To whom life with ISDEF is good
Last year, Alexander Ivlev, CEO of Hawk House Integration, first attended the ISDEF (Independent Software DEvelopers Forum) conference and then became its member. Alexander told why he joined the Association, what was the effect of joining. And, of course, it was interesting how the company's flagship product has changed - AMBER CRM and the AMBER platform over the past year.
For me, ISDEF began with an acquaintance with Vitaly Yanko from Roboticum and Alexander Kazin [the main organizer of ISDEF conferences]. Funny, it turns out, I now recall our first dialogue with them. I just asked my colleagues why ISDEF is needed, why they entered there, and so on. Then with these questions I turned to Vitaly and Alexander. They told me about the networking potential of the conference, that customers often receive requests for tasks, for the joint solution of which not one but several participants are required. As a result, the decision to join the association turned out to be emotional and was made the same day - I sent an SMS to our marketing department with a list of people who should recommend us to join, and we became members of ISDEF after the end of the autumn conference.
First, we looked for opportunities to popularize our product. At the beginning of 2016, we began a program to promote our flagship - Amber CRM. We also looked for potential partners, because our customers often require complex services that our company cannot provide for some reason. At the beginning of the year, together with Vitaly Yanko, we were already working out a strategy for bringing our product to foreign markets. At the expense of networking, we wanted to get acquainted with the experience of selling our colleagues' own products. In terms of issuing our own solutions to foreign markets, we are not so new to them, but they have much more sales experience.
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Before you go to any event, answer the question: why is this necessary? What do you want to get? During the conference: listen, look, meet, do not waste time, do not leave home after the sessions, do not sleep. We are all interesting people with their projects and hobbies that go beyond our professional activities. Communicate and you will be surprised how quickly there will be partners, like-minded people and new ideas. And, of course, take part in beer afterparty - the best networking there.
This year we had a big update on our product. We have implemented a full-fledged business process engine, which allowed us to put on the market, in addition to our CRM solution, a BPM system, in which we not only and not so much focus on sales, but also automate logistics, workflow, and work of related departments. Now we are completing implementation at SMU-6. This is a large construction organization, which is also involved in the renovation program of Moscow. Initially, we communicated with them about the implementation of CRM, but in the process of the survey we found out that now the regulation of internal departments and relationships with contractors will be the most relevant, and only then it makes sense to move on to CRM. The concept of our platform and our system is that the setting should be quick, cheap, using convenient built-in wizards and visual tools. Often, our customers customize the system for themselves. Without such tools, we could not offer SMU-6 such a solution.
Also this year we released a universal integration module with any IP PBX. Often we receive requests from our customers who ask: “Can you integrate with Mango, Beeline, MTS or any other telecom operator, telephony providers?” Now we supply this module in all our projects. It allows you not only to save on equipment, to receive calls directly from the system itself, but also allows you to record and listen to calls to control the quality of work, regardless of whether this provider provides a telephony provider. In addition, we have significantly increased system performance. AMBER also gained a full-fledged multilingual interface: now the employees of our clients, whose offices are located in more than one country, work in the AMBER interface, localized for a specific country and language, although in reality they work in one program.
In addition to ISDEF, where we entered last year, we are a member of the Association of Software Developers (APFP). As far as I managed to communicate with my colleagues, and according to my feelings, ISDEF is an association of developers whose eyes are aimed at selling products to foreign markets. ISDEF is an exchange of knowledge, an exchange of experience. ARPP is mostly an association of local developers who develop products in Russia and sell them primarily in Russia. ARPP is working to create a force that can create competitive advantages for IT companies on the Russian market, come up with initiatives at the Government level, help with government support, etc.
The meaning of membership in any association is that the company has new competitive advantages, so that it has additional weight for customers. Compare: a company that is alone in the market, or that was admitted to some kind of professional association.
As for ISDEF, I will not say that the fact of our membership in it is equally important for all clients. Clients who are associated with high-tech business, when we talk about what is ISDEF, and at least heard about the association, say: "This is great!". For customers who do not belong to the high-tech business, for example, retail, logistics, this is irrelevant.
Here we need to understand exactly what we want from a professional association: the exchange of experience and the search for partners. Of course, I would like a professional association to have iconic members and participants who would participate in the development of the IT industry in Russia.
I was at the conference both days, there were a lot of strong speeches. Of those that hooked, there was a speech by Yuri Uskov ( iSpring Solutions ) on the theme “Building a dream team”. In general, I would single out the HR section, plus there was a panel discussion about Smart Money (“Investments from a core investor”). With regards to international markets - the reports about them were quite interesting, informative, but I can not say that I spent a lot of time on this, as opposed to Business Development or building a team, since the task of entering international markets became urgent for us just now.
This year, of course, at ISDEF2017, I would like to hear about the trends that exist in Western markets, because we somehow have to go there next year. In addition, these trends appear on the Russian market with a slight delay. Therefore, we must be ready to reflect these realities and trends in our products.
What started ISDEF for you?
