Verisk Analytics Inc (VRSK) 2021 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Verisk Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Results Conference Call. This call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

大家好，歡迎參加Verisk 2021財年第二季財報電話會議。本次電話會議正在錄音。 （操作員說明）

For opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Verisk's Head of Investors Relations, Ms. Stacey Brodbar. Ms. Brodbar, please go ahead.

接下來，我將把電話交給Verisk的投資人關係主管Stacey Brodbar女士，請她致開幕詞並作介紹。 Brodbar女士，請開始吧。

Thank you, Jay, and good day, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for a discussion of our second quarter 2021 financial results. Today's call will be led by Scott Stephenson, Verisk's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, who will provide an overview of our business. Lee Shavel, Chief Financial Officer and Group President, will follow with the financial review. Mark Anquillare, Chief Operating Officer and Group President, will join the team for the Q&A session.

謝謝Jay，大家好。感謝各位今天參加我們2021年第二季財務業績討論會。本次電話會議將由Verisk董事長、總裁兼執行長Scott Stephenson主持，他將概述公司業務。財務長兼集團總裁Lee Shavel將隨後進行財務回顧。營運長兼集團總裁Mark Anquillare將加入問答環節。

The earnings release referenced on this call as well as the associated 10-Q can be found in the Investors section of our website, verisk.com. Earnings release has also been attached to an 8-K that we have furnished to the SEC. A replay of this call will be available for 30 days on our website and by dial-in.

本次電話會議中提及的獲利報告以及相關的10-Q表格可在我們網站verisk.com的「投資者關係」欄位中找到。獲利報告也已附在我們提交給美國證券交易委員會（SEC）的8-K表格中。本次電話會議的錄音回放將在我們網站和電話撥入平台上保留30天。

Finally, as set forth in more detail in today's earnings release, I will remind everyone that today's call may include forward-looking statements about their future performance, including, but not limited to, the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Actual performance could differ materially from what is suggested by our comments today. Information about the factors that could affect future performance is contained in our recent SEC filings.

最後，正如今天發布的盈利報告中更詳細闡述的那樣，我要提醒各位，今天的電話會議可能包含有關公司未來業績的前瞻性陳述，包括但不限於新冠疫情的潛在影響。實際業績可能與我們今天所作的陳述有重大差異。有關可能影響未來業績的因素的信息，請參閱我們近期提交給美國證券交易委員會（SEC）的文件。

Now I will turn the call over to Scott.

現在我將把通話交給史考特。

Thanks, Stacey, and good day, everyone. Thanks for joining us for our second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. I'm pleased to share that Verisk delivered a strong second quarter result. The strength of our business model has been on full display since the start of the pandemic and continues in the recovery. We delivered solid top line and profit growth in every quarter last year despite the weak economic environment and operating challenges from lockdowns because of the consistent and durable growth in our subscription-based businesses. As expected, we are now fully participating in the recovery as our transactional businesses are showing strong resilience and rebounding with the rollout of vaccines and global economies opening up.

謝謝Stacey，大家好。感謝各位參加我們2021年第二季財報電話會議。我很高興地告訴大家，Verisk第二季業績表現強勁。自疫情爆發以來，我們商業模式的優勢已充分展現，並在復甦階段持續發揮作用。儘管去年經濟環境疲軟，並面臨封鎖帶來的營運挑戰，但由於訂閱業務的持續穩定成長，我們每季都實現了營收和利潤的穩健成長。正如預期，隨著疫苗的推廣和全球經濟的逐步開放，我們的交易業務展現出強大的韌性並強勁反彈，我們目前正全面參與經濟復甦。

To be more specific in the second quarter, Verisk delivered organic constant currency revenue growth of 6.3%, comprised of growth of 5.5% and are mostly subscription-based non-COVID-sensitive revenues, and growth of 12.1% in our mostly transactional COVID-sensitive revenues. In fact, certain of our transactional businesses have already returned to pre-COVID levels. We have confidence this general trend can continue and believe that as the COVID impacts fully abate, we can return to delivering financial results in line with our long-term model. Lee will provide more details in his financial review.

具體而言，Verisk第二季度有機收入（以固定匯率計算）成長6.3%，其中5.5%的營收主要來自訂閱業務，不受新冠疫情影響；12.1%的營收主要來自交易業務，受新冠疫情影響較大。事實上，我們部分交易業務已經恢復到疫情前的水準。我們相信這一總體趨勢能夠持續，並相信隨著新冠疫情影響的全面消退，我們將能夠恢復到符合我們長期發展模式的財務表現水準。 Lee將在財務回顧中提供更多細節。

These results were delivered through the hard work, dedication and consistent focus on our customers by our 9,000 employees around the globe. In many parts of the world, we've already begun welcoming our employees back to our offices, with a plan guided by our mission of protecting the health and well-being of our team members and in line with directives from local governments and public health officials. While our Global Protection Services team is keeping a close eye on developments with the delta variant, our teams are energized to work together in person again. In fact, Currently, more than half of our global offices are operating in a Phase 2 or 3 format. Across the U.S., we have plans to return to full use of our offices in September, unless circumstances change considerably.

這些成果的取得，離不開我們全球9000名員工的辛勤付出、敬業精神以及對客戶的持續關注。在世界許多地區，我們已經開始迎接員工重返辦公室，並制定了相應的計劃，以保障團隊成員的健康和福祉為己任，同時嚴格遵守當地政府和公共衛生部門的指導方針。雖然我們的全球防護服務團隊正密切關注德爾塔變種病毒的發展，但我們的團隊已做好充分準備，期待再次面對面地協同工作。事實上，目前我們全球超過一半的辦公室已恢復到第二階段或第三階段的營運模式。在美國，我們計劃在9月全面恢復辦公室的正常使用，除非情況有重大變化。

We have implemented a return to office policy of 3 days in the office, 4 with customers and 2 days for hub. This approach, which incorporates the best learnings from the pandemic, balances individual flexibility with the collaboration and creativity that stems from working together in person. We also believe that this flexible working policy will help to retain and attract the very best talent as we continue to grow in what is a very competitive hiring environment. Not only are we returning to office, we are also beginning to have certain in-person meetings with our customers, including on-site training and sales opportunities.

我們已實施復工復產政策，即每週三天在辦公室辦公，四天與客戶會面，兩天在中心辦公。這個方案汲取了疫情期間的最佳經驗，不僅確保了個人工作的靈活性，也兼顧了面對面協作所帶來的創造力和創新。我們相信，在競爭激烈的招募環境中，這項彈性的工作政策將有助於我們留住並吸引最優秀的人才，從而實現持續成長。不僅如此，我們也開始恢復與客戶的部分線下會議，包括現場培訓和銷售洽談。

Given how effectively we've worked in a fully remote format, we have confidence that this return to office policy is the optimal design. Our computing and network capacity have consistently and comfortably exceeded what we require, and our teams have adjusted to using all the virtual collaboration tools we have implemented enterprise-wide.

鑑於我們遠距辦公模式的高效性，我們相信此次返崗政策是最佳方案。我們的運算和網路容量一直遠超實際需求，團隊也已適應使用公司範圍內部署的所有虛擬協作工具。

On the topic of technology. We continue to make great strides on our efforts to modernize and optimize our technology platforms to always be best in class. As of today, we have effectively and seamlessly moved most of our applications off the mainframe. This has been a huge undertaking and is a great example of true collaboration and partnership between our IT teams and business units around the globe. In total, we currently have thousands of solutions running native in the cloud, including those that were moved from prior on-premise environments and those built native to the cloud. We are advancing our cloud-first strategy and currently have more than half of our compute environment running in the cloud.

關於技術方面，我們持續推進技術平台的現代化和優化，力求始終保持業界領先地位。截至目前，我們已有效率且無縫地將大部分應用程式從大型主機遷移至雲端。這是一項規模龐大的工程，也是我們全球IT團隊與業務部門精誠合作的典範。目前，我們共有數千個解決方案在雲端原生運行，其中包括從原有本地環境遷移而來的解決方案以及專為雲端環境建置的解決方案。我們正積極推動「雲端優先」策略，目前超過一半的運算環境已部署在雲端。

The migration to the cloud is a multifaceted multistage project, and we are pacing this transition in lockstep with our customers to ensure that we are always delivering on their highest expectations. In addition, as we advance on this journey, the process is ever improving, and we are seeing real benefits in terms of pace of innovation, resiliency, security and compliance. Our ability to introduce new products and release updates to existing products in a quick and efficient manner is vastly improved because of our shift to the cloud. We are also able to onboard new customers and enter new geographies faster and with reduced capital intensity.

向雲端遷移是一個涉及多個面向、分多個階段的項目，我們與客戶保持步調一致，確保始終滿足他們的最高期望。此外，隨著遷移的深入，流程也不斷改進，我們在創新速度、系統彈性、安全性和合規性方面都看到了實質的益處。由於遷移到雲端，我們能夠以更快的速度和更低的資本投入，推出新產品並拓展新市場。

For example, we've successfully deployed our new cloud-based visualized ISO ClaimSearch platform to our P&C insurance customers. This modernized version of our industry-leading ClaimSearch platform provides a more engaging user experience for thousands of claim adjusters and investigators, and allows us to offer new features, functionality and solutions quickly and easily to customers through this platform.

例如，我們已成功向財產保險客戶部署了全新的基於雲端的視覺化 ISO ClaimSearch 平台。這個業界領先的 ClaimSearch 平台的現代化版本，為數千名理賠員和調查員提供了更具吸引力的用戶體驗，並使我們能夠透過該平台快速便捷地向客戶提供新的功能和解決方案。

In addition, our new insurance digital media contributory database will take advantage of the flexibility and efficiencies of cloud technology to process, store and analyze claim-related digital images from more than 160 insurers. Initially, we expect to receive over 8 million digital media files per week as this new offering ramps up to help insurers better detect potential fraud and increase settlement fee for meritorious claims. The cloud is also advancing our sales process as we can offer customers an easy and cost-beneficial way to pilot or trial new solutions that was previously much more cumbersome in Verisk's prior on-premise format. This allows customers to truly see in action the value of our solutions. Our sales team can then focus on converting those customers to long-term subscriptions.

此外，我們全新的保險數位媒體貢獻資料庫將充分利用雲端技術的靈活性和高效性，處理、儲存和分析來自160多家保險公司的理賠相關數位影像。初期，我們預計每週將收到超過800萬個數位媒體文件，隨著這項新服務的逐步完善，我們將幫助保險公司更好地檢測潛在詐欺行為，並提高合理理賠的結算費用。雲端技術也正在推動我們的銷售流程，因為我們可以為客戶提供一種便捷且經濟高效的方式來試用或體驗新解決方案，而這在Verisk之前的本地部署模式下要繁瑣得多。這使得客戶能夠真正體驗我們解決方案的價值。之後，我們的銷售團隊可以專注於將這些客戶轉化為長期訂閱用戶。

The cloud has also made our solutions more resilient with less downtime as the duration of maintenance windows are greatly reduced. We no longer must take our cloud-native solutions off-line to do things like update or release new features or protect them with the latest security patches and protocols. We have also constructed a cloud security program that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to continuously monitor our entire environment, making us more secure and able to audit our entire process for full accountability.

雲端技術也使我們的解決方案更具彈性，維護窗口期大幅縮短，停機時間也顯著減少。我們不再需要將雲端原生解決方案離線進行更新、發布新功能或使用最新的安全性修補程式和協定進行保護等操作。此外，我們也建構了一個利用人工智慧和機器學習技術的雲端安全程序，持續監控整個環境，從而提高安全性，並能夠對整個流程進行全面審計，確保責任落實到位。

And finally, the cloud makes it easier to keep applications and data that are running in local geographies to adhere to the increasing nuances of regulatory and compliance requirements that are geographically specific. As our business expands globally, this becomes an increasing benefit of cloud.

最後，雲端運算使得運行在本地地區的應用程式和資料更容易符合日益精細化的、具有地域針對性的監管和合規要求。隨著我們業務的全球擴張，這逐漸成為雲端運算日益顯著的優勢。

From a capital perspective, our cloud migration has reduced our ongoing need to spend on third-party hardware and software. We are reallocating those savings towards internal innovation and spending more on growth CapEx. We are leaning into our highest growth, highest return on invested capital organic opportunities across insurance and energy.

從資本角度來看，雲端遷移降低了我們對第三方硬體和軟體的持續支出需求。我們將節省的資金重新分配到內部創新和成長型資本支出。我們正著力把握保險和能源領域成長最快、投資報酬率最高的內生性成長機會。

Within Insurance, we have seen great success with the development of the LightSpeed platform. This organically developed data-forward platform has automated and improved the underwriting process for our customers, and is driving strong top line growth within our ISO business as we have extended it across personal and commercial lines.

在保險業務方面，我們開發的LightSpeed平台取得了巨大成功。這個自主研發、以數據為導向的平台，實現了客戶核保流程的自動化和優化，並隨著我們將其擴展到個人和商業險種，推動了ISO業務的強勁營收成長。

Specific to Commercial Lines, we've seen continued success in small commercial for business owners and commercial auto. With LightSpeed, we have augmented our AI and machine learning capabilities, introducing image analytics that will help present a holistic view of risk at the point of quote and ensure that small business owners get the coverage they need. We've also expanded our entity resolution and benchmarking data and analytics to help our diverse client base scale and increase their speed to market.

在商業險領域，我們持續在小型企業主商業險和商業汽車險方面取得成功。透過 LightSpeed，我們增強了人工智慧和機器學習能力，引入影像分析技術，能夠在報價時提供全面的風險評估，確保小型企業主獲得所需的保障。此外，我們還擴展了實體解析和基準數據及分析功能，以幫助我們多元化的客戶群擴大規模並加快產品上市速度。

We are also accelerating our customers' journey towards 0 application questions, helping drive speed and efficiency. With over 80 traditional and InsurTech customers, leveraging LightSpeed commercial, we are enabling the industry to free up underwriting talent to focus on more complex risks and helping our customers become the carrier or managing general agent of choice in this fast-moving and profitable space.

