高德納諮詢公司 (IT) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Gartner's fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call. I'm David Cohen, SVP of Investor Relations. (Operator Instructions) After comments by Gene Hall, Gartner's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Craig Safian, Gartner's Chief Financial Officer, there will be a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

各位早安。歡迎參加 Gartner 2025 年第四季財報電話會議。我是投資人關係資深副總裁大衛‧科恩。（操作說明）在 Gartner 董事長兼執行長 Gene Hall 和 Gartner 財務長 Craig Safian 致詞後，將進行問答環節。（操作人員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄音。

This call will include a discussion of fourth-quarter 2025 financial results and Gartner's outlook for 2026 is disclosed in today's earnings release and earnings supplement, both posted to our website, investor.gartner.com. On the call, unless stated otherwise, all references to EBITDA are for adjusted EBITDA, with the adjustments as described in our earnings release and supplement.

本次電話會議將討論2025年第四季財務業績，Gartner對2026年的展望已在今日發布的盈利報告和盈利補充文件中披露，這兩份文件均已發佈在我們的網站 investor.gartner.com 上。除非另有說明，本次電話會議中所有提及的EBITDA均為調整後EBITDA，調整內容詳見我們的獲利報告及補充文件。

Our contract values and associated growth rates we discuss are based on 2025 foreign exchange rates. All growth rates in Gene's comments are FX neutral, unless stated otherwise. All references to share counts are for fully diluted weighted average share counts unless stated otherwise. Reconciliations for all non-GAAP numbers we use are available in the Investor Relations section of the gartner.com website.

我們討論的合約價值和相關成長率均以 2025 年的外匯匯率為基準。除非另有說明，Gene 評論中的所有成長率均與匯率無關。除非另有說明，否則所有提及的股份數量均為完全稀釋後的加權平均股數。我們所使用的所有非GAAP資料的調節表可在gartner.com網站的投資者關係部分查閱。

As set forth in more detail in today's earnings release, certain statements made on this call may constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can vary materially from actual results and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those contained in the company's 2024 annual report Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q as well as in other filings with the SEC. I encourage all of you to review the risk factors listed in these documents.

正如今天發布的盈利報告中更詳細闡述的那樣，本次電話會議上所作的某些陳述可能構成前瞻性陳述。前瞻性陳述可能與實際結果有重大差異，並受到許多風險和不確定性的影響，包括公司 2024 年年度報告 10-K 表格和季度報告 10-Q 表格以及向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件中所包含的風險和不確定性。我建議大家仔細閱讀這些文件中所列的風險因素。

Now I will turn the call over to Gartner's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Eugene Hall.

現在我會把電話交給 Gartner 的董事長兼執行長尤金霍爾。

Good morning. Thanks for joining us today. fourth-quarter revenue, EBITDA, margins, EPS and free cash flow were ahead of expectations, we continue to deliver great value to our clients. We were agile in managing expenses. And we repurchased more than $2 billion of Gartner stock in 2025. 2025 was a unique year due to a range of external market forces.

早安.感謝您今天蒞臨本次會議。第四季營收、EBITDA、利潤率、每股盈餘和自由現金流都超出預期，我們將繼續為客戶創造巨大價值。我們在費用管理方面非常靈活。2025年，我們回購了價值超過20億美元的Gartner股票。由於一系列外部市場因素的影響，2025年是一個特殊的年份。

Department of government efficiency or dose-related initiatives affected our US federal clients. Evolving trade policies create complexity for tariff-impacted enterprises. Funding changes affected our state and local government and education clients, tech companies that are not in or adjacent to AI experienced a shifting landscape. And there were country-specific factors in several geographies.

美國政府部門的效率或劑量相關措施影響了我們的美國聯邦客戶。不斷變化的貿易政策為受關稅影響的企業帶來了複雜性。資金變化影響了我們的州和地方政府以及教育客戶，與人工智慧無關或不涉及人工智慧的科技公司也經歷了格局的變化。在一些地區，也存在一些特定國家的因素。

These external market forces led to increased scrutiny, elevated deal approval authority and extended buying cycles. Over the past few years, including 2025, the rate of change and volatility in the external environment has increased significantly. Executives have responded to this by slowing and deferring everything possible. This makes for a much tougher selling environment.

這些外部市場力量導致了更嚴格的審查、更高的交易審批權限和更長的購買週期。過去幾年，包括2025年，外部環境的變化速度和波動性顯著增加。對此，高階主管採取的應對措施是盡可能放慢速度、延後一切事務。這使得銷售環境變得更加艱難。

The value bar is higher, but it's also a huge opportunity for us. Clients know they need help with these issues. Gartner is an insights business. Our high-value, forward-looking insights help clients on their journeys to achieve their mission-critical priorities. The key to capture an opportunity, while operating under deferred decision-making and higher value standards is to help clients engage more frequently with our insights.

價值門檻更高了，但對我們來說也是一個巨大的機會。客戶知道他們在這些問題上需要幫助。Gartner是一家提供市場洞察的公司。我們提供高價值、前瞻性的洞察，幫助客戶實現關鍵任務目標。在延遲決策和更高價值標準下，抓住機會的關鍵在於幫助客戶更頻繁地利用我們的洞察力。

Clients who engage frequently with our insights receive greater value and retain at higher rates. This was true in 2025 and every year prior, and it's still true today. Client engagement increased modestly throughout 2025, but in today's world, client engagement levels need to be even higher, because the rate of change is faster than ever, driving incremental improvements on our standard practices wasn't enough.

經常使用我們洞察的客戶會獲得更大的價值，並且續訂率更高。2025 年及之前的每一年都是如此，今天依然如此。2025 年客戶參與度略有提高，但在當今世界，客戶參與度需要更高，因為變化的速度比以往任何時候都快，僅僅在標準做法上進行漸進式改進是不夠的。

To achieve step change improvements, we needed to rethink many of our processes and practices. So we've been driving transformation across business and technology insights. We covered some aspects of this transformation on previous earnings calls. Today, I'll share a comprehensive view of what we're doing. We're transforming business and technology insights along four dimensions.

為了實現質的飛躍式進步，我們需要重新思考我們的許多流程和做法。因此，我們一直在推動業務和技術洞察方面的變革。我們在先前的財報電話會議上已經討論過這項轉型的一些面向。今天，我將全面介紹我們正在做的事情。我們正在從四個維度轉變商業和技術洞察。

Impact; volume; timeliness; and user experience. Beginning with impact. Our insights provide tremendous value to clients today, and we know we can get even better. Our objective is to ensure insights are always on the topics our clients care about most right now. The biggest example today is AI. AI is transforming the world. It's our highest demand topic. During 2025, we expanded our AI insights.

影響；數量；及時性；以及使用者體驗。從影響力開始。我們的洞察力如今為客戶帶來了巨大的價值，而且我們知道我們還能做得更好。我們的目標是確保我們提供的見解始終圍繞著客戶目前最關心的話題。當今最典型的例子就是人工智慧。人工智慧正在改變世界。這是我們最受關注的議題。2025年，我們擴展了對人工智慧的洞察。

We have more than 6,000 AI-related documents in our library. We've documented more than 1,000 unique use cases. In 2025, we conducted more than 200,000 in-depth client conversations on AI, and we answered more than 500,000 AI-related questions through AskGartner. Based on our analytical measures, the impact of our insights is improving at a rapid pace by increasing the impact of our insights, we can ensure our clients get even more value on the topics they care most about at any given time.

我們的圖書館裡有超過6000份與人工智慧相關的文件。我們記錄了超過 1000 個獨特的用例。2025 年，我們與客戶就人工智慧進行了超過 20 萬次深入對話，並透過 AskGartner 回答了超過 50 萬個與人工智慧相關的問題。根據我們的分析措施，我們的洞察力正在快速提升。透過提高洞察力的影響力，我們可以確保客戶在任何時候都能在他們最關心的話題上獲得更多價值。

The second dimension is volume. We serve clients of every size in every industry and every enterprise function in 90 countries. This diverse set of clients have different mission-critical priorities. Our objective is to increase the number of insights, to accommodate the broadest range of client priorities. To achieve this, we're applying automation, streamlining processes and upgrading and upscaling our analyst teams.

第二個維度是體積。我們為90個國家/地區各行業、各種規模和各種企業職能部門的客戶提供服務。這些客戶群多元化，他們各自的關鍵任務優先事項也各不相同。我們的目標是增加洞察的數量，以滿足最廣泛的客戶需求。為了實現這一目標，我們正在應用自動化技術，簡化流程，並升級和擴大我們的分析師團隊。

We developed a neural network AI model to quickly and systematically determine the topics our clients care about most. As of the end of 2025, our active insights library has grown by approximately 50%. By increasing volume, we can better accommodate the full range of our clients' mission-critical priorities. The third dimension is timeliness. The pace of the world continues to accelerate.

我們開發了一種神經網路人工智慧模型，可以快速、系統地確定客戶最關心的主題。截至 2025 年底，我們的活躍洞察庫成長了約 50%。透過增加業務量，我們可以更好地滿足客戶各種關鍵任務的優先事項。第三個維度是時效性。世界發展步伐持續加快。

Some say the rate of change will never be this slow again. We're ensuring our insights to keep pace with the ever accelerating pace of the world. We've introduced insight types that have produced the same day as important events occur in the world, such as a major security breach, where clients need immediate guidance. Or in the rapidly evolving world of AI, where major changes happen every day.

有人說，改變的速度再也不會這麼慢了。我們正在確保我們的洞察力能夠跟上世界不斷加速發展的步伐。我們推出了一些洞察類型，這些洞察類型可以在世界發生重大事件（例如重大安全漏洞）的當天產生，客戶需要立即獲得指導。或者在快速發展的人工智慧領域，每天都會發生重大變化。

To support this, we've made two other innovations. First, we introduced new processes to create insights as quickly as the same day. Second, for insight types that are highly valued by our clients, such as magic quadrants, we reduced our average insight creation time by 75% compared to 2024. So we'll continue to ensure our insights keep pace with the ever accelerating pace of the world.

為了支持這一點，我們還進行了另外兩項創新。首先，我們引入了新的流程，以便當天就能獲得洞察。其次，對於顧客高度重視的洞察類型，例如魔力像限，與 2024 年相比，我們的平均洞察創建時間減少了 75%。因此，我們將繼續確保我們的洞察力能夠跟上世界不斷加速發展的步伐。

The fourth element is user experience. If we produce great insights, but our clients can't find them, they won't receive value from them. Historically, the single biggest feedback from our clients was, Gartner produces tremendous insights, but I can't always find them. We're ensuring our clients can easily access the insights that are most relevant to them when they need them the most.

第四個要素是使用者體驗。如果我們產生了極好的見解，但我們的客戶卻找不到它們，那麼他們就無法從中獲得價值。從歷史上看，客戶回饋最多的是：Gartner 提供了非常有見地的見解，但我並不總是能找到這些見解。我們確保客戶能夠在最需要的時候輕鬆獲得與他們最相關的資訊。

As Gartner leverages AI to quickly identify and summarize the right high-value insights across our vast library. It leverages role, function, mission-critical priorities, insight viewership histories and more to make user responses even more relevant to each license user.

Gartner 利用人工智慧技術，從我們龐大的資料庫中快速識別和總結正確的高價值見解。它利用角色、職能、關鍵任務優先順序、洞察查看歷史記錄等訊息，使用戶回應與每個許可證使用者更加相關。

We began rolling out AskGartner in August of last year. We completed the rollout in October. Licensed users who use AskGartner had substantially higher renewal rates than those who did not even with the same levels of engagement. We'll continuously improve and innovate AskGartner's capabilities. Separately, we're identifying role-specific insights each week that are particularly valuable and broadly applicable.

我們從去年八月開始推出 AskGartner。我們已於10月完成了推廣工作。使用 AskGartner 的授權用戶續約率遠高於未使用該工具的用戶，即使他們的參與度相同。我們將持續改進和創新 AskGartner 的各項功能。此外，我們每週都會總結出一些特別有價值且具有廣泛適用性的特定角色見解。

Our goal is to ensure clients have every opportunity to engage with these uniquely valuable insights. We're also changing how we deliver insights in terms of format and access to meet today's client preferences. Conferences are an important way clients engage with our insights. Destination conferences provide high value to clients. But not all our clients can attend our destination conferences.

