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spk01: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the SS&C Technologies Q1 2023 earnings call. Today's call is being recorded and all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press the star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, you must press star 1 again. Thank you. It is now my pleasure to turn today's call over to Justine Stone, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
spk06: Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our Q1 2023 earnings call. I'm Justine Stone, Head of Investor Relations for SS&C. On the call with me today is Bill Stone, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Rahul Kanwar, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Patrick Sedanti, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, we need to review the Safe Harbor Statement. Please note the various remarks we make today about future expectations, plans, and prospects, including the financial outlook we provide.
spk13: Allowance pro tips. Call your parents.
spk06: Constitute forward-looking plans. for the purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Security Litigations Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in the risk factors section of our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, which is on file with the SEC and can also be accessed on our website. These forward-looking statements represent our expectations only as of today, April 27, 2023, While the company may elect to update these forward-looking statements, it specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. During today's call, we'll be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP financial measures is included in today's earnings release, which is located in the Investor Relations section of our website at www.ssctech.com. I will now turn the call over to Bill.
spk04: Thanks, Justine, and thanks, everyone, for joining. Now, we started 2023 with pretty strong revenues, probably $1.363 billion in adjusted revenue, up 5.2%, and our adjusted diluted earnings per share, while a little softer, $1.11, was within our range and was down 11.2% from last year. You know, rising interest rates obviously impacted our earnings, but we're in very good shape from a financial standpoint. We had a lot of inflation, too, especially in wages, and that also put some pressure on our bottom line. The consolidated EBITDA was over $500 million again at $509 million, and our EBITDA margin was 37.3%. First quarter with all the payroll taxes and health care expenses is normally the highest expense quarter we have. But we do expect to begin to see a lot of cost savings from our Blue Prism digital worker deployment. We believe that digital workers will drive margins and serve as a hedge against inflation. We currently have over 40 processes live and are on track to achieve our 2023 productivity goals. Our first quarter adjusted organic revenue was up 1.9. We saw good performance in alternatives in our global investor distribution services business retirement and our institutional and investment manager segment you know we generated net cash from operating activities at 254.8 million for the three months ended marks 31 up 38.9 percent over the same period last year we paid down 44.6 million in debt in q1 bringing our consolidated net leverage ratio to 3.38 and our new Our net secured leverage ratio to 2.39 of consolidated, 2.39 times of consolidated EBITDA. In Q1, SS&C bought back 2.3 million shares for 134.7 million, an average price of $59.19. Program to date, Treasury stock buybacks of 439.9 million for purchases of 7.8 million shares, an average price of 56.34. We'll continue to target 50% of our cash flow stock buybacks and 50% to pay down. You know, we still look at lots of M&A. While it remains disciplined and we have yet to see any movement on large-scale assets, although we did see the German force putting in a bid for Simcorp today. We do think we'll have opportunity for some tuck-in acquisitions before the end of the year. This April marks the fifth anniversary of DSC acquisition, which brought SS&C over $2 billion in revenue and a long list of large, sophisticated clients. While we have doubled the profitability, accelerating their revenue growth took investments in the product, the service, and the leadership teams. We feel these investments are paying off. and our biggest prospects are currently in our kids and retirement businesses. We've all watched the volatility in the financial services sector, particularly U.S. banking, over the past few months. S&C is a strong and diversified company. We have seen limited impact to date. As always, we will support our customers, monitor the situation closely, and react as necessary. I'll now turn it over to Rahul to discuss the quarter in more detail.
spk12: Thanks, Bill. Our business remains strong despite a volatile macroeconomic backdrop with several of our business units improving their competitive positioning. Our alternative fund administration business posted 6.6% growth in Q1 and now has assets under administration of $2.24 trillion. GIDS, which serves the world's largest asset managers, grew 3.6% this quarter, We've invested heavily in the leadership technology and service organization of this business over the last five years and continue to do so. We've won large customers over the past few years and entered into long-term contract renewals with others. These marquee names, including St. James Place, Capital Group, Brooks McDonald, JP Morgan, Sandland, and most recently, Minesuper, provide a solid foundation from which to continue to grow. We have prioritized innovation and are working on dozens of new products and services across the company. Whether it be SS&C Brightline for tax, SS&C Everywhere for data connectivity and insights, or SS&C Private Cloud for a purpose-built compute solution, these products solve important issues for our customers, give our employees creative ways in which to add value, and strengthen our business. I'll mention some key deals for Q1. A large UK wealth client embarked on a strategic project to move their international accounts to SS&C's Blue Door platform. An alternative asset manager chose SOMS and FixLink Services after a comprehensive RFP process. A $30 billion in AUM private equity and real estate firm chose SS&C Fund Services. A current brokerage client chose SS&C's AllServe solution to help scale and expand the client's offering in the alternatives market. An $80 billion real estate manager with a non-traded REIT chose a suite of SS&C's fund services and Retail All's transfer agency services. We'll now turn it over to Patrick to run through the financials.
