International Business Machines Corp (IBM) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Welcome, and thank you for standing by. (Operator Instructions) Today's conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

歡迎，感謝您的支持。 （操作員指示）今天的會議正在錄音。 （操作員說明）

Now I will turn the meeting over to Ms. Patricia Murphy, IBM's Vice President, Investor Relations. Ma'am, you may begin.

現在我將會議交給IBM 投資者關係副總裁Patricia Murphy 女士主持。女士，您可以開始了。

Thank you. I'd like to welcome you to IBM's Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Presentation. As the operator just mentioned, I'm Patricia Murphy, and I'm here today with Arvind Krishna, IBM's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Jim Kavanaugh, IBM's Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We'll post today's prepared remarks on the IBM investor website within a couple of hours, and a replay will be available by this time tomorrow.

謝謝。歡迎您參加 IBM 2023 年第三季財報發表會。正如剛才接線員提到的，我是 Patricia Murphy，今天我和 IBM 董事長兼執行長 Arvind Krishna 一起來到這裡。吉姆‧卡瓦諾 (Jim Kavanaugh)，IBM 資深副總裁兼財務長。我們將在幾個小時內將今天準備好的評論發佈在 IBM 投資者網站上，明天此時將提供重播。

To provide additional information to our investors, our presentation includes certain non-GAAP measures. For example, all of our references to revenue and signings growth are at constant currency. We've provided reconciliation charts for these and other non-GAAP financial measures at the end of the presentation, which is posted to our investor website.

為了向我們的投資者提供更多信息，我們的簡報包括某些非公認會計原則措施。例如，我們所有提到的收入和簽約成長都是以固定匯率計算的。我們在簡報的最後提供了這些和其他非公認會計準則財務指標的調節圖表，該圖表已發佈到我們的投資者網站上。

Finally, some comments made in this presentation may be considered forward-looking under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially. Additional information about these factors is included in the company's SEC filings.

最後，根據 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》，本簡報中的一些評論可能被視為前瞻性的。這些陳述涉及可能導致我們的實際結果存在重大差異的因素。有關這些因素的更多資​​訊包含在該公司向 SEC 提交的文件中。

So with that, I'll turn the call over to Arvind.

因此，我會將電話轉給 Arvind。

Thank you for joining us. Before we start, let me address the outbreak of war in Israel. We condemn all acts of terrorism. We are also saddened over the loss of innocent lives and join the global community in the hope that peace and safety can be restored.

感謝您加入我們。在開始之前，讓我先談談以色列爆發的戰爭。我們譴責一切恐怖主義行為。我們也對無辜生命的喪失感到悲痛，並與國際社會一起希望能夠恢復和平與安全。

Let me now turn to our business performance. In the third quarter, we had solid growth across revenue, profit and free cash flow while delivering innovations and positioning our business to capture future opportunities.

現在讓我談談我們的業務表現。第三季度，我們在收入、利潤和自由現金流方面實現了穩健成長，同時提供創新並定位我們的業務以抓住未來機會。

On the broader trends we are seeing in the market, technology continues to serve as a fundamental source of competitive advantage. Businesses and governments around the world are looking for opportunities to address demographic shifts, make the supply chains more resilient and improve sustainability. More recently, geopolitical events and the reality of higher for longer add to the growing uncertainty.

從我們在市場上看到的更廣泛的趨勢來看，技術仍然是競爭優勢的基本來源。世界各地的企業和政府都在尋找機會來應對人口變化、使供應鏈更具彈性並提高永續性。最近，地緣政治事件和長期走高的現實加劇了日益增長的不確定性。

Technology helps organizations better deal with the many challenges they face. We see both tailwinds and headwinds to overall spending. Nearly every business we talk to wants to leverage technology to offer better services, scale more quickly and fuel growth without increasing their footprint. This has been driving demand for technologies that boost productivity and competitiveness like hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence. Overall, we believe the tailwinds outweigh the headwinds, and technology spend will continue to outpace GDP.

科技幫助組織更好地應對他們面臨的許多挑戰。我們看到整體支出既有順風也有逆風。我們接觸過的幾乎每家企業都希望利用科技提供更好的服務、更快地擴展規模並在不增加足跡的情況下推動成長。這推動了對混合雲和人工智慧等能夠提高生產力和競爭力的技術的需求。整體而言，我們認為順風大於逆風，技術支出將持續超過 GDP。

In this past quarter, we saw good revenue growth in Software and Consulting. In Infrastructure, more than a year into the product cycle, we continue to see good adoption of z16. Our overall growth reflects our ability to help clients to leverage data and AI for competitive advantage, automate IT environments and seamlessly integrate hybrid cloud solutions. We also continue to position our business for the future, launching new products and offerings, forging and expanding key partnerships, investing in talent and skills and focusing our portfolio.

在過去的這個季度，我們看到軟體和諮詢領域的收入出現了良好的成長。在基礎設施領域，進入產品週期一年多後，我們繼續看到 z16 的良好採用。我們的整體成長反映了我們幫助客戶利用數據和人工智慧獲得競爭優勢、自動化 IT 環境以及無縫整合混合雲解決方案的能力。我們也繼續為未來定位我們的業務，推出新產品和產品，建立和擴大關鍵合作夥伴關係，投資於人才和技能並專注於我們的產品組合。

We have been taking concrete actions to deliver productivity in our own business. All of this results in an IBM that is aligned to our clients' most pressing needs and has a stronger financial profile. Our third quarter results are another proof point.

我們一直在採取具體行動來提高我們自己業務的生產力。所有這些都使 IBM 能夠滿足客戶最迫切的需求，並擁有更強大的財務狀況。我們第三季的業績是另一個證明點。

Typically, at this point, I talk about hybrid cloud and the progress we have made. Hybrid cloud remains vitally important to our clients and to our business. Given the inflection in AI and more specifically, generative AI, I want to spend more time today on AI and how we are approaching this opportunity. We believe that generative AI will be multimodal with clients using a combination of IBM's models, other companies' models, their own proprietary models and open-source models. This hybrid approach to AI is similar to the hybrid approach to cloud.

通常，在這一點上，我會談論混合雲以及我們所取得的進展。混合雲對於我們的客戶和我們的業務仍然至關重要。考慮到人工智慧，更具體地說，生成式人工智慧的變化，我今天想花更多時間討論人工智慧以及我們如何抓住這個機會。我們相信，生成式人工智慧將是多模式的，客戶將結合使用 IBM 的模型、其他公司的模型、他們自己的專有模型和開源模型。這種人工智慧的混合方法類似於雲端的混合方法。

Let me give you an overview of the capabilities we have been building. Our generative AI software stack starts with Red Hat OpenShift, which serves as a foundation that allows clients to operate in a hybrid environment. These services help make the data ready for AI. Watsonx is a core platform that enables clients to train, tune, validate and deploy AI models. We are providing models that address specific domains such as code, language and cybersecurity, among others. Our AI assistants include the watsonx Code Assistant to augment developers, watsonx Assistant to augment customer service agents and watsonx Orchestrate to augment employees.

讓我向您概述一下我們一直在建立的能力。我們的生成式人工智慧軟體堆疊始於紅帽 OpenShift，它是允許客戶在混合環境中運作的基礎。這些服務有助於為人工智慧做好數據準備。 Watsonx 是一個核心平台，使客戶能夠訓練、調整、驗證和部署人工智慧模型。我們提供針對程式碼、語言和網路安全等特定領域的模型。我們的 AI 助理包括用於增強開發人員能力的 watsonx Code Assistant、用於增強客戶服務代理能力的 watsonx Assistant 以及用於增強員工能力的 watsonx Orchestrate。

This quarter, we introduced new AI capabilities for our clients and partners. We unveiled Granite, a multibillion parameter foundation model on watsonx.ai, which excels in both language and code. We also introduced the watsonx Code Assistant. This includes the watsonx Code Assistant for Z to help clients accelerate the modernization of mainframe code and apps. It's fueled by a 20 billion parameter model and can, as an example, swiftly translate COBOL to Java. There are hundreds of billions of lines of code written in COBOL. So the opportunity is significant.

本季度，我們為客戶和合作夥伴推出了新的人工智慧功能。我們在 watsonx.ai 上推出了 Granite，這是一個數十億參數的基礎模型，它在語言和程式碼方面都表現出色。我們也引進了 watsonx Code Assistant。其中包括 watsonx Code Assistant for Z，可協助客戶加速大型主機程式碼和應用程式的現代化。它由 200 億個參數模型提供支持，例如可以將 COBOL 快速轉換為 Java。用 COBOL 寫的程式碼有數千億行。所以這個機會是重大的。

Looking forward, we plan to launch watsonx.governance before the end of the year that provides governance tools businesses need to mitigate risks and ensure compliance through the AI life cycle. This is a key consideration for clients as they go beyond early proof of concepts into real deployments.

展望未來，我們計劃在今年年底前推出 watsonx.governance，為企業提供降低風險並確保整個 AI 生命週期合規性所需的治理工具。這是客戶考慮的關鍵因素，因為他們超越了早期的概念驗證，進入了實際部署。

To bring our AI capabilities to life, we have more than 20,000 data and AI consultants, including a center of excellence for generative AI. Our teams help clients navigate the AI landscape, from crafting a strategy, understanding how AI can be used and deploying AI responsibly. These consultants also provide valuable real-time feedback to other product teams.

為了將我們的人工智慧能力變為現實，我們擁有超過 20,000 名數據和人工智慧顧問，其中包括一個生成式人工智慧卓越中心。我們的團隊幫助客戶了解人工智慧領域，從制定策略、了解如何使用人工智慧到負責任地部署人工智慧。這些顧問也向其他產品團隊提供有價值的即時回饋。

As in hybrid cloud, our ecosystem across GSIs, ISVs and hyperscalers plays a critical role in bringing generative AI to our clients. The work we are doing, clear patterns are emerging in terms of the AI enterprise use cases. Based on extensive feedback and trials to date, 3 have risen to the top: code modernization, customer service and digital labor. All have broad relevance and deliver tangible business benefits.

