Research Solutions Inc (RSSS) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day and welcome to the Research Solutions, Inc. second-quarter 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to John Beisler, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，歡迎參加 Research Solutions, Inc. 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。（操作員說明）請注意此事件正在被記錄。我現在想將會議交給投資者關係部的約翰‧貝斯勒 (John Beisler)。請繼續。

Thank you, Betsy, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for the Research Solutions, second-quarter fiscal 2024 earnings call. On the call today are Roy W. Olivier, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Bill Nurthen, Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝貝特西，大家下午好。感謝您今天參加我們的研究解決方案 2024 財年第二季財報電話會議。今天參加電話會議的是總裁兼執行長 Roy W. Olivier；和財務長 Bill Nurthen。

After the market closed this afternoon, the company issued a press release announcing its results for the second quarter of fiscal 2024. This release is available on the company's website, researchsolutions.com.

今天下午收盤後，該公司發布新聞稿，公佈了 2024 財年第二季的業績。此版本可在公司網站 Researchsolutions.com 上取得。

Before Roy and Bill begin their prepared remarks, I would like to remind you that some of the statements made today will be forward-looking and are made under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied due to a variety of factors. We refer you to Research Solutions' recent filings with the SEC for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact the company's future operating results and financial condition.

在羅伊和比爾開始準備好的發言之前，我想提醒大家，今天發表的一些聲明具有前瞻性，並且是根據 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》做出的。由於多種因素，實際結果可能與明示或暗示的結果有重大差異。我們建議您參閱 Research Solutions 最近向 SEC 提交的文件，以更詳細地討論可能影響該公司未來營運績效和財務狀況的風險。

Also on today's call, management will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe provide useful information for investors. A reconciliation of those measures to GAAP measures is included in the earnings release issued earlier this afternoon. Finally, I would like to remind everyone this call is recorded and made available for replay via a link on the company's website. I would now like to turn the call over to Roy W. Olivier. Roy?

在今天的電話會議上，管理階層也將參考某些非公認會計準則財務指標，我們相信這些指標為投資者提供了有用的信息。這些措施與公認會計準則措施的調節包含在今天下午早些時候發布的收益報告中。最後，我想提醒大家，這次通話已被錄音，並可透過公司網站上的連結重播。我現在想把電話轉給羅伊·W·奧利維爾。羅伊？

Thank you, John and thanks to everyone joining us for our second-quarter fiscal 2024 results. While there are a lot of moving pieces in this quarter's results, which Bill will help walk you through, I do want to take a minute to report a few milestones for the business. First, our core platform revenue from Article Galaxy and References is above $10 million in ARR for the first time. Second, our total ARR is now over $15 million for the first time. Third, the addition of Scite and Resolute are positioning the company well for the future.

謝謝約翰，也謝謝大家關注我們的 2024 財年第二季業績。雖然本季的業績中有很多令人感動的內容（比爾將幫助您了解這些內容），但我確實想花一點時間報告該業務的一些里程碑。首先，我們來自 Article Galaxy 和 References 的核心平台收入首次超過 1,000 萬美元的 ARR。其次，我們的總 ARR 現在首次超過 1500 萬美元。第三，Scite 和 Resolute 的加入為公司的未來做好了準備。

The new products from these acquisitions and the products we can build using the combined technology of the three companies, positions the company to provide competitive and unique functionality across the research workflow and into other departments in most research-intensive organizations. I'll speak more about that in detail after Bill walks you through our fiscal second quarter 2024 results. Bill?

這些收購的新產品以及我們可以利用這三家公司的組合技術構建的產品，使該公司能夠在整個研究工作流程以及大多數研究密集型組織的其他部門提供有競爭力和獨特的功能。在 Bill 向您介紹我們的 2024 年第二財季業績後，我將詳細討論這一點。帳單？

Thank you, Roy and good afternoon, everyone. Before I begin, I'd like to remind everyone that our second quarter results include a full quarter's contribution from the acquisition of ResoluteAI on July 28 and approximately one month of contribution from the Scite acquisition, which closed on December 1. For fiscal year to date numbers, there are approximately five months of ResoluteAI and one month of Scite factored into the numbers.

謝謝羅伊，大家下午好。在開始之前，我想提醒大家，我們第二季的業績包括 7 月 28 日收購 ResoluteAI 帶來的整個季度的貢獻，以及 12 月 1 日完成的 Scite 收購帶來的大約一個月的貢獻。對於本財年迄今的數據，大約有 5 個月的 ResoluteAI 和 1 個月的 Scite 已計入這些數據。

Another item I would like to discuss before going deeper into the numbers is that the Scite acquisition brings with it a material amount of what we classify as B2C recurring subscription revenue. This is revenue from individual subscribers who are typically students or research professionals that subscribe to the services through Scite's website and make automatic payment on either a monthly or annual subscription basis.

在深入研究這些數字之前，我想討論的另一件事是，收購 Scite 帶來了大量我們歸類為 B2C 經常性訂閱收入的收入。這是來自個人訂閱者的收入，這些訂閱者通常是學生或研究專業人士，他們透過 Scite 網站訂閱服務，並按月或按年訂閱自動付款。

I wanted to help everyone understand how we are accounting for those subscriptions from both an annual recurring revenue or ARR perspective and from a revenue recognition perspective. For the purposes of calculating ARR, in our financial and operational summary tables, we have separated out what we call B2B ARR and B2C ARR.

