Informatization of business is not IT companies - current realities and prospects, opinions and experience of experts

The head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Alexander Tkachev, ordered to unite disparate portals on crop production, veterinary medicine, animal husbandry and agricultural machinery. Agricultural exports bring Russia more than arms sales, and production growth in 2016 exceeded 4%. But the role of informatization in the development of agricultural sectors is growing. If this circumstance is used correctly, it will be possible to achieve better results.

Photo site economyz.ru

For more transparent and effective coordination of the agro-industrial complex, a department called the Analytical Center of the Ministry of Agriculture appeared in the department. It is designed to collect information on the status of all branches of agriculture. The portal will have accurate information on the state of the land: thanks to this data, farmers will know when it is worth “repairing” the fields and how much fertilizer to make.

The single information resource will be useful for business: in the conditions of steady growth, many entrepreneurs turned to agriculture, told Irina Hecht, deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy and Environmental Management.

And if informatization has already firmly taken up agriculture, then what about other areas of activity?
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We talked to representatives of the Russian business and asked us to express our attitude on the issues of informatization of companies not related to the development of software products and the provision of other services in this area.

• How important is it for you to be on the crest of a wave and use only new tools, applications, and so on?

• What is the role of computer technology and the Internet in your business, and does your income depend on these two “factors” to some extent?

• How important is it for non-IT companies to have their own software development, integration, maintenance department?

• Do you train staff to learn IT skills or at least the basics of using computer hardware?

• How many modern equipment does your company use in its own activities?

• Please explain your position regarding the use or non-use of modern technologies. If you are trying to "computerize" your own non-IT business, then in what way?

• What tools make it possible to most effectively represent your business in the digital space?

• What benefits do you see from “going out” of your business to the Internet and / or using modern technology outside it?

How important is it for you to be on the crest of a wave and use only new tools, applications, and so on?

Timur Abdrakhmanov, co-founder and managing partner of the company “Quadrim”:

The use of modern technology is definitely important in business. Inventions appear every day that change the world, and it is important not to miss irreversible changes. If innovation allows optimizing business processes, it is better and more reliable to transfer information between employees (which ultimately leads to an improvement in the product), then it must be implemented.

But this should be done carefully, first testing in one working group, collecting feedback, and then implementing it all over the company. It is also important not to pursue a technological fashion and to observe the principle of the "golden mean", because sometimes an instrument can only harm a tool.

For example, many companies ambiguously refer to chat rooms and chat bots — you need to understand that they are far from being applicable and can sometimes not solve the communication problem, but create an additional one.

What role does computer technology and the Internet play in your business, and does your income depend on these two “factors” to some extent?

Timur Abdrakhmanov, "Quadrim":

Our business, though in many respects classic, “offline”, but the Internet and technology play an important role in it. The right business is where everything is calculated, where the owner or top manager can see the most accurate picture at the moment in time. Without automation of data collection and without analytics of this data in marketing, sales and production it is impossible to manage any large business. Profit depends on the transparency of the data directly, so that it is impossible to do without constant and automated counting of data.

The Internet is the most important communication channel in the modern world, so now the absence of a B2C company on the Internet can be equated to the fact that business does not exist, this will soon be attributed to any large B2B companies. At least, as a potential client, I don’t have the confidence of a construction company or a car service center that is not represented on the Internet, and not only in the form of a site, but also in the form of references to external resources.

Artur Muradyan, executive director of the logistics company TRAFT:

In our company, the quality of the Internet connection and the Internet infrastructure in general is very important, since our drivers, internal logisticians and customers are united in a single IT system. Much is tied to the mobile application of our platform, to the GPS transmitters in the users' mobile devices themselves.

Therefore, poor coverage quality or problems with the Internet connection sometimes create problems in operation (for example, poor mobile Internet can create difficulties for drivers to mark the status of their orders) and, therefore, affect the quality and penetration rate of the IT platform and mobile application in environment of our current and potential customers.

Alexander Kuzmin, CEO of RusHOLTS:

The company RusHOLTS deals at the gas station with everything that is not fuel. Simply put, we carry out comprehensive management of shops and cafes at gas stations - from product deliveries to IT solutions and loyalty programs.

The non-fuel business of gas station networks is a real business with a variety of features - from complex logistics, a critical level of influence on the customer service of the “human factor” to a completely “dense” level of informatization of business processes.