我們也正在加速客戶實現零申請問題的流程，進而提升速度與效率。憑藉超過 80 家傳統保險和保險科技客戶，我們利用 LightSpeed Commercial 平台，幫助保險業釋放核保人才，使其專注於更複雜的風險，並助力客戶在這個快速發展且利潤豐厚的領域成為首選的保險公司或總代理。

Within energy, our internally developed cloud-based Lens platform is transforming the way customers interact with the Mackenzie data as we are integrating our complex data sets seamlessly into their workflows. We have greatly reduced our research cycle times from days to hours, allowing us to commercialize solutions more quickly and update data in existing solutions more frequently. This empowers our customers with the data necessary to make timely and well-informed decisions about commodity markets around the globe. We are seeing strong value-based price realization and revenue growth, resulting in solid returns on capital for this platform.

在能源領域，我們自主研發的雲端Lens平台正在革新客戶與麥肯錫資料互動的方式，因為我們可以將複雜的資料集無縫整合到他們的工作流程中。我們已將研究週期從數天大幅縮短至數小時，從而能夠更快地將解決方案商業化，並更頻繁地更新現有解決方案中的數據。這使我們的客戶能夠獲得必要的數據，從而在全球大宗商品市場做出及時、明智的決策。我們看到基於價值的價格實現和收入的強勁增長，為該平台帶來了可觀的資本回報。

The capital management discipline is also evidenced in our acquisition strategy. While interest and valuations for data analytic assets are high, we've been very selective and focused our attention only on assets where we can create incremental value by combining data sets for new solutions, leveraging our infrastructure or improving sales and distribution, through our strong customer relationships and industry scale. Our recent acquisition of FAST is a great example of how we are leveraging our relationships across the industry to accelerate the adoption of FAST software, driving strong returns on invested capital.

我們的資本管理原則也體現在收購策略中。儘管數據分析資產備受關注且估值很高，但我們始終保持謹慎，只專注於那些能夠透過整合數據集開發新解決方案、利用自身基礎設施或借助強大的客戶關係和行業規模優勢來提升銷售和分銷渠道，從而創造增量價值的資產。我們近期對FAST的收購就是一個很好的例子，它展現了我們如何利用自身在產業內的關係來加速FAST軟體的普及，從而實現強勁的投資回報。

On the engagement front, even in a mostly virtual mode, we continue to get ever closer to our customers. This engagement starts with the C-suite and runs through all levels of the organization. This is evidenced by increasing frequency of meetings, better attendance at our virtual events and increasing interest from customers to work with us as development partners. In fact, we recently announced 2 key development partners for our Lens Power solution, namely Vestas and Quinbrook. It has also translated into building sales pipelines and more sales opportunities. And we're having great success converting these sales opportunities into new contracts as we benefit from our ability to bundle our broad offerings to meet our customers' unique needs. This is particularly evident with our fastest-growing customer segment in InsurTech.

在客戶互動方面，即便目前主要採用線上模式，我們與客戶的連結也日益緊密。這種互動始於高階主管，並貫穿公司各個層級。這體現在我們會議頻率的增加、線上活動的參與度提升，以及客戶對我們作為開發合作夥伴的合作意願日益增強。事實上，我們近期宣布了Lens Power解決方案的兩大重要開發合作夥伴：維斯塔斯（Vestas）和昆布魯克（Quinbrook）。這也轉化為銷售通路的拓展和銷售機會的增加。我們能夠將這些銷售機會轉化為新合同，這得益於我們能夠將豐富的產品和服務組合起來，以滿足客戶的獨特需求。這一點在我們成長最快的保險科技客戶群中尤其明顯。

On the innovation front, we recently launched the Cyber Risk Navigator, our cyber risk modeling application. This release represented a year-long effort to redevelop the platform from an on-premise solution to cloud-native SaaS solution. Given the scalability of the cloud, clients are now able to run analyses in minutes that used to take hours. It also provides us the ability to bring new features and model updates to the market quickly, rather than being tied to annual software releases, which is essential for a rapidly changing risk such as cyber.

在創新方面，我們近期推出了網路風險建模應用程式－網路風險導航器（Cyber​​ Risk Navigator）。此次發布標誌著我們歷時一年，將平台從本地部署方案重新開發為雲端原生SaaS解決方案。由於雲端的可擴展性，客戶現在只需幾分鐘即可完成以往需要數小時才能完成的分析。此外，雲端還使我們能夠快速地將新功能和模型更新推向市場，而無需依賴年度軟體發布，這對於網路風險這種瞬息萬變的領域至關重要。

We also made great strides in advancing our offerings in the telematics space with the introduction of the DrivingDNA Score. This enhanced solution is powered by the unique data from Verisk Data Exchange, that includes 260 billion miles and growing of robust driving behavior data from 8 million connected car drivers. The DrivingDNA Score enables our customers to enter and expand to the rapidly growing usage-based insurance market and is another key addition to our whole suite of telematics solutions.

我們在遠距資訊處理領域也取得了長足進步，推出了 DrivingDNA 評分系統。這項增強型解決方案基於 Verisk 數據交換平台的獨特數據，該平台包含來自 800 萬連網汽車駕駛員的 2,600 億英里（且仍在增長）的可靠駕駛行為數據。 DrivingDNA 評分系統使我們的客戶能夠進入並拓展快速成長的基於使用量的保險市場，也是我們全套遠端資訊處理解決方案的另一個重要補充。

Finally, I'm excited to share about the progress Verisk has made on our environmental stewardship commitments. We recently completed our 2020 greenhouse gas emissions inventory. And I'm pleased to report that, for the fourth straight year, we balanced 100% of Verisk's reported Scope 1, 2 and 3, including business air travel emissions, through a combination of purposeful reduction initiatives and investments in renewable energy certificates and carbon offsets. We remain focused on implementing meaningful physical and operational changes that will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions over the long term. Those include the consolidation of multiple Verisk offices in Boston and London into new energy-efficient business centers as well as the continuing strategic realignment of our data management activities, to take advantage of the major efficiencies presented by cloud computing. Building on the progress we've already achieved to date, I'm also pleased to share that Verisk has committed to an absolute 21% reduction in our Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 2024 compared with the 2019 baseline.

最後，我很高興地與大家分享Verisk在履行環境管理承諾方面取得的進展。我們近期完成了2020年溫室氣體排放清單的編制。我很高興地宣布，我們連續第四年實現了Verisk報告的範圍1、2和3（包括商務航空旅行排放）100%的碳平衡，這得益於一系列有針對性的減排舉措以及對可再生能源證書和碳抵消的投資。我們將繼續致力於實施實際有效的實體和營運變革，以長期減少溫室氣體排放。這些變革包括將Verisk在波士頓和倫敦的多個辦公室整合到新的節能型商務中心，以及持續調整我們的資料管理活動，以充分利用雲端運算帶來的巨大效率提升。基於我們迄今為止的進展，我還很高興地宣布，Verisk承諾到2024年，將範圍1和2的溫室氣體排放量在2019年基準的基礎上絕對減少21%。

In developing the targets, Verisk collaborated with Ecometrica, an accomplished leader in the field of sustainability metrics, software and services. The resulting targets incorporate the latest science-based targets guidance, aligned with the 1.5-degree celsius global future. I look forward to updating you on our progress as we remain committed to addressing the very real impacts of climate change today and for the benefit of future generations.

在製定這些目標的過程中，Verisk 與永續發展指標、軟體和服務領域的領導者 Ecometrica 開展了合作。最終的目標融合了最新的科學目標指導原則，並與全球升溫幅度控制在攝氏 1.5 度以內的目標一致。我期待著向您報告我們的進展，我們將繼續致力於應對氣候變遷帶來的實際影響，造福子孫後代。

I have great confidence that our focus on innovation and serving our customers will help us deliver on our long-term growth objectives, creating lasting shareholder value. As our business recovers from the short-term impacts of the pandemic, we continue to actively study the signs of resilience across the different parts of our company. Our dynamic capital process is designed to ensure that our capital is deployed into the highest-growth and highest-return opportunities.

我堅信，我們對創新和客戶服務的專注將幫助我們實現長期成長目標，創造持久的股東價值。隨著公司業務從疫情的短期影響中逐步復甦，我們將繼續積極關注公司各業務板塊的韌性跡象。我們靈活的資本運作流程旨在確保將資金投入成長潛力最大、回報最高的投資機會。

With that, let me turn the call over to Lee to cover our financial results.

接下來，我將把電話交給李，讓他來介紹我們的財務表現。

Thank you, Scott. First, I would like to bring to everyone's attention that we have posted a quarterly earnings presentation that is available on our website.

謝謝你，斯科特。首先，我想提醒大家，我們已經在網站上發布了季度財報。

Moving to the financial results for the quarter. On a consolidated and GAAP basis, revenue grew 10.1% to $748 million. Net income attributable to Verisk decreased 14% to $154 million, while diluted GAAP earnings per share attributable to Verisk declined 13% to $0.94 per share. These declines are the result of a noncash revaluation charge related to the U.K. tax law change. Adjusting for the impact of the $0.21 per share noncash revaluation charge, diluted adjusted EPS increased 7% to $1.38.

接下來來看看本季的財務業績。以合併報表及美國通用會計準則（GAAP）計算，營收成長10.1%至7.48億美元。歸屬於Verisk的淨利潤下降14%至1.54億美元，而歸屬於Verisk的稀釋後GAAP每股收益下降13%至每股0.94美元。這些下降是由於與英國稅法變更相關的非現金重估費用所致。剔除每股0.21美元的非現金重估費用後，稀釋後調整後每股盈餘成長7%至1.38美元。

Moving to our organic constant currency results. Adjusted for nonoperating items, as defined in the non-GAAP financial measures section of our press release, we were very pleased with our operating results, led by consistent growth in our subscription revenues and recovery in our transactional revenues as our business rebounds from the COVID-related declines from last year. In the second quarter, organic constant currency revenue grew 6.3%, led by continued strength in our Insurance segment and sequential improvement in our Energy and Financial Services segment. Our non-COVID-sensitive revenues, as we defined at the beginning of the pandemic, increased 5.5% in the second quarter of 2021 as compared to the growth of 6.5% in the prior year quarter. This stable growth in our non-COVID-sensitive revenues, representing approximately 85% of our total revenues, reflects the durability and resilience of our primarily subscription model.

接下來談談我們以固定匯率計算的有機成長績效。在調整非經營性項目（定義見新聞稿中的非GAAP財務指標部分）後，我們對經營業績非常滿意，這主要得益於訂閱收入的持續增長以及交易收入的複蘇，我們的業務正從去年受新冠疫情影響的下滑中逐步恢復。第二季度，以固定匯率計算的有機收入成長了6.3%，這主要得益於保險業務的持續強勁成長以及能源和金融服務業務的環比改善。根據我們在疫情初期定義的非新冠疫情敏感收入，2021年第二季成長了5.5%，去年同期為6.5%。這一非新冠疫情敏感收入的穩定成長（約佔總收入的85%）體現了我們以訂閱模式為主的業務模式的持久性和韌性。

Our COVID-sensitive revenues, which represent 15% of our consolidated revenues, continued on a sequential improvement trend and returned to growth this quarter, increasing 12.1%. This compares to declines of 20% in the second quarter last year and the prior quarter performance of declines of 5.9%. Growth was primarily the result of improvements in consulting in our Energy segment and a return to pre-pandemic growth rates in many of our products and services within Insurance, particularly within the U.S. We did experience continued COVID-related weakness in our Financial Services segment as government forbearance programs are negatively impacting bankruptcy volumes.

受新冠疫情影響較大的營收（占我們合併收入的15%）持續維持季比改善趨勢，本季恢復成長，增幅達12.1%。相較之下，去年第二季該收入下降了20%，上一季則下降了5.9%。成長主要得益於能源業務諮詢業務的改善，以及保險業務（尤其是美國市場）眾多產品和服務恢復到疫情前的成長水準。然而，由於政府的延期還款計畫對破產數量產生負面影響，我們的金融服務業務仍受到新冠疫情的影響而持續疲軟。

Organic constant currency adjusted EBITDA growth was 4.2% in the second quarter, led by solid growth in Insurance and Energy, offset in part by weakness in Financial Services. Total adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter, which includes both organic and inorganic revenue and adjusted EBITDA, was 49.6% in the quarter, down 172 basis points on a year-over-year basis, but still above our pre-pandemic margin level of 46.6% recorded in the second quarter of 2019. Much of the decline is associated with the normalization of our costs as we anniversary the COVID benefits from last year, including reduced head count growth and lower incentive compensation. This margin also reflects an increase in the pace of investment in our technological transformation, including our cloud transition costs and the impact of acquisitions.

第二季度，經調整後的有機EBITDA成長率（以固定匯率計算）為4.2%，主要得益於保險和能源業務的穩健成長，但部分被金融服務業務的疲軟所抵銷。本季經調整後的EBITDA利潤率（包括有機和非有機收入及經調整後的EBITDA）為49.6%，年減172個基點，但仍高於2019年第二季疫情前的46.6%的水準。利潤率下降的主要原因是，隨著去年疫情帶來的利多因素（包括員工人數成長放緩和激勵性薪酬降低）的逐步減少，我們的成本也開始趨於正常化。此外，利潤率的下降也反映了我們在技術轉型方面投資步伐的加快，包括雲端遷移成本和收購的影響。

On that note, let's turn to our segment results on an organic constant currency basis. In the second quarter, Insurance segment revenues increased 7.8%, demonstrating strong resilience and recovery. We saw healthy growth in our industry standard insurance programs, catastrophe modeling solutions, repair cost estimating solutions and international insurance software solutions. We also experienced strong growth in transactional revenues, associated with an increased level of securitization revenues in our catastrophe modeling business, a modest benefit from storm-related revenue and double-digit recovery growth in our COVID-impacted revenues as we compare against declines last year. Adjusted EBITDA grew 6.6% in the second quarter while margins declined 148 basis points, reflecting a return to a normalized rate of head count growth compared to the prior year and higher year-over-year short-term incentive compensation expense. We also continue to invest in our breakout areas as well as our technology modernization, including our cloud transition.