我想幫助大家了解我們如何從年度經常性收入或 ARR 角度以及收入確認角度來核算這些訂閱。為了計算 ARR，在我們的財務和營運總結表中，我們將 B2B ARR 和 B2C ARR 分開。

B2B ARR consists of annual subscription agreements with corporations, academic institutions and government entities. We have contracts with those entities across the Research Solutions, ResoluteAI and Scite product platforms and everything is aggregated across those product lines for the purposes of calculating B2B ARR.

B2B ARR 包括與企業、學術機構和政府實體的年度訂閱協議。我們與研究解決方案、ResoluteAI 和 Scite 產品平台上的這些實體簽訂了合同，並且所有內容都在這些產品線中進行匯總，以便計算 B2B ARR。

B2C ARR consists of individual subscriptions, some of which are annual, but most of which are month-to-month. For the purposes of calculating B2C ARR, we aggregate the monthly subscriptions by taking their monthly subscription amount and multiplying it by 12. Please see today's press release for further information regarding how we define and use annual recurring revenue and other non-GAAP terms. Lastly, for the purposes of revenue recognition, all revenue resulting from our portfolio of B2B and B2C software products is flowing through the platforms line in our profit and loss statements.

B2C ARR 由個人訂閱組成，其中一些是年度訂閱，但大多數是按月訂閱。為了計算 B2C ARR，我們透過將每月訂閱金額乘以 12 來匯總每月訂閱。請參閱今天的新聞稿，以了解有關我們如何定義和使用年度經常性收入和其他非公認會計準則術語的更多資訊。最後，出於收入確認的目的，我們的 B2B 和 B2C 軟體產品組合產生的所有收入都流經我們損益表中的平台線。

With that, I'll start going through some of the numbers. Total revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2024 was $10.3 million, an 18% increase from the second quarter of fiscal 2023. Our platform subscription revenue increased 48% to $3.1 million. The year-over-year growth was primarily driven by the acquisitions of ResoluteAI and Scite, as well as organic growth in our core Article Galaxy platform.

接下來，我將開始查看一些數字。2024財年第二季總營收為1,030萬美元，較2023財年第二季成長18%。我們的平台訂閱收入成長了 48%，達到 310 萬美元。年比成長主要得益於 ResoluteAI 和 Scite 的收購，以及我們核心 Article Galaxy 平台的有機成長。

We ended the quarter with $15.6 million in annual recurring revenue, up 77% year over year. Scite contributed almost $4.4 million of the ARR, which was a good outcome when you consider at the time of acquisition, we announced that their ARR as of the end of October was roughly $3.6 million.

截至本季末，我們的年度經常性收入為 1,560 萬美元，年增 77%。Scite 貢獻了近 440 萬美元的 ARR，考慮到收購時的情況，這是一個很好的結果，我們宣布截至 10 月底他們的 ARR 約為 360 萬美元。

Article Galaxy also had a strong quarter with net incremental ARR for the quarter being the best result in the last four quarters. On a stand-alone basis, Article Galaxy ARR is now over $10 million. The growth in Scite and Article Galaxy was offset by some churn in ResoluteAI. We do expect some continued churn in that product over the next six months before it stabilizes. However, we still feel there's tremendous value in the technology that was acquired as part of that transaction.

Article Galaxy 的季度表現也很強勁，該季度的淨增量 ARR 是過去四個季度中最好的結果。就獨立而言，Article Galaxy ARR 目前已超過 1,000 萬美元。Scite 和 Article Galaxy 的成長被 ResoluteAI 的一些流失所抵消。我們確實預計該產品在未來六個月內會持續波動，然後才會穩定下來。然而，我們仍然認為作為該交易一部分獲得的技術具有巨大的價值。

Our transaction revenues increased almost 9% from the second quarter of fiscal 2023 to $7.2 million and our total active customer count for the quarter was 1,398 a net increase of 175 from the same period a year ago. The increases are primarily due to organic growth, notably in the academic segment of the business, which was enhanced by higher transaction volumes and contracts transferred related to the FIZ Karlsruhe acquisition effective January 1, 2023.

我們的交易收入較 2023 財年第二季成長近 9%，達到 720 萬美元，本季活躍客戶總數為 1,398 名，比去年同期淨增加 175 名。這些成長主要是由於有機成長，特別是在業務的學術領域，該成長得益於與 2023 年 1 月 1 日生效的卡爾斯魯厄 FIZ 收購相關的交易量和合約轉讓量的增加。

I will note that we are now at the point where the FIZ transaction will anniversary itself starting in our Q3. This will slow the growth rate we have seen over the past four quarters in transactions. However, we still do expect organic growth on this line for the foreseeable future.

我要指出的是，我們現在正處於 FIZ 交易將於第三季開始週年紀念日的時刻。這將減緩我們過去四個季度的交易成長率。然而，我們仍預計在可預見的未來該產品線將實現有機成長。

Gross margin for the second quarter was 43.5% a 450 basis point improvement over the second quarter of 2023. The increase is due to the ongoing revenue mix shift towards our higher-margin Platforms businesses, as well as some modest increases in transaction margins.

