Pegasystems Inc (PEGA) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Jeannie, and I will be your conference operator today. I would like to welcome everyone to the Pegasystems Q4 and Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the conference over to Peter Welburn, VP, Corporate Development and Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

早安.我叫珍妮，今天我將擔任你們的會議操作員。我歡迎大家參加 Pegasystems 第四季和 2023 財年財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）我現在想將會議交給企業發展和投資者關係副總裁 Peter Welburn。您可以開始您的會議了。

Thank you, Jeannie. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Pegasystems Q4 and Full Year 2023 Earnings Call. Before we begin, I would like to read our safe harbor statement.

謝謝你，珍妮。大家早安，歡迎參加 Pegasystems 第四季和 2023 年全年財報電話會議。在我們開始之前，我想閱讀我們的安全港聲明。

Certain statements contained in this presentation may be construed as forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words expects, anticipates, intends, plans, believes, will, could, should, estimates, may, forecasts and guidance or variations of such words and other similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statement was made, and are based on current expectations and assumptions.

本簡報中包含的某些陳述可能被解釋為1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》中定義的前瞻性陳述。這些詞語期望、預計、打算、計劃、相信、將、能夠、應該、估計、可能、預測和此類詞語和其他類似表述的指導或變體確定了前瞻性陳述，這些陳述僅代表截至該陳述發表之日的情況，並且基於當前的預期和假設。

Because such statements deal with future events, they are subject to various risks and uncertainties, and actual results for fiscal year 2024 and beyond could differ materially from the company's current expectations.

由於此類聲明涉及未來事件，因此會受到各種風險和不確定性的影響，2024 財年及以後的實際結果可能與公司目前的預期有重大差異。

Factors that could cause the company's results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements are contained in the company's press release announcing its Q4 2023, and full year earnings, and in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, and in other recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

可能導致公司業績與前瞻性陳述中表達的結果存在重大差異的因素包含在該公司宣布2023 年第四季度和全年收益的新聞稿中，以及該公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中，包括其年度業績截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日的 10-K 表格報告以及最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件中。

Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, and there are no assurances that the matters contained in such statements will be achieved. Although subsequent events may change our views to change, except as required by applicable law, we do not undertake and specifically disclaim any obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements whether as the result of new information, future events or otherwise.

請投資人不要過度依賴此類前瞻性陳述，並且不保證此類陳述中包含的事項將會實現。儘管後續事件可能會改變我們的觀點，但除非適用法律要求，否則我們不承擔並明確否認任何公開更新或修改這些前瞻性陳述的義務，無論是由於新資訊、未來事件或其他原因。

And with that, I turn the call over to Alan Trefler, Founder and CEO of Pegasystems.

接下來，我將電話轉給 Pegasystems 創辦人兼執行長 Alan Trefler。

Thank you, Peter, and to everyone who's joining today's call. It's terrific to see how well the team performed in 2023. The organization responded to our new go-to-market strategy, and we finished the year with a very strong Q4. We continue to deepen and expand our client relationships.

謝謝彼得，也謝謝所有參加今天電話會議的人。很高興看到該團隊在 2023 年的表現如此出色。該組織對我們新的上市策略做出了回應，我們以非常強勁的第四季度業績結束了這一年。我們不斷深化和擴大我們的客戶關係。

We've been doing a terrific job, I think, of applying GenAI to introduce innovative industry-changing technology, and we generated a good mix of growth and cash flow, which Ken will discuss in more detail in a few minutes.

我認為，我們在應用 GenAI 引入改變行業的創新技術方面做得非常出色，並且我們實現了成長和現金流的良好組合，Ken 將在幾分鐘內更詳細地討論這一點。

Now this year continued the important themes we've been talking about, and I'm more convinced than ever, there's still amazing opportunity for growth within our client base. And I'm confident in our org-focused deep engagement model.

今年我們繼續討論的重要主題，我比以往任何時候都更加確信，我們的客戶群中仍然存在驚人的成長機會。我對我們以組織為中心的深度參與模型充滿信心。

I continue to engage with our most senior clients most recently in Davos for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. I talked to dozens of C-suite clients and partners about how they're responding to change, their business opportunities, the challenges and plans for 2024 and beyond.

最近，我在達沃斯參加世界經濟論壇年會，繼續與我們最資深的客戶接觸。我與數十位高階主管客戶和合作夥伴討論了他們如何應對變革、他們的商業機會、挑戰以及 2024 年及以後的計劃。

AI is still central to almost every client conversation as they continue to try to understand and explore where and how to leverage AI effectively and safely in their organizations. And we're showing them how Pega can help.

人工智慧仍然是幾乎所有客戶對話的核心，因為他們不斷嘗試了解和探索在其組織中何處以及如何有效、安全地利用人工智慧。我們正在向他們展示 Pega 如何提供協助。

These conversations reinforce to me that what we have is unique and perfectly suited to enterprise needs. I couldn't be more excited about the incredible opportunity to leverage GenAI and revolutionize the way clients use our technology to drive success in 2024 and beyond.

這些對話讓我更加確信，我們擁有的產品是獨一無二的，並且完全適合企業需求。我對利用 GenAI 並徹底改變客戶使用我們的技術在 2024 年及以後取得成功的絕佳機會感到非常興奮。

Let me tell you why Pega is perfectly positioned to help clients deliver on the GenAI opportunity. Since I founded, we've been incorporating the principles of AI, generally, statistical as well as now generative, into our offerings and really focused on building products designed for the needs of the sophisticated enterprise.

讓我告訴您為什麼 Pega 能夠完美地幫助客戶抓住 GenAI 機會。自從我創立以來，我們一直將人工智慧的原則（一般是統計的以及現在的生成）融入到我們的產品中，並真正專注於建立滿足複雜企業需求的產品。

Our clients come to us because they want to transform their businesses to become more efficient, more profitable or improve loyalty, creating better experiences for their customers and employees. And our enterprise AI decisioning and workflow automation platform enables clients to unlock business transforming outcomes with real-time optimization and continuous improvement.

我們的客戶之所以選擇我們，是因為他們希望實現業務轉型，提高效率、提高利潤或提高忠誠度，為客戶和員工創造更好的體驗。我們的企業人工智慧決策和工作流程自動化平台使客戶能夠透過即時優化和持續改進來釋放業務轉型成果。

You can find great case studies on our website that explain how our clients are using the software to want and improve customer engagement by customizing conversations real-time in its scale. For instance, Wells Fargo describes how they are using our Customer Decision Hub to provide targeted and relevant responses to the billions of interactions they receive monthly from customers.

您可以在我們的網站上找到精彩的案例研究，這些案例研究解釋了我們的客戶如何使用該軟體透過大規模定制即時對話來希望和提高客戶參與度。例如，富國銀行描述了他們如何使用我們的客戶決策中心為他們每月從客戶收到的數十億次互動提供有針對性的相關回應。

Secondly, to enhance client service through AI-powered guidance that delivers amazing experiences for customers and employees, boosting loyalty, supporting retention and driving down costs. Aflac describes on the website how we're simplifying and automating the processing of thousands of e-mails per week in tech to resolution, improving customer and employee satisfaction.

其次，透過人工智慧驅動的指導來增強客戶服務，為客戶和員工提供令人驚嘆的體驗，提高忠誠度，支援保留並降低成本。 Aflac 在網站上描述了我們如何簡化和自動化每週處理數千封電子郵件的技術，以解決問題，並提高客戶和員工的滿意度。

And finally, what we've always done is streamlining operations by automating operations with intelligence. This is what Lloyd's talks about, automating their business processes to resolve fraud and dispute cases faster and more effectively even while on the phone with the client.

最後，我們一直在做的是透過智慧自動化操作來簡化操作。這就是勞合社所談論的，即實現業務流程自動化，即使在與客戶通電話時也能更快、更有效地解決詐欺和爭議案件。

These results are what matter to our clients. They are looking to transform their businesses, not simply crank out more code. So when we apply GenAI, we're not using it to generate code. We're using it to optimize the business concepts adhering to best practices, for example, suggesting the most efficient and effective way to process a mortgage or insurance client, or how to create the best offer and marketing treatment for a client.

這些結果對我們的客戶來說至關重要。他們希望改變自己的業務，而不僅僅是編寫更多程式碼。因此，當我們應用 GenAI 時，我們並不是用它來產生程式碼。我們使用它來優化遵循最佳實踐的業務概念，例如，建議處理抵押貸款或保險客戶的最高效和最有效的方法，或如何為客戶創建最佳報價和行銷待遇。

We have a unique structure built around business concept and enterprise process, rules, data models, UI, all of those are organized into layers so they can be built on, reused and specialized to support the needs of different product lines, customer segments or geographical jurisdictions that an enterprise might need to manage.

我們擁有圍繞業務概念和企業流程、規則、資料模型、UI 建構的獨特結構，所有這些都組織成層，以便可以建構、重複使用和專門化，以支援不同產品線、客戶群或地理區域的需求企業可能需要管理的司法管轄區。

This layered architecture is the perfect architecture for GenAI, and what I believe gives Pega a unique advantage. Because we use the GenAI not to write code, but to directly offer and control and influence the business concepts themselves.

這種分層架構是 GenAI 的完美架構，我相信這給了 Pega 獨特的優勢。因為我們使用GenAI不是為了編寫程式碼，而是為了直接提供、控制和影響業務概念本身。

This unique layer cake architecture has enabled us to develop, integrate and deliver new GenAI capabilities and services very quickly. And it's based on a patented architecture that we've studied and evolved for decades and can't readily be copied or reproduced. I think this gives us a clear competitive advantage.

