Fair Isaac Corp (FICO) 2021 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Fair Isaac Corporation quarterly earnings call. (Operator Instructions)

您好，歡迎參加 Fair Isaac Corporation 季度收益電話會議。（操作員指令）

As a reminder, this call is being recorded today, Tuesday, August 3, 2021. I'd now like to turn the call over to Steve Weber. Please go ahead.

提醒一下，本次通話是在今天，即 2021 年 8 月 3 日星期二錄製的。現在我想將電話轉給史蒂夫韋伯。請繼續。

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining today's FICO Third Quarter Earnings Call. I'm Steve Weber, Vice President of Investor Relations, and I'm joined today by our CEO, Will Lansing; and our CFO, Mike McLaughlin.

謝謝。大家下午好，感謝大家參加今天的FICO第三季財報電話會議。我是投資者關係副總裁史蒂夫韋伯，今天與我一起出席活動的還有我們的執行長威爾蘭辛；以及我們的財務長 Mike McLaughlin。

Today, we issued a press release that describes financial results compared to the prior year. On this call, management will also discuss results in comparison to the prior quarter in order to facilitate understanding of the run rate of our business. Certain statements made in this presentation may be characterized as forward-looking under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Those statements involve many uncertainties, including the impact of COVID-19 on macroeconomic conditions and the company's business, operations and personnel that could cause actual results to differ materially. Information concerning these uncertainties is contained in the company's filings with the SEC, in particular, in the risk factors and forward-looking statements portions of such filings. Copies are available from the SEC from the FICO website or from our Investor Relations team.

今天，我們發布了一份新聞稿，描述了與前一年相比的財務表現。在本次電話會議上，管理層還將討論與上一季相比的業績，以便於了解我們業務的運作率。根據 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法》，本簡報中的某些陳述可能具有前瞻性。這些聲明涉及許多不確定因素，包括 COVID-19 對宏觀經濟狀況以及公司業務、營運和人員的影響，這些影響可能會導致實際結果存在重大差異。有關這些不確定性的資訊包含在公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中，特別是此類文件的風險因素和前瞻性陳述部分。您可以從美國證券交易委員會的FICO網站或我們的投資者關係團隊取得副本。

This call will also include statements regarding certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the company's earnings release and Regulation G schedule issued today for a reconciliation of each of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measure. The earnings release and Regulation G schedule are available on the Investor Relations page of the company's website at fico.com or are on the SEC's website at sec.gov. A replay of this webcast will be available through August 3, 2022.

本次電話會議還將包括有關某些非公認會計準則財務指標的聲明。請參閱公司今天發布的收益報告和 G 條例附表，以了解這些非 GAAP 財務指標與最具可比性的 GAAP 指標的對照表。收益報告和 G 條例時間表可在公司網站 fico.com 的投資者關係頁面或美國證券交易委員會網站 sec.gov 上查閱。該網路廣播的重播將持續到 2022 年 8 月 3 日。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Will Lansing.

說完這些，我將把電話轉給威爾·蘭辛。

Thanks, Steve, and thank you, everyone, for joining us for our third quarter earnings call. Before I discuss our results, I'd like to thank our FICO colleagues for their dedication, adaptability and innovation during this past year. As we begin to open our offices back up, we're moving to a hybrid system where more of our team is working from home. But we've proven in the past year that we can make the most of technology to collaborate and continue to serve our customers and optimize our business both remotely and in person. On the Investor Relations section of our website, we posted some slides that offer financial highlights of our third quarter.

謝謝史蒂夫，也謝謝大家參加我們第三季的財報電話會議。在討論我們的業績之前，我想感謝FICO同事在過去一年中的奉獻、適應和創新。當我們開始重新開放辦公室時，我們正在轉向混合系統，讓更多的團隊成員在家工作。但我們在過去的一年裡已經證明，我們可以充分利用技術進行合作，繼續為我們的客戶提供服務，並透過遠端和麵對面的方式優化我們的業務。在我們網站的投資者關係部分，我們發布了一些投影片，介紹我們第三季的財務亮點。

In our third quarter, we delivered revenues of $338 million, an increase of 8% over the same period last year. As previously disclosed, we completed the divestiture of our debt collections and recovery products during the quarter. Adjusting for that, revenue grew about 9% year-over-year. We delivered $151 million of GAAP net income and GAAP earnings of $5.18 per share, including the gain on sale of the C&R products. On a non-GAAP basis, which excludes the sale, net income was $99 million, up 29%, and earnings per share of $3.38 was up 31% from last year. We continued to deliver very strong free cash flow growth as well. Free cash flow was $99 million in the quarter and $462 million for the last 4 quarters. And we're dedicated to using that cash flow to return value to our shareholders through our repurchase program. This is a very strong quarter for us, and we are well positioned for a strong finish to our fiscal year.

第三季度，我們的營收為 3.38 億美元，比去年同期成長 8%。如前所述，我們在本季完成了債務催收和恢復產品的剝離。經過上述調整後，營收年增約 9%。我們實現了 1.51 億美元的 GAAP 淨收入和每股 5.18 美元的 GAAP 收益，其中包括 C&R 產品的銷售收益。以非 GAAP 基礎計算，不包括此次出售，淨收入為 9,900 萬美元，成長 29%，每股收益為 3.38 美元，較去年同期成長 31%。我們的自由現金流也持續實現強勁成長。本季自由現金流為 9,900 萬美元，過去四個季度的自由現金流為 4.62 億美元。我們致力於利用現金流量透過回購計畫為股東帶來回報。對我們來說這是一個非常強勁的季度，我們已為強勁結束本財年做好了準備。

As we continue our strategy of migrating our business model toward a subscription-based model, we see some disruption in our near-term numbers. We're not recognizing as much revenue upfront and not selling and delivering as much lower margin services revenue. But these efforts are positioning the company for long-term predictable and profitable growth. Beginning next quarter, we will be providing additional metrics that will give additional transparency to our business. Metrics like ARR will complement our revenue reporting and provide a better indicator of our growth trajectory. We'll also be talking about the different delivery vehicles for our software, specifically, whether the products are delivered on platform or off platform.

