Alithya Group inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Alethea's first quarter and fiscal 2024 results conference call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Alethea's management. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thank you once again for joining us for Alethea's first quarter fiscal 2024 results conference call. The press release and NDNA with complete financial statements and related notes were issued this morning and are now posted on our website. A webcast presentation can also be found on our website in the Investors section. Please be advised that this call will contain statements that are forward-looking and which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These statements include, without limitation, our estimates, plans, expectations, and other statements regarding the future growth, results of operations, performance, and business prospects of Aletheia that do not exclusively relate to History Gold Facts, or which refer to future events, including statements regarding our expectations of our clients' demand for our services, and our ability to take advantage of business opportunities that meet our goals set in our three-year strategic plan. For more information, please refer to the cautionary note in our presentation and to the forward-looking statement and risk and uncertainty section of our MD&A, available on our website. All figures discussed on today's call are in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise stated, and we may refer to certain indicators that are non-IFRS measures. Please refer to the cautionary note in our presentation and to the non-IFRS and other financial measures section of our MD&A for more detail. Presenting this morning are Paul Raman, Alethea's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Claude Thibault, Chief Financial Officer. I will now turn the call over to Ben-Hur.

Thank you Benjamin, good morning everyone, bonjour. Thank you all for joining us to discuss Alethea's first quarter 2024 financial results. On the wings of a robust close to our 2023 fiscal year, we began fiscal 24 on a mixed note. Despite headwinds in certain sectors that have slowed our overall revenue growth rate in Q1, we continue to improve our business in most areas. I would like to begin by sharing some highlights with you from our first quarter of fiscal 2024, which ended on June 30, 2023. First off, despite headwinds in the global economic environment, particularly affecting our banking sector in Canada and our learning business in the U.S., Our bookings remain strong in the first quarter with record bookings in our U.S. operations. We also added 32 new clients across our global operations and we have a healthy number of new project starts from existing clients seeking to generate greater efficiencies. Secondly, we continue to improve our gross margins at a percentage of revenue year-over-year despite company-wide salary increases in Q1. Third, we have continued our momentum in generating healthy cash flows as we continue reducing our debt. Fourth, the quality of our global services, backed by the collective intelligence and skill sets of our people, continue to be recognized over the past few months with numerous nominations and prestigious awards bestowed upon Aletheia. And last, but certainly not least, we continue to leverage new and emerging technologies, including generative artificial intelligence, to enhance our products and services and maintain our position on the crest of the digital wave. Now let's dig deeper into some of those highlights. As mentioned, we experience a record quarter of bookings in our Oracle and Microsoft enterprise cloud biz practices. Globally, Q1 bookings reach $111 million, which translates into a book-to-bill ratio of 0.85. That said, if revenues from the two long-term contracts were excluded, Aletheia's book-to-bill ratio would be around 1. On a trailing 12-month basis, bookings were $491 million, which translates into a book-to-bill ratio of 0.93 and 1.08 when excluding the two aforementioned long-term contracts. Bookings were also particularly strong in respect to the healthcare sector, where there is a very strong demand for our services, which experience both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year growth. That is a notable achievement in the context of the current economic climate, and we will continue to pursue deeper market penetrations in that area moving forward. Now, in terms of gross margins, we continue to hover around our minimum threshold of 30%. In Q1, gross margins as a percentage of revenue reached 28.9% compared to 26.9% in Q1 of last year. Improving our gross margins have been a focus of our current strategic plan and we've implemented multiple measures to continue that trend. As we pursue greater profitability, we know that the road to achieving that goal largely runs through the optimal utilization of our people and our focus on higher value services. That process includes ongoing reductions of subcontractors, as well as continuing efforts to grow our smart shoring operations. As we look at regional performance, I would first like to point out that salary increases for all of our employees across our global operations kicked in on the first day of our first quarter. And this happens every year, which is important to consider our results as it demonstrates our capacity to increase pricing of higher value services. Accordingly, our improved performance in Q1 of fiscal 2024 was largely driven by our global enterprise solutions business. The manufacturing sector is another important industry for Aletheia. Efficiency and productivity have remained top priorities for manufacturers, and their investments in new technology are driven by the promise of improved profit margins. That trend in the manufacturing