第二季毛利率為 43.5%，比 2023 年第二季提高 450 個基點。這一增長是由於收入結構持續轉向利潤率較高的平台業務，以及交易利潤率的小幅增長。

The Platform business recorded gross margins of 84.4%, a decrease compared to 88% in the prior year quarter. The decrease is related to the inclusion of Resolute's platform revenues, which generate a lower margin. Gross margin on Article Galaxy remained consistent with recent history and the gross margin of Scite's products are similar to that of Article Galaxy.

平台業務毛利率為84.4%，較去年同期的88%下降。這一下降與 Resolute 平台收入的計入有關，該收入產生的利潤率較低。Article Galaxy 的毛利率與近期歷史保持一致，Scite 產品的毛利率與 Article Galaxy 相似。

Gross margin in our transaction business increased 230 basis points to 25.7%. The increase was primarily due to increased copyright margins, aided by better fixed cost coverage due to the higher order volume. We did lower some copyright reserves in the quarter which also contributed to the increase. So I would expect this number to fall back to somewhere between 24% and 25% on a more normalized basis going forward.

交易業務毛利率成長 230 個基點至 25.7%。這一增長主要是由於版權利潤增加，以及訂單量增加帶來的更好的固定成本覆蓋。我們確實在本季降低了一些版權儲備，這也導致了版權儲備的增加。因此，我預計這個數字將在未來更加正常化的基礎上回落至 24% 至 25% 之間。

Total operating expenses in the quarter were $4.9 million compared to $3.7 million in the prior year quarter. A little over $700,000 of the year-over-year variance comes from the addition of the cost basis of Resolute and Scite. In addition, this quarter's results included roughly $300,000 in costs associated with the acquisition of Scite, as well as other M&A activities in the quarter.

本季總營運費用為 490 萬美元，去年同期為 370 萬美元。略高於 70 萬美元的同比差異來自 Resolute 和 Scite 成本基礎的增加。此外，本季的業績還包括與收購 Scite 以及本季其他併購活動相關的約 30 萬美元的成本。

Net loss for the quarter was $54,000 or roughly breakeven on a per share basis compared to a net loss of $256,000 or $0.01 per share in the prior year quarter. Given some of the churn in Resolute, we did reduce a portion of their contingent earn-out liability which generated some below-the-line income in the other income category of our operations statement.

本季淨虧損為 54,000 美元，每股基本達到損益平衡，而去年同期淨虧損為 256,000 美元，即每股 0.01 美元。考慮到 Resolute 的一些流失，我們確實減少了他們的部分或有獲利負債，這在我們營運報表的其他收入類別中產生了一些離線收入。

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $318,000 compared to $201,000 in the year ago quarter. It is important to note that the adjusted EBITDA result includes the aforementioned $300,000 of acquisition-related expenses in the quarter and as a result, would have been $625,000 on a more normalized basis.

本季調整後 EBITDA 為 318,000 美元，去年同期為 201,000 美元。值得注意的是，調整後的 EBITDA 結果包括上述本季 30 萬美元的收購相關費用，因此，在更正常化的基礎上，該結果將為 62.5 萬美元。

Turning to our balance sheet, cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2023, was $2.7 million versus $13.5 million on June 30, 2023. The decrease was primarily attributable to the cash used for the Resolute and Scite acquisitions, which was approximately $10 million.

看看我們的資產負債表，截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日，現金和現金等價物為 270 萬美元，而 2023 年 6 月 30 日為 1,350 萬美元。減少的主要原因是收購 Resolute 和 Scite 所使用的現金約為 1000 萬美元。

We also had heavy outlays in Q1 related to the proxy issues, which have since been resolved, as well as costs related to our M&A activities. Despite continuing to incur expenses related to the M&A activities on Q2, we were able to generate $300,000 in cash flow from operations in the quarter. We expect our cash flow to improve as we move on from a number of these one-time expenditures and more fully integrate the acquisitions into our business. Additionally, we have experienced some good growth in cash in the early part of Q3.

我們在第一季也因代理商問題以及與併購活動相關的成本而產生了大量支出（該問題已解決）。儘管第二季繼續產生與併購活動相關的費用，但我們本季的營運現金流仍達到 30 萬美元。我們預計，隨著我們擺脫一些一次性支出並將收購更全面地整合到我們的業務中，我們的現金流將會改善。此外，我們在第三季初期經歷了現金的良好成長。

As we look ahead, Q3 and Q4 will be much cleaner from an expense perspective which will give us an opportunity to demonstrate the profitability of the business. We will have some M&A related costs in the first month of Q3, which should not incur much after that. From a year to date perspective, recall that, one, we had roughly $700,000 in costs related to the proxy matter and an additional $300,000 in M&A related expenses.

