Q4 2020 Forrester Research Inc Earnings Call

February 11, 2021

[music].

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining today's call with me today are George Colony, Forrester as chairman of the board and CEO Kelley Hippler Forrester as Chief sales Officer, Mike Doyle, Forrester, as Chief Financial Officer, and Scotch and art.

Orange stars Chief Accounting Officer, George will open the call Kelley will follow George to discuss sales and Mike and Scott will discuss our financials. We'll then open the call to Q&A a.

A replay of this call will be available until March 17, 2021, and can be accessed by dialing 85859, 2056, or four zero or $5 37, and three 406. Please reference the conference I'd 92 O 790 797.

Before we begin I'd like to remind you that this call will contain forward looking statements within the meaning of the private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1095.

Words, such as expects believes anticipates intends plans estimates or similar expressions are intended to identify these forward looking statements. These statements are based on the company's current plans and expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause future activities and results of operations to be materially different from those set forth and the forward looking statements.

Some of the important factors that could cause actual results to differ are discussed in our reports and filings with the securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward looking statements whether as a result of new information future events or otherwise I'll now hand, the call over to George colony.

Thank you for joining the call.

After my overview Kelley Hippler, Forrester CSO will summarize sales results and progress.

Mike Doyle, our CFO will give an in depth financial review of Q4, and the full year, Scott Chouinard Forrester as Chief Accounting Officer, who will conclude with guidance for Q1 and for full year 2021, We will then take questions.

My remarks on two sections number one I will summarize 2020 and two I will look ahead to our plan for 2021 in particular the expansion of contract value.

Turning first to 2020.

And the fourth quarter, we beat revenue guidance by $4 6 million and EPS by <unk> <unk>.

Our bookings velocity increase sequentially in Q3, and Q4 with a very strong finish in December.

Client count increased in the fourth quarter.

And Richard and was up from the third quarter and agreement value increased quarter over quarter.

Now it was not the year that we had planned for but if you had told me on March 20th that we would and with these results would have been quite happy given the uncertainties of the early pandemic.

Fortunately for the company and its and its investors Forrester as a business that's fully productive in the virtual world.

And given that the pandemic challenged companies to accelerate their technology efforts, our research gained value during the crisis.

Challenging times and stimulate demand for research as companies struggled to quickly adapt to new facts on the ground and new customer behavior.

And I have called these times the Golden age of research.

And as our clients turn to us for how to win and retain customers during the pandemic.

And how to ship their workforces to be virtual and how to prepare themselves for a post pandemic digital world.

I would now like to give a few highlights across our three areas of business research consulting and events.

And research active client readership increased year over year.

Webinar attendance was up 88%.

Analysts' inquiries pieces of 30 to 60 minute client meetings conducted by analysts were up 6%.

So Goodyear and research.

Our consulting business performed well and 2020.

The consulting portfolio revenue grew 27% in the fourth quarter. The total economic impact consulting products grew by 38% year over year in Q4.

Overall, the entire consulting portfolio grew 16% and 2020 compared to 2019, highlighting our ability to balance capacity across teams and geographies and deliver growth during economic uncertainty.

As you know all Forrester events in 2020 were delivered virtually we did not cancel any scheduled events and we delivered our full portfolio of 11 global forums and summits.

Paid attendance attendance at our virtual events was 14% higher debt was for our 2019 physical events and feedback scores outpaced in person events.

In the year there were over 200000 views of streamed sessions.

Employee attrition and the year was at historically low levels.

And this is a positive signal for our business and 'twenty 'twenty one as we entered the year with the highest number of rent sales reps and tenured analysts and consultants and our history.

Forrester placed number 32, among large U S companies on glass doors annual best places to work list on <unk>.

Or that will help our talent acquisition efforts in the coming year.

I want to turn now to 2021.

The biggest change for the year will be the company's laser focus on expanding contract value the value of Forrester is annual recurring revenue from research.

We define TV products and services that our clients use periodically over a year's time and.

And renew on a yearly basis.

In 2021, we are planning to grow CV bookings by double digit rates.