sector, supported by Gartner Research, has fueled bookings and new projects for our Microsoft practice, particularly in alignment with Microsoft's advancement of technology solutions used specifically towards the manufacturing sector. Combine our Oracle and Microsoft enterprise practices contributed generously to positive EBITDA in the first quarter of 2024. And while we are also experiencing headwinds in our learning services business, we are confident that this resilient market will inevitably rebound. In the meantime, we are enhancing our offerings in that space as our teams integrate the latest generative AI tools into solutions that we will soon bring to market. In respect to our own internal training and development programs, in May, Alivia received a prestigious Mercurial Award in the Training and Workforce Development category for Alivia Leadership Academy. an initiative in partnership with McGill University's Faculty of Management to ensure continuity of leadership and a robust succession plan. Our people are our most valuable assets, and they are also the experts most coveted by our clients. The Aledia Leadership Academy is a source of pride, and we're pleased that it has been recognized by our peers. I would also like to take this moment to collectively thank members of our teams whose work was recognized in eight categories of the combined 2023 Microsoft Partner of the Year and Impact Awards. Now for our revenues. Year over year, our Q1 revenues increased 3.8% to $131.6 million, with 82% generated by existing clients that we had in Q1 of last year. However, while our enterprise services revenue increased in the US, they decreased in our learning services and in the banking sector in Canada. As a result, our Canadian revenues are slightly down year-over-year. On a positive note, we use this situation to significantly reduce subcontractor usage. This can be seen in our continued gross margin progression. We also experienced growth in Europe this past quarter while continuing to invest in our Morocco and Eastern Europe operations to expand our near shore delivery capabilities in Europe. These results and our healthy balance sheet allow us to remain focused on delivering the key components of our strategic plan, which ends on March 31st, 2024, and positions us well to move on potential accretive acquisitions. As expected by our clients, we diligently keep our finger on the pulse of emerging technologies, including exploring possibilities for leveraging the power of artificial intelligence. As we enter those conversations with clients who are looking to streamline their processes, our rapid suite software is already being deployed in our healthcare and insurance sectors. Our rapid suite solutions scan, extract, and transform unstructured data obtained from a multiple a multitude of sources from handwritten notes to digital files and then uses traditional AI to automatically normalize data from many disparate locations and systems. With the help of GPT-4, RapidSuite can now capture content that is not fully based on pre-existing keywords and rules created by a human expert. RapidSuite now has the capability to learn by itself and to adapt in real time. GPT-4 acts as a sort of subject matter expert in accompanying RapidSuite as it ingests millions of documents and medical terminology to make educated decisions. RapidSuite is thus a powerful tool for clients who turn to Adlevia for solutions offering cost savings, competitive advantages, minimal errors, increased agility, and better decision-making. And that is just one example of our innovation at work. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Claude Segoe, Aletia's Chief Financial Officer, who will expand on the financial highlights of the quarter. Claude. Merci Paul. Good morning. As Paul mentioned, revenues for the first quarter increased 3.8% compared to the first quarter of last year. Our datum acquisition, now referred to as data solutions, completed on July 1st, 2022, contributed revenues of $5.9 million during the first quarter. In Canada, revenues decreased organically by 2% to $77 million, mainly to temporary reductions of business activity in the banking sector. In the U.S., revenues increased 11.2% to $49.2 million, driven by increased revenues from data solutions and a favorable U.S. dollar exchange rate variation. As for our international operations, they reported a strong quarter in terms of organic growth, increasing 36.1%, also driven by international revenues from data solutions and favorable exchange rate impact. Now let's look at our Q1 gross margin, which overall increased by 11.8% or by $4 million to $38.1 million, up from $34.1 million last year. Again, as a percentage of revenues, our first quarter consolidated gross margin increased to 28.9% from 26.9% for the same period last year. The increase in gross margin percentage in Canada is derived from higher average revenue per employee, increased revenues from higher margin offerings, and finally, fewer subcontractors. In the U.S., gross margin as a percentage of revenues increased as a result of a positive margin impact from our data solutions U.S. business, higher average revenue per employee, and improved project performance in other areas of the business. On a sequential basis, gross margin as a percentage of revenues decreased only moderately compared to the 29.9% posted for the fourth quarter. despite the company-wide salary increases that came into effect at the beginning of this fiscal year on April 1st, 2020. Therefore, this would suggest notable improvements at various other levels, including segment and geography mix, labor mix, and project performance, which, despite the small apparent sequential decrease, points to ongoing and continued progression towards higher gross margins. Now, looking at SG&As, which represent one