我們的目標是確保客戶有充分的機會接觸這些獨特的見解。為了滿足當今客戶的偏好，我們也在改變提供洞察的方式，包括形式和存取方式。會議是客戶了解我們見解的重要途徑。目的地會議能為顧客帶來很高的價值。但並非所有客戶都能參加我們的目的地會議。

For these clients, we launched Gartner C-level communities. Gartner C-level communities are local, peer-driven one-day events where C-level executives can gain access to our insights. We're continuing to expand both our destination conferences and Carter C-level communities in 2026 and beyond. We'll continue to improve the user experience to ensure our clients can access the insights they need to achieve their mission-critical priorities.

我們為這些客戶推出了 Gartner C 級高階主管社群。Gartner C-level 社區是由當地同行推動的為期一天的活動，C-level 高管可以透過這些活動了解我們的見解。2026 年及以後，我們將繼續擴大我們的目的地會議和 Carter C 級高階主管社群。我們將繼續改進用戶體驗，以確保我們的客戶能夠獲得實現其關鍵任務所需的資訊。

So we're driving transformation across business and technology insights along four-dimensions. Impact; volume; timeliness; and user experience. We began driving these transformational improvements during 2025 and will continue during 2026 and beyond. We believe this transformation will provide a step change in the value to our clients over the next few years.

因此，我們正在從四個維度推動業務和技術洞察方面的變革。影響；數量；及時性；以及使用者體驗。我們從 2025 年開始推動這些變革性改進，並將持續到 2026 年及以後。我們相信，這項轉型將在未來幾年內為我們的客戶帶來價值的飛躍式提升。

In addition, we'll drive continuous improvement and innovation across the rest of the business. During 2025, we also took several shareholder value-enhancing actions, including repurchasing $2 billion of Gartner stock, increasing leverage with a successful inaugural investment-grade bond offering to support even more share repurchase capacity.

此外，我們將推動公司其他部門的持續改進和創新。2025 年，我們也採取了幾項提升股東價值的措施，包括回購價值 20 億美元的 Gartner 股票，並透過成功發行首筆投資等級債券來提高槓桿率，從而支持更大的股票回購能力。

Adding two new Directors who bring unique and valuable skills to our Board, rotating our Board committee chairs and entering into a definitive agreement to sell our digital markets business. In summary, the world is changing more than ever before. This represents a huge opportunity for us. Gartner is an insights business that guides the leaders who shape the world.

為董事會新增兩位董事，他們帶來了獨特而寶貴的技能；輪調董事會各委員會主席；並達成最終協議出售我們的數位市場業務。總之，世界正經歷前所未有的劇烈變化。這對我們來說是一個巨大的機會。Gartner是一家提供洞察分析的公司，為塑造世界的領導者提供指導。

The key to capturing our opportunity while operating under a challenging selling environment is to help clients engage more frequently with our insights. In 2025, we began transforming business and technology insights along four-dimensions. Impact, volume, timeliness and user experience. These transformations will allow us to thrive in a world with greater change and uncertainty than ever.

在充滿挑戰的銷售環境下，抓住機會的關鍵在於幫助客戶更頻繁地利用我們的洞察力。2025年，我們開始從四個維度轉變商業和技術洞察。影響力、數量、及時性和使用者體驗。這些變革將使我們能夠在一個比以往任何時候都更加變化和不確定的世界中蓬勃發展。

We expect to see the impact over the next few years, and we'll continue to keep you updated on our progress. With our unparalleled value proposition, continued transformation in business and technology insights and responsible reinvestment in our business, contract value will accelerate, as contract value accelerates, our P&L and free cash flow conversion will follow, we will continue to create value for our shareholders by generating free cash flow in excess of net income and returning capital to our share repurchase program.

我們預計未來幾年將看到影響，我們將持續向您報告進度。憑藉我們無與倫比的價值主張、業務和技術洞察力的持續轉型以及對業務的負責任的再投資，合約價值將加速成長；隨著合約價值的加速成長，我們的損益表和自由現金流也將隨之增長；我們將繼續透過產生超過淨收入的自由現金流並將資本返還給股東計劃，為股東創造價值。

With that, I'll hand the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Craig Safian.

接下來，我將把電話交給我們的財務長克雷格·薩菲安。

Thank you, Gene, and good morning. Today, I'm going to walk you through fourth-quarter and full year 2025 results, and I will introduce our 2026 guidance. Financial results in the fourth-quarter were better than expected. For the full year, revenue increased from 2024 and EBITDA margins finished well ahead of our initial guidance from last February.

謝謝你，吉恩，早安。今天，我將帶大家了解 2025 年第四季和全年業績，並介紹我們 2026 年的業績展望。第四季財務業績優於預期。全年來看，營收較 2024 年有所成長，EBITDA 利潤率也遠超我們去年 2 月的初步預期。

Our return on invested capital continues to be above 20%, highlighting the strength of our business model and our ongoing ability to create long-term value. We increased leverage with a successful bond offering, our first as an investment-grade rated credit. We generated significant free cash flow and bought back about $2 billion of stock.

我們的投資報酬率持續保持在 20% 以上，這凸顯了我們商業模式的優勢以及我們持續創造長期價值的能力。我們透過成功發行債券提高了槓桿率，這是我們首次以投資等級信用評級發行債券。我們創造了可觀的自由現金流，並回購了約 20 億美元的股票。

And last week, we entered into a definitive agreement to sell the digital markets business, which allows us to focus even more on delivering insights to help our clients address their mission-critical priorities. Fourth-quarter revenue was $1.8 billion, up 2% year-over-year as reported and unchanged FX neutral. For the full year, revenue was $6.5 billion, up 4% of reported and 3% FX neutral.

上週，我們達成了一項最終協議，出售數位市場業務，這使我們能夠更加專注於提供洞察，幫助我們的客戶解決其關鍵任務優先事項。第四季營收為 18 億美元，按報告數據計算年增 2%，以固定匯率計算維持不變。全年營收為 65 億美元，按報告數據計算成長 4%，以匯率不變計算成長 3%。

Fourth-quarter contract value or CV grew 1% year-over-year. Outside the US federal government, CV grew 4%. In the quarter, total contribution margin was 67%, up 85 basis points from last year. EBITDA was $436 million, up 5% as reported and 1% FX neutral. Adjusted EPS was $3.94 and free cash flow was $271 million. For the full year, EBITDA was $1.6 billion.

第四季合約價值（CV）年增1%。在美國聯邦政府以外，新冠病毒感染率增加了 4%。本季總貢獻毛利率為 67%，較去年同期成長 85 個基點。EBITDA 為 4.36 億美元，以報告資料計算成長 5%，以匯率中性運算成長 1%。調整後每股收益為 3.94 美元，自由現金流為 2.71 億美元。全年 EBITDA 為 16 億美元。

EBITDA margins were 24.8%, well above the initial guidance we gave at the start of the year. Adjusted EPS was $13.17. Free cash flow was $1.2 billion and ROIC was strong at around 24%. The insight segment is our largest, most important business. It's subscription-based with strong retention, recurring revenue and excellent contribution margins.

EBITDA 利潤率為 24.8%，遠高於我們年初給出的預期。調整後每股收益為 13.17 美元。自由現金流為 12 億美元，投資報酬率強勁，約 24%。洞察分析業務是我們規模最大、最重要的業務。它採用訂閱制模式，用戶留存率高，經常性收入穩定，利潤率也很高。

We get paid upfront, which allows us to generate strong free cash flow well in excess of net income. Insights revenue in the quarter grew 3% year-over-year as reported and 1% FX neutral. fourth-quarter Insights contribution margin was 77%, up 59 basis points versus last year. Full year insights revenue increased 5% as reported and 4% FX neutral.

我們預先收取款項，這使我們能夠產生遠超淨收入的強勁自由現金流。本季Insights業務營收以報告值計算年增3%，以固定匯率計算年增1%。第四季Insights業務貢獻毛利率為77%，較去年同期成長59個基點。全年洞察收入按報告成長 5%，按匯率不變計算成長 4%。

For 2025, Insight's contribution margin was 77%, up 14 basis points from 2024. Contract value was $5.2 billion at the end of the fourth-quarter, up 1% versus the prior year. Outside the US federal government, CV growth was about 330 basis points faster at around 4%. Global NCVI in the quarter outside the US federal government was positive $147 million.

2025 年，Insight 的貢獻毛利率為 77%，比 2024 年成長 14 個基點。第四季末合約價值為 52 億美元，比上年同期成長 1%。在美國聯邦政府以外，新冠病毒感染率成長速度快了約 330 個基點，約 4%。本季美國聯邦政府以外的全球 NCVI 為正 1.47 億美元。

The vast majority of our US federal contracts came up for renewal during 2025. At December 31, we had $126 million of US Federal CV. Outside the US Fed, we delivered CV growth across practices, industry sectors, company sizes and geographic regions. By sector, energy, banking and technology led to growth. CV grew at high single-digit or mid-single-digit rates across all commercial enterprise sizes.

我們絕大多數的美國聯邦合約將於 2025 年到期續約。截至 12 月 31 日，我們有 1.26 億美元的美國聯邦應收帳款。除了美國聯邦儲備銀行以外，我們在各個業務領域、產業部門、公司規模和地理區域都實現了 CV 成長。從產業來看，能源、銀行和科技業引領了成長。在所有商業企業規模中，CV 均以接近兩位數或接近兩位數的速度成長。

All but two of our top 10 countries grew in 2025 with two growing double digits. And we had more than $400 million of new business in the fourth-quarter. Global technology Sales contract value was $3.9 billion at the end of the fourth-quarter, about flat compared with the prior year. GTS CV outside the US federal business grew 4% in the quarter.

在我們排名前十的國家中，除兩個以外，其餘所有國家在 2025 年都實現了增長，其中兩個國家實現了兩位數的增長。第四季度，我們的新業務額超過 4 億美元。第四季末，全球技術銷售合約價值為 39 億美元，與去年同期基本持平。GTS CV 在美國聯邦業務以外的季度成長了 4%。

Tech vendor CV increased mid-single digits, with services and software growing low double digit or high single digits. Wallet retention for GTS was 96% for the quarter. GTS new business of more than $300 million was down about 5% outside the US federal government. The change in GTS quota-bearing headcount was consistent with our expectations.

技術供應商的合約價值成長了中等個位數，服務和軟體的合約價值成長了兩位數低或個位數高。GTS 的錢包留存率在本季為 96%。GTS 的新業務超過 3 億美元，但在美國聯邦政府以外的業務下降了約 5%。GTS配額承擔人員數量的變化與我們的預期一致。

We managed our territory changes and investments based on the balance of expense discipline and opportunities to invest for growth. We've optimized territories with growth directed towards business developers and new logo and new business opportunities. BD productivity has remained strong, which is a foundation for our investment in adding BDs.

我們根據成本控制和成長投資機會之間的平衡來管理我們的區域變更和投資。我們優化了區域佈局，將成長重點放在業務開發人員、新標誌和新業務機會。BD 生產力一直保持強勁，這為我們加大對 BD 的投資奠定了基礎。

Our regular full set of GTS metrics can be found in our earnings supplement. Global business sales contract value was $1.2 billion at the end of the fourth-quarter, up 3% year-over-year. Outside the US federal government, GBS CV grew about 200 basis points faster at around 6%. Growth was led by the sales, supply chain and legal practices. GBS and CVI was positive $16 million in the fourth-quarter.

您可以在我們的收益補充資料中找到我們完整的常規 GTS 指標集。第四季末，全球商業銷售合約價值為 12 億美元，年增 3%。在美國聯邦政府以外，GBS CV 的成長速度快了約 200 個基點，達到 6% 左右。銷售、供應鏈和法律業務是推動成長的主要動力。GBS 和 CVI 在第四季度獲利 1,600 萬美元。

Outside the US federal government, GBS and CVI was positive $21 million. Wallet retention for GBS was 99% for the quarter, outside the US federal business, wallet retention was over 100%. GBS new business of more than $100 million was down 4% compared to last year. The change in GBS quota-bearing headcount was consistent with our expectations.

