Verisk Analytics Inc (VRSK) 2018 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Verisk Second Quarter 2018 Earnings Results Conference Call. This call is being recorded.

大家好，歡迎參加 Verisk 2018 年第二季財報電話會議。本次通話正在錄音。

At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Verisk's CFO, Mr. Lee Shavel. Mr. Shavel, please go ahead.

此時此刻，我謹將電話交給 Verisk 的財務長 Lee Shavel 先生，請他致開幕詞並作介紹。沙維爾先生，請繼續。

Thank you, Kyle, and good day to everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for a discussion of our second quarter 2018 financial results.

謝謝你，凱爾，祝大家今天愉快。感謝您今天蒞臨本次會議，與我們共同探討2018年第二季的財務表現。

With me on the call this morning are Scott Stephenson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Mark Anquillare, Chief Operating Officer.

今天早上和我一起參加電話會議的有董事長、總裁兼執行長史考特‧史蒂芬森，以及營運長馬克‧安奎拉雷。

Following comments by Scott, Mark and myself highlighting some key points about our financial performance, we will open up the call for your questions.

在 Scott、Mark 和我分別就我們的財務表現發表了一些關鍵評論之後，我們將開放提問環節。

Before we do that, I'd like to take the opportunity to introduce our new Head of Investor Relations, Stacey Brodbar. I am personally delighted, as you all can imagine, to have Stacey join us. Although, as I reflected on it last night, you all maybe even more excited than I am to have Stacey with us. She comes to us with 20 years of broad experience from the buy side, sell side and investment banking. Most recently, she spent 11 years at AllianceBernstein, where she served as a Senior Vice President and Senior Equity analyst covering the consumer discretionary sector.

在此之前，我想藉此機會介紹我們新的投資者關係主管史黛西·布羅德巴。正如大家所能想像的那樣，我個人非常高興Stacey能加入我們。不過，昨晚我仔細想了想，你們可能比我更興奮，因為 Stacey 能和我們在一起。她擁有20年豐富的經驗，曾在買方、賣方和投資銀行工作。最近，她在AllianceBernstein工作了11年，擔任高級副總裁兼高級股票分析師，負責非必需消費品產業。

Prior to that, she spent 7 years as a sell-side equity analyst at Crédit Suisse, analyzing the restaurant sector. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Duke University. I know that she is looking forward to engaging with all of you in this new role, and we will appreciate the same patience that you've shown to me as Stacey comes up the learning curve with the businesses at Verisk. Fortunately, she comes into the job with the benefit and knowledge of having been an investor in the company previously.

在此之前，她曾在瑞士信貸擔任賣方股票分析師 7 年，主要分析餐飲業。她擁有哥倫比亞商學院的工商管理碩士學位和杜克大學的歷史學士學位。我知道她很期待在這個新職位上與大家互動，我們也希望大家能像對我一樣，在 Stacey 逐步熟悉 Verisk 各項業務的過程中給予她同樣的耐心。幸運的是，她之前曾是該公司的投資者，這使她對公司的情況和知識有了更深入的了解。

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. The earnings release has also been attached to an 8-K that we have furnished to the SEC. And we have also posted our investor presentation for the second quarter on our website at verisk.com. A replay of this call will be available for 30 days on our website and by dial-in.

本次電話會議中提到的收益報告以及相關的 10-Q 表格可以在我們網站 verisk.com 的投資者關係部分找到。獲利報告也已附在我們提交給美國證券交易委員會的 8-K 表格中。此外，我們也在公司網站 verisk.com 上發布了第二季的投資人簡報。本次通話的錄音將在我們的網站上保留 30 天，也可透過電話撥入收聽。

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 Verisk's future performance. 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，正如今天發布的收益報告中更詳細闡述的那樣，我要提醒大家，今天的電話會議可能包含有關 Verisk 未來業績的前瞻性陳述。實際表現可能與我們今天所作的評論有重大差異。有關可能影響未來業績的因素的資訊已包含在我們最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中。

Now I will turn the call over to Scott Stephenson.

現在我將把電話交給史考特史蒂芬森。

Thanks, Lee. Good morning, everybody. I'm pleased overall with the second quarter results we are reporting today and with the progress occurring across our business.

謝謝你，李。各位早安。我對我們今天公佈的第二季業績以及我們業務的進展總體上感到滿意。

I recently had 2 weeks in Europe with some of our largest customers and our leadership teams and come away encouraged about our situation and forward opportunities.

我最近在歐洲與我們的一些最大客戶和領導團隊進行了為期兩週的會面，這讓我對我們目前的處境和未來的機會感到鼓舞。

Let me summarize some of what I saw and heard. On the insurance front, we are a different company in the London and U.K. markets than we were just 1 year ago. Across many meetings, it became clear that our customers see and understand the logic of the new solutions we have brought to market through a combination of organic developments and acquisition.

讓我總結一下我所看到和聽到的一些事情。在保險方面，我們在倫敦和英國市場上的業務與一年前相比已經截然不同。在多次會議中，我們清楚地認識到，我們的客戶能夠理解並接受我們透過自主研發和收購相結合的方式推向市場的新解決方案的邏輯。

On several occasions, I heard customers comment on the unique position we have achieved in the U.K. along with their anticipation of newly integrated offerings from Verisk. I hear customers referring to Verisk as a partner more frequently than in the past. They are asking for deeper dives into our solution sets and pipeline of new developments. Virtually every conversation with customers was forward-looking in nature, which is a good sign for our future.

我曾多次聽到客戶評論我們在英國取得的獨特地位，以及他們對 Verisk 新推出的整合產品的期望。我發現客戶現在更頻繁地將 Verisk 稱為合作夥伴。他們要求深入了解我們的解決方案集和新開發專案計劃。幾乎每一次與客戶的對話都具有前瞻性，這對我們的未來來說是一個好兆頭。

I also met with the senior leadership of some of Europe's largest energy businesses. I heard continuing affirmation of the must-have quality of the data and the analytics we provide.

我還與歐洲一些最大能源企業的高層領導會面。我不斷聽到人們肯定我們提供的數據和分析的必要性。

Equally encouraging were discussions around the need to transform commercial decision-making in the oil and gas industry through the application of modern data analytic methods.

同樣令人鼓舞的是，圍繞著透過應用現代數據分析方法來改變石油和天然氣行業商業決策的必要性的討論。

This point is deeply felt by the energy companies who are awash in technical data but have yet to realize the promise of optimized commercial decision-making.

這一點，能源公司深有體會，他們雖然擁有大量的技術數據，卻尚未實現優化商業決策的潛力。

A goal of our Energy business customers is planning cycles measured in weeks rather than years, which can only be achieved with a level of cost and productivity benchmarking, which has previously been unseen.

我們能源業務客戶的目標是以周而不是年為單位來規劃週期，而這只有透過以前從未見過的成本和生產力基準測試才能實現。

Our customers in Europe and indeed, everywhere, see us as a natural partner in helping them achieve this transformation.

我們在歐洲乃至世界各地的客戶都將我們視為幫助他們實現這項轉型的天然合作夥伴。

I spent an enjoyable afternoon in the offices of one of Argus' leading U.K. customers. It was great to spend time not only with our customer, but also our several person team who sit in the customers' offices, representing a wonderful level of intimacy.

我在 Argus 的一位英國主要客戶的辦公室度過了一個愉快的下午。很高興不僅能與客戶共度時光，還能與我們幾位在客戶辦公室辦公的團隊成員共度時光，這反映了我們之間良好的親密關係。

After reviewing the considerable value attached to our current solutions, the conversation with our executive sponsor then moved to future opportunities to harness machine learning to amplify their analytics. Again, the conversation was primarily about the future and how our 2 companies can partner.

在評估了我們目前解決方案的巨大價值後，與執行贊助商的對話轉向了未來利用機器學習來增強其分析能力的機會。這次談話主要還是圍繞著未來以及我們兩家公司如何合作。

A consistent message across customer meetings is that some of the most important work being done by our customers is harnessing data and analytics to improve their business results, and they see Verisk as a unique partner in doing so.

在與客戶的會議中，我們反覆聽到這樣的訊息：我們的客戶正在做的最重要的工作之一就是利用數據和分析來改善他們的業務成果，而他們認為 Verisk 是實現這一目標的獨特合作夥伴。

With that, let me hand it over to Mark for some comments on the insurance vertical.

接下來，我將把麥克風交給馬克，讓他對保險業發表一些看法。

Thank you, Scott. In our Insurance business, we had another strong quarter in all Insurance-facing businesses. Underwriting & rating, as well as claims, contributing to growth. Let me highlight a few areas that drove top line growth and update you on several initiatives that better position us for the future.

謝謝你，斯科特。在保險業務方面，所有與保險相關的業務都取得了另一個強勁的季度業績。承保和評級以及理賠都對成長做出了貢獻。讓我重點介紹幾個推動營收成長的領域，並向您報告幾項旨在更好地為未來做好準備的舉措。

To remind everyone of our new reporting segments. Underwriting & rating consists of: one, our ISO business unit, which provides industry-standard insurance programs, property-specific underwriting and rating information and our personal lines underwriting solutions; two, our AIR business unit, which offer -- which provides extreme event models; and three, Sequel, our business unit which provides insurance software solutions.

提醒大家我們新增的報道欄位。承保和評級業務包括：一、我們的 ISO 業務部門，提供行業標準的保險方案、特定財產的承保和評級資訊以及我們的個人保險承保解決方案；二、我們的 AIR 業務部門，提供極端事件模型；三、Sequel，我們的保險軟體解決方案業務部門。

During the quarter, Underwriting & rating delivered strong organic growth across personal lines underwriting, extreme event modeling and industry-standard insurance programs through a combination of cross-sell with existing solutions to new customers and the sale of new innovative solutions.

本季度，承保與評級業務透過向新客戶交叉銷售現有解決方案以及銷售新的創新解決方案，在個人保險承保、極端事件建模和行業標準保險計劃方面實現了強勁的內生增長。

Our legacy ISO business continues to maintain high customer retention rates while increasing its prominence as a thought leader in the property and casualty industry.

我們原有的 ISO 業務持續保持較高的客戶留存率，同時不斷提升其在財產和意外傷害行業中作為思想領袖的地位。

We have a series of new programs and product extensions fueling growth, including: cyber, one, our new program to address the growing cyber threat, which represents a significant avenue of growth for insurers; two, flood insurance, where we launched both personal and commercial lines coverage to satisfy the underinsured and uninsured problem in the U.S., as evidenced during Hurricane Harvey, where 2/3 of flood losses occurred outside of FEMA's 100-year floodplains. These ISO programs support all areas in the contiguous United States regardless of the FEMA flood zone; three, LightSpeed, our suite of underwriting data and analytics focusing on personal lines risks, primarily, personal auto and homeowner's risk; and four, Risk Analyzer, our deeply analytic and highly segmented suite of tools providing refined pricing detail on specific risks.

我們有一系列新項目和產品擴展來推動成長，其中包括：網路安全，第一，我們推出了一項新項目，旨在應對日益增長的網路威脅，這代表著保險公司的一個重要成長途徑；第二，洪水保險，我們推出了個人和商業保險，以解決美國保險不足和無保險的問題，正如哈維颶風期間所證明百年的那樣，三分之二的洪水損失在聯邦緊急事務管理局。這些 ISO 計劃支援美國本土所有地區，無論是否屬於 FEMA 洪水區；第三，LightSpeed，我們的承保數據和分析套件，專注於個人險種風險，主要是個人汽車險和房屋險；第四，Risk Analyzer，我們深度分析和高度細分的工具套件，提供特定風險的精細定價詳情。

We continue to extend our Risk Analyzer suite and recently introduced a physical damage module for commercial auto.

我們不斷擴展風險分析套件，最近推出了商用汽車的實體損壞模組。

In June, we held our Verisk London Risk Symposium, an event highlighting our InsurTech capabilities across Underwriting & rating and Claims, with a focus on key insurance and global risk issues. The number of follow-up opportunities was impressive as U.K. insurers and Lloyd's syndicates are becoming -- beginning to fully understand the scope and power of Verisk offerings.