The consistent expansion of contract value is attractive to investors as a result, and predictable and profitable revenue streams.

And passengers, we attracted syndicated revenue and agreement value for investors. These are being replaced by the more conventional and simpler C V.

There are four components to CV grows one currency vs renewed at high levels.

Tension of contracts forms the base for growth.

Two additional CV services are sold to existing clients. This is what we formerly referred to as enrichment.

Three new clients on on with Forrester and.

And for Forrester acquired other companies, adding those contracts to our portfolio and of course. The latest example here is serious decisions.

The delta between starting and ending C V is CV growth or net contract value increase.

The terminology and concept is familiar to investors, who follow the research and SaaS spaces.

Now, how low CV growth and prove the long term prospects of Forrester and drive shareholder value.

Our CV grows earnings and free cash will increase.

We will invest this cash in one the sales and marketing engine.

To research products and three acquisitions.

And more powerful sales engine, coupled with enhanced CV products and acquired contracts will enable forrester to grow CV at faster rates generating increased cash, which we will then reinvest continuing the cycle.

In 'twenty and 'twenty, one will be introducing three new metrics for investors one CV growth.

This is the year over year value of all active subscription based contracts at a specific point in time compared to the prior year.

And we'll be reporting on this quarterly.

Two while our retention the total contract value of current clients, who were clients a year ago divided by the total contract value from the prior year.

And finally number three CV client retention and the number of current CD clients, who are clients a year ago.

Guided by the total number of CV clients in the prior year.

In 2021, the company will take a number of actions to drive CV growth.

During the year, we will roll out a new CD research service and we spent much of 'twenty and 'twenty developing.

And I'll be updating investors on this product in future calls.

In addition, we will be enhancing existing research products with new value and new digital features.

Forrester now has six internal and two outsourced digital development groups dedicated to creating and enhancing our CV products.

We will intensify the cross sell between the Sirius decisions and the Forrester client bases accelerating wallet retention.

Our serious decisions research product for BTB marketing sales and product management.

Rebounded in the second half of 'twenty and 'twenty as cross sell increased and the full sales force was able to show the synergy between the vision and strategy research of Forrester and the execution research of serious.

The sales force is structured to achieve the company goal of double digit CV bookings growth in 2021.

Sales compensation awards and incentives are now focused on achieving CV targets and they are a large number of rent and tenured reps were skilled at placing contracts.

Our customer success organization, which is now 180 strong gives us leverage to increase retention rates and Kelly is going to get more color and her remarks.

Forrester consulting and events businesses, our focus on leveraging their activities to increase CV growth.

Whereas that used consulting renew their CV services at 15% higher rates than the average client.

Prospects that are 10 to Forrester former summit convert to a C V contract at 14% at higher rates than average.

And finally feedback now Forrester as venture to enable companies to measure and improve customer experience and real time is poised to grow and C V in 'twenty 'twenty one.

We have developed touchless Smiley boxes for the post pandemic World and we have quickly sold out of these devices.

The new regime of cleanliness and customer feedback, which will not abate with the pay net because over is driving demand for real time, and we are prepared to deliver this year.

And we just signed the largest feedback now deal ever a multimillion dollar contract with a large government agency.

And a final note on CV because of the challenges posed by the pandemic and 2020 CV growth will ramp from low to high as we move through the year and replace contracts that were lost in 'twenty, 'twenty, one and Mike and Scott will give more detail and their remarks.

I wanted to and by summarizing <unk> financial position.

In 2020, we generated over $47 million of cash from operations, allowing us to increase the cash on our balance sheet by over $22 million, while paying down over $23 million of debt.

We currently have $90 million of cash and we expect to continue to generate strong cash flow in 'twenty and 'twenty one.

So to conclude.

For interest successfully manage its way through the pandemic in 2020.

We are laser focused on growing contract value bookings by double digits in 'twenty and 'twenty, one through CV tuned sales engine and new and improved C D products.

In short we stayed on the offense and 2020 and that mindset continues to 2021.

And the pandemic is not yet over and the global economy remains uneven. So we will remain fiscally vigilant.

