ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Rohit Kapoor: So Ryan, let me add a couple of things to this. Number one, there is nothing as onetime revenue in the first quarter. This is part of our normal progression of our business and we’re very happy to see both digital operations and analytics start to grow and kind of performed well. Number two, on a quarterly basis, we would expect year-on-year growth rate to continue to improve as we go forward in 2024. Obviously, quarter-on-quarter growth rate in Q1 was exceptionally high over Q4 of 2023, but we still expect to see quarter-on-quarter growth in absolute dollar terms in 2024. Though the percentage growth rate quarter-on-quarter is going to be lower than the 5% that we experienced in Q1. So I hope that’s helpful to you to understand how we’re seeing our business.

Ryan Potter: Yes, that’s helpful. I guess kind of shifting to the digital ops business, where our performance center has been very impressive and you’ve consistently outperformed peers and seem to outperform some of your expectations. I guess what would you attribute some of the largest drivers of this outperformance to be? Do you think it’s more reflective of the more cost-focused demand environment? Or do you believe you’re gaining momentum and taking share in the marketplace here?

Rohit Kapoor: Sure. I think it’s because of a couple of different fundamental factors that are driving the growth, and we are very pleased with our digital operations and solutions business growing at 12% in this quarter year-on-year. And for the past several quarters, continuing to grow at these elevated levels. First and foremost is our ability to integrate in digital with operations and analytics with operations that creates ability for us to win much more in terms of the pipeline and drive the growth rate of this business a lot faster. The second part of this is we are winning larger deals, and the average deal size has increased for us because clients now expect us to create business impact across a larger part of that portfolio and to handle the business for them end to end.

And the third part of this is because we come at it from a lens of applying domain, data and AI, our ability to go into new buying centers within the same clients and with new prospective clients is a lot better. So frankly, the integration of digital and analytics with operations where we believe we are very strongly positioned and uniquely positioned, the larger deal size and the ability to go into new buying centers is allowing us to grow the digital operations and solutions business at a faster rate. And this is basically our business model, resonating very strongly with our clients and for us to stand out in the marketplace.

Ryan Potter: Great. Understood, thanks again.

Operator: And thank you. And one moment for our next question. And our next question comes from Maggie Nolan from William and Blair. Your line is now open.

Margaret Nolan: Thanks. Maybe just piggybacking off of that conversation around digital ops. Can you talk about recent volume and pricing trends in the digital ops business? And any kind of recent or updated thoughts on the health of key client accounts in that business?

Rohit Kapoor: Sure, Maggie. So first of all, we are very fortunate that the portfolio that we have in our business and digital operations is in very steady and stable industry sectors. So for us, our insurance are emerging and our health care business verticals, these are stable and growth-oriented verticals. And so we’re not really seeing any change in volume in these verticals. We’re seeing continued traction take place in terms of the growth and the volume in these verticals. As far as pricing is concerned, that is something that we are seeing some of our competitors work on trying to use price as a lever, but our focus with our clients has always been about how can we deliver exceptional value to them and then be able to charge them appropriately for that.

So, our existing clients know the execution and the value delivery that we have demonstrated to them. So they continue to give us more volume of business. But there are times with new customers where we do get challenged on pricing because some of our competitors are resorting to a lower pricing given their lower growth rates and that’s something where we have to stand out and differentiate and be able to demonstrate our capabilities on digital, on analytics and the ability to create overall better value for the client.

Margaret Nolan: Got it. Thank you. And then on the full year guidance, I heard the commentary that you expect the sequential growth, and that’s great to hear. I’m wondering what part of the business would provide the upside to get you to the high end of the guidance. Is it a recovery in the marketing analytics? Is it additional wins in digital ops, a combination, how do you get there? And what are some of the assumptions baked into the higher end of that guidance range?

Rohit Kapoor: Sure. As you know, digital operations for us represents 55% of our business, and it’s a very stable and a very steady growth-oriented business for us. And any new wins that we have out there tend to have a revenue impact in outer quarters and outer years. So there isn’t very much that we would expect in our digital operations business momentum to change. The big change could happen in our analytics business, and certainly, with some of the engagements that we’ve started to undertake with our clients around Gen AI, I think those are the two opportunity areas for us to be able to try and get to the top end of the range for the guidance that we have provided.

Margaret Nolan: Thank you very much.

Operator: And thank you. And one moment for our next question. And our next question comes from Surinder Thind from Jefferies LLC. Your line is now open.

Surinder Thind: Thank you. In terms of just looking at some of the Gen AI implementations or the potential types of projects that you’re working on? Obviously, there were some good demonstrations on the AI Webinar Day. Can you talk about, for example, like in the customer service area or others where I think there’s been some concerns around headcount reductions, how is that model evolving from like, what kind of productivity are you guys able to provide at this point? Or do you have any benchmarking or data, how we should think about the value that a client is receiving at this point?