Verint Systems Inc (VRNT) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Verint Systems Inc. Q2 Fiscal '24 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions). Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's call, Matthew Frankel, Investor Relations and Corporate Development Director. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 Verint Systems Inc. 24 年第二季度財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）。請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。現在我想介紹一下今天電話會議的主持人，投資者關係和企業發展總監馬修·弗蘭克爾 (Matthew Frankel)。請繼續。

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining our conference call today. I'm here with Dan Bodner, Verint's CEO; Grant Highlander, Verint's CFO; and Alan Roden, Verint's Chief Corporate Development Officer.

謝謝你，接線員。下午好，感謝您今天參加我們的電話會議。我和 Verint 首席執行官 Dan Bodner 一起來到這裡。 Grant Highlander，Verint 首席財務官；以及 Verint 首席企業發展官 Alan Roden。

Before getting started, I'd like to mention that accompanying our call today the slide presentation. If you would like to view these slides in real-time during the call, please visit the IR section of our website at verint.com, click on the Investor Relations tab and click on the webcast link and select today's conference call. I'd also like to draw your attention to the fact that certain matters discussed on this call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other provisions of the federal securities laws.

在開始之前，我想提一下今天電話會議中伴隨的幻燈片演示。如果您想在電話會議期間實時查看這些幻燈片，請訪問我們網站 verint.com 的 IR 部分，單擊“投資者關係”選項卡，然後單擊網絡廣播鏈接並選擇今天的電話會議。我還想提請您注意，本次電話會議中討論的某些事項可能包含 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》和聯邦證券法其他條款含義內的前瞻性陳述。

These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed in or implied by these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are made as the date of this call, and as except as required by law. Verint assumes no obligation to update or revise them. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

這些前瞻性陳述基於管理層當前的預期，並非對未來業績的保證。實際結果可能與這些前瞻性陳述中表達或暗示的結果存在重大差異。前瞻性陳述是在本次電話會議召開之日做出的，法律要求的除外。 Verint 不承擔更新或修改它們的義務。請投資者不要過分依賴這些前瞻性陳述。

For a more detailed discussion of how these and other risks and uncertainties could cause Verint's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in these forward-looking statements, please see our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023, and our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 31, 2023, when filed, and other filings we make with the SEC. The financial measures discussed today include non-GAAP measures as we believe investors focus on those measures in comparing results between periods and among our peer companies. Please see today's slide presentation in our earnings release in the Investor Relations section of our website at verint.com for a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP measures.

如需更詳細地討論這些及其他風險和不確定性如何導致Verint 的實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述中所示的結果存在重大差異，請參閱我們截至2023 年1 月31 日的財政年度的10- K 表格，以及我們的截至 2023 年 7 月 31 日的季度的 10-Q 表格（提交時）以及我們向 SEC 提交的其他文件。今天討論的財務指標包括非公認會計準則指標，因為我們認為投資者在比較不同時期和同行公司之間的業績時會關注這些指標。請參閱我們網站 verint.com 投資者關係部分今天收益發布中的幻燈片演示，了解非 GAAP 財務指標與 GAAP 指標的對賬情況。

Non-GAAP financial information should not be considered in isolation from, as a substitute for or superior to GAAP financial information, but is included because management believes it provides meaningful supplemental information regarding our operating results when assessing our business and is useful to investors for informational and comparative purposes. The non-GAAP financial measures the company uses have limitations and may differ from those used by other companies.

非GAAP 財務信息不應被孤立地視為GAAP 財務信息的替代品或優於GAAP 財務信息，而是包含在內，因為管理層認為它在評估我們的業務時提供了有關我們經營業績的有意義的補充信息，並且對投資者提供信息有用。和比較目的。公司使用的非公認會計準則財務指標有局限性，並且可能與其他公司使用的不同。

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Dan. Dan?

現在我想把電話轉給丹。擔？

Thank you, Matt. Today, I will start with a review of our Q2 and H1 key metrics, including bookings and revenue dynamics. Then I will review the latest innovation in our CX automation platform and our AI-powered specialized bots. Finally, I will provide a midyear update on our expectations for the second half of the year.

謝謝你，馬特。今天，我將首先回顧我們第二季度和上半年的關鍵指標，包括預訂和收入動態。然後我將回顧我們 CX 自動化平台和人工智能驅動的專業機器人的最新創新。最後，我將提供我們對下半年的預期的年中最新情況。

In Q2, we delivered solid performance across key SaaS metrics including SaaS new bookings, renewals and SaaS ARR. We believe our fast momentum reflects our differentiated CX activation platform and the growing customer interest in our AI capabilities. Let me start with Q2 and H1 bookings and deal activity. In Q2, New SaaS ACV bookings came in at $26.5 million, up strongly from Q1 and consistent with our average quarterly level throughout last year.

第二季度，我們在關鍵 SaaS 指標（包括 SaaS 新預訂、續訂和 SaaS ARR）方面取得了穩定的表現。我們相信，我們的快速發展勢頭反映了我們差異化的 CX 激活平台以及客戶對我們的 AI 功能日益增長的興趣。讓我從第二季度和上半年的預訂和交易活動開始。第二季度，新 SaaS ACV 預訂額為 2650 萬美元，較第一季度強勁增長，與去年的平均季度水平一致。

As we discussed on our prior call, in Q1, we saw elongated sales cycle due to the macroeconomic environment and approximately $11 million ACV of deals shifted to the right out of Q1 relative to our expectations. We are pleased to report that this $11 million of Q1 deals were subsequently all booked in Q2. During our last call, we also shared our expectations of more than $60 million of new SAAS ACV bookings for the first half. Our actual results came in at $42 million. Elongated sales cycles persisted in Q2 leading to over $8 million ACV of deals shifting to the right and out of Q2. Based on our current forecast, we expect the majority of which to be booked in Q3. Given our experience in the first half of bookings shifting to the right in both Q1 and Q2, we're assuming economic conditions will remain the same in Q3 and Q4, resulting in approximately $10 million of bookings shifting from H2 into next year.

正如我們在之前的電話會議中討論的那樣，在第一季度，由於宏觀經濟環境，我們看到銷售週期延長，並且相對於我們的預期，大約1,100 萬美元的ACV 交易從第一季度向右轉移。我們很高興地報告，第一季度價值 1100 萬美元的交易隨後全部在第二季度預訂。在上次電話會議中，我們還分享了我們對上半年 SAAS ACV 新預訂量超過 6000 萬美元的預期。我們的實際結果為 4200 萬美元。第二季度銷售週期持續延長，導致超過 800 萬美元的 ACV 交易向右轉移並移出第二季度。根據我們目前的預測，我們預計其中大部分將在第三季度預訂。鑑於我們在第一季度和第二季度預訂量向右移動的經驗，我們假設第三季度和第四季度的經濟狀況將保持不變，導致大約 1000 萬美元的預訂量從下半年轉移到明年。

For the year, we now see $102 million of new SaaS ACV bookings compared to our prior expectations of approximately $112 million. Grant will discuss later the expected progression of our bookings throughout the year.