接下來，我們來看看以固定匯率計算的各業務板塊業績。第二季度，保險業務類股營收成長7.8%，展現強勁的韌性和復甦勢頭。我們的行業標準保險項目、災害建模解決方案、維修成本估算解決方案和國際保險軟體解決方案均實現了穩健成長。此外，交易收入也實現了強勁增長，這主要得益於災害建模業務證券化收入的增加、風暴相關收入的適度增長，以及受新冠疫情影響的收入實現了兩位數的復甦增長（與去年同期相比有所下降）。第二季調整後EBITDA成長6.6%，但利潤率下降148個基點，反映出員工人數成長率已恢復到正常水準（與上年同期相比）以及短期激勵性薪資支出較去年同期增加。我們也將繼續投資於我們的突破性領域以及技術現代化，包括雲端轉型。

Energy and Specialized Markets revenue increased 5% in the second quarter due to a recovery in our consulting and project-based revenues across Energy and Power, strong growth in environmental health and safety solutions and our energy transition research. Included in the quarter was revenue associated with the strategic consulting project that added approximately 1 point to segment growth. We continue to benefit from strong adoption of our Lens platform as customers are seeing the value of our integrated cloud-based data analytic environment. We remain a key part of our customers' most strategic conversations as they deal with the ever-changing energy landscape and our broad base of solutions across all commodities are mission-critical to our customers as they navigate through this dynamic environment.

由於能源和電力領域的諮詢和項目收入復甦、環境健康與安全解決方案的強勁增長以及能源轉型研究的進展，能源和專業市場業務第二季度收入增長了5%。本季收入中包含了一項策略諮詢項目帶來的收入，該項目為該業務板塊的成長貢獻了約1個百分點。我們持續受惠於Lens平台的廣泛應用，客戶也逐漸認識到我們整合式雲端資料分析環境的價值。當客戶應對瞬息萬變的能源格局時，我們始終是他們策略對話中不可或缺的一部分。我們涵蓋所有商品的廣泛解決方案對於客戶駕馭這一動態環境至關重要。

Adjusted EBITDA grew 8.4% in the second quarter, while margins expanded 74 basis points, reflecting continued cost discipline and leverage from sales growth. As we look to the remainder of 2021, we want to remind you that we have a very tough margin comparison in the third quarter, associated with some head count reductions, furloughs and compensation adjustments that we made in reaction to the tough operating environment in 2020. However, some of these costs were reversed in the fourth quarter of 2020. All that said, we have a solid track record of managing through volatile times effectively and believe we are well-positioned with our energy transition solutions as well as our Lens platform to continue to outperform the end market and help our customers navigate this broad energy transition.

第二季調整後 EBITDA 成長 8.4%，利潤率提升 74 個基點，這反映了我們持續的成本控制以及銷售成長帶來的槓桿效應。展望 2021 年剩餘時間，我們想提醒各位，由於 2020 年嚴峻的經營環境，我們採取了一些裁員、臨時解僱和薪酬調整措施，導致第三季度利潤率同比大幅下滑。不過，部分成本已在 2020 年第四季抵銷。儘管如此，我們擁有在動盪時期有效管理業務的良好記錄，並相信憑藉我們的能源轉型解決方案和 Lens 平台，我們能夠繼續超越終端市場，幫助客戶應對這場廣泛的能源轉型。

Financial Services revenue declined 8.1% in the quarter, reflecting the continued impact of contract transitions that we undertook in 2020 and will continue through the third quarter of 2021 as well as a lower level of bankruptcy revenue because of government support and forbearance program.

本季金融服務收入下降了 8.1%，反映出我們在 2020 年進行的合約過渡的持續影響，並將持續到 2021 年第三季度，以及由於政府支持和寬限計劃導致破產收入水準下降。

Spend informed analytics demonstrated stronger growth than expected as spending and advertising improved, which enabled us to reduce some of the negative impact on revenue growth from the contract transitions that we originally anticipated. Adjusted EBITDA declined 77% in the quarter, reflecting the negative impact of lower sales and a larger impact of corporate expense allocations on the segment's smaller base. We continue to believe that the actions we have taken with E&S over the last few years are setting the business on a stronger foundation from which to grow going forward.

支出分析顯示，隨著支出和廣告的改善，業務成長超出預期，這使我們能夠減輕先前預期的合約過渡對收入成長的負面影響。本季調整後 EBITDA 下降 77%，反映出銷售額下降以及企業費用分攤對該業務部門較小基數的更大影響。我們仍然相信，過去幾年我們針對 E&S 採取的措施，正在為業務未來的成長奠定更堅實的基礎。

Our reported effective tax rate was 35.6% compared to 20.4% in the prior year quarter. This higher tax rate is the result of an earlier-than-anticipated enactment of a U.K. tax law change that caused a noncash revaluation charge. This is simply a timing difference from our original expectations as the impact occurred in the second quarter instead of the third quarter as we had originally forecast. There is no change to full year results. Given the earlier timing of the tax law change and the fact that this charge was onetime in nature, we now expect our tax rate to approximate 20% to 22% for the second half of 2021.

我們報告的實際稅率為35.6%，而去年同期為20.4%。稅率上升是由於英國稅法變更提前生效，導致產生了一筆非現金重估費用。這只是與我們最初預期的時間差異，因為影響發生在第二季度，而不是我們最初預測的第三季度。全年業績不變。鑑於稅法變更生效時間提前，且該費用為一次性費用，我們預計2021年下半年的稅率將約為20%至22%。

Adjusted net income was $191 million, and diluted adjusted EPS was $1.17 for the second quarter 2021, adjusting for the impact of a $0.21 per share noncash revaluation charge related to the U.K. Tax Law change described earlier, diluted adjusted EPS increased 7% to $1.38. These increases reflect organic growth in the business, contributions from acquisitions and a lower average share count. Net cash provided by operating activities was $233 million for the quarter, down 6.5% from the prior year period. The prior year period cash flow benefited from a deferral in both federal income tax payments and certain employer payroll taxes as a result of the CARES Act, partly offset by earn-out payments.

經調整後，2021年第二季淨利為1.91億美元，稀釋後經調整每股收益為1.17美元。剔除先前所述的與英國稅法變更相關的每股0.21美元非現金重估費用後，稀釋後經調整每股盈餘成長7%至1.38美元。這些成長反映了業務的內生成長、收購帶來的貢獻以及平均流通股數量的減少。本季經營活動產生的現金流量淨額為2.33億美元，較上年同期下降6.5%。上年同期現金流量受惠於《新冠病毒援助、救濟和經濟安全法案》（CARES Act）帶來的聯邦所得稅和部分雇主工資稅的遞延，但部分被或有收益支付所抵銷。

Year-to-date, net cash provided by operating activities was $682 million, reflecting growth of 11.4% versus the prior year period. Capital expenditures were $62.5 million for the quarter, up 10.2%. We continue to believe that CapEx will be in the range of $250 million to $280 million, reflecting our continued investment in our innovation agenda, our technological transformation as well as the carryover of certain expenditures that were delayed in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.

截至目前，經營活動產生的淨現金流為6.82億美元，較上年同期成長11.4%。本季資本支出為6,250萬美元，成長10.2%。我們仍預期資本支出將在2.5億美元至2.8億美元之間，這反映了我們對創新議程和技術轉型以及部分因疫情在2020年延期支出的持續投入。

Related to CapEx, we expect fixed asset depreciation and amortization will be within the range of $200 million to $215 million and intangible amortization to be approximately $180 million, reflecting the impact of recent acquisitions and changes in foreign currency rates. Both depreciation and amortization elements are subject to FX variability, the timing of purchases and the completion of projects and future M&A activity.

關於資本支出，我們預期固定資產折舊和攤銷將在2億美元至2.15億美元之間，無形資產攤銷約為1.8億美元，這反映了近期收購和外匯匯率變動的影響。折舊和攤銷均受匯率波動、收購時間、專案完成情況以及未來併購活動的影響。

During the second quarter, we returned $197 million in capital to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends as our strong cash flow allows us to invest behind our highest-return growth initiatives, but also return capital to shareholders consistently. Our strategy to deliver long-term and sustainable growth remains unchanged. We are encouraged by the recovery we are experiencing in our COVID-impacted businesses, and we believe the stability and predictability of our subscription revenues will persist. We also have confidence in our ability to manage the cost structure effectively to protect profitability. While we do have tough cost comparisons this year, we believe that we should retain some of the margin expansion we experienced in 2020, delivering margins ahead of our 2019 level of 47%.

第二季度，我們透過股票回購和分紅向股東返還了1.97億美元的資本。強勁的現金流使我們能夠投資於回報最高的成長項目，同時也能持續地向股東返還資本。我們實現長期可持續成長的策略保持不變。我們對受新冠疫情影響的業務正在復甦感到鼓舞，並相信訂閱收入的穩定性和可預測性將得以維持。我們也對有效管理成本結構、保障獲利能力的能力充滿信心。儘管今年的成本基數較高，但我們相信能夠維持2020年利潤率的擴張勢頭，並實現高於2019年47%的利潤率水準。

Taking this all together, we believe that as the COVID impacts abate and the global economies continue to open up, we can return to our long-term growth model of 7% organic constant currency revenue growth, with core operating leverage allowing EBITDA to grow faster than revenue, although it is difficult to determine that -- to predict that timing.

綜上所述，我們相信，隨著 COVID 疫情的影響減弱，全球經濟繼續開放，我們可以恢復到 7% 的有機固定匯率收入增長的長期增長模式，核心運營槓桿將使 EBITDA 的增長速度超過收入增長速度，儘管很難確定這一點——也很難預測具體時間。

We hope this provides some useful context for you, and we look forward to addressing your questions. We continue to appreciate all of the support and interest in Verisk. (Operator Instructions) With that, I'll ask the operator to open the line for questions.

希望以上資訊對您有所幫助，我們期待解答您的疑問。我們衷心感謝您對 Verisk 的支持與關注。 （操作員指示）接下來，我將請操作員開放提問環節。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

Our first question comes from the line of Greg Peters of Raymond James.

我們的第一個問題來自 Raymond James 的 Greg Peters。

I'm going to let the other analysts focus on the financials. I'd like to pivot to the Insurance business beyond specifically, for the property casualty industry, we're seeing 2 variables, first of all, the -- come out of the lockdown. And then secondly, favorable pricing. And your organic was quite strong in insurance. The insurance industry is forecasting a moderation of growth for them for the balance of the year and into next year. Can you give us an expectation of how those variables are affecting your business?

我將讓其他分析師專注於財務數據。我想把話題轉向保險業務，特別是財產險業。我們看到兩個變數：首先是疫情封鎖的結束，其次是有利的定價。貴公司在保險業務方面的自然成長非常強勁。保險業預測，今年剩餘時間和明年的成長速度將會放緩。您能否預測一下這些變數將如何影響貴公司的業務？

Yes. Scott here. Thanks for the question. Two things. One is, if you were to look at the pricing algorithms that apply into solutions that we provide to the insurance industry, the way that we price our solutions is related to the value of the solutions that we're getting to our customers. So it's not the case that in our -- to the pricing algorithm is a term, which is significant, and that relates to the amount of premium that our customers are putting through their own books of business. Our solutions are priced according to the amount of profitability and growth that they generate for our customers. And every CEO that I speak to in the insurance industry, every one of them to a person considers their business -- to grow the business. And so they are leaning into new methods as a way of trying to grow their businesses. And we expect that to persist.

是的，我是Scott。謝謝你的提問。有兩點需要說明。第一，如果你仔細研究我們為保險業提供的解決方案的定價演算法，你會發現，我們的定價方式與我們為客戶帶來的價值息息相關。所以，並非是——定價演算法是一個很重要的術語——它指的是客戶透過自身業務投入的保費金額。我們的解決方案是根據它們為客戶創造的獲利能力和成長金額來定價的。我接觸過的每一位保險業CEO，他們都認為發展業務才是最重要的。因此，他們都在積極探索新的方法來促進業務成長。我們預計這種趨勢將會持續下去。

And it's always been the case actually that in our Insurance business, we have grown considerably faster than the underlying product marketplace. And actually, that's true to the energy vertical as well. And why? Because our customers are trying to make increasing use of data analytics solutions. So we're not really yoked to the net written premium volumes in the insurance industry.

事實上，我們的保險業務一直以來都比基礎產品市場成長速度快得多。能源領域的情況也是如此。為什麼呢？因為我們的客戶正努力越來越多地利用數據分析解決方案。所以，我們其實不受制於保險業的淨保費收入。

Got it. My follow-up question, again sticking with operations, and you talked about your claim analytics and products and the suite of products you're offering there. Insurance industry is really beginning to struggle with inflation costs, repair costs on cars. Rental car rates have gone through the roof. And I'm just curious, from an operational perspective, the products -- your service providing to the industry, how are they adapting rapidly to these changing conditions in the marketplace to help the insurance industry?

明白了。我的後續問題仍然是關於營運方面的，您剛才談到了理賠分析、產品以及您提供的全套產品。保險業確實開始面臨通貨膨脹和汽車維修成本上漲的困境。租車價格也飆漲。我很好奇，從營運的角度來看，您為保險業提供的產品和服務，是如何快速適應市場變化，從而幫助保險業應對這些變化的？

Yes, that is something that our customers care about a great deal. And so it's really incumbent upon us to make sure that the cost factors associated with the kinds of solutions we've got, which are aimed at understanding what it takes to repair something, we need to make sure that the underlying cost factors are current. And that is something that we give a lot of attention to. That has always been a part of the way that we approach this. But it's particularly important in a moment like this where demand, demand surge and, therefore, the price of the underlying commodities moves around.