of our first quarter significant improvements, total gross SG&A expenses in the first quarter totaled $32.5 million, an increase of $3.6 million, or 12.3%, compared to $28.9 million in the same quarter last year. However, it must be noted that this increase is due to four elements. First, a $1.4 million impairment of property and equipment and right of use assets pursuant to vacated real estate. Second, a $1 million increase in non-cash share-based compensation, mainly related to the datum acquisition. Third, approximately $800,000 of expenses from data solutions, which we did not own in Q1 of last year. And finally, an unfavorable U.S. dollar impact of $700,000. The above four elements, totaling approximately $4 million, indicate that on a comparable basis, total SG&As actually decreased year-over-year in absolute dollars. This, despite the same overall salary increases that occurred on April the 1st, which equally impacted our SG&As. Coincidentally, on the sequential basis, gross SG&A expenses decreased by $3.5 million. Also, on the net comparable basis, after adjusting for the same elements as above, we see a similar sequential SG&A decrease and that, again, despite the annual April 1st salary increases. We are pleased to see our efforts on that front starting to show, and we are looking to maintain the same continued discipline on SG&E spend going forward. Overall, as a result of increased revenues and gross margin dollars, partially offset by increased SG&E expenses on a gross basis, our first quarter adjusted amounted to $9.1 million, an increase of 46.1%, or $2.9 million, compared to an adjusted EBITDA of $6.2 million during the same quarter last year. As the previous quarter, we introduced a new financial metric to our reporting, namely adjusted net earnings. In recent years, mainly due to our strategy of growth through acquisitions, and despite the fact that Aletheia is generating positive cash flows from operations, we have been reporting debt losses on an accounting basis. These accounting debt losses have been mainly created by amortization of intangibles, by acquisition and integration costs, and by share-based compensation, most of which are non-cash and non-recurring expenses directly attributable to past individual acquisitions. Adjusting our accounting net loss, we are reporting in Q1 of fiscal 2024 adjusted net earnings of positive $1.7 million compared to adjusted net earnings of $2.7 million for Q1 of last year. However, I would like to take a moment to provide some additional insight on this measure. If we look at the subtotal line on page 8, We can see that before taking into consideration a notional tax effect on adjustments, we would instead be looking at an increase of adjusted net earnings of close to 20%. Indeed, considering the different tax pools which Aletheia currently has, the company will not be significantly taxable for a few years to come. Therefore, this alternate calculation is also relevant to point out. Also, as in previous quarters, our accounting net loss of $7.2 million must be viewed in relation to our $8.5 million of non-cash depreciation and amortization, which is on top of our Q1 non-recurring and non-cash impairment charge from leases of $1.4 million mentioned before. Together, this explains why we generated strong cash flow from operations despite this accounting net loss. We are also reporting $1.1 million of non-recurring business acquisitions, integration and reorganization costs in Q1, which will keep decreasing sequentially until we acquire new businesses. Despite our year-over-year progression in revenues and gross margin dollars, we see on page 9 that after many quarters of continued growth on both funds, Our Q1 is facing similar challenges as many of our competitors, having recently reported. Our long-term adjusted EBITDA trend, despite a strong year-over-year growth, also reflects a sequential reduction in Q1. However, because of our good SG&A performance and the scale which we have now reached, the decrease in adjusted EBITDA is relatively small. Of note, this points to enhance EBITDA performance going forward just as soon as revenues return to a sequential growth pattern. Turning to liquidity and financial position on page 11. Net cash generated from operating activities was $7.6 million, a significant improvement from negative $9.8 million used during the same period last year after working capital variations. Also, cash flow from operations before working capital variations amounted to $6.8 million in Q1 out of $9.1 million of adjusted EBITDA, which represents a notable cash flow conversion percentage, as I mentioned before. With the corresponding overall debt reduction and considering our improved trailing 12-month EBITDA performance, Q1 marks another quarter with declining leverage ratios. Back to you, Paul. Thank you, Claude. So as we move into our second quarter of fiscal 2024, we will continue to drive gross margin improvements as G&A reductions and cash generation as we focus on greater profitability in the face of the current headwinds in the banking sector and our learning division. On September 13th, Aletheia will publish its second ESG report on the same day as our virtual annual shareholder meeting, and we look forward to discussing Aletheia's progress in pursuit of its commitments. Our second ESG report will disclose our greenhouse gas emissions for the first time, and we will discuss how our ESG initiatives have benchmarked against metrics identified by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, or SASB, an organization working to bridge the gap between companies and investors through the disclosure of relevant sustainability information. To access the annual shareholder meeting circular, please visit the investor section on the Aledia website. We will now take questions. Isabelle?