隨著我們繼續將業務模式轉向基於訂閱的模式，我們發現近期數據出現了一些波動。我們沒有預先確認那麼多的收入，也沒有銷售和提供那麼多利潤率較低的服務收入。但這些努力將使公司實現長期可預測且獲利的成長。從下個季度開始，我們將提供額外的指標，以提高我們業務的透明度。ARR 等指標將補充我們的營收報告，並提供更好的成長軌跡指標。我們還將討論我們軟體的不同交付工具，具體來說，產品是在平台上交付還是在平台外交付。

The Decision Management platform is the linchpin to our software strategic vision, and bringing new customers on to that platform will enable us to scale the business and realize its full potential. As I've stated, we believe we can become the preeminent player in decisioning analytics. That is our singular role in our software business.

決策管理平台是我們軟體策略願景的關鍵，將新客戶引入該平台將使我們能夠擴大業務規模並充分發揮其潛力。正如我所說，我們相信我們可以成為決策分析領域的傑出參與者。這是我們在軟體業務中的獨特角色。

On the Scores side, we remain committed to innovation while maintaining the predictability that has always been the cornerstone of the FICO Score, and I'm pleased to report that we continue to drive outstanding growth in our Scores business. Scores posted another record quarter, up 31% versus the prior year.

在評分方面，我們繼續致力於創新，同時保持始終是FICO評分基石的可預測性，我很高興地報告，我們繼續推動評分業務的出色成長。本季的得分再創紀錄，比上年增長了 31%。

On the B2B side, revenues were up 23%. Mortgage originations, as predicted in the marketplace, appeared to have peaked and were flat with last year's numbers. It is now a year since the refi boom began, and we expect those numbers to trend down as the market returns to more normal levels.

在B2B方面，營收成長了23%。正如市場所預測，抵押貸款發放量似乎已達到頂峰並與去年的數字持平。現在距離再融資熱潮開始已經一年了，我們預計，隨著市場恢復到更正常的水平，這些數字將呈下降趨勢。

Auto originations continue to be strong with those revenues up more than 30% year-over-year. The most dramatic growth came from credit cards and other unsecured lending products. We had a record revenue quarter in card originations with revenues up more than 50% from last year. We saw acceleration in card origination activity throughout the quarter and expect that activity to continue to be strong.

汽車業務持續保持強勁，營收年增超過 30%。最顯著的成長來自信用卡和其他無擔保貸款產品。我們的信用卡發行收入創下了新紀錄，比去年同期成長了 50% 以上。我們看到整個季度的信用卡發行活動加速，並預計活動將持續強勁。

Prescreen volumes were up more than 150% versus last year. This is typically a leading indicator for new card origination activity and shows the financial institutions have a strong appetite to market and originate new accounts in the unsecured market. We believe banks are in a very strong financial position to pivot to other lending products as mortgage demand wanes as expected by the industry.

預篩選量較去年同期增加了 150% 以上。這通常是新卡發放活動的領先指標，顯示金融機構對在無擔保市場行銷和發放新帳戶有強烈的興趣。我們認為，隨著抵押貸款需求如行業預期的那樣減弱，銀行的財務狀況非常強勁，可以轉向其他貸款產品。

On the consumer side, we continue to drive impressive growth. Our B2C revenues were up 50% versus the same quarter last year. Net growth at myFICO.com, while still strong, is slowing, which we expected as the mortgage market cools off. Growth among our partners has picked up as Experian and others find new ways to serve an increasingly sophisticated consumer.

在消費者方面，我們持續推動令人矚目的成長。我們的 B2C 營收比去年同期成長了 50%。myFICO.com 的淨成長雖然依然強勁，但正在放緩，這是我們預料到的，因為抵押貸款市場正在降溫。隨著 Experian 和其他公司找到新的方式來服務日益成熟的消費者，我們的合作夥伴之間的成長也隨之加快。

Finally, this quarter, we closed the divestiture of our Collections and Recovery product line. Mike will review the financial impacts and talk about how we are using the proceeds for share repurchases. As we said last quarter, the divestiture further focuses our resources on refining and distributing the best-in-class decisioning platform that we believe is an incredible opportunity for FICO.

最後，本季度，我們結束了收集和恢復產品線的剝離。麥克將回顧財務影響並討論我們如何使用收益進行股票回購。正如我們上個季度所說，此次剝離將進一步集中我們的資源完善和分銷一流的決策平台，我們相信這對 FICO 來說是一個難得的機會。

I'll have some final comments in a few minutes. But first, I'll turn the call over to Mike for further financial details.

幾分鐘後我將發表一些最後的評論。但首先，我將把電話轉給麥克，以了解更多的財務細節。

Thanks, Will, and good afternoon, everyone. Today, I'll walk you through our third quarter results in more detail and provide some information on the divestiture of the Collections and Recovery products we closed in the quarter.

謝謝，威爾，大家下午好。今天，我將向您更詳細地介紹我們第三季度的業績，並提供一些有關我們在本季度關閉的收集和恢復產品剝離的信息。

Total FICO revenue for the quarter was $338 million, an increase of 8% over the prior year. Our Applications segment revenues were $133 million, up 3% sequentially and down 6% versus the same period last year. Adjusting for the C&R divestiture, Applications revenues were up 6% versus last quarter and down 4% from last year. The year-over-year decrease in revenue was primarily driven by reduced professional services revenues.

