RIF.Innopolis: Our goal now is to get access to new oil. And new oil – it is data
Nikolay Nikiforov is sure that the state has done nothing to support information technology in the country
On 8 June, in the Tatarstan IT city there was opened the forum 'RIF. Innopolis', the panel discussion of which coincided with the session of another major event in the field of information technology — Information Technology of Industrial Russia (CIPR). During the opening-discussion, the Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation and the leading experts of major IT companies discussed the possibilities of the industry and divided in their opinions: whether Russia will go its own way in this area or it needs, in spite of sanctions, to integrate into the global market of IT-technologies.
'We think that labour migration inside the country — it is a very good trend'
The opening of the conference 'RIF. Innopolis', which was held in the science city Innopolis on 9-10 June, was combined with the session of CIPR 'Economic and informational readiness for new ways of Industry 4.0'. The moderator of the panel discussion was the director for communications and strategic research of the state corporation Rostec Vasily Brovko and the director of the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC) Sergey Plugotarenko.
The first speaker was the 'father' of IT city, the Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation Nikolay Nikiforov: 'First of all, I would like to congratulate the city and all its residents — those who are are actually living here, with City Day. Today is the birthday of Innopolis'. The Minister reminded that it's been four years since the day of laying the stone, from the date of opening — one year.
The speaker wished success to the new city and said that he was pleased to see all the new residents, the publication of new vacancies for employment in Innopolis and CVs from all over Russia:
'We believe that labor migration within the country, between the cities of Russia is a very good trend.'
'We see the impressive examples of how the entire industries were changing'
Before the discussion, Plugotarenko announced some figures. Today, the Internet is used by about 80 million people, 2.3% of GDP of Russia — from the net Internet markets and about 18% — from so-called dependent markets. Net turnover in 2015 — about 1.5 trillion rubles, the observed growth is 10-15% per year of all measurable Internet indices — this is called a crisis scenario. IT-sector employs 2 million people, the volume of investments in IT-sector amounted to 35 billion rubles in 2015, the assessment of capitalization of top 10 companies Russia's IT leaders — about $17 billion.
The market of radio electronics is about 3 trillion rubles, the revenue in 2015 amounted to 28%, besides, there is a large investment programme — it have been allocated about 125 billion rubles in this industry until 2025.
Based on these data, the speaker concluded that the Internet, Internet-plus ( the technologies that can't exist without the Internet — editor's note) and everything that is connected with the phenomenon of 'Industry 4.0' — it is an area which requires much attention.
The first topic of the discussion was: 'Whether the Russian alternative to 'Industry 4.0' is possible? And what will be the specific features of the transition to a new technical way of Russia?'.
Nikolay Nikiforov replied that the state's position has two aspects: the issue of infrastructure development in general, and import substitution, which the speaker prefers to call diversification. According to him, in the future the winners will be those who will think about what new challenges is the technological revolution mounting to them:
'I think the last five years have become a bright example of the fact that if you're not looking over the horizon, you will lose very quickly. We see the impressive examples of how the entire industries were changing that existed for decades. And they changed so quickly that it often caused a shock from the decision-makers. Therefore, it is important to make the way so that in terms of infrastructure development and state regulation the Russian Federation as a territory, as a large part of our planet was fully ready for this.'
Nikiforov gave examples of when the state was ahead in working out the issues of state regulation. For example, when introducing 3G and 4G. According to him, in Russia for the first time in the world, despite the fact that Russia does not produce such equipment, due to smart regulation there was launched a running network, which was put into commercial operation of the transmission standard LTE Advanced.
'It happened right in the center of Moscow and here we were ahead of the entire planet,' said Nikiforov.
At the moment, according to the Minister, it is necessary to fulfill the basic need in the information transmission. Noting that he recently returned from Kamchatka, Nikiforov said that in Russia there are areas where there are problems with Internet access. Thus, as the Minister has repeated several times, it is necessary to eliminate the underlying digital inequality.
As for the import substitution and diversification, the speaker does not see the contradiction in these two terms. According to him, now the whole world is suffering from a monopoly in the field of software. 'Our goal is to make this market diversified. By diversifying the market of basic application software we will bring all those problems from our 'Internet 2.0' to the 'Industry 4.0'. We'd like that on the stage of this transition the global market of IT solutions has become much more diversified, and Russia is going to invest in this and will fight for this,' said Nikiforov. This should be done in partnership with other technological leaders. The main emphasis, according to the Minister, needs to be done on cooperation with the BRICS countries.
