在本季度取得了巨大的勝利，但我想知道您是否可以告訴我們更多有關加速成長背後的關鍵驅動因素和策略的資訊。

You've also talked about expanding into workflows outside of the Advisory Dashboard, so I was wondering if you can give us an update on that as well.

您還談到了擴展到諮詢儀表板之外的工作流程，所以我想知道您是否也可以向我們提供有關該問題的最新資訊。

Kelsey, it's Helen. Thanks for your question. Let me try to get to it. So when we think about wealth, as we mentioned, we had a very good win this quarter that helps us a lot. And so when we think about what wealth clients are trying to do right now, is that they are looking really to improve and modernize their platform. This started with a lot of the large wealth firms, as you know. And now we're seeing that now with the midsized firms coming through. So that's where we're seeing more of that deal flow.

凱爾西，是海倫。謝謝你的提問。讓我試著去實現它。因此，當我們考慮財富時，正如我們所提到的，我們本季取得了非常好的勝利，這對我們有很大幫助。因此，當我們思考財富客戶現在正在嘗試做的事情時，他們正在真正尋求改進和現代化他們的平台。如您所知，這是從許多大型財富公司開始的。現在我們看到中型企業正在經歷這種情況。這就是我們看到更多交易流的地方。

Just as a reminder, for the large clients that we have been able to win through competitive displacement, that includes Merrill, Royal Bank of Canada, Raymond James and Bank of Montreal. And with this newest one, which actually for us is the one the longest or rather the highest total contract value, it was a displacement of a long-time incumbent. And so we look forward to building that relationship with them for the long term since our contract with them is actually longer than average, over 5 years.

提醒一下，我們透過競爭取代贏得了大客戶，其中包括美林銀行、加拿大皇家銀行、雷蒙德詹姆斯和蒙特利爾銀行。而這個最新的合約其實對我們來說是最長的合同，或者說是合約總價值最高的合同，它取代了長期任職的合約。因此，我們期待與他們建立長期關係，因為我們與他們的合約實際上比平均時間長，超過 5 年。

And so as wealth clients, now the mid-tier client -- wealth clients are now coming on board and wanting to modernize their platform because their clients are demanding more sophisticated and digital technologies, and they don't have the platform to be able to scale. And that's where they're turning to us.

因此，作為財富客戶，現在是中層客戶——財富客戶現在正在加入並希望對其平台進行現代化改造，因為他們的客戶需要更複雜的數位技術，而他們沒有平台能夠規模。這就是他們向我們求助的地方。

Total cost of ownership is really quite key. And so the discussions that we're having include everything from -- and this is back to your question, whether or not they want to get the data from APIs, for example, which does require more development costs. They need people to put that in, versus, say, one of the products we're seeing a lot of demand for us, which are widgets, which are easier to put in and therefore quicker.

總擁有成本確實非常關鍵。因此，我們正在進行的討論包括一切——這又回到了你的問題，例如，他們是否想要從 API 獲取數據，這確實需要更多的開發成本。他們需要人們將其放入其中，而我們看到對我們有大量需求的產品之一是小部件，它更容易放入，因此速度更快。

So those are some of the dynamics we're seeing. That's where we're expanding beyond the wealth platform only and going into data and then also into the CRM side, which is allowing our wealth clients to focus on their top line and giving their advisers the tools to be able to drive top line growth.

這些是我們看到的一些動態。這就是我們超越財富平台的範圍，進入數據領域，然後進入 CRM 方面，這使我們的財富客戶能夠專注於他們的收入，並為他們的顧問提供能夠推動收入成長的工具。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Russell Quelch from Redburn Atlantic.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Redburn Atlantic 的 Russell Quelch。

So you had good user count growth and a slowdown in the client growth, and I think that's because of those 2 large deals you called out. So I'm interested in, is this a purposeful tilt in the sales strategy towards targeting larger enterprise deals? And therefore, should we expect ASP growth to be maybe more lumpy, more volatile on a quarterly basis going forward as a result of that approach?

因此，您的用戶數量增長良好，但客戶成長放緩，我認為這是因為您宣布的兩筆大型交易。所以我感興趣的是，這是否是銷售策略有意向更大的企業交易傾斜？因此，我們是否應該預期，由於這種方法，未來每季的平均售價成長可能會更加不穩定、波動更大？

And I also wondered, can you be a bit more specific around what you've assumed to be the size of the impact from Credit Suisse in your ASP this year? And if that's all going to come in the second quarter, please?

