Chantelle Breithaupt: Yes. I think that we’ve seen the amount we expected to see in Q1. If you remember, I said it would kind of come in over a few quarters, and the Q1 met what we expected from the Q4 from those countries that paid late. So I think it was absolutely in line, and we’re definitely pleased with our Q1 free cash flow performance.
Mark Schappel: Thank you. Great.
Chantelle Breithaupt: Thank you.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Nay Soe Naing with Berenberg. Your line is open.
Nay Soe Naing: Hi both, hi thank you for taking the questions. I’ve got two, if I may. If I could start with the strategic investments that you mentioned, please. I was wondering if you could share a bit more color on which parts of the business that you’re investing into? And also the high-velocity sales force, are there any particular opportunities that the sales organization is pursuing? And then my second question is on the divisional or segmental performance of the business. I think if I heard you correctly, I think you mentioned the engineering was — had a really strong quarter, up about 13% year-on-year, so wondering if I could get some high-level segmental update for the rest of the business, please. Thank you.
Antonio Pietri: Go ahead Chantelle, do you want to lever?
Chantelle Breithaupt: Yes. I just didn’t want it. So I think from an investment perspective, we’re pleased with a few very specific areas of investment. The first one you mentioned is the high velocity sales, and there, as we ramp that headcount through the year, we’re very much seeing those kind of new logos that we mentioned, some of the start-ups, new ventures, which are very exciting for us as new growth. And the land and expand opportunities for some of the other plays that we’re seeing, so definitely high velocity sales for those two factors. The other investment area that we continue to ever since Q4 is the DGM business, mostly rest of world with an intent on Europe. So we’re pleased on the sense of the investments we’ve made for sales going into Europe and the team that’s been built out there and continues to work with closed pipelines.
And then the third investment that’s related to sales is setting up the services ecosystem for DGM. And so that’s related to sales, to delivering the sales, and those are the three specific ones. And we’re pleased with the growth we can get with those things being enabled. I think from a segment perspective, if I understood your question correctly, so we commented that this quarter was the highest growth for engineering over the last 13, not specifically given the amount that you quoted. But generally, the concept there is we’re very pleased with the engineering growth. We don’t usually disclose segments on a quarterly basis, but Antonio, maybe you could provide some anecdotal commentary?
Antonio Pietri: Yes. Well, I mean, look, I’ll just stay at a high level. But certainly, significant increasing headcount is going into DGM, both field sales as we expand internationally into Europe. But we’re also adding some head count in other parts as well, Latin America, the Middle East, South Asia. Aftermarket sales, which in a way, it’s mostly an inside sales organization as well for DGM. We’re making a significant investment in that area. Look, we’re increasing the number of enterprise sales consultants for HAT because we believe there’s a bigger opportunity that will start flowing through for HAT as a result of also sustainability and the combination of sustainability use cases with our traditional technology. And then a material increase in the overall number of headcount in the company.
And it takes a while to make all these people productive, but that’s also something that we focused on, the sales enablement and how do we accelerate that. And as a matter of fact, I’ll also say that we’ve learned from Emerson since they have a much bigger sales organization, how they’ve scaled sales enablement. And that’s sort of a best practice that we’ve been able to take from our relationship with Emerson. So I’m very encouraged, and it’s an exciting time in AspenTech at the moment.
Nay Soe Naing: Understood. Thank you very much both.
Chantelle Breithaupt: Thank you.
Operator: I show no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to Antonio for closing remarks.
Antonio Pietri: Thank you, operator. Look, I’d like to highlight here to close. Again, we believe in our ability to deliver on our guidance for the year, our ability to grow double-digit ACV growth and at least 11.5%. We’re very encouraged by the macro indicators in – across most of our industries. And as I said, chemicals looks like it’s improving the macro demand for bulk chemical producers. So that’s good. As I travel around the world to talk to DGM customers or SSE customers, I just marvel at how now relevant Aspen technologies is for global electrification and the role we are playing, and we will be increasingly playing in that area. I think sustainability is real. Certainly, some regions of the world are making bigger investments at this moment than others.
But overall, the sustainability CapEx is starting to flow. And eventually, there will be OpEx with that, which will benefit our business, our MSC, APM suites. And then overall, look, very confident. There’s a lot of work happening here. Now it’s about execution and expansion. And then focusing in the remaining time that we have in the fiscal year to exceed your expectations. So with that, I want to thank you all, and look forward to talking at some point in the future.
Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
