Verisk Analytics Inc (VRSK) 2019 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Verisk Fourth Quarter 2019 Earnings Results Conference Call. This call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) At this time, for opening remarks and introduction, I would like to turn the call over to Verisk Head of Investor Relations, Stacey Brodbar. Ms. Brodbar, please go ahead.

大家好，歡迎參加 Verisk 2019 年第四季財報電話會議。本次通話正在錄音。（操作員指示）此時，我謹將電話轉交給 Verisk 投資人關係主管 Stacey Brodbar，請她致開幕詞並作介紹。布羅德巴女士，請繼續。

Thank you, Sarah, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for a discussion of our fourth quarter and full year 2019 financial results. Today's call will be led by Scott Stephenson, Verisk's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, who will provide a brief overview of our business. Eric Schneider, Chief Technology Officer, will then provide an update on our technology strategy, including our cloud migration. Lastly, Lee Shavel, Chief Financial Officer, will highlight some key points about our financial performance. Mark Anquillare, Chief Operating Officer, will join the team for Q&A.

謝謝你，莎拉，大家早安。感謝您今天蒞臨本次會議，與我們共同探討2019年第四季及全年財務表現。今天的電話會議將由 Verisk 董事長、總裁兼執行長 Scott Stephenson 主持，他將簡要概述我們的業務。首席技術長埃里克·施耐德隨後將介紹我們的技術策略的最新進展，包括我們的雲端遷移。最後，財務長李沙維爾將重點介紹我們財務表現的一些關鍵點。營運長馬克·安奎拉雷將加入團隊進行問答環節。

The earnings release referenced on this call as well as the associated 10-K can be found in the Investors section of our website, verisk.com. The earnings release has 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.

本次電話會議中提到的收益報告以及相關的 10-K 表格可以在我們網站 verisk.com 的投資者關係部分找到。獲利報告已附在我們提交給美國證券交易委員會的 8-K 表格中。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.

現在我將把通話交給史考特。

Thanks, Stacey. Good morning, everyone.

謝謝你，史黛西。各位早安。

I'm pleased to share that '19 was another strong year for Verisk, marked by solid financial results while we continued to invest for future growth. Normalizing for the revenue impact of the injunction related to our Root measurement solutions, we've delivered organic constant currency revenue growth of 6.9% and organic constant currency adjusted EBITDA growth of 7.7%, demonstrating organic margin improvement in 2019. Moreover, our growth was driven by broad-based strength across our insurance vertical and marked improvement in energy and specialized markets.

我很高興地告訴大家，2019 年對 Verisk 來說又是強勁的一年，財務表現穩健，同時我們也持續投資以促進未來的成長。在剔除與我們的 Root 測量解決方案相關的禁令對收入的影響後，我們實現了 2019 年有機固定匯率收入增長 6.9% 和有機固定匯率調整 EBITDA 增長 7.7%，表明有機利潤率在 2019 年有所提高。此外，我們的成長得益於保險業務的全面強勁表現，以及能源和專業市場的顯著改善。

The consistency of our growth comes from 4 sources: first, intimacy with our customers; second, ever deeper levels of integration between our solutions and their environments; third, a steady stream of innovative new solutions; and fourth, the cross-sell of existing solutions to existing customers.

我們持續成長的秘訣在於以下四個面向：第一，與客戶保持密切聯繫；第二，我們的解決方案與其環境之間不斷加深的整合；第三，不斷推出創新解決方案；第四，向現有客戶交叉銷售現有解決方案。

Within Insurance, we continue to enjoy strong market uptake of our platform to analytic environments including LightSpeed for automated underwriting and Touchstone for catastrophe modeling. These solutions are being well received by both the traditional P&C insurers as well as the InsurTech start-ups, who need data analytics to effectively price and sell in a competitive market. We've experienced great success with the InsurTech segment with more than 100 new sales wins in 2019 alone.

在保險領域，我們的平台在分析環境中繼續受到市場的廣泛認可，包括用於自動承保的 LightSpeed 和用於災害建模的 Touchstone。這些解決方案受到了傳統財產保險公司和保險科技新創公司的歡迎，他們需要數據分析來在競爭激烈的市場中有效地定價和銷售。我們在保險科技領域取得了巨大成功，僅在 2019 年就贏得了 100 多筆新銷售訂單。

Our Energy and Specialized Markets segment delivered improved growth in 2019, driven by particularly strong results in our market and cost intelligence solutions as well as improvements within our core research at Wood Mackenzie. In addition, we delivered strong top line growth and improving profitability from our breakout areas, including the Lens platform and our chemicals and energy transition solutions. As always, we are in close conversation with our customers as they navigate the near-term macro environment.

2019 年，我們的能源和專業市場部門實現了成長，這主要得益於我們的市場和成本情報解決方案取得了特別強勁的成果，以及 Wood Mackenzie 核心研究的改進。此外，我們在Lens平台以及化學品和能源轉型解決方案等突破性領域實現了強勁的營收成長和獲利能力提升。一如既往，我們與客戶保持密切溝通，並協助他們應對近期宏觀環境的變化。

In Financial Services, 2019 was a year of transition as we evolved from a tops-down orientation to a bottoms-up approach with an emphasis on steady growth. Along that journey, we took a very deep look at all our solutions in Verisk financial solutions and concluded that our data hosting business, what we call Argus data warehouse, no longer aligns with our core business model. As such, earlier this month, we entered into an agreement to transition the Argus data warehouse by transferring approximately 50 people and licensing our intellectual property to a partner so that we could focus on data analytics. We believe this transaction will position the Financial Services segment for stronger growth and higher levels of profitability going forward.

在金融服務領域，2019 年是轉型之年，我們從自上而下的導向轉變為自下而上的方法，並強調穩定成長。在這個過程中，我們深入研究了 Verisk 金融解決方案中的所有解決方案，並得出結論：我們的資料託管業務（我們稱之為 Argus 資料倉儲）不再符合我們的核心業務模式。因此，本月初，我們達成了一項協議，將 Argus 資料倉儲轉移給合作夥伴，轉移約 50 名員工，並將我們的智慧財產權授權給合作夥伴，以便我們能夠專注於資料分析。我們相信，此次交易將使金融服務部門在未來實現更強勁的成長和更高的獲利水準。

Continuing on the strategic front, on February 1, Verisk closed on the previously announced sale of our aerial imagery sourcing group to Vexcel Group. This transforms Geomni into an asset-light operation with a focus on advanced data analytics. Moreover, it meaningfully reduces the cost structure of our Geomni business while giving us access to the leading U.S. image library along with favorable economics.

在策略方面，2 月 1 日，Verisk 完成了先前宣布的將我們的航空圖像採購集團出售給 Vexcel 集團的交易。這使得Geomni轉型為一家輕資產營運公司，專注於高階數據分析。此外，它還顯著降低了我們Geomni業務的成本結構，同時讓我們能夠獲得美國領先的圖像庫以及有利的經濟效益。

Regarding our roof measurement solution, we have applied for a patent on our new technology for roof measurement while continuing with our plan to appeal the recent court decision.

關於我們的屋頂測量解決方案，我們已經為屋頂測量新技術申請了專利，同時繼續推進我們對最近法院判決的上訴計劃。

On February 14, we closed on the sale of our compliance background screening business. This business was in the claims subsegment of our Insurance business. This transaction will allow us to continue to have access to this important data set but in a more capitally efficient manner.

2月14日，我們完成了合規背景調查業務的出售。這項業務屬於我們保險業務的理賠子部門。這項交易將使我們能夠繼續獲取這一重要數據集，但方式將更加節省資金。

Together, these 3 portfolio changes are examples of how we are actively managing our mix of businesses to capitalize on our competitive advantages and stay close to our proven business model of offering platform to analytics solutions and unique analytic objects. These moves position Verisk for continued, long-term sustainable growth and improving returns on capital.

這 3 項投資組合調整共同體現了我們如何積極管理我們的業務組合，以充分利用我們的競爭優勢，並堅持我們成熟的商業模式，即提供分析解決方案平台和獨特的分析對象。這些舉措使 Verisk 能夠持續實現長期永續成長，並提高資本回報率。

On the strategic acquisition front, in December, we acquired FAST, a leading SaaS company for the life insurance and annuity industry. FAST offers a modular, flexible policy administration system that allows life insurance companies to modernize legacy systems in stages and without a large upfront capital commitment. It also provides a channel for Verisk to deliver our new analytic objects to the life insurance industry. Adding FAST to the Verisk portfolio is a strong step forward as we make advances into the life insurance market. The software intensity of our overall business has increased over the years, and we are excited about the opportunity for FAST software to deliver our analytics and embed more deeply into life insurance customers' workflows. I'm pleased with the early steps towards integration with FAST.

在策略性收購方面，12 月我們收購了 FAST，這是一家領先的人壽保險和年金行業 SaaS 公司。FAST 提供模組化、靈活的保單管理系統，使人壽保險公司能夠分階段實現傳統系統的現代化，而無需大量的前期資本投入。它還為 Verisk 提供了一個管道，將我們新的分析對象交付給壽險行業。將 FAST 加入 Verisk 產品組合中，是我們進入人壽保險市場的重要一步。多年來，我們整體業務的軟體密集度不斷提高，我們很高興有機會利用 FAST 軟體來提供我們的分析，並更深入地融入人壽保險客戶的工作流程中。我對與 FAST 整合的初步進展感到滿意。

Another key strategic initiative for Verisk is our journey to migrate to the cloud, what we refer to internally as cloud first. We have made significant progress on this campaign and are poised to keep the momentum going. When we first started this journey in earnest 2 years ago, we saw customer feedback and listened carefully to their concerns. Today, in all of my discussions with CEOs of our customers across all of our verticals, there's full support of our migration to the cloud as our customers realize the benefits of Verisk's faster pace of innovation and our ability to enter new geographies more quickly. Eric Schneider, our Chief Technology Officer, will discuss with you in more detail our cloud migration and broader technology strategy.

Verisk 的另一個關鍵策略舉措是向雲端遷移，我們內部稱之為「雲端優先」。我們在這項活動中取得了重大進展，並已準備好保持這一勢頭。兩年前，當我們真正開始這段旅程時，我們看到了客戶的回饋，並認真聽取了他們的意見。今天，在我與我們所有垂直領域客戶的執行長們的所有討論中，他們都全力支持我們向雲端遷移，因為我們的客戶意識到 Verisk 更快的創新速度以及我們更快進入新地域的能力所帶來的好處。我們的技術長 Eric Sc​​hneider 將與您更詳細地討論我們的雲端遷移和更廣泛的技術策略。

2019 was also a milestone year for our ESG objectives. We became a participant in the UN Global Compact, the world's largest sustainability initiative, which encourages companies to align their operations and strategies around universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anticorruption. We view participation as an extension of the vision and principles represented by our Verisk way and an appropriate calling card as our business grows and embraces all geographies, cultures and people. Several Verisk businesses work with UN-sponsored initiatives addressing human rights and climate weather issues by contributing data analytics, professional insight and scientific expertise. Additionally, the Global Compact distinguishes Verisk with customers and prospects and sets an example for our suppliers and business partners.

2019年也是我們實現ESG目標的一個里程碑。我們加入了聯合國全球契約，這是世界上最大的永續發展倡議，旨在鼓勵企業圍繞人權、勞工、環境和反腐敗等領域普遍接受的原則調整其營運和策略。我們認為參與是 Verisk 方式所代表的願景和原則的延伸，也是我們業務成長並涵蓋所有地理、文化和人群的恰當名片。Verisk 旗下多家公司與聯合國贊助的人權和氣候天氣議題倡議合作，貢獻數據分析、專業見解和科學專長。此外，《全球契約》使 Verisk 在客戶和潛在客戶中脫穎而出，並為我們的供應商和業務合作夥伴樹立了榜樣。

On the environmental front, we again reported to the Carbon Disclosure Project or CDP. And for the second consecutive year, we balanced 100% of our reported scope 1 and 2 emissions and scope 3 business air travel with the purchase of energy attribute certificates and carbon offsets. We're committed to reducing our emissions and have continued to do so through office consolidations, building improvements and greater data processing efficiency.

在環境方面，我們再次向碳揭露計畫（CDP）提交了報告。我們連續第二年透過購買能源屬性證書和碳抵消，100% 抵消了報告的範圍 1 和範圍 2 排放以及範圍 3 商務航空旅行排放。我們致力於減少碳排放，並透過辦公室整合、建築改造和提高數據處理效率等方式不斷推進這項工作。

In the fourth quarter, we named Pat McLaughlin as our Chief Sustainability Officer, a first for Verisk, reporting directly to me. Pat and I have worked together for nearly 20 years. And in that time, Pat led a major business unit for us. His depth with the company gives him intimate knowledge of who we are and what we value. And so in 2014, I asked Pat to work with leadership and employees across Verisk to build a framework for understanding and addressing our impact on society, including the environment. He is championing sustainability efforts across our operations and advancing initiatives for measuring and reporting Verisk in the context of sustainability.

