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CGI Inc. (GIB)

Q2 2019 Earnings Call· Wed, May 1, 2019

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the CGI Second Quarter Fiscal 2019 Conference Call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Lorne Gorber, Executive Vice President, Investor and Public Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Gorber.

Lorne Gorber

Management

Thank you, Donna and good morning. With me to discuss CGI’s Second Quarter of Fiscal 2019 results are George Schindler, our President and CEO; and François Boulanger, Executive Vice President and CFO. This call is being broadcast on cgi.com and recorded live at 9:00 AM, Eastern Time on Wednesday, May 1st, 2019. Supplemental slides as well as the press release we issued earlier this morning are available for download along with our Q2 MD&A, financial statements and accompanying notes, all of which have been filed with both SEDAR and EDGAR. Please note that some statements made on the call may be forward-looking. Actual events or results may differ materially from those expressed or implied and CGI disclaims any intent or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The complete Safe Harbor statement is available on both our MD&A and press release, as well as on cgi.com. We encourage our investors to read it in its entirety and to refer to the Risks and Uncertainties section of our MD&A for a description of the risks that could affect the Company. We are reporting our financial results in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS. We will also discuss non-GAAP performance measures which should be viewed as supplemental. The MD&A contains definitions of each one used in our reporting. All of the dollar figures expressed on this call are in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise noted. I'll turn it over to François now to review our Q2 financials, and then George will comment on operational and strategic highlights as well as our outlook. François? François Boulanger: Thank you, Lorne and good morning everyone. I'm pleased to share our results for Q2 fiscal 2019. Revenue was $3.1 billion, an increase…

George Schindler

Management

Thank you, François and good morning. I'm pleased with our performance in the second quarter and throughout the first half of the fiscal year. With organic growth accelerating to 4% in Q2 and continued strong bookings, we are well-positioned for the rest of the year and beyond. Our increased market momentum through the positioning of our end-to-end capabilities with clients has resulted in broad based organic growth in the quarter across every operating segment. We continue to have a positive business outlook which reflects the tight alignment between our strategy and the priorities and budget plans of our clients. As François mentioned, our revenue and bookings next remains weighted towards consulting and systems integration work to meet today's client demand. Overtime, this continues to represent an opportunity to convert more new business and a longer-term recurring revenue. We believe we are still in the early stages of a shift in the buying priorities and behaviors of our clients given two macro dynamics taking shape. For one, the vast majority of our clients are only partway through their digital transformation and the latest results from the in-person voice of our clients discussions we completed last month. Only 8% of clients globally said they have an enterprise digital strategy in place that is implemented and producing results. This is down slightly from last year indicating that much work remains to be done to create business value from digitization. The second dynamic is that our clients continue to adjust their overall spend given the impacts of slowing economies in each of our major operating geographies. The need for clients to invest in I.T. to complete their digital transformation remains high. As indicated by our latest voice of our clients results. Early analysis indicates that our clients annual I.T. budgets are expected to increase…

Lorne Gorber

Management

Just a reminder that a replay of the call will be available either via our website or by dialing 1-800-408-3053 and using the passcode 5301162 until June 1st. As well, a podcast of this call will be available for download within a few hours, and follow-up questions as usual could be directed to me at 514-841-3355. Donna, if we could pull for questions, please.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now take questions from the telephone line. [Operator Instructions] Thank you for your patience. And the first question is from Thanos Moschopoulos from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Thanos Moschopoulos

Analyst

Hi, good morning. George, I believe within your SI&C business you've had a growing component of higher end consulting work related to digital and to some of the tuck-ins you brought on. Can you talk about whether and to what extent that's been a key contributor of some of the recent margin expansion and what regions in particular maybe benefiting from this dynamic?