與混合雲一樣，我們跨 GSI、ISV 和超大規模供應商的生態系統在為客戶帶來生成式 AI 方面發揮關鍵作用。我們正在做的工作，在人工智慧企業用例方面正在出現清晰的模式。根據迄今為止的廣泛回饋和試驗，有 3 個因素名列前茅：程式碼現代化、客戶服務和數位化勞動力。所有這些都具有廣泛的相關性並帶來切實的商業利益。

We have also seen this internally, as we apply our AI capabilities to areas such as client support, HR, IT optimization and source to pay to automate a significant portion of tasks and improve the productivity of our people.

我們在內部也看到了這一點，因為我們將人工智慧功能應用於客戶支援、人力資源、IT 優化和支付來源等領域，以自動化大部分任務並提高員工的生產力。

Our book of business in the third quarter specifically related to generative AI was in the low hundreds of millions of dollars. The interest is larger with thousands of hands-on interactions with our clients. These are across our largest clients and smaller clients, which lays the groundwork for future watsonx opportunities.

我們第三季與生成人工智慧特別相關的業務簿只有數億美元。透過與客戶進行數以千計的實際互動，人們的興趣更加濃厚。這些客戶涵蓋我們最大的客戶和較小的客戶，這為未來的 watsonx 機會奠定了基礎。

Let me close the discussion on AI by talking about a couple of client examples. Dun & Bradstreet is leveraging our consulting and software capabilities fueled by watsonx to help their clients create proprietary generative AI solutions. IBM and EY also just announced a new solution powered by watsonx Orchestrate to enhance EY's people advisory services.

讓我透過幾個客戶範例來結束關於人工智慧的討論。 Dun & Bradstreet 正在利用 watsonx 提供的諮詢和軟體功能來幫助他們的客戶創建專有的生成式 AI 解決方案。 IBM 和 EY 也剛宣布推出由 watsonx Orchestrate 提供支援的新解決方案，以增強 EY 的人員諮詢服務。

We continue to bring innovations to the market in areas other than AI. This includes new innovations to our industry-leading hybrid cloud platform, Red Hat OpenShift, which was recognized recently by both Gartner and Forrester as the leader in container management. We completed the acquisition of Apptio, which complements our IT automation capabilities. In Quantum, we're making good progress in building practical quantum computers that can solve hard problems in areas such as risk, finance and materials.

我們持續在人工智慧以外的領域為市場帶來創新。這包括我們領先業界的混合雲平台 Red Hat OpenShift 的新創新，該平台最近被 Gartner 和 Forrester 評為容器管理領域的領導者。我們完成了對 Apptio 的收購，這補充了我們的 IT 自動化能力。在量子領域，我們在建立實用量子電腦方面取得了良好進展，這些電腦可以解決風險、金融和材料等領域的難題。

In closing, we accomplished a lot this quarter. We launched our generative AI platform and have good momentum in helping our clients use this important technology. We continue to take portfolio actions to increase our focus on hybrid cloud and AI, and we are applying AI within our own business, improving execution speed and unlocking real value. All of this reinforces my confidence in our future.

最後，我們本季取得了許多成就。我們推出了生成式人工智慧平台，並在幫助客戶使用這項重要技術方面擁有良好的勢頭。我們繼續採取組合行動，增加對混合雲和人工智慧的關注，並將人工智慧應用到我們自己的業務中，提高執行速度並釋放真正的價值。所有這些都增強了我對我們未來的信心。

We're executing a strategy that closely resonates with our clients' needs, and this is propelling our business forward. Three quarters into the year, we are well positioned to deliver on 2023 expectations for both revenue growth and free cash flow.

我們正在執行一項與客戶需求密切相關的策略，這正在推動我們的業務向前發展。今年已進入三個季度，我們已做好充分準備，能夠實現 2023 年收入成長和自由現金流的預期。

Now to offer you a more detailed view of our results and the rest of 2023, I'll hand it over to Jim.

現在，為了讓您更詳細地了解我們的結果以及 2023 年剩餘時間的情況，我將把它交給 Jim。

Thanks, Arvind. I'll get right into the financial highlights of the quarter. We delivered $14.8 billion of revenue, $2.3 billion of operating pretax income and $2.20 of operating earnings per share. Through the first 3 quarters of the year, we generated $5.1 billion of free cash flow.

謝謝，阿爾溫德。我將直接介紹本季的財務亮點。我們實現了 148 億美元的收入、23 億美元的稅前營業收入和 2.20 美元的每股營業利潤。今年前 3 季度，我們產生了 51 億美元的自由現金流。

Reported revenue growth was 4.6%. This includes just over 1 point of growth from currency translation, which is significantly less than the currency rate suggested in July. In fact, currency movements over the last 90 days impacted our third quarter revenue by about $250 million. At constant currency, our revenue was up 3.5%. As is typical, I'll focus the discussion on constant currency.

報告收入增長 4.6%。其中包括貨幣換算帶來的略高於 1 個百分點的成長，明顯低於 7 月建議的匯率。事實上，過去 90 天的匯率變動對我們第三季的營收造成了約 2.5 億美元的影響。以固定匯率計算，我們的營收成長了 3.5%。像往常一樣，我將重點討論恆定匯率。

Arvind talked about clients' priorities in today's environment, which are driving solid growth in our software and consulting offerings. I'll remind you, software and consulting are our 2 growth vectors, and together make up about 3/4 of our revenue base. Software revenue was up 6% as clients leverage their data for insights and automate their IT in a hybrid environment. We had good growth in both Hybrid Platform & Solutions and Transaction Processing revenue.

Arvind 談到了當今環境下客戶的優先事項，這些事項正在推動我們的軟體和諮詢產品的穩健成長。我要提醒您的是，軟體和諮詢是我們的兩個成長載體，合計約占我們收入基礎的 3/4。由於客戶利用數據獲取洞察並在混合環境中實現 IT 自動化，軟體收入成長了 6%。我們在混合平台和解決方案以及交易處理收入方面都有良好的成長。

Our Consulting business had another solid quarter with 5% revenue growth, strong signings performance and a book-to-bill ratio greater than 1.15 over the last year. We are capitalizing on our continued momentum in the market as we help clients get value from hybrid cloud and AI and leverage our strategic partnerships.

我們的顧問業務又迎來了一個穩健的季度，營收成長了 5%，簽約表現強勁，訂單出貨比比去年超過 1.15。我們正在利用我們在市場上的持續發展勢頭，幫助客戶從混合雲和人工智慧中獲取價值，並利用我們的策略合作夥伴關係。

Our Infrastructure revenue was down 3% with growth in zSystems. More and more, we are seeing clients embrace IBM Z in their hybrid cloud environments, especially in regulated industries. This growth was offset by declines in Distributed Infrastructure and Infrastructure Support. IBM's revenue growth, together with the good portfolio mix and yield from our productivity initiatives, generated strong margin, profit and free cash flow performance.

隨著 zSystems 的成長，我們的基礎設施收入下降了 3%。我們越來越多地看到客戶在其混合雲環境中採用 IBM Z，特別是在受監管的行業中。這一增長被分散式基礎設施和基礎設施支援的下降所抵消。 IBM 的收入成長，加上良好的產品組合和生產力計劃的收益，產生了強勁的利潤率、利潤和自由現金流表現。

Operating gross margin expanded 160 basis points, and operating pretax margin expanded 170 basis points. Within that PTI margin, we absorbed a year-to-year currency impact of over 150 basis points. Despite that headwind, our margin expansion was broad-based with improvements in every business segment.

營業毛利率擴大 160 個基點，營業稅前利潤率擴大 170 個基點。在 PTI 利潤範圍內，我們吸收了超過 150 個基點的年度貨幣影響。儘管存在這種逆風，我們的利潤率擴張還是廣泛的，每個業務部門都有所改善。

Driving efficiency and productivity has always been part of our operating and financial models. These ongoing productivity initiatives enable reinvestment in the business, increase financial flexibility and contribute to margin expansion. Our activities range from simplifying our application environment to digitally transforming our business processes by applying AI at scale. We are ahead of pace to achieve our target of $2 billion in annual run rate savings by the end of 2024. While there is still more to do, I am pleased with our progress.

提高效率和生產力一直是我們營運和財務模式的一部分。這些持續的生產力措施可實現業務再投資、提高財務靈活性並有助於擴大利潤率。我們的活動範圍從簡化應用程式環境到透過大規模應用人工智慧對我們的業務流程進行數位化改造。我們正在提前實現到 2024 年底每年運行費用節省 20 億美元的目標。雖然還有更多工作要做，但我對我們的進展感到滿意。

The combination of our revenue and margin performance yielded strong profit growth. Operating pretax profit was up 17% to $2.3 billion. We generated $1.7 billion of free cash flow in the quarter and over $5 billion year-to-date, which is up $1 billion versus last year. Free cash flow growth through the first 3 quarters was primarily driven by cash sourced from our operating profit performance. We also had working capital efficiencies driven by solid collections. These growth drivers were partially offset by higher performance-based compensation payments earlier in the year.

我們的收入和利潤表現相結合，帶來了強勁的利潤成長。稅前營業利潤成長 17%，達到 23 億美元。本季我們產生了 17 億美元的自由現金流，年初至今已超過 50 億美元，比去年增加了 10 億美元。前三個季度的自由現金流成長主要是由我們的營業利潤表現所產生的現金所推動的。我們也透過可靠的收藏來提高營運資金效率。這些成長動力被今年稍早更高的基於績效的薪資支付所部分抵消。

In terms of cash uses, year-to-date, we spent about $5 billion in acquisitions and returned $4.5 billion to shareholders through dividends. Our resulting cash balance at the end of September was $11 billion. That's up over $2 billion from year-end, but with the acquisition of Apptio in the third quarter, cash is down over $5 billion from June. Our debt balance is now $55 billion, also down from June.