第四季度，我們任命 Pat McLaughlin 為首席永續發展官，這是 Verisk 的首位首席永續發展官，他直接向我匯報工作。我和帕特一起工作了近20年。在那段時間裡，帕特領導了我們公司一個重要的業務部門。他對公司的深入了解使他深刻地認識到我們是誰以及我們重視什麼。因此，在 2014 年，我請 Pat 與 Verisk 的領導階層和員工合作，建立一個框架，以了解和回應我們對社會（包括環境）的影響。他積極倡導公司營運中的永續發展舉措，並推動衡量和報告 Verisk 在永續發展方面表現的各項計畫。

I would also like to publicly welcome Laura Ipsen to our Board of Directors. Laura joined us at the end of 2019 and brings with her more than 25 years of experience working as a technology executive at Microsoft, Cisco and Oracle, yielding a deep knowledge of the cloud, artificial intelligence and SaaS business models. Laura becomes the fourth women serving on Verisk's Board of Directors and also our fourth new Director in the past 5 years.

我謹代表董事會公開歡迎勞拉·伊普森加入我們的董事會。Laura 於 2019 年底加入我們，她擁有超過 25 年在微軟、思科和甲骨文擔任技術高管的經驗，對雲端運算、人工智慧和 SaaS 商業模式有著深刻的了解。勞拉成為 Verisk 董事會的第四位女性成員，也是過去 5 年中的第四位新董事。

Finally, I'm pleased to announce that our Board of Directors has approved an 8% increase in our cash dividend to $0.27 per share this quarter and has also increased our share repurchase authorization by $500 million. These actions underscore confidence in the stability of our business, its profitability and its cash flows. Our core position within our 3 verticals is sound, and we are confident in our ability to deliver on our strategies to drive long-term shareholder value as we focus on serving our customers while also investing in market-leading innovation and our people.

最後，我很高興地宣布，我們的董事會已批准本季將現金股利提高 8%，至每股 0.27 美元，並將股票回購授權額度增加 5 億美元。這些舉措凸顯了我們對公司業務穩定性、獲利能力和現金流的信心。我們在三大垂直領域的核心地位穩固，我們有信心透過專注於服務客戶、同時投資於市場領先的創新和人才，實現推動股東長期價值的策略目標。

So with that, let me turn it over to Eric to provide some insight into our technology strategy.

那麼，接下來就交給 Eric 來為大家介紹我們的技術策略。

Thank you, Scott.

謝謝你，斯科特。

Technology is mission-critical to our business. And as such, we are continually working to optimize our technology environment and are always striving to be best in class. Working in partnership with our business units, we have identified 4 strategic areas of equal importance, dedicating much of our focused energy to them as we believe these are the areas most impactful for driving growth and efficiency in our business. The 4 areas are: first, data stewardship; second, analytics; third, our cloud-first strategy that Scott referenced; and fourth, our people. I'd like to take a few minutes to describe each of these and what we are doing.

科技對我們的業務至關重要。因此，我們不斷努力優化我們的技術環境，並始終力求做到最好。我們與各業務部門合作，確定了 4 個同等重要的策略領域，並將大部分精力投入這些領域，因為我們相信這些領域對推動業務成長和提高效率的影響最大。這四個面向分別是：第一，資料管理；第二，分析；第三，史考特提到的雲端優先策略；第四，我們的人員。我想花幾分鐘時間分別介紹一下這些內容以及我們正在做的事情。

Let me start with data stewardship. One of our key distinctives is our unique data assets as data is the core of everything we do. Within this area of strategic focus, we are advancing how we protect data, how we acquire new data assets and how we process data more efficiently. Our relentless focus on data stewardship continuously increases the usefulness of our data and analytics for our customers. To reach the next level, we recently added the role of chief data officer in each of our industry verticals. This role is responsible for driving our data agenda. Together, our 3 chief data officers are sharing best practices across verticals to amplify the value of our data.

讓我先從資料管理談起。我們的一大特色是我們獨特的數據資產，因為數據是我們一切工作的核心。在這個策略重點領域內，我們正在改進資料保護方式、獲取新資料資產的方式以及更有效率地處理資料的方式。我們始終堅持資料管理，不斷提高數據和分析對客戶的實用性。為了更上一層樓，我們最近在每個產業垂直領域都增設了首席資料長一職。該職位負責推動我們的數據策略。我們的三位首席資料長正在跨垂直領域分享最佳實踐，以提升我們資料的價值。

More specifically, the chief data officers are identifying new and valuable data assets, making our assets more usable, improving and unifying data stewardship, modernizing our data processing pipelines and standardizing data governance across the enterprise. For example, they champion the standardization and adoption of data protection methods like tokenization for sensitive information across our broad portfolio of products. For new data sets, our chief data officers discover and align both internal and partner data for valuable business applications. They are leading with cloud-based architectures to speed up data processing times for faster consumption by our customers. And finally, they continuously add higher quality data assets with more coverage, actively improve data quality and use cutting-edge techniques like artificial intelligence and machine learning to link our data assets.

更具體地說，首席數據官們正在識別新的、有價值的數據資產，使我們的資產更易於使用，改進和統一數據管理，使我們的數據處理管道現代化，並在整個企業範圍內標準化數據治理。例如，他們倡導在我們廣泛的產品組合中對敏感資訊進行令牌化等資料保護方法的標準化和採用。對於新的數據集，我們的首席數據長會發現並整合內部數據和合作夥伴數據，以用於有價值的業務應用。他們採用基於雲端的架構來加快資料處理速度，以便我們的客戶能夠更快地使用資料。最後，他們不斷增加覆蓋範圍更廣、更高品質的數據資產，積極提高數據質量，並利用人工智慧和機器學習等尖端技術將我們的數據資產連結起來。

Improved data assets with strong governance form the basis of our analytics portfolio, which I would like to speak about next.

改進的資料資產和強大的治理能力構成了我們分析組合的基礎，接下來我想談談這個組合。

On the analytics front, we are pushing the envelope by bringing advanced analytics and machine learning techniques to solve the business challenges facing our customers. We successfully partner with regulators to enable the use of machine learning techniques to improve analytical outcomes. We are developing novel methods to leverage unstructured data sets, such as images and audio, in conjunction with our already differentiated structured data assets to further improve their value. Our AI and machine learning center of excellence, together with our business units, leverage our university partnerships to bring research and advanced techniques quickly and efficiently into our solutions for our customers. Our team's focused on accelerating our innovation process and leverage our analytics platform to explore scores of ideas through quick proofs of concepts, such that we are focusing our energies on ideas that quickly gain market traction.

在分析方面，我們正在不斷突破，引入先進的分析和機器學習技術來解決客戶面臨的業務挑戰。我們與監管機構成功合作，使機器學習技術得以應用，進而改善分析結果。我們正在開發新的方法，將影像和音訊等非結構化資料集與我們已經差異化的結構化資料資產結合，以進一步提高它們的價值。我們的人工智慧和機器學習卓越中心與各業務部門攜手合作，利用與大學的合作關係，快速且有效率地將研究成果和先進技術融入我們為客戶提供的解決方案中。我們的團隊專注於加速創新進程，並利用我們的分析平台透過快速的概念驗證來探索大量想法，從而將精力集中在能夠迅速獲得市場認可的想法上。

Now let's turn to our cloud-first strategy. We are well underway on our journey to the cloud. We are multi cloud-enabled and have workloads running in all leading cloud providers. Approximately 1/3 of our compute environment is currently running in the cloud. Our multi-cloud strategy aligns our migration approach with our customer requirements when and where necessary, and the pace of our migration continues to meet our customers' expectations. We are leading the migration via our centralized cloud center of excellence, which is offering advanced capabilities to our businesses in the areas of cloud architecture, financial management, security, operations and training. Each of our businesses in all 3 verticals actively engage and work closely with our center of excellence to ensure a secure, timely and cost-effective migration takes place.

現在讓我們來看看我們的雲端優先策略。我們的雲端之旅已經順利進行。我們已實現多雲部署，並在所有主流雲端服務供應商上運行工作負載。我們大約三分之一的運算環境目前運行在雲端。我們的多雲策略使我們的遷移方法與客戶的需求保持一致，並且我們的遷移速度持續滿足客戶的期望。我們正透過集中式雲端卓越中心引領遷移，該中心為我們的業務在雲端架構、財務管理、安全、營運和培訓等領域提供先進的功能。我們所有 3 個垂直領域的每個業務部門都積極參與並與我們的卓越中心密切合作，以確保安全、及時和經濟高效的遷移得以實現。

A significant benefit of our move to the cloud is our ability to reduce and forecast our compute costs. In the cloud, our unit costs are reduced and are linear, in lockstep with our utilization of cloud services. We are taking advantage of near infinite compute capacity by flexing and contracting in direct response to demand by both scaling horizontally for peak periods and contracting, turning environments off when not needed. Let me share an example of an environment we have moved from on-premise data centers to the cloud and the benefits we are realizing.

遷移到雲端的一大好處是能夠降低和預測運算成本。在雲端，我們的單位成本降低，並且與我們對雲端服務的使用量呈線性關係，同步成長。我們利用近乎無限的運算能力，根據需求靈活調整，在高峰期橫向擴展，在不需要時收縮並關閉環境。讓我分享一個我們從本地資料中心遷移到雲端的環境範例，以及我們正在獲得的好處。

Our telematics platform, which houses over 100 billion miles of driving data, has been completely rearchitected to enhance the quality and timeliness of the analytic provided to our customers. By moving to the cloud, we have reduced processing cycle time while, at the same time, reducing cost, offering an overall improved experience for our customers or our telematics solutions. As we move forward, we will incur transitional costs associated with rearchitecting and optimizing our solutions to best benefit from cloud platforms.

我們的遠端資訊處理平台儲存著超過 1000 億英里的駕駛數據，該平台已完全重新架構，以提高向客戶提供的分析的品質和及時性。透過遷移到雲端，我們縮短了處理週期時間，同時降低了成本，為我們的客戶或我們的遠端資訊處理解決方案提供了整體上更好的體驗。隨著我們不斷推進，我們將產生與重新架構和優化我們的解決方案相關的過渡成本，以便最大限度地利用雲端平台。

Fourth, and perhaps most importantly is our people. Our talent access is superior globally, and we continue to build and attract world-class talent in both our data science and cloud disciplines. Data scientists and cloud architects want to work with us because we have some of the most interesting business problems to solve, and we are doing so in the cloud. Our data science excellence program is an immersive 4-plus year rotational training program that brings the brightest talent from top schools to Verisk and exposes them to our customers' business challenges as meaningful contributors to our analytic teams. And from a cloud perspective, we are advancing the cloud skills of our people. Our teams have obtained hundreds of cloud certifications, and we plan to double that number in 2020. In addition, we have augmented our internal teams by attracting experienced cloud professionals in the areas of cloud architecture, security and development operations.

第四，也許也是最重要的一點，就是我們的人民。我們在全球範圍內擁有卓越的人才儲備，並且我們不斷在數據科學和雲端運算領域培養和吸引世界一流的人才。資料科學家和雲端架構師都想與我們合作，因為我們有一些最有趣的業務問題需要解決，而且我們正在雲端解決這些問題。我們的資料科學卓越計劃是一個為期 4 年以上的沉浸式輪調培訓計劃，它將來自頂尖院校的最優秀人才帶到 Verisk，讓他們作為我們分析團隊的重要貢獻者，接觸到我們客戶的業務挑戰。從雲端運算的角度來看，我們正在提升員工的雲端運算技能。我們的團隊已經獲得了數百項雲端認證，我們計劃在 2020 年將這個數字翻倍。此外，我們還透過吸引雲端架構、安全性和開發營運等領域的經驗豐富的雲端專業人員，加強了我們的內部團隊。

We continue to invest and optimize in all 4 of these strategic initiatives and are confident in the value they are bringing to our people, to our customers and to Verisk overall. Now let me turn the call over to Lee, who will provide an update on our financials.

我們將繼續投資並優化這 4 項策略舉措，並相信它們將為我們的員工、客戶以及 Verisk 整體帶來價值。現在我把電話交給李，他將介紹我們的財務狀況。

Thanks, Eric. 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，埃里克。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 10.2% to $677 million. Net income decreased 9.6% to $132 million while diluted GAAP earnings per share decreased 8% to $0.80 for the fourth quarter of 2019. The year-over-year decrease in GAAP net income and EPS is primarily the result of acquisition-related earnout expenses of $28 million as many of our acquisitions are on target to achieve payments for strong performance. In addition, a higher effective tax rate due primarily to higher option exercises in the prior year period related to expiring options associated with our IPO 10 years ago reduced net income and EPS in the quarter.

