Resources Connection Inc (RGP) 2022 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Resources Connection, Inc. conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this call is being recorded.

At this time, I would like to remind everyone that management will be commenting on results for the first quarter ended August 28, 2021. They will also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. An explanation and reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measure is included in the press release issued today. Today's press release can be viewed in the Investor Relations section of RGP's website and was also filed today with the SEC.

Also during this call, management may make forward-looking statements regarding plans, initiatives and strategies as anticipated financial performance of the company. Predictions and actual events or results may differ materially. Please see the Risk Factors section in the RGP's report on Form 10-K for the year ended May 28, 2021, for a discussion of risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the company's business, results of operations and financial condition to differ materially from what is expressed or implied by forward-looking statements made during this call.

I'll now turn the call over to RGP's CEO.

Thank you, operator. Welcome to our Q1 earnings call, and thank you for joining us today. I'll cover 3 topics, starting with a quick review of our strong first quarter performance. I'll then discuss progress against our digital agenda followed by comments relevant to macro trends and a regional research we just completed within our current and target client base.

On our Q4 call, we previewed stronger growth coming in Q1, and it did. Revenue was the highest achieved in over 10 years during a fiscal first quarter and that $183.1 million exceeded our guidance and represented 25% growth year-over-year. We also grew sequentially by 8.5%. We're pleased by the strength across many markets and industry verticals driven by sustained improvement in operational execution and delivery and macro trends such as workforce agility and digital transformation. Revenue in every major market was up double digits, and our strategic client accounts delivered 26% growth. Disciplined account planning and client-centricity are paying dividends.

Adjusted EBITDA performance is a further highlight from Q1 results. As we expected, adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 12.2%, up 530 basis points from first quarter last year. This accomplishment is a result of operating with an improved fixed cost structure and strong gross margin performance. We've worked hard to increase the profitability of the business by achieving top line growth, lowering head count and real estate expense, and driving efficiency with technology and digital tools. We'll continue to do so. We're also focused on pricing the value and increasing bill rates appropriately. Consistent with our fiscal year goal, this is the second quarter in a row we've achieved 12%-plus adjusted EBITDA margin. The management team set this trajectory when we began working together 3 years ago.

While COVID sidetracked our progress as clients put new projects on hold for a time, we have more than fully recovered to exceed Q1 fiscal '19 levels and remain optimistic about the path forward. This optimism is fueled by 2 fundamental macro trends. The first centers on digital transformation, both internally and throughout our client base. The second is a tangible and meaningful shift toward organizational agility and specifically how work gets done. This trend equally impacts client strategy and talent preference.

As I've shared many times, RGP's digital transformation is both internal and external. First, we are transforming how we deliver our services to clients and our gig opportunities to consultants through digital transformation initiatives. The best current example of this effort is HUGO, our soon to be launched digital engagement platform to allow clients and talent to interact through a self-service marketplace for finance and accounting talent. Our differentiator is launching a technology platform with the trust, quality and high-touch experience of RGP, and the safety net of employment benefits and community which we believe professional talent wants.

As evidenced by a discussion and research shared at the SIA conference on collaboration in the gig economy, platforms are coming to all corners of this industry. While we've seen such marketplaces like Aya Healthcare, Upwork and JobStack for nursing, creative, coding, light industrial and hospitality gig work, we've not seen a dominant player in the professional gig arena. We intend to be the dominant player for knowledge workers engaging with enterprise business.

I'm very pleased to share that HUGO will go live the week of October 18 in the tristate market of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. We're launching with a pilot for a designated set of clients and finance and accounting rules. The team is ready. The product is ready for MVP launch, and we believe the macro environment is now conducive. Following our launch in Tristate, we will extend the capability to the Dallas market and then Northern California within the next fiscal year. We hope to share more about the functionality of the product during an in-person Investor Day at NASDAQ on October 13. However, given continued restrictions at NASDAQ due to the COVID Delta variant, we've decided to move the Investor Day to April 12, 2022. We look forward to engaging in-person and sharing client experience with HUGO at that time.

Externally, the trend toward digital transformation in our client base continues to accelerate. We added Veracity's capabilities to our suite of services at just the right time 2 years ago. Clients continue to fund projects to digitize core processes for automation and collaboration and create digital tools to drive growth. The need spans our client base from health care providers to technology to big pharma. We know this concrete shift in corporate priorities is real as Veracity grew by an impressive 45% year-over-year, with nice growth in revenue and pipeline coming from RGP's core client base. Please review our updated investor deck for new case studies and further color around Veracity's project work.