在現金使用方面，今年迄今為止，我們花費了約 50 億美元用於收購，並透過股息向股東返還了 45 億美元。截至 9 月底，我們的現金餘額為 110 億美元。這比年底增加了超過 20 億美元，但隨著第三季收購 Apptio，現金比 6 月減少了超過 50 億美元。我們的債務餘額目前為 550 億美元，也比 6 月有所下降。

Putting this all together, our business fundamentals are solid with sustainable revenue growth, margin expansion, solid cash generation and a strong balance sheet with financial flexibility to support our business into the future.

總而言之，我們的業務基礎穩固，收入可持續成長，利潤率擴大，現金產生穩定，資產負債表強勁，財務靈活性強，可以支持我們的業務走向未來。

Turning to the segments. Software revenue grew 6% with contribution from Hybrid Platform & Solutions and Transaction Processing. This performance reflects growth in both our transactional revenue and our recurring revenue base, which is about 80% of our annual software revenue.

轉向細分市場。軟體收入成長 6%，得益於混合平台和解決方案以及事務處理的貢獻。這項業績反映了我們的交易收入和經常性收入基礎的成長，後者約占我們年度軟體收入的 80%。

In Hybrid Platform & Solutions, revenue was up 7% with growth across Red Hat, Automation and Data & AI as we execute our platform-based approach to hybrid cloud and AI. Red Hat revenue was up 8%. We continue to deliver good growth in OpenShift and Ansible, both gaining share again this quarter. Clients are committing to our hybrid cloud approach with annual bookings up 14% in the quarter. This includes double-digit growth across RHEL, OpenShift and Ansible partially offset by headwinds in consumption-based services.

在混合平台和解決方案中，隨著我們執行基於平台的混合雲和人工智慧方法，紅帽、自動化以及數據和人工智慧的收入增長了 7%。紅帽營收成長 8%。我們繼續在 OpenShift 和 Ansible 方面實現良好成長，兩者在本季度再次獲得份額。客戶承諾採用我們的混合雲方法，本季年度預訂量成長了 14%。其中包括 RHEL、OpenShift 和 Ansible 的兩位數成長，但部分被基於消費的服務的不利因素所抵消。

IT and business automation are top client priorities, and we've been investing to capture the opportunity. This quarter, our Automation revenue grew 13% with pervasive growth across all business areas. We had strength in AI ops and management driven by good performance in Instana, Turbonomic and now Apptio as clients look to optimize business outcomes and boost productivity.

IT 和業務自動化是客戶的首要任務，我們一直在投資以抓住機會。本季度，我們的自動化收入成長了 13%，所有業務領域都普遍成長。由於客戶希望優化業務成果並提高生產力，Instana、Turbonomic 和現在的 Apptio 的良好表現推動了我們在人工智慧營運和管理方面的實力。

Data & AI revenue was up 6%. Growth areas include data fabric and customer care as enterprise clients are both preparing for and adopting generative AI solutions, leveraging watsonx. We also grew in asset and supply chain management as we help enterprises run sustainable operations.

數據和人工智慧收入成長 6%。成長領域包括資料結構和客戶服務，因為企業客戶都在利用 watsonx 準備並採用生成式 AI 解決方案。隨著我們幫助企業實現永續運營，我們在資產和供應鏈管理方面也取得了成長。

Security revenue declined 3%. We delivered growth in security software driven by data security and identity and access management. This was more than offset by declines in managed security services.

安全收入下降 3%。在資料安全以及身分和存取管理的推動下，我們實現了安全軟體的成長。這被託管安全服務的下降所抵消。

Looking across these businesses, our Hybrid Platform & Solutions ARR has grown to $14 billion, up 7% since last year. In Transaction Processing, revenue was up 5%. Throughout this year, we've been talking about how the success of the last couple of zSystems cycles is driving demand for this mission-critical software. This, together with price increases, contributed to year-to-date growth in both recurring and transactional software revenue in Transaction Processing.

縱觀這些業務，我們的混合平台和解決方案 ARR 已成長至 140 億美元，自去年以來成長了 7%。在交易處理方面，收入增加了 5%。今年一整年，我們一直在討論最後幾個 zSystems 週期的成功如何推動對這款關鍵任務軟體的需求。這與價格上漲一起，推動了交易處理領域的經常性和交易軟體收入今年迄今的成長。

Moving to profit for the Software segment. We expanded gross and pretax margins. Our pretax margin was up 120 basis points, even while absorbing over 2 points of impact from currency. We continue to deliver operating leverage driven by our revenue scale and mix this quarter.

軟體部門開始獲利。我們擴大了毛利率和稅前利潤。即使吸收了超過 2 個基點的匯率影響，我們的稅前利潤率仍上漲了 120 個基點。本季我們將繼續提供由收入規模和組合驅動的營運槓桿。

Our Consulting revenue was up 5% with growth across all 3 lines of business and geographies. With another quarter of strong signings, as I said, our trailing 12-month book-to-bill ratio is now over 1.15. Clients continue to prioritize transformation projects that enable cost savings and productivity. These results are a proof point that we are well positioned to meet these needs in today's complex environment.

隨著所有 3 個業務線和地區的成長，我們的諮詢收入成長了 5%。正如我所說，隨著另一個季度的強勁簽約，我們過去 12 個月的訂單出貨比現已超過 1.15。客戶繼續優先考慮能夠節省成本和提高生產力的轉型專案。這些結果證明我們有能力在當今複雜的環境中滿足這些需求。

IBM's focused hybrid cloud and AI strategy has become even more of a differentiator as clients' interest in generative AI continues to ramp. We are helping clients understand how AI can be used to automate tasks, make better decisions with speed and improve customer experiences. We made a series of AI announcements over the last few months, demonstrated continued advancement of our strategic partnerships. We're providing clients with the opportunity to accelerate their transformation and deploy generative AI responsibly, whether that be leveraging AI capabilities of IBM, our partners or a combination. Today, our strategic partnerships account for about 40% of Consulting revenue and have continued to grow double digits across revenue and signings.

隨著客戶對生成式 AI 的興趣不斷增加，IBM 專注於混合雲和 AI 的策略變得更加具有差異化優勢。我們正在幫助客戶了解如何使用人工智慧來自動化任務、快速做出更好的決策並改善客戶體驗。過去幾個月，我們發布了一系列人工智慧公告，展示了我們策略夥伴關係的持續發展。我們為客戶提供加速轉型和負責任地部署生成式 AI 的機會，無論是利用 IBM、我們的合作夥伴還是兩者的組合的 AI 功能。如今，我們的策略合作夥伴關係約佔諮詢收入的 40%，並且在收入和簽約方面繼續以兩位數的速度成長。

In aggregate, our hyperscaler partnership revenue was up over 40%, and signings essentially doubled year-to-year. Additionally, our Red Hat practice, which helps clients optimize how they build, deploy and manage applications for a hybrid cloud environment, has continued to grow at a double-digit rate, with over $1 billion of signings in the quarter.

總的來說，我們的超大規模合作夥伴收入成長了 40% 以上，簽約數量比去年同期基本上翻了一番。此外，我們的紅帽實踐幫助客戶優化他們為混合雲環境建置、部署和管理應用程式的方式，繼續以兩位數的速度成長，本季簽約額超過 10 億美元。

All of what I just mentioned, from market demand, to how we're positioned and partnering, to our investments to drive growth is reflected in our overall consulting revenue performance. You can see that play out across our 3 lines of business.

我剛才提到的所有內容，從市場需求，到我們的定位和合作方式，再到我們推動成長的投資，都反映在我們的整體諮詢收入表現中。您可以看到我們的 3 個業務領域都在發揮這種作用。

In Business Transformation, revenue grew 5%, again, led by data and technology transformations, including AI and analytics-focused projects. Finance and supply chain transformations also contributed to growth. In Technology Consulting, revenue was up 1%. Growth in cloud-based application development and modernization work was partially offset by declines in on-prem application-focused projects.

在業務轉型方面，在數據和技術轉型（包括以人工智慧和分析為重點的項目）的帶動下，營收再次成長了 5%。金融和供應鏈轉型也促進了成長。技術諮詢業務的收入成長了 1%。基於雲端的應用程式開發和現代化工作的成長被以本地應用程式為中心的專案的下降部分抵消。

In Application Operations, revenue grew 7%, driven by both cloud application management and platform engineering services. In platform engineering, we help clients design an application environment that runs securely and smoothly at scale.

在應用程式營運方面，在雲端應用程式管理和平台工程服務的推動下，營收成長了 7%。在平台工程中，我們幫助客戶設計一個可大規模安全、平穩運作的應用程式環境。

Moving to Consulting profit. We expanded gross margin 150 basis points. Pretax margin expanded 40 basis points to just over 10%. Our year-to-year margin performance reflects productivity actions we've taken, mitigated by increased labor costs and about 1 point of pretax margin impact from currency.

轉向諮詢盈利。我們將毛利率提高了 150 個基點。稅前利潤率擴大了 40 個基點，略高於 10%。我們的逐年利潤率表現反映了我們採取的生產力行動，但勞動成本增加和匯率對稅前利潤率約 1 個百分點的影響有所緩解。

Moving to the Infrastructure segment. Revenue was down 3%. Hybrid Infrastructure revenue was flat, while Infrastructure Support declined 7%. Within Hybrid Infrastructure, zSystems grew 9% in the seasonally smaller revenue quarter. z16 revenue remains well ahead of prior cycles after 6 quarters of availability. The program strength reflects both growing enterprise workload requirements and the economic value-add scale of the platform in traditional processing and Linux consolidation. In fact, installed MIPS capacity for Linux on Z has grown more than fourfold over the last decade. Clients continue to value the security, resiliency and hybrid cloud capabilities of the zSystems platform.