這種獨特的層蛋糕架構使我們能夠非常快速地開發、整合和提供新的 GenAI 功能和服務。它基於我們數十年研究和發展的專利架構，無法輕易複製或複製。我認為這給我們帶來了明顯的競爭優勢。

So in terms of our strategy for this year and next, there are 4 major areas we believe our approach to GenAI will drive a massive impact for our clients and for Pega. First, we're looking to double developer productivity in Pega with Pega skills always at their fingertips. Second, we're looking to ignite enterprise innovation by being able to bring together industry expertise, Pega technology, the wisdom of the Internet and our clients' insights.

因此，就我們今年和明年的策略而言，我們相信我們的 GenAI 方法將在 4 個主要領域為我們的客戶和 Pega 帶來巨大影響。首先，我們希望透過始終觸手可及的 Pega 技能，將 Pega 中的開發人員生產力提高一倍。其次，我們希望透過匯集行業專業知識、Pega 技術、互聯網智慧和客戶的見解來激發企業創新。

Third, we're looking to try to maximize revenue and efficiencies for our clients by giving them real-time optimization and personalization of customer interactions and making it so that they can continually optimize. And finally, being able to streamline work processes and customer experiences by giving the right people instant access to the right real-time systems and capabilities so they can literally get the work done.

第三，我們希望透過為客戶提供即時優化和個人化的客戶交互，並使其能夠持續優化，來嘗試最大限度地提高客戶的收入和效率。最後，能夠透過讓合適的人員即時存取合適的即時系統和功能來簡化工作流程和客戶體驗，以便他們能夠真正完成工作。

Let me tell you how we're delivering on the strategy today, and what to expect in the future. Now we started by introducing 20 GenAI boosters as part of Pega Infinity '23 in the fourth quarter, supporting our goal of improving development, productivity, and showing our clients how these tools can be used safely and responsibly. We launched an interactive demo on our website that lets clients immediately experience the power of our GenAI capability.

讓我告訴您我們今天如何實施該策略，以及未來的預期。現在，我們首先在第四季度推出 20 個 GenAI 助推器，作為 Pega Infinity '23 的一部分，支持我們提高開發和生產力的目標，並向客戶展示如何安全、負責任地使用這些工具。我們在網站上推出了互動式演示，讓客戶可以立即體驗我們 GenAI 功能的強大功能。

Then under the description of a business process you want to optimize, and Pega GenAI helps design the optimal processes, the stages, the steps, the data model, the user personas, all in seconds. It's available to any of you. Since its launch, thousands of visitors have experienced the demo, entering workflows from client onboarding to 5G network rollout, and we're hearing terrific things. Do get on and try it yourself.

然後，根據您想要優化的業務流程的描述，Pega GenAI 可以在幾秒鐘內幫助設計最佳流程、階段、步驟、資料模型、使用者角色。你們任何人都可以使用它。自推出以來，數千名訪客體驗了該演示，進入了從客戶入門到 5G 網路推出的工作流程，我們聽到了很棒的事情。請親自嘗試。

And in the last few weeks, we announced 2 new powerful offerings that I think are going to be game changing. The Pega AI -- GenAI Knowledge Buddy and the Pega GenAI Blueprint. The Knowledge Buddy is an enterprise-grade generative AI-powered knowledge assistant to quickly and easily help customers and employees get specific answers based on our company's own content, but synthesized by generative AI. So employees don't have to search across siloed and scattered knowledge basis.

在過去的幾周里，我們宣布了兩項強大的新產品，我認為它們將改變遊戲規則。 Pega AI——GenAI Knowledge Buddy 和 Pega GenAI 藍圖。 Knowledge Buddy 是一款企業級生成式 AI 驅動的知識助手，可快速輕鬆地幫助客戶和員工根據我們公司自己的內容獲得由生成式 AI 合成的具體答案。因此，員工不必在孤立且分散的知識基礎上進行搜尋。

Now there are a lot of GenAI-based assistants in the market that ingests content or answer questions. But when we looked at them, we think that they're generally not built for true enterprise needs. So we've designed a product that is fortified with enterprise-grade integration, auditing and controls.

現在市場上有許多基於 GenAI 的助手可以提取內容或回答問題。但當我們審視它們時，我們認為它們通常不是為真正的企業需求而建構的。因此，我們設計了一款透過企業級整合、審核和控制進行強化的產品。

It puts organizational knowledge on employees and customers' fingertips, allowing them to ask questions through simple conversational interfaces and get specific, accurate and concise responses with transparent attribution to where the source content is coming from.

它將組織知識放在員工和客戶的指尖上，使他們能夠透過簡單的對話介面提出問題，並獲得具體、準確和簡潔的答复，並透明地說明來源內容的來源。

We're using Knowledge Buddy to embed all the Pega's documentation and support library into our design environment so developers can easily find answers about how Pega can make them more productive and operate faster and with less training. This powerful combination of our innovative AI architecture with security features means that our clients can use this latest technology and feel confident and safe knowing they're adhering to high standards of trust and responsibility.

我們使用 Knowledge Buddy 將 Pega 的所有文件和支援庫嵌入到我們的設計環境中，以便開發人員可以輕鬆找到有關 Pega 如何提高工作效率、運行速度更快且所需培訓更少的答案。我們的創新人工智慧架構與安全功能的強大結合意味著我們的客戶可以使用這項最新技術，並感到自信和安全，因為他們知道自己遵守高標準的信任和責任。

And just a few days ago, we announced something I think is going to be truly remarkable as it develops. It's the Pega GenAI Blueprint. This is a collaborative SaaS application that automates enterprise-grade workflow application designs to catalyze enterprise innovation and significantly increase developer productivity.

就在幾天前，我們宣布了一些我認為隨著它的發展將真正引人注目的事情。這就是 Pega GenAI 藍圖。這是一款協作式 SaaS 應用程序，可自動執行企業級工作流程應用程式設計，以促進企業創新並顯著提高開發人員的工作效率。

I'm going to ask Kerim Akgonul, our Chief Product Officer, to tell you about this groundbreaking product. Kerim?

我將請我們的首席產品長 Kerim Akgonul 向您介紹這款突破性的產品。克里姆？

All right. Thank you, Alan. Our GenAI Blueprint is very, very exciting. And it really stems from the fact that we all know that traditional design processes are often unsuccessful and are always very time-consuming, mostly because they don't really stimulate design thinking, they don't drive a vision, they don't really drive stakeholder alignment.

好的。謝謝你，艾倫。我們的 GenAI 藍圖非常非常令人興奮。這確實源於這樣一個事實：我們都知道傳統的設計流程常常是不成功的，而且總是非常耗時，主要是因為它們並沒有真正激發設計思維，它們沒有驅動願景，它們並沒有真正實現設計目標。推動利害關係人協調一致。

In these days, most generative AI approaches focus solely on churning out software code. They're not focused on organizing outcomes or driving business alignment. But Pega GenAI Blueprint is entirely focused on driving incredible outcomes with amazing speed for enterprise applications.

如今，大多數生成式人工智慧方法只專注於產生軟體程式碼。他們不專注於組織成果或推動業務協調。但 Pega GenAI Blueprint 完全專注於以驚人的速度為企業應用程式帶來令人難以置信的成果。

It combines Pega's robust library of industry expertise and process templates with general Internet knowledge. It uses generative AI to synthesize all of that information and automatically recommends best practice workflows, data models and more, all just from an application name and brief description.

它將 Pega 強大的行業專業知識庫和流程模板與一般互聯網知識結合。它使用生成式人工智慧來綜合所有這些信息，並自動推薦最佳實踐工作流程、資料模型等，所有這些都只需應用程式名稱和簡短描述即可。

We even get to layer in a client's best practices to ensure effectiveness in reuse. And there is absolutely nothing else like this in the market today. Business leaders across every industry can rapidly capture their vision and even rethink their business processes to drive innovation in their organizations, sparking brand new ideas that they wouldn't have thought of on their own.

我們甚至將客戶的最佳實踐分層以確保重複使用的有效性。當今市場上絕對沒有其他類似的產品。每個行業的企業領導者都可以快速捕捉他們的願景，甚至重新思考他們的業務流程，以推動組織的創新，激發他們自己無法想到的全新想法。

This interactive application, Blueprint's, it's generates are easily understood and collaborated on by all stakeholders to drive alignment. They can take Blueprint's suggestions and alter them to meet their needs. And once agreed to, they are ingested into Pega to generate the enterprise-grade cloud architected applications. And this is how we can leverage GenAI to actually drive transformation in an enterprise.

它產生的這個互動式應用程式（藍圖）很容易被所有利害關係人理解和協作，以推動協調。他們可以採納藍圖的建議並對其進行修改以滿足自己的需求。一旦同意，它們就會被引入 Pega 以產生企業級雲端架構應用程式。這就是我們如何利用 GenAI 真正推動企業轉型。

And when you get a chance to see this product, you'll be astonished at the speed of innovation and how widely applicable it is across every industry and geography. The response from our early adopter clients and partners has been incredibly positive for their specific use cases. And what's important is that Pega GenAI Knowledge Buddy and Pega GenAI Blueprint will help our clients and partners more quickly and easily learn how to build Pega applications.

當您有機會看到這款產品時，您會對創新的速度及其在各個行業和地區的廣泛應用感到驚訝。我們的早期採用者客戶和合作夥伴對其特定用例的反應非常積極。重要的是，Pega GenAI Knowledge Buddy 和 Pega GenAI Blueprint 將幫助我們的客戶和合作夥伴更快、更輕鬆地學習如何建立 Pega 應用程式。

And since Pega has always been known as one of the most powerful platforms from creating applications, and we're now significantly reducing the barrier to entry and speed to value by making it much more accessible. And we think we've just really -- just scratched the surface of what GenAI can do. These newest products are the start of a series of exciting offerings that we'll be offering between now and PegaWorld on June 9 that will continue to deliver on our strategy.

由於 Pega 一直被認為是創建應用程式的最強大平台之一，我們現在透過使其更易於訪問來顯著降低進入門檻和價值速度。我們認為我們真的只是觸及了 GenAI 功能的表面。這些最新產品是我們從現在到 6 月 9 日 PegaWorld 期間推出的一系列令人興奮的產品的開始，這些產品將繼續實施我們的策略。

I'll turn it back over to Alan.

