Russian CIO Summit 2004
Oct 19, 2004
Russian CIO Summit 2004, organized by RUSSOFT Association and "Fort-Ross" company, has come to the end on October 5. More than 100 CIO of leading Russian and foreign companies have taken part in the conference, as well as heads of IT-services providers. Venue of the conference (Heliopark Country Hotel) has contributed to the intense work on sessions and active informal communication between sessions, as many of participants commented.
At the Opening of the forum the President of RUSSOFT Valentin Makarov asked CIO not to regard the software developers Association as "importunate well-wishers" trying in this wise to inform CIO about their products. "We and you are the two parts of the community that creates new technologies. We can't do without your demands, without understanding your needs; we are just as you interested in high quality of software that would be of benefit for your companies". These, as Mr. Makarov said, are the main reasons for software providers to initiate this forum.
The agenda of the Summit included questions of corporate IT management; relations with IT-providers; government policy in application of IT in business; discussion about creating a Russian CIO Collection. During the forum several topics became leading: corporate IT-strategy and its correlation with business strategy; practices of IT-outsourcing; project management.
The theme of IT-strategy in business strategy came out to be polemical. During the whole Summit speakers turned back to discussing it. Some of them argued that IT-strategy is crucial because it determines the development of business; others revealed IT as just a supporting system. Special view gave Vitaliy Sviridov ("Merlion", IT Director): "It's obvious, that if there aren't proper IT-solutions, there will be no normal business development. But IT-role depends first of all on the stage of the company development. At the stage of active business growth IT play a strategic role; when the expenses are not so important, IT may become the leading development factor. At the stage of stabile business, when the market is conquered, IT play a supporting role and innovations are applied little by little".
The advantages of outsourcing were stressed by Pavel Novikov (GarsTelecom): "Outsourcing is the instrument that enables company to correct it's structure and business in the conditions of competition. The experience shows that though the market of outsourcing in Russia is only developing, but the rate of it's development will be much more higher than abroad". But, as the speaker thinks, traditional difficulties of Russian IT-market will leave their mark on this process. He meant the high level of informational secrecy on enterprises; inertness of thinking (this concerns first of all governmental structures); absence of financial models for the estimation of effectiveness of investments in IT; absence of thorough legal base.
While sharing practices of IT-outsourcing, the participants spoke about importance of trusting relations between customers and providers. In particular, Dean Lane (SYMANTEC) gave his view that strict business relations at work on IT-project won't lead to good results, and it's necessary to achieve partner relations. Victor Vainshtein (Aplana) also remarked: "Our experience of work with Russian and foreign companies shows that for the success of a project you must achieve mutual understanding and trust, creating conditions for flexible and clear interaction. Mechanisms of introducing clarity of requirements in the course of the project, co-discussing potential problems and risks, adaptation of methodology for the specialties of the project, real-time accessibility to on-line information - all this provides proactive communications and guarantees predictable result of the project".
This year not only Russian but also foreign participants take part in the Summit. Reports were made by Dean Lane (SYMANTEC), Robert Moon (ViewSonic), Robert Paarlsberg (Royster-Clark). Robert Moon's report turned out to be most popular. One of the main thesises of the speaker was: "Keep IT simple". "As soon as IT become complex they get out of control", - remarked Mr. Moon. He also urged CIO to engage users in developing and testing software. Besides, risking to make IT-providers angry, Mr. Moon said: "Be very careful with outsourcing, recruit external consultants only in the case of absolute necessity. IT are too important to outsource them." Interesting and rich report was highly appreciated by forum participants.
Among Russian speakers several persons stood out: Andrey Dubskikh (PROTEC), Gennadiy Orlov (the Territorial Foundation for Compulsory Medical Insurance), speakers from CIO club "Four CIO". They presented IT-strategies of their companies and spoke about their principles of work with providers. Interesting report as made by Igor Kovalev (Ford Motor Company) and Sergey Razumovsky (Digital Design). "These are the first IT-customer and provider satisfied with each other I've ever seen", - mentioned one of the participants about their report.
In whole, at the conference the main problems and branches of development of Russian software market were discussed from the point of view of consumers - representatives of big business and middle business. The organizers hope that Russian CIO Summit will take place annually, providing development of Russian CIO community and serving a reliable mechanism of dialog between consumers and providers of software.
Platinum sponsor of the Summit - IBM.