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10.2%，達到6.77億美元。2019 年第四季，淨利潤下降 9.6% 至 1.32 億美元，稀釋後 GAAP 每股收益下降 8% 至 0.80 美元。GAAP淨收入和每股盈餘年減主要是由於收購相關的獲利支付費用為2,800萬美元，因為我們的許多收購項目都有望實現強勁業績的付款目標。此外，由於前一年與 10 年前 IPO 相關的到期選擇權行使量較高，導致實際稅率較高，從而降低了本季的淨收入和每股盈餘。

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 believe that our operating performance remains solid. On an organic constant currency basis, and including the impact of the injunction, Verisk delivered revenue growth of 5.4% for the fourth quarter of 2019. Growth was led by the Energy and Specialized Markets segment, which was our fastest-growing segment for the second consecutive quarter. Insurance also delivered solid growth, while Financial Services results were stable.

接下來是我們的有機成長績效（以固定匯率計算）。根據我們在新聞稿的非GAAP財務指標部分中定義的非經營性項目進行調整後，我們認為我們的經營業績依然穩健。以自然成長（以固定匯率計算），併計入禁令的影響，Verisk 在 2019 年第四季實現了 5.4% 的營收成長。能源和專業市場板塊引領了成長，該板塊連續第二個季度成為我們成長最快的板塊。保險業也實現了穩健成長，而金融服務業的業績保持穩定。

Organic constant currency adjusted EBITDA growth was 9%, reflecting leverage from organic growth across all 3 segments. Total adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 47.1%, flat with the prior year period, including substantial investment. This total adjusted EBITDA margin includes both organic and inorganic revenues and adjusted EBITDA. Normalizing for the revenue impact of the injunction, organic constant currency revenue grew 6.3%, organic constant currency adjusted EBITDA increased 11% and total adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 47.5%. Moreover, on an organic basis, and particularly on the pre-investment organic basis that we've discussed before, we saw margin expansion in all 3 of our segments, demonstrating the exceptional operating leverage at the core of our businesses.

經固定匯率調整後的有機 EBITDA 成長率為 9%，反映了所有 3 個業務部門的有機成長所帶來的槓桿效應。本季調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 47.1%，與去年同期持平，其中包括大量投資。此調整後 EBITDA 總利潤率包括有機收入和非有機收入以及調整後 EBITDA。在剔除禁令對營收的影響後，有機固定匯率營收成長了 6.3%，有機固定匯率調整後的 EBITDA 成長了 11%，調整後的 EBITDA 總利潤率擴大至 47.5%。此外，從有機成長的角度來看，特別是從我們之前討論過的投資前有機成長的角度來看，我們所有 3 個業務部門的利潤率都實現了擴張，這表明我們業務的核心具有卓越的營運槓桿作用。

On that note, let's turn to our segment results on an organic constant currency basis. As you see in the press release, Insurance reported 5.2% revenue growth while adjusted EBITDA increased 6.6% for the quarter. Normalizing for the impact of the injunction, Insurance would have achieved 6.5% organic constant currency revenue growth and 9.1% organic constant currency adjusted EBITDA growth, demonstrating margin expansion while also investing for future growth. Within our underwriting and rating business, organic constant currency revenue growth accelerated to 8.2% and was very broad-based across our solution sets in personal lines and commercial lines. We saw healthy growth in our industry-standard insurance programs, LightSpeed suite of products, property-specific underwriting and catastrophe modeling solutions revenue. We also had positive contributions from our international business.

說到這裡，讓我們來看看以固定匯率計算的各業務板塊業績。如新聞稿所述，保險業務當季營收成長 5.2%，調整後 EBITDA 成長 6.6%。剔除禁令的影響，保險業的有機固定匯率收入成長將達到 6.5%，有機固定匯率調整後的 EBITDA 成長將達到 9.1%，這表明利潤率有所提高，同時也為未來的成長進行了投資。在我們的核保和評級業務中，有機固定匯率收入成長加速至 8.2%，並且在我們個人險和商業險的解決方案組合中實現了非常廣泛的成長。我們的行業標準保險計劃、LightSpeed 系列產品、特定財產承保和災害建模解決方案收入均實現了健康成長。我們的國際業務也做出了積極貢獻。

Within claims, organic constant currency revenues declined 1%, primarily driven by the injunction. Normalizing for the impact from the injunction, claims delivered 2.9% organic constant currency revenue growth, held back by fewer severe weather events this year as compared to last year, reducing transactional revenue growth. However, our claims subscription revenues continued to see solid growth and were primarily driven by claims analytics and repair cost estimating solutions.

在索賠方面，有機固定匯率收入下降了 1%，主要原因是禁令。在剔除禁令的影響後，索賠業務實現了 2.9% 的有機固定匯率收入成長，但由於今年的極端天氣事件比去年少，導致交易收入成長放緩。然而，我們的理賠訂閱收入持續保持穩健成長，主要得益於理賠分析和維修成本估算解決方案。

Insurance adjusted EBITDA margin was 53% for the quarter, flat with the prior year period. Normalizing for the impact from the injunction, the Insurance segment adjusted EBITDA margin came in at 53.5%, reflecting leverage from the organic growth, offset in part by continued investment.

本季保險業務調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 53%，與去年同期持平。在剔除禁令的影響後，保險業務調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率為 53.5%，反映了內生成長帶來的槓桿效應，但部分被持續投資所抵消。

Energy and Specialized Markets delivered revenue growth of 7.1% for the quarter, driven by particularly strong sales of our market and cost intelligence solutions and core research revenues as well as contributions from our chemicals, solutions and the energy transition practice. We also had positive contributions from environmental health and safety and weather and climate analytics revenues. Energy and Specialized Markets adjusted EBITDA increased 23.8%, reflecting leverage on strong sales, balanced with ongoing investments in breakout opportunities, including our Lens platform, chemicals and the energy transition practice. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 32% from 30.8%.

能源和專業市場業務本季營收成長 7.1%，這主要得益於市場和成本情報解決方案以及核心研究收入的強勁銷售，以及化學品、解決方案和能源轉型業務的貢獻。環境健康與安全以及天氣與氣候分析收入也為我們做出了積極貢獻。能源和專業市場調整後 EBITDA 成長 23.8%，反映了強勁銷售帶來的槓桿效應，同時兼顧了突破性機會的持續投資，包括我們的 Lens 平台、化學品和能源轉型業務。調整後 EBITDA 利潤率從 30.8% 成長至 32%。

Financial Services revenue grew 2.1% in the quarter, led by growth in fraud and credit risk management solutions as well as portfolio management solutions. This was offset in part by declines in enterprise data management revenues. As Scott discussed, we have decided to transition our data hosting operations to a partner, which will better position this segment for more predictable, sustainable growth. As evidence, the Financial Services segment would have delivered revenue growth of 7% in the quarter without the impact of the Argus data warehousing business. Financial Services segment adjusted EBITDA increased 6.2%, and adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 40.3% from 37.9%, reflecting strong cost discipline.

本季金融服務收入成長 2.1%，主要得益於詐欺和信用風險管理解決方案以及投資組合管理解決方案的成長。企業資料管理收入的下降部分抵消了這一影響。正如 Scott 所討論的，我們決定將資料託管業務轉移給合作夥伴，這將使該業務板塊更好地實現可預測、可持續的成長。證據是，如果沒有 Argus 資料倉儲業務的影響，金融服務部門本季的營收成長將達到 7%。金融服務部門調整後 EBITDA 成長 6.2%，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率從 37.9% 擴大至 40.3%，反映出嚴格的成本控制。

Our reported effective tax rate was 23.2% for the quarter compared to 18.6% in the prior year quarter, primarily due to the impact of a higher level of option exercise in the prior year period. For the full year, our effective tax rate was 20.9%, which was in line with our targeted range. For 2020, we expect our tax rate to be between 19% and 21%, though there will be likely some quarterly variability related to the impact of employee stock option exercises, which depends in part on the Verisk stock price and employee personal decisions.

本季報告的實際稅率為 23.2%，而上年同期為 18.6%，主要是由於去年同期選擇權行使水準較高所致。全年實際稅率為 20.9%，符合我們的目標範圍。2020 年，我們預計稅率將在 19% 到 21% 之間，但可能會有一些季度波動，這與員工股票選擇權行使的影響有關，而這部分取決於 Verisk 的股價和員工的個人決定。

Adjusted net income was $188 million and diluted adjusted EPS was $1.13 for the fourth quarter 2019, up 8.7% from the prior year. This increase reflects organic growth in the business, contributions from acquisitions and lower average share count. These increases were offset in part by higher depreciation and amortization, increased interest expense and a higher effective tax rate.

2019 年第四季調整後淨收入為 1.88 億美元，稀釋後調整每股收益為 1.13 美元，比去年同期成長 8.7%。這一增長反映了業務的自然增長、收購帶來的貢獻以及平均流通股數量的下降。這些成長部分被更高的折舊和攤提、更高的利息支出和更高的實際稅率所抵銷。

Net cash provided by operating activities was $176 million for the quarter, up 1.7% from the prior year period, reflecting primarily a higher effective tax rate due to the option exercises in 2018 mentioned earlier. Capital expenditures were $64 million for the quarter, down 16.3% from the prior year period, primarily the result of reduced capital expenditure at Geomni. CapEx represented 9.5% of total revenue in the quarter.

本季經營活動產生的淨現金為 1.76 億美元，比上年同期成長 1.7%，主要反映了由於前面提到的 2018 年選擇權行使而導致的實際稅率較高。本季資本支出為 6,400 萬美元，比去年同期下降 16.3%，主要原因是 Geomni 的資本支出減少。本季資本支出佔總收入的9.5%。

As we look to 2020, we expect capital expenditures to be in the range of $250 million to $270 million. Included in this number are one-time expenditures of approximately $35 million related to the consolidation of office space that we have planned in 2 key cities, London and Boston. We are excited about the long-term benefits of having our business units and people together under one roof.

展望 2020 年，我們預期資本支出將在 2.5 億至 2.7 億美元之間。該數字中包含與我們在倫敦和波士頓這兩個主要城市計劃整合辦公空間相關的約 3500 萬美元的一次性支出。我們對將業務部門和人員集中在同一屋簷下所帶來的長期好處感到興奮。

Related -- relating this to Capex, we expect fixed asset depreciation and amortization to be within a range of $170 million to $180 million in comparison to the $186 million for 2019. Depreciation and amortization should be lower year-over-year, helped by the sale of our imagery sourcing group, including the planes and sensors to Vexcel. We expect intangible amortization to be approximately $165 million in 2020 in comparison to $138 million in 2019. Both depreciation and amortization elements are subject to FX variability, the timing of purchases and completion of projects and future M&A activity. Free cash flow was $112 million for the quarter, an increase of 16% from the prior year period, primarily due to lower capital expenditures.

相關面向－與資本支出相關，我們預期固定資產折舊和攤提將在 1.7 億美元至 1.8 億美元之間，而 2019 年為 1.86 億美元。由於將影像擷取集團（包括飛機和感測器）出售給 Vexcel，折舊和攤銷應逐年減少。我們預計 2020 年無形資產攤銷額約為 1.65 億美元，而 2019 年為 1.38 億美元。折舊和攤銷要素均受外匯波動、採購時間、專案完成情況以及未來併購活動的影響。本季自由現金流為 1.12 億美元，較上年同期成長 16%，主要原因是資本支出減少。

During the fourth quarter, we returned $141 million in capital to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. We repurchased approximately 700,000 shares at a weighted average price of $145.07 for a total cost of $100 million. At December 31, 2019, we had $128 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization. We remain committed to ongoing capital return to shareholders. And as Scott mentioned, we are pleased that Verisk's Board of Directors approved an additional authorization of $500 million for share repurchases as well as an 8% increase in our cash dividend to $0.27 per share this quarter.

第四季度，我們透過股票回購和分紅向股東返還了 1.41 億美元的資本。我們以每股 145.07 美元的加權平均價格回購了約 70 萬股股票，總成本為 1 億美元。截至 2019 年 12 月 31 日，我們的股票回購授權額度還剩 1.28 億美元。我們始終致力於為股東帶來持續的資本回報。正如 Scott 所提到的，我們很高興 Verisk 董事會批准了額外 5 億美元的股票回購授權，以及本季將現金股利提高 8% 至每股 0.27 美元。

As Scott mentioned, we have recently engaged in a series of transactions that focus our portfolio of businesses to fully capitalize on our key distinctives and our core competitive advantages. Each of these transactions is unique in its structure, but share the motivation of active capital discipline and achieving more predictable long-term growth at Verisk.