轉向基礎設施領域。收入下降了 3%。混合基礎設施收入持平，而基礎設施支援下降 7%。在混合基礎設施領域，zSystems 在季節性較小的營收季度中成長了 9%。在推出 6 個季度後，z16 的營收仍然遠遠領先於先前的周期。該計劃的優勢反映了不斷增長的企業工作負載需求以及該平台在傳統處理和 Linux 整合方面的經濟增值規模。事實上，在過去十年中，Linux on Z 的已安裝 MIPS 容量增加了四倍以上。客戶持續重視 zSystems 平台的安全性、彈性和混合雲功能。

Distributed Infrastructure revenue was down 6% as compared to a strong growth in last year of 21% as we introduced innovation across storage and Power10. This quarter, we had growth in Power, offset by declines in storage.

由於我們在儲存和 Power10 方面引入了創新，分散式基礎設施收入下降了 6%，而去年則強勁增長了 21%。本季度，我們的電力成長，但被儲存下降所抵消。

In the Infrastructure segment, we had strong gross and pretax margin performance. Pretax margin expanded 350 basis points, reflecting benefits from portfolio mix with our zSystems performance and productivity while absorbing over 1 point of impact from currency.

在基礎設施領域，我們的毛利率和稅前利潤率表現強勁。稅前利潤率擴大了 350 個基點，反映了我們的 zSystems 績效和生產力的投資組合帶來的好處，同時吸收了超過 1 個基點的貨幣影響。

Now let me bring it back up to the IBM level to talk about our expectations before we go to Q&A. Just about 2 years ago, we introduced today's IBM, a more focused business with a platform-based approach to hybrid cloud and AI. Since then, we've continued to invest organically and inorganically, bring new products and innovation to market, expand our ecosystem and our talent base and drive productivity across our business. The result is a business that addresses today's client needs with a stronger financial profile.

現在讓我回到 IBM 層面來談談我們的期望，然後再進行問答。大約兩年前，我們推出了今天的 IBM，這是一家更專注的企業，採用基於平台的混合雲和人工智慧方法。從那時起，我們繼續進行有機和無機投資，將新產品和創新推向市場，擴大我們的生態系統和人才基礎，並提高整個業務的生產力。其結果是公司能夠以更強大的財務狀況滿足當今客戶的需求。

Our third quarter performance reinforces this progress with 3.5% revenue growth, gross and pretax margin expansion and strong free cash flow generation. Now with 3 quarters of the year behind us, we are holding our full year view of our 2 primary financial metrics: revenue growth and free cash flow. We continue to expect constant currency revenue growth of 3% to 5% and free cash flow of about $10.5 billion, that's up $1.2 billion over last year.

我們第三季的業績透過 3.5% 的營收成長、毛利率和稅前利潤率的擴張以及強勁的自由現金流產生強化了這一進步。現在，今年已經過去了三個季度，我們對 2 個主要財務指標進行了全年展望：收入成長和自由現金流。我們繼續預期貨幣收入將持續成長 3% 至 5%，自由現金流約為 105 億美元，比去年增加 12 億美元。

We've had solid revenue performance all year in our growth vectors of software and consulting. We still expect Software revenue growth at the high end of its mid-single-digit model and Consulting revenue in the 6% to 8% range. Infrastructure revenue, of course, reflects product cycle dynamics.

我們在軟體和諮詢領域的成長領域全年都取得了穩健的收入表現。我們仍然預期軟體收入成長處於中個位數模型的高端，諮詢收入成長在 6% 至 8% 範圍內。當然，基礎設施收入反映了產品週期動態。

In total, with 1 quarter to go, it's prudent to assume the low end of IBM's 3% to 5% range. We are making great progress in our productivity initiatives. The work we are doing to digitally transform our business not only makes us more nimble by simplifying and streamlining our processes and operations, but it also frees up spend for reinvestment, provides financial flexibility and delivers operating leverage. This contributes to solid margin and free cash flow performance.

總的來說，距離最後一個季度的到來，謹慎的做法是假設 IBM 的 3% 到 5% 範圍的下限。我們在生產力計劃方面正在取得巨大進展。我們正在進行的業務數位轉型工作不僅透過簡化流程和營運使我們變得更加靈活，而且還釋放了再投資的支出，提供了財務靈活性並提供了營運槓桿。這有助於實現穩健的利潤率和自由現金流表現。

We continue to expect about 0.5 point of operating pretax margin improvement, and we see a mid-teens tax rate for the year. Our free cash flow performance has been driven primarily from our profit performance. Through the first 3 quarters, we're up $1 billion year-to-year, and we delivered nearly 50% of our full year expectation, which is ahead of our historical attainment. While as always, we are relying on a seasonally strong fourth quarter, we're on track to achieve about $10.5 billion for the year.

我們繼續預計稅前營業利潤率將提高約 0.5 個百分點，並且今年的稅率將在 15 左右左右。我們的自由現金流表現主要來自我們的獲利表現。前 3 季度，我們比去年同期成長了 10 億美元，實現了全年預期的近 50%，超出了我們的歷史成績。儘管我們一如既往地依賴季節性強勁的第四季度，但我們今年預計將實現約 105 億美元的目標。

As I look specifically at the fourth quarter, with the recent currency movements, we now see currency to be neutral to a 1 point headwind to revenue growth. That's nearly $600 million worse than 90 days ago. I'd expect constant currency revenue growth in the fourth quarter to be similar to the third. That's despite a tough compare from last year's strong ELA contribution in software and the large z16 transactional performance in infrastructure. This demonstrates continued momentum in our underlying business.

當我具體觀察第四季時，隨著最近的貨幣走勢，我們現在認為貨幣對營收成長的影響為中性，對營收成長有 1 個百分點的阻力。這比 90 天前少了近 6 億美元。我預計第四季的貨幣收入恆定成長將與第三季相似。儘管與去年 ELA 在軟體領域的強勁貢獻和 z16 在基礎設施領域的巨大交易效能相比，情況還是很艱難。這顯示我們基礎業務的持續成長動能。

Bringing it all together, we've clearly got a higher growth, higher value business with strong cash generation, a business well positioned for the future. Arvind and I are now happy to take your questions. Patricia, let's get started.

綜上所述，我們顯然擁有更高成長、更高價值的業務，並且具有強勁的現金生成能力，並且為未來做好了準備。阿溫德和我現在很高興回答您的問題。帕特里夏，我們開始吧。

Thank you, Jim. Before we begin the Q&A, I'd like to mention a couple of items. First, supplemental information is provided at the end of this presentation. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝你，吉姆。在開始問答之前，我想提幾件事。首先，本簡報末尾提供了補充資訊。 （操作員說明）

Operator, let's please open it up for questions.

接線員，請打開它提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Amit Daryanani with Evercore.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Evercore 的 Amit Daryanani。

I guess, Arvind, there's a lot of macro concerns out there, to say the least. I'm hoping you could spend a little bit of time just talking about when you talk to your customers -- and I'm sure you engage with a lot of the Fortune 500 companies. Given this macro environment, how are they shifting or prioritizing their IT budget dollars? And I fully understand everybody talking about generative AI and how beneficial it's going to be, but given the macro environment, given the constrained IT budgets, I guess, where are they taking money away from to fund these investments? I'd love to just understand the customer feedback you're getting and how is the priority changing as they go forward.

我想，阿爾溫德，至少可以說，存在著許多宏觀問題。我希望您能花一點時間談論與客戶交談時的情況，而且我確信您與許多財富 500 強公司進行過交流。在這種宏觀環境下，他們如何調整或優先安排其 IT 預算資金？我完全理解每個人都在談論生成式人工智慧以及它的好處，但考慮到宏觀環境，考慮到 IT 預算有限，我想他們從哪裡拿錢來資助這些投資？我很想了解您收到的客戶回饋以及隨著他們的進展優先順序如何變化。

Thanks for the question. And it's actually wonderful to talk about this. So generative AI, just for me to very quickly reiterate the use cases we found that our clients were really climbing on to, on code, on customer service and on, I'll call it, general digital workers, which is productivity in every enterprise function.

謝謝你的提問。談論這個實際上很美妙。所以生成式人工智慧，讓我快速重申我們發現我們的客戶真正依賴程式碼、客戶服務以及我稱之為通用數位工人的用例，這就是每個企業的生產力功能。

So if you look at code, to a person, every one of the clients said we don't intend to get rid of any developers, but this allows us to take care of the tech debt that we've accumulated and makes every developer more productive. Amit, I'll kind of point out, most enterprises are very quick to realize, if you are more productive, that means you have a competitive advantage to your peers. And if they have a competitive advantage to their peers, they'll take share without spending more on labor. That's an incredible long-term competitive advantage.

因此，如果你看一下程式碼，對一個人來說，每個客戶都表示我們不打算擺脫任何開發人員，但這使我們能夠處理我們累積的技術債務，並使每個開發人員獲得更多富有成效。阿米特，我想指出的是，大多數企業很快就會意識到，如果你的生產力更高，這意味著你比同行擁有競爭優勢。如果他們比同業具有競爭優勢，他們就會在不增加勞動支出的情況下獲得份額。這是令人難以置信的長期競爭優勢。

When you go to customer service, there is a cost takeout aspect, but it's not 100%. But there is probably a 20% to 30%. If you can have more calls, more chats answered by AI, that means you can have much more volume with a smaller number of people. So there is both. Also, I'll point out to our audience, AI does not get tired. It doesn't get angry. It doesn't get upset. So there is an NPS improvement to get along with it.