在美國聯邦政府以外，GBS 和 CVI 的收益為 2,100 萬美元。GBS 的錢包留存率在本季為 99%，除美國聯邦業務外，錢包留存率超過 100%。GBS 新增業務額超過 1 億美元，但與去年相比下降了 4%。GBS 配額承擔人員數量的變化與我們的預期一致。

Similar to GTS, we managed our territory changes and investments based on the balance of expense discipline and opportunities to invest for growth. BD productivity has remained strong, which is a foundation for our investment in adding BDs. As with GTS, our regular full set of GBS metrics can be found in our earnings supplement.

與 GTS 類似，我們根據費用控制和成長投資機會之間的平衡來管理我們的區域變更和投資。BD 生產力一直保持強勁，這為我們加大對 BD 的投資奠定了基礎。與 GTS 一樣，我們的常規完整 GBS 指標集可在我們的收益補充資料中找到。

As we do each year at this time, we've also provided quarterly historical contract value data updated to 2026 FX rates on page 21 of the earnings supplement. As you build your 2026 models, please remember to use the updated data as the baseline for your forecasting. The US dollar weakened significantly over the course of 2025, causing this adjustment to be larger than most years.

與往年一樣，我們在收益補充報告第 21 頁提供了 2026 年匯率更新的季度歷史合約價值數據。在建立 2026 年模型時，請記住使用更新後的資料作為預測的基準。2025年美元大幅走弱，導致此次調整幅度比往年更大。

We've also provided several quarters of historical data to reflect the updated financials for the digital markets divestiture on page 22 of the earnings supplement. Conferences revenue for the fourth-quarter was $286 million. On a same conference basis, revenue growth was around 8% FX neutral. Contribution margin was 51%. We held 14 destination conferences in the fourth-quarter as planned.

我們還提供了幾個季度的歷史數據，以反映盈利補充報告第 22 頁中數位市場剝離的最新財務數據。第四季會議營收為 2.86 億美元。以同等規模的會議計算，收入成長約為 8%（按匯率不變）。邊際貢獻率為 51%。我們在第四季按計劃舉辦了 14 場目的地會議。

Full year conferences revenue grew 11% to $645 million. FX-neutral growth was 9%. Contribution margin was 50%. Q4 consulting revenue was $134 million compared with $153 million in the year ago period. FX was a benefit of about 300 basis points in the quarter. Consulting contribution margin was 27% in Q4. Full year consulting revenue was $552 million compared to $559 million in the prior year.

全年會議收入成長11%，達到6.45億美元。 （以匯率計算）成長率為9%。邊際貢獻率為 50%。第四季諮詢收入為 1.34 億美元，去年同期為 1.53 億美元。本季外匯匯率帶來了約 300 個基點的收益。第四季顧問業務貢獻毛利率為 27%。全年諮詢收入為 5.52 億美元，而上年為 5.59 億美元。

Contribution margin was 34%. Consolidated cost of services on a GAAP basis was $573 million in the quarter or 32.7% of revenue. For the full year, cost of services was $2 billion or 31.6% of revenue. SG&A on a GAAP basis was $798 million in the quarter or 45.5% of revenue. For the full year, SG&A was $3 billion or 47.2% of revenue.

邊際貢獻率為 34%。本季以美國通用會計準則計算的綜合服務成本為 5.73 億美元，佔營收的 32.7%。全年服務成本為 20 億美元，佔營收的 31.6%。本季以美國通用會計準則計算的銷售、一般及行政費用為 7.98 億美元，佔營收的 45.5%。全年銷售、管理及行政費用為 30 億美元，佔營收的 47.2%。

We continue to balance disciplined cost management, while ensuring we can invest in key areas such as expert talent, AI, the customer experience and frontline sellers. As a percentage of revenue, our costs are well below historical highs. EBITDA for the fourth-quarter was $436 million, up 5% from last year's reported and 1% FX neutral.

我們將繼續在嚴格的成本管理與確保投資關鍵領域（例如專家人才、人工智慧、客戶體驗和第一線銷售人員）之間取得平衡。從收入佔比來看，我們的成本遠低於歷史最高水準。第四季 EBITDA 為 4.36 億美元，比去年同期成長 5%，以匯率中立運算成長 1%。

We outperformed in the fourth-quarter through modest revenue upside, effective expense management and a prudent approach to guidance. EBITDA margins were 24.9%, up about 60 basis points from last year's Q4. Full year EBITDA was $1.6 billion, up 4% of reported and 2% FX neutral. EBITDA margins were 24.8%, consistent with last year. Depreciation in the quarter was $28 million. Full year depreciation was up 5%.

我們第四季業績超出預期，這得益於適度的收入成長、有效的費用控制以及審慎的業績指引。EBITDA 利潤率為 24.9%，比去年第四季成長了約 60 個基點。全年 EBITDA 為 16 億美元，按報告數據增長 4%，按匯率中性計算增長 2%。EBITDA利潤率為24.8%，與去年持平。本季折舊額為2800萬美元。全年折舊額增加了5%。

Net interest expense before deferred financing costs in the quarter was $18 million, increasing by $7 million versus the fourth-quarter of 2024 due to lower interest income on our cash balances. The full year net interest expense before deferred financing cost was $56 million, favorable by $10 million versus 2024 due to lower interest expense and higher interest income on our cash balances.

本季未計遞延融資成本的淨利息支出為 1,800 萬美元，比 2024 年第四季增加了 700 萬美元，原因是現金餘額的利息收入減少。全年淨利息支出（不計遞延融資成本）為 5,600 萬美元，比 2024 年減少了 1,000 萬美元，原因是現金餘額的利息支出減少，利息收入增加。

The Q4 adjusted tax rate, which we use for the calculation of adjusted net income, was 20% for the quarter. This compares to last year's benefit of 25%. The tax rate for the items used to adjusted income was 3% for the quarter. The full year tax rate for the calculation of adjusted net income was 22%, in line with our expectations. The prior year tax rate benefited from favorable tax planning.

我們用於計算調整後淨收入的第四季調整後稅率為 20%。這與去年25%的收益相比有所下降。本季用於調整收入的項目的稅率為 3%。計算調整後淨收入的全年稅率為 22%，與我們的預期一致。上一年度的稅率得益於有利的稅務規劃。

Adjusted EPS in Q4 was $3.94. Full year adjusted EPS was $13.17. We had 72 million shares outstanding in the fourth-quarter. This is an improvement of about 6 million shares or approximately 8% year-over-year. We exited the fourth-quarter with 71 million shares on an unweighted basis. Operating cash flow for the quarter was $295 million. This compares with $335 million in Q4 2024.

第四季調整後每股收益為 3.94 美元。全年調整後每股收益為 13.17 美元。第四季我們共有 7,200 萬股流通股。這比去年同期增加了約 600 萬股，增幅約為 8%。截至第四季末，我們持有7,100萬股未加權股票。本季經營現金流為2.95億美元。相比之下，2024 年第四季為 3.35 億美元。

CapEx was $24 million, flat year-over-year. Fourth-quarter free cash flow was $271 million. This compares with $311 million in Q4 of 2024. For the full year, operating cash flow was $1.3 billion. CapEx was $115 million, and free cash flow was $1.2 billion. Free cash flow on a rolling four-quarter basis was 161% of GAAP net income and 73% of EBITDA.

資本支出為 2,400 萬美元，與上年持平。第四季自由現金流為 2.71 億美元。相較之下，2024 年第四季的數據為 3.11 億美元。全年經營現金流為13億美元。資本支出為 1.15 億美元，自由現金流為 12 億美元。過去四個季度的自由現金流佔 GAAP 淨收入的 161%，佔 EBITDA 的 73%。

As we previously noted, there were two items that affect rolling fourth-quarter net income and free cash flow, including a real estate lease termination payment in Q2 2025 and we also had a noncash goodwill impairment charge related to digital markets business in Q3 2025. Last week, we signed a definitive agreement to divest digital markets.

正如我們先前所提到的，有兩項因素會影響第四季度滾動淨收入和自由現金流，包括 2025 年第二季的房地產租賃終止付款，以及 2025 年第三季與數位市場業務相關的非現金商譽減損支出。上週，我們簽署了剝離數位市場的最終協議。

Adjusting for these items, free cash flow on a rolling four-quarter basis was 18% of revenue, 74% of EBITDA and 136% of GAAP net income. At the end of the fourth-quarter, we had about $1.7 billion of cash. Our December 31 debt balance was $3 billion of about $500 million from Q3 as a result of our most recent bond offering. Our reported gross debt to trailing 12-month EBITDA was 1.9 times.

在調整這些項目後，過去四個季度的滾動自由現金流佔收入的 18%，佔 EBITDA 的 74%，佔 GAAP 淨收入的 136%。第四季末，我們擁有約 17 億美元的現金。截至 12 月 31 日，我們的債務餘額為 30 億美元，較第三季減少了約 5 億美元，主要歸因於我們最近一次的債券發行。我們報告的總債務與過去 12 個月 EBITDA 的比率為 1.9 倍。

Our expected free cash flow generation, available revolver and excess cash remaining on the balance sheet provide ample liquidity to deliver on our capital allocation strategy. Our balance sheet is very strong with $2.7 billion of liquidity, low levels of leverage and 100% fixed interest rates. We repurchased about $500 million of stock during the fourth-quarter and $2 billion during the full year.

我們預期的自由現金流、可用循環信貸額度和資產負債表上剩餘的超額現金，為實現我們的資本配置策略提供了充足的流動性。我們的資產負債表非常穩健，擁有 27 億美元的流動資金、較低的槓桿率和 100% 的固定利率。我們在第四季回購了約 5 億美元的股票，全年回購了 20 億美元的股票。

Last week, the Board refreshed our authorization, bringing the total to about $1.2 billion. We expect the Board will continue to refresh the authorization as needed. As we continue to repurchase stock, we create value for shareholders through EPS accretion and increasing returns on invested capital. Before providing the 2026 guidance details, I want to discuss our base level assumptions and planning philosophy for the year. We've not included the digital markets business in the outlook.

上週，董事會更新了我們的授權，使總額達到約 12 億美元。我們預計董事會將根據需要繼續更新授權。隨著我們不斷回購股票，我們透過提高每股盈餘和增加投資資本回報率，為股東創造價值。在提供 2026 年的指導細節之前，我想先討論一下我們這一年的基本假設和規劃理念。我們沒有將數位市場業務納入展望範圍。

For insights revenue, our guidance reflects Q4 2025 contract value and our CV growth rate accelerating over the course of 2026. First-quarter and first half NCVI are important inputs to calendar 2026 revenue growth. We have taken a prudent view of NCVI phasing because Q1 is a seasonally important quarter for renewals.

對於洞察收入，我們的指導意見反映了 2025 年第四季的合約價值，而我們的 CV 成長率將在 2026 年加速。第一季和上半年的 NCVI 是 2026 年日曆年營收成長的重要輸入。我們對 NCVI 分階段實施採取了謹慎的態度，因為第一季是續保的重要季節性季度。

As always, we have high visibility into our Insights revenue based on our ending 2025 contract value. For conferences, we are basing our guidance on the 56 in-person destination conferences we have planned for 2026. We expect similar seasonality to what we saw in 2025 with Q4 the largest quarter, followed by Q2. We expect gross margins in the second-quarter to be the highest of the year for the Conferences segment.

與以往一樣，我們可以根據 2025 年末的合約價值，對我們的 Insights 收入有很高的可見性。對於會議，我們的指導方針是基於我們計劃在 2026 年舉辦的​​ 56 場線下目的地會議。我們預計 2025 年的季節性與今年類似，第四季為最大季度，其次是第二季。我們預計會議業務部門第二季的毛利率將是全年最高的。

We had a strong advanced bookings quarter in Q4, which provides very good visibility into 2026 revenue. We have a majority of what we've guided already under contract. This is ahead of where we were at the same time last year. For consulting, we have more visibility into the next quarter or two based on the composition of our backlog and pipeline as usual.