是的，這是我們客戶非常關心的問題。因此，我們有責任確保我們提供的解決方案（旨在了解維修所需的成本）所涉及的成本因素是最新的。我們一直非常重視這一點，這也是我們處理這類問題的方式之一。但在當前需求激增、相關商品價格波動劇烈的情況下，這一點尤其重要。

You have highlighted something that our customers care quite a bit about. Actually, I'm going to turn to Mark here, who leads our insurance vertical. Not long ago, we were on a call with the CEO of one of the largest insurance companies in North America and this was one of the topics they highlighted. And we had a lot of conversation about what we're doing and the way that our solutions do keep up. So I'm really just affirming that the topic that you've highlighted there is on the minds of our customers. Mark, anything you want to add to that?

您剛才提到的這一點正是我們的客戶非常關心的。實際上，我想請負責我們保險業務的馬克來談談。不久前，我們和北美一家大型保險公司的執行長進行了一次電話會議，這也是他們重點討論的話題之一。我們深入探討了我們正在採取的措施以及我們的解決方案如何與時俱進。所以，我只是想再次強調，您剛才提到的這個問題正是我們的客戶所關注的。馬克，您還有什麼要補充的嗎？

No, I think our customers expect us to be on top of that. So as an example, it's -- the repair cost estimate solutions, we're making constant updates on a weekly basis. We're providing them what's the cost of lumber, as an example, which has been a very significant inflationary item. And their repair cost estimates are reflected that -- are reflecting that increase. We are very much into the world of social inflation, right? The cost of litigation and the cost of claims is up as a result of that. So that -- those trends are reflected in our loss costs. That's the pricing they do. It's reflected in the repair cost estimates. It's reflected in how they underwrite a property or any insurance risk, and I'd like to think that we are at the lead in thinking for them on that topic.

不，我認為我們的客戶期望我們能掌握這些動態。舉個例子，例如維修成本估算方案，我們每週都會更新。我們會提供木材價格等信息，木材價格受通貨膨脹影響非常顯著。他們的維修成本估算也反映了這一成長。我們非常關注社會通膨，對吧？訴訟成本和理賠成本也因此上漲。這些趨勢都反映在我們的損失成本上。這就是他們的定價策略。它體現在維修成本估算中，也體現在他們對房產或其他保險風險的承保方式。我認為，在這方面，我們始終走在產業前沿。

Next question comes from the line of Gary Bisbee of Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的加里·比斯比。

Scott, thanks for the updates on innovation and technology. And I wanted to ask a little bit about that. You talked about how the tech modernization progress you're making is accelerating the ability to innovate and reducing CapEx, which you're trading that off for higher capital spending on innovation and new products. I guess a 2-parter. As we think about innovation broadly across the company, do you keep internally -- or can you help us think about like the concept of a vitality index? How much more is all of this change you're doing contributing to growth from innovation?

斯科特，感謝您分享關於創新和技術的最新進展。我想就此問幾個問題。您提到，您正在推進的技術現代化進程正在加速創新能力並降低資本支出，而這部分支出將用於增加創新和新產品的資本投入。我想問兩個問題。當我們從公司整體角度思考創新時，您是只專注於內部創新，還是可以幫我們思考「活力指數」之類的概念？您所做的所有這些改變究竟在多大程度上促進了創新帶來的成長？

And then secondly, do you see that benefit more as something that should allow you continue to deliver to the long-term 7% revenue growth target that you have? Or is there potential as that innovation accelerates that you could begin to outperform that target more meaningfully as innovation and new products become a larger part of your revenue?

其次，您認為這種優勢更能幫助您繼續實現7%的長期營收成長目標嗎？還是隨著創新加速，隨著創新和新產品在營收中所佔比例越來越大，您有可能更顯著地超越這個目標？

Thanks, Gary. Well, maybe to your second question first. We do feel very good about the shape of our business, where we sit in the flow of what is happening in the business world. One of the most important things happening in the economy is businesses becoming the better, more analytic digital version of themselves. And that is fundamentally what is in and around and underneath our business and that we enjoy these tremendous relationships with our customers founded upon trust and some really, really valuable and distinctive solutions. That's our business.

謝謝，加里。嗯，或許我們可以先回答你的第二個問題。我們對公司目前的狀況以及在商業世界格局中的位置都非常滿意。經濟領域最重要的趨勢之一是企業正在轉型升級，變得更有效率、更具分析能力，並實現數位轉型。這正是我們業務的核心所在，也是我們與客戶之間建立牢固關係的基礎——信任以及我們提供的真正有價值且獨特的解決方案。這就是我們的業務。

And the environment in which we're doing our work, obviously, the pandemic has had an effect as it did on everybody. But over longer periods of time, there are these very constructive trends. And so that's kind of fundamentally our growth story. Against that, our customers look to us to be their fill in the blank tech partner. There are -- in every one of the verticals we serve, there's a fill in the blank tech, InsurTech, fintech, energy tech. There's a list of players like that as long as both of your arms.

顯然，疫情對我們開展工作的環境產生了影響，就像它影響到所有人一樣。但從長遠來看，也存在一些非常正面的趨勢。這從根本上來說是我們成長的動力。同時，我們的客戶希望我們成為他們所需的各種技術合作夥伴。在我們服務的每個垂直領域，都有相應的科技公司，例如保險科技、金融科技、能源科技等等。這類公司多不勝數。

Our customers expect us to be providing innovation. That is one of the reasons why they lean into the relationship with us in the first place. So I think the nature of your question, Gary, was like this investment into that solution and what is the effect of that in terms of our growth. We pay attention to that. It would probably surprise you to know the relatively modest size of investment opportunities that all the way to the office of the CEO we're looking at because it's the lifeblood of our business.

我們的客戶期望我們不斷創新。這也是他們當初選擇與我們建立合作關係的原因之一。所以，Gary，我認為你問題的本質在於，我們對這項解決方案的投資，以及它對我們業務成長的影響。我們非常關注這一點。你或許會驚訝於我們關注的投資機會規模其實相當有限，甚至連執行長辦公室都參與其中，因為投資是我們業務的命脈。

And so we do -- we are resolving things down to the level of the individual solution, and we pay attention to how they're doing. And we make decisions about should we put more in because it looks very promising, should we pull back from it because it appears not to be gaining steam. We're doing that all the time. That is what we do on a moment-to-moment basis.

所以，我們確實會這樣做——我們會把問題細化到具體的解決方案層面，並密切關注它們的進展。我們會根據情況決定是否加大投入，因為它看起來很有希望；或者是否應該減少投入，因為它似乎沒有取得進展。我們一直在做這件事。這就是我們每時每刻都在做的事。

But when you talk about vitality, you really -- you have to take it holistically. Because as we said earlier in this call, by count of corporate entity, in the insurance industry, the most rapidly growing segment are the InsurTechs, the new players. And I take such comfort in the fact that they show up with a clean sheet of paper. And they're rethinking everything. How are we going to build an insurance business?

但說到活力，你必須從整體來看它。正如我們之前在電話會議中提到的，就企業數量而言，保險業成長最快的部分是保險科技公司，也就是那些新興企業。我感到非常欣慰的是，他們以全新的視角看待問題，重新思考一切。他們正在思考：我們該如何建立保險業務？

And they seem so consistently to want to standardize on all of our solutions. That's vitality. Now they're adopting solutions that we -- in some cases, that we created years ago. But they're buying into them because they remain right at the leading edge. I mean, they're very insistent that everything be cloud-native, tech-forward. They just -- they're not even going to look at you if you're not that way. So I would just encourage you to understand vitality means a lot of things. It means the infusion of value into a solution that has been around for a long period of time as well as the new solution. It's new customers as well as existing customers.

他們似乎一直都希望採用我們所有的解決方案。這就是活力所在。現在，他們正在採用我們——在某些情況下，甚至是幾年前——開發的解決方案。但他們之所以接受這些方案，是因為它們始終處於技術前沿。我的意思是，他們非常堅持所有方案都必須是雲端原生、技術領先的。如果你不符合這些標準，他們甚至不會考慮你。所以我想鼓勵你們理解，活力意味著很多事。它意味著為已經存在很長時間的解決方案注入價值，也意味著為新解決方案注入價值。它既包括新客戶，也包括現有客戶。

But there's no question, if you pop all the way to the top of the organization and ask the question, look at that top line rate of organic revenue growth. One of the most powerful things that drives our growth is the adoption of solutions, whether it's a new solution by an existing customer or an existing but enhanced solution by a new customer. And the investing that we do in innovation is in support of all that. Mark, do you want to add something?

但毫無疑問，如果你一路追問到公司最高層，看看有機收入成長率，答案顯而易見。推動我們成長的最有力因素之一是解決方案的採納，無論是現有客戶採用的新解決方案，還是新客戶採用的升級版現有解決方案。而我們對創新的投入正是為了支持這一切。馬克，你還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yes, just maybe to provide a good example of everything Scott described. I think one of the big success stories is really inside of what is our underwriting and rating ISO business. We continue to have a very big business focused on what we refer as loss cost rules and forms. And we have been growing kind of an inflationary way because we've been very thoughtful with our customers. The growth that we've seen, that has increased over the last several years is because of that innovation investment and kind of bundling things for these InsurTechs and others. So I just wanted to reaffirm and maybe provide tangible evidence to that.

是的，或許可以舉個例子來更好地說明斯科特所描述的一切。我認為我們最大的成功案例之一就體現在我們核保和評級獨立銷售機構（ISO）業務中。我們一直專注於所謂的損失成本規則和表格，並持續保持相當規模的業務成長。我們之所以能夠成長，是因為我們總是以客戶為中心，用心服務。過去幾年我們所取得的成長，正是得益於我們對創新方面的投資，以及為保險科技公司和其他企業提供的捆綁式服務。所以我想再次強調這一點，並提供一些切實的證據。

And then just a quick follow-up for Lee. Margins, you did a nice job keeping the majority of the pandemic benefit from the prior year in this year's quarter. What caused, I guess, travel's one probably that hasn't come back. But what other cause may not have fully normalized and sort of -- is this a good rule of thumb going forward? Or would you expect that more of the costs that came out last year likely will come back in, in the next quarter?

最後再問Lee一個問題。利潤率方面，你們做得很好，將去年疫情帶來的大部分收益保留在了今年的季度。我猜想，造成利潤下滑的原因之一可能是旅遊業尚未恢復。但還有哪些因素可能尚未完全恢復正常？ ——這是否可以作為未來發展的參考指標？或者您認為去年產生的更多成本可能會在下一季重新出現？

Yes. Thank you, Gary. I try to look at the cost structure and evaluate what's temporal and what's structural. And there is some temporal element of this that we've been able to hold on to. But I think to your point on the travel and entertainment side, I think there are structural savings that we are -- we'll be able to take advantage of over time. And so I think some of that, there is a structural change.

是的，謝謝你，加里。我會分析成本結構，評估哪些是暫時性的，哪些是結構性的。我們一直能夠控制住一些暫時性的成本。但正如你所說，在差旅和招待方面，我認為存在一些結構性的成本節約，我們可以隨著時間的推移加以利用。所以我認為，其中一部分成本確實存在結構性變化。

I also think over the longer term, as we adopt or adapt to the flexible work structure that Scott described in his comments that it will provide opportunities for us from a productivity, from a real estate cost standpoint to reduce some of those expenses over time. But of course, that follows kind of the lease renewal process. But those will be things that we're able to achieve over time as well.

我認為從長遠來看，隨著我們採納或適應斯科特在發言中提到的靈活工作模式，從生產力和房地產成本的角度來看，這將為我們帶來降低部分開支的機會。當然，這需要經過租賃續約流程。但這些都是我們能夠逐步實現的。

And then finally, the other element is compensation, and that is more directly tied to our overall performance against the growth targets and overall head count growth. And I think that will -- that's the element that is likely and we'll certainly hope is going to normalize consistent with the achievement of our revenue growth and our EBITDA growth.

最後，另一個因素是薪酬，它與我們整體業績（包括成長目標的完成情況和員工總數成長）直接相關。我認為，薪資很可能——我們也希望——會隨著營收成長和 EBITDA 成長的實現而趨於正常化。

Next question comes from the line of Hamzah Mazari of Jefferies.

下一個問題來自傑富瑞集團的哈姆札·馬扎里。

I just wanted to go back to the question on your long-term sort of 7%-plus organic growth sort of aspiration. It was very consistent prior to 2015. And I realize, post-2015, you had mix issues, cyclicality, the business mix changed in the portfolio. But going forward, is it just the world reopens and you can get back to 7%-plus? Or you need to see some of these benefits from the big investment spend that's been going on? And that really lags. Just give us a sense of -- is it just the macro? Or is it execution or any other thing we should be paying attention to, to get back to 7%-plus consistently?

我想回到您之前提出的長期有機成長目標（7%以上）的問題。在2015年之前，這個目標一直很穩定。我知道2015年之後，您遇到了一些組合問題、週期性波動，投資組合中的業務結構也改變了。但展望未來，是不是只要世界重新開放，您就能恢復到7%以上的成長水準？還是說您需要看到之前投入的大量資金所帶來的利益？而這些收益確實存在滯後性。請您簡單介紹一下—僅僅是宏觀經濟因素嗎？還是說執行力或其他方面也需要我們關注，才能持續達到7%以上的成長水準？

Well, as I said before, the nature of our business is that because we're providing a unique kind of value to our customers, very consistently, our experience has been that we grow at a rate greater than the rate of growth in the verticals that we're serving. And I don't see any change in that. When you describe it that way, kind of stable normal environments are, all else equal, supportive. And you would have to expect over long periods of time, if you look at the marketplaces that we serve, they're very important elements of the economy. So a thesis, which is -- they will remain important is a pretty sound one. And then actually, the demography of the customer set inside of these verticals, they don't really change all that rapidly. Of course, we're always paying attention to that, but they don't tend to -- so you've got that as the background.