今年，我們看到新的 SaaS ACV 預訂量為 1.02 億美元，而我們之前的預期約為 1.12 億美元。格蘭特稍後將討論我們全年預訂的預期進展。

Now let's take a closer look at our Q2 deal activity and recent market trends. In Q2, we continue to have significant wins across existing and new logos. With respect to existing customers, we received more than 20 orders in excess of $1 million ACV as large enterprises across the globe continued to expand and adapt more applications from our platform. These orders included a $20 million ACV order from a leading financial services company in the U.S., a $6 million TCV order from a leading telecom company in Europe and a $6 million TCV order from one of the largest banks in the Asia Pacific region.

現在讓我們仔細看看第二季度的交易活動和最近的市場趨勢。在第二季度，我們繼續在現有標識和新標識方面取得重大勝利。對於現有客戶，隨著全球大型企業不斷從我們的平台擴展和適應更多應用程序，我們收到了 20 多個超過 100 萬美元 ACV 的訂單。這些訂單包括美國一家領先的金融服務公司的 2000 萬美元的 ACV 訂單、歐洲一家領先的電信公司的 600 萬美元的 TCV 訂單以及亞太地區最大的銀行之一的 600 萬美元的 TCV 訂單。

With respect to new logos, in Q2, we again added more than 100 new logos, including large brands such as Samsung and [Simicore]. New logos customers typically start with small orders, and our objective is to have them expand in our [platinum] cloud platform over time. Another customer trend that is important to note is strong interest in our AI capabilities. I'm pleased to report that the majority of the new SaaS ACV booked in Q2 included one or more varied specialized bots. We believe the market is in the early stage of the AI adoption cycle and Verint is well positioned with Verint Da Vinci AI at the core of our platform.

在新標識方面，第二季度我們再次添加了超過100個新標識，其中包括三星、【Simicore】等大品牌。新徽標客戶通常從小訂單開始，我們的目標是隨著時間的推移讓他們在我們的[白金]雲平台中擴展。另一個值得注意的客戶趨勢是對我們的人工智能功能的濃厚興趣。我很高興地報告，第二季度預訂的大多數新 SaaS ACV 都包含一個或多個不同的專用機器人。我們相信市場正處於人工智能採用周期的早期階段，Verint 處於有利地位，Verint Da Vinci AI 是我們平台的核心。

In summary, in H1, we saw elevated sales cycles which impacted the timing of our bookings. At the same time, we saw positive trends, including increased interest in very specialized bots, resulting in pipeline growth strong renewal rates consistent with the prior year, more than 100 new logos and the average term length of new orders remaining close to 2.5 years. Our solid Q2 new SaaS ACV bookings, combined with strong SaaS renewal rates drove SaaS ARR growth of 17% in Q2 and on a year-over-year basis. Following strong SaaS ARR growth in the first quarter. We believe SaaS ARR is a very useful operating metric for management as it normalizes all SaaS contracts to reflect the consistent and annualized ratable review that is closely aligned with a SaaS cash flow generation.

總之，上半年，我們看到銷售週期增加，這影響了我們的預訂時間。與此同時，我們看到了積極的趨勢，包括對非常專業的機器人的興趣增加，導致管道增長強勁，續訂率與上一年一致，超過100 個新徽標，新訂單的平均期限仍接近2.5 年。我們第二季度穩定的新 SaaS ACV 預訂，加上強勁的 SaaS 續訂率，推動第二季度 SaaS ARR 同比增長 17%。繼第一季度 SaaS ARR 強勁增長之後。我們認為 SaaS ARR 對於管理來說是一個非常有用的運營指標，因為它規範了所有 SaaS 合同，以反映與 SaaS 現金流生成密切相關的一致的年度評級審查。

As a reminder, from an accounting perspective, our bundled SaaS contracts are recognized ratably while our unbundled SaaS contracts are recognized largely upfront under ASC 606 accounting standards. This difference is addressed by the SaaS ARR metric. Going forward, we intend to report SaaS ARR on a quarterly basis to help investors better understand our SaaS growth trends.

提醒一下，從會計角度來看，我們的捆綁式 SaaS 合同按比例確認，而我們的非捆綁式 SaaS 合同則主要根據 ASC 606 會計標準預先確認。 SaaS ARR 指標解決了這種差異。展望未來，我們打算每季度報告 SaaS ARR，以幫助投資者更好地了解我們的 SaaS 增長趨勢。

Turning to platform innovation. During Q2, we held our Engage customer conference in which we showcased our latest AI innovation. Brands are looking to leverage AI to increase CX automation, so they can achieve their strategic objectives of elevating customer experience and reducing labor costs. Verint open platform is designed with CX automation at the center. In Q2, we unveiled many new bots as part of the large team of specialized bots currently available in our platform. These bots are designed to augment the human workforce and deliver significant customer ROI. Customer reaction has been extremely positive. And as I mentioned earlier, the majority of the new SaaS ACV we booked in Q2 included one or more bots. With regards to pricing of bots, it's important to note that customer level of consumption is related to the volume of data processed by the bots and type of bots and not just to the size of the customer's human workforce. We believe broad consumption in our platform will increase over time given the cost of deploying the Verint bots is much lower than the cost of hiring additional people.

轉向平台創新。第二季度，我們舉辦了 Engage 客戶會議，展示了我們最新的人工智能創新。品牌希望利用人工智能來提高客戶體驗自動化，以便實現提升客戶體驗和降低勞動力成本的戰略目標。 Verint 開放平台的設計以 CX 自動化為中心。在第二季度，我們推出了許多新機器人，作為我們平台上當前可用的大型專業機器人團隊的一部分。這些機器人旨在增強勞動力並提供顯著的客戶投資回報率。客戶的反應非常積極。正如我之前提到的，我們在第二季度預訂的大多數新 SaaS ACV 都包含一個或多個機器人。關於機器人的定價，需要注意的是，客戶的消費水平與機器人處理的數據量和機器人的類型有關，而不僅僅是與客戶的勞動力規模有關。我們相信，鑑於部署 Verint 機器人的成本遠低於僱用額外人員的成本，我們平台的廣泛消費將隨著時間的推移而增加。

Let's take a look at the customer ROIs delivered by some of our bots. As you can see from the slide, each bot is designed to perform a single task and is focused on helping a specific human role. Customers can deploy a team of bots from the Verint platform to assist roles across all enterprise customer engagement functions. For example, a financial services company with 2,000 customer engagement employees and with an average call handle time of 5 minutes can save millions of dollars annually by deploying the team of Verint bots. In this example, the customer is deploying 3 bots, the wrap up bots to assist the agents with automating the after-call work and potentially reducing their work by 60 seconds per call. The containment bot will significantly increase the agent capacity by having the bot respond to 30% of consumers' questions and the compliance bot to assist customer service management to automate the compliance monitoring program to significantly reduce compliance errors and avoid (inaudible).