For me, ISDEF began with an acquaintance with Vitaly Yanko from Roboticum and Alexander Kazin [the main organizer of ISDEF conferences]. Funny, it turns out, I now recall our first dialogue with them. I just asked my colleagues why ISDEF is needed, why they entered there, and so on. Then with these questions I turned to Vitaly and Alexander. They told me about the networking potential of the conference, that customers often receive requests for tasks, for the joint solution of which not one but several participants are required. As a result, the decision to join the association turned out to be emotional and was made the same day - I sent an SMS to our marketing department with a list of people who should recommend us to join, and we became members of ISDEF after the end of the autumn conference.
For what purpose did you join the association?
First, we looked for opportunities to popularize our product. At the beginning of 2016, we began a program to promote our flagship - Amber CRM. We also looked for potential partners, because our customers often require complex services that our company cannot provide for some reason. At the beginning of the year, together with Vitaly Yanko, we were already working out a strategy for bringing our product to foreign markets. At the expense of networking, we wanted to get acquainted with the experience of selling our colleagues' own products. In terms of issuing our own solutions to foreign markets, we are not so new to them, but they have much more sales experience.
')
A couple of tips for networking on ISDEF from Alexander Ivlev?
Before you go to any event, answer the question: why is this necessary? What do you want to get? During the conference: listen, look, meet, do not waste time, do not leave home after the sessions, do not sleep. We are all interesting people with their projects and hobbies that go beyond our professional activities. Communicate and you will be surprised how quickly there will be partners, like-minded people and new ideas. And, of course, take part in beer afterparty - the best networking there.
How has your Amber CRM product changed this year?
This year we had a big update on our product. We have implemented a full-fledged business process engine, which allowed us to put on the market, in addition to our CRM solution, a BPM system, in which we not only and not so much focus on sales, but also automate logistics, workflow, and work of related departments. Now we are completing implementation at SMU-6. This is a large construction organization, which is also involved in the renovation program of Moscow. Initially, we communicated with them about the implementation of CRM, but in the process of the survey we found out that now the regulation of internal departments and relationships with contractors will be the most relevant, and only then it makes sense to move on to CRM. The concept of our platform and our system is that the setting should be quick, cheap, using convenient built-in wizards and visual tools. Often, our customers customize the system for themselves. Without such tools, we could not offer SMU-6 such a solution.
Also this year we released a universal integration module with any IP PBX. Often we receive requests from our customers who ask: “Can you integrate with Mango, Beeline, MTS or any other telecom operator, telephony providers?” Now we supply this module in all our projects. It allows you not only to save on equipment, to receive calls directly from the system itself, but also allows you to record and listen to calls to control the quality of work, regardless of whether this provider provides a telephony provider. In addition, we have significantly increased system performance. AMBER also gained a full-fledged multilingual interface: now the employees of our clients, whose offices are located in more than one country, work in the AMBER interface, localized for a specific country and language, although in reality they work in one program.
Tell me, what other professional associations are you in now?
In addition to ISDEF, where we entered last year, we are a member of the Association of Software Developers (APFP). As far as I managed to communicate with my colleagues, and according to my feelings, ISDEF is an association of developers whose eyes are aimed at selling products to foreign markets. ISDEF is an exchange of knowledge, an exchange of experience. ARPP is mostly an association of local developers who develop products in Russia and sell them primarily in Russia. ARPP is working to create a force that can create competitive advantages for IT companies on the Russian market, come up with initiatives at the Government level, help with government support, etc.
What do you expect as members of associations from these associations?
The meaning of membership in any association is that the company has new competitive advantages, so that it has additional weight for customers. Compare: a company that is alone in the market, or that was admitted to some kind of professional association.
As for ISDEF, I will not say that the fact of our membership in it is equally important for all clients. Clients who are associated with high-tech business, when we talk about what is ISDEF, and at least heard about the association, say: "This is great!". For customers who do not belong to the high-tech business, for example, retail, logistics, this is irrelevant.
Here we need to understand exactly what we want from a professional association: the exchange of experience and the search for partners. Of course, I would like a professional association to have iconic members and participants who would participate in the development of the IT industry in Russia.
You don’t have to go far for examples - Alexander Katalov, president of Elcomsoft and the founding father of ISDEF, and Dmitry Kurashev, CEO of Entensys, are included in the lists of key representatives of the IT industry in the Ministry of Communications of Russia. Were there any performances that you hooked at the last conference?
I was at the conference both days, there were a lot of strong speeches. Of those that hooked, there was a speech by Yuri Uskov ( iSpring Solutions ) on the theme “Building a dream team”. In general, I would single out the HR section, plus there was a panel discussion about Smart Money (“Investments from a core investor”). With regards to international markets - the reports about them were quite interesting, informative, but I can not say that I spent a lot of time on this, as opposed to Business Development or building a team, since the task of entering international markets became urgent for us just now.
And this year?
This year, of course, at ISDEF2017, I would like to hear about the trends that exist in Western markets, because we somehow have to go there next year. In addition, these trends appear on the Russian market with a slight delay. Therefore, we must be ready to reflect these realities and trends in our products.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/335730/
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