展望未來，從費用角度來看，第三季和第四季將更加乾淨，這將使我們有機會展示業務的獲利能力。我們將在第三季的第一個月產生一些併購相關成本，此後應該不會產生太多成本。從一年至今的角度來看，請回想一下，我們大約有 70 萬美元與代理商事宜相關的成本，另外還有 30 萬美元的併購相關費用。

In Q2, most of the proxy costs were behind us but we still had $300,000 in M&A related expenses. Those expenses collectively total about $1.3 million year to date and are included in the year to date adjusted EBIT loss of $100,000. In Q3 and Q4, we are aiming to produce a more normalized adjusted EBITDA results, and see that results improve over time as we further integrate the acquisitions.

第二季度，大部分代理商成本已經過去，但我們仍有 30 萬美元的併購相關費用。年初至今，這些費用總計約 130 萬美元，並包含在年初至今 10 萬美元的調整後息稅前利潤虧損中。在第三季和第四季，我們的目標是產生更標準化的調整後 EBITDA 業績，並隨著我們進一步整合收購，業績會隨著時間的推移而改善。

From a cash perspective, we are targeting to improve cash flow as well. However, it should be noted that cash flow will likely lag behind adjusted EBITDA for the next six months. This is related to working off some deferred revenue associated with the acquisitions, paying off some of the one-time-type items that were previously discussed, and paying down some severances that were previously expensed.

從現金角度來看，我們的目標也是改善現金流。然而，應該指出的是，未來六個月的現金流量可能會落後於調整後的 EBITDA。這與清償與收購相關的一些遞延收入、償還先前討論過的一些一次性項目以及支付先前支出的一些遣散費有關。

All this said, I think Roy and I feel very good about where the business stands today. Despite some of the proxy matters in Q1, which affected our profitability and cash position, we were able to execute on our acquisition strategy and now feel like we have the pieces in place to grow the business and realize the profit potential that will come from our ongoing mix shift to higher margin platform revenues. I'll now turn the call back to Roy. Roy?

綜上所述，我認為羅伊和我對公司目前的狀況感到非常滿意。儘管第一季出現了一些代理問題，影響了我們的盈利能力和現金狀況，但我們仍然能夠執行我們的收購策略，現在感覺我們已經做好了發展業務並實現我們的利潤潛力的準備。持續的組合轉向更高利潤的平台收入。現在我將把電話轉回給羅伊。羅伊？

Thanks, Bill. I'm going to address several issues on today's call, but I'd like to start with what we plan on doing with acquisitions and the acquired products going forward. As a reminder, Scite is an advanced discovery tool, or a search tool focused on scientific, technical, and medical content. It has a full-text search capability for most published articles and has a great user interface.

謝謝，比爾。我將在今天的電話會議上解決幾個問題，但我想先談談我們計劃如何處理收購以及未來收購的產品。提醒一下，Scite 是一種先進的發現工具，或者說是一種專注於科學、技術和醫學內容的搜尋工具。它具有對大多數已發表文章的全文搜尋功能，並且具有出色的使用者介面。

It also includes a citation badge that helps the researcher understand how often the article they are looking at has been cited by other papers. In addition to showing how many times the article has been cited, it shows the number of supporting, mentioning, and contrasting statements in that article based on Scite's unique learning model. Think of this as a FICO score or a Rotten Tomatoes score for the article that users looking at. It has been successful in academic and corporate segments worldwide.

它還包括一個引用徽章，可以幫助研究人員了解他們正在查看的文章被其他論文引用的頻率。除了顯示文章被引用的次數外，它還根據 Scite 獨特的學習模型顯示該文章中支持、提及和對比陳述的數量。將此視為用戶正在查看的文章的 FICO 評分或爛番茄評分。它在全球學術和企業領域取得了成功。

The B2B corporate and academic ARR is about $400,000 and the ARR associated with the B2C version used by academic and corporate researchers, is about $4 million as of the end of the quarter. Scite's product have been successful largely based on their full-text search capabilities, the AI assistant, and their unique citation badge.

截至本季末，B2B 企業和學術機構的 ARR 約為 40 萬美元，與學術界和企業研究人員使用的 B2C 版本相關的 ARR 約為 400 萬美元。Scite 產品的成功很大程度上取決於其全文搜尋功能、人工智慧助理以及獨特的引文徽章。

Resolute has a similar advanced discovery tool, but with some very specific differences. In addition to searching available scientific, technical, and medical content, Resolute products also have over 10 external databases connected. So search results show the scientific, technical, and medical content, plus whatever the external databases return if they are turned on.

Resolute 有一個類似的進階發現工具，但有一些非常具體的差異。除了搜尋可用的科學、技術和醫學內容外，Resolute 產品還連接了 10 多個外部資料庫。因此，搜尋結果會顯示科學、技術和醫學內容，以及外部資料庫開啟時傳回的任何內容。

Some of those databases include clinical trial information, patent data, FDA databases, financial information, and more. Think of this capacity as providing a 360-degree view of the search, not just STM or scientific, technical, and medical articles.

其中一些資料庫包括臨床試驗資訊、專利數據、FDA 資料庫、財務資訊等。將此功能視為提供 360 度的搜尋視圖，而不僅僅是 STM 或科學、技術和醫學文章。

The advanced version of Resolute's platform provides for enterprise search capability. Think of this as searching the customers' internal databases. Some examples include scientific notebooks, videos, and other data. Resolute built a very flexible and capable product but did not build specific workflows to solve specific problems for the customer.

