Earnings Labs

RingCentral, Inc. (RNG)

Q3 2015 Earnings Call· Mon, Nov 2, 2015

$39.68

-1.88%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the RingCentral third quarter 2015 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Darren Yip, RingCentral's Director of Investor Relations. Thank you, Mr. Yip. You may begin.

Darren Yip - Director, Investor Relations

Management

Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome to the RingCentral's third quarter 2015 earnings conference call. I'm Darren Yip, RingCentral's Director of Investor Relations. Joining me today are Vlad Shmunis, Founder, Chairman, and CEO; and Clyde Hosein, Chief Financial Officer. Our format today will include prepared remarks by Vlad and Clyde followed by Q&A. The primary purpose of today's call is to provide you with information regarding our performance for the third quarter 2015 along with our financial outlook for our fourth quarter and full-year 2015. Some of our discussions and responses to your questions may contain forward-looking statements including statements regarding our expected financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2015, our future plans, prospects, and opportunities, trends in the business communications market, our expectations regarding our expansion internationally and up-market, our service provider and other reseller relationships, expected benefits of our integrated partnerships, open platform, the Glip acquisition, and new products and services, our growth strategies, current and future market position, and expected growth. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from our forward-looking statements and projections for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to, general, economic, and market conditions, the effects of competition and technological change; success of our marketing, sales and retention efforts; and customer demand for our acceptance of our products and services. A discussion of the risks and uncertainties related to our business is contained in the filings with the SEC and is incorporated by reference into today's discussion. We disclaim any obligation to update information contained in our forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. I encourage you to visit our Investor Relations website at ir.ringcentral.com to access our third quarter 2015 earnings press release, our non-GAAP to GAAP…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Terry Tillman from Raymond James. Please proceed with your question. Terry F. Tillman - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Hey, good afternoon, gentlemen. Can you hear me okay? Clyde R. Hosein - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yes, we can, Terry. Terry F. Tillman - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Hey, Vlad. Hey, Clyde. So first, nice to see this actual acceleration in the organic business and top line growth and also the profitability. That was unexpected, so nice job on that. Vladimir G. Shmunis - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you. Terry F. Tillman - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Two quick questions. In terms of the Glip integration, you put out a press release at about the same time as the earnings release and it doesn't seem to talk about the separate monetization strategy or something that could cause an uplift when somebody is buying Office with Glip being utilized. I guess I'm curious. Am I reading that the right way? And is it more of just a competitive dynamic where you can differentiate in sales cycles, but you don't see it as a separate monetization strategy? Vladimir G. Shmunis - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Okay. Yes, Vlad here, Terry. So, first of all, thank you for the kind words. I'm very happy with our recent results. On Glip, look, clearly we're planning to monetize it. And another recent press release is we've announced Columbia University and specifically cited that Glip integration and bringing communications and collaboration together was one of the key factors in the decision. So that's a major 1,000-plus seat win with more opportunity to expand, which to be blunt, we probably would not have had without Glip. So we see…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Brad Zelnick from Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Brad Zelnick - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · your question.

Great. Guys, this quarter, from all aspects that we look at the story, you've really done a phenomenal job, so congratulations to you, two questions. For starters on pricing, as we listen to what's happening out there in the market, there are some very aggressively priced deals and actions and some of your competitors are coming in. And if I listen to the remarks, I think, Clyde, you had said that Office ARPU has actually gone up, but it sounds like that's a function of mix, which is great. But if you look at the business on a like-for-like basis, what are the latest trends in terms of average discount? Clyde R. Hosein - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Average discount is hard to say, Brad. As we mentioned, ARPU is increasing. And as we said in the prepared remarks, part of it is that. Very rarely do we see winning deals on price. It happens from time to time. But if you look at the number of deals, they're in the vast majority. And part of that is the value proposition in itself. Customers save anywhere from 30% to 60% over their existing solutions. So they're already saving a fair amount. The biggest challenge for us is proving to them that cloud functionality could be delivered with every bit as reliability and performance as they are used to today. It's less of a price issue. So I think the price competitiveness is more anecdotal than it is in reality. Not that we never see it, it's a small amount of the case.

Brad Zelnick - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · your question.