讓我們看一下我們的一些機器人提供的客戶投資回報率。正如您從幻燈片中看到的，每個機器人都被設計為執行單一任務，並專注於幫助特定的人類角色。客戶可以從 Verint 平台部署一組機器人來協助所有企業客戶參與職能中的角色。例如，一家擁有 2,000 名客戶服務員工、平均呼叫處理時間為 5 分鐘的金融服務公司，通過部署 Verint 機器人團隊，每年可以節省數百萬美元。在此示例中，客戶部署了 3 個機器人（即總結機器人）來協助客服人員實現呼叫後工作自動化，並可能將每次呼叫的工作時間減少 60 秒。遏制機器人將顯著提高代理能力，讓機器人回答 30% 的消費者問題，合規機器人將協助客戶服務管理自動化合規監控程序，從而顯著減少合規錯誤並避免（聽不清）。

The customer can deploy additional bots from the Verint platform for automating different tests and to generate even greater ROI. In summary, we believe that brands investment in bot is more cost effective than increasing the size of the human workforce. This dynamic should drive increased consumption from our platform and increase our TAM over time.

客戶可以從 Verint 平台部署其他機器人，以自動執行不同的測試並產生更大的投資回報率。總之，我們認為品牌對機器人的投資比增加勞動力規模更具成本效益。隨著時間的推移，這種動態應該會增加我們平台的消費並增加我們的 TAM。

Next, I would like to discuss the trends that we see for the second half of the year. First, our perpetual to such transition is progressing as planned, and we are on track to achieve 88% of our software revenue to come from recurring sources for the year. As a reminder, most of our remaining perpetual revenue comes from the financial services companies with a preference for on-premise deployments and we expect them to remain on-premises for the foreseeable future. Therefore, the revenue headwinds that we experienced from the potential transition over the last couple of years and during the current year, are expected to be behind us next year. Second, regarding SaaS revenue growth, we had 16% growth in the first half and we expect growth in the second half to improve slightly, resulting in full year growth of 18% to 20% or approximately $530 million of SaaS revenue at the midpoint. Supporting our expectations for H2 SaaS revenue growth is a combination of new bookings and a significant amount of renewals scheduled in Q4 which Grant will discuss later.

接下來我想談談下半年的趨勢。首先，我們的永久過渡正在按計劃進行，我們有望實現今年 88% 的軟件收入來自經常性來源。提醒一下，我們剩餘的大部分永久收入來自偏好本地部署的金融服務公司，我們預計它們在可預見的未來仍將保留在本地。因此，我們在過去幾年和今年因潛在轉型而經歷的收入逆風預計將在明年消失。其次，關於 SaaS 收入增長，我們上半年增長了 16%，預計下半年增長將略有改善，全年 SaaS 收入增長 18% 至 20%，中間值約為 5.3 億美元。支持我們對下半年 SaaS 收入增長的預期的是新預訂和第四季度計劃的大量續訂的結合，格蘭特稍後將討論這一點。

Turning to our outlook for total revenue, margins, adjusted EBITDA and diluted EPS. For revenue, we are adjusting our annual outlook to $910 million due to the macroeconomic environment. For margin, we now expect faster growth and operating margin expansion and are pleased to be in a position to maintain our earnings outlook. For the full year, we expect $250 million of adjusted EBITDA and $2.65 of diluted EPS, reflecting mid-single-digit growth at the midpoint of our outlook.

轉向我們對總收入、利潤率、調整後 EBITDA 和稀釋每股收益的展望。對於收入，由於宏觀經濟環境，我們將年度預期調整為 9.1 億美元。對於利潤率，我們現在預計增長更快，營業利潤率擴大，並且很高興能夠維持我們的盈利前景。對於全年，我們預計調整後 EBITDA 為 2.5 億美元，稀釋後每股收益為 2.65 美元，反映出我們預期中位數的中個位數增長。

In summary, Verint open platform is at the center of CX Automation, delivering AI power specialized bots to augment the workforce. We believe our bot consumption model is very attractive to customers. In Q2, solid new SaaS ACV bookings, combined with strong renewal rates, drove 17% growth in SaaS ARR. We now expect the current macroeconomic environment to persist in the second half, resulting in approximately $10 million of new SaaS ACV bookings shifting into next year. We're adjusting our revenue guidance and maintaining our earnings guidance driven by ongoing improvement in our gross margin. And a low-margins and cash flow generation provide us flexibility and we intend to continue executing on our previously announced top buyback program.

總之，Verint 開放平台是 CX Automation 的核心，提供人工智能驅動的專業機器人來增強勞動力。我們相信我們的機器人消費模式對客戶非常有吸引力。第二季度，穩定的新 SaaS ACV 預訂加上強勁的續訂率，推動 SaaS ARR 增長 17%。我們現在預計當前的宏觀經濟環境將在下半年持續下去，導致大約 1000 萬美元的新 SaaS ACV 預訂轉移到明年。在毛利率持續改善的推動下，我們正在調整收入指引並維持盈利指引。低利潤和現金流的產生為我們提供了靈活性，我們打算繼續執行之前宣布的頂級回購計劃。

Now let me turn the call over to Grant to discuss our financials in more detail. Grant?

現在讓我把電話轉給格蘭特，更詳細地討論我們的財務狀況。授予？

Thanks, Dan. Good afternoon, everyone. Our discussion today will include non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation between our GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures is available, as Matt mentioned, in our earnings release and in the IR section of our website. Differences between our GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures include adjustments related to acquisitions, including fair value revenue adjustments, amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, certain other acquisition-related expenses, stock-based compensation expenses, separation-related expenses, accelerated lease costs, IT facilities and infrastructure realignment as well as certain other items that can vary significantly in amount and frequency from period to period.

謝謝，丹。大家下午好。我們今天的討論將包括非公認會計準則財務指標。正如馬特提到的，我們的 GAAP 和非 GAAP 財務指標之間的調節可以在我們的收益發布和我們網站的 IR 部分中找到。我們的GAAP 和非GAAP 財務指標之間的差異包括與收購相關的調整，包括公允價值收入調整、收購相關無形資產攤銷、某些其他收購相關費用、股票補償費用、分拆相關費用、加速租賃成本、IT 設施和基礎設施重新調整以及某些其他項目的數量和頻率可能因時期而異。

Starting with our Q2 P&L metrics. Revenue came in at $210 million. Non-GAAP gross margins expanded to 70%, up more than 70 basis points year-over-year. And non-GAAP diluted EPS came in at $0.48. Turning to our SaaS metrics. New SaaS ACV bookings came in solid at $26.5 million, up strongly from Q1. The percentage of our software revenue that is recurring increased to 86% compared to 84% a year ago in the same period. And SaaS ARR came in strong with a 17% increase year-over-year.