6 月，我們舉辦了 Verisk 倫敦風險研討會，重點介紹了我們在承保與評級和理賠方面的保險科技能力，並著重討論了關鍵的保險和全球風險問題。隨著英國保險公司和勞合社辛迪加逐漸全面了解 Verisk 產品的範圍和功能，後續合作機會的數量令人印象深刻。

After a week together in London, our leadership team was energized by the meetings with customers, developing strategy across our European businesses and prioritizing opportunities brought by these collaborative efforts.

在倫敦共度一週後，我們的領導團隊受到了與客戶會面的鼓舞，制定了我們歐洲業務的策略，並優先考慮了這些合作努力帶來的機會。

Our Claims businesses include: one, claims analytics, our fraud prevention solutions featuring ClaimSearch; two, Xactware, our suite of solutions focused on loss quantification and repair cost estimating; and three, Geomni, our cutting-edge remote imagery business.

我們的理賠業務包括：一、理賠分析，我們的防詐欺解決方案，其特色是 ClaimSearch；二、Xactware，我們專注於損失量化和維修成本估算的解決方案套件；三、Geomni，我們先進的遠端影像業務。

Claims experienced another exceptional quarter with organic growth across all business units through a combination of cross-sale and sale of new solutions.

理賠業務又經歷了一個非凡的季度，所有業務部門都實現了有機成長，這得益於交叉銷售和新解決方案的銷售。

During the quarter, we acquired Validus, a leading provider of claims management solutions and developer of the leading subrogation portal in the U.K. Subrogation incurs when an insurer pays an insured for a loss caused by a third party. Insurance companies then subrogates or steps into the shoes of the insured to interact with a third party to recoup the loss suffered by the insured. With the addition of a well-established subrogation platform to its existing claims solution set, Verisk is uniquely positioned to support the U.K. insurance market at every stage in the life of a claim.

本季度，我們收購了 Validus，該公司是英國領先的索賠管理解決方案提供商和領先的代位求償入口網站的開發商。代位求償是指保險公司向被保險人支付因第三人造成的損失的賠償金。保險公司隨後會進行代位求償，即代替被保險人與第三人進行交涉，以追回被保險人所遭受的損失。Verisk 在其現有的理賠解決方案組合中增加了一個成熟的代位求償平台，從而在理賠的每個階段為英國保險市場提供了獨特的支援。

As I highlighted during our prior earnings call, we are focused on helping our customers automate the claims process to drive towards right touch claims handling, where less complex and smaller dollar claims are handled with limited manual intervention. The subrogation process and coordination of benefits for bodily injury claims are areas where we can vastly improve the claims process and create efficiencies for our customers.

正如我在先前的財報電話會議上所強調的那樣，我們致力於幫助客戶實現理賠流程自動化，從而推動精準理賠處理，即以有限的人工幹預處理複雜度較低、金額較小的理賠。代位求償程序和人身傷害索賠的福利協調是我們可以大幅改善索賠流程並為客戶創造效率的領域。

Geomni, our business that harnesses remote-sensing and machine learning technologies to provide information about residential and commercial structures has advanced its massive library of high-resolution imagery and data for substantially all properties in the United States. The aerial imagery and property data, including measurements of dimensions for commercial and residential properties, are seamlessly integrated through Verisk's platforms for claims, underwriting and catastrophe modeling. The image library, advanced analytics and tight integration with our repair cost estimating tools have resulted in exceptional efficiencies for insurers and strong growth at Geomni as well as Xactware.

Geomni 是我們利用遙感和機器學習技術提供有關住宅和商業建築資訊的業務部門，它已經建立了涵蓋美國幾乎所有房產的高解析度影像和資料龐大的資料庫。空拍影像和房產資料（包括商業和住宅房產的尺寸測量資料）透過 Verisk 的理賠、承保和災害建模平台無縫整合。影像庫、進階分析以及與我們的維修成本估算工具的緊密整合，為保險公司帶來了卓越的效率，並推動了 Geomni 和 Xactware 的強勁成長。

Across all businesses, from both a customer and financial perspective, we're very pleased with the performance of the Insurance businesses.

從客戶和財務角度來看，我們對保險業務的整體表現非常滿意。

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

接下來，我將把發言權交給李，讓他來介紹我們的財務表現。

Thanks, Mark. First, I'd like to bring everyone's attention to the fact that we have posted a quarterly earnings presentation that is available on our website. The presentation provides background data and trends and analysis to support our conversation today.

謝謝你，馬克。首先，我想請大家注意，我們已經在網站上發布了季度收益報告。本次簡報提供了背景數據、趨勢和分析，以支持我們今天的討論。

Moving to the financial results for the quarter. On a consolidated and GAAP basis, revenue grew 14.9% to $601 million. Net income increased 26.9% to $154 million for the quarter. Diluted GAAP EPS was $0.91 for the second quarter 2018, an increase of 26.4% compared with the same period in 2017.

接下來來看看本季的財務業績。以合併及GAAP準則計算，營收成長14.9%，達6.01億美元。本季淨利成長26.9%，達到1.54億美元。2018 年第二季稀釋 GAAP 每股盈餘為 0.91 美元，較 2017 年同期成長 26.4%。

Having presented our summary GAAP results, I will now shift to a focus on our organic constant-currency results for all year-over-year growth rates consistent with our financial targets and to eliminate the impact of currency fluctuations and recent acquisitions for which we don't have a full year-over-year comparison.

在介紹完我們的 GAAP 概要業績後，我現在將重點放在我們所有同比增長率的有機固定匯率業績上，這些增長率與我們的財務目標一致，並消除匯率波動和近期收購的影響，因為我們沒有完整的同比數據。

Acquired revenue and adjusted EBITDA in the quarter from all deals that haven't moved into organic results were $36 million and $9 million, respectively. Please note that nonrecurring acquisition-related transaction expenses are included in these EBITDA amounts.

本季所有尚未轉化為內生性業績的交易帶來的收購收入和調整後 EBITDA 分別為 3,600 萬美元和 900 萬美元。請注意，這些 EBITDA 金額中包含了非經常性收購相關交易費用。

Verisk demonstrated very solid growth performance and momentum in the second quarter. Revenue growth of 7.4% was ahead of our 7% long-term target and it was our fourth consecutive quarter at or above that target.

Verisk在第二季展現了非常穩健的成長表現和發展動能。營收成長7.4%，高於我們7%的長期目標，這也是我們連續第四個季度達到或超過該目標。

Adjusted EBITDA expense grew 5.9%, enabling EBITDA growth of 8.9% and demonstrating the benefit of our operating leverage. The EBITDA growth differential to revenue growth of 1.5% is also ahead of our long-term target of a minimum 1% differential. These results also produced an improved adjusted EBITDA margin of 49.6%, up from 48.9% in the prior year, reflecting the benefits of our scale and inclusive of continued investment across the business.

調整後 EBITDA 支出成長 5.9%，使得 EBITDA 成長 8.9%，證明了我們經營槓桿的優勢。EBITDA 成長率與營收成長率差為 1.5%，也高於我們 1% 的長期目標。這些績效也使調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率從去年的 48.9% 提高到 49.6%，反映了我們規模帶來的好處，並包含了對整個業務的持續投資。

Let's now turn to our segment results on an organic constant-currency basis. As you will see on Table 2 in the press release, Insurance had a strong quarter with 8.4% revenue growth with Underwriting & rating contributing 6.2% and Claims contributing 13.2% growth.

現在讓我們來看看以固定匯率計算的各業務板塊業績。正如您將在新聞稿的表 2 中看到的那樣，保險業務本季度表現強勁，收入增長了 8.4%，其中承保和評級業務貢獻了 6.2% 的增長，理賠業務貢獻了 13.2% 的增長。

Adjusted EBITDA for Insurance grew 10.5%, reflecting an increased adjusted EBITDA margin of 56.6%, up from 55.5% in the prior year.

保險業務調整後 EBITDA 成長 10.5%，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率從上年的 55.5% 提高到 56.6%。

Within our Underwriting & rating business, we saw solid performance across our product lines. We also continued to invest in our break out opportunities, including telematics, LightSpeed, data hosting, energy and global property with exceptional growth despite the relatively small scale at this point.

在我們的核保和評級業務中，我們所有產品線都取得了穩健的表現。我們也繼續投資我們的突破性機遇，包括遠端資訊處理、LightSpeed、資料託管、能源和全球房地產，儘管目前規模相對較小，但都取得了非凡的成長。

Within Claims, the continued strong growth was a function of strong product growth in most of our Claims businesses, offset by a slight decline in our employment screening business.

在理賠業務方面，持續強勁的成長得益於我們大多數理賠業務的強勁產品成長，但被我們僱用篩選業務的輕微下滑所抵消。

In addition, Geomni continues to generate strong growth as they expand and improve data quality for clients.

此外，Geomni 在不斷擴大規模和提高客戶數據品質的同時，也持續保持強勁成長動能。

Energy and Specialized Markets delivered improved revenue growth of 5.0% for the quarter, up from 3.1% in the prior quarter as the energy industry continues to recover as many of you may have noticed, with the recent reported results from the energy companies.

能源和專業市場業務本季營收成長5.0%，高於上一季的3.1%，正如許多人可能已經注意到的，能源產業正在持續復甦，能源公司最近公佈的業績也印證了這一點。

Adjusted EBITDA increased 0.9%, also an improvement from a 5.9% decline in the prior quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin of 30.1% was down slightly from the prior year period, 31.3% due to ongoing investments in the WoodMac 2.0 initiative and our chemicals, subsurface, power and renewables and analytics breakout initiatives that increased headcount and associated compensation expense.

調整後 EBITDA 成長 0.9%，也較上一季下降 5.9% 的情況有所改善。經調整的 EBITDA 利潤率為 30.1%，較上年同期的 31.3% 略有下降，原因是持續投資 WoodMac 2.0 計劃以及我們在化工、地下、電力和可再生能源以及分析領域的突破性計劃，導致員工人數增加和相關薪酬支出增加。

These areas represent opportunities to leverage Wood Mackenzie's data and industry expertise more broadly and to deliver and develop products more swiftly and efficiently.

這些領域代表著更廣泛地利用伍德麥肯茲的數據和行業專業知識，以及更快、更有效率地交付和開發產品的機會。

Overall growth was supported by research growth at Wood Mackenzie and strong growth in consulting and with our 3E revenues.

整體成長得益於伍德麥肯錫的研發業務成長以及諮詢業務和 3E 收入的強勁成長。

This improvement was achieved despite the ongoing 2018 revenue headwind from a global investment banking client that has substantially reduced their presence in the industry.

儘管 2018 年來自全球投資銀行客戶的收入持續受到不利影響，該客戶大幅減少了其在業界的業務，但仍取得了這一進步。

The Energy and Specialized Markets segment continues to enjoy core operating leverage and growth opportunities as demand for data analytics and its constituent markets continues to expand and it has been demonstrated in the growth of our breakout revenues and the early new contract wins at PowerAdvocate.

隨著對數據分析及其組成市場的需求不斷擴大，能源和專業市場部門繼續享有核心營運槓桿和成長機會，這一點已在我們突破性收入的成長以及 PowerAdvocate 早期新合約的贏得中得到證明。

Financial Services also delivered improved revenue growth of 4.4% in the quarter, up from 1.5% in the prior quarter. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 4.5%, down from 5.1% in the prior quarter and the adjusted EBITDA margin was 31.1%, unchanged from the prior year. These results are below our long term expectations of the business but we believe the growth potential of the segment remains strong.

金融服務業務本季營收成長也達 4.4%，高於上一季的 1.5%。調整後 EBITDA 成長 4.5%，低於上一季的 5.1%；調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 31.1%，與前一年持平。這些業績低於我們對該業務的長期預期，但我們相信該業務板塊的成長潛力依然強勁。

The organic revenue growth was supported by growth in portfolio management solutions, which include our foundational benchmarking analytics and strong growth in enterprise data management solutions, where we are leveraging our data management scale and expertise to support our clients.

