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

So based on the visibility that we have right now, we’re expecting a strong health care season in the back half of the year. That’s why we’ve reiterated our guidance.

Unidentified Analyst: Got it. That makes sense. And then for my follow-up, I just wanted to clarify, do you expect to return to providing quarterly guidance maybe when the doses settled or the cards are gone here over a multiyear period?

Kenny Wagers: Yes, Jesse, as I’ve stepped in here in the last 2 months, and again, as I reiterated, as we look at this transitional year, we’re not going to revisit that during 2024. But we’ll take a look at it at the end of this year moving into 2025 to see if we return back to quarterly in the upcoming years. But for the balance of this year, we’re going to stick to the full year.

Unidentified Analyst: Got it. Thanks, again.

Ken Tuchman: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] we will take our next question from Cassie Chan of Bank of America. Your line is now open.

Cassie Chan: Hey, guys. Thanks for talking my question. First, I know you said you kind of provide some maybe directional commentary on the quarter. Can you just give us a little bit more detail around that for both the revenue margin side and UPS?

Kenny Wagers: Hi, Cassie, good morning. What I would say from a commentary standpoint is just right now, as we see Q2 and as we see the second half of this year, I’m just going to continue to reiterate where we are guiding for the full year. We’re reiterating where we’re going to land on the full year towards the midpoint. And that’s the extent of where we’re at today from a commentary standpoint.

Cassie Chan: Okay. Got it. And then I guess in terms of onshore, offshore demand? Any change in terms of some of the client conversations with the posture of client conversations that you’re having? Maybe any commentary on pricing as well? Thank you.

Shelly Swanback: Hi, Cassie. Well, I would just say – let me take the second part of your question first. Certainly, in a competitive environment. We’re probably hearing that from everybody. You might have heard me say in my prepared remarks that two-thirds of the new business that we’re winning from new clients is to be delivered offshore. A lot of that, by the way, in our new geographies. So we continue to be pleased with the demand that we’re seeing, particularly, I would probably point out South Africa. I mentioned one of our new healthcare logos is taking advantage of our capabilities there in South Africa. So I’d say continue to see strong demand from new clients for our offshore capabilities. And then with our embedded base clients, we’re beginning really, I would say, across industry verticals with the exception of public sector beginning to have conversations and add new lines of business with our existing clients, leveraging our offshore footprint.

I’d say in financial services, it tends to be more nearshore. So some of the locations that we’ve added in Latin America, where many others, we still see some demand in Philippines, but also as I said, South Africa, getting a lot of attention, a lot of demand and a lot of interest in terms of some of the opportunities in our pipeline.

Cassie Chan: Got it. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Vincent Colicchio of Barrington Research. Your line is now open.

Vincent Colicchio: Yes. Kenny, Shelly, are you – in terms of the new clients you’re attracting, are a good number new to outsourcing, which may be signaling an expansion in the market penetration potential, which is I think a part of a positive thesis?

Shelly Swanback: Yes. And – so I would say it’s a mix, actually. So we definitely have a couple of wins that we had. Actually, in Q4 and Q1 together, we had a couple of companies that are new to outsourcing, absolutely. Just like we talked about last quarter, interesting, some of these clients are going straight to places like South Africa, right? Many are also taking advantage of our nearshore footprint. So a mix for sure. We also – some of the enterprise logos that we’ve won recently, one of the things I’m excited about is actually they might have been doing outsourcing already, but they are choosing an approach where maybe they are consolidating their vendor footprint looking for something a bit different in terms of vertical expertise, technology-enabled solutions, and the like and adding us as a partner to their network.

And so part of what we’ve been talking about here in terms of the lag effect is some of these new enterprises were starting small in terms of the original scope of work, but we see ample room for growth and scale in the work that they’re hiring us for here at the beginning, but also expanding into different lines of business. In fact, there’s a couple of financial services clients that we’ve just recently won and we’re literally in the midst of launching our first set of services with them and already talking to them about new lines of business. So I see that as very, very pleased with the quality of logos that we’re adding to our client portfolio.

Vincent Colicchio: And curious in the AI situations where you’re improving agent productivity, are there currently discussions about sharing in the economic improvement with your clients?

Shelly Swanback: Lots of discussions. I mean, in some cases – in some cases, we’re bringing the technology just as part of our services, so we can provide good quality services and be able to reduce attrition and some of the things that help us and help the client. In other cases, we have clients who are deploying technology and we’re adopting the technologies that they have in their environment. So I would say certainly a mix. But we’re very pleased with this Let Me Know solution that I mentioned earlier, and it’s still early days.

Vincent Colicchio: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question is coming from the line of Jonathan Lee of Guggenheim Securities. Your line is now open.

Jonathan Lee: Great. Thanks. Kenny, good to be working with you. It’s encouraging to hear about your offshore progress. As you scale your offshore footprint, what gives you confidence that offshore shift on cannibalize onshore volumes outside of your regulated industries particularly in an environment of bill tightening?

Shelly Swanback: I’m sorry, particularly an environment of what?

Jonathan Lee: Bill tightening and budget tightening.