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request, and your questions will be pulled in the order they are received. Should you wish to decline from the pulling process, please press star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from Jerome Dubreuil with Desjardins. Please go ahead.

Thanks for taking my questions. First one is on the margin targets. Thanks for the color in terms of the non-recurring items. However, it seems that these items will either not affect adjusted EBITDA in coming quarters or will remain. So are you still committed to the 9% to 13% margin range at the end of the year? Good morning, Jerome. Yeah, that's still our target. Great. And another question on margins. I think it's fair to say during the uncertainty of COVID, you elected to keep basically everyone expecting an acceleration in the future. If we're seeing a slowdown in terms of financial services, do you expect that will be the strategy as well? Yeah, thanks.

Great question, John. So we've actually already reduced our headcount significantly as we adjust for these slowdowns. As I was saying earlier, you know, if you look at where things are being cut in banking, it's non-strategic projects. A lot of those projects are staffed by subcontractors. So it's very simple to adjust for that. And you can see that in our gross margins going up and the revenue per employee going up. So, yeah, we have the flexibility now because of that to adjust pretty rapidly when those types of things happen.

That's good to hear. And last question is, have you started doing work on the Freedom Mobile integration for Quebecor? Yes, it started. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

Your next question comes from Divya Goyal with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Good morning, gentlemen. I just wanted to get some color on given the business got impacted because of the Canadian financial institutions and the ed tech sector in U.S., what's the additional level of diversification that you plan to bring in or are bringing in in your new bookings to reduce this kind of an impact on a go-forward basis?