正如斯科特所提到的，我們最近進行了一系列交易，使我們的業務組合能夠充分發揮我們的關鍵特色和核心競爭優勢。這些交易在結構上各有不同，但都旨在透過積極的資本紀律，在 Verisk 實現更可預測的長期成長。

Before I conclude, and looking ahead to the first quarter, I want to inform you of a timing shift in expenses between the first and second quarters that will impact our reported financial results. The company recently changed the timing of the grant of long-term incentive compensation into the first quarter from the second quarter previously. This timing change aligns Verisk with the greater market and more closely times employee compensation with calendar year results. The resulting impact will be increased expense of $10 million in the first quarter related to long-term incentive compensation, but that will reverse to a benefit in the second quarter.

在結束發言之前，展望第一季度，我想告知各位，第一季和第二季之間的費用時間安排有所變化，這將影響我們公佈的財務業績。該公司最近將長期激勵性薪酬的發放時間從先前的第二季改為第一季。這項時間調整使 Verisk 與更廣泛的市場保持一致，並使員工薪酬與日曆年度業績更加緊密地聯繫在一起。由此產生的影響是，第一季與長期激勵薪酬相關的支出將增加 1,000 萬美元，但第二季將轉為收益。

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.

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。

Given the large number of analysts that we have covering us, we ask that you limit yourself to one question. And with that, I'll ask the operator to open the line for questions.

鑑於有大量分析師關注我們，我們要求您只提一個問題。接下來，我會請接線生開通提問專線。

(Operator Instructions)Your first question comes from the line of Manav Patnaik from Barclays.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的馬納夫·帕特奈克。

My question is around the cloud-first strategy. So just kind of a 2-parter. So one, Scott, when you referenced, you were talking to your customers, and they are supportive of your move. Are the customers also sort of in this cloud move and are ready to adopt it? Or will there be a transition period of duplicate costs in order to serve the customer better? And then, Lee, I was just hoping you could put some financial parameters around it, like how much of spend, savings, et cetera, we might start thinking about.

我的問題是關於雲端優先策略的。所以這其實是一個分成兩個部分的故事。所以，史考特，你剛才提到，你是在和你的客戶交談，他們支持你的舉措。客戶是否也認同這種遷移到雲端的趨勢，並準備好採用雲端技術？或者，為了更好地服務客戶，是否會有一個過渡期，期間會產生重複的成本？然後，李，我只是希望你能設定一些財務參數，例如我們應該開始考慮多少支出、儲蓄等等。

Yes. So I'll start with that, Manav. Our customers are in various stages of considering how they're going to manage their own technical infrastructure. I would say, in general, that our company has moved faster, probably considerably faster in modifying our compute environment relative to our customers, but it doesn't really create an added burden for our customers or put more costs into the system as we work with them. In fact, if anything, the interface between us and the customer becomes a little bit easier to manage. So there's no systemic increase in costs. We -- obviously, as we've talked many times, we are adding the cloud dimension to our business even as we are working to retire the premise dimension of our business. The premise dimension comes off sort of in shelves. The cloud sort of grows in a linear fashion, as Eric said before. But we've absorbed all that into our P&L and are just -- we continue to head in the same direction at the same pace. And so it all feels very organic. The customers, it's really nothing but good for customers, and it doesn't add an additional burden for them. And Lee, I don't know if you want to just talk a little bit more about the specifics.

是的。那我就先從這個說起吧，馬納夫。我們的客戶在考慮如何管理自己的技術基礎設施方面處於不同的階段。總的來說，我認為我們公司在修改運算環境方面比客戶進展更快，可能快得多，但這並沒有給客戶帶來額外的負擔，也沒有在我們與客戶合作的過程中增加系統成本。事實上，如果有什麼改變的話，那就是我們和客戶之間的溝通變得更容易管理了。因此，成本沒有系統性成長。顯然，正如我們多次談到的那樣，我們正在為業務增加雲端維度，同時努力淘汰業務的本地部署維度。前提維度有點像從書架上取下來一樣。正如埃里克之前所說，雲層呈線性增長。但我們已經將所有這些因素都納入了損益表，我們只是——我們繼續以同樣的速度朝著同樣的方向前進。所以一切都感覺非常自然。對顧客來說，這真的只有好處沒有壞處，不會給他們增加額外的負擔。李，我不知道你是否想再詳細談談具體情況。

Sure. And Manav, thanks for the question. I appreciate that. Very simply, we aren't providing an estimate of the cost savings for a couple of reasons. One is that this is a multiyear project as we are rolling out these transitions across many data sets, many individual businesses. And while we're tracking it on each of those bases, and we look at each of those situations as test cases, where we can see the savings, we can see the return on capital for the investment that we're making, because of the rolling impact of us achieving some savings, investing in the transition over time, we don't want to create a fixed benchmark. I think from our perspective, our view is that this activity will generate both operational improvements in terms of lower OpEx relative to this function. And so there will be a margin benefit that supports our overall margin improvement objectives as well as EBITDA growth ahead of revenue growth as well as capital efficiencies that will boost our return over time. But given that it is deeply embedded within our businesses and something that we're managing as part of their full technology spend, it's not something that, at an aggregate level, we are going to provide kind of full estimates for that reason. But we absolutely have seen those benefits in the projects that we have executed within specific data sets in the businesses, and we'll expect that to kind of roll forward as we prosecute this initiative over time.

當然。馬納夫，謝謝你的提問。我很感激。簡言之，我們不提供成本節省估算，原因有二。首先，這是一個多年項目，因為我們正在多個資料集和許多獨立企業中逐步推行這些過渡。雖然我們會在各個方面進行跟踪，並將每種情況都視為測試案例，以便查看節省的金額，查看我們投資的資本回報，但由於我們實現一些節省並投資於轉型會產生滾動影響，因此我們不想設定一個固定的基準。我認為從我們的角度來看，這項活動將帶來營運方面的改進，降低相對於該職能的營運成本。因此，利潤率的提高將有助於我們實現整體利潤率提升目標，同時 EBITDA 成長也將超過收入成長，資本效率的提高也將隨著時間的推移提升我們的回報。但鑑於它深深植根於我們的業務中，並且是我們作為其全部技術支出的一部分進行管理的，因此，出於這個原因，我們不會提供總體上的完整估算。但是，我們已經在企業特定資料集中執行的專案中看到了這些好處，我們預計隨著我們逐步推進這項計劃，這些好處將會不斷顯現。

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Steinerman from JPMorgan.

你的下一個問題來自摩根大通的安德魯·斯坦納曼。

Lee, it's a margin question. So the fourth quarter 2019 reported EBITDA margins were flat year-over-year. That's reported. That's including past acquisitions as well as the drag from the roof report injunction. You were good to say how much that drag from the roof report injunction is. And also, we're seeing the operating leverage coming from the breakout initiatives at the core. So as such, is Verisk positioned to see 2020 reported EBITDA margins to be flattish to perhaps leaning forward?

李，這是利潤率的問題。因此，2019 年第四季報告的 EBITDA 利潤率與去年同期持平。有報道說。這包括過去的收購以及屋頂拖累報告禁令。你很好地指出了屋頂報告禁令帶來的阻力有多大。此外，我們也看到營運槓桿效應來自於核心的突破性措施。因此，Verisk 預計 2020 年報告的 EBITDA 利潤率將保持平穩或略有成長嗎？

Yes. So thank you, Andrew. I appreciate the question and the consistent focus on margin. We bring the same discipline in looking at our overall business. So I appreciate the fact that what you've recognized is, at the core, we are generating very strong and consistent operating leverage in the businesses on a pre-investment basis. So in the fourth quarter, we did see that margin expansion for all of our core businesses before the impact of our breakouts, which include Geomni as well as the impact from our acquisitions. And so we -- it certainly shouldn't come as a surprise that Geomni was a significant impact in terms of investment in the fourth quarter of 2019 as it was in -- for the year as a whole.

是的。所以，謝謝你，安德魯。我很欣賞這個問題以及對利潤率的持續關注。我們在審視公司整體業務時也秉持同樣的嚴謹態度。因此，我很欣賞您所認識到的，從根本上講，我們在投資前就已經在業務中產生了非常強大且持續的經營槓桿作用。因此，在第四季度，我們所有核心業務的利潤率都實現了擴張，這還不包括Geomni等新興業務以及收購帶來的影響。因此，Geomni 在 2019 年第四季以及全年都對投資產生了重大影響，這當然不足為奇。

And so that element will certainly benefit from the transaction with Vexcel. So at least that component in 2020 should have a substantially reduced impact overall on margins. But that's balanced then against, of course, the ongoing investment in our businesses that we make on a return basis as well as the impact from acquisitions. Our long-term objective continues to be to generate EBITDA growth in excess of revenue growth on an organic basis and to improve that margin over time. And I think going into 2020, we feel as confident as ever in our ability to achieve that.

因此，與Vexcel的交易肯定會使這一方面受益。因此，至少在 2020 年，這項因素對整體利潤率的影響應該會大幅降低。當然，這需要與我們基於回報對業務進行的持續投資以及收購帶來的影響相平衡。我們的長期目標仍然是實現 EBITDA 成長超過收入成長（以有機成長為基礎），並隨著時間的推移提高利潤率。我認為，展望 2020 年，我們仍然像以往一樣對實現這一目標充滿信心。

Your next question comes from the line of Toni Kaplan from Morgan Stanley.

你的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的東尼卡普蘭。

Scott, just thinking about your strategy of getting out of the data collection and aerial imagery and also the data hosting business in Argus, it doesn't sound like your view on the value of data has changed, but maybe just some tangential ways of how you get the data and what you do with it is slightly changing. And so I just wanted to understand, like does the new partnership around the Argus data warehouse change anything with regard to the ownership of data and just how you're thinking of that? And then, Lee, if you could give some additional color on the financial impacts like the net cost savings from the Vexcel transaction and how much revenue in total will be reduced by all the portfolio actions.

Scott，我一直在思考你退出 Argus 的資料收集、航空影像和資料託管業務的策略，聽起來你對資料價值的看法並沒有改變，只是取得資料和處理資料的方式可能略有變化。所以我想了解的是，圍繞 Argus 資料倉儲建立的新合作關係是否會改變資料所有權方面的事情，以及你們對此有何看法？Lee，您能否再詳細說明財務影響，例如 Vexcel 交易帶來的淨成本節約，以及所有投資組合調整措施將導致總收入減少多少。

Yes. Thanks, Toni. So first of all, our view of the value of unique data assets is completely unchanged. And actually, if anything, I think, going forward, unique data assets actually will be even probably more rare. Not that we feel that there is any -- there will be -- we will take any step back in terms of the volume or the value of the data that we've got. So our view of that as a part of our business is completely unchanged. Data remains the oxygen in our bloodstream, and it always will.

是的。謝謝你，托尼。首先，我們對獨特數據資產價值的看法完全沒有改變。事實上，我認為，展望未來，獨特的數據資產可能會更加稀少。並不是說我們覺得——肯定不會——我們在數據量或數據價值方面會有任何倒退。因此，我們對這部分業務的看法完全沒有改變。數據就像血液中的氧氣，永遠都是如此。

So the 2 changes that we made, first of all, what I would really like to emphasize around the Vexcel transaction is that we actually put ourselves in position to have an even better data set. Vexcel was, as we've already described, already engaged in data capture. They're also one of the globe's leading providers of sensor technology. And so putting together our image capture process with their methods and some of the commitments they already had to creating this image library, we actually have access. We will have access, and we have access to a better set of images than we had before and at substantially improved economics. So it's merely about how do we get to the data, not are we interested in the data.

因此，我們做出的兩項改變，首先，我想強調的是，關於 Vexcel 交易，我們實際上讓自己處於能夠獲得更好資料集的位置。正如我們之前所述，Vexcel 當時已經從事資料收集工作。他們也是全球領先的傳感器技術供應商之一。因此，結合我們的影像擷取流程、他們的方法以及他們為創建這個影像庫所做的一些承諾，我們實際上已經獲得了存取權限。我們將獲得存取權限，而且我們將獲得比以前更好的圖像集，經濟效益也大幅提高。所以問題只是我們如何取得數據，而不是我們是否對數據感興趣。

And with the move with the Argus data warehouse, that's a little bit different because the Argus data warehouse was not about our gathering of data from customers. It was really customers who had observed our facility with dealing with their data. And they said, "Can you essentially white label your way of managing data to me?" And we said yes as another benefit for our customers. And what happened over time is this whole space of hosting data warehouses, and particularly cloud-enabled, has just sort of exploded over the last several years.

而遷移到 Argus 資料倉儲的情況則略有不同，因為 Argus 資料倉儲並非用於收集客戶資料。實際上，是客戶注意到了我們處理他們數據的能力。他們問：「你們能否以白標形式將你們的資料管理方式提供給我？」我們回答說可以，因為這對我們的客戶來說也是一項優勢。隨著時間的推移，資料倉儲託管領域，特別是雲端資料倉儲託管領域，在過去幾年經歷了爆炸式增長。

And it was never founded -- the ADW work was never founded upon providing us a data source, which we then translate through our analytics. It was really more of an accommodation for our customers in their own workflows. So there's really no change in terms -- well, there is 0 change in terms of our access to data in the financial segment. So we view data as we always have. We have as much or better access to data than we used to, and our economics have improved as a result of these changes that we made. Lee, anything you care to add to that?

