Startek Inc (SRT) 2021 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss StarTek's financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2021. Joining us today are StarTek's Global CEO, Bharat Rao; and the company's global CFO, Nishit Shah.

大家下午好，感謝大家參加今天的電話會議，討論 StarTek 截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的第四季度和全年財務業績。今天加入我們的是 StarTek 全球首席執行官 Bharat Rao；以及該公司的全球首席財務官 Nishit Shah。

Following their remarks, we'll open the call up for your questions. Before we continue, we would like to remind all participants that the discussion today may contain certain statements, which are forward-looking in nature pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws. These statements are based on information currently available to us and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. StarTek advises all those listening to this call to review the latest 10-Q and 10-K posted on its website for the summary of these risks and uncertainties. StarTek does not undertake the responsibility to update any forward-looking statements.

在他們發表講話後，我們將開始徵集您的問題。在繼續之前，我們想提醒所有參與者，今天的討論可能包含某些陳述，根據聯邦證券法的安全港條款，這些陳述本質上是前瞻性的。這些陳述基於我們目前掌握的信息，並受到各種風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果出現重大差異。 StarTek 建議所有收聽本次電話會議的人員查看其網站上發布的最新 10-Q 和 10-K，以了解這些風險和不確定性的摘要。 StarTek 不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述的責任。

Further, the discussion today may include some non-GAAP measures in accordance with Regulation G, the company has reconciled those amounts back to the closest GAAP-based measurement. The reconciliations can be found in the earnings release on the Investors section of our website. I would now like to remind everyone that a webcast replay of today's call will be available via the Investors section of the company's website at www.startek.com. Now I'd like to turn the call over to StarTek's global CEO, Bharat Rao.

此外，今天的討論可能包括根據 G 條例的一些非 GAAP 衡量標準，該公司已將這些金額調整回最接近的基於 GAAP 的衡量標準。調節表可以在我們網站投資者部分的收益發布中找到。現在我想提醒大家，今天電話會議的網絡廣播重播將通過公司網站 www.startek.com 的投資者部分提供。現在我想將電話轉給 StarTek 全球首席執行官 Bharat Rao。

Thank you, Jonathan. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you all for joining. I would also like to introduce Ronald Gillette, who has just come on board towards the end of January and [he] has joined us as Head of Business Transformation. Ron is the former Chief Operating Officer of WNS and brings a wealth of experience to StarTek. So please welcome Ron onboard.

謝謝你，喬納森。大家下午好，感謝大家的加入。我還想介紹一下羅納德·吉列 (Ronald Gillette)，他於 1 月底剛剛上任，並以業務轉型主管的身份加入我們。 Ron 是 WNS 的前首席運營官，為 StarTek 帶來了豐富的經驗。歡迎羅恩加入。

Since joining as President in October 2021, I've had the pleasure to travel across the globe and meet with our employees, customers and stakeholders to get a firm grasp on the opportunities and challenges across our entire organization. Before I jump into the details, I wanted to start this call by taking time to thank all our dedicated employees and stakeholders across the globe. Your commitment and dedication to StarTek throughout all the difficulties we have faced in the macro environment has been instrumental to our continued progress, and we deeply appreciate the support. For the structure of this call, I'm going to begin by walking through our accomplishments in the fourth quarter and what we've been able to achieve in the first 5 months that I've been on the helm and then I'm going to pass it to our new Global CFO, Nishit Shah to walk through our financial results for the quarter and provide the full year in more detail.

自 2021 年 10 月擔任總裁以來，我很高興環遊全球，與我們的員工、客戶和利益相關者會面，以牢牢把握整個組織面臨的機遇和挑戰。在詳細介紹之前，我想在這次電話會議開始前花點時間感謝我們全球所有敬業的員工和利益相關者。在我們在宏觀環境中面臨的所有困難中，您對 StarTek 的承諾和奉獻對我們的持續進步至關重要，我們深深感謝您的支持。對於本次電話會議的結構，我將首先介紹我們在第四季度取得的成就以及我們在我掌舵的前 5 個月中所取得的成就，然後我將把它交給我們的新任全球首席財務官 Nishit Shah，讓他介紹我們本季度的財務業績，並提供全年的更詳細信息。

Finally, I'll return to discuss our strategic growth initiatives going forward. On that note, let's dive into the fourth quarter. Our fourth quarter performance was primarily focused on supporting our steady growth across core verticals and developing our operational foundation to hit the ground running in 2022. Our progress was reflected by our year-on-year revenue growth for both the fourth quarter and the full year, which occurred in conjunction with the cost management initiatives we've implemented throughout the year. Our revenue in 2021 and the fourth quarter increased year-over-year, primarily resulting from the growth we experienced in our key verticals.

最後，我將回來討論我們未來的戰略增長計劃。就此而言，讓我們深入了解第四季度。我們第四季度的業績主要側重於支持我們在核心垂直領域的穩定增長，並發展我們的運營基礎，以便在 2022 年開始運行。我們的進步體現在我們第四季度和全年的同比收入增長，這與我們全年實施的成本管理舉措相結合。我們 2021 年和第四季度的收入同比增長，主要得益於我們在關鍵垂直領域的增長。

Telecom continues to be our largest vertical in terms of percentage of revenue. And we saw a healthy growth, largely driven by adding new lines of business with our existing clients. The large win with the South African telecom client that we spoke to in the previous quarter went live on October 1 and has ramped well through the quarter. Although e-commerce and consumer saw a slight overall decline due to volume reduction of a U.S.-based client, we were able to offset some of that due to a substantial ramp in our e-commerce and food delivery platform in India. While the uncertainty brought on by the pandemic has started to recede, our travel and hospitality verticals have yet to rebound. However, the discussion with clients have started to refocus around growth and ramp and therefore, we expect the travel sector to rebound sometime in the second half of 2022. On the other hand, financial and business services saw large recoveries back to pre-pandemic levels as we began to move away from the macro constraints that we've brought up in the past.

就收入百分比而言，電信仍然是我們最大的垂直領域。我們看到了健康的增長，這主要是通過與現有客戶增加新業務線來推動的。我們在上一季度與南非電信客戶交談的重大勝利於 10 月 1 日生效，並在整個季度取得了良好進展。儘管由於美國客戶的銷量減少，電子商務和消費者業務整體略有下降，但由於我們在印度的電子商務和食品配送平台的大幅增長，我們能夠抵消部分影響。儘管大流行帶來的不確定性已開始消退，但我們的旅行和酒店垂直行業尚未反彈。然而，與客戶的討論已開始重新聚焦於增長和增長，因此，我們預計旅遊業將在 2022 年下半年某個時候反彈。另一方面，隨著我們開始擺脫過去提出的宏觀限制，金融和商業服務將大幅恢復到大流行前的水平。

As mentioned before, our vaccination program in the second quarter was a success, leading to a 32% increase in revenue within our health care and education verticals for the year. Despite some of our verticals having slight declines due to macroeconomic conditions and volume reductions, we were able to largely offset these decreases with sustained growth across our leading verticals. Operationally, we continued to be focused on strengthening our technological infrastructure. As many of you know, we were hit with a malicious cyber-attack earlier in 2021. Since then, we bolstered our operations and security to ensure that our company stays resilient to any future events.