The Russian Federation has done nothing support information technology
Responding to several questions of Plugotarenko about sanctions and domestic production, Nikiforov said that we should not strike Europe out of this work, but it is the European colleagues who should make the first step:
'The sanctions were imposed by Europeans. If they lift them, I'm sure this will lead to a gradual lifting of the counter-sanctions'. The speaker noticed that he is in constant dialogue with the European partners. As an example, he gave the European Commissioner Oettinger, who is well-known in Russia and who is now engaged in the digital economy. The specialist is awaited at the St Petersburg Forum. He also gave examples of current collaboration with European companies, including those who are residents of Innopolis.
Nikolay Nikiforov: 'From the point of view of information technology, I think, the Russian Federation has done nothing in terms of state support. But they need to make these decisions as quickly as possible.'
Also, the Minister touched upon the topic of the state support, which, in his opinion, is not enough.
'We constantly hear different stories about how we support exports, and, perhaps, we have examples of successful contracts in terms of exports of some commodity products, the traditional types of exports. But from the point of view of information technology, I think, the Russian Federation has done nothing in terms of state support. They need to make these decisions as quickly as possible.' Now the government introduced a document on the establishment of a special fund for the development of information technology, under which domestic companies that are developing their own products and are willing to enter other markets will be provided soft loans. According to Nikiforov, now we need to consider the set of tools of state support of this sector — otherwise, if we may miss the window of opportunities.
'To implement the paradigm 'Industry 4.0' is possible only when in the heads there is also 4.0'
Natalia Parmyonova, the Executive Director of SAP Russia, in the answer to the question made a small excursion into the history of the term 'Industry 4.0'. It was first used at the Hannover Messe industrial fair in 2011 during the discussion of Angela Merkel with the German industrialists. They were talking about that modern information technologies allowed industrial enterprises to interact differently among themselves. According to her, only cooperation and joint work can advance the Russian economy. The specialist now does not see the specifics of development of the country in this direction, as even having the sanctions it is highly integrated in the world economy. In response to the story about the company's activities in terms of cooperation with other companies in the field of innovations, Vasily Brovko, noting that SAP has invested about 6 billion euros in its latest platform, asked the question to the Director General of the National center of Informatization Konstantin Solodukhin whether it is possible in Russia to create an alternative software for less money, that would manage a lifecycle of a product and meet the challenges of the time?
'To implement the paradigm 'Industry 4.0' is possible only when in the heads there is also 4.0 and not 2.0 and not 1.0,' said Solodukhin. He cited as an example the domestic company (however, he preferred not to announce the name), which is engaged in system integration, managing a product lifecycle, and where the director of the enterprise says that regardless of the implementation he will assemble the plane according to the old designs.
It seemed symbolic that the conversation about the philosophy of 4.0 is within the walls of Innopolis, where it is just being formed of the new generation. As for the domestic developments, Solodukhin noted that we can still try to be in the trend: 'Basically, I am optimistic about the future, but I repeat that we need to change brains.'
'Our goal now is to get access to new oil. And new oil – it is data'
The speech of Evgeny Chereshnev, the head of the Department for social media of the Kaspersky Lab, was very brief but comprehensive.
'I don't want to upset anyone, but if to answer your question directly, we are doomed on your own way. And we do not have the other way,' said the first Russian man who has implanted the chip.
He explained the term 'industry 4.0', which means the creation of the system of automation and optimization of the production without human participation. According to him, in Russia it is possible to create the necessary technologies, as the country has its own good fundamental school. However, this is not enough. Chereshnev believes that optimization is possible in two ways — to go on a whim or to focus on guaranteed data.
The speaker said that in 2014 it was published the news that the number of devices exceeded the number of people:
'That is, the devices are significantly more than 7 billion. None of these devices works on the operating system, which is made in Russia. That means that each of us now, in fact, contributes to the receiving of significant amounts of data not even by the state but specific companies. There are four of them: Google, Apple, Facebook and IBM, although IBM is another story. And the point is that we may say a lot what we can. I believe we really can change the situation, but for that we need clearly understand that our goal now is to get access to new oil. And new oil – it is data. If we don't have these data, we will create the technologies that tomorrow China will take, the USA, Germany – everyone will take away who have the data — and make a candy. They will not go by intuition, as we do, but with trump cards in their hands'.
According to him, Russia has many problems, but the main is that we have missed the situation, in the result, we 'have become a country where there is little digital oil.' The speaker believes that we need to think not about how to assemble a new iPhone, or to create SAP but about how to create the other 'ocean', through which Russia can lead the community, which is also not satisfied with the current situation with data.
The answer of the specialist of the Kaspersky Lab was greeted with thunderous applause.