而且它從來就不是建立在——ADW 的工作從來就不是透過向我們提供資料來源，然後我們再透過分析來轉換這些資料而建立的。這其實更多的是為了適應客戶本身的工作流程。所以實際上沒有任何變化——至少在金融領域的資料存取權限方面沒有任何變化。所以我們看待數據的方式和以往一樣。我們現在能夠獲得的數據比以前更多甚至更好，而且由於我們所做的這些改變，我們的經濟狀況也得到了改善。李，你還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yes. Toni, to give you some sense that, from a financial impact standpoint, I understand you want to get a sense from a revenue perspective, that we would kind of roughly estimate approximately in the fourth quarter there were approximately $8 million of revenues associated with the image capture business that we'll be moving to Vexcel. So that gives you kind of some sense of the scale. From an EBITDA standpoint, there's not a material impact from the impact of those revenues. So kind of roughly equivalent level of EBITDA expense associated with that. But on a year-over-year basis, we are expecting a -- the benefit of eliminating the costs associated with the individuals and the flight operations associated with that image capture business that we will no longer continue to bear even though we will continue to have access to all of that data on very preferential terms looking ahead. So it will clearly be a benefit to us from an EBITDA perspective.

是的。東尼，為了讓你對財務影響有所了解，我知道你想從收入角度了解一下，我們粗略估計，在第四季度，與我們將轉移到 Vexcel 的圖像採集業務相關的收入約為 800 萬美元。這樣你就能對規模有個大致的了解了。從 EBITDA 的角度來看，這些收入的影響並不會產生實質影響。因此，與之相關的 EBITDA 支出大致相當於這個水準。但從年際比較來看，我們預計——我們將不再承擔與影像擷取業務相關的人員和飛行營運成本，儘管展望未來，我們仍將以非常優惠的條件繼續存取所有這些數據。因此，從 EBITDA 的角度來看，這顯然對我們有利。

Your next question comes from the line of Gary Bisbee of Bank of America.

你的下一個問題來自美國銀行的加里‧比斯比。

I wanted to ask just a bit more about the margins in the quarter. So a quarter ago, you'd talked about the loss of revenue from the injunction not having enough time to really get at or reduce those costs, and yet the Insurance margin was quite strong. So obviously, you're able to get rid of a bunch of that cost. And on the Energy business, we'd also thought there would be maybe more of a drag than it appeared there was from the Genscape deal that I think you owned for a couple of months in the quarter. So just help us think about, as we think moving into Q1 and moving forward, what the dilution from Genscape is and what -- how we think about the Geomni lost sales and the impact of that all in with Vexcel.

我想再問一下本季的利潤率狀況。所以，一個季度前，您曾談到禁令造成的收入損失，但沒有足夠的時間來真正解決或減少這些成本，然而保險利潤率卻相當強勁。顯然，這樣就能省去很多費用。至於能源業務，我們也曾認為，Genscape 的交易可能會比實際情況造成更大的拖累，我認為你在本季持有該股票幾個月。所以，請幫助我們思考一下，在展望第一季及未來發展時，Genscape 的股權稀釋情況如何，以及我們如何看待 Geomni 的銷售損失及其對 Vexcel 的影響。

Yes. Thank you, Gary. So a lot of elements here, so let me try to give you a couple of components of that. So I think the statement that we made in the third quarter with regard to not being able to make substantial headway on the expense for Geomni in the fourth quarter is accurate kind of specific to the overall entity within our GAAP results. Naturally, the Vexcel transaction, we'll be moving a substantial part of that expense, not all of it. We will have operating expenses associated with our analytics component of that business that will be retained. But in excess of the majority of the expenses will move out of the business. But the margin uplift within Insurance really wasn't driven by cost savings within Geomni. I think it was just the natural operating leverage within the business as a whole.

是的。謝謝你，加里。這裡涉及很多因素，讓我試著介紹其中的幾個組成部分。所以我認為，我們在第三季就第四季Geomni的費用問題所做的聲明是準確的，這在某種程度上是針對我們GAAP業績中的整體實體而言的。當然，對於 Vexcel 的交易，我們將轉移其中很大一部分費用，但不是全部。我們將保留與該業務的分析部分相關的營運費用。但絕大部分費用將轉移到企業以外。但保險業務利潤率的提升並非由Geomni內部的成本節約所驅動。我認為這只是公司整體營運中自然產生的槓桿效應。

And specific to the Energy and Specialized Markets discussion, they're our market and cost intelligence business and the strong growth that we experienced within that business as well as cost discipline at Wood Mackenzie was really the primary contributor to the margin expansion within that business and for the business as a whole. And so there, we are benefiting from a very strong growth in that product and relatively low associated expense expansion within that. So I think that is when we look at that margin strength, there was certainly some component of it within Insurance, but a lot of that benefit came from those activities. So as I mentioned, with regard to Andrew's comments, I think all of those effects, we think, will put us in a very good position to continue to work towards that margin expansion objective that we have over the long term in 2020.

具體到能源和專業市場討論中，它們是我們的市場和成本情報業務，我們在該業務中經歷的強勁增長以及伍德麥肯錫的成本控制，確實是該業務以及整個業務利潤率擴張的主要貢獻者。因此，我們受益於該產品的強勁成長以及與之相關的相對較低的成本擴張。所以我認為，當我們審視這種利潤率優勢時，保險業肯定貢獻了部分利潤，但許多利潤都來自其他業務活動。正如我之前提到的，關於安德魯的評論，我們認為所有這些影響都將使我們處於非常有利的地位，從而在 2020 年繼續朝著我們長期設定的利潤率擴張目標努力。

Your next question comes from the line of Hamzah Mazari from Jefferies.

你的下一個問題來自傑富瑞集團的哈姆札·馬扎里。

Historically, you guys have not talked a whole lot about your commercial sales organization on calls. Maybe just give us an update. Is that an opportunity? How do you measure sales force productivity? And any changes to incentives maybe that you've made there or haven't made as you look forward to growth? It seems like you're doing a lot of acquisitions around software to sort of penetrate customers, but any thoughts as to adding salespeople and going after more revenues?

從歷史上看，你們在電話會議中很少談到你們的商業銷售組織。或許可以給我們更新一下狀況。那是一個機會嗎？如何衡量銷售團隊的生產力？展望未來發展，您是否對激勵機製做出了任何調整，或者還沒有做出任何調整？看起來你們在軟體領域進行了很多收購，以期打入客戶市場，但有沒有考慮過增加銷售人員，從而提高收入呢？

Yes. So obviously, an important dimension of our business across all the verticals, we take a 3-tier approach to selling. So we have account representation, where there we have people who are owning our end-to-end relationship with our customer. Then we have product specialists, whether they be data analytics solutions or software solutions. Almost everything that we do is very technical. And so we do need people who are focused on specific parts of our product suite to go in, present credentials, work on issues of integration, et cetera. And then thirdly, we have inside sales to help us cover what, in some cases, is the fairly long tail of smaller customers inside of our market spaces.

是的。顯然，在我們所有垂直領域的業務中，一個重要的方面是，我們採用三級銷售方法。因此，我們有客戶代表，由專人負責我們與客戶的端到端關係。然後我們還有產品專家，無論是數據分析解決方案還是軟體解決方案。我們所做的幾乎所有事情都非常依賴科技。因此，我們需要專注於我們產品套件特定部分的人員加入，展示資質，處理整合問題等等。第三，我們還有內部銷售團隊來幫助我們涵蓋市場空間中相對較長的小型客戶群。

Generally, we find it a good use of money to expand our go-to-market team, and we're always looking to do that. And the only other thing I would say, and this ties a little bit to the point that Lee was just on, as we make acquisitions, which are inside of verticals that we're already serving, one of the things we think hard about is, how are we going to integrate the 2? And I will say, by the way, that we had ambitious plans for Genscape integration. And the team has met all of their marks. And so it's gone very, very well.

一般來說，我們認為擴充市場推廣團隊是合理利用資金的好方法，我們也一直在尋求這樣做。我唯一想補充的是，這與李剛才提到的一點有點關係，當我們進行收購時，這些收購都發生在我們已經服務的垂直領域內，我們認真思考的一件事是，我們將如何整合這兩者？順便說一句，我們對 Genscape 的整合曾經有過雄心勃勃的計劃。團隊已經完成了所有目標。所以一切都進行得非常順利。

But one of the places where we're fairly slow to take any costs out actually is with respect to market representation. So as we say, integrate something that we acquire, we actually want to hold on to the go-to-market resources as much as we possibly can. And then we're always asking the question, would more be helpful? I mean, in general, I would just say that I've really been pleased and impressed with what our teams accomplished in 2019 in terms of building our book of business. So yes, it's always on our mind. We've always had the same structure. We always lean into more investment in that area when it makes sense.

但我們在削減成本方面進展相當緩慢的一個領域是市場代表性。正如我們所說，要整合我們收購的東西，我們實際上希望盡可能保留市場推廣資源。然後我們總是會問，更多這樣的資源會不會有幫助？我的意思是，總的來說，我對我們團隊在 2019 年拓展業務方面所取得的成就感到非常滿意和印象深刻。是的，我們一直都在考慮這件事。我們一直沿用同樣的組織結構。只要條件允許，我們總會加大對該領域的投資。

Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Meuler from Baird.

你的下一個問題來自 Baird 公司的 Jeff Meuler。

With the preface that I fully recognize the importance of data and analytics as a source of value in the solutions, Scott, I would love kind of your perspective on where you draw the lines or what types of software solutions you expect to provide. So just talking about the increased software intensity, the life insurance software acquisition and some other software acquisitions you've done. But you also continued to partner with the likes of Guidewire and I think there was a relatively recent announcement with Duck Creek. So what types of software solutions do you expect to provide? Where do you look to partner? Do you increasingly compete against some of those vertical software providers over time?

斯科特，我完全認識到數據和分析對於解決方案的價值來源的重要性，但我很想聽聽你對劃定界限或期望提供哪些類型軟體解決方案的看法。所以，我剛才談到了軟體使用強度的增加、人壽保險軟體的收購以及你們進行的其他一些軟體收購。但你們也繼續與 Guidewire 等公司合作，而且我認為最近也宣布了與 Duck Creek 的合作。那麼，您預計提供哪些類型的軟體解決方案？你們在哪裡尋找合作夥伴？隨著時間的推移，您是否會與某些垂直行業軟體供應商展開越來越激烈的競爭？

Yes. No. It's a good question, and it does relate to the fabric of our company. So bottom line for me is that I would only want to see us in software businesses that have the potential to yield data assets that we can use and reuse for analytic purposes. That's really sort of the bottom line. So there are core transaction processing platforms that tend to exist in all the verticals that we serve. And to the extent that those particular platforms are unlikely to yield any sort of data rights, then it's just less likely to be of interest to us. That's the first dimension of it.

是的。不。這是一個很好的問題，它確實與我們公司的本質息息相關。所以對我來說，最重要的是，我只希望看到我們進入那些有潛力產生數據資產的軟體企業，這些數據資產我們可以用於分析目的並重複使用。這就是問題的關鍵。因此，在我們所服務的各個垂直領域中，往往都存在一些核心交易處理平台。如果這些特定平台不太可能授予任何數據權利，那麼我們對它們的興趣就更小了。這是它的第一個維度。

And the second sort of relates to the first, and that is what we're really interested in is what we call platform to analytic environment. So we want to be the place where somebody who's trying to make a decision goes. They go in the morning and they stay there much, if not all, of the day. That's our ambition. That's where we want to be. Almost by definition, if that's the nature of the software you're providing, then you are close to the data sets. So that's really the distinction that I would trace for you here.

第二點與第一點有些關聯，而我們真正感興趣的是我們所說的平台到分析環境。所以我們希望成為人們在做決定時會想到的地方。他們早上出發，在那裡待上大半天，甚至一整天。這就是我們的目標。那就是我們想去的地方。幾乎可以肯定地說，如果你提供的軟體具有這種特性，那麼你就離資料集很近了。這就是我想在這裡為你指出的區別。

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Jeffrey from SunTrust.

你的下一個問題來自 SunTrust 銀行的 Andrew Jeffrey。

Appreciate you taking the question. When I think about a few callout drivers that you discussed in Insurance, I'm thinking about the opportunities in life and InsurTech, which sounds pretty robust, as well as the U.K., which I think as mentioned -- Lee, I think you mentioned as being pretty strong. Can you, over the next few years, perhaps quantify or dimensionalize how those may bend the growth curve in your Insurance business?

