Everyone, and welcome to the second day of the Women in Tech Summit. It's great to see everyone today. For this session, we're with Claire Bramley, who's the CFO of Teradata. Claire, thanks so much for joining us.
Good morning. It's perfect to be here. Very excited.
Yeah, perfect. And Claire, maybe a good place to start would be for those in the audience that don't know, you know, Teradata, and even just to give background of yourself too. Maybe we start there.
Absolutely. So hopefully I still have a bit of a British accent. I'm actually from the U.K. originally, so that's where I grew up. I joined Teradata as the CFO three years ago, having come from HP. And I was very lucky to have great female mentors and male mentors at HP who gave me a lot of opportunities to do different roles globally across the company and in different kinds of financial function roles. So whether it's in business finance, you know, controllership, you know, FP&A. So kind of taken that into myself. I like to give back to not just the female community, but all people in terms of their development, in terms of giving people new opportunities as much as I can, because I know I benefited from that. So I was at HP for 14 years in total before I came to Teradata.
Teradata itself as a company is on an exciting transformation journey. So it's been a whirlwind of the last three to four years, three years that I've been there and four years since our current CEO has been there. And he came in and pretty much completely changed the approach. So we are a data and analytics software company, traditionally known for our industry-leading software and analytics capabilities on-premises. And what changed four years ago is that we took all of that technology and the history that we have and we created a cloud product. So for the last four years, we have moved to be focused on cloud first. And we just went GA in 2023, in January 2023, with our first cloud-native product on AWS. And now at the end of June, so we're going to lean a little bit, we'll be available on all cloud service providers.
It is about data and analytics. We focus on the global 10,000, so where there's very, very large amounts of data. We know that's where we're differentiated. Yeah, we're going through this transformation. We've been making a lot of changes. I'm looking forward to talking a little bit about that today.
Yeah, perfect. I definitely want to touch on the transformation to the cloud. But before we get there, I think, you know, a good place to begin might be everything that's going on with the background environment, right? So you've had a lot of software companies that printed mixed results in Q1. And I think a lot of investors out there are trying to figure exactly like what's going on. So I guess from, you know, what you guys are seeing when you speak with customers, maybe you can opine a little bit there. I know you've spoken in the past about seeing some longer sales cycles. Maybe cloud ARR growth, you know, fell a little bit short of like your expectations. So maybe you can give the audience a little bit of insight into what Teradata is seeing.
Yeah, the last six to nine months have been interesting for sure from a macro environment. I think every company that we are speaking to are looking at their landscape end to end and saying, how can we maximize and optimize, you know, the data that we have today? How can we leverage AI, for example? How can we ensure that we have trusted data that we're using to be able to support our analytical capabilities and AI? And so everybody is really, I think, taking a step back and saying, what's the best way for us to structure, organize this moving forward? And I think as a result, because these conversations are becoming very strategic and underpinning, you know, the core capabilities of many companies' operations, like mission-critical operations, you know, some decisions are taking longer. You know, they're being had at the C-suite, sometimes at the board level.
We started talking about that in December of 2023. We started to see that deal elongation cycle. Now, I think the good news is though, the pipeline is still there. The deals aren't going away. But I don't think it's a macro concern in the sense of that people aren't looking to spend the money or to invest in data and analytics. But I think some of these decisions are taking a little bit longer. And we are seeing those cycle times increase, as you mentioned. So we saw that as we were coming out of Q4. The good news is I think we saw it early because we have a very, very good relationship with all of our customers. We're talking to them on a regular basis. You know, we pride ourselves on that kind of personalization and personal relationship to understand their needs.
We saw it early. We started talking about it. I remember being at a conference back in December and started talking about it then because we could start to see the trend happening. As I said, the good news is those deals are just being pushed out slightly in terms of how long it takes to close them as opposed to going away. The pipeline looks really strong. It gives me a lot of confidence about the macro and the environment that we're in and potentially, you know, what the rest of 2024 and going into 2025 looks like because the pipeline is building really, really strongly. The conversion rates are staying stable. It's just the timing of those conversions that they're taking a little bit longer.
Yeah, the AI impact some of these deal decisions, right, and sales elongation, I think is really interesting. So I'm curious, maybe you can talk a little bit more about how those conversations are going because I think a lot of the time we hear companies say that in order to adopt AI in the SaaS layer and the application layer, you need to figure out your data state, right? And there might be some re-architecture there. So in terms of like Teradata's role in that, could you maybe talk a little bit more about that?