如前所述，我們第二季度的疫苗接種計劃取得了成功，導致全年醫療保健和教育垂直領域的收入增長了 32%。儘管由於宏觀經濟狀況和銷量減少，我們的一些垂直行業略有下降，但我們能夠通過領先垂直行業的持續增長在很大程度上抵消這些下降。在運營方面，我們繼續專注於加強我們的技術基礎設施。眾所周知，我們在 2021 年初遭受了惡意網絡攻擊。從那時起，我們加強了運營和安全，以確保我們的公司能夠應對未來的任何事件。

Our initiatives included adding multiple layers of security to our data servers and e-mails, including geofencing and a 2-factor authentication, establishing a 24/7 center of excellence monitoring and scanning our networks across the world, amongst other efforts taken to ensure that we provide an enhanced, secure environment to both our clients and employees. As technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, we believe it is our responsibility to maintain our platform, and that is up-to-date with the state-of-art security measures for our customers, and we remain committed to that responsibility going forward. We also spent much of the past quarter evaluating consolidation and rightsizing opportunities across our footprint. It has been our goal to maintain a lean and efficient organization that will be increasingly important as we look to produce meaningful revenue growth.

我們的舉措包括為我們的數據服務器和電子郵件添加多層安全保護，包括地理圍欄和二因素身份驗證、建立 24/7 卓越中心監控和掃描我們遍布全球的網絡，以及為確保我們為客戶和員工提供增強的安全環境而採取的其他措施。隨著技術不斷快速發展，我們相信維護我們的平台是我們的責任，並且為我們的客戶提供最新的最先進的安全措施，並且我們將繼續致力於履行這一責任。上個季度的大部分時間我們還評估了整個業務範圍內的整合和規模調整機會。我們的目標是維持一個精簡而高效的組織，當我們希望實現有意義的收入增長時，這一點將變得越來越重要。

We have already begun improving efficiency in some of our U.S. delivery centers, especially as we transition to our overall hybrid and remote work plan. We remain set on our outlook of having 75% and a 25% split of campus versus remote agents, respectively, which will have a substantial effect on the utility of each campus. As such, we are working to maximize the utility of each center as part of our rightsizing strategy, which includes the consolidation of facilities and enclosures. We'll keep you abreast of any material changes to our footprint as we further evaluate the best course of action.

我們已經開始提高一些美國交付中心的效率，特別是在我們過渡到整體混合和遠程工作計劃時。我們仍然堅持校園與遠程代理分別佔 75% 和 25% 的比例，這將對每個校園的效用產生重大影響。因此，我們正在努力最大限度地提高每個中心的效用，作為我們規模調整戰略的一部分，其中包括設施和圍欄的整合。當我們進一步評估最佳行動方案時，我們將讓您及時了解我們足蹟的任何重大變化。

In addition to evaluating optimal efficiency across our footprint, we also continued to build out our executive team. Our company is rooted in the business of people and that starts with our leaders in the organization. In October, we appointed Vivek Sharma as Global Chief Revenue Officer, who has helped us lead our efforts to deepen our existing relationships with customers as well as pursue new growth opportunities coming on the horizon. Vivek has a stellar record in the outsourcing industry, having spent over a decade at Infosys BPO, where he headed the global sales and marketing team and was also a member of their Executive Counsel.

除了評估整個足蹟的最佳效率外，我們還繼續建立我們的執行團隊。我們的公司植根於人的事業，而這始於我們組織中的領導者。 10 月，我們任命 Vivek Sharma 為全球首席營收官，他幫助我們努力加深與客戶的現有關係，並尋求即將出現的新增長機會。 Vivek 在外包行業有著出色的記錄，他在 Infosys BPO 工作了十多年，領導全球銷售和營銷團隊，也是執行法律顧問的成員。

Rebecca Gautrey joined us in November as our Chief Marketing Officer with more than 20 years of experience in brand marketing. She will be using her expertise to ensure that StarTek has a strong presence across all channels and drive our new go-to-market strategies. Around the same time, we appointed Abhinandan Jain as Chief Digital Officer, who will be spearheading our digital innovation and ensuring that we remain focused on leveraging and expanding our digital partnerships.

Rebecca Gautrey 於 11 月加入我們，擔任首席營銷官，擁有 20 多年的品牌營銷經驗。她將利用自己的專業知識確保 StarTek 在所有渠道中擁有強大的影響力，並推動我們新的上市戰略。大約在同一時間，我們任命 Abhinandan Jain 為首席數字官，他將領導我們的數字創新，並確保我們繼續專注於利用和擴大我們的數字合作夥伴關係。

Our leadership team has seen a large transformation in the past year, including my transition to my current role as Global CEO, and each member new and incumbent have been paramount in driving company initiatives. Our executive team was not only part of the organization we expanded upon. We consider our sales ecosystem as one of the main pillars of this company, and we invested heavily in this area by revamping our sales infrastructure with a reorganized solutioning and lead generation team. We also invested into our marketing team to better identify our brand positioning and effective go-to-market strategies.

我們的領導團隊在過去的一年裡發生了巨大的轉變，包括我過渡到目前擔任全球首席執行官的角色，每位新任和現任成員在推動公司計劃方面都發揮了至關重要的作用。我們的執行團隊不僅是我們擴展的組織的一部分。我們認為我們的銷售生態系統是該公司的主要支柱之一，我們在這一領域投入了大量資金，通過重組的解決方案和潛在客戶開發團隊改造我們的銷售基礎設施。我們還投資於我們的營銷團隊，以更好地確定我們的品牌定位和有效的進入市場策略。

In addition, we placed much of our attention in driving digital partnerships by entering into POCs with our clients. These POCs are being supported by leading digital companies and start-ups with whom we intend to establish partnerships to boost our digital practice and provide most advanced and flexible solutions to our clients. For a leading computer manufacturer, for instance, we are deploying a hyperintelligent automation tool for triaging and case creation, which helps them drive customer response times down by 70%. Leveraging an AI-based noise cancellation application for a major telecom customer to deliver superior voice support, deploying a voice-based artificial intelligence omnichannel platform to transform customer service for a major utilities company. These are a few examples of the kind of POCs that I alluded to earlier. The fourth quarter and much of the back half of the year shared a common theme in preparing this company for its future growth opportunities, which I will discuss later on during the call.