That's helpful. And just on margins, so it's great to see you get to profitability a quarter sooner than you originally expected. The progression on gross margin continues to exceed expectations. You're already in your long-term target range on service margin – gross margin. But if we peel that back and then look to where we are on op margins, you certainly have a lot of headroom at least from here to ultimately getting to I think the 20% to 25% long-term target. And if I look even to the guidance for Q4, you've actually guided us at the midpoint 50 basis points, even a little bit down from what you achieved in Q3, which we appreciate is a function of overachieving on the top line this quarter. But I'm not nitpicking from quarter-to-quarter on basis points, but can you just remind us philosophically, Clyde? As we look out a year from now or two years from now, and you think about the investments that you're making for the future, is there may be a way to talk about the opportunity and the investment philosophy that you have and how we should think about margins kind of medium to longer term? Clyde R. Hosein - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Great question, Brad. Look, we had profitability earlier, putting aside any seasonality that you might hit say for example in Q1, for example in the forecast obviously, only forecast we're providing right now is for Q4. Putting aside any seasonality, this is not a flash in the pan. We don't intend to show you one quarter, we're profitability and move on. So, I think that is the strength of the business model and you highlighted some of the key aspects including service gross margin. I think on a…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Nikolay Beliov from Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Nikolay Beliov - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · your question.

Guys, thank you for taking my question and congratulations on a nice execution. Clyde, when you look at the revenue growth drivers that you've added since the IPO, maybe if you can help us rank them in terms of business impact, in terms of incremental subscription revenues, number one, I guess the domestic up-market. Number two, international direct business, then international Telco, the Connect Platform, Call Center, you had Glip and Office 365 and then Google relationship to the extend is a driving business. What are the main drivers of the business right now? Clyde R. Hosein - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: The good news is all of those things are driving the business. We've got multiple vectors of growth in the engine, and from quarter-to-quarter some of these might take precedence over another one. Having said that, I think up-market, since the IPO has been very robust for us, one metric we put out there is our midmarket which is 50-plus – 50 to 1,000 seats, if you may, has been growing over 100% over the last six quarters. So that's demonstrated and now represents about 25%-ish of our bookings. So that's certainly well. The next one I would put on that list, keeping in mind, Nikolay, that this changes quarter to-quarter, but on a sustained basis, I would say indirect, which includes our VARs as well as our service provider partners, we've got three of them on the platform now. I would say they are contributing probably next, and third international. I think international has got a lot of opportunities ahead of us in a number of flavors both say U.S. and UK companies, look to have a single platform globally as well as new customers in other geographies. Both of those are potential growth areas for us. So in summary, I would say up-market, indirect including VARs and service providers, followed by international has been – I think those three will continue, but the mix might change from year-to-year.

Nikolay Beliov - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · your question.

Got it. And another question for you, when you look at the competitive landscape now versus at the time of the IPO, when you look at the legacy vendors, the pure cloud vendors in Q1 which you've been doing and now they might subscribe for business, what have been the changes and what opportunities and concerns are you seeing? Clyde R. Hosein - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Sure. So we actually don't see that much change as far as vendors with their own technology platforms. That continues to be a fairly small and consistent set. Some of the names you mentioned, Vonage entered this business through acquisition. We continue not seeing them as a core technology provider. We think that us having a platform and investing rather heavily into R&D is and will continue to be a source of continued competitive advantage. So that's on that one. As far as subscribe for business is concerned, we will hear about it from time to time, but we've already highlighted our emerging relationship with Microsoft Office and Office 365 in particular. So I will also refer you to the last Gartner report, which made it very clear that they consider us to be in the lead on both the visionary scale as well as ability to execute easily this quarter. So the fact of the matter is, if you as a business want to run your business communications through the cloud, Microsoft today does not have a solution. They're talking about it, but today's not a reality. Ours is, and we feel pretty good about our ability to continue competing effectively moving forward.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Mike Latimore from Northland Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Mike J. Latimore - Northland Securities, Inc.

Analyst · your question.

Yeah, thanks very much. Excellent quarter. On the Columbia, I know you are replacing a legacy phone system. Are you replacing anything else there like a web conferencing service or instant messaging service or any other major technology categories you are replacing there? Clyde R. Hosein - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Mike, RingCentral has the capability of doing all of that, as you know. But I'm not aware if they did replace that, but they have the capability to use it. The key was collaboration with Glip and the strength of RingCentral and the strength of the platform.

Mike J. Latimore - Northland Securities, Inc.