我也想知道，您能否更具體地說明一下您認為瑞信今年對您的平均售價的影響有多大？如果這一切都將在第二季度實現，好嗎？

Yes, I'm not sure we'll be able to speak to the exact size of that. But yes, I think the opportunity for us to do much larger deals is increasing. And what is really encouraging, Russell, is across wealth, which we just saw a big win in, we had a very nice win on the institutional buy side this quarter in trading. And the revenue for that doesn't really materialize until those trading systems get implemented. So that can take a while.

是的，我不確定我們能否談論它的確切大小。但是，是的，我認為我們進行更大交易的機會正在增加。拉塞爾，真正令人鼓舞的是財富領域，我們剛剛看到了巨大的勝利，我們在本季度的交易中在機構買方方面取得了非常好的勝利。在這些交易系統實施之前，這種收入並不會真正實現。所以可能需要一段時間。

We had a fantastic large win in Q4 on the managed services side for performance. And then in banking, we've had some significant wins where we've completely displaced a competitor because of deep sector. So I'm beginning to see, in my conversations with the C-suite of our bigger clients, a real appetite to engage more with FactSet. So yes, I hope stuff's lumpy, particularly on the upside, right?

第四季度，我們在託管服務方面取得了巨大的勝利。然後在銀行業，我們取得了一些重大勝利，由於深入的行業，我們完全取代了競爭對手。因此，在與我們大客戶的最高管理層的對話中，我開始發現他們確實有興趣更多地參與 FactSet。所以，是的，我希望事情是不穩定的，特別是在好的方面，對嗎？

And when you get those 8-figure contracts or those 7-figure contracts, it can sway things. I think one of the beauties about FactSet's business model is our consistency, though. And I think as markets return to more normalcy, we'll still get a lot of singles, doubles and triples, which will I think continue to hopefully smooth things out. But yes, we're always hunting for those big deals, and the possibility of us getting those now is much larger just based on the product suite and our open strategy.

當你獲得 8 位數或 7 位數的合約時，事情就會改變。不過，我認為 FactSet 商業模式的優點之一是我們的一致性。我認為隨著市場恢復正常，我們仍然會得到很多單打、雙打和三打，我認為這將繼續讓事情變得順利。但是，是的，我們一直在尋找那些大交易，而僅僅基於產品套件和我們的開放策略，我們現在獲得這些交易的可能性要大得多。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Silber from BMO Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 BMO 資本市場的 Jeffrey Silber。

I wanted to go back to AI. You had mentioned that your focus is more on the client side, and I believe you launched FactSet Mercury. Can we have a little bit more color on that and maybe what your plans are going forward?

我想回到人工智慧領域。您曾提到您的重點更多放在客戶端，我相信您推出了 FactSet Mercury。我們能否就此提供更多資訊以及您未來的計劃？

Sure. Jeffrey, this is Kristy. Yes, we're very excited about FactSet Mercury. But maybe it will be helpful if I talk a little bit about the whole AI Blueprint and just highlight the areas in there where I think FactSet is really differentiated in our approach to responsibly leveraging AI to deliver value to our clients.

當然。傑弗裡，這是克里斯蒂。是的，我們對 FactSet Mercury 感到非常興奮。但如果我稍微談談整個人工智慧藍圖，並專注於我認為 FactSet 在我們負責任地利用人工智慧為客戶提供價值的方法中真正與眾不同的領域，也許會有所幫助。

So the first pillar of the blueprint is all about what we call mile-wide discoverability. And FactSet Mercury, which we talked about in the press release, it's our conversational AI interface. And it's designed to unlock discoverability of all of the content and functionality that FactSet has to offer for our users. And it's really going to become the mainstay of the FactSet user experience of the future, which is going to be a lot more personalized and insight-driven.