Yeah, good morning, Divya. Thanks for the question. So actually, when we say financial services in Canada, it's very specific to banking in Canada. We don't have a lot of banking clients in the U.S. We're very present in financial services, but not a lot in banking. So in Canada, the impact, almost all of it comes from banking. As you know, banks are kind of upside down on the interest rates right now. we've met with all of these clients and they're all telling us it's a temporary situation as the banks adjust and renew their mortgage portfolios and so on and so forth. So we're seeing it really across banking in Canada. We know it's temporary. It'll probably be back in a couple of quarters based on the meetings we've had with the banks. That's the one portion of our business in Canada. The other portions that are going strong are government, healthcare, telecom, as the previous question was just saying. We're starting integration for QMI and Freedom Mobile, so we expect that to grow. So there are many other areas, but it's just that The slowdown in banking was significant, but again, we believe it's temporary. In the U.S., we have four large business sectors. We have the ERP business that's divided between Microsoft and Oracle that's doing extremely well. They had a record quarter of bookings and revenue as well year over year, both quarter over quarter and year over year. And we have the data solutions business that Claude was talking about. that is growing and not just in the U.S., but it has a positive impact internationally on our business. And the training or the learning solutions and the learning solutions is the business that's being slowed down because when you get close to a recession, your fears are out there. One of the first places where clients slow down their spending is on training. So we know it's temporary. And we're actually not only reducing headcount in those areas, but we're investing. So, for example, in our learning business, one of the things that will have a significant impact, positive impact, we believe, on what we do is the new Microsoft Copilot suite of solutions that are going to include the chat platform. GPT technology in them, which should be released in the next few months. We've had beta tests with the solution and we think it's going to be a big driver of efficiencies and upside for us in that business. But the rest, no, the rest is doing well.

That's helpful. Just one question, another one on this, the expansion of the offshore operations that you discussed. So would we expect to see some additional capex coming in the next few quarters as you expand that operation? And what kind of margin benefits do you expect to come out as you expand those operations, given you already have been pulling the subcontractor reduction levers?

Yeah, thanks. So on the capex, it's very minimal. If you look at what we spend on capex in any given year, it's mostly laptops for our people. As we expand, so for example, we have leased larger spaces in India for our people as we expand there. But again, based on the current real estate market, we sign very short-term leases. As Claude was saying, we're actually getting rid of real estate We've taken some write-downs in the quarter just because we're ending leases early, because they're a big financial advantage in doing it, and we have to pay a termination penalty, so we've done that. But we're going to be saving millions of dollars over the course of the process, so it's very minimal in terms of CapEx expenses.

Just on the margin benefits as well, do we expect material margin?

Oh, yes, on the margin. Yeah. So a quick point of reference, and Claude has used this in the past, whenever we increase our offshore headcount as a percentage of total headcount by 5%, It improves the overall gross margin of the company by 2%. So we are driving. Our target was to get to 10% by the end of this fiscal year. We started the year at 5%, so we're pushing very hard on that. We think at full scale, we could easily get to the 40%, 50% range as most of our large competitors are doing today. We think that's a feasible long-term goal, and we're pushing very hard in that direction. It's also impacting our acquisition strategy. Like the data solutions acquisition we did, the last one, most of their delivery came from their offshore and nearshore operations. So as we look at targets going forward, we do look for some that have that smart shoring capability because it's an accelerator for us as well.

That's very helpful. I'll pass the mic.

Your next question comes from Gavin Fairweather with Cormark. Please go ahead.

Oh, hey, good morning. I wanted to start out on the bookings. Maybe you can just discuss kind of how your win rates are tracking, you know, how many opportunities you're seeing hitting the market and how kind of competitors are acting on these competitive opportunities.

Thank you, Gavin. So overall, we're Like I said, in the U.S., we've had record bookings, especially in our enterprise solution, which, as you know, is some of our higher margin business. So we're very positive. Our sales funnel is also at a record high. So from growth and opportunities, they're out there. Some are a little bit slower in closing. which is very encouraging. We're seeing some significant opportunity in government and healthcare and manufacturing. So that's not slowing down. If anything, with all of the move, like the Inflation Reduction Act in the US, there's a big push to bring back manufacturing to North America. So that's a big driver on a manufacturing side. Healthcare, the shortage of qualified people in the healthcare industry is not just a Canadian issue, it's a global issue. So again, most of the healthcare institutions, hospitals are looking to automate and get greater efficiencies to make up for the lack of the shortage of qualified people. So, again, that's a big driver in that industry. And, again, we're very well positioned there. So there's a lot of good stuff happening. And like I was saying earlier, the only blemish that we're seeing right now, and we think it's temporary, is in the banking side in Canada and training in the U.S. So we're kind of doubling down on everything else right now.

