Alexander Ivlev, the CEO of the company «Ember», speaking at the CNews Forum Cases, shared an interesting opinion, according to which the transition to Russian software has not only advantages, but also significant disadvantages.
«The presence of SAP or Microsoft Dynamics still proves to be one of the factors determining the company's capitalization. And Russian holdings would like to remain in the mainstream of the world trend. However, as we all know, Law № 187 requires organizations listed as critical infrastructure subjects to switch to domestic software solutions by January 1, 2025. It's commonly believed that this law applies only to state-owned companies. In fact, this law covers a wider field. This involves automated control systems operating in almost all spheres of life, for example, science, transport, communication, energy, finance, oil and gas industry, defense, rocket and space, mining and processing industries, and so on. And now I can confidently say that the question of whether to continue using foreign software or to look for Russian solutions, including Low-Code platforms, has become one of the main ones, and the answers to it are not always in favor of Russian vendors due to a number of fears», — said Alexander Ivlev.
Firstly, a complete transition to Russian software can take a long time: according to the estimates by «Ember» specialists — from half a year to 5 years. It is noted that companies that automated their business about five years ago, now record a higher efficiency and are not without reason afraid of its decrease in case of software replacement. Also, one should take into account the costs associated with the transition to Russian software: they can be comparable to the costs of previously implemented foreign software.
«One of the risks, which we haven't mentioned yet, and which at first sight seems not so current, but in fact can significantly reduce the system's functionality, is the human factor, the so-called, «staff resistance». Training employees to work in a new system is always challenging, especially in large companies; different professional groups adapt differently to new programs, making the same mistakes day by day. My advice is to consider products only with the documentation and training stage in the project, as well as with round-the-clock support», — added Alexander Ivlev.