因此，藍圖的第一個支柱就是我們所說的一英里範圍內的可發現性。我們在新聞稿中談到的 FactSet Mercury，是我們的對話式人工智慧介面。它旨在解鎖 FactSet 為用戶提供的所有內容和功能的可發現性。它確實將成為未來 FactSet 使用者體驗的支柱，這將更加個人化和洞察驅動。

And I think what's really interesting with Mercury, it's really our approach to providing auditability back to the reports and documents in context. That's going to be a real time saver for users because it's going to enable them to act quickly on that information that they're getting back and then move on with a high level of confidence to the next steps that they're taking.

我認為 Mercury 真正有趣的是，它實際上是我們為上下文中的報告和文件提供可審計性的方法。對於用戶來說，這將真正節省時間，因為這將使他們能夠根據返回的資訊快速採取行動，然後充滿信心地繼續下一步。

So really, throughout the whole development process leading up to the beta release, we conducted extensive user research. And through this, we really validated how important it is to deliver that auditability of the data back to our users. And we've already gotten great feedback on this and how we're approaching that in the client meetings that we've had. As well as the other features that it offers like suggested prompts and next steps to guide users to insights that they might not have even realized were available.

因此，實際上，在測試版發布之前的整個開發過程中，我們進行了廣泛的用戶研究。透過這一點，我們真正驗證了將資料的可審核性傳回給用戶的重要性。我們已經在客戶會議上收到了對此以及我們如何實現這一目標的良好回饋。它還提供其他功能，例如建議提示和後續步驟，以引導用戶獲得他們可能沒有意識到的見解。

The second pillar of the AI Blueprint is what we call mile-deep workflow automation. So our strategy is really way beyond building an answer bot and kind of stopping there. So we're going user-by-user type, workflow by workflow to leverage gen AI and help streamline the workflows of each of our different client types that we know really well from over 40 years of supporting them.

人工智慧藍圖的第二個支柱是我們所謂的深度工作流程自動化。因此，我們的策略實際上遠遠超出了建造一個應答機器人並就此止步。因此，我們將逐一使用者類型、逐一工作流程來利用 gen AI，並幫助簡化每種不同客戶類型的工作流程，我們在 40 多年的支援中非常了解這些客戶類型。

So you would have read in the release that the first release of FactSet Mercury is geared for junior bankers, but it will expand from there. But so for now, for junior bankers, in addition to being able to answer any questions that they have about companies, it can take a lot of steps out of the banker pitchbook-building workflow process.

因此，您可能會在該版本中讀到，FactSet Mercury 的第一個版本是針對初級銀行家的，但它將從那裡開始擴展。但就目前而言，對於初級銀行家來說，除了能夠回答他們對公司的任何問題之外，還可以在銀行家宣傳手冊建立工作流程中採取許多步驟。

So one great example of that is just by enabling them to simply ask for any chart in natural language and then have it delivered to them as a custom formatted FactSet Active Graph, which is then forever refreshable inside their pitch decks. So they don't need to search through a gallery. They don't have to adjust any setting. It's just super easy for them.

因此，一個很好的例子就是讓他們能夠簡單地以自然語言請求任何圖表，然後將其作為自訂格式的 FactSet Active Graph 交付給他們，然後在他們的宣傳資料中永遠可以刷新。所以他們不需要在畫廊中搜尋。他們不必調整任何設定。這對他們來說非常容易。

And then the last pillar of our strategy is what we call mile-high innovation acceleration. We're very excited about what gen AI unlocks in our own product development process, and our teams are busy here building some really amazing solutions. But it's also, I think, important for everybody to remember that we're developing those things in ways that can be leveraged as building blocks by our clients in their own products.

我們策略的最後一個支柱是我們所謂的高度創新加速。我們對新一代人工智慧在我們自己的產品開發過程中解鎖的內容感到非常興奮，我們的團隊正忙於建立一些真正令人驚嘆的解決方案。但我認為，每個人都應該記住，我們開發這些東西的方式可以被我們的客戶在自己的產品中用作構建塊，這一點也很重要。

And I think our open, flexible approach to this is very differentiated and unique. And we've already begun to commercialize our data solutions in that way. And I think there will be more demand for these building blocks as clients make more progress with executing on their own AI road maps.

我認為我們開放、靈活的做法是非常差異化和獨特的。我們已經開始以這種方式將我們的數據解決方案商業化。我認為，隨著客戶在執行自己的人工智慧路線圖上取得更多進展，對這些建置模組的需求將會更大。

So those are the 3 pillars. And yes, we're very excited about FactSet Mercury launching into our FactSet Explorer's beta program last week.