Yeah, absolutely. And I think this is something that we have traditionally been very good at helping large enterprises manage their data. So one of the things we talk about is like data lineage. Do you understand where the data is coming from, what data is being used in the analytical queries that you're using? And now that's very relevant for AI. We all know that, you know, you have to know and be comfortable as a company in terms of what data is being used, how it's being used to get to the AI outputs that you're receiving. So we have a good tradition in providing that. I think the other thing as well that's really important is the performance. Because you are using so much data, and so the real importance of having performance at scale.
And again, that's Teradata's sweet spot because that's where we've come from on-premises. On-premises was a constrained environment. So we had to learn how to tweak out every last possible piece of performance in that constrained environment. Now, once you move to the cloud, you clearly don't have that constrained environment. People, you know, really want to make sure that they have cost optimization. So being able to ensure that you have high efficiency, high performance at scale, and that the cost per query is the lowest, which is, I mean, Teradata has the lowest in the industry of cost per complex query. That makes a big difference when you're using large amounts of data. I think the only other thing that I would say, you know, when we're looking at kind of AI and Teradata's role, I think being able to access data regardless of where it is.
We are an open and connected software. We have this patented technology called QueryGrid, which is able to use the data regardless of where it is. You don't actually have to move the data. You don't have to copy and paste it into a different repository. We can, regardless of where it is, and we can do it on open table format with data lakes, wherever your data sits today. The way that the software works is it can reach down and use that data and do the analytical capabilities regardless of where the data is. And that makes a big difference right now. I think a lot of companies are trying to work out, they have a lot of historical data. How can they potentially, they haven't necessarily been using in an efficient way. And how can they use that better moving forward? That's something that I think sets us up well, you know, as we look forward to be able to have that fully open, fully connected software.
Yeah, makes total sense. Before we get to the cloud, maybe let's touch on the on-prem space because I think you've made comments in the past talking about some on-prem erosions potentially at the start of this year and that it's from, you know, customer decisions that were made a while ago, right? Just curious, I guess, what gives you, you know, the confidence that some of that is truly one-off, right? And it's, hey, these decisions were made a while ago and you might not see, you know, more of that on-prem erosion, but you're experiencing it.
Yeah, so absolutely. So in Q1 of 2024, we did see, I would say, some outsized erosions of a couple of larger enterprises that did move off of Teradata. Now, interestingly, we've known about that for many years. They've been trying to move off of Teradata for three to four years. So clearly, you never want to lose a customer. You know, that's never a good thing. But the good thing is that we weren't surprised. And, you know, we had been trying to work with them to keep them on Teradata. But the reason that they moved is also, it's not good news, but it's interesting. We didn't have a cloud-native software product three or four years ago. As I mentioned, we started this journey four years ago. We launched our cloud-native product in January 2023.
So these enterprises were looking for a cloud-native solution, which we didn't have available, and they weren't necessarily willing to wait sort of thing. So we knew that that was coming. Unfortunately, that does kind of start 2024, you know, off on a, I would say, on a negative front when you are losing those on-prem customers. But to your point about it being a kind of one-off, we have very good visibility through the analysis that we have about customer health, the information that we have. You know, as I said, we have very good relationships with our customers. But those don't come as surprises. It's always difficult to predict exactly when they will finally move with us. But we don't get a surprise in the sense of somebody's going to be leaving us tomorrow. So it's something that we can work with them over time.
That's what gives us the confidence to say when we look out to the future and the expected retention rate, we do expect that retention rate to come back up. It's a little bit lower in 2024, but we expect that to come back up in 2025 and beyond and be consistent to what we've seen for the last three years because previous to 2024, our retention rate has been very stable. Just as a reminder, I'm talking about the on-premises business. So in the cloud, we have industry-leading retention rates in the cloud. And at the moment, our net expansion rate for the trailing 12 months is 123%, which is considered to be very strong. And we believe that sustainable around the 120% mark is sustainable moving forward as well. So definitely seeing slightly lower retention rate in the on-premises business in the current year.
But given the insights and data that we've got about our customers moving forward, we are very confident that that retention rate will pick up and the erosions will be lower as we look out to the future.