從我們第二季度的損益指標開始。收入為 2.1 億美元。非 GAAP 毛利率擴大至 70%，同比增長超過 70 個基點。非 GAAP 稀釋後每股收益為 0.48 美元。轉向我們的 SaaS 指標。新的 SaaS ACV 預訂量穩定達到 2650 萬美元，較第一季度強勁增長。我們的軟件收入中經常性收入的比例從去年同期的 84% 增至 86%。 SaaS ARR 表現強勁，同比增長 17%。

Earlier this year, we introduced SaaS annual recurring revenue or SaaS ARR. SaaS ARR is an operating metric that represents the annualized quarterly run rate value of active or signed SaaS contracts as of the end of a period. Management uses SaaS ARR to understand the annual recurring value of customer contracts at the end of a reporting period and to monitor the growth of our recurring business as we shift to SaaS. One of the benefits of SaaS ARR is that it normalizes all SaaS contracts to reflect a consistent and annualized ratable view despite the different accounting treatments for unbundled SaaS which is recognized upfront under ASC 606 and for bundled SaaS, which is recognized ratably over the term of the contracts. The reason this is important is that our mix of unbundled SaaS and bundled SaaS bookings can vary quarter-to-quarter and impact year-over-year growth trends in SaaS revenue.

今年早些時候，我們推出了 SaaS 年度經常性收入或 SaaS ARR。 SaaS ARR 是一個運營指標，表示截至一段時間結束時有效或已簽署的 SaaS 合同的年化季度運行率值。管理層使用 SaaS ARR 來了解報告期末客戶合同的年度經常性價值，並在我們轉向 SaaS 時監控我們經常性業務的增長。 SaaS ARR 的好處之一是，它規範了所有SaaS 合同，以反映一致的年化應計稅額視圖，儘管對於根據ASC 606 預先確認的非捆綁式SaaS 和在以下期限內按應計稅額確認的捆綁式SaaS 有不同的會計處理方法。合同。這一點很重要，因為我們的非捆綁式 SaaS 和捆綁式 SaaS 預訂的組合可能會因季度而異，並影響 SaaS 收入的同比增長趨勢。

This is exactly what happened in Q2. Non-GAAP SaaS revenue increased 10% year-over-year compared to our 17% increase in SaaS ARR reflecting the growth on normalized ratable basis. The new SaaS ACV booking level in Q2 this year was similar to the level we achieved in Q2 last year, However, the mix of SaaS bookings was weighted more towards bundled SaaS. To address the fact that our SaaS bookings mix can vary quarter-to-quarter, going forward, we intend to disclose SaaS ARR on a quarterly basis.

這正是第二季度發生的情況。非 GAAP SaaS 收入同比增長 10%，而 SaaS ARR 增長 17%，這反映了標準化應計稅基礎上的增長。今年第二季度新的 SaaS ACV 預訂水平與去年第二季度的水平相似，但是 SaaS 預訂的組合更多地偏向於捆綁 SaaS。為了解決我們的 SaaS 預訂組合可能隨季度變化的事實，今後，我們打算按季度披露 SaaS ARR。

Let's take a closer look at the bookings dynamics in Q2 and how it impacted our Q2 SaaS revenue. As Dan mentioned, during H1, we experienced elongated sales cycles due to the macroeconomic environment. For Q1, we previously discussed our expectations to book 27 million ACV of which 16 million closed and 11 million shifted out of Q1. These 11 million ACV worth of deals were subsequently booked in Q2. Similarly, we were expecting around 34 million ACV in Q2, of which we booked 26.5 million and over 8 million shifted out of Q2. It's important to note that the slip deals similar to Q1 were not lost and the majority of which is expected to be booked in Q3.

讓我們仔細看看第二季度的預訂動態以及它如何影響我們第二季度的 SaaS 收入。正如 Dan 提到的，上半年，由於宏觀經濟環境，我們經歷了較長的銷售週期。對於第一季度，我們之前討論過預計預訂 2700 萬台 ACV，其中 1600 萬台已關閉，1100 萬台從第一季度轉出。這價值 1100 萬 ACV 的交易隨後在第二季度被預訂。同樣，我們預計第二季度的 ACV 約為 3400 萬輛，其中我們預訂了 2650 萬輛，超過 800 萬輛從第二季度移出。值得注意的是，與第一季度類似的滑單交易並沒有丟失，其中大部分預計將在第三季度預訂。

In addition to the shift to the right, I'd also like to highlight our mix of the bookings. Of 8 million ACV we didn't book in the quarter, approximately 50% or 3.5 million were for unbundled SaaS deals. Since revenue from the unbundled SaaS deals are recognized upfront with a standard term of 3 years, the revenue impact from the 3.5 million deal shortfall was $11 million of revenue in Q2. As a result, the unbundled SaaS deals were the primary reason for our Q2 SaaS revenue and total revenue coming in below the prior expectations we discussed of a slight sequential increase from Q1's level.

除了向右移動之外，我還想強調一下我們的預訂組合。在我們本季度未預訂的 800 萬個 ACV 中，大約 50%（即 350 萬個）用於非捆綁 SaaS 交易。由於非捆綁 SaaS 交易的收入按照 3 年的標準期限預先確認，因此 350 萬筆交易缺口對第二季度收入的影響為 1100 萬美元。因此，非捆綁 SaaS 交易是我們第二季度 SaaS 收入和總收入低於我們之前討論的較第一季度水平略有連續增長的預期的主要原因。

Turning to fiscal '24 guidance. We expect the shift to the right we experienced in H1 due to the macroeconomic environment to continue into H2 and believe it's prudent to adjust our outlook for new SaaS ACV bookings for the year. Our original outlook for the year was for approximately 11% new SaaS ACV growth or 112 million, and we now expect around 10 million of our bookings to shift out of the year. Our current outlook for the second half to 60 million of new SaaS ACV bookings taking the full year to 102 million, flat with last year. As a result of the bookings shift, we are adjusting our SaaS revenue outlook for the full year to a range of 18% to 20% growth.

轉向 24 財年指導。我們預計，由於宏觀經濟環境，我們在上半年經歷的向右轉變將持續到下半年，並認為調整今年新 SaaS ACV 預訂的前景是謹慎的。我們對今年的最初預期是 SaaS ACV 新增約 11% 或 1.12 億，現在預計約 1000 萬的預訂量將在今年轉移。我們目前預計下半年 SaaS ACV 新增預訂量將達到 6000 萬，全年將達到 1.02 億，與去年持平。由於預訂量的變化，我們將全年 SaaS 收入預期調整為 18% 至 20% 的增長范圍。

Let me give you some additional color on our annual guidance. With respect to revenue, we expect 10 million ACV bookings shift to have a $25 million impact to our revenue this year and are adjusting our revenue outlook to $910 million. While we are adjusting our revenue guidance for the year, we expect greater gross margin and operating margin expansion from accelerated improvements in our SaaS margins. As such, we are maintaining our outlook of $2.65 of diluted EPS for the year. Our diluted EPS guidance, along with our adjusted EBITDA guidance of $250 million represents 5% growth year-over-year for both metrics. We also continue to expect $190 million of non-GAAP cash from operations before onetime items. Regarding below-the-line assumptions, we expect interest and other expense on average of $750,000 per quarter. Net income from non-controlling interest should be about $200,000 per quarter. Our cash tax rate should be about 10%, and we expect around 75 million fully diluted shares outstanding.