當你去找客戶服務時，有一個成本外帶的方面，但不是100%。但大概有20%到30%。如果你可以透過人工智慧接聽更多的電話、更多的聊天，這意味著你可以用更少的人獲得更大的音量。所以兩者都有。另外，我要向我們的觀眾指出，人工智慧不會疲倦。它不會生氣。它不會心煩意亂。所以有一個NPS的改進來與之相處。

And then on the third one on digital workers, there likely is a small productivity improvement, but I would call it more in the 4%, 5%, 10%, not 20%, 30%, 40%. So in the macro headwinds you're mentioning, higher interest rates, tougher to get skilled people, all of the issues around the geopolitical uncertainty that causes some of the concern might have caused a pause in some other environments. The AI side, and to be candid, the hybrid cloud side, offers them a way through that without having to decrease their ambitions for next year.

第三個關於數位化工人的生產力可能會有小幅提高，但我更願意稱之為 4%、5%、10%，而不是 20%、30%、40%。因此，在您提到的宏觀逆風中，更高的利率，更難獲得技術人員，所有與地緣政治不確定性有關的問題引起了一些擔憂，可能會導致其他一些環境的暫停。人工智慧方面，坦白說，混合雲方面，為他們提供了一條解決這個問題的方法，而不必降低他們明年的雄心壯志。

And I think we are seeing every one of them play to that. And I think that these are more fundamental. These are more core processes than some of the other areas that people were worrying about 2 or 3 years ago, when 2 or 3 years ago, people were worrying a lot about what do I do to keep all our employees happy and can I add up all the tools for that. I think there's much less of a focus on that area.

我認為我們看到他們每個人都在這樣做。我認為這些是更根本的。這些是比人們兩三年前擔心的其他一些領域更核心的流程，而兩三年前，人們非常擔心我該怎麼做才能讓所有員工開心，我可以加起來嗎？所有的工具。我認為人們對這個領域的關注要少得多。

Next, we will hear from Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America.

接下來，我們將聽取美國銀行瓦姆西·莫漢 (Wamsi Mohan) 的演講。

I was wondering if you could comment a little further on the Red Hat deceleration in 3Q. Jim sounded like it was driven partly by consumption-based services that were somewhat weaker. Are you still expecting Red Hat growth in that 11% to 13% range for the year? And can you unpack some of the software elements in the fourth quarter between Red Hat transaction processing and perhaps Apptio?

我想知道您是否可以進一步評論紅帽在第三季的減速。吉姆聽起來這部分是由消費性服務業的疲軟所推動的。您是否仍預期紅帽今年的成長率為 11% 至 13%？您能否在第四季度解開紅帽事務處理和 Apptio 之間的一些軟體元素？

Yes. Thanks, Wamsi. I appreciate the question. Obviously, we're very pleased overall with our Software segment performance growing 8%, actual 6% at constant currency, really led pretty pervasively with growth across the board, Automation led, Red Hat at 8%, as you said, and I'll come to that in a second, but Data & AI overall. Really underpinning all that is like we said, starting the year, one, a very strong, solid recurring revenue base. High value, 80% of that portfolio, by the way, growing mid-single-digit growth. You see that play out in our Transaction Processing that we call the growth vector. And then also our Hybrid Platform & Solutions business, $14 billion ARR that's growing high-single-digit overall.

是的。謝謝，瓦姆西。我很欣賞這個問題。顯然，我們對我們的軟體部門業績整體成長8% 感到非常滿意，按固定匯率實際成長6%，確實普遍領先於全面成長，以自動化為主導，紅帽成長了8%，正如您所說，我也是如此。稍後我們會談到這一點，但總體而言是數據和人工智慧。正如我們所說，從今年開始，真正支撐這一切的是一個非常強大、堅實的經常性收入基礎。順便說一下，該投資組合的 80% 都是高價值，並且呈現中個位數成長。您會看到這種情況在我們稱為成長向量的事務處理中發揮作用。然後還有我們的混合平台和解決方案業務，ARR 為 140 億美元，整體呈現高個位數成長。

Now within that, you see Red Hat. Red Hat, we talked about in the prepared remarks. First of all, Arvind and I would acknowledge, we came in a couple of points below our expectation. And I think that's an execution discussion overall. Embedded in that, where did it come from? It came from -- because I think this is very important. It came from the consumption-based services and offering side of the equation, which, by the way, is about 20% of our portfolio shorter duration overall. And it went from last quarter, high single digit, which is about what the model is, the low single digit overall.

現在，您可以在其中看到紅帽。紅帽，我們在準備好的發言中談到了。首先，阿爾溫德和我承認，我們的得分低於我們的預期。我認為這總體上是一個執行討論。嵌入其中，它從哪裡來？它來自——因為我認為這非常重要。它來自基於消費的服務和等式的提供方面，順便說一句，這約占我們投資組合整體較短期限的 20%。從上個季度開始，它達到了高個位數，這與該模型的情況有關，總體上是低個位數。

If you look at that and compare that now, let's look at the other part of the portfolio, the remaining 80%. That is our subscription-based business. That's our RHEL franchise, industry market leader, that's Red Hat OpenShift and that's Ansible. We had a very strong annualized bookings in the quarter, which, again, subscription-based business model. We talked about all year long, where we're going to be back-end loaded on renewals. We grew that mid-teens overall, including services, by the way.

如果你現在看看並比較一下，讓我們看看投資組合的其他部分，即剩下的 80%。這就是我們基於訂閱的業務。這就是我們的 RHEL 特許經營權、產業市場領導者、紅帽 OpenShift 和 Ansible。本季我們的年化預訂量非常強勁，這也是基於訂閱的業務模式。我們討論了一整年，我們將在後端加載續訂。順便說一句，我們的整體成長達到了十幾歲，包括服務。

If I extract out that 20% portfolio of services and just look at the core subscription-based businesses of Red Hat, OpenShift and Ansible, we grew 19% overall. 110-plus percent NRR on that renewal rate of that business. And within that 19%, OpenShift and Ansible were north of 40%, with RHEL growing double digits.

如果我提取 20% 的服務組合，只看 Red Hat、OpenShift 和 Ansible 的核心訂閱業務，我們的整體成長了 19%。該業務的續訂率超過 110% NRR。在這 19% 中，OpenShift 和 Ansible 超過了 40%，而 RHEL 則以兩位數成長。

So putting all that together, I think it's prudent right now -- when we look at fourth quarter, we're only building into our model. Again, Software at the high end of our segment model, we're only building in high single digit. We have to continue to monitor what happened to us in the third quarter, get the team focused on execution. But I would tell you, just given the signings growth that we posted in the third quarter, and by the way, another good pipeline in the fourth quarter, we feel very confident in the long-term posture of Red Hat growing double digits. We just got to get through and monitor what's happening to us on the services side. So thanks very much for the question.

因此，將所有這些放在一起，我認為現在是謹慎的——當我們看到第四季度時，我們只是在建立我們的模型。同樣，我們的細分模型高端軟體，我們僅以高個位數進行構建。我們必須繼續監控第三季發生的情況，讓團隊專注執行。但我想告訴你，鑑於我們在第三季發布的簽約成長，以及第四季的另一個良好管道，我們對紅帽兩位數成長的長期態勢非常有信心。我們只需打通並監控服務方面發生的情況即可。非常感謝您提出的問題。

Our next question comes from Toni Sacconaghi with Bernstein.

我們的下一個問題來自托尼·薩科納吉和伯恩斯坦。

Jim, it sounds like your guidance for Q4, given you expect revenues at constant currency to be at the low end, is somewhere around $17.3 billion, which is quite a bit below normal seasonality despite the fact that you have Apptio and you had strong services signings. So I'm wondering if you could, a, confirm if that's sort of the number that you're suggesting. And was there some transactional pull forward in mainframe from Q4 to Q3 this quarter? Or are you expecting some deceleration in Transaction Processing? Maybe you could kind of confirm the number for Q4 and then unpack it a little bit as to why it's below normal seasonality.

Jim，考慮到您預計以固定匯率計算的收入處於低端，這聽起來像是您對第四季度的指導，大約為173 億美元，儘管您擁有Apptio 並且擁有強大的服務，但這仍遠遠低於正常的季節性。簽名。所以我想知道您是否可以確認這是否是您建議的數字。本季大型主機交易是否從第四季提前到了第三季？還是您預計事務處理會有所減速？也許您可以確認第四季度的數字，然後稍微解釋為什麼它低於正常的季節性。

Thanks very much for the question. I appreciate it. And I know Patricia really appreciates sticking to one question, given it's her last call leading and piloting. And we thank her for all her efforts, but we'll have more time to celebrate in January.

非常感謝您的提問。我很感激。我知道帕特里夏真的很喜歡堅持一個問題，因為這是她最後一次領導和引導。我們感謝她所做的一切努力，但一月份我們將有更多的時間來慶祝。

But as you stated, we remain confident in what our guidance is overall with regards to top line revenue growth, 3% to 5%, albeit, as we said, low end, and that's just practically speaking, given we have one more quarter to go. We said we expect similar performance, fourth quarter, as we just executed in third quarter, constant currency revenue growth, right?

但正如您所說，我們對營收成長的整體指導仍然充滿信心，即3% 到5%，儘管正如我們所說，是低端的，而且這只是實際而言，因為我們還有一個季度的時間來實現這一目標。去。我們說過，我們預計第四季度的業績與我們剛剛在第三季度執行的情況類似，貨幣收入持續成長，對吧？

Let me unpack that to your point. First of all, at the macro level, historically, we would generate quarter-to-quarter about $2.9 billion-ish of revenue. Last year, by the way, we did $2.6 billion, up quarter-to-quarter in revenue. That $17.3 billion number, in that ballpark, you're not too far off, is about equivalent to last year. It's about $2.6 billion. But I would tell you one thing underneath that, Toni, is we've seen a very different dramatic change in the currency FX U.S. dollar strengthening to the tune of about $300 million, if you go look at the math back into '19, 2020, 2021.