Resolute平台的進階版提供企業搜尋功能。將此視為搜尋客戶的內部資料庫。一些例子包括科學筆記本、影片和其他數據。Resolute 建立了一個非常靈活且功能強大的產品，但沒有建立特定的工作流程來為客戶解決特定問題。

In my opinion, the Resolute technology was a black box with very advanced capabilities that had to be programmed to do specific tasks like identifying key opinion leaders, post-market surveillance and other solutions. As such, the user interface and the workflow was built largely on a case-by-case basis.

在我看來，Resolute 技術是一個具有非常先進功能的黑盒子，必須對其進行編程才能執行特定任務，例如識別關鍵意見領袖、上市後監控和其他解決方案。因此，使用者介面和工作流程主要是根據具體情況建構的。

Moving forward, we are executing on what we call a one search strategy, where we will bring these tools together and then build solutions for our customers that will address specific problems that they are working on. Scite will be our front-end and user interface layer, with Resolute adding the external and enterprise search capability. Scite will be our STM or scientific, technical, and medical search tool; Scite Pro will be Scite plus Resolute's external databases; and Scite enterprise will be Scite's plus Resolute's enterprise search and external databases.

展望未來，我們正在執行所謂的單一搜尋策略，我們將把這些工具整合在一起，然後為我們的客戶建立解決方案，解決他們正在解決的特定問題。Scite 將成為我們的前端和使用者介面層，Resolute 增加外部和企業搜尋功能。Scite 將成為我們的 STM 或科學、技術和醫學搜尋工具； Scite Pro 將是 Scite plus Resolute 的外部資料庫； Scite enterprise 將是 Scite 加上 Resolute 的企業搜尋和外部資料庫。

We will then use these tools to build new solutions that service the needs of other departments in research intensive organizations. The initial solutions we will build are technology landscape solutions, clinical trial solutions, key opinion leader identification, competitive intelligence modules, a patent data and more. We will also be releasing an enhanced post-market surveillance and the patent module. These modules are key to our long-term growth objectives.

然後，我們將使用這些工具建立新的解決方案，以滿足研究密集型組織中其他部門的需求。我們將建構的初步解決方案包括技術景觀解決方案、臨床試驗解決方案、關鍵意見領袖識別、競爭情報模組、專利數據等。我們還將發布增強的上市後監督和專利模組。這些模組是我們長期成長目標的關鍵。

The first release will be the tech landscape module, which will launch this quarter with clinical trials coming in our Q4 fiscal 2024. The remaining modules will launch late this fiscal year or in the first half of fiscal 2025.

第一個版本將是技術景觀模組，該模組將於本季推出，臨床試驗將在 2024 財年第四季進行。其餘模組將於本財年末或 2025 財年上半年推出。

So what does this do to our total addressable market and serviceable addressable market? The answer is simple. It expands it exponentially. The current IR deck shows that a couple of years ago, we offered solutions that serviced one part of the life sciences innovation value chain.

那麼這對我們的總目標市場和可服務的目標市場有何影響？答案很簡單。它呈指數級擴展。目前的投資人關係報告顯示，幾年前，我們提供了為生命科學創新價值鏈的一部分提供服務的解決方案。

Previous to these acquisitions, we organically built additional capacity that addressed four areas of the value chain. Not only does Resolute and Scite add to the four areas we already serve, it also allows us to service a total of 13 areas of the value chain going forward. For the first time, we can also provide solutions to areas outside of scientific, technical and medical content and the life sciences.

在這些收購之前，我們有機地建立了解決價值鏈四個領域的額外產能。Resolute 和 Scite 不僅豐富了我們已經服務的四個領域，而且還使我們能夠為未來價值鏈的總共 13 個領域提供服務。我們也首次為科學、技術和醫學內容以及生命科學以外的領域提供解決方案。

Two-plus years ago, I set a BHAG of $20 million in ARR in three years. In October of 2024, I will have been this formal CEO for three years. We are at $15.6 million in ARR as of 12/31, so I'm confident that we'll be close to $20 million by October, but likely a bit short. I'm happy that we did not aggressively acquire someone when valuations were still at or near top of the market.

兩年多前，我設定了三年內 ARR 達到 2000 萬美元的宏偉目標。到 2024 年 10 月，我將擔任正式執行長三年。截至 12 月 31 日，我們的 ARR 為 1560 萬美元，因此我有信心到 10 月份我們將接近 2000 萬美元，但可能有點短。我很高興我們沒有在估值仍處於或接近市場最高水平時積極收購某人。

That said, our BHAG has been adjusted up to $30 million in ARR by the end of fiscal 2026, almost double where we are now. We believe this number can be hit through all organic growth with the product portfolio we have today and no further acquisitions. In addition, margin should expand as we approach this goal, and we would expect the overall EBITDA margin at that point to be in the double digits.