FICO 本季總營收為 3.38 億美元，比上年成長 8%。我們的應用部門營收為 1.33 億美元，季增 3%，年減 6%。經過 C&R 業務剝離調整後，應用程式業務收入比上一季成長 6%，比去年同期下降 4%。收入年減主要是因為專業服務收入減少。

In our Decision Management Software segment, Q3 revenues were $33 million, down 20% over the same period last year due primarily to decreased upfront license revenues. As Will said, our shifting business model is continuing to impact our software business in the near term. Our on-premise license revenues will continue to decline as we move away from license sales to a ratable subscription revenue model.

在我們的決策管理軟體部門，第三季的營收為 3,300 萬美元，比去年同期下降 20%，主要原因是前期授權收入減少。正如威爾所說，我們不斷變化的商業模式將在短期內繼續影響我們的軟體業務。隨著我們從許可證銷售轉向按比例訂閱收入模式，我們的內部授權收入將繼續下降。

Second, at the start of our fiscal year, we noted that we have also changed our revenue recognition assumptions for on-premise term license subscription deal. As a result, we now recognize less upfront license revenue and more revenue ratably over the term of each deal. The net impact this quarter was lower license revenue in our Applications and DMS segments of about $4 million versus what it would have been under our prior methodology. We anticipate the full year impact will be about $40 million in lower software license revenue this year, all of which will be recognized in future periods.

其次，在我們的財政年度開始時，我們注意到我們也改變了內部部署定期授權訂閱交易的收入確認假設。因此，我們現在確認的前期授權收入減少了，而每筆交易期間的收入則按比例增加了。本季的淨影響是，與我們先前的方法相比，我們的應用程式和 DMS 部門的授權收入減少了約 400 萬美元。我們預計，今年軟體授權收入將減少約 4,000 萬美元，這些損失將在未來期間得到確認。

As a reminder, last year, we booked $61 million in upfront license revenue in our fiscal fourth quarter under the prior methodology. So that will be an especially difficult year-over-year comparison.

提醒一下，按照之前的方法，去年我們第四財季的預付許可收入為 6,100 萬美元。因此，這將是一個特別困難的同比比較。

As we pointed out in the past, this change in timing does not have an impact on free cash flows or the total revenue recognized from software license sales over the term of each subscription contract. I'd also like to remind you that we are deemphasizing low-margin nonstrategic professional services engagements, which is resulting in lower PS bookings and revenues. This is driven by our core strategic goal of selling more high-value software with recurring revenue. This quarter, services revenues were down 18% versus last year.

正如我們過去指出的那樣，時間上的變化不會對自由現金流或每個訂閱合約期限內軟體授權銷售確認的總收入產生影響。我還想提醒您，我們正在不再強調低利潤的非策略性專業服務業務，這導致了 PS 訂單和收入的下降。這是由我們的核心策略目標所驅動的，即銷售更多具有經常性收入的高價值軟體。本季服務收入較去年同期下降 18%。

As Will said, we closed the divestiture of our Collections and Recovery product line in the third quarter. We recognized a pretax book gain of $93 million in the third quarter. The sale contributed $2.52 of after-tax EPS to the quarter's GAAP results. Proceeds from the sale were used to fund a previously announced accelerated share repurchase program.

正如威爾所說，我們在第三季完成了收藏和恢復產品線的剝離。我們在第三季確認了 9,300 萬美元的稅前帳面收益。此次出售為本季度的 GAAP 業績貢獻了 2.52 美元的稅後每股收益。出售所得將用於資助先前宣布的加速股票回購計畫。

Turning to our Scores segment. Total revenues were $172 million, up 31% from the same period last year. B2B was up 23% over the same period last year, driven by continued high volumes in credit card and auto originations and as well as some unit price increases across our different score categories. B2C Scores revenues were up 15 -- I'm sorry, 50% from the same period last year. Both myFICO.com and B2C partner revenues grew significantly. This quarter, 80% of total revenues were derived from our Americas region. Our EMEA region generated 14%. And the remaining 60% was from the Asia Pacific region.

轉向我們的分數部分。總營收為1.72億美元，比去年同期成長31%。B2B 較去年同期成長了 23%，這得益於信用卡和汽車發放持續增加以及不同評分類別的單價有所上漲。B2C Scores 的營收比去年同期成長了 15% —— 抱歉，是 50%。myFICO.com 和 B2C 合作夥伴的營收均大幅成長。本季度，我們 80% 的總收入來自美洲地區。我們的 EMEA 地區產生了 14% 的收入。其餘60%來自亞太地區。

Recurring revenues derived from transactional and maintenance sources for the quarter represented 85% of total revenues. Consulting and implementation services revenues were 11% of total revenues. And license revenues were 4% of total revenue. SaaS software revenues, not including related PS revenues, continued to grow and were $67 million for the quarter, up 10% from the previous year.

本季來自交易和維護來源的經常性收入佔總收入的 85%。諮詢和實施服務收入佔總收入的11%。許可收入佔總收入的4%。不包括相關 PS 收入的 SaaS 軟體收入持續成長，本季為 6,700 萬美元，比上年增長 10%。

Q3 bookings totaled $75 million, down 29% from the previous year, and had an average weighted term of 30 months. Those bookings generated $9 million of current period revenues, a 12% yield. Much of the decline in bookings was due to our deemphasis of low-margin professional services and the shorter term lengths of deals signed. Professional services bookings totaled $21 million, down 50% from last year.

第三季訂單總額為 7,500 萬美元，較前一年下降 29%，平均加權期限為 30 個月。這些訂單產生了 900 萬美元的當期收入，收益率為 12%。訂單量的下降很大程度上是由於我們不再重視低利潤的專業服務，以及簽署的交易期限較短。專業服務訂單總額為 2,100 萬美元，比去年下降 50%。

We continue to see a strong pipeline in our software business. And typically, we have our strongest period for new deals in our fiscal fourth quarter. As we have said, we expect bookings to trend lower overall compared to historical numbers as a result of our deemphasis of professional services sales and the somewhat shorter term length of typical subscription and on-prem term license contracts. As Will mentioned, we plan to begin providing more subscription software financial metrics next quarter, and we believe that the additional transparency will lead to better understanding of the results of the company, particularly in the software segment.

