Spok Holdings Inc (SPOK) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings. Welcome to Spok Holdings fourth-quarter 2023 earnings call. (Operator instructions) Please note this conference is being recorded.

問候。歡迎參加 Spok Holdings 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。（操作員說明）請注意，本次會議正在錄製中。

I will now turn the conference over to Al Galgano from the Investor Relations. Thank you, you may begin.

我現在將會議交給投資者關係部門的阿爾加加諾 (Al Galgano)。謝謝，你可以開始了。

Hello, everyone, and welcome. I am joined today by Vince Kelly, Chief Executive Officer; Michael Wallace, President of Spok, Inc., and Chief Operating Officer; and Calvin Rice, Chief Financial Officer. After a brief presentation by management, we will open up the call to your questions.

大家好，歡迎光臨。今天，執行長文斯凱利 (Vince Kelly) 也加入了我的行列。 Michael Wallace，Spok, Inc. 總裁兼營運長；和財務長卡爾文·賴斯(Calvin Rice)。在管理層進行簡短介紹後，我們將開始電話詢問您的問題。

I want to remind everyone that today's conference call may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties relating to Spok's future financial and business performance. Such statements may include estimates of revenue, expenses, and income as well as other predictive statements or plans, which are dependent upon future events or conditions. These statements represent the company's estimates only on the date of this conference call and are not intended to give any assurance as to actual future results.

我想提醒大家，今天的電話會議可能包含前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受到與 Spok 未來財務和業務表現相關的風險和不確定性的影響。此類報表可能包括收入、費用和收入的估計以及其他預測報表或計劃，這些報表或計劃取決於未來的事件或條件。這些陳述僅代表公司在本次電話會議當天的估計，並不旨在對未來的實際結果提供任何保證。

Spok's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Although these statements are based upon assumptions that the company believes to be reasonable, they are subject to risks and uncertainties. Please review the Risk Factors section relating to our operations and the business environment, which are contained in our 2023 Form 10-K and related documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Spok 的實際結果可能與這些前瞻性陳述中的預期有重大差異。儘管這些陳述是基於公司認為合理的假設，但它們仍面臨風險和不確定性。請查看與我們的營運和商業環境相關的風險因素部分，該部分包含在我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的 2023 年 10-K 表格和相關文件中。

Please note that Spok assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements from past or present filings and conference calls.

請注意，Spok 不承擔更新過去或現在的文件和電話會議中的任何前瞻性聲明的義務。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Vince.

這樣，我就把電話轉給文斯。

Thank you, Al. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for our fourth-quarter 2023 earnings call. Let me preface my comments by saying how proud I am of our Spok team and our ability to generate very impressive performance in 2023 while staying true to our mission. I'm very pleased with the momentum our team has created, and I'm excited by our prospects and outlook.

謝謝你，艾爾。午安.感謝您參加我們的 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。首先，我對 Spok 團隊以及我們在忠於使命的同時在 2023 年創造令人印象深刻的業績的能力感到非常自豪。我對我們團隊所創造的勢頭感到非常滿意，我對我們的前景和前景感到興奮。

Since the strategic pivot we announced about two years ago, our focus has not changed, that is to grow revenue, generate cash, and return capital to our stockholders. For 2023, it was mission accomplished. We returned $25.6 million of cash to our stockholders while more than covering that total by generating in excess of $30 million of adjusted EBITDA.

自從我們大約兩年前宣布策略支點以來，我們的重點沒有改變，那就是增加收入、產生現金並向股東回饋資本。2023 年，它的使命已經完成。我們向股東返還了 2,560 萬美元現金，同時產生了超過 3,000 萬美元的調整後 EBITDA，遠遠超出了這一總額。

We were also successful in our stated goal to grow revenue. I'm proud to report that for the first time in Spok's history, we were able to grow consolidated total revenue with revenue growth for both Wireless and Software. We accomplished this by responsibly investing in our business to support growing revenue while closely managing our operating expenses and capital expenditures. While the dividend level we declared when we announced our pivot in February of 2022 may have initially seen high, we believe Spok has struck an excellent balance between making the necessary investments to fuel future growth while continuing to generate cash flow and returning capital to our stockholders. We believe we are on a sustainable path to continue paying our quarterly dividend at these levels for the foreseeable future and are encouraged by our prospects.

我們也成功實現了增加收入的既定目標。我很自豪地向大家報告，在 Spok 的歷史上，我們第一次能夠透過無線和軟體收入的成長來實現合併總收入的成長。我們透過負責任地投資我們的業務以支持收入成長，同時密切管理我們的營運費用和資本支出來實現這一目標。雖然我們在 2022 年 2 月宣布轉向時宣布的股息水平最初可能很高，但我們相信 Spok 在進行必要的投資以推動未來增長、同時繼續產生現金流和向股東返還資本之間取得了良好的平衡。我們相信，在可預見的未來，我們正走在可持續的道路上，繼續以這些水平支付季度股息，並對我們的前景感到鼓舞。

Today, we'll share with you an update on how our strategic business plan is progressing in support of our goals, as well as our financial results for the quarter and full year. I'll start by reviewing the agenda for today's call, the order will be as follows. First, a review of our strategic focus and goals and reporting our progress against those goals. Next, Michael Wallace, our President and COO, will provide a review of our operational performance and review our market opportunity. Then Calvin Rice, our CFO, will review our fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 financial highlights in more detail. We will then conclude our prepared remarks with a review of our business outlook and financial guidance for 2024. And finally, we'll open up the call to your questions.

今天，我們將與您分享我們的策略性業務計劃為支持我們的目標而取得的最新進展，以及我們本季和全年的財務表現。我先回顧一下今天電話會議的議程，順序如下。首先，檢視我們的策略重點和目標，並報告我們實現這些目標的進展。接下來，我們的總裁兼營運長麥可華萊士將回顧我們的營運績效並回顧我們的市場機會。然後，我們的財務長 Calvin Rice 將更詳細地回顧我們第四季度和 2023 年全年的財務亮點。然後，我們將回顧 2024 年的業務前景和財務指引，以結束我們準備好的演講。最後，我們將開啟電話詢問您的問題。

In 2023, our team achieved numerous operational and financial milestones. Significant accomplishments were made regarding top-line revenue growth, record profitability levels, continued expense management, cash flow generation, progress on our product road map and development, augmentation of our sales team, generating six-figure customer contracts and multiyear engagements, G&A pager placements, maintenance contract bookings and retention, increased professional services revenue, coupled with improvements in resource utilization, and enhancing our industry reputation and improving our customer satisfaction scores.

2023 年，我們的團隊實現了眾多營運和財務里程碑。在營收成長、創紀錄的獲利水準、持續的費用管理、現金流生成、產品路線圖和開發進度、銷售團隊的擴充、產生六位數的客戶合約和多年合約、總務管理尋呼機等方面取得了重大成就安置、維護合約預訂和保留、增加專業服務收入、提高資源利用率、提高我們的行業聲譽並提高我們的客戶滿意度得分。

Investment in our product and sales team resulted in a historic increase in consolidated total revenues with both the 7% growth in Software revenue and a modest growth in Wireless revenue. Overall Software revenue growth was driven by growth in each of the four Software revenue categories: license, professional services, hardware, and maintenance.

對我們產品和銷售團隊的投資使合併總收入實現了歷史性成長，軟體收入成長了 7%，無線收入也略有成長。整體軟體收入成長是由四個軟體收入類別的成長所推動的：許可證、專業服務、硬體和維護。

In 2023, Spok generated over $30 million of Software operations bookings. This was a 22% increase from the prior year. For more importantly, a level not seen since 2019 in an annual growth rate not seen in almost a decade. While we were very happy with our bookings level last year and believe that we are certainly trending in the right direction, let me take a moment to provide some perspective on our Software operations bookings trajectory.