And once projects are in the backlog, are they tending to kind of kick off as expected, or are they tending to push a little bit?

Most of them are. We have a few. I'd say it's anecdotal. We have a few clients where we've actually signed the project and they want to start a bit later, but it's anecdotal for now.

Got it. And then just next, can you discuss the interplay between kind of employee raises and list prices? It sounds like the raises kind of kicked in early in the quarter. Maybe just talk about your ability to kind of pass through in the timing of that.

Yeah. Yeah, no, I think that's – Claude raised it, and I think it's a very important number for people to realize. So when you think about it, so April 1st every year, we do a global salary increase based on the geographical – uh, parameters. So, you know, we do a raise in the U S and Canada and Europe and everywhere. And as you can imagine in our industry with the shortage of qualified people, those raises are, I mean, they're significant. Every year, April 1. So when we look at gross margins in Q1, and if we can grow our margins in Q1 year over year, it means that our pricing power enables us to go to work in those increases into our offerings. So when it's growing, it's going to be more than offset those salary increases, which is very positive for us. It's a good sign. And maybe I would add, if there is a silver lining to the current market conditions, it's that those increases will likely be lower in the coming years. This year, 2023, was kind of out of the ordinary and so was 2022, but we're seeing probably some more reasonable expectations there going forward.

Got it. Thanks so much. And then just lastly for me, can you touch on the M&A environment and valuations? We're seeing the leverage falling here progressively each quarter. Maybe just discuss what you're seeing in the market.

Yeah, so it's a great question, Gavin. So we're very active in looking and talking and evaluating targets. The multiples aren't coming down that much. We were expecting them to come down, but they aren't coming down that much. And if I look at where we're trading at right now, we're probably the best deal on the market. So we keep that into consideration. In the meantime, we're just, like Claude said, we're paying down debt so that we have the flexibility to pull the trigger. There's a lot of interesting stuff out there. So we'll see. We'll see. But, yeah, we're still looking. We just want to make sure that, you know, we strike the three things that we look for, that the right acquisitions have the right price, and people want to stick around. So all three have to work for us to pull the trigger.

Great. Thanks so much. I'll pass the line.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from Vincent Coluz. Chio with Barrington Research. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning, Paul. I'm curious, does your revenue goal for the year remain in place, and how much should it involve acquisitions?

So when we do our three-year plan, Vince, we try to look for a 50-50 in terms of M&A versus organic growth. It's varied. I mean, last year we did three acquisitions. In the last 12 months, we've done zero. So it would have to be a larger one to make up the difference this fiscal year. But again, we're not going to do an acquisition just for the sake of doing an acquisition. We want to make sure it's the right one. But at the beginning of the year, our intent was 50-50.

Are you seeing an acceleration in demand for offshore work given the economic pressures? And if so, also curious if you're accelerating your offshore growth this year versus what you were thinking last quarter.

I don't know if it's as much as accelerating events as renewed interest. I think it's always been there. I think since the pandemic, people are more open to it. And the current pressures or recessionary fears are making it that people are much more open to that discussion. So we see that as a positive. And for sure, you know, there was a scale issue before, but we're there now. So it's definitely something that we're trying to accelerate.

And the last one for me, could you give us some more color on the higher margin offerings that are seeing the most traction in Canada?

The largest traction that we have right now are the enterprise solutions, so the ERP, the cloud ERP, and our data solutions. Those are the big drivers right now. and both in the private sector and the public sector. So we're actually seeing demand on the government side as well for those solutions.

Thank you, Paul. Okay, thanks.

The next question comes from John Show with National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. So, Paul, you mentioned some of the AI offerings, including Copilot, I know this is still early from that regard, but how should we think about the revenue opportunities? Are they kind of like incremental opportunities, or are they just going to be included in your existing contracts?