這就是三大支柱。是的，我們對 FactSet Mercury 上週加入我們的 FactSet Explorer 測試計畫感到非常興奮。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Owen Lau from Oppenheimer.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自奧本海默的 Owen Lau。

So just a follow-up on the previous question about AI for client side. I know it's still early, but could you please talk about the demand and timing of monetizing Mercury or other AI products? How does it help the contract negotiations so far? And how much have you baked into your ASV growth guidance in 2024?

所以只是對之前有關客戶端人工智慧的問題的跟進。我知道現在還為時過早，但您能談談 Mercury 或其他人工智慧產品貨幣化的需求和時機嗎？到目前為止，它對合約談判有何幫助？您在 2024 年 ASV 成長指引中融入了多少內容？

I can talk -- this is Kristy. Thank you for the question. I can talk a little bit about the approach we think we're going to take here. What I was talking about with mile-wide discoverability with FactSet Mercury, we see that really as a natural evolution of the FactSet user experience. And so some level of conversational experience would be included with our different workstation packages. And I know that this is going to help users unlock more value and improve their efficiency.

我可以說話——這是克里斯蒂。感謝你的提問。我可以談談我們認為我們將在這裡採取的方法。我所說的 FactSet Mercury 的一英里範圍內的可發現性，我們認為這實際上是 FactSet 使用者體驗的自然演進。因此，我們不同的工作站包中將包含一定程度的對話體驗。我知道這將幫助用戶釋放更多價值並提高他們的效率。

For what we call the mile-deep workflow automation in our AI Blueprint, things like pitchbook building and automation with gen AI for investment banking or portfolio performance commentary for the buy side and other mile-deep workflows, we are currently working on the best commercial models for this. We're going to be able to significantly streamline these workflows and drive a measurable level of efficiency for our clients. So there's definitely going to be value there for them.

對於我們在 AI 藍圖中所說的深度工作流程自動化，例如用於投資銀行的宣傳手冊構建和自動化，或買方的投資組合績效評論以及其他深度工作流程，我們目前正在研究最佳的商業為此的模型。我們將能夠顯著簡化這些工作流程，並為我們的客戶帶來可衡量的效率水準。所以這對他們來說肯定是有價值的。

And I think we're going to be able to share more color in future quarters as we make more progress and we get a little bit further along in the FactSet Explorer beta program. Yes, so hopefully, that gives a little bit more color.

我認為，隨著我們取得更多進展，並在 FactSet Explorer 測試版計畫中取得進一步進展，我們將能夠在未來幾季分享更多色彩。是的，所以希望這能帶給我們更多的色彩。

And Kristy, I'll add a little bit to what you just said to answer the second part of your question, Owen, which is monetization is one that everyone is trying to determine. I think that you'll see -- or we'll see rather, the benefits certainly come through from increased retention. And in fact, it's allowing us to have some very interesting conversations with new clients. So we're going to see how those come through, but it is not baked specifically into certainly the guidance for this year.

克里斯蒂，歐文，我將補充一點你剛才所說的內容來回答你問題的第二部分，即貨幣化是每個人都在努力確定的問題。我認為您會看到——或者更確切地說我們會看到，好處肯定來自於保留率的提高。事實上，它讓我們能夠與新客戶進行一些非常有趣的對話。因此，我們將看看這些如何實現，但它並沒有專門納入今年的指導中。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Ashish Sabadra from RBC Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 RBC 資本市場的 Ashish Sabadra。

Just a question on the 6-, 7-figure deals which are in the pipeline. Are the closing of those contingent on opening up of the client budgets? And also on the last call, there was a reference around potentially client budgets opening up for calendar year '24. And I was wondering, based on your -- obviously, you had a lot of conversation on macro, but just based on the client conversation, what are the expectations for client budgets for next year? Any color on that front?

