Burton Goldfield
Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead with your question
Thank you, Alex. I'm pleased with the progress we made in a number of important areas during the second quarter. Professional service revenues grew 19% to $98 million. Additionally, professional service fees per WSE grew year-over-year. We surpassed a significant internal milestone with respect to WSE count exceeding 300,000. Total WSE count grew to 302,375, up 16.8% year-over-year, and importantly, up 4.7% from Q1. We finished Q2 with 486 quota-carrying sales representatives, putting us ahead of my commitment of 470 sales representatives as of June 30th. As I have stated in the past that metric and my commitment to 25% year-over-year growth in quota-carrying sales reps is a key indicator of future new sales. Additionally, our workers comp claims experience came in as expected during the quarter, which was a key concern of mine after Q1. I continue to be comfortable with the workers compensation 2015 forecast I gave you at that time. Now while the fundamentals of our business remains strong, I am disappointed that our second quarter financial performance was negatively impacted by higher than usual number of large medical claims. These claims were well in excess of our expected and historical claims volatility. Medical claims volatility was impacted by the frequency of large medical claims and not the severity. Additionally, there does not appear to be adverse selection. These large medical claims do not appear to be associated with new clients, as the large claims have been driven by clients joining prior to 2013. The enhanced large claim medical reporting process we put into place with our medical insurance carriers appears to be working. Unlike Q4, there was no significant impact from old claims in the quarter. As a reminder, our net insurance revenue is comprised of three parts; benefits administrative fees, workers’ compensation revenue and benefits performance fees. Moving forward, I am comfortable that both the benefits administrative fees and the workers compensation revenue will continue to grow predictably with my WSE count. I am less comfortable with the predictability of the benefit performance fees given the high level of volatility in Q2. As a result, our 2015 forecast, which Bill will summarize shortly now assumes that the higher claims level continues. We do believe this is the prudent path to take at this time. Make no mistake. My top priority is addressing the medical claims volatility and its impact on the P&L. I will strengthen my internal team. This includes the recruitment of a senior insurance services executive reporting directly to me, as well as additional actuarial and analytical capabilities. Turning to the market opportunity for TriNet’s products and services, the momentum achieved in Q2 is a positive indicator for the remainder of the year and 2016. My team is passionate about our mission, powering our client’s business success through extraordinary HR, whether it's helping small and medium-sized businesses navigate Affordable Care Act or the newly enacted Federal Overtime Rules, TriNet is well-positioned to be our client’s trusted advisor in these areas. The value of a verticalized solution, which includes local HR expertise, Fortune 500 benefits and a cloud-based technology platform, is a unique offering to vast small and medium business market. Each day 55 million people go to work at companies with between one and 500 employees. These employees work for companies that are facing pressures from increased regulatory complexity and the need for effective HR and attractive benefits. In order to penetrate this large addressable market, we have organized our sales team by product and by business vertical. Perspective sales representatives are increasingly attracted to TriNet. Our brand recognition within our target verticals continues to grow and TriNet is viewed as the premium solution. Because of this dynamic, we are excited about the quality of our new reps. I just returned from our sales kick-off event in Phoenix, Arizona, where over 700 attendees in all focused on training, education and mastering the vertical that the reps are selling into, presentations by existing customers, referral partners and industry experts added color and perspective to each of our core verticals. Our new reps have been selling into the business verticals we are targeting. After graduating from our training program, these reps are armed with TriNet product knowledge and are ready to leverage their prior industry experience in preparation for 2016 selling season. Our sales hiring strategy combined with the training and focus on verticals gives me confidence in new customer acquisition across our product portfolio, continuing the Q2 market momentum. Turning to our market opportunity, our biggest competitor by far is the unbundled solution where potential customers required to piecemeal, the HR solution through a web of vendors and brokers. We consistently see this in 75% of the deals we pursue. Our vertical product offering simplify this exercise for our customers. With TriNet Passport we see strength in our technology, life sciences, not-for-profit and professional services verticals. Passport is characterized by an intuitive, paperless, self-service platform, with a comprehensive selection of benefits, coincide the products complete offering, defined by its technology, service model and benefits as the key reason they choose Passport. TriNet Ambrose is characterized by a high-touch service model with top tier benefits and direct access to compliance, tax and other specialists. Ambrose remains the premier brand within its selected verticals, including hedge funds, private equity and law firms. TriNet SOI is characterized by complex multi-state HR and payroll needs. SOI is well-suited for verticals to include property management, hospitality and light manufacturing. Coming out of last quarter, we have made significant progress in repositioning the SOI sales force into a vertically focused channel with sales trending in the right direction. Our vertical focus, combined with our ability to manage multi-state compliance operating, an ACA compliance risks, represents an exceptional product offering that is in fact resonating in SOI’s target markets. In summary, we continue to see strong momentum in our business as we penetrate the large unaddressed SMB market with our unique products and vertically focused sales and service strategy. And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Bill for the financial review. Bill?