Golden sponsor and sponsor of grand opening - Hewlett-Packard.
Silver sponsor - Novell.
Partners of the Summit: Information & Computer Technologies Industry Association (ICTIA), FOSTAS Foundation.
At the Opening of the forum the President of RUSSOFT Valentin Makarov asked CIO not to regard the software developers Association as "importunate well-wishers" trying in this wise to inform CIO about their products. "We and you are the two parts of the community that creates new technologies. We can't do without your demands, without understanding your needs; we are just as you interested in high quality of software that would be of benefit for your companies". These, as Mr. Makarov said, are the main reasons for software providers to initiate this forum.
The agenda of the Summit included questions of corporate IT management; relations with IT-providers; government policy in application of IT in business; discussion about creating a Russian CIO Collection. During the forum several topics became leading: corporate IT-strategy and its correlation with business strategy; practices of IT-outsourcing; project management.
The theme of IT-strategy in business strategy came out to be polemical. During the whole Summit speakers turned back to discussing it. Some of them argued that IT-strategy is crucial because it determines the development of business; others revealed IT as just a supporting system. Special view gave Vitaliy Sviridov ("Merlion", IT Director): "It's obvious, that if there aren't proper IT-solutions, there will be no normal business development. But IT-role depends first of all on the stage of the company development. At the stage of active business growth IT play a strategic role; when the expenses are not so important, IT may become the leading development factor. At the stage of stabile business, when the market is conquered, IT play a supporting role and innovations are applied little by little".
The advantages of outsourcing were stressed by Pavel Novikov (GarsTelecom): "Outsourcing is the instrument that enables company to correct it's structure and business in the conditions of competition. The experience shows that though the market of outsourcing in Russia is only developing, but the rate of it's development will be much more higher than abroad". But, as the speaker thinks, traditional difficulties of Russian IT-market will leave their mark on this process. He meant the high level of informational secrecy on enterprises; inertness of thinking (this concerns first of all governmental structures); absence of financial models for the estimation of effectiveness of investments in IT; absence of thorough legal base.
While sharing practices of IT-outsourcing, the participants spoke about importance of trusting relations between customers and providers. In particular, Dean Lane (SYMANTEC) gave his view that strict business relations at work on IT-project won't lead to good results, and it's necessary to achieve partner relations. Victor Vainshtein (Aplana) also remarked: "Our experience of work with Russian and foreign companies shows that for the success of a project you must achieve mutual understanding and trust, creating conditions for flexible and clear interaction. Mechanisms of introducing clarity of requirements in the course of the project, co-discussing potential problems and risks, adaptation of methodology for the specialties of the project, real-time accessibility to on-line information - all this provides proactive communications and guarantees predictable result of the project".
This year not only Russian but also foreign participants take part in the Summit. Reports were made by Dean Lane (SYMANTEC), Robert Moon (ViewSonic), Robert Paarlsberg (Royster-Clark). Robert Moon's report turned out to be most popular. One of the main thesises of the speaker was: "Keep IT simple". "As soon as IT become complex they get out of control", - remarked Mr. Moon. He also urged CIO to engage users in developing and testing software. Besides, risking to make IT-providers angry, Mr. Moon said: "Be very careful with outsourcing, recruit external consultants only in the case of absolute necessity. IT are too important to outsource them." Interesting and rich report was highly appreciated by forum participants.
Among Russian speakers several persons stood out: Andrey Dubskikh (PROTEC), Gennadiy Orlov (the Territorial Foundation for Compulsory Medical Insurance), speakers from CIO club "Four CIO". They presented IT-strategies of their companies and spoke about their principles of work with providers. Interesting report as made by Igor Kovalev (Ford Motor Company) and Sergey Razumovsky (Digital Design). "These are the first IT-customer and provider satisfied with each other I've ever seen", - mentioned one of the participants about their report.
In whole, at the conference the main problems and branches of development of Russian software market were discussed from the point of view of consumers - representatives of big business and middle business. The organizers hope that Russian CIO Summit will take place annually, providing development of Russian CIO community and serving a reliable mechanism of dialog between consumers and providers of software.
Platinum sponsor of the Summit - IBM.
Golden sponsor and sponsor of grand opening - Hewlett-Packard.
Silver sponsor - Novell.
Partners of the Summit: Information & Computer Technologies Industry Association (ICTIA), FOSTAS Foundation.