我們的軟體業務持續呈現強勁成長動能。通常，我們的財政第四季是新交易最活躍的時期。正如我們所說，由於我們不再強調專業服務銷售，以及典型的訂閱和內部部署許可合約的期限稍短，我們預計預訂量總體趨勢將低於歷史數字。正如威爾所提到的，我們計劃在下個季度開始提供更多的訂閱軟體財務指標，我們相信額外的透明度將有助於更好地了解公司的業績，特別是在軟體領域。

Our operating expenses totaled $144 million this quarter, which included the $93 million gain on the C&R sale, compared to $230 million in the prior quarter. Excluding that onetime gain, expenses were up $7 million, primarily due to increased incentive compensation expense. Compared to Q3 2020, operating expenses, excluding the onetime gain, were up $6 million. We do not expect expenses to -- sorry, we do expect expenses to continue to increase in Q4 as we gradually add strategic headcount to drive our decision management platform development and distribution and increased customer-related travel.

本季我們的營運費用總計 1.44 億美元，其中包括 C&R 出售收益 9,300 萬美元，而上一季為 2.3 億美元。除一次性收益外，支出增加了 700 萬美元，主要原因是激勵薪資支出增加。與 2020 年第三季相比，不包括一次性收益的營運費用增加了 600 萬美元。我們預計費用不會——抱歉，我們確實預計第四季度費用將繼續增加，因為我們將逐步增加戰略員工人數以推動我們的決策管理平台開發和分銷以及增加與客戶相關的旅行。

Our non-GAAP operating margin, as shown on our Reg G schedule, was 39% for the quarter, a margin expansion of 500 basis points from the same period last year. GAAP net income this quarter was $151 million, which included $93 million of pretax gain from the divestiture. Our non-GAAP net income was $99 million for the quarter, up 29% from the same quarter last year.

根據我們的 Reg G 時間表顯示，本季我們的非 GAAP 營業利潤率為 39%，比去年同期擴大了 500 個基點。本季的 GAAP 淨收入為 1.51 億美元，其中包括剝離業務帶來的 9,300 萬美元稅前收益。本季我們的非公認會計準則淨收入為 9,900 萬美元，較去年同期成長 29%。

The effective tax rate for the quarter was 20%. We expect our FY 2021 recurring tax rate to be approximately 26% to 27%. And we expect the net effective tax rate for the year to be about 19%, including the impact of the divestiture of our Collections and Recovery business.

本季的有效稅率為20%。我們預計 2021 財年的經常性稅率約為 26% 至 27%。我們預計今年的淨有效稅率約為 19％，其中包括剝離我們的收款和追償業務的影響。

Free cash flow for the quarter was $99 million, flat with the same period last year. For the trailing 4 quarters, free cash flow was $462 million. At the end of the quarter, we had $238 million in cash, up $40 million from last quarter. Our total debt now stands at just over $1 billion with a weighted average interest rate of 3.64%.

本季自由現金流為9,900萬美元，與去年同期持平。過去 4 個季度，自由現金流為 4.62 億美元。截至本季末，我們擁有 2.38 億美元現金，比上一季增加了 4,000 萬美元。我們目前的總債務略高於 10 億美元，加權平均利率為 3.64%。

Turning to return of capital. We bought back 489,000 shares in the third quarter at an average price of $466 per share. This includes a $200 million accelerated share repurchase agreement we entered into following the close of the C&R divestiture. For the 9 months ended June 30, 2021, we repurchased 1,031,000 shares. At the end of June, we had about $225 million remaining on our stock repurchase authorization. And we continue to view share repurchases as an attractive use of our cash.

轉向資本回報。我們在第三季以每股 466 美元的平均價格回購了 489,000 股。其中包括我們在 C&R 資產剝離結束後簽訂的價值 2 億美元的加速股票回購協議。截至 2021 年 6 月 30 日的 9 個月，我們回購了 1,031,000 股。截至六月底，我們的股票回購授權剩餘約 2.25 億美元。我們仍然認為股票回購是一種有吸引力的現金用途。

With that, I'll turn it back over to Will for his closing thoughts.

說完這些，我將把話題轉回給威爾，聽聽他的最後總結。

Thanks, Mike. As I said in my opening remarks, I'm extremely pleased with our team's ability to manage our business and serve our customers in the midst of all this uncertainty created by the pandemic. We continue to prove that the FICO business model is strong. Our customers rely on our mission-critical software, scores and other analytics to manage risk and optimize interactions with consumers. We continue to invest and innovate to provide state-of-the-art solutions for customers looking to use analytics to make better decisions.

謝謝，麥克。正如我在開場白中所說，在疫情造成的所有不確定性之中，我對我們團隊管理業務和服務客戶的能力感到非常滿意。我們持續證明FICO商業模式的強大。我們的客戶依靠我們的關鍵任務軟體、分數和其他分析來管理風險並優化與消費者的互動。我們不斷投資和創新，為希望透過分析做出更好決策的客戶提供最先進的解決方案。

I'll turn the call back over to Steve now for Q&A.

我現在將電話轉回給史蒂夫進行問答。

Thanks, Will. This does conclude our prepared remarks. Operator, if you'd like to open the lines, we're now ready to take your questions.

謝謝，威爾。我們的準備好的演講到此結束。接線員，如果您想接通電話，我們現在就可以回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Surinder Thind with Jefferies.

（操作員指示）我們的第一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Surinder Thind。

I think to start with a question about just the adoption of a competitor score by a large card issuer that was recently revealed, I guess. Can you talk a little bit about the competitive marketplace at this point in terms of just how you think about the FICO 10 Suite and maybe kind of if there's anything unique that prompted the issuer to switch from using FICO?

