The Second Baltic IT Cruise
Mar 02, 2006
The Second Baltic IT Cruise took place with great success on board of "Silja Line" ferry on February 26-28th. The event was organized by RUSSOFT (Russian Software Developers Association) and Fort-Ross (it’s Marketing and Event Agency).
Baltic IT Cruise agenda has traditionally included a strong educational part over trends and challenges in IT cooperation and outsourcing to Russia and to other countries of the Baltic region. It also included a series of prescheduled one-to-one meetings between participants where clients have had opportunities to meet IT Service providers in order to discuss prospect business relationships. As always, the agenda also included a cultural program and entertainment onboard.
Over 50 participants took part in Helsinki – Stockholm – Helsinki rout, 10 companies have joined the IT Cruise in Stockholm. Totally in the Cruise get together representatives of different cities from 8 countries: Russia (including Moscow, St-Petersburg, Novosibirsk), Republic of Belarus, Ukraine, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Norway, Germany.
Seminar program consisted of several tracks. First analytic’s track was about outsourcing trends in general and in Nordic countries particularly, also about emerging opportunities, challenges and threads in IT related cooperation in the region. Second track was devoted to already existing collaboration, success stories, strategy and practical aspects of establishing partnership. And the final accord of the Program was concentrated on the legal aspects of IT collaboration.
Among the keynote speakers this year were:
- Valentin Makarov, President of RUSSOFT Association, the nation wide association of the most technically competent software developing companies from Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine. Mr.Makarov talked about Russian software development Industry and emerging opportunities for cooperation after 4 successful years of annual growth-rate around 30%-40%.
- Per-Arne Sandegren, Senior Research Analyst of IDC Scandinavia and author of a number of researches on Nordic IT, Tele and Data communication areas, who touched upon Trends and Threats at IT outsourcing in the Nordic Countries
- Odd Ruud, Senior VP Business Development at Personec Group (a part of TietoEnator). His speech, titled "Practical steps in creating a software outsourcing strategy" was based on a company’s extensive experience of outsourcing. Their outsourcing strategy was more aimed at accessing new technologies rather than just at savings cost by utilizing cheaper resource pools across borders. Focus in the speech was put on critical success factors and potential pitfalls.
- Per Ake Andersson, eGovernment Manager at KERFI and former Head of IS/IT Department at VINNOVA, The Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems. Mr.Andersson made an overview of Swedish eGovernment market and gave several practical advices on strategy to get closer to it.
- Alexander Strakh, senior attorney from MANNHEIMER SWARTLING observed on legal issues of IT outsourcing in Russia.
A very vivid discussion which has always been following presentations brought a dialogue style to the whole event and became an integral part of the total Program.
During over 110 B2B meetings that took place onboard, prospect partners and customers introduced their current projects, needs and interests to IT Service Provider’s trying to match them with vendors’ areas of expertise, skills and resources; evaluated opportunities for further cooperation and shared their experience in software development outsourcing.
Dmitry Lisitsky, Managing partner at Bonus Technology Inc: «I would like to outline two major benefits of Baltic IT Cruise. First, is its format, when we had a very busy schedule being able to talk virtually to all prospective partners, having at the same time an opportunity to relax and enjoy free time with colleagues. Second, it is a great opportunity to access Nordic IT market, which is not as easily accessible as German or US markets.»
"A Cruise was very important for me, I got lot of contacts and now I have much more better understanding about Russian markets", says Mr. Markku Rautio Senior Sales Manager at Corenet Ltd.
Roman Dzvinka, Kvazar-Micro: "Baltic IT Cruise is a unique opportunity for FSU service providers to face Nordic prospects and partners. Excellent business environment and good ground for informal interaction! Thanks RUSSOFT!"
Arcady Khotin, President of Arcadia, software company: "We had great meetings and are very grateful to organizers for all hard work they have invested into this Baltic Cruise".
Valentin Makarov, President of RUSSOFT: "We attach a lot of attention to the Scandinavian and to the Finish outsourcing markets, even the outcome is still relatively small compared to US or German markets. A very productive discussion over experience gained by both sides during the last 5 years came out with a very important conclusion: we created trust by such meetings as Baltic Cruise, trust began to create partnerships and partnerships began to bring success and prosperity for both sides. Even if that takes some time, we all believe in synergetic potential of our cooperation and are committed to continue navigating in the Baltic See in the future".
Michael Tsygankov, Director of St.Petersburg branch Luxoft: "Baltic Cruise 2006 provided us with a unique opportunity to expose Luxoft's IT Service offerings designed to support the entire software development life cycle to the main players in Scandinavian technology market. It was also very helpful in gaining an understanding of the key elements comprising this important market segment. Good exposure to promising deal opportunities!"
