Authorities propose rewarding state-owned companies for purchases of Russian IT products

On the instructions of the President of Russia, a working group was formed, which should develop measures to encourage state-owned companies to purchase domestically produced IT products. It is headed by the President of the Information Democracy Foundation, Ilya Massuh. Earlier, a number of import substitution measures were introduced for government departments.

The group proposes to include in the key performance indicators (KPI) of the members of the board of directors the share of domestic products in the company's IT procurement. This share will be measured by the number of purchases and in money. According to Massuh, what percentage should be in order for the director to receive a reward? According to the plan of the working group, this proportion should increase over several years.
')
Russian software is software included in the registry, which is the Ministry of Communications. The criteria for determining the domestic IT equipment have yet to be worked out, Massuh told Vedomosti.

In order for the innovation to work, an amendment to the law on public procurement will be required, proposes RANEPA Vice-Rector Alexander Safonov.

Domestic IT solutions are often more expensive than imported ones, therefore, if we tie KPI to the share of domestic technologies in the procurement of state-owned companies, this can interfere with the execution of the presidential instruction. KPI, obviously, will not work where it is impossible to use a domestic solution due to international business practice, he warns, citing the Swift system as an example.

Rostelecom has a recommendation: at least one third of the equipment in the company's network must be of Russian origin, said state-owned company operator Andrei Polyakov. In 2015, the share of domestic equipment in the Rostelecom network was, according to him, 32.6%.

Sberbank does not give preference to either domestic or foreign manufacturers, and selects products based on the ratio of price and quality, said his representative.

At Rostec, there are no KPIs that encourage management to procure domestic IT solutions, but there is a task to save on the implementation of IT systems.

The working group plans to ban state-owned companies from using foreign proprietary IT products and replace them with domestic software solutions or open source software. If, nevertheless, the customer will need foreign IT solutions, he will have to justify such a purchase.