此外，我們非常重視通過與客戶建立 POC 來推動數字合作夥伴關係。這些概念驗證中心得到了領先的數字公司和初創企業的支持，我們打算與他們建立合作夥伴關係，以促進我們的數字實踐，並為我們的客戶提供最先進、最靈活的解決方案。例如，對於一家領先的計算機製造商，我們正在部署超智能自動化工具來進行分類和案例創建，這有助於他們將客戶響應時間縮短 70%。利用基於人工智能的噪聲消除應用程序為一家主要電信客戶提供卓越的語音支持，部署基於語音的人工智能全渠道平台來轉變一家主要公用事業公司的客戶服務。這些是我之前提到的 POC 類型的一些示例。第四季度和今年下半年的大部分時間都有一個共同的主題，即為公司未來的增長機會做好準備，我將在稍後的電話會議中討論這一點。

Overall, I'm very proud of the progress we've made across the organization and firmly believe that future is bright for starting. Before I jump into our strategic initiatives for the year and going forward, I would like to turn the call over to Nishit Shah, our Global CFO, to provide further details on our fourth quarter and full year financial results.

總的來說，我對我們在整個組織中取得的進步感到非常自豪，並堅信未來是光明的。在我開始討論今年和未來的戰略計劃之前，我想將電話轉給我們的全球首席財務官 Nishit Shah，以提供有關我們第四季度和全年財務業績的更多詳細信息。

Thank you, Bharat, for the introduction. I'd like to first begin by expressing my excitement to join this organization and use my expertise to help accelerate the growth and enhance value for all stakeholders. There is much to look forward to with the strong foundation we have in place and look forward to executing on our growth priorities. With that being said, let's drive into our financials for the quarter 4.

謝謝巴拉特的介紹。首先，我想表達我加入這個組織的興奮之情，並利用我的專業知識幫助加速增長並提高所有利益相關者的價值。憑藉我們現有的堅實基礎，有很多值得期待的事情，並期待著執行我們的增長重點。話雖如此，讓我們來看看第四季度的財務狀況。

Starting on the top line. Net revenue in Q4 slightly increased to $178.7 million compared to $174.5 million in the year ago quarter. On a constant currency basis, net revenue increased by 2% compared to the year ago quarter. This year-over-year growth reflects continued performance strength across our key verticals and geographies. Gross profit for quarter 4 was $26.8 million compared to $30.2 million in the year ago quarter. Gross margin was 15% compared to 17.3% in the year ago quarter, which was primarily attributable to the growth in our telecom and banking and financial services vertical that are delivering onshore. The gross margin for the quarter for 2021 was also impacted by a special bonus payout of around $2 million that was distributed across the organization. Selling and general administration, SG&A expenses for fourth quarter increased to $15.1 million compared to $14.7 million in the year ago quarter. As a percentage of revenue, SG&A was the same at 8.4% compared to the year ago quarter as a result of continued operating leverage on the back of higher revenue base, we generated during the quarter. Our investments in high-performing sales solutioning and marketing and [digital] team in order to drive growth and depreciation impact our SG&A in the fourth quarter.

從頂行開始。第四季度淨收入小幅增長至 1.787 億美元，而去年同期淨收入為 1.745 億美元。按固定匯率計算，淨收入較去年同期增長 2%。這一同比增長反映了我們在關鍵垂直領域和地區的持續業績優勢。第四季度的毛利潤為 2680 萬美元，而去年同期的毛利潤為 3020 萬美元。毛利率為 15%，而去年同期為 17.3%，這主要歸功於我們在岸提供的電信、銀行和金融服務垂直領域的增長。 2021 年季度的毛利率還受到整個組織分配的約 200 萬美元特別獎金的影響。第四季度的銷售和一般管理、SG&A 費用增加至 1510 萬美元，而去年同期為 1470 萬美元。 SG&A 佔收入的百分比與去年同期相比為 8.4%，這是由於我們在本季度產生的收入基礎較高的情況下繼續保持運營槓桿。為了推動增長和折舊，我們對高績效銷售解決方案、營銷和[數字]團隊的投資影響了我們第四季度的銷售、管理和管理費用。

Our net income attributable to StarTek shareholders for quarter 4 increased significantly to $6.7 million or $0.16 per share compared to a net loss attributable to StarTek shareholders at a negative $7.6 million, or $0.19 per share per year ago quarter. Net income in the fourth quarter of 2021 included an approximate $4.5 million of impairment charge on the right-to-use asset that was driven by the decision taken to rationalize our brick and motor facility across multiple geographies, where the company -- client services in pivoting towards at-home deliveries the net income attributable to StarTek shareholders also include $16.7 million in fair value gains from the investment made in CSS [cost]. Net adjusted income attributable to StarTek shareholders for quarter 4 increased 47% to $12.9 million or $0.32 per diluted share compared to an adjusted net income attributable to StarTek shareholders of $8.8 million or $0.22 per diluted share in the year ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA in quarter 4 was $18.9 million compared to $23.3 million in the year ago quarter. As a percentage of revenue, adjusted EBITDA was 10.6% compared to 13.4% in the year ago quarter. The decline was primarily a result of impact to gross profit associated with the special performance bonus declared in December and due to high base in 2020 that had benefited from government grants. The quarter was also impacted by increase in IT costs related to upgrading of our applications and major (inaudible) to enhance secured infrastructure.

第四季度歸屬於 StarTek 股東的淨利潤大幅增長至 670 萬美元，即每股 0.16 美元，而歸屬於 StarTek 股東的淨虧損為負 760 萬美元，即每股 0.19 美元。 2021 年第四季度的淨利潤包括約 450 萬美元的使用權資產減值費用，該費用是由於我們在多個地區合理化我們的磚和汽車設施而做出的決定所推動的，該公司的客戶服務轉向在家交付，歸屬於 StarTek 股東的淨利潤還包括來自 CSS 投資的 1670 萬美元的公允價值收益[成本]。第四季度 StarTek 股東調整後淨利潤增長 47% 至 1,290 萬美元，稀釋後每股收益 0.32 美元，而去年同期調整後歸屬於 StarTek 股東的淨利潤為 880 萬美元，稀釋後每股收益 0.22 美元。第四季度調整後 EBITDA 為 1890 萬美元，而去年同期為 2330 萬美元。調整後 EBITDA 佔收入的百分比為 10.6%，而去年同期為 13.4%。下降的主要原因是12月宣布的特別績效獎金對毛利潤的影響以及受益於政府補助的2020年基數較高。本季度還受到與應用程序升級和主要（聽不清）增強安全基礎設施相關的 IT 成本增加的影響。