2023 年，Spok 產生了超過 3,000 萬美元的軟體營運預訂。比前一年增加了 22%。更重要的是，年增長率達到了自 2019 年以來近十年來未見的水平。雖然我們對去年的預訂水平非常滿意，並相信我們肯定在朝著正確的方向發展，但讓我花點時間提供一些關於我們的軟體營運預訂軌蹟的觀點。

As we have said in the past, software operations bookings tend to be lumpy from quarter to quarter, and timing is a major factor. While it's easier to move sales through the various stages of the pipeline, the ultimate closing of a contract is a bit harder to predict and by a matter of days can impact the quarterly total significantly. This is why we believe it is more appropriate to look at bookings on a 12-month basis. A full-year basis better normalizes both positive and negative timing anomalies in the normal course of the sales cycle.

正如我們過去所說，軟體營運預訂往往每季都不穩定，時間安排是一個主要因素。雖然將銷售轉移到管道的各個階段比較容易，但合約的最終完成有點難以預測，並且幾天之內就可能對季度總額產生重大影響。這就是為什麼我們認為以 12 個月為基礎查看預訂情況更為合適。全年基礎可以更好地規範銷售週期正常過程中的正向和負向時間異常。

For example, some of the contracts we anticipated to close in the fourth quarter of 2023 were postponed to the beginning of the year, and consequently, 2024 have started out extremely strong. In fact, January was a company record, and February has been strong as well. So we do not spend a great deal of time analyzing the sales performance of an individual month or quarter as opposed to viewing bookings in the broader context of our pipeline execution and anticipated annual results. We expect 2024 operations bookings to grow well above our 2023 levels.

例如，我們預計在 2023 年第四季完成的一些合約被推遲到年初，因此 2024 年開局非常強勁。事實上，一月是公司創紀錄的一年，二月也表現強勁。因此，我們不會花費大量時間分析單一月份或季度的銷售業績，而是在更廣泛的管道執行和預期年度業績背景下查看預訂情況。我們預計 2024 年的營運預訂量將遠高於 2023 年的水準。

Switching to operating expenses. While driving our top line, we also continued our focus on expense management as operating expense levels for the year were down more than 12% from 2022. As an example, you may remember in September 2023, as part of our continued focus on managing expense levels, we exercised an option for the early termination for the lease on our corporate headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The bottom line is that we expect to save approximately $1 million annually beginning after the conclusion of our lease in September of 2024.

轉向營運費用。在提高收入的同時，我們也持續專注於費用管理，今年的營運費用水準較 2022 年下降了 12% 以上。舉例來說，您可能還記得 2023 年 9 月，作為我們持續關注管理費用水平的一部分，我們行使了提前終止位於弗吉尼亞州亞歷山大的公司總部租約的選擇權。最重要的是，我們預計從 2024 年 9 月租約結束後開始，每年可節省約 100 萬美元。

Our focus on expense management as one of the key drivers to generate increased cash flow does not come at the expense of our product platform as we continue to make the necessary investments in product development, sales and marketing, customer support, and professional services to support the growth of our Spok Care Connect and wireless solutions.

我們對費用管理的關注是產生增加現金流的關鍵驅動力之一，但這並不以犧牲我們的產品平台為代價，因為我們繼續在產品開發、銷售和行銷、客戶支援以及專業服務方面進行必要的投資來支持Spok Care Connect 和無線解決方案的發展。

In 2023, Spok invested more than $10.5 million in product research and development investments, such as these are critical to creating a best-of-breed product platform and to maintaining our solid industry reputation. In 2023, I believe that two key proof points of our premier market position for evidenced by a couple of results. One, receiving the number one spot for the sixth consecutive year in Black Book Market Research's review of the healthcare industry; and two, having 20 of the 22 adult hospitals and 7 of the 10 children's hospitals named to the 2023 U.S. News & World Report Best Hospital Honor Roll as customers. Accolades such as these did not come if you don't have a best-in-class product offering and a solid reputation with your customers.

2023 年，Spok 在產品研發方面投入了超過 1,050 萬美元，這些投資對於創建一流的產品平台和維持我們穩固的行業聲譽至關重要。到 2023 年，我相信我們的首要市場地位的兩個關鍵證據將透過幾個結果得到證明。一、在Black Book Market Research對醫療保健產業的評估中連續第六年排名第一；其二，2023 年《美國新聞與世界報道》最佳醫院榮譽榜上的 22 家成人醫院中的 20 家和 10 家兒童醫院中的 7 家都是其客戶。如果您沒有提供一流的產品並在客戶中享有良好的聲譽，就不會獲得此類榮譽。

Spok has an amazing blue chip customer base. Many customers have been with us decades and continue to buy from us. In short, we continue to fire on all cylinders and are confident about the future as we start 2024. Based on our performance in 2023, we're providing our guidance estimates for revenue and adjusted EBITDA generation in 2024. This guidance reflects the team's confidence in being able to outpace our 2023 performance. At the midpoint of the guidance range, we believe we're on track to again grow consolidated revenue in 2024 on a year-over-year basis. We also anticipate that the midpoint of our adjusted EBITDA guidance will be consistent with last year with additional growth potential at the high end of the guidance range. Calvin will go into more detail regarding our expectations later in the call. Of course, like last year, we will review guidance with you on a quarterly basis and make adjustments as appropriate.

Spok 擁有令人驚嘆的藍籌客戶群。許多客戶已經與我們合作數十年並繼續從我們這裡購買。簡而言之，我們將繼續全力以赴，並對 2024 年的未來充滿信心。根據我們 2023 年的業績，我們提供 2024 年收入和調整後 EBITDA 產生的指導預測。這項指導反映了團隊對能夠超越 2023 年業績的信心。在指導範圍的中點，我們相信我們預計在 2024 年再次實現同比增長。我們也預計調整後的 EBITDA 指導的中點將與去年保持一致，並在指導範圍的高端有額外的成長潛力。卡爾文將在稍後的電話會議中詳細介紹我們的期望。當然，和去年一樣，我們將每季與您一起審查指導意見，並視情況進行調整。

Our strategic goal is simple; run the business profitably, generate cash flow, and return that capital to stockholders. Spok has a proud legacy of creating stockholder value through free cash flow generation, and we intend to continue this track record. Since the beginning of our strategic pivot, which started about two years ago, Spok has returned just under $51 million or about $2.50 per share to our stockholders in the form of our regular quarterly dividend. In fact, since we founded this company in 2004, Spok has returned nearly $675 million to our stockholders through our regular quarterly dividend, special dividends for share repurchases.

我們的策略目標很簡單；經營業務獲利，產生現金流，將資本回饋給股東。Spok 擁有透過自由現金流創造股東價值的光榮傳統，我們打算繼續保持這項紀錄。自從大約兩年前開始戰略轉型以來，Spok 已以定期季度股息的形式向股東返還了近 5,100 萬美元（即每股約 2.50 美元）。事實上，自從我們在2004年創立這家公司以來，Spok已經透過我們的定期季度股息、股票回購特別股息向我們的股東返還了近6.75億美元。

In the fourth quarter of 2023, this history of returning cash to our stockholders continued as we again generated impressive levels of adjusted EBITDA and returned $6.2 million to our stockholders, which represents the 76th consecutive quarterly dividend paid since becoming a public company, and we expect to pay dividends totaling approximately $26.1 million in 2024. Spok remains committed to our dividend policy and returning capital to our stockholders.

2023 年第四季度，向股東返還現金的歷史仍在繼續，我們再次產生了令人印象深刻的調整後EBITDA 水平，並向股東返還了620 萬美元，這是自成為上市公司以來連續76 個季度支付股息，我們預計到 2024 年支付總計約 2,610 萬美元的股息。Spok 仍然致力於我們的股利政策並向股東返還資本。

When you take into consideration our current cash balance, distributions to stockholders, share repurchases, debt repayments, and acquisitions, Spok has now generated more than $1 billion of free cash flow since our 2004 inception. Our focus on maximizing cash over the long term supports the four major tenants of our strategy. Those are number one, continued investment in our wireless and software solutions; number two, growing our revenue base; number three, disciplined expense management; and number four, a stockholder-friendly capital allocation plan. Going forward, we believe our extensive experience operating our established communication solutions and world-class customer base will continue to create significant value for stockholders.