感謝您回答這個問題。當我想到你在保險領域討論的一些呼叫司機時，我想到了人壽保險和保險科技領域的機遇，這聽起來相當穩健，還有英國，正如你提到的——李，我想你提到過英國的實力相當強勁。在接下來的幾年裡，您能否量化或分析這些因素將如何影響您保險業務的成長曲線？

Sure. So I'm going to -- I'll take a first cut at it, and I'm sure Mark can provide some broader perspective on it. So I think as it relates to the InsurTech dimension, our view is that it contributes to incremental growth across 2 dimensions. One is that we have a group of new clients that we are serving in a traditional context with our industry standard products and other data sets. But the other dimension is that they are bringing innovation, new ways of doing things that is putting more of a focus around our traditional customers to utilize data more intensively than they may have in the past. And that is creating new opportunities for us to develop products to support their needs. And our LightSpeed suite of products is probably a perfect example of that dynamic.

當然。所以我會先嘗試一下，我相信馬克可以提供一些更廣闊的視角。所以我認為，就保險科技領域而言，我們的觀點是它有助於在兩個維度上實現增量成長。一方面，我們有一群新客戶，我們正在以傳統的方式，使用我們的行業標準產品和其他資料集為他們提供服務。但另一方面，他們帶來了創新，帶來了新的做事方式，更重視讓我們的傳統客戶比以往更深入地利用數據。這為我們開發滿足他們需求的產品創造了新的機會。而我們的 LightSpeed 系列產品或許正是這種動態的完美例證。

And so it is -- I would describe it one level as accelerating the demand and the expansion of analytic objects and demand for platform analytics that has enabled our underwriting and rating business to generate levels of growth, as you've seen in this quarter, that probably wouldn't have been expected 2 or 3 years ago. So I think that's one dimension of it. And we've spent a lot of time thinking about the life opportunity, and I'll hand it over to Mark to describe how we see that opportunity influencing and providing incremental growth for us.

的確如此——從某種程度上來說，我會將其描述為加速了對分析對象和平台分析的需求和擴展，這使得我們的承保和評級業務能夠實現增長，正如您在本季度所看到的，這在2到3年前可能是無法預期的。所以我認為這是其中一個面向。我們花了很多時間思考人生機遇，接下來我將把發言權交給馬克，讓他來描述我們認為這一機會將如何影響我們，並為我們帶來漸進式的成長。

So let me basically say it this way. I think there's 2 types of InsurTechs. One is I'm an insurer or probably a managing general agent. I'm underwriting business or at least trying to find business. There, what they are looking for is to get into business fast and automate. And that drive towards automation, drive towards technology has been a wonderful opportunity for us. And we have had some great sales there, and it has accelerated growth across all of insurance. There's also InsurTech that they're trying to do some technology around data and information and, although probably on the outskirts, could be competitive over time. So we certainly keep track of them.

所以我基本上是這麼說的。我認為保險科技公司有兩種類型。其中之一是我是保險公司員工，或者可能是總代理人。我從事承保業務，或至少正在努力尋找業務。他們的目標是快速進入業務並實現自動化。而這種向自動化、向科技發展的趨勢，對我們來說是一個絕佳的機會。我們在那裡取得了一些非常好的銷售業績，這加速了整個保險業務的成長。還有保險科技領域，他們正嘗試圍繞數據和資訊開發一些技術，雖然可能處於邊緣地位，但隨著時間的推移可能會具有競爭力。所以我們肯定會密切關注它們。

I guess the theme that I'll bring out, which kind of may tie together a couple of questions is, our customers are interested in content. That's king. But at the same time, they're pushing towards automation. They want this seamless ecosystem so that they can tap into any data or any solution, whether it's their own or a third party. And they expect, through a series of APIs and micro services, to be able to consume that information or consume that application in a very seamless way.

我想提出的主題，或許能將幾個問題連結起來，就是我們的客戶對內容感興趣。那才是王道。但同時，他們也在推動自動化。他們想要這樣一個無縫的生態系統，以便能夠利用任何數據或任何解決方案，無論是他們自己的還是第三方的。他們希望透過一系列 API 和微服務，以非常無縫的方式使用這些資訊或應用程式。

And I think that is a large part of why we're thinking that the FAST acquisition will help us quite a bit. It is that light touch, quick implementation, low upfront cost that life insurers are looking for. And we see the same thing. Probably P&C is a little bit ahead from an analytics perspective, but we see the same thing for our P&C customers. So hopefully, that provides a little broader color.

我認為這正是我們認為收購 FAST 將對我們有很大幫助的主要原因之一。壽險公司所追求的正是這種便利、快速、前期成本低的模式。我們也看到了同樣的情況。從分析的角度來看，財產險和意外險可能稍微領先一些，但我們的財產險和意外險客戶也面臨同樣的情況。希望這能提供更全面的資訊。

Our next question comes from the line of George Tong from Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的喬治唐。

Your pace of M&A activity has picked up in recent quarters, particularly with the acquisition of Genscape. When you had a similar level of M&A activity in 2018, EBITDA margins did contract by about 100 bps. So diving deeper into margins in the year ahead, can you discuss how the margin profile of Genscape compares to your earlier acquisitions, particularly ones being integrated in 2018, and if you intend to change your pace of investment activity in the breakout opportunities this year ahead versus earlier years?

近幾個季度，貴公司的併購活動步伐加快，特別是收購了 Genscape。2018 年併購活動水準與現在類似時，EBITDA 利潤率確實下降了約 100 個基點。那麼，深入探討未來一年的利潤率，您能否談談 Genscape 的利潤率與您之前的收購（特別是 2018 年正在整合的收購）相比如何？您是否打算改變今年在突破性機會方面的投資活動速度，與往年相比如何？

Yes. Thanks, George. So whenever we talk about the margin impact, I want to kind of start with the fact that the important thing for all of our businesses is that they have fundamental operating leverage that allows us to deliver on EBITDA growth in excess of revenue growth because we think that's the fundamental value creation driver for that business. And so we look at each of those businesses. And every business has a different margin dynamic, but we want to make certain that that dynamic is present, and we have the ability to improve upon that over time.

是的。謝謝你，喬治。所以每當我們談到利潤率的影響時，我想首先強調的是，對我們所有業務而言，最重要的是它們擁有基本的經營槓桿，使我們能夠實現 EBITDA 增長超過收入增長，因為我們認為這是該業務創造價值的根本驅動力。因此，我們對每家企業都進行了考察。每個企業的利潤動態都不同，但我們希望確保這種動態存在，並且我們有能力隨著時間的推移而改善它。

We -- so when we are looking at acquisitions, George, we are fundamentally making a capital decision and a growth decision in terms of, is this going to be a good use of capital, can we generate a good return on the business and what we can do to enhance it? And beneath that, is there operating leverage that will allow us to continue to generate that EBITDA growth over time? And so when we talk about our organic constant currency revenue growth, yes, we are making that adjustment so that we see that dynamic across our business as a whole. We tend not to be overly focused on the portfolio impact of the acquisitions because if it is a good return acquisition and it has operating leverage, then it will allow us to generate that EBITDA growth over time.

所以，喬治，當我們考慮收​​購時，從根本上說，我們是在做出資本決策和成長決策，也就是：這樣做是否能有效利用資本？我們能否為企業帶來好的回報？以及我們可以採取哪些措施來提升企業績效？在此基礎上，是否存在營運槓桿，使我們能夠隨著時間的推移繼續實現 EBITDA 成長？因此，當我們談到以固定匯率計算的有機收入成長時，是的，我們正在進行調整，以便在整個業務中看到這種動態。我們往往不會過度關注收購對投資組合的影響，因為如果這是一項回報良好的收購，並且具有經營槓桿作用，那麼隨著時間的推移，它將使我們能夠實現 EBITDA 成長。

And I think talking about an individual acquisition like Genscape, which is going to come in at a lower margin than the rest of the business, that will naturally have a portfolio impact. But what we can -- we hope to generate with that business and its association with Wood Mackenzie and generating incremental returns and incremental margins should really drive what we're focused on, which is that EBITDA expansion ahead of revenue growth. So I know that isn't a complete answer to your question, but, philosophically, I think it's important to understand that that's the way we think about those acquisitions and their contribution.

我認為，像 Genscape 這樣的個別收購，其利潤率會低於公司其他業務，自然會對投資組合產生影響。但是，我們希望透過這項業務及其與伍德麥肯錫的聯繫，創造增量回報和增量利潤，這才是我們真正關注的重點，即 EBITDA 擴張優先於收入成長。我知道這並不能完全回答你的問題，但是從哲學角度來說，我認為理解我們是這樣看待這些收購及其貢獻的非常重要。

Your next question comes from the line of Kevin McVeigh from Credit Suisse.

你的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的凱文麥克維。

Lee, you talked about kind of 3 different portfolio transactions in Aerial, Financial Services and Insurance. Can you give us kind of the overall revenue and margin impact from those dispositions?

Lee，你談到了航空、金融服務和保險這三個領域中三種不同的投資組合交易。能否大致說明這些資產處置對整體營收和利潤率的影響？

So I think I gave the impact from the Vexcel transaction. So -- and the other ones, I think we can deal with in a follow-up call. They're not that material overall to the business. I think the $8 million is really the bulk of it. So we can probably find -- we can fine-tune that with you off-line separately, but it's -- the Geomni-Vexcel transaction that would have the more significant impact. The rest are less significant.

所以我覺得我已經闡述了Vexcel交易的影響。所以——至於其他問題，我想我們可以在後續電話中處理。它們對整個業務而言並非那麼重要。我認為那800萬美元才是真正的大頭。所以，我們或許可以找到——我們可以私下和您單獨進行微調，但Geomni-Vexcel交易的影響會更大。其餘的則不太重要。

Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Silber from BMO Capital Markets.

你的下一個問題來自 BMO 資本市場的 Jeff Silber。

Just wanted to step back and kind of look at your portfolio of assets. You did some pruning, I think, over the past quarter or so. Is there anything else left to divest? And then, also, do you see synergies between your 3 major verticals? Obviously, within Insurance, there's a lot, but I'm just wondering cross synergies with the other verticals.

我只是想退後一步，看看你的資產組合。我認為，在過去一個季度左右的時間裡，你們進行了一些人員精簡。還有什麼需要剝離的嗎？另外，您認為貴公司的三大主要垂直領域之間是否存在綜效？顯然，保險業內部有很多合作機會，但我只是想知道它與其他垂直領域之間的交叉協同效應。

So we're always looking at the mix of assets we've got, but I would say that I think we have done a fair amount of the kind of work that was expressed in those 3 moves. We'll always keep our eyes open, but there's nothing major which is imminent. To your question about synergies across the verticals, we have repurposed energy data into the Insurance vertical. We're looking at opportunities to tie together observations from retail banking with consumer forms of insurance. So that work is always going on in the background.

所以我們一直在審視我們擁有的資產組合，但我認為我們已經完成了相當多的那三項措施所體現的工作。我們會一直保持警惕，但目前沒有什麼重大事件即將發生。關於您提出的跨垂直領域協同效應的問題，我們已經將能源數據重新應用於保險垂直領域。我們正在尋找機會，將零售銀行業和消費者保險領域的觀察結果結合起來。所以這項工作一直在後台進行。

But the thing I would really highlight for you is all of the technical work that Eric described before, this is the kind of work where it would be more burdensome for any one of our verticals or even a business unit inside of a vertical to take it on on their own because these are pretty large expenditures. And if you're going to do it right, you have to really commit to these things. Eric talked about the work you have to do to transition to the cloud or to create the data fabric inside of the platform data environment that we provide to all parts of Verisk.

但我真正想強調的是埃里克之前描述的所有技術工作，這類工作對於我們任何一個垂直行業部門，甚至是垂直行業部門內的一個業務單元來說，獨自承擔都會更加吃力，因為這些支出相當巨大。如果你想把事情做好，就必須真正投入其中。Eric 談到了向雲端過渡或在 Verisk 各個部門提供的平台資料環境中創建資料架構所需要做的工作。

And not only does doing this work excellently in the center provide acceleration to each of the businesses inside of each of the verticals, but it really represents a very cost-efficient way of doing it as well. And so that is -- that's actually, to me, one of the large major points of logic as to why we should be in multiple verticals. And another one is all of what we do in these verticals, and not every vertical has this quality, but all the verticals that we're in, the opportunity for unique differentiated data assets exists. And that's not true in a lot of verticals, but it is true in the places where we do business.

不僅中心層面出色地完成這項工作能夠加速各個垂直領域內各個業務的發展，而且它也確實是一種非常經濟高效的方式。所以，對我來說，這其實是我們應該涉足多個垂直領域的重要邏輯要點。另一個面向是我們在這些垂直領域所做的一切，雖然不是每個垂直領域都具有這種特性，但我們所處的所有垂直領域都存在著獲得獨特差異化資料資產的機會。許多垂直產業並非如此，但在我們開展業務的地方，情況確實如此。

I would add as a case in point, we often get questions about the relevance in -- of the Financial Services business. And as we've talked about, they deal with a data set that is, in order of magnitude, if not more, larger than many of our other businesses. But the expertise that we have developed in cloud technology and data analytics within that business generates a return on intellectual capital that we have leveraged in our Lens platform, within the Insurance business as we're implementing that cloud technology, and probably wouldn't be as effective in bringing those efficiencies and advantages if we hadn't been dealing with that data set and with that level of expertise. And so I think it's a great kind of case in point of how we leverage that.