Perfect. Yeah, let's dive deeper into the VantageCloud Lake. So obviously new offering, new architecture, right? Maybe you can touch on, you know, what was the catalyst or the tipping point that you saw within your customer conversations to make that move? And now that you've been, you know, going back to your on-prem base, telling them about this new offering, maybe you can just talk about how those conversations have evolved as well too.
Yeah, absolutely. So just to put into context, like I said, we weren't a cloud-first company four years ago. We moved to cloud-first, you know, for the first time when the CEO came on board. And interestingly, we already have over, you know, $525 million in cloud ARR. So that we've come a long way. And some of that's from migrations of existing customers and some of it's from expansions with existing customers. The amount of new logos that we see have been fairly low. And the reason I put that context into place is the advantage of VantageCloud Lake is we believe that it opens the door for more new logos. The way that VantageCloud Lake works, because it is cloud-native, you can start small. You can use, you know, departmental workloads, smaller ad hoc experimental type workloads.
Traditionally, Teradata has been known to that it's kind of a big setup cost. You know, it's, you know, it's a big project and program. And so the VantageCloud Lake, not only can it, because it's cloud-native, it can scale up and out in real time. It also is much easier to start with much smaller workloads. And so I think we see that as an opportunity with regards to new logos. For example, we see that as an opportunity to expand within existing customers because they don't have to necessarily, if they're on-premises today, but they have maybe a marketing department that wants to do some additional queries and analytics, they can use VantageCloud Lake in addition to what they've got today to be able to set that up, you know, fairly low cost to start with, but still with the same performance and analytical capabilities.
It is opening opportunities for us both with new customers, but also with existing customers. It's pretty exciting.
Yeah, that's super interesting. Do you think it better positions you in an AI world? I mean, you talk about some of these lighter, like lower-end data analytics use cases. Is there applicability to, you know, AI that you see where that could also be a TAM expansion opportunity as well too?
Yeah, I mean, so yes, definitely for VantageCloud Lake. We have also just introduced a product called AI Unlimited. And that is exactly that. So it's taken those capabilities. It's the same software, but we've called it AI Unlimited. It's like a serverless self-serve, you know, software where you can use it exactly for that, for AI experimental workloads. And that's integrated, for example, into Microsoft Fabric. You know, so that is exactly that we've created and we've called it AI Unlimited is the same capabilities, but with a view that, you know, people can do, you know, start small, build up, use it for AI type analysis and queries. And then we think that that will expand over time and give us, you know, obviously expansion opportunities and further growth in the future. So yeah, that's pretty much where AI Unlimited came from.
I mean, it's the same capabilities, but it's set up in a kind of serverless, very self-serve in an efficient way.
Yeah, so on AI Unlimited, just curious how you think about the trajectory, right, and adoption path. I know it's very early days, right, with AI. But in terms of how those customer conversations are going and when you think it could maybe start to become a contributor to revenue, how do you think about that?
Yeah, so I think, so I'm being very, I mean, I'm a CFO, so I'm very conservative about the assumptions that come from AI Unlimited. So, because I think it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out. I think what I, the way I see it is that it will enable future growth, but AI Unlimited is more just about getting more people using your software, you know, more people getting access to what's available, more people saying, actually, this is really good, I want to use this elsewhere, and then we'll create, you know, further, I would say, deal opportunities in the future.
So I think AI Unlimited will kind of itself not necessarily create, you know, huge amounts of growth, but giving access, more people access to what's available, giving, you know, more people an opportunity to try and experiment with it, I think is going to help us in this kind of attraction of new logos and increase overall net new customers. Interestingly, again, though, existing customers are very interested in it too. So it is also an expansion opportunity as well as net new customer opportunity for us.
So maybe talk about the support for open table formats. That was obviously something that you guys announced this past 1 Q. Just curious, what prompted that? And I guess, you know, how do you think about adoption of open table formats over the next 12, 24 months?
Yeah, I think it's, I mean, it's clearly, it's a hot topic right now. I mean, AI was the topic last year, and then open table formats seem to be the topic in the data and analytics space this year. I think it comes down to ensuring that you have, you know, you are giving the most flexibility to your customers. And so some customers are interested in open table formats moving forward. So it's important to give your customers the full offering. And it doesn't matter to us whether it's Iceberg or Delta Lake, like we can offer the same analytical queries at the same performance level on open table format. And so I think it's important to just have that choice, have that optionality. There is some interest.