George Schindler

Management

Yes, thanks. Thanks for the question, Thanos. The SI&C and the higher end consulting that we've been you're correct we've been adding that into the portfolio. It's not necessarily a driver of the expanding margin. It's actually a driver of our growth because that's really the tip of the spear. It's a set of relationships we have with the business. But in today's world business and IT are becoming closer and closer aligned. And it really allows us a channel to drive through the fuller end to end services and that's exactly what we see in the pipeline the bookings and the growth. Overtime that does result in some of the higher margins. But the consulting business itself doesn't necessarily drive higher margin. Higher gross margins because of the utilization doesn't necessarily to drive higher net margins.

Thanos Moschopoulos

Analyst

Okay, that's helpful. With respect to the U.K., your revenue growth was obviously remarkably strong in the quarter due to the outsourcing ramps. Can you elaborate on how Brexit uncertainty is impacting your pipeline in the region and on whether and to what extent your current backlogs can offset some of those potential headwinds?

George Schindler

Management

Yes. No, it's a good question. As you know Brexit has been pushed out yet again which shows that what we see from most of our commercial clients it's almost not to almost becoming business as usual and most of the commercial clients I've talked to much like ourselves has done a little Brexit proofing if you will. So over these now period of years as it continues extend out most companies have prepared themselves for either scenario and therefore commercial companies are -- we have a rich robust pipeline and you saw some of the even the bookings there. On the government's side, there is a lot of analysis going on. Actually, there is some opportunities for us to help them on some of that analysis. And regardless of what happens with Brexit regardless of how it's implemented if it's implemented there will be changes required by governments and we'll be there to help. So I would say we're well positioned for the future in the UK.

Thanos Moschopoulos

Analyst

Great. Just a quick one for modeling purposes. Would you be able to quantify how much of the Canada revenue needs to be run off?

George Schindler

Management

Probably 5 to 10%.

Thanos Moschopoulos

Analyst

Great. I’ll pass the line, thanks. François Boulanger: Thanks, Thanos.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Steven Lee from Raymond James. Please go ahead. Thank you.

Steven Lee

Analyst

Hey, George. Follow-up on your SI&C comment, what has been the lag historically before it starts to drive outsourcing growth as well?

George Schindler

Management

Yes. It's a very good question Steven. And I wish I had that crystal ball. It's always -- it's different. It differs by a region it differs by client it differs by economy but as I mentioned I think we're in a rather unique period of time where we have two drivers happening at the same time. The economies are slowing which is putting pressure on some of the ability for companies to invest but as we see in our voice of the client interviews everybody is continuing while over half of our clients are saying they're going to continue to increase their IT spending and so we see that as an opportunity if overall spending comes down. I need to increase my IT spending. We see that as an opportunity to accelerate that SI&C into the outsourcing. So I think we're moving into a new territory that should be faster than our historical. But it's hard to say. And when you ask about historical it's different in every one of these economies almost every one of them is unique.

Steven Lee

Analyst

Okay. Great. And I had questions on margins. Several of your geos were down year-over-year from four to six months and it looks like we had those specific factors. So my question is do you expect them to rebound in Q3 or some of these factors might last one two more quarters. Thank you.

George Schindler

Management

Yes, you are correct in reading that. Most was from -- were from actual onetime events that occurred that are already past us. The only one that I would say may continue into will continue into Q3 is in Canada where we had some of that overcapacity due to the rapid changing in our infrastructure business. And this is good news for our clients because as automation continues drives down revenue but obviously results in some overcapacity of the people and we have already taken those actions in the beginning of this quarter Q3 and that will pay back in the year but we'll probably have an impact on Q3 but other than that around the region you won't see you won't see that continuing into Q3.

Steven Lee

Analyst

That’s great. Thank you. François Boulanger: Thanks, Steve.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Richard Tse from National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.

Richard Tse

Analyst

Yes, thanks. On the acquisition side, should we think about you being more focused on metro markets going forward given your success to-date so far.

