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.我是Jeannie，今天將擔任本次電話會議的接線生。歡迎各位參加Pegasystems 2023財年第四季及全年業績電話會議。 （接線生操作說明）現在我將會議交給公司發展與投資人關係副總裁Peter Welburn先生。您可以開始會議了。

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Jeannie。大家早安，歡迎參加Pegasystems 2023年第四季及全年財報電話會議。在會議開始之前，我想先宣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.

本簡報中的某些陳述可能被視為1995年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》所定義的前瞻性陳述。諸如「預期」、「預期」、「打算」、「計畫」、「相信」、「將」、「可能」、「應該」、「估計」、「或許」、「預測」和「指導」等詞語或其變體以及其他類似表達均可用於識別前瞻性陳述，這些陳述僅代表截至陳述發布之日的觀點，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，因此存在各種風險和不確定性，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聲明中表達的業績存在重大差異的因素，已包含在公司公佈 2023 年第四季度和全年收益的新聞稿以及公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中，包括截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日止年度的 10-K 表格年度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.

投資人應注意，不應過度依賴此類前瞻性陳述，且無法保證此類陳述中所包含的事項能夠實現。儘管後續事件可能會改變我們的觀點，但除適用法律另有規定外，我們不承擔任何義務，並明確聲明不承擔任何義務，無論是否由於新資訊、未來事件或其他原因，公開更新或修訂這些前瞻性陳述。

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

接下來，我將電話轉交給 Pegasystems 的創辦人兼執行長 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，也謝謝今天所有參加電話會議的朋友。很高興看到團隊在2023年取得如此優異的成績。公司積極響應了我們新的市場策略，第四季度業績表現強勁，為這一年畫上了圓滿的句號。我們將繼續深化和拓展與客戶的關係。

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 引入創新、改變行業的技術方面做得非常出色，並且實現了良好的成長和現金流，Ken 將在幾分鐘後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.

今年我們繼續探討了這些重要主題，我比以往任何時候都更加確信，我們的客戶群中仍然蘊藏著巨大的成長潛力。我對我們以組織為中心的深度合作模式充滿信心。

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.

我持續與我們最重要的客戶保持聯繫，最近一次是在達沃斯世界經濟論壇年會上。我與數十位高階主管客戶和合作夥伴探討了他們如何應對變化、他們的商業機會、面臨的挑戰以及2024年及以後的發展計畫。

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，他們不斷嘗試了解和探索如何在組織中有效且安全地利用人工智慧。而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.

這些交流讓我更加確信，我們擁有的產品獨一無二，完美契合企業需求。我無比興奮地期待著利用 GenAI 的巨大潛力，徹底革新客戶使用我們技術的方式，助力他們在 2024 年及以後取得成功。

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.

讓我來告訴你為什麼 Pega 能夠完美地幫助客戶掌握 GenAI 帶來的機會。自從我創立公司以來，我們一直將人工智慧的原則——包括統計人工智慧和現在的生成式人工智慧——融入到我們的產品和服務中，並真正專注於打造滿足高端企業需求的產品。

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.

我們的客戶選擇與我們合作，是因為他們希望透過業務轉型，提高效率、提升獲利能力或增強客戶忠誠度，從而為客戶和員工創造更優質的體驗。我們的企業級人工智慧決策和工作流程自動化平台，能夠透過即時優化和持續改進，幫助客戶實現業務轉型。

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許多精彩的案例研究，這些案例研究詳細介紹了我們的客戶如何利用該軟體，透過即時客製化對話，大規模地提升客戶參與度。例如，富國銀行就介紹了他們如何使用我們的客戶決策中心，針對每月收到的數十億次客戶互動，提供更有針對性且相關的回覆。

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，我們致力於透過人工智慧驅動的指導來提升客戶服務，為客戶和員工帶來卓越體驗，進而提高客戶忠誠度、提升客戶留存率並降低成本。 Aflac 在其網站上詳細介紹了我們如何簡化和自動化技術部門每週處理數千封電子郵件的流程，從而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，我們一直以來都在透過智慧自動化來簡化營運流程。這正是勞合社所倡導的，他們透過自動化業務流程，即使在與客戶通話的同時，也能更快、更有效地解決詐欺和糾紛案件。

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至關重要。他們尋求的是業務轉型，而不僅僅是編寫更多程式碼。因此，當我們應用 GenAI 時，我們並非用它來產生程式碼，而是用它來優化業務理念，使其符合最佳實踐。例如，我們會建議處理房貸或保險客戶的最有效方式，或如何為客戶制定最佳的報價和行銷方案。

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.

我們圍繞著業務概念和企業流程建立了一個獨特的結構，規則、資料模型、使用者介面等等，所有這些都被組織成不同的層次，以便可以在此基礎上進行建構、重複使用和專門化，從而支援企業可能需要管理的不同產品線、客戶群體或地理管轄區的需求。

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.

這種分層架構非常適合 GenAI，我認為它賦予了 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.