我會把它轉回給艾倫。

Thanks, Kerim. It's very exciting. And we're very excited to be going back to Las Vegas again this year for PegaWorld from June 9 to June 11. Please mark your calendars. We have an exciting lineup of clients who are presenting. For example, National Australia Bank will be featuring its groundbreaking initiatives using the customer decision up to drive value for the bank and its customers, developed and into production in under 6 months.

謝謝，克里姆。這是非常令人興奮。我們很高興今年能再次回到拉斯維加斯參加 6 月 9 日至 11 日的 PegaWorld。請標記您的日曆。我們的客戶陣容令人興奮。例如，澳洲國民銀行將展示其突破性舉措，利用客戶決策為銀行及其客戶創造價值，並在 6 個月內開發並投入生產。

And Verizon will be talking about how we permeated selling into all its customer-facing teams and delighted customers by leveraging deep intelligence about the client, marketing science and real-time signals. So check out the agenda on pega.com to see the dozens of other great client stories you'll be able to hear about in person and talk to the customers directly.

Verizon 將討論我們如何將銷售滲透到所有面向客戶的團隊中，並透過利用有關客戶的深入情報、行銷科學和即時訊號來取悅客戶。因此，請查看 pega.com 上的議程，了解數十個其他精彩的客戶故事，您將能夠親自聽到並直接與客戶交談。

And of course, we'll be talking about and showing our newest innovations and what to expect for the rest of the year. Now we've scheduled our investor session on Monday, the 10th at noon local time. And we hope to see you then, if not before. I'll be joining Ken to meet with some investors here well on the road visiting clients. So keep an eye on for an invite and be sure to register. It is going to be tremendous.

當然，我們將討論並展示我們的最新創新以及今年剩餘時間的預期。現在我們已將投資者會議安排在當地時間 10 日星期一中午。我們希望屆時能見到您（如果不是提前的話）。我將和肯一起在拜訪客戶的路上與一些投資者會面。因此，請密切注意邀請並確保註冊。這將是巨大的。

So in summary, we're delivering transformative innovation to truly change the way the world builds software. I'm pleased that our go-to-market strategy and org-focused model is working and our focus on balancing growth and profitability is evident in our results. I believe we have competitive advantage to our architecture, and we're going to be able to leverage GenAI to bring significant value to clients in a way our competitors can't easily match. And I think there is a tremendous opportunity for that in 2024 and beyond.

總而言之，我們正在提供變革性創新，以真正改變世界建構軟體的方式。我很高興我們的市場策略和以組織為中心的模式正在發揮作用，我們對平衡成長和獲利能力的關注在我們的業績中得到了體現。我相信我們的架構具有競爭優勢，我們將能夠利用 GenAI 以競爭對手無法輕易匹敵的方式為客戶帶來巨大價值。我認為 2024 年及以後會有巨大的機會。

To provide more color on our financial results, let me now turn it over to Ken Stillwell, our COO and CFO.

為了讓我們的財務表現更加生動，現在讓我將其交給我們的營運長兼財務長 Ken Stillwell。

Thanks, Alan. Pega has truly entered a new financial frontier. We finished the year with extremely strong growth in free cash flow and a nice reacceleration of Pega Cloud ACV. In the 40-year history of Pega, we've never seen the level of cash flow generation we experienced in 2023. And quite frankly, we're just getting started.

謝謝，艾倫。 Pega 真正進入了一個新的金融領域。我們以極其強勁的自由現金流成長和 Pega Cloud ACV 的良好重新加速結束了這一年。在 Pega 40 年的歷史中，我們從未見過 2023 年所經歷的現金流生成水準。坦白說，我們才剛開始。

The shift to a new subscription business model provides us with improved visibility, which allows us to better manage the operating efficiency of the firm and drive superior cash generation. That dynamic, coupled with our strong go-to-market execution in the fourth quarter of 2023, resulted in impressive results in a challenging market.

向新的訂閱業務模式的轉變為我們提供了更高的可視性，這使我們能夠更好地管理公司的營運效率並推動卓越的現金產生。這種動態，加上我們在 2023 年第四季強勁的上市執行力，在充滿挑戰的市場中取得了令人印象深刻的業績。

Annual contract value, or ACV, continues to be the most important metric to measure the success of our business. The ACV growth in constant currency accelerated in Q4, growing by 11% year-over-year. Our double-digit ACV growth was powered by an extremely strong net new ACV added in the fourth quarter. In fact, our sales team booked more net new ACV in Q4 of 2023 than it did in Q4 of 2022, a clear indication that our new go-to-market strategy is working.

年度合約價值（ACV）仍然是衡量我們業務成功與否的最重要指標。以固定匯率計算，ACV 在第四季加速成長，年增 11%。我們兩位數的 ACV 成長得益於第四季極其強勁的新增 ACV 淨值。事實上，我們的銷售團隊在 2023 年第四季淨預訂的新 ACV 數量比 2022 年第四季還要多，這清楚地表明我們新的上市策略正在發揮作用。

The surge in net new ACV was a result of an extremely strong growth in Pega Cloud. We added $58 million in Pega Cloud ACV in the fourth quarter alone, the highest of any quarter ever. As a result, Pega Cloud ACV growth reaccelerated in Q4 to 21% year-over-year. It's just awesome to see.

新 ACV 淨值激增是 Pega Cloud 極其強勁成長的結果。光是第四季度，我們就在 Pega Cloud ACV 上增加了 5,800 萬美元，這是有史以​​來最高的季度。因此，Pega Cloud ACV 成長在第四季度再次加速，年增 21%。真是太棒了。

Pega Cloud is now our primary offering that clients are demanding as it enables our clients to focus on developing innovative business applications on the Pega platform, without having to manage an underlying cloud infrastructure. It also helps keep our clients current on the latest and greatest Pega technology, which is also a tremendous benefit.

Pega Cloud 現在是我們滿足客戶需求的主要產品，因為它使我們的客戶能夠專注於在 Pega 平台上開發創新業務應用程序，而無需管理底層雲端基礎設施。它還有助於讓我們的客戶了解最新、最好的 Pega 技術，這也是一個巨大的優勢。

Moving on to revenue. We achieved total revenue of $1.43 billion. Revenue growth was driven by 2 key factors. First, 2023 had a larger number of term renewals than in 2022. And second, we had a handful of clients in Q4 who chose to renew term license contracts for longer durations than we forecast. Under ASC 606, as many of you are aware, the significant portion of multiyear term license bookings are recognized as subscription license revenue in the quarter that the deals are booked.

轉向收入。我們實現了 14.3 億美元的總收入。收入成長由兩個關鍵因素推動。首先，2023 年的期限續約數量比 2022 年要多。其次，我們在第四季度有少數客戶選擇續約期限許可合同，期限比我們的預測更長。正如你們許多人所知，根據 ASC 606，多年期許可證預訂的很大一部分在預訂交易的季度被確認為訂閱許可證收入。

Moving to cash flow. Cash flow from operations was $218 million, an increase of over 800% from the prior year's total of $22 million. Free cash flow surged year-over-year to $201 million, once again, the highest free cash flow in the history of the company. This strong increase demonstrates the core strength and completion of our subscription transition and the team's success in managing operating costs. We achieved this amazing number, even though we had over $50 million in items like restructuring and legal costs.

轉向現金流。營運現金流為 2.18 億美元，比上年的 2,200 萬美元成長了 800% 以上。自由現金流較去年同期飆升至 2.01 億美元，再次創下公司歷史上最高的自由現金流。這一強勁成長證明了我們的核心實力和訂閱過渡的完成以及團隊在管理營運成本方面的成功。儘管我們在重組和法律費用等項目上花費了超過 5000 萬美元，但我們還是實現了這個驚人的數字。

We expanded non-GAAP Pega Cloud margin from 70% to approximately 75%. We also improved operating leverage across all 3 operating expense lines. We reduced non-GAAP sales and marketing expense as a percentage of total revenue from 43% to 35%, making the very difficult decision to execute the 2 reductions in force in 2023.

我們將非 GAAP Pega Cloud 利潤率從 70% 擴大到約 75%。我們也提高了所有 3 個營運費用項目的營運槓桿。我們將非 GAAP 銷售和行銷費用佔總收入的比例從 43% 降低到 35%，做出了在 2023 年執行兩次削減的非常艱難的決定。

These 2 actions brought together our sales and client success teams reduced operational silos and focused on teams -- focus our teams on cross-selling and upselling into the existing clients. Capital expense also normalized since we had completed the build-out of our Waltham, Massachusetts office.

這兩項行動將我們的銷售和客戶成功團隊聚集在一起，減少了營運孤島並專注於團隊——讓我們的團隊專注於對現有客戶的交叉銷售和追加銷售。自從我們完成馬薩諸塞州沃爾瑟姆辦事處的擴建以來，資本支出也正常化。

Moving on to earnings per share. Full year GAAP EPS came in at $0.73, and non-GAAP EPS was $2.48. Non-GAAP EPS exceeded $2 per share for the first time in the company's history. Many of the same factors that powered our strong cash flow growth were key drivers in our year-over-year improvement in EPS as well. I'm really happy with our double-digit ACV growth and our robust increase in free cash flow.

接下來是每股收益。全年 GAAP 每股收益為 0.73 美元，非 GAAP 每股收益為 2.48 美元。非 GAAP 每股盈餘在公司歷史上首次超過每股 2 美元。推動現金流強勁成長的許多因素也是每股盈餘較去年同期改善的關鍵驅動因素。我對我們兩位數的 ACV 成長和自由現金流的強勁成長感到非常滿意。

We wanted to exit 2023 as a Rule of 30 company, which we've done. We define the Rule of 30 the same way we define the Rule of 40, as a combination of our ACV growth plus our free cash flow margin adjusted for any items like restructuring, legal fees, interest expense, taxes, essentially making it an EBITDA-like equivalent measure.