'If to speak about Russia, we have, of course, our own way'
The rector of the Innopolis University Aleksander Tormasov told about the personnel in the IT industry. Before his speech the floor was taken by Nikolay Nikiforov. He said that the Supervisory Board of the University sent him the results of the campaign on the receiving of applications to the school for the new academic year in September 2016. According to him, he was very impressed, as they received applications from students from 58 countries.
Aleksander Tormasov expressed hope that next year at the next session of the forum these students will communicate with the Minister. Returning to the theme of globalization, he noted that domestic students need to be integrated in the global processes, so as to make something different, unique, they need to understand foreign programmes. According to him, they attract the foreign experts not with money — it is not their method. Teachers are attracted by the opportunity to conduct their own research using the possibility of high level of training of our students.
The head of 'Fund of development of Internet initiatives' Kirill Varlamov was asked about whether young entrepreneurs have a vector in the direction of 'industry 4.0'.
'The development Fund of Internet initiatives' is engaged in the support and development of Internet entrepreneurship. Today, through their programme there were about 60 thousand people, in addition, 10 thousand projects received assistance on the market promotion. Over the past two years, the Fund has invested over 250 companies.'
As for the 'Industry 4.0', Varlamov said that this concept today is a bit distorted:
'It's a really exclusively German initiative, it focuses mainly on the development of the industry. If to speak about Russia, we have, of course, our own way, completely different industry and a completely different IT environment'.
According to him, Russia is able to produce human capital, but now there is a need for a large-scale programme of centralization. Centralization should be done in those areas that will lead to the development of human capital – it is education, medicine. Thus, it is necessary to change the attitude to these areas. So, if in Russia they say 'spending on education', in The USA they call it 'investment in education'.
This notorious term 'uberisation'
Director General of IBM in Russia and CIS Andrey Filatov presented research of the company, which surveyed 5247 executives, 129 of whom are from Russia and CIS countries. According to the study, the most serious risk for managers from Russia and CIS countries are the threats to the safety and financial risks. Among the future risks, leading are the risks for IT security. Interestingly, the survey also showed that only a third of top managers learn the opinion of customers to understand the situation and foresee the almost complete transition of interaction with customers into a virtual space. Inattention to the opinion of the customers Filatov connects with a possible lack of competition, but the exact answer to this situation he doesn't know.
The fact that in Russia there are more followers than the innovators he called a trend, as domestic companies are keenly watching the competitors. Also, most began to look at companies from allied industries: 'So, this notorious term 'uberisation' when the company may come from another sector of the market, to change it for itself and become a leader — the Russian officials estimate these threats as high enough'.
The Vice-President of Acronis Stanislav Protasov suggested that the increase in the number of managers who want to move in a virtual space is connected with the amount of traffic jams in Russia.
His company is widely represented abroad — in Europe, North America, Japan. The sales in Russia are a little more than the country's share in world IT. They have a little more than 2%, the share of the Russian Federation is about 1%. According to him, there are no strong differences in working in different countries: if the product is good, the business does not think about where it was made.
Therefore, Protasov believes that we need to work in the global market. And not only because it brings greater income, but also because of competition, which makes it clear that a particular product is really world class.
'It was said a lot of true words. Nikolai Anatolievich said that everything is changing very quickly. Indeed, now the life cycle of even large companies with billions turnover could be completed in 10 years, not a hundred, as it was a few decades ago. The leaders arise, the leaders leave. I think we have no special way. Yes, there are some external factors, there are some people who are trying to force us to do something on our own, including sanctions, but I think that's not a reason to self-enclose ourselves with a fence. We need to strive to ensure that our products have been popular in foreign markets,' said Protasov. However, he noted that in Russia the IT market is developed not so much. As an example, he cited the data of the Ministry of Telecom, according to which all our software exports is about $7 billion a year. In Israel the software exports — 15 billion. The speaker attributes this to the fact that they are better integrated, their universities are conducting research in collaboration with leading companies, and they are focused primarily not on the domestic market but the external. 'I think we should try to make other people to use our products. Then it will be more difficult to involve us because in return we can turn off ours,' he said.
Dmitry Zavalishin, Director General of group of companies DZ Systems believes that for growing sectors, and in his opinion, it is what they are doing now in Russia, the infrastructure changes are necessary. Problems include managing the process of software development, no real investment in the software industry. It is impossible to operate without Big Data.
Turning to the topic of personnel, he repeated his favorite expression: 'If you want to create a unique thing that no one can do, go to the Russians. If you need ten of the same things — go to someone else, but not Russian.'
According to him, Russia is very bad in doing similar things. Thus, if with the geniuses in the country it is all right, then with the building of stable quality processes — there are problems. Zavalishin believes that behind the individuals that generate ideas, there should be thousands and millions who will to turn these ideas into products. In Russia, according to the expert, they do not know how to do it.