這種獨特的層疊式架構使我們能夠快速開發、整合和交付全新的GenAI功能和服務。它基於我們經過數十年研究和完善的專利架構，難以輕易複製或仿製。我認為這賦予了我們明顯的競爭優勢。

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，我們在GenAI方面採取的方法將在以下四個主要領域為我們的客戶和Pega帶來巨大影響。首先，我們希望透過讓開發人員隨時掌握Pega技能，讓他們在Pega的工作效率翻倍。其次，我們希望透過整合產業專長、Pega技術、網路智慧和客戶洞察，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，我們致力於透過提供客戶互動的即時優化和個人化服務，並使其能夠持續優化，從而最大限度地提高客戶的收入和效率。最後，我們希望透過讓合適的人員即時存取合適的即時系統和功能，簡化工作流程和客戶體驗，使他們能夠真正有效率地完成工作。

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.

讓我來介紹一下我們目前是如何落實這項策略的，以及未來的發展方向。首先，我們在第四季度推出了 20 款 GenAI 增強功能，作為 Pega Infinity '23 的一部分，旨在提升開發效率和生產力，並向客戶展示如何安全負責地使用這些工具。我們在網站上發布了一個互動式演示，讓客戶能夠立即體驗 GenAI 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，在您想要優化的業務流程描述下方，Pega GenAI 即可在幾秒鐘內幫助您設計出最佳流程、階段、步驟、資料模型和使用者畫像。任何人都可以使用它。自發布以來，已有數千名訪客體驗了演示，他們參與了從客戶入職到 5G 網路部署等各種工作流程，我們收到了很多好評。不妨親自體驗一下吧！

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.

在過去幾週，我們發布了兩款功能強大的新產品，我認為它們將帶來顛覆性的變革：Pega AI 的 GenAI Knowledge Buddy 和 Pega GenAI Blueprint。 Knowledge Buddy 是一款企業級生成式 AI 知識助手，它能夠基於我們公司自身的內容，透過生成式 AI 技術進行綜合，快速便捷地幫助客戶和員工找到特定答案。這樣，員工就無需在分散的知識庫中苦苦搜尋了。

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.

目前市面上有許多基於 GenAI 的助手，它們可以接收內容或回答問題。但我們研究後發現，它們通常並非為真正的企業需求而設計。因此，我們設計了一款產品，它具備企業級的整合、稽核和控制功能。

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.

它讓員工和客戶輕鬆獲得組織知識，透過簡單的對話介面提出問題，並獲得具體、準確、簡潔的回答，同時透明地註明內容來源。

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.

我們正在使用 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答案，了解如何利用 Pega 提高工作效率、加快操作速度並減少培訓。我們創新的 AI 架構與安全功能的強大結合，意味著我們的客戶可以放心使用這項最新技術，因為他們知道自己正在遵循高標準的信任和責任準則。

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，我們發布了一項我認為隨著其發展將會非常卓越的產品——Pega GenAI Blueprint。這是一款協作式 SaaS 應用，能夠自動化企業級工作流程應用設計，從而促進企業創新並顯著提高開發人員的效率。

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凱里姆·阿克戈努爾（Kerim Akgonul）為大家介紹這款突破性產品。凱里姆？

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。這源自於我們都知道，傳統的設計流程往往不成功，而且總是非常耗時，主要是因為它們無法真正激發設計思維，無法推動願景的形成，也無法真正促成利害關係人的共識。

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都只專注於產生軟體程式碼，而忽略了結果的組織和業務的協同作用。但 Pega GenAI Blueprint 則完全致力於以驚人的速度為企業應用帶來卓越的成果。

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.

它結合了 Pega 強大的行業專業知識和流程模板庫以及通用的互聯網知識。它利用生成式人工智慧技術綜合所有這些信息，並僅憑應用程式名稱和簡短描述即可自動推薦最佳實踐工作流程、資料模型等。

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.

我們甚至可以將客戶的最佳實踐融入其中，以確保重複使用時的有效性。目前市場上絕對沒有其他類似的產品。各行各業的商業領袖都能快速捕捉願景，甚至重新思考業務流程，從而推動組織創新，激發他們自身無法想到的全新創意。

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.

這款名為「藍圖」的互動式應用程式產生的內容易於所有利害關係人理解和協作，從而促進目標一致性。他們可以採納藍圖的建議並根據自身需求進行修改。一旦達成共識，這些建議將被導入 Pega，產生企業級雲端架構應用程式。這就是我們如何利用 GenAI 來真正推動企業轉型。

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.

當您有機會體驗這款產品時，您一定會驚訝於其創新速度之快，以及它在各個行業和地區的廣泛適用性。我們早期採用該產品的客戶和合作夥伴對其具體應用案例的回饋都非常積極。更重要的是，Pega GenAI Knowledge Buddy 和 Pega GenAI Blueprint 將幫助我們的客戶和合作夥伴更快速、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.

Pega 一直以來都是創建應用程式最強大的平台之一，而現在，我們透過大幅降低准入門檻、加快價值實現速度，使其更加易於使用。我們認為，GenAI 的潛力僅僅展現了冰山一角。這些最新產品只是我們一系列令人興奮的產品和服務的開端，我們將在 6 月 9 日 PegaWorld 大會之前陸續推出這些產品和服務，它們將繼續幫助我們實現戰略目標。

I'll turn it back over to Alan.