也就是說，到 2026 財年末，我們的 BHAG 的 ARR 已調整至 3,000 萬美元，幾乎是現在的兩倍。我們相信，透過我們今天擁有的產品組合的所有有機成長，無需進一步收購，就可以達到這個數字。此外，隨著我們接近這一目標，利潤率應該會擴大，我們預計屆時的整體 EBITDA 利潤率將達到兩位數。

I want to reiterate, this is not guidance, this is our BHAG. Now, this is not to say that we will not continue to evaluate and acquire companies that align with our shareholder return objectives in addition to our business and product strategy. We expect to continue to focus on providing solutions throughout the research workflow and the innovation value chain.

我想重申，這不是指導，這是我們的宏偉目標。現在，這並不是說我們不會繼續評估和收購除了我們的業務和產品策略之外還符合股東回報目標的公司。我們希望繼續專注於在整個研究工作流程和創新價值鏈中提供解決方案。

Regarding what I have recently referred to as acquisition numbers four, we have decided not to pursue that opportunity further. While we are excited about the technology, some items in the diligence did not meet our threshold. We will continue to be disciplined about acquisitions moving forward.

關於我最近提到的第四次收購，我們決定不再進一步尋求這個機會。雖然我們對這項技術感到興奮，但盡職調查中的某些項目並未達到我們的門檻。我們將繼續在今後的收購中遵守紀律。

We do have other opportunities that we will continue to investigate. However, we will be more selective over the next two or three quarters to allow us to focus on getting our new strategy and the integration of the various products underway.

我們確實還有其他機會，我們將繼續研究。然而，我們將在接下來的兩三個季度更有選擇性，以便我們能夠專注於新策略和各種產品的整合。

Early returns on Resolute have not been in line with our financial expectations as we have experienced customer churn, some of which was expected when we signed the deal. We have developed a strong pipeline for new prospects. However, it should be noted that these products have the longest sales cycle of any products we offer.

Resolute 的早期回報與我們的財務預期不符，因為我們經歷了客戶流失，其中一些在我們簽署協議時就已預料到。我們為新前景開發了強大的管道。但值得注意的是，這些產品是我們提供的所有產品中銷售週期最長的。

On the other hand, we have been encouraged to find that the core technology is as strong as we believed it was, and we remain confident that we can utilize that technology in the new solutions described earlier. And that those solutions will be more relevant to our customers. We have added two senior sales executives selling that product and expect to see similar results in the form of new sales in the second half of the fiscal year. Conversely, the early days with Scite has overperformed to our expectations on B2C and B2B.

另一方面，我們很高興地發現核心技術正如我們所認為的那樣強大，並且我們仍然相信我們可以在前面描述的新解決方案中利用該技術。這些解決方案將與我們的客戶更加相關。我們增加了兩位銷售該產品的高級銷售主管，並預計在本財年下半年以新銷售的形式看到類似的結果。相反，Scite 的早期表現超出了我們對 B2C 和 B2B 的預期。

Our belief was that we could cross-sell Scite into our academic and corporate customer base through our existing sales teams. Those teams are trained and doing demos now. In just the past few weeks, we've closed $50,000 new ARR on what was a $400,000 B2B business, and we have a very robust pipeline going forward.

我們相信，我們可以透過現有的銷售團隊將 Scite 交叉銷售給我們的學術和企業客戶群。這些團隊正在接受培訓並正在進行演示。就在過去幾週，我們在價值 40 萬美元的 B2B 業務上完成了 5 萬美元的新 ARR，我們擁有非常強大的管道。

We're excited about our prospects as we integrate Scite's best in class capability, with Resolute's extensive external and enterprise data capabilities and tie that integration with our industry-leading document delivery platform.

我們對我們的前景感到興奮，因為我們將 Scite 的一流功能與 Resolute 廣泛的外部和企業數據功能相集成，並將這種集成與我們行業領先的文檔交付平台聯繫起來。

In closing, I'll say that the entire management team believes that we now have the building blocks in place that will allow us to transform Research Solutions from a document delivery company to a software solutions provider that can compete with anyone in this space. We're very excited about our future, and we'll continue to report our progress in our future calls. With that, I'd now like to turn it back over to the operator for Q&A. Operator?

最後，我要說的是，整個管理團隊相信我們現在已經具備了基礎，使我們能夠將研究解決方案從一家文件交付公司轉變為可以與該領域任何人競爭的軟體解決方案提供者。我們對未來感到非常興奮，我們將繼續在未來的電話會議中報告我們的進展。這樣，我現在想將其轉回給操作員進行問答。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Allen Klee, Maxim Group.

（操作員說明）Allen Klee，Maxim Group。

Yes, hi. Congrats on the quarters. Could you talk about why you think Scite has been performing so well? And then you also said that Article Galaxy was your best quarter. What do you think turned that around? Thank you.

是的，嗨。恭喜季度。您能談談為什麼您認為 Scite 表現如此出色嗎？然後你還說《Article Galaxy》是你最好的季度。你認為是什麼扭轉了局面？謝謝。

Yeah. Thanks, Allen. In terms of Scite, I would say a couple of things. One is, I think Scite being part of a larger public organization has really helped its B2B prospects feel more comfortable with acquiring that platform. So I think that's helped accelerate some sales or even close some sales that maybe would not have closed because Scite was a small, independent company with a few employees. We now offer 24/7 technical support. We have a whole onboarding team to help onboard customers. We have a larger sales and support organization, so I think that's really helped increase the velocity of some of the B2B business.