正如我之前所說，我們業務的本質在於，我們始終如一地為客戶提供獨特的價值，因此我們的成長速度一直高於我們所服務垂直行業的整體成長速度。而且我認為這種情況不會改變。這樣看來，在其他條件相同的情況下，穩定的正常環境對我們有利。從長遠來看，我們所服務的市場是經濟中非常重要的組成部分，因此，它們將繼續保持重要性這一論點是相當合理的。此外，這些垂直產業內部的客戶群結構變化並不迅速。當然，我們始終關注這些變化，但它們通常不會發生太大變化——以上就是背景資訊。

But there is no question that there is a huge dependence upon execution. The whole innovation agenda has to be done well. We have to dig in with our customers as development partners to make sure that we hit what's needed, that we get it to market faster. All of those things have a lot to do with returns on any given innovation investment that we've made. So that's very important. And another thing, which -- I don't know, I suppose if you watch us really carefully over a long period of time, this would be evident, but I just want to highlight that there is a great deal of dynamic inside of what we're doing in terms of looking at the solution families and the solution sets that we've got and deciding where are they and where are they headed.

但毫無疑問，執行力至關重要。整個創新計劃必須落實到位。我們必須與客戶緊密合作，將他們視為開發夥伴，確保滿足客戶需求，並更快地將產品推向市場。這一切都與我們每項創新投資的回報息息相關。因此，這一點非常重要。還有一點——我想，如果你長期密切關注我們，這一點應該很明顯——我想強調的是，我們在審視現有解決方案系列和解決方案集，並確定它們的發展方向和未來方向時，內部存在著很大的動態變化。

And we have a very long track record. I'll just -- I'll pick the insurance vertical since it's the largest one for us. Investing more inside of things that are showing a lot of promise, but retiring in some cases, selling off solution sets that we have as well. And so it can all look -- it's kind of like the duck on top of the lake. It looks very steady, but underneath, there's various paddling going on. And we get down to the level of individual solutions. Again, just using insurance as an example, through the years, we've retired a number of things that we were doing. We invented a whole lot of things. All of that is inside of getting to this long-term view of growth potential.

我們擁有非常悠久的業績記錄。我在這裡就以保險業為例，因為它是我們最大的業務部門。我們會增加對那些前景廣闊的項目的投資，但也會在某些情況下逐步淘汰現有項目，並出售一些解決方案。所以，這一切看起來就像湖面上的鴨子，表面平靜，但水面下卻有很多鴨子在划水。我們深入到具體的解決方案層面。還是以保險業為例，這些年來，我們淘汰了一些項目，也開發了許多新產品。所有這些都是為了實現我們對長期成長潛力的長期展望。

If I can just kind of supplement on that to provide some validation, I think you referenced a couple of elements here. But if you look at the underlying insurance business, it gets consistently delivered on that 7% organic growth area, where there have been negative impacts from that is it has either been because of some of the nearer-term cyclical elements associated with the energy business. But that business, as we have seen and demonstrated, particularly with the Lens platform, the investment in the energy transition practice, has demonstrated their potential to move to similar levels of growth. And Financial Services has been undergoing a transition to a more focus on sustainable growth, reducing some of that volatility. So I want to make certain that you appreciate that underneath the space is a consistent track record of delivering on that potential, with some of the other elements as we move down this path of investing in the platform in order to -- for us to deliver the value of those rapidly growing data sets, improved platforms against the business. That's been the recipe that is delivered and supports our conviction of the achievability of that going forward.

如果我還能補充一些內容來佐證我的觀點，我想您剛才提到了一些關鍵因素。但如果您看一下保險業務本身，它一直保持著7%的有機成長，而受到一些短期週期性因素的影響，導致成長出現下滑。但正如我們所見所聞，特別是透過Lens平台以及對能源轉型業務的投資，該業務已經展現出實現類似成長水平的潛力。金融服務業務也正在轉型，更加重視永續成長，降低波動性。因此，我想確保您理解，在這個領域背後，我們始終保持著實現成長潛力的良好記錄。隨著我們投資平台，並不斷改進平台以更好地利用快速成長的資料集和平台，我們將繼續朝著這個目標邁進。這就是我們取得成功的秘訣，也讓我們堅信未來能夠實現這一目標。

That's extremely helpful, really appreciate that. And then just my follow-up question is around capital allocation. Your leverage is arguably going to get very low next year. Your CapEx at some point is going to go down and so free cash flow should inflect a lot. Should we be thinking about buybacks being a much bigger piece of return on sort of your cash deployment? Or should we be thinking outsized growth in the dividend? You haven't done much large-scale M&A. So I'm assuming you can do M&A and return cash. Just any thoughts as to when you see that big free cash flow inflection at some point, what do you do with the cash?

這非常有幫助，非常感謝。接下來我想問一個關於資本配置的問題。你們的槓桿率明年可能會非常低。你們的資本支出遲早會下降，因此自由現金流應該會有顯著變化。我們是否應該考慮將股票回購作為現金投資回報的更大一部分？還是應該考慮大幅提高股利？你們之前沒有進行過大規模的併購。所以我假設你們可以進行併購並返還現金。我想問的是，當你們看到自由現金流大幅成長時，你們會如何處理這些現金？

So Hamzah, thanks for the question, and we appreciate you identifying the strength in the cash flow. I think the important thing to emphasize here is that we believe that one of the strongest elements that we have, the strongest opportunities that we have to create value is investing internally within the business, as Scott has described, in the technology, in the data sets, in new services for our clients. And so we want to make certain that we are taking every advantage to where we think we can generate incremental growth, where we can generate high incremental returns on capital from that. So we start from the position of how much capital do we have available that we're generating from the business. What are our opportunities first to invest in the business, in a way that takes advantage of those opportunities to generate growth and returns? Secondly, are there opportunities that we see in the M&A market to invest in businesses that we can create value by meaningfully improving their revenue growth through our distribution, utilizing their data sets more effectively or improving their technology? And FAST, as we've described, this has been a great example of that. Genscape in our energy business has been additive, has generated attractive returns on capital for us. So that's the second use.

哈姆扎，謝謝你的提問，我們很感謝你指出了現金流的優點。我認為這裡需要強調的是，我們相信我們擁有的最強優勢之一，也是我們創造價值的最有力機會，就是像斯科特所說的那樣，對公司內部進行投資，投資於技術、數據集以及為客戶提供的新服務。因此，我們希望確保充分利用一切優勢，在我們認為能夠實現增量成長、並從中獲得高額資本回報的領域取得進展。首先，我們要考慮的是公司目前有多少可用資本。我們有哪些機會可以投資公司，從而利用這些機會創造成長和回報？其次，我們是否在併購市場中看到了投資機會，可以透過我們的分銷管道、更有效地利用其數據集或改進其技術來顯著提升其收入成長，從而創造價值？正如我們之前提到的，FAST 就是一個很好的例子。 Genscape 在我們的能源業務中發揮了重要作用，為我們帶來了可觀的資本回報。這是它的第二個用途。

And then the decision on share repurchases is really an outcome of what capital do we have that we don't have an opportunity, we don't see an opportunity to invest, to contribute to growth or returns on capital. So it is an outcome of our capital allocation process, not something that we target at the outset. So kind of taking your question, if we don't see those opportunities, if the M&A market doesn't present opportunities for us given where valuations are or the nature of the business to create value, then we would expect that excess capital to be returned either through the dividend or through increased share repurchases, but it will all be driven by that investment opportunity and our discipline.

那麼，股票回購的決定實際上取決於我們擁有哪些資本，而我們沒有機會或看不到機會投資這些資本，從而促進成長或獲得資本回報。因此，這是我們資本配置流程的結果，而不是我們一開始就設定的目標。所以，回到您的問題，如果我們看不到這些機會，如果併購市場鑑於目前的估值水平或業務性質，無法為我們創造價值，那麼我們預計剩餘資本將通過分紅或增加股票回購的方式返還給我們，但這一切都將取決於投資機會和我們的投資紀律。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

Next question comes from the line of Andrew Jeffrey of Truist Securities.

下一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Andrew Jeffrey。

Mark, maybe a question for you on LightSpeed. It sounds like it's one of the more exciting revenue growth drivers within your insurance businesses, especially as you expand beyond auto. Can you maybe dimensionalize for us the kind of pricing power you might have in that business and how important that is to the durability of that 7% segment organic revenue growth target?

馬克，關於LightSpeed，我有個問題想問你。聽起來它似乎是你們保險業務中最具成長潛力的營收驅動力之一，尤其是在你們拓展到車險以外的領域之後。你能否具體分析你們在這個業務中擁有的定價權，以及這對實現7%的有機營收成長目標有多重要？

Yes. So let me try to maybe provide some parameters. The way we're going about this is we really believe that insurer, in their search for the best experience to the customer, the digital engagement, they want information that's actionable and they can kind of have a bindable quote, meaning when you go online and you want to get a price, you don't want it to change. And basically, 33% to 40% of the cases, that price changes, if you say I'm interested. And they do all this underwriting and pull the information. we're bringing all that information forward and the combination of data we have and analytics so that the insurer has confidence to quote. And that's a big change. So that is noteworthy and important.

是的。那我試著解釋一下。我們這樣做的理念是，我們堅信保險公司在追求最佳客戶體驗和數位化互動時，需要的是可操作的信息，以及能夠立即生效的報價。也就是說，當您在線查詢價格時，您不希望價格變化。而實際上，在33%到40%的情況下，如果您表示有興趣，價格都會改變。保險公司需要進行各種核保工作並收集資訊。我們將所有這些資訊整合起來，結合我們掌握的數據和分析，讓保險公司更有信心進行報價。這是一個巨大的改變，值得關注與重視。

And what we've tried to do in kind of thinking about the opportunity here, we know who's providing that information. And we feel it's about $1 billion that's going to be type of market opportunity in the insurance space. So we simply have a lot of runway, especially on the personal line side. We have a strong base on the commercial line side at the so that's kind of an extension, which hopefully provides you with a little bit of context of why we think it's important and also why we've continued to emphasize that .

我們一直在思考如何掌握這個機遇，我們知道是誰在提供這些資訊。我們認為保險市場將迎來約10億美元的機會。因此，我們擁有龐大的發展空間，尤其是在個人保險領域。我們在商業保險領域也擁有穩固的基礎，這可以看作是對其業務的延伸。希望這能讓您更理解我們為何認為這很重要，以及為何我們一直強調這一點。

Yes, that's really helpful. I think being able to quantify some of these TAMs will really help investors gain confidence in the long-term growth targets. And then a quick follow-up on cat modeling. It seemed like that was a decent tailwind this quarter. Is that something we need to think about in terms of volatility? How much of an impact does that have on your business from an issuance perspective on a quarterly basis?

是的，這真的很有幫助。我認為，能夠量化這些潛在市場規模（TAM）將有助於投資者增強對長期成長目標的信心。接下來我想快速了解一下巨災模型。這似乎在本季度是一個不錯的利多因素。我們是否需要考慮其對市場波動性的影響？從發行角度來看，這會對貴公司每季的業務產生多大的影響？

So the majority of our catastrophe modeling is around a touchdown subscription model that we've taken a lot of customers and we've had a lot of wins. So the growth you've seen, the underlying foundational growth, is us winning customers and bringing them on to the platform.

因此，我們的大部分災難應變模型都圍繞著快速反應的訂閱模式，我們已經獲得了大量客戶，並且取得了巨大的成功。所以，你所看到的成長，也就是根本性的成長，來自於我們贏得客戶並將他們引入我們的平台。

Where you're seeing a little bit of a spike and valley is inside of what is the ILS market. Those are the cat bonds we referred to. And that is a little bit a function of timing of the market. We had a good couple -- we had a good quarter. We probably would expect a strong for end of year. It's a little bit tough to tell whether that's going to grow in 2022. At the same time, I would say to you that the market in general is getting more and more collateralized those type of risks. So if you were to ask me what the growth perspective is for cat bonds over the next 5 years, I would say it's going to be up. It's going to be bigger, and we're well-positioned for it, whether it's going to be up or down in one particular quarter, that is a tough estimate for you. And I hope you can appreciate the difficulty we have in forecasting quarter-by-quarter, but I think we have feel for year-over-year.

您看到的波動主要集中在保險連接證券（ILS）市場，也就是我們之前提到的巨災債券。這在一定程度上取決於市場時機。我們經歷了幾個不錯的季度，預計年底市場表現強勁。但很難預測2022年市場是否會持續成長。同時，我想說的是，整體而言，這類風險的抵押品越來越多。因此，如果您問我未來五年巨災債券的成長前景如何，我會說它會成長，規模會更大，而且我們已經做好了充分的準備。至於某個特定季度的漲跌，這很難預測。我希望您能理解我們逐季預測的難度，但我認為我們對同比走勢有一定的把握。

Next question comes from the line of Kevin McVeigh of Credit Suisse.

下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的凱文麥克維。

I wonder if you could just give us a little bit more context on the Duck Creek announcement earlier this quarter where they talked about the enhanced integration within your insured workflows and what that can mean to the business longer term in terms of similar template. Should we expect similar opportunities?

我想請您就本季度早些時候Duck Creek發布的公告做進一步說明，他們提到了增強與您投保人工作流程的集成，以及這對於企業長期發展（例如使用類似模板）意味著什麼。我們是否可以期待類似的機會？

Let me continue. Thank you for the question, another good opportunity. I think I've highlighted in past sessions here, one of the things we're seeing more and more frequently is our customers are looking forward to this interconnected ecosystem. They want the ability to use their internal solutions, their solutions or other third-party solutions in a connected way, whether that's through APIs or micro services. And we're spending a lot of time and money making that happen.

