甲骨文 (ORCL) 2001 Q2 法說會逐字稿

PEOPLESOFT INCORPORATED SECOND QUARTER EARNINGS CONFERENCE CALL

PEOPLESOFT INCORPORATED 第二季財報電話會議

Good afternoon, and welcome to the PeopleSoft second quarter earnings conference call. Replays of this conference call will be available for seven days following the call, by dialing 1800-964-45-72. There is no pass code needed for the replay. Again that number is 1800-964-45-72. I'd now like to turn the call over to PeopleSoft's Vice-President of Investor relations David Sankaran, and sir, you may begin.

各位下午好，歡迎參加 PeopleSoft 第二季財報電話會議。本次電話會議結束後七天內可收聽重播，請撥打 1800-964-45-72。收聽重播不需要密碼。再重複一次，電話是 1800-964-45-72。現在我想把電話交給 PeopleSoft 投資人關係副總裁 David Sankaran，先生，請開始。

Thank-you. Good afternoon and welcome to PeopleSoft's second quarter earnings conference call. Joining me today is Craig Conway, our President and CEO, and Kevin Parker, PeopleSoft's Chief Financial Officer. During this call, we will review PeopleSoft's results of operations for the second quarter and provide an overview of current market conditions. We will also share some of our expectations for PeopleSoft's future financial performance. After our commentary, we will open up the conference call for questions. Please remember, our discussions of quarterly results and our business outlook may contain forward-looking statements. A particular forward-looking statement and other statements that may be made on this conference call that are no historical facts are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. These specific forward-looking statements may relate to such matters as future customer demands, competitive landscape, including our [________________] as competitors, new product development status, position of the eBusiness software application sector, and future financial performance or expectations; including revenue, operating margins, and earnings expectations. Please refer to the company's current earnings press release, our annual report on Form 10-K, and our quarterly filings on Form 10-Q for more information on some of the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ. Please remember, the company undertakes no obligations to update any information presented in this discussion. Now let me turn the call over to Craig.

謝謝。各位下午好，歡迎參加 PeopleSoft 第二季財報電話會議。今天與我一同出席的有我們的總裁暨執行長 Craig Conway，以及 PeopleSoft 的財務長 Kevin Parker。在本次電話會議中，我們將回顧 PeopleSoft 第二季的營運成果，並提供目前市場狀況的概述。我們也會分享對 PeopleSoft 未來財務表現的一些預期。在我們的說明之後，將開放提問。請記得，我們對季度業績與業務展望的討論可能包含前瞻性陳述。於本次電話會議中所作出的特定前瞻性陳述，以及其他非歷史事實的陳述，均可能受到多項風險與不確定性影響，實際結果可能出現重大差異。這些特定前瞻性陳述可能涉及未來客戶需求、競爭態勢（包括我們的 [________________] 作為競爭對手）、新產品開發進度、電子商務（eBusiness）軟體應用領域的市場地位，以及未來財務表現或預期（包括營收、營業利潤率與獲利預期）等事項。關於可能導致實際結果不同的部分風險因素，請參閱公司最新的財報新聞稿、Form 10-K 年報，以及 Form 10-Q 季度申報文件以取得更多資訊。請記得，公司不承擔更新本次討論中所呈現任何資訊的義務。現在讓我把電話交給 Craig。

Good afternoon everybody. This was a remarkable quarter for PeopleSoft and one of the most challenging economic environments in the past 20 years. PeopleSoft was able to achieve record financial results. The company achieved total revenue of $533 million, an increase of 27% over the prior year. That's the highest total revenue in the company's history. Net income increased to $46 million, an increase of 188% over the prior year. Total cash and cash investments were $1.4 billion, an increase of $247 million in a single quarter. That again was the highest cash balance in the company's history. We experienced positive cash flow from operations of $152 million which again was the highest in the company's history. And finally, DSO decreased to 68 days from 77 days during the quarter, a 9-day reduction in a single quarter, the lowest DSO in the company's history. Truly, we are very pleased with PeopleSoft's financial performance in Q2. The company continues to gain share in the enterprise application market; our PS8 Internet architecture is widely regarded as superior to our competitors. We are growing in our traditional product categories of human resource management and financial management, at the same time we are also growing in newer product categories such as customer relationship management and supply chain management. Frankly in Q2, PeopleSoft did better than we expected, but it wasn't easier than we expected. In fact, the macroeconomic environment is becoming more difficult, not less difficult. Nevertheless, we continue to believe that the outlook for PeopleSoft is very bright indeed. I am going to turn the call over to Kevin Parker, PeopleSoft's Chief Financial Officer for more financial details on the quarter but then I am going to come back and comment on the business climate, our experiences during the last quarter, and our expectations for the second half of the year. Kevin.

各位下午好。對 PeopleSoft 而言，這是一個非凡的季度，同時也是過去 20 年來最具挑戰性的經濟環境之一。PeopleSoft 仍然能夠創下創紀錄的財務成果。公司總營收達 5.33 億美元，較去年同期成長 27%，這是公司歷史上最高的總營收。淨利增加至 4,600 萬美元，較去年同期成長 188%。現金及現金投資總額為 14 億美元，單季增加 2.47 億美元；這同樣是公司歷史上最高的現金餘額。我們的營運活動產生正向現金流 1.52 億美元，亦為公司歷史新高。最後，DSO 於本季由 77 天降至 68 天，單季減少 9 天，為公司歷史最低的 DSO。總之，我們對 PeopleSoft 在第二季的財務表現非常滿意。公司持續在企業應用軟體市場提升市占；我們的 PS8 網際網路架構被廣泛認為優於競爭對手。我們在傳統產品類別（人力資源管理與財務管理）持續成長，同時也在較新的產品類別（如客戶關係管理與供應鏈管理）成長。坦白說，第二季 PeopleSoft 的表現優於我們的預期，但並不比我們預期更容易。事實上，總體經濟環境正變得更困難，而不是更容易。儘管如此，我們仍然相信 PeopleSoft 的前景確實非常光明。我將把電話交給 PeopleSoft 財務長 Kevin Parker，請他提供本季更多財務細節；之後我會再回來評論商業環境、我們在上一季的經驗，以及我們對下半年表現的預期。Kevin。

Thanks Craig. As Craig announced total revenues for the second quarter of 2001, reached a record of $533 million. This represents an increase of 27% over the same quarter last year and 6% growth over Q1 2001. This is the fifth consecutive quarter of record quarterly revenue for PeopleSoft. License revenues in Q2 were $166 million, an increase of 51% over the same quarter last year. In reviewing the geographic split of our license revenues, we continue to see worldwide acceptance of PeopleSoft 8 with approximately 39% of our license revenue generated internationally during the quarter. Year-over-year license revenue growth was 48% in the US and 57% internationally. Using constant foreign currency exchange rates, the international growth rate would have been nearly 70%. During the quarter, we won a number of large deals including 24 Hour Fitness, AT&T Wireless Services, Credit Suisse, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the US Department of Defense, France Telecom, Hewlett Packard, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Nextel, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Ross Stores, Siemens Business Services, TD Waterhouse Group, Tiffany & Company, and Waste Management. During the quarter, we signed 29 deals in excess of $1 million and our average new deal size exceeded $600,000. We also added 120 new customers during the quarter. New customers accounted for 35% of our license revenue, a slight decrease from 37% in Q1. Notably, since the launch of PeopleSoft in September 2000, we have added over 500 new customers. As of today, we have over 160 customers live on PeopleSoft 8, and there are more than 1000 implementations underway. Q2 service revenues of $337 million increased 20% from the same quarter last year and 6% sequentially. The major components for service revenue, maintenance revenue, and consulting revenue increased sequentially and year-over-year. Reviewing our cost and expenses, our total expenses grew at a much slower year-over-year rate than total revenue. We have continued our focus on profitably growing our business. As we have described before, our hirings, since last summer, has been focused primarily on revenue generating headcount, sales reps, and billable consultants. We continue to keep a close eye on our expenses as well as our headcount growth. The clearest way to see this is in the expansion of our operating profit margin which nearly tripled from Q2 of 2000, to 10.7% during the quarter. Let me hit the components of our cost, in Q2 gross margins on license revenue of 89% and gross margin on services of 45% were both essentially unchanged from Q1. During Q2, our sales and marketing expenses increased to $131 million from $112 million in the second quarter of 2000. The increase is due to our continuing investment in expanding our marketing activities, and the addition of new sales reps to leverage the PeopleSoft 8 opportunity. During the past year, we increased the number of direct sales reps by over 60%. Q2 sales and marketing expenses were 25% of total revenues. This percentage is down from 27% in Q2 of 2000, and is unchanged from Q1 of this year. Product development expenses, including the cost of development services, were $100 million, a decrease of 10% from the same quarter last year and 6% sequentially. As a percentage of revenue, product development expenses, including the cost of development services, declined to 19% of revenue from 26% in the second quarter of 2000, and from 21% in the first quarter of 2001. As we have discussed on several occasions, we expect product development expenses as a percentages of revenue to decline over the next several quarters ultimately reaching 15%. G&A expenses were $42 million for the quarter. G&A as a percentage of revenue was 7.8%, up from 6.7% in Q1. Two primary factors were behind the increase, first, we recorded additional expenses for nonproduct related litigation. I want to be very clear, contrary to recent rumors, these charges were for historical nonproduct related legal matters. The second factor impacting G&A expenses relates to the investments we are making in improving our worldwide systems and processes to support our expected future growth. We are upgrading to the PeopleSoft 8 eBusiness applications for each major business process area financials, supply chain, human resources, CRM, and analytics. We are live on PeopleSoft's HR, and we will be live on CRM next week. The remaining systems will be live in the coming months. Other income, which consists primarily of interest income, increased 60% over the prior year to $13 million. The increase is attributable to higher interest earned resulting from our higher cash and investment balances partially offset by lower interest rates. Looking at profitability, we made significant improvements during the quarter. Operating income from our current operations increased year-over-year by 253% to $57 million. Operating margin from our recurring operations as a percentage of revenues was 10.7%, up from 3.8% in Q2 of 2000. Net income from recurring operations increased year-over-year by a 188% to $46 million. Finally, earnings per share from recurring operations came in at 14 cents, 2 cents better than Wall Street's consensus estimate and up from 6 cents in Q2 of 2000. Reported earnings per share including $1.5 million favorable after tax impact, from two nonrecurring acquisition related items was 15 cents. Focusing on our balance sheets, significant highlights for the quarter include cash and investments increasing by $247 million during the quarter to $1.4 billion at June 30th. This reflects our continuing focus on maintaining a very solid cash flow and strong balance sheet. In fact, during the past 12 months, our cash and investment balances grew by over $600 million, a 76% increase. Cash flow from operations of $152 million during the quarter, up 168% sequentially. DSO declined to a record low of 68 days at the end of the second quarter. This is significant improvement from 77 days last quarter. I'd like to point out that these results do not include any factoring. We have not factored any receivables since last year, and we do not intend to factor anything in the future. We are very pleased with our focus on collections that has driven DSO down to best in class levels. Going forward, we continue to expect DSO to remain in our target range of 70 to 80 days. Total deferred revenues increased in Q2 by 1% from the prior quarter to $523 million. As we discussed in our last conference call, deferred license revenue declined by $13 million during the quarter to $26 million at June 30th. This decrease is consistent with our focus on maintaining business practices that result in current period revenue recognition. As a result of this focus, deferred license revenues may continue to decrease slightly going forward. As Craig stated earlier in the call, we are very pleased with our continued strong performance during a very tough macroeconomic period. We remain very concerned with these current global economic conditions. As we look forward, we do not expect these conditions to change in the near term. However, our pipeline continues to grow substantially and our execution remains strong. Taking all of these factors into account, for Q3, we expect to increase both license revenue and EPS sequentially, and we expect to come in slightly ahead of the current Wall Street consensus estimates, specifically we're expecting Q3 license revenue to be in the range of $165 million to $170 million. We also expect Q3 earnings per share to increase sequentially by one penny to 15 cents per share. For Q4, we remain comfortable with the consensus estimates. For the full year, we now expect license revenues to slightly exceed our previous guidance of 35% year-over-year growth, and we now expect earnings per share to be at the high end of our previous range of 55 cents to 60 cents. Let me turn the call back to Craig for additional comments about our results and future expectations. Craig?