有機收入成長得益於投資組合管理解決方案的成長，其中包括我們的基礎基準分析；以及企業資料管理解決方案的強勁成長，我們在企業資料管理領域利用自身的資料管理規模和專業知識來支援客戶。

Looking ahead to next quarter's Financial Services revenue results. We want to take the opportunity to remind everyone that consistent with our typical partnership revenue model, we expect to have a high level of nonrecurring license and implementation revenue in the early stage of our partnerships, followed by the development of recurring subscription revenues over time.

展望下一季金融服務業的營收表現。我們想藉此機會提醒大家，根據我們典型的合作夥伴收入模式，我們預計在合作初期會有較高水平的非經常性許可和實施收入，隨後隨著時間的推移，將發展為經常性訂閱收入。

In this regard, the third quarter of 2018 will represent the 1 year anniversary of the formation of our TSYS partnership, which generated significant initial revenues in the third quarter of 2017 of $6 million with lesser amounts in the subsequent 2 quarters.

就此而言，2018 年第三季將是我們與 TSYS 建立合作關係一周年紀念日，該合作關係在 2017 年第三季產生了 600 萬美元的可觀初始收入，隨後兩季的收入有所減少。

Consequently, our growth rates next quarter will reflect the burden of those nonrecurring revenues in the prior year. As we've discussed previously, the launch of our products through the partnerships had been delayed due to data integration challenges, but we expect to commence marketing with clients this quarter with the development of the ongoing subscription revenue opportunity to follow.

因此，我們下個季度的成長率將反映出前一年那些非經常性收入的影響。正如我們之前討論過的，由於數據整合方面的挑戰，我們透過合作夥伴關係推出的產品被推遲了，但我們預計將在本季度開始與客戶進行市場推廣，隨後將開發持續的訂閱收入機會。

Consolidated depreciation and amortization was $74 million in the quarter, up 32.1% from the prior year quarter, reflecting the impact of acquisitions and increased capital expenditures in both periods.

本季綜合折舊和攤銷額為 7,400 萬美元，比上年同期成長 32.1%，反映了兩個時期收購和資本支出增加的影響。

Reported interest income was $32 million in the quarter, up 12.1% from the prior year quarter due to the funding of acquisitions in 2017. Total reported debt was $2.8 billion at June 30, 2018, down from $3.0 billion at December 31, 2017. Our leverage at the end of the second quarter was 2.4x on the basis of our credit facility calculation.

本季度報告的利息收入為 3,200 萬美元，比上年同期增長 12.1%，這主要得益於 2017 年的收購資金。截至 2018 年 6 月 30 日，公司報告的總債務為 28 億美元，低於 2017 年 12 月 31 日的 30 億美元。根據我們的信貸額度計算，第二季末我們的槓桿率為 2.4 倍。

Our consolidated cash and cash equivalents were about $135.8 million at June 30, 2018. Our reported effective tax rate was 17% for the quarter compared to 28.8% in the prior year quarter as the result of recent tax reform. Our effective tax rate was lower than our targeted range due to significant exercises of outstanding employee stock options that produced a favorable tax rate impact.

截至 2018 年 6 月 30 日，我們的合併現金及現金等價物約為 1.358 億美元。由於近期稅制改革，本季我們報告的實際稅率為 17%，而去年同期為 28.8%。由於大量員工行使了未行使的股票選擇權，產生了有利的稅率影響，我們的實際稅率低於目標範圍。

We are maintaining our estimate of our effective tax rate in 2018 to be between 16% and 18%. However, the timing and impact of employee stock option exercises depends in part on the Verisk stock price and personal decisions. We expect that this impact will be more pronounced in 2018 and that we will revert to a higher effective tax rate in 2019.

我們維持 2018 年實際稅率的估計，預計在 16% 到 18% 之間。然而，員工行使股票選擇權的時機和影響部分取決於 Verisk 的股價和個人決定。我們預計這種影響在 2018 年會更加明顯，並且我們將在 2019 年恢復到更高的實際稅率。

Adjusted net income was $179 million, up 29.1% from $139 million in the prior year quarter. Diluted adjusted EPS was $1.06 for the second quarter, also up 29.3% from $0.82 in the prior year quarter. The increase reflects organic growth in the business, contributions from acquisitions and the impact of 2017 tax reform.

經調整後的淨收入為 1.79 億美元，比上年同期的 1.39 億美元增長了 29.1%。第二季稀釋調整後每股收益為 1.06 美元，比去年同期的 0.82 美元增加了 29.3%。這一成長反映了業務的自然成長、收購帶來的貢獻以及 2017 年稅收改革的影響。

Equalizing the second quarter 2017 effective tax rate to that of second quarter 2018, both adjusted net income and diluted adjusted EPS were up 11.6%.

將 2017 年第二季的實際稅率與 2018 年第二季的實際稅率相等，調整後的淨收入和稀釋後的調整後每股盈餘均成長了 11.6%。

Net cash provided by operating activities was $207 million for the quarter, up 85% from the prior year. Capital expenditures were $56 million for the quarter, up 36% from the prior year, reflecting primarily increased investment in Geomni and software development for recent acquisitions.

本季經營活動產生的淨現金流為 2.07 億美元，比上年同期成長 85%。本季資本支出為 5,600 萬美元，比去年同期成長 36%，主要反映了對 Geomni 的投資增加以及近期收購專案的軟體開發。

As we've discussed previously, 2018 will be the peak year of capital expenditure for Geomni. Free cash flow was $151 million for the quarter, an increase of 114.3% from the prior year.

正如我們之前討論過的，2018 年將是 Geomni 資本支出最高的一年。本季自由現金流為 1.51 億美元，較上年同期成長 114.3%。

We returned $141 million in capital to shareholders through the repurchase of 1.3 million shares in the quarter at a weighted average price of $105.78.

本季度，我們透過回購 130 萬股股票，以每股 105.78 美元的加權平均價格，向股東返還了 1.41 億美元的資本。

At June 30, 2018, we had $686 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization, including a $500 million authorization approved in May 2018.

截至 2018 年 6 月 30 日，我們的股票回購授權額度還剩 6.86 億美元，其中包括 2018 年 5 月批准的 5 億美元授權。

In addition, we initiated a $50 million accelerated share repurchase to be executed in the third quarter to accelerate the impact of share repurchases and to execute repurchases at a discount to VWAP over the period. We have the ability to repurchase additional shares during the quarter, so the $50 million ASR should not be viewed as our total repurchases for the quarter.

此外，我們啟動了 5,000 萬美元的加速股票回購計劃，將於第三季執行，以加速股票回購的影響，並在該期間以低於成交量加權平均價 (VWAP) 的價格執行回購。我們有能力在本季回購更多股票，因此 5,000 萬美元的 ASR 不應被視為我們本季的全部回購金額。

The average diluted share count was 169 million shares in the quarter and on June 30, 2018, our diluted share count was 168 million shares.

本季平均稀釋股份數為 1.69 億股，截至 2018 年 6 月 30 日，我們的稀釋股份數為 1.68 億股。

Overall, the results for the quarter represented: one, organic constant-currency revenue growth of 7.4% and EBITDA growth of 8.9%, both ahead of our targets; two, improved organic constant-currency margins; three, continued investment in attractive internal opportunities; and four, substantial return of capital to shareholders.

整體而言，本季業績體現在：一、有機固定匯率營收成長 7.4%，EBITDA 成長 8.9%，皆超過我們的目標；二、有機固定匯率營收成長 7.4%，EBITDA 成長 8.9%，皆超過我們的目標；二、有機固定匯率盈餘成長 7.4%，EBITDA 成長 8.9%，皆超過我們的目標；二、有機固定匯率營收成長 7.4%，持續投資於有吸引力的內部機會；四、向股東返還大量資本。

Insurance performance remains consistently strong in both Underwriting & rating and Claims. Our Energy and Financial Services continue to make progress towards their growth objectives.

保險業務在承保與評級以及理賠方面均保持強勁的業績。我們的能源和金融服務業務持續朝著成長目標穩步邁進。

Looking ahead to the third quarter, we want everyone to be mindful of the $8 million in storm-related revenue and $6 million in initial nonrecurring revenue from the TSYS partnership in the third quarter of 2017 that will affect the third quarter 2018 year-over-year reported growth rates, but don't represent a change in our underlying long-term growth expectations. We also don't know what the 2018 storm season will hold for us.

展望第三季度，我們希望大家注意，2017 年第三季度與風暴相關的 800 萬美元收入和與 TSYS 合作產生的 600 萬美元初始非經常性收入將影響 2018 年第三季度同比報告增長率，但這並不代表我們對長期增長預期的改變。我們也不知道2018年的風暴季會為我們帶來什麼。

We are excited about the opportunities to invest in our business and remain focused on long-term profitable growth and solid returns on capital. We remain confident that we have the financial strength and capital structure to support investment for the long term. We continue to appreciate all the support and interest in Verisk. (Operator Instructions)

我們對投資業務的機會感到興奮，並將繼續專注於長期獲利成長和穩健的資本回報。我們仍然相信，我們擁有足夠的財務實力和資本結構來支持長期投資。我們衷心感謝大家對 Verisk 的支持與關注。（操作說明）

With that, I'll ask the operator, Kyle, to open the line for questions.

接下來，我將請接線員凱爾開通提問專線。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Hamzah Mazari.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 Hamzah Mazari 的線路。

You touched on what some of your European clients are saying on the insurance offering. Maybe if you could touch on -- do you still think you can double the Insurance business internationally in 5 years? I think you had highlighted that and maybe some of the challenges and sort of headwinds to that goal. Just maybe update us, how much bigger can that international business be and why you feel confident?

您剛才提到了一些歐洲客戶對保險產品的回饋。或許您可以談談—您是否仍認為可以在 5 年內將國際保險業務翻倍？我認為你已經強調了這一點，以及實現這一目標可能面臨的一些挑戰和阻力。請您更新一下，這項國際業務還能發展到多大規模？以及您為何如此自信？

When we think about international opportunity as it relates to the insurance vertical, first of all, it's not just about the London and U.K. markets. We're actually pushing out in a number of European and Asian markets. I was highlighting London and U.K. partly because that's where I just was with the customers, but also partly because that is the largest part of our non-North American footprint today. I don't really see a lot of headwinds. I can tell you what the work consists of. The work consists of taking the methods that we've developed in the United States tailoring -- tuning them -- not tailoring them, tuning them to the local markets and then infusing them with a lot of good local data. We know how to do that. That is, in fact, what we're presenting in these overseas markets today. So it's organic. It feels very natural, and what we need and what we have are great people on the ground in these markets that understand the local customers and local conditions and can just cause our solutions to be their most relevant and make clear to the customers the value that they represent. But it's not -- it's mostly white space for us. I mean, Verisk, as you know, is about order of magnitude, 25% non-U. S. today. And it's a big world out there. So this is a long, sustained march for us. But I don't think of it in terms of headwinds. I think of it in terms of great people on the ground locally, taking what we're already good at and making it relevant.

當我們思考與保險業相關的國際機會時，首先，它不僅僅關乎倫敦和英國市場。我們實際上正在向多個歐洲和亞洲市場拓展業務。我之所以重點介紹倫敦和英國，部分原因是我剛剛在那裡接待了客戶，部分原因也是因為那裡是我們目前在北美以外最大的業務區域。我覺得沒有遇到太大的逆風。我可以告訴你這項工作的內容。這項工作包括將我們在美國開發的方法進行調整——或者說是改進——使其適應當地市場，然後注入大量優秀的本地數據。我們知道該怎麼做。事實上，這正是我們今天在這些海外市場展示的產品。所以它是天然的。這感覺非常自然，我們需要的，也是我們擁有的，是這些市場中優秀的本地人才，他們了解當地客戶和當地情況，能夠使我們的解決方案與他們的需求最契合，並向客戶明確說明這些解決方案所代表的價值。但事實並非如此——對我們來說，這裡大部分是空白。我的意思是，如你所知，Verisk 大約有 25% 的非美國用戶。今天。外面的世界很大。所以，對我們來說，這是一場漫長而持續的旅程。但我並不認為這是逆風。我認為，關鍵在於找到當地優秀的人才，讓他們發揮自身優勢，並將其應用於實際工作中。

Great. That's very helpful. And just a follow-up, I'll turn it over. Maybe for Lee. Lee, I know you spent a lot of time on capital allocation and over -- in terms of your analyst days, investor outreach, maybe just frame for us how you're thinking about that going forward? Have you, guys, thought about a dividend? Is it -- are there going to be more acquisitions? Are you going to add a third leg to the portfolio? Just broadly speaking, I know the history has been a little different where you had a health care business, then we bought Energy, now you're sort of focusing in on the core. Maybe just give us some feedback after your outreach program and how you're thinking about broadly capital allocation going forward?