我想先問一個問題，關於最近一家大型信用卡發行商採用競爭對手評分的情況。您能否談談目前競爭激烈的市場，例如您對 FICO 10 Suite 的看法，以及是否有一些獨特之處促使發行人不再使用 FICO？

Yes. The short answer is, without getting into all kinds of details, that was a special situation, I think. Those scores have been around for a long time. And our scores are very strong and continue to stand the test in the marketplace of being desirable. We believe our scores are the most predictive out there for what they're used for. And our business in Scores is as strong as it has ever been. Our volumes are very strong. We have not seen a decline. And we don't see major issuers switching away. So I guess the best way to characterize that is a one-off. And I think that's really it.

是的。簡短的回答是，無需深入探討細節，我認為那是一種特殊情況。這些分數已經存在很長時間了。我們的分數非常高，並且繼續經受住市場考驗。我們相信，我們的評分對其用途具有最準確的預測能力。我們在 Scores 的業務一如既往地強勁。我們的業務量非常強勁。我們還沒有看到下降。我們並未看到主要發行商轉變。因此，我認為描述這現象的最好方法就是一次性的。我認為確實如此。

That's helpful. And then in terms of just -- when I think about the Scores business broadly and especially the strength that we're seeing in B2C, is there any additional color that you can provide in terms of the framework for how we should be thinking about the growth that, that business is seeing? If we were to rewind to last year, I think the thesis was that there's a lot of people that were concerned with their credit scores. And so there's kind of a rush to kind of do credit monitoring on a personal basis. But now that the pandemic has resided, I guess we're further through that process, can you talk about the resiliency of that business? And maybe are there additional factors that are now driving the growth? When I think about it on a sequential basis, the growth was still very impressive.

這很有幫助。然後就——當我廣泛考慮 Scores 業務，尤其是我們在 B2C 領域看到的實力時，您是否可以提供一些額外的說明，說明我們應該如何看待該業務所看到的增長的框架？如果我們回顧去年，我認為論點是很多人都關心他們的信用評分。因此，人們急於對個人進行信用監控。但現在疫情已經平息，我想我們已經進一步經歷了這個過程，您能談談該業務的彈性嗎？也許還有其他因素在推動成長？當我按順序思考時，成長仍然非常令人印象深刻。

Yes. I think that there's some offsetting trends here. So the 1 trend that we worry about -- we don't worry about it, but we recognize is that mortgage was super hot over this last year, and we can't expect it to continue at the same levels. And that's what all the market analysts predict. And we don't see any reason to disagree with that.

是的。我認為這裡存在一些抵消趨勢。因此，我們擔心的一個趨勢是——我們並不擔心，但我們認識到，去年抵押貸款非常火爆，我們不能指望它繼續保持在同一水平。所有市場分析師都預測如此。我們認為沒有理由不同意這一點。

And it is true that when consumers go shopping for a mortgage, they often go to credit score monitoring to get a sense for what they're able to get by way of mortgage and pricing. So there's -- that's a positive factor that won't be as present going forward, at least until the next cycle.

確實，當消費者尋求抵押貸款時，他們通常會進行信用監控以了解他們能夠獲得多少抵押貸款和定價。所以，這是一個正面因素，但在未來不會再出現，至少在下一個週期之前不會。

Offsetting that, I think, is a level of awareness on the consumer part of the importance of credit scores, which has just been on a steady upward trajectory for a very long time, certainly in the last 5 years. And as I've shared with you in the past, 10 years ago, our -- the FICO Score-aided awareness was about 30% in the U.S., and today, it's over 90%. And most consumers are well aware of how important the FICO Score is and continue to try to monitor it. So we see that as a positive and a positive that will continue.

我認為，與此相抵消的是消費者對信用評分重要性的認識水平，這種認識在很長一段時間內一直呈穩步上升趨勢，尤其是過去 5 年。正如我過去與大家分享的那樣，10 年前，美國對 FICO 評分輔助認知度約為 30%，而今天已超過 90%。大多數消費者都很清楚FICO分數的重要性，並且會繼續努力監控它。因此，我們認為這是一件正面的事，而且這種正面的趨勢將會持續下去。

And then finally, our partners who provide credit report monitoring, credit score monitoring services are increasingly sophisticated in the way they get the message out and what they provide to their consumer customers. And they're doing very well, and we encourage that. So we feel pretty good about the business.

最後，我們提供信用報告監控、信用評分監控服務的合作夥伴在傳遞訊息的方式和向消費者客戶提供的服務方面越來越成熟。他們做得很好，我們對此表示鼓勵。因此，我們對這項業務感覺非常良好。

That's helpful. And then maybe one other quick one. It sounds like auto and credit card volumes were an important contributor to the B2B part of the growth story. Can you talk about maybe where we might be in terms of how close are we to prepandemic levels within like the credit card segment at this point? I feel like there's a good visibility into auto volumes, mortgage volumes, but just kind of the third leg of that stool.

這很有幫助。然後也許還有另一個快速的。聽起來汽車和信用卡交易量是 B2B 部分成長的重要貢獻者。您能否談談我們目前在信用卡領域的水平距離疫情前的水平還有多遠？我覺得汽車交易量和抵押貸款交易量有很好的可視性，但它們只是這張凳子的第三條腿。

Mike, I don't know if you have any detail on that, that we can share.

麥克，我不知道你是否有關於這方面的詳細信息，可以與我分享。

Yes, we need to be careful about that because of the nature of our relationships with the bureaus, of course. But it feels as though there's definitely still room to grow. They have rebounded smartly and you can see that in our results. But we're not in the business of predicting credit card volumes as you can understand. But from what we can see, looking backwards, which is all we can do, is it's still growing and doesn't appear to be plateauing.