謝謝你，Craig。正如 Craig 所宣布的，2001 年第二季總營收達到創紀錄的 5.33 億美元。這較去年同期成長 27%，較 2001 年第一季成長 6%。這是 PeopleSoft 連續第五個季度創下單季營收新高。第二季授權收入為 1.66 億美元，較去年同期成長 51%。在檢視我們授權收入的地理分布時，我們持續看到 PeopleSoft 8 在全球獲得採用，本季約有 39% 的授權收入來自國際市場。授權收入年增率在美國為 48%，在國際市場為 57%。若以固定匯率計算，國際成長率將接近 70%。本季我們贏得多筆大型交易，包括 24 Hour Fitness、AT&T Wireless Services、Credit Suisse、Dana-Farber Cancer Institute、美國國防部、France Telecom、Hewlett Packard、Morgan Stanley Dean Witter、Nextel、Pricewaterhouse Coopers、Ross Stores、Siemens Business Services、TD Waterhouse Group、Tiffany & Company，以及 Waste Management。本季我們簽下 29 筆超過 100 萬美元的交易，平均新交易金額超過 60 萬美元。我們也在本季新增 120 家新客戶。新客戶貢獻了我們授權收入的 35%，較第一季的 37% 略為下降。值得注意的是，自 2000 年 9 月推出 PeopleSoft 以來，我們已新增超過 500 家新客戶。截至今日，已有超過 160 家客戶在 PeopleSoft 8 上線，且有超過 1000 個導入案正在進行中。第二季服務收入為 3.37 億美元，較去年同期成長 20%，並較前一季成長 6%。服務收入的主要構成項目—維護收入與顧問服務收入—無論按季或年增皆有所提升。檢視我們的成本與費用，總費用的年增率遠低於總營收的年增率。我們持續專注於以獲利方式擴大業務。如同先前所述，自去年夏天以來，我們的招募主要集中在能帶來營收的人力，包括業務代表與可計費顧問。我們持續密切關注費用以及人力成長。最明顯的體現是營業利益率的擴張：相較 2000 年第二季幾乎成長至近三倍，本季達到 10.7%。我來說明成本的各項組成：第二季授權收入毛利率為 89%，服務毛利率為 45%，兩者與第一季基本持平。第二季銷售與行銷費用由 2000 年第二季的 1.12 億美元增加至 1.31 億美元。增加原因在於我們持續投資擴大行銷活動，以及新增業務代表以把握 PeopleSoft 8 的機會。過去一年，我們直銷業務代表人數增加超過 60%。第二季銷售與行銷費用占總營收 25%。此比例低於 2000 年第二季的 27%，且與今年第一季持平。產品開發費用（含開發服務成本）為 1.00 億美元，較去年同期下降 10%，並較前一季下降 6%。以營收百分比來看，產品開發費用（含開發服務成本）降至營收的 19%，低於 2000 年第二季的 26%，也低於 2001 年第一季的 21%。如同我們多次討論，我們預期未來幾個季度產品開發費用占營收比重將持續下降，最終達到 15%。本季一般及行政（G&A）費用為 4,200 萬美元。G&A 占營收比重為 7.8%，高於第一季的 6.7%。增加主要有兩個因素：第一，我們認列了與非產品相關訴訟的額外費用。我想非常清楚地說，與近期傳聞相反，這些費用是針對歷史性的、非產品相關法律事項。第二個影響 G&A 費用的因素，與我們為支援預期未來成長而投資改善全球系統與流程有關。我們正針對各主要業務流程領域—財務、供應鏈、人力資源、CRM 與分析—升級至 PeopleSoft 8 電子商務應用。我們已在 PeopleSoft 的人力資源系統上線，並將於下週在 CRM 上線。其餘系統將在未來幾個月陸續上線。其他收入（主要為利息收入）較去年增加 60% 至 1,300 萬美元。增加原因在於我們較高的現金與投資餘額帶來較高利息收入，但部分被較低利率所抵銷。就獲利能力而言，我們在本季有顯著改善。持續營運的營業利益年增 253% 至 5,700 萬美元。持續營運的營業利益率占營收比重為 10.7%，高於 2000 年第二季的 3.8%。持續營運的淨利年增 188% 至 4,600 萬美元。最後，持續營運每股盈餘為 14 美分，比華爾街一致預估高 2 美分，亦高於 2000 年第二季的 6 美分。若包含兩項非經常性併購相關項目帶來稅後 150 萬美元的有利影響，報導每股盈餘為 15 美分。聚焦資產負債表，本季重要亮點包括：截至 6 月 30 日，現金與投資在本季增加 2.47 億美元至 14 億美元。這反映我們持續專注於維持非常穩健的現金流與強健的資產負債表。事實上，過去 12 個月，我們的現金與投資餘額增加超過 6 億美元，增幅 76%。本季營運活動現金流為 1.52 億美元，較前一季成長 168%。第二季末 DSO 降至創紀錄低點 68 天，較上季的 77 天顯著改善。我想指出，這些結果不包含任何應收帳款承購（factoring）。自去年以來我們未承作任何應收帳款承購，未來也無意承作。我們對於專注收款、將 DSO 降至同業最佳水準感到非常滿意。展望未來，我們仍預期 DSO 將維持在目標區間 70 至 80 天。第二季遞延收入總額較前一季增加 1% 至 5.23 億美元。如同我們在上次電話會議所討論，遞延授權收入本季減少 1,300 萬美元，至 6 月 30 日為 2,600 萬美元。此下降與我們專注維持能在當期認列收入之商業作法一致。基於此一專注，遞延授權收入未來可能仍會小幅下降。正如 Craig 先前在電話會議中所說，在非常艱困的總體經濟期間，我們對持續強勁的表現感到非常滿意。我們仍對目前全球經濟狀況深感憂慮。展望未來，我們不預期短期內這些狀況會改變。然而，我們的銷售管道（pipeline）仍大幅成長，執行力也維持強勁。綜合考量上述因素，對於第三季，我們預期授權收入與每股盈餘（EPS）皆將較前一季成長，並預期將略高於目前華爾街一致預估；具體而言，我們預期第三季授權收入將落在 1.65 億至 1.70 億美元之間。我們也預期第三季每股盈餘將較前一季增加 1 美分至每股 15 美分。對於第四季，我們仍對一致預估感到安心。就全年而言，我們現在預期授權收入將略高於先前給出的年增 35% 指引，並預期每股盈餘將落在先前區間 55 至 60 美分的高端。接下來我把電話交回 Craig，請他就我們的結果與未來展望補充說明。Craig？

Thank-you Kevin. Three months ago, on the Q1 earnings call, I said the macroeconomic environment was very difficult, particularly in United States. Spending was being curtailed in all categories including IT. Approval cycles were longer and required more justification for return on investment and discounting pressure was high in that type of market. I said at that time that PeopleSoft was not immune from the effects of the market. I did not see that market improving, and in that respect, I think, on both accounts, I was right. The market did not improve in the past 3 months. In fact, as Kevin mentioned, those conditions that I described at the end of Q1 have now spread to the international markets. Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific, all showed signs of slowing, and in fact, PeopleSoft was not immune. Our overall conversion rate in Q2 actually decreased. We may have actually done better in Q2, but the rate of closing deals in the pipeline decreased. But despite the macroeconomic environment, that has now impacted the international markets and the decrease in the rate of closing deals in the pipeline, PeopleSoft continues to still be able to post record quarters. Why? One answer is simply that the increase in our pipeline is higher than the decrease in the closure rate. In other words, the interest in PeopleSoft's Enterprise Software is growing faster and the conversion rate is slowing down, and it's the rapid growth of the pipeline that continues to give us confidence, not only in the short term but is, in fact, very exciting to us in the long term. Second reason is that our win rate against competition is very high right now. The PeopleSoft 8 product line is simply very strong in competitive evaluations. Overall, we feel that PeopleSoft is uniquely positioned even in this difficult market. In fact, in a difficult market, companies were particularly concerned with increasing productivity and reducing cost, and by moving enterprise applications to the Internet, it has been estimated by various research firms that companies can save up to 90% on implementation and administration, and by moving enterprise applications to the Internet, it allows collaboration between customer systems, supply chain systems, and human capital management systems, and that represent an enormous increase in productivity. So, every company today seems to want to build a collaborative enterprise, and as they investigate how to do that, they discover three things. One, that PeopleSoft has a technology architecturally, with many large customers live and in full production on PeopleSoft 8 including WalMart with 980,000 employees live on the PeopleSoft 8 HR system, and Credit Suisse First Boston, with the PeopleSoft 8 global financial system live around the world, right now. The second thing companies discover is that PeopleSoft has a best of breed product line not only of customer relationship management but of supply chain management, financial management, and human resource management software that is also fully integrated. The third thing companies discover is that PeopleSoft enjoys a high level of customer satisfaction and reference ability. We're known as a trustworthy partner. The latest example of that is today's announcement of a global alliance with IBM, integrating WebSphere into the entire PeopleSoft product line. So, that's why we're really affirming guidance for the remainder of the year despite a challenging market. Now, as Kevin mentioned, that's not to say we believe it's going to be easy, we don't, we're cautious, in fact, we're more than cautious. We would continue to take additional steps to manage expenses to help us achieve our financial goals. At the same time, we continue to invest in certain growth factors and growth drivers, including customer relationship management where we recently released a product we feel is the best in the industry, and that is being reviewed very highly by customers and analysts alike. In the end, I'd say, I've never felt more confident about PeopleSoft's product line, our management team, and our position in the marketplace. I believe we will continue to execute well, and as I said, more than 2 years ago, when I joined the company, I do believe PeopleSoft's best days are still yet to come. At this time, I would like to move to the question and answer portion of the call. Operator, if you could please begin the polling.