讓我對我們的年度指導進行一些補充說明。就收入而言，我們預計今年 1000 萬次 ACV 預訂將對我們的收入產生 2500 萬美元的影響，並將我們的收入前景調整為 9.1 億美元。雖然我們正在調整今年的收入指引，但我們預計 SaaS 利潤率的加速改善將帶來更高的毛利率和營業利潤率擴張。因此，我們維持今年稀釋後每股收益 2.65 美元的預期。我們的稀釋後每股收益指引以及調整後的 EBITDA 指引為 2.5 億美元，這兩個指標均同比增長 5%。我們還繼續預計一次性項目之前的運營業務將產生 1.9 億美元的非 GAAP 現金。關於線下假設，我們預計每季度平均利息和其他費用為 750,000 美元。來自非控股權益的淨收入應約為每季度 200,000 美元。我們的現金稅率應該約為 10%，我們預計完全稀釋後的流通股數量約為 7500 萬股。

Let me also discuss how we see the second half of the year progressing. Starting with Q3, for bookings, we expect new SaaS ACV bookings to come in at a level similar to Q2. For revenue, we expect the sequential increase from Q2 to around $215 million, driven by continued SaaS growth. And for gross margins, we expect another gradual sequential increase in Q3.

讓我也討論一下我們如何看待下半年的進展。從第三季度開始，就預訂而言，我們預計新的 SaaS ACV 預訂量將達到與第二季度類似的水平。對於收入，我們預計在 SaaS 持續增長的推動下，收入將較第二季度環比增長至 2.15 億美元左右。至於毛利率，我們預計第三季度將再次逐步環比增長。

Turning to Q4. For bookings, we expect new SaaS ACV bookings to grow sequentially from Q3, taking H2 to $60 million in total. For revenue, we expect to finish the year very strong with around $267 million, up $52 million sequentially from Q3. While this seems like a significant increase sequentially, most of this increase is coming from unbundled SaaS renewals being concentrated in Q4 this year. In fact, we expect approximately $55 million of renewal revenue in Q4 compared to only $15 million in Q3. And for gross margins, we expect a larger sequential increase in Q4, driven by the significant sequential revenue increase from the concentration of renewals.

轉向第四季度。對於預訂量，我們預計新的 SaaS ACV 預訂量將從第三季度開始連續增長，下半年總額將達到 6000 萬美元。就收入而言，我們預計今年的收入將非常強勁，達到約 2.67 億美元，比第三季度連續增長 5200 萬美元。雖然這似乎是一個顯著的環比增長，但大部分增長來自非捆綁 SaaS 續訂，集中在今年第四季度。事實上，我們預計第四季度的續訂收入約為 5500 萬美元，而第三季度僅為 1500 萬美元。至於毛利率，我們預計第四季度將出現更大的環比增長，這是由於續訂集中帶來的收入環比大幅增長的推動。

Next, I will discuss how the trends we are seeing this year should benefit our financial model next year. Let me provide you with some details on these benefits. Starting with revenue growth next year. We see 3 positive trends. First, we see a high level of interest in our latest AI and bot innovation, and we expect customers to consume more from our platform over time due to the strong ROI of our solutions. Second, while sales cycles are elongating, our pipeline is growing, and we believe there is pent-up demand.

接下來，我將討論我們今年看到的趨勢將如何有利於我們明年的財務模式。讓我向您提供有關這些好處的一些詳細信息。從明年的收入增長開始。我們看到了 3 個積極趨勢。首先，我們看到人們對我們最新的人工智能和機器人創新高度感興趣，並且由於我們解決方案的強勁投資回報率，我們預計客戶會隨著時間的推移從我們的平台上消費更多。其次，雖然銷售週期正在延長，但我們的渠道正在增長，我們相信存在被壓抑的需求。

And third, with SaaS ARR growing strongly and perpetual revenue leveling off, the headwinds we have had from declining perpetual revenue will be largely behind us. With respect to cash flow, we expect our cash generation to grow at a double-digit rate next year faster than our revenue growth. Behind this expectation is the positive impact to our cash flow from our SaaS ARR growth as well as the fact that some onetime expenditures associated with our post-COVID office realignment will be behind us.

第三，隨著 SaaS ARR 強勁增長和永久收入趨於平穩，我們因永久收入下降而遇到的阻力將在很大程度上成為過去。就現金流而言，我們預計明年我們的現金生成將以兩位數的速度增長，速度快於收入增長。這一預期的背後是 SaaS ARR 增長對我們現金流的積極影響，以及與新冠疫情后辦公室調整相關的一些一次性支出將成為過去。

Turning to our balance sheet. We continue to be in a very good financial position. Our net debt remains well under 1x last 12-month EBITDA and is further supported by our strong cash flow. We expect our balance sheet to get even stronger going forward as we benefit from the foundation we laid since the spin, resulting in continued improvement in margins and cash flow. And regarding our $200 million stock buyback program, to date, we have repurchased close to $100 million worth of shares, and we are committed to completing our previously announced program.

轉向我們的資產負債表。我們仍然處於非常良好的財務狀況。我們的淨債務仍遠低於過去 12 個月 EBITDA 的 1 倍，並且我們強勁的現金流進一步支撐了我們。我們預計我們的資產負債表將變得更加強勁，因為我們受益於分拆以來奠定的基礎，從而導致利潤率和現金流的持續改善。至於我們的 2 億美元股票回購計劃，迄今為止，我們已經回購了價值近 1 億美元的股票，並且我們致力於完成之前宣布的計劃。

In summary, in Q2, we delivered solid performance across key SaaS metrics, including a 17% increase in SaaS ARR. Despite our strong SaaS momentum, we experienced some deal slippage in H1 and believe it's prudent to adjust their bookings and revenue outlook for the full year. At the same time, we expect more gross and operating margin expansion and are pleased to be in a position to maintain diluted EPS guidance and expect mid-single-digit growth for diluted EPS and adjusted EBITDA this year.

總之，在第二季度，我們在關鍵 SaaS 指標上實現了穩健的表現，其中 SaaS ARR 增長了 17%。儘管我們的 SaaS 勢頭強勁，但我們在上半年經歷了一些交易下滑，並認為調整全年的預訂和收入前景是謹慎的做法。與此同時，我們預計毛利率和營業利潤率將進一步擴大，並很高興能夠維持稀釋後每股收益指引，並預計今年稀釋後每股收益和調整後 EBITDA 實現中個位數增長。

Finally, our ability to deliver innovative CX automation and drive significant customer ROI positions us to increase consumption in our platform and sustain long-term growth. And before we take questions, I'd like to mention that we'll be hosting an Investor Day in December to highlight our latest innovations and review our financial model in more detail.

最後，我們提供創新的客戶體驗自動化並推動顯著的客戶投資回報率的能力使我們能夠增加平台的消費並維持長期增長。在我們回答問題之前，我想提一下，我們將在 12 月舉辦投資者日活動，以突出我們的最新創新並更詳細地審查我們的財務模型。

With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

那麼，接線員，請開通提問線路。

(Operator Instructions) and the first question comes from Ryan MacDonald from Needham & Company.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自 Needham & Company 的 Ryan MacDonald。

I appreciate the thorough walk-through on the updated guidance expectations. Dan, maybe you could just -- we could start there and just provide a little bit more color on maybe what changed, I guess, so materially, if you will, between first and second quarter and how you're looking into the back half? And I guess, to the extent that in the conversations you're having, do you feel like we're getting to a trough point in terms of the sales cycle elongations? Or what's your viewpoint on sort of the time line of how long this persists for?