是的，當然，我們需要對此保持謹慎，因為我們與各局的關係的性質。但感覺肯定還有成長空間。他們已經迅速反彈，您可以從我們的結果中看到這一點。但正如您所理解的，我們的業務並不在於預測信用卡數量。但從我們所看到的情況來看，回顧過去，這也是我們所能做的，它仍然在成長，而且似乎沒有停滯不前。

Our next question comes from Kyle Peterson with Needham.

我們的下一個問題來自 Needham 的 Kyle Peterson。

This is actually Sam Salvas on for Kyle today. I was wondering if you guys could provide a little more color around the pricing environment for the Score business. Did that last round of pricing changes have any noticeable impact on the Scores business this quarter?

今天其實是 Sam Salvas 取代 Kyle 上場。我想知道你們是否可以提供更多有關 Score 業務定價環境的詳細資訊。最新一輪的價格調整對本季的 Scores 業務有明顯的影響嗎？

Yes. I would say not dramatic differences, not dramatic changes, not dramatic impacts from that.

是的。我想說的是，這並不會帶來巨大的差異，不會帶來巨大的變化，也不會帶來巨大的影響。

Got it. That's helpful. And then just a quick follow-up. How should we think about the expense and margin trajectory of the business moving forward after that recent divestiture there?

知道了。這很有幫助。然後只是快速的跟進。在最近的資產剝離之後，我們該如何看待未來業務的費用和利潤走勢？

I wouldn't expect tremendous changes. I mean there's some benefit that comes from deemphasizing lower-margin professional services as we talked about. So there's a benefit there. But at the same time, you've heard us talk about the opportunity in the platform space and the tremendous amount of R&D that we're pouring into it. And so I think there's a -- there's focus on cost and expense control on the one hand, but at the same time, our investment levels are high. So I think those offset one another, and I wouldn't look for tremendous margin improvement. There's also -- and this is a much more modest effect, but there's also -- coming out of COVID, there'll be more travel expense, that sort of thing.

我不會期待巨大的改變。我的意思是，正如我們所討論的，減少對低利潤專業服務的支持會帶來一些好處。因此這是有好處的。但同時，您也聽到我們談論平台領域的機會以及我們在該領域投入的大量研發資金。因此我認為，一方面我們注重成本和費用控制，但同時我們的投資水準也很高。所以我認為這些因素會相互抵消，而且我不會期待利潤率會大幅提高。還有──這是比較溫和的影響，但是──受新冠疫情影響，旅行費用也會增加，諸如此類。

Our next question comes from George Tong with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的 George Tong。

Going back to the Scores business, revenue grew 31% in the quarter. And you mentioned mortgages were relatively flat from a volume perspective. Cards and auto's strong. Can you, at a high level, discuss how much card and auto volumes grew by and how much pricing contributed to growth?

回顧 Scores 業務，本季營收成長了 31%。您提到，從數量來看，抵押貸款相對持平。卡片和汽車都很強。您能否從宏觀角度討論一下信用卡和汽車銷售成長了多少，以及定價對成長的貢獻有多大？

Well, I don't think we break that out. I think that's something we kept to ourselves. Mike, do you want to help me with that?

嗯，我認為我們不會打破這個局面。我認為這是我們自己保留的事情。麥克，你願意幫我嗎？

Yes. Well, sure. There were some numbers in the script, which we can revisit with you on the one-on-ones, if you like. But as Will said in his previous answer, the story this quarter was about volumes, not price. It's not that there was no impact of price, but it was the lion's share, for sure, about volume in the segments we discussed.

是的。嗯，當然了。劇本中有一些數字，如果您願意的話，我們可以在一對一會議上與您重新討論。但正如威爾在先前的回答中所說，本季的故事是關於銷量，而不是價格。這並不是說價格沒有影響，而是在我們討論的細分市場中，價格肯定佔了銷量的最大份額。

Okay. Got it. And then I'd like to dive a little bit more into your on-platform strategy. Can you talk about evidence that you're seeing increasing customer adoption of your on-platform solutions and what initiatives you have to further drive client adoption of your on-platform products?

好的。知道了。然後我想更深入地談談你們的平台策略。您能否談談有證據表明客戶越來越多地採用您的平台解決方案，以及您有哪些舉措來進一步推動客戶採用您的平台產品？

Yes, absolutely. So all of our major -- if you think about our major franchises, customer management, what use -- the TRIAD franchise, which goes to line increases and judgments about how and what to do with customers, existing customers and our other franchises, we are increasingly putting those solutions on top of the platform. So we're selling our software in a couple of ways.

是的，絕對是如此。因此，如果您考慮我們的主要特許經營權、客戶管理、用途——TRIAD 特許經營權，它涉及線路增加和關於如何以及如何處理客戶、現有客戶和我們的其他特許經營權的判斷，我們越來越多地將這些解決方案置於平台之上。我們透過幾種方式銷售我們的軟體。

One is where the customer is after a solution, and they happen to get that solution on top of the platform or they will, but that they're still after a particular solution. But increasingly, what we're seeing is major financial institutions saying, we want to standardize on the platform. And we want to do not 2 or 3 or 4 solutions. We have an intent to do 10 or 15 or 20 solutions on top of this platform. We want to leverage all of our data across all the different; places where it resides and apply analytics and do it in a unified way. So we leverage everything that we have to make decisions with respect to customers. And that's very much the future of our -- that's our platform strategy, and that's -- our future is doing that.