我們希望在 2023 年退出 30 家公司規則，我們已經做到了。我們定義30 規則的方式與定義40 規則的方式相同，是我們的ACV 增長加上針對重組、法律費用、利息費用、稅收等任何項目調整的自由現金流利潤率的組合，本質上使其成為EBITDA -就像等效措施一樣。

Achieving the Rule of 30 demonstrates progress we have made instilling much greater operational rigor and performance transparency in our business.

實現 30 條規則表明我們在業務中註入了更高的營運嚴謹性和績效透明度方面取得了進展。

Moving to our guidance for 2024. As a reminder, we provide annual guidance at the beginning of the year, and we do not typically update annual guidance unless we do a material acquisition. We do not provide quarterly guidance.

轉向我們的 2024 年指導。提醒一下，我們在年初提供年度指導，除非我們進行重大收購，否則我們通常不會更新年度指導。我們不提供季度指引。

Starting with our growth metrics for 2024, we expect ACV to grow 11%. We expect total revenue of approximately $1.5 billion. Revenue growth will be slower than ACV growth in 2024 because we have a slightly lower mix of multiyear term license renewals, and we're modeling an uptick in cloud-based bookings as clients continue to buy Pega Cloud as the primary offering.

從 2024 年的成長指標開始，我們預期 ACV 將成長 11%。我們預計總收入約為 15 億美元。到2024 年，營收成長將慢於ACV 成長，因為我們的多年許可證續約組合略低，而且隨著客戶繼續購買Pega Cloud 作為主要產品，我們正在對基於雲端的預訂量的成長進行建模。

Moving to our profitability metrics. We're guiding cash flow from operations to $365 million. We're forecasting free cash flow to increase about 75% year-over-year to $350 million. We expect GAAP EPS of $1.18 per share, and non-GAAP EPS of $2.75 per share. I've received feedback that it's helpful when we share thoughts on modeling our business, so I'll continue to offer a few suggestions, starting with ACV growth.

轉向我們的獲利指標。我們將營運現金流引導至 3.65 億美元。我們預計自由現金流將年增約 75%，達到 3.5 億美元。我們預計 GAAP 每股收益為 1.18 美元，非 GAAP 每股收益為 2.75 美元。我收到的回饋表明，我們分享有關業務建模的想法很有幫助，因此我將繼續提供一些建議，首先是 ACV 的成長。

We expect ACV growth to once again be back-end loaded in 2024. As we experienced in 2023, many of our existing client contracts are up for renewal at the end of the year. And since we plan to focus our go-to-market motion on cross-selling and upselling into our existing clients, we expect to see a significant portion of our net new ACV that gets added in the final quarter of the year.

我們預計 ACV 成長將在 2024 年再次受到後端負載。正如我們在 2023 年所經歷的那樣，我們的許多現有客戶合約都將在年底續約。由於我們計劃將上市活動的重點放在對現有客戶的交叉銷售和追加銷售上，因此我們預計今年最後一個季度將增加淨新 ACV 的很大一部分。

This is very common for enterprise technology companies. And quite frankly, in the environment that we've seen in 2023 and we predicted 2024, we will continue to see a significant amount of transactions that tend to happen toward the end of a buying cycle or a fiscal year.

這對於企業技術公司來說很常見。坦白說，在我們 2023 年看到的以及我們預測 2024 年的環境中，我們將繼續看到大量交易往往會在購買週期或財政年度結束時發生。

Given that we've added such unusually high amount of net new ACV in Q1 of 2023, we face a very tough ACV compare in the first quarter of 2024. As a result, you would expect that our ACV growth rate would slow a little in the first quarter and then bounce back at the later part of the year.

鑑於我們在2023 年第一季增加瞭如此多的淨新ACV，我們在2024 年第一季面臨著非常艱難的ACV 比較。因此，您預計我們的ACV 成長率將在2023 年第一季略有放緩。第一季度，然後在今年下半年反彈。

Moving to term license revenue. We expect total term license revenue to decrease year-over-year in 2024 as existing clients and new clients choose Pega Cloud. We also have a slightly lower number of multiyear renewals coming due in 2024 than we did in 2023. We also expect to book shorter duration term license contracts as more of our clients value the consumptive nature of their growth.

轉向定期許可收入。我們預計，隨著現有客戶和新客戶選擇 Pega Cloud，2024 年的定期授權總收入將年減。與 2023 年相比，我們 2024 年到期的多年期續約數量也略有減少。我們也預計會預訂期限較短的許可合同，因為我們越來越多的客戶重視其增長的消耗性。

Under ASC 606, a shorter duration term license contract results in less term license revenue booked upfront than a traditionally longer duration contract. However, more frequent contract renewals provides us with a greater opportunity to cross-sell, upsell and support and assist our clients as they move to Pega Cloud and also initiate new workloads and new use cases on Pega Cloud.

根據 ASC 606，期限較短的許可合約會導致比傳統期限較長的合約提前預訂的期限許可證收入更少。然而，更頻繁的合約續約為我們提供了更多的機會來交叉銷售、追加銷售以及支援和協助我們的客戶遷移到 Pega Cloud，並在 Pega Cloud 上啟動新的工作負載和新的用例。

Next, I want to remind you that PegaWorld, our annual client and partner event, as Alan mentioned, will be held from Sunday, June 9 through Tuesday, June 11 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Please mark your calendars. We'd love to have you join us in person as you have in previous years. Our annual investor session is planned for Monday, June 10, during the PegaWorld session. In addition, we'll be on the road at several sell-side conferences in March as well as a few NDRs. We look forward to catching up with you all of you soon.

接下來，我想提醒您，正如艾倫所提到的，我們的年度客戶和合作夥伴活動 PegaWorld 將於 6 月 9 日星期日至 6 月 11 日星期二在拉斯維加斯米高梅大酒店舉行。請標記您的日曆。我們很高興您能像往年一樣親自加入我們。我們的年度投資者會議計劃於 6 月 10 日星期一 PegaWorld 會議期間舉行。此外，我們還將參加 3 月的幾次賣方會議以及一些 NDR。我們期待盡快與大家見面。

In conclusion, we've focused on providing outstanding experiences and value to our clients and believe that well-managed firms drive responsible levels of free cash flow for their shareholders. As we've demonstrated in 2023, we're very focused on balancing growth and profitability and made outstanding progress on both of these metrics. We've set the course for achieving the Rule of 40 as we exit 2024, with double-digit ACV growth and robust free cash flow.

總之，我們專注於為客戶提供卓越的體驗和價值，並相信管理良好的公司可以為其股東帶來負責任的自由現金流水準。正如我們在 2023 年所展示的那樣，我們非常注重平衡成長和獲利能力，並在這兩個指標上取得了顯著進展。我們已經制定了在 2024 年退出時實現 40 法則的路線，實現兩位數的 ACV 成長和強勁的自由現金流。

Operator, please open the call for questions.

接線員，請打開電話提問。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Steve Enders with Citi.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Steve Enders。

Okay. Great. I guess maybe just to start is, it would great to hear on what you are seeing out there in the macro landscape, it sounds like it's still a pretty challenging environment, but pretty good results here on the ACV. So -- Yes, maybe just to get an update on how things are trending, and how you're thinking about the macro setup for '24 here?

好的。偉大的。我想也許只是開始，很高興聽到您在宏觀景觀中看到的情況，聽起來這仍然是一個相當具有挑戰性的環境，但在 ACV 上取得了相當不錯的結果。所以——是的，也許只是為了了解事情的最新發展趨勢，以及你如何看待 24 世紀的宏觀設定？

Sure. Well, I think it's a challenging environment. There's a lot of uncertainty out there. But we're seeing great receptivity to our approach to the use of AI, and how we're looking to weave it in to our product lines, which, as I said, I think we have a really unique architecture with this layer cake you heard me talk about, which is at the heart of our model to an architecture that is just different than the way other people look and candidly really fits beautifully with how to incorporate the GenAI.

當然。嗯，我認為這是一個充滿挑戰的環境。那裡有很多不確定性。但我們看到人們對我們使用人工智慧的方法有很大的接受度，以及我們如何將其融入我們的產品線中，正如我所說，我認為我們有一個非常獨特的架構，你可以透過這個層蛋糕聽我說過，這是我們模型架構的核心，它與其他人的外觀不同，坦白說，它非常適合如何整合 GenAI。

So as we get our customers to see that, we're seeing a lot of enthusiasm. In reality, all this stuff is really new. And people are just sort of trying to understand what it's going to mean for them. There is so much hype around this stuff that I think customers are appropriately a little skeptical. And we actually welcome that because we think by exploring what's really there, they're going to be able to tell the difference between the stuff that's going to leave them hydrated and disappointed and what we think we're going to be able to do.

因此，當我們讓客戶看到這一點時，我們看到了極大的熱情。事實上，所有這些東西都是新的。人們只是試圖理解這對他們意味著什麼。圍繞這些東西的炒作太多了，我認為客戶適當地有點懷疑。我們實際上對此表示歡迎，因為我們認為透過探索真正存在的東西，他們將能夠區分那些會讓他們感到水潤和失望的東西和我們認為我們能夠做的事情之間的區別。

But I'll tell you the level of enthusiasm for not just what we're talking about, but how we're doing it, I think, is very high.

但我要告訴你的是，我認為，人們不僅對我們正在談論的內容，而且對我們如何做這件事的熱情都非常高。

I'll add 1 other piece of -- 1 other perspective on that, Steve. Given that we have a war going on in Eastern Europe, certainly a war going on in the Middle East, inflation rates still kind of bouncing around in the global economy, our clients have been pretty resilient through that, right? Their buying patterns, their investment in technology has actually stayed pretty strong.