我很欣賞對更新後的指導預期的全面介紹。丹，也許你可以——我們可以從那裡開始，我想，如果你願意的話，在第一季度和第二季度之間以及你如何看待後半部分之間可能發生的變化提供更多的色彩？我想，在您正在進行的對話中，您是否覺得我們在銷售週期延長方面正處於低谷？或者您對這種情況持續多久的時間線有何看法？

Yes. So what we saw in Q1 continued in Q2. So we now assume it will continue also in Q3 and Q4. And that's basically elongated sales cycle. So we mentioned $11 million that got pushed out of Q1 to the right, and we booked them in Q2 and that was good. We were happy to see that it's not elongated multiple quarters, but we closed that shortfall in Q2, but then we had similar to the magnitude of $8 million of deals shifting to the right from Q2. And we mentioned we didn't lose them, and we expect to book them later in the year.

是的。因此，我們在第一季度看到的情況在第二季度延續了。因此，我們現在假設第三季度和第四季度也會繼續這種情況。這基本上延長了銷售週期。因此，我們提到從第一季度向右推出 1100 萬美元，我們在第二季度預訂了它們，這很好。我們很高興看到它沒有延長多個季度，但我們在第二季度彌補了這一缺口，但隨後我們有類似規模的 800 萬美元交易從第二季度向右轉移。我們提到我們沒有失去它們，我們預計會在今年晚些時候預訂它們。

So there's a shift right? And it's basically when you look at the trends, it's basically just more scrutiny or approval cycles by customers. We didn't see any other trend changes. So new logos, we had more than 100 new logos in Q2 as well in Q1 and throughout last year. In terms of the average deal length very similar, about 2.5 years. We saw the deal sizes, so we had 20 over $1 million TCV deal. So that's for large enterprises. We did see actually the number of smaller deals increased 30% year-over-year on similar booking in this Q2 versus last Q2. So that suggests that there is more deals but smaller, but that could be part of the macro environment, but also part of the new bots that we announced in Q2. And we mentioned that half of the deals in Q2 included one or more bots, we see that customers, as they look at AI, they tend to start small and then increase consumption over time.

那麼有一個轉變吧？基本上，當你觀察趨勢時，基本上只是客戶進行更多的審查或批准週期。我們沒有看到任何其他趨勢變化。所以新標誌，我們在第二季度、第一季度和去年全年都有 100 多個新標誌。就平均交易期限而言，非常相似，約為 2.5 年。我們看到了交易規模，因此我們有 20 筆超過 100 萬美元的 TCV 交易。這對於大型企業來說是這樣。我們確實看到，與上一季度相比，本季度類似預訂的小額交易數量同比增長了 30%。因此，這表明交易更多但規模較小，但這可能是宏觀環境的一部分，也是我們在第二季度宣布的新機器人的一部分。我們提到第二季度的一半交易包括一個或多個機器人，我們看到客戶在考慮人工智能時，往往從小規模開始，然後隨著時間的推移增加消費。

So that's (inaudible) another change. But clearly, no change to new rates, no change to win ratio. It's really longer sales cycles and then what we did today is we basically took the same trend into Q3 and Q4. We now assume that $10 million of new SaaS ACV will be pushed into next year. So we talked about $112 million this year, and we now adjusted that outlook to $102 million. So not a material change in the shift the right of new SaaS ACV but as Grant explained, at the same time, we think that a lot of the unbundled SaaS deals are being pushed and also SaaS what we saw is unbundled SaaS is becoming bundled SaaS. And because when we apply the 606 accounting, bundled SaaS is ratable, unbundled SaaS upfront revenue. Obviously, as we see less unbundled SaaS, the revenue impact is more significant. So what was not a big impact on booking is creating a $25 million adjustment to our revenue outlook.

這是（聽不清）另一個變化。但顯然，新的賠率沒有變化，贏率也沒有變化。銷售週期確實更長，然後我們今天所做的基本上在第三季度和第四季度採用了相同的趨勢。我們現在假設明年將投入 1000 萬美元的新 SaaS ACV。因此，我們今年討論了 1.12 億美元，現在我們將這一前景調整為 1.02 億美元。因此，新SaaS ACV 的右移並不是重大變化，但正如Grant 解釋的那樣，與此同時，我們認為許多非捆綁式SaaS 交易正在被推動，而且我們看到的非捆綁式SaaS 正在變成捆綁式SaaS 。因為當我們應用 606 會計時，捆綁式 SaaS 是可評估的、非捆綁式 SaaS 預付費用。顯然，隨著我們看到越來越少的非捆綁 SaaS，收入影響更加顯著。因此，對預訂影響不大的是對我們的收入前景進行 2500 萬美元的調整。

But gross margin expanded as we move more to SaaS and SaaS bundle, we get better gross margin. So that offset the impact of the revenue adjustment, and we are maintaining operating margin or EBITDA, $250 million and EPS, $265 million.

但隨著我們更多地轉向 SaaS 和 SaaS 捆綁，毛利率有所擴大，我們獲得了更好的毛利率。因此，這抵消了收入調整的影響，我們維持營業利潤率或 EBITDA 2.5 億美元，每股收益 2.65 億美元。

So that's kind of the impact for this year. Now since you're asking when that's going to be over? so one interesting thing to note is that our pipeline for the next 12 months actually grew 20%. And that suggested while there is elongated sales cycle, there's also pent-up demand and we actually saw that in prior slowdowns by years that we had slowdowns that pipeline has grown. And when things improve in the macro environment there was an uptick also in new bookings. So we hope to see that soon, but the pipeline suggests that there is still good demand for our open platform and bots.

這就是今年的影響。既然你問什麼時候結束？因此，值得注意的一件有趣的事情是，我們未來 12 個月的渠道實際上增長了 20%。這表明，雖然銷售週期拉長，但也存在被壓抑的需求，我們實際上看到，在之前的幾年放緩中，我們的管道已經增長。當宏觀環境有所改善時，新預訂量也會有所增加。因此，我們希望很快就能看到這一點，但管道表明對我們的開放平台和機器人仍有良好的需求。

Super helpful color there. Maybe just double-clicking on the growing pipeline opportunity, Dan. At the Engage conference, you had talked about some of the new product offerings. And obviously, one of the big debuts was Open CCaaS. And I think the strategy around that was to sort of help Daren get more sort of at bats or shots at net. Are you seeing the desired effect from open CCaaS yet? Or what's the conversations been like since Engage?

