MDSO
#We have not disclosed win rates, historically.
Off the top of my head, I don't have that information for you.
I know our win rates have been consistent and probably this year have actually moved higher, a bit higher than they were historically.
I can tell you that in large deals historically, our win rate has been around 70%, 80%.
I feel pretty good about where we are in some of our large situations currently.
No.
Like we said, we feel very good where we are competitively
I think I mentioned that while our backlog growth year to date compared to 2014 and historical trends was very much inline, its also on the bookings numbers that <UNK> referred to in his prepared remarks.
Year to date we feel very good, you obviously know, and it's very obvious from that call that Q4 is a pivotal quarter, and some larger deals that are moved from Q3 into Q4 that obviously have an impact on 2016.
Again, from an overall coverage perspective and backlog bill standpoint, we are actually slightly ahead of where we were in 2014.
We're on track, and I think if you look at the metrics from a cloud subscription revenue perspective, we are targeting a growth of organic 20% and beyond.
For next year, which I think is already a great outlook for things to come, but obviously Q4 is standing in between.
That's a meaty question.
Let me address it this way.
I actually think we are much further along this year than we were last year at this time.
If you look at the overall metrics that we provided, we're in a good place.
We are within the guidance range that we provided.
One of the big differences this year is that a lot of the difference in terms of where our midpoint is and where we are probably going to land, is coming from our services revenue line.
It is qualitatively different from last year and we are winning business and we are building backlog.
I think there are some things that no matter how ---+ you come into a year and you make a prediction based on the information that you have and some assumptions you make, like anybody does when they look at their pipeline.
We've had good pipeline conversion, there are some things you cannot account for.
Each organization that we deal with has different priorities and they have different processes for getting deals closed.
And then there are other things that get into the mix For instance there may be an acquisition going on, or there may be something going on that slows the process down that we cannot account for.
It's not a personnel issue, it's not a process redesign issue on our side in the sales organization.
I think our sales organization is doing better this year for sure.
As you know, we made some leadership changes, and we brought some new folks in, I think all of that has been positive.
Having <UNK> join us is a big positive, because he has dealt with ---+ he has been in large organizations, and I think across Medidata we're adding employees who help us to scale our business.
I think that's kind of the way you need to think about our business going forward, as we're becoming much more important to our customers and the scale of the business we're doing is increasing.
And we're making sure we have the talent that can help us get across the line.
Sorry.
Yes, let me take that question.
The way you have to think about this, is these deals now really impact 2016 and not really Q4.
The incremental revenue that we recognized in the quarter is very minimal.
We feel very good, I feel very good about the coverage we have to the outlook that we provided.
We have a clear path.
But the enterprise deals are really more important as you go into 2016.
Yes.
At this point we're not prepared to give guidance.
I think what we gave as a general parameters, and we're going to stay consistent with, is that we look to continue to see improving operating leverage in the business over the next three to five years.
You are seeing it this year versus last year, and I think, without giving you specifics directionally, you should expect to see it next year versus this year as well.
I think if you look at our guidance range and see midpoint of the guidance range we provide at the beginning of the year, one important part of it and <UNK> mentioned it earlier, and I totally should've made that point before.
Initially the[2016 impact of] professional services we revised that outlook in Q2, we made a further statement now of a new revision contribution of provisional services to our overall total revenue.
That brought us down to where we have not provided the revised outlook to.
We weren't able to backfill this with additional cloud subscription revenue.
As I said, our cloud subscription growth is strong.
20% plus year over year.
To all this into perspective.
All those deals that we were talking to, we're focused in closing them in the fourth quarter so that they will have impact to 2016 and we will maintain those growth targets going forward based on the success.
And to answer the second part of your question, they would have had an impact this year had they closed earlier.
As any deal does, even though have inherent ramp to them.
And yes, the scale we're talking about is pretty significant.
By any cloud company's measurement.
They are very, very large deals.
On gross margin or EBITDA.
On a EBITDA level, our guidance range we reaffirmed our guidance range from between [90 to 96].
We revised our outlook towards below the midpoint to the end of it, I think we should be comfortable.
We're on track, we have a very, very strong Q3 in terms of EBITDA margin.
We had a particularly strong quarter as it relates to gross margin.
Not only in this quarter but year to date.
We continue to make investments into our infrastructure to enable future growth, which is most important.
We don't want to short invest into our business, which will suffer us later on.
So we make these decisions as we go.
Q4 is really for us all about getting ready for 2016, and I think that's how I would describe the situation.
Sure.
I think we've actually ---+ we created a value function a couple of years ago.
We blended that into the sales organization in the past year.
And that's gone extremely well.
Given what we are selling to our existing customer base and new customers, especially folks who maybe not as familiar with the Medidata story or the Medidata platform, and where we think we can add value, it's resonated well.
It's put us in very good competitive position, because it's given people an understanding of how we differentiate from the competition, and where they can expect to see efficiency and drive lower TCO and a higher rate of return on their investment.
It's still a work in progress, as it probably will be forever.
But it has gone extremely well, I think it's been it has positioned us very well.
I want to point out the value function is not just around pricing, it's around overall relationship with our customers.
This is how we make sure as we're working continually with people who are higher and higher level executives in our client base, that we get them to exhibit the behavioral changes, that I was talking about before, to make sure that they get the maximum value of our software.
I wanted you to understand that this is not just a pricing thing, this is the way we manage the whole business.
Thanks again to all of you for joining us on the call today.
We're looking forward to seeing you at our financial analyst day in early December.
And looking forward to being able to share a bit more about the Medidata story with you at that time.