偉大的。那很有幫助。最後再補充一點，我把它翻過來。或許對李來說是這樣。李，我知道你花了很多時間研究資本配置，以及——就你擔任分析師期間的工作、與投資者的溝通而言——或許你可以為我們概述一下你未來對此的看法？你們有沒有考慮過分紅？是否還會有更多收購？你打算在投資組合中增加第三隻羊嗎？總的來說，我知道公司的發展歷程有點不同，以前你們是一家醫療保健企業，後來我們收購了能源企業，現在你們正專注於核心業務。或許您可以在推廣活動結束後給我們一些回饋，並談談您未來在資本配置方面的整體思路？

Sure. Thank you, Hamzah. So the way -- what I would emphasize is, at this stage, what we're focusing on is starting with understanding capital generation, where we're generating it, how we're generating it, obviously, optimizing that. And then looking at the returns on capital within each of the businesses and most importantly, on an incremental basis, how we're investing the capital that we have effectively to improve those returns and to support the growth initiatives across the business and that's where it's a combination of looking not just at acquisitions, but looking at our internal investments through CapEx, through investments in our breakout initiatives and really, just enhancing that as a discipline across the organization as a whole with the objective of trying to identify as many attractive opportunities to invest capital. And I really think at the core, that's what's most exciting about Verisk. The opportunities that we have across the business, to put capital into growth businesses in the analytics and data management sector. With -- once we are doing that effectively, I think the next step is thinking about how we manage capital. And at this stage, we think about all our opportunities to return capital, we, as you saw in the second quarter, were very focused on repurchasing shares and so you see a focus there. That is determined on a quarterly basis based upon where we see opportunities. But longer term, we are certainly going to evaluate all opportunities, but we're really at the preliminary stage of just thinking about how are we generating capital and how we're deploying it within the business. The final thing that I will say, I think that you have heard Scott and Mark, in several cases, talk about what we see as the opportunities and the strength of our 3 verticals: Insurance, Energy and Specialized Markets and Financial Services. While we are always evaluating M&A opportunities that can create growth, we are very comfortable with the opportunities that exist within those 3 verticals. There's not an expectation at this point that there's any additional vertical that we're pursuing.

當然。謝謝你，哈姆札。因此，我想強調的是，在這個階段，我們關注的重點是了解資本的產生，我們在哪裡產生資本，我們如何產生資本，顯然，還要優化資本的產生。然後，我們要審視各業務的資本報酬率，更重要的是，要逐步檢視我們如何有效地投資現有資本，以提高這些報酬率，並支持整個業務的成長計畫。這需要結合多種因素，不僅要關注收購，還要關注我們透過資本支出進行的內部投資，關注我們對突破性計劃的投資，真正地在整個組織內加強這種做法，以期找到盡可能多的有吸引力的資本投資機會。我真的認為，從本質上講，這就是 Verisk 最令人興奮的地方。我們在整個業務領域都有機會，可以將資金投入分析和資料管理領域的成長型企業。一旦我們有效地做到這一點，我認為下一步就是考慮如何管理資本。現階段，我們會考慮所有返還資本的機會。正如你在第二季度看到的那樣，我們非常專注於回購股票，所以你可以看到我們在這方面的焦點。這是根據我們看到的機會，按季度決定的。但從長遠來看，我們肯定會評估所有機會，但我們目前還處於初步階段，只是在思考我們如何籌集資金以及如何在業務中部署這些資金。最後我想說的是，我認為你們已經多次聽到 Scott 和 Mark 談論我們認為我們三大垂直領域（保險、能源和專業市場以及金融服務）的機會和優勢。雖然我們一直在評估能夠創造成長的併購機會，但我們對這三個垂直領域中存在的機會感到非常滿意。目前我們還沒有計劃拓展任何其他垂直領域。

Your next question comes from the line of Alex Kramm.

你的下一個問題來自 Alex Kramm 的詩句。

Just a -- I think, Lee, you ended your prepared remarks on kind of like reminding us of the second half outlook and the strong storms. I guess, stepping back a little bit. I think you highlighted that last 4 quarters, growth was over 7%, but really, if you back out the claims which has been really strong, I think it was more like 5-ish or so. So more holistically, I mean, Claims growth is great, but I think there's the question about sustainability. I mean, how do you feel this can continue to grow in the kind of like teens and how could that weigh on your growth rate going forward? I'm not just thinking the next couple of quarters, but more holistically, longer term.

只是——我想，李，你最後在準備好的發言中，似乎在提醒我們下半年的展望和強風暴。我想，應該要稍微退後一步。我認為你強調了過去四個季度的成長超過 7%，但實際上，如果你剔除成長非常強勁的索賠，我認為實際成長率更接近 5% 左右。所以更全面地說，我的意思是，理賠成長固然很好，但我認為這關乎永續性。我的意思是，你覺得這種現像在青少年時期會如何持續發展，以及這會對你未來的發展速度產生怎樣的影響？我考慮的不僅是未來幾個季度，而是更全面、更長遠的。

Yes. This is Mark. Let me maybe try to address it. Clearly, the claims area benefits from severe storm activities that occurred back in last year, third or fourth quarter. I think what we've seen is, as a result of some of that storm activity, we've had a little bit of a continuation of services to be continued to provide it to some contractors. And we've also seen insurers, for the most part, buy more. So I don't attribute first quarter, second quarter results to storm activity. I see the underlying business is continuing to be strong. I see the investment that we've made over the last several years in new products and new services and the extension into what I would refer to other parts of the insurance value chain to be working. And I just wanted to highlight that I think we have a lot of good things going in claims and personally, I wouldn't back it out in the way you just did. So I hope that provides, at least, a little context and maybe a little comfort on kind of the underlying solvency and strength of the business.

是的。這是馬克。或許我可以試著解釋一下。顯然，理賠區域受益於去年第三季或第四季發生的嚴重風暴活動。我認為我們看到的情況是，由於一些風暴活動的影響，我們得以繼續為一些承包商提供服務。而且我們也看到，大多數保險公司都在增加採購量。所以我不認為第一季和第二季的業績是由風暴活動造成的。我認為公司基本面依然強。我認為，過去幾年我們在新產品、新服務以及向保險價值鏈其他環節的拓展方面所做的投資正在發揮作用。我只是想強調，我認為我們在理賠方面有很多好的做法，就我個人而言，我不會像你剛才那樣反悔。所以我希望這至少能提供一些背景資訊，或許還能讓大家對公司的潛在償付能力和實力感到些許放心。

Good. And then Lee, just secondly, maybe on the cost side. I know you talked a lot about the margin and obviously, organic versus nonorganic. But stepping back, I think you've been there for, I think, almost 9 months or so. Are you spending a lot of time on how the cost base of Verisk looks holistically? I mean -- and I guess, I'm asking because in your prior shop, you -- the company was very well known for being very good on margin, very tight, very cost-conscious. Have you looked at how maybe processes at Verisk are? And if there are improvements, just generally speaking, not just from integration of acquisitions?

好的。其次是李，可能是成本方面的原因。我知道你談了很多關於利潤率的問題，當然還有有機產品與非有機產品的差異。但退一步想，我覺得你已經在那裡待了差不多9個月了。您是否花了很多時間從整體分析 Verisk 的成本結構？我的意思是──我這麼問是因為在你之前的店裡，那家公司以利潤率高、成本控制嚴格、非常注重成本而聞名。你有沒有了解Verisk的流程？如果整體上有所改進，而不僅僅是收購整合帶來的改進呢？

Yes. Thank you, Alex. And so -- first off, I feel obligated to say that I think Verisk starts with a very good discipline around cost management and you wouldn't see, I think margins of this strength without that discipline throughout the organization. And so that isn't to say that there aren't always opportunities to improve and as I learned from my prior shop, cost management is a beast that you have to fight every day. And in that regard, I've been spending time focusing on the cost structure. One area, in particular, that has gotten a lot of focus that we have been proceeding against has been against the broader migration mainframe to cloud migration, which I think represents opportunities for us from a cost and from a capital standpoint and so that's one dimension of it. But interestingly, you raised it on the call. We actually have also been evaluating a shift in our procurement strategy in which heretofore has been a very process-oriented procurement strategy. And we are going to be shifting with some changes in leadership to a focus on the cost structure elements and where we can attack data costs, other technology costs and find other efficiencies across the business in order to improve the overall cost structure. So it is something that has received focus. There are a number of initiatives that are underway, focusing on that opportunity and we hope with a reorientation of our procurement and strategic sourcing function to make further headway against that.

是的。謝謝你，亞歷克斯。所以——首先，我覺得有必要說，我認為 Verisk 從一開始就擁有非常良好的成本管理紀律，如果沒有這種貫穿整個組織的紀律，我認為你不會看到如此強大的利潤率。所以這並不是說沒有改進的機會，正如我從之前的店裡學到的那樣，成本管理是一個你必須每天與之鬥爭的難題。在這方面，我一直在花時間關注成本結構。尤其值得關注的是，我們一直在努力應對的一大挑戰是大型主機向雲端遷移的趨勢。我認為這從成本和資本角度來看為我們帶來了機遇，這是其中一個面向。但有趣的是，你在電話會議上提出了這個問題。事實上，我們也一直在評估採購策略的轉變，而先前我們一直採用的是非常注重流程的採購策略。我們將隨著領導階層的變動而調整工作重點，轉向成本結構要素，找出可以降低資料成本、其他技術成本以及提高業務效率的途徑，進而改善整體成本結構。所以這件事已經引起了關注。目前正在進行多項舉措，旨在抓住這一機遇，我們希望透過調整採購和策略採購職能，在這方面取得進一步進展。

Well, yes. It's Scott here. I'll just add that kind of the -- sort of the deep drumbeat where the cost side of our business is concerned, really hinges on a couple of things. One is, as Lee was saying, the nature of the computing infrastructure inside of our company is going to change and we think, productively. It only costs you about $40,000 to source a raw petabyte of storage capacity in the cloud today, only $40,000. I mean, that's remarkable. And so as we move from on-prem to not on-prem, I think we're going to naturally see productivity there. Another opportunity for us that is at work now and I think we will make somewhat more use of into the future, will be to diversify where our talent comes from. There are talented people all around the globe. And at the moment, at least, there are asymmetries in terms of what highly competent professionals get paid. We've made less use of that than we might have. And then 2 other things real quick. One is, just sort of the strong and consistent drive towards effective operations, which we summarized thinking about Lean Six Sigma kinds of methodologies, which is really a quiet revolution that's going on inside of our company. And the last thing is, the ability to change the very nature of knowledge work by harnessing machine learning. To-date, most of that has been applied to making our solutions for our customers better, but the longer tail to the machine learning AI revolution is to actually change the way cognitive work gets done and we have a lot of knowledge workers around here, and I believe that we can really make them more productive by harnessing the machine more. So a bunch of things that underlie -- and these are all productive and they're not just quarter-to-quarter. This is year-to-year. Some of them are probably decade-to-decade kinds of developments.