spk03: Thanks. Results for the first quarter were GAAP revenues of $1,362.7 million, GAAP net income of $126 million, and GAAP diluted earnings per share of 49 cents. Adjusted revenues were $1,363.4 million. Adjusted revenues were up 5.2%. Adjusted operating income decreased 1.1%. And adjusted diluted EPS was $11.2% decrease over Q1 2022 due to the impact of higher interest rates on our debt. Adjusted revenue increased 67.2 million or 5.2%. Our acquisitions contributed $64 million. Foreign exchange had an unfavorable impact of $19.9 million, or 1.5%. Adjusted organic revenue increased on a constant currency basis with 1.9%. We had strength in several product lines, including alternatives, against transfer agency services, business, and institutional investment management business. Adjusted operating income for the quarter was $493 million, a decrease of $5.7 million or 1.1% from the first quarter of 22. Adjusted operating margins were 36.2% in the first quarter compared to 38.5% in the first quarter of 22. Excluding acquisitions, expenses increased 5% on a constant currency basis. Acquisitions added 52 million in expenses and foreign currency decreased costs by 19.6 million. Our cost structure has been impacted by general inflation, wage inflation, and an increase in business travel compared to 2022. Adjusted EBITDA was 509 million at 37.3% of adjusted revenue, a decrease of 5.9 million from Q2 22. Net interest expense for the quarter was $111.9 million, an increase of $62.6 million or 127% from Q1 2022. The Q1 2023 net interest expense includes $3.5 million of non-cash amortized financing costs and OID. The average interest rate in the quarter for the embedded credit facility including our senior notes, was 6.21% compared to 3.11% in the first quarter of 2022. We recorded a gap tax provision of $52.5 million, or 29% of pre-tax income. Adjusted net income was $284.4 million, and adjusted EPS was $1.11. And the effective tax rate used for adjusted net income was 26%. Diluted shares increased to $257 million from $256.4 million in Q4. The higher average stock price was partially offset by share repurchases during the quarter. On cash flow and balance sheet, we ended the first quarter with $433.3 million of cash and cash equivalents and $7.1 billion of gross debt. SS&C's net debt, which excludes cash and cash equivalents of $130.2 million that are held at Damani RX, was $6.8 billion as of March 31st. Operating cash flow for the three months was $254.8 million, $31.3 million increase from the same period of 2022. Some highlights on cash flow for the three months. We bought back Treasury stock. 134.7 million, purchased 2.3 million shares at an average price of 59.19 cents. In July 22, the Board authorized the new stock repurchase program of up to a billion in stock buybacks. Programmed to date, Treasury stock buybacks are 439.9 million for purchases of 7.8 million shares as an average price of $56.34. Net debt payments in the quarter were $44.6 million. And we paid a total of interest of $138 million in the quarter compared to $74.2 million in 2022. On income taxes, in the quarter, we paid $20.9 million compared to $42 million in the first quarter of 2022. Our accounts receivable DSO was 53.5 days. as of March 31st compared to 52.3 days as of December 2022 and 52.7 days as of March 2022. Capital expenditures and capitalized software was 53.1 million or 3.9% of adjusted revenue for the quarter. Spending was predominantly for capitalized software to investment in research and development and IT infrastructure. Based on our net debt of approximately $6.8 billion, our total leverage was 3.38 times, and our secured leverage was 2.39 times as of March 31st. On outlook for the year, first I'll cover a few assumptions. You know, we'll continue to focus on client service, and we expect retention rates to continue in the range of most recent results. We have assumed foreign currency exchange will be at current levels for the remainder of the year. As a result, organic growth for the year will be in the range of 2 percent to 6 percent. And again, adjusted organic growth for Q2 will be in the range of 0.5 percent to 3.5 percent. We have assumed interest rates will increase an additional in the range of 35 to 50 bps for the remainder of the year compared to the average rate in the first quarter. We'll continue to manage our expenses during the period by controlling variable expenses and increase productivity to improve our operating margins. And we'll continue to allocate free cash flow to both debt pay down and stock buybacks. And we'll continue to expect the adjusted tax rate to be about 26%. So for the second quarter of 2023, we expect revenue in the range of $1,334.5 million. of $1,374.5 million, adjusted net income in the range of $276.5 million to $293 million, and diluted shares in the range of $256.5 million to $257.5 million. And for the full year, we expect revenue in the range of $5,455,000,000 to $5,655,000,000, adjusted net income in the range of $1,190,000,000 to $1,285,000,000 and diluted shares in the range of $255,000,000 to $258.5 million. And on cash from operating activities, we expect that to be in the range of $1,275,000,000 to $1,375,000,000. And I'll turn it back over to Bill for final comments.