我想補充一點，例如，我們經常收到關於金融服務業務相關性的問題。正如我們之前討論過的，他們處理的資料集，無論從數量級來看，都比我們其他許多業務的資料集要大，甚至更大。但是，我們在該業務中積累的雲端運算技術和數據分析方面的專業知識，為我們在保險業務中實施雲端運算技術時，在 Lens 平台上利用了知識資本，如果我們沒有處理過這些數據集，也沒有達到這種專業知識水平，那麼在帶來這些效率和優勢方面可能不會如此有效。所以我認為這是一個很好的例子，說明了我們如何利用這一點。

Yes, I'll just -- I don't want to answer too many times. But case in point is inside the London insurance market, the expertise and technology associated with the Verisk financial services assets were combined with kind of ISO expertise to build a platform there that has been kind of changing some of the London market transaction processing. So it'll be very effective.

是的，我就——我不想回答太多次。但以倫敦保險市場為例，Verisk 金融服務資產的專業知識和技術與 ISO 的專業知識相結合，建立了一個平台，該平台在某種程度上改變了倫敦市場的一些交易處理方式。所以它會非常有效。

Your next question comes from the line of Ashish Sabadra from Deutsche Bank. .

你的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的阿什什·薩巴德拉。

So a quick question on claims. Even excluding injunction, it was a bit soft because of the fewer other events. I was just wondering if you can provide any color on how much of the revenue is generated from these other events. And as we think about going forward, should we see this business reaccelerate given the stability of the subscription business?

那麼，關於理賠方面，我有個問題想問一下。即使不考慮禁制令，由於其他事件較少，判決也略顯寬鬆。我只是想了解一下，您能否提供一些關於其他活動所產生的收入佔比的資訊。展望未來，鑑於訂閱業務的穩定性，我們是否應該看到這項業務重新加速發展？

So this is Mark. Thanks for the question. So first of all, I want to start with the Insurance business as a whole was very strong. We think of it as a portfolio, and we're very pleased with the interaction with customers and where we've progressed. Specifically to claims, I think there's 3 things that we've seen over the course of a little longer term and, clearly, short term. One, I think we've talked about some of the extensions we've had really on the claims fraud or claims fraud detection side of the world related to outside of P&C health companies and the like, where we've brought some kind of -- some big customers in, and that's kind of rolled off. But more specifically, as it relates to the fourth quarter, clearly, the injunction affected us. We weren't able to deliver the growth that we've been delivering inside of Geomni. That was a negative. And the other thing that was clearly changed or different in the fourth quarter of '19 relative to '18 was a relatively modest set of storms. There was a very quiet storm season. This isn't about catastrophes. This is just severe weather throughout the nation that had quite a bit of impact on what I'll refer to as the claims business. So those 2 things were kind of the anomalies in the quarter. I will reinforce the underlying business, the underlying economics remain very strong. Customer engagement, very strong. And I think the mission we're on with regard to automation and automating claim adjusting is kind of the theme inside the industry. So we remain optimistic.

這位是馬克。謝謝你的提問。首先，我想說的是，保險業整體表現非常強勁。我們將其視為一個投資組合，我們對與客戶的互動以及我們的進展感到非常滿意。具體到索賠方面，我認為從較長的時間跨度來看，以及顯然從短期來看，我們已經看到了 3 件事。第一，我認為我們已經討論過我們在理賠欺詐或理賠欺詐檢測方面取得的一些進展，這些進展與財產和意外傷害健康公司等無關，我們引入了一些大客戶，但這種情況已經有所改變。但更具體地說，就第四季而言，禁令顯然對我們產生了影響。我們未能實現我們在Geomni內部一直保持的成長水準。那是個負面結果。2019 年第四季與 2018 年相比，另一個明顯變化或不同的情況是，風暴的規模相對較小。今年風暴季非常平靜。這與災難無關。全國範圍內的惡劣天氣對理賠業務造成了相當大的影響。所以這兩件事算是本季比較反常的情況。我將加強公司基本面，其經濟基礎依然非常強勁。客戶參與度非常高。我認為我們在自動化和理賠調整自動化方面所取得的成就，正是業界的一個主題。所以我們依然保持樂觀。

And Mark, let's just clarify real quick. When you talk about the effect of the health insurers coming into our ClaimSearch platform that you referred to as rolling off, what you meant was it provided -- it's not that they went away.

馬克，我們先快速澄清一下。當你談到健康保險公司進入我們的 ClaimSearch 平台的影響時，你稱之為“退出”，你的意思是它提供了——並不是說它們消失了。

They certainly didn't.

他們當然沒有。

They're still in the process as much as they ever were.

他們仍然像以前一樣，仍在進行中。

The grow-over....

長出新芽…

Right.

正確的。

Kicked in.

啟動了。

It represented growth in 2018 and into 2019. But now they're in, and there's all that we have.

它代表了2018年及2019年的成長。但現在他們進來了，這就是我們所擁有的一切。

Your next question comes from the line of Greg Peters from Raymond James.

你的下一個問題來自 Raymond James 的 Greg Peters。

The large insurance brokers seem to be pushing data analytics as a growth area for their business. Can you tell us how you're working with them? Or should we view their strategies as potentially encroaching on your business? They've also reported good organic revenue growth, and it's in part due to the strong pricing environment in commercial lines. Can you talk to us about how your business is affected by pricing trends in commercial lines insurance? And then finally, on LightSpeed, can you give us an idea of the size of that business? I've been struggling to identify actual customers in our channel checks, but that doesn't mean I'm looking in the right place. So any help there would be appreciated.

大型保險經紀公司似乎正在大力推進數據分析，將其作為業務成長領域。可以告訴我們你是如何與他們合作的嗎？或者我們應該將他們的策略視為可能對您的業務造成侵犯？他們還報告稱，其有機收入成長良好，部分原因是商業保險業務定價環境強勁。您能否談談商業保險價格趨勢對貴公司業務的影響？最後，關於 LightSpeed，可以為我們介紹一下這家公司的規模嗎？我一直很難在頻道檢查中識別出真正的客戶，但這並不意味著我找對了地方。所以，任何幫助都將不勝感激。

Well, you managed to get 3 questions in there at least.

好吧，至少你問了三個問題。

I don't know. I think I counted...

我不知道。我想我數過了…

I'll just take -- Mark, why don't you and I do this together? I'll just take the first part of that, which is the question about the brokers. So the brokers -- and we really do not have a lot of overlap. The brokers from time to time attempt put together some forms of data analytics in order to try to add value inside of their customer relationships. But fundamentally, we -- they're much more of a service-oriented kind of a business. We license subscription solutions to our customers. And the brokers touch a good number of situations. And they have the data associated with the transactions that they're engaged in, but those data sets are really not overlapping of the data sets that we have got. And so, I mean, it's a practical matter out in the marketplace. We just don't compete with the brokers, and nor do I think we will compete with the brokers. They're just a fundamentally separate kind of an environment. And in fact, they operate as customers because, particularly, our catastrophe modeling solutions are made available to them as well as to others. So yes, if I was running one of the major brokerages -- actually, if I was running almost any business in the world, I would try to make it more data analytic as a way of trying to achieve advantage. And that's what they're working on. But I don't. Their business model and ours is very different, basically, and I think will remain. So Mark, you want to take on those other points?

我這就去拿──馬克，不如我們一起做這件事吧？我只回答第一部分，也就是關於經紀人的問題。所以經紀人——我們之間其實沒有太多重疊。經紀人會不時嘗試進行一些數據分析，以期在客戶關係中增加價值。但從根本上來說，我們——他們——更像是一家服務型企業。我們向客戶提供訂閱解決方案的授權許可。經紀人會接觸到很多狀況。他們擁有與他們進行的交易相關的數據，但這些數據集與我們擁有的數據集實際上並不重疊。所以，我的意思是，這是一個在市場上實際存在的問題。我們根本不與經紀人競爭，而且我認為我們也不會與經紀人競爭。它們本質上是兩種不同的環境。事實上，他們之所以成為我們的客戶，是因為我們的災難建模解決方案不僅向他們開放，也向其他人開放。所以，是的，如果我經營一家大型經紀公司——實際上，如果我經營世界上幾乎任何一家企業，我都會努力讓它更注重數據分析，以此來爭取優勢。這就是他們正在努力的方向。但我沒有。他們的商業模式和我們的商業模式非常不同，而且我認為這種差異還會持續下去。馬克，你想談談其他那些觀點嗎？

Yes. And I'll just add to yours. I think from a brokering theme perspective, clearly, they're looking to differentiate themselves that they are providing analytics. I think most of that analytics, at least the way we've seen it, is sold into and provided to the corporate customer, where we're more on the insurer side of that. I think your second question was around pricing and pricing impact. So commercial line's a hardening market, if you will. I think the short answer is that if our customers are growing quicker, there's more opportunity to focus on top line, focus on dancing and potentially purchasing new solutions to foster that growth. So I think it's a friendly environment when everyone's growing, and it's probably more opportunities to buy new solutions or extend them. We do have this wonderful solution inside of underwriting and rating our ISO business. When it is a difficult period or it's a soft market, people have to go back to the actuarial fundamentals. They have to go to fundamentals around how I underwrite because they want to be profitable. So clearly, that supports our business as well, but I think everyone is in a better shape with a high tide floating all boats.

是的。我再補充一點。我認為從經紀主題的角度來看，很明顯，他們希望透過提供分析服務來凸顯自身的獨特優勢。我認為，至少就我們所看到的而言，大部分的分析都是出售給企業客戶並提供給企業客戶的，而我們則更站在保險公司一方。我認為你的第二個問題是關於定價和定價影響的。所以，商業線路市場正在趨於緊張。我認為簡而言之，如果我們的客戶成長更快，我們就有更多機會專注於營收成長、專注於發展，並有可能購買新的解決方案來促進這種成長。所以我認為，當每個人都在成長時，這是一個友善的環境，可能會有更多機會購買新的解決方案或擴展現有解決方案。我們在 ISO 業務的承保和評級方面確實有這個絕妙的解決方案。當市場處於困難時期或疲軟時，人們必須回歸精算基本原理。他們必須從根本上了解我的承保方式，因為他們想要獲利。顯然，這對我們的業務也有好處，但我認為，在經濟繁榮時期，每個人都會受益匪淺。

Last question, I think, was around LightSpeed. Let me say it this way. The way we've packaged LightSpeed is we are trying to take -- and in the world of insurance, I'll use personal automobile, you can get online, and you can get a quote pretty quickly. But what typically happens is, after you get that quote, people then run all the different reports to get information about you, whether you're in an accident, whether you're impacting history, less accidents. And all of that motor vehicle record data, all that costs money. So they then run that information, and they more or less change the price in about 35% of the cases. That's a customer-unfriendly way to go. So we are pushing this data-forward strategy. We are trying to move to point of sale, so there's no separation between buying a quote that is more attractive for the consumer. And we are very uniquely positioned in the commercial lines market because of the data and information we have, more so than even in personal lines. And that strategy, that approach has been meeting quite a bit of receptivity among major customers, both large ones and those InsurTechs we're talking about. So when we talk about LightSpeed, it's a package of solutions and products. And many, many insurers are buying pieces, and a few very large ones have signed up for what I'll call the full package. So that has definitely been contributing to growth inside of our underwriting and rating business.

我記得最後一個問題是關於光速的。我換個說法吧。我們對 LightSpeed 的包裝方式是，我們試圖——在保險領域，我以個人汽車保險為例，您可以在線獲取報價，而且速度非常快。但通常情況下，在你拿到報價後，人們會運行各種不同的報告來獲取有關你的信息，例如你是否發生過事故，你是否影響過歷史記錄，以及事故發生率是否較低。所有這些機動車記錄數據，都需要花錢。所以他們會利用這些訊息，並在大約 35% 的情況下調整價格。這種做法對顧客很不友善。所以我們正在大力推進這項以數據為導向的策略。我們正在努力向銷售點轉型，這樣消費者就能更方便地購買報價，而不會感到被區別對待。由於我們擁有數據和訊息，我們在商業保險市場擁有非常獨特的地位，甚至比在個人保險市場更具優勢。這種策略、這種方法已經得到了主要客戶的相當認可，包括大型客戶和我們正在談論的保險科技公司。所以，當我們談到 LightSpeed 時，它指的是一系列解決方案和產品。許多保險公司都在購買部分產品，而一些規模非常大的保險公司則簽約購買了我稱之為「全套產品」的產品。因此，這無疑促進了我們承保和評級業務的成長。

When customers use it, Mark, I just -- I would think a lot of them actually identify with Verisk rather than saying, "Oh, that's Touchstone," because it's a whole series of services.