George Schindler

Management

Yes. Hi, Richard. Yes. And we will be focused on the metro markets, but as I mentioned Acando gave us multi-metro markets across countries. And if I look at our pipeline right now we have about 20% of our pipeline of potential targets span metro markets and/or countries. And so if you think of the language of transformational buys in CGI's history a transformational buy for us now is really just a series of metro markets maybe across not just countries but across continents. So the answer is yes. But with that maybe color commentary.

Richard Tse

Analyst

Okay. And a question about your workforce. I'm kind of curious to see or hear from you. What skill sets are sort of in most demand today. What do you think that would be going for? And I guess relate to that. How has that changed at CGI there over the past year?

George Schindler

Management

Yes. No, that's -- it's good to point out. We have changed -- taken some opportunities to build our skill sets differently. And as you know that started with the restructuring which allowed us to hire some of the higher and relevant skill sets and those skill sets are really focused on a series of technologies including analytics and some of the methodologies that are really being utilized today like agile. So, it's individual skilled in those technology skills and methodologies but with a rooted capacity and capability in the business domains. And that's really as I talk about business in IT coming closer together. So those are the more relevant skills. So it's not just technology is not just business. It's really what we call some of our clients are calling and what we got a lot of with Acando is the two footed talented members. That's what we've been buying. That's what restructuring allowed us to do in our hiring and we are well prepared for the future in that respect.

Richard Tse

Analyst

Okay. Great. Thank you.

George Schindler

Management

Sure Richard. François Boulanger: Thanks Richard.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Daniel Chan from TD Securities. Please go ahead.

Daniel Chan

Analyst

Hi, guys. Just a question on Brexit again. Did you get any sense that any of this strength you saw in the quarter was a result of business stockpiling ahead of the original Brexit deadline?

George Schindler

Management

That's a good question. Some of our clients that I talked to in the U.K. have in fact seen exactly that but it's usually more when you're dealing with the good side of the equation rather than the services side. On the services side, no, I don't get -- I don't get an inclination this is kind of some of that run up and then that will fall off when Brexit happens. I would see for us on the services side the exact opposite. Some of this is just the strength we've had over the past year and the ramping up of some of those outsourcing deals. But if you look at our pipeline and even some of our bookings actually, I think those will accelerate as we get nearer or on the other side of what happens on Brexit. So that's where I see for from a services side.

Daniel Chan

Analyst

Okay. Thanks that's helpful. Yes. Then also the color you gave around the macro environment turn more defensive was very helpful. It's just a question on the overall European environment it's been a strong region for the overall IT services segment over the last year. Seems like the economy may be improving there, is this something you're seeing as well and is it expected to accelerate the strength already seen there.

George Schindler

Management

Yes. Well, I actually think that there could be some changes in the economy but I think the defensive nature is still there. But what we see and some of the discussions I've had directly with CEOs, CFOs are there's now a lot of innovation happening across the European region that's been driving some of that that uptick but we're seeing our clients and you heard that also in my opening. We're seeing clients say "okay, that's good." And I've actually had a CEO say this to me "George, I have a lot of innovation. I need some delivery right now," and that's what I'd like to hear about how you do that. And so I think that's turning in a very interesting way. Of course, they still want innovation but that's what I mean by practical innovation that's driving results. So, I think that's going to actually turn in the European market which for IT services will continue to be strong but maybe in a slightly different way.

Daniel Chan

Analyst

Great. Thank you. François Boulanger: Thanks, Dan.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Phillip Huang from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Phillip Huang

Analyst

Hi. Thanks. Good morning. I wanted to follow up on the -- on the organic growth side. Obviously, your comments have suggested pretty healthy environment. We obviously saw very encouraging SI&C booking this quarter as well. I was just wondering what your visibility is to sustain and or further accelerate the growth that we're seeing.