是的。我是史考特。我只想補充一點，就我們業務的成本方面而言，那種深沉的節奏，實際上取決於幾件事。正如李所說，我們公司內部的運算基礎設施的性質將會發生變化，我們認為這將帶來正面的改變。如今，在雲端取得 1 PB 的原始儲存容量只需花費約 4 萬美元，僅需 4 萬美元。我的意思是，這太了不起了。因此，隨著我們從本地部署轉向非本地部署，我認為我們自然會看到生產力的提高。我們現在面臨的另一個機遇，我認為我們將來會更多地利用它，就是使我們的人才來源多樣化。世界各地都有才華洋溢的人。至少目前來看，高素質專業人士的薪酬存在不對稱現象。我們並沒有充分利用它。還有兩件事要簡單說一下。其一是，我們始終致力於實現高效運營，我們總結了精益六西格瑪等方法論，這實際上是我們公司內部正在發生的一場悄然的革命。最後一點是，透過利用機器學習來改變知識工作的本質。到目前為止，大部分技術都應用於改進我們為客戶提供的解決方案，但機器學習人工智慧革命的長遠目標是真正改變認知工作的完成方式，而我們這裡有很多知識工作者，我相信透過更多地利用機器，我們可以真正提高他們的生產力。所以有很多因素在起作用——而且這些都是有益的，它們不僅僅是季度性的。這是逐年比較的情況。有些發展趨勢可能需要幾十年的時間才能顯現。

Your next question comes from the line of Manav Patnaik.

你的下一個問題出自馬納夫·帕特奈克之口。

My first question is on Argus. So the $6 million onetime benefit in last year's third quarter, I guess, is new disclosure for us or maybe me, at least. And so it implies that the third quarter is probably not going to have a good number. And so what I'm trying to understand is, 7 quarters of way underperforming, what we are used to seeing from Argus. Like, maybe I don't quite understand what's really going on there, like what the issues are. And I guess, even the margins took a hit this quarter. So I was just hoping you could maybe just flesh out again like what's going wrong there?

我的第一個問題是關於Argus的。所以，去年第三季的 600 萬美元一次性收益，我想，至少對我們或對我來說，是一個新的揭露資訊。因此，這意味著第三季的數據可能不會很好。所以，我想弄清楚的是，Argus 連續七個季度表現都低於我們以往的預期。也許我不太明白那裡到底發生了什麼，有什麼問題。我猜想，就連本季的利潤率也受到了影響。所以，我只是希望你能再詳細說明一下，到底哪裡出了問題？

Well, first of all, I don't, at all, think that things are going wrong at Argus. It's a great business, which is founded on proprietary content just like much of -- most of what we do at Verisk. So it's actually a great business and if you were to ask me which of our 3 verticals over the next 5 years is going to turn in the highest rate of growth, I think there's a very good case to be made that it could be Verisk's Financial Services. I actually find it hard to handicap the 3 of them. I think they're all going to do well. So it's a great business of which we and I are very proud and provides wonderful levels of value to our customers. So all of that. Thinking about the last couple of years, as we have discussed in the past, 2017, there were a couple of major relationships that cycled out. One part of that was the federal government consolidated its use of what it is that we provide and the other was a very large player in the Financial Services world had essentially been bulk buying some of what we do on behalf of a lot of banks and they stepped out of that relationship. And so underneath that, we had been filling in with relationships with the banks individually. But that was a onetime effect, over and done. In 2018, you have to look across the different segments of the business. And one of the things that is at work right now is -- and we did call this out last quarter also, is the -- on the media and effectiveness side, I'm going to summarize a lot here in just a few words. But basically, the regulatory burden on banks includes really, really requiring a tremendous amount of disclosure around methodologies, which allow the discrimination of risk on an individual customer basis. I mean, the size of the report you have to write to justify methods that you're using is really kind of astonishing. The banks want to do this differentiating and they find our method as valuable as it ever was, but consuming our methods in the form that we had traditionally provided them has just become backbreaking from a regulatory point of view. So we're in the middle of rotating right now the way we present that underlying intellectual property to our customers. And so it's a moment where that shift is occurring. And then lastly, as Lee pointed out, again, in 2018, not only did he note the year over -- the grow over point with respect to the implementation, but we've talked about the couple of quarter delay in terms of actually getting it productive. Normally, what I mean -- and this is a truth of the business, when we establish a new relationship, there's a big surge of activity for data integration purposes and then this very nice annuity stream kicks in thereafter. The annuity stream is kicking in a couple of quarters later than we expected because of the integration issues. So that's what's going on inside the business, but our outlook on this business over intermediate and longer periods of time is completely unchanged.

首先，我完全不認為Argus那邊出了什麼問題。這是一個很棒的企業，它建立在專有內容之上，就像我們在 Verisk 所做的大部分工作一樣。所以這其實是一項很棒的業務，如果你問我未來 5 年我們 3 個垂直領域中哪個領域的成長率最高，我認為很有可能是 Verisk 的金融服務。我覺得很難判斷他們三個的實力差距。我認為他們都會做得很好。所以，這是一項我們和我都引以為傲的偉大事業，它為我們的客戶提供了極高的價值。就是這樣。回顧過去幾年，正如我們之前討論過的，2017 年有幾段重要的感情關係結束了。其中一部分原因是聯邦政府整合了對我們所提供的服務的使用，另一部分原因是金融服務領域的一家大型企業之前一直在代表許多銀行批量購買我們的一些服務，但他們退出了這種合作關係。因此，在此基礎上，我們一直在與各家銀行建立單獨的關係。但這只是一次性的影響，已經過去了。2018年，你必須縱觀企業的各個細分領域。目前正在發揮作用的一件事是——我們上個季度也提到過這一點——在媒體和效果方面，我將用幾句話概括一下。但從根本上說，銀行面臨的監管負擔包括要求銀行披露大量有關風險評估方法的信息，以便能夠根據單一客戶的情況來區分風險。我的意思是，為了證明你所使用方法的合理性，你需要撰寫的報告篇幅之長，真是令人震驚。銀行希望進行這種差異化，並且他們發現我們的方法和以往一樣有價值，但是從監管的角度來看，以我們傳統的方式向他們提供我們的方法已經變得非常繁重。所以，我們目前正在調整向客戶展示底層智慧財產權的方式。所以，現在正是這種轉變發生的時刻。最後，正如 Lee 指出的那樣，在 2018 年，他不僅注意到一年的結束——實施方面的成長點，而且我們還討論了在實際投入生產方面出現的幾個季度的延遲。通常情況下，我的意思是——這也是商業中的一個事實——當我們建立新的合作關係時，為了數據整合，會出現大量的活動，然後就會有非常可觀的收益流開始流動。由於整合問題，年金發放時間比我們預期的晚了幾季。這就是公司內部正在發生的事情，但我們對公司長期發展前景的看法完全沒有改變。

Yes. And Manav, just to add. I think as Scott was describing, certainly it's an understandable question and we understand the frustration from a growth standpoint. I do think that it's important, kind of starting at that level, to step back and look at what the elements are that are driving it. It has been a chunky and a noisy business. We are -- have been in the process of focusing on how, from a revenue structuring standpoint, we can make this a more sustainable growth business. I think part of the story is that early on, several years ago, there were a number of large opportunities that naturally, we were compelled to pursue and that created some of the large component noise. Where we are now is looking at each of these businesses across the portfolio management solutions, enterprise data management solutions and the spend in marketing solutions, and focusing on how we deliver sustainable growth across those. And when you eliminate the onetime elements, and in this case, which we don't -- we certainly don't feel we want to apologize about the upfront revenues, but I think it's important to understand that those are licensing and implementation revenues with the value of the subscriptions accruing over time. That, that's the underlying dynamic that I think we see as both underlying growth and ongoing potential given the extraordinary data set and the relationships that we have with our clients and the opportunity to use that data to just broaden their applications. I know all of that is looking ahead, but we believe that, that opportunity remains undiminished despite the noise that we've experienced here over the past couple of years.

是的。還有，補充一下馬納夫。我認為正如斯科特所描述的那樣，這當然是一個可以理解的問題，從發展的角度來看，我們也理解這種挫敗感。我認為，從這個層面開始，退後一步，看看是什麼因素在推動它，這一點很重要。這是一項繁瑣而嘈雜的生意。我們一直在努力從收入結構的角度出發，思考如何使這項業務實現更永續的成長。我認為部分原因是，幾年前，我們遇到了一些很大的機會，自然而然地，我們不得不去追求這些機遇，這也造成了一些較大的噪音。我們現在正在審視這些業務在投資組合管理解決方案、企業資料管理解決方案和行銷解決方案方面的支出，並專注於研究如何實現這些領域的可持續成長。當你剔除一次性費用時（在這種情況下，我們並沒有這樣做），我們當然不想為預付收入道歉，但我認為重要的是要理解，這些是許可和實施收入，而訂閱的價值是隨著時間的推移而積累的。我認為，這就是潛在的動態，鑑於我們擁有非凡的數據集以及與客戶的關係，並且有機會利用這些數據來擴展他們的應用，我們看到了潛在的成長和持續的潛力。我知道這一切都是在展望未來，但我們相信，儘管過去幾年我們在這裡經歷了種種紛擾，但這個機會仍然沒有減少。

Okay, got it. I appreciate that color. My second question, Scott, maybe just to step back on the investments you're making in the WoodMac 2.0 platform. I recall, like the year after you made the acquisition, at one of the Investor Days, you talked about how there had already been investments made and a lot of new product platforms are rolled out. So my question was more like, is this 2.0 initiative sort of driven by customer feedback or is this some sort of new gen, you feel like it will help down in the future? Just wanted to get some more perspective there.

好的，明白了。我喜歡這個顏色。Scott，我的第二個問題是，或許可以重新思考你在 WoodMac 2.0 平台上的投資。我記得，大概在你完成收購後的第二年，在一次投資者日活動上，你談到已經進行了一些投資，並且推出了許多新的產品平台。所以我的問題更像是，這個 2.0 版本計劃是由客戶回饋驅動的，還是某種新一代的產品，你覺得它將來會有所幫助？我只是想了解更多這方面的情況。

Yes. It's both. And let me give you one other contextual point also, which is, of the 3 verticals we serve -- and I am talking about customers now, I'm not talking about us, of the 3 verticals we serve, the Energy vertical is the one that is least transformed yet by large-scale data analytics for commercial decision-making. The companies are awash in technical data. So it's not that they don't know big data, but they haven't harnessed it the way that insurance companies and banks have to drive their commercial decision-making. And we knew that at that time that we -- in fact, that's one of the reasons why we were so excited to get into a business with WoodMac. And then, of course, the double tsunami hit in terms of the commodity price and the Brexit, which is -- what's hard on a U.K.-based pound-denominated sort of a company. So in the middle of these storms, we basically trimmed the sails and pulled the boat into port. Now the sky is clear, we're back out on the seas full sail. So I just want -- if folks haven't followed our story over the longer periods of time, I just wanted to make that point because there is a degree to which WoodMac 2.0 is what we intended from the beginning. And it's -- we just know that it's productive to have a very nicely digitally-based platform for all of your data because you can build the next generation and the next generation after that of products if your platformed in that way. And I think that the WoodMac that came into Verisk in 2015 reflected that -- reflected their customers, basically. In other words, sort of the volume and the speed of the data sets on the commercial side, were just not -- it just was not the way that environment had been behaving. So it's not that WoodMac was behind, I think they were reflective of the environment they were in, but then the other part of it is, yes, it is responsive to customers because their worlds have changed. Essentially, what's going on in the energy -- in the oil and gas energy space is that you used to have these years under -- on to decades planning cycles where you would have these bespoke offshore, multi-hundreds of millions of dollars of developments and essentially, every project kind of was onto its own. And so you planned in that context. What's happened is about half of all the incremental supply has been added in North America. And in North America, the business behaves very differently. You can be drilling a well in location X and you can say, "You know what, I want to move that 1,500 yards over there." And 3 days later, you can have a 1,500-foot well. And so planning cycles have reduced to weeks and days and that's actually exciting. The other thing that has happened is, it's not so bespoke, there are a lot of people in the Permian. There are a lot of people in the Bakken. Your position is next door to somebody else's position. And so the intensity of desire to sort of benchmark and use that to tune up operations and planning is much greater than it was. So in other words, to be effective, you have to be bigger data faster. And that's the conversion that's going on right now. And so you can also think of WoodMac 2.0 as being not only the tuning up of our own environment, but it's actually creating this capability to serve the customers on these faster cycles with a greater amount of benchmarking against like activities. I mean, that's fundamentally what's going on, and that is customer-driven.