That said Forrester was at and strong financial position and we are ready to resume our voyage to $1 billion and revenue.

The post pandemic world will be more digital favoring our value proposition of helping business and technology and technology leaders used customer obsession to accelerate growth.

So I hope that you're all staying well and that your families are safe and now I'm going to pass the call over to Kelley Hippler Forrester as Chief sales Officer Kelly.

Thank you charge have on.

On a reiterate how much we appreciate the efforts of our global Forrester team to focus on our clients first we've been by our client side and on their side, helping them navigate change innovate and grow throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

As George said, our clients need Forrester as insights now more than ever and we are proud and honored to be their trusted strategic partner today.

Today I want to spend a few minutes discussing two things number one our strong 2020 close and number two our laser focus on driving double digit contract value bookings growth in 'twenty 'twenty one.

So number one and our strong 2020 close.

The Forrester sales team showed tremendous resilience throughout 'twenty and 'twenty. This culminated in a strong Q4 bookings performance of 8% growth versus the prior year.

Several key performance indicators improved over prior quarter, including agreement value 12 month, rolling enrichment client count and average ramp rep productivity.

I'll highlight a few examples of our Q4 wins and renewals.

And user clients renewed contracts worth over $1 million, which highlights the value of and need for Forrester research across multiple disciplines.

We also continue to secure long term contracts. One example is a three year 7.2 million dollar renewal with a large U S financial services company Who's been leveraging Forrester research to help guide its digital transformation.

New business was also strong in Q4 as we closed several six figure new business deals, including a three year deal with the I T Department of a health care provider worth over $630000.

We saw strong performance across our sales organization, which sells to high tech companies under $1 billion with our sales force fully ramped they increased the number of joint Forrester and serious decisions contracts. We grew the contract value or CV of one of our long standing software clients by 67%.

And over $270000 by including both product lines.

In addition, our pipeline conversion was four eight points higher than prior year, and we have to our attrition rate on quota carriers from 2019 levels to set us up for success in 'twenty and 'twenty, one which brings me to number two our laser focus on driving double digit contract value bookings growth in 'twenty 'twenty one.

As George discussed Forrester as aligning the entire organization to drive contract value growth that requires some changes to how we operate and within sales and customer success, specifically, we're prioritizing four imperatives to accelerate our CV growth mission.

Number one improve client retention and the single greatest lever to drive contract value is improving our client retention rates. The transformations that clients look to Forrester to help guide our multi year journeys, we will continue to position multiyear deals as our standard miles per engagement.

We've also been working to automate a number of our client journeys to expedite the onboarding process. So we can deliver value sooner and the customer lifecycle with Forrester.

Number two increased client acquisition, we are partnering with marketing on demand generation aligned to key buying centers across technology marketing customer experience sales and product functions.

Our audience centered approach coupled with a win back program that is targeted to clients lost during the pandemic will drive contract value by increasing our client count.

Number three enhanced digital selling and engagement, we continue to leverage our tech stack across sales and customer success to effectively engage with clients and prospects.

And as we evolve our outreach we continue to engage on a more personal level to support our clients' most important initiatives to help drive business results and their personal success.

And finally number four drive ecosystem alignment are serious decisions research shows that companies with alignment across sales marketing and product grow 19% faster and our 15% more profitable.

To that and we have implemented the Sirius decisions demand waterfall internally.

The demand waterfall is a serious decision strategic framework that defines a shared view between marketing and sales of the lead management process and the health of new business related activities.

Waterfall analysis measures the efficiency velocity and throughput of leads.

This insight is leverage and marketing and sales activities to help model measure and improve our marketing campaigns and lead management processes.

As we focus on double digit contract value growth.

And we will deliver on our core value proposition of helping business and technology leaders create customer obsessed organization that drive growth.

Our own research shows that customer experience differentiation is the key to post pandemic success, and we will continue helping our clients to build strategies and execute programs to differentiate their brands based on customer experience.

With that I will turn the call over to Mike Doyle.

Thanks, Kelly and.

And then I'm going to review Foresters financial performance for the fourth quarter of 2020.

