Alithya Group inc.

to the Alithya Q1 Fiscal 2022 Results Conference Call. Today's conference has been recorded. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Rachel Andrews, Vice President of Communications and Marketing. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Alithya's First Quarter Fiscal 2022 Results Conference Call. The press release and MD&A with complete financial statements and related notes were issued earlier today and are posted on our website. The webcast presentation can also be found on our website in the Investors section. Presenting this morning are Paul Raymond, Alithya's President and Chief Executive Officer, Claude Thibault, Chief Financial Officer, and Claude Rousseau, Chief Operating Officer, who will all be present for the ensuing question period. Before we begin, I would like to specify that this conference call is intended for the financial community. Also, please be advised that this call will contain statements that are forward-looking and subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Please refer to the cautionary note on our presentation and to the forward-looking statements and risk and uncertainties section of our MD&A available on our website for more details. Let me remind you that all figures expressed on today's call are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated, and be aware that we will refer to certain indicators that are non-IFRS measures. Please refer to the cautionary note in our presentation and to the non-IFRS measures section of our MD&A for more details. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Paul Raymond. Over to you, Paul.

Thank you, Rachel, and good morning, everyone. Bonjour. I'm very pleased to be here today to discuss a record first quarter performance in which we exceeded all internal and external expectations. As demonstrated by our strong bookings in the past quarters, our teams have surged ahead into fiscal 2022 by capitalizing on our high-value digital transformation offerings. Our plan to retain our valuable professionals during the pandemic is paying off by enabling us to transform bookings into accelerated profitable organic growth. Over the past 18 months, our management team has proven its ability to maintain a steady course through uncharted waters. This is directly responsible for our successes in the first quarter of 2022. We look to the future with great optimism and confidence as we embark on an ambitious new chapter of expansion and recruitment to meet the growing demand for our services, while ensuring the retention of our more than 3,300 professionals and keeping an eye on the global pandemic. I will discuss this in greater detail shortly, but first, let's take a look at the three key highlights of our record first quarter performance. Please turn to slide two. First and foremost, we achieved industry-leading organic growth and bookings in this unprecedented environment. We continued to strengthen Aletia's position as a trusted advisor in strategy and digital transformation, and we expanded our presence to new customers and new essential service industries. This has enabled our teams to post outstanding organic growth in all of our geographies, both year-over-year and sequentially. Second, we are on track with the integration of R3D Consulting, our latest game-changing acquisition that closed this past April 1st. R3D's operations are highly complementary and are integrating seamlessly into Aletia's current structure, allowing for short and mid-term synergies. Additionally, the two 10-year contracts with Beneva and Quebeca that accompanied the acquisition have already generated significant high-value revenue during the first quarter. Third, our leaders are doing a great job in recruiting and retaining the best people. As Alithya continues to expand its operations in North America and Europe, a growing demand for our transformation services requires new and creative approaches to finding highly skilled IT professionals to support our clients' needs. Therefore, we've opened a subsidiary office in Morocco where we intend to leverage that country's rich and readily available talent pool. We've already started recruiting highly skilled individuals based out of Morocco, and they're already contributing to significant global projects entrusted to us by our clients. To put all this and more into greater perspective, let's break down our first quarter successes with respect to our various practices and geographies. Please turn to the third slide of our presentation. Let's start with Canada. As I mentioned during our fourth quarter call, we set sail with the wind at our backs for the first quarter of this new fiscal year with the contribution of strong bookings, new logos, and Alithya's latest acquisition, R3D. That momentum continues today as this portion of the business generated $20 million of revenue in the quarter. While adding revenues from R3D obviously results in sequential growth from the fourth quarter to the first quarter, I would like to point out that R3D itself is also reporting strong organic growth both year-over-year and sequentially. We are also seeing important growth from the ramp-up of the 10-year contracts associated with that transaction. Successes like that are a testament to the winning formula applied by our management team who continue to pursue new opportunities for acquiring quality companies with a cultural fit and potential for combined accelerated growth. This acquisition strategy is complemented by the strength of sustained organic growth, which is a category where Alithya leads the industry in Canada. Our first quarter saw revenues increase by 78% in Canada year-over-year and 50% sequentially. Even when we exclude the R3D impact, Alithya experienced organic growth in all sectors. At this point, I will turn the call over to another Claude, Claude Rousseau, our Chief Operating Officer, so that he can present to you the progress made so far in connection with the operational integration of R3D, as well as an overview of the synergies we can expect to achieve. This is the first time our COO joins us for the analyst call, and I am convinced you will find great value in his commentary. Claude Rousseau joined Alithya seven years ago and oversees all of our business units, sales efforts, business development, playing an instrumental and global role in furthering all of our pursuits. He brings a wealth of experience to our team, and I'm sure you'll find his insights very helpful. Claude, thank you for joining us today, and over to you.