George Schindler

Management

Yes, well as I mentioned Phil and thanks for the -- thanks for the question. As I mentioned in the opening we see a lot of opportunity for us to continue for a richer business mix so all of that nice SI&C work that we have we've been building those skill sets as I mentioned but they're adding new channels for us or for really bringing the full suite of services and I think with companies may be getting a bit more defensive given the macro environment they're more receptive to some of those broader offerings. And because they have the experience with us. We have the trust. We have a relationship. We have a better understanding of their business. We can bring more relevant broader offerings to them driving some of that business agility I was talking about the actual practical innovation and help them on their journey to world class technology which is something that every one of our clients needs because remember and I mentioned this on several earlier calls. The demand is still there from their clients. Right now, all we've done on the demand side is a lot of that is kind of the table stakes of reaching the customers. That's kind of done now. So we can reach customers digitally but now mining that data and actually driving business benefit for the companies and then ultimately their clients as well isn't really done yet. So that's the next wave of investment. And that's a big that's a big opportunity for us.

Phillip Huang

Analyst

That's very helpful. And I also want to follow up on Acando. It's helpful to know that 5 to 10% is the expected runoffs. Like do you expect that liquid timing -- should we -- for modeling purposes should we sort of expect that sort of come through is it more front end loaded or pretty evenly you know through runoff. Thanks.

George Schindler

Management

It would be -- any of those runoffs we would try to do rather quickly in the next quarter or two to do that in a responsible way for our clients and our business relationships. But that should be done fairly quickly. And mentioning the Acando, again we're getting really really good new relationships complimentary relationships and like previous mergers we're already seeing bids going in combined bids where bids are going into traditional relationships that Acando had CGI did not have, but the full offering of CGI that they could not have bid a month ago. So we're already seeing that in fact I talked to our leader in Sweden this morning and one went in today. So that's good -- it's a good indicator of where that merger can bring us.

Phillip Huang

Analyst

That's very helpful. Thanks, George.

George Schindler

Management

Thanks Bill.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Paul Treiber from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Paul Treiber

Analyst

Thanks very much, and good morning. Just hoping could you speak about that financial services segment. You call that obviously the trade 360 deal with HSBC and then also I think IP was a contributor financial services growth in a number of regions. Now what's changed for the financial services segment that's driving stronger growth here.

George Schindler

Management

Yes, I think financial services was a little bit behind and then became back to a leader in adopting technology but much like the other industries I think they're probably a little bit ahead of the curve in indicating that "hey, we need to get some business benefit from all of this innovation." As you know a lot of the financial services firms open up labs really got into the technology driven in part by the competition from FinTech. Now they're looking and saying "okay, how do I reap the benefits from all these technology investments?" And that's good for a services firm like CGI with the end to end being able to do the consulting and deliver some of the glue around some of those core technologies like AI, Blockchain, et cetera. And so I think that's what's driving that behavior by the banks. So some competition that got them into this but now looking at how they drive better business benefits and those better business benefits are there. And our IP plays a nice role in that. And I mentioned trade but payments is a big one for us as well and even collections continues to sell worldwide.

Paul Treiber

Analyst

And then IP is it promptly size or subscription or is it license revenue on the license rev. If it is license revenue -- I imagine there may be some lumpiness there, but what do you see as the sustainability of license rubbing on the IP side?

George Schindler

Management

Yes, it's a -- it's a little above still it is a mix. We continue to see as you know virtually all of our IP now is enabled to be sold in a software-as-a-service basis. But some clients are still in in the mode of buying with the traditional license it's really depends on where the client is and what their cash flow looks like and the capital spending. And so we see both flavors I talked to a client in Northern Europe who said if it wasn't offered George in a software as a service we could not have purchased your software and your competition didn't allow for that. And so that's part of the reason we're here having this discussion. In other cases, clients are going "Hey, I want to have a different model. I want the -- I want the traditional. I know this is this has a longer lifespan of maybe 10, 15, 20, 25 years. And so it's better for me to just do the traditional license. And the nice thing about CGI and like pure software plays we can offer both and a lot of software plays when they made the switch, they said "Okay, now we're only going to offer in a software-as-a-service because of their business model because we're a services firm first and solutions and the IP is just a dimension of that. It's still in our model to be able to offer both and that is a differentiator for us in the space.