是的。兩者兼具。我還想補充一點背景信息，那就是，在我們服務的三個垂直行業中——我指的是客戶，而不是我們自己——能源行業是迄今為止受大規模數據分析在商業決策方面影響最小的行業。這些公司擁有海量的技術數據。所以，不是他們不懂大數據，而是他們沒有像保險公司和銀行那樣利用大數據來推動商業決策。當時我們就知道——事實上，這也是我們如此興奮地與 WoodMac 開展業務的原因之一。當然，大宗商品價格和英國脫歐的雙重衝擊，對一家總部位於英國、以英鎊計價的公司來說，無疑是雪上加霜。所以，在暴風雨肆虐之際，我們基本上收緊了風帆，把船開進了港口。現在天空晴朗，我們又揚帆出海了。所以我想說的是——如果大家沒有長期關注我們的故事，我只是想說明這一點，因為 WoodMac 2.0 在某種程度上正是我們從一開始就打算做的。而且——我們知道，擁有一個非常好的基於數位技術的平台來儲存所有資料是非常有益的，因為如果你以這種方式建立平台，你就可以建立下一代產品，以及再下一代產品。我認為，2015 年加入 Verisk 的 WoodMac 也反映了這一點——基本上反映了他們的客戶。換句話說，商業領域的資料集的數量和速度，與以往的環境表現並不相符。所以，並不是 WoodMac 落後了，我認為他們反映了他們所處的環境，但另一方面，是的，它對客戶的需求做出了回應，因為他們的世界已經改變了。從本質上講，能源領域——尤其是石油和天然氣能源領域——正在發生的事情是，過去有長達數年甚至數十年的規劃週期，在這些週期中，你會進行數億美元的定制海上開發項目，而基本上每個項目都是獨立進行的。所以，你是在這種背景下制定計劃的。目前的情況是，新增供應量的一半左右都來自北美。而在北美，企業的行為方式則截然不同。你可以先在 X 地點鑽一口井，然後說：「我想把那 1500 碼的井移到那邊去。」三天后，你就能擁有一口 1500 英尺深的井了。因此，計劃週期縮短到了幾週甚至幾天，這其實令人興奮。另一件事是，它不再那麼個性化了，二疊紀盆地有許多人口。巴肯地區人口眾多。你的位置緊鄰別人的位置。因此，人們渴望建立基準並利用基準來調整營運和計劃的願望比以前強烈得多。換句話說，要有效，你必須更快地處理更大的數據。這就是目前正在發生的轉變。因此，你也可以把 WoodMac 2.0 看作不僅是對我們自身環境的調整，而且實際上是在創造這種能力，以便在更快的周期內為客戶提供服務，並針對類似活動進行更多的基準測試。我的意思是，從根本上來說，這就是事情的真相，而這一切都是以客戶為中心的。

Your next question comes from the line of Tim McHugh.

你的下一個問題來自提姆·麥克休的詩句。

Yes. Can I just follow-up on the insurance growth rate? Was there any contribution then in this quarter that you would attribute to the storm activity? And can you help us understand at all the contribution of aerial imagery at this point to the growth rate?

是的。我可以跟進一下保險業成長率​​嗎？那麼，本季有哪些業績可以歸因於風暴活動？您能否幫助我們了解目前空拍影像對成長率的貢獻？

Sure. So I think question one was really around severe storm and impact in this quarter. There was no explicit benefit. I mean -- I think what we've seen is contractors who purchased the solution back during the storm season. Some have extended that license. That has been good. It seems like that will continue, but there is nothing explicit around the storms. Let me now jump over to Geomni. Similarly, storm activity did help us during the third quarter with the storms last year. I think what you're seeing now inside Geomni is a very strong bit of growth, driven by really, customer adoption, where we're taking share, we had a very tightly integrated solution that for the most part, brings in the imagery, turns it to data and with that data, we're populating the repair cost estimates. At the very heart of what we're trying to do is, we're trying to increase dramatically the productivity of those claims adjusters at our customers. And by doing it in an automated way, whether that's from afar or having most of the information prepared in advance and visiting the location, it creates tremendous opportunity and efficiencies in that process. We are more accurate and I think we have really started to change the way those insurance companies are kind of automating their processes. And Geomni, organically, is helping the overall growth rate of insurance. That is very true.

當然。所以我覺得第一個問題實際上是關於本季發生的嚴重風暴及其影響。沒有明顯的益處。我的意思是——我認為我們看到的是承包商在風暴季節期間購買了這種解決方案。有些人延長了許可證期限。那很好。這種情況似乎還會持續下去，但關於風暴方面並沒有任何明確的指示。現在讓我前往Geomni網站。同樣，去年的風暴活動也幫助我們度過了第三季。我認為你現在在 Geomni 內部看到的是非常強勁的成長，這實際上是由客戶的接受度推動的，我們正在搶佔市場份額，我們有一個非常緊密整合的解決方案，該方案在很大程度上引入圖像，將其轉換為數據，然後利用這些數據，我們來估算維修成本。我們努力的目標，就是大幅提升客戶處理賠員的工作效率。透過自動化方式進行操作，無論是遠端操作還是提前準備好大部分資訊並前往現場操作，都能為流程創造巨大的機會和效率。我們更加精準，而且我認為我們已經真正開始改變保險公司實現流程自動化的方式。從根本上說，Geomni 正在幫助提升保險業的整體成長率。確實如此。

Okay. And then can you help us [affect at all] the growth of the research business versus the consulting side of Wood Mackenzie? And my impression was, consulting was leading the growth rate versus the research side. I don't know if you have...

好的。那麼，您能否幫助我們[對]伍德麥肯茲的研究業務與諮詢業務的成長產生任何影響？我的印像是，諮詢行業的成長率高於研究行業。我不知道你有沒有…

Yes, Tim, that's absolutely true. The consulting side is the portion that responds the -- most immediately to the increasing investment levels on the energy side. And so I would describe the growth there as strong growth. On the subscription side, that growth -- there has been growth there. I would say it's more modest growth, but clearly, the consulting side, which represents about 20% of the revenues has been benefiting earlier from that upside. But we are seeing a steady improvement in our overall research subscription levels as the cycle continues to improve for the energy sector.

是的，提姆，你說得完全正確。諮詢部門是對能源領域不斷增長的投資水準做出最直接反應的部分。因此，我會將那裡的成長描述為強勁成長。訂閱方面，確實出現了成長。我認為成長較為溫和，但顯然，諮詢業務（約佔收入的 20%）較早受益於此成長。但隨著能源產業週期的持續好轉，我們看到整體研究訂閱水準穩步提升。

Your next question comes from the line of Arash Soleimani.

你的下一個問題出自阿拉什·蘇萊曼尼的血脈。

A quick question on Geomni. The $200 million total addressable market there within insurance, is that on the claim side only or does that include both Claims and Underwriting?

關於Geomni，我有個問題想請教一下。保險業中 2 億美元的潛在市場總額，僅指理賠方面，還是包括理賠和承保兩方面？

So as it relates to insurance, we have -- we've talked about both the Claims business and the Underwriting business. We were very specific in use cases when we provided that estimate. That is in the context of what we refer to as property characteristics on the underwriting side, helping to better understand the physical attributes of the buildings and the residential homes and on the Claims side, as we described. So it is a combination of the 2 with a kind of known use case for insurance.

所以就保險而言，我們已經談到了理賠業務和承保業務。我們在提供估價時，對使用場景都做了非常具體的說明。這是在承保方面，我們所說的財產特徵，有助於更好地了解建築物和住宅的物理屬性；在理賠方面，正如我們所描述的那樣。所以它是兩者的結合，並且在保險領域有一個已知的應用案例。

And aside from Geomni, can you talk about just increasing automation within the insurance industry and to what extent that presents an opportunity for Verisk?

除了 Geomni 之外，您能否談談保險業自動化程度的提高，以及這在多大程度上為 Verisk 帶來了機會？

Sure. Let me do that. I think we are...

當然。讓我來做吧。我認為我們是…

That's going to take about an hour and a half.

那大概要花一個半小時​​。

But yes, maybe you can...

但是，或許你可以…

I will be quick. I think everyone in the insurance industry, both on the Claims side as well as the Underwriting side understand 2 things. One, they need to automate to get a lot out of -- to get -- rid themselves of operational fiction. The way they're doing that is, they're making an investment in technology and they're changing the way they go about processing. What that also helps to address is a graying of the talent population inside the insurance industry, where their most experienced claims handlers need to be on the more difficult claims or the very difficult underwriting risks. That's where the experience needs to be. So they're trying to create expert systems to handle about 80%. This is a little bit -- our estimate, 80% of claims in a no-touch, low-touch way. So everything else flows on an underwriting side, 80% of those claims, even on commercial, like personal, can be handled at point-of-sale with all the information so you can properly understand, assess and price the risk. And that transition, whether it's back office, policy admin, claim systems or in the world of data analytics, everyone is pushing in that direction with one overarching theme, digital engagement. They're trying to make sure they don't lose customers and they can stay close. So hopefully, I was efficient and quick, but InsurTech and all of that, that we're doing really is kind of making people extend and change the way they're doing business.

我會盡快。我認為保險業的每個人，無論是理賠部門還是承保部門，都明白兩件事。第一，他們需要實現自動化，才能擺脫營運虛構，獲得更大的利益。他們實現這一目標的方式是，投資技術，並改變他們的處理方式。這也有助於解決保險業人才老化的問題，因為經驗最豐富的理賠員需要去處理更複雜的理賠案件或風險極高的承保案件。那才是體驗該所在的地方。所以他們正試圖創建專家系統來處理大約 80% 的問題。這稍微有點——據我們估計，80% 的索賠將以非接觸式、低接觸式的方式處理。因此，其他一切都在承保方面進行，80% 的索賠，即使是商業索賠，也像個人索賠一樣，可以在銷售點處理，所有資訊都已準備就緒，以便您能夠正確理解、評估和定價風險。無論是後台部門、政策管理、理賠系統或數據分析領域，每個人都朝著同一個方向努力，那就是數位參與。他們努力確保不流失客戶，並能與客戶保持密切聯繫。所以，我希望自己能有效率且快速地完成工作，但保險科技以及我們正在做的一切，實際上正在促使人們擴展和改變他們的業務開展方式。

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Steinerman.

你的下一個問題是出自安德魯‧史坦納曼的著作。

This is Judah on for Andrew. I just wanted to circle back on Argus. You, guys, gave some helpful color on some of the holdbacks to growth last year and what's been going on this year. I wanted to ask about, outside of TSYS, you had mentioned 8 large multiyear contracts at Investor Day. You had mentioned bookings that were $13 million higher at Jan 1, 2018 versus the year prior. So I was wondering how the rest of those contracts were going if you were seeing any sort of implementation delays with those or is that something that we could see coming on the horizon?

這是猶大替安德魯發言。我只是想再談談Argus。你們對去年阻礙成長的一些因素以及今年正在發生的事情提供了很有幫助的見解。我想問一下，除了 TSYS 之外，您在投資者日上提到的 8 項大型多年合約的情況如何。您曾提到，2018 年 1 月 1 日的預訂金額比去年同期增加了 1,300 萬美元。所以我想知道其他合約的進展如何，您是否發現任何實施延誤，或者這是否是即將出現的情況？

So Judah, thanks for the question. I mean, the last time we visited this to kind of get a check is -- of the -- our sense is that slightly over half of that contract had been worked into our revenue with the balance expected over the remainder of the year. So I'll get an update on that, but that was kind of where we were previously. I suspect we've made some progress and so more of that has come in. But probably the majority has been realized kind of year-to-date, and there will probably be some carryover in the second half, but probably not a material impact on revenue growth.