For example, the system "Auto-order", what is the default for each retailer, for gas station networks is a serious innovation. Even large gas station networks do not have distribution centers, the stations themselves do not have warehouses, and the distances between them can be hundreds of kilometers. Logistics is very expensive, and the same product should cost the same in Moscow and Tyumen.

How important is it for non-IT companies (that is, companies from the real sector of the economy, which operate with real, physical, quantities more than IT companies) to have their own development, integration, software maintenance department?

Timur Abdrakhmanov, "Quadrim":

It all depends on the goals of the company and its size. From a certain point for an average business, it is simply necessary to have its own development department, elementary for security purposes. But in the early stages, it is wiser to have a technical director on staff who would interact with external contractors.

Arthur Muradyan, TRAFT:

Since January 2016, our company has created its own IT department, which has been developing its own IT supply chain management system (SRM) and a mobile application for it. The reason, in general, is simple - not a single external developer (and we communicated with many venerable developers on the market) does not know the specifics of the transport company’s work in the same detailed and subtle way as we know it.

That is why it is important for us to independently develop with full-time programmers, to instantly test and wind everything up. In addition, it is more profitable and efficient because it provides maximum control over all stages of software development and refinement. We spend less money on refinements, as they are performed by staff specialists within their salaries.

Alexander Kuzmin, RusHOLTS:

We have our own IT development department. Over the years, we tried many options for organizing work with developers and were faced with the fact that outsourcing companies are not able to respond to our requests with the required speed and produce products of the required quality.

The problem is again in the lack of understanding of the specifics of the gas station market. Our IT department is "sharpened" in the direction of software solutions for gas station networks. This approach brought results.

Do you train staff in IT skills or at least the basics of using computer hardware?

Timur Abdrakhmanov, "Quadrim":

We are trying to filter at the entrance candidates who simply have not mastered the basic competencies in the world of technology. If a person does not know how to use (really use) mail, cloud services, applications, and a smartphone or tablet is a scary jungle for him, then it will probably be very expensive to train him.

But we teach some things in the process, for example, to work with a specific CRM or system project management, to actively use joint editing of documents, and so on.

Arthur Muradyan, TRAFT:

Yes, in our company all logisticians and department heads must undergo basic training on using our TRAFT-OnLine platform.

Alexander Kuzmin, RusHOLTS:

Of course, we train our IT staff. Our service mechanics receive orders, send crash reports and interact with the remote monitoring system through a special mobile application written by our IT developers.

About 30% of applications for coffee machine breakdowns are eliminated remotely, without leaving the petrol station specialist, through the advice of the Monitoring Center.

Usually, the operator of the gas station may, when calling the wizard, report only the digital error code indicated on the display of the coffee machine. But in most cases it is a complex indicator that does not fully characterize the failure or its cause.

How many modern equipment does your company use in its own activities?

Timur Abdrakhmanov, "Quadrim":

Although we consider ourselves an innovative service, our innovation is more about the business approach and the business model in the traditional handicraft market. We do not use supernova- tion technologies, but we are starting small experiments, for example, now we are testing our own system of workplace control through an application integrated into the project management system. But there is still a long way to go.

Please explain your position regarding the use or non-use of modern technology. If you are trying to "computerize" your own non-IT business, then in what way?

Timur Abdrakhmanov, "Quadrim":

Our position is very simple: a business must be modern and meet the demands of modern users. At the same time, if the technology increases the efficiency of labor, reduces the duration of projects and increases the profitability of the business as a whole, of course, it should be used.

The best way is to paint the entire business process, and to understand which of its key nodes or stages is minimally automated / computerized - this will be the point of effort.

Arthur Muradyan, TRAFT:

We try to digitize all the processes between the carrier and the customer using a special platform and a mobile application. This makes the transportation process more transparent. For example, the system completely deprives drivers of the possibility to assign themselves extra hours of work. Drivers and private carriers using the mobile application can receive orders for transportation on the model of UBER-communication.

For them, the mobile client system allows, through a universal interface, to track new orders, respond to them, correctly and quickly fill out all the shipping documents required by the company on whose behalf the delivery is made, and the company that acted as the customer for this shipment. A mobile application installed on a phone or tablet gives drivers the opportunity to evaluate the quality and decency of the customer, whose task they perform, instantly take pictures and send invoices, invoices and other documents to the customer or customer.