我們在第四季度獲得了強勁的預售訂單，這為 2026 年的營收提供了非常好的可見性。我們指導的大部分項目已經簽訂了合約。這比去年同期的情況還要好。對於諮詢服務而言，我們通常可以根據積壓訂單和專案儲備情況，對未來一兩個季度的發展前景有更清晰的了解。

Contract optimization has had several very strong years and the business remains highly variable. Our base level assumptions for consolidated expenses reflect the run rate from the fourth-quarter and merit increases scheduled to go into effect April 1 as usual. We recommend thinking about expenses sequentially with notable seasonality driven by the conferences calendar and annual merit increases.

合約優化業務近年來發展勢頭強勁，但業務波動性依然很大。我們對合併費用的基本假設反映了第四季度的運行速度，以及按計劃於 4 月 1 日生效的績效加薪。我們建議按順序考慮各項支出，並特別注意受會議日程和年度績效成長等因素影響的季節性變化。

For GTS, we expect low single-digit QBH growth in 2026 with a focus on growth in our business developers. For GBS, we plan to grow QBH mid-single digits this year with an emphasis on growth in business developers. We have the recruiting capacity to go faster depending on how the year plays out. We continue to prudently manage our expenses, in part to create alignment with recent CV trends.

對於 GTS，我們預計 2026 年 QBH 將實現低個位數成長，重點是業務開發人員的成長。對於 GBS，我們計劃今年實現 QBH 中等個位數的成長，重點是業務開發人員的成長。我們有能力加快招募速度，具體還要視今年的情況而定。我們持續謹慎管理支出，部分原因是與近期履歷趨勢保持一致。

And we are driving efficiencies wherever we can through automation, process improvements and leveraging technology. We are also prioritizing sensible investments to drive future growth and returns, which include key areas like business and technology insights analysts, artificial intelligence, the customer experience and sales capabilities, efficiencies and QBH.

我們正在透過自動化、流程改善和利用技術等方式，盡可能提高效率。我們也在優先考慮合理的投資，以推動未來的成長和回報，其中包括業務和技術洞察分析師、人工智慧、客戶體驗和銷售能力、效率和 QBH 等關鍵領域。

These investments are fully reflected in our 2026 guidance. Based on January FX rates, we expect revenue growth to benefit by about 110 basis points and EBITDA growth to benefit by about 170 basis points for the full year. As a reminder, about 1/3 of our revenue and operating expenses are denominated in currencies other than US dollar. Our 2026 guidance is as follows.

這些投資已充分體現在我們的 2026 年績效指引中。根據 1 月的匯率，我們預計全年營收成長將受益約 110 個基點，EBITDA 成長將受益約 170 個基點。提醒各位，我們約有三分之一的收入和營運支出是以美元以外的貨幣計價的。我們2026年的指導方針如下。

We expect insights revenue of $5.9 billion or more, which is FX-neutral growth of about 1%. We expect Conferences revenue of $695 million or more, which is FX-neutral growth of about 7%. We expect consulting revenue of $570 million or more, which is growth of about 3% FX neutral. The result is an outlook for consolidated revenue of $6.455 billion or more, which is FX-neutral growth of 2%.

我們預計洞察業務收入將達到 59 億美元或更多，以固定匯率計算，成長率約為 1%。我們預計會議收入將達到 6.95 億美元或更多，以匯率不變計算，成長率約為 7%。我們預計諮詢收入將達到 5.7 億美元或更多，以固定匯率計算成長約 3%。由此得出的結果是，合併收入預期將達到 64.55 億美元或更多，按匯率中性計算增長 2%。

We expect full year EBITDA of $1.515 billion or more. This reflects full year margins of 23.5% or more. As we move through the year, our strong visibility will get even better. For net interest expense, we expect higher interest costs as a result of the increase in leverage. Interest income will be affected by interest rates and the deployment of cash for repurchases made during 2025.

我們預計全年 EBITDA 將達到 15.15 億美元或更多。這反映出全年利潤率達到或超過 23.5%。隨著時間推移，我們的市場知名度將會進一步提升。由於槓桿率的提高，我們預期淨利息支出將會增加利息成本。利息收入將受到利率和2025年現金回購支出的影響。

In addition, we have not assumed interest income on excess cash that could be deployed on share repurchases. Notably, however, our share count for 2026 only assumes repurchases to offset dilution. This means in the adjusted EPS guidance, we effectively assume both less cash on the balance sheet and more shares outstanding than we are likely to have. We expect 2026 adjusted EPS of $12.30 or more.

此外，我們也沒有假設可用於股票回購的超額現金所產生的利息收入。但值得注意的是，我們對 2026 年的股份數量預測僅假設透過回購來抵銷稀釋。這意味著在調整後的每股盈餘預期中，我們實際上假設資產負債表上的現金比我們實際擁有的要少，流通股數量也比我們實際擁有的要少。我們預計 2026 年調整後每股盈餘將達到 12.30 美元或更高。

As I just noted, EPS would see a significant positive impact through a combination of fewer shares and/or greater interest income. For 2026, we expect free cash flow of $1.135 billion or more. This reflects a conversion from GAAP net income of 140%. Our guidance is based on about 71 million shares outstanding, again, only reflecting share repurchases to offset dilution.

正如我剛才提到的，由於流通股減少和/或利息收入增加，每股盈餘將受到顯著的正面影響。我們預計 2026 年自由現金流將達到 11.35 億美元或更多。這相當於以 GAAP 計算的淨收入減少了 140%。我們的指引是基於約 7,100 萬股流通股，同樣，僅反映了為抵銷稀釋而進行的股票回購。

For Q1, we expect adjusted EBITDA of $370 million or more. Our financial results in Q4 were ahead of expectations. In particular, margins were strong and better than we guided at the start of 2025. We had another year of very strong free cash flow. ROIC continues to be excellent. We made significant accretive share repurchases, reducing our shares outstanding by 8% in the year.

我們預計第一季調整後 EBITDA 將達到 3.7 億美元或更多。我們第四季的財務表現超出預期。尤其值得一提的是，利潤率表現強勁，優於我們在 2025 年初的預期。我們又迎來了一年非常強勁的自由現金流。ROIC 依然非常出色。我們進行了大量的增值性股票回購，使本年度流通股數減少了 8%。

Contract value outside the US federal business grew 4% in the quarter, and we are positioned to accelerate CV growth throughout 2026. As Gene detailed, in 2025, we began driving transformation across business and technology insights along four dimensions. Impact, volume, timeliness and user experience. The investments to continue the transformation through 2026 are fully reflected in our guidance.

本季美國聯邦業務以外的合約價值成長了 4%，我們已做好準備，在 2026 年加速 CV 業務的成長。正如吉恩詳細闡述的那樣，到 2025 年，我們將從四個維度推動業務和技術洞察方面的轉型。影響力、數量、及時性和使用者體驗。為持續推進轉型至 2026 年而進行的投資已充分體現在我們的績效指引中。

Finally, we'll continue to deploy our capital to drive shareholder value and contribute to strong ROIC. Our capital allocation strategy remains focused on share repurchases, which will lower the share count over time and strategic value-enhancing tuck-in M&A.

最後，我們將繼續運用我們的資本來提升股東價值，並為強勁的投資報酬率做出貢獻。我們的資本配置策略仍專注於股票回購，這將隨著時間的推移減少股票數量，以及具有策略價值提升作用的補充併購。

With that, I'll turn the call back over to the operator, and we'll be happy to take your questions. Operator?

那麼，我就把電話轉回給接線生，我們很樂意回答您的問題。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Jeff Meuler with Baird.

（操作說明）傑夫·穆勒（Jeff Meuler）與貝爾德公司合作。

On the expected contract value acceleration as '26 unfolds, I guess there's going to be a mathematical benefit from moving past the peaking and lessening federal government headwind. Are you expecting acceleration beyond that on a ex government or federal government basis? And I imagine you expect some benefit from the step function operational changes.

隨著 2026 年的到來，預計合約價值將加速成長，我認為克服聯邦政府阻力達到高峰並逐漸減弱的影響，將帶來數學上的好處。您是否預期在非政府或聯邦政府的基礎上，經濟成長會進一步加速？我想您應該期望從這些階躍式操作變更中獲得一些好處。

But just if you can give us a update on what you're seeing in terms of any leading indicator KPIs. You had talked about a lot of things last quarter like in quarter renewal rates. Just wondering if those have continued to make progress.

不過，如果您能向我們提供您目前觀察到的任何領先指標 KPI 的最新情況，那就太好了。上個季度你們談了很多事情，例如季度續約率。想知道這些項目是否繼續取得進展。

Yes, Jeff. Yes, we are expecting CV to accelerate throughout the year and not just because of lesser headwinds within the federal government, US federal government. Basically, as you said, we made more changes in the second half of last year with this transformation program and we expect those changes to begin hitting throughout -- or hitting in the building throughout 2026 and into '27. And so it's really -- that's what's driving the acceleration of CV over the year -- over '26 and then '27.

是的，傑夫。是的，我們預計新冠病毒感染病例將在今年加速成長，這不僅是因為美國聯邦政府內部的阻力減少。基本上，正如你所說，我們在去年下半年透過這項轉型計畫做出了更多改變，我們預計這些改變將在 2026 年及以後在整棟大樓內開始顯現效果，並延續到 2027 年。所以，這才是真正導致 2026 年和 2027 年新冠病毒感染病例加速成長的原因。

And on some of the leading indicators and what you were seeing on things like in-quarter renewal rates?

那麼，關於一些領先指標，例如季度內續約率，您觀察到的情況如何？

So leading the way that we're approaching the transformation is, we know that, if our clients engage with us more, they renew at higher rates. And so we're looking at leading indicators that say they're going to engage more with our content. And so there's things like -- again, the important I talked about we've changed our content.

因此，我們推動轉型的指導原則是：我們知道，如果客戶與我們互動更多，他們就會以更高的價格續約。因此，我們正在關註一些領先指標，這些指標表明他們將更多地參與我們的內容中。所以還有一些事情，例如——再次強調，我剛才提到的重要一點是，我們改變了我們的內容。

One of the indicators we have is the conferences where we presented those new content. In our conference scores, we ask clients to rate each of the presentations as well as the overall conference. And those conference orders were up significantly and more than we've ever seen in the past for the conferences were held in the second half and particularly in Q4 of last year, but we have a lot of conferences.

我們掌握的指標之一就是我們展示這些新內容的會議。在我們的會議評分中，我們要求客戶對每個演講以及整個會議進行評分。這些會議訂單大幅增長，比我們過去看到的要多得多，因為這些會議是在去年下半年，特別是第四季度舉行的，但我們有很多會議。

And so that's kind of one of the immediate indicators that we see. As I mentioned also, engagement actually has been rising. And as the engagement rises, doesn't -- when engagement goes up, it doesn't affect you today. But when that client comes up renewal over the next, depending whether it's a single or multiyear contract, when they come up over the next 12 or 24 months, they're much more likely to redo.

所以，這是我們能立即看到的指標之一。正如我之前提到的，用戶參與度實際上一直在上升。即使參與度上升，也不會——當參與度上升時，它今天不會對你產生影響。但是，當該客戶在接下來的 12 或 24 個月內需要續約時（取決於合約是一年還是多年），他們更有可能重新簽訂合約。

So we see a positive impact from that as well. And so there's indicators like that that are telling us -- both our -- the transformation we're meeting BPI in terms of driving more engagers working. And in fact, we're seeing the beginnings of higher engagement as well. I mentioned another one as well, which is the uptake of -- I'm sorry, the impact to AskGartner, much coins get access -- much better access to content that they've been able to do in the past.

所以我們也看到了由此產生的正面影響。因此，諸如此類的指標告訴我們——無論是我們還是我們——我們正在實現 BPI 的轉型，以推動更多參與者投入工作。事實上，我們也開始看到用戶參與度提高的跡象。我還提到了另一點，那就是對 AskGartner 的影響，許多加密貨幣獲得了更好的內容獲取管道——抱歉，應該說是更好的內容獲取管道。

And as I mentioned, we only rolled it out to all of our clients in October of last year. So our clients didn't have that much cash to use it. But for those clients that used it and then renewed last year, their renewal rates were actually significantly higher. I think it's a combination of both better access and also a transformation changes that we talked about earlier.