As an important tailwind for our business, the macro trends creating today's opportunity-rich environment come from both the demand and supply side. These trends have been confirmed by original research we recently gathered from our current and target client base. We will be releasing the human agility research this month, prominently on our website, as it confirms how post-pandemic behaviors favorable to our business model are here to stay.

On the demand side, clients are committed to operating in a different paradigm with agility at the core. This means companies are building more distributed leadership, nimble finances and new workforce strategies centered on agile talent. We're increasingly engaged with clients who want RGP formerly on the org chart as a talent provider to match critical, project-based skill sets to business imperatives. Decisions can then be made throughout the business to achieve speed and resiliency.

On the talent side, our research confirms that control, choice and diversity of experience matter more in a changed world. Where to work, when to work and on what to work are increasingly vital considerations for professionals. Talent also wants to align with the organization on shared values, empathy and flexibility. Our business model beautifully meets the preferences of today's modern professional. While other firms are facing the harsh realities of the Great Resignation, we are increasingly an employer of choice.

In closing, I want to express my enthusiasm about a new executive appointment we announced this week. Bhadresh Patel has been named our new Chief Digital Officer effective immediately. As the CEO of Veracity, Bhadresh has been consulting on our digital and technology transformation efforts informally. We're now ready to formalize his role and remit. During the next year, he will stay close to Veracity's sales and strategy while developing his leadership role over our enterprise digital road map, priorities and alignment. We're delighted to welcome him into the C-suite and further bond Veracity and RGP as we pursue digital transformation work in all corners of the business.

I'll now turn the call over to Tim for an update on operations.

Thank you, Kate, and good afternoon, everyone. During the first quarter, we saw continued strong progress in our revenue and operating metrics despite pandemic flare-ups and vacation effects typical of the summer months. Larger deal size and longer project duration exemplified the commercial environment as clients continue to take on significant and transformational initiatives.

The momentum noted at the end of Q4 relative to revenue and pipeline continues. Enterprise revenue increased by 25% over the prior year quarter and 8.5% sequentially, while top of the funnel activity was strong, leading to increases in qualified opportunity and ultimately to the highest level of closed deals since 2019. Revenue growth and pipeline strength was consistent across our core business in Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Veracity and Countsy. Operational effectiveness, a strengthening economy and macroeconomic trends favoring co-delivery provide a powerful combination for growth.

As Kate noted, our first quarter results exceeded the high end of our revenue guidance. We have seen growth in both project staffing and professional consulting that is part of a broader market shift away from a fixed traditional workforce to a more liquid workforce that can be marshaled quickly and molded instantly into fit-for-purpose solutions. As companies start new initiatives or resume and accelerate existing ones, the utilization of agile co-delivery is becoming a potent force. Clients are prioritizing flexibility, and labor is demanding it. While elements of this dynamic started before the outset of COVID, the last 18 months have provided a significant and meaningful acceleration, leading to a palpable tightening of the traditional labor market and a higher reliance on a more fluid -- on more fluid workforce solution.

We continue to see more candidates seeking nontraditional employment and have seen declines in attrition rates and increases in hiring in our variable employee base over the last 3 quarters. As opportunities rise, project durations lengthen and the ability to work unconstrained by locality becomes more prevalent, we are seeing more talent attracted to our platform. We continue to work seamlessly as one RGP, providing a diverse portfolio of experience for our consultants and demonstrating a durability and employment opportunities for new applicants. While we recognize that a tight labor market could impact us more broadly in the future, we believe that as more professionals assess their career objectives and opt for more flexible work, our ability to offer a blue-chip client roster, career control, borderless delivery and professional community will continue to be an attractive proposition for a more mobile workforce.

As an example, a new West Coast consultant wanted an opportunity to lead strategic projects as his traditional role was not providing challenging growth opportunities. He chose to come to RGP as a project lead for one of our premier health care clients. His positive experience with us proved to be the impetus to refer his sister to RGP. She was enduring a reorganization and felt like her current employer have misaligned values from her own. After hearing about RGP's model and culture, she came aboard and is now also working remotely and project managing a transformation at another health care client.