我將添加另外 1 個 - 1 個其他觀點，史蒂夫。鑑於東歐正在發生戰爭，當然中東也正在發生戰爭，全球經濟中的通貨膨脹率仍在波動，我們的客戶在這方面表現得相當有彈性，對嗎？他們的購買模式和對技術的投資實際上仍然相當強勁。

So although I think there is still some -- we are still watching the macro backdrop, it's actually been pretty resilient in 2023 and into 2024. So we think we're pretty optimistic about the economic landscape going forward, but there are a lot of things out there that are risks as a couple of the ones I just mentioned that we just have to watch.

因此，儘管我認為仍有一些——我們仍在關注宏觀背景，但它實際上在 2023 年和 2024 年相當有彈性。因此，我們認為我們對未來的經濟前景非常樂觀，但有很多外面的事情存在風險，就像我剛才提到的一些我們必須關注的風險一樣。

Okay. Great. That's helpful. And then, Alan, you were talking quite a bit about GenAI and how clients are thinking about it. And I guess, how do you kind of cut through the noise out there to position Pega to be one of the first calls that people will make as they look to implement GenAI? And I guess maybe for Ken, how are you kind of thinking about modeling adoption through the year and the impact to the model here?

好的。偉大的。這很有幫助。然後，艾倫，您談論了很多關於 GenAI 以及客戶如何看待它的問題。我想，你如何消除外界的噪音，將 Pega 定位為人們在尋求實施 GenAI 時首先做出的決定之一？我想對於肯來說，您對這一年的模型採用以及對模型的影響有何看法？

So look, we are not just positioning, but implementing GenAI as core to our product lineup. So this is in some stand-alone SKU that's off to the side. This is something that's going to empower our entire product line in the way that our customers work generally.

所以看，我們不僅僅是定位，而是將 GenAI 作為我們產品陣容的核心。所以這是在一些獨立的 SKU 中，放在一邊。這將以我們客戶通常的工作方式增強我們整個產品線的能力。

And what I'll tell you is that if you go look at the Pega Generative AI demo that we've had on our website since November, or if you go look at Blueprint, which was announced at the beginning of this week, and I believe it's just another game-changing evolution of what we showed in November.

我要告訴你的是，如果你去看看自 11 月以來我們網站上的 Pega Generative AI 演示，或者如果你去看看本周初宣布的 Blueprint，我會告訴你。我相信這只是我們在11月展示的內容的另一個改變遊戲規則的演變。

I think you'll be able to see our clients realize this doesn't just let them like vomit it up more code faster. So this lets them rethink their business in an organized, structured and, most importantly, extensible way. And I think that will become very clear if you take a look at it. Certainly, the demos we've been giving to clients and partners over the last 2 weeks have gotten a brilliant response. So we're feeling good about that.

我認為您將能夠看到我們的客戶意識到這不僅讓他們喜歡更快地吐出更多程式碼。因此，這讓他們能夠以有組織、結構化且最重要的是可擴展的方式重新思考自己的業務。我認為如果你看一下它就會變得非常清楚。當然，過去兩週我們向客戶和合作夥伴提供的演示得到了熱烈的回應。所以我們對此感覺良好。

Your next question comes from the line of Rishi Jaluria with RBC Capital Markets.

您的下一個問題來自 RBC Capital Markets 的 Rishi Jaluria。

I wanted to stick first on the topic of generative AI. Ken, I remember at the Analyst Day last year, you talked a lot about how ultimately this is going to manifest itself in driving consumption rather than discretely pricing for a distinct SKU. Mick, can you help us understand, #1, what are adoption rates look like of a lot of your GenAI capabilities today? And how can that adoption rate trend maybe over the next 1, 2, 3 years?

我想先討論生成人工智慧的主題。肯，我記得在去年的分析師日上，您談了很多關於這最終將如何體現在推動消費方面，而不是針對不同的 SKU 進行離散定價。 Mick，您能否幫助我們了解，#1，您目前的許多 GenAI 功能的採用率是怎樣的？未來 1、2、3 年的採用率趨勢如何？

And alongside that, let's assume that we're going to get no real AI revenue this year. But at a certain point, how do you start to measure that this usage is actually translating to revenue on the consumption line above typical trends? Maybe help us understand your framework for that. And then I've got a quick follow-up.

除此之外，我們假設今年我們不會獲得真正的人工智慧收入。但在某個時刻，您如何開始衡量這種使用實際上轉化為高於典型趨勢的消費線上的收入？也許可以幫助我們理解您的框架。然後我會進行快速跟進。

Sure. So let me take a piece of that, and then Alan can chime in. So you're correct, and we still believe that the primary value that GenAI and the application like Blueprint, for example, what it really does is it helps to reduce the barrier to clients being able to leverage Pega to automate parts of their business. So that is -- we believe that strongly. And when you see it, and you will see it soon. You will see it -- you'll understand that you'll be able to real time be able to exceed that experience as we have, as our clients and the partners have.

當然。因此，讓我摘取其中的一部分，然後艾倫可以插話。所以你是對的，我們仍然相信 GenAI 和 Blueprint 等應用程式的主要價值，例如，它真正做的是幫助減少客戶利用Pega 實現部分業務自動化的障礙。所以我們堅信這一點。當你看到它時，你很快就會看到它。你會看到它——你會明白，你將能夠即時超越我們、我們的客戶和合作夥伴所擁有的經驗。

The second part of that is, so what does that reducing that barrier that we do. Well, given that we believe that Pega is the leader in workflow automation, we see that as an opportunity to expand the use cases, the number of companies, the speed at which those companies deploy those applications.

第二部分是，那麼減少我們所做的障礙又有什麼作用呢？好吧，鑑於我們相信 Pega 是工作流程自動化的領導者，我們認為這是擴展用例、公司數量以及這些公司部署這些應用程式的速度的機會。

So generative AI, for us, is not a $30 add-on of a feature that a user can use in an environment because we think that is a very limited value in terms of the company. It's a price that will ultimately get commoditized over time. We believe generative AI will allow our clients to allow Pega to be much more pervasive into their application landscape to allow them to power their businesses.

因此，對我們來說，生成式人工智慧並不是用戶可以在環境中使用的 30 美元附加功能，因為我們認為這對公司而言價值非常有限。隨著時間的推移，這個價格最終會商品化。我們相信，生成式人工智慧將使我們的客戶能夠讓 Pega 更普遍地融入他們的應用領域，從而為他們的業務提供動力。

In terms of the measurement, the measurement is quite clear. It's the growth in our ACV accelerating through the use of generative AI tools like Blueprint with our clients. And I think that, that's -- I know that the question that you're really asking is will we be able to see a line in the actual financial statements that says AI? I would say we won't say no because you never know how pricing and packaging may evolve over time, but the primary value for us is to allow clients to get value from enterprise-grade applications like ours faster. And we think that is a powerful differentiator.

從測量的角度來說，測量的結果是相當清晰的。透過與客戶一起使用 Blueprint 等生成式 AI 工具，我們的 ACV 加速成長。我認為，我知道你真正問的問題是我們能否在實際的財務報表中看到人工智慧的一行字？我想說我們不會拒絕，因為你永遠不知道定價和包裝會如何隨著時間的推移而變化，但我們的主要價值是讓客戶更快地從像我們這樣的企業級應用程式中獲得價值。我們認為這是一個強大的差異化因素。

I mean I would say that unlike the way some people are going at this, this is actually at the -- we've actually incorporated GenAI at the very heart of everything that we're doing. And what that means is that it's going to power the engine for -- it should power the engine for faster adoption and faster growth, and that's where you'll see it.

我的意思是，我想說的是，與某些人的做法不同，我們實際上已經將 GenAI 納入了我們所做的一切的核心。這意味著它將為引擎提供動力——它應該為引擎提供更快的採用和更快的成長，這就是你會看到它的地方。

And, by the way, I think that's a much better and more appropriate way to apply a technology that's dramatic than having it be sort of an add-on individual set of SKUs. Doesn't mean there won't be some SKUs off to the side, but the real meaningful change is what this does to the heart of our entire business.

順便說一句，我認為這是應用一項引人注目的技術比將其作為一組附加的單獨 SKU 更好、更合適的方式。這並不意味著不會有一些 SKU 被擱置，但真正有意義的變化是這對我們整個業務的核心的影響。

What I would say there is maybe 1 exception that you will actually see us have a SKU that will more -- potentially have some transactional value to, which is our Buddies. right? Where we would actually sell our Knowledge Buddy capabilities or embed them and that you may actually see us have that be something that is worth talking about future. I say may, because we have to decide whether that's appropriate or not. But I would say that's kind of how we're thinking about GenAI in our business.

我想說的是，也許有一個例外，您實際上會看到我們有一個 SKU，它可能具有一些交易價值，這就是我們的朋友。正確的？我們實際上會在哪裡出售或嵌入我們的知識夥伴功能，並且您實際上可能會看到我們擁有這是值得未來談論的東西。我說可能，因為我們必須決定這是否合適。但我想說，這就是我們在業務中考慮 GenAI 的方式。

Yes. But the Buddy represents a tiny fraction of how GenAI is changing this product. So hope that helps.

是的。但 Buddy 只代表了 GenAI 改變產品的一小部分。希望有幫助。

Yes. Wonderful. That's super helpful color. Then just a quick follow-up. I know Cloud Choice has always been at the heart of Pega and part of your value proposition. As you think about GenAI adoption, especially given resource intensity of GenAI workloads that can be 10x more resource intensive than traditional workloads.

是的。精彩的。這是超級有用的顏色。然後快速跟進。我知道雲端選擇一直是 Pega 的核心，也是您價值主張的一部分。當您考慮 GenAI 的採用時，特別是考慮到 GenAI 工作負載的資源密集度可能比傳統工作負載高 10 倍。

Can you maybe talk about how does GenAI play into now the whole Cloud Choice? Does it maybe push customers more towards adopting Pega Cloud in a soft manner because some of these GenAI services can be cloud-only services. Maybe help us understand how that all works out.