猶大，謝謝你的提問。我的意思是，我們上次去那裡核實情況的時候——我們的感覺是，該合約的一半多一點已經計入了我們的收入，剩餘部分預計將在今年剩餘時間內到位。我會了解最新情況，但之前的情況大概就是這樣。我懷疑我們已經取得了一些進展，所以這方面的資訊也越來越多。但今年迄今為止，大部分損失可能已經實現，下半年可能會有一些損失延續，但可能不會對收入成長產生實質影響。

Understood. And so for one quick follow-up on Argus. You had -- Scott had mentioned the heavy filing burden that is weighing on some of your bank customers. Maybe I missed this point, but is any of this specifically related to GDPR and similar types of regulations? One of your peers mentioned those regulations, those events as weighing on -- as being a headwind to some of their growth that's similar to your marketing effectiveness. So I was wondering if that's at play here.

明白了。那麼，關於 Argus，我再快速補充一點。史考特曾提過，你們銀行的一些客戶正承受著沉重的文件歸檔負擔。或許我錯過了這一點，但這些內容是否與 GDPR 及類似法規有直接關係？你的一位同行提到，這些法規和事件對他們的發展構成了阻礙，就像你的行銷效果一樣。所以我想知道這是否是造成這種情況的原因。

No, This is specific to banking regulation in the United States, particularly. So no, it's not.

不，這特別指美國的銀行業監理。所以，不，不是。

Your next question comes from the line of Bill Warmington.

你的下一個問題出自比爾·沃明頓之口。

So first question on WoodMac, the -- last quarter, you guys had talked about a couple of GEM cancellations. How have the renewals been trending, in general, this quarter? And specifically, how have the trends been on a like-for-like pricing basis?

那麼關於 WoodMac 的第一個問題，——上個季度，你們談到了幾筆 GEM 交易的取消。本季續約狀況整體趨勢如何？具體而言，在同等價格水準下，趨勢如何？

Bill, I got to correct your facts there. So last quarter, we didn't talk about GEM cancellations. We talked about 2 things going on in the business. When customers consolidate, that can have an effect on the combined entity revenues for us and we did note that there was one of those. And then the other, and Lee talked about it in his remarks, was one investment bank has just sort of rethought their position with respect to the energy vertical. And it's not that GEM has gone away, it's just that they scaled back their relationship with us. So I just want to make sure our facts base is established.

比爾，我得糾正你一下你的事實。所以上個季度我們沒有討論GEM的取消情況。我們討論了公司裡正在發生的兩件事。當客戶合併時，這可能會對我們的合併實體收入產生影響，我們確實注意到有這樣一個例子。還有一點，李在演講中也提到了，那就是一家投資銀行重新思考了他們在能源領域的定位。並不是 GEM 消失了，只是他們縮減了與我們的關係。所以我只是想確保我們的事實基礎已經確立。

Fair point. So and then...

說得有道理。然後…

Go ahead, Bill. Okay, Kyle, do you want to move to the -- I think we may have lost Bill. Can we move to the next question?

請繼續，比爾。好的，凱爾，你想搬到——我想我們可能把比爾弄丟了。我們可以進入下一個問題嗎？

All right. I'll move to the line of Jeff Meuler.

好的。我將轉到傑夫·穆勒的行列。

I guess, I had a different take on insurance than a prior questioner, but it seems to me like the underlying insurance growth even ex the hurricane benefits is faster than it was a couple of years ago and I just -- how much of this is moving beyond the headwinds from the end market consolidation versus what other factors are at play, like is there generally an improved selling environment in the vertical? It sounds broad-based in terms of product, but are there any specific big product needle movers or any call-outs from that perspective?

我想，我對保險的看法可能與之前的提問者不同，但我覺得即使不考慮颶風賠償，保險業的基本成長速度也比幾年前更快。我只是想知道——這種增長有多少是克服了終端市場整合帶來的不利因素，又有多少是其他因素在起作用，例如，該垂直領域的銷售環境是否普遍改善？聽起來產品範圍很廣，但從這個角度來看，有沒有什麼特別重要的產品能夠真正推動市場成長，或是有哪些值得特別關注的產品？

Yes. So thanks, Jeff. Yes. And maybe I can start. Mark, please jump in. But first of all, I really appreciate the way you asked the question because there is no doubt that extreme events is -- the fact that there are extreme events is a productive factor as it relates to the rate -- the growth of our business, but it is a very long term sort of an effect underlying our results over very long periods of time. You can probably add a few tens of basis points that are there because there are extreme events. Sometimes they peak, sometimes, it's much more modest. But if you look over long cycles, there's something there, but it doesn't really explain what's going on in our business. So thank you for the way you characterized the question, first of all. The only thing I would really call out as a point-specific thing, actually, is the movement into remote imagery. That is a -- that's news. And that's been productive for us. Otherwise, I do think of it as broadly based and really, it's fundamentally about how innovative can we be. Our customers are trying to revolutionize their businesses with data analytics. And so it's really on us to be relevant and fast. And that's what determines the rate at which we grow. I -- our insurance capabilities, footprint, customer list are all stronger than they were a couple of years ago. So to your point, fundamentally, and I think it's very broadly-based, remote imagery would be the one call-out. Mark, I don't know if you want to add anything to that.

是的。謝謝你，傑夫。是的。或許我可以開始。馬克，請插話。但首先，我非常欣賞你提出這個問題的方式，因為毫無疑問，極端事件——極端事件的存在——是影響我們業務成長速度的一個有利因素，但它對我們業務的長期業績產生的影響非常深遠。你可能可以加上幾十個基點，因為有極端事件。有時它們會達到巔峰，有時則平淡得多。但如果你觀察較長的周期，會發現其中蘊含著一些規律，但這並不能真正解釋我們業務中正在發生的事情。首先，非常感謝你對這個問題的描述。實際上，我唯一想特別指出的一點是向遙感影像的轉變。這是——這是新聞。這對我們來說很有成效。否則，我認為它的基礎很廣泛，而且從根本上來說，它關乎我們能有多大的創新能力。我們的客戶正嘗試利用數據分析來革新他們的業務。所以，我們必須迅速行動，與時俱進。而這決定了我們的成長速度。就保險能力、業務範圍和客戶名單而言，我們都比幾年前更強大。所以，正如你所說，從根本上講，而且我認為這是一個非常廣泛的問題，遙感影像將是唯一需要強調的方面。馬克，我不知道你是否還有什麼要補充的。

I think you highlighted the good products. I think we highlighted a few in here, but international I think, is going to kind of headline some of the growth and I think the way you opened was strong. I mean, I think we've always had great positions. But with some industry consolidations that does run a bit to our negative and this kind of moves beyond that at this point so good product development and good growth internationally. Limited headwinds helping us along the way.

我認為你重點突出了好的產品。我認為我們在這裡重點介紹了一些，但我認為國際市場將會成為成長的主要驅動力，而且我認為你們的開局非常強勁。我的意思是，我認為我們一直都處於非常有利的地位。但一些行業整合確實對我們產生了一些負面影響，而目前這種趨勢已經超越了這一點，因此良好的產品開發和國際成長勢頭良好。沿途逆風有限，這對我們很有幫助。

Okay. And then Lee, just a follow-up in your answer to Judah's question, it wasn't clear to me. Were you saying the percentage of revenue that's worked its way -- or the percentage of bookings that have worked its way into revenue from the TSYS contract or were you saying the other large multiyear contracts and basically saying those are all coming in according to plan and this is all just the TSYS delay and media effectiveness into banks?

好的。李，關於你回答猶大的問題，我還有一個疑問，我不太明白。您指的是已經轉化為收入的百分比，還是指 TSYS 合同中已轉化為收入的預訂百分比，還是指其他大型多年期合同，並基本上說這些合同都按計劃進行，而這僅僅是 TSYS 合同的延遲以及媒體宣傳對銀行的影響？

No, no. Yes. So I -- it was with regard to the broader group of contracts that I think was referred to at Investor Day at the time. And so my last sense is that -- and that kind of separate from the TSYS relationship and those opportunities, and so far, what we have worked into or have realized of that pool. And I don't have a current update because we don't track those as a group individually, but our sense that those were coming in according to plan.

不，不。是的。所以——我指的是當時在投資者日上提到的更廣泛的合約群組。因此，我最後的感覺是——這與 TSYS 的關係和那些機會無關，到目前為止，我們已經投入或已經實現的那些機會。我目前沒有最新進展，因為我們沒有單獨追蹤這些項目，但我們感覺這些項目都在按計劃進行。

Your next question comes from the line of Toni Kaplan.

你的下一個問題出自托尼卡普蘭之口。

You've highlighted across the years, just the importance of cross-selling as a key growth driver. And I -- in the past, I think, in insurance, you've sometimes mentioned the average number of products that your customers have bought and how that's been trending, but like, basically, I was wondering if there are some metrics maybe that you could give us that would be helpful for us to understand, just your progress with regard to cross-selling? Anything -- any sort of color would be helpful.

多年來，您一直強調交叉銷售作為關鍵成長驅動力的重要性。而且，我——過去，我想，在保險領域，您有時會提到您的客戶平均購買的產品數量以及這種趨勢，但基本上，我想知道您是否可以提供一些指標，以便我們了解您在交叉銷售方面的進展？任何顏色都可以。

So, Toni, I appreciate you remembering this slide, we try to use it every year. We actually started to prepare for this day and this Investor Day, I think we've had similar positive results. I think what we've done, as you recall, we kind of grouped the number of products we had into about 25, 30 categories. And our sales team have this, kind of, this checkerboard approach, where we're looking to do project -- excuse me, account planning across all the different product sets. And we have a little bit of -- we call it the competitive chalkboard. We're trying to win business every day and we have realigned our sales force in such a way that we have a team that's focused outside North America. That's progressing. We have teams that are organized like our customers' personal lines and commercial lines and being able to sell a suite of solutions to personal lines or commercial lines has been winning. And I think it gives them a broader perspective on what customer needs are, a broader understanding of our products themselves. And those are the type of things that we focus on. We focus on customer retention. We focus on revenue from our new products or billings from our new products and a combination of pipeline and close sales. And we look at it basically monthly with a deep dive every quarter. So that process, those metrics continue to be positive.

東尼，感謝你還記得這張投影片，我們每年都會盡量使用它。實際上，我們早就開始為這一天做準備了，而這次投資者日也取得了類似的正面成果。你應該還記得，我們​​把產品數量大致分成了 25 到 30 個類別。我們的銷售團隊採用了一種類似棋盤格的方法，我們希望在所有不同的產品系列中進行專案——抱歉，是客戶規劃。我們這裡也有一些——我們稱之為競爭性黑板。我們每天都在努力贏得業務，並且已經重新調整了銷售團隊，組建了一支專注於北美以外地區的團隊。進展順利。我們的團隊像我們的客戶一樣，分為個人險種和商業險種，能夠向個人險種或商業險種銷售一套解決方案，我們取得了成功。我認為這讓他們對客戶需求有了更廣闊的視野，也讓他們對我們的產品本身有了更深入的了解。而這些正是我們關注的重點。我們專注於客戶留存。我們關注新產品的收入或新產品的帳單金額，以及銷售通路和成交額的組合。我們基本上每個月都會進行一次審查，每季還會進行一次深入分析。因此，過程中的這些指標持續向好。

And Lee, I wanted to ask my follow-up on capital again -- capital allocation, again. And so you have a 2.5x gross leverage target. I'd say that's fairly in line with the average of peers. Your business is very highly recurring. So one could argue that you could sustain a higher level, but on the other hand, maybe in certain environments, you would want to be higher or lower. So what are your thoughts around 2x? And is that a dynamic target? Is that the right target? Just wanted to hear your thoughts on it.

李，我想再次詢問關於資本的後續問題——資本配置問題。所以你的總槓桿目標是 2.5 倍。我認為這與同齡人的平均水平相當。您的業務回頭率非常高。所以有人可能會說你可以保持更高的水平，但另一方面，在某些環境下，你可能希望更高或更低。那你對2倍速有什麼看法？這是一個動態目標嗎？這是正確的目標嗎？想聽聽你的看法。

Sure. And Toni, very briefly, I think we are managing leverage generally within the 2.5 to 3x range, I think, that's what we believe is consistent with our run rate expectations for our ratings categories. So I would think about it as kind of being within that. It may be towards the lower end or towards the higher end, but that kind of is our target range.