Including a look at our financial results the balance sheet at December 31st.

Our fourth quarter metrics and as Scott Schneider will provide the outlook for the first quarter and full year 2021.

Please note that the income statement figures. We review on this call are non-GAAP results, which referred to as adjusted results and exclude those items mentioned in our press release today.

For the fourth quarter, Forrester and delivered adjusted revenue and earnings per share and exceeded the upper end of guidance and operating margin which met guidance.

The momentum and our business has continued to accelerate with fourth quarter bookings increasing to high single digit growth levels versus prior year.

It's Kelly discussed we had excellent performance from our sales organizations as all sales and regions achieved their target for the fourth quarter and we saw on new business rebound, resulting in a net increase and client count versus the prior quarter.

Revenue performance for the quarter was led by reprints and content marketing offerings, which have grown at double digit rates every quarter of 2020.

Our core Forrester research service and executive programs performed better than targeted levels as did our north American strategy consulting business.

Expenses were up slightly to prior year levels due to higher employee compensation costs offset by continued savings and travel and entertainment.

With strong revenue performance and continued check on expenses EPS exceeded the upper end of guidance.

As we look back at the full year, the second quarter was the low point and our bookings activity declining significantly versus prior year.

Bookings for the full year were down versus 2019, we've seen a steady improvement and acceleration and our business since the end of the second quarter.

Forrester finished 2020 with revenue that exceeded our revised guidance and EPS that met the top end of our revised guidance.

Now, let me turn to a more detailed review of our fourth quarter results.

Fourth quarter revenue decreased by 4%.

Compared to the fourth quarter of last year research revenue declined by 6%.

<unk> revenue increased by 10% and events revenue decreased by 48%.

Operating expenses for the fourth quarter increased by 2% driven by a higher average headcount and merit increases that were issued early in the year.

Higher bonuses that were partially restored and 2020 and higher professional services.

These increases were materially offset by lower travel and entertainment expenses due to travel restrictions and lower event production costs due to our move to virtual events.

Indeed head count was up only nominally compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.

Operating income was $11 1 million or nine 2% of revenue compared to $17 5 million or 14% of revenue and the fourth quarter of 2019.

Interest expense for the quarter was $1 2 million as compared to $1 7 million and the fourth quarter of 2019 due to reduce debt and interest rates in the quarter.

Net income for the quarter was $6 6 million and earnings per share was 35.

Compared with net income of $10 7 million and earnings per share of 57, and the fourth quarter of 2019.

Our business is key metrics reflect some improvement and the fourth quarter as agreement value client count and enrichment, all improved compared to the third quarter.

We have not yet returned to 2019 levels, but we're pleased with how these indicators are trending we provided details on today's earnings release.

Yeah.

Now I'd like to review the balance sheet.

Our cash at December 31, and 2020 was $90 3 million, which is an increase of $22 4 million from the end of 2019.

Cash from operations was $18 6 million for the quarter as compared to $2 8 million and the fourth quarter of last year.

For the full year, we generated $47 $8 million of cash from operations, which we are pleased with and the economic environment and it is down just 1% from the strong cash flow we generated in 2019.

Debt payments were $2 3 million during the quarter and $23 4 million for the year, which includes $14 million of payments to fully pay down our line of credit.

Property and equipment purchases were $1 6 million for the quarter compared to three and a half million for the fourth quarter of last year.

Accounts receivable at December 31, 2020 was $84 7 million compared to $84 6 million as of December 31, and 2019 with accounts receivable over 90 days at 3% at December 31, and 2020 compared to 6% as of December 31 and 2019.

This is a remarkable collections performance and a difficult economic environment.

Deferred revenue at December 31, 2020 was $180 million essentially flat from the prior year.

So in summary from the low point at the end of May we experienced steady improvement and acceleration and our bookings and the third and fourth quarters.

The pandemic has placed increased demands on our clients to have strong digital platforms for both the front and back office and increasing demand for our products and services.

Our financial results reflect that improvement with revenue and EPS exceeding our revised guidance, we issued at the end of the third quarter.