讓我根據你的觀點來解釋。首先，從宏觀層面來看，從歷史上看，我們每季都會產生約 29 億美元左右的收入。順便說一下，去年我們的營收為 26 億美元，季增。 173 億美元的數字，在這個範圍內，你並不太遠，大約相當於去年。大約是26億美元。但東尼，我想告訴你的一件事是，如果你回顧一下 2020 年 19 日的數學，我們已經看到外匯美元出現了非常不同的戲劇性變化，升值約為 3 億美元，2021 年。

So underneath it, pretty consistent quarter-to-quarter performance as last year, which, by the way, I would highlight was the peak of our ELA cycle last year. And it was a strong first fourth quarter in a z16 environment. We're going to match that, even taking into account the FX headwinds overall that we called out going forward.

因此，在其之下，季度與季度的表現與去年相當一致，順便說一句，我要強調的是去年我們 ELA 週期的頂峰。在 z16 環境中，第四季表現強勁。即使考慮到我們未來所面臨的整體外匯不利因素，我們也會做到這一點。

One last thing that I'll put, and then I'll get into the color, is on a profit basis, although you didn't ask that, historically, profit, we generate somewhere, if I remember correctly, studying over the weekend, about $1.3 billion quarter-to-quarter. You look at our operating pretax margin, which we recommitted to 0.5 point for the year, that puts you in a profit range of, I don't know, $1.7 billion, $1.8 billion quarter-to-quarter. So you see the fundamental operating leverage of what's happening to our business.

我要說的最後一件事，然後我將進入顏色，是在利潤的基礎上，儘管你沒有問，從歷史上看，利潤，我們在某個地方產生，如果我沒記錯的話，週末學習，季後約13 億美元。你看看我們的營業稅前利潤率，我們重新承諾今年為 0.5 個百分點，這讓你的季度利潤範圍在 17 億美元到 18 億美元之間，我不知道。因此，您可以看到我們業務所發生的情況的基本營運槓桿。

So you put all that together, we still believe we have a very confident year at that 3% to 5%, by the way, led by Software, delivering 3 points of that IBM growth. Consistent, I would say, very good performance competitively in Consulting, driving about 2 points of IBM's growth. Infrastructure around the product cycle downside, we said beginning of the year, and we're consistent, it's about 1 point hurt to IBM. And then you got the divestiture impact of about 0.5 point. You put all that together, I think that's a pretty good year overall and pretty much on top of our model.

因此，將所有這些放在一起，我們仍然相信我們對今年 3% 到 5% 的成長率非常有信心，順便說一句，在軟體的帶領下，IBM 的成長貢獻了 3 個百分點。我想說，在諮詢領域的競爭表現始終如一，非常出色，推動了 IBM 約 2 個百分點的成長。圍繞著產品週期下行的基礎設施，我們在年初就說過，而且我們的觀點是一致的，這對 IBM 造成了大約 1 個百分點的傷害。然後你就得到了大約 0.5 個百分點的剝離影響。將所有這些放在一起，我認為總體而言這是非常好的一年，並且幾乎超出了我們的模型。

Next, we will hear from Matt Swanson with RBC Capital Markets.

接下來，我們將聽取加拿大皇家銀行資本市場公司 Matt Swanson 的演講。

It was great to hear about some of the quantifiable success that you've seen in generative AI so far. But maybe flipping that a little bit, whether it's through early consulting engagements or customer conversations, where are you seeing some of the choke points that might hold up people from deploying as fast as they want? And whether it's through foundation models or some of your other tools around the governance side, kind of how that's developing your R&D to develop solutions for those problems?

很高興聽到迄今為止您在生成人工智慧領域所看到的一些可量化的成功。但也許稍微翻轉一下，無論是透過早期諮詢活動還是客戶對話，您在哪裡看到了一些可能阻礙人們按照他們想要的速度進行部署的瓶頸？無論是透過基礎模型還是治理方面的其他一些工具，如何開發您的研發來為這些問題開發解決方案？

Yes. Thanks. Let me try to address your question here. Look, I think the concerns that people have are coming around, are these models accurate? How accurate are they? Do they result in things that may cause long-term liability? People are worried about the conversation because they hear and they read that, whether it's artists, whether it's authors, whether it's code writers are suing some of the producers of large language models.

是的。謝謝。讓我嘗試在這裡回答你的問題。你看，我想人們的擔憂開始出現了，這些模型準確嗎？它們有多準確？它們會導致可能導致長期責任的事情嗎？人們對對話感到擔憂，因為他們聽到並讀到，無論是藝術家、作者或程式碼編寫者都在起訴一些大型語言模型的製作者。

You alluded to governance, that comes more around life cycle and how do you carry it out over the long term. Coupled with this are some people's concerns, if you add their own private data into a model, now what happens to the model? Where is it protected? Where does it stay? Do others learn from it?

您提到了治理，這更多地涉及生命週期以及如何長期執行它。再加上一些人擔心，如果把自己的私有資料加入模型中，現在模型會發生什麼事？它在哪裡受到保護？它呆在哪裡？其他人是否從中學習？

So if you begin to unpack all of that, we begin to say, all right, for models that are IBM-produced, we will give you indemnification, meaning we are confident in our ability to stand by the data we have used to train, what is being used to be output, and we'll stand behind the same indemnification as we provide for all enterprise software.

因此，如果您開始解開所有這些內容，我們就會開始說，好吧，對於 IBM 生產的模型，我們將為您提供賠償，這意味著我們對我們用於訓練的數據的能力充滿信心，我們將提供與所有企業軟體相同的賠償。

As you would expect, that's hard for us to do for open-source models. But we believe that, that takes care, and that is why we are so excited about code and customer service to start with, because that's where we believe that people can benefit from this indemnification.

正如您所期望的，對於我們的開源模型來說，這很難做到。但我們相信，這很重要，這就是為什麼我們對代碼和客戶服務一開始就如此興奮，因為我們相信人們可以從這種賠償中受益。

Talking about the governance and the life cycle side, people are also worried about some of the long-term deployment because an enterprise may well deploy a model for 5 or 10 years. So the governance tools that allow you to keep a lineage of the data, use to train a model, and then for those adding private data, we give them a commitment, that data stays with them and the refinements of that model go nowhere else, helps to mitigate some of the fears and uncertainty around those issues.

談到治理和生命週期方面，人們也擔心一些長期部署，因為企業很可能會部署一個模型5年或10年。因此，治理工具允許您保留資料的血統，用於訓練模型，然後對於那些添加私有資料的人，我們向他們做出承諾，即資料保留在他們身邊，並且該模型的改進無處可去，有助於減輕圍繞這些問題的一些擔憂和不確定性。

I do believe that this is going to play out well over the next few years. But I also want to point out, there are many cases where people are not worried about some of these risks. If you're giving a quick website response, you could well use a model that may have some of these risks because the danger in using any of those other areas is small. So that is how it's playing out right now. I expect to see a lot of deployment in 2024, going into full production across the world of whether you use the word large language models or foundation models or generative AI.

我確實相信這將在未來幾年內發揮良好作用。但我也想指出，在很多情況下，人們並不擔心其中的一些風險。如果您要提供快速的網站回應，您很可能會使用可能存在其中一些風險的模型，因為使用任何其他區域的危險都很小。這就是現在的情況。我預計到 2024 年，無論您使用「大語言模型」、「基礎模型」還是「生成人工智慧」這個詞，都將看到大量部署，並在全球範圍內全面投入生產。

Our next question comes from Ben Reitzes with Melius Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Melius Research 的 Ben Reitzes。

I appreciate it. My question is on Consulting. I was very surprised to see 32% bookings growth after 24% the prior quarter, [7] the prior quarter. It's really diverging from your perceived rival in consulting, Accenture. And I was just wondering what the reasoning you would say is behind that.

我很感激。我的問題是關於諮詢。我非常驚訝地發現預訂量增加了 32%，而上一季 [7] 的預訂量增加了 24%。它與您認為的諮詢領域競爭對手埃森哲截然不同。我只是想知道你所說的背後的原因是什麼。

And then, Jim, with regard to those bookings, what does that do for your revenue visibility for consulting, not only for the fourth quarter but for early next year? I would think the good book-to-bill might make you feel pretty confident about that 6% to 8% and continuing?

然後，吉姆，關於這些預訂，這對您的諮詢收入可見性有何影響，不僅是第四季度，而且是明年初？我認為良好的訂單出貨量可能會讓您對 6% 到 8% 並持續下去感到非常有信心？

Ben, thanks very much for the question. As I said earlier, pleased with the team overall in Consulting. Not only on the signings and booking, but our revenue is well positioned for that 6% to 8%, which gives us confidence to reiterate that, but also the fundamentals of that business, right? We talked a lot about this over the last handful of years. We're getting good operating leverage in that business, good cash contribution. So all in all, pretty pleased overall.

本，非常感謝你的提問。正如我之前所說，我們對諮詢團隊的整體表現感到滿意。不僅在簽約和預訂方面，我們的收入也處於 6% 到 8% 的有利位置，這讓我們有信心重申這一點，而且也重申了該業務的基本面，對吧？在過去的幾年裡，我們對此進行了許多討論。我們在該業務中獲得了良好的營運槓桿和良好的現金貢獻。總而言之，整體來說非常滿意。

When you look at the bookings overall, I mean, let's just put some statistics. So let me talk about kind of headwind, tailwind overall because I think what you're trying to get at is the confidence level Arvind and I and the team have about this book of business going forward into fourth quarter and into '24.