正如我之前提到的，我們直到去年十月才將其推廣到所有客戶。所以我們的客戶並沒有那麼多現金來使用它。但對於去年使用過該服務並續訂的客戶來說，他們的續訂率實際上要高得多。我認為這是由於獲取途徑的改善以及我們之前討論過的轉型變化共同作用的結果。

So if we look at leading indicators, we think that actually that we're on a good track. And again, these things will take because of -- they have to use the content, they have to renew and that renewal takes place over a 12- to 24-month period. It's going to take a while for all these again, but I'd say the leading indicators, we view is very positive.

所以，如果我們看一下領先指標，我們認為實際上我們正走在正確的道路上。再次強調，這些事情都需要時間——因為他們必須使用內容，必須續訂，而續訂過程需要 12 到 24 個月的時間。這一切還需要一段時間才能再次實現，但我認為我們看到的領先指標非常積極。

Andrew Nicholas, William Blair.

安德魯·尼古拉斯，威廉·布萊爾。

Just want to follow up on the same kind of line of questioning, a couple of quarters ago, you talked about your hopes to kind of get back to the high single-digit range in terms of CV growth here in 2026. Just wondering, now a couple of quarters past that, how you're thinking about that kind of line of thinking? And the factors that you outlined at that time between the federal government business, tech vendors accelerating, tariff-related industries or tariff-impacted industries normalizing some and your own internal adaptations.

我想就類似的問題繼續追問一下，幾個季度前，您談到希望到 2026 年新冠病毒感染率能夠恢復到個位數高點。我只是好奇，現在過了幾個季度了，你對這種想法有什麼看法？當時您概述的因素包括聯邦政府業務、科技供應商加速發展、與關稅相關的行業或受關稅影響的行業逐漸正常化以及您自身的內部調整。

Is there any changes to kind of the magnitude of those benefits that you would speak to today versus six-months ago?

與六個月前相比，您認為如今這些好處的程度是否有所改變？

Andrew, it's Craig. So sort of headline answer, I'd say, is and just reiterating what Gene just said, with the prior question is, we do expect CV and the CV growth rate to accelerate over the course of 2026 and that's obviously within our US Fed portion of the business. Just lapping the significant headwinds and also the balance of the business accelerating as well.

安德魯，我是克雷格。所以，我的回答大致是，重申 Gene 剛才對前一個問題的回答，我們預計 2026 年新冠病毒感染率和新冠病毒增長率將會加速增長，這顯然屬於我們美國聯邦儲備銀行業務的範疇。克服了巨大的逆風，同時業務也在加速發展。

As you know, our normal course practice is not to guide specifically to CV. But we do fully expect all the factors that we've been discussing in the details, Gene provided to support driving that CV growth and also all the factors we talked about are those different buckets, we expect to have an impact as well into 2026. And so I think part of this is the environment still remains pretty chaotic.

如您所知，我們通常的課程做法是不會專門指導履歷撰寫。但我們完全預期，我們在細節中討論的所有因素，Gene 提供的用於支持推動 CV 成長的因素，以及我們討論過的所有不同類別的因素，我們預計到 2026 年也會產生影響。所以我認為部分原因是環境仍然相當混亂。

And we want to see what the environment looks like as we move our way through 2026. But baked into our guide and for all of our operating assumptions is the CV growth rate accelerating over the course of 2026.

我們想看看到了 2026 年，環境會變成什麼樣子。但我們的指南以及我們所有的營運假設都包含著一個前提，那就是 2026 年新冠病毒感染率將加速成長。

Faiza Alwy, Deutsche Bank.

Faiza Alwy，德意志銀行。

So just to follow up on that, Craig, I think you talked about the quarterly phasing of CV growth. I'm curious if you expect sort of that quarterly phasing to be similar to what we have seen historically? Or you could sort of put a finer point on that? I imagine you're expecting that some of the internal initiatives that you're taking will kind of help more towards the back half of the year. But any further perspective would be helpful.

克雷格，我想跟進一下，你之前提到過 CV 成長的季度分階段性問題。我很好奇，您是否預期這種按季度分階段進行的安排會與我們過去看到的情況類似？或者你能更詳細地闡述一下嗎？我想您預計，您採取的一些內部措施將在下半年發揮更大的作用。但任何其他觀點都將不勝感激。

Yes, great question, Faiza. Thank you. And so as we look at the way our exploration SKU looks like for 2026. It looks pretty consistent with what we've seen historically. And so a little bit overweighted in terms of coming up for renewal in Q1 and Q4. I'm so a little bit more than 25% in each of those quarters and obviously a little bit less than 25% that implies in the middle quarters Q2 and Q3.

是的，Faiza，問得好。謝謝。因此，讓我們來看看我們 2026 年的探索 SKU 會是什麼樣子。這看起來與我們歷史上看到的情況相當一致。因此，在第一季和第四季即將到期續約的股票中，權重略高。所以，我每季都略高於 25%，而顯然，在第二季和第三季度，我的佔比略低於 25%。

As you know -- and again, and our sort of NCVI build, as we think about it, we believe should be roughly consistent to what we've seen over the last several years. That all said, the revenue guide is obviously most sensitive to where we ended 2025, net contract value amount as we roll into 2026 and then the phasing of the NCVI.

如您所知——而且，我們仔細考慮後認為，我們的 NCVI 構建應該與我們過去幾年所看到的大致一致。綜上所述，收入指導顯然最受 2025 年末的淨合約價值金額、2026 年的淨合約價值金額以及 NCVI 的分階段實施的影響。

To your point, one is we tend to generate much more of our NCVI in the second half of the year historically and then to emphasize your point and Gene's points too, is that the transformation that we've been doing, again, these are not just started on Gen 1, we've been working through these for the last few quarters. But certainly, we'll have more of an impact on the second half of the year than on the first half of the year.

正如您所說，首先，從歷史數據來看，我們往往會在下半年產生更多的 NCVI；其次，為了強調您和 Gene 的觀點，我們一直在進行的轉型，再次強調，這些轉型並非始於第一代，我們已經在過去的幾個季度中一直在努力推進。但可以肯定的是，我們對下半年的影響會比對上半年的影響更大。

Josh Chan, UBS.

瑞銀集團的 Josh Chan。

I guess stepping back from the numbers, it seems like in recent months, you have taken some more kind of strategic steps, including the divestiture of the non-sub business. I think we understand you had an organizational realignment perhaps. So could you just talk about what drove these kind of more longer-term type actions and kind of how you're thinking about those actions versus kind of the environment that you're sitting in.

我覺得拋開數字不談，近幾個月來，你們似乎採取了一些更具策略性的措施，包括剝離非子公司業務。我想我們了解到你們可能進行了組織架構調整。那麼，您能否談談是什麼促使您採取這些更長期的行動，以及您是如何看待這些行動的，以及您所處的環境如何影響這些行動的？

Josh, great question. The last year, there were a lot of changes. In fact, over the last two or three-years, there's been a lot of changes between what's happened with AI, the US federal government, tariffs, all the things I kind of go in my talk. And so during the first half of last year, we came the conclusion that we should assume that the world is going to be like this forever, that there's going to be a lot more disruption in chaos.

喬希，問得好。去年發生了很多變化。事實上，在過去的兩三年裡，人工智慧、美國聯邦政府、關稅以及我在演講中提到的所有方面都發生了很大的變化。因此，在去年上半年，我們得出結論，我們應該假設世界將永遠如此，混亂中將會出現更多的動盪。

And we don't know what those things are going to be, but we need to be prepared for them. And so to do that, we've decided the best way to impact it in our business was to focus on our core BTI business. And on top of that -- and within that, the way to optimize that business is to get more client engagement. As I mentioned in my remarks, the more clients engage with us, the higher the retention is.

我們不知道那些事情會是什麼，但我們需要做好準備。因此，為了實現這一目標，我們決定，對我們業務產生影響的最佳方法是專注於我們的核心 BTI 業務。除此之外——而且就此而言——優化業務的方法就是提高客戶參與度。正如我在演講中提到的，客戶與我們互動越多，客戶留存率就越高。

And the high retention is, obviously, the faster business grows. And so we're really driving engagement and driving retention. And the way we're doing that is through with the transformation program. And we did a lot of analysis to understand what drives engagement. And it's the four things I talked about. It's the impact of our insights, the number of insights we cover all the mistrial priorities they have interest in, how fast we get it to them, especially in today's where things change so quickly.

顯然，客戶留存率越高，企業成長速度就越快。因此，我們正在實際提高用戶參與度和用戶留存率。而我們實現這一目標的方式是透過轉型計劃。我們做了大量分析，以了解哪些因素能夠驅動用戶參與。這就是我剛才提到的四件事。關鍵在於我們洞察力的影響力，我們涵蓋他們感興趣的所有審判不公優先事項的洞察力數量，以及我們向他們提供資訊的速度，尤其是在當今形勢變化如此迅速的情況下。

The user experience so they actually get access to them, whether it be through AskGartner or through enhanced conferences as I mentioned. The changes we made in the second half of last year were more change than we've ever done at Gartner. I've been here 20 in that entire time, it's more case we've ever done. And it's in a reaction to position the business so that even if the world does get better.

使用者體驗，以便他們能夠真正獲得這些信息，無論是透過 AskGartner 還是透過我提到的增強型會議。去年下半年我們所做的改變比 Gartner 以往任何時候所做的改變都要多。我在這段期間總共待了 20 天，這是我們處理過的最大的案件。這是為了因應未來情勢的變化，讓企業更能應對未來可能出現的變故。

That we can get back to the kind of growth rate that we've had historically meaning double-digit growth, even in a really bad environment because we've enhanced our BTI helping so much. And so as a result of that, two of the things you mentioned were as result of that. So one of them we decided that our digital markets business didn't fit in that vision.

我們能夠恢復到歷史上那種兩位數的成長速度，即使在非常糟糕的環境下，因為我們提高了 BTI，這起到了很大的幫助。因此，你提到的兩件事都是由此產生的。因此，我們其中一個人認為，我們的數位市場業務與這個願景不符。

And so we made the decision after careful analysis, that didn't make sense. And so we made an arrangement we think is a very good owner report. And then the second thing is there were some staff changes, as we assess the BTI transformation, any transformational find that people that don't have the tolls today that you need going forward.

經過仔細分析，我們最後決定，這樣做沒有意義。因此，我們制定了一份我們認為非常好的業主報告。其次，在評估 BTI 轉型時，人員也發生了一些變化。任何轉型都會發現，有些人現在不具備未來所需的技能。

And so for those people, we had -- unfortunately, we had an action that we took so that we could basically reposition skills, we have the skills we need going forward, not the skills could do in the past. And that was really one small part of the transformation but that was a part of the transformation. So this has nothing to do with the cost or something like that.

因此，對於這些人，我們採取了一項行動——不幸的是，我們採取了這項行動，以便我們能夠重新定位技能，我們現在擁有的是未來需要的技能，而不是過去能夠做到的技能。那隻是改變的一小部分，但卻是改變的一部分。所以這跟成本之類的因素沒有任何關係。

It had to do with making sure we had the skills to address the impact, volume timeliness of user experience that we need as a business to thrive in any economic environment.

這關係到確保我們擁有應對用戶體驗的影響、數量和及時性所需的技能，以便我們作為一家企業能夠在任何經濟環境下蓬勃發展。

And then, Josh, one last thing I'd add is you know we're obviously very focused on doing shareholder value-enhancing initiatives. The number one way we do that is to drive value for our clients, which then translates through the P&L and free cash flow statement. But obviously, we're focused on timing and maximizing shareholder value as well.

最後，Josh，我還要補充一點，我們顯然非常注重進行提升股東價值的措施。我們實現這一目標的首要方法是為客戶創造價值，而這最終會反映在損益表和自由現金流量表中。但很顯然，我們也十分關注時機把握和股東價值最大化。

And you know our capital allocation strategies around buybacks and potential value-enhancing M&A, tuck-in M&A. And so on the buybacks, as you saw noted, you have about $2 billion worth of shares repurchased over the course of 2025 taking advantage of the debt markets and transforming, if you will, our balance sheet.