I wouldn't say that a very large number of our customers are talking to us about it yet. But I think, again, it's important in terms of new customers. You know, is this something that's available? If you're trying to attract new customers, then, you know, you need to be able to show that you've got, you can support open table format. So it's going to be interesting how this evolves. It definitely is a hot topic now. We're tracking it very carefully. Again, you know, we're just making sure that we're being, you know, I would say conservative in our assumptions of how it plays out. But, you know, again, we'll know from existing customers very quickly, and it'll be interesting to see the number of new customers that are leveraging that, you know, that format.
Yeah, could you maybe talk about the potential pros and risks with this? So, on, you know, the positive side, what you mentioned is that it could be very TAM, right, expansive and, you know, similar to some of the other initiatives that Teradata has, like, you know, push into like newer logos. But is there any like risks that we need to just be cognizant of where if you do move to some of these deeper native, you know, query engines, is there any like lower-end workloads on, you know, Teradata today that you could potentially see, you know, move off Teradata to alternatives?
Yeah, I mean, the biggest question I get from investors is, you know, what is going to be the impact, you know, from the storage versus the compute? Because, you know, because that obviously is separating it completely. We have separation of storage and compute, but there, you know, the question is, you know, do you anticipate therefore to see kind of erosion as a result? I think it's too early for us to tell, but what I am expecting is, yes, potentially you're going to see a reduction, but I think that will then be offset by the expansion opportunity of the number of queries and workloads. Because it's very efficient, it's very cost-effective, but potentially you could say, you know, well, you know, would you really, you know, would your revenue come down as a result?
However, I think, and the conversation we have with customers is they still have the same money to spend. So I think they're still going to reinvest it like into data and analytics, but it'll just be, you know, give them maybe more opportunity for either new queries, new users, or more data. And that's where you see a lot of expansion. I mean, just, you know, maybe everyone is familiar with it, but biggest expansion opportunities with existing customers over time, very, you know, comes from the amount of data that's increasing and therefore the amount of, you know, computational queries that are happening. It's new queries, you know, so you're doing new data and analytic queries, but also the number of users that are using it.
So, you know, that's why I was saying about AI Unlimited, the more people you can get using it, the more queries that are run, you know, and the more that gets put into it. So I think there is that kind of trade-off that there is going to be potentially, you know, an impact of less specific spend coming from open table format, but at the moment expect it to be offset by the expansion opportunities of either data users or more queries.
Perfect. Now let's talk about how this all translates to the guide.
Yeah.
So you reaffirmed public cloud ARR growth of 35%-41% in constant currency. You know, looking at that number, it looks like a healthy increase, you know, relative to 4Q. So I guess maybe you can just comment on what gives you, you know, confidence in that guide and what you guys are seeing in the pipeline to, you know, further that confidence.
Yeah, I mean, I think so. Traditionally Teradata has been a very back-end loaded. I mean, a lot of software companies are, Teradata is no different to that, very back-end loaded. So Q4 is always our biggest quarter, like 50%, traditionally 50% of our growth happens in Q4. And a lot of that happens in the last month. And, you know, it's really a crazy, you know, I would say linearity as you look through, but that's normal for Teradata. It's always been that way. So 2024 is no different from that standpoint. So that kind of gives me a lot of comfort. I think the other thing as well is when I look at the pipeline, you know, we come at it very many different ways. We look at, you know, weighted pipeline coverage. We look at conversion rates.
We look deal by deal, you know, of when we expect all of the deals to close. And I actually have really, to your point, I reaffirmed last quarter because I have good confidence based on that data and visibility that I have that we have good line of sight to hit within that range. And I'm really excited. I mean, a 35%-41%, you know, cloud ARR growth number is, you know, it's above the market. You know, it's another very strong performance for us. And that's coming from a mix of migrations, expansions, and then a little bit that comes from new logos. But we always know that, you know, the new logos can then expand over time. I mentioned earlier that the expansion rate is 123%. You know, even with a small amount coming from new logos, you know, there's an opportunity for further expansion.