當你查看總體預訂情況時，我的意思是，讓我們放一些統計數據。因此，讓我談談整體上的逆風和順風，因為我認為你想要得到的是 Arvind 和我以及團隊對這本書進入第四季度和 24 年的信心水平。

We're still seeing very good demand overall in areas around digital transformation, application modernization and where there's real technology value, productivity, cost efficiency, quick payback. Is there pressure on discretionary-based activity and that like? Absolutely.

我們仍然看到數位轉型、應用程式現代化以及具有真正技術價值、生產力、成本效率和快速回報等領域的整體需求非常好。基於自由支配的活動等是否有壓力？絕對地。

But you know what, we've seen that all year long. We haven't seen really any substantive change in the macro and the client buying behaviors overall. But that has enabled us to grow 30-plus percent. By the way, it's the strongest bookings quarter we had in quite a period of time. And now we've got a trailing 12-month book-to-bill of 1.16, I think the strongest in about 2.5 years overall.

但你知道嗎，我們一整年都看到這種情況。我們還沒有看到宏觀和客戶整體購買行為發生任何實質變化。但這使我們的成長率超過了 30%。順便說一句，這是我們在相當長的一段時間內預訂量最強勁的季度。現在，我們過去 12 個月的訂單出貨比為 1.16，我認為是 2.5 年來的最高水準。

Now underneath that, what's going on? One, we've opened up IBM to strategic partnerships. We're seeing great ecosystem velocity and strategic partnership growth. Signings were about 50% year-over-year. Hyperscaler is underneath that, 2x signings. Our hybrid cloud and application modernization, Red Hat, we signed north of $1 billion alone in the quarter. Now that's $10 billion inception to date. We got acquisitions that are now accretive and scaling nicely. So I think from that aspect, you look at the top line growth, we feel pretty confident about the 6% to 8% for this year, and we feel confident about the value and the growth contribution of the growth vector of consulting in our book of business heading into 2024.

現在，在這之下，發生了什麼事？第一，我們與 IBM 建立了策略夥伴關係。我們看到生態系統的快速發展和策略夥伴關係的成長。簽約量較去年同期約為 50%。 Hyperscaler 位於其之下，是 2 倍簽約。我們的混合雲和應用程式現代化，紅帽，僅在本季度就簽署了 10 億美元以上的合約。迄今為止，啟動資金已達 100 億美元。我們的收購現在正在增值並且規模擴大。所以我認為從這個方面來看，你看看營收成長，我們對今年 6% 到 8% 的成長非常有信心，我們對我們書中諮詢成長向量的價值和成長貢獻充滿信心進入2024 年的業務量。

Now with that said, headwinds-wise, yes. Listen to every other services consulting company, there are macroeconomic challenges, without a doubt, uncertainty. But we got to go and compete every single day here. And duration, I would say not only we had great signings growth, we're monitoring our backlog realization. Our duration by the way this year has went up by a couple of months. But that revenue will play out over time. And all in all, if I sum it up, I think we're taking share. I'm pleased with the team.

話雖如此，從逆風角度來看，是的。聽聽其他所有服務顧問公司的說法，毫無疑問，存在著宏觀經濟挑戰和不確定性。但我們每天都必須去這裡比賽。就持續時間而言，我想說我們不僅有巨大的簽約成長，而且我們正在監控我們的積壓實現。順便說一句，今年我們的持續時間增加了幾個月。但這些收入將隨著時間的推移而發揮作用。總而言之，如果我總結一下，我認為我們正在分享。我對球隊很滿意。

Our next question will come from Erik Woodring with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題將來自摩根士丹利的埃里克伍德林。

Maybe, Jim, this is for you. You didn't change your Software, Consulting guidance ranges for the year. I think you had a minor benefit from Apptio closing earlier -- early in 3Q. But you now expect a full year constant currency revenue growth to be at the low end of the 3% to 5% range. And so I'm just wondering, should we now think about Software, Consulting to grow at the lower end of those ranges that you provided earlier, especially now kind of given some of your Red Hat comments? I'm just trying to understand what has changed underlying the different segments to get to the kind of that new view on total revenue in constant currency.

也許，吉姆，這是給你的。您沒有更改本年度的軟體、諮詢指導範圍。我認為 Apptio 較早關閉（第三季初）為您帶來了一些小好處。但您現在預計全年恆定貨幣收入成長率將處於 3% 至 5% 範圍的低端。所以我只是想知道，我們現在是否應該考慮在您之前提供的那些範圍的低端增長軟體、諮詢，尤其是考慮到您對紅帽的一些評論？我只是想了解不同細分市場的根本變化，以便對固定匯率計算的總收入產生新的看法。

Yes. Thanks, Erik. I appreciate the question. So similar to -- I think Toni asked something similar to this overall. When you look at IBM, 3% to 5%, just practically speaking, 1 quarter to go, we said it's better to say we're prudently at the low end of that range.

是的。謝謝，埃里克。我很欣賞這個問題。非常類似於——我認為托尼問了一些與此類似的問題。當你看看 IBM 時，3% 到 5%，實際上來說，還有 1 個季度，我們說最好是謹慎地說我們處於該範圍的低端。

Now let's talk about it by segment. Software, you dial back 90 days ago. We said that we were very excited about the announced acquisition of Apptio. We said that we expected that to close in early fourth quarter. Team did an outstanding job. We got through that regulatory approval. We closed it mid-August.

現在我們就分段來說一下。軟體，您在 90 天前回撥。我們表示，我們對 Apptio 的宣布收購感到非常興奮。我們表示，預計在第四季初完成。團隊做得非常出色。我們通過了監管部門的批准。我們在八月中旬關閉了它。

But when we announced that acquisition in July, we actually -- given our first half performance, both in our recurring revenue streams and the strength of that, but also on our transactional book of business, we actually took our full year guidance up to the high end of the range. Now we closed it -- and by the way, we said Apptio would be about 0.5 point on the full year. Now we closed it, what, a month, 1.5 months earlier? Okay. So that 0.5 point of contribution in Apptio might be 70 basis points of contribution on a full year.

但當我們在7 月宣布這項收購時，我們實際上- 考慮到我們上半年的業績，無論是在我們的經常性收入流及其實力方面，還是在我們的交易業務方面，我們實際上將全年指導提高到了該範圍的高端。現在我們關閉了它——順便說一句，我們說 Apptio 全年的成長率約為 0.5 個點。現在我們關閉了它，什麼，提前一個月，1.5 個月？好的。因此，Apptio 中的 0.5 個點的貢獻可能相當於全年的 70 個基點的貢獻。

We still view -- very confident, by the way, through 3 quarters, we're up 6.5%. That's above our midterm model. Yes, we have the peak wrap on ELAs last year, but very interesting, underneath our third quarter year-to-year performance, we're growing transactional revenue, very different profile than what we started out in January, which I think prudently, we said we expect that transactional revenue is going to be a headwind to us.

順便說一句，我們仍然非常有信心，在過去 3 個季度裡，我們成長了 6.5%。這高於我們的中期模型。是的，我們去年的ELA 達到了頂峰，但非常有趣的是，在我們第三季度的同比表現之下，我們的交易收入正在增長，這與我們一月份開始時的情況截然不同，我謹慎地認為，我們說過，我們預期交易收入將成為我們的阻力。

What's happening? The new innovation we're bringing in the market is actually creating much more volume of new ELA content that, by the way, has contributed about 1.5 points of growth above our expectation. And we're also getting great closing and NRR, up 7 points versus history. So we think like we just finished above our model in third quarter at constant currency on software. We said in the prepared remarks we expect a pretty similar fourth quarter at the high end overall. So we're maintaining Software.

發生了什麼事？我們引入市場的新創新實際上創造了更多數量的新 ELA 內容，順便說一句，這比我們的預期貢獻了約 1.5 個百分點的增長。我們也取得了出色的收盤和 NRR，比歷史記錄高出 7 個點。因此，我們認為，我們在第三季度剛剛以軟體的固定匯率完成了高於我們的模型的工作。我們在準備好的發言中表示，我們預計第四季的整體高端情況將非常相似。所以我們正在維護軟體。

If you look at Consulting, we said 6% to 8% overall. By the way, year-to-date, we're up 6%, and actually 6.4%, to be exact. And we look at fourth quarter overall. We just talked about in Ben's question, our strong bookings, our book-to-bill at 1.16. The tailwinds on hybrid cloud, around strategic partnerships, I think we feel pretty good about our overall guidance.

如果你看看諮詢業，我們說整體是 6% 到 8%。順便說一下，今年迄今為止，我們上漲了 6%，準確地說，實際上上漲了 6.4%。讓我們來看看第四季的整體情況。我們剛剛在 Ben 的問題中談到了我們的強勁預訂，我們的訂單到帳單為 1.16。圍繞著策略夥伴關係的混合雲的推動力，我認為我們對我們的整體指導感覺非常好。

Our next question comes from David Grossman with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 David Grossman。

Jim, you provided some good detail on free cash flow year-to-date. And the question really is, are there any early indications on what nonoperating items could impact free cash flow next year, working capital, cash taxes, et cetera, as well as how restructuring actions this year may flow into earnings and cash flow as well over the next several months?

吉姆，您提供了一些有關今年迄今為止自由現金流的詳細資訊。真正的問題是，是否有任何早期跡象表明哪些非經營性項目可能會影響明年的自由現金流、營運資本、現金稅等，以及今年的重組行動可能會如何影響明年的利潤和現金流。接下來的幾個月？

Yes. David, thanks for the question overall. We'll spend a lot of time in January talking about 2024 free cash flow. But I'm glad you actually asked the question because we've been talking about free cash flow all year long. It's one of Arvind and IBM's 2 important metrics: revenue growth, free cash flow generation. We called out $10.5 billion. By the way, up $1.2 billion this year off of last year, where we grew $2.8 billion year-to-year. And we said that's above our annualized model. Our annualized model is about $750 million per year coming on off the I&E and the business fundamentals.