Over time, we see workforce desires and our ability to meet them leading to more employment stickiness to RGP and an upward trend to our existing tenure of approximately 3 years, which is a strong statistic given industry trends and our flexible employment model. While we feel that general workforce shifts are already favorable to our model, we will continue to focus on operational discipline and providing an excellent consultant experience.

As we've noted in previous quarters, a hybrid return to work continues with companies embracing distributed employee bases and utilizing a blend of on-site and virtual teams to drive projects. This shift is very much in line with RGP's value proposition of fashioning the right composition of skill sets within team to deliver successful outcomes. In fact, the blend of on-prem and off-site resources allows for better matching of supply and demand and improved operational efficiency when responding to client opportunity. The pandemic has educated the market about the virtues of remote delivery, and a tight labor market with distributed workforces means that hybrid and modular resourcing is likely a permanent shift. We see some increased calls for on-prem engagements but significantly less requiring a full-time on-site presence as most companies are utilizing a hybrid workforce themselves and are comfortable engaging with us in the same manner.

As an example, we are currently engaged with a technology company that is working on a number of initiatives concurrently as the rapid growth has begun to strain their infrastructure. They recognized early on that the scope of work contemplated would require a high reliance on external talent to help deliver the desired outcome. Noting the difficulty attracting traditional employees and recognizing the competition for variable resources, they made a significant commitment to ring-fence RGP talent, knowing they have both immediate and future gaps to fill. Our team will work on-prem and remotely as required and will be staffed for multiple locations. We're in discussions with other clients who are interested in ensuring they have access to captive talent pool for immediate and future initiatives.

Now let me turn back to our first quarter operations. During the quarter, we saw continued strength in pipeline and top of the funnel activity. Average weekly revenue grew by approximately 4% from the first weeks of the quarter to the last. In fact, average daily revenue rates ended the quarter at the highest they have been since FY '19, and pipeline and booked revenue continue to demonstrate pre-pandemic [border fees]. The majority of markets demonstrated growth over prior year quarter, while several markets, strategic client accounts, health care, Veracity and Countsy demonstrated growth book sequentially and over prior year quarter. Lead generation and opportunity identification continued to be strong into Q2 as clients grappled with the pace of change coupled with a tight labor market.

The early weeks of Q2 have shown a strong continuation of positive trends in both revenue and pipeline. In fact, the early quarter revenue trends are some of the highest we've seen since 2019. While the holiday started this quarter, we don't expect to be inordinately impacted. Revenue expansion is a core objective. However, we continue to target profitable growth through increased operational leverage. As in prior quarters, in Q1, we continued to make strides in controlling fixed costs and focusing on efficiencies, yielding an over 500 basis point improvement in enterprise EBITDA margin.

We understand the importance of in-person meetings and will not shy away from face-to-face interaction. However, the lessons learned during the last 18 months stay with us as we transition into a new normal. To that end, we will continue to sell, deliver and operate in a more hybrid fashion, look for opportunities to reduce real estate and utilize technology to extend and strengthen the experience of our clients and consultants and our quest to increase shareholder value.

I will now turn the call over to Jenn for a more detailed review of our first quarter results.

Thank you, Tim, and good afternoon, everyone. During the first quarter, continued rise in demand, coupled with successful go-to-market execution, fueled substantial growth in revenue, reaching the highest level in any first quarter in the last 10 years. We also improved average bill rates, driving above-guidance gross margin. Furthermore, we remain disciplined in SG&A spend, increasing leverage significantly and enabling us to deliver $22.4 million of adjusted EBITDA or a 12.2% adjusted EBITDA margin, which is also the highest margin in any first quarter in the last decade.

Now let me provide more color on our operating results, starting with revenue. With quarterly revenue of $183.1 million, we well exceeded the high end of our revenue guidance of $177 million. After adjusting for business day and currency impact, Q1 revenue represents growth of 25% year-over-year and 5% and 2% over the pre-pandemic first quarter period of fiscal '20 and '19, respectively. In addition, notwithstanding summer vacation impact, our performance in Q1 exceeded the sequential quarter by 8.5% on a same day constant currency basis.

Revenue growth in the first quarter was across most of our core markets, key client accounts, solution areas as well as industry. Strategic client accounts grew 26% year-over-year and 9% sequentially. In addition, macro trends accelerated by the pandemic, including increased use of contingent talent and a shift towards a more agile workforce model, continue to be a tailwind in driving top line growth. Professional staffing revenue grew 36% year-over-year and 8% sequentially.