Cash flow finished strong on our balance sheet ended with more cash and less debt and we had at the start of the year.

More importantly, with our most important asset our people we ended the year with low attrition.

We made a conscious decision early in the pandemic to retain our people. So we were staff for growth, which has paid off and particular with our sales organization. We believe we start the year with head count necessary to deliver our 2021 and bookings plan.

While the bookings shortfall and the first half of 2020 will have an impact on revenue and the first half of 2021, which Scott will address we and the year well positioned for a very successful 2021.

I will now turn the call over to Scott.

Thanks, Mike and before I get into our guidance for 2021 and want to discuss the metrics that we'll be reporting beginning with our first quarter earnings release as George mentioned, we will be laser focused on growing contract value and 2021, and we'll be updating our metrics accordingly.

And we involve a few changes.

<unk> will be replacing our current agreement value metric with contract value.

The contract value metric will measure the annualized value of our recurring research products.

We'll also quantify our client retention metric to measure CV client activity only.

And we'll introduce a new metric called the wallet retention, which will measure the amount of C. D that is retained and enriched over a 12 month period.

We plan to publish historical C D and retention metrics and the first quarter, so that you'd be able to see the trends and the business.

And speaking to the trends the booking shortfall during 2020 that Mike mentioned, we will have a negative effect on CV growth and the early part of the year.

However, with our focus on double digit C. D bookings this year, we should see meaningful growth and TV and the second half of the year with growth rates and the high single digits.

Yeah.

Net regarding our 'twenty 'twenty, one guidance, we're projecting about a point lift on revenue and expenses from foreign currency rates, and 2021, which will have a small negative effect on both operating income and margins.

We are expecting a second half recovery and the economy and are planning for a hybrid event experience and the second half of the year, which will be a mix of in person and virtual experiences.

And lastly, and wanted to comment on the expected trending of our financial results for 2021.

As you know with a subscription business book.

<unk> recover faster than revenue.

And our revenues and the first half of the year will be impacted by the the decline and subscription bookings during the middle of last year.

This will compress margins and EPS during the first half of 2021 as compared to 2020.

Actually since we had significant cost cuts and the first half of 2020.

However, we should generate improved year over year operating margins and EPS and the second half of 2021 and would expect that trend to continue into 2022.

And we've provided guidance on a GAAP basis and listed the items excluded from our adjusted guidance and a press release and 8-K filed today.

Our first quarter 'twenty and 'twenty one guidance on an adjusted basis is as follows.

Revenues of $104 million to $108 million operating margin of 5% to 7%.

And effective tax rate of 31%.

And diluted earnings per share of 15 to 21 cents.

Our full year 2021 guidance on an adjusted basis is as follows.

Revenues of 466 to 476 million on.

Operating margin of 10% to 11% and effective tax rate of 31 per cent and diluted earnings per share of $1 50 to $1 60.

Thank you very much and I will now turn the call over to the operator for the Q&A portion of the call.

Thank you.

As a reminder to ask a question on your press Star one on your telephone to withdraw your question press the pound key.

Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster.

Our first question comes from Andrew Nicholas with William Blair. You May proceed with your question.

Hi, good afternoon.

Congrats on the Senate and briefly but I, just wanted to dig and a little bit to the operating margin guidance it sounds like revenue.

Dynamics and the first half of the year, our one headwind.

But I wanted to kind of just make sure I understand the different puts and takes on on the margin outlook relative to last year.

How much in the way of temporary cost savings from last year, maybe I've been traveling and entertainment are coming back online and then to kind of wrap up this question.

Is there any update on how youre thinking about those margins and the medium to long term now that 'twenty one guidance is out there.

Sure.

And I'll take that.

So as we said on the on the call right margins and first half affected by a couple of things on your first the revenue shortfall from the bookings decline and the first half of 2020, and then first half of 'twenty and 'twenty, we had full effect of our cost cuts.

And at some of them temporary some of them more permanent.

So first half margins you know really affected by that certainly bonuses have been restored for 2021, and that's going to be a big first half of 'twenty one versus 'twenty comparison.

