For the first time since the historic decision of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1966 to switch to IBM-based computers and rapidly reduce support for local developments, we felt the breeze of independence. The most neutral and independent Western IT companies have turned into an economic press, including the performance of airplanes, cars, gadgets, enterprise management systems applications, finance, logistics and customer relations. All this unprecedented support from the West is a cold shower for our resurrection.
Federal initiatives subsequently failed to make up for the missed opportunities and renewed potential for digital sovereignty, as the Russian government decree No. . In all the listed regulations, sub-regulations and digital transformation plans, there was enough space to completely or partially ignore the state’s strategic plans.
Everything will be fine, it can be said that the battle is lost: you need to live by the laws of the market, not jump over your head, choose the best and not waste time reinventing the wheel. But it is objectively impossible to agree with this – a Russian definitely has genius genetics and at the same time is as creative and openly established as possible. The Russian method of teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a school of mathematics that gave world projects to its Russian founders (see Dmitri Sovetkin’s method). Let us even consider the principles of the Soviet legacy, neatly embedded in the basic assumptions of the IT industry: the economy of joint participation and consumption, the “sharing economy” – “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”; the transition from competition to cooperation; management is transformed from subjective activity to objective activity through big data and artificial intelligence; An economy where people are more important than capital.
But the point is that most of the development takes place in the form of external staffing and outsourcing; this means that the products created will return by a large margin and in larger quantities in the form of software in cars, apps in phones, software for industry. , the same office and civil services. Our potential is huge, but what is wrong, where is the application? Why do we have to buy our own code from Western vendors when it’s easier for Russian developers to move abroad than in their own market?
According to the ANO “Digital Platforms” analysis of the digital transformation market, the main problems of software import substitution are the social aspects:
1. Low motivation for promoting domestic developments. The client, as a rule, is not aware of the long-term perspective and is very easily bribed with short-term benefits.
2. Insufficient awareness of CIOs about the socio-economic opportunities and benefits of existing Russian digital platforms, they are often not tasked with finding better alternatives, and the good old Western is already familiar.
3. Insufficient staffing level. Undoubtedly, Western products entering the world market and with many years of experience have the advantage of ease of installation and use – this is very attractive to application specialists. Installing a Western product with one click is much easier than re-reading the instructions for the new Russian software.
4. Insufficient understanding of their business processes by customers and CIOs or insufficient knowledge of existing processes. Such a misunderstanding preserves allegiance to Western products and does not allow spending energy on creative planning for the future together with Russian sellers. Too many software vendors and developers lack the resources and skills to promote their products. Often among those responsible for sales and promotion, the lack of soft skills leads to a lack of understanding of the socio-economic value of products, which means loss of contact with the consumer. Western sellers, on the contrary, perfectly understand their business tasks and are ready to take Russian developers on board and talk to the customer for them.
This means that in order to achieve national plans, in addition to government measures to support the IT industry, it is important to act on three fundamental paradigms of principles:
1. Participation of sellers – providing all necessary information about the products and the organization; work on continuous software development and compatibility with ecosystem products; information about new features and applications.
2. Industry cooperation – consolidation of experience and advice on all aspects of software implementation in government agencies and state-owned companies; researching and reproducing best practices of digital transformation; to seek common solutions to emerging problems.
3. Clarity for the consumer – the ability to obtain all the necessary information about programs for solving business problems in a clear form or upon request.
To solve these problems, a marketplace “Digital Marketplace” for Russian software products was launched, more than 200 Russian Western software analogues accumulated in a few days, now ready to replace foreign software from politically relevant vendors. In total, 13,000 units of Russian competitive products from 7,000 sellers were registered in the registry free of charge.
I am sure that the present opportunity presented to us by the West will allow us to calmly and objectively realize all the problems of the last 50 years, and also to begin unmasked cooperation. The main thing is to use it effectively and not to completely turn into a staff supplement. And at government meetings about the development of the IT industry, it is quite possible that we will eventually stop seeing a silent presentation screen with the Windows logo.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.
Source: Gazeta
