decreased during fiscal 2013 primarily due to expense decreases across all of our services segments, which consisted primarily of decreases in external contractor costs, lower variable compensation expenses, and lower intangible asset amortization.

Excluding the effect of currency rate fluctuations, total services margin and total margin as a percentage of revenues decreased during fiscal 2013 as our total services revenues declined at a faster rate than our total services expenses.

Fiscal 2012 Compared to Fiscal 2011:     Excluding the effect of currency rate fluctuations, our services revenues increased modestly in fiscal 2012 due to increased revenues from our consulting and managed cloud services segments including incremental contributions from our recently acquired companies, which were partially offset by decreases in our education revenues.

On a constant currency basis, our services expenses decreased during fiscal 2012 due to lower third-party contractor expenses associated with our managed cloud services offerings, lower intangible asset amortization and certain other net expense reductions.

Excluding the effect of currency rate fluctuations, total services margin and total margin as a percentage of revenues increased during fiscal 2012 as our total services revenues increased while our total services expenses decreased.

Research and Development Expenses:     Research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel related expenditures. We intend to continue to invest significantly in our research and development efforts because, in our judgment, they are essential to maintaining our competitive position.

 

Fiscal 2013 Compared to Fiscal 2012:     On a constant currency basis, total research and development expenses increased during fiscal 2013 primarily due to an increase in employee related expenses including salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation from increased headcount, and was partially offset by lower variable compensation expenses.

Fiscal 2012 Compared to Fiscal 2011:     On a constant currency basis, total research and development expenses increased slightly during fiscal 2012 primarily as a result of an increase in employee related expenses such as salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation from increased headcount, which was partially offset by a decrease in variable compensation expenses and a decrease in certain legal costs.

General and Administrative Expenses:     General and administrative expenses primarily consist of personnel related expenditures for information technology, finance, legal and human resources support functions.

Fiscal 2013 Compared to Fiscal 2012:     On a constant currency basis, total general and administrative expenses decreased in fiscal 2013 primarily due to a decrease in professional fees and lower variable compensation expenses, partially offset by slightly higher salaries and benefits expenses due to a modest increase in headcount.

Fiscal 2012 Compared to Fiscal 2011:     On a constant currency basis, total general and administrative expenses increased in fiscal 2012 primarily as a result of a fiscal 2011 $120 million benefit from the recovery of certain