spk04: Thanks, Patrick. You know, we expect revenue acceleration in Q3, Q4, and we expect the growth to be broad-based across a lot of our different businesses. And we will be able to convert a bunch of backlog revenue. We have price increases that have already gone into effect, and so the revenue will begin to tick up. And we also have a very full pipeline. You know, we have invested heavily in our product and service suite, and we remain excited about our opportunities. It's been a difficult way to get to here, but I think we're in really good shape going forward. And I'll now open it up for questions.
spk01: At this time, I would like to remind everyone, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Your first question comes from the line of Kevin McVey with Credit Suisse. Your line is open.
spk10: Great. Thanks so much, and congratulations on the results. A look at the organic growth, it seems like it implies about 2% on average for the first half of the year, and then the midpoint is 4% for the full year. Maybe just is it the same buckets, pricing, new business backlog, and new products that drive that? Or is there maybe just to ring fence that a little bit with incremental drivers or as we think about the back half of the year?
spk04: Kevin, I think that's primarily what it is. I mean, we have a number of large-scale deals that we have sold over the last two or three years. And, you know, it seemed like they're never going to come to fruition, but they are coming. to fruition and they're going live. And with that, it releases a lot of revenue into our financial statements. And as I said, we still have full pipelines with GIDS, which is primarily our transfer agency business, growing 3.6% in the first quarter. That's quite a turnaround. And so I think You know, we're making progress across all of those things. And I think that that's plus the price increases are also starting to take effect. So I think we're in reasonably good shape for the second half of 23.
spk10: It's terrific. And then just one quick follow up. It seems like the AUA was actually up sequentially the first time about four quarters. And that's despite some disruption in your quarter across the markets. Any thoughts around that? What's driving that?
spk12: Rahul, you want to take that? Sure. We had pretty good inflows into both our hedge fund and our private equity businesses during the course of the quarter. So it's a combination of new fund launches, some organic and performance-related growth in these clients as well as new client wins. So, you know, as you know, it's kind of the first time we've seen that uptick in a few quarters, but, you know, we're pretty happy about it. But we do expect to see, you know, based on the comments Bill just made about the strength of our pipeline, you know, we're certainly seeing some momentum in the market.
spk04: And I would say also that we believe we remain the strongest competitor by somewhat. And I think that there is a lot of volatility in that market and a lot of the larger scale investment managers prefer to have our steady hand. And I think that's played out pretty well for us. Terrific.
spk10: Thank you.
spk01: Your next question comes from the line of Dan Perlin with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.
spk09: Thanks. Good evening. Bill, I wanted to just, you know, take your temperature in terms of discussions that you've had with your clients. This is obviously true for Rahul as well. Kind of pre-SVB and post-SVB, you made it sound like there's not been any kind of fallout from that, and that's good to hear. But I'm just wondering kind of the posturing of what they're saying Understanding you have a backlog and it's going to get converted, you've got these large clients, which I think is encouraging for organic growth. I'm just wondering where they sit today in kind of their readiness to release capital in order to drive new contracts with you guys.
spk04: Yeah, and as you noted, right, a lot of what we're expecting in the second half we have already signed and are in the midst of bringing them live. So it is really a continuation of of the last 12, 18, 24 months. But there's a lot of skittishness in the financial markets, particularly the banking markets. And while we don't have a huge client base in mid-level banks, we do have some. So we're monitoring that as closely as we can. You do kind of see that whether it's Silicon Valley or First Republic or Signature, that you're really kind of on the mid-spot between traditional banking and financing venture capital and other investments. So I'm not sure that Contagion is quite I don't think it's anything like 08, 09, and I think that's why it hasn't had much impact on us to date. Of course, we'll watch it as closely as we can.