您能否談談 GenAI 如何在整個雲端選擇中發揮作用？它是否可能促使客戶更多地以軟方式採用 Pega Cloud，因為其中一些 GenAI 服務可能是純雲端服務。也許可以幫助我們理解這一切是如何進行的。

Sure. I'm going to try to avoid drifting too technical, but we're glad to go as deep as anybody wants subsequently. So to be able to operate and use GenAI effectively, we do need to be in a cloud environment. And we are seeing clients say, hey, we'd like to be on Pega Cloud. GenAI is just another reason why that's an advantage in addition to the other advantages Ken mentioned during his script.

當然。我將盡量避免過於技術化，但我們很高興隨後能夠按照任何人想要的方式深入探討。因此，為了能夠有效地操作和使用 GenAI，我們確實需要處於雲端環境中。我們看到客戶說，嘿，我們想加入 Pega Cloud。除了 Ken 在腳本中提到的其他優點之外，GenAI 也是這項優勢的另一個原因。

But we've also introduced a new capability we call (inaudible), which allows an on-premise Pega customer to create an effective digital twin of the AI capability on Pega Cloud. So they can keep their main system in their environment, but bridge from their premise to Pega Cloud for the use cases of generative Al. That way, we get to do GenAI at the speed of cloud and continue that moving along fast.

但我們還引入了一項我們稱為（聽不清楚）的新功能，它允許本地 Pega 客戶在 Pega Cloud 上創建 AI 功能的有效數位孿生。因此，他們可以將主系統保留在自己的環境中，但將其前提連接到 Pega Cloud，以實現生成式 AI 的用例。這樣，我們就能以雲的速度進行 GenAI，並且繼續快速前進。

But for some of our customers who are candidly though increasingly more open to being 100% cloud, some of our customers do want to keep some things on-premise. And I think Cloud Choice keeps everyone honest. So from a value system point of view, I kind of like it that it's not creating captive customers. And this is a way we kind of think, support the best of all worlds.

但對於我們的一些客戶來說，儘管他們對 100% 雲端的態度越來越開放，但我們的一些客戶確實希望將某些東西保留在本地。我認為 Cloud Choice 讓每個人都保持誠實。因此，從價值體系的角度來看，我有點喜歡它不會創造專屬客戶。這是我們的一種思考方式，支持世界上最好的事物。

Your next question comes from the line of Jake Roberge with William Blair.

你的下一個問題來自傑克·羅伯格和威廉·布萊爾的對話。

Ken, if you just take a step back and look at the model and how that's shaping up, do you think this is the last year that we should see the gap between revenue and ACV growth so that heading into next year, those metrics could actually start to converge a bit more?

肯，如果你退後一步看看這個模型以及它是如何形成的，你認為這是我們應該看到收入和 ACV 增長之間差距的最後一年嗎？這樣進入明年，這些指標實際上可以開始更加收斂一點？

Yes, it's a great question, Jake. Certainly, the variances will continue to shrink. We have -- we're going to have over 50% of our ACV Pega Cloud, but we still do have a significant percent that's not Pega Cloud. So to the extent that, that percentage continues to go down and really it's not the maintenance line, it's, of course, the term license line, as soon as -- because that continues to go down as a percentage of our business, you'll have less risk of variability.

是的，這是一個很好的問題，傑克。當然，差異將繼續縮小。我們將擁有超過 50% 的 ACV Pega Cloud，但我們仍然有很大一部分不是 Pega Cloud。因此，在某種程度上，這個百分比繼續下降，實際上這不是維護線，當然，是術語許可線，因為它占我們業務的百分比繼續下降，你’變異風險較小。

And so I do think that you are correct in that when you go into '25, '26, '27, the gap, the difference between, say, would you look at like our operating margin and you look at our free cash flow, those 2, you would think that they would be very close together. That's the point you're on. But they do vary based on term revenue. That will continue to become more muted over time.

所以我確實認為你是對的，當你進入「25」、「26」、「27」時，差距，比如說，你會看我們的營業利潤率，還是看我們的自由現金流，這兩個，你會認為他們會非常接近。這就是你說的重點。但它們確實根據期限收入而有所不同。隨著時間的推移，這種情況將繼續變得更加平靜。

We didn't have the 606 (inaudible) where you have to present value, some revenue, even though it comes in on an annual basis. I think it would all be beautifully more consistent. The reality is because of that, especially, I think we get a lumpiness from time to time. But if you look over a year, that should also be less and less.

我們沒有 606（聽不清楚），您必須展示價值，一些收入，即使它是按年計算的。我認為這一切都會更加一致。現實就是因為如此，尤其是我認為我們時不時會遇到一些困難。但如果你看看一年多的時間，這個數字應該也會越來越少。

And let me just touch on 1 thing that could be a question behind your question, Jake, or what other investors might be thinking about. If you look at our business for 2024 and you say, which is the more representative normalization of the business, free cash flow or your operating profit? In 2024, it's free cash flow. There is nothing unusual happening with free cash flow.

傑克，讓我談談你的問題背後可能存在的一件事，或者其他投資者可能正在考慮的事情。如果你看看我們 2024 年的業務，你會說，自由現金流和營業利潤哪個更有代表性？ 2024年，是自由現金流。自由現金流並沒有什麼不尋常的事情發生。

But with revenue, when you have more Pega Cloud opportunities, you do have the revenue being spread out a little more. So that may be a question that other investors have us to be very clear with that. Free cash flow is the normalization of the business. Sometimes revenue and EPS are a little bit off from that, either slightly higher or slightly lower.

但就收入而言，當您擁有更多 Pega Cloud 機會時，您確實可以將收入分配得更多一些。因此，這可能是其他投資者要求我們非常明確的問題。自由現金流是業務的常態化。有時，收入和每股盈餘與此略有偏差，要么略高，要么略低。

Okay. Very helpful. And then it feels like the macro started to stabilize a little in Q4. And then you're also seeing some nice demand trends for AI heading into 2024. As you constructed the guide for this year, did you take those trends into account? Or would you say that you're still factoring in just some potential macro uncertainty that's out there?

好的。很有幫助。然後感覺宏觀經濟在第四季開始稍微穩定下來。然後，您還看到了 2024 年人工智慧的一些良好需求趨勢。當您建立今年的指南時，您是否考慮了這些趨勢？或者您會說您仍在考慮一些潛在的宏觀不確定性？

We're still factoring in some amount of macro question about interest rates and election, et cetera, those are all things that we'd factor into how we think about guidance. Okay. Very helpful. Congrats again on the great results.

我們仍在考慮一些有關利率和選舉等的宏觀問題，這些都是我們在考慮指導時考慮的因素。好的。很有幫助。再次恭喜取得的優異成績。

Your next question comes from the line of Kevin Kumar with Goldman Sachs.

你的下一個問題來自高盛的凱文·庫馬爾（Kevin Kumar）。

I wanted to ask about investment priorities for the year. I guess guidance shows a pretty nice uptick in free cash flow. So Ken, can you talk about where you're seeing opportunities for leverage? Obviously, cloud gross margins continue to expand. But how are you thinking about maybe the other OpEx categories? And maybe just touch on kind of key investment priorities for the year.

我想問今年的投資重點。我猜指導顯示自由現金流有相當不錯的成長。 Ken，您能談談您在哪些方面看到了槓桿機會嗎？顯然，雲毛利率持續擴大。但您如何看待其他營運支出類別？也許只是談談今年的主要投資重點。

So you will still -- in 2024, we're still going to see operating leverage in pretty much every line, right? And I should say pretty much every line, right? You're going to see gross margin expand. You're going to see sales and marketing become more leverage. You're going to see R&D, G&A. So you'll see contributions from everything, Kevin.

所以，到 2024 年，我們仍然會看到幾乎每條生產線都存在營運槓桿，對嗎？我應該說幾乎每一行，對吧？你會看到毛利率擴大。您將看到銷售和行銷變得更具槓桿作用。你會看到研發、一般管理費用。所以你會看到一切的貢獻，凱文。

In terms of the investment priorities, I think the -- our go-to-market transformation, we really love where we are in terms of the focus on our clients. And so the decision -- the strategic decision we need to start making is how do we want to think about introducing new logos or new expansion and how -- and at what pace do we want to do that? And we want to make sure that's really thoughtful so that we can leverage the model that we have, which is a peak client engagement model.

就投資優先事項而言，我認為我們的市場轉型，我們非常喜歡我們對客戶的關注。因此，我們需要開始做出的策略決策是，我們要如何考慮引入新商標或新的擴展，以及我們要如何以及以什麼速度來做到這一點？我們希望確保這確實是深思熟慮的，以便我們可以利用我們現有的模型，即高峰客戶參與模型。

In terms of R&D, you see a lot of investment in GenAI, right? And it's -- we really feel like with the combination of GenAI and the power of our platform, it's just -- it really is just mind-blowing in terms of the opportunity we have in front of us. So it's going to be there, including investment -- continued investment in Launchpad, right, as we actually scale Launchpad. So we see efficiency though, across all of the lines because our costs will grow less than our ACV does.

在研發方面，您看到GenAI有很多投資，對嗎？我們真的覺得 GenAI 和我們平台的力量結合，就我們面前的機會而言，這確實令人興奮。所以它會在那裡，包括投資——對 Launchpad 的持續投資，對吧，因為我們實際上擴展了 Launchpad。因此，我們在所有方面都看到了效率，因為我們的成本成長將低於 ACV 的成長。

And we're going to have to probably hold to 1 question per party for the rest because it looks like it's a pretty good size queue. So...

對於剩下的部分，我們可能必須為每方保留 1 個問題，因為看起來這是一個相當不錯的隊列。所以...