是的。大衛，謝謝你提出這個問題。我們將在 1 月花大量時間討論 2024 年自由現金流。但我很高興你真的問了這個問題，因為我們一整年都在談論自由現金流。這是 Arvind 和 IBM 的兩個重要指標之一：收入成長、自由現金流產生。我們籌集了 105 億美元。順便說一句，今年比去年增加了 12 億美元，去年我們比去年同期成長了 28 億美元。我們說這高於我們的年化模型。我們的年化模型每年約 7.5 億美元，來自 I&E 和業務基本面。

You look through the third quarter, we're up now $1 billion year-to-year. We're at $5.1 billion. Very high quality, by the way. Of that $1 billion, $700 million of it is cash sourced from operating profit overall. So that's the improving fundamentals of our sustainable revenue growth and our operating leverage and productivity we're driving in this business.

縱觀第三季度，我們現在比去年同期成長了 10 億美元。我們的資產是 51 億美元。順便說一下，品質非常高。在這 10 億美元中，其中 7 億美元是來自整體營業利潤的現金。這就是我們在這項業務中推動的可持續收入成長、營運槓桿和生產力的改善基礎。

And as I said all year long, I was very transparent in January, repeated it in April, said it again in July, and now I'll say it again. When we look at that $1.2 billion free cash flow growth year-to-year, we're going to get most of it through cash sourced from profit, read that about $800 million to $900 million. And we said that we would get working capital efficiency this year. Why? Because of our 4Q '22 opportunity gap that we missed. And we called it out transparently in January. We're seeing that play out. You do the puts and takes. Yes, we're going to get a little bit of a modest tailwind on structural actions this year that will offset cash tax headwinds.

正如我全年所說的那樣，我在一月份非常透明，在四月重複了一遍，在七月又說了一遍，現在我會再說一遍。當我們看到 12 億美元的自由現金流逐年增長時，我們將透過來自利潤的現金獲得其中大部分，約 8 億至 9 億美元。我們說過今年我們將提高營運資本效率。為什麼？因為我們錯過了 22 年第四季的機會缺口。我們在一月份透明地宣布了這一點。我們正在看到這種情況的發生。你負責買進和賣出。是的，今年我們將在結構性行動中獲得一些溫和的推動力，這將抵消現金稅的不利因素。

But you look at the underlying $1.2 billion free cash flow growth, it is a high-quality, fundamentally driven out of our revenue growth and operating leverage. Now you look to '24, we'll spend a lot more time on cash tax. A lot of that is going to be predicated on where we actually finished fourth quarter overall. But we feel confident with the actions we've been putting in place, and we've got to earn the credibility and discipline here, closing out a free cash flow quarter, by the way, that's $5.4 billion.

但你看看潛在的12億美元自由現金流成長，它是高品質的，從根本上推動了我們的營收成長和營運槓桿。現在你看看 24 年，我們將在現金稅上花費更多的時間。其中很大一部分將取決於我們第四季的實際完成情況。但我們對我們已經採取的行動充滿信心，我們必須在這裡贏得信譽和紀律，結束一個自由現金流季度，順便說一句，這是 54 億美元。

Our last question will come from Brian Essex with JPMorgan.

我們的最後一個問題將由摩根大通的布萊恩艾塞克斯提出。

I guess maybe, Arvind, if we could just circle back on this well-worked topic of AI. Could you maybe just take a very high-level approach in how you're seeing customers evaluating adoption and how that might impact the nature of contracts within the Consulting business and feed the watsonx platform? Maybe the adoption -- initial read on adoption rates and view into how Consulting to be the tip of the spear there.

我想也許，Arvind，如果我們能回到這個人工智慧這個很好的話題上的話。您是否可以採取一種非常高級的方法來了解客戶如何評估採用情況，以及這可能如何影響諮詢業務中的合約性質並為 watsonx 平台提供支援？也許是採用——初步了解採用率，並了解諮詢如何成為那裡的尖端。

All right. Thanks, Brian, for the question. So Consulting is going to be the tip of the spear, but it's not going to be the only because some clients do have enough expertise inside to do things on their own.

好的。謝謝布萊恩提出這個問題。因此，諮詢將成為矛尖，但它不會是唯一的，因為有些客戶確實擁有足夠的專業知識來自己做事。

As we approach clients, trying to use, I'll call it, a big public chatbot to perhaps improve some surveys is not where they look to us, and we've been very clear, that's not where we are going to go. And we do not actually serve up any of those services.

當我們接觸客戶時，試圖使用我稱之為大型公共聊天機器人來改進某些調查，這並不是他們所期待的，而且我們已經非常清楚，這不是我們要去的地方。我們實際上並沒有提供任何這些服務。

However, I'll take some -- maybe some quick examples as I go through. So with a large -- I'll use the word financial services company. They want to use generative AI to dramatically improve the productivity of their developers. They actually use their own proprietary languages, not only the common languages that are available outside. They are then asking the question, who can I trust to augment their model, give it to me -- and I don't really want to get into all the details of how I might use it, but I want them to provide the technology.

不過，我會在介紹過程中舉一些——也許是一些簡單的例子。因此，對於大型企業，我將使用金融服務公司這個詞。他們希望使用生成式人工智慧來顯著提高開發人員的生產力。他們實際上使用自己專有的語言，而不僅僅是外部可用的通用語言。然後他們問一個問題，我可以信任誰來增強他們的模型，並將其交給我 - 我真的不想詳細了解如何使用它，但我希望他們提供技術。

In this case, Brian, we would work with them to augment the model using their language and their data and their code snippets. We would do it in a way that they are completely comfortable, meaning 100% that, that leaks nowhere else. They will take back the model. It now becomes an as-a-service deployment in their private cloud infrastructure, and we monetize it as is typical for as-a-service software.

在這種情況下，Brian，我們將與他們合作，使用他們的語言、資料和程式碼片段來增強模型。我們會以一種讓他們完全舒服的方式來做這件事，這意味著 100% 不會洩漏到其他地方。他們將收回模型。現在它成為其私有雲基礎設施中的即服務部署，我們將其貨幣化，就像典型的即服務軟體一樣。

I'll take another example that we are building out with Dun & Bradstreet, and I mentioned that briefly on the call. In that case, it is consulting-led. They want to work with consulting to use watsonx in this case, but to help them create solutions that let their clients get greater insight, aka, helps D&B monetize their data better. So in that case, it is absolutely consulting-led. I think without consulting, we would not have landed that deal.

我將舉另一個我們正在與 Dun & Bradstreet 合作的例子，我在電話中簡要地提到了這一點。在這種情況下，它是以諮詢為主導的。在這種情況下，他們希望與顧問公司合作使用 watsonx，但幫助他們創建解決方案，讓客戶獲得更深入的洞察，也就是幫助 D&B 更好地利用他們的數據貨幣化。所以在這種情況下，絕對是諮詢主導的。我認為如果沒有諮詢，我們就不會達成這筆交易。

Let me go to others because there are also examples where our consulting team is using both what's available with Azure OpenAI, as an example, to go win deals because they have built up the expertise. They've also built up expertise on Amazon's Braket platform. And they're going forward with winning deals on those. In that case, they are coming in with a methodology, with knowledge, with the thousands of trained consultants who know how to work on those platforms, and they're working with the clients to go do that. I think these are all examples of what's working.

讓我談談其他人，因為也有一些例子，我們的顧問團隊正在使用 Azure OpenAI 的可用功能來贏得交易，因為他們已經累積了專業知識。他們還在亞馬遜的 Braket 平台上累積了專業知識。他們正在繼續贏得這些交易。在這種情況下，他們會帶著方法論、知識和數千名訓練有素的顧問進來，他們知道如何在這些平台上工作，並且他們正在與客戶合作來做到這一點。我認為這些都是行之有效的例子。

I think you're trying to also ask, is it going to be Consulting or is it going to be Software? Look, we didn't say much on the call on this topic. We just characterized it as low hundreds of millions of dollars of booking. But in the absence of anything else, think of that as maybe half and half between Consulting and Software, which does tell you that a couple of points of growth for both those units came from the generative AI that we've been putting out. And I think that's the best way to think about it in terms of what's happening right now, and we are certainly expecting and planning that, that will only increase as the quarters go on.

我想你也想問，是諮詢還是軟體？你看，我們在電話會議上沒有就這個話題說太多。我們只是將其描述為低數億美元的預訂。但在沒有其他任何東西的情況下，可以將其視為諮詢和軟體之間的一半，這確實告訴您，這兩個部門的幾個增長點來自我們一直在推出的生成人工智慧。我認為這是考慮目前正在發生的事情的最佳方式，我們當然期待併計劃這一點，隨著季度的繼續，這種情況只會增加。

All right. So let me now wrap up the call. This third quarter performance reinforced our confidence in the strategy and in our ability to deliver value to enterprise clients in today's environment. We're excited at the opportunities ahead of us, and I look forward to taking through -- you through our continued progress and our view of 2024 in January. Thank you all.

好的。現在讓我結束這通通話。第三季的業績增強了我們對策略以及在當今環境下為企業客戶提供價值的能力的信心。我們對眼前的機會感到興奮，我期待在 1 月向您介紹我們的持續進步和我們對 2024 年的展望。謝謝你們。

Okay, Sheila, let me turn it back to you to close out the call.

好的，希拉，讓我把它轉回給您以結束通話。

Thank you for participating on today's call. The conference has now ended. You may disconnect at this time.

感謝您參加今天的電話會議。會議現已結束。此時您可以斷開連線。