那裡的顏色超級有用。也許只是雙擊不斷增長的管道機會，丹。在 Engage 會議上，您談到了一些新產品。顯然，最重要的首次亮相之一是 Open CCaaS。我認為圍繞這​​一點的策略是幫助達倫獲得更多的擊球或網內射門。您看到開放 CCaaS 達到的預期效果了嗎？或者自參與以來的對話是什麼樣的？

I think that customers and partners are really excited about an open platform. I think the industry was looking for a truly open platform that allows them to focus on CX automation, which is our (inaudible), elevating customer experience, reducing the labor cost. And this is exactly where open platform is. We have some very good industry coverage, industry research coverage, since then. We are getting really good momentum with partners. We just announced the Microsoft partnership recently. So we were selected by Microsoft to be not only in their marketplace, but also their salespeople when they sell Verint, they get commissions, which is obviously the most important element of being in a true partnership and our Microsoft partnership is just one more too many.

我認為客戶和合作夥伴對開放平台感到非常興奮。我認為該行業正在尋找一個真正開放的平台，使他們能夠專注於 CX 自動化，這就是我們的（聽不清），提升客戶體驗，降低勞動力成本。而這正是開放平台的所在。從那時起，我們有了一些非常好的行業報導、行業研究報導。我們與合作夥伴的合作勢頭非常好。我們最近剛剛宣布與微軟建立合作夥伴關係。因此，微軟選擇我們不僅進入他們的市場，而且成為他們銷售Verint 時的銷售人員，他們獲得佣金，這顯然是真正合作夥伴關係中最重要的要素，而我們與微軟的合作夥伴關係只是其中之一。 。

But I think it's driven by open platform and our ability to work with anyone in the industry to bring value to customers and also fits very seamlessly into the customer existing environment. They can keep their existing telephony they can keep their existing CRM vendor, and they can move forward with innovation to deploy bots and help to the workforce augment the workforce with AI. I think that's all very compelling to customers.

但我認為這是由開放平台以及我們與業內任何人合作為客戶帶來價值的能力推動的，並且也非常無縫地融入客戶現有環境。他們可以保留現有的電話服務，可以保留現有的 CRM 供應商，並且可以通過創新來部署機器人，並幫助員工通過人工智能增強員工隊伍。我認為這對客戶來說非常有吸引力。

And our next question comes from Peter Levine from Evercore ISI.

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Peter Levine。

Maybe if I look at top of the funnel metrics, were you as successful at converting leads or adding leads at a similar level versus expectations or your plans and second, do you feel like you have enough salespeople, did you experience any sales churn. I'm just trying to get a better understanding if the folks that you do have on the front lines, are they achieving their quota? Just a general sense of do you have enough coverage, I think, in this market to kind of hit the numbers that you're putting out here for the second half.

也許如果我查看漏斗指標的頂部，您是否在轉換銷售線索或添加類似水平的銷售線索方面與預期或您的計劃一樣成功，其次，您是否覺得您有足夠的銷售人員，您是否經歷過任何銷售流失。我只是想更好地了解前線的人員是否完成了他們的配額？我認為，一般來說，您在這個市場上是否有足夠的覆蓋範圍來達到您在下半年發布的數字。

Yes. So the leading indicator is obviously the pipeline and then the progression in the pipeline. And I think the pipeline is growing, but that's good, but also we see elongated sales cycle. So everything takes longer and smaller deals where customers can experiment with AI is definitely quick because they see the ROI quickly, and it's not big investments. And because we have a consumption-based pricing model. We also make it easier for them to sell and to buy at an initial consumption level and then increase consumption over time. So from a sales force perspective, obviously, they would rather get the big deals, which get them decommissioned.

是的。因此，領先指標顯然是管道，然後是管道的進展。我認為管道正在增長，但這很好，但我們也看到銷售週期延長。因此，一切都需要更長的時間和更小的交易，客戶可以嘗試人工智能肯定會很快，因為他們很快就能看到投資回報率，而且這不是大筆投資。因為我們有一個基於消費的定價模型。我們還讓他們更容易在初始消費水平上進行銷售和購買，然後隨著時間的推移增加消費。因此，從銷售人員的角度來看，顯然，他們寧願獲得大筆交易，從而讓他們退役。

But having 100 new logos, more than half of the deal with Bots consumption, that's obviously seeding the market with a lot of initial purchases that will grow over time because when people are moving to the cloud platform, the open cloud platform, it's much easier for them to increase consumption, they don't have to go through the whole sales force again. When it comes to the size of the workforce, the sales force, I believe we have the right size. We have people with lots of very deep relationship with customers that go many year back and they know customers personally. They also understand the customer challenges. They understand what customers are trying to solve. So we're not just trying to sell technology, we really bring to our customers ROI-driven solutions.

但是，擁有100 個新徽標（超過一半的交易涉及機器人消費），這顯然為市場注入了大量的初始購買量，這些購買量將隨著時間的推移而增長，因為當人們轉向雲平台（開放雲平台）時，事情會變得更加容易為了增加消費，他們不必再次通過整個銷售隊伍。當談到員工隊伍、銷售隊伍的規模時，我相信我們的規模是合適的。我們的員工在很多年前就與客戶建立了深厚的關係，並且他們親自了解客戶。他們還了解客戶面臨的挑戰。他們了解客戶想要解決的問題。因此，我們不僅僅是試圖銷售技術，我們還真正為客戶帶來投資回報率驅動的解決方案。

In terms of the sales commissions, we pay commissions based on obviously new bookings, but also renewals and renewals are very important for achieving our goals. And we also pay salespeople accelerators for selling more innovation to our customers. So while we just reduced our booking expectations by $10 million for the year, $10 million ACV for the year. But as salespeople are more successfully selling cloud and innovation, they can get accelerators. And I hope that we'll see many people coming to our President Club next year as they achieve quarters.

在銷售佣金方面，我們根據顯然是新的預訂來支付佣金，但續訂和續訂對於實現我們的目標非常重要。我們還向銷售人員支付加速器費用，讓他們向客戶銷售更多創新產品。因此，雖然我們剛剛將今年的預訂預期減少了 1000 萬美元，但今年的 ACV 減少了 1000 萬美元。但隨著銷售人員更成功地銷售雲和創新，他們可以獲得加速器。我希望明年我們會看到很多人在取得季度成績後來到我們的總統俱樂部。

Maybe as a follow-up to, I think, Ryan's first question was, given that you don't really have visibility into when we'll trough out here. So one is -- what are your hiring plans into the second half? And then what are your initial hiring plans as you think about fiscal '25?

我認為，也許作為瑞安的第一個問題的後續，考慮到你並沒有真正了解我們何時會走出困境。那麼一個問題是——你們下半年的招聘計劃是什麼？那麼，當您考慮 25 財年時，您最初的招聘計劃是什麼？

Yes. That's a very good question. So right now, our guidance assumes flat operating expenses in Q3 and Q4, so similar to Q1 and Q2. So we have no hiring plans, and we're going to maintain the level of expense that we have now. And I think in this environment, it's positioned us to really focus on getting the salespeople we have today to build the pipeline. And as I said before, to push more innovation into our customer base and new logos. And as soon as we see signs that this pent-up demand that we see in our pipeline growth is starting to materialize then we obviously can change that view and resume hiring. But right now, for the remainder of the year, our guidance assumed that things will remain the same.