讓我繼續。謝謝你的提問，又是一個很好的機會。我想我在之前的幾次會議中都強調過，我們越來越頻繁地看到，我們的客戶期待著這種互聯互通的生態系統。他們希望能夠以互聯的方式使用他們的內部解決方案、自己的解決方案或其他第三方解決方案，無論是透過 API 還是微服務。而我們正在投入大量的時間和資金來實現這一點。

So what we're seeing and what we're hearing and what it does is it really helps us because there are a lot of customers out there on those big insurance software solutions like Duck Creek. Guidewire would be another one. And we have integrated with those solutions in such a way that those customers get access information from Verisk and analytics from Verisk or claim solutions from Verisk, in a way that makes it easier for us to operate, more efficient for them to operate. And what it also does is it gives us an opportunity for easier to sell because the integration is built in and it's connected. So we find it to be very customer-focused, and it also gives us some runway in accelerated pipeline for sales.

所以，我們看到和聽到的情況，以及它實際帶來的好處，確實對我們大有裨益，因為很多客戶都在使用像 Duck Creek 這樣的大型保險軟體解決方案。 Guidewire 也是其中之一。我們已經與這些解決方案進行了集成，使這些客戶能夠存取 Verisk 的資訊、分析數據或理賠解決方案，從而簡化了我們的運營，也提高了他們的營運效率。此外，由於整合是內建的，並且已經連接起來，因此也為我們提供了更容易的銷售機會。所以我們認為它非常以客戶為中心，也為我們加速銷售管道的拓展提供了有利條件。

Mark, just a follow-up. Does the cloud conversion enable you to do more of those, whereas maybe a year ago when it was more on-prem, you wouldn't have the functionality to do it? Or is it just coincidence in terms of the timing?

馬克，我再問一個後續問題。雲端遷移是否讓你能夠完成更多這類操作，而一年前當系統主要部署在本地時，你可能無法實現這些功能？或者這只是時間上的巧合？

So let me say it this way. I think what we have done over the last 20 years is we've had SaaS-based environments. So these are not locally installed solutions. So the SaaS-based business model facilitates this. Your question now is a good one. I think we can do it quicker and more efficiently when we want to integrate using the cloud and as we've kind of transitioned to cloud. So it's not been an enabler, but it has become more efficient in cost-effective.

這麼說吧。我認為過去20年我們一直在建立基於SaaS的環境。這些都不是本地安裝的解決方案。 SaaS的商業模式促進了這一點。你現在的問題問得很好。我認為，當我們想要使用雲端進行整合時，我們可以更快、更有效率地完成，而且我們已經逐漸過渡到雲端平台。所以雲端不再只是推動因素，而是變得更有效率且更具成本效益。

Next question comes from the line of Jeff Meuler of Baird.

下一個問題來自 Baird 公司的 Jeff Meuler。

I appreciate all of the updates in terms of your current thinking on the cloud transition. I was hoping you could give us a similar update on the associated expense park. I think we said that there's a headwind from increased cloud transition costs this year. So just would love any thoughts on how much are you spending per year. When does it flip positive? And when it flips positive, is it a step function change? Or should it just be viewed in the context of expanding organic EBITDA faster than organic revenue over time because there is a reallocation of those savings?

感謝您分享關於雲端轉型的最新想法。我希望您也能提供一些關於相關費用方面的資訊。我們之前提到過，今年雲端轉型成本的增加會帶來一定的阻力。所以，我想了解您每年的支出狀況。何時才能獲利？獲利轉正後，是突飛猛進式成長嗎？還是應該將其視為隨著時間的推移，有機EBITDA成長速度超過有機收入成長速度的體現，因為其中會重新分配節省下來的資金？

Yes. Thank you, Jeff, for the question. There are several elements to it. And I know that you're asking it was in the context of cost, which I'll address. But I also want to make sure that there's an appreciation that there is a CapEx element to this. And then there is also the productivity element to this transition.

是的。謝謝你的提問，傑夫。這個問題涉及幾個面向。我知道你問的是成本問題，這一點我會回答。但我也想強調一點，這其中也包括資本支出。此外，這次轉型還涉及生產力提升的問題。

First, on the cost. You are taking on an additional cloud capacity from the provider before you are eliminating some of that legacy. So you have kind of a redundant, redundant period. In addition, you were taking on recoding expense for the applications as you migrate them into that new environment. And so as we have been implementing this process across hundreds of applications in our various businesses, you have that upfront cost that is a negative cost impact, which we view as an investment. And we look at it on individual project-by-project basis. Our technology team does a great job tracking the specific costs and the savings, but think of this as rolling across the organization.

首先，關於成本。在淘汰部分遺留系統之前，您需要從雲端服務供應商那裡獲得額外的雲端容量。因此，存在一個冗餘的過渡期。此外，在將應用程式遷移到新環境的過程中，您還需要承擔重新編碼的費用。由於我們已在各個業務部門的數百個應用程式中實施了此流程，因此會產生前期成本，這會帶來負面影響，但我們將其視為一項投資。我們會逐一進行評估。我們的技術團隊在追蹤具體成本和節省方面做得非常出色，但您應該將其視為一項遍及整個組織的投資。

And for the first year and second year, we are still in a net investment mode from a cost perspective within the business. CapEx will be more limited going forward, so you will be extracting CapEx savings over time because the CapEx intensity of our technology footprint is declining, but that's something that's achieved over time. And we're beginning to experience that in this second year of the project, but that will continue naturally into the third year and beyond. And so if we think about OpEx and CapEx, we're still in a net investment mode in the second year. We would expect that in the third year that turns into a positive contribution.

在第一年和第二年，從業務成本角度來看，我們仍然處於淨投資階段。未來的資本支出將更加有限，因此隨著時間的推移，您將逐步節省資本支出，因為我們技術佈局的資本支出強度正在下降，但這需要時間才能實現。我們在專案的第二年開始感受到這一點，而這種趨勢將自然地延續到第三年及以後。因此，如果我們考慮營運支出和資本支出，我們在第二年仍然處於淨投資階段。我們預計到第三年，這將轉化為積極的貢獻。

Now the other thing to factor in is that, as Scott described on the CapEx front, that is -- it will enable us -- and this is also true on the OpEx front, to shift some of that OpEx into other investment areas. So when I've talked about margin in the past, I've described there is natural operating margin expansion on a pre-investment level, but then we consume a portion of that from an investment perspective, and that's where we generate incremental growth and returns. So we do believe that this will be additive going into the third year, and then we'll determine do we see investment opportunities to pursue that.

還有一點需要考慮，正如斯科特在資本支出方面所描述的那樣，這將使我們能夠——營運支出方面也是如此——將部分營運支出轉移到其他投資領域。我之前談到利潤率時說過，在投資之前，營運利潤率自然會成長，但我們會從投資的角度消耗一部分利潤，而這部分利潤正是我們實現增量成長和回報的來源。因此，我們相信這將在第三年帶來增量收益，之後我們會根據實際情況判斷是否有合適的投資機會。

Beyond and riding on top of all of that is, I think, the more material benefit of this, which is the pace of innovation, the ability to associate more data sets to populate platforms that are creating a broader lift, I think, within the business and is sensed by, I think, a number of the questions in terms of its impact on our overall growth. So I wanted to give you kind of a comprehensive sense of the way that we are thinking about it. And because of that complexity, I think it would be very limiting to kind of specifically just focus on the cost element of it. Yes, there will be cost benefits, but those have to be -- will be balanced by our investment decisions and then the broader impact from the transition.

除此之外，我認為更重要的是，它帶來的更實質的好處在於創新速度的提升，以及將更多資料集關聯起來填充到平台的能力，這無疑會為公司帶來更廣泛的提升。我認為，這一點可以從許多關於其對我們整體成長影響的問題中感受到。因此，我想讓大家全面了解我們對此的思考方式。正因為其複雜性，我認為僅僅關注成本因素是非常片面的。誠然，成本方面會有優勢，但這些優勢必須與我們的投資決策以及轉型帶來的更廣泛影響相平衡。

And just to add to what you were saying there, Lee, and not trying to sort of specify sort of a particular level of margin impact. I do think of this transition as being an event at a moment in time. And it does have some discrete elements associated with them. Just to call out a few of them, there will come a moment where we're no longer computing on mainframe. We're not fully at that point yet, but there -- I mean, we will have an event where we'll get out the sledgehammers and literally break up the cores inside the mainframe. And that -- we're already reducing the load on the mainframe, and we can find some ways to benefit from that. We run power data centers, 2 of them, in the United States. We will close them at some point. There are fixed costs associated with data centers. And so that will be an event, and we'll call out those events for you when we get to those.

李，我只是想補充你剛才說的，我並不是想具體說明利潤率會受到多大影響。我認為這次轉型是一個特定時間點的事件，它包含一些具體的要素。舉幾個例子來說，總有一天我們會停止在大型主機上進行計算。我們還沒完全達到那個階段，但總有一天——我的意思是，我們會採取一些措施，徹底拆解大型主機內部的核心。我們已經在降低大型主機的負載，並且可以找到一些方法來從中獲益。我們在美國經營兩個電力資料中心，我們遲早會關閉它們。資料中心是有固定成本的。所以，這將會是一個事件，到時候我們會詳細說明。

And then something else, which I think is really extremely important, is that you used to buy compute capacity in relatively large chunks. And then as we move more towards the server environment, the chunks got smaller, but you're still buying chunks. In a world like that, anybody who's writing an algorithm, anybody who is demanding compute power, for them, you've already bought the capacity within limits. And so incrementally, it doesn't cost you anything. And in a world like that, you can actually be a little bit -- I don't want to use the word sloppy, but you can essentially use more compute capacity in how you want to get to the answer you're trying to get to.

還有一點，我認為極為重要，那就是過去我們購買計算能力時，是以相對較大的單位購買的。隨著我們越來越傾向於伺服器環境，單位變小了，但本質上仍然是購買單位。在這種情況下，任何編寫演算法的人，任何需要計算能力的人，他們所需的計算能力都已經包含在一定範圍內了。因此，增量計算不會產生任何額外費用。在這種環境下，你實際上可以稍微——我不想用「草率」這個詞——但你可以根據自己的需求靈活運用計算能力，從而更快地找到你想要的答案。

And maybe you don't have to cash that analysis you just did quite as much or you don't have to summarize at the column and row level once, and then work through those derivatives, et cetera. My point here being that there should be an interaction between how you analyze for -- how you compute in the context of analysis and the way that you consume computing capacity. And in a variabalized world, you have to pay more attention to that than you used to. And so our development and analytics are responding and need to respond to that. But on the other side of the transition you actually think differently about literally what do you encode that you did before so that you can be efficient in your use of compute capacity.

或許你不必像以前那樣頻繁地使用剛完成的分析，也不必先在列和行層級進行一次匯總，然後再處理那些衍生結果等等。我的意思是，分析方式（即在分析上下文中的計算方式）和計算資源的消耗方式之間應該存在互動。在變量化的世界中，你必須比以往更加關注這一點。因此，我們的開發和分析正在並需要對此做出回應。但另一方面，在轉型之後，你實際上需要以不同的方式思考如何對先前所做的編碼進行改進，才能更有效地利用運算資源。

So what I'm saying is there's a multiyear thing here. But on the other side, it is actually very different than where you were into this transition. You don't run physical facilities. You don't run really large hardware and you think very differently about how you structure analysis. And that will just be a more -- that's a better world for a company like ours.

所以我的意思是，這需要好幾年的時間。但另一方面，它實際上與你之前轉型時的情況截然不同。你不再經營實體設施，不再使用大型硬件，你對分析結構的思考方式也大相逕庭。這對像我們這樣的公司來說，將會是一個更好的世界。

I appreciate the comprehensive response. You addressed the InsurTech impact and the vertical software providers that serve the insurance industry. I want to ask about, I guess, the third category of maybe adjacent players to you, which is there's a lot of funding going to companies that are gathering data with or, I guess, horizontal ambitions, but some of them also have ambitions to apply the data to the insurance industry, and there's the real estate digital twin image capture companies, the satellite base, the telematics, there's a whole bunch of these companies that are out there. And I know you have the Verisk Data Exchange, but curious as to how you view the impact on Verisk or your customers from those types of options and if they're competitive partnership opportunities for you, et cetera.

感謝您詳盡的回覆。您談到了保險科技的影響以及服務於保險業的垂直軟體供應商。我想問一下，或許可以算是與您相關的第三類參與者，那就是那些收集數據或具有橫向發展目標的公司，它們獲得了大量資金。其中一些公司也希望將數據應用於保險業，例如房地產數位孿生影像採集公司、衛星基地台、遠端資訊處理公司等等，這類公司數不勝數。我知道您有Verisk資料交換平台，但我很好奇您如何看待這些選項對Verisk或您的客戶的影響，以及它們是否會為您帶來競爭性的合作機會等等。

Yes, sort of in reverse order on your question, yes, there is partnership opportunities. It would probably be of interest to you. If I took a list of the top 50 InsurTech companies, the number of them that we're in communication with today. When I say InsurTech companies, I don't mean new form insurance companies, I mean providers of solutions. And the number of those companies that we're in conversation with -- many of those conversations, they are coming and looking for us. So we start out aware of the fact that, in this world, you can start out with some programming capability and try to create something where you're hosting it. And it's mostly about digital workflows, et cetera. We see this all the time. And so we do pay attention to it.

是的，從您問題的反面來說，是的，確實存在合作機會。這或許會讓您感興趣。如果我列出排名前 50 名的保險科技公司，我們目前正在與其中許多公司進行溝通。我所說的保險科技公司，並非指新型保險公司，而是指解決方案提供者。我們正在與之洽談的公司數量眾多——其中許多都是他們主動聯繫我們。因此，我們一開始就意識到，在這個領域，你可以從一些程式設計能力入手，試著建立一個託管平台。這主要涉及數位化工作流程等等。我們經常看到這種情況。所以我們對此非常關注。

I would just say also that there are a lot of reasons why our customers lean into a relationship with us. Some of it has to do with the breadth of our family of solutions. Some of it has to do with our proven track record. Some of it has to do with reliability. And customers really care about that when you're talking about an enterprise-level application. There are a lot of reasons. And we're powered by really, really strong content assets. And a lot of the fill-in-the-blank tech start-ups, they don't start with content. So we never walk around feeling overly confident. We're very aware of these developments, but we do feel as if we start out in a very strong place in this discussion. And we like talking to these fill-in-the-blank techs and they like talking to us. So if there's some place where 1 plus 1 can be greater than 2, we're very alert to that.