如果考慮到我們目前的現金餘額、股東分配、股票回購、債務償還和收購，自 2004 年成立以來，Spok 現已產生超過 10 億美元的自由現金流。我們對長期現金最大化的關注支持了我們策略的四大租戶。這些是第一，對我們的無線和軟體解決方案的持續投資；第二，擴大我們的收入基礎；第三，嚴格的費用管理；第四，有利於股東的資本配置計畫。展望未來，我們相信我們營運已建立的通訊解決方案的豐富經驗和世界一流的客戶群將繼續為股東創造巨大的價值。

Now, I'll turn the call over to our President and Chief Operating Officer, Michael Wallace, will talk about our operational accomplishments and quantify some of our and opportunities. Michael?

現在，我將把電話轉給我們的總裁兼營運長邁克爾華萊士，他將談論我們的營運成就並量化我們的一些成就和機會。麥可？

Thanks, Vince, and good afternoon. Thank you all for joining us for what we believe is another solid quarter and full year of results from Spok. We are pleased to report that we have continued to execute on our business plan. And in 2023, we generated GAAP net income of $15.7 million or $0.77 per diluted share, which represents a sharp increase from breakeven adjusted GAAP net income in the prior-year period.

謝謝，文斯，下午好。感謝大家加入我們，我們相信 Spok 又一個堅實的季度和全年業績。我們很高興地報告，我們繼續執行我們的業務計劃。2023 年，我們的 GAAP 淨利潤為 1,570 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 0.77 美元，較上年同期盈虧平衡調整後的 GAAP 淨利潤大幅增長。

As you may remember, 2022 GAAP net income included a nonrecurring and noncash benefit of $21.9 million related to the release of previously established tax valuation allowance in alignment with our projections of future taxable income prior to the announced pivot and shutting down of development and deployment of the Spok Go product. Including that benefit, 2022 GAAP net income totaled $21.9 million or $1.9 per diluted share. Importantly, we accomplished this bottom-line performance while continuing to generate software operations. Bookings growth, which drove revenue in 2023, as well as significantly building our professional services and maintenance backlog levels to over $56 million, which will drive revenue in future periods.

您可能還記得，2022 年GAAP 淨利潤包括2190 萬美元的非經常性和非現金收益，該收益與之前製定的稅收估價津貼的釋放相關，與我們在宣布轉向和停止開發和部署之前對未來應納稅收入的預測一致。 Spok Go 產品。包括此收益在內，2022 年 GAAP 淨利潤總計 2,190 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 1.9 美元。重要的是，我們在繼續生成軟體操作的同時實現了這一底線性能。預訂量成長推動了 2023 年的營收成長，同時我們的專業服務和維護積壓水準顯著提高至超過 5,600 萬美元，這將推動未來時期的營收成長。

On a full-year basis, Software operations bookings totaled more than $30 million, up 22% from prior-year levels. Also, total 2023 Software bookings reached levels not seen for the past four years and continue on a trajectory of growth following our pivot almost two years ago. Amidst all the progress in creating a solid financial platform and stockholder-friendly capital allocation strategy, we remain true to our mission of being a global leader in healthcare communications. We deliver clinical information to care teams when and where it matters most to improve patient outcomes as Spok enables smarter, faster clinical communications for our customers. And importantly, we continue to maintain our reputation as a thought leader in the healthcare communications space as we continue to see customer satisfaction ratings increase.

全年軟體營運預訂總額超過 3,000 萬美元，較上年水準成長 22%。此外，2023 年軟體預訂總量達到了過去四年來的最高水平，並在近兩年前的轉型之後繼續保持成長軌跡。儘管在創建堅實的金融平台和有利於股東的資本配置策略方面取得了所有進展，我們仍然忠於成為醫療保健傳播領域的全球領導者的使命。我們在最重要的時間和地點向護理團隊提供臨床訊息，以改善患者的治療效果，因為 Spok 為我們的客戶提供了更聰明、更快速的臨床通訊。重要的是，隨著我們不斷看到客戶滿意度不斷提高，我們將繼續保持作為醫療保健傳播領域思想領袖的聲譽。

Spok has over 2,200 healthcare facilities as customers, representing the who's who of hospitals in the United States. We have built our solutions over many years and have long-standing valuable customer relationships. This is an amazing and valuable asset for Spok. And these hospitals buy from us regularly and renew maintenance at a high level. In a couple of minutes, I will outline an exciting opportunity for Spok that we believe widens our addressable market and will provide a future growth catalyst for our products.

Spok 擁有 2,200 多家醫療機構客戶，代表了美國的醫院名錄。我們多年來建立了解決方案，並擁有長期寶貴的客戶關係。這對 Spok 來說是一筆驚人且寶貴的資產。這些醫院定期向我們購買並以高水準更新維護。在幾分鐘內，我將概述 Spok 的一個令人興奮的機會，我們相信它可以擴大我們的潛在市場，並將為我們的產品提供未來的成長催化劑。

Before I switch gears, let me take the opportunity to drill down into our Software operations bookings this quarter. 2023 was certainly a year of milestones with regard to our Software operations bookings. In addition to the solid year-over-year growth in total bookings of 22%, we were able to execute 67 six-figure customer contracts, an all-time high for Spok and included the largest single customer contract ever recorded for the company.

在我轉換主題之前，讓我藉此機會深入了解本季我們的軟體營運預訂。 2023 年對於我們的軟體營運預訂來說無疑是具有里程碑意義的一年。除了總預訂量同比穩步增長 22% 之外，我們還簽署了 67 份六位數的客戶合同，這是 Spok 的歷史新高，其中包括該公司有史以來最大的單一客戶合同。

Additionally, in 2023, we executed 30 multiyear engagements with customers, an approximately 60% increase from the prior year. Hopefully, this performance gives you a good indication of the momentum that our sales team is generating in the marketplace and the confidence we have as we work our way through 2024 with a solid sales pipeline, both in terms of size and quality.

此外，2023 年，我們與客戶進行了 30 項多年合作，比前一年增加了約 60%。希望這一表現能讓您充分了解我們的銷售團隊在市場上產生的勢頭，以及我們在 2024 年以堅實的銷售管道（無論是規模還是品質）努力工作的信心。

Supporting our achievements in the fourth quarter 2023 were for multi-year engagement contracts that we were able to close and I'd like to discuss. The first was with one of the Mid-Atlantic region's largest tertiary care facilities. Another with one of the top academic medical centers in the US, and a recognized leader in quality patient care and research, one with a private not-for-profit healthcare organization in the Southeast, and the final, with a leading academic health enterprise in the Midwest.

支持我們在 2023 年第四季度取得成就的是多年期合同，我們能夠完成這些合同，我想對此進行討論。第一個項目是與大西洋中部地區最大的三級護理機構之一合作。另一個是美國頂尖的學術醫療中心之一，也是優質病患照護和研究領域公認的領導者，其中一個是東南部的私人非營利醫療保健組織，最後一個是美國東南部的一家領先的學術健康企業。中西部。

The first health system as a long-standing Spok customer and one of our longest Spok Smart Suite users. This healthcare provider boast more than 400 inpatient beds and over 2,500 attending physicians and nurses. This three-year multiyear engagement was for a platform upgrade across their facilities on Spok Smart Suite, Spok e.Notify, Spok Voice Connect, Spok Mobile, and Spok Messenger solutions, as well as our solution assessment and data integrity value-added services. These additional consulting services expand and enhance the value that our customers gain from fully utilizing our solutions.

作為 Spok 的長期客戶和我們最長的 Spok 智慧套件用戶之一，這是第一個醫療系統。該醫療保健提供者擁有 400 多張住院床位和 2,500 多名主治醫生和護士。這項為期三年的多年合作旨在對 Spok Smart Suite、Spok e.Notify、Spok Voice Connect、Spok Mobile 和 Spok Messenger 解決方案以及我們的解決方案評估和資料完整性增值服務上的設施進行平台升級。這些額外的諮詢服務擴大並提高了我們的客戶從充分利用我們的解決方案中獲得的價值。

Another of our standout contracts last quarter was with a hospital that is among the 20 largest and best equipped in the nation with over 1,200 beds. This multiyear engagement with Spok included an upgrade to Spok Smart Suite, a new test system, new CTI architecture, the addition of Spok Voice Connect, as well as two Spok value added services, solution assessment and data integrity.