Yeah. And so going on, you know, we talked earlier about a lot of the transformation that's happening at Teradata. And you guys newly appointed a new CRO, Rich, who's been at, you know, Teradata, but obviously in a new role. So can you talk about some of the changes, you know, that he's thinking of implementing and how the go-to-market strategy might evolve under his leadership?
Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, so I'm very excited to have a new CRO, Rich Petley. He's a fellow Brit, so he's from the U.K. And he has been with Teradata, to your point, for two years. He started in running the Europe sales team, and then he actually took over the full international business, so Europe and Asia. And now he's taking over the global sales go-to-market organization. I think some of the things he meaningfully outgrew in the areas, like when he was doing EMEA and the international business, his growth in those regions meaningfully outperformed, I would say, the rest of the rest of the company. So I think that's a good sign of him coming on board. And the reason why is he has been very focused on ensuring that we're leveraging partners.
So, something, again, traditionally Teradata weren't necessarily focused on was leveraging partners to help us sell. We did a lot of very direct selling. Again, you know, one of the transformations that I've talked about in the last three to four years is a much more focus on partners. You know, we still have obviously a very strong and wonderful performing direct sales force, but how can we leverage partners to help sell more? He's done that very well in the international business. So, I think that's one example of an area where I think he can bring to the global organization and North America to help continue to accelerate growth.
Yeah. And then you mentioned, you know, in your guidance that Teradata, you know, like many other software companies tends to be more very second-half weighted in terms of bookings. Last year, you had, you know, some deals that slipped into this year. So are there things that Rich can do from like a go-to-market, you know, perspective to maybe tighten, you know, some of that up in the second half? Obviously, there's going to be parts of the macro that are outside of your guys' control, right? But just curious if there's any initiatives that can be put into place.
Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, to your point, when we saw in December that that deal elongation cycle and trend happening, which resulted in a few, a handful of cloud deals slipping from Q4 into 2024, we factored that into the guide. So the fact that we saw it early was a good thing. It means that when I came out and gave my guide for 2024, we've already factored in that, you know, longer sales cycles. In terms of what Rich is doing, he's very focused on, you know, his operational and governance. He's very strong in that area. So I know that he's making sure that, you know, we have really good, clear, detailed deal plans, for example. You know, he, you know, is ensuring that, you know, we understand the full, you know, decision-making process that needs to happen in each of the deals.
Because that's sometimes something where you get caught out, you know, gets held up at the CEO level or the CFO level, but sometimes even the board level. You know, and you think you've got all the way there, the deal is done, and then it's like, oh, hang on a minute, we need now to do, you know, a little bit more work, and it takes an extra few weeks. Now, an extra few weeks when you're trying to close deals at the end of the quarter, you know, means that it can slip out, slip out into the next quarter. So I know that he's doing a lot around that and very much kind of, you know, operational excellence. And that's where he comes from. And so I think he'll continue to drive that.
I don't think there needs to be any huge transformations that need to happen, but, you know, just kind of tidying up those areas, I think is something that he's continued to focus on.
Perfect. Maybe let's shift gears to cash flow and the profitability line. So can you maybe talk about the cash flow guidance for this year? So I think it's roughly, let's call it $5 million higher than what you guys did last year. Seems very doable. 1Q cash flow, it seemed free cash flow seems like it came in a little bit, you know, light relative to where like it had been trending. So I guess can you talk, can you comment on, you know, seasonality, right, and the levers to pull that give you confidence in that outlook?
Yeah, so because, I mean, we talked about the on-prem erosions happening at the beginning of the year, immediately that gives you kind of a cash flow impact, a negative cash flow impact compared to last year. There was also some one-time impacts as well. So our, you know, basically the linearity of our free cash flow is following our billings. You know, our biggest, you know, when there's kind of obviously the operating income, but that the biggest other determinant factor is like, you know, the invoicing and the billings that happen. And so given, you know, the linearity we're seeing basically from a sales cycle standpoint, that is having a knock-on impact into free cash flow. However, I have really good confidence, you know, in being in that range from a free cash flow standpoint. Historically, Teradata have a history of generating very strong free cash flow.
For those that may be not as familiar, we return, we commit to returning at minimum 75% of that back to shareholders in the form of share repurchases. So, so yeah, so I'm very confident in terms of being able to hit within that range that we've guided. But to your point, it is following the sales cycle linearity and the growth linearity. So it is very, it is back-end loaded and actually more back-end loaded in 2024 than we saw in 2023.