我把它交還給艾倫。

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，Kerim。這真是太令人興奮了！我們也非常興奮地宣布，今年6月9日至11日我們將再次前往拉斯維加斯參加PegaWorld大會。請大家記下這個日期。我們邀請了一系列優秀的客戶來演講。例如，澳洲國民銀行將重點展示其突破性的創新舉措，這些舉措利用客戶決策權為銀行及其客戶創造價值，並且僅用了不到6個月的時間就開發完成並投入使用。

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 將會分享我們如何將銷售理念滲透到其所有面向客戶的團隊中，並透過利用對客戶的深入了解、行銷科學和即時訊號來提升客戶滿意度。請造訪 pega.com 查看會議議程，以了解數十個其他精彩的客戶案例，您將有機會親耳聆聽並與客戶直接交流。

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，我們也會介紹並展示我們最新的創新成果，以及今年剩餘時間的計畫。我們已經安排了投資者見面會，時間是10號星期一中午（當地時間）。我們希望屆時能見到您，如果可以的話，最好在此之前。我和肯會一起與一些正在外地拜訪客戶的投資者會面。請留意邀請函，並務必註冊。這將會是一場精彩的會議。

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，我們正在進行變革性創新，以真正改變世界建構軟體的方式。我很高興我們的市場推廣策略和以組織為中心的模式行之有效，我們對平衡成長和獲利能力的重視也體現在我們的績效中。我相信我們的架構具有競爭優勢，我們將能夠利用 GenAI 為客戶帶來競爭對手難以企及的巨大價值。我認為在 2024 年及以後，這方面存在著巨大的機會。

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

為了更詳細地介紹我們的財務業績，現在讓我把麥克風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 確實已經進入了一個全新的財務領域。我們以強勁的自由現金流成長和 Pega Cloud 年度合約價值 (ACV) 的良好加速成長結束了這一年。在 Pega 40 年的歷史中，我們從未見過像 2023 年這樣高水準的現金流。坦白說，這只是個開始。

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轉型，為我們帶來了更清晰的營運前景，使我們能夠更好地管理公司營運效率並實現更強勁的現金流。這一動態，加上我們在2023年第四季強而有力的市場推廣，最終在充滿挑戰的市場環境中取得了令人矚目的業績。

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的最重要指標。以固定匯率計算，第四季ACV成長加速，較去年同期成長11%。我們兩位數的ACV成長主要得益於第四季新增淨ACV的強勁成長。事實上，我們的銷售團隊在2023年第四季獲得的新增淨ACV超過了2022年第四季度，這清楚地表明我們新的市場策略正在奏效。

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.

淨新增年度合約價值 (ACV) 的激增主要得益於 Pega Cloud 的強勁成長。光是第四季度，Pega Cloud 的 ACV 就新增了 5,800 萬美元，創歷史新高。因此，Pega Cloud 的 ACV 成長率在第四季度再次加速，年增 21%。這真是令人振奮！

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 現在是我們最受客戶歡迎的主要產品，因為它使客戶能夠專注於在 Pega 平台上開發創新的業務應用程序，而無需管理底層雲端基礎架構。它還有助於客戶隨時了解最新的 Pega 技術，這也是一項巨大的優勢。

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.

接下來談談營收。我們實現了14.3億美元的總營收。營收成長主要得益於兩個關鍵因素。首先，2023年的續約數量高於2022年。其次，第四季有部分客戶選擇續簽長期許可合同，且續約期限超出預期。如大家所知，根據ASC 606準則，多年期長期許可訂單的大部分應在訂單確認的季度確認為訂閱許可收入。

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.

接下來是現金流方面。經營活動產生的現金流為2.18億美元，較上年同期的2,200萬美元成長超過800%。自由現金流年增至2.01億美元，再次創下公司歷史新高。這一強勁成長體現了我們核心業務的穩健發展、訂閱模式轉型的圓滿完成以及團隊在營運成本控制方面的卓越成效。儘管我們承接了超過5000萬美元的重組和法律費用等項目，依然取得瞭如此驕人的成績。

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Pega Cloud的非GAAP利潤率從70%提升至約75%。同時，我們也提高了所有三項營運費用的營運槓桿。我們將非GAAP銷售和行銷費用佔總收入的比例從43%降至35%，並做出了艱難的決定，在2023年實施了兩項裁員計畫。

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.

這兩項措施將我們的銷售團隊和客戶成功團隊整合在一起，減少了營運孤島，並使團隊更加專注於交叉銷售和向上銷售，從而更好地服務現有客戶。此外，由於我們完成了位於麻薩諸塞州沃爾瑟姆辦公室的建設，資本支出也趨於正常化。

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每股盈餘首次突破2美元，創下公司歷史新高。推動我們強勁現金流成長的諸多因素，也同樣是每股盈餘較去年同期成長的關鍵驅動因素。我對我們兩位數的年度合約價值成長以及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年底成為一家符合「30法則」的公司，而我們已經實現了這一目標。我們對「30法則」的定義與「40法則」的定義相同，即年度合約價值增長率加上自由現金流利潤率，並根據重組、法律費用、利息支出、稅金等項目進行調整，本質上使其成為一種類似於EBITDA的指標。

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

實現「30法則」表明我們在業務運營中建立了更嚴格的監管和更高的績效透明度，並取得了顯著進展。

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.