In North America, revenue improved 28% year-over-year and 11% sequentially on a same day constant currency basis. Most core markets in North America experienced double-digit growth year-over-year with Tristate and California leading the growth at 41% and 30%. In addition, Veracity grew 45% year-over-year, which continues to evidence increased demand in projects that enhance employee experience through digitization and automation of processes, a trend we believe is likely permanent.

Europe continued to perform well, achieving 10% growth compared to the first quarter of fiscal '21 on a same day constant currency basis. Excluding revenues from markets we exited as part of the restructuring initiative, year-over-year revenue growth was 18%. Sequentially, revenue was down 7% in Europe due to more summer vacation taken in the first fiscal quarter and relatively stable performance in Q1 of last year.

Asia Pac also experienced broad-based expansion in revenue across most markets. First quarter revenue grew 17% year-over-year and 8% sequentially on a same day constant currency basis.

Gross margin in the first quarter was essentially flat to prior year, 39% compared to 39.3% a year ago. We effectively elevated our average bill rate and held pay/bill ratio flat from last year. There was one additional holiday in the U.S. and the impact of heavier summer vacation as COVID-related restrictions eased in some parts of the world. Compared to the fourth quarter, we improved our pay/bill ratio by 70 basis points as a result of achieving higher average bill rate. The tight labor market has not yet had a significant impact on our pay rates. However, we intend to be a step ahead of any impending rise in pay rates by pricing our engagement to market appropriately. We continue to see opportunities to achieve higher bill rates across several solution sets, including digital transformation services.

Emerging from our restructuring initiatives and positioning with a more nimble cost structure, run rate SG&A expenses for the quarter were $49.4 million after excluding noncash stock compensation, contingent consideration expense and restructuring charges, representing 27% of revenue, a 570 basis point improvement compared to the same period a year ago.

Now turning to the other components of our financial statements. Effective tax rate was 29% compared to 46% in the prior year quarter. The improvement in effective tax rate resulted primarily from better operating results in the European entities, enabling us to utilize the benefit from historical NOLs. We expect the improved profitability in Europe will continue to cause future effective tax rate to be more favorable. Adjusted diluted EPS for Q1 rose significantly to $0.43 per share compared to $0.14 in Q1 of fiscal '21. We generated positive cash flow from operations in the first quarter, which is typically cash flow negative due to our annual bonus payout. Our balance sheet remains strong, and we paid down an additional $10 million of outstanding debt under our credit facility in the first quarter.

As we look ahead, assuming the macro environment remains stable, we plan to invest in new ERP and talent management systems that will allow us to achieve more efficiency in our back-office operation and position us to scale as we continue to grow our top line. As a result, CapEx is expected to be elevated beginning in the second half of the fiscal year. We're currently assessing the scope and cost of such investment. We regularly evaluate our capital allocation strategy, taking a balanced approach between investing in the business and returning value to our shareholders through a combination of dividends and share buybacks. At the end of Q1, $85 million remained available under our share buyback program.

I'll close with our second quarter outlook. We remain optimistic and anticipate continued growth in the business. Revenue in Q2 is expected to be in the range of $186 million to $190 million, which at the high end of the range would be an estimated 24% increase compared to Q2 of last year. We expect gross margin to be within the range of 38% to 38.5%, reflecting the impact of Thanksgiving holidays in the U.S. We expect run rate SG&A to be in the range of $50 million to $53 million.

Now we're happy to take questions.

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Andrew Steinerman of JPMorgan.

Just one quick clarification and then a question. So Jenn, what did you just mean when you said $50 million to $53 million of run rate SG&A? Do you mean SG&A for the quarter? I just didn't know what SG&A run rate meant.

My other question is about HUGO and the launch. How much is this going to affect SG&A? And when do you feel like HUGO could be contributory to revenues and profits?

Sure. Andrew, when I talk about run rate SG&A, I'm really talking about SG&A excluding stock compensation, restructuring costs and contingent consideration. So SG&A, that is as part of our run rate business. That's what I meant by that.

Got it.

The $50 million to $53 million, yes.

Okay. And then about HUGO?