謝謝你，Kevin。三個月前，在第一季財報電話會議上，我說總體經濟環境非常艱難，尤其是在美國。各類別的支出都在縮減，包括 IT。核准週期變得更長，且需要對投資報酬提出更多佐證，而在那樣的市場中，折扣壓力也很高。我當時說 PeopleSoft 並非不受市場影響。我沒有看到市場會改善，而在這一點上，我想，兩方面我都說對了。過去三個月市場並未改善。事實上，如 Kevin 所提到的，我在第一季末所描述的那些情況如今已擴散到國際市場。歐洲、拉丁美洲與亞太地區都出現放緩跡象，而事實上，PeopleSoft 也未能免疫。我們第二季的整體轉換率實際上下滑。我們第二季的表現或許其實更好，但管線中成交結案的比率下降了。然而，儘管總體經濟環境如今已影響到國際市場，且管線成交結案比率下降，PeopleSoft 仍然能夠繳出創紀錄的季度。為什麼？其中一個答案很簡單：我們管線的增加幅度大於結案率下降的幅度。換言之，市場對 PeopleSoft 企業軟體的興趣成長速度更快，而轉換率雖在放緩，但管線的快速成長持續帶給我們信心，不僅是短期，事實上，長期也令我們非常振奮。第二個原因是，我們目前對抗競爭對手的勝率非常高。PeopleSoft 8 產品線在競爭性評估中確實非常強勢。整體而言，即使在這樣艱困的市場中，我們仍認為 PeopleSoft 具備獨特的有利定位。事實上，在艱困市場裡，企業特別關切提升生產力與降低成本；而透過將企業應用移轉到網際網路上，各研究機構估計企業在導入與管理上最多可節省 90% 的成本；同時，將企業應用移轉到網際網路也能促進客戶系統、供應鏈系統與人力資本管理系統之間的協作，這代表生產力的巨大提升。因此，如今每家公司似乎都想打造協作型企業，而在研究如何做到時，他們會發現三件事。第一，PeopleSoft 在技術架構上具備優勢，且已有許多大型客戶在 PeopleSoft 8 上線並全面投入正式生產，包括沃爾瑪（WalMart）有 98 萬名員工已在 PeopleSoft 8 人資系統上線，以及瑞士信貸第一波士頓（Credit Suisse First Boston）目前在全球各地上線運行 PeopleSoft 8 全球財務系統。第二，企業會發現 PeopleSoft 擁有同級最佳（best of breed）的產品線，不僅涵蓋客戶關係管理，也涵蓋供應鏈管理、財務管理與人力資源管理軟體，而且完全整合。第三，企業會發現 PeopleSoft 享有高度的客戶滿意度與可供引用的客戶推薦。我們以值得信賴的合作夥伴著稱。最新的例子就是今天宣布與 IBM 建立全球聯盟，將 WebSphere 整合到整個 PeopleSoft 產品線中。因此，儘管市場充滿挑戰，我們仍重申今年剩餘期間的財測指引。現在，如 Kevin 所提到的，這並不表示我們認為接下來會很容易；我們不這麼認為，我們保持審慎，事實上，我們不只是審慎。我們將持續採取額外措施來控管費用，以協助達成我們的財務目標。同時，我們也持續投資於某些成長因素與成長驅動力，包括客戶關係管理；我們最近推出一項產品，我們認為是業界最佳，且正獲得客戶與分析師一致的高度評價。總結來說，我從未對 PeopleSoft 的產品線、管理團隊以及我們在市場上的定位如此有信心。我相信我們將持續良好執行；而且如我在兩年多前加入公司時所說，我確實相信 PeopleSoft 最好的日子仍在前方。此刻，我想進入本次電話會議的問答環節。接線員，請開始輪詢。

Thank you, and at this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press '*' and then '1' on your touch-tone phone. At this time, please press '*' '1' on your touch-tone phone. Our first question comes from Tom Berquist, and sir, your line is open. Please state you company name.

謝謝。此刻，如果您想提問，請在您的按鍵式電話上按下「*」再按「1」。此刻請在您的按鍵式電話上按「*」「1」。我們的第一個問題來自 Tom Berquist，先生，您的線路已開通。請說明您的公司名稱。

Goldman Sachs. Great quarter guys. If you look at the time of the competitive landscape in light of all those factors that you have been looking at, it does appear that we're seeing a little bit of a swing back towards some of the larger package app vendors and that coupled with the other architectural changes that you alluded to does seem to reward, kind of, a different set of vendors that has been rewarded over the last year. Is that your sense? And if that's the case, can you talk about the competitors you see most often?

高盛（Goldman Sachs）。各位這一季表現很棒。若從競爭態勢的角度，結合你們一直在觀察的所有因素來看，似乎我們正看到市場稍微回擺，轉向一些較大型的套裝應用軟體供應商；再加上你們提到的其他架構性變化，確實看起來會讓一組不同的供應商受益，而不是過去一年受益的那一組。這是你們的感受嗎？如果是的話，能否談談你們最常遇到的競爭對手是哪些？

Tom, I do think that's the case. I think particularly in this market, companies are preoccupied with productivity and expense management and as companies look at their large IT enterprise systems, they are attracted to the proposition of putting them on the Internet, because putting them on the Internet will reduce cost up to 90%, and it simply doesn't cost very as much to implement a enterprise wide implementation if all the code is on the various servers, and it is not on any clients. So, I think that reduces cost and it does play to company's interest in increasing productivity, because when you get all the enterprise applications running on the Internet with an XML architecture, you can have collaboration between customer management systems and supply chain management systems and supply chain management systems and financial management systems and human resource management systems. So, I think in this market in particular, the value proposition has shifted probably back to an interest in productivity and reducing cost. I think that in a relatively competitive landscape, I feel that the vendors that are playing to that interest are PeopleSoft, and I think we are perceived as thought leaders in that category and architecture leaders in that category, and probably SAP, who as well as seems to be able to achieve growth in this market. I think that the smaller a company and the more isolated they are in their product line, in other words, the more they are a small part of a collaborative enterprise instead of a multiproduct line company, I think, the more difficult it is. So, I think best of breed providers are having a more difficult time than the suite providers right now.

Tom，我確實認為情況如此。我想特別是在這個市場裡，企業一心關注生產力與費用管理；當企業檢視其大型 IT 企業系統時，會被把它們搬到網際網路上的主張所吸引，因為上網可將成本降低多達 90%；而且如果所有程式碼都在各個伺服器上、而不在任何用戶端上，進行企業級的全面導入在實作上就不會那麼昂貴。所以，我認為這能降低成本，也符合企業提升生產力的需求；因為當所有企業應用都以 XML 架構在網際網路上運行時，就能在客戶管理系統與供應鏈管理系統、以及供應鏈管理系統與財務管理系統與人力資源管理系統之間進行協作。因此，我認為在這個市場中，價值主張可能已轉回到對提升生產力與降低成本的關注。我認為在相對競爭的格局下，能迎合這種需求的供應商是 PeopleSoft；我想我們在該類別被視為思想領導者與架構領導者；另外可能還有 SAP，他們似乎也能在這個市場中維持成長。我認為公司規模越小、產品線越孤立——換言之，在協作型企業中只是很小的一部分，而不是多產品線公司——就越困難。因此，我認為同級最佳（best of breed）供應商目前比套件式（suite）供應商更吃力。

Great. Thanks.

很好。謝謝。

Thank you, and our next question comes from Neil Herman. Sir, your line is open. Please state your company name.

謝謝，下一個問題來自 Neil Herman。先生，您的線路已開通。請先說明您的公司名稱。

Lehman Brothers. Congratulations. Your capital I saw for the quarter was up a bit, I presume that's associated with the SkillsVillage acquisition, could you walk us through that, and then, secondarily, on the competitive environment, could you just talk a little bit about what you're seeing competitively from Oracle, SAP, and it seems Siebel these days is announcing some of your CRM deals on their calls. Could you just talk a little bit more in depth about some of the deals you've won specifically in that space, and how are you competing there?

Lehman Brothers。恭喜。你們本季我看到的資本（capital）略有上升，我推測這與收購 SkillsVillage 有關；能否帶我們梳理一下？其次，關於競爭環境，能否談談你們目前看到來自 Oracle、SAP 的競爭情況？另外，近來看起來 Siebel 也在他們的電話會議上宣布了你們的一些 CRM 交易。你能否更深入談談你們在該領域具體贏下的一些案子，以及你們是如何在那裡競爭的？

In terms of this SkillsVillage acquisition Neil, I think, I'm not sure of the details behind the question that was accounted for as a purchase, and it was closed during the course of quarter. We had an IP R&D write-off that was part of a nonrecurring charges we spoke of during the course of the prepared text. I'm not sure what the specifics of the question are that you're asking.

就 SkillsVillage 這筆收購而言，Neil，我想——我不太確定你問題背後的細節——它是以收購（purchase）方式入帳，並且在本季期間完成交割。我們有一筆 IP 研發（R&D）沖銷，屬於我們在事先準備稿中提到的一次性費用的一部分。我不太確定你所問問題的具體點是什麼。

Yes, your caps offer increased from 6.5 to 15 million in the quarter. I was just wondering would it.........

是的，你們本季的資本支出（capex）從 650 萬增加到 1,500 萬。我只是想知道是否會……

That is the intangible assets associated with the SkillsVillage acquisition, you're correct.

那是與 SkillsVillage 收購相關的無形資產，你說得沒錯。

Okay, great.

好的，很好。

On the competitive front, I tend to think all of our major competitors are pretty good companies Oracle, SAP, and Siebel, I think our competitive win rate against Oracle and SAP has never been higher. I think that's related to product in architectural lead, and I think we're able to capitalize on that by recruiting better and better people, and I think what's coming along with that is better and better executions. So, I think we've got a bit of a symbiotic effect going that is now swinging the momentum in our direction. So, I think our win rate is probably better than it has been. You know Siebel is also a very, very strong company and it's led by a very high integrity guy, and Tom mentioned on his call, not on this call but the one before, some of the deals that PeopleSoft has won on the customer relationship management area. We have, you know, some of those customers we are working press releases around in various marketing programs around to try to draw visibility to them but some are more visible others weren't were announced by Tom in our prior call. There is one thing that I think that has been said in these competitive situations is that PeopleSoft has been winning them by discounting heavily, and that's just not the case. I don't know whether Tom is not being given the correct information by our sales organization a lot, but if you speak to some of those companies, they will confirm absolutely that they did not choose PeopleSoft because we're the lowest price offer. I think that the attraction people saw in the customer relationship management's basis is because of the architecture, the richness of functionality, and the integration of PeopleSoft enterprise software as well as other backbone software, Oracle and SAP, I think, we've got a very seamlessly integrated best of breed CRM product, and this also happens to be fully integrated with PeopleSoft apps. So, I know it's not a very specific answer, but I'm not into competitor bashing, and I would just say that our win rate seems to be probably as high as it has ever been right now.

在競爭方面，我傾向認為我們所有主要競爭對手都是相當不錯的公司：Oracle、SAP，以及 Siebel。我認為我們對 Oracle 和 SAP 的競爭勝率從未像現在這麼高。我想這與我們在產品與架構上的領先有關；而我們也能透過招募越來越優秀的人才來把握這個優勢，隨之而來的是執行力也越來越好。所以我認為我們形成了一種相互促進的效果，正在把動能拉向我們這一邊。因此，我覺得我們的勝率可能比以往任何時候都更好。 你知道，Siebel 也是一家非常、非常強的公司，由一位非常正直的人領導。Tom 在他的電話會議上提到——不是這一通，而是前一通——PeopleSoft 在客戶關係管理（CRM）領域贏下的一些案子。我們也有一些這樣的客戶，正在配合新聞稿以及各種行銷方案來提高能見度；但有些更為公開，有些則沒有——Tom 已在我們先前的電話會議中宣布。 在這些競爭情境中，有一件事我認為外界常說的是：PeopleSoft 之所以贏，是因為大幅折扣；但事實並非如此。我不知道是否 Tom 經常沒有從我們的銷售組織獲得正確資訊，但如果你去和那些公司談，他們會完全確認：他們並不是因為我們報價最低才選擇 PeopleSoft。我認為人們在 CRM 基礎上看到的吸引力在於架構、功能的豐富性，以及 PeopleSoft 企業軟體與其他骨幹軟體（包括 Oracle 與 SAP）的整合。我想我們擁有一個無縫整合、同級最佳（best of breed）的 CRM 產品，而它也同時與 PeopleSoft 應用程式完全整合。 所以，我知道這不是一個非常具體的回答，但我不想抨擊競爭對手；我只想說，我們目前的勝率看起來可能正處於歷史高點。

Thank-you very much.

非常感謝。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Thank you, and our next question comes from Jim Mendelson. Sir, your line is open, please state your company name.

謝謝，下一個問題來自 Jim Mendelson。先生，您的線路已開通，請說明您的公司名稱。

Soundview. Could you elaborate Craig, a little bit in terms of the macro picture? You indicated that during the quarter, you certainly felt that it was getting worse. I am just curious whether or not you felt whether that was a function really of the international showing signs of slowing or whether or not you felt that in the US, it's stabilizing, or whether or not you felt that US was continuing to soften as well?