接下來談談我們對2024年的業績展望。需要提醒的是，我們會在年初發布年度業績展望，除非進行重大收購，否則我們通常不會更新年度業績展望。我們不提供季度業績展望。

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.

根據我們對2024年的成長指標預測，我們預計年度合約價值（ACV）將成長11%，總收入約為15億美元。 2024年營收成長速度將低於ACV成長速度，原因是多年期授權續約的比例略有下降，而且隨著顧客繼續將Pega Cloud作為主要產品，我們預計基於雲端的訂單量將會增加。

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.

接下來談談我們的獲利指標。我們預計經營活動產生的現金流將達到3.65億美元。我們預測自由現金流將年增約75%，達到3.5億美元。我們預期GAAP每股收益為1.18美元，非GAAP每股收益為2.75美元。我收到回饋，大家認為分享商業模式的想法很有幫助，因此我將繼續提出一些建議，先從年度合約價值（ACV）成長開始。

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2024年年度合約價值（ACV）成長將再次呈現後半段集中成長的趨勢。正如我們在2023年所經歷的那樣，我們許多現有客戶的合約將在年底到期續約。由於我們計劃將市場推廣策略的重點放在向現有客戶進行交叉銷售和向上銷售上，因此我們預計新增淨ACV的很大一部分將在年底最後一個季度實現。

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.

這種情況在企業科技公司中非常普遍。坦白說，根據我們2023年所看到的以及我們預測的2024年的情況，我們將繼續看到大量交易往往發生在採購週期或財政年度的末期。

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年第一季新增瞭如此之多的淨ACV（年度合約價值），我們2024年第一季的ACV基數將非常高。因此，預計我們的ACV成長率在第一季會略有放緩，然後在下半年反彈。

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.

接下來談談長期授權收入。我們預計，隨著現有客戶和新客戶選擇 Pega Cloud，2024 年長期授權總收入將年減。此外，2024 年到期的多年期續約合約數量也將略低於 2023 年。同時，由於越來越多的客戶重視其成長的按需消耗特性，我們預期短期授權合約的簽訂數量也會相應減少。

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 準則，短期授權合約的預收授權收入低於傳統的長期合約。然而，更頻繁的合約續約為我們提供了更多交叉銷售、向上銷售以及支援和協助客戶遷移到 Pega Cloud 並啟動新的工作負載和新用例的機會。

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，我想提醒各位，正如艾倫所提到的，我們的年度客戶及合作夥伴盛會 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。請各位記下日期。我們非常期待您能像往年一樣親臨現場。我們的年度投資者會議計劃於 6 月 10 日星期一在 PegaWorld 會議期間舉行。此外，我們還將在三月參加幾場賣方會議以及一些 NDR 會議。我們期待盡快與各位見面。

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，我們始終致力於為客戶提供卓越的體驗和價值，並堅信管理良好的公司能夠為股東創造合理的自由現金流。正如我們在2023年所展現的那樣，我們非常注重平衡成長和獲利能力，並在這兩個指標上都取得了顯著進展。我們已為實現「40法則」奠定了基礎，力爭在2024年底實現兩位數的年度合約價值成長和強勁的自由現金流。

Operator, please open the call for questions.

接線員，請開啟提問環節。

(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史蒂夫恩德斯。

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，太好了。我想先了解一下您對宏觀經濟情勢的看法，聽起來市場環境仍然充滿挑戰，但ACV方面取得了相當不錯的成績。所以——是的，我想了解目前的趨勢，以及您對2024年宏觀經濟情勢的看法？

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。目前存在許多不確定因素。但我們看到，市場對我們運用人工智慧的方法以及將其融入產品線的方式給予了很高的接受度。正如我所說，我認為我們擁有一個非常獨特的架構，就像你剛才聽到的「千層蛋糕」一樣，這是我們模型的核心，這種架構與其他公司的架構截然不同，坦白說，它與如何整合GenAI完美契合。

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.

所以，當我們讓客戶了解這些產品時，我們看到了他們極大的熱情。實際上，所有這些都是全新的。人們只是在努力理解這對他們意味著什麼。圍繞著這些產品的宣傳鋪天蓋地，我認為客戶抱有一些懷疑是理所當然的。我們其實很歡迎這種懷疑，因為我們相信，透過探索產品的真實面貌，他們就能分辨出哪些產品只會讓他們失望，哪些產品會讓他們感到空虛，以及我們真正能為他們帶來什麼。

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.

但我可以告訴你，大家對我們所談論的內容以及我們做事的方式都充滿熱情。

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.

史蒂夫，我再補充一點──關於這一點，我還有另一個看法。鑑於東歐戰事不斷，中東也戰事不斷，全球經濟通膨率仍在波動，我們的客戶在這種情況下表現得相當堅韌，對吧？他們的購買模式，以及對技術的投資，實際上都保持了相當強勁的勢頭。

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.