Paul Treiber

Analyst

And lastly, the NBA called about the re-evaluation of cost to complete some projects. Let give us a little bit of surprise for CGI just given your operational discipline. Does what changed -- like what changed in the operations or assumptions like the re-evaluation and costs?

George Schindler

Management

Yes. So, you might be talking about -- we mentioned I highlighted one was really part of our Brexit proofing where we moved a project from one country to another. Just given what might happen with Brexit and sensitivities. When you do that you disrupt a project so that that drove that when that's not really disciplined, we kind of created that. But it was the right thing to do which is why really talk about that one as an investment. In another situation I talked about clients getting more defensive and I've also mentioned before our intellectual property is typically built in conjunction with clients. So we had a partner client that that partway through the project actually more than halfway through the project stopped the project. We still got paid but that caused the U.S. to re-evaluate that piece of intellectual property. It's still viable. But it's not on the same timeline. So we took the opportunity to immediately impair that asset and that's passed us and now it will be a viable asset going forward. So those are the two -- the two a maybe the bigger ones and others were really historical lawsuits the one in the UK was something that wasn't a CGI thing it was really a UK wide item on pensions that affected every company in the UK. So I don't see any discipline issues in fact on operational excellence. I'm pleased to report that our number of red projects is down and the time period that those projects stay red is shorter meaning that we're highlighting them earlier and that's a part of the CGI operational discipline. It's not just that a project goes red it's -- are you dealing with it appropriate and quickly. And we're doing just that.

Paul Treiber

Analyst

Fine. Thanks for taking my questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Robert Young from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Robert Young

Analyst

Hi, good morning. Early in the call I think you said that 42% of SI&C is coming from new business. I was wondering if you could talk about whether that's consistent with recent trends or are you calling that out as unusual. And then what's driving that? Is it the acquisitions you been doing or would it be market factors?

George Schindler

Management

Yes. Thanks for the question Robert. It's not really -- it’s not really the acquisitions because when an acquisition comes in when we merge a company in, we consider all of their clients existing CGI clients. So they're not necessarily driving new clients. They're driving expanded clients but not new clients or new work. So, the opportunity really is for us to generate new clients with our new offerings and I think it's more of that macro-economic environment. And yes, the skill set upgrade that did come from mergers and also from our restructuring opportunities. I highlighted because it's just really an indicator especially on the SI&C side as an indicator of new relationships that then can be converted into those broader service offerings. And so that's why I really highlighted it this quarter. Traditionally, we run in the 30 to 40%. So, it's not it's not far out of line but it shows you that we're still have a lot ahead of us.

Robert Young

Analyst

And is there a geographic trend to highlight there would you say that more that's coming out of Europe or would just say it's broad based?

George Schindler

Management

Yes. So, here's what's nice and thank you for the opportunity to again highlight this. This is the first time in a while that we've had organic growth, not inorganic growth but pure organic growth and every one of our operating segments. So the strength is broad-based. And that's also nice not just from a build perspective and really our ability to consistently drive the growth that you've come to expect but also on the buy side because we'd like to buy and just rent and we actually qualified business units for whether they are able to do -- to buy because integration obviously is very important to us. We integrate immediately. We wanted to be accretive immediately and so you have to buy into strength. And given the nature of this broad-based growth we now have the ability to target and buy into every operating region where we do have a robust pipeline.

Robert Young

Analyst

Okay. Thanks a lot. And then the two-pronged growth that you are highlighting related to one the digital digitization we've been highlighting for a couple of years now. But then I think last quarter you also start to talk about a slowing growth environment driving some IT efficiency work. And so the way you're talking about this quarter it sounds as though you're highlighting that as an opportunity rather than a risk. So, these two factors are going to grow could drive a higher level of growth maybe if you could correct me if I'm wrong on that. And then secondly, what does that do to the competitive position of CGI? Because I would assume that it would be stronger in the IT efficiency side but I may be wrong. And then I'll pass one.