Yeah, thanks, John, for the question. There's a lot of stuff that's still up in the air with co-pilot, right? So the promises are very interesting. The date is still up in the air. From what we've seen so far, we think it's something that's going to help us accelerate the sale of some of our solutions. So I'll give you an example. One of the things that we have, which actually we won a Microsoft award. uh, award for it is what we do on the learning side in the, uh, and it's learning, but it's also assisting, assisting clients and better using Microsoft solutions, right? So when you implement Microsoft, uh, business apps at a client, our team actually provides ongoing support, uh, change management, uh, adoption, adoption assistance. So, uh, An example of how Copilot integrates into that is that today, when there's a problem, somebody will click on the screen for help. With Copilot integrated into our solution, If somebody is using the app and has an issue with it, they don't have to click on anything. The app actually sees that the person is having a challenge and says, it looks like you're having a problem with XYZ. Would you like some editorial on it? Would you like to talk to somebody? Would you like to see a video? So it reduces the... The cost of using that service, it automates a large portion of that service so it makes it available to more people and makes it a lot more efficient. So we're looking, we're in the process right now of trying to integrate those things into our solutions like learning and the assistance support for the rollout of the tools. We see that as a very positive. It should drive additional revenue for us. By the same time, it's going to drive efficiencies because we're going to need less people to provide the same service to more people, right? So that's a positive and a good example where we use it on that. We've already started integrating. I was talking earlier about RapidSuite. So RapidSuite came from our data solutions business. And it actually can go into a large, anybody who produces documentation, and there's still a lot of documentation being produced today by large insurers, banks, utilities, governments, both outbound and inbound. And with the solution that we had, we could automate that process, but you needed somebody to program rules, to look at exceptions, to manage the process, which was driven by AI or machine learning. Now with ChatGPT, you're eliminating that portion. So again, same solution, more efficient. We can roll it out to a larger number of people with less people and drive more efficiencies for our clients as well. So we see those as very positive as being things that we can include into our solutions across the board to make them more efficient. Higher margin, larger market penetration, and so on. So that's how we see it coming into our business.

Okay, that's great to know. And for the 32 new clients you signed this quarter, could you give us some colors regarding their size, business sectors, and geography breakdown?

Yeah, so they're pretty much everywhere globally. I'd say more significant the number in the U.S. And again, it turns around our enterprise solution. So these are typically multi-million dollar, multi-year projects. to implement ERP solution suite for another large project where we're modernizing a legacy platform, moving into the cloud and so on and so forth. So it's more on the larger side in terms of new projects. And if you look historically, we've kind of been in that range every quarter, the high 20s, low 30s for the past two years. So we're adding new clients, new large clients that are really good equipment.

Okay, thank you. Thanks for the color. I just have a last question regarding the model. Maybe help us understand your working capital changes next quarter and how it's going to impact operating capital in Q2.

It's always a little tricky to forecast. Typically, it goes up and down. Certain quarters are going up, certain quarters are going down. We're on a streak here. The past few quarters have been all positive. It really depends on the timing of the end of the quarter. for our billing cycle on the receivable side and on the salary accruals on the um of the payables and accrual side so wrong with an answer uh i'm not gonna give you a number what we're expecting i would probably say that uh sooner or later the uh we're bound to have a quarter where the net uh variation would be negative but i'm not expecting anything significant one way or another. We've reached a certain stability. Last year, we had acquisitions brought into the mix. If you remember, if you look at last year's numbers, we had a quarter with significant decreases, and then we had a quarter with significant increases. I'm not really expecting that going forward. So it's a bit of a crapshoot, you know, whether it's a couple million in one direction or another. Okay, thank you. Thank you. And also driven, I forgot, the third factor is obviously revenue variations. So when growth is important, that typically has ways on working capital variations and vice versa.

Okay, thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press star followed by the one. There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Paul Amo.

Thank you, Isabelle, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Have a nice weekend.