With respect to HUGO -- yes, with respect to HUGO, so after we launch HUGO in the next couple of weeks, we do expect level of capitalization to decrease. So it is going to add additional SG&A to our results if you think about the rest of the year. From a -- I think that we're going to start to see return with respect to HUGO, but I think that it's still too early to really predict what that revenue is going to look like until we pilot this in the Tristate area.

And just to be clear, that $50 million to $53 million of run rate SG&A includes the HUGO launch, right?

That's right, yes.

Our next question comes from Mark Marcon of Baird.

I'm wondering -- first of all, nice job on the quarter, nice to see. Can you talk a little bit about Veracity? Obviously, it was up quite strongly. Can you remind us how big Veracity is?

Yes. Mark, Veracity is roughly about 5% of our overall enterprise -- their revenue is about 5% of our overall enterprise revenue currently.

Great. And then it sounds like across North America, you ended up seeing really strong growth, particularly strong growth in the Tristate area of over 40%. To what extent do you think it's being driven in part by the -- by increased deal flow, deal activity, whether it's IPOs, SPACs or private equity transactions?

Mark, it's Tim. I think -- first of all, I'll try to say, yes, we're really excited about Tristate and a number of other markets in our core that grew this quarter. I think broadly, we're seeing some tailwind from transaction deal flow particularly related to M&A and some SPAC stuff. We saw probably more SPAC activity in the end of the fourth quarter and the early part of the summer and then it sort of tailed off a little bit, but that doesn't mean that transaction themselves have -- I mean there's all kinds of things going on. Tristate participated in that a fair amount as well, but I think a lot of it kind of comes down to sort of the work that's been done over the last 3 or 4 quarters. We have a new leader in place and a new team, and they've been doing a lot of work relative to penetration generally back into the financial services market and to diversify outside of it. So while I think that some of the transaction stuff contributed to it, it wasn't solely due to that.

Great. And then can you talk a little bit about what your expectations are with regards to pricing on a go-forward basis? You mentioned that you're going to be a little bit more proactive. And obviously, it's a tight labor market and we're seeing all sorts of signs of wage inflation. So how should we think about bill rates on a go-forward basis?

Mark, I think the bill rate is a real upside for our business. I know I've said this the last couple of quarters and we've made, I think, some incremental progress relative to our pricing discipline. But it's a real push for us. So in the back half of this year, I expect us to be able to extend pricing. Some of it is -- for incumbent engagement, it's difficult to do that. So what we're really focusing on are the new engagements and also winding back any pricing arrangements that we had put in place for COVID. But we -- I think I've said for a long time that we -- it's an opportunity for us. We need to price to market more. And when you think about tight labor market, it's -- this is the right time for us to be able to push through some of those increases, and we're doing that proactively.

And how much do you think you could end up pushing through? And it would seem like almost everybody would be accepting of higher bill rates. So how much can you push through, do you think?

It's kind of a tricky question. I mean it's hard to speculate on that because each client is a little bit different. And let me just state for the record that there is no client that's receptive anytime for a price increase if they don't have to take it. So I think what you're driving at is the circumstances. I think people understand that it's a tight labor market and that we have a good product, and so they're more [reactive to it]...

Exactly.

Than they might otherwise be. But they're not -- it still requires some delicate negotiations. So it's hard to give you an order of magnitude, but I do think that we're -- we have an opportunity here to push the -- push our prices up a few percentage points.

Okay. And Jenn, I was -- in terms of the revenue guidance, can you talk a little bit about that with regards to -- for the second quarter? If we take a look at the historical trend between Q1 to Q2, it seems like you might be being a little conservative.

Just trying to get a little bit of a feel there just in terms of what the normal sequential pattern is. I recognize you're coming off the strongest first quarter that you've had in 10 years, and so it might be hard to forecast off of that, or maybe you're expecting some normalization, not sure exactly what the driver is.

Yes, yes. We're -- I mean we're -- compared to sequentially, we're up about 6%. And we do have the Thanksgiving holidays in Q2. And given that the world is opening up quite a bit right now, we did build in a little bit of conservatism in there, just not really fully grasping what the holiday impact is going to be. That's -- so that's one area, and also given we talk a lot about the labor market being tight. So if it continues to get much worse, it also starts [to hit] our growth a little bit. So those are kind of the 2 factors contributing to perhaps maybe not as much of a sequential increase as we have done historically.