George Schindler

Management

Yes. So, you are correct. Having the two come together should drive higher growth because the deals get bigger and we're even seeing that in some of the voice of the client interviews and discussions we're having where the three-year outlook continues to look to bigger projects. Why? Because they're combining those efficiency with those innovations and our offering brings the two together. We're saying we can drive savings on the efficiency side and help you quickly and maybe in a relevant practical way drive some of those innovations that drive outcome-based returns. And that is to your competitive nature that does drive some competitive opportunities for CGI because we are playing have been playing both sides. We participated on the growth side on the digital, but have long legacy and history on the efficiency side. And like I said I've had probably half a dozen clients kind of change the conversation over the last quarter where they want to hear more about our best practices on the efficiency side how are we able -- because remember we drive our own company the same way we're talking about our outsourcing offerings for our clients. We run our own company as a world class IT with the metrics the continuous improvement and the benchmarking. And so more and more companies are interested in hearing how we're doing that and then how we can help them get there. So I think that's a competitive advantage for CGI.

Robert Young

Analyst

Just to get into competitive side, is it fair to say that some of your larger competitors some of your end to end competitors had been deemphasizing that component of the business or would you say that you know at amongst your largest competitors you'd have the same they would have the same advantage as you would and this double pronged opportunity.

George Schindler

Management

Yes, I mean you probably follow them more closely than I do. I'm focused on our clients and what we've been emphasizing but I think as you know I've had a lot of questions on the new and I've always talked about the end to end over these last couple of years and so I think we're positioned very well.

Robert Young

Analyst

Okay. Thanks. François Boulanger: Thanks, Rob.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Paul Steep from Scotia Capital. Please go ahead.

Paul Steep

Analyst

Great. Good morning. George, could you talk a little bit about some of the initiatives to come out against over the last few quarters AI Analytics, Cyber Payment Solutions. What you've been doing or maybe any initiatives the team's got to further take some of those shorter-term SI&C deals into longer term engagements with clients maybe some of the success you've been having there. Thanks.

George Schindler

Management

Yes. No that's -- it's a great question and some of those do take some time, but we are seeing more and more interest in package solutions for example around analytics. And so one of the things that we've been doing and this is something I've highlighted before. As we work with our clients and I call it innovation at the shop floor as we work with our clients and see how they are trying to use something like analytics. Then we take that back to some of our innovation labs and create some intellectual property, that then is tested with the client that was we were innovating with and then ultimately comes IP and we're seeing that in some additional package solutions either to our existing solutions and particularly, in financial services and also in utilities but also others are solutions even in the government space around public safety. So not a lot of concrete examples today, but again this is where this is going and we're seeing clients more receptive to those types of opportunities whereas maybe even six months ago they said I will just build our own. Now they're saying yes, we're very interested in maybe being a first mover with your package, but we're okay with that being your package because then we'll have the cost efficiencies of either a software-as-a-service or maintenance going forward. And that is what we're seeing in analytics, not one-offs anymore it's like how can you package that and make that more part of my business which also comes back to a consulting opportunity.

Paul Steep

Analyst

Great. Thank you. François Boulanger: Thanks, Paul.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from James Schneider from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

James Schneider

Analyst

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. What do you mean if you maybe talk about the composition of your bookings that you talked about 60% on the outsourcing side of things, directionally would you expect that to kind of tilt more toward the outsourcing type of work over the next few quarters as you see bookings coming on? And maybe specifically, you can talk about the profile of a mix of outsourcing business you're seeing in Europe right now and whether that's skewing more heavily towards outsourcing in that region?