是的。這是一個非常好的問題。因此，目前我們的指導假設第三季度和第四季度的運營費用持平，與第一季度和第二季度類似。因此，我們沒有招聘計劃，我們將維持現有的開支水平。我認為在這種環境下，我們能夠真正專注於讓我們現有的銷售人員建立渠道。正如我之前所說，將更多創新推向我們的客戶群和新徽標。一旦我們看到有跡象表明我們在管道增長中看到的這種被壓抑的需求開始實現，那麼我們顯然可以改變這種觀點並恢復招聘。但目前，在今年剩餘時間內，我們的指導假設情況將保持不變。

(Operator Instructions) And our next question comes from Mason Marion from Jefferies.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Mason Marion。

So I wanted to focus on your existing customer base again with regards to guidance. Are you seeing existing customers reduce licenses? Or are you seeing any change in the turn based on the macro environment? Any color there would be appreciated.

因此，我想在指導方面再次關注您現有的客戶群。您是否看到現有客戶減少許可證？或者您認為宏觀環境有什麼變化嗎？任何顏色都會受到讚賞。

The only change is -- the 2 changes that we see are (inaudible) longer, as they bring more executive into the approval cycle. And there's definitely growing interest in bots and we launched the bots in June in our Engage Customer Conference. I think some of the analysts and investors, you were there and you saw really the excitement, customers were thrilled with the bots. We have now about 30-plus bots in our platform. We will introduce 15 more this year and we expect to introduce about 30 more next year. So very, very rapid innovation. And that's because Da Vinci AI is the core of the platform and it helps us to bring not just Verint AI, but any commercial gene AI to bring it into the platform, train it quickly on data and release new bots that augment the workforce to do different tasks. So that's clearly exciting customers. So on one hand, elongated sales cycle on the other hand, more interesting bots growing pipeline. So no, we did no change in renewals. Our renewals were strong in Q2. Gross renewals, low to mid-90s and more than 100% NRR. So renewal rates didn't change. We saw big deals. We saw same term lengths, close to 2.5 years. So no different in behavior, no really difference in behavior other than the elongate sales cycle and the bot interest.

唯一的變化是——我們看到的兩個變化（聽不清）更長，因為它們將更多的執行人員帶入審批週期。人們對機器人的興趣肯定與日俱增，我們在 6 月份的吸引客戶會議上推出了這些機器人。我想一些分析師和投資者，你們在場，看到了真正的興奮，客戶對機器人感到興奮。我們的平台上現在有大約 30 多個機器人。今年我們將再推出 15 個，預計明年將再推出約 30 個。創新非常非常快。這是因為達芬奇人工智能是該平台的核心，它不僅幫助我們引入Verint 人工智能，還幫助我們引入任何商業基因人工智能，將其引入平台，快速訓練數據並發布新的機器人，以增強勞動力的能力不同的任務。所以這顯然讓客戶興奮不已。因此，一方面，銷售週期拉長，另一方面，更有趣的機器人不斷增長。所以不，我們在續訂方面沒有做任何改變。我們第二季度的續訂強勁。總續訂率在 90 年代低至中期，NRR 超過 100%。所以續訂率沒有改變。我們看到了大交易。我們看到了相同的任期長度，接近 2.5 年。因此，除了延長的銷售週期和機器人興趣之外，行為上沒有什麼不同，沒有真正的行為差異。

And then on the deals that have been pushed out, are you seeing any clustering in a particular vertical or industry perhaps?

然後，在已推出的交易中，您是否看到特定垂直或行業中的任何集群？

Not at all. It's very random. It's -- some things that we start 2 weeks, and we already got some Q2 deals in Q3 so some of the deals are pushed just by a little other gets pushed by month. No rules, no industry pattern. It's really company by company and just generally cautious approach to IT spending.

一點也不。這是非常隨機的。有些事情我們會在兩週後開始，我們已經在第三季度獲得了一些第二季度的交易，所以有些交易只是由一些其他交易按月推動。沒有規則，就沒有行業格局。具體情況因公司而異，而且對 IT 支出普遍持謹慎態度。

Got you. Last one for me is you've talked a lot about your AI bots. How should we think about that impacting on like a per customer ARPU basis? Any rule of thumb regarding like an ARPU uplift that you're seeing from customers that are adopting?

明白你了。我的最後一個問題是，您談論了很多有關人工智能機器人的內容。我們應該如何看待這對每個客戶 ARPU 的影響？您從正在採用的客戶那裡看到了有關 ARPU 提升的任何經驗法則嗎？

So we talked last quarter on a potential 10x uplift that we see in our customer base. And that's based on analyzing our top customers. This clearly -- the spend on labor is very large in customer engagement. We talked about $2 trillion labor spend annually and bots -- bots are really good at doing just one thing, right? Each bot is automating one task and it's very easy for customers to kind of compare the price of their bots to the savings that they create. And obviously, they can deploy a large team of bots and save more than just on one task, but that makes them very easy to deploy from the platform, the bots are deployed embedded in workflow, so there's no disruption to people while they're doing their normal work.

因此，我們上個季度談到了我們的客戶群潛在的 10 倍增長。這是基於對我們的頂級客戶的分析。很明顯，在客戶參與方面，勞動力支出非常大。我們討論了每年 2 萬億美元的勞動力支出和機器人——機器人真的只擅長做一件事，對吧？每個機器人都會自動執行一項任務，客戶很容易將機器人的價格與他們創造的節省進行比較。顯然，他們可以部署一大批機器人，並不僅僅節省一項任務，但這使得它們非常容易從平台進行部署，機器人部署在工作流程中，因此不會對人們造成乾擾。做他們的正常工作。

They're getting help from bots. So it's a very, very good way for customers to start to increase automation or what we call CX automation, customer experience, elevation and automation. At the same time, it's very easy. So we think, and that's what we mentioned that we'll see increase in our -- in bot consumption in our base. We have new numbers that start small and our goal is that they will increase both consumption over time. And that creates a whole new TAM that didn't really exist before AI that Verint is leading the way in terms of bringing AI to the fingertips of the agents.

他們從機器人那裡得到幫助。因此，對於客戶來說，這是一種非常非常好的方式來開始提高自動化程度，或者我們所說的 CX 自動化、客戶體驗、提升和自動化。同時，這也非常容易。所以我們認為，這就是我們提到的，我們將看到我們基地的機器人消費量增加。我們有一些新的數字，從小規模開始，我們的目標是隨著時間的推移，它們會增加消費。這創造了一個全新的 TAM，在 AI 之前並不存在，Verint 在將 AI 帶到代理的指尖方面處於領先地位。

And I'm showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the call back over to Matthew Frankel for closing remarks.

我沒有再提出任何問題。現在我想將電話轉回給馬修·弗蘭克爾（Matthew Frankel）做總結髮言。

Thanks, (inaudible) , and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. Of course, as always, feel free to reach out to me with any follow-up questions you have. And we look forward to speaking to you again soon. Have a good night.

謝謝（聽不清），也謝謝大家今天加入我們。當然，與往常一樣，如果您有任何後續問題，請隨時與我聯繫。我們期待很快再次與您交談。祝你晚安。

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

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。