From a balance sheet perspective, at December 31, 2021, our cash and restricted cash increased to $55.4 million compared to $50.6 million at December 31, 2020. The total debt at December 31, 2021, was $117 million compared to $136 million at December 31, 2020. The net debt, excluding restricted cash at December 31, 2021, was $122.1 million compared to $91.5 million at December 31, 2020. We remain comfortable with our liquidity position as it stands today. In addition, we repurchased an aggregate of [353810] shares of our common stock under our repurchase plan during the fourth quarter at an average cost of $4.44 per share. This was testament to our continued confidence in our long-term growth prospect as well as our strong execution of this initiative. As we progress into 2022, we have maintained our commitment to further support our investments in key market-facing growth initiatives. We also plan to invest further in improving our IT and the go-to-market strategy, including enhancing our digital first capabilities and further building out our sales and marketing teams. We expect this investment in our enhanced infrastructure to -- have put in place to boost our operational foundation for the quarter ahead. And we look forward to provide further updates on our growth trajectory.

從資產負債表的角度來看，截至2021年12月31日，我們的現金和限制性現金增加至5540萬美元，而2020年12月31日為5060萬美元。截至2021年12月31日的總債務為1.17億美元，而2020年12月31日為1.36億美元。截至2021年12月31日的淨債務（不包括限制性現金）為1.221億美元，而2021年12月31日的債務總額為1.221億美元。截至 2020 年 12 月 31 日，為 9150 萬。我們對目前的流動性狀況仍然感到滿意。此外，我們在第四季度根據回購計劃回購了總計 [353810] 股普通股，平均成本為每股 4.44 美元。這證明了我們對長期增長前景的持續信心以及我們對這一舉措的強有力執行。隨著 2022 年的進展，我們仍繼續致力於進一步支持我們對面向市場的關鍵增長計劃的投資。我們還計劃進一步投資改善我們的 IT 和進入市場戰略，包括增強我們的數字優先能力以及進一步建設我們的銷售和營銷團隊。我們預計，對增強基礎設施的投資將能夠增強我們未來季度的運營基礎。我們期待提供有關我們增長軌蹟的進一步更新。

Now let me briefly review StarTek's 2021 performance. Net revenue in 2021 increased 10% to $73.6 million compared to $60.2 million in 2020. Gross profit in 2021 increased 12% to $197.6 million compared to $87.2 million in 2020. And our gross margin increased 30 basis points to 13.9% compared to 13.6% in 2020. Adjusted EBITDA in 2021 increased 24% to $172.4 million compared to $58.2 million in 2020. As a percentage of revenue, adjusted EBITDA was 10.3% in 2021, up by 120 basis points compared to 9.1% in 2020. Net income attributable to StarTek shareholders in 2021 increased significantly to $11.5 million or $0.04 per share compared to a net loss of $39 million or $0.99 per share in 2020. Adjusted net income attributable to StarTek shareholders in 2021 increased 221% to $127.3 million or $0.67 per share compared to $18.5 million or 0.22% in 2020. This concludes my prepared remarks. I will now turn the call back over to Bharat.

現在讓我簡單回顧一下StarTek 2021年的表現。與 2020 年的 6,020 萬美元相比，2021 年的淨收入增長了 10%，達到 7,360 萬美元。與 2020 年的 8,720 萬美元相比，2021 年的毛利潤增長了 12%，達到 1.976 億美元。與 2020 年的 13.6% 相比，我們的毛利率增長了 30 個基點，達到 13.9%。2021 年調整後 EBITDA 增長了 24%增至 1.724 億美元，而 2020 年為 5820 萬美元。按收入百分比計算，2021 年調整後 EBITDA 為 10.3%，比 2020 年的 9.1% 增長了 120 個基點。2021 年 StarTek 股東應占淨利潤大幅增加至 1150 萬美元，即每股 0.04 美元，而 2 年淨虧損為 3900 萬美元，即每股 0.99 美元。 020. 2021 年調整後歸屬於 StarTek 股東的淨利潤增長 221%，達到 1.273 億美元，即每股 0.67 美元，而 2020 年為 1850 萬美元，即每股 0.22%。我準備好的發言到此結束。我現在將把電話轉回巴拉特。

Thanks, Nishit. I want to take this time to provide some commentary on our strategic initiatives for 2022 and beyond. I've been involved with StarTek's strategic direction since the merger with Aegis in 2018. And I have seen the steady progress we have made these last few years to transform a company burdened with loaded cost structure into a lean and efficient organization ready to grow. Being in the helm of an operational -- from an operational perspective, our focus over the past 5 months has been on preparing this company for the growth opportunities we've identified across our core verticals. With all the initiatives that I discussed earlier, we have the utmost confidence in our position heading into 2022, and we feel that we are now prepared more than ever to capitalize on the opportunities at hand. Subsequent to the year-end, we continued our initiatives in bolstering our leadership team with the appointment of Ronald Gillette as Strategic Adviser and Head of Business Transformation. Ron was most recently the CEO at Continuum Global Solutions and was previously the Chief Operating Officer for WNS. He will lead the charge in optimizing our CX delivery capabilities to ensure that our platform can handle the ramp-up in volumes that we are expecting.

謝謝，尼希特。我想藉此機會對我們 2022 年及以後的戰略舉措發表一些評論。自 2018 年與 Aegis 合併以來，我一直參與 StarTek 的戰略方向。我看到了我們在過去幾年中取得的穩步進展，將一家成本結構沉重的公司轉變為一個精益高效的組織，準備好成長。作為運營部門的掌舵人——從運營的角度來看，過去 5 個月我們的重點是讓這家公司做好準備，迎接我們在核心垂直領域發現的增長機會。通過我之前討論的所有舉措，我們對 2022 年的形勢充滿信心，我們認為我們現在比以往任何時候都做好了充分的準備，可以利用眼前的機遇。年底後，我們任命羅納德·吉列 (Ronald Gillette) 為戰略顧問兼業務轉型主管，繼續採取措施增強我們的領導團隊。 Ron 最近擔任 Continuum Global Solutions 的首席執行官，此前擔任 WNS 的首席運營官。他將負責優化我們的客戶體驗交付能力，以確保我們的平台能夠應對我們預期的數量增長。

We also have Nishit Shah and Jayanta Lahiri, joining us as our newest members serving as our Global Chief Financial Officer and Global Chief Information Officer, respectively. Nishit brings years of industry experience and financial reporting, mergers and acquisitions, legal and compliance and much more. He will be integral in our mission to maintain a balanced and efficient organization with healthy financials. Jayanta is one of our investments to ensure our platform is fully capable in today's environment. He will continue to drive our IT transformation into an agile and secure environment for StarTek and its clients. Having a strong leadership team in place is paramount to accomplishing our goals that we set out for ourselves, and I'm confident in the C-suite that we have assembled.