Analyst · your question.

And in terms of your... Clyde R. Hosein - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Also integration, Mike, with Google for Work, so there are a number of things in there. I don't know offhand if other replacements happened, but it certainly has that capability.

Mike J. Latimore - Northland Securities, Inc.

Analyst · your question.

Yeah. And in terms of your new subs added in the this last quarter, how many come from current customers let's say – the expansion, how much of that is driving your top line? Vladimir G. Shmunis - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Most of it is new customers. There has been some, but I think the vast majority is new additions to it. The upselling, while there's been some, I think that's an opportunity ahead for us. But to-date, Q3 has been new adds.

Mike J. Latimore - Northland Securities, Inc.

Analyst · your question.

Okay. Thanks. Great quarter.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Brian Schwartz from Oppenheimer. Please proceed with your question. Brian J. Schwartz - Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. (Broker): Hi, thanks for taking my questions this afternoon. I too would like to pass along congratulations on a great quarter, a couple of questions I wanted to ask. I wanted to ask a question on the Columbia deal, but a little bit different question about it. Columbia is a very prestigious brand. Their university – it's great to hear that, I don't remember hearing you guys talk a lot or even talk in the past about the higher ad-tech vertical or even the education vertical in general. Can you talk a little bit about what you're seeing in terms of new vertical opportunities and if there is any strategies going forward to capitalize on it, may be through your Glip acquisition? Or is this just – maybe just a one-off deal in the education vertical that came to you guys through the acquisition relationship? And then I have a follow-up question. Vladimir G. Shmunis - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Sure. Look, certainly we don't think – we hope it's not going to be a one-off. SLED is one of the identified verticals that we have. We do have a concerted effort. Needless to say, with a prestigious institution like Columbia being a referenceable customer, we expect that we'll be received yet better in other educational institutions, whether it be higher end education or lower. Obviously, there's a wider base with colleges that are not Columbia. So we feel very good about it. We just think it's a fantastic reference case and it really highlights, plays to our strengths of combining communications with collaboration, which is a first in the industry. Brian J. Schwartz…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Mark Sue from RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Mark Sue - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · your question.

Thank you. Gentlemen, when I look at your financial metrics, the churn is quite low and the lifetime value math is still scaling. So the question is, why not spend more in such a large TAM, particularly when you're gaining market share? When you look at your long-term model, are there any thoughts to actually push the accelerator spending for more custom acquisitions since in technology oftentimes the winner can take a substantial amount of the market. So would you consider spending more to get more? Clyde R. Hosein - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: So, Mark, thank you very much, a little bit of a contrast to the question Brad asked earlier. But that's the balance we've got a make. We've got to balance growth as well as profitability. Certainly, the results to date, we've improved operating margin over 20 points over the last two years since the IPO, demonstrating the success of the model. So yes, if this was a private company completely with an unlimited balance sheet, we would do exactly what you're describing. The reality is we have a defined balance sheet. We know what or at least we think we do, understand what investors are looking from us and we've got to make that balance. That balance so far has translated to mid-30% growth and, like I said, 20 points of improvement margin. I described earlier that we might moderate that and dial more for growth, but that's a future business model for us to contemplate as we go forward.

Mark Sue - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · your question.