所以，儘管我認為仍然存在一些風險——我們仍在關注宏觀經濟背景，但實際上，2023年和2024年宏觀經濟表現相當穩健。因此，我們對未來的經濟前景相當樂觀，但仍然存在許多風險，就像我剛才提到的一些風險一樣，我們必須密切注意。

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，太好了，這很有幫助。 Alan，你剛剛談到了很多關於 GenAI 以及客戶對它的看法。我想問的是，如何在眾多訊息中脫穎而出，讓 Pega 成為人們在考慮實施 GenAI 時首先想到的品牌之一？還有，Ken，你是如何考慮全年採用情況的建模以及這對模型的影響的？

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.

所以你看，我們不只是在做產品定位，而是將 GenAI 作為我們產品線的核心來實作。它目前以獨立 SKU 的形式存在，放在產品線之外。它將從根本上提升我們整個產品線的功能，並改善客戶的日常工作方式。

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.

我可以告訴你們的是，如果你去看看我們網站上自 11 月以來一直提供的 Pega 生成式 AI 演示，或者如果你去看看本周初發布的 Blueprint，我相信它只是我們在 11 月展示的產品的又一次顛覆性的進化。

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.

我認為你會發現我們的客戶會意識到，這不僅僅是讓他們更快地編寫更多程式碼。它讓他們能夠以一種有條理、結構化且最重要的——可擴展的方式重新思考他們的業務。我相信，如果你仔細了解一下，這一點就會非常清楚。當然，過去兩週我們向客戶和合作夥伴的簡報都獲得了非常好的迴響。所以我們對此感到非常滿意。

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

你的下一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場的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?

我想先談談生成式人工智慧這個主題。肯，我記得去年分析師日上，你詳細講過這項技術最終將如何推動消費，而不是僅僅針對單一SKU進行定價。米克，你能幫我們了解一下，第一，你們公司目前各項生成式人工智慧技術的採用率如何？第二，未來一到三年內，這些技術的採用率會如何改變？

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.

此外，我們假設今年人工智慧不會帶來任何實際收入。但到了某個階段，該如何衡量這種使用量是否真的轉化為高於正常趨勢的消費收入呢？能否請您解釋一下您的衡量框架？我還有一個後續問題。

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。那我先說一部分，然後Alan可以補充。你說得對，我們仍然認為GenAI以及像Blueprint這樣的應用程式的主要價值在於，它們能夠幫助客戶降低利用Pega實現業務自動化的門檻。我們對此深信不疑。當你親眼看到它的時候——而且你很快就會看到——你就會明白，你將能夠像我們、我們的客戶和合作夥伴一樣，即時獲得超越預期的體驗。

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，降低這項門檻究竟代表什麼？鑑於我們相信 Pega 是工作流程自動化的領導者，我們認為這是一個拓展應用場景、增加企業數量以及加快企業部署應用速度的機會。

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，對我們而言，生成式人工智慧並非用戶在特定環境中可以使用的30美元附加功能，因為我們認為它對公司而言價值非常有限。隨著時間的推移，它的價格最終會趨於同質化。我們相信，生成式人工智慧將使我們的客戶能夠讓Pega更廣泛地融入他們的應用環境中，從而幫助他們的業務發展。

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.

就衡量標準而言，衡量指標非常明確。那就是我們客戶透過使用 Blueprint 等生成式人工智慧工具，加速了我們年度合約價值 (ACV) 的成長。我知道您真正想問的是，我們能否在財務報表中看到「人工智慧」這一項？我的答案是不會，因為定價和產品組合會隨著時間推移而變化，這一點無法預料。但對我們而言，最主要的價值在於幫助客戶更快地從我們這類企業級應用中獲益。我們認為這是一個強大的差異化優勢。

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，與某些人的做法不同，我們實際上已經將 GenAI 融入我們一切工作的核心。這意味著它將為更快的普及和更快的成長提供動力，而這正是你將會看到它發揮作用的地方。

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，我認為這是一種比僅僅作為附加的獨立SKU更合適、更恰當的方式來應用這項意義深遠的技術。這並不意味著不會有一些獨立的SKU，但真正意義重大的改變在於它對我們整個業務核心的影響。

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，或許有個例外，就是我們的知識夥伴（Knowledge Buddy）產品，它可能有一定的交易價值。我們會出售或嵌入知識夥伴的功能，這或許會成為我們未來值得探討的議題。我說“或許”，是因為我們需要決定這樣做是否合適。但我想說的是，這就是我們目前在業務中對世代人工智慧（GenAI）的思考方式。

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

是的。但 Buddy 只是 GenAI 對這款產品進行變革的一小部分。希望這能有所幫助。

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，太好了。這個顏色指示非常實用。還有一個後續問題。我知道雲端選擇一直是 Pega 的核心，也是你們價值主張的一部分。考慮到 GenAI 工作負載的資源密集度，尤其是其資源密集程度可能是傳統工作負載的 10 倍，因此在考慮 GenAI 的應用時，這一點尤其重要。

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 在目前的雲端選擇過程中扮演的角色？它是否會以一種溫和的方式促使客戶更多地採用 Pega Cloud，因為 GenAI 的某些服務是純雲端服務？能否幫助我們理解這一切是如何運作的？

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。我會盡量避免過於技術性，但我們很樂意之後根據大家的需要深入探討。為了能夠有效率地運作和使用 GenAI，我們確實需要在雲端環境中運作。我們看到客戶表示，他們希望使用 Pega Cloud。 GenAI 正是雲端環境優勢的另一個體現，此外，Ken 在他的演講中也提到了其他優點。

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.