Baltic IT Cruise agenda has traditionally included a strong educational part over trends and challenges in IT cooperation and outsourcing to Russia and to other countries of the Baltic region. It also included a series of prescheduled one-to-one meetings between participants where clients have had opportunities to meet IT Service providers in order to discuss prospect business relationships. As always, the agenda also included a cultural program and entertainment onboard.
Over 50 participants took part in Helsinki – Stockholm – Helsinki rout, 10 companies have joined the IT Cruise in Stockholm. Totally in the Cruise get together representatives of different cities from 8 countries: Russia (including Moscow, St-Petersburg, Novosibirsk), Republic of Belarus, Ukraine, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Norway, Germany.
Seminar program consisted of several tracks. First analytic’s track was about outsourcing trends in general and in Nordic countries particularly, also about emerging opportunities, challenges and threads in IT related cooperation in the region. Second track was devoted to already existing collaboration, success stories, strategy and practical aspects of establishing partnership. And the final accord of the Program was concentrated on the legal aspects of IT collaboration.
Among the keynote speakers this year were:
- Valentin Makarov, President of RUSSOFT Association, the nation wide association of the most technically competent software developing companies from Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine. Mr.Makarov talked about Russian software development Industry and emerging opportunities for cooperation after 4 successful years of annual growth-rate around 30%-40%.
- Per-Arne Sandegren, Senior Research Analyst of IDC Scandinavia and author of a number of researches on Nordic IT, Tele and Data communication areas, who touched upon Trends and Threats at IT outsourcing in the Nordic Countries
- Odd Ruud, Senior VP Business Development at Personec Group (a part of TietoEnator). His speech, titled "Practical steps in creating a software outsourcing strategy" was based on a company’s extensive experience of outsourcing. Their outsourcing strategy was more aimed at accessing new technologies rather than just at savings cost by utilizing cheaper resource pools across borders. Focus in the speech was put on critical success factors and potential pitfalls.
- Per Ake Andersson, eGovernment Manager at KERFI and former Head of IS/IT Department at VINNOVA, The Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems. Mr.Andersson made an overview of Swedish eGovernment market and gave several practical advices on strategy to get closer to it.
- Alexander Strakh, senior attorney from MANNHEIMER SWARTLING observed on legal issues of IT outsourcing in Russia.
A very vivid discussion which has always been following presentations brought a dialogue style to the whole event and became an integral part of the total Program.
During over 110 B2B meetings that took place onboard, prospect partners and customers introduced their current projects, needs and interests to IT Service Provider’s trying to match them with vendors’ areas of expertise, skills and resources; evaluated opportunities for further cooperation and shared their experience in software development outsourcing.
Dmitry Lisitsky, Managing partner at Bonus Technology Inc: «I would like to outline two major benefits of Baltic IT Cruise. First, is its format, when we had a very busy schedule being able to talk virtually to all prospective partners, having at the same time an opportunity to relax and enjoy free time with colleagues. Second, it is a great opportunity to access Nordic IT market, which is not as easily accessible as German or US markets.»
"A Cruise was very important for me, I got lot of contacts and now I have much more better understanding about Russian markets", says Mr. Markku Rautio Senior Sales Manager at Corenet Ltd.
Roman Dzvinka, Kvazar-Micro: "Baltic IT Cruise is a unique opportunity for FSU service providers to face Nordic prospects and partners. Excellent business environment and good ground for informal interaction! Thanks RUSSOFT!"
Arcady Khotin, President of Arcadia, software company: "We had great meetings and are very grateful to organizers for all hard work they have invested into this Baltic Cruise".
Valentin Makarov, President of RUSSOFT: "We attach a lot of attention to the Scandinavian and to the Finish outsourcing markets, even the outcome is still relatively small compared to US or German markets. A very productive discussion over experience gained by both sides during the last 5 years came out with a very important conclusion: we created trust by such meetings as Baltic Cruise, trust began to create partnerships and partnerships began to bring success and prosperity for both sides. Even if that takes some time, we all believe in synergetic potential of our cooperation and are committed to continue navigating in the Baltic See in the future".
Michael Tsygankov, Director of St.Petersburg branch Luxoft: "Baltic Cruise 2006 provided us with a unique opportunity to expose Luxoft's IT Service offerings designed to support the entire software development life cycle to the main players in Scandinavian technology market. It was also very helpful in gaining an understanding of the key elements comprising this important market segment. Good exposure to promising deal opportunities!"