That's helpful. And when you look at larger customers, do you feel that they need some additional customization, more implementation requirements, or are you at the point where you're scaling quite well with larger customers as well? Vladimir G. Shmunis - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: No, they absolutely do need – they do have requirements that are different from SMBs, and some of this we've been highlighting. So for example, many if not most of those do require integrations with other aspects of their IT. They are interested in custom reports, custom workflows, custom controls. We are continuing to expand and evolve our RingCentral Connect Platform. We believe it's unique in the industry to have an open platform for the communications system. So probably most of our up-market customers are taking advantage of that now. As far as product services are concerned, yes, also we're seeing more and more of that. And we are offering it to our enterprise accounts. And frankly, they expect it, just like the product services from Salesforce. So, similar demand here. So we are definitely giving up to – or helping them adopt and continue to do so in addressing all their needs as they would expect from a top-tier vendor.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of James Faucette from Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question. James E. Faucette - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Thanks very much. I had a couple of questions. They're largely maybe follow-up to previous ones. But first, can you talk a little bit about the size and types of call centers where you're expecting where you're starting to see initial traction and response to that product. Are these outgoing call centers or customer care centers, just a little more color on the types of market that you're finding success there? And then back on the customer acquisition effort and sales and marketing efforts, how should we think about the objectives from a long-term perspective of being able to scale that? And what kind of – do you have some targets in mind in terms of return on investment there or dollar metrics similar to what you've outlined? And I guess maybe one idea here is, any chance that you can take the MINDBODY customer and make that part of their solution? It seems like their customer set and your customer set should overlap pretty well. Thanks. Vladimir G. Shmunis - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Sure, okay. So on the call centers, so look, the solutions that we're putting forth is based on an industry-leading cloud platform that had been known to scale into thousands of seats and is supporting both inbound and outbound call center. So, we certainly don't feel that there are any technology barriers that we have at this point in addressing those needs. Having said that, we're not targeting outbound call centers in particular. We are really offering this integrated solution as a one-stop shop to customers with in-house call centers. Again, this is not to say that…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Heather Bellini from Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question. Heather Anne Bellini - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Hi, great. Thank you. There is not much left to ask. I guess, I just had a question related to – you mentioned that now 25% of Office bookings – RingCentral Office bookings are from customers with seats of at least 50 users or greater, up from 20%, which you guys I think have been talking about for the last few quarters. You then also mentioned that, you think you've reached an inflection point. So can you share with us how we should think about that 25% ramping over the course of the next 12 months? Clyde R. Hosein - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Heather, I think it's premature for us to describe that. Maybe in the next year end call we can provide guidance 2016. Keep in mind, even in the last year we've grown revenues 35%. So even while we are growing the business 35%, you are increasing the concentration from 20%-ish or 25%-ish. So needless to say, it's possible that would increase, but I refrain from providing any specifics till we get to 2016. Heather Anne Bellini - Goldman Sachs & Co.: No, I'm just mentioning because you guys called out that you've reached an inflection, so maybe then you could just share with us what you did the inflection is that's going cause that number to accelerate unless I'm just reading it wrong? Vladimir G. Shmunis - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Sure, Heather. Vlad here. So what we mean by this is that, the percentage of customers – of new customers that we are getting with always 50 seats has been increasing. If you remember, we've been talking more in the 20% range up until now. So this is the first time that we're saying that it's around 25%. But frankly, more importantly is the fact that we have continued investment and continued acceptance from larger and larger customers. And if you look at just the stream of wins and announcements we've had between Columbia and MINDBODY, just to name a few, we are qualitatively seeing better acceptance and better adoption across larger accounts. Having said that, it's not – it's a journey. It's not an event. What we do know is that, we have closed and actually exceeded the gap between us and traditional legacy systems, which remains to be a number competition. We have a solution which is easier to use, absolutely functional that's better, much more open, easier to use, easier to integrate, and frankly, (52:42). So we think that with all these assets we will continue to migration away from legacy and into the cloud.

Operator

Operator

We have time for one last question. Our next question comes from the line of Sterling Auty from JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.

Sterling Auty - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · your question.

Thanks, guys. I apologize for bouncing between multiple calls but why don't you give us a sense as your average new customer – the number of new customers that are above 50 seats, what is that actually doing to the churn or kind of the consistency of the renewal rate in the business? Is that starting to actually have an uplift or a positive impact? Vladimir G. Shmunis - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: We've been consistently showing that our Office churn is – or let me put it another way, our Office retention is continuously better, is outpacing our overall retention just because larger customers are less likely to go out of business and also with larger companies, there is more of a lend and expand opportunity. And I can tell you that the larger the account, the less likely the churn and more likely on a net churn basis, the more likely are we to upsell seats. Again, our number one by far driver for churn is the customer business itself terminating. Larger companies, certainly companies with over 50 employees, just don't get into that. So we expect those trends to continue and/or both overall churn as well as Office churn as well as Office 50-plus churn to decrease new customers to increase.

Sterling Auty - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · your question.

Got it, thank you.

Operator

Operator

That is all the time we have for questions today. I'd like to hand it back – call back over to Clyde for closing comments. Clyde R. Hosein - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thanks, Doug. Thank you all for joining us for today's call. As a reminder, RingCentral will be at the Needham, Jefferies, Credit Suisse, and Raymond James events in the coming weeks. We look forward to further discussions with you then. Have a nice evening.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen this does conclude today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.