Mark，當客戶使用它時，我覺得他們中的許多人實際上會認同 Verisk，而不是說“哦，那是 Touchstone”，因為它是一系列服務。

Yes, Right.

是的，沒錯。

And we tie them together as Touchstone, but I think the customers are relating to the overall brand, Verisk.

我們將它們聯繫在一起，稱為 Touchstone，但我認為客戶更關注的是 Verisk 這個整體品牌。

Your next question comes from the line of Bill Warmington from Wells Fargo.

你的下一個問題來自富國銀行的比爾沃明頓。

And the question I had was to see if we could get an update on the new product pipeline, specifically around loan verifier, also some of the life insurance underwriting products, and then maybe also if you could comment on how you plan on leveraging some of the unstructured data sets, audio and images that Eric mentioned in his comments.

我當時的問題是，我能否了解一下新產品線的最新進展，特別是關於貸款驗證器、一些人壽保險承保產品，以及您計劃如何利用埃里克在評論中提到的一些非結構化數據集、音頻和圖像。

Why don't you take those on, Mark?

馬克，你為什麼不接手這些任務呢？

Sure. So let me kind of walk through those. I think you were talking about loan verifier. You were talking about life insurance and some unstructured data. So let me start with the final 2 because in some ways, they're connected. So life insurance, we think, provides a pretty big opportunity for us. We do have some solutions already available. So think about our catastrophe modeling, what we refer to as extreme event modeling. We do work around longevity models, mortality shock model. Think of pandemic, coronavirus, we do that type of work, and that fits into some of the life insurance models that are necessary and interesting. What we're also doing is we're doing work around models that it relates to specific underwriting decisions. So that is around partnerships with the medical inspection bureau, which represents a group inside of life around, I'll call it, physicals and health. We've done some work around electronic health care records and doing some analytics there. The 2 analytics that you're most focused on, we have done some work around tobacco. We've done some work around avocation. If you're kind of like skydiving, that doesn't make you the best risk. And kind of combining some of the technology that Eric and his team were talking about with some of the specialists we have from an insurance perspective, we have used some voice recognition technology, which allows us to understand things about your voice and whether there's indication that may lead to tobacco use as an example. So hopefully, you can kind of understand one small example of how it fits into, a, a wonderful technology group helping an insurance business extend into insurance. And FAST provides some of that. Hopefully, that responds...

當然。那麼，就讓我來逐一講解一下。我想你指的是貸款驗證器。你剛才談到了人壽保險和一些非結構化數據。那麼，就讓我先從最後兩個開始吧，因為在某些方面，它們是有連結的。所以我們認為，人壽保險為我們提供了一個相當大的機會。我們目前已經有一些解決方案。所以想想我們的災難建模，也就是我們所說的極端事件建模。我們主要研究長壽模型和死亡率衝擊模型。想想疫情、冠狀病毒，我們做的就是這類工作，而這恰好符合一些人壽保險模式的必要性和趣味性。我們目前也正在研究與特定核保決策相關的模型。所以，這主要圍繞著與醫療檢查局的合作展開，該局代表著生活中與體檢和健康相關的一個群體。我們已經圍繞電子健康記錄做了一些工作，並進行了一些分析。您最關注的兩項分析，我們已經在菸草方面做了一些工作。我們利用業餘時間做了一些工作。如果你喜歡跳傘之類的運動，那你就不是最理想的風險承擔者。我們將艾瑞克和他的團隊所談論的一些技術與我們保險方面的一些專家結合起來，使用了一些語音識別技術，這使我們能夠了解你的聲音，以及是否存在可能導致吸煙等情況的跡象。所以，希望您能透過一個小例子來理解它是如何融入一個優秀的科技集團，幫助一家保險公司拓展保險業務的。FAST 提供了其中的一些功能。希望這樣能得到回應…

Maybe talk a little bit also, Mark, about using imagery to interpret damage to vehicles.

馬克，或許還可以稍微談談如何利用影像來解讀車輛損壞情況。

Absolutely.

絕對地。

Without having to send a human being.

無需派遣人員。

So I think one of the things that we would love to do as a part of automated adjusting is do a quick look. So this is a what I'll refer to as low severity type of crash, small dollars, but highly frequent. You can do a quick review and make payments. So we have some abilities to take a look at images. Just think about machine learning and understanding a couple of things. One, is the image legitimate and accurate based upon time and date and stamp and things like that? Was it manipulated? But we go beyond that to do a few more things. One, we're saying, is it salvageable or not? Should it be a complete loss? And then, two, if it's salvageable, we can do a quick estimate as to what's going to cost to repair it. And those are the type of things that advanced analytics provide to automate this process. And it's a quick way to do things that have typically taken quite a bit of time and effort to in the past. Great.

所以我認為，作為自動調整的一部分，我們很想做的一件事就是進行快速檢視。所以，我把這種崩潰稱為低嚴重程度的崩潰，損失金額小，但發生頻率很高。您可以快速查看並付款。所以我們具備一些查看影像的能力。想想機器學習，理解以下幾點就明白了。第一，根據時間、日期、印章等資訊判斷，該影像是否合法且準確？是否經過操縱？但我們還會做更多的事情。第一，我們想問的是，它是否還有挽救的空間？應該全盤皆輸嗎？其次，如果它還能修復，我們可以快速估算修理費用。而這些正是高階分析技術所能提供的自動化流程功能。而且，它能快速完成過去通常需要花費大量時間和精力才能完成的事情。偉大的。

Bill, I think you also talked about loan verifier. Loan verifier is another important idea for us. What it does, though, with any of our really differentiated ideas, it does take us time to aggregate data. So what we are working with is working with insurers to get information and access to a lot of that information behind the scenes, so that we can connect those folks who are on the loan side of things, think of the banks, with those insurers, who are kind of ensuring that risk, and piece those together. Some of that information we have in-house. At the same time, we have a very strong standard stewardship approach to things, and we can only use data for use cases that have been provided to us. So we're working with insurers to validate the use case and honestly bring on customers. So hopefully, maybe a little long-winded, but a full answer to your questions.

比爾，我想你也提到過貸款核實器。貸款核實器是我們另一個重要的考量。不過，對於我們任何真正與眾不同的想法，它都需要時間來匯總數據。所以，我們正在與保險公司合作，獲取幕後的許多信息，以便將貸款方（例如銀行）與保險公司（也就是那些負責風險保障的公司）聯繫起來，並將這些信息整合起來。我們公司內部掌握其中一些資訊。同時，我們對資料管理有著非常嚴格的標準，我們只能將資料用於已提供給我們的用例。因此，我們正在與保險公司合作，驗證該應用程式場景，並真誠地吸引客戶。所以，雖然可能有點囉嗦，但希望能夠完整地回答你的問題。

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Nicholas from William Blair.

你的下一個問題來自安德魯·尼古拉斯（Andrew Nicholas）的威廉·布萊爾（William Blair）的詩句。

Realizing your acquisitions of Genscape and FAST are still pretty fresh. I was hoping you could provide an update on how those integrations are trending. And then any commentary on the early pipeline build for those products?

意識到你們收購 Genscape 和 FAST 的消息還很新鮮。我希望您能提供這些整合方案的最新進展。那麼，對於這些產品的早期產品線建設，您有什麼看法？

Integrations are right on track with both of them. We actually just reviewed that a week ago. And with respect to everything from cost factors to sales, they are performing almost exactly the way that we expected them to. And in both cases, they nest very nicely inside of existing organizations. So these transitions have been very organic. And the pipelines are good. The pipelines are strong.

與雙方的整合工作都進展順利。我們一週前剛複習過。從成本因素到銷售額，他們的表現幾乎完全符合我們的預期。而且在這兩種情況下，它們都能很好地融入現有組織內部。所以這些轉變都是非常自然發生的。管道狀況良好。管道很結實。

And the only thing I would add is I think that there is a genuine enthusiasm, in the case of Genscape among the Wood Mackenzie team, for the ability to utilize that data and integrate it in their analysis and the products that they're serving for their clients. So every time I'm in contact with Wood Mackenzie, I hear their enthusiasm for utilizing that data. FAST is more recent, but I can tell you, I think the -- on the insurance side, particularly on the life side, our ability to work with them, as we described before, a high level of excitement about what we can potentially accomplish together.

我唯一要補充的是，我認為伍德麥肯茲團隊對 Genscape 的數據利用及其整合到他們的分析和為客戶提供的產品中的能力，抱有真正的熱情。所以每次我與伍德麥肯錫公司聯繫時，我都能感受到他們對利用這些數據的熱情。FAST 是最近才推出的，但我可以告訴你，我認為——在保險方面，尤其是在人壽保險方面，正如我們之前描述的那樣，我們與他們合作的能力，以及我們共同可能取得的成就，都讓我們感到非常興奮。

Your final question comes from the line of Joseph Foresi from Cantor Fitzgerald.

你的最後一個問題來自約瑟夫·福雷西（Joseph Foresi）的坎托·菲茨杰拉德（Cantor Fitzgerald）的詩句。

Yes. So maybe I should ask like an 18-part question. I'm just -- I'll give you a softball to end the day. On the insurance and energy side, maybe you could talk about the differences in the demand backdrop heading into 2020 versus 2019, either from a pipeline or a necessity on your customer part perspective.

是的。所以也許我應該問一個包含18個部分的問題。我只是──我今天就給你一個輕鬆的答案吧。在保險和能源方面，或許您可以談談 2020 年與 2019 年的需求背景有何不同，無論是從管道建設的角度，還是從客戶的實際需求角度來看。

Yes. So let me just give you the perspective that really explains Verisk Analytics. We have -- and this has been true for a long period of time, our company has grown faster than the end markets that we serve. And the reason is that our customers are rotating their own budgets in the direction of what it is that we do. They want to become more automated, and they want to become more deeply analytic in the way that they run their businesses. So you will see a lot of discussion about the level of technology spending on the part of the companies that populate the verticals that we serve. And that in and of itself is a very constructive trend, but you have to actually take that pool of spending and break that down further into sort of data center keep-the-lights-on sort of spending versus the platform's analytic environments, analytic objects that we provide. And even within the technology category, there has been a rotation in the direction of what we do. So if you're looking for explanation in terms of where our business is and where it's going to go, that is the driving force of what our companies are trying to do. And the fact that because of our vertical approach, we understand their issues. We have deeply intimate relationships because we sell -- in the case of insurance, we may be selling up to 20 families of solutions to our customers. And from all this depth of relationship and all of the data that they make available to us, it is really the perfect place from which to try to think about the next thing that they need and work collaboratively with them to develop it. And that's why our business grows. The actual macro environments inside of insurance and energy, I mean, they sort of wax and wane a little bit. But I don't -- those will not, in my view, have explanatory power in terms of the growth of our business in 2020, 2021 and on.

是的。那麼，讓我從另一個角度來解釋 Verisk Analytics 的真正意義。一直以來，我們公司的發展速度都超過了我們所服務的終端市場的成長速度。原因在於，我們的客戶正在調整他們的預算，使其朝著我們所做的事情發展。他們希望提高自動化程度，並希望在經營業務時進行更深入的分析。因此，你會看到很多關於我們所服務的垂直行業公司在技術支出水平的討論。這本身就是一個非常正面的趨勢，但實際上你必須把這筆支出進一步細分為資料中心維持運作的支出，以及我們提供的平台分析環境和分析對象。即使在科技領域內部，我們所做的事情也發生了轉變。所以，如果你想了解我們公司目前的業務狀況以及未來的發展方向，這就是我們公司努力的方向和驅動力。正因為我們採取了垂直整合的方式，所以我們了解他們的問題。我們與客戶建立了非常密切的關係，因為我們從事銷售工作——以保險為例，我們可能要向客戶銷售多達 20 個家庭的解決方案。憑藉這種深厚的合作關係以及他們向我們提供的所有數據，這裡確實是思考他們接下來需要什麼，並與他們合作開發它的理想場所。這就是我們業務成長的原因。我的意思是，保險和能源產業內部的宏觀環境，它們多少都會有些起伏波動。但我認為，這些因素並不能解釋我們業務在 2020 年、2021 年及以後的成長。

There are no further questions at this time. Presenters, you may continue.

目前沒有其他問題了。主持人，請繼續。

Yes. Great. Well, thanks, everybody, for joining us. And as Lee mentioned, we'll have a number of follow-ups with you, and look forward to those. Thanks for your interest. We'll speak with you soon.

是的。偉大的。謝謝大家的收看。正如李所提到的，我們會與您進行多次後續溝通，我們期待這些溝通。感謝您的關注。我們將盡快與您聯繫。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線了。