但我們也推出了一項名為（聽不清楚）的新功能，它允許本地部署的 Pega 客戶創建 Pega Cloud 上 AI 功能的有效數位孿生。這樣，他們可以將主系統保留在自己的環境中，同時從本地環境橋接到 Pega Cloud，以支援生成式 AI 的應用場景。透過這種方式，我們可以以雲端的速度實現生成式 AI，並持續快速發展。

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.

但對於一些客戶來說，他們雖然越來越願意完全遷移到雲端，但也有一些客戶希望保留一些本地部署的功能。我認為「雲端選擇」機制能夠確保各方都秉持誠實的態度。從價值體系的角度來看，我比較欣賞它沒有限制顧客選擇。這正是我們所追求的：兼顧各方優勢。

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?

Ken，如果你退後一步，看看這個模型以及它的發展情況，你認為今年是收入和 ACV 增長之間差距的最後一年嗎？這樣，到了明年，這些指標實際上可能會開始更加趨於一致？

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，傑克，你問得好。當然，波動幅度會持續縮小。我們超過 50% 的年度合約價值 (ACV) 來自 Pega Cloud，但我們仍有相當一部分業務並非來自 Pega Cloud。因此，隨著這部分業務佔比的持續下降（實際上並非指維護業務，而是指長期授權業務），波動風險也會隨之降低。

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.

所以我認為你的觀點是對的，展望2025、2026、2027年，比如說，我們的營業利潤率和自由現金流之間的差距，你可能會認為這兩者會非常接近。你說的這一點沒錯。但它們確實會根據長期收入而有所波動。隨著時間的推移，這種差距會逐漸縮小。

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.

我們之前沒有606（聽不清楚）這個表格，它要求你列示價值和部分收入，即使這些收入是按年計算的。我認為那樣的話，一切都會更加穩定。事實上，正因為如此，我認為我們偶爾會出現一些波動。但如果你觀察一年的數據，這種情況應該會越來越少。

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，我只想簡單談談你問題背後可能隱藏的疑問，或是其他投資人可能也在考慮的問題。如果你展望我們2024年的業務，你會問，自由現金流和營業利潤，哪個更能代表業務的正常化？ 2024年，自由現金流更能代表正常化。自由現金流方面沒有任何異常情況發生。

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，隨著 Pega Cloud 業務機會的增多，收入分配也會更加分散。因此，其他投資者可能希望我們對此進行更清晰的解釋。自由現金流是企業正常營運的指標。有時，收入和每股盈餘會與自由現金流略有偏差，可能略高或略低。

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。感覺宏觀經濟在第四季開始趨於穩定。而且，你們也看到人工智慧在2024年有一些不錯的需求趨勢。在製定今年的指南時，你們是否考慮了這些趨勢？或者你們仍然在考慮一些潛在的宏觀經濟不確定性？

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.

我們仍然會考慮一些宏觀因素，例如利率和選舉等等，這些都是我們在製定業績指引時會考慮的因素。好的，很有幫助。再次恭喜你們取得如此優異的成績。

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。

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。我猜業績指引顯示自由現金流會有相當可觀的成長。肯，你能談談你認為哪些方面有可以利用的槓桿效應嗎？顯然，雲端業務的毛利率持續成長。但你如何看待其他營運支出類別呢？能否也簡單談談今年的關鍵投資重點？

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，到了2024年，我們仍然會看到幾乎所有業務線都出現營運槓桿效應，對吧？我應該說幾乎所有業務線，對吧？你會看到毛利率擴大。你會看到銷售和行銷的槓桿效應增強。你會看到研發和一般管理費用也得到提升。所以你會看到各個環節都有貢獻，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.

就投資重點而言，我認為——我們的市場轉型——我們非常滿意目前以客戶為中心的模式。因此，我們需要開始做出的策略決策是：如何看待引進新客戶或拓展新業務，以及以何種速度推進？我們希望確保決策經過深思熟慮，以便充分利用我們現有的模式，即以客戶互動為核心的模式。

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，您會看到我們在 GenAI 上投入了大量資金，對吧？我們真心覺得，GenAI 與我們平台的強大功能結合，將會帶來前所未有的機會。因此，我們將持續投入，包括對 Launchpad 的持續投資，隨著 Launchpad 規模的擴大，我們也將持續投入。這樣一來，我們各個環節的效率都會提高，因為我們的成本成長速度將低於年合約價值 (ACV) 的成長速度。

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...