Are those same drivers contributing to the 2025 guidance? You updated that outlook for $450 million. You know, it is like a step up from, you know, your guide in 2024. So is it the same dynamic where, you know, some of the on-prem erosion, you know, may be impacting cash flow this year, but a lot of, you know, the out-year guidance is really tied to maybe some of these sales cycles and things that you're referring to?
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, we committed to being at least $450 million to your point in 2025, which is, you know, again, great free cash flow generation. So very excited about that. It is a step up from where we are in 2024. And, you know, the biggest drivers honestly of that is growth and profitability. Because one of the things to bear in mind is as we increase our cloud business and the mix of our cloud business, because that is growing, and we talked about it, been growing like, you know, 30% and the high 30% range compared to our on-prem business that's growing in the, you know, flat to low single digits, the more of the mix of the business that comes from cloud, the higher the total growth rate of the company.
So we're going to get that natural lift, natural, you know, growth rate coming from an improved mix in 2025 and beyond as cloud becomes a bigger, bigger portion of the business. So a lot of it comes from revenue growth. A lot of it then comes, and we continue, when we talk about growth, we always talk about profitable growth at Teradata. So we'll get, you know, profitability from that. One of the other areas as well that we're very focused on is operating margins expansions. And there's two main drivers of that. So our cloud margin as we scale is expanding. So that's great. So that will help us from a gross margin standpoint as we look out to the future.
And the other one is we don't plan as we, you know, grow the top line, we don't plan to grow the operating expenses at the same rate to get natural economies of scale for that. So we're talking about being in the low 20% range for operating margins in 2025, which is an expansion compared to where we are today. And so we've got the revenue, we've got the profitability, and then there's always working capital efficiencies. So, you know, I'd say we have a really good cash conversion cycle today, but there is still an opportunity for our DSO, for our accounts receivable to improve slightly as well. So across all of those kind of multiple levers, that's what gives me the confidence to be able to get to $450 million.
But yeah, that was going to be my next question. So when you think about, you know, some of the operating margin improvement, is that really solely based on cloud gross margins improving or are there actually other, you know, operating efficiencies that, you know, aside from just scale, right, that could also play into that?
Yeah, so I mean, there's always areas that we're focused on. So like in the, I would say, especially the G&A space. So I think I was chatting to a few people yesterday about the fact that Teradata has, for example, a flexible working model. So you can choose whether you want to work remotely, you can choose whether you want to go into an office. A lot of people are voting with their feet and not going into offices sort of thing. So I've been like aggressively reducing the real estate footprint, for example, that we have, you know, and I want to have offices available, but we don't need the size of the offices that we've had before. So we've been able to dramatically reduce some of our real estate footprint, for example.
It's areas like that that it's absolutely still an opportunity for us to continue to bring out costs. Some of that can get reinvested back into R&D and reinvested back into sales and marketing. But there definitely are operational, you know, efficiencies that we have been doing and we should continue to do, which also helps us in addition to the scale.
Yeah. Given that AI is such, you know, big topic of conversation today, I would imagine, you know, even though you guys are creating products, right, and you play it to the AI theme, you know, there's also things that companies can do internally to leverage AI, right, to drive more operating margin efficiency. Might be too early, which is totally fine. But is Teradata evaluating anything, anything AI related internally that help might drive, you know, some of those longer-term goals that you have?
Yeah, so I mean, absolutely. So I mean, you can imagine the engineering team are all using, you know, like seeing how they can use AI. I run IT as well. So we're making, you know, how can we leverage; we've done a lot of pilots, a lot of experimentation. I think a lot of companies are doing that right now, you know, also looking at, you know, how can I use it from a finance standpoint, whether, you know, whether it's fraud detection, those kind of things. So there's a lot that we're experimenting with right now. I am being, I say, cautious about, you know, having people sign up to cost reduction goals and kind of encouraging people. I think I kind of want to use the carrot versus the sticks. I want people to experiment.
I want things to try, but not to have to feel like then they have to give me, like they have to drop all the savings to the bottom line. So I'm kind of encouraging people to say, well, you get to keep those savings and reinvest it back in, you know, to your functions or into your business sort of thing. So trying to do it to encourage people to say, yeah, go and experiment and any savings that you have, this gives you, you've got that money to then spend on something else as opposed to say, okay, I need $X million of savings from AI and you need to, you know, like give it back to me. So it doesn't mean I'm not pushing people to make savings, but I'm not having specific AI cost targets right now.