當然。東尼，簡單來說，我認為我們目前將槓桿率控制在 2.5 到 3 倍的範圍內，我認為這與我們對評級類別的預期運行率是一致的。所以我認為它應該算是屬於那個範疇之內。可能偏低也可能偏高，但那大致就是我們的目標範圍。

Your next question comes from the line of George Tong.

你的下一個問題來自喬治唐的詩句。

This is Allison Chou on for George. Can you comment on the progression of integrating the various acquisitions you've made? And more specifically, how we can expect the process of integrating those deals to narrow the gap between organic and reported margins?

這是艾莉森週替喬治報道。能否談談貴公司各項收購的整合進度？更具體地說，我們如何期望整合這些交易的過程能夠縮小有機利潤率和報告利潤率之間的差距？

Well, you're actually asking 2 questions there. So Lee, maybe you would take on the second one in a moment, which is just the interplay between inorganic then becoming organic. I'm really happy with the integration of the companies that we brought in, in 2017, which fall into 3 primary categories. One is, we stitched together a set of regional imaging companies into one national capability. Very happy with the progress that we've made there. Secondly, we acquired Sequel over in the London market. That has been a textbook integration and we are -- and we've -- we're already presenting to customers the integrated product opportunities that come from that. And then lastly, is PowerAdvocate. As we've noted for folks, PowerAdvocate has already made sales based upon relatedness to other things we do on the energy side. And I would actually say that, that one flows in both directions because PowerAdvocate is, I'll use a funny word, very invasive, where our customers are concerned. I mean, it gets right into their systems and draws data out of our customer systems and is so good at managing large amounts of data that it actually facilitates other opportunities to help energy companies digitally transform. So it's just all green lights with respect to integration. Lee, just the inorganic to organic crossover, I don't know if you want to comment on that.

實際上，你問了兩個問題。所以李，也許你馬上會回答第二個問題，那就是無機物如何轉變為有機物。我對我們在 2017 年引進的公司的整合情況非常滿意，這些公司主要分為 3 個類別。其一是，我們將一系列區域影像公司整合為全國性的能力中心。對我們在那裡取得的進展非常滿意。其次，我們在倫敦市場收購了 Sequel 公司。這是一個教科書式的整合，我們已經向客戶展示了由此產生的整合產品機會。最後是 PowerAdvocate。正如我們之前提到的，PowerAdvocate 已經透過與我們在能源領域所做的其他事情的相關性實現了銷售。我其實想說，這種影響是雙向的，因為 PowerAdvocate，用一個不太恰當的字眼來說，對我們的客戶來說非常具有侵入性。我的意思是，它可以直接進入他們的系統，從我們的客戶系統中提取數據，並且非常擅長管理大量數據，這實際上為能源公司實現數位轉型提供了其他機會。所以，就整合而言，一切都進展順利。Lee，關於無機物到有機物的轉變，我不知道你是否想對此發表評論。

Yes, I'm going to touch on that. There are really 3 components. So we wanted to provide the organic so that analysts and investors could see that a like-for-like comparison without the influence of an acquisition before you have it in both periods. But I think, as you think about that delta, I think there are 3 components. One is going to be -- and we do have upfront costs associated with the deal that are nonrecurring. And so that will impact those near-term reported margins with the expectation relative to the deal as those pass on, that will improve the margin. Secondly, as we integrate the margin of the business into our overall, that may have a positive or negative impact on the blended margins. Generally, at the scale of the acquisitions, that's not going to have a material impact. But the most important component is what with each of our acquisitions we hope to do by improving the operating leverage of the business, extending the distribution and improving the productivity. And so that's something that we expect -- while the historical margins are going to trend towards that reported margin. What's not captured is over time, our expectation with each of these acquisitions, that we will see margin improvement through their natural operating leverage as they grow, plus the additional benefits that we can bring either on the costs or on the revenue side. So that's the way I think about the trend of that organic relative to the reported margin in a given period.

是的，我會談到這一點。實際上包含三個部分。因此，我們希望提供有機成長數據，以便分析師和投資者能夠看到，在兩個時期內，不受收購影響的同類比較。但我認為，當你思考這個差值時，我認為它由三個部分組成。其中一項是——而且我們確實有一些與該交易相關的非經常性前期成本。因此，這將對近期公佈的利潤率產生影響，但隨著交易的進行，預計利潤率將會提高。其次，當我們把業務利潤納入整體利潤時，這可能會對綜合利潤產生正面或負面的影響。一般來說，就收購規模而言，這不會產生實質影響。但最重要的組成部分是，我們希望透過每一次收購來提高企業的營運槓桿、擴大分銷管道和提高生產力。所以這是我們所預期的——歷史利潤率將趨向於報告的利潤率。但我們沒有提到的是，隨著時間的推移，我們期望透過每次收購，隨著這些收購的成長，其自然營運槓桿作用將提高利潤率，此外，我們還可以在成本或收入方面帶來額外的好處。所以，這就是我對特定時期內有機成長相對於報告利潤率趨勢的看法。

Your next question comes from the line of Joseph Foresi.

你的下一個問題源自於約瑟夫‧福雷西的著作。

This is Mike Reid on for Joe. We're just thinking about the Energy business and kind of the mid-single-digit growth we're seeing now. Is this a good way to look at it going forward? Or could this potentially improve if CapEx spending improves with better oil prices and without the headwind from the large investment banking client when that rolls off?

這裡是麥克·里德替喬報道。我們現在只專注於能源業務，以及目前看到的中等個位數成長。這種看待問題的角度是否合理？或者，如果油價上漲，資本支出增加，並且不再受到大型投資銀行客戶到期帶來的不利影響，這種情況是否有可能改善？

Yes. I mean, two things. One is, yes, as I said earlier, we've got 3 verticals. And it's hard to handicap which will be the fastest growing in the coming 5 years. I think Energy has a lot of promise. We talked about the fundamental factors at work there. And those of you who have followed us for a while know that a lot of what we do in Energy is based on multiyear agreements. And so we've been cycling through those agreements as we pulled out of the commodity down cycle. And essentially, we just think that with time, these effects will -- the constructive effects will continue to be seen in what we do. So we have a very positive outlook.

是的。我的意思是兩件事。一是，正如我之前所說，我們有 3 個垂直領域。很難預測未來 5 年內哪種產業成長最快。我認為能源領域很有發展前景。我們討論了其中起作用的根本因素。一直關注我們的朋友都知道，我們在能源領域的許多工作都是基於多年期協議。因此，隨著我們逐步走出大宗商品價格下跌週期，我們一直在循環執行這些協議。從本質上講，我們認為隨著時間的推移，這些影響——這些建設性的影響將繼續在我們所做的一切中體現出來。所以我們持非常樂觀的態度。

Great. And then, I think, you noticed previously this year, price increases may be minimized, but would you still be looking to take advantage of pricing opportunities next year?

偉大的。然後，我想您也注意到，今年早些時候價格上漲幅度可能很小，但您明年還會考慮利用價格機會嗎？

Are you on the Energy vertical?

您從事能源業嗎？

No, no. I'm sorry. On insurance.

不，不。對不起。關於保險。

Price is always a factor inside of what we do. Our products don't come back year-over-year the same and the customers know that. So there's naturally price progression in most everything we do. Mark, (sic) [Mike] I think most of the multiyear agreements we write in insurance have year-over-year price escalation associated with them. So that's a persistent effect in our business. I don't see it as becoming more or less meaningful than it has been in the past.

價格始終是我們工作中需要考慮的因素。我們的產品每年都不一樣，顧客也知道這一點。所以，我們所做的幾乎所有事情都自然存在著價格遞增現象。馬克（原文如此）[麥克] 我認為我們在保險領域簽訂的大多數多年期協議都與逐年上漲的價格相關。所以這對我們業務來說是一個持續存在的影響。我不認為它的意義比過去變得更重要或更不重要。

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Jeffrey.

你的下一個問題來自安德魯·傑弗裡的詩句。

Quickly, I wonder if you could articulate a little bit your Internet of Things strategy. How you see that playing out, how it functionally affects your solutions and so forth?

請問您能否簡單介紹一下您的物聯網策略？您認為這種情況會如何發展，它會對您的解決方案產生哪些實際影響等等？

Sure. So I think you've probably seen the announcements. We are trying to aggregate a lot of information, not just from telematics and from cars, but even things around buildings and homes. Two primary focus, let me start with the side of Claims. We feel that we can very much effectively and more efficiently handle the first notice of loss process as it kind of starts inside the car. We put up relationships between what we have and the OEMs or the car manufacturers in combination with insurers so that we can speed a claim process, both the notification and the payment thereof. So that is a good news item. It helps the policyholders, helps the claims department, it saves money. And on the Underwriting side, it's about pricing. The information that is available from connected cars from mobile devices, it can tell you about how fast and how good and the behavior of the driver. And that information is effective in pricing your insurance policy. So we are taking steps to bring that information into both kind of the personal and commercial lines pricing so that our insurance customers can be better and more active in assessing that risk and pricing.

當然。所以我想你可能已經看到相關公告了。我們正在嘗試匯總大量訊息，不僅來自車載資訊系統和汽車，甚至包括建築物和房屋周圍的資訊。主要關注兩方面，我先從理賠方面說起。我們認為，我們可以更有效、更有效率地處理首次損失通知流程，因為它基本上是從車內開始的。我們與汽車製造商或原始設備製造商以及保險公司建立聯繫，以便加快索賠流程，包括通知和付款。這是個好消息。它既有利於投保人，也有利於理賠部門，還能省錢。而在核保方面，關鍵在於定價。透過行動裝置獲取連網汽車的信息，可以告訴你車輛的速度、性能以及駕駛者的行為。這些資訊對於保險定價至關重要。因此，我們正在採取措施，將這些資訊納入個人和商業保險的定價中，以便我們的保險客戶能夠更好地、更積極地評估風險和定價。

The final question will be coming from the line of David Ridley-Lane.

最後一個問題將來自大衛·里德利-萊恩這一組。

So within the Energy segment, I'm hoping to understand how far the cyclical rebound and core research for WoodMac revenue has proceeded? And where are we relative to prior peak revenue or client counts on that core WoodMac area?

因此，在能源板塊，我希望了解伍德麥肯錫（WoodMac）的周期性反彈和核心研究收入進展到什麼程度了？那麼，在 WoodMac 的核心領域，我們目前的收入或客戶數量與之前的高峰相比處於什麼水平？

So client retention is very high. So -- and in fact, we have more customers than we used to have. And as I noted before, the sort of the progression related to research, it's really a function of multiyear agreements rolling off, new multiyear agreements being signed. That has been at work -- since you could really call the turn of the commodity, which is within the last year, we've seen that effect at work. It will continue to be at work as we go forward. Basically, the condition of the commodity is no longer an issue. We consider this a normalized environment that we're in now. So it's constructive and productive for the work we're selling today and the work we hope to be able to sell in the future.

因此，客戶留存率非常高。所以——事實上，我們現在的客戶比以前多了。正如我之前提到的，與研究相關的進展，實際上是多年期協議到期和新的多年期協議簽署的結果。這種效應已經顯現——自從商品價格真正開始轉變以來（也就是過去一年），我們已經看到了這種效應的作用。它將繼續發揮作用，並引領我們向前邁進。基本上，商品的狀況已不再是問題。我們認為我們現在所處的環境是正常的。所以，這對我們今天銷售的作品以及我們希望將來能夠銷售的作品都是有建設性和有成效的。

Okay, okay. All right, everybody, thank you. We appreciate your interest and I'm sure we'll be talking to a lot of you in immediate follow-ups and no later than next quarter. So thanks very much. Have a great day.

好的，好的。好了，各位，謝謝。感謝您的關注，我們一定會盡快與您聯繫，最遲下個季度就會與您進行後續溝通。非常感謝。祝你有美好的一天。

This concludes today's conference. You may now disconnect.

今天的會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連線了。