是的。謝謝，艾倫。就 Scite 而言，我想說幾件事。一是，我認為 Scite 作為一個更大的公共組織的一部分確實幫助其 B2B 潛在客戶更願意收購該平台。因此，我認為這有助於加速一些銷售，甚至完成一些可能不會完成的銷售，因為 Scite 是一家小型獨立公司，只有少數員工。我們現在提供 24/7 技術支援。我們擁有完整的入職團隊來幫助入職客戶。我們擁有更大的銷售和支援組織，因此我認為這確實有助於提高一些 B2B 業務的速度。

The B2C business has have actually a very predictable investment return conversion rate. In other words, if we invest in digital marketing, it typically results in a certain amount of trials and those trials convert at a very predictable rate. So we have been ratcheting up digital marketing spend on the B2C side and we see those results literally in days or weeks. Whereas as you know, we have at least a 20-week or typically about an average 20-, 22-week sales cycle for Article Galaxy, and a longer sales cycle for Resolute. So we're able to basically move that needle very quickly by investing more in marketing. Bill, anything you want to add to the Scite comments?

B2C業務實際上具有非常可預測的投資回報轉換率。換句話說，如果我們投資數位行銷，通常會帶來一定數量的試驗，而這些試驗的轉換率非常可預測。因此，我們一直在增加 B2C 方面的數位行銷支出，並且我們在幾天或幾週內就能看到這些結果。然而如您所知，Article Galaxy 的銷售週期至少為 20 週，通常平均為 20、22 週，Resolute 的銷售週期更長。因此，透過加大行銷投入，我們基本上能夠很快地實現這一目標。Bill，您想在 Scite 評論中添加什麼內容嗎？

No, I think that's good, Roy.

不，我認為那很好，羅伊。

Yeah. On the AG comments, I think that we're seeing the New New sales teams pick up the pace. They're doing a nice job. We've closed a number of large deals. We actually closed the largest deal that we've closed since I've been with the company during the quarter. And we're seeing pretty good success with larger deals, which is encouraging to me because there was a period there where we were closing a lot of new logos, but they weren't the average revenue per customer was not as high as we'd like it to be.

是的。關於 AG 的評論，我認為我們看到新新銷售團隊加快了步伐。他們做得很好。我們已經完成了許多大型交易。實際上，我們完成了自我本季加入該公司以來所完成的最大交易。我們看到更大的交易取得了相當好的成功，這對我來說是令人鼓舞的，因為有一段時間我們關閉了很多新徽標，但它們並不是每個客戶的平均收入沒有我們那麼高」我希望如此。

So I think New New's starting to perform well, part of that as marketing is driving, I think a nice amount of leads into that New New team. And I think our challenge going forward is taking what's working on the Article Galaxy. Article Galaxy references' New New team and applying it to upsells and Scite and Resolute products. Bill, anything you want to add to that?

因此，我認為 New New 開始表現良好，部分原因是行銷的推動，我認為 New New 團隊有大量的潛在客戶。我認為我們未來的挑戰是利用 Article Galaxy 上的工作成果。文章 Galaxy 引用了 New New 團隊並將其應用於追加銷售以及 Scite 和 Resolute 產品。比爾，你還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yeah. I think I would say it was our best quarter in the last four quarters. But just recall, the last four quarters have been kind of coming down steadily. So this was a nice rebound for us this quarter and we saw a nice bounce back. Not -- it was hit bounced up to a rate that is acceptable to us, but not quite sort of the rates we've seen before we started talking about some of the issues with the economy, hitting the sales process there.

是的。我想我會說這是我們過去四個季度中最好的季度。但回想一下，過去四個季度的情況一直在穩定下降。因此，本季度這對我們來說是一個不錯的反彈，我們看到了一個不錯的反彈。不是——它反彈到了我們可以接受的利率，但與我們開始談論一些經濟問題之前看到的利率不太一樣，影響了那裡的銷售流程。

To Roy's point, New New has been performing very well, so new sales are coming through strong. I think where we're still struggling a bit, at least for this year is on the expansion upsell side of things. Last year, we launched References, which was a big catalyst to upsells. We don't have as much catalyst going into the fiscal year. So running a little bit behind there, but it was nice to see the platform sales turnaround in Q2, and we're hoping that's a trend that will continue on for the rest of the fiscal year.

羅伊認為，New New 的業績一直非常好，因此新產品的銷售也非常強勁。我認為我們仍然有點掙扎，至少今年在擴張和銷售方面。去年，我們推出了 References，這是追加銷售的重要催化劑。我們在進入本財年時沒有那麼多的催化劑。所以有點落後，但很高興看到第二季平台銷售出現好轉，我們希望這種趨勢將在本財年剩餘時間持續下去。

Okay, thank you. Then also on Scite, you mentioned that most of the ARR is with the B2C business and that while you have some annual customers, it's mostly under monthly subscription. So do you have enough data to have a sense of the churn of that? How confident can we say this month of customers will be annual customers? Do you have a sense of that?