spk09: Just a quick follow-up on the commentary around digital workers you had in the release. It seems like you're reiterating this 1300 to 2700. Please remind us where that sits in terms of
spk04: know cost savings i think we had allocated something like 65 million at the low end of that range for you know annualized cost savings but i just want to take your temperature and where we sit on that as well thank you no i mean you hit the nail on the head and that's 65 million now we're estimating about a thousand in savings as we deploy digital workers per worker and and um you know knock on wood that's pretty much what we see and and in in some In some cases, the improvement in productivity is drastic. So we're very optimistic that if we keep our nose to the grindstone and build great digital workers, we'll have a great outcome. So that's what people are focused on. Excellent.
spk09: Thank you, Bill.
spk01: Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Smith with Citi. Your line is open.
spk02: Hey, Bail and Roll, Patrick. Thanks for taking my questions. I want to ask about the kids' business. Maybe just talk about just the nature of the investment and what you're doing there. That'd be helpful. And then the 3.6% growth, you know, the positive flip much better than we were anticipating. Could you just sort of disaggregate that and maybe talk about the drivers there, whether it's existing or client growth, you know, new client launches, things like that. Just curious to understand the drivers a little bit more there. Thanks a lot.
spk04: Well, you know, we named it the Global Investor and Distribution Systems and it's, you know, the largest investment managers in the world use that service. And, you know, we always felt that if you could deliver a better you know, a better interface, a better client interaction with the system and really had good process and procedures that there was opportunity all over the place because we didn't think our competitors would do the same thing. And, you know, while it might have taken us a little longer than we had hoped, we do think that we have built some, you know, purpose-built software that that is easier to use and is getting much more client satisfaction. And then we've had any number of large-scale wins and large-scale renewals that has really helped the revenue side. I don't know if, Rahul, you have anything else to add to that?
spk12: Just on the investments, the investments have been kind of in really all aspects of that business. So we have invested heavily in the technology to the point Bill just made, digital interface, web interface, mobile apps, just workflow and systems. We have also brought in a lot of sales talent, a lot of management talent. And I think that the key to all of this is that the large clients that we have won over the last six, nine months, kind of work through that implementation process and they're coming alive and that's helping our numbers.
spk02: Got it. Thank you for that. And then, you know, question on the just, I think Patrick, you mentioned just wage inflation and just wanted to drill down on that a little bit. Is that, you know, more of a flow through effect from actions you took last year or You're seeing something more recently that's exacerbating the wage issue. Just want to be clear in terms of what you're seeing about the cost of labor environment. Thanks a lot.
spk03: Yeah, it's mostly actions we took post-April 2022 that are impacting us in Q1 when you compare to prior years. But we're seeing... we're seeing in the current year wage inflation slow down a little bit.
spk02: Perfect. Thanks so much, guys. Appreciate the help.
spk01: Your next question comes from the line of Alex Cram with UBS. Your line is open.
spk07: Yeah, hey. Thanks, everyone. Just a Maybe this is a follow-up for the question that was just asked, but margins in the quarter certainly missed, I think, street expectations in our own. So maybe we're just not modeling it right, but I know you just talked about the wage inflation, but was there something else that you hadn't expected in the quarter that surprised you? Or again, is it just the street not thinking about it correctly since you said the wage inflation should trade off in April? And then related to that, as we think about the remainder of the year, I guess, what gives you confidence that you can get that margin expansion that you had talked about on prior calls? Is it just the blue prism thing that is really going to help the margins here? Or is there something else that you're working on to make sure margins are...
spk04: Well, you know, I think what, you know, the expense process, you know, was primarily, as Patrick said, the wage was from actions we took at the end of – throughout 2022, really. I don't know that we were surprised, you know, as much as, you know, it all kind of came into the first quarter. And, you know, again, we're pretty confident on our ability to drive margins. And, yeah, you know, I think, you know, 37.3 on adjusted e-stop margins is, you know, down maybe 100, 200 basis points. But I don't think that's, you know, we're very confident. in our margin-driving capabilities. And what we want to make sure we do is invest in the people and the processes and the capabilities, you know, to go get the $65 to $130 million in savings through Blue Prism, and then also constantly invest back in our products and services. As Rahul said, you know, we're really – bringing out new things, whether it's Brightline or Go Central or SS&C Everywhere or all those kinds of things that we think differentiate us and is the reason that we win most of the platform business that is out to bid.