Great. And then you did a really nice job in terms of managing SG&A. You talked about the CapEx but just wondering also -- you took down management compensation. So you had some contribution there. Wondering how much you could frame as being -- when we take a look at the expense reductions, ex what you talked about in terms of some increases in SG&A for your technology initiatives, how much of the rest of the expense structure is permanent versus temporary? Or what should we expect beyond the next quarter?

Yes. I mean I think this year, if I think of SG&A as a percentage of revenue, you can probably think of it anywhere between 28% to 29% for the remainder of the year. And for the rest of the year, we do -- I mean Q1 was very favorable because we expect travel to return -- to increase a little bit, right? And -- but we didn't really see that in Q1. So for the remainder of the year, as I said, as the world opens up, we do expect travel to also go up a bit. And as we grow revenue, our variable comp is going to grow. So those are some things to take into consideration when it comes to SG&A.

Okay. And then one other question. Just -- I mean we had a pretty big ramp in terms of the number of -- from a head count perspective going from 2,444 to 3,141 over the last 12 months. Just wondering how much of that is -- to what extent do you expect that sort of trajectory? How much of it was just a bounce back? How did you scale it that quickly?

Yes. I think -- Mark, it's Kate. I think most of that is bounce back and an uptick in consultant engagement and employment. We expect, as we've said before, the business to continue to grow, and we've tried to give you some guidance there. So I would expect that to continue. But the bounce may even out a little bit, if you will.

I would add just -- Mark, I would just add to that. I mean -- and I think both Kate and I talked about this in that the hiring trends for us during the quarter were the highest that we've seen in a while. And we think the macro forces are going to continue to push things our way even in a tight labor market. But that is a pretty big bounce back. And as Kate said, I -- we think that will normalize over the latter half of the year.

Okay. And then 2 final questions. One is just you mentioned that the retention of the consultants is picking up. Can you dimensionalize that a little bit further just in terms of how long -- how much longer are they sticking around?

And then the second question is probably related. What percentage of the positions that you're now filling are being filled, where they're being staffed virtually as opposed to on-premise? And how do you think that trend unfolds as things normalize?

Yes. The first one is a difficult one to give you exactly because what I would say is like our average tenure is around 3 years. It ticks up and down if you thought of 3 as kind of the place where you might have -- you might pay normalized standard deviation up over. We see some flex around that through the years. What I would say is what we've seen over the last 3 quarters is that our overall attrition rate has declined. Usually, that happens in the first year that somebody joins our company. They're kind of really feeling out what the model is about and if they like the culture and the things that we provide for them from an experience perspective. And we've seen that, that is typically the time where you might experience higher turnover. In that particular segment, that attrition level is down significantly. So how that will play out from a tenure perspective over time, as we go through the year, we'll start to see the average tenure continue to pick up. Because we have that combination of increased hiring and lower attrition, you start to see tenure increase in time.

And the second piece is also something I -- I mean I'm going to give you more of an order of magnitude to dimensionalize. I mean I think obviously, during the last 18 months, almost everything was off-site. So it was like, let's call it, 90-10 kind of a thing. We're probably closer to 65-35 in that range. And like I don't -- I mean because the pandemic was so unusual, I would say that when we come back, it won't be a question of what's off-site and what's on-site. It will be how often are people on-site and how often are people working remote. That's sort of high -- it's the same thing for traditional workforces. And so we'll sort of mirror that. My sense is that that's going to be 2 days on-site, 3 days off or vice versa, depending on the client.

Yes. Mark, I just want to add a little more color. I was just at the SIA conference, which was the collaboration in the gig economy. And at that conference, they shared a McKinsey report that's just been published that surveyed employment working models pre-COVID and desired working models post-COVID. And what they published is that there's been a 25 percentage point move from -- away from on-site work and a 22% growth in hybrid. So I think that really reflects pretty nicely what we're seeing in our client base. And as we said in our prepared remarks, we really believe this is a changed world. And so we're preparing not only how we engage with consultants and talent to prepare them for this kind of flexibility. And again, we really believe that our flexible approach will allow us to attract the best talent in the future.

I think the other thing to keep in mind as we move through fiscal '22 is that it's all -- it's the year [that's felt]. And what we mean by that is really upping the care and feeding of our consultants. So they know that this more agile way of working is not only viable but it's delightful. And that's really the experience we want to create in our people.

Our next question comes from Josh Vogel of Sidoti & Company.