您也了解我們圍繞股票回購和潛在的價值提升併購、補充併購的資本配置策略。因此，關於股票回購，正如你所看到的，我們將在 2025 年回購價值約 20 億美元的股票，利用債務市場，並可以說，轉變我們的資產負債表。

So that we have a little bit more leverage and more capacity to deploy our capital on behalf of our shareholders. And then we do typically talk about M&A, but divestitures can be ways to drive shareholder value as well. And as Gene outlined, I think we came to the -- through deep analysis through the recognition that digital markets was not a core part of the business.

這樣我們就能擁有更大的槓桿作用和更大的能力，代表我們的股東部署我們的資本。當然，我們通常會談到併購，但資產剝離也可以是提升股東價值的一種方式。正如吉恩所概述的那樣，我認為我們透過深入分析認識到，數位市場並不是業務的核心部分。

And so we look to drive value, sell it to a more natural owner and then from a shareholder value perspective, that allows us to use those proceeds, but also to focus on the core, which is really driving value out of the BTI business or the Insights business, I should say.

因此，我們希望創造價值，將其出售給更合適的買家，從股東價值的角度來看，這不僅使我們能夠利用這些收益，還能專注於核心業務，也就是真正從 BTI 業務或洞察業務中創造價值。

Jason Haas, Wells Fargo.

傑森‧哈斯，富國銀行。

I'm curious, as part of some of the internal improvements you're making, are there any changes to try to institutionalize some of the process that your analysts go through to collect proprietary insights from your customers? Because our understanding is there's a treasure trove of data that your analysts are collecting. And I'm curious how much of that is coming through just sort of informal questioning?

我很好奇，作為你們正在進行的一些內部改進的一部分，是否有任何改變來嘗試將分析師從客戶那裡收集專有見解的流程製度化？因為我們了解到，你們的分析師正在收集大量數據。我很好奇，其中有多少資訊是透過非正式的提問獲得的？

Or is there really a process around that to drive the questioners insights?

或者說，是否存在某種流程來引導提問者獲得真知灼見？

Jason, it's a great question. And that is actually a core part of the BGI transformation as well. To your point, we have hundreds of thousands of conversations with our clients every day, I mean, every year. And with also with technology vendors, we have out of conversations. We have a lot of peer interactions where peers interact we get all that data, which a proprietary surveys.

傑森，這是一個很好的問題。而這其實也是華大基因轉型的核心部分之一。你說得對，我們每天、每年都會與客戶進行數十萬次對話。此外，我們也與技術供應商進行對話。我們有很多同儕互動，透過同儕互動，我們可以獲得所有這些數據，這些數據來自專有調查。

One challenge we have is with our 2,400 analysts, how do we get all the right information to those analysts. And so as a part of this transformation action, we've developed some very sophisticated systems that let us get -- get the insights that matter most to the analysts that are going to be actually working on particular topical area like cybersecurity or something like that.

我們面臨的一個挑戰是，對於我們 2400 名分析師來說，如何將所有正確的資訊傳遞給他們。因此，作為這項轉型行動的一部分，我們開發了一些非常複雜的系統，使我們能夠獲得對那些將實際從事網路安全等特定主題領域的分析師來說最重要的見解。

And it starts with this neural network-based system I talked about before, it starts there because, one of the most important cities we make is what do we actually write content on, what insights you want to write on, this neural network based system I talked about takes all of that input and says, what's trending, what are the things that people are most interested in the way it's updated on a real-time basis.

這一切都始於我之前提到的基於神經網路的系統，之所以從那裡開始，是因為我們最重要的工作之一就是確定我們實際上要寫什麼內容，你想寫哪些見解。我提到的這個基於神經網路的系統會接收所有這些輸入，並即時更新，告訴你哪些內容是熱門的，哪些內容是人們最感興趣的。

So this week, what are our clients interested in? And then what assets do we have that can actually create incredible insights that will be a high value to those clients. And so your point is actually a key part of the transformation is, the way we worked many years ago was a bunch of analyst sat in the room and said, hey, what do you hear, what I hear.

那麼，本週我們的客戶對哪些方面感興趣呢？那麼，我們擁有哪些資產可以真正創造出對客戶極具價值的深刻見解呢？所以你的觀點其實是轉型的關鍵部分，我們多年前的工作方式是一群分析師坐在房間裡說，嘿，你聽到了什麼，我聽到了什麼。

With thousands of analysts and hundreds of thousands of conversations, we can't work that way. And so we've leveraged technology, including AI, so that we can actually go right on the right topics by using the store model and then get all the right assets that will help those analysts write really insightful research into the hands of the right people. And so it's a core part of it.

我們有成千上萬的分析師，進行了數十萬次對話，我們不能那樣運作。因此，我們利用了包括人工智慧在內的技術，以便我們能夠透過使用商店模型直接切入正確的主題，然後獲得所有正確的資源，幫助分析師撰寫真正有洞察力的研究報告，並將其送到合適的人手中。所以它是其中的核心部分。

Toni Kaplan, Morgan Stanley.

東尼卡普蘭，摩根士丹利。

Wanted to get a sense of in the fourth-quarter if AI sort of entered the renewal conversations a little bit more in terms of client decision-making around adding or removing seats and things like that? And I know you've got a lot of feedback from your clients. So I just wanted to hear sort of what you're hearing from them? And is the environment getting maybe a little bit better? Like I just wanted to get a sense of sort of the client environment and feedback.

想了解在第四季度，人工智慧是否在續約談判中更多地參與客戶的決策過程中，例如增加或減少席位等等？我知道你收到了很多客戶的回饋。所以我想聽聽你從他們那裡聽到了什麼？環境是否有所改善？我只是想了解客戶的環境和回饋。

Yes, Toni. So the single biggest issue we are helping our clients with its AI across every function. So our clients really understand. They know they have challenges with it. And again, it's our single high span item. And as I've talked about in the past, with our salespeople, we ask each salesperson to document any concerns clients have.

是的，托尼。因此，我們正在幫助客戶解決人工智慧在各個功能領域應用方面的最大問題。所以我們的客戶確實很理解。他們知道自己在這方面面臨挑戰。再次強調，這是我們唯一一款高跨距產品。正如我之前提到的，我們要求每位銷售人員記錄客戶的任何疑慮。

And one of the specific ones we ask them to document is if a client brings up that AI might be a substitute. And in addition to that, we have a help desk. And so any salesperson, that basically says, hey, the client said, I'm thinking about using AI instead of Gartner, we try to document, train salespeople. And by the way, they use the system right because it also tracks competitive threats and things like that.

我們要求他們記錄的具體情況之一是，如果客戶提出人工智慧可以作為替代方案。除此之外，我們還設有服務台。因此，任何銷售人員如果說：“嘿，客戶說，我正在考慮使用人工智慧而不是 Gartner”，我們就會嘗試記錄下來，並培訓銷售人員。順便說一句，他們對這套系統運用得當，因為它還能追蹤競爭威脅等等。

And so it is regular use perspective, probably half our salespeople use it in any given year. And so they're familiar with it and we train them on it. And we have this help desk in case somebody has an AI question and help desk is like the main repair man, which is to say that that has not been -- we have a lot of challenges with clients in terms of their own internal budgets that as we talked about.

因此，從日常使用角度來看，每年可能有一半的銷售人員會使用它。所以他們很熟悉這方面的內容，我們也對他們進行這方面的訓練。我們設立了幫助台，以防有人遇到人工智慧方面的問題。幫助台就像主要的維修人員，也就是說，正如我們之前討論過的，我們在客戶的內部預算方面面臨許多挑戰。

But one that we do not hear frequently is that they're thinking about using AI and some way the substitute for Gartner. And again, to your point, I think our salespeople is not -- if anything, Q4 is less of an issue or less confirmed than even before. But we try to track it very carefully. We're trying to get eyes open about it, and we don't see it as something that is restraining our growth as opposed to clients that have tariffs and budget problems and the federal government those things. Those are real problems that we have that we see every day.

但我們很少聽到的一種說法是，他們正在考慮使用人工智慧，並以某種方式取代 Gartner。再次重申你的觀點，我認為我們的銷售人員並沒有——如果有什麼變化的話，那就是第四季度的問題比以前更少，或者說更不確定。但我們會盡力非常仔細地跟踪它。我們正在努力讓人們意識到這一點，我們並不認為這會像那些面臨關稅和預算問題以及聯邦政府問題的客戶一樣，限制我們的發展。這些都是我們每天都會遇到的實際問題。

Do you see those problems getting better, the Doge and tariff problems and things like that?

你認為狗狗幣、關稅問題等等這些問題會變好嗎？

So we'll approach it two different ways. So in terms of Doge, as we had touched about, all of our federal government clients, US federal government contracts, virtually all of them are one-year contracts, and so any client that wanted to cancel because of Doge after Q1, we'll have already had the chance to cancel. And so we believe -- and there's still tremendous demand.

所以我們將從兩個不同的角度來探討這個問題。所以，就狗狗幣而言，正如我們之前提到的，我們所有的聯邦政府客戶，美國聯邦政府合同，幾乎都是一年期合同，因此任何想在第一季度之後因為狗狗幣而取消合同的客戶，我們都已經有機會取消了。所以我們相信——而且市場需求依然龐大。

What's going on the government is we provide valuable services. The clients that are actually using our services like Chief Information Officers, et cetera, highly going on to use our services. They have tight budgets, they're getting direction for. And so in some cases, they cancel our contracts, which is why you've had care renewal rates.

政府正在做的就是提供有價值的服務。實際使用我們服務的客戶，例如資訊長等，都非常傾向於繼續使用我們的服務。他們的預算很緊張，他們正在接受指導。所以在某些情況下，他們會取消我們的合同，這就是為什麼你們會遇到續保費用問題。

We believe that the ones that are going to cancel will have gone through it once we get through Q1 and that going forward, it would be more to a normal environment with the US federal government, we had short value that we provide a lot of value. We have a lot of clients who want to buy it from us. And so that's kind of what we're expecting there.

我們相信，那些取消訂單的人會在我們度過第一季後經歷這個過程，並且展望未來，隨著美國聯邦政府的正常運作，情況會更加好轉。我們之前認為，我們提供了很多價值，現在看來，我們只是短期內獲得了價值。有很多客戶想從我們這裡購買。所以，這大概就是我們對那裡的情況的預期。

Outside of federal, tariff industries, it's down to the BDI transformation I talked about earlier, where we may -- as I mentioned, we've made more changes in second half of last year than ever before. And the whole idea is we need to increase value to our clients. We're going to do that by increasing engagement, more they engage, the higher value they get, the more they redo.

除了聯邦和關稅行業之外，取決於我之前提到的 BDI 轉型，正如我所提到的，我們在去年下半年做出的改變比以往任何時候都多。而我們的核心理念是，我們需要為客戶創造更多價值。我們將透過提高用戶參與度來實現這一目標，用戶參與度越高，獲得的價值就越高，他們就會越頻繁地重複操作。

And we know if we get engagement rates up even modestly, it has a material impact on real rates and then our growth rate. And so we're -- the federal government, we're going to hopefully get through all the contracts with people that are going to cancel. And again, for everyone else, and in fact, the federal government going forward, we're increasing the value right to our clients at a much higher rate through that I talk to impact volume timeliness and user experience.

我們知道，即使參與率只略微提高一點，也會對實際利率和成長率產生實質的影響。因此，作為聯邦政府，我們希望能夠處理完所有與即將取消合約的人簽訂的合約。再次強調，對於其他所有人，實際上也包括聯邦政府，我們正在以更高的速度提高客戶的價值，這體現在我所說的影響量、及時性和用戶體驗方面。

Surinder Thind, Jefferies.

蘇林德‧辛德，傑富瑞。

Gene, could you maybe talk about your willingness to kind of maintain the medium-term guidance here. It seems like we've had a number of challenging years where there's always something that disrupts your ability to hit that medium-term guidance. And given the pace of change, what gives you confidence that you can achieve medium-term guidance? It just seems like disruption is in the air at this point. So beyond the current narrative here?

吉恩，你能否談談你是否願意繼續提供中期指導？似乎我們已經經歷了好幾年的挑戰，總是會有一些事情幹擾我們實現中期目標的能力。鑑於變化如此之快，您有什麼信心能夠實現中期目標？目前看來，動盪的氣氛似乎正在醞釀中。所以，除了目前這種說法之外？

Yes. As I mentioned earlier, we're taking a view that the world is always going to be more challenging than it was prior to a couple of years ago. And so because of that, we needed to really up the value provide to clients a lot. And so we have a program to do it. As I mentioned earlier in the call, actually, the early indicators are good.