只是關於正在進行中的 6、7 位數交易的問題。這些的結束是否取決於客戶預算的開放？在最後一次電話會議上，也提到了 24 日曆年的潛在客戶預算。我想知道，根據您的——顯然，您在宏觀方面進行了很多對話，但僅根據客戶的對話，明年客戶預算的期望是什麼？前面有顏色嗎？

Thanks for that question. Yes, you're right. We -- as Linda had talked about, we thought a bit of the recovery would improve more quickly into the second half of the year. It's probably a little bit later. And so what we're hearing right now and clients are sort of finishing up their budgeting process, that most budgets are probably more flat. And what -- but they're still being asked to do a lot more with what they have.

謝謝你提出這個問題。你是對的。正如琳達所說，我們認為下半年復甦會更快改善。可能會晚一點。因此，我們現在聽到的消息是，客戶正在完成他們的預算流程，大多數預算可能會更加平坦。但他們仍然被要求利用他們擁有的資源做更多的事情。

And as I mentioned before, their ability to scale is still something that's top of mind. So to your point around the 6- to 7-figure deals, yes, certainly, some of that will depend on budgets improving. As mentioned, some of the benefit we have in our open platform is you can do things in pieces. So you don't have to commit to the whole redo of a platform, for example. But certainly, as more dollars are being allocated to technology and gen AI, we feel we're pretty well positioned to take advantage of that.

正如我之前提到的，他們的擴展能力仍然是首要考慮的問題。因此，就您關於 6 到 7 位數交易的觀點而言，是的，當然，其中一些將取決於預算的改善。如前所述，我們開放平台的一些好處是您可以分段完成任務。例如，因此您不必承諾整個平台的重做。但當然，隨著更多的資金被分配到技術和新一代人工智慧上，我們認為我們已經處於充分利用這一優勢的位置。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Surinder Thind from Jefferies LLC.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Jefferies LLC 的 Surinder Thind 系列。

Linda, just a big picture question here. I guess if I'm interpreting your prepared comments correctly, it seems like you're attributing some of the change in your outlook to kind of the market recovery taking maybe a bit longer than that -- than what you guys had anticipated back in September. But I guess given how much sentiment has improved since that time, or at least in the last 45 days, like can you help me understand why this is the case? Like could you not argue that, from where we stand today, the outlook from a client perspective should be more positive now than when you initially gave guidance?

琳達，這裡只是一個大問題。我想，如果我正確地解釋了您準備好的評論，那麼您似乎將前景的某些變化歸因於市場復甦所需的時間可能比這要長一些——比你們九月份的預期要長一些。 。但我想，考慮到自那時以來，或至少在過去 45 天內，情緒已經改善了多少，您能幫我理解為什麼會發生這種情況嗎？就像您不能說，從我們今天的立場來看，從客戶角度來看，現在的前景應該比您最初提供指導時更積極？

Like -- it seems like there's a bit of a disconnect, and I'm not sure if there's some near-term dynamics here. Because I know October was obviously very negative from a sentiment perspective and then we had a complete reversal. So I'm just not sure if we're seeing the reversal yet and people are still kind of focused on the October -- the sentiment at that point in time. It just seems like there's a bit of a disconnect here.

就像——似乎存在一些脫節，我不確定這裡是否存在一些近期動態。因為我知道從情緒角度來看，十月顯然非常消極，然後我們就完全逆轉了。所以我只是不確定我們是否已經看到了逆轉，人們仍然關注 10 月——當時的情緒。這裡似乎有點脫節。

Yes. It's a perfectly fair question and one that I sort of wrestled with as we were getting ready for this call. So we originally gave guidance on September 21. You will recall that then, we had the very tragic events of October 7, which made the macro situation even more difficult. So we gave guidance before that piece happened. And sentiment, frankly, got worse. We're coming to the calendar year-end for a lot of our clients, budgets got thinner, they tightened their belts yet again.

是的。這是一個完全公平的問題，當我們準備這場電話會議時，我一直在思考這個問題。所以我們最初在9月21日給了指導。你會記得，當時我們發生了10月7日非常悲慘的事件，這使得宏觀形勢變得更加困難。所以我們在那篇文章發生之前就給了指導。坦白說，情緒變得更糟。對於許多客戶來說，我們即將迎來年底，預算變得更薄，他們再次勒緊褲腰帶。

And then last Wednesday, we got what I think everybody considers to be a bit of a surprise from Chairman Powell. I like this expression of he shot the bears. The market has turned dramatically and hard. Is it ahead of itself? It could be.