我們還有 Nishit Shah 和 Jayanta Lahiri 作為最新成員加入我們，分別擔任我們的全球首席財務官和全球首席信息官。 Nishit 帶來了多年的行業經驗以及財務報告、併購、法律與合規等方面的經驗。他將成為我們維持平衡、高效的組織和健康財務的使命中不可或缺的一部分。 Jayanta 是我們的投資之一，旨在確保我們的平台在當今的環境中完全能夠發揮作用。他將繼續推動我們的 IT 轉型，為 StarTek 及其客戶打造敏捷、安全的環境。擁有一支強大的領導團隊對於實現我們為自己設定的目標至關重要，我對我們組建的最高管理層充滿信心。

Going into 2022, we will be continuously expanding our overall capacity and optimizing our platform to enhance our omnichannel capabilities. We will continue to invest in our sales ecosystem, and we plan on hiring more senior sales staff to implement new initiatives in those areas such as targeting strategic verticals like BFSI, health care, e-commerce and high-tech. Our marketing team will be ramping up its efforts in communicating our brand unique digital-first capabilities to existing and potential customers. We reviewed and further defined our target audience to enable more focused demand generation activity. And as part of our brand building activity entered into partnerships with several third parties to develop our leadership content.

進入2022年，我們將不斷擴大整體產能，優化平台，提升全渠道能力。我們將繼續投資於我們的銷售生態系統，併計劃僱用更多高級銷售人員在這些領域實施新舉措，例如針對 BFSI、醫療保健、電子商務和高科技等戰略垂直領域。我們的營銷團隊將加大力度向現有和潛在客戶傳達我們品牌獨特的數字優先能力。我們審查並進一步定義了我們的目標受眾，以實現更有針對性的需求生成活動。作為我們品牌建設活動的一部分，我們與多個第三方建立了合作夥伴關係，以開發我們的領導力內容。

Furthermore, another key area we are focused on is driving new digital partnerships in 2022. In fact, Abhi Jain has been driving a few very interesting POCs with some of our strategic clients that have vast potential to become stand-alone solutions that we can bring to the market. We are also focused on taking up very strategic digital projects and partnerships that can help us offer cutting-edge and relevant solutions to our clients. We will continue to optimize our delivery centers as our efficiency ramps up further. Our campuses will undergo some internal efficiency changes in order to maximize their utility. And we're exploring all options to ensure our company is at the right size. We have begun discussions with clients in establishing more sustained hybrid working models and we have had very encouraging and engaging responses from our clients. Most of the new deals that Vik is participating in also have a greater preference for the work at home model, which we believe is going to be more prevalent going forward. We are, therefore, closing down some of our sites, particularly in the high-cost geographies.

此外，我們關注的另一個關鍵領域是在 2022 年推動新的數字合作夥伴關係。事實上，Abhi Jain 一直在與我們的一些戰略客戶推動一些非常有趣的 POC，這些客戶具有成為我們可以推向市場的獨立解決方案的巨大潛力。我們還專注於開展非常具有戰略意義的數字項目和合作夥伴關係，這可以幫助我們為客戶提供尖端且相關的解決方案。隨著效率的進一步提高，我們將繼續優化我們的交付中心。我們的校園將進行一些內部效率變革，以最大限度地發揮其效用。我們正在探索所有選擇，以確保我們公司的規模合適。我們已經開始與客戶討論建立更可持續的混合工作模式，並且我們得到了客戶非常鼓舞和有吸引力的回應。 Vik 參與的大多數新交易也更傾向於在家工作模式，我們相信這種模式未來將會更加普遍。因此，我們將關閉一些站點，特別是在高成本地區。

Lastly, I would like to provide an update on the nonbinding acquisition proposal by CSP Management Limited. On December 20, 2021, our largest shareholder issued a nonbinding proposal to acquire all the shares of StarTek that it does not already own -- for $5.40 per share in cash. Subsequently, our Board of Directors formed a special committee of independent directors to evaluate the proposal. They have brought on legal and financial advisers to thoroughly examine the deal, while the committee continues to value its evaluation process, I don't have any material updates to provide, but we'll continue to keep shareholders updated on any meaningful progress.

最後，我想提供有關 CSP Management Limited 的非約束性收購提案的最新信息。 2021 年 12 月 20 日，我們的最大股東發布了一項不具約束力的提案，以每股 5.40 美元的現金收購其尚未擁有的所有 StarTek 股份。隨後，我們的董事會成立了一個由獨立董事組成的特別委員會來評估該提案。他們聘請了法律和財務顧問來徹底審查該交易，而委員會繼續重視其評估過程，我沒有任何重大更新可提供，但我們將繼續向股東通報任何有意義的進展。

Overall, we have taken necessary steps to prepare for accelerated growth, and we are ready to hit the ground running. Although we continue to expect top line growth, we will continue to invest heavily for the future, which we anticipate will limit growth to the bottom line in the near term. Our core verticals are right with the opportunity, and we are confident in the foundation we have built to capitalize on those prospects. With that, we will now open the call for questions. Jonathan, over to you. Thank you.

總體而言，我們已採取必要措施為加速增長做好準備，並已準備好立即行動。儘管我們繼續預期營收增長，但我們將繼續對未來進行大量投資，我們預計這將在短期內限制盈利增長。我們的核心垂直領域抓住了機遇，我們對我們為利用這些前景而建立的基礎充滿信心。現在，我們將開始提問。喬納森，交給你了。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Chris Howe from Barrington Research.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Barrington Research 的 Chris Howe。

First off, I wanted to welcome everyone to the call that's new, and it's a good meeting, everyone for the first time. I wanted to talk about fiscal year '22. You mentioned some of the performance within key verticals. For example, travel and hospitality, you said sometime in the second half, you should see some recovery. As we look at the first half of fiscal year '22 versus the second half of fiscal year '22, how would you place revenue and the expense structure into context versus what you saw this last fiscal year?

首先，我想歡迎大家參加新的電話會議，這是一次很好的會議，每個人都是第一次。我想談談 22 財年。您提到了關鍵垂直領域的一些表現。例如，旅行和酒店業，您說在下半年的某個時候，您應該會看到一些復甦。當我們比較 22 財年上半年與 22 財年下半年時，您如何將收入和費用結構與上一財年的情況進行比較？

Thank you for the question. Am I audible at your end?