上季度我們另一份出色的合約是與一家醫院簽訂的合同，該醫院是全國 20 家最大、設備最好的醫院之一，擁有 1,200 多張床位。與 Spok 的多年合作包括升級 Spok Smart Suite、新的測試系統、新的 CTI 架構、新增 Spok Voice Connect，以及兩項 Spok 增值服務、解決方案評估和資料完整性。

The third multiyear engagement I'd like to highlight was with a health system that has three acute care hospitals and a physical rehabilitation hospital for a total of 970 beds with 12,000 employees and providers. Spok executed a three-year engagement for upgrades to Spok's Smart Suite, Spok e.Notify, and Spok Messenger. We also added a test environment for all solutions and included a solution assessment value-added service for further optimization.

我想強調的第三個多年合作是與衛生系統的合作，該系統擁有三家急診醫院和一家義肢復健醫院，共有 970 張床位，擁有 12,000 名員工和提供者。Spok 對 Spok 的 Smart Suite、Spok e.Notify 和 Spok Messenger 進行了為期三年的升級。我們還為所有解決方案添加了測試環境，並包含解決方案評估增值服務以進一步優化。

And finally, we executed a multiyear engagement with a customer who has been with us for over a decade. This health system has over 440 inpatient beds and provides comprehensive care, education, and research to the areas it serves. Their Spok Smart Suite platform serves several critical needs throughout the hospital, including contact center operations, systemwide paging and messaging, web directories, code, and emergency procedures. This new agreement creates a path for them to upgrade their system for deeper integration and enhanced functionality.

最後，我們與一位與我們合作十多年的客戶進行了多年的合作。該衛生系統擁有 440 多個住院床位，並為其服務的地區提供全面的護理、教育和研究。他們的 Spok Smart Suite 平台滿足整個醫院的多項關鍵需求，包括聯絡中心運作、系統範圍內的尋呼和訊息傳遞、網路目錄、代碼和緊急程序。這項新協議為他們升級系統以實現更深入的整合和增強的功能創造了一條途徑。

Spok consistently delivers effective communication solutions to hospitals and healthcare systems. Our fourth quarter success underscores our steadfast dedication to offering unparalleled communication solutions to our clients. We are confident that our software solutions will continue bringing positive change than a healthcare institutions nationwide.

Spok 始終如一地為醫院和醫療保健系統提供有效的通訊解決方案。我們第四季的成功凸顯了我們堅定不移地致力於為客戶提供無與倫比的通訊解決方案。我們相信，我們的軟體解決方案將繼續為全國的醫療機構帶來積極的變化。

Before I hand the call off to our Chief Financial Officer, Calvin Rice, to review our financial performance in more detail, let me take a few minutes to outline what we believe is an important set of facts for our shareholders and the investing community at large to understand about Spok and how it is situated in the US healthcare marketplace.

在我將電話交給我們的財務長卡爾文·賴斯(Calvin Rice) 更詳細地審查我們的財務業績之前，請允許我花幾分鐘時間概述一下我們認為對我們的股東和整個投資界而言重要的事實了解 Spok 及其在美國醫療保健市場的定位。

Of the approximately 7,100 hospitals and healthcare facilities in the US market, Spok currently works with about 26% of those locations as either software-only customers, wireless-only customers, or both. While this market penetration is impressive relative to our peers, we believe that we have developed a solution that will expand our footprint and widen our addressable market. Based on learnings from our development of the Spok Go subscription product, we are excited to announce the full rollout of the Spok Care Connect-hosted solution.

在美國市場約 7,100 家醫院和醫療保健機構中，Spok 目前與其中約 26% 的機構合作，作為純軟體客戶、純無線客戶或兩者兼而有之。雖然與同行相比，這一市場滲透率令人印象深刻，但我們相信我們已經開發出一種解決方案，將擴大我們的足跡並拓寬我們的目標市場。根據我們開發 Spok Go 訂閱產品的經驗，我們很高興地宣布全面推出 Spok Care Connect 託管解決方案。

Hosted in Spok's data center in Plano, Texas, our hosted solution provides hospitals and healthcare systems with remote access to Spok Care Connect solutions. Currently, that product set includes Spok healthcare console, Spok web-based directory, Spok web-based on-call scheduling, and Spok Mobile. We believe that the hosted solution creates an environment where midsize, and small hospitals can efficiently take advantage of the resources that are mostly being used by the large hospitals who have the capital and human resources to use our premise-based software solutions.

我們的託管解決方案託管在德克薩斯州普萊諾的 Spok 資料中心，為醫院和醫療保健系統提供 Spok Care Connect 解決方案的遠端存取。目前，該產品集包括 Spok 醫療保健控制台、Spok 基於 Web 的目錄、Spok 基於 Web 的待命安排和 Spok Mobile。我們相信，託管解決方案創造了一個環境，​​使中小型醫院可以有效地利用大型醫院所使用的資源，這些醫院擁有資本和人力資源來使用我們的本地軟體解決方案。

As you can see from the chart on the right side of the slide, small and midsize hospitals comprise the vast majority or just under 95% of the total US healthcare marketplace when looking solely at hospital facilities. While Spok enjoys a 50% market share among the large hospitals that is hospitals with more than 600 patient beds and that drive the largest share of revenue, we are not as well penetrated into the less than 600 bed markets. In fact, within the midsize tier, or 200 to 599 beds, we have an approximately 30% market share. And within the small hospital tier, or less than 200 bed facilities, we have only an approximately 5% market share.

正如您從幻燈片右側的圖表中看到的那樣，如果僅考慮醫院設施，中小型醫院占美國醫療保健市場總量的絕大多數或略低於 95%。雖然 Spok 在擁有 600 張以上病床的大型醫院中佔有 50% 的市場份額，並且帶來最大的收入份額，但我們對 600 張以下床位市場的滲透還不夠。事實上，在中型床位（200 至 599 個床位）中，我們擁有約 30% 的市場份額。在小型醫院（即少於 200 個床位的醫院）中，我們僅佔約 5% 的市場。

As I said, we believed that the capital and human resource flexibility that this hosted solution provides to midsize and smaller hospitals, coupled with the minimal initial capital outlay, tremendously expands our addressable market and opens up future growth channels for Spok. We rolled this product out at the beginning of this year and while we take time to ramp the solution, we already have our first customer being hosted from our datacenter. We look forward to updating you on our progress in future quarters.

正如我所說，我們相信，該託管解決方案為中型和小型醫院提供的資本和人力資源靈活性，加上最低的初始資本支出，極大地擴展了我們的潛在市場，並為Spok 開闢了未來的成長通路。我們在今年年初推出了該產品，雖然我們需要時間來改進該解決方案，但我們的資料中心已經託管了第一個客戶。我們期待向您通報我們未來幾季的最新進展。

With that said, I'd like to turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Calvin Rice. Calvin?

話雖如此，我想將電話轉給我們的財務長 Calvin Rice。卡爾文？

Thanks, Mike, and good afternoon, everyone. I would now like to take a few minutes and provide a recap of our fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 financial performance, which we reported earlier today. As always, I encourage you to review our 10-K when filed as it includes significantly more information about our business operations and financial performance than we will cover on this call.

謝謝麥克，大家下午好。我現在想花幾分鐘時間回顧我們今天早些時候報告的第四季度和 2023 年全年財務業績。像往常一樣，我鼓勵您在提交時查看我們的 10-K，因為它包含的有關我們業務運營和財務業績的信息比我們在本次電話會議中涵蓋的信息要多得多。

Turning to our income statement, in 2023, GAAP net income totaled $15.7 million or $0.77 per diluted share compared to net income of $21.9 million or $1.9 per diluted share in 2022. As previously pointed out, 2022 net income included a noncash benefit of $21.9 million for the release of a previously established valuation allowance for our projections of future taxable income at that time. Adjusted for this noncash benefit, 2022 net income would have been roughly breakeven.