是的。正如我之前提到的，我們認為，世界總是比幾年前更具挑戰性。正因如此，我們需要大幅提升為客戶提供的價值。因此，我們制定了一個程序來實現這一目標。正如我之前在電話會議中提到的，實際上，早期的跡像是好的。

It's going to take time because, again, clients, we have to produce -- we are to make the changes I talked about. Clients going to have to use them. Then that contract has to come up for renewal. And so it's going to take a couple of years before we get the full benefit of programs that we're just talking about. But I have confidence that our CV will continue to accelerate over the time period because of the changes that we're making.

這需要時間，因為，再說一遍，客戶，我們必須做出產出——我們必須做出我剛才提到的改變。客戶必須使用它們。那麼，這份合約就需要續約了。因此，我們需要幾年時間才能充分受益於我們剛才討論的這些項目。但我相信，由於我們正在進行的變革，我們的新冠病毒感染率將在一段時間內繼續加速成長。

And Surinder, it's Craig. I think you kind of go back to every way we look at it, there is still a very large addressable market that we continue to figure out ways and unlock ways to go after that addressable market. The value we provide to our clients is unparalleled and unmatched. And again, all the things Gene outlined will allow us to continue to enhance and increase that value proposition.

蘇林德，我是克雷格。我認為無論我們從哪個角度來看，仍然存在一個非常大的潛在市場，我們需要不斷探索和開拓進入這個潛在市場的方法。我們為客戶提供的價值是無與倫比的。再次強調，Gene 所概述的所有內容都將使我們能夠繼續增強和提升這一價值主張。

And then if you think about the four elements that Gene mentioned. All of those things, we believe, will allow us to better penetrate and hold on to that huge addressable market opportunity. And so there's really no change in our view on the market. We know the value we provide to clients. We're focused on continuing to enhance that value. And we believe that all those things are unchanged in terms of the opportunity for us going forward.

然後，如果你想想吉恩提到的四個要素。我們相信，所有這些因素都將使我們能夠更好地打入並守住這個巨大的潛在市場機會。所以，我們對市場的看法並沒有改變。我們深知我們為客戶創造的價值。我們致力於持續提升這項價值。我們相信，就我們未來的機會而言，所有這些因素都不會改變。

That's helpful. And just a quick clarification here. I think, Gene, you mentioned this idea that to realize the full benefit of the investments that you're making maybe a few years. So is that the time frame then for kind of getting to your medium-term guidance targets? I just wanted to clarify that.

那很有幫助。這裡需要簡單澄清一下。吉恩，我想你之前提到過，要充分發揮投資效益，可能需要幾年時間。那麼，這就是實現其中期指導目標的大致時間框架嗎？我只是想澄清一下。

So basically, as I mentioned, the way we're going to get the benefits is we make the changes. And again, we made a lot of change last year. It's not going to stop. We're going to continue making changes this year and the same for as I talked about. Then clients have to use and benefit from the have to actually get our insights and see the advantage to it.

所以基本上，正如我所提到的，我們獲得好處的方式就是做出改變。去年我們再次進行了很多改變。這不會停止。今年我們將繼續做出改變，就像我之前談到的那樣。然後客戶必須真正理解並運用我們的見解，才能從中受益，並看到它的優勢。

Then they come up for renewal, it's just the nature of our business because it's the subscription-based business. It can take a couple of years until you get the whole benefit of everything we're talking about.

然後就到了續訂的時候，這是我們業務的本質，因為我們是訂閱制業務。可能需要幾年時間才能完全受益於我們所說的這一切。

And just to underscore that, Surinder, I mean the guide, as we said, implies or overtly has contract value growth rate reacceleration over the course of 2026. We don't expect to be done with that in 2026. And so we believe all the things that we are doing. We continue to make sure we're -- as both Gene and I mentioned, prioritizing the right kinds of investments to drive that reacceleration and drive strong returns on those investments in the future. And so as we mentioned, no change in our view on the market.

蘇林德，我還要強調一點，正如我們所說，該指南暗示或明確指出，2026 年合約價值成長率將再次加速。我們預計到 2026 年還無法完成這項工作。所以我們相信我們所做的一切。正如我和吉恩都提到的那樣，我們將繼續確保優先進行正確的投資，以推動經濟重新加速發展，並在未來獲得強勁的投資回報。正如我們之前提到的，我們對市場的看法並沒有改變。

We're doing all the right things, we believe, in terms of enhancing the value that we deliver to our clients and then with continued reacceleration, we believe we can drive lots of incremental shareholder value over the short, medium and long term.

我們相信，我們正在做所有正確的事情，以提高我們為客戶提供的價值，然後透過持續加速發展，我們相信我們可以在短期、中期和長期內為股東創造大量增量價值。

Brendan Popson, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的布倫丹·波普森。

This is Brendan on for Manav. I just want to ask for some more -- you talked about some of the rapid change internally. And I also noted you mentioned this 75% time reduction for insights. So I guess just any clarity on what exactly that means? And just anything else on the internal changes to drive this better retention?

這裡是 Brendan 為 Manav 報道。我只想再問一些問題——您談到了內部的一些快速變化。我還注意到您提到了洞察分析時間減少了 75%。所以我想請教一下，這到底是什麼意思？關於提升用戶留存率的內部調整還有其他什麼建議嗎？

Yes, Brendan. As I mentioned, we're making these internal changes on impact line time-use experience. One important part of timeliness is actually how fast we can produce insights. And as we did this in-depth analysis in terms of how we produce insights, we've developed -- we basically decided in today's world where things happen so quickly.

是的，布倫丹。正如我之前提到的，我們正在進行這些內部調整，以影響生產線的使用體驗。時效性的一個重要面向實際上在於我們產生洞見的速度。隨著我們對如何產生洞察力進行深入分析，我們逐漸認識到——在當今世界，事物變化如此之快。

Again, you look at like AI or cybersecurity where things happen on a daily basis, we weren't operating at that kind of pace. And so beginning in July of last year. So these are not changes that happened like in January, beginning of July of last year, we looked at how could we take time out of the process and actually it involved a couple of things. First is new content types.

再看看人工智慧或網路安全領域，每天都在發生變化，而我們當時的運作速度遠不及此。於是，從去年七月開始。所以這些變化並不是像去年一月或七月初發生的那樣，當時我們考慮如何縮短流程時間，實際上這涉及到幾個方面。首先是新的內容類型。

So actually, we don't have content types like being called First take that is, if something happens today, you need to do about today, we get that first take out immediately because our clients do a big decisions about it. The second area was actually been changing the process, and in fact, we found that we had too many people in parts of the process at the back part of the price, so not the creative part, but the editing part.

所以實際上，我們沒有像「第一印象」這樣的內容類型，也就是說，如果今天發生了什麼事，你需要今天就採取行動，我們會立即發布第一印象，因為我們的客戶會就此做出重大決定。第二個面向其實是改變流程，事實上，我們發現流程的某些環節（也就是價格的後半部）人太多了，不是創意環節，而是編輯環節。

And so we actually downsized the -- that part of the process. When we change process as a product, so it was better. And the third thing we did is an automation and part of the automation is AI. And so between those three factors, different content types restructure the process and what is jobs are and then provide a lot of automation, including AI, allowed us to shrink the production time, which, again, in today's world is really, really important.

因此，我們實際上縮減了——流程的這一部分。當我們把流程改進成產品時，結果就更好了。我們做的第三件事是自動化，而自動化的一部分就是人工智慧。因此，這三個因素共同作用，不同的內容類型重組了流程和工作內容，並提供了大量的自動化功能，包括人工智慧，使我們能夠縮短生產時間，這在當今世界真的非常重要。

As I mentioned earlier, we started making these changes in July. And so these are part of -- I mentioned -- we had more change than ever before in the second half of last year. This is one of those changes were again, it involves restructurings as well as process changes as well as substantive changes.

正如我之前提到的，我們從7月開始進行這些改變。所以這些都是——我之前提到的——去年下半年我們經歷的變化比以往任何時候都多的一部分。這次變革又涉及重組、流程變革和實質變革。

Scott Wurtzel, Wolfe Research.

Scott Wurtzel，Wolfe Research。

You've talked a lot about sort of expanding the breadth of your offerings, the velocity of the insights and the ease of use improvements as well. Just wondering if you can maybe talk about if there's any changes to your sales strategy, your go-to-market strategy that you're thinking about for this year? And then if you can also help us with how we should think about sort of the phasing of your quota-based headcount, quota-bearing headcount growth across GTS and GBS for '26.

您多次談到要擴大產品和服務範圍、加快洞察速度以及提高易用性。我想問一下，您能否談談今年在銷售策略和市場推廣策略方面是否有任何調整計劃？如果您還能幫助我們思考一下，對於 2026 年 GTS 和 GBS 的配額制員工人數成長，我們應該如何分階段進行，那就太好了。

Yes, Scott. So I did not focus as much on sales because the BTI transformation is so much -- such a step and a huge change for us. We've always done a lot of innovation in sales, and we continue to do those innovations. And so like -- and I'll give you some examples. So one of them is that we know that our salespeople they come in, they have not typically been the C-level clients that they're selling to.

是的，斯科特。所以，我沒有把太多精力放在銷售上，因為 BTI 的轉型對我們來說意義重大——是一次巨大的飛躍和變革。我們在銷售方面一直進行了許多創新，而且我們將繼續進行這些創新。所以就像──我舉幾個例子給你聽。其中一個原因是，我們知道我們的銷售人員，他們來的時候，通常不是他們所銷售的 C 級客戶。

So we need to make sure they have the skills of the confidence. We have various sensitive training programs. One of the things we've done to enhance that, which has actually worked out better than we expected actually is use AI-based role play tools so that we can put a sales person situation with these AI tools or they are talking to a prospect or a client about things like what's the value, how -- what questions they might have, if you like to just count -- why don't I give where those questions might be, that our sales feeling practiced ahead of time.

所以我們需要確保他們具備自信所需的技能。我們有各種敏感體能訓練項目。為了增強銷售能力，我們採取的措施之一，實際上比我們預期的效果還要好，就是使用基於人工智能的角色扮演工具，這樣我們就可以將銷售人員置於這些人工智能工具所處的情境中，讓他們與潛在客戶或現有客戶討論諸如產品價值、銷售方式等問題——他們可能會提出哪些問題，或者如果你願意，不妨列舉一下這些問題可能出現的位置——這樣我們的銷售人員就可以進行我們的銷售人員就可以列出這些問題可能出現的位置——我們可以提前進行。

We have always some old place, but adding AI-based tools has allowed us to exponentially explain those better role place. And the sales teams love these tools because it makes it so much more proficient. The second thing we're doing is there's content that if you look at all the content groups, we produce tons of it. What we've been doing is taking each week what is the content that would be most valuable for a salesperson in their role, whether they're selling CHROs it would be one set of content.

我們一直有一些舊地方，但添加基於人工智慧的工具使我們能夠以指數級的速度解釋這些更好的角色場所。銷售團隊非常喜歡這些工具，因為它們大大提高了工作效率。我們正在做的第二件事是，如果你查看所有內容群組，你會發現我們製作了大量的內容。我們每週都會思考，對於銷售人員來說，哪些內容最有價值，無論他們是銷售首席人力資源長 (CHRO) 還是其他職位，都會有一套內容。

If there's so CIOs a different set. If they're selling CFO, a different set. So for that week, if they had to be from one piece of conduct, what would it be we do it ever week. So what we're doing is actually identifying that content, and we have a whole process to get it up to our sales force and explain why they need to about that content, how they should talk up with clients, et cetera.

如果CIO的數量有所不同，那就另當別論了。如果他們賣的是財務長（CFO）職位，那就需要另一套方案。所以，如果那一週他們必須從一項行為中做出選擇，那會是什麼呢？我們每週都會這樣做。所以我們現在所做的，實際上是確定這些內容，並且我們有一套完整的流程將這些內容傳遞給我們的銷售團隊，並解釋為什麼他們需要這些內容，他們應該如何與客戶溝通等等。

It equips them to actually be much more substantive with our clients and confident on the issues that, that link are the most important, which is another piece we're doing. Another piece we're doing is expanding the role of business developers. And so we have a very modest sales force expansion planned for 2026. One of the things that we found even last -- even last year, our business developer productivity has been actually quite strong over time.