感謝你的提問。你能聽到我的聲音嗎？

Yes, you are.

是的，你是。

Wonderful. So just to make sure I understand your question because we had a bit of a disconnect on the call at our end. Is the question around the -- how do we see the first half of '22 versus the first half of last year? Did I understand that correctly?

精彩的。所以只是為了確保我理解你的問題，因為我們最後的通話有點脫節。問題是——與去年上半年相比，我們如何看待 22 年上半年？我理解正確嗎？

No. That's not the question. Well, in regards to the key end markets, you mentioned that certain end markets should see a recovery in the second half of fiscal year '22. So as we look at the first half of fiscal year '22 and the second half of fiscal year '22, how would you compare and contrast them to this last fiscal year on revenue and also the expense structure?

不，這不是問題。嗯，關於關鍵的終端市場，您提到某些終端市場應該會在 22 財年下半年出現復甦。因此，當我們審視 22 財年上半年和 22 財年下半年時，您如何將它們與上一財年的收入和費用結構進行比較和對比？

Right. So on the first, I'll just provide an overview and then we can take any more -- any specific questions. When we look at the first half of '22 versus the second half of '22, what we do expect is that some of the initiatives we have put in place from a digital perspective with the build-up of our sales team in the first half of '22 will start showing us results in the second half of '22 typically. As you would expect, some of these initiatives, especially in our industry, they do take time to come to fruition. So there is some lag between the investments made, the people that come on board. So we are working through that. So we do expect to have more sustainable revenue and base going into the second half of '22. I did mention that we should see recovery in some of the verticals, the travel, et cetera, going into the second half of 2022. So in summary, I think it would be fair to say that the first half of 2022 won't have the same benefits that we had in 2021 because in 2021, we still had the benefit in the first half of some of the COVID-related work that we provided a lot of support for but we should see the efforts of the first half of 2022 culminate into a much stronger pipeline from a revenue perspective going into the second half of 2022.

正確的。首先，我將提供一個概述，然後我們可以提出更多任何具體問題。當我們比較 22 年上半年與 22 年下半年時，我們確實期望的是，我們從數字角度實施的一些舉措以及 22 年上半年銷售團隊的建設通常將在 22 年下半年開始向我們展示結果。正如您所期望的，其中一些舉措，特別是在我們的行業中，確實需要時間才能取得成果。因此，所進行的投資和加入的人員之間存在一些滯後。所以我們正在努力解決這個問題。因此，我們確實預計到 22 年下半年會有更可持續的收入和基礎。我確實提到，我們應該會在 2022 年下半年看到一些垂直行業、旅行等領域的複蘇。總而言之，我認為可以公平地說，2022 年上半年不會像 2021 年那樣獲得同樣的好處，因為在 2021 年，我們仍然從我們提供了大量支持的一些與新冠病毒相關的工作的上半年中受益，但我們應該看到 2022 年上半年的努力從收入角度來看，到 2022 年下半年，最終將形成更強大的渠道。

Equally, the investments clearly have to be front-ended. So we would expect from a bottom line perspective, the first half of 2022 to be relatively flattish in terms of bottom line because we do see the investments that we have to make upfront to be able to realize the benefits in the second half and then into 2023.

同樣，投資顯然必須是前端的。因此，從盈利角度來看，我們預計 2022 年上半年的盈利將相對持平，因為我們確實看到我們必須預先進行投資才能在下半年和 2023 年實現收益。

That's very helpful. And the follow-up will dig into the -- you mentioned you're identifying centers with suboptimal performance for further evaluation and consolidation. Can you talk about this in more detail what you've discovered as you've -- obviously, you have more flexibility with the work from home modality. What's your time line for this consolidation or optimization of your footprint?

這非常有幫助。後續行動將深入探討——您提到您正在確定績效不佳的中心，以進行進一步評估和整合。您能否更詳細地談談您的發現，因為您顯然可以更靈活地在家工作。您整合或優化足蹟的時間表是怎樣的？

Sure. I think that's a very good question. What we have done, so just to ensure that I'm very clear in terms of what we mean I wouldn't call them suboptimal performance. This is more in the context of the point that you just made on a transition to work from home and therefore, some idle capacity. So what we -- the way we looked at it was, how do we rightsize the organization and ensure optimal capacity utilization. So that's the way we looked at it as opposed to looking necessarily at suboptimal performance, if you will. So, we looked at how do we optimize capacity so that we can ensure that we are also able to provide the optimal focus from an operational perspective. So we have done -- we have already taken steps in that direction. And towards the end of this of quarter 4, we identified the executive team work through to identify the facilities that we could potentially consolidate. And we've already taken that upfront. So going into 2022, we will actually see the benefits of that flowing through into 2022. Nishit, do you want to add anything to that in terms of -- would you want to add any more color to that?

當然。我認為這是一個非常好的問題。我們所做的，只是為了確保我非常清楚我們的意思，我不會稱它們為次優性能。這更多是在您剛剛過渡到在家工作的背景下，因此存在一些閒置能力。那麼我們的看法是，我們如何調整組織規模並確保最佳的產能利用率。這就是我們看待它的方式，而不是必然關注次優性能（如果你願意的話）。因此，我們研究瞭如何優化容量，以便確保我們也能夠從運營角度提供最佳焦點。所以我們已經做到了——我們已經朝這個方向採取了步驟。在第四季度末，我們確定了執行團隊的工作，以確定我們可能會整合的設施。我們已經預先採取了這一點。因此，進入 2022 年，我們實際上會看到這種做法的好處一直延續到 2022 年。Nishit，您想為此添加任何內容嗎？您想為此添加更多顏色嗎？

Yes, Bharat. So if you go back to the initial discussion that we had in the call, we did cover that on some impairment charge that we had done in quarter 4. And that's precisely linked to the discussion that you just mentioned on some of the facilities that we're looking at to optimize and that will give us a benefit in 2022.

是的，巴拉特。因此，如果你回到我們在電話會議中進行的最初討論，我們確實涵蓋了我們在第四季度所做的一些減值費用。這與您剛才提到的關於我們正在考慮優化的一些設施的討論完全相關，這將在 2022 年給我們帶來好處。

Thanks, Nishit. Does that provide you some more color and helps you get a better understanding?

謝謝，尼希特。這是否為您提供了更多的色彩並幫助您更好地理解？

Yes. That's perfect. And one last one, if I may squeeze it in. You mentioned some of the details as much as you could regarding the nonbinding proposal and the special committee is ongoing its review of this proposal. Does this in any way affect how you go forward with your growth initiatives just to get it out there.