轉向我們的損益表，2023 年 GAAP 淨利潤總計為 1570 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 0.77 美元，而 2022 年淨利潤為 2190 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 1.9 美元。如前所述，2022 年淨利包括 2,190 萬美元的非現金收益，用於釋放先前為我們當時預測未來應稅收入而確定的估值備抵。根據這項非現金福利進行調整後，2022 年淨利將大致達到損益兩平。

In 2023, total GAAP revenue was $139 million, up from revenue of $134.5 million in 2022 for the first time in our company's history. Revenue for the year consisted of Wireless revenue of $76 million, up slightly from revenue of $75.6 million in the prior year, and Software revenue of $63.1 million, up 7% from the prior year, reflecting the significant increase in software operations bookings as well as higher professional services revenue, driven primarily by improvements in resource utilization.

2023 年，GAAP 總營收為 1.39 億美元，高於 2022 年的 1.345 億美元，這是我們公司歷史上首次。本年度收入包括無線收入 7,600 萬美元，比上年收入 7,560 萬美元略有增長，軟體收入 6,310 萬美元，比上年增長 7%，反映了軟體營運預訂的大幅增長以及專業服務收入增加，主要是由於資源利用率的提高。

With respect to Wireless revenue, 2023 performance continues to be primarily driven by improvement in average revenue per unit, or ARPU, which saw growth of $0.37 on a year-over-year basis. Approximately 20% of this increase was driven by incremental pass-through taxes and fees with the majority of growth stemming from additional pricing actions taken in September.

就無線收入而言，2023 年的業績仍主要受到每單位平均收入 (ARPU) 的改善推動，該收入年增 0.37 美元。其中約 20% 的成長是由增量轉嫁稅費推動的，其中大部分成長源自於 9 月採取的額外定價行動。

While we did see an increase in unit churn during the second half, relative to what we've experienced over the previous 18 months, net unit churn continues to remain at historically low levels as net units and service declined by roughly 6.5% from the prior-year period. The uptick in churn relative to recent trends was driven by several large cancellations, which reflects disproportionately in our rate of churn. When we look at the broader base of customers outside of those larger cancellations, we actually saw improvement in churn rates from the first half into the second half of 2023. While these types of cancellations can be difficult to foresee on an individual basis, we would expect a reversion to the mean, if you will, in line with the broader trends of roughly 4% to 6% we have experienced over the last several years.

雖然我們確實看到下半年單位流失率有所增加，但相對於過去 18 個月的經歷，淨單位流失率繼續保持在歷史低位，因為淨單位和服務較之前下降了約 6.5%年期間。與近期趨勢相比，客戶流失率的上升是由幾次大規模訂單取消導致的，這與我們的客戶流失率不成比例地反映出來。當我們觀察那些較大的取消訂單之外的更廣泛的客戶群時，我們實際上看到從 2023 年上半年到下半年，客戶流失率有所改善。雖然這些類型的取消可能很難單獨預測，但如果您願意的話，我們預計會回歸平均值，這與我們過去幾年經歷的大約 4% 至 6% 的更廣泛趨勢一致。

While we believe the demand for our wireless services will continue to decline on a secular basis as reflected in declining pager units and service, we are hopeful that our focus on pricing and other initiatives like the G&A pager will continue to further offset revenue lost through pager unit declines. Given a unit churn of 4% to 6%, we do not believe future incremental pricing increases and higher ARPU products, like the G&A pager, will be sufficient to completely offset revenue decline realized from net unit loss. This is further reflected in our updated financial guidance, which I will walk through shortly.

雖然我們相信，隨著尋呼機數量和服務的下降，對我們無線服務的需求將繼續下降，但我們希望我們對定價和 G&A 尋呼機等其他舉措的關注將繼續進一步抵消尋呼機造成的收入損失單位下降。考慮到 4% 至 6% 的單位流失率，我們認為未來的增量定價上漲和更高的 ARPU 產品（如 G&A 尋呼機）將足以完全抵消淨單位損失帶來的收入下降。這進一步反映在我們更新的財務指導中，我很快就會介紹一下。

Turning to software revenue in 2023, license revenue of $8.7 million was up by more than 21% from 2022. Maintenance revenue totaled $37 million and was up slightly from the prior year. As we have discussed in previous quarterly calls, we expect continued progress on our product development roadmap will lead to further growth of our operations bookings in the coming years and maintenance revenue along with it. But that said, the performance of our maintenance revenue has exceeded our expectations. When we initiated the strategic pivot in early 2022, we were hopeful for a return to maintenance growth by 2025. So to see that happen in 2023, two years sooner than originally anticipated, is just tremendous.

談到 2023 年的軟體收入，授權收入為 870 萬美元，比 2022 年成長了 21% 以上。維護收入總計 3,700 萬美元，比上年略有成長。正如我們在先前的季度電話會議中所討論的那樣，我們預計產品開發路線圖的持續進展將導致我們未來幾年的營運預訂和維護收入進一步成長。但話雖如此，我們的維護收入表現超出了我們的預期。當我們在 2022 年初啟動策略支點時，我們希望在 2025 年恢復維持成長。因此，看到這一情況在 2023 年發生，比最初預期提前兩年，真是太棒了。

Professional services revenue was a strong $14.7 million for 2023 versus $12.6 million in 2022 and continued to accelerate throughout 2023. We are seeing further sustained improvement in resource utilization, delivering on our internal initiatives to better align total resources with our backlog and driving a higher rate of margin and net cash flow. We hired several service professionals in the second half of 2023 to meet our current backlog needs and to support new professional services opportunities such as Spok's value-added service consulting solutions. We partner with customers to help them maximize the power of the software products and solutions they have purchased from us or from other vendors.

2023 年專業服務收入高達 1,470 萬美元，而 2022 年為 1,260 萬美元，在 2023 年持續加速成長。我們看到資源利用率進一步持續改善，實施我們的內部舉措，使總資源與我們的積壓工作更好地保持一致，並推動更高的利潤率和淨現金流。我們在 2023 年下半年聘請了幾位服務專業人員，以滿足我們目前的積壓需求並支援新的專業服務機會，例如 Spok 的增值服務諮詢解決方案。我們與客戶合作，幫助他們最大限度地發揮從我們或其他供應商購買的軟體產品和解決方案的功能。

Full-year 2023 adjusted operating expenses, which excludes depreciation, amortization and accretion, and severance and restructuring costs, totaled $112.7 million, down nearly 9% from the prior year. Increases in research and development were largely timing in nature, with reductions in technology operations driven by our normal practice of cost reduction and relationship to declining paging revenues. Slight increases in selling costs, which primarily result from the higher bookings production, were more than offset by savings in G&A, which continues to see year-over-year benefit from our cost saving initiatives.

2023 年全年調整後營運費用（不包括折舊、攤提和增值以及遣散費和重組成本）總計 1.127 億美元，比上年下降近 9%。研究和開發的增加在很大程度上是時間性的，技術運營的減少是由於我們通常的成本削減做法以及與尋呼收入下降的關係所驅動的。銷售成本的小幅成長（主要是由於預訂量增加）被 G&A 節省所抵消，G&A 繼續從我們的成本節約措施中受益。

As I mentioned in our last quarterly earnings call, company-wide salary increases went into effect in late fourth quarter of 2023. As a result, we expect our expenses will be approximately $1 million higher in 2024 on a comparable basis. Additionally, as discussed in our last quarterly earnings call, we expect to hire additional sales resources in 2024 and anticipate sales and marketing costs will continue to marginally increase as a result. These resources will support our robust sales pipeline and generate additional sales activity as we look to extend the sales growth we have achieved over the last two years. Lastly, as Vince pointed out earlier in the call, adjusted EBITDA was a record $30.3 million in 2023, up more than 100% from $15 million in 2022, reflecting the progress made to date with our strategic pivot.

