OPINION: Russian IT Business Owners Could Become Billionaires
Feb 16, 2005
MOSCOW, February 15 (RIA Novosti) - Vice president of Russia's oldest offshore software company American Bart Higgins worked earlier in the Indian Infosys. (In December 2004 the Russian President visited that company.) In his interview with Vremya Novostei, he spoke about the perspectives of the development of the Russian software industry and the Indian experience in raising it.
There are substantial differences between Russia and India at the level of basic characteristics that influence business. First, the way of managing companies. This does not concern the competence of programmers, the expert specifies. Russian programmers may be even better than others. The problems begin at the level of organizing business.
For example, a medium Indian company attracts up to 40 new clients every three months.
"Programmers must be good, but the process of working out software and planning must also be at a high level," Mr. Higgins said.
A new client must be studied very quickly; his requirements must be structurized, described and the information must be passed over to the programmers. "In Russia all this is very weakly developed," the expert laments.
Possibly the government's new policy of creating technoparks will somehow improve the situation, but this is not enough. The government must change its attitude to the IT industry. "In India, the equipment coming from abroad, which is necessary for fulfilling the order of a foreign company, passes the customs right away, while in Russia the customs process lasts for weeks and calls for heaps of documents and a lot of money."
According to Mr. Higgins, the main problem of the Russian IT industry is not the market; good Russian companies are welcomed everywhere. "The problem is that local companies have a small potential of growth," he concluded. "The owners of Russian IT business, if their companies become public, will turn from millionaires into billionaires."
There are substantial differences between Russia and India at the level of basic characteristics that influence business. First, the way of managing companies. This does not concern the competence of programmers, the expert specifies. Russian programmers may be even better than others. The problems begin at the level of organizing business.
For example, a medium Indian company attracts up to 40 new clients every three months.
"Programmers must be good, but the process of working out software and planning must also be at a high level," Mr. Higgins said.
A new client must be studied very quickly; his requirements must be structurized, described and the information must be passed over to the programmers. "In Russia all this is very weakly developed," the expert laments.
Possibly the government's new policy of creating technoparks will somehow improve the situation, but this is not enough. The government must change its attitude to the IT industry. "In India, the equipment coming from abroad, which is necessary for fulfilling the order of a foreign company, passes the customs right away, while in Russia the customs process lasts for weeks and calls for heaps of documents and a lot of money."
According to Mr. Higgins, the main problem of the Russian IT industry is not the market; good Russian companies are welcomed everywhere. "The problem is that local companies have a small potential of growth," he concluded. "The owners of Russian IT business, if their companies become public, will turn from millionaires into billionaires."