一種情況是客戶尋求解決方案，並且他們碰巧在平台上得到了這個解決方案，但是他們仍然在尋求一個特定的解決方案。但我們越來越多地看到大型金融機構表示，我們希望在平台上實現標準化。我們想要的解決方案不只有 2 個、3 個或 4 個。我們打算在這個平台上實現 10 個、15 個或 20 個解決方案。我們希望利用所有不同來源的數據；所在位置並應用分析，以統一的方式進行。因此，我們利用一切現有資源為客戶做出決策。這就是我們的未來——這就是我們的平台策略，這就是——我們的未來就是這麼做的。

We have -- it's a lumpy business. So we've landed a number of big customers over the last 12 months for the platform for this very purpose, with an intent to start with 5 or 10 or 15 use cases and then expand beyond that. So we're pretty happy that the solution is meeting the need in the marketplace. The platform strategy has legs and it seems to be working.

我們有—這是一項不穩定的業務。因此，我們在過去 12 個月中為該平台贏得了許多大客戶，我們計劃從 5 個、10 個或 15 個用例開始，然後再擴展。因此，我們很高興該解決方案能夠滿足市場的需求。平台策略已經取得成效，並且似乎正在發揮作用。

That said, we have a lot of work left to do. Not all of our solutions are completely ported to the platform. And the platform isn't as modular as we wish it were. We're working on that. So there's definitely plenty of investments still going in. But from a customer reception standpoint, we have medium and large financial institutions who have adopted it.

話雖如此，我們還有很多工作要做。並非所有的解決方案都已完全移植到該平台。而且該平台並不像我們所希望的那樣模組化。我們正在努力。因此肯定仍有大量投資正在進行。但從客戶接待的角度來看，我們已經有中型和大型金融機構採用了它。

Our next question comes from Ashish Sabadra with RBC Capital Markets.

下一個問題來自 RBC Capital Markets 的 Ashish Sabadra。

I was just wondering if it's possible to quantify how we should think about the impact from the C&R divestiture in the fourth quarter or quarterly impact going forward.

我只是想知道是否有可能量化我們應該如何看待第四季度 C&R 資產剝離的影響或未來季度的影響。

Mike, do you want to take that?

麥克，你想接受這個嗎？

I can take that one. Yes, I'm happy to. We mentioned last quarter -- or perhaps it was in the press release when we announced the deal, that roughly it's 6% of our revenues, and that's (inaudible). And expenses are -- in the near term that we'll be able to flex are in the same ballpark as those revenue numbers.

我可以拿走那個。是的，我很樂意。我們在上個季度提到過——或者可能是在我們宣布交易的新聞稿中提到過，這大約占我們收入的 6%，這是（聽不清楚）。短期內我們能夠靈活調整的支出與收入數字大致相同。

It's a Q4-heavy business, just like our other software businesses are. So the year-over-year impact of not owning that business in Q4 in '21 would have some seasonality associated with it versus a pure (inaudible). But that will give you the ballpark of what to expect.

就像我們的其他軟體業務一樣，這是第四季度的主要業務。因此，與純粹的（聽不清楚）相比，21 年第四季不擁有該業務的同比影響會有一些季節性的影響。但這可以讓您大致了解將會發生什麼。

Good color. And then maybe just to follow up on the earlier question around the software. I was wondering if you could talk about the -- like the progress on the API -- the external API strategy as well as the studios. Any color there would be helpful.

顏色好。然後可能只是為了跟進之前關於軟體的問題。我想知道您是否可以談談——例如 API 的進展——外部 API 策略以及工作室。任何顏色都有幫助。

Yes, I would say both of those proceed to pay. And that we have -- am I hearing this interference? We are making progress on both the external-facing APIs and on FICO Studio. (inaudible) but much of that will be ready this year.

是的，我想說這兩者都需要付費。而且我們有──我聽到幹擾了嗎？我們在面向外部的 API 和 FICO Studio 方面都取得了進展。（聽不清楚）但大部分將在今年準備好。

The next question comes from Caroline Conway with Autonomous Research.

下一個問題來自 Autonomous Research 的 Caroline Conway。

I wanted to ask about the expectations for Applications going forward following the recent divestiture. Would you say that the business at this point is rightsized? And can you talk about the strategic role of the business unit at this stage, particularly as it relates to the Decision Management business?

我想問一下最近的資產剝離之後對應用程式未來的期望。您認為目前業務規模是否合適？您能談談該業務部門現階段的策略角色嗎，特別是與決策管理業務相關的角色？

Yes. I guess I would say that it is rightsized. We don't have any plans for any significant divestiture going forward, at least not at this time. So I would call it rightsized. I think the way to think about it is that the Applications solutions will increasingly be available on top of the Decision Management platform. And so what we (inaudible) forward (inaudible) be able to share with you how those things break out. But rightsized, yes.

是的。我想說的是，它的尺寸合適。我們未來沒有進行任何重大資產剝離的計劃，至少目前沒有。因此我將其稱為合適規模。我認為思考這個問題的方式是，應用程式解決方案將越來越多地在決策管理平台上使用。因此，我們（聽不清楚）將（聽不清楚）能夠與你們分享這些事情是如何發生的。但是尺寸合適，是的。

Okay. And my other question is, next quarter, as you're talking about the ARR and other metrics, are you expecting to provide additional detail on Decision Management profitability, especially the timing of turning to a profitable level? And will we see some guidance at that point as well on growth rates?

好的。我的另一個問題是，下個季度，當您談到 ARR 和其他指標時，您是否期望提供有關決策管理盈利能力的更多細節，尤其是轉向盈利水平的時間？到那時我們還會看到一些關於成長率的指導嗎？

We'll start with the revenue, and I think we'll have the TBD on getting down to margin level.

我們將從收入開始，我認為我們將有待確定利潤率水準。

(Operator Instructions) The next question comes from Jeff Meuler with Baird.

（操作員指示）下一個問題來自貝爾德的傑夫·穆勒 (Jeff Meuler)。

Anything further you can say on bookings? It was the third quarter in a row of relatively weak bookings, and it sounds like the emphasis of professional services is a large part of that. You also mentioned shorter term lengths. And I guess is that customers electing shorter terms? Or you and customers jointly preferring shorter terms because of how the subscription-based software is sold? Or is that timing of large deal activity? Just how much of the weaker bookings is that? How much of it is other things?