Soundview。Craig，你能否從宏觀面再多闡述一下？你提到在本季期間，你確實感覺情況在變差。我只是好奇，你覺得那主要是因為國際市場開始出現放緩跡象，還是你覺得美國市場正在趨於穩定？或者你覺得美國也仍在走弱？

Jim, it is the former not the latter. It was international that began to soften. United States could not get worse. As a matter of fact, we actually had a very strong quarter in the US, but there was for the first time for PeopleSoft a general slowing in Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific, and so, when I was referring to the global macroeconomic conditions, I think that they became more difficult mostly because international began to slow down, not because the US continued or got slower. I think the United States actually probably stabilized and got a little bit better for us.

Jim，是前者，不是後者。是國際市場開始轉弱。美國不可能更糟。事實上，我們在美國本季表現非常強勁；但對 PeopleSoft 而言，這是第一次在歐洲、拉丁美洲與亞太地區出現普遍放緩。因此，當我提到全球宏觀經濟狀況時，我認為它們變得更具挑戰，主要是因為國際市場開始放慢，而不是因為美國持續放慢或變得更慢。我認為美國對我們而言其實大致穩定，甚至略有改善。

Okay, and one last point. I know you don't break out any kind of specific revenues based on functional classifications of products, but could you give us a little more color in terms of just the relative sense of momentum around whether it's CRM versus supply chain versus ERM or however you want to describe it?

好的，最後一點。我知道你們不會按產品功能分類拆分任何特定營收，但你能否多給我們一些色彩，談談相對動能的感受：例如 CRM 相對於供應鏈、相對於 ERM（或你想怎麼描述）？

Yeah, I can give you a little bit more, I mean, we don't break it our for a number of reasons. One is that it's hard to put in things in categories anymore because they're all bleeding into each other, you know, customer relationship management is bleeding in the supply chain management and financial management, and vendor to vendor, we don't all call our modules the same thing in terms of what category they're in. The second reason we don't break it out is that the trend on all of them is stronger, and on any given quarter, one or two of them tends to be stronger than the others, but they all tend to be getting stronger. None of our product lines are showing a weakness. In Q2, human capital management or human resource management was very, very strong for us. Customer relationship management, despite the fact that we were only shipping PeopleSoft 8 CRM for two weeks in the quarter, it was actually very strong as well. Financial management was trending higher as well as supply chain management. If you look quarter to quarter, there is only something that tends to emerge a little bit faster then others, but there is no general pattern in there. I would say that human resource management and customer relationship management this quarter tended to lead the way with financial management having very strong quarter and supply chain management far behind that.

可以，我可以多補充一些。我們不拆分有幾個原因。第一，現在越來越難把東西放進類別，因為它們彼此界線越來越模糊；你知道，客戶關係管理正在滲入供應鏈管理與財務管理。而且不同廠商之間，對於模組屬於哪一類的命名也不一致。 第二個原因是，我們不拆分是因為它們的趨勢都在變強；在任何一個季度，通常會有一到兩個比其他更強，但整體而言它們都在走強。我們沒有任何產品線顯示疲弱。 在第二季（Q2），人力資本管理或人力資源管理對我們而言非常、非常強。客戶關係管理方面，儘管我們在本季只有兩週在出貨 PeopleSoft 8 CRM，但它其實也非常強。財務管理的趨勢也在走高，供應鏈管理亦然。 如果你逐季來看，通常只是某些項目會比其他項目更快浮現，但並沒有一個固定的通則。我會說，本季人力資源管理與客戶關係管理相對領先；財務管理也有非常強勁的一季，而供應鏈管理則遠落後於此。

Thanks, congratulations on a good performance.

謝謝，恭喜你們有很好的表現。

Thank you Jim.

謝謝你，Jim。

Thank you, and our next question comes from Chuck Philips. Sir, your line is open. Please state your company name.

謝謝，下一個問題來自 Chuck Philips。先生，您的線路已開通。請說明您的公司名稱。

Morgan Stanley. Just wondering as the upgrades in the installed basis and if you look at PeopleSoft 8, I think we, kind of, presumed those aren't competitive, but do they in fact open up the decision to alternative, vendors and so, in fact, you have to recompete and you're just winning that much more or are those in fact less competitive normally?

Morgan Stanley。我想問的是，關於既有客戶基礎中的升級（upgrades），如果看 PeopleSoft 8，我想我們某種程度上假設那些升級並不具競爭性；但它們實際上是否會讓客戶重新考慮替代供應商，因此你們其實必須重新競標，而你們只是贏得更多？還是說，那些升級通常確實比較不具競爭性？

Chuck, I would say they are less competitive to be honest with you. Although I did think about capitalizing on that to say we're beating everybody on the upgrades too, but it just wouldn't be the truth. I think the cost of an upgrade to PeopleSoft 8 is pretty modest. Actually, although it's a completely different architecture and we've got so many automated tools available, and we have done special packages with our professional service organization to effect that upgrade that it's nowhere near and is not even close to near what it would be to change a vendor. Companies can move to PeopleSoft 8 in fractions, small fractions of the cost of it would take to deploy another vendor. I think that the overall movement within that architecture has provided an opportunity in some cases to go in and win business against the competitor, but to be honest with you, I think that was just a convenient at which the customer that was tremendously upset with their current vendor just took it as an opportunity to change vendors. We've had several of those and like several, I mean, 5 or 6, but in general, I think the upgrades in our customer base are a matter of course.

Chuck，老實說，我會說他們的競爭力比較弱。雖然我也想過利用這點來宣稱我們在升級方面也打敗所有人，但那就不符合事實了。我認為升級到 PeopleSoft 8 的成本相當溫和。事實上，雖然它是完全不同的架構，而且我們有非常多自動化工具可用，我們也透過專業服務組織做了特殊套裝來完成那次升級，因此其成本遠遠不到、甚至完全不能跟更換供應商相比。企業可以用更換到其他供應商所需成本的一小部分、非常小的一部分，就移轉到 PeopleSoft 8。我認為在那個架構內的整體遷移，在某些情況下確實提供了機會，讓我們能夠在競爭對手那裡贏得業務；但老實說，我覺得那只是剛好遇到客戶對其現有供應商非常不滿，於是把它當作更換供應商的契機。我們有過好幾個這樣的案例；我說的好幾個是指 5 或 6 個。但整體而言，我認為在我們客戶群中的升級是理所當然、按部就班的事。

And on the European slowing, are you satisfied that it's not any basic functionality on your European footprint international capabilities is there or is it demand or is it PeopleSoft 8 to come, part of the way down, not all the way there yet, in terms of functionality ruling it out yet.

至於歐洲放緩，你是否滿意這不是你們在歐洲佈局／國際能力上的任何基礎功能問題？是需求面的問題，還是 PeopleSoft 8 尚未完全到位、功能面還沒完全具備，因此目前還不能排除？

Yeah. If you closed your eyes, you would think you were in the United States two quarters ago. It was a universal phenomena, it was across Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific, it was almost the exact percentage point against what our forecasts were. So every indication was that it was a market issue, not a product issue. The other indication is, what the sales organization says, or what the customers say, which shows you we just did not feel that we could move forward this particular quarter. So there was nothing about PeopleSoft 8 that was not playing as well internationally. If you remember Q1, we had a 90% growth internationally versus 70% growth this quarter, and I guess 70% growth is pretty damn good, but I will tell you that compared to our expectations for the last week or two of the quarter, it was a universal deceleration internationally and fortunately an acceleration in the United States at the same time.

是的。如果你閉上眼睛，你會以為自己回到兩季前的美國。那是一個普遍現象，遍及歐洲、拉丁美洲與亞太地區，幾乎與我們預測相比差了同樣的百分點。因此所有跡象都顯示那是市場問題，而不是產品問題。另一個跡象是銷售組織怎麼說、或客戶怎麼說——他們表示我們就是覺得這一季無法繼續往前推進。所以 PeopleSoft 8 並沒有在國際市場上表現得比較差。如果你記得第一季，我們國際業務成長 90%，而這一季是 70%；我想 70% 的成長也相當不錯，但我得告訴你，和我們對季度最後一兩週的期待相比，國際市場出現了全面性的減速；幸運的是，美國同時出現了加速。

And now the CRM product that you shipped the last two weeks of the quarter, but was enough activity going into that period, will you predict pipeline at CRM and sales force is likely to, can you shift the focus a little bit on it?

那麼關於 CRM 產品，你們在季度最後兩週出貨；在那段期間之前是否已有足夠的活動？你能否談談 CRM 的預測管線（pipeline）以及銷售團隊可能的狀況，能不能把焦點稍微轉到這上面？

Yeah. We were surprised by the revenue we did in Q2. We did not count on a great deal of revenue on CRM, and I guess on an overall basis it wasn't an enormous amount, but it was way more than we thought we could do in 2 weeks. The really encouraging part for us was not the surprise element of revenue in Q2 related to PeopleSoft 8 CRM, it was the size of the pipeline that immediately opened up. Both domestically and internationally, we essentially moved into the fast current of evaluations, some of which are down-the-line evaluations, some of which were immediate evaluations that may have been headed towards another vendor. So I think we now have the opportunity to play in evaluations on a larger scale. I know we don't disclose the exact numbers in pipelines, but the percent increase in our CRM pipeline has been in the order of magnitude since the announcement of PeopleSoft 8 CRM, and we're at a magnitude higher than it was before.

是的。我們對第二季的營收表現感到驚訝。我們原本沒有預期 CRM 會帶來很多營收；整體來看確實也不是非常龐大的金額，但在兩週內能做到的數字遠超過我們的預期。對我們而言真正令人鼓舞的，不是第二季與 PeopleSoft 8 CRM 相關營收的驚喜，而是隨即打開的管線規模。無論在國內或國際市場，我們基本上立刻進入了快速湧入的評估流程；其中有些是較長期的評估，有些是立即性的評估，而那些案子原本可能正朝向另一家供應商。因此我認為我們現在有機會以更大規模參與評估案。我知道我們不揭露管線的確切數字，但自從宣布 PeopleSoft 8 CRM 以來，我們 CRM 管線的百分比增幅已達到一個量級（order of magnitude），而且目前的量級比之前高出一個層次。

And it was a super quarter in a very tough environment.

在非常艱困的環境下，這是一個超棒的季度。

You're thinking straight.

你想得很對。

Thank you, and our next question comes from Gretchen Teagarden. Ma'am your line is open, please state your company name.

謝謝。下一個問題來自 Gretchen Teagarden。女士，您的線路已開通，請說明您的公司名稱。

Salomon Smith Barney. A couple of questions. The cost of opportunity is so large within your existing base, however historically the sales force has been organized by product, where are you in terms of transitioning the sales force to move over global account coverage model and intending them for cross selling versus the product oriented focus that they've have historically?

Salomon Smith Barney。我有幾個問題。你們既有客戶基礎中的機會成本非常大，但歷史上銷售團隊是按產品來組織的；在把銷售團隊轉型為全球客戶覆蓋（global account coverage）模式、並以交叉銷售為導向（相對於過去以產品為導向的重點）方面，你們目前進展到哪一步？

There's really two answers to the question, one was on the generic incentive for sales reps to cross our [_______________] and global account management. We have had an emphasis in our sales organization on one part of our product line whether it was human resources management, customer relationship management, or financial management. However, I think about a third of their compensation comes from cross selling opportunities. Now they don't try to close, they don't complete the sale on another integrate suite, but they are paid commissions, when they're able to isolate an enterprise-wide opportunity in another product category and then they bring in another PeopleSoft sales organization to pursue it. So I guess we're trying to have our cake and eat it too. We're trying to have a high level specialization by major product group, customer management, financial management, and supply management, and human resource management. At the same time, we're trying to leave a large amount of centers in terms of commission dollars and bonuses to try to cultivate interest in other PeopleSoft products. On our global account management side, we are in the process of improving our global account coverage, you know, as PeopleSoft has moved from 17% of revenue, two years ago, coming out of international market to 40% or so, now we have had to improve the way we manage global multinational accounts and so there is a new and improved distribution group dedicated to global accounts that we are hoping will make us a better company in managing global multinationals.