George Schindler

Management

Okay. Yes, thanks Jim. Actually, just a small correction, on the bookings side, the composition of the bookings was actually still weighted heavily towards SI&C and the number I gave you some visibility into in my opening was really the composition of the pipeline which is 60% which is answers your question. Yes, we're seeing the demand shifting more to the outsourcing given the climate that I talked about and that really is pretty broad base so that's both in Europe and in the U.S., but probably more pronounced in Europe as you suggested. So I can confirm kind of all the above, but just with that slight change on the on the bookings weren't there yet. It's more in the pipeline.

James Schneider

Analyst

Okay. Yes, very good. Sorry for the misunderstanding. And then maybe, just kind of a little one more follow-up on the federal business in the U.S., you kind of what do you see there from a forward perspective I apologize, if I missed the outlook on you -- from your commentary but maybe to kind of give us a sense about what that's more skewing towards a really nor or otherwise at this stage in anything you say about mix of federal versus state local?

George Schindler

Management

Yes. So on the federal business, we had this shutdown blip, but we see the IT spending really mimicking a lot of what we see on the commercial side, which is more government agencies are focused on the monetization on IT, very focused on cyber security going with what's going on around the world and governments being under attack particularly our U.S. federal segment is focused on that and that's exactly where we have been investing. Our health remains on the top list for domestic programs and we're well positioned there continue to win all were we compete in the health space. So we see a pretty robust U.S. federal government area. The areas that we have been kind of maybe deemphasizing over the last couple of years are the core defense areas. Our defense business is actually strong, but we moved into more of the IT, core IT, cyber security areas of that domain. So both sides are pretty strong for us, but we have shifted our business. I would argue a richer shift in business, so that if something like sequestration which is a word that maybe many on the phone don't know, but it's essentially caps on the spending levels particularly in the Defense Department if that happens, we don't see that really affecting much of our IT business.

James Schneider

Analyst

Thank you.

George Schindler

Management

Yep. François Boulanger: Thanks Jim.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Stephanie Price from CIBC. Please go ahead.

Stephanie Price

Analyst

Good morning.

George Schindler

Management

Hi, Stephanie.

Stephanie Price

Analyst

I wanted to circle back on Acando for a minute and just ask about the margin profile. Are you happy with where they are now or do you think there's opportunities to improve that margin profile?

George Schindler

Management

Yes. No, thank you. They do have strong margins but there's definitely an opportunity for us to in implementing the CGI model to raise those margins. There's some simple synergies some of the public company costs that are going on but there's a bigger opportunity for us to raise their utilization leverage the full suite of CGI products which helps them in services offerings helps them raise that utilization where we think that their margins can come to the CGI margins levels and beyond. So great talented individuals as I mentioned very complimentary, but yes definite opportunities even in a strong business to increase that now that they have the end to end offerings, something they didn't have before.

Stephanie Price

Analyst

Great. Thank you very much. François Boulanger: Thanks, Stephanie. Donna, we have time for one last question.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And the last question would be from Howard Leung from Veritas Investors. Please go ahead.

Howard Leung

Analyst

Thank you. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to follow up on the question on the bookings mix. As George just mentioned as SI&C the bookings this quarter were pretty strong and that actually drive organic growth going forward for revenues. Do you see any short term margin impact from how strong the bookings were as it flows into the revenues?

George Schindler

Management

Thanks for the question. I don't see that impacting the margins at all. We were very disciplined in how we bid these deals and both on the SI&C side and on the outsourcing side we have the models in place to drive not just sustain the margins but actually continuous improvement. And part of that's in the relevant offerings that we're bringing. It's the value proposition that we're bringing to our clients. So both the SI&C and the outsourcing I see as expiry margins as I mentioned in many of the other geographies.

Howard Leung

Analyst

Okay, great. That's helpful. Thanks guys. François Boulanger: Okay. Thank you, Howard. Thanks everyone for joining us and we'll see you back on July 31 for our Q3 results call.

George Schindler

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time. And thank you for your participation.