是的。那很完美。最後一個，請允許我插話一下。您盡可能多地提到了有關非約束性提案的一些細節，特別委員會正在對該提案進行審查。這是否會以任何方式影響您推進增長計劃的方式？

Sure. I think very, very pertinent question in light of everything that's happening currently. But a short answer to your question, no, there will be no impact from an operational perspective. The initiatives that we have identified and our priorities for investment will continue unawaited. So there will be no impact from a management perspective on the direction that we've chartered and the initiatives that we have prioritized going into 2022.

當然。鑑於目前發生的一切，我認為這是一個非常非常相關的問題。但簡單回答一下你的問題，不，從運營角度來看不會有影響。我們已確定的舉措和投資優先事項將繼續下去。因此，從管理層的角度來看，我們制定的方向以及我們在 2022 年優先考慮的舉措不會受到影響。

Our next question comes from the line of Zachary Cummins from B. Riley Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自 B. Riley 證券公司的 Zachary Cummins。

Bharat, I just wanted to ask you around some of these foundational aspects that you spoke to in the call. Ever since you took over the leadership position, you've been building out some of these key aspects to really get the company ready to scale as we move forward. I mean can you discuss maybe some of the areas that you focused on and kind of some of the key actions that you took to really get the foundation in place for the company to grow moving forward?

巴拉特，我只是想問你一些你在電話中談到的一些基本方面的問題。自從您接任領導職務以來，您一直在構建其中一些關鍵方面，以便真正讓公司做好在我們前進的過程中擴大規模的準備。我的意思是，您能否討論一下您關注的一些領域以及您為真正為公司的發展奠定基礎而採取的一些關鍵行動？

Sure, Zach and good to reconnect. It's -- so in terms of the areas that we have prioritized going into 2022, and the work already started in quarter 4 of 2021, when I stepped in as President. The 3 pillars of our growth will be digital solutions and building our digital capabilities. As I mentioned last time, and I continue to reiterate that our focus will be on our digital initiatives, partnerships, working closely with clients to identify areas of optimization internally and solutions and customer insights that we could offer to our clients. The second area is revamping and rebuilding our entire sales ecosystem. And the third area for us is building a robust technology platform. We continue -- we have always invested in our technology, but clearly, after what we went through, we wanted to ensure that we have significantly improved capabilities on our technology front to ensure a stable and a secure environment. So these are our 3 pillars. And going forward, we will also build serious capabilities on our technology infrastructure across a few horizontals.

當然，扎克，很高興重新建立聯繫。就我們 2022 年優先考慮的領域而言，工作已於 2021 年第四季度我就任總裁時開始。我們增長的三大支柱將是數字解決方案和建設我們的數字能力。正如我上次提到的，我繼續重申，我們的重點將是我們的數字計劃、合作夥伴關係、與客戶密切合作，以確定內部優化領域以及我們可以為客戶提供的解決方案和客戶見解。第二個領域是改造和重建我們的整個銷售生態系統。我們的第三個領域是建立一個強大的技術平台。我們繼續——我們一直投資於我們的技術，但顯然，在經歷了這些之後，我們希望確保我們在技術方面的能力得到顯著提高，以確保一個穩定和安全的環境。這是我們的三大支柱。展望未來，我們還將在幾個層面上在我們的技術基礎設施上建立強大的能力。

Now given that these 3 areas are our key areas of focus on the digital side, we are building out our capabilities with Abhi Jain, who joined us in quarter 3 of 2021, and he's currently building out a team. And as I mentioned, he's already got a few proof of concepts and pilots underway. So I'm pretty excited about everything that we're doing in that space because this is going to create serious IP for us as we go into 2022 and beyond.

鑑於這 3 個領域是我們在數字方面重點關注的領域，我們正在與 Abhi Jain 一起構建我們的能力，他於 2021 年第 3 季度加入我們，目前他正在組建一個團隊。正如我所提到的，他已經獲得了一些概念驗證和正在進行的試點。因此，我對我們在該領域所做的一切感到非常興奮，因為隨著我們進入 2022 年及以後，這將為我們創造重要的 IP。

From a sales ecosystem perspective, as I mentioned, we brought in, in quarter 4, we had Vivek Sharma, who joined us from Infosys BPO. And Vivek is now building out his team. We have already revamped our solutioning and lead generation team because that effectively is the foundation for a much stronger sales ecosystem. We also brought in Rebecca, who brings a wealth of experience in brand management and knows the industry very well. She joined us from Cytel and is working on some very interesting initiatives on the brand repositioning front.

從銷售生態系統的角度來看，正如我提到的，我們在第四季度引入了 Vivek Sharma，他從 Infosys BPO 加入我們。維韋克現在正在組建他的團隊。我們已經重組了我們的解決方案和潛在客戶開發團隊，因為這實際上是更強大的銷售生態系統的基礎。我們還引進了Rebecca，她帶來了豐富的品牌管理經驗，並且非常了解這個行業。她從 Cytel 加入我們，正在致力於品牌重新定位方面的一些非常有趣的舉措。

As I mentioned, we have also strengthened our lead generation and solutioning capabilities and added on a few experienced resources across geographies in that area. On the technology front, apart from implementing a number of recommendations that the team -- the technical expert team from Palo Alto Networks that we had retained provided us after we had the ransomware attack. So A, we implemented a number of their recommendations. B, we have strengthened the team and recently had Jayanta Lahiri, who was the CIO of Firstsource, and he brings extensive experience from large organizations such as Wipro and Accenture and he brings a wealth of experience and will be building out our entire IT and infrastructure ecosystem. So what we have done is identified our key areas of investments and ensured that we get the right people to build out those areas.

正如我所提到的，我們還加強了我們的潛在客戶開發和解決方案能力，並在該領域的各個地區增加了一些經驗豐富的資源。在技​​術方面，除了實施我們保留的 Palo Alto Networks 技術專家團隊在遭受勒索軟件攻擊後向我們提供的一些建議之外。因此，A，我們實施了他們的一些建議。 B，我們加強了團隊實力，最近聘請了 Jayanta Lahiri，他是 Firstsource 的首席信息官，他帶來了 Wipro 和埃森哲等大型組織的豐富經驗，他帶來了豐富的經驗，將構建我們整個 IT 和基礎設施生態系統。因此，我們所做的就是確定我們的關鍵投資領域，並確保我們找到合適的人來建設這些領域。

And last but not least, in fact, is having Ron on board. I mean Ron brings a wealth of experience, and he's kind of come in to help us with our entire transformation and provides the kind of deep domain expertise. As I mentioned earlier, he was the COO of WNS. And prior to that, a very senior partner at Accenture, Deloitte, a number of other organizations having spent over 3 decades building this business. Ron, if you would like to add some of your insights and provide some more color on the kind of initiatives that we have going into FY '22? I really appreciate that.

