Automation as a percentage of service desk ticket volume increased 500 basis points sequentially and 300 basis points year-over-year in the second quarter.
During the second quarter, strong revenue growth continued in C&I, with cloud revenue specifically growing 28% year-over-year.
We're seeing early stage traction with ECS services expansion, with revenue from these services up 2% year-over-year.
We signed a contract with one of the largest financial services institutions in Brazil during the quarter, for consulting and application services for their ClearPath Forward and related application environment, including development and modernization relating to the integration of more than 90 systems to support the institution's mortgage processing operations.
Our efforts across segments resulted in total company TCV being up 50% year-over-year in the second quarter and 24% sequentially.
Total company Pipeline was up 2% sequentially, though down 3% year-over-year.
However, as of the end of July, Pipeline was up 8% versus the end of the first quarter this year and 2% versus the end of the second quarter last year.
Although total company last 12 months voluntary attrition was 12.9% in the second quarter, versus 10.4% in the first quarter, the second quarter level was 210 basis points lower than the prior-year period, and 480 basis points lower than the pre-pandemic level in the second quarter of 2019.
Our open positions filled internally increased 13% since year-end 2020.
Applicants for open position increased 30% sequentially.
Our time-to-fill positions decreased 25% since year-end 2020, and referral based hiring has increased significantly relative to last year.
Revenue grew 18% year-over-year and 1% sequentially, supported by revenue growth in each of our segments.
DWS revenue grew 10% year-over-year, driven in part by growth in revenue from our new proactive experienced solutions and the early results of the new partnerships that Peter mentioned.
DWS revenue was also up 4% sequentially.
Our emphasis within C&I on cloud work for our targeted sectors is also yielding positive results, demonstrated by revenue growth for the segment of 10% year-over-year and 1% sequentially.
Within C&I, cloud revenue was a key driver of growth, up 28% year-over-year in the quarter.
ECS segment revenue grew significantly year-over-year, up 40% and showed a 1% sequential increase.
The growth was driven in part by higher license revenue than anticipated based on higher volumes than projected in the quarter, Additionally, ECS services revenue grew 2% year-over-year.
As we've previously noted, we expect ECS license revenue to be split 55% and 45% between the first and second half of the year, with the third quarter assumed to be the lightest of the year.
As a reminder, the prior year first half/second half split was 40% and 60%, with 40% of the full year segment revenue coming in the fourth quarter.
Total company backlog was $3.3 billion as of the end of the second quarter relative to $3.4 billion as of the end of the prior quarter.
Of the $3.3 billion, we anticipate $375 million will convert into revenue in the third quarter.
As a result, we're reaffirming our full year guidance range of 0% to 2% year-over-year revenue growth.
This metric was up 950 basis points year-over-year to 9.7%, supported by year-over-year improvements to gross margin in each of the segments.
DWS gross margin increased 840 basis points year-over-year to 15.2%.
DWS gross margin was also up 210 basis points sequentially.
C&I gross margin improved 730 basis points year-over-year to 12.5% and was up 280 basis points sequentially, helped by higher cloud revenue and the same real estate and workforce management cost efficiencies that I note for DWS.
ECS gross margin increased 1,430 basis points year-over-year to 61.3%, helped by flow-through of strong ECS license revenue driven by the renewals and volume increases that I noted earlier against the relatively fixed cost base.
ECS gross margin was roughly flat sequentially with both periods over 61%.
I've highlighted in previous discussions that pre-reinvestment, we were targeting $130 million to $160 million of run rate savings exiting 2021.
Approximately $35 million of the annualized actual savings was included in the second quarter results, and we believe the full amount of savings will be realized by the end of next year.
The metric was down 80 basis points sequentially in the quarter, even factoring in retention-focused salary increases that we implemented during the period.
During the second quarter, we also successfully achieved our goal of removing $1.2 billion in gross pension liabilities from the balance sheet.
In conjunction with the final actions to achieve this, we recognized a non-cash settlement charges of approximately $211 million or $2.37 per diluted share, which was the only reason that our net loss from continuing operations was $140.8 million or $2.10 per diluted share.
The improvements to non-GAAP operating profit also flowed through to adjusted EBITDA, which increased 125% year-over-year to $94.4 million.
Adjusted EBITDA margin increased 860 basis points year-over-year to 18.2%, and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share increased significantly to $0.68 from a loss of $0.15 in the prior year period.
capex for the second quarter was $23 million, down 35% year-over-year, reflecting the continuation of our capital-light strategy and our focus on integrating best-of-breed solutions to enhance our client offerings and help optimize software development costs.
Cash from operations improved $56 million year-over-year and was positive at $42 million.
Free cash flow improved $69 million year-over-year to a positive $19 million, and adjusted free cash flow improved $92 million to a positive $55 million.
As a result, and in addition to affirming revenue guidance, we're also reaffirming our guidance ranges for these two metrics at 9% to 10% and 17.25% to 18.25%, respectively.
We're also forecasting our capex spend for the year to be lower than initially anticipated and now is expected to be approximately $115 million.
Other full year cash flow expectations are the following: we anticipate cash taxes to be approximately $45 million to $55 million, and we expect restructuring payments to be approximately $65 million to $70 million.
Additionally, as we noted in January, working capital is currently at a run rate use of approximately $20 million to $30 million, which we still believe will improve over time.

Summary:
We're seeing early stage traction with ECS services expansion, with revenue from these services up 2% year-over-year.
Total company Pipeline was up 2% sequentially, though down 3% year-over-year.
However, as of the end of July, Pipeline was up 8% versus the end of the first quarter this year and 2% versus the end of the second quarter last year.
The growth was driven in part by higher license revenue than anticipated based on higher volumes than projected in the quarter, Additionally, ECS services revenue grew 2% year-over-year.
As a result, we're reaffirming our full year guidance range of 0% to 2% year-over-year revenue growth.
In conjunction with the final actions to achieve this, we recognized a non-cash settlement charges of approximately $211 million or $2.37 per diluted share, which was the only reason that our net loss from continuing operations was $140.8 million or $2.10 per diluted share.
Adjusted EBITDA margin increased 860 basis points year-over-year to 18.2%, and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share increased significantly to $0.68 from a loss of $0.15 in the prior year period.