Certainly impressive results, good to see. A lot -- you covered a lot of the questions I had, but I want to kind of build off maybe some of them. Can you just clarify it for me? Outside of Veracity, how much of your business in the quarter was digital transformation-related services?

Josh, it's Jenn. Yes. It's about 10% of our business beyond Veracity that is in digital and technology.

So 10% -- I'm sorry, beyond Veracity or including Veracity?

Yes, beyond Veracity. So total, we're looking at about 14% to 15%, yes.

Okay. So when we look at that 14%, 15% of the business and then the margin profile of the entire enterprise, how much -- what is the margin profile on digital transformation-related services relative to the other 85%?

Well, I mean the bill rates on the digital transformation services is generally a little bit higher than -- our average bill rate -- enterprise bill rate is $126. And so if you look at just the digital transformation services, it's in the mid-50. So bill rate in general is a little bit higher. I want to say the gross margin profile is probably slightly higher but it's not drastically different from the other solution family.

Okay. Great. And shifting gears, I know there's a bunch of questions on SG&A. I was just curious, what would you say is the breakdown today following the restructuring initiatives and operating efficiencies that resulted? What's the breakdown today between fixed and variable cost structure of the business relative to where you're running prior to the pandemic?

Overall, our variable cost structure, full cost is still roughly about 70% and fixed cost is about 30%. And variable -- when I say variable cost, that includes cost of service as well.

Okay. Great. And there was an earlier question talking about your guidance and looking at Q1 to Q2. I just want to look a quarter further. So should we expect to see a return to more seasonal patterns? For example, that typical step-down in the third fiscal quarter, I think it was about 9% sequential in fiscal '20 that was before the pandemic. Is that a similar trend we could expect to see? Or do you think there's enough pent-up demand there where we should see a less pronounced step-down given the pipeline and sales cycle you see today?

Josh, well, I think it's a little bit hard to say. But what I would say is, yes, I do expect to see some seasonality because you have -- in the third quarter, you have 2 holidays. And hopefully, we're all going to have a real Christmas and a real New Year's this year. And if that's the case then, we likely will see a little bit of a step-down. That said, I do think that the market is very hot right now. And so we could see an effect similar to summer where we kind of blasted through. People took time off but there was that much work. I think our pipeline is strong right now, but it's kind of too early to be able to tell whether or not one is going to blunt the other. I feel -- I do feel like every quarter, we talk about people returning to normalcy. And I do think the holidays are a place where people are circling their calendars a little bit. So I expect to see a little bit of a dip down for everybody in our client base in that quarter. But we're still going to push hard.

Okay. Great. Appreciate those insights. And last one from me. I saw the recent announcement with the Kotter alliance and I was just curious. When we look at an alliance like that, should we expect these types of partnerships going forward when you want to combine forces with someone? Or is this another way of not necessarily doing any M&A activity? Or is M&A still on the table? And then just speaking of M&A, what does that pipeline look like and the valuations you're seeing today?

Yes. So I'll take that, Josh. We are interested in M&A. I mean we're really pleased with the progress we've made with our most recent acquisitions. I think both taskforce in particular and Veracity have added some unique capability to help us produce the results that we're showing now in the business. And we still feel there are some gaps where we could move faster if we find the right acquisition target than doing it organically. And so think of our pipeline focused on increasing that 10% in technology and digital and helping us elevate the kind of project work we can deliver in our client base.

Another area for opportunity is in the health care arena and building more capacity to help payers and providers especially around revenue integrity initiatives. We continue to think that's an opportunity. Valuations fluctuate, given what area you're focused on. I mean digital and technology will be more expensive multiples for us. So we'll be looking at those businesses very carefully. The multiples go up and the risk goes up. So we're going to be careful about that.

And I think the partnership -- going to the Kotter partnership, which is where you started your question, we have been bullish around change management and the need for change management associated with the kind of transformational work we're doing in our client base. Kotter has a fabulous reputation. We feel very excited that they chose us to be their partner. It's a very natural fit. And we're going to continue to develop capability together and see if that then builds the runway to continue to strengthen that bond.

Thank you. At this time, I'd like to turn the call back over to Kate Duchene for closing remarks.

Well, I want to thank everyone for listening in today. We really appreciate your support, and we look forward to talking to you after Q2. Everyone, have a great fall. Buh-bye.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.