這個問題其實有兩個答案：一個是關於銷售代表交叉銷售的通用激勵，以及全球客戶管理。我們的銷售組織過去確實會強調產品線中的某一部分，不論是人力資源管理、客戶關係管理或財務管理。不過，我認為他們大約三分之一的薪酬來自交叉銷售機會。當然，他們不會去成交、也不會完成另一套整合套件的銷售，但當他們能在另一個產品類別中辨識出企業級的機會，並把它帶給 PeopleSoft 的另一個銷售團隊去追進時，他們會拿到佣金。所以我想我們是在兩者兼顧：一方面在主要產品群上維持高度專業化——客戶管理、財務管理、供應管理與人力資源管理；同時，我們也在佣金與獎金上保留相當大的激勵空間，來培養對其他 PeopleSoft 產品的興趣。至於全球客戶管理方面，我們正在改善全球客戶覆蓋；你知道，PeopleSoft 的營收兩年前只有 17% 來自國際市場，而現在大約到 40% 左右，因此我們必須改善管理全球跨國客戶的方式。我們成立了一個全新且更完善、專注於全球客戶的分銷／覆蓋團隊，希望能讓我們在管理全球跨國企業方面做得更好。

Great, and I know you're now in support of IBMs WebSphere application servers, did you notice an increase in demands for the IBM WebSphere platform, was that the key catalyst for you to offer to support IBM in addition to BEA?

很好。我知道你們現在也支援 IBM 的 WebSphere 應用伺服器；你們是否注意到對 IBM WebSphere 平台的需求增加？這是否是你們除了 BEA 之外也提供 IBM 支援的關鍵催化因素？

Yes, and the demand for WebSphere is significantly emerging as a real market factor, and frankly I was surprised that companies had a strong opinion about what application server they used. To be honest with you, I guess, we all get focused so intently on what we do as being incredibly important, we may not attach this high level to other parts of the equation. I had no idea that companies would be strongly opinionated about what application server product they must have, and WebSphere has emerged as a must-have application server by many large organizations around the world. So that was certainly, going to be honestly, the driving factor in our decision to include WebSphere product. We also would include the WebLogic product. And by the way, PeopleSoft 8, I believe, is unique in providing these application server products for free. But in our product line, we pay for them, and we included them in WebLogic, but we did have very strong demands, and it's probably the right word, not even request demands around the world for the WebSphere product either in addition to as an alternative to WebLogic, so we work together with IBM.

是的，對 WebSphere 的需求正顯著浮現，成為真正的市場因素。坦白說，我很驚訝企業會對他們使用哪一種應用伺服器有這麼強烈的偏好。老實說，我想我們都太專注於自己做的事情，覺得那無比重要，反而可能沒有把同樣高的重視程度放在方程式的其他部分。我完全沒想到企業會對「必須使用哪一款應用伺服器產品」有如此強烈的意見，而 WebSphere 已在全球許多大型組織中成為必備（must-have）的應用伺服器。因此，老實說，這當然是我們決定納入 WebSphere 產品的主要驅動因素。我們也會納入 WebLogic 產品。順帶一提，我相信 PeopleSoft 8 的獨特之處在於免費提供這些應用伺服器產品。但在我們的產品線中，我們是為它們付費的，並把它們納入 WebLogic；然而，我們確實在全球各地收到非常強烈的需求——用「需求」這個詞可能更貼切，甚至不只是「請求」——希望提供 WebSphere 產品，作為 WebLogic 的補充或替代方案，因此我們與 IBM 進行合作。

Great, thank you.

太好了，謝謝。

Welcome.

不客氣。

Thank you, and our next question comes from Craig Wood. Sir your line is open, please state your company name.

謝謝，下一個問題來自 Craig Wood。先生，您的線路已開通，請說明您的公司名稱。

Thank you, it's Merrill Lynch. It sounds like you're not ready to provide the specific names of some of your new CRM customers as you wait for some approvals there. Can you just provide some indication of how many units you're able to ship above and beyond the 9 or 10 beta customers that you had at the June event?

謝謝，我是美林（Merrill Lynch）。聽起來你們還沒準備好提供一些新 CRM 客戶的具體名稱，因為還在等待某些核准。你們能否大致說明一下，除了你們在 6 月活動中提到的 9 或 10 個 beta 客戶之外，你們還能額外出貨多少套（單位）？

Yeah, I don't think we're going to break out that detail here this afternoon, Craig. As the information becomes ready for market in terms of the customer names and [________________], we'll talk about the components of it at that time.

是的，Craig，我想我們今天下午不會在這裡拆分那個細節。等到客戶名稱以及[________________]等資訊準備好可以對市場公布時，我們會在那個時候談它的各個組成部分。

Okay, and also in June you talked about the [_______________] partnership that you had set up for the CRM practice. To what extent have they been valuable in bringing some of these deals home and setting up the pipeline for the second half?

好的，另外你們在 6 月談到為 CRM 業務所建立的[_______________]合作夥伴關係。他們在多大程度上有助於促成其中一些交易成交，並為下半年建立銷售管線？

Well, that's going to be a controversial answer. I would say that all of our partners have been tremendously supportive of our new CRM offering, and these are partners that have in most cases multi billion dollar practices in PeopleSoft technology and PeopleSoft products. So to add customer relationship management to their practice was something they were very happy to do. I would describe in this standing ready to capitalize on customer interest. I think in this short a period of time, none of them are geared up and become lead generation machines for us. I would love for them to be that, but at this point, I think they are supportive, trained, staffed, and ready to capitalize on customers that show interest. I think, again to be honest, it is still thought to be our responsibility to generate the pipeline for them. Having said that, the deals that have closed, our partners have been instrumental in helping us close. They've been there to support the demonstration, the evaluations, to advise the account on the strengths and weaknesses of PeopleSoft's product versus competitor products. So, I don't think we would have got many of these deals, if we did not have a supportive systems integration relationship, and I guess, if you have to say sorry in general, happy, satisfied, extremely happy with the response you've gotten from systems integration, I'd say extremely happy at this point.

嗯，這會是一個有爭議的回答。我會說，我們所有的合作夥伴都對我們新的 CRM 產品提供了極大的支持；而且這些合作夥伴在多數情況下，在 PeopleSoft 技術與 PeopleSoft 產品方面都有數十億美元規模的實務（practice）。因此，把客戶關係管理加入他們的服務範疇，是他們非常樂意做的事。我會形容他們目前是隨時準備好把握客戶的興趣。我認為在這麼短的時間內，他們都還沒有完全就位、也還沒成為替我們帶來線索的機器。我當然希望他們能做到那樣，但就目前而言，我認為他們是支持我們、受過訓練、有人力配置，並且準備好把握那些表達興趣的客戶。再坦白說，大家仍然認為由我們來為他們產生銷售管線是我們的責任。話雖如此，已經成交的案子，我們的合作夥伴在協助我們成交方面功不可沒。他們在展示、評估過程中提供支援，並就 PeopleSoft 產品相對於競品的優勢與劣勢向客戶提供建議。所以，如果沒有這種支持性的系統整合（SI）合作關係，我不認為我們能拿下這麼多案子。總之，如果你要我用一句話概括：對於系統整合夥伴的回應，我們很高興、很滿意，而且此刻是非常非常滿意。

Okay, and finally Kevin with the DSO down, is that a reflection of less backend loading in the quarter or is that more around collection?

好的，最後一個問題，Kevin，DSO 下降，是反映本季較少在季末集中認列（較少後端集中），還是更多是因為收款表現？

I think it's more around collections. The quarter was no more backend loaded than we saw Q1 or perhaps Q4 of last year. We just put a significant effort on collections and the efforts were paying off.

我認為更多是因為收款。本季的季末集中程度並不比我們在第一季、或去年第四季看到的更高。我們只是對收款投入了相當大的努力，而這些努力正在見效。

Okay, thanks very much.

好的，非常感謝。

Thank-you, and our next question comes from Jim Pickrel, and Sir, your line is open. Please state your company name.

謝謝。下一個問題來自 Jim Pickrel。先生，您的線路已開通，請說明您的公司名稱。

Hi! JP Morgan. Congrats on the quarter. Can you talk a bit about vertical markets, strength or weakness, both in the quarter, and what you're seeing in the pipeline?

嗨！我是摩根大通（JP Morgan）。恭喜本季表現。你能否談談垂直市場的強弱情況——包括本季以及你們在銷售管線中看到的狀況？

You know, the vertical markets are interesting in that the stronger you get, the stronger you get, I mean, we have been strong for years in financial service industry, the telecommunications industry. We have gotten stronger in previous years, and now it's starting to become a self-fulfilling prophecy in other industries such as the consumer package goods industry. The government had been a historically a very strong vertical for PeopleSoft. It flattened out in the last 2 years. It is emerging, once again, as one of our strongest verticals. So, I think we're getting stronger and stronger, and once we've been strong and then I think we're clawing our way into other ones. With regard to many of our product lines, we have started to template them, or in fact, develop specific versions for each of these verticals to give people a running start, a head start in the implementation of the product. In the customer relationship management area, in particular, we have developed or are still developing almost a complete verticalization approach to ensure that the companies have a product, which has been almost preconfigured for their industry. Other markets like human resource management is not quite as critical that we have a vertical market approach but in markets like, or in products areas like the customer relationship management it's heavily verticalized.

你知道，垂直市場很有意思：你越強，就會越強。我的意思是，我們多年來在金融服務業、電信業一直很強；我們在過去幾年變得更強，而現在也開始在其他產業形成一種自我實現的預言，例如消費性包裝商品（CPG）產業。政府部門歷來一直是 PeopleSoft 非常強的垂直領域，但在過去兩年趨於平緩；如今它再次浮現為我們最強的垂直之一。所以我認為我們正變得越來越強；在我們已經強的領域更強，同時也在其他領域一步步打進去。就我們許多產品線而言，我們已開始把它們做成範本化（template），或者實際上為每個垂直市場開發特定版本，讓客戶在產品導入時能有一個可直接起跑、領先一步的基礎。特別是在客戶關係管理（CRM）領域，我們已經開發、或仍在開發一套幾乎完整的垂直化（verticalization）方法，確保企業拿到的產品幾乎已針對其產業做了預先配置。其他市場例如人力資源管理，採用垂直市場方法就沒那麼關鍵；但在像客戶關係管理這類產品領域，垂直化程度非常高。

And so, was there any particular trend in terms of that conversion rates, you know, certain industries being hit harder by profitability concerns. Did that really impact your sales efforts in those verticals to any differing degree or any trend lines that you're seeing in the pipeline there?

那麼，在轉換率方面是否有任何特定趨勢？例如某些產業因獲利能力的疑慮而受到更大衝擊，這是否在不同垂直領域以不同程度影響你們的銷售工作，或你們在管線中看到任何趨勢線？

No pattern whatsoever.

完全沒有任何模式。

And Craig, when you talked about, it's probably hard to specify but the conversion rate fall-off, are we talking about a few percentage points over the last quarter or anything more notable than that?

