and we could suffer financial loss, liability to clients, loss of clients, regulatory intervention, or damage to our reputation, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operation or financial condition. In addition, our third-party vendors may cease providing data center facilities or services, elect to not renew their agreements with us on commercially reasonable terms or at all, breach their agreements with us or fail to satisfy our expectations, which could disrupt our operations and require us to incur costs which could materially adversely affect our results of operation or financial condition. Our ability to compete and our success depend, in part, upon our intellectual property. We rely on patent, copyright, trade secret and trademark laws, and confidentiality or license agreements with our employees, customers, vendors, partners and others to protect our intellectual property rights. We may need to devote significant resources, including cybersecurity resources, to monitoring our intellectual property rights. In addition, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property rights may be inadequate or ineffective, or may not provide us with a significant competitive advantage. Our intellectual property could be wrongfully acquired as a result of a cyber-attack or other wrongful conduct by third parties or our personnel. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly and time-consuming. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims, and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights, which may be successful. There is considerable intellectual property development activity in our industry. Third parties, including our competitors, may own or claim to own intellectual property relating to our products or services and may claim that we are infringing their intellectual property rights. We may be found to be infringing upon such rights, even if we are unaware of their intellectual property rights. Any claims or litigation could cause us to incur significant expenses and, if successfully asserted against us or if we decide to settle, could require that we pay substantial damages or ongoing royalty payments, obtain licenses, modify applications, prevent us from offering our services, or require that we comply with other unfavorable terms. We may also be obligated to indemnify our customers, vendors or partners in connection with any such claim or litigation. Even if we were to prevail in such a dispute, any litigation regarding our intellectual property could be costly and time-consuming. Trade, monetary and fiscal policies, and political and economic conditions may substantially change, and credit markets may experience periods of constriction and volatility. When there is a slowdown in the economy, employment levels and interest rates may decrease with a corresponding impact on our businesses. Clients may react to worsening conditions by reducing their spending on HCM services or We have been and will be undertaking certain transformation initiatives, which are designed to streamline our organization, extend our world-class distribution and strengthen our talent and culture, while supporting our revenue growth, margin improvement and productivity. If we do not successfully manage and execute these initiatives, or if they are inadequate or ineffective, we may fail to meet our financial goals and achieve anticipated benefits, improvements may be delayed, not sustained or not realized and our business, operations and competitive position could be adversely affected. These initiatives, or our failure to successfully manage them, could result in unintended consequences or unforeseen costs, including distraction of our management and employees, attrition, inability to attract or retain key personnel, and reduced employee productivity, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Our businesses operate in industries that are subject to rapid technological advances and changing client needs and preferences. In order to remain competitive and responsive to client demands, we continually upgrade, enhance, and expand our technology, solutions and services. If we fail to respond successfully to technology challenges and client needs and preferences, the demand for our solutions and services may diminish. In addition, investment in product development often involves a long return on investment cycle. We have made and expect to continue to make significant investments in product development. We must continue to dedicate a significant amount of resources to our development efforts before knowing to what extent our investments will result in products the market will accept. In addition, our business could be adversely affected in periods surrounding our new product introductions if customers delay purchasing decisions to evaluate the new product offerings. Furthermore, we may not execute successfully on our product development strategy, including because of challenges with regard to product planning and timing and technical hurdles that we fail to overcome in a timely fashion. We may not realize or sustain the expected benefits from our business transformation initiatives, and these efforts could have a materially adverse effect on our business, operations, financial condition, results of operations and competitive position Political and economic factors may adversely affect our business and financial results We may be sued by third parties for infringement of their proprietary rights, which could have a materially adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations If we fail to upgrade, enhance and expand our technology and services to meet client needs and preferences, the demand for our solutions and services may diminish If we fail to protect our intellectual property rights, it could materially adversely affect our business and our brand 16