正如我在上一季財報電話會議中提到的，全公司範圍內的加薪於 2023 年第四季末生效。因此，我們預計 2024 年的可比費用將增加約 100 萬美元。此外，正如我們在上一季財報電話會議中討論的那樣，我們預計在 2024 年僱用更多銷售資源，並預計銷售和行銷成本將因此繼續小幅增加。這些資源將支持我們強勁的銷售管道，並產生額外的銷售活動，因為我們希望擴大過去兩年實現的銷售成長。最後，正如文斯早些時候在電話會議中指出的那樣，2023 年調整後EBITDA 達到創紀錄的3030 萬美元，比2022 年的1500 萬美元增長超過100%，反映了我們戰略支點迄今為止所取得的進展。

Moving on to guidance for 2024, we have provided estimates for revenue and adjusted EBITDA. The provided ranges reflect our confidence in carrying the momentum from 2023 into this year. As a reminder, the figures I'm going to discuss today are included in our guidance table in the earnings release.

接下來是 2024 年的指導，我們提供了收入預估和調整後的 EBITDA。所提供的範圍反映了我們對將 2023 年的勢頭延續到今年的信心。提醒一下，我今天要討論的數據已包含在收益發布的指導表中。

In 2024, we expect total revenue to range from $136 million to $144 million. More importantly, this represents the second consecutive year that we expect to grow consolidated revenue from the prior year based on the midpoint of our guidance, with a nearly 4% annual growth rate at the high end of our guidance. Included in the 2024 guidance, we expect Wireless revenues to range between $72 million to $75 million, reflecting low single-digit attrition at the midpoint of the range. We expect recent trends to continue and stabilize during the year.

到 2024 年，我們預計總收入將在 1.36 億美元至 1.44 億美元之間。更重要的是，這代表我們預計基於我們指導的中點，綜合收入將比上一年連續第二年增長，而在我們指導的高端，年增長率將接近 4%。在 2024 年的指導中，我們預計無線收入將在 7,200 萬美元至 7,500 萬美元之間，反映出該範圍中點的低個位數流失。我們預計近期趨勢將在年內持續並穩定。

Software revenue is expected to range from $64 million to $69 million in 2024, with the midpoint implying total Software revenue growth of more than 5% and nearly 10% annual growth at the high end of the guidance range.

到 2024 年，軟體收入預計在 6,400 萬美元到 6,900 萬美元之間，其中中點意味著軟體總收入成長超過 5%，年增長率接近指導範圍的上限 10%。

Lastly, our adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2024 is $27.5 million to $32.5 million improving on our strong performance in 2023 at the midpoint of the guidance range when considering the additional costs we expect to incur in 2024, resulting from the aforementioned salary increases with opportunity for high single digit growth at the high end of the guidance range.

最後，考慮到我們預計在2024 年產生的額外成本（由於上述加薪以及高薪機會），我們2024 年調整後的EBITDA 指導為2750 萬美元至3250 萬美元，比2023 年的強勁業績有所改善，處於指導範圍的中點。個位數成長位於指導範圍的高端。

With that said, I will now turn the call back over to Vince.

話雖如此，我現在將把電話轉回給文斯。

Thank you, Calvin. Before we open the call up to your questions, let me say again how proud I am of our entire Spok team and the results we posted for 2023. It is their efforts and dedication which provides confidence for our outlook and guidance for another strong year in 2024. We are focused on the opportunity in front of us in clinical communications. From a business configuration and strategy perspective, we believe we are strongly positioned to grow our franchise while returning capital to our shareholders. We have a long-term, organic growth engine in Spok Care Connect. We maintain a source of strong recurring revenue in our Wireless service line. We run the largest paging offering in the world, integrated with our Software operations. We have enhanced our paging platform and user devices to serve our core healthcare customer base. And we believe with these two assets going for us, our best financial results are ahead of us, and Spok's future is bright.

謝謝你，卡爾文。在我們開始回答大家的問題之前，請允許我再次表示，我對整個 Spok 團隊以及我們在 2023 年發布的結果感到多麼自豪。正是他們的努力和奉獻讓我們對 2024 年又一個強勁的一年的前景和指導充滿信心。我們專注於臨床交流中擺在我們面前的機會。從業務配置和策略的角度來看，我們相信我們有能力擴大我們的特許經營權，同時向股東返還資本。Spok Care Connect 擁有長期的有機成長引擎。我們的無線服務線保持著強勁的經常性收入來源。我們經營著世界上最大的尋呼產品，並與我們的軟體營運整合。我們增強了尋呼平台和用戶設備，以服務我們的核心醫療保健客戶群。我們相信，有了這兩項資產，我們最好的財務表現就在眼前，Spok 的未來是光明的。

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our stockholders for their continued support. I want to assure you that our primary focus remains on generating cash and increasing stockholder value. We are committed to our current dividend and capital allocation policy.

我想藉此機會感謝我們的股東一直以來的支持。我想向您保證，我們的主要重點仍然是創造現金和增加股東價值。我們致力於當前的股利和資本分配政策。

I'd also like to tell everybody about a couple of events that Spok's management team will be participating in over the next few weeks. First on Monday, February 26, this coming Monday, we'll participate in the opening bell ceremony for Nasdaq at their market site in Times Square. Next, on March 13, Spok will be presenting at the Sidoti's virtual small-cap conference and hosting a series of one-on-one meetings with investors.

我也想向大家介紹 Spok 的管理團隊將在未來幾週內參加的幾項活動。首先，2 月 26 日星期一，即下週一，我們將在時代廣場的市場現場參加納斯達克開盤鐘儀式。接下來，Spok 將在 3 月 13 日出席 Sidoti 的虛擬小型股會議，並與投資者舉行一系列一對一會議。

I believe Spok is finally receiving recognition as a top performing company among its peers and will continue to look for opportunities to tell our story to the investment community and focus on investor marketing activities, though we know the ultimate attraction will come as a result of our consistent and successful business execution.

我相信 Spok 最終被認可為同行中表現最佳的公司，並將繼續尋找機會向投資界講述我們的故事並專注於投資者行銷活動，儘管我們知道最終的吸引力將來自於我們的一致且成功的業務執行。

I believe today we have provided you an appreciation for some of the great things that are happening at Spok and the market opportunities that lay ahead of us. While we've shared our initial guidance with you for 2024, as we did in 2023, we will work to exceed those expectations, and we'll update you each quarter. As I mentioned earlier in the call, we started the year off strong, and we look very much forward to speaking with you again in two months when we report our first-quarter results in late April.

我相信今天我們已經讓您對 Spok 正在發生的一些偉大事情以及我們面前的市場機會表示讚賞。雖然我們已經與您分享了 2024 年的初步指導，就像我們在 2023 年所做的那樣，但我們將努力超越這些預期，並且每個季度都會向您更新最新情況。正如我之前在電話會議中提到的，我們今年開局強勁，我們非常期待在兩個月後再次與您交談，屆時我們將在 4 月下旬報告第一季業績。

That concludes our prepared remarks. So at this point, I'll ask the operator to open the call up for your questions. We'd ask you to limit your initial questions to one and a follow-up. And after that, we'll take more questions depending on how much time we have. Operator?

我們準備好的演講到此結束。因此，此時，我將要求接線員打開電話詢問您的問題。我們要求您將最初的問題限制為一個和後續問題。之後，我們將根據我們有多少時間回答更多問題。操作員？

(Operator instructions) There are no questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to management for closing comments -- oh, actually, we do have one now and that is from Max Michaelis with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please proceed, sir.

（操作員說明） 目前沒有任何問題。我想將電話轉回管理層以徵求結束意見——哦，實際上，我們現在確實有一個來自 Lake Street Capital Markets 的 Max Michaelis 的意見。請繼續，先生。

Sorry about that, guys. I thought I was in the queue. Two questions for me. Nice guide, solid quarter. First one here is on Software revenue for 2024. The high end of the guidance, I guess is 10%, maybe kind of go through the Software revenue? What gets us to that 10% kind of the puts and takes there?

抱歉，夥計們。我以為我在排隊。有兩個問題問我。很好的指南，紮實的季度。第一個是 2024 年軟體收入。我猜指導的高端是 10%，也許是軟體收入？是什麼讓我們達到 10% 的賣權和賣權？

Calvin, you want to take that?

卡爾文，你想要那個嗎？

Yeah. It's going to be a similar mix to what you saw in 2023 and the last several years. I wouldn't expect a significant change in mix. A big portion of that's going to continue to remain maintenance with those churn levels being critical. From an operational bookings perspective, it's going to be quite a bit of professional services, and that's all going to be glued together with the license component that continues to funnel in.