它使他們能夠與我們的客戶進行更實質的溝通，並對那些最重要的問題充滿信心，這也是我們正在做的另一件事。我們正在做的另一件事是擴大業務開發人員的角色。因此，我們計劃在 2026 年進行非常適度的銷售團隊擴張。我們發現，即使是去年，我們的業務開發人員的生產力也一直相當強勁。

So while we had a lot of challenges last year with existing clients, actually selling prospects, which are business developers do, was actually -- they were very strong. And so because the -- of our sales productivity strength there, that's the one place that we have added to our sales force going into 2026, which we think positions us well.

所以，儘管去年我們在現有客戶方面遇到了許多挑戰，但實際上，銷售潛在客戶（也就是業務開發人員的工作）卻非常出色。因此，由於我們在那裡的銷售效率優勢，這是我們在 2026 年增加銷售團隊的唯一地點，我們認為這將使我們處於有利地位。

Both 2026 and '27 is take time for people to full productivity. There's a lot of other changes that gives you a flavor for -- you didn't talk about a lot. We are continuing to innovate and maybe pick up the pace of innovation in sales and services as well.

2026 年和 2027 年都是人們恢復到完全生產力所需的時間。還有許多其他變化，讓你體會到──你沒怎麼提到。我們將繼續創新，並可能加快銷售和服務領域的創新步伐。

Jeff Silber, BMO Capital Markets.

Jeff Silber，BMO資本市場。

You guys always give us a lot of data, specifically on the retention side. And I know there's a lot of noise in that number because of federal government, et cetera. But I'm just curious, are you seeing clients keeping their relationships with you, but maybe cutting back on seats or taking a lower level of service? And if that's happening, how do you counter that?

你們總是提供我們很多數據，尤其是在用戶留存方面。我知道這個數字裡面有很多幹擾因素，像是聯邦政府等等。但我很好奇，您是否發現客戶在與您保持合作關係的同時，可能會減少座位數量或降低服務等級？如果這種情況發生，你該如何應對？

Yes. So let me get started on it. So basically, what you said is exactly right, which is, we see very two clients actually outline casted us. Of course, we lose clients because there's virtues of acquisitions, some small companies go out of business, things like that. We make a stake sometimes, but if we look at '24 to '25, most of the retention issue we had was a client who has times saying, well, because of budget problems, I'm going to go down to nine states.

是的。那我就開始吧。所以基本上，你說的完全正確，也就是說，我們看到只有兩家客戶真正向我們進行了初步篩選。當然，我們也會失去客戶，因為收購有其優勢，有些小公司會倒閉，諸如此類的事情。我們有時會進行一些投資，但如果回顧 2024 年至 2025 年，我們遇到的大部分客戶留存問題都是由於客戶有時會說，由於預算問題，我要將業務範圍縮小到九個州。

And that's kind of been the retention program issue that we faced. So that has been clients saying, well, I would go buy the Gartner. It's kind of -- it's been more -- I get a lot of Gartner. It's tough times, in fact, what often happens is clients have turnover. So somebody will leave a job, let's say they retire. They may not fill that position immediately.

這就是我們面臨的員工留任計劃問題。所以，客戶會說，嗯，我會去買 Gartner 的報告。某種程度上來說——其實更多——我常常收到 Gartner 的報告。事實上，現在情況嚴峻，客戶流失的情況很常見。假設有人退休了，就會離開工作崗位。他們可能不會立即填補這個職缺。

That's the most real see -- if someone leaves the job, changes companies or retires whatever. And it happens to sort of budget and they basically say, I've got 10 seats, one of them, so there's no one there right now because they left the company, so why don't we cut that seat out and then we'll revisit it when we get the position build. That's the most common thing we face in today's world.

這是最真實的情況——如果有人離職、換公司或退休等等。這涉及預算問題，他們基本上是說，我有 10 個席位，其中一個現在沒人，因為他們離開了公司，所以我們為什麼不取消這個席位，然後在職位構建完成後再重新考慮呢？這是我們在當今世界面臨的最常見問題。

And Jeff, just on the metric side of that, you can see, if you look at just the total global sales, client retention rates are up about 100 bps year-over-year. And so not only are we holding on to that, we're holding on to more of them on a year-over-year basis. The challenges all the things that Gene highlighted. And again, we believe all the things we're doing around the insights transformation are the things that are actually going to help change the outcome there from a retention perspective.

傑夫，僅從指標來看，如果你只看全球總銷售額，你會發現客戶留存率比去年同期上升了約 100 個基點。因此，我們不僅保留了這些資產，而且每年保留的資產數量都在增加。吉恩強調的所有挑戰。我們再次相信，我們圍繞著洞察轉型所做的一切，實際上都將有助於從客戶留存的角度改變結果。

And again, if you think about the investment in BD that Gene just talked about, all the things we're doing in the transformation business, continued process automation and process improvement, all of those things are what we believe will sort of bridge the gap and allow that contract value growth rate to accelerate in 2026.

再說一遍，想想吉恩剛才提到的對 BD 的投資，我們在轉型業務中所做的一切，持續的流程自動化和流程改進，我們相信所有這些都將彌合差距，並使合約價值增長率在 2026 年加速成長。

Ashish Sabadra, RBC Capital Markets.

Ashish Sabadra，加拿大皇家銀行資本市場。

You mentioned the tougher selling environment. I was just wondering, based on what you've seen in Jan, any thoughts or based on the feedback that you might have received for the sales people, how do you think about the sales environment in '26? what in particular, if you can talk about the demand environment and the budgets, how are shaping up?

您提到了更艱難的銷售環境。我只是想問一下，根據您在 1 月份看到的情況，或者根據您可能收到的銷售人員的反饋，您對 2026 年的銷售環境有什麼看法？具體來說，如果您能談談需求環境和預算狀況，它們目前進展如何？

And color on those external market forces by industrial, that any particular industry like the tariff impact to industry if you have seen any lessening of pressure on that front?

以及從產業角度分析這些外部市場力量，例如關稅對特定產業的影響，您是否觀察到這方面的壓力有所減輕？

So we're certainly assuming that this year 2026, that the selling environment is going to be no better anticipated in 2025, that there's still going to be lots of challenges. So that's kind of our assumption. What I will say is that there are areas that are worse. So for example, when you're -- we sell to every industry, including, for example, oil producers.

因此，我們當然假設 2026 年的銷售環境不會比 2025 年好轉，仍會面臨許多挑戰。所以，這算是我們的假設。我想說的是，有些地方的情況更糟。例如，當您—我們向各個行業銷售產品，包括例如石油生產商。

And if you look from oil prices going down, they have a tougher environment than I did even last year with lower oil prices. On the other hand, a lot of the tariffs have stabilized. So some of the companies that had turnover tariffs are kind of -- and with 15% tariffs, if that's where it stays at, we can live with that. And so I think it's a mixed bag in sort of every part of the economy.

而且，從油價下跌的角度來看，他們的處境比我去年油價更低的時候還要艱難。另一方面，許多關稅已經趨於穩定。所以一些徵收營業額關稅的公司有點——如果關稅維持在 15%，我們也能接受。所以我認為經濟的各個面向都呈現出喜憂參半的局面。

And so there are some parts that are a little bit better and there are other parts, I think, that are worse. So -- but again, we're assuming behind is not going to get better at all.

所以有些部分稍微好一些，而有些部分，我認為，則更糟一些。所以——但我們再次假設落後的局面根本不會好轉。

[George Tong], Goldman Sachs.

[George Tong]，高盛。

This is [Sami] on for George. Your margin guidance suggests a step down from 2025. Is this the new baseline for the business since the incremental investments seem more PAUSE structural? Or do you view the decline as temporary and margins should return to that 25% level fairly quickly?

這是薩米替喬治上場。您的利潤率預期表明，2025 年的利潤率將有所下降。鑑於增量投資似乎更偏向結構性調整，這是否是企業的新基準？或者您認為這種下滑只是暫時的，利潤率應該很快就會恢復到 25% 的水平？

So as we built the plan for 2026, I'd say a couple of things. So one is we've been managing our run rate into 2026 over the course of 2025. And we talked about this a little bit in our prepared remarks, basically ensuring our cost base is aligned with CV growth and also with the corresponding revenue growth. And so some of the actions we took 2025, we got benefit in '25 -- 2026.

所以，在製定 2026 年計畫時，我想說幾點。所以，其中之一是，我們在 2025 年期間一直在管理我們到 2026 年的運行率。我們在事先準備好的發言稿中也稍微談到了這一點，主要是確保我們的成本基礎與商用車業務的成長以及相應的收入成長一致。因此，我們在 2025 年採取的一些行動，在 2025 年至 2026 年期間得到了回報。

Those were really for 2026. So that would be the first point to make. Second point I'd make is we've got our assumed operating expense plan, if you will, for 2026. Growing at about 5% year-over-year. And there's a little bit of FX in there. So on an FX net basis, growing around 4% year-over-year. That's basically our merit increase plus some selected investments, which we talked about in our prepared remarks.

那些實際上是為2026年準備的。所以，這是首先要說明的一點。第二點是，我們已經制定了 2026 年的預期營運費用計畫。年增約 5%。裡面還有一些特效。因此，以外匯淨額計算，年增約 4%。這基本上就是我們的績效工資成長加上一些精選的投資，我們在準備好的發言稿中已經談到了這些投資。

And then the third thing I'd say is, yes, we do believe that 23.5% is the new baseline, if you will, and we should be able to expand our margins going forward. Now again, with faster CV growth, as Gene highlighted, that certainly helps from a revenue growth perspective, EBITDA flow through free cash flow perspective, et cetera, and ultimately margin perspective.

第三點是，是的，我們認為 23.5% 是新的基準線，我們應該能夠在未來擴大利潤率。正如 Gene 所強調的那樣，隨著 CV 成長速度加快，這無疑有助於收入成長、EBITDA 透過自由現金流等方式提升，並最終提高利潤率。

But again, we baked in accelerating CV growth into our plan for 2026. As you know, the revenue does lag that. And so that's also part of the margin bridge story from '25.

但是，我們再次將加速 CV 成長納入了 2026 年的計畫中。如你所知，收入確實落後於此。所以這也是 1925 年邊緣橋樑故事的一部分。

I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Gene Hall for closing remarks.

我目前沒有其他問題要問。我謹將電話交還給吉恩·霍爾，請他作總結發言。

So here's what I'd like you to take away from today's call. Q4 financial results were ahead of expectations. Margins and free cash flow were strong. We reduced our shares outstanding by 8% in the year. In 2025, we began transforming business and technology insights on four dimension. Impact, volume, timeliness and user experience.

所以，我希望大家從今天的電話會議中記住以下幾點。第四季財務業績超出預期。利潤率和自由現金流表現強勁。本年度，我們的流通股數量減少了 8%。2025年，我們開始從四個維度轉變商業和技術洞察。影響力、數量、及時性和使用者體驗。

These transformations will allow us to thrive and will it greater change and uncertainty. We expect to see the impact over the next few years, and we'll continue to keep you updated on our progress. Looking ahead, we're well positioned to accelerate CV growth throughout 2026. We will continue to create value for our shareholders by providing timely objective insight, guidance and tools for our clients, responsibly investing for future growth, generating free cash flow well in excess of net income and returning capital to our shareholders through our repurchase program. Thanks for joining us today, and we look forward to updating you again next quarter.

這些變革將使我們能夠蓬勃發展，同時也帶來更大的變化和不確定性。我們預計未來幾年將看到影響，我們將持續向您報告進度。展望未來，我們已做好充分準備，在 2026 年加速 CV 業務成長。我們將繼續透過以下方式為股東創造價值：為客戶提供及時、客觀的見解、指導和工具；負責任地投資於未來的成長；產生遠超淨收入的自由現金流；並透過回購計畫向股東返還資本。感謝您今天參加我們的節目，我們期待下個季度再次與您分享最新進展。

Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Good day.

感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線了。再會。