事實上，最後但並非最不重要的一點是，羅恩也加入了。我的意思是，羅恩帶來了豐富的經驗，他可以幫助我們完成整個轉型，並提供深厚的領域專業知識。正如我之前提到的，他是 WNS 的首席運營官。在此之前，埃森哲、德勤和其他許多組織的高級合夥人已經花了 30 多年的時間來建設這項業務。 Ron，您是否願意補充一些您的見解並為我們即將進入 22 財年的舉措提供更多信息？我真的很感激。

Sure, Bharat. Let me just add to that. I think Brad covered a lot of it. I think the work that's being done by Abhi and the digital space is really important. As we -- as StarTek and all companies experienced the pivot to work from home during COVID and some of the other things that they had brought home to us was certainly, the need for more technology enablement and then to work in the new operating model going forward for North America, the United States, in particular, there is the layer on the app of employees and employers. So in this case, our clients to have agents work from home, which presents some technology challenges that many of them were addressed in a fashion to be able to enable that pivot from home. But as Bharat mentioned, strengthening our technology platform and our environment to enable that, not just here in North America, but globally is important because work from home is caught on in some other locations as well. and we'll find itself more institutionalized. But the initiatives that Abhi is focused on the use of AI and machine learning and robotic process automation to strengthen our service delivery, I think, are very promising. Certainly, we've had some of that in place with some clients, but now it's adding to that and building that out and making it available to more clients making part of our core offering going forward. So very promising potential here and opportunity. So the hard pitch that was delivered from COVID has also been something that StarTek responded too well at the time and has learned from and is making that part of a guiding principle here of what we do with the company going forward.

當然，巴拉特。讓我補充一下。我認為布拉德涵蓋了很多內容。我認為 Abhi 和數字空間所做的工作非常重要。正如我們——StarTek 和所有公司在新冠疫情期間經歷了在家工作的轉變以及他們給我們帶來的其他一些事情一樣，當然，需要更多的技術支持，然後在北美，特別是美國，在新的運營模式中工作，在員工和雇主的應用程序上有一個層面。因此，在這種情況下，我們的客戶要求代理在家工作，這帶來了一些技術挑戰，其中許多挑戰都以能夠在家中實現這一點的方式得到解決。但正如巴拉特提到的，加強我們的技術平台和環境以實現這一目標，不僅在北美，而且在全球範圍內都很重要，因為在家工作在其他一些地方也很流行。我們會發現它變得更加製度化。但我認為，Abhi 專注於使用人工智能、機器學習和機器人流程自動化來加強我們的服務交付的舉措非常有前途。當然，我們已經為一些客戶提供了其中的一些功能，但現在我們正在對此進行補充和構建，並將其提供給更多的客戶，從而成為我們未來核心產品的一部分。這裡的潛力和機會非常有前途。因此，StarTek 當時對新冠病毒帶來的強硬宣傳反應反應得很好，並從中吸取了教訓，並將其作為我們公司未來工作的指導原則的一部分。

Thank you, Ron. -- that provides you some clarity.

謝謝你，羅恩。 ——這讓你看得更清楚。

Yes, absolutely. I always appreciate the additional insight there. And... Just one other question. Is really on potential cost pressures. I mean, just given the current inflationary environment and the challenges to find talent to really execute upon these projects, how are you planning on kind of managing the associated costs with that and being able to maintain margins here in the near and longer term?

是的，一點沒錯。我總是很欣賞那裡的額外見解。還有……還有一個問題。確實存在潛在的成本壓力。我的意思是，考慮到當前的通貨膨脹環境以及尋找人才真正執行這些項目的挑戰，您計劃如何管理相關成本並能夠在短期和長期保持利潤率？

A very good question, Zach. And I guess this is an issue that is faced not only by StarTek, but by everyone globally. And that's where we talk about, A, ensuring that we have the right delivery platform, look at what we can offer onshore versus nearshore and offshore, so right shoring, if you will, of our proposition. That is one element. The other element is where we start having a lot of technology enablers to the solutions we provide. The benefit of which clearly flows through to customers. And therefore, they see the value that our proposition brings in, and therefore, to a certain extent, insulates us from the kind of cost pressures that we face. But equally, I think what is going to be important is technology is also going to be a big enabler in helping us improve the kind of engagement that we maintain with our agents, Ron alluded to some of the challenges around the work-from-home situation. So to the extent we have technology and technology enablers that provide us to improve the experience that agents have when they work from either from any remote location or from our centers will go a long way in helping us create the right environment and culture to be able to offset some of these cost pressures. Does that give you some guidance in terms of what we are looking to use to mitigate the effect of the cost pressure?

這是一個很好的問題，扎克。我想這不僅是 StarTek 面臨的問題，也是全球每個人都面臨的問題。這就是我們談論的地方，A，確保我們擁有正確的交付平台，看看我們可以在陸上與近岸和海上提供什麼，所以如果你願意的話，可以正確支持我們的主張。這是一個要素。另一個要素是我們開始為我們提供的解決方案提供大量技術支持。其好處顯然會流向客戶。因此，他們看到了我們的主張帶來的價值，因此在某種程度上使我們免受我們面臨的成本壓力。但同樣，我認為重要的是，技術也將成為幫助我們改善與代理商保持互動的重要推動因素，羅恩提到了在家工作情況下面臨的一些挑戰。因此，在某種程度上，我們擁有的技術和技術推動因素可以幫助我們改善座席在任何遠程位置或我們的中心工作時的體驗，這將在幫助我們創造合適的環境和文化以抵消部分成本壓力方面大有幫助。這是否為您提供了一些指導，幫助您了解我們如何減輕成本壓力的影響？

Yes, yes, extremely helpful. I think that's all the questions I have for now. So thanks and looking forward to reconnecting soon offline.

是的，是的，非常有幫助。我想這就是我現在的所有問題。因此，感謝並期待盡快重新連接離線。

Thanks, Zach. You are very welcome.

謝謝，扎克。非常歡迎您。

This does conclude the question-and-answer session of today's program. I'd like to hand the program back to Bharat Rao for any further remarks.

今天節目的問答環節到此結束。我想將程序交還給巴拉特·拉奧 (Bharat Rao) 以供進一步評論。

Thank you, Jonathan, and thank you all for joining us this afternoon and for your continued support of StarTek. I look forward to speaking with you next when we report our first quarter results.

謝謝喬納森，感謝大家今天下午加入我們並感謝你們對 StarTek 的持續支持。我期待著下次在我們報告第一季度業績時與您交談。

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.

女士們、先生們，感謝你們參加今天的會議。這確實結束了該程序。您現在可以斷開連接。再會。