With the help of these IT tools, we are capitally reducing our operating expenses.

What tools allow you to most effectively represent your business in the digital space?

Timur Abdrakhmanov, "Quadrim":

First of all, these are automated data storage and presentation systems (ERP system), a CRM system for automating and storing customer and sales data, a project management system, corporate mail, a corporate cloud for storing data and documents and collaborating on them, directors tasks and planners, chat rooms, Internet telephony, call tracking, site counters and advertising sites offices (Yandex.Direct, Facebook / Instagram, Google AdWords, MyTagret), social networks themselves - corporate and personal, geographic information systems.

Also, our task for 2017 is to develop a personal account for clients, which will be tied to data from the project management system, and the customer will be able to track the status of work, receive video and photos from the object in real time, as well as pay for and accept work or stages of work.

Alexander Kuzmin, RusHOLTS:

The whole complex of IT solutions helps to eliminate the human factor as much as possible, in other words, to make the staff follow the job description.

Usually we go online with solutions via telemetry (remote monitoring), which we then expand with various modules from the “Integrated Automated System of Non-Fuel Businesses of Gas Station Networks”.

Some of the clients expand their capabilities primarily due to "smart analytics" - reports on the operation of the equipment. Someone connects to the monitoring other equipment - refrigerators for example.

The module for telemetric control of refrigeration units was designed with the expectation “for the future”: the company doubted that this development would be useful soon. But, unexpectedly, the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection checked several objects of one of the customers and revealed many irregularities in the operation of refrigeration equipment.

Most customers quickly come to understand that all these decisions give the greatest effect in a complex - for us this is a signal that the client has matured to the processing of its non-fuel businesses.

The processing of non-fuel businesses in gas stations is a tool through which filling networks can manage any number of suppliers and process all data on the movement of goods at stations.

What benefits do you see from “going out” of your business to the Internet and / or using modern technologies outside it?

Timur Abdrakhmanov, "Quadrim":

The Internet brings people together. Any healthy business is focused on growth and development. Obviously, with the help of Internet technology, you can increase reach and maintain communication over long distances.

Without modern technologies, it is impossible to survive in a competitive market, so I think that in the near future, only those companies that have fully digitized, but have not forgotten about information security, will survive in competitive markets, because their own risks arise when digitizing.

Alexander Kuzmin, RusHOLTS:

In the activities of RusHOLTS high-tech solutions and business are intertwined very closely. IT solutions enable us, not the coffee company, to successfully deal with the supply of coffee, which, in turn, is a locomotive, pulling up supply and service businesses.

Coffee machine freely available to customers increases sales of coffee by 30%. In the absence of automated control over the sales of coffee drinks, at least 20–30% of the cups of coffee actually paid by the buyers are realized “past the cash register”.

Coffee machines that are equipped with remote monitoring in the North-West region in the third quarter of 2016, on average, sell 110 cups of coffee a day. The record holder is a gas station with sales of 256 cups of coffee per day.

Owners of Russian gas stations only because of the lack of reliable accounting for the sale of coffee drinks each year donate 2–3 billion rubles to their employees, the “generosity” of the owners of all Russian catering establishments is at least 25 billion rubles a year.

The monitoring system allows for a more detailed analysis of the situation and the reasons for the failure of the unit, as it records about 400 performance indicators of the coffee machine, so the master goes to order with the right set of spare parts, tools, and so on. The number of departures of masters is reduced at least 2 times.

Within the system, the master fixes the fault, and "all the moves are recorded." In addition, he can send a report only if his business smartphone is located in the coordinates that belong to the station.

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No matter how many opinions, there is always own experience. Someone he suggests that it is necessary to introduce advanced technologies only in the internal work processes. Someone believes that information processes are subject to interaction with customers, customers and other entities from the outside world.

Skeptics dare to guarantee that business performance will not fall only if the “informatization” is directly embedded in business processes, and without it nothing will work at all.

Advanced optimists are convinced that scientific and technological progress will soon cover everyone - whether they want it or not. Therefore, it is better to prepare for this in advance by dragging the “cowsheds” to the global network, or laying the local network in the barns.