Marc Riddick: So I was sort of curious as to – I just want to sort of follow up on that thread the types of projects that folks are beginning to act on. Is there any particular type that you are seeing as far as what those first initial kind of like loosening of funds is being put toward? And then, maybe if you could share whether that’s seemingly coming from any particular customer industry vertical that stands out to you as far as being, you know, more willing to put money to work now.
Vivek Gupta: Marc, what we are seeing is more generic and general across all industries, and I don’t think it’s, you know, some industries more than the other. Banking, of course, as you know, was hit quite badly the banking industry. And they were really holding back quite a bit in the previous year, 2023. And that – they have now started spending on IT services. Now, what kind of projects they are, there are all kinds out there, but I think I would like to use the same distinction that I made a minute ago, which is, you know, you have to keep the lights on, so you are maintaining what you already have. That never stopped. That didn’t stop in 2023 either. It was really building the bank or building the company or building the enterprise for the future, so the new initiatives, the new developments for competitive advantage and growth, some of those were being held back.
And it was beginning to, I guess, impact their businesses. So customers are now beginning to look at the build the business side of IT. I don’t know if that answers your question.
Marc Riddick: No, that’s helpful. And then, I wanted to sort of make sure I got this right. So you mentioned as far as the pickup in consultant count, where did you end the quarter on consultant count?
Vivek Gupta: Jack, do you have the number there?
Jack Cronin: Yes, I do have it. Give me a sec. Yes, for total consultants – for total headcount, for the company, we were a little over 1,700. Our global consultants in our IT Staffing Services was 1,004, up 58 consultants from the previous quarter.
Marc Riddick: Okay, okay, that’s helpful. And then, you seemed to signal in an earlier – in one of Lisa’s questions that it’s maybe a little bit higher since the end of the quarter, correct?
Vivek Gupta: Yes, Yes. I mean, April was positive, yes.
Marc Riddick: Okay, okay, great. And then, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the pricing dynamic that you’re seeing out there bill rates and the like? I mean, is there much in the way of meaningful push back as far as pricing? Or what are you experiencing now, and has that changed since the year began?
Vivek Gupta: So the pricing pressures are always there, and I guess they intensified in 2023. They still haven’t gone away, but as spending has started, customers do realize that you know, you need – if you’re looking for better consultants or better services, then the price point in the marketplace is, you know, because of inflation and otherwise, the rates are going up. And, by and large, the customers are receptive to looking at that for the right candidates. I’m talking more on the IT staffing side. So the pricing pressures are there, but they are not what’s the word I’m looking for? They are not unduly, impacting our business strength.
Marc Riddick: Okay. And then, the last one for me, the pickup in gross margin in Data and Analytics year-over-year, you know, it was about 800 basis points there. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about that gross margin pickup. Is that – or how much of that may be – are we talking about – I would imagine there is a little bit of everything. But, you know, how much of that is increased utilization? How much of that is revenue mix? What should be looking at there as far as that gross margin pickup in data and whether that has an opportunity to continue, going forward? Thanks.
Vivek Gupta: So Marc, there were basically two reasons why our gross margins improved as compared to the same quarter last year. The first one was the actual project execution, so you know, I said we’ve continued our focus on the delivery performance. It’s looking at, how do we deliver the projects to our customers with better gross margins? And that obviously means better utilization. Also the second thing which impacted us last year was we had a large bench. So we are doing very tight bench management, which obviously doesn’t mean that, you know, you bring the bench down to zero. You know, you always have to be a little ahead of the need of the people because people have to be brought onboard, they have to be trained and ready for when the projects actually start.
So I think we are doing a much better job of the bench management, much better job of utilization, and much better job of doing a better – getting better gross margins out of the project in execution. So it’s a bit of many of these things. I don’t know if that answers your question. Jack, is there anything else that you’d like to comment on this?
Jack Cronin: Yes, our margins right now are about 46.5%. Q1 of last year was a disaster. It was 38.5%. I wouldn’t even use that as a benchmark. We always target 45%, so we’re 140 basis points better than our benchmark target. And I would say, about – if I had to split it between utilization improvement and just better margins and better delivery, I would say it’s one-third utilization and two-thirds project margins.