我還想說，客戶選擇與我們建立合作關係的原因有很多。部分原因在於我們豐富的解決方案，部分原因在於我們過去的成功案例，還有部分原因在於我們的可靠性。對於企業級應用而言，客戶尤其重視可靠性。原因有很多。此外，我們也擁有非常強大的內容資產。很多科技新創公司（此處省略具體公司名稱）一開始並沒有內容。所以我們從不盲目自信。我們密切關注著這些發展趨勢，但我們確實認為，在這個領域，我們擁有非常強大的優勢。我們樂於與這些科技公司交流，他們也樂於與我們交流。因此，如果存在1+1大於2的情況，我們會非常敏銳地捕捉到。

Next question comes from the line of Alex Kramm of UBS.

下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 Alex Kramm。

Sorry if I missed this earlier, but on the COVID impact, the 15% that grew 12% this quarter, did you -- or can you talk about where we are there? Do you feel like we are fully recovered? Or what areas do you still wait for, I guess, improvement? I guess I could point to a couple. But yes, where do you think we are in that transition?

如果我之前錯過了，請見諒。關於新冠疫​​情的影響，本季成長了12%，佔總成長率15%，您覺得我們目前的狀況如何？您認為我們已經完全恢復了嗎？或者您認為還有哪些方面需要改進？我大概可以指出幾個面向。總之，您認為我們目前處於轉型期的哪個階段？

Yes. Thank you, Alex. I appreciate the question. So I would say that we are -- when we look at our COVID-sensitive revenues across the business as a whole, we're looking at it business-by-business. And so we are seeing some recovery, stronger recovery in certain areas, for instance, on the property side. We've seen in the insurance front probably the strongest recovery. Some recovery in driving, although driving is -- would not be what we would describe as fully recovered at this point.

是的，謝謝你，Alex。感謝你的提問。我想說的是，當我們整體審視受新冠疫情影響的收入時，我們實際上是逐一業務部門進行分析的。我們看到一些領域正在復甦，某些領域的復甦勢頭更強勁，例如財產險。保險業務的復甦可能是最強勁的。汽車產業也有所復甦，但就目前而言，我們不會說汽車產業已經完全恢復。

In Energy and Specialized Markets, we are seeing a strong rebound in consulting revenues, so that is demonstrating relatively robust recovery. We're also seeing some strengthening in our new subscriptions, which will flow in over time, I think, reflecting some of the improved pricing dynamics. Whereas in DFS, there is an element, which I refer to our spend-informed analytics, which because of advertising and marketing, we have seen an uplift. And that's performing better than we expected, but the bankruptcy element of our business is still experiencing the challenges of all of the government support out there in the environment. And so that's yet to recover.

在能源和專業市場領域，諮詢收入強勁反彈，這表明復甦勢頭相對穩健。我們的新訂閱量也在穩步增長，我認為這將隨著時間的推移而持續，並反映出定價機制的改善。而在數位金融服務（DFS）領域，由於廣告和行銷活動，我們支出驅動分析業務有所成長，表現優於預期。然而，我們業務中的破產清算部分仍然受到當前政府支持政策帶來的挑戰，尚未完全恢復。

It becomes very difficult to kind of quantify how far -- how much of a recovery. I would say it's certainly a partial recovery, not a full recovery, but the trends that we see, we expect to see continuing improvement in that recovery for the business. And it's probably worth noting in our insurance -- in the Insurance and in the Energy and Specialized Markets business, our COVID-sensitive revenues were up 20% year-over-year. Financial Services are still seeing a year-over-year decline, even though we've seen an improvement in spend-informed analytics and a deterioration -- or not a deterioration, but kind of the same level of declines on the bankruptcy side. So hopefully, that gives you a little bit of texture across the business for some of the trends that we're seeing.

要量化復甦的程度非常困難。我認為目前肯定是部分復甦，而非全面復甦，但根據我們觀察到的趨勢，我們預期業務復甦將持續改善。值得注意的是，在我們的保險業務以及能源和專業市場業務中，受新冠疫情影響較大的收入年增了20%。金融服務業務仍然同比下降，儘管我們看到支出分析有所改善，而破產業務的下滑幅度與去年同期基本持平。希望這些資訊能讓您對我們觀察到的一些業務趨勢有所了解。

I would also note, naturally, it should come as no surprise, that our travel business internationally is still suffering significantly from very low international travel. And so that's an important component.

當然，我還要指出，不出所料，由於國際旅遊量極低，我們的國際旅遊業務仍遭受重創。因此，這是一個重要的因素。

Okay. Maybe just a very quick follow-up on this. On the energy side, specifically, if I look at some of the recurring transactional breakouts, which -- I know they're not perfect, but it does look like a lot of the upside this quarter came from that consulting on the more transactional side. Given all the things that you're talking about with Lens, et cetera, is that not driving the impact yet that you are hoping for? Or are there maybe some retention issues elsewhere? Doesn't it look like it's flowing through the business quite yet, the success you were talking about there. So maybe just flesh that out a little bit more.

好的。或許我可以就此做一個簡短的後續問題。具體來說，就能源業務而言，如果我看一些經常性交易的細分數據——我知道這些數據並不完美，但看起來本季的大部分成長都來自諮詢業務的交易方面。考慮到您提到的Lens等公司，這些業務是否還沒有達到您預期的效果？或者說，其他方面是否存在一些客戶留存問題？您之前提到的成功似乎還沒有完全滲透到業務的各個環節。所以，能否再詳細解釋一下？

Sure, Alex. Thanks for asking that question as a follow-up in that regard. So I think it is a good distinction to make that the consulting element is where we are seeing that recovery on the COVID-sensitive side and focusing on the subscription side of the business, and I kind of want to build on my earlier comments. The impact of Lens, which has been very positively received by a lot of our clients, has been generating significant contract renewals with price increases in the mid- to high single digits.

當然，Alex。感謝你提出這個問題作為後續討論。我認為有必要區分一下：諮詢業務在受新冠疫情影響較大的方面正在復蘇，而我們目前主要關注的是訂閱業務。我想就我之前的觀點做進一步闡述。 Lens 的影響力非常顯著，它受到了我們許多客戶的積極評價，並促成了大量合約續簽，價格也出現了中高個位數的增長。

Now there are 2 elements to that in terms of its ongoing impact. One is going to be the rolling impact of that as subscriptions become -- come up for renewal. And the second element of that is that then, again, that subscription is something that will phase in over time given the nature of that. But the important point from my perspective is that we are seeing a very positive uptake. Clients are working with Lens. We've gotten several operational assessments. They've been very positive. And we've been able to achieve those price increases. So that will be based upon our feedback so far, a slow rolling but an improvement to the growth in that business, even before we also begin to utilize that platform to expand that customer set and the applications.

就其持續影響而言，這包含兩個面向。一是隨著訂閱到期續訂，影響會逐漸顯現。二是鑑於訂閱本身的特性，它本身也是一個需要逐步實施的機制。但從我的角度來看，最重要的是我們看到了非常正面的市場接受度。客戶正在使用Lens。我們已經收到了幾份營運評估報告，結果都非常正面。而且我們也成功實現了價格上漲。因此，根據我們目前的回饋，即使在我們開始利用該平台拓展客戶群和應用範圍之前，這項業務的成長也將緩慢但穩定地提升。

We also are still experiencing some impact from the last cycles, loss of 1 client in the energy space and some consolidation in the upstream area that is having a near-term impact on the research component. So that's another element that's factoring into it. But I think the distinction that you made is relevant. Hopefully, that differentiates that near-term consulting boost against what we see as constructive longer-term trends from Lens, and the pricing experience that we've had and how that should flow through over time within the business.

我們目前仍受到上一輪週期的一些影響，例如能源領域流失了一位客戶，以及上游領域的一些整合，這些都對短期內的研發業務造成了一定影響。因此，這也是影響因素之一。但我認為您提出的區別很有道理。希望這能幫助我們區分短期諮詢業務的成長和我們認為Lens帶來的長期建設性趨勢，以及我們累積的定價經驗，並闡明這些經驗將如何隨著時間的推移在業務中發揮作用。

Next question comes from the line of Andrew Steinerman of JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的安德魯·斯坦納曼。

Lee, I wanted to ask you, as you've taken over the operational responsibility of Argus, what have you found in terms of the fit of Argus in terms of Verisk's ability to create further customer value, [5] new customer segments for Argus data or just innovate in general within a subscription model?

Lee，我想問你，既然你已經接管了 Argus 的營運責任，你認為 Argus 與 Verisk 創造更多客戶價值的能力[5]、Argus 數據的新客戶群，或者在訂閱模式下進行一般創新，這些方面是否契合？

Yes. Thank you for the question, Andrew. I have been able to spend more time with the team at Verisk Financial Services. And one thing I would first emphasize is that they have been very focused on trying to integrate the data sets that we have from the various businesses and move from a more compartmentalized approach to the business to a focus on our broader client objectives. And in fact, Lisa has implemented some organizational changes that support that approach and focus from the business, which we think moves that to a more effectively integrated platform for our businesses. And we have also taken the steps structurally to move that business from a more consulting-oriented revenue base to more sustainable growth. And we are seeing that from a new business signing and pipeline perspective in the way that we are bringing on new business and how we're structuring it and the types of business.

是的，謝謝你的提問，安德魯。我最近有更多時間與Verisk Financial Services團隊交流。首先我想強調的是，他們一直致力於整合我們各個業務部門的資料集，並將業務模式從各自為政轉向更專注於我們更廣泛的客戶目標。事實上，麗莎已經實施了一些組織架構調整，以支援這種業務模式和關注點，我們認為這將使我們的業務平台更加高效整合。此外，我們也採取了結構性措施，將業務收入來源從以諮詢為主轉向更永續的成長模式。從新業務簽約和業務拓展的角度來看，我們已經看到了這些轉變，體現在我們拓展新業務的方式、業務結構以及業務類型。

To your question, one thing that's important to emphasize is that Verisk's Financial Services, in many ways, has been an intellectual capital engine for much of the rest of the business. A lot of what they have learned in dealing with very large data sets and integrating them, managing them, data architecture elements have been exported to the rest of the business. Many of the data scientists, including our CIO, Nick Daffan; our Chief Analytics Officer, Vikas Vats, have come from that background and are -- we're drawing from their expertise. So there are other elements of the -- of what they've contributed to Verisk has been helpful. We are pulling from some of those externalized elements in a variety of ways analytically to developing new products, the replatforming of Argus 2.0 is an example of where we've been able to draw from some of that external expertise. So I think there is a good dialogue across the 2 entities. And we also look for interactions between the credit dimensions that Verisk Financial Services have and some of the insurance elements of our business to inform and generate new opportunities.

關於您的問題，有一點需要強調，Verisk 的金融服務部門在許多方面都是公司其他業務的智力資本引擎。他們在處理、整合和管理海量資料集以及資料架構方面累積的大量經驗，都已推廣到公司其他部門。許多資料科學家，包括我們的資訊長 Nick Daffan 和首席分析長 Vikas Vats，都來自這個領域，我們正在藉鏡他們的專業知識。因此，他們為 Verisk 做出的其他貢獻也對我們大有裨益。我們從各方面借鏡這些外部資源，從分析到開發新產品，例如 Argus 2.0 的平台重構，就是一個很好的例子，說明我們如何運用這些外部專業知識。所以我認為，這兩個部門之間有著良好的溝通。此外，我們也在尋找 Verisk 金融服務部門的信貸業務與我們保險業務之間的互動，以期發現新的機會。

Next question comes from the line of Toni Kaplan of Morgan Stanley.

下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的東尼卡普蘭。

Wanted to ask another question on the fintech side. I guess, by partnering with the software platforms, it sounds like there's potential for upside from selling additional solutions on there. Just wanted to understand, compared to history before these platforms were as prevalent, were you providing a platform to your customers? Or are they just using their own platform? And so in this case, this is just complete upside? Or is there any revenue that is sort of lost by them going to a sort of software platform that's not yours?

我還想問一個關於金融科技方面的問題。我猜，透過與軟體平台合作，似乎可以透過銷售平台上的其他解決方案來獲得潛在收益。我想了解的是，與這些平台普及前相比，你們是提供客戶平台嗎？還是他們仍然使用自己的平台？如果是這樣，那麼這種合作是否完全是收益？或者說，客戶使用非你們的軟體平台是否會造成一些收入損失？

No, there's not revenue loss by them going to a platform provided by another third party. So just to expand on that answer just a hair, so if you look at sort of over -- I'd say, over the course of the decade, you go back a decade ago, it was either -- basically, what we were doing was going to market either through our own platforms or our solutions were operating more as point solutions and most of the integration was occurring customer by customer. They were doing their own integration.

不，他們轉用第三方平台不會造成收入損失。我再稍微補充一下，回顧過去十年，也就是十年前，我們基本上是透過自有平台或以獨立解決方案的形式進入市場，而大部分整合工作都是客戶之間自行完成的。

So now that's where it's where we are today and where we're headed into the future. We are more platforms than we were, significantly more platform than we were. And that is constructive inside of the growth of our business now and into the future. And if you actually look at the pattern of investment, what are we spending money on, a great deal of it and a lot more than it used to be, is on developing software, which you should hear us building our own platforms.