And as we've mentioned on earlier calls we've restored a lot of those cuts and the second half of 2020. So the margin story progressively gets better as we move through.

2021, compared to 2020, so and we would expect second half margins and EPS growth to be significant.

On a comparative basis, and then to get to the second part of your question from a 2022 perspective.

If we hit on our CD book things like we expect to hit then we certainly would expect to see margins improve in 2022 likely in the 100 to 200 basis.

Mark.

Yeah.

Got it got it that's helpful and then.

Hey, Andrew as a quick reminder, to this is Mike.

I think you've heard George and I say this before.

In terms of medium term outlook for the business you know our view is with.

Double digit contract value growth this business should be running at a minimum of 15% to 70% on the operating margin side. So that's how you should think about us when you get to the medium term level. So we're obviously you're in a march towards that right now and I think we like our current trends and to Scott's point, we don't get all the way there in 'twenty, two but I think you start making real.

<unk> okay.

Got it got it that's helpful.

And then as my follow up on on the events business I think and your prepared remarks, you mentioned on <unk>.

And for hybrid comp.

Conferences and the back half of the year, how should we kind of think about the sensitivity to that business.

And whether or not it goes.

Full year virtual or there is a bigger part of the year then half of it is hybrid and he kind of sensitivity that you can give around the various scenarios on the.

The conference business and if there's any change to kind of how youre looking at that balance long term too that'd be helpful.

Sure. This is Scott I'll take that and so you know.

Based upon the progression of our events during the year, when we're not overly sensitive and 2021 or two biggest events.

The <unk> summit, and North America, and CX North America first half event and so those are just planned as virtual events.

So a lot of our smaller events are on the second half of the year and so we're expecting maybe $2 million to $3 million revenue impact from that and so if those were to go completely virtually the day that kind of topline effect.

And from an expense standpoint, and it really depends on the timing of that decision and if we were to go from virtual but I would expect the expected expense impact would be maybe half of that from a revenue standpoint.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you and our next question comes from annual with Sidoti You May proceed with your question.

Yes, hi, Thank you for taking my question and.

First of all I'm curious about the cadence through the quarter and if.

If it build a pod and momentum continued into the first quarter.

Yeah.

Hi on Yeah, It's Kelley hippler.

Thank you for the question in terms of momentum I would say actually starting with Q3, we saw a steady uptake and acceleration.

Throughout the quarter, we had a strong October and November was a little sluggish I think there was a lot of uncertainty around that time due to the election and the U S resurgence of Covid, but had a very strong finish to the year.

And in December and we.

And are cautiously optimistic that that will carry over into the start of 'twenty 'twenty one.

Okay. Thank you that was helpful color and I'm just curious when you talk about that this small events and this awesome.

How many people not only from this kind of that rather.

On George here, what was the question.

And so it's sort of a size all of those advanced debt you are having and there in the second half that you're planning to have physical how many and I. Just you normally have and that's kind of events.

So I would say and about $1 30 attendees for the for the full year will be and the second half.

So it is again as Scott said summit and CX former the two largest events on the world.

And it's in its and the low thousands probably.

And by the way.

And to go back to Andrew's question, we're gonna make the call and I'll get the midyear funnel, where we're at with vaccines.

We recently surveyed our attendees from from 2020 and about half of them said that they'd be willing to go to go.

<unk> and physical event on the second half of the year, but 50% on this point and not willing so it's going to be it will make the call sometime in the May June timeframe.

For those all cash for the second half.

Okay. Thank you and.

And last one day on you as we as Scott and also we're planning quite quite conservatively.

Events.

And financially so we're pretty well hedged there.

Okay understood.

And yeah.

Growth by acquisition and potentially what do you see them and and that environment.

Prices are high.

And primarily because of the.

The IPO.

Yes, it moves that we have seen some prices remained somewhat high.

And but I would say that our war chest is growing we have a lot of dry powder now and we're going to flow and good cash and the second and the first and second quarters. So.

We are.

I would say we are looking.