Your next question comes from the line of Pinjalim Bora with JPMorgan.

您的下一個問題來自 Pinjalim Bora 與摩根大通的聯繫。

Ken, 1 quick one for you. You talked about shorter contract duration. Can you help me understand what has changed in the business because your consumption-based nature of the business has always been there. So what has changed for customers to kind of drive towards shorter contracts?

肯，給你一份快速的。您談到了較短的合約期限。您能否幫助我了解業務發生了什麼變化，因為您的業務以消費為基礎的本質一直存在。那麼，是什麼讓客戶傾向於縮短合約呢？

So Pinjalim, we -- what we're really talking about is as clients have opportunities to leverage scaling up the Pega usage within their contract, the commitment or the reset periods tend to be shorter than a 3-year or a 5-year type fixed commitment. And so that -- there's a connection there between more and more larger clients actually enjoying that consumptive growth nature and actually the durations coming down a little bit. So those 2 things are connected.

所以 Pinjalim，我們真正談論的是，當客戶有機會在合約中擴大 Pega 使用量時，承諾或重置期往往短於 3 年或 5 年類型固定的承諾。因此，越來越多的大客戶實際上享受消費成長的性質，而實際上持續時間略有下降，這之間存在著關聯。所以這兩件事是有連結的。

Your next question comes from the line of Austin Cole with Citizens JMP.

您的下一個問題來自 Austin Cole 與 Citizens JMP 的對話。

Though it sounds like there's -- obviously, you guys have a lot going on with generative AI. I'm wondering -- and with Blueprint, specifically, how is this helping you land more customers and stay competitive?

雖然聽起來好像——顯然，你們在生成人工智慧方面做了很多工作。我想知道，特別是 Blueprint，它如何幫助您吸引更多客戶並保持競爭力？

Sure. So I think actually, if you go look at it, it will speak for itself. The reaction I had from a couple of C-suite executives who I was just on the call, and we were actually demoing and showing this to them is they were kind of stunned because what it let's you do is it lets you from a couple of paragraphs of a description of something you want to do with your business, really stimulate new thinking, and not just do that, but actually go from this sort of design thinking approach of what you're trying to achieve.

當然。所以我認為實際上，如果你去看它，它就會說明一切。我剛剛參加電話會議的幾位高級管理人員的反應是，我們實際上正在向他們演示並向他們展示這一點，他們有點震驚，因為它讓你做的是它讓你從幾個對你想要對你的業務所做的事情進行描述的段落，真正激發新的思維，而不僅僅是這樣做，而是實際上從你想要實現的目標的這種設計思維方法出發。

Because, let's face it, we live in businesses where -- they're all workflows. They're all doing work. They're all posting transactions. They're all engaging with clients. Being able to bring generative AI to both help you understand what workflows do you need for your business, and then what should each of those workflows look like? Who are the participants in those workflows? What channels do they come in on? And what data will those workflows either consume from your back-end systems or will you need to acquire or you want to post back to your back-end systems when that workflow is done.

因為，讓我們面對現實吧，我們生活在充滿工作流程的企業中。他們都在做工作。他們都在發布交易。他們都在與客戶打交道。能夠將生成式人工智慧引入兩者，可以幫助您了解您的業務需要哪些工作流程，以及每個工作流程應該是什麼樣子？這些工作流程的參與者有哪些？他們透過什麼管道進入？這些工作流程將從您的後端系統消耗哪些數據，或者您需要獲取哪些數據，或者在該工作流程完成後您想要將哪些數據發送回後端系統。

All of those concepts are now in a position where literally in a couple of minutes, you get something that is awesome. It's just a terrific point that you can edit and you can evolve and you can make yours, but you're not starting from a white board. You're starting from something that, historically, would have taken us 2, 3, 4 weeks to get to. And that now is literally 2, 3, 4 minutes, completely changes the game.

所有這些概念現在都處於這樣的位置，實際上在幾分鐘之內，您就可以獲得很棒的東西。這是一個很棒的點，你可以編輯，你可以發展，你可以製作你的，但你不是從白板開始。從歷史上看，你要從我們需要 2、3、4 週才能完成的事情開始。現在實際上是 2、3、4 分鐘，完全改變了比賽。

Now this is very new. It's evolving. Our real target for a lot of this stuff fully hitting its stride because we've sort of set our team up internally at PegaWorld being the place where this all comes to fruition while all of you were there. But we're showing it now and it's going to be available now, and it's going to be available in a way that existing Pega '23 and '24 customers will be able to use.

現在這是非常新的。它正在發展。我們真正的目標是讓很多東西充分發揮作用，因為我們在 PegaWorld 內部組建了我們的團隊，當你們所有人都在場時，這一切都會實現。但我們現在展示它，並且它現在就可以使用，並將以現有 Pega '23 和 '24 客戶能夠使用的方式提供。

And the reaction is just -- it's actually very, very gratifying. So it's on our website. Check it out, if there's something you can say. By the way, about questions, we're not hiding from questions. We're going to do questions after this call. We just have a company call immediately after this. If you have a second question, just get back in queue again and we'll get to you if we can. Thank you.

反應是——實際上非常非常令人高興。所以它在我們的網站上。看看有沒有什麼可以說的。順便說一句，關於問題，我們不會迴避問題。這次通話後我們將進行提問。此後我們立即接到公司電話。如果您還有第二個問題，請重新排隊，我們會盡快與您聯絡。謝謝。

Your next question comes from the line of Dan Ives with Wedbush.

你的下一個問題來自丹艾夫斯和韋德布希的對話。

To that last question and your point, I mean, does it really feel that it's starting to become just a more strategic conversation for Pega with existing as well as new logos? I mean is that from your perspective?

對於最後一個問題和你的觀點，我的意思是，是否真的感覺它開始成為 Pega 與現有徽標和新徽標之間更具戰略性的對話？我的意思是從你的角度來看是這樣嗎？

Yes, I would say that's very much my perspective. In fact, we've had this conversation with many, including long-standing customers in which we say, look, you've historically thought of us in a certain way, as a way that we can do certain type of exceptions and disputes for you, a way that we can help you sell certain things in a certain area.

是的，我想說這就是我的觀點。事實上，我們已經與許多人進行過這樣的對話，其中包括長期客戶，我們說，看，您歷來以某種方式看待我們，作為我們可以為客戶處理某些類型的例外和爭議的方式。您，我們可以幫助您在特定區域銷售某些商品的一種方式。

We like to talk now about what this looks like at a much more strategic level. And we have several clients where we've completely changed that conversation. We were talking to senior people before, but they were thinking of us as being more of an area solution.

我們現在想從更具策略性的層面來討論這是什麼樣的。我們已經徹底改變了一些客戶的談話方式。我們之前曾與資深人士交談過，但他們認為我們更多的是一個區域解決方案。

Now we're really being thought of at a number of key clients as a way that they want to do business. And I think that's very, very gratifying. It was part of the goal of moving to the org focused, deep engagement strategy. And I think it's also something we're going to be able to scale up to additional organizations as we get our legs here under us with this new GenAI capability.

現在，許多重要客戶確實將我們視為他們希望開展業務的一種方式。我認為這非常非常令人高興。這是轉向以組織為中心的深度參與策略的目標的一部分。我認為，當我們透過新的 GenAI 功能獲得支援時，我們也將能夠擴展到更多組織。

I'll say 1 more thing about GenAI. Historically, everyone thought Pega was very powerful. But candor the wrap on us was that it could be a little harder to use and maybe the resources weren't as prevalent. We've gone directly at those things with GenAI. And we have all of the power -- we have more of the power than we ever had. But boy, I think that those traditional long-standing challenges are going to look completely different this year.

我還要說一件關於 GenAI 的事。從歷史上看，每個人都認為佩加非常強大。但坦白說，我們面臨的問題是它可能更難使用，而且資源可能不那麼普遍。我們已經用 GenAI 直接解決了這些問題。我們擁有所有的力量——我們擁有比以往更多的力量。但是天哪，我認為這些傳統的長期挑戰今年將看起來完全不同。

Your next question comes from the line of Fred Havemeyer with Macquarie.

你的下一個問題來自麥格理的 Fred Havemeyer。

Congratulations on the results here. I wanted to ask regarding another GenAI question, sorry to be a little bit not original here, but I've been seeing a lot of interesting work coming out, for example, like Bret Taylor's new startup Sierra.

在這裡恭喜你的結果。我想問另一個關於 GenAI 的問題，很抱歉這裡有點不原創，但我看到了很多有趣的工作，例如 Bret Taylor 的新創公司 Sierra。

Coming out from customer service agents and client-facing agents that are taking on more like generative AI-powered agenetic characteristics, I'm curious -- I know that Pega has a deep expertise in building out client-facing bus and service portals and so forth. Just generally, how do you think about agents, like autonomous agents powered by GenAI as part of the overall product road map at Pega?

我來自客戶服務代理和麵向客戶的代理，它們更像是由人工智慧驅動的遺傳特徵，我很好奇——我知道 Pega 在構建面向客戶的總線和服務門戶方面擁有深厚的專業知識，所以向前。總的來說，您如何看待代理，例如由 GenAI 提供支援的自主代理，作為 Pega 整體產品路線圖的一部分？

So 2 stops there. One, we introduced recently this concept of what we call the autonomous enterprise, which is how do you not just think of agents as little one-off things. But how do you think about structuring your entire enterprise so it's not built for "users," but it's built around the work itself you want to achieve so that you build it for autonomy, but when it's appropriate, you let people put their hands on the wheel and take over.

所以2停在那裡。第一，我們最近引入了我們所謂的自主企業的概念，這就是你如何不只是將代理商視為一次性的小東西。但是，您如何考慮構建整個企業，使其不是為“用戶”而構建，而是圍繞您想要實現的工作本身構建，以便您為自治而構建它，但在適當的時候，您可以讓人們把手放在手中車輪並接手。

So we've actually designed into this whole new blueprint way of thinking, this whole idea of an autonomous enterprise, what we sometimes call a center-out enterprise, which doesn't focus on either the front-end UI or the back-end systems, but really lets you focus on what is the very work that defines your institution? And how do you build that in so it can run with automation and autonomy?