spk08: All right. Fair enough.
spk07: And then maybe a little bit bigger picture has been in the last quarter, last six months, whatever you want to use, much more talk about AI, chat GPT, et cetera. Just wondering how you view those capabilities in your own business. I think some people are arguing like, hey, you may be able to do a lot with that, but And, you know, maybe Blue Prism is in that same kind of fear, but at the same time, I think there's others who say like, hey, this could actually be super disruptive to your business. So I know it's a big picture question for a call like this, but just wondering how much time you're spending on that and what you're evaluating.
spk04: Well, you know, Alex, I don't think that FinTech in general has a very big moat. You know, almost anybody that's on this call can start a fintech company. You know, you need to be able to have an idea. You need to be able to have some development talent, be able to deliver a product. Now, doing that and turning it into a $5.5 billion company with 100 offices in 40 countries and a suite of products and services that are pretty much world class, that's a pretty big moat. so that when companies such as UBS or any of the other great big investment banks or any of the great big hedge fund platforms or private equity platforms or private tech platforms or real estate organizations, this is pretty sophisticated, pretty regulated, pretty minutiae, pretty detailed. And I think that we've worked very hard to have the best people, we have the best training, we think we have the best the best solutions for our customers. And I think that we move quickly to buy Blue Prism. We believe that this intelligent automation and its corollaries and AI and machine learning and natural language processing and the rest of it, it is what's going to happen. And either you get in front of it or you're so far behind that pretty much you're on the block.
spk08: Fair enough. Thanks, guys.
spk01: Your next question comes from the line of Peter Heckman with DA Davidson. Your line is open.
spk11: Thank you. I have a quick one on Damani Rx. Could you give us an update on the platform development there and whether or not you continue to think that you have a good shot at moving your one large processing customer to the new platform in 2023?
spk04: Well, I think our target heat is 1124. And I think that we're in reasonable shape. I know that we have had some Damani board meetings. I know Rahul has been too. And, you know, we do, you know, pretty much constant updates on that platform. And I would say we are cautiously optimistic. Rahul, you want to comment further?
spk12: Well, I think you got it. We're kind of on target with our development plans so far, and we're keeping a close eye on it.
spk11: Okay, that's helpful. And then this is a follow-up. I mean, how are you thinking about on the private equity, real estate, private asset side, how are you thinking about mark-to-markets there? Maybe just remind us how much of that part of the business relies on fixed minimums versus basis points?
spk04: It's primarily basis points, Pete. There's some things that we do that are piecemeal, whether that's K1s and, you know, tax return type things and financial statements. But it's primarily a basis point charge.
spk11: Okay, and so just in terms of how that's worked historically, I guess, would you expect there to be a six-month, 12-month lag in terms of, you know, when asset values change and when they start to update those values, or do they do it, you know, really more quarterly?
spk04: Yeah, I'd say quarterly.
spk11: Okay, so we should be seeing it in the numbers already.
spk00: Yeah, I think so.
spk11: All right, thank you.
spk01: Your next question comes from the line of Terry Tillman with Truist. Your line is open.
spk13: Hey, guys. This is Joe Mirzon for Terry. Thanks for taking the questions. The first one that I had was just I wanted to confirm that I heard correctly that organic growth in the quarter for revenue was 1.9%. And then just curious what financial services organic growth was in the first quarter. I think it was 1.3% last quarter. So just curious if there was any inflection there.
spk03: You're right that the total organic growth was 1.9. And when you're referring to financial service, I assume you're referring to X healthcare, right? And that was 2.5% in the quarter.
spk13: Okay, perfect. And then just as a follow-up there, I think last quarter you'd mentioned that your expectation for the healthcare market was for it to be down 10% in 2022. Just curious if there's any change in expectations there.
spk03: No, that's approximately what we expect.
spk04: Yeah, in 2023.
spk03: 2023, right.
spk02: Perfect.
spk13: Thanks so much, guys. Appreciate it.