而且看起來排隊的人還蠻多的，所以我們可能得限制每方只能提一個問題。所以…

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

你的下一個問題來自 Pinjalim Bora 與摩根大通的合作計畫。

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，我有個問題想問你。你之前提到過合約期限縮短。你能幫我理解一下，由於你們的業務一直都是基於消費的模式，那麼是什麼原因導致客戶傾向於選擇更短的合約期限呢？

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，我們真正想說的是，隨著客戶有機會在合約期間擴展 Pega 的使用規模，他們的承諾期或重置期往往比 3 年或 5 年的固定期限要短。因此，越來越多的客戶開始享受這種按需成長的特性，而合約期限也隨之略微縮短，這兩者之間存在著關聯。

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

你的下一個問題來自 Citizens JMP 的 Austin Cole。

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?

聽起來你們在生成式人工智慧方面投入了很多精力——顯然，你們在這方面做了很多工作。我想問的是——特別是對於 Blueprint 而言，它是如何幫助你們獲得更多客戶並保持競爭力的？

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。所以我覺得，如果你親自去看一下，它本身就能說明一切。我剛才和幾位高階主管通了電話，我們向他們示範了這個產品，他們的反應都很震驚，因為它能讓你用幾段文字描述你想在業務上做的事情，就能真正激發新的思考，而且不僅僅是這樣，它還能讓你從設計思維的角度出發，思考你想要實現的目標。

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，說到底，我們身處的商業環境中，一切都圍繞著工作流程。它們都在執行任務，都在記錄交易，都在與客戶互動。而生成式人工智慧能夠幫助你理解你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是誰？他們透過哪些管道接入？這些工作流程會從你的後端系統取得哪些資料？或者你需要取得哪些數據？或者你想在工作流程完成後將哪些資料傳回後端系統？

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變得觸手可及，只需幾分鐘，你就能得到非常棒的東西。這是一個絕佳的起點，你可以編輯、改進，打造屬於你自己的作品，而你不再是從零開始。你從一個過去需要花費兩到三週甚至四周才能完成的框架開始。而現在，這一切只需要兩到三、四分鐘，徹底改變了遊戲規則。

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.

這確實是全新的，而且還在不斷發展中。我們真正的目標是讓許多功能全面成熟，因為我們已經在 PegaWorld 大會上組建了內部團隊，讓所有這些成果最終得以實現，而你們當時也都在現場。現在我們正在展示這些功能，它們即將上線，而且現有的 Pega '23 和 '24 用戶都可以使用。

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.

大家的反應真是──非常非常令人欣慰。詳情請見我們的網站。如果您有什麼想說的，歡迎查看。另外，關於提問，我們也不迴避問題。我們會在本次通話結束後回答問題。我們公司馬上會召開一次電話會議。如果您還有第二個問題，請重新排隊，我們會盡快回覆您。謝謝。

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

你的下一個問題來自 Wedbush 的 Dan Ives 的生產線。

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?

關於最後一個問題和您提到的要點，我的意思是，您覺得Pega公司在現有和新logo方面是否真的開始進行更具策略性的討論了嗎？我是說，您是這麼認為的嗎？

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，我非常認同我的觀點。事實上，我們已經和很多人，包括一些老客戶，討論過這個問題。我們告訴他們，你們過去對我們的看法是，我們可以幫助你們處理某些特殊情況和糾紛，可以幫助你們在特定地區銷售某些產品。

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.

我們現在更傾向於從更具策略性的角度來探討這個問題。我們已經徹底改變了幾個客戶的溝通方式。以前我們也會和高層人士交流，但他們更把我們看作是某個領域的解決方案提供者。

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，許多重要客戶都開始將我們視為他們理想的合作方式。我認為這非常令人欣慰。這正是我們轉向以組織為中心、深度互動策略的目標之一。而且，隨著我們憑藉這項全新的GenAI能力站穩腳跟，我相信我們能夠將這種模式推廣到更多組織。

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.

關於 GenAI，我再補充一點。過去，大家都認為 Pega 功能強大。但說實話，它用起來可能有點複雜，而且資源也可能不太豐富。 GenAI 正是針對這些問題而開發的。我們現在擁有了強大的功能——比以往任何時候都更強大。但我認為，那些由來已久的傳統挑戰今年將會截然不同。

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

你的下一個問題來自麥考瑞集團的弗雷德·哈維邁耶。

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.

恭喜你取得這樣的成績。我想問一個關於GenAI的問題，抱歉這個問題可能有點老生常談，但我最近看到很多有趣的研究成果，例如Br​​et Taylor創辦的新公司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?

鑑於客服人員和麵向客戶的代理越來越傾向於採用類似生成式人工智慧驅動的自主代理，我很好奇——我知道Pega在建立面向客戶的匯流排和服務入口網站等方面擁有深厚的專業知識。總的來說，您如何看待像由生成式人工智慧驅動的自主代理這樣的代理，並將其納入Pega的整體產品路線圖？

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，第二點就到此為止。第一，我們最近引入了「自主企業」的概念，它指的是，你如何才能不把員工僅僅看作是孤立的個體，而是應該如何構建整個企業，使其不是為「用戶」而建，而是圍繞你想要完成的工作本身來構建，從而實現自主運行；但在適當的時候，也要讓人們接手並接管。

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，我們實際上將這種全新的思維方式，即自主企業的理念，我們有時稱之為以中心為導向的企業，融入這個全新的藍圖中。這種企業既不關注前端使用者介面，也不關注後端系統，而是真正讓您專注於定義您機構的核心工作，以及如何將其建構成能夠實現自動化和自主運作的工作？

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.