因此，我們實際上已經設計了這種全新的藍圖思維方式，即自治企業的整體理念，我們有時稱之為中心向外的企業，它既不關注前端 UI 也不關注後端系統，但真正讓您專注於定義您的機構的工作是什麼？如何建構它，使其能夠自動化和自主運作？

That naturally lends itself to agents and automation, as do workflows. Also for call center agents, to the extent that a little bit of your question, I think at that, we just rolled out in Q4 really exciting voice AI capabilities, which you can read about on pega.com also. Where we are listening to the conversation, actually filling in fields on the screen, allowing the operator to validate them, and then using that information in the wrap-up and in the other sort of elements summarization. And we now have that in production at initial clients. So a very, very exciting time with that.

這自然適合代理商和自動化，工作流程也是如此。對於呼叫中心代理來說，就您的一點問題而言，我認為我們剛剛在第四季度推出了非常令人興奮的語音 AI 功能，您也可以在 pega.com 上了解這些功能。我們在監聽對話時，實際上填寫了螢幕上的字段，允許操作員驗證它們，然後在總結和其他類型的元素摘要中使用該資訊。我們現在已經在最初的客戶中投入生產。這是一個非常非常令人興奮的時刻。

Your next question comes from the line of Blair Abernethy with Rosenblat Securities.

您的下一個問題來自羅森布拉特證券公司的布萊爾‧阿伯內西 (Blair Abernethy)。

Great quarter, guys. Just as you have discussed AI, GenAI becoming more strategic to your customers and to how you're going to market, what is the impact? Or how are you looking at your consulting and channel partners in -- over the next couple of years? Is this an area you will be investing more in? Or do you think this is -- you're going to be taking more of this back into your control because obviously, you guys will be the experts in this area?

很棒的季度，夥計們。正如您所討論的 AI，GenAI 對您的客戶以及您的行銷方式變得更具戰略意義，這會產生什麼影響？或者您如何看待未來幾年的諮詢和通路夥伴？您會在這個領域加大投資嗎？或者你認為這是——你將把更多的事情重新納入你的控制之中，因為顯然，你們將成為這個領域的專家？

Sure. So we're -- we will only be successful if our application of AI makes everyone more expert. This whole idea of reducing the barriers to entry is also going to be very helpful, not just for our clients, and not just for our own staff, but our partners. I do not see that Pega is going to be taking over the work from our partners. In fact, to the contrary, Kerim over the last 2 weeks has done what he probably more than dozen...

當然。所以，只有我們的人工智慧應用讓每個人都變得更專業，我們才會成功。減少進入障礙的整個想法也將非常有幫助，不僅對我們的客戶，不僅對我們自己的員工，而且對我們的合作夥伴。我不認為 Pega 會接管我們合作夥伴的工作。事實上，恰恰相反，克里姆在過去兩週做了他可能不只一打的事情…

(inaudible).

（聽不清楚）。

With exclusively partners, to give them a head start on Blueprint. And one of the most exciting things is that he's building in the ability for our partners to create their own blueprints, which when they go to a customer, they'll be able to bring their best practice blueprint on a particular topic to the client. We'll then add in what our practices are, the best practices from the Internet. GenAI pulls that all together and give you a consolidated blueprint that I think is going to be really good for partners to come in with more packaged IP.

與獨家合作夥伴合作，讓他們在 Blueprint 上佔據先機。最令人興奮的事情之一是，他正在為我們的合作夥伴建立創建自己的藍圖的能力，當他們去找客戶時，他們將能夠向客戶帶來特定主題的最佳實踐藍圖。然後我們將添加我們的實踐，即來自互聯網的最佳實踐。 GenAI 將所有這些整合在一起，為您提供一個綜合藍圖，我認為這對於合作夥伴提供更多打包的 IP 來說非常有好處。

So yes, I think this is going to be terrific for partners. It's also going to make it easier for them to learn. But let's face it, GenAI is going to change all the businesses that we're in. And that's true for our partner businesses as well.

所以，是的，我認為這對合作夥伴來說非常棒。這也將使他們更容易學習。但讓我們面對現實吧，GenAI 將改變我們從事的所有業務。對於我們的合作夥伴業務也是如此。

Your next question comes from the line of Mark Schappel with Loop Capital Markets.

您的下一個問題來自 Loop Capital Markets 的 Mark Schappel。

A nice finish to the year. Alan, just a question for you. There's a little discussion or not much discussion about Launchpad in your prepared remarks this quarter. I was wondering if you could just give us a quick update on the solution and mainly around the status of your early adopter program.

給這一年畫上一個美好的句點。艾倫，只是問你一個問題。在您本季準備的發言中，有一些關於 Launchpad 的討論或沒有太多討論。我想知道您是否能為我們提供有關解決方案的快速更新，主要是圍繞您的早期採用者計劃的狀態。

Absolutely. So I'm very excited about Launchpad, but we have a massive business here to run and to grow, and I want to make sure that people know we're taking care of that, and we're spending money wisely on that, and we're growing that business. So Launchpad, I'm thrilled to say that in Q4, we got our initial couple of clients live. And it's going well.

絕對地。因此，我對 Launchpad 感到非常興奮，但我們在這裡有龐大的業務需要運營和發展，我想確保人們知道我們正在處理這個問題，並且我們正在明智地為此花錢，並且我們正在發展這項業務。因此，在 Launchpad 上，我很高興地說，在第四季度，我們迎來了最初的幾個客戶。一切進展順利。

This interest, we're working with partners, in particular, to get them to capture their IP because that seems to be something that our partners are very, very interested in to use Launchpad as a way to bring their intellectual property and their practices to market. And I'm hoping we'll have some nice exciting things to talk about by the time we get to PegaWorld when it comes to Launchpad as well.

這種興趣，我們正在與合作夥伴合作，特別是讓他們獲得他們的智慧財產權，因為這似乎是我們的合作夥伴非常非常有興趣使用 Launchpad 作為將他們的智慧財產權和實踐帶到世界各地的方式。市場。我希望當我們到達 PegaWorld 時，當談到 Launchpad 時，我們也能討論一些令人興奮的事情。

So you're also going to see that we're updating those pages on our website, and it's going to make it a lot easier for people to see, understand and get involved in Launchpad as the year goes along. So I think that's -- it's going to be a terrific augmentation to our business and very good for our progress as well.

因此，您還會看到我們正在更新網站上的這些頁面，隨著時間的推移，這將使人們更容易查看、理解和參與 Launchpad。所以我認為這將大大增強我們的業務，也有利於我們的進步。

Your next question comes from the line of Anthony Hong with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

您的下一個問題來自 KeyBanc Capital Markets 的 Anthony Hong。

I just want to ask, provided an improving free cash flow position and a strengthening balance sheet. Could you provide an update on Pega's view regarding its debt, including debt retirement or refinancing given the current interest rate environment?

我只是想問，如果自由現金流狀況有所改善並且資產負債表有所加強的話。您能否提供 Pega 關於其債務的最新看法，包括考慮到當前利率環境的債務清償或再融資？

Sure. So as you can see with the cash that we have on the balance sheet and the free cash flow we're going to generate in 2024, we'll be in a net positive cash position very soon, certainly well before the end of the year. And with the -- with our convert coming due in the first quarter of 2025, we'll have more than enough cash on the balance sheet to fully satisfy that convert retirement if we so choose to do so.

當然。因此，正如您所看到的，我們資產負債表上的現金以及我們將在 2024 年產生的自由現金流，我們很快就會處於淨正現金狀況，當然在今年年底之前。隨著我們的轉換將於 2025 年第一季到期，如果我們選擇這樣做，我們的資產負債表上將有足夠的現金來完全滿足轉換退休的需要。

So I would say; Point 1, we certainly have no concern about being able to retire the convert as scheduled. Second point is that, that provides lots of flexibility in terms of how we want to think about capital allocation and the leverage of things like convertible or traditional debt on the balance sheet. So I would say we're evaluating how we want to think about that as we now are becoming a multi-hundred million dollar consistent and predictable free cash flow generator.

所以我想說；第一點，我們當然不擔心轉換者能否如期退休。第二點是，這在我們如何考慮資本配置以及資產負債表上可轉換或傳統債務等槓桿方面提供了極大的靈活性。所以我想說，我們正在評估我們想要如何思考這個問題，因為我們現在正在成為一個數億美元的一致且可預測的自由現金流產生器。

But right now, with respect to the existing convert, we'll have plenty of cash to satisfy that if we do -- if we choose to do so.

但現在，對於現有的轉換者，如果我們選擇這樣做，我們將有足夠的現金來滿足這項要求。

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Alan Trefler, Founder and CEO of Pegasystems for closing remarks.

目前沒有其他問題。現在我將把電話轉回給 Pegasystems 創辦人兼執行長 Alan Trefler 致閉幕詞。

Thank you very much, everyone, who joined the call, especially those of you who got up early on the West Coast, we definitely do appreciate that. We want you to know that we're excited about where we are. The folks in the team are working extremely hard. And I think everyone who can, should come to PegaWorld because I think what you see there is going to be really eye-opening. So thank you very much, all of you, and I look forward to talking to you again next quarter.

非常感謝參加電話會議的所有人，特別是那些在西海岸起得很早的人，我們非常感謝。我們希望您知道我們對我們所處的位置感到興奮。團隊裡的人都非常努力工作。我認為每個有能力的人都應該來 PegaWorld，因為我認為你在那裡所看到的東西將會令人大開眼界。非常感謝你們所有人，我期待下個季度再次與你們交談。

This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連線。