另外 Craig，當你提到轉換率下滑——我知道可能很難精確量化——我們談的是相較上一季下滑幾個百分點，還是更明顯的幅度？

Well, nothing that much more notable than that, I mean, we all know and we've all talked about the fact that the software company has two of the major dials to steer the ship, the pipeline and the conversion rate, and to some extent, it is a constant balance between keeping a high enough pipeline and a high enough conversion rate, and if you estimate what your conversion rate is going to be on your pipeline accurately, you're able to forecast quarter to quarter, and when either of the pipeline changes or the conversion rate, it can be scary. The conversion rate has gone a bit down but down, I mean, I would not say if that's dimensionally down or even significantly down, but it is down, and I just tend to want to be more open modest about that factor. At the same time, the pipeline has grown tremendously. So, we've more than made up for it, and our win rate has grown tremendously. So, the overall equation still continues to equate out to a rapidly growing company. As a matter of fact, I think there is almost a silver lining in all of those in that, although the conversion rate has dropped a bit, the pipeline has grown so much that our confidence in future quarters has actually gone higher because even if the conversion rate returns, it's returning to a pipeline that has grown so much larger than we had anticipated. That's why I said, in my prepared remarks, that the formula is still working very much in PeopleSoft's favor, and in fact, the subsequent quarter implications of a growing pipeline with an improving conversion rate should be very beneficial to PeopleSoft, that's why we've got a little bit of a spring in our step even as the conversion rates have eroded somewhat, but the pipelines have more than made up for it, as has the competitive win rate.

嗯，沒有更明顯到那種程度。我的意思是，我們都知道、也都談過：軟體公司有兩個主要的旋鈕來掌舵——銷售管線與轉換率。在某種程度上，這是一個持續的平衡：既要維持足夠高的管線，也要維持足夠高的轉換率；如果你能準確估計管線的轉換率，就能逐季做出預測，而當管線或轉換率其中之一發生變化時，就可能令人不安。轉換率確實有些下降，但我不會說是幅度很大或顯著下降；它就是下降了，而我只是傾向更坦率、也更保守地看待這個因素。同時，管線大幅成長，所以我們已經遠遠彌補了這點，而且我們的勝率也大幅提升。因此整體方程式仍然顯示我們是一家快速成長的公司。事實上，我認為其中幾乎還有一線希望：雖然轉換率略降，但管線成長得如此之多，以致於我們對未來幾季的信心反而更高，因為即使轉換率回升，它回升所對應的是一個比我們原先預期大得多的管線。這就是我在事先準備的談話中所說的：這個公式仍然非常有利於 PeopleSoft；而且，管線成長加上轉換率改善，對 PeopleSoft 後續季度的影響應該非常正面。這也是為什麼即便轉換率有所侵蝕，我們仍然步伐更有彈性；因為管線已經遠遠補上了缺口，競爭勝率也是如此。

Great. Okay, well, again great job on the quarter. Thanks.

太好了。好的，再次恭喜本季表現。謝謝。

Thank-you.

謝謝。

Thank you, and our next question comes from Laura Lederman and Ma'am, your line is open. Please state your company name.

謝謝，下一個問題來自 Laura Lederman。女士，您的線路已開通。請說明您的公司名稱。

Yeah, William Blair. I have a few questions. One is, if you look at your assumptions for the third and the fourth quarter, what do you assume in the terms of the year up? How much do you expect it to deteriorate? And also, the US to continue to assume a stabilization, and also, separately, can you talk a little bit about the pricing environment? I know Siebel accused you guys of pricing on the conference call, but who are you seeing pricing out there in terms of the different segments you compete in?

是的，William Blair。我有幾個問題。第一個是，如果看你們對第三季和第四季的假設，你們對年增（year up）的假設是什麼？你們預期會惡化多少？另外，你們是否仍假設美國會趨於穩定？再者，能否另外談談定價環境？我知道 Siebel 在電話會議上指控你們在價格上（有動作），但就你們所競爭的不同細分市場而言，你們看到哪些競爭對手在外面打價格？

In terms of the economic assumptions, we are driving our future outlook, we are not anticipating an improvement, at any point in time, in the next two quarters either in US or in Europe. We're not also expecting an enormous deterioration with those things. It's fairly much a status quo component in terms of our outlook for the rest of the year. Craig, you want to talk about the pricing issues?

就經濟假設而言，我們的未來展望並未預期在接下來兩個季度的任何時間點，美國或歐洲會出現改善。我們也不預期會有巨大的惡化。就今年剩餘時間的展望而言，基本上是維持現狀的組成。Craig，你要談談定價議題嗎？

Yeah, I think I may be the only CEO still who acknowledges that this pricing pressure out there, I know, in Q1, nobody seemed to want to say that there is discounting pressures but there is. So, we are under them like anybody else. We are not lower priced by the business. By the way, I don't think people license enterprise software like that anywhere. We had many situations where a competitor and when the deal was not going your way offered to give away the software, and they still chose PeopleSoft and wrote a check that they thought was fair. Most companies do not want to, I think virtually every company, does not want to do a business with a vendor at a price that they feel is going to drive the vendor out of business. So, I'm just confident that PeopleSoft is not buying business out there. It's certainly the transactions and the size of the transactions relative to our other product lines would not imply that, and I think what has occurred perhaps in this customer relationship management area, more so than others, is that competition has entered the equation in the customer relationship management area in particular, I don't think there was a strong competition until recently. So, I think when you are the only vendor with a viable solution, I do think you're able to capitalize on it to a higher, overall level. But, customer relationship management is no more or less critical to running an organization and financial management or supply chain management or customer management. So, the relative transaction sizes may tend to, over time, be more in line with other enterprise licenses done by those companies. Companies, in the end, feel they come in range, that's a fair range for their critical enterprise software systems and may be CRM is coming within that range, but it is certainly not, you know, we're not buying business and it's not a heavily discounted area. I know for a fact that they can't be enormously discounted because at PeopleSoft, the sales organization cannot discount beyond a certain level without my personal approval, and I get those periodically and out of the 100 or 150 transactions a quarter, I might get 2 or 3 outside the range that the sales force can operate within. So I think that there is pricing pressure, I think there is pricing pressure for everybody, SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and Siebel. We're not buying business on any of our product sales, and I just think that there is nothing that damaging occurring certainly at PeopleSoft's level.

是的，我想我可能仍是唯一一位還會承認外面存在定價壓力的 CEO。我知道在第一季，似乎沒有人願意說有折扣壓力，但確實有。所以我們跟其他人一樣也承受這些壓力。我們並不是靠低價去搶生意。順帶一提，我不認為企業軟體授權在任何地方是用那種方式在賣的。我們遇過很多情況：當競爭對手發現案子不利時，會提出免費送軟體，但客戶仍然選擇 PeopleSoft，並開出他們認為公平的支票。大多數公司不想——我想幾乎每家公司都不想——以一個他們覺得會把供應商逼到倒閉的價格，去跟供應商做生意。所以我很有信心 PeopleSoft 並沒有在外面用買單的方式搶生意。就交易本身以及相對於我們其他產品線的交易規模來看，也不支持那種說法。我認為在客戶關係管理（CRM）這個領域，可能比其他領域更明顯的是：競爭已經進入這個方程式，尤其是在 CRM 領域；我不認為直到最近之前才有強勁的競爭。所以我認為當你是唯一一家有可行解決方案的供應商時，你確實能在更高的整體水準上加以變現。但 CRM 對於組織運作的重要性，並不比財務管理、供應鏈管理或客戶管理更高或更低。因此，相對的交易規模，隨著時間推移，可能會更趨近於那些公司在其他企業授權上的交易規模。最終，公司會覺得它們落在一個合理區間——對其關鍵企業軟體系統而言是公平的區間——而 CRM 可能正進入那個區間；但這絕對不是，你知道的，我們不是在買生意，而且也不是一個高度折扣的領域。我確知它不可能被大幅折扣，因為在 PeopleSoft，銷售組織若要折扣超過某個水準，必須經過我本人核准；我會不時收到這類申請，而在每季 100 到 150 筆交易中，我可能只會看到 2 或 3 筆超出銷售團隊可操作範圍的案例。所以我認為確實存在定價壓力，我認為每一家都有定價壓力：SAP、Oracle、PeopleSoft，以及 Siebel。我們在任何產品銷售上都不是用買單方式搶生意；我也認為，至少在 PeopleSoft 的層級，並沒有發生任何那麼具破壞性的事情。

Final question and that is, any very large deals in the quarter, you mentioned those greater than 1 million, but what about greater than 10 million or 5 million? Thanks.

最後一個問題：本季有沒有非常大的案子？你提到那些超過 100 萬美元的，但那超過 1,000 萬或 500 萬的呢？謝謝。

I think in the course of the quarter, we had one transaction in excess of 10 million of the 29 transactions we described greater than one million. There was one transaction greater than 10 million, the rest of it was $10 million and below.

我想在本季過程中，在我們所描述的 29 筆超過 100 萬美元的交易裡，有一筆交易超過 1,000 萬美元。只有一筆超過 1,000 萬，其餘都在 1,000 萬美元以下。

Congratulations on a great quarter.

恭喜你們有個很棒的季度。

Thank you Laura.

謝謝你，Laura。

Thank you and our next question comes from Brent Thill, and sir your line is open. Please state your company name.

謝謝，下一個問題來自 Brent Thill。先生，您的線路已開通。請說明您的公司名稱。

Credit Suisse First Boston. ASPs broke out of their 500K holding pattern to 600K, is this a trend we are starting to see on smaller number of larger deals, and I think, last quarter you said 130 new customers, can you give us a sense of where both those figures are at?

Credit Suisse First Boston。平均售價（ASP）從 50 萬美元的盤整區間突破到 60 萬美元，這是否是一個趨勢，代表我們開始看到較少但更大型的交易？另外，我想上季你們說新增 130 位新客戶，能否讓我們了解這兩個數字目前各自的狀況？

Yeah, it's hard to tell, or draw conclusion from a single data point. We don't believe the underlying trend has changed significantly. The migration from 500K a quarter to 600K a quarter is primarily just may be based on circumstantial mix for the quarter and that may be driving it. There is no real underlying trend that I see under that.

是的，很難從單一數據點判斷或下結論。我們不認為基本趨勢有顯著改變。從每季 50 萬到 60 萬的變化，主要可能只是本季的組合（mix）因素所致，可能就是它在推動。就我所見，底層並沒有真正的趨勢變化。

I think that $5000 or $6000 average selling prices by comparison are probably low versus any of our three traditional competitors. There are times that we think that's very good thing, because we are more predictable and less dependent on $10 million or $5 million or $20 million deals, and sometimes we don't think it's not favorable that having $10 million or $20 million, although many of them as some of our competitors are able to do, is something that we'd like to have that provides relief in the quarter. We, by and large, still do not do, not because I don't think we want to, I just don't think we go after deals in the same future packaged way that some of our competitors do. But I don't think in general it's changed. We had one deal that was more than $10 million, but by and large the quarter looked pretty much like prior quarters.

我認為相較之下，5,000 或 6,000 美元的平均售價，可能比我們三個傳統競爭對手中的任何一家都低。某些時候我們覺得這是很好的事，因為我們更可預測，也較不依賴 1,000 萬、500 萬或 2,000 萬美元的案子；但有時我們也覺得不那麼有利，因為擁有 1,000 萬或 2,000 萬美元的案子——雖然我們許多競爭對手能做到——是我們也希望能有的，因為它能在季度中提供緩衝。整體而言，我們仍然不太做這類案子；不是因為我不認為我們想做，而是我不認為我們像某些競爭對手那樣，以同樣的「未來打包」方式去追逐交易。但我不認為整體上有改變。我們有一筆超過 1,000 萬美元的案子，但大體上本季看起來和前幾季差不多。

We want to know the trends that a couple of other software names you mentioned is the steam around aggregating, kind of, what they have had over the last 2 years, where they put in financials, what are you seeing in terms of aggregating it into one common platform, and how do you treat that as a revenue opportunity inside install base?