關於預訂您還有什麼要說的嗎？這是連續第三個季度的預訂量相對較弱，聽起來對專業服務的重視是其中很大一部分原因。您也提到了較短的任期。我猜這是因為客戶選擇的是較短的任期？或者您和客戶都因為基於訂閱的軟體的銷售方式而更喜歡較短的期限？還是這是大型交易活動的時機？預訂量下降的幅度到底有多大？其中有多少是其他的東西？

The shorter term length is significant. It's -- Mike can keep me honest. I think it's on the order of 25% reduction in term length. So it's significant. In terms of whose idea is that, we always do what the customer wants. That said, if we have -- to the extent that we have a choice in the matter, our preference is for shorter because we do think that's a better way to go. We think that there are more opportunities for us to revisit things sooner if we go for the shorter term length. So -- and this is part of why we changed the way we compensate our sales force as well. We used to compensate on bookings and longer terms to commissions, and we no longer do that. I mean our goal is to provide the term that our customer wants, but shorter is absolutely fine with us.

較短的任期長度具有重要意義。這是——麥克可以讓我保持誠實。我認為任期長度大約縮短了 25%。所以這很重要。就誰的想法而言，我們總是做客戶想要的事情。話雖如此，如果我們有選擇的餘地，我們傾向於縮短時間，因為我們確實認為這是更好的選擇。我們認為，如果選擇較短的期限，我們將有更多機會儘早重新審視事情。所以——這也是我們改變銷售人員薪酬方式的部分原因。我們過去常常根據預訂和較長的佣金期限來給予補償，但現在我們不再這樣做了。我的意思是我們的目標是提供客戶想要的期限，但更短的期限對我們來說絕對沒問題。

And Jeff, I can add a little bit of color to that. So the term length, the average term length was 37 months a year ago and it was 30 this time. That's about a 20% decrease, 19% to be specific. And if you apply the rough math, that's $15 million to $20 million of bookings right there just because of term length. And the other factor is PS intensity. Our PS bookings were $20 million lower this quarter than they were last quarter. You see we're $30 million down in total bookings. So those 2 factors alone would, all else being equal, explain that.

傑夫，我可以給它一點顏色。因此，任期長度，一年前的平均任期長度是 37 個月，而這次是 30 個月。這大約是下降了 20%，具體來說是下降了 19%。如果你粗略計算一下，光是租期長短，預訂金額就有 1500 萬到 2000 萬美元。另一個因素是PS強度。本季我們的 PS 訂單量比上一季減少了 2,000 萬美元。你知道我們的總預訂額減少了 3000 萬美元。因此，在其他條件相同的情況下，僅這兩個因素就足以解釋這一點。

Helpful. And then when you're giving the example of customers landing on the platform with a eventual intent to do 10 or 20 solutions, how many SKUs are there? Like how many solutions could a customer buy today if they bought everything? Or like where is that going?

很有幫助。那麼，當您舉例說客戶登陸平台並最終打算採用 10 或 20 個解決方案時，有多少 SKU？例如，如果客戶購買所有東西，他們今天可以購買多少個解決方案？或者說那會去哪裡？

Well, it's probably -- SKUs is not even the right way to think about it. Because when we think about SKUs, we're at, I don't know, call it, 150 SKUs. But the platform in this modular form provides the opportunity to do hundreds and potentially thousands of combinations of things. And so I think what we're moving to is more of a usage-based pricing and a modular pricing that lets customers mix and match the components that they want to achieve the goals that they want from a solution standpoint. And so it's not like everything will be prepackaged.

嗯，很可能——SKU 甚至不是思考這個問題的正確方式。因為當我們考慮 SKU 時，我們會想到，我不知道，稱之為 150 個 SKU。但這種模組化形式的平台提供了實現數百甚至數千種組合的機會。因此，我認為我們正在轉向的是基於使用情況的定價和模組化定價，讓客戶可以混合和搭配他們想要的元件，從解決方案的角度實現他們想要的目標。所以並不是所有的東西都是預先包裝好的。

Okay. And then last one for me. Just on B2B scores, how do you maintain an ongoing dialogue with the ultimate end market enterprise customers? So I think technically, it's your customer's customer because your Q and K disclosure is revenue concentration based on the bureau relationship. So how do you maintain that end market dialogue and I guess monitor their commitment to staying on FICO Scores?

好的。對我來說這是最後一個。僅就B2B評分而言，您如何與最終市場企業客戶保持持續對話？因此，我認為從技術上講，這是您的客戶的客戶，因為您的 Q 和 K 披露是基於局關係的收入集中。那麼，您如何維持終端市場對話，並監控他們對繼續使用 FICO 分數的承諾呢？

Obviously, we stay close to it through our channel partners, the bureaus. But we also -- certainly, for all of the major institutions, we have direct sales relationships. And so any significant activity in one direction or another is well understood by our people, and we are in a dialogue with them.

顯然，我們透過我們的通路合作夥伴和各機構來密切關注這種情況。但當然，對於所有主要機構，我們都建立了直接銷售關係。因此，我們的人民能夠充分理解朝著某個方向的任何重大活動，並且我們正在與他們進行對話。

And there are no further questions at present time. I'll turn the presentation back to you. Please continue with your presentation or closing remarks. Thank you.

目前沒有其他問題。我將把簡報交還給您。請繼續您的演講或結束語。謝謝。

Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for joining. This concludes today's call. We look forward to speaking with you again soon. Thanks for joining.

謝謝。感謝大家的加入。今天的電話會議到此結束。我們期待很快再次與您交談。感謝您的加入。

And that does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you very much for your participation. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議就到此結束。我們非常感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。