是的。這將與您在 2023 年和過去幾年看到的情況類似。我不希望混合有重大變化。其中很大一部分將繼續保持維護，而這些流失水準至關重要。從營運預訂的角度來看，這將是相當多的專業服務，而這一切都將與繼續流入的許可證組件粘合在一起。

I will say -- and I will add to that in that we have changed our software commissions plans this year, to focus on new business and to focus on license, i.e., they make more for selling license and new business. As you know, license hits revenue much quicker than professional services and it's got a higher margin associated with it. So we're doing things in the business in terms of the drivers that will incent behavior that will yield to more profitable sales in the future.

我要補充的是，我們今年改變了軟體佣金計劃，將重點放在新業務和許可證上，即，他們透過銷售許可證和新業務賺取更多收入。如您所知，許可證比專業服務更快地產生收入，並且與之相關的利潤率更高。因此，我們在業務中採取的行動將激勵人們的行為，從而在未來帶來更有利可圖的銷售。

Our top seven software sales reps this past year in 2023 sold a combined $23.3 million worth of software. That compares to about $12.1 million in 2022 for the top seven sales reps. So we're getting more out of each rep. And then what we're getting out of each rep is getting more profitable as we go forward. We're continuing to deliver more product upgrades and enhancements to our solutions and adding functionality, including [bacon] AI into our capability with our voice products this year, and that's also going to help the salespeople's job in terms of selling higher margin solutions. I think these are nice, good conservative estimates we've given you. We're happy with these estimates, and we're going to work hard to beat them and doing better than that now.

去年（即 2023 年）我們排名前七位的軟體銷售代表銷售了總價值 2,330 萬美元的軟體。相比之下，2022 年前七名銷售代表的收入約為 1,210 萬美元。所以我們從每個代表身上得到了更多。然後我們從每個銷售代表那裡得到的就是隨著我們的前進而獲得更多的利潤。我們將繼續對我們的解決方案進行更多的產品升級和增強，並增加功能，包括今年將人工智慧納入我們的語音產品能力中，這也將有助於銷售人員銷售更高利潤的解決方案。我認為我們給您的這些是很好的保守估計。我們對這些估計感到滿意，我們將努力超越它們，並做得比現在更好。

That's great. And then my second one is going to be, if we think about software bookings and you mentioned there was a push-out in Q4 into Q1, I was wondering if you could quantify the amount that was actually pushed out? And then if we think about bookings for the year, I know you had mentioned you'd expected bookings to be above that number, 30.1 for the year. You said you expected it to be well above the 30.1 for the year. Could we see double-digit growth out of software bookings again?

那太棒了。然後我的第二個問題是，如果我們考慮軟體預訂，並且您提到第四季度有向第一季推出的情況，我想知道您是否可以量化實際推出的金額？然後，如果我們考慮今年的預訂量，我知道您曾提到您預計今年的預訂量會高於該數字，即 30.1。您說您預計今年該值將遠高於 30.1。我們能否再次看到軟體預訂量達到兩位數成長？

Yeah. I expect we're going to see double digit-growth out of software bookings again. January was an enormous month. It's the biggest January we ever had in software bookings. You just don't know when that stuff going to come in. We actually do a lot of work on our pipeline to tried to quantify when the pipe is going to come in and when it's going to get delivered. But something can get on someone's desk and just not get signed, and then you're in a situation where you thought you had to deal and you didn't get a deal. We've been working on a formula with our pipeline. Our pipeline is up to about $116 million right now. We added almost $100 million to it in the last year. We want to add up to $150 million this year, and we take that pipeline and we've qualified. The deals that have been closed. Essentially, you're just waiting to launch. We count all of those in our in our estimate in our projection.

是的。我預計軟體預訂量將再次達到兩位數成長。一月是一個重要的月份。這是我們一月份軟體預訂量最大的一次。你只是不知道這些東西什麼時候會出現。實際上，我們在管道上做了很多工作，試圖量化管道何時進入以及何時交付。但有些東西可能會出現在某人的辦公桌上但沒有簽署，然後你就處於一種你認為必須進行交易但沒有達成交易的情況。我們一直在研究我們的管道的公式。目前我們的儲備金額約為 1.16 億美元。去年我們增加了近 1 億美元。我們希望今年增加 1.5 億美元，我們採用了該管道並且已經獲得資格。已完成的交易。本質上，您只是在等待啟動。我們將所有這些都納入我們的預測估計中。

We have what we call a deals that we qualify in the 90% category. And those are committed deals where we got all the paperwork in, but it's sitting on someone's desk. And historically, you think you'd get all of those, but you generally only get about 60% of those in that given period. So we weight that by 60%. We take the deals that we consider 75% deals. And those are where we've been chosen as the vendor of choice so that the bake-off has been done. We've won the bake-off paperwork and process. We've got exchange and red lines. We're doing contractual things. That 75% category, we only take about 35% of that. And then we have a category that's 10% to 50%. That's in various stages of early completion. We generally only get about 10% of that.

我們有所謂的符合 90% 類別資格的交易。這些是承諾的交易，我們得到了所有的文書工作，但它放在某人的桌子上。從歷史上看，你認為你會得到所有這些，但在特定時期通常只能得到其中的 60% 左右。所以我們將其權重為 60%。我們接受我們認為 75% 的交易。這些就是我們被選為首選供應商的地方，以便完成烘烤。我們已經贏得了烘烤文件和流程。我們有交換和紅線。我們正在做契約性的事情。75% 的類別，我們只選取其中的 35% 左右。然後我們有一個 10% 到 50% 的類別。目前正處於早期完成的各個階段。我們一般只能得到其中的 10% 左右。

We add it all up and we do our best to trying to zero in on exactly where we're going to come from a forecast perspective. And in the fourth quarter, it just happened that some of that calculation was wrong and it slipped into January, and we'll continue building this algorithm. We'll continue building this model and this pipeline analysis and trying to get better at forecasting that in the future. But yeah, we expect to have a good year this year, and we expect to do a lot better than we did last year. And we're already seeing that in the early returns.

我們將所有這些加起來，並盡最大努力從預測的角度將我們將要到達的位置歸零。在第四季度，碰巧有些計算是錯誤的，並且它滑到了一月份，我們將繼續建立這個演算法。我們將繼續建立這個模型和管道分析，並努力更好地預測未來。但是，是的，我們預計今年會是美好的一年，並且我們預計會比去年做得更好。我們已經在早期回報中看到了這一點。

All right, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Good luck in Q1.

好吧，夥計們。感謝您回答我的問題。祝第一季好運。

Sure. Thank you.

當然。謝謝。

David Wright, Henry Investment Trust.

大衛‧賴特，亨利投資信託公司。

Hi, good afternoon. To follow up there on Eric's questions and your comments about the sales force, can you talk a little bit about Care Connect hosted? How that's going to ramp over the course of the year? And also, it's really interesting when you talk about the sales force, the incentives, are you selling hosted by region, same sales force, dedicated sales force? Anything you can say?

嗨，下午好。為了跟進 Eric 的問題和您對銷售人員的評論，您能談談託管的 Care Connect 嗎？這一年的成長情況如何？而且，當您談論銷售人員、激勵措施時，這真的很有趣，您是否按地區託管、相同的銷售人員、專門的銷售人員進行銷售？有什麼可以說的嗎？

Yeah. So here -- great questions. I'll kind of go in reverse order. It's a dedicated sales force that we brought on just to focus on hosted, okay. We had one up and running last year. We sold one in January. We've got the paperwork for three others. We're working on right now, so it's starting. But understand in that customer size stratification that Michael was walking through a little while ago, we're targeting the hosted at the very small hospitals. Some of these locations have 100 beds or less.