我們想了解你提到的另外幾家軟體公司名稱所反映的趨勢：近兩年在「整合／匯聚」（aggregating）方面的動能——他們先導入財務等系統——你們看到在把它整合到一個共同平台方面的情況如何？以及你們如何把這視為在既有裝機基礎（install base）內的營收機會？

You know, I said the same thing myself several quarters ago, that as companies move their enterprise applications to an Internet architecture, they will look for a single supplier or maybe two or three suppliers, but they won't do with 20, and that is absolutely the trend, and we see that everywhere. Companies are trying to reduce the number of vendors, they are trying to consolidate their systems in a common architecture and that's just the way the world is working today. And I think the catalyst for doing that was real time Internet-based applications. As soon as enterprise applications become real time and they become collaborative between themselves, you can't afford to try that exercise with 10 vendors, because the kind of effort not working is much higher, and when enterprise applications were kind of done department by department, I won't say department, group by group, and the HR organization had an HRMS implementation in the financials that were run by finance and nothing is really collaborative, you can, kind of, do what you want. But, when all those systems are collaborative and CRM systems integrates [________________] to supply chain management system, and suppliers watch orders being placed by their customer's customers, when financial information and financial applications are updated automatically from the supply chain management system or the CRM system. You know, companies are just not willing to try that dive with that degree of difficulty with 10 or 15 vendors, so I do think that the implication of that is that you do tend to try to win the corporate like standardization exercise. Now, I'll add as a footnote, I don't think this is a new phenomenon, I don't think it's ever been a new phenomenon. I think companies went through this exercise with hardware platforms, and if they went through this exercise with operating systems, I think they went through this exercise with databases, and I think they are now going through this exercise with enterprise software vendors, and I think PeopleSoft would do very well through this exercise, because (a) We do have an integrated suite of applications, (b) We think are best of breed, and (c) Companies tend to like us. We tend to have treated customers very, very well; and they have a high degree of confidence in PeopleSoft and affinity to PeopleSoft. So when the standardization exercise unfolds, I think we'll do very well.

你知道，我自己在幾個季度前也說過同樣的話：當企業把其企業應用移轉到網際網路架構時，他們會尋求單一供應商，或許是兩到三家供應商，但不會用到 20 家；而這絕對就是趨勢，我們到處都看得到。企業正試圖減少供應商數量，試圖在共同架構上整合其系統，這就是當今世界的運作方式。我認為促成這件事的催化劑，是即時（real time）的網際網路型應用。一旦企業應用變成即時，並且彼此之間能協同運作，你就無法負擔與 10 家供應商一起做這件事，因為「做不成」的努力成本會高得多。而當企業應用還是按部門——我不說部門，按群組——逐一導入時，人資組織做 HRMS，財務由財務部運行，彼此並不真正協同，你大致上可以想怎麼做就怎麼做。但當所有系統都需要協同，CRM 系統與供應鏈管理系統整合，[________________]，供應商能看到其客戶的客戶所下的訂單，當財務資訊與財務應用會從供應鏈管理系統或 CRM 系統自動更新時，你知道的，企業就是不願意在那種難度下，還要跟 10 或 15 家供應商一起跳水，所以我確實認為其含意是：你會傾向去爭取企業層級的標準化（standardization）案。另外補充一點，我不認為這是新現象，我不認為它曾經是新現象。我認為企業在硬體平台上做過這個練習，在作業系統上做過這個練習，在資料庫上也做過這個練習，而現在他們正在企業軟體供應商上做這個練習。我認為 PeopleSoft 在這個練習中會表現得很好，因為：(a) 我們確實有整合式的應用套件；(b) 我們認為自己是同級最佳（best of breed）；(c) 企業傾向喜歡我們。我們一直非常、非常善待客戶；客戶對 PeopleSoft 有高度信心，也對 PeopleSoft 有高度好感。因此當標準化的練習展開時，我認為我們會做得很好。

And if you could just quickly just comment on the second half of the year, what should we expect from the product perspective on the second half of this year?

另外，如果您能快速評論一下今年下半年，從產品角度來看，我們對今年下半年應該有什麼期待？

Well, all of under financials, Kevin can give an answer. I am expecting the growth in customer relationship management, as I said in prior quarters, to be in the second half of the year, and our pipeline would imply that that will be the case. If we have any reasonable conversion on the pipeline for CRM, CRM should start to play bigger and bigger role in the second half of the year and in PeopleSoft, you know, human resource management, that category that nobody wanted to talk about a year ago, continues to grow, a very big number, continues to grow very respectably, and even in the HR area, companies are moving to employ self service enterprise portals for their internal human capital management, and PeopleSoft provides a portal in the industry in enterprise portal for employee management. We provide 38 modules for human resource management, employee management, so we think in the second half of the year that will continue to grow. Supply chain management is kind of interesting. That category in general goes and fits and starts. I think what most companies are thinking about today in supply chain management is supplier relationship management, where supply chain management is a part of that, but you know the value proposition in supply chain management at one time is being promoted to be new market sites and buy sites software and trading exchanges and that's an important part of e-commerce and supply chain management, but in the overall infrastructure framework you have to build to really deliver on that is much broader. Non-industrial companies are evaluating, so although supply chain management is probably not the highest growth for us in the first half, it may well be in the second half. So that's where I think the growth will come from.

嗯，所有財務方面的問題，Kevin 可以回答。我預期客戶關係管理（CRM）的成長，如同我在前幾季所說，會發生在下半年，而我們的銷售管線也顯示確實會如此。如果我們在 CRM 的管線上有任何合理的轉換率，CRM 在下半年以及在 PeopleSoft 之中就會扮演越來越重要的角色。你知道，人力資源管理（HRM）——那個一年前沒有人想談的類別——仍在成長，數字很大，且持續相當穩健地成長。甚至在 HR 領域，企業也正轉向採用自助式的企業入口網站，用於其內部的人力資本管理，而 PeopleSoft 在員工管理方面提供了業界的入口網站（enterprise portal）。我們提供 38 個人力資源管理、員工管理模組，因此我們認為下半年這部分將持續成長。供應鏈管理則有點有趣。這個類別整體而言是時好時壞、斷斷續續。我認為目前多數公司在供應鏈管理上思考的是供應商關係管理（SRM），供應鏈管理是其中一部分；但你知道，供應鏈管理的價值主張曾一度被宣傳為新的市場站點與採購站點軟體、以及交易交換平台，這確實是電子商務與供應鏈管理的重要部分，但要真正交付這些價值，你必須建構的整體基礎架構其實更為廣泛。非工業類公司也在評估中，所以雖然供應鏈管理在上半年對我們而言可能不是成長最高的項目，但下半年很可能會是。因此我認為成長將來自這些方面。

Just to talk about in terms of absolute dollar terms, earlier we described our Q3 expectations are between $165 million and $170 million of total license revenue. The consensus estimates for Q4, as we look at them, are about a $191 million or $192 million of revenue driven by the factors that Craig described a moment ago plus the normal seasonality of the business. That's our expectations and the consensus for the rest of the year.

就絕對金額而言，先前我們提到對第三季（Q3）的預期是總授權收入介於 1.65 億至 1.70 億美元。至於第四季（Q4）的市場共識預估，依我們所見大約是 1.91 億或 1.92 億美元的收入，這是由 Craig 剛才提到的因素加上業務的正常季節性所驅動。這就是我們對今年剩餘期間的預期以及市場共識。

Great, thanks.

很好，謝謝。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Eric Upin, and sir, your line is open. Please state your company name.

謝謝。我們下一個問題來自 Eric Upin，先生，您的線路已開通。請說明您的公司名稱。

Thanks. Robertson Stephens. Can you give a little more texture on a couple of things? Sales cycle and how is that changing, deals you closed this quarter obviously started beginning of this year, maybe a little less, maybe little longer, but any kind of sales cycle commentary, including are there now components of the sales cycle where there are additional review boards or additional types of bodies that are trying to clamp down on controls and how you're wrestling with that, and are you seeing more or less of that. And then secondly, a little bit about the growth opportunities you see for the business in terms of the next couple of years, and what you really see when recovery hits, and back to the domestic economy, what kind of growth this business could ultimately be generating on a two to three year basis, and your opinion maybe backed up with some kind of hiring plans you see, either over the next year or over the next couple of years in terms of headcounts and office base and so forth. Thanks.

謝謝。Robertson Stephens。能否就幾件事提供更具體的說明？第一是銷售週期以及它如何變化；你們本季成交的案子顯然是今年年初開始推進的，可能短一些、也可能長一些，但能否對銷售週期做些評論？包括現在是否在銷售週期中出現額外的審查委員會或其他類型的機構，試圖加強控管，而你們如何因應；以及你們看到這種情況是變多還是變少。第二，談談你們對未來幾年業務成長機會的看法；當景氣復甦、回到國內經濟改善時，你們認為這項業務在兩到三年的期間內最終可能產生什麼樣的成長；以及你們的看法是否能以某種招募計畫作為佐證，例如未來一年或未來幾年在人力編制、辦公據點等方面的規劃。謝謝。

You know, the sales cycles are lengthening, and I don't think they are lengthening because additional bodies are being added to the approval cycles. I don't think that there are additional purchase approval committees, I just think that each step, each stage of the sales approval is harder and it's stickier. To get through each step of the process, even if it was the same process being used last year, it's just got more inertia build into it, and I think as some of our competitors have indicated in their conference calls, you are not even quite sure when you get to the last step that it's going to get approved, so I think the sales cycles are lengthening but not because there is more bodies in between I just think that each step is cognizant to their company's desire to control expenses. I think that we surely did not see the US economy worsening or at least US existence of customers getting any worse like I said we maybe saw if anything a bit of a improvement in the US, international took the major hit in Q2 from a growth point of view, but even so it still is pretty good broad growth areas for us. I don't see any signs of recovery, and I know we're all very optimistic as individuals, but I think we have to separate optimism and emotion and just face reality, and the reality is I don't think there are any signs of improvement. We on an economic basis, I am not an economist and we don't watch it everyday but that's my thought, our business plans for the remainder of this year and all of next year have growth drivers built into them assuming that the market doesn't improve, and some of our growth drivers of course include customer relationship management, continued improvement in international, continued growth in mid market, we will have a couple of very major announcements on August 28, 2001, at our user conference in Atlanta. If you have never been to Atlanta, in August you need to go, get some experience. But we are going to make a couple of very major announcements on August 28, 2001. So finally in terms of hiring, I think, we are as well managed company and is nimble a company in adjusting our expense and head count rates to what we are seeing, you know, the PeopleSoft I think to some extent until in the last couple of years had been a company that was not particularly self directed in the expense management and hiring plans. I think we are extremely soft directed today. So we have business plans, we are sticking with the business plans, and in the end we are sticking to business plans, because we have new data to support not sticking with them and we continue to exceed them. So we are going to stick with the business plans, but we got a very high cautionary note around expenses and in fact and probably taking more measures to control expenses proactively. Hiring continues in the sales area very aggressively, I think we added 60 to 100 sales people a quarter in the PeopleSoft and that will continue as long as the pipeline seems to reactive to it and respond to it, and you know, at the same time I think, that's obviously the first area you slow down if you feel you need to, and we will certainly not be reluctant to do that.