spk01: Your next question comes from the line of James Fawcett with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
spk05: Great. Thank you very much. I wanted to touch quickly on M&A and your prepared remarks you made reference to acquisition in Europe, SimCorp today. Just Wondering, you know, how you're thinking about valuations, what you're seeing in valuations, particularly as it sounds like you're trying to get some things done between now and the end of the year and just basically, you know, you obviously built a lot of value over the years via acquisitions. Just how you're thinking about that as an opportunity right now?
spk04: Yeah, James, I would say it's pretty similar. everyone talks about that prices are maybe pausing. And then, you know, it looks like at least the headline numbers on, on SimCorp is, you know, about 30 times EBITDA. So it, it's, it's not, not pausing very quickly, I would say. So all I think that, that there are assets that are going to be sold. I think the owners of those assets are going to have to, in general, take some haircuts. And I don't know that they're ready to do that yet. You know, I think Simcorp's kind of been on the market for a while. And I think maybe the Bourse, you know, has some other assets that they want to put together. You know, I think that maybe was serendipitous for them. And I don't know exactly, you know, where are we with FIS? Where are we with a few of the other assets that are out there? But some stuff ought to shake loose. And I think the more that people care about their customers, the better opportunity we have.
spk05: Got it. Got it. And then, you know, going back to looking at the second half ramp, it sounds like between some of the new contracts and pricing and some of the other things that you actually have a pretty good line of sight into that acceleration. And it doesn't sound like you're really dependent too much on macro at least improving. Just want to make sure that I'm understanding that correctly. and where there could be sensitivity if MACRA were to deteriorate a little between now and then?
spk04: Yeah, I think that's a pretty accurate characterization of where we are. I think the MACRA would have to deteriorate to the point where as earlier, you know, has it made it to where people are not going to allocate capital to new systems or new processes. But, you know, as large-scale financial institutions get under pressure, often their way to control costs is to outsource. And that's really a pretty big strength of ours. And we have any number of of large-scale conversations going on with very large-scale organizations. We'll have our opportunities. Like always, you've got to execute.
spk05: Got it. Thanks a lot for those comments, Bill.
spk01: Your next question comes from the line of Alex Cram with UBS. Your line is open.
spk07: Oh, that was quick. Hello again. I just wanted to squeeze in a couple of follow-ups. And maybe you mentioned this, but I think you said pricing has been solid. Can you be a little bit more specific what kind of pricing you've been realizing? And, you know, maybe you can actually say what businesses you're maybe realizing more or less than maybe what the company average is.
spk04: I just think, Alex, that, you know, we're looking at, you know, between $100 and $150 million in price increases. realized in 2023, and probably the biggest ones are in alternatives and the goods business.
spk07: Okay. Fantastic. Thanks for that. And just a very quick one here. Just from an understanding perspective, you gave those numbers that you have done 40 process automations now, and you also talked about the 1,300 to 2,700 people. Can you just Give us a little bit of a flavor, like when you talk about these 40 processes, like how many people were you actually able to, I guess, reallocate or eliminate positions? And going forward, like again, like the 1,300 to 2,700, like how many processes is that just trying to get a flavor for, you know, how many things you're automating and how many, like per use case, how many people that it actually would affect?
spk04: Yeah, I mean, it's a pretty broad range, right? So, you know, if we can build the digital worker to do, you know, pretty sophisticated reconciliations, then we'll have all kinds of opportunities to deploy hundreds, probably. You know, whereas in some of the other things, even things that are pretty broad scale that there's maybe not as many things done, you know, like, you know, validating 1065s and K-1 tax returns or, you know, validating investment statements, you know, because one digital worker can do so much work, you know, you don't really need to deploy that many. So it's more of a one to many and many to many and then, You know, it's not very often that you have to deploy many to one, but it is something that the capabilities of the individual digital worker, the sophistication of the process, is what determines how many and how fast.
spk08: Okay, fair enough. Maybe I'll follow up there.
spk07: And just very quickly, just to squeeze one more in, on Blue Prism, since we're on the topic, the 10.9% growth, that's been decelerating over the last few quarters, so I think originally when you bought the company, it was, I think, 15 plus, maybe even in the 20s. So is that a sales cycle thing or what's going on on the external side with Blue Prism?
spk04: No, we're optimistic that that accelerates in the rest of the year, too.
spk08: Good enough answer. Thank you.
spk01: there are no further questions at this time I will now turn the call back to Bill Stone for closing remarks again we really appreciate all of you coming on our call and you know we look forward to talking to you after the second quarter thank you ladies and gentlemen this concludes today's call thank you for your participation you may now
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