So, you know, customer support is a classic example. We've got a big customer support team. You know, I was chatting with the Chief Customer Officer yesterday, we agree that's a big opportunity. I'm not going to say to him that I expect this amount from AI. And I'm like, you go make savings and you decide where it best comes from. But AI is clearly an opportunity in some of these areas to be able to take that cost and become more efficient.
Yeah, perfect. That's super helpful. Love to pivot the conversation given that, you know, this event is really about empowering females within the workplace and also promoting diversity and inclusion. You've obviously had amazing, you know, career trajectory all the way to CFO at Teradata. So for, I'd love to hear if there's any advice that you'd give for the other females, you know, in the audience as they, you know, think about their career path and, you know, the learnings that you've had from your own. Like what could you share there?
Yeah, absolutely. And I would say the community is really important. Like I think I was, I maybe took it for granted a little bit at HP that I had this great community that would give me opportunities that would encourage me to do things. I remember having a conversation with Cathie Lesjak, who was the CFO for HP for many years, you know, and remember having a career conversation with her. And I worked for her directly and she was like, what do you want to do? Like, you know, and I was kind of, oh, I'd love to be the, you know, head of finance for this division and that. And she's like, what about CFO? And I was like, oh, I'm sure I could do that.
I mean, you know, you know, this is a number of years ago, but you just don't, I think as a female, you don't envision what your full potential can be. And so I would encourage and just telling yourself, oh, I can do this isn't enough. So that community that kind of goes, that says, I believe in you, that you can do this, that this is a job that you should apply for. You know, I've had a couple of instances where I've not applied for jobs because I don't tick all the boxes. Like I don't feel like I'm good enough. And, you know, and people have had to say to me, it's like, you just have to be the best person at the, you know, you don't have to be perfect. You just have to be the best person against the competition effectively.
So, and what have you got to lose? You don't get it. You don't get it. Like if you get it, then great. And, you know, to the point where I remember somebody saying to me, I said, oh, I found this really good job, but I, you know, I ticked five out of the eight requirements. And they're like, okay, well, how did it go? I'm like, oh, I didn't apply. And they're like, pick up the phone, go, you know, like go and apply. And in one instance, I got the job.
I just think having that community, having that people, and it doesn't always have to be women, but just people that surround you, that encourage you, that remind you to go for it, you know, to, you know, to say yes, you know, to at least try rather than just assume, you know, that you're not good enough or to, and you don't do it intentionally. Like I don't walk around thinking, oh, I'm not good enough. I can't, I'm not capable of doing that. But you do, for some reason, we look at things and go, oh, no, I'm not, I shouldn't apply for that. And I don't know why we do that to ourselves, but we do. So make sure you've got that community and network of people around you to push you, to encourage you, to make you make some bold moves and support you.
Because sometimes those bold moves work out wonderfully and sometimes they don't. And so having that support around you, I think, is really important. And you have to kind of go actively find that community as well, which, you know, I'm not the most, I would say, extrovert social person naturally, you know, so walking into the room last night and having to go up to like a group of people who you don't know, that you've never met and kind of like, hi, I'm great. It's not natural, but I force myself to do it because I know that I'm going to leave the room, you know, I'm going to leave the discussion and leave the room with, you know, three, five, maybe even 10 people that I've never met before, but now I know their name.
Now I know that I can reach out to them, you know, and I'm like, that's amazing. But you have to kind of almost force yourself to do it. It's not natural to many of us. So definitely use those opportunities. And I have to kind of force myself to do it intentionally now. And it really pays off. You always meet, you know, one or two people that you're like, wow, that was an amazing conversation. I'm so glad I met them. So it's worth the effort.
Yeah. That totally resonates with me. That was obviously the whole purpose of this event. Hopefully we can, you know, start building that community as well here too. Claire, another question, you know, given your leadership role now, I'm curious, like, is there anything that Teradata is like doing internally in order to promote diversity and inclusion that you feel like has been very effective for others in the room that are trying to figure out, you know, what they can apply to their own company?
Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of companies are doing a great job on diversity and equity. I think where companies struggle a little bit is in inclusion. You know, like, and I think what Teradata do really well, we have a D&I, you know, kind of working group and it's from people all over the company and they're continuously looking at not just the metrics of the number of female managers, you know, the number of, you know, African American, you know, they're not just looking at data, actually looking at do they feel like they're included? Do they feel like they belong? And I think that's really important and Teradata do that really well.
So if there was any advice I would say from my experience at Teradata is don't, yes, focus on the metrics because, you know, the metrics tell the real story, but, you know, about, you know, do you really have diversity across the organization? But it doesn't tell the full story about do people feel engaged, do people feel included, do they feel that their voice is heard? And I think right from the very top, from the Steve as CEO all the way down, people are encouraged to be themselves. People are encouraged to have a voice and to speak up and to really feel included. And I'm not saying we've got it perfect. I think there's still more work we can do. But that focus coming from, you know, the executive team all the way down the organization, I think is special at Teradata.
And if there's one thing, and I guarantee you ask any person that works at Teradata, what's the best thing about working at Teradata? They'll say the people. You know, it's all about the people. It's about the community. It's like we feel like we're family and we include people. You know, we are, and we have, I mean, we have more females on the C-suite than we have males, which, you know, there's not many tech software companies that have that too. You know, when you actually have the females in the room outnumber the males. So, you know, and it's great. It's a great environment, very much focused on D&I. And we've come a long way. We weren't, you know, as strong, you know, four or five years ago. So we've come a long way, but that inclusion and belonging is really important.
That's amazing to hear. Before we wrap up, I just want to see if there's any questions from the audience. This idea of an elongated deal cycle is something we've heard from several. So, you know, the deals require more people involved. Maybe it has to go to higher levels. You know, maybe you could argue in your case that the technology is transformative and it's great to have those senior execs involved because it will potentially grow into something bigger in terms of the client relationship. But, you know, do you think this is sort of temporary and something that's happening now because of the mind share and the competition with AI or, you know, do you think this is kind of here to stay? Maybe that's hard to comment on, but I was just curious your thoughts because it does seem like a consistent theme.
Yeah, that's a great question and something we've been talking about. I think it's here to stay for a little while. I do think a lot of companies are still working on how to best use AI, you know, how to, what's the best end-to-end, you know, data strategy structure to have in those companies. So I do think, you know, I am assuming, for example, that it will stay through 2023. So it's going to, obviously, I'm expecting it to stay in 2024 and I am expecting it to stay through to 2025. Beyond that, I think is difficult to say. Would it potentially then come back to more historical levels?
I think we'll have to, I think it's a bit of a wait and see, but I do, you know, I'm planning and modeling that that will continue into 2025 because I don't think this is going to change, you know, it's not for just a few quarters in my mind, but it is definitely an interesting one to, you know, to follow, to, you know, to check. But yeah, I am assuming right now that it continues all the way through 2025 as well.
Any other questions? Claire, maybe one final one for me is just, I'm sure you've had, you know, several investor conversations over the last like couple of weeks since you guys last reported. So any, you know, closing remarks that you would give, you know, based on those conversations, any topical talking points that have come up that you want to leave the audience with?
Yeah, no, thanks for the opportunity. So, so yeah, I would say, yeah, we've been out on the road a lot. I think the one thing I would say is that confidence in that strong cloud ARR growth is very good. You know, I've reaffirmed it. I'm feeling very good about it based on the pipeline and what we see, you know, from the sales team. And I think the way to think about that is how that will propel future growth. I think one of the concerns, one of the bear theses about Teradata is very much kind of like, is it left pocket, right pocket? Is it just a migration of, you know, existing work, you know, existing customers, existing workloads? And so I would point to the net expansion rate. You know, expansion rate is about, you know, new workloads, new queries.
I point to that being 123%. The other thing I would point to is we saw a very large uplift in our pipeline of new logos. And we talked about it at that last earnings. So just to remind people, you know, we're talking about hundreds, you know, over 100 of new logo in our pipeline, which is a meaningful step up Teradata. And so I think those trends, the net expansion rate trends, the confidence that I have in the full year numbers and the new logo pipeline trend, I think are all really good indications, you know, of the opportunity for us ahead.
Well, Claire, thank you so much for your participation. That was an amazing conversation. So appreciate your time, everyone. Let's give Claire a round of applause.