你知道，銷售週期正在拉長，而我不認為拉長是因為在核准流程中加入了更多單位。我不認為有新增的採購核准委員會；我只是覺得每一步、每一個銷售核准階段都更難、更黏滯。要通過流程中的每一步，即使流程本身和去年相同，也只是內建了更大的慣性。我想正如一些競爭對手在他們的電話會議中所指出的，即使你走到最後一步，你也不太確定是否會獲得核准。所以我認為銷售週期確實在拉長，但不是因為中間多了更多人或更多單位；而是因為每一步都更在意公司控制費用的需求。我認為我們確實沒有看到美國經濟惡化，或者至少沒有看到美國客戶的生存狀況變得更糟；如我所說，我們甚至可能看到美國略有改善。從成長角度看，第二季（Q2）受到最大衝擊的是國際市場，但即便如此，對我們而言仍有相當不錯且廣泛的成長領域。我沒有看到任何復甦的跡象；我知道我們每個人作為個體都很樂觀，但我認為必須把樂觀與情緒分開，面對現實，而現實是我不認為有任何改善的跡象。就經濟層面而言，我不是經濟學家，我們也不是每天都在盯著看，但這是我的想法。我們對今年剩餘時間以及明年全年的業務計畫，都內建了成長驅動因素並假設市場不會改善；而我們的一些成長驅動因素當然包括客戶關係管理、國際市場的持續改善、中型市場的持續成長。我們將在 2001 年 8 月 28 日於亞特蘭大舉辦的用戶大會上發布幾項非常重大的公告。如果你從未去過亞特蘭大，八月你應該去一趟，體驗一下。但我們確實會在 2001 年 8 月 28 日做出幾項非常重大的公告。最後談到招募，我認為我們是一家管理良好且靈活的公司，能依據所見情況調整費用與人力編制的增速。PeopleSoft 在某種程度上直到過去幾年為止，並不是一家在費用管理與招募計畫上特別自我驅動的公司；我認為我們今天非常自我驅動。因此我們有業務計畫，我們會遵循這些業務計畫；而且最終我們會遵循業務計畫，因為我們沒有新的數據支持不遵循它們，並且我們持續超越計畫。所以我們會堅持業務計畫，但我們對費用抱持非常高度的審慎態度，事實上也可能採取更多措施來主動控制費用。銷售領域仍在非常積極地招募；我認為 PeopleSoft 每季新增 60 到 100 名銷售人員，只要銷售管線看起來對此有反應並能帶來回報，這種情況就會持續。你知道，同時我也認為，若你覺得需要放慢腳步，這顯然是你最先會放慢的領域，而我們當然也不會猶豫這麼做。

Thanks very much.

非常感謝。

Operator, we probably got time for about one more question.

接線員，我們大概還有時間再問一個問題。

Thank you and our next question comes from Bob Austrian, and Sir, your line is open. Please state your company name.

謝謝。我們下一個問題來自 Bob Austrian。先生，您的線路已開通。請說明您的公司名稱。

Banc of America and thanks. Congratulations, I have just sneaked in, I will try to keep it quick. Can you give us any mix information about the PeopleSoft 8 either total of the revenues over the last year or in terms of the number of customers, for example, US versus international, is it doing you equally well in one or the other and new versus existing customers is there any either dollars or customer counts or portions of the live 160 that you can share?

Banc of America，謝謝。恭喜，我剛剛才溜進來，我會盡量簡短。你們能否提供一些關於 PeopleSoft 8 的組合（mix）資訊，例如過去一年總營收中 PeopleSoft 8 的占比，或以客戶數來看，例如美國 vs. 國際市場的分布？在其中一邊是否同樣表現良好？另外，新客戶 vs. 既有客戶方面，是否有任何金額、客戶數，或在已上線的 160 家中可分享的比例？

Bob, we haven't broken that out historically other than anecdotally described the fact that we are very pleased with the progress we are making in all of the areas of PeopleSoft 8, and Craig, I think, discussed the launch of PeopleSoft 8 CRM, and the fact that we did see some positive impact from that. The success from our point of view seems to be very broad based in terms of the product offering and very broad based in terms of geography, as we pointed out earlier, 39% of our revenue this quarter was generated internationally, slight increase from our prior quarter, so it's not dominated by any one group of products that we can see, and from our view, we think we have made good progress in all areas.

Bob，我們過去並沒有把這些做出正式拆分，除了以一些軼事方式描述：我們對 PeopleSoft 8 在各個面向的進展都非常滿意。Craig 我想也談到了 PeopleSoft 8 CRM 的推出，以及我們確實看到它帶來一些正面影響。從我們的角度看，成功似乎在產品供應面非常廣泛、在地理區域面也非常廣泛。正如我們先前指出，本季 39% 的營收來自國際市場，較上一季略有增加，因此就我們所見，並非由任何單一產品群所主導；以我們的觀點，我們認為在各方面都取得了良好進展。

Bob, what I will say is that at one point when we were developing PeopleSoft 8 to [_______________] of architecture we thought one of us was going to play, and geography is that don't use the Internet that much. They don't have the infrastructure that is as Internetcentric as the United States and that absolutely hasn't been the case. Every place I go, customers want to talk about moving enterprise applications to the Internet and Internet architecture. So, even in countries that don't have a strong consumer deployment of the Internet businesses, nevertheless they are excited about moving the enterprise access to the Internet architecture. It is all we sell and we don't sell PeopleSoft 7 or 7.5 any more, so you can tell by the revenues somewhat that the adoption of PeopleSoft 8 through Internet enterprise application is pretty well balanced.

Bob，我要說的是，當初我們在開發 PeopleSoft 8、轉向 [_______________] 架構時，我們原本以為其中一個我們會扮演的角色、以及某些地理區域是：他們不太使用網際網路，他們的基礎設施不像美國那樣以網際網路為中心；但事實完全不是如此。我走到哪裡，客戶都想談把企業應用移到網際網路與網際網路架構上。因此，即使在消費端網際網路普及不強的國家，企業仍然對把企業存取移到網際網路架構感到興奮。這也是我們唯一在賣的東西，我們不再銷售 PeopleSoft 7 或 7.5，所以從營收上你也可以看出，透過網際網路企業應用採用 PeopleSoft 8 的情況相當均衡。

Sure, that's very helpful and actually a good tie-in to my second question which does relate to the expanded enterprise licensing. Could you just review for us as concisely as possible what exactly the extended enterprise licensing model is all about for PeopleSoft? I hear you that you are not selling 7 or 7.5 or anything predecessor of, 8 but what portion of PeopleSoft licenses continue to be derived from the installed based which moves necessarily to the newer extended enterprise that's the right level licensing model.

當然，這很有幫助，也剛好銜接到我的第二個問題，與擴展企業授權（expanded enterprise licensing）有關。你能否盡可能精簡地為我們回顧一下，PeopleSoft 的 extended enterprise licensing 模式到底是什麼？我聽到你說你們不再賣 7 或 7.5 或任何 8 的前代版本，但 PeopleSoft 授權中仍有多少比例是來自既有安裝基礎（installed base），並且必然會轉向更新的 extended enterprise（也就是正確層級的授權模式）？

Well 95% of our customers or more have this extended enterprise license and they have had one back to the days of PeopleSoft 7 or 7.5. The extended enterprise license was a mechanism to increase the deployment or allow customers to increase the use of PeopleSoft applications back in the days of PeopleSoft 6 moving to PeopleSoft 7 not to a number of users or limited to one particular server, in fact enterprise wide and outside the enterprise via the Internet access and that was a licensing vehicle that we used, gosh it's got to be 2 years ago or maybe even 3 years ago. It was 2-1/2 years ago, back in the days of PeopleSoft 7 or 7.5 to allow companies to extend from server based licensing to enterprise licensing, and by the time we got the PeopleSoft 8, 95%, 96%, 97% of our customers had already extended their enterprise licenses to be able to do that so PeopleSoft 8 to that extent does not come with any upgrade deal. In PeopleSoft 8, if you are under a maintenance and you had already executed an [________________] enterprise license that was provided free.

嗯，我們 95% 以上的客戶都有這種 extended enterprise 授權，而且從 PeopleSoft 7 或 7.5 的年代就已經有了。extended enterprise 授權是一種機制，用來提高部署量，或讓客戶增加 PeopleSoft 應用的使用；早在 PeopleSoft 6 轉到 PeopleSoft 7 的年代，它就不是以使用者數量計價、也不受限於某一台特定伺服器，而是可在整個企業內部、甚至透過網際網路在企業外部使用。那是一種我們使用的授權工具，天啊，應該是 2 年前、甚至可能 3 年前；是 2 年半前，在 PeopleSoft 7 或 7.5 的年代，讓公司從以伺服器為基礎的授權延伸到企業授權。等到我們推出 PeopleSoft 8 時，95%、96%、97% 的客戶早就已經把他們的企業授權延伸到可以這樣做了，所以在這個程度上，PeopleSoft 8 並不附帶任何升級交易（upgrade deal）。在 PeopleSoft 8 中，如果你在維護合約之下，且你已經簽署了 [________________] enterprise license，那是免費提供的。

Okay, that's very helpful and a very quick last question is do you have any information about Euro compliance whether you feel that there has been any additional demands of late, perhaps a fall out sometime in the future, as a result of companies in Europe trying to get there on the new Euro powered PeopleSoft 8 or its predecessors?

好的，這很有幫助。最後一個很快的問題：關於歐元相容性（Euro compliance），你們是否有任何資訊？你們是否覺得最近有額外需求，或未來某個時間點可能出現後續效應，因為歐洲公司試圖採用新的、支援歐元的 PeopleSoft 8 或其前代版本？

Yeah, I don't know, I just want to qualify the answer. I have not seen any major change, but I am not in a position to have seen it. PeopleSoft, of course supports Euro conversions, and it has not been on my radar screen as a major issue or major dilemma, but that's not even an answer. It is not even an incomplete answer, so I am not in a position to really answer your question. Sorry Bob.

是的，我不知道，我想先限定一下這個回答。我沒有看到任何重大變化，但我也不在能夠看到它的位置上。PeopleSoft 當然支援歐元轉換，而這並沒有在我的雷達上成為一個重大議題或重大兩難，但那甚至不算答案；甚至連不完整的答案都算不上，所以我真的無法回答你的問題。抱歉，Bob。

We will get to it another time. Thanks and a great for job good news of the industry.

我們改天再談。謝謝，也恭喜你們在產業中的好表現與好消息。

Thanks very much for attending the Q2 earnings call for PeopleSoft. As I said before, we continue in the most challenging economic environment through the last one year to achieve record financial results. The results I think speak for themselves, the macro trends driving PeopleSoft success or related to a superior product and architecture, and our ability to improve productivity at reduced cost, moving to the internet phase and additional dividend and collaboration, given the customers systems and supply chain management and financial systems and HR systems and that's what every company appears now to want to do. We are confident in our guidance for the remainder of the year despite a challenging macroeconomic environment, because our pipeline is growing so exponentially even as a conversion rate has stepped back a bit, but the overall pipeline is more than made up for that, and our competitive win rate has gone up dramatically, if anything I would say future guidance we are even more confident about because this pipeline will eventually be converted, and so I think we sit here today more confident in our product offering somewhat concerned about the macroeconomic environment, but overall confident that we will continue to achieve our predicted financial results. Thank you again for listening in, and we will talk to you in the quarter.

非常感謝各位參加 PeopleSoft 的第二季（Q2）財報電話會議。如我先前所說，在過去一年最具挑戰的經濟環境中，我們仍持續達成創紀錄的財務成果。我認為結果不言自明；推動 PeopleSoft 成功的總體趨勢，與更優異的產品與架構有關，以及我們在降低成本的同時提升生產力的能力、邁向網際網路階段，以及額外的分紅與協作（collaboration），結合客戶的系統、供應鏈管理與財務系統與人資系統，而這似乎正是每家公司現在都想做的事。儘管總體經濟環境充滿挑戰，我們對今年剩餘期間的指引仍有信心，因為即使轉換率（conversion rate）略有回落，我們的銷售管線（pipeline）仍以非常指數型的速度成長，整體管線已足以彌補轉換率的影響；而且我們的競爭勝率（competitive win rate）也大幅提升。若要說的話，我會說我們對未來指引甚至更有信心，因為這些管線最終會轉化為訂單。因此，我想我們今天坐在這裡，對產品供應更有信心，對總體經濟環境略感擔憂，但整體仍有信心我們將持續達成預期的財務成果。再次感謝各位收聽，我們下一季再談。