Agilysys, Inc. (NASDAQ:AGYS) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Ramesh Srinivasan: I would say it was in sync with the plan. And if anything, it was slightly above, but it was in sync with the plan. So the reason why Nehal, we have kept the guidance, we reiterated the guidance, is that everything seems to be going according to plan, if anything slightly ahead of plan, but whatever the sales we were expecting for the year, we are well on our way towards achieving it is how it seems slightly based on the Q1 start we have. And we provide – we think of plans on an annual basis, Nehal. That’s how we think. We don’t try to predict quarter after quarter because that can go a little bit up and down. But when you think about our annual plan, good start to the year. So we are comfortable with the start we have made.

Nehal Chokshi: And just remind me, what is the current lag – average lag between when you broken ACV dollar to when it actually starts especially on the recurring revenue line?

Ramesh Srinivasan: Yes, that could vary from project to project, Nehal. Like you know, the large project we have talked about, that’s going to take a year or two. Sometimes we go live – we generally revenue recognized or we recognize revenue after it is implemented on site. That is how we normally do it. While hardware, of course, you recognize when you ship it and it has reached them, software you recognize it when we ship them. But the recurring revenue, we recognize it only after the go-lives get done. And those implementations can vary. Some projects could happen in a matter of weeks. Some projects could take two, three months and sometimes it could take six months. It just depends Nehal. And a lot of the implementations we are working through now are what has been sold in the previous quarter and so on and so forth, right? So that could vary from project to project Nehal.

Nehal Chokshi: Yes. Okay. Great. So what sort of threshold in ACV bookings do you guys have to hit in terms of year-over-year growth in the upcoming next two quarters in order for you guys to say, hey, we now see our revenue being above current guidance or for being below the current guidance?

Ramesh Srinivasan: Yes. So when you look at the sales this year, how it has gone in Q1 so far, it’s a good start. If anything, it’s a little bit better than what we were bargaining for. So it’s a good start. So we feel comfortable about the revenue guidance we have given now. If it continues to go according to plan, I would say we will stay in sync with the revenue guidance we have given. If it does much better than what we are bargaining for, for the year, then we will see. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Nehal Chokshi: Okay. Got it. And then you talked about the increase of contribution to ACV bookings for representatives less than 2.5 year in tenure. Why you said 2.5 year tenure cutoff for this metric?

Ramesh Srinivasan: No particular reason, Nehal. So we keep track of sales productivity across our whole sales team. And the way it sort of works out is when you look at our quota carrying sales people across the world, it just – you have to draw the line somewhere. And when we looked at about the top half of the team, they have been – they’re a long tenure with us, like seven, eight, 10 years, 15 years kind of tenure they have with us. And then we just drew the line at about half the team size, and that’s where we came up with the 2.5 years. And after COVID, in terms of expansion of the sales teams, started happening a couple of years ago. That is why we drew the line there. No particular scientific to that but it’s a pretty good indication, right?