然後上週三，我認為每個人都認為鮑威爾主席的演講有點令人驚訝。我喜歡他射殺熊的表情。市場已經發生了巨大而艱難的轉變。它是否超前了？它可能是。

But what I said before is really very important. The hiring in -- for some of our clients is a lagging indicator. So we have to work through that, clear that, take the impact of what's going on with the Credit Suisse situation in our second quarter in a conservative way and then get back on track, which we are looking to do.

但我之前說的確實非常重要。對我們的一些客戶來說，招募是一個落後指標。因此，我們必須解決這個問題，明確這一點，以保守的方式應對第二季瑞士信貸狀況的影響，然後回到正軌，這是我們希望做的。

And I think, yes, the unusual combination of our fiscal year-end. And when some pretty big news events have happened, have caused what you might consider to be a bit of a disconnect, but I hope that the explanation has helped you.

我認為，是的，我們的財政年度結束的不同尋常的組合。當發生一些相當大的新聞事件時，可能會導致您認為有點脫節，但我希望我的解釋對您有所幫助。

So we're quite optimistic, and I'm going to turn it over to Phil to sort of bring us in for a landing here. But we very much appreciate your point of view and your question and your notes on timing. Probably pretty appropriate, but we are excited about what's coming next. And maybe Phil can comment on that.

所以我們非常樂觀，我將把它交給菲爾來帶領我們在這裡著陸。但我們非常感謝您的觀點、問題以及有關時間安排的註釋。可能非常合適，但我們對接下來發生的事情感到興奮。也許菲爾可以對此發表評論。

Yes. Thanks, Linda. So yes, I mean, the sales cycles for our clients do take some time, particularly for our enterprise solutions. So I really hope sentiment has turned, and like we spoke about on this call, that it's just a question of timing.

是的。謝謝，琳達。所以，是的，我的意思是，我們客戶的銷售週期確實需要一些時間，特別是對於我們的企業解決方案而言。所以我真的希望情緒已經轉變，就像我們在這次電話會議上談到的那樣，這只是一個時間問題。

So to summarize, we're very excited, obviously, about artificial intelligence. We have a lot of FactSetters out in the market working with our clients. And nothing beats sort of showing the product to the client and getting that wow back from them. So we're all really behind this. We've made a lot of progress in the last year, and I feel like we're really in good shape versus the competition based on what I'm seeing.

總而言之，我們顯然對人工智慧感到非常興奮。我們在市場上有許多事實制定者與我們的客戶合作。沒有什麼比向客戶展示產品並讓他們驚嘆不已更好的了。所以我們都真正支持這一點。去年我們取得了很大進步，根據我所看到的情況，我覺得我們相對於競爭對手來說確實處於良好狀態。

We did take the guidance down just because the turn is taking a bit longer than we thought, which we just spoke to. Second quarter will be a little slower than planned, just to summarize. So we may be taking a bit of a conservative view there. And we did mention the -- in particular, the Credit Suisse acquisition by UBS, which was well known.

我們確實取消了指導，只是因為轉彎比我們想像的要長一些，我們剛才談到了這一點。總結一下，第二季將比計劃慢一些。所以我們可能會採取一些保守的觀點。我們確實提到了——特別是瑞銀收購瑞士信貸，這是眾所周知的。

And then just to summarize, I'm going to give a bit of a plug for FactSet Focus. So we're having our flagship user event in Miami this April and the beginning of May. It's the first time we've done this in a number of years.

最後總結一下，我將為 FactSet Focus 提供一些插件。因此，我們將於今年四月和五月初在邁阿密舉辦旗艦用戶活動。這是我們多年來第一次這樣做。

We're bringing together top thought leaders, industry experts and key decision-makers from both the finance and tech sectors. We're really going to be focused very heavily on artificial intelligence and really demonstrating what we've done there. And hopefully, that will be really engaging for anyone that attends.

我們匯集了來自金融和科技領域的頂級思想領袖、行業專家和關鍵決策者。我們確實將非常關注人工智慧並真正展示我們在這方面所做的事情。希望這對所有參加的人來說都是真正有吸引力的。

So that's it. We'll see you all next quarter. Operator, that ends today's call.

就是這樣了。我們下個季度再見。接線員，今天的通話到此結束。

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。