是的。所以這裡——很好的問題。我會以相反的順序進行。我們組建了一支專門的銷售隊伍，只是為了專注於託管，好吧。我們去年啟動並運行了一個。我們在一月賣了一個。我們已經拿到了另外三個人的文件。我們現在正在努力，所以它正在開始。但要了解邁克爾不久前經歷的客戶規模分層，我們的目標是在非常小的醫院中託管。其中一些地點的床位數量為 100 張或更少。

And so it's not a big ticket item, might be [$50,000] kind of ticket. It's not a thing over multiple years. It's not a $5 million ticket like we got in the second quarter last year. So they're smaller, they're going to build its recurring revenue. So it's wonderful from a subscription standpoint, but that's kind of a new offering for the company. And it's really to allow the smaller customers that historically have not been able to afford a very expensive PBX and a very expensive premise-based solution that has multiple file servers and requires professional services to install.

所以這不是一個大件物品，可能是 [$50,000] 類型的門票。這不是多年的事。這不是我們去年第二季拿到的 500 萬美元的門票。所以他們規模較小，他們將建立經常性收入。因此，從訂閱的角度來看，這非常棒，但這對公司來說是一種新產品。它實際上是為了讓那些歷史上無法負擔得起非常昂貴的 PBX 和非常昂貴的本地解決方案（具有多個文件伺服器並需要專業服務來安裝）的小型客戶受益。

Yeah, is the hosted solutions robust? Is our some of our very mature standalone solutions that are premise-based? No, but it's certainly functional for a smaller institution, and we're already starting to see it start to take off.

是的，託管解決方案強大嗎？我們的一些非常成熟的獨立解決方案是基於前提的嗎？不，但它對於較小的機構來說肯定是有用的，而且我們已經開始看到它開始起飛。

Is it incrementally kind of a significantly higher margin piece of business?

這是一個利潤率明顯更高的業務嗎？

Yeah, this is Mike. And I think over time it will be, I mean, once we have some sort of critical mass, it should be something that's a fairly easy installation. The other thing that that is interesting about this model is it's different from the revenue recognition related to our on-premise business so it's a subscription model at the end of the day. So there's a subscription revenue stream that will come from this. And as I said in my remarks, you saw that we have very, very little penetration in that small market, the under 200 beds. So this really gives us an opportunity that we have never had before to attack them. So this is going to take a little bit of time to roll out, but it's something that we think has legs ultimately.

是的，這是麥克。我認為隨著時間的推移，一旦我們達到了某種臨界質量，它應該是一個相當容易安裝的東西。該模型的另一個有趣之處在於，它與我們的本地業務相關的收入確認不同，因此歸根結底它是一種訂閱模型。因此，訂閱收入將來自於此。正如我在發言中所說，您看到我們在 200 個床位以下的小市場中的滲透率非常非常小。所以這確實給了我們一個以前從未有過的攻擊他們的機會。因此，這將需要一點時間才能推出，但我們認為它最終是可行的。

Okay. Well, thanks for the color. Thanks for taking my questions.

好的。嗯，謝謝你的顏色。感謝您回答我的問題。

You're welcome. Thank you for your question.

不客氣。謝謝你的問題。

(Operator instructions) George Melas, MKH Management.

（操作員說明）George Melas，MKH 管理階層。

Thank you, operator. So my question -- good afternoon, guys, and great job in 2023.

謝謝你，接線生。我的問題是──大家下午好，祝 2023 年工作順利。

Thank you.

謝謝。

My question here is basically the same as the previous caller. So I'll tried to elaborate a little bit. And maybe, how many salespeople do you have that are dedicated to hosted? And how do you go -- do you also go through channels or is it all going to be direct? And how do you handle the fairly high cost of sale given this -- on a percentage basis, given that it's a pretty small ticket item?

我這裡的問題與之前的提問者基本上相同。所以我會嘗試詳細說明。也許，您有多少銷售人員專門負責託管？你怎麼走──你也透過管道還是都是直接的？鑑於這是一個相當小的門票項目，您如何處理相當高的銷售成本——以百分比為基礎？

Well, first of all, we've got four sales reps essentially working on this, and we're offering this out of our plain old data centers. So we already had a data center in Plano, Texas for the Wireless service line for many years. They had put a few file servers in there but not a very high cost operation in order to run this hosted solution. And we're marketing directly to customers that we know who the customers are that we want to target because we have that definitive database that has all 7,100 hospitals in United States, and we have our sales force CRM. We know exactly what we have in terms of customers out of that database. And so it's pretty easy to target directly. And these folks are out there, they've done a number of presentations already. We've got a bunch of more in the pipeline.

嗯，首先，我們有四名銷售代表主要致力於此工作，並且我們在普通的舊資料中心中提供此服務。因此，多年來我們已經在德克薩斯州普萊諾建立了無線服務線資料中心。他們在那裡放置了一些文件伺服器，但運行此託管解決方案的成本不是很高。我們直接向客戶進行行銷，我們知道我們想要定位的客戶是誰，因為我們擁有包含美國所有 7,100 家醫院的權威資料庫，我們擁有銷售人員 CRM。我們從該資料庫中確切地知道我們擁有哪些客戶。所以直接瞄準是很容易的。這些人已經在那裡做了很多演講。我們還有更多的項目正在籌備中。

George, this is a new offering. It's nascent. We don't have much in the way of our forecast for this right now, but it's something, I think, that bodes well for the future, and it's exciting opportunity for us.

喬治，這是一個新產品。它是新生的。我們目前對此沒有太多預測，但我認為，這對未來來說是個好兆頭，對我們來說這是一個令人興奮的機會。

Great. And the main thing that you lead with is the is console, is the directory --

偉大的。你引導的主要內容是控制台，是目錄--

Oh, yeah. The main thing we lead with is the console. We went out and did of a marketing survey, and we talk to -- we have paid a third party to do this for us. And we talked to large hospitals, we talked to small hospitals about brand awareness and other things. And it was really interesting because when we got to the smaller hospitals and we ask them, how likely are you to consider each of the following brands?

哦耶。我們主要使用的是控制台。我們出去做了一個行銷調查，我們已經付錢給第三方來幫我們做這件事。我們與大醫院進行了交談，我們與小醫院討論了品牌知名度和其他問題。這真的很有趣，因為當我們到達較小的醫院時，我們問他們，您考慮以下每個品牌的可能性有多大？

At that time, we're looking for a clinical communications solution. Spok got the top score, okay. This isn't us conducting the survey. This is a third party. We beat Volt. We beat PerfectServe. We beat Vocera. We beat TigerConnect. We beat Symplr, which was formerly Halo Health. And we beat Epic chat. So we got top score. So there's opportunity here for us. They would have to go out there and earn it. And I don't want to make promises on things until we -- it's not our style to make promises on things until we have a track record. We see it. We like to report numbers that are ahead of what we've guided to. But we're all optimistic that this is going to be a good avenue for us in the future.

當時，我們正在尋找臨床通訊解決方案。Spok 得分最高，好吧。這不是我們進行調查。這是第三方。我們擊敗了伏特。我們擊敗了 PerfectServe。我們擊敗了沃塞拉。我們擊敗了 TigerConnect。我們擊敗了 Symplr，它的前身是 Halo Health。我們打敗了 Epic 聊天。所以我們得到了最高分。所以我們這裡有機會。他們必須出去賺錢。我不想對事情做出承諾，直到我們——在我們擁有良好記錄之前對事情做出承諾不是我們的風格。我們看到了。我們希望報告超出我們指導值的數字。但我們都樂觀地認為這將是我們未來的一條好途徑。

Great. That sounds good. Thank you very much.

偉大的。聽起來很好。非常感謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the conference back over to management for closing comments.

我們的問答環節已經結束。我現在將把會議轉回管理層以徵求結束意見。

Look, we really appreciate everybody's support. We appreciate you dialing in for our call today. We look forward to ringing the opening bell Monday morning. We hope you can tune in for that. And I think we really, really look forward to talking to you in about two months when we report our first-quarter results. So everyone, thank you. Have a nice evening and a great day tomorrow.

聽著，我們真的很感謝大家的支持。感謝您今天撥通我們的電話。我們期待週一早上敲響開市鈴聲。我們希望您能收聽。我認為我們真的非常期待在大約兩個月後報告第一季業績時與您交談。所以大家，謝謝你們。祝你有個愉快的夜晚和明天美好的一天。