Programmers still working in silence
Little-known Russian programmers, who have been writing code for global software products - including ones sold by major companies like Apple and Corel - for the last decade, are now working towards international recognition of their skills.
Jul 08, 2002
Little-known Russian programmers, who have been writing code for global software products - including ones sold by major companies like Apple and Corel - for the last decade, are now working towards international recognition of their skills.
Russian programmers' cooperation with world software majors dates back to the early 1990s. A company called ParaGraph, founded in 1989, sold to Apple Computer Inc. a license for the use of its text recognition technology for Newton computers two years later.
In 1993, another Russian software developer, Steepler, sold to Corel Co. an electronic table program that was incorporated into a version of Corel software.
"There are two schemes for cooperation with international customers in writing software code," said Anatoly Gaverdovsky, chairman of the board of VDI group, which develops software for several major foreign software firms, including corporate IT systems producer Hummingbird.
"The first scheme is ghost writing, whereby Russian programmers just write some part of the code for a software product by a major producer, but it is almost impossible to get a mentioning of their input."
Gaverdovsky said his company operates under this service model for about two dozen foreign software firms. Another, Belarus-based Epam, has 30-40 customers under that scheme, including SAP.
The second scheme for Russian software developers, known as the product model, is selling licenses for fragments of program code to major players in the global software market, which entitles them to royalty payments.
This model is used by VDI in its cooperation with Hummingbird and by Spirit Corp. for work for U.S. equipment manufacturer Texas Instruments.
A recent deal between the two, under which a telephony-software developed by Spirit Corp. will be installed on TI-C54 processors manufactured by Texas Instruments, was announced as the largest software license deal in the Russian IT industry to date.
"Although the term 'the largest product license deal' sounds quite strong, we're determined to prove it is true," Andrei Sviridenko, president of Spirit Corp., said upon the completion of the deal.
However, the first model is more realistic for Russian programmers than the second, insiders say. "The product model is more attractive, but it takes a lot of preparation and cash to be properly implemented," Gaverdovsky said.
The former software development department of IT Co. Group, Aplana Software can also boast long-lasting software-development projects for prominent global vendors. Back in 1993, it started work for Products Technologies Inc., a Connecticut-based company that was acquired by ICL/Fujitsu in 1998.
The Russian partner's job was to create a smartcard-based payment system, which later developed into a comprehensive multi-application solution, known as SmartCity, that now has more than 100 installations worldwide, according to Maria Dragan, Aplana's marketing manager.
In a more recent deal, Aplana Software took part in developing customer-relations management software for U.S.-based Relavis Group and will also become the foreign distribution and customization partner for a Russian-language version of the program, which is scheduled for release this summer.
Russian programmers' cooperation with world software majors dates back to the early 1990s. A company called ParaGraph, founded in 1989, sold to Apple Computer Inc. a license for the use of its text recognition technology for Newton computers two years later.
In 1993, another Russian software developer, Steepler, sold to Corel Co. an electronic table program that was incorporated into a version of Corel software.
"There are two schemes for cooperation with international customers in writing software code," said Anatoly Gaverdovsky, chairman of the board of VDI group, which develops software for several major foreign software firms, including corporate IT systems producer Hummingbird.
"The first scheme is ghost writing, whereby Russian programmers just write some part of the code for a software product by a major producer, but it is almost impossible to get a mentioning of their input."
Gaverdovsky said his company operates under this service model for about two dozen foreign software firms. Another, Belarus-based Epam, has 30-40 customers under that scheme, including SAP.
The second scheme for Russian software developers, known as the product model, is selling licenses for fragments of program code to major players in the global software market, which entitles them to royalty payments.
This model is used by VDI in its cooperation with Hummingbird and by Spirit Corp. for work for U.S. equipment manufacturer Texas Instruments.
A recent deal between the two, under which a telephony-software developed by Spirit Corp. will be installed on TI-C54 processors manufactured by Texas Instruments, was announced as the largest software license deal in the Russian IT industry to date.
"Although the term 'the largest product license deal' sounds quite strong, we're determined to prove it is true," Andrei Sviridenko, president of Spirit Corp., said upon the completion of the deal.
However, the first model is more realistic for Russian programmers than the second, insiders say. "The product model is more attractive, but it takes a lot of preparation and cash to be properly implemented," Gaverdovsky said.
The former software development department of IT Co. Group, Aplana Software can also boast long-lasting software-development projects for prominent global vendors. Back in 1993, it started work for Products Technologies Inc., a Connecticut-based company that was acquired by ICL/Fujitsu in 1998.
The Russian partner's job was to create a smartcard-based payment system, which later developed into a comprehensive multi-application solution, known as SmartCity, that now has more than 100 installations worldwide, according to Maria Dragan, Aplana's marketing manager.
In a more recent deal, Aplana Software took part in developing customer-relations management software for U.S.-based Relavis Group and will also become the foreign distribution and customization partner for a Russian-language version of the program, which is scheduled for release this summer.