好的謝謝。然後還在 Scite 上，您提到大部分 ARR 都來自 B2C 業務，雖然您有一些年度客戶，但大部分都是按月訂閱。那麼您是否有足夠的數據來了解這種情況的變化？我們有多大信心說這個月的客戶將成為年度客戶？你有這樣的感覺嗎？

Do you want to take that, Bill?

你想接受這個嗎，比爾？

Yeah, I would say we don't have enough data yet, and that's part of the reason we definitely wanted to separate this out on a separate line to really isolate it and give investors a view of sort of the changes in that over time.

是的，我想說我們還沒有足夠的數據，這就是我們肯定希望將其單獨放在一條單獨的線上以真正隔離它並讓投資者了解隨著時間的推移而發生的變化的部分原因。

We are going to look at it and continue to monitor it. I also will say that we do recognize that B2C tends to obviously have higher churn rates. We did see higher churn rates from that business in the diligence. However, what I would say is we're already hard at work on things to do to basically make that product more sticky and reduce the churn rates in that segment.

我們將關注並繼續監控它。我還要說的是，我們確實認識到 B2C 的流失率明顯較高。我們在盡職調查中確實看到該業務的流失率更高。然而，我想說的是，我們已經在努力做一些事情，從根本上使該產品更具黏性並降低該細分市場的客戶流失率。

So there's some software we're using to help reduce churn, but there's also things that we can do from a pricing and packaging perspective, we think to reduce churn in that segment. And so I think as we learn more over the next few quarters, we'll be able to discuss that in a little more detail with investors.

因此，我們正在使用一些軟體來幫助減少客戶流失，但從定價和包裝的角度來看，我們也可以做一些事情，我們認為可以減少該細分市場的客戶流失。因此，我認為，隨著我們在接下來的幾個季度中了解更多信息，我們將能夠與投資者更詳細地討論這一問題。

Yeah. And I would just remind everybody that net churn rate in Scite B2C is higher than we want it to be. That said, it's net ARR growth for the short time that we owned went from $3.6 million to $4 million. So it continues to show a really strong growth profile in spite of this churn. We all, I think, are on the same page in terms of what we can cut that churn down, it's just going to accelerate the growth even more.

是的。我只想提醒大家，Scite B2C 的淨流失率比我們希望的還要高。也就是說，我們擁有的短期內 ARR 淨成長從 360 萬美元增至 400 萬美元。因此，儘管存在這種流失，它仍然表現出非常強勁的成長態勢。我認為，我們在如何減少客戶流失方面達成了共識，這只會進一步加速成長。

Thank you. My last question is on incremental ARR. Is there -- you have more moving pieces now. So I was curious, do you have an internal target for what you shoot for each quarter?

謝謝。我的最後一個問題是關於增量 ARR。現在有更多動人的作品嗎？所以我很好奇，你對每季的目標有沒有一個內部目標？

Well, Research Solutions, definitely had very detailed budgets of what we expected in all our various sales categories. Scite did not, but we have applied our planning to Scite. So we now do have specific targets for B2B. We really don't have specific targets for B2C other than continue the growth rate you're growing, because that is a new kind of animal to us. We've been a strong B2B player for years. B2C is relatively new for us. That said, Scite has some very experienced B2C people that are doing a great job.

嗯，研究解決方案肯定有非常詳細的預算，符合我們對所有不同銷售類別的預期。Scite 沒有，但我們已將我們的規劃應用於 Scite。所以我們現在確實有 B2B 的具體目標。除了繼續保持當前的成長率之外，我們確實沒有針對 B2C 的具體目標，因為這對我們來說是一種新的動物。多年來，我們一直是強大的 B2B 參與者。B2C 對我們來說相對較新。也就是說，Scite 擁有一些經驗豐富的 B2C 人員，他們的工作做得非常出色。

And then I think on Resolute, we did put a plan together, and I think on the top line, Resolute's not where we wanted them to be on the EBITDA line they are. Scite's overperforming on both lines and Research Solutions is doing a nice job on New New. But we continue to see a little bit of softness on upsells and more churn than we would like to see.

然後我認為在 Resolute 上，我們確實制定了一個計劃，而且我認為從總體上看，Resolute 的 EBITDA 線並未達到我們希望的水平。Scite 在這兩條線上都表現出色，Research Solutions 在 New New 上也表現出色。但我們仍然看到追加銷售的疲軟以及比我們希望看到的更多的客戶流失。

Okay. Thank you so much.

好的。太感謝了。

(Operator Instructions) This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Roy Olivier for any closing remarks.

（操作員說明）我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回羅伊·奧利維爾（Roy Olivier）發表閉幕詞。

Yeah. Thanks, everyone, for joining us on our call today. We will be participating in the ROTH Conference in Dana Point, California, on March 18 and 19. Qualified investors that would like to attend or schedule a meeting should contact their ROTH sales representative. We look forward to speaking with you in May to discuss our third quarter results and have a great day.

是的。感謝大家今天加入我們的電話會議。我們將於 3 月 18 日至 19 日參加在加利福尼亞州達納角舉行的羅斯會議。想要參加或安排會議的合格投資者應聯繫其羅斯銷售代表。我們期待在五月與您交談，討論我們的第三季業績，並祝您度過愉快的一天。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。

Thank you.

謝謝。