這自然適用於客服人員和自動化，工作流程也是如此。至於呼叫中心客服人員，就您問題的一部分而言，我認為我們在第四季度剛剛推出了非常令人興奮的語音AI功能，您也可以在pega.com上了解更多信息。這項功能可以監聽對話，自動填充螢幕上的字段，允許客服人員進行驗證，然後將這些資訊用於總結和其他類型的摘要。目前，這項功能已在首批客戶投入生產使用。所以，這方面正處於一個非常令人興奮的時期。

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

你的下一個問題來自 Rosenblat Securities 的 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?

各位，這季度很棒。正如你們討論過的，人工智慧（AI）和全息人工智慧（GenAI）對你們的客戶以及你們的行銷策略將變得越來越重要，那麼它會帶來哪些影響？或者說，你們如何看待未來幾年你們的諮詢和通路夥伴？你們會在這個領域加大投入嗎？還是說，你們會把更多控制權交還給你們自己，因為顯然，你們才是這個領域的專家？

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，只有當我們的人工智慧應用能讓每個人變得更專業時，我們才能成功。降低准入門檻的理念不僅對我們的客戶和員工大有裨益，對我們的合作夥伴也同樣如此。我不認為Pega會取代我們合作夥伴的工作。事實上，恰恰相反，Kerim在過去兩週所做的工作，可能比他以往十幾次的工作加起來還要多…

(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.

我們只與合作夥伴合作，讓他們在 Blueprint 上搶佔先機。最令人興奮的是，他正在建立一種功能，讓我們的合作夥伴能夠創建自己的 Blueprint，這樣當他們為客戶服務時，就可以將他們針對特定主題的最佳實踐 Blueprint 帶給客戶。然後，我們會加入我們自身的實踐經驗以及來自互聯網的最佳實踐。 GenAI 會將所有這些整合起來，為您提供一個綜合的 Blueprint，我認為這對合作夥伴來說非常有利，因為他們可以帶著更多打包好的智慧財產權來開展業務。

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，我認為這對合作夥伴來說絕對是件好事。它還能讓他們更容易學習。但說實話，GenAI 將會改變我們所處的所有產業。這對我們的合作夥伴來說也是如此。

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

你的下一個問題來自 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.

今年圓滿收場。艾倫，我有個問題想問你。你這季度的發言稿裡關於 Launchpad 的討論不多，或者說幾乎沒有提到。我想請你簡單介紹一下 Launchpad 的最新進展，特別是早期使用者計畫的現況。

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.

當然。我對Launchpad專案感到非常興奮，但我們還有龐大的業務需要運作和發展，我想確保大家知道我們正在認真對待，並且明智地使用資金，努力發展這項業務。所以，我很高興地宣布，在第四季度，我們的首批幾位客戶已經上線了Launchpad項目，而且進展順利。

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.

我們正與合作夥伴密切合作，幫助他們保護自己的智慧財產權，因為他們似乎對利用 Launchpad 將他們的智慧財產權和實踐推向市場非常感興趣。我也希望在 PegaWorld 大會上，我們能就 Launchpad 的相關進度分享一些令人興奮的消息。

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.

所以您還會看到我們正在更新網站上的相關頁面，這將使人們更容易了解、理解並參與Launchpad專案。我認為這將大大促進我們的業務發展，也對我們的進步大有裨益。

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

你的下一個問題來自 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?

我想問一下，在自由現金流狀況改善和資產負債表增強的前提下，您能否就Pega目前的債務情況，包括債務償還或再融資等事宜，提供一下最新的資訊？

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。如您所見，憑藉我們資產負債表上的現金以及2024年即將產生的自由現金流，我們很快就能實現淨現金為正，肯定在年底前就能實現。而且，考慮到我們的可轉換債券將於2025年第一季到期，如果我們選擇這樣做，我們資產負債表上的現金將綽綽有餘，足以完全支付該可轉換債券的贖回費用。

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，我們當然不擔心無法按計劃償還可轉換債券。第二點是，這為我們在考慮資本配置以及資產負債表上可轉換債券或傳統債券等資產的槓桿作用方面提供了極大的靈活性。因此，隨著我們逐漸成為一個能夠持續產生數億美元可預測自由現金流的公司，我們正在評估如何看待這個問題。

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.

但就目前而言，對於現有的轉換，如果我們這樣做的話，我們將有足夠的現金來滿足這項要求——如果我們選擇這樣做的話。

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.

目前沒有其他問題了。現在我將把電話轉回給Pegasystems的創辦人兼執行長Alan Trefler，請他作總結發言。

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.

非常感謝所有參加電話會議的朋友，特別是西海岸那些早起的朋友們，我們真的非常感激。我們想讓大家知道，我們對目前的進展感到非常興奮。團隊成員都在付出巨大的努力。我認為所有有機會的朋友都應該來參加PegaWorld大會，因為我相信你們在那裡會看到一些真正令人大開眼界的內容。再次感謝大家，期待下季與大家再次交流。

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

今天的通話到此結束，您可以掛斷電話了。