We are still of course, digesting Sirius decisions, which was our largest acquisition in the industry as a company, but we are we are warming up let's put it that way and Mike you want to add something here.

Yes, I would say that on with George I think the likelihood of anything and the first half is.

And is very slim just because we don't have anything currently in the Hopper if something of interest would come along to Georges point, we are in a position that we could do something relatively quickly I think.

The greater likelihood of said she would come and everything is going to come more and the second half and and ended 2022.

Just given how we're looking at the rhythm and I agree with George a lot of over price stuff out there right now.

And that's not been how we've typically approach the M&A market, we tend to be pretty disciplined about pricing.

Okay. Thank you and I will start on yes, yes.

On your most of the opportunities most of the opportunities and really on the day and the data space.

Okay got it. Thank you good question. Thank you.

Thank you and our next question comes from Vincent Colicchio with Barrington Research you May proceed with your question.

Yeah, George could you give us a sense for the cadence of when some of the new products will be released during the year and.

Maybe.

Give us some color on.

In terms of the cadence of one of the more important ones will be released.

Hum.

I haven't really Oh, and one word answer for you Vince no.

Uh huh.

Yes.

Just watch the space.

It is going to be as I said before we stayed on the offense and 2020 I really I'm really proud of everything we've developed and 2020 and and looking to introduce and this year. So I'm.

And I'm going to keep it really.

Well keep it and keep it fuzzy for the moment, what more detail on the April call.

And sorry to not to be more specific.

Fine and Kelly can you give us a sense for maybe the research.

Our pipeline.

And the opportunity is that you know markedly better right now than it was this time last quarter.

Thanks, Vince so at this point you know we did a really nice job converting our Q4 pipeline. So we are in our pipeline rebuild mode. So actually our conversion rate with 5% higher than prior year and Q4. So the downside of that means we have less pipeline walking into the quarter, but we are building things at <unk>.

Hey.

Normal cadence that we would expect to see and have good confidence that we will be able to get to our contract value bookings growth targets. This year based on what we're seeing out of the gates.

Uh huh.

And then.

Can you give any color on pricing.

And increased prices. This year do you plan to increase prices.

So we did do our annual price increase at the start of January. So historically, we had done that in July and given the market conditions and in 2020, we did hold off and put it into market and effective January 1st So we.

We are expecting to see a bump in our research sales and give it a the price increase.

And then.

Could you could George could give me some color on what why consulting was so strong and then will that fall through on the first half from next year.

Yes, I think it was it was a big surprise for the year. You know you go virtual and you figure consultants can't get on airplanes, and being conference rooms, and boardrooms and.

And we worried about at this but you know.

Companies are trying to adjusted quickly and.

And the staff adjusted really quickly.

I think it's one of those big lessons, we're all going to take from the pandemic that Hey, you know you can do a lot of great projects virtually.

So it was it was one of the good surprises of the year.

And a little weaker in Europe stronger and the U S and a little bit stronger in Asia.

Yeah.

Yes.

And we and by the way that we can make and that will continue forward and be able to do to do those network virtually.

The other item George because it because it's in our consulting which you highlighted it I think when you opened with the content marketing teams.

Absolutely became so important and as well as research reprints and a virtual environment, where people couldnt get out on the road. So I think those things really accelerated.

Our consulting performance and a really meaningful way.

And I assume the reprint strength, what will fall through and in the first half.

Yes, I think that's right.

I think as long as the environment continues to be it look it's been a good business for us period, but it clearly stepped up and accelerated in the pandemic, where people don't have the opportunity to be out there.

Our reprint business was a great way to market. So I think where we're expecting that it will continue and the first half.

Thanks, guys.

Thanks Vince.

Thank you and I'm not showing any further questions. At this time I would now like to turn the call back over to Mike Doyle for any further remarks.

Great. Thanks, everybody listen we.

Appreciate you joining the call we are going to be out virtually and.

In the to be visiting with investors and the first quarter, we're going to be at the Sidoti Conference and we're also making dates available. So looking forward to see and all of you and a virtual manner with investor shortly.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating you may now disconnect.

Yeah.

Okay.

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