所以，這就是我們目前的狀況，也是我們未來的發展方向。我們現在擁有的平台比以前更多，而且是顯著更多。這對我們業務的當前和未來成長都大有裨益。如果你仔細觀察我們的投資模式，你會發現我們把錢花在了哪裡，其中很大一部分，而且比以前多得多，都用於軟體開發，也就是我們自主建構平台。

But when we strike a relationship with a third party that is itself, providing a platform. It's -- we're analyzing that in the context of, well, okay, we could go direct the customer through the integration themselves. But basically, that third-party platform that isn't ours is substituting for the customer's own integration efforts, but not in a way that it impacts the underlying value of what it is that we provide, which is being integrated and over there. So the whole movement towards platforms is customer-friendly and it's constructive for Verisk because we, ourselves, are doing a lot more of that than we used to.

但當我們與第三方建立合作關係，而該第三方本身就提供平台時，我們會分析這種情況：我們當然可以指導客戶自行完成整合。但實際上，這個並非我們自己的第三方平台會取代客戶本身的整合工作，但這並不會影響我們提供的、正在整合到客戶端的服務的根本價值。因此，整個平台化趨勢對客戶友好，對 Verisk 來說也是有益的，因為我們自身在這方面投入的精力也比以往更多了。

That's helpful. And then just in the past couple of quarters, Financial Services has had single-digit EBITDA margins. Is this the new normalized margin? Or is there something depressing it temporarily? And any updated thoughts on strategic options?

這很有幫助。另外，過去幾季金融服務業的 EBITDA 利潤率一直維持在個位數。這是新的正常利潤率嗎？還是有什麼因素暫時拉低了利潤率？關於策略選擇，您有什麼新的見解嗎？

Definitely not the new normal. Lee, I don't know if you want to add on that.

這絕對不是新常態。李，我不知道你是否想補充這一點。

Yes. Toni, thanks for the question. It's not the case. We are -- what you are seeing in that quarterly impact is the impact of some of the contract transitions, but we are expecting, as we come through that third quarter, a period where we reached the end of that contract transition impact, that you will see more normalized margins within that business. So that is not -- what you see now is not the expected sustained element here.

是的，托尼，謝謝你的提問。情況並非如此。你目前看到的季度業績影響是部分合約過渡的影響，但我們預計，隨著第三季的結束，也就是合約過渡影響逐漸消退之後，該業務的利潤率將更加正常化。所以，你現在看到的並非預期的持續因素。

And normal looks like what it did last year, for example?

正常狀態看起來是不是像去年？

In that vicinity.

就在那裡附近。

Next question comes from the line of Manav Patnaik of Barclays

下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的馬納夫·帕特奈克。

Yes, I just wanted to follow up on the Financial Services as well. We've heard the positive spin on the business for quite some time. But for 5 years now, the growth has declined. The margins have come down as well. So like you guys decided to cut the cord or what's the plan? How do we get comfortable that it can be additive to growth?

是的，我也想跟進一下金融服務方面的狀況。我們已經聽到很多關於這項業務的正面評價了。但五年來，成長一直在放緩，利潤率也下降了。所以，你們是決定放棄這項業務了嗎？還是有什麼計畫？我們如何確信它能為成長帶來促進作用？

Thank you, Manav. And we -- it's a fair point. We understand the frustration in -- with regard to growth. I think it's important to understand that there are 2 factors that are influencing where the growth rates are right now that are very significant. One is the -- are the contract transitions that we believe are, one, absolutely the right operational decision. They are structural, and they are finite. And as I've just indicated in the answer to Toni, we move those after the third quarter of this year. Element is naturally the impact from COVID on the business on our COVID-sensitive revenues, which clearly had an impact on spend informed activity, bankruptcy activity and even some of the bank consulting revenue.

謝謝，Manav。您說的很有道理。我們理解大家對成長的擔憂。我認為重要的是要明白，目前有兩個非常重要的因素影響成長率。一是合約調整，我們認為這是絕對正確的營運決策。這些調整是結構性的，而且是有限的。正如我剛才在回答Toni的問題時提到的，我們將在今年第三季之後完成這些調整。另一個因素自然是新冠疫情對我們業務的影響，尤其是對我們那些與疫情相關的收入，這顯然影響了支出相關業務、破產業務，甚至部分銀行諮詢收入。

And so when we are evaluating, and we are constantly evaluating what we do with all of our businesses and what are our options to optimize the value of that, the right time frame that we think is to look at what's the structural transitions and the impact from COVID. And so certainly, 2022 should be what we believe is a much more normalized level from a revenue, revenue growth and from a margin perspective that informs our view of the more normal operating state of the business as well as a sense of how the structural changes that we have implemented and the operating changes will demonstrate their impact more clearly in terms of growth at a top line and an EBITDA level. So in short, I think, as we move through these 2 temporal impacts and the structural impact on the contract transition, 2022 should be a much more normalized basis for us to be...

因此，當我們評估（我們一直在評估所有業務的運作方式以及如何優化其價值）時，我們認為合適的時機是考察結構性轉型以及新冠疫情的影響。我們相信，2022 年的營收、營收成長和利潤率都將更加正常化，這將有助於我們了解業務的正常營運狀態，以及我們已實施的結構性變革和營運變革將如何更清晰地體現在營收成長和 EBITDA 層級。簡而言之，我認為，隨著我們逐步應對疫情帶來的暫時性影響以及合約過渡帶來的結構性影響，2022 年將是一個更正常的基準…

Well, I'll say it more strongly. 2020 would have been coming out year party for Verisk Financial, but for the pandemic. 2020 would have been a coming out party for Verisk Financial. All these changes that we're talking about making. And yes, I mean the fact that the business has an above-average level of transaction revenues relative to the mix that is in Verisk has caused it to sort of respond differentially. But beginning in 2018, we acknowledge changes that needed to happen in the business model. They were all packaged and on deck and ready and then the pandemic happens.

好吧，我再強調一下。如果不是因為疫情，2020年本該是Verisk Financial的成名之年。我們一直在討論的這些變革，2020年本該是Verisk Financial的成名之年。沒錯，Verisk Financial的交易收入相對於其整體業務結構而言高於平均水平，這導致它需要做出一些差異化的反應。但早在2018年，我們就意識到業務模式需要做一些改變。所有方案都已準備就緒，就緒後，疫情爆發了。

Okay. And then maybe just a similar question on Energy. I think Lens obviously has been doing really well, and you talked about energy transition growing. But I think, collectively, they're still a small part of the business, right? So how do you -- what is the other initiatives going on there as you helped us grow 7% in what's a pretty cyclical industry?

好的。那麼，關於能源業務，或許可以問一個類似的問題。我認為Lens的業務顯然發展得非常好，您也提到了能源轉型帶來的成長。但我認為，總體而言，能源業務在我們公司業務中所佔的比重仍然很小，對嗎？那麼，在您幫助我們在這樣一個週期性很強的行業實現7%的成長的過程中，您還有哪些其他舉措在推進能源業務？

Yes. So in that situation, when we look at the rapidly changing landscape within power, I think it's important, Manav, to understand kind of a legacy perception of where Wood Mackenzie was from an oil and gas market, resource asset, pricing orientation and their expertise and where they have evolved and where they -- their potential to continue to evolve in an environment where the energy transition from carbon-based to alternative tools and all of the capital decision, investment decision, expense decisions that this client base investors are addressing is we are incredibly well-positioned. And Lens is the platform that puts us in the space to be able to capture the rapid growth in data sets and analytics for that business. We're already seeing it, as I indicated, in terms of the pricing on the legacy product. We're seeing it in the growth in our energy transition revenues, both on a consulting and subscription basis within chemicals. You saw an acquisition in metals and mining, which have increasing relevance given the importance of battery raw materials.

是的。因此，在電力行業瞬息萬變的格局下，我認為，Manav，了解伍德麥肯茲公司過去在石油天然氣市場、資源資產、定價策略和專業知識方面的定位，以及他們如何發展演變，並在能源轉型（從碳基能源轉向替代能源）的環境下繼續發展，這一點至關重要。客戶群投資者正面臨各種資本決策、投資決策和支出決策，而我們在這方面擁有得天獨厚的優勢。 Lens平台讓我們能夠抓住業務數據和分析的快速成長機會。正如我之前提到的，我們已經在傳統產品的定價方面看到了這一點。我們在能源轉型方面的營收成長也反映在化學工業的諮詢和訂閱業務上。您也看到了我們在金屬和礦業領域的收購，鑑於電池原料的重要性，這些領域的重要性日益凸顯。

And so we view Wood Mackenzie and PowerAdvocate, our primary energy businesses, as positioning themselves very well for capturing the growth in demand for those products. And we see through the impact on consulting revenues and some of the challenges on the subscription basis that growth potential ahead. So I think it's a combination of both that future opportunity and the success that we've had to date in moving that business forward. One piece of evidence from that, if you look at a number of our competitors in that space, I think you will see very differentiated performance from a revenue growth and an earnings growth perspective, reflecting the significant progress that we've made in moving it from that legacy orientation around the upstream oil and gas sector.

因此，我們認為伍德麥肯茲和PowerAdvocate這兩家主要能源業務公司已經做好充分準備，能夠抓住市場對這些產品需求的成長機會。我們從諮詢收入受到的影響以及訂閱模式面臨的一些挑戰中看到了未來的成長潛力。我認為這既得益於未來的機遇，也得益於我們迄今為止在推動業務發展方面的成功。一個佐證是，如果您觀察一下我們在該領域的一些競爭對手，您會發現他們在收入增長和盈利增長方面的表現差異顯著，這反映了我們在擺脫以往以上游油氣行業為中心的傳統模式方面所取得的重大進展。

And our last question comes from the line of Ashish Sabadra of RBC Capital Markets.

最後一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場的 Ashish Sabadra。

I just wanted to focus on the strength in the software within the Insurance segment, both international as well as the life insurance -- or international as well as life insurance. You obviously talked about strength in the FAST business. I was wondering what's really driving it. Is it new customers? Is it ability to cross-sell? How do you -- can you comment on the pipeline? And maybe just a follow-up on that is -- there was a lot of discussion about platform and partnership, but how do you think about buying and building or increasing your software intensity and expanding on the platform that you already have?

我只想重點談談保險領域軟體的優勢，包括國際保險和人壽保險——或者說國際保險和人壽保險。您顯然提到了FAST業務的優勢。我想知道真正驅動這優勢的是什麼。是新客戶嗎？是交叉銷售能力嗎？能否談談銷售管道？另外，還有一個後續問題——我們討論了很多關於平台和合作關係的內容，但您如何看待收購、自主研發或增強軟體實力，以及擴展現有平台？

Sure. Well, thank you for the question. Let me describe the 2 different verticals or 2 different businesses described. So first of all, with regard to international software, so the most part that represents our Sequel offering. So we were talking a little bit about platforms before the (inaudible) the claim systems. We are a player in the market. We are the most significant player in the market. And that is about growth in customers. That is about extension of different solutions and products, including some of the acquisitions we did that helped extend that platform, line space, roll block sequel, all of those are this interconnected ecosystem. And we've taken that capability as it relates to, for the most part, specialty and commercial lines, and started to extend it outside of the U.K. and even into the United States. So those are good wins, those are good extensions and it's been very positive.

當然。謝謝你的提問。讓我來介紹一下你提到的兩個不同的垂直領域或兩個不同的業務。首先，關於國際軟體，這主要指的是我們的Sequel產品。我們之前也稍微談到了平台，以及（聽不清楚）理賠系統。我們是市場上的重要參與者，也是最重要的參與者。這體現在客戶的成長上，體現在各種解決方案和產品的擴展上，包括我們透過收購擴展的平台，例如Line Space、Roll Block Sequel等等，所有這些都構成了一個相互關聯的生態系統。我們主要針對特殊險種和商業險種，並開始將這項能力擴展到英國以外的地區，甚至包括美國。這些都是不錯的成果，也是很好的拓展，而且效果非常正面。

If I was to go over to the FAST side, which is the life side of things, what we've done is we've infused it with some analytics. But in large part, what you're seeing is, there are some very major life insurers who've made some very major decisions, and they've chosen FAST. These are very long-term contracts, 5 and 10 years. And we are implementing as we speak, and that will be a very nice and very substantial run. Because as we implement, what we will get is I'll refer to it as subscription-types of revenue. And as they put on new products and there's new volumes, we would see increased revenue on each of those lines.

如果我轉到FAST系統這邊，也就是人壽保險方面，我們所做的就是融入了一些分析技術。但總的來說，你會看到一些大型人壽保險公司做出了非常重要的決策，他們選擇了FAST系統。這些都是非常長期的合同，期限為5年或10年。我們正在實施這些合同，而且這將會帶來非常可觀的收益。因為隨著系統的實施，我們將獲得我稱之為訂閱型收入的收入。隨著他們推出新產品，業務量增加，我們將看到每條產品線的收入成長。

So the major wins across the life insurance software platform space, it's been with FAST, in almost every case that we're aware of. And again, those are new logos as well as extension into other solutions or products within existing customers. So hopefully, that answers your question. And what I did try to at least kind of conclude in there, we have significantly increased the investment to make sure we transition to the SaaS environment, to transition to the cloud. We've extended both our capabilities through acquisition and build.

因此，在人壽保險軟體平台領域，我們取得的主要勝利幾乎都與FAST有關。而且，這些勝利不僅包括新客戶，還包括現有客戶在其他解決方案或產品方面的拓展。希望這能解答您的問題。最後，我想強調的是，我們已大幅增加投資，以確保轉型為SaaS環境和雲端。我們透過收購和自主研發擴展了自身能力。

Thank you. I will turn the call over to our presenters for any closing remarks.

謝謝。接下來我將把電話交給各位發言人，請他們作總結發言。

Thank you. This is Scott. I'm seeing some more names. Okay. we are concluded. Thank you all for your time today, your interest. We'll be following up with a number of you. And appreciate as always the dialogue. Have a great rest of the day.

謝謝。我是史考特。我看到還有一些名字。好的，今天的會議結束了。感謝各位今天抽空參與，也感謝大家的關注。我們會跟進一些朋友的來信。一如既往地感謝大家的交流。祝大家今天剩下的時間愉快。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝各位的參與。現在可以掛斷電話了。祝您今天愉快。