Russian software, domestic software. New Russian operating system for PC. Russian operating systems

Its main goal is to search for complexes of solutions for the specific needs of consumers. The catalog is implemented on the principle of "Web 2.0" and will allow software customers to quickly and efficiently find the necessary products, compose completely domestic integrated solutions ready for implementation from them. Read more.

2019

Natalya Kasperskaya asks the government for 39 billion rubles for state support of software developers

Entry into force of the updated rules for checking Russian software

On February 4, 2019 it became known of the entry into force of the order of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications No. 722 on the approval of the procedure and methodology for confirming the compliance of computer programs and databases, information about which is included in the register of Russian software, with additional requirements approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of March 23, 2017 No. 325. Read more.

2016

Allocation of 5 billion rubles for financing of software development

From January 1, 2016, the work of the Register of Domestic Software was approved, which should be used by government agencies and state corporations of Russia when choosing software that can replace foreign solutions.

2015

Rules for the formation of the register of domestic software approved

Government Decree No. 1236 dated November 16, 2015 approved the rules for the formation of a register of domestic software.

The Ministry of Finance refuses the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications in creation of the organization for software financing

The Duma Commission admits that as of July 30, 2014, there is no single normative act where all these definitions could be introduced, but it is quite obvious that they will be required if one tries to legally support domestic companies and create preferences for them in public procurement. Therefore, in the context of the import substitution policy declared in the state, all this work seems to be very relevant.

July 23, 2014: Definition of the Ministry of Industry and Trade

On July 23, 2014, a meeting was held in the presidential administration, at which the criteria developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade for determining domestic software (SW) were discussed. This was told to Vedomosti by several people who participated in the meeting or were close to Russian developers. At the disposal of Vedomosti was a draft proposal from the ministry with a definition of "software of Russian origin", which almost completely coincides with the recommendations of several associations of Russian software companies - the Association of Software Developers, Russoft, the Russian Association of Free Software and the Association of Manufacturers of Electronic Equipment and Devices .

In early June 2014, the presidential administration recommended that the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications develop a definition of domestic software. The departments had until July 10 to fulfill this order: firstly, to prepare definitions for domestic software and its manufacturer, and secondly, to develop amendments to the legislation that would encourage state authorities and state corporations to purchase, first of all, software of Russian origin.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade proposes to consider as domestic that software product, the rights to which belong to a Russian legal entity, at least 51% of the authorized capital of which belongs to Russian residents - individuals or companies, state-owned companies and state corporations, unitary enterprises or subjects of the Federation. We are talking about the ultimate beneficiaries, and not about the formal owners, follows from the proposals developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

State support for domestic software developers will help develop the industry and help strengthen the position of Russian companies in the domestic and international markets, according to a document studied by Vedomosti. True, its authors warn, imposing domestic software on state buyers is fraught with a decrease in competition: a domestic developer will certainly be confident in state support, and he will not be motivated to develop a software product. The participants of yesterday's meeting agreed that when discussing import substitution, it is necessary to separate the economic aspect (support for the Russian IT industry) from the technological one (IT security), says Kirill Varlamov, director of the Internet Initiatives Development Fund, who was present at the meeting.

Experts of the Ministry of Industry and Trade see the creation and maintenance of a register of domestic software as the main tool for regulating the industry. The department proposes to assign Russian status to software products according to the same scheme that applies to telecommunications equipment (Russian status is assigned to equipment depending on what share of its cost falls on Russia).

The fact that the essence of the ministry's proposals is as follows is known to several people close to the participants in the meeting. And on July 21, 2014, a meeting of the interim commission under the Federation Council on the issue of import substitution of software was held, and the representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Communications who were present there agreed with the definition of Russian software as a product, the rights to which belong to a person controlled by at least 51% of Russian residents, says a member upper chamber Ruslan Gattarov.

This position coincides with the proposals of the Russian associations of software developers, but differs from the proposal made on July 3, 2014 by members of the commission under the State Duma Committee on Science and High Technologies. They suggested that a Russian IT company worthy of priority access to a government order be considered an enterprise in which the share of foreign capital does not exceed 25% minus 1 share, in which more than 75% of its revenue is generated in Russia, which is a Russian tax and legal resident, and the share foreigners among its employees does not exceed 25%. This idea belonged to the National Association for Innovation and Development of Information Technologies (NAIRIT), headed by Olga Uskova, president of the Russian developer Cognitive Technologies and member of the commission at the Duma committee. Yesterday, a NAIRIT representative told Vedomosti that the association had already coordinated its position with other IT associations. And Andrey Chernogorov, executive secretary of the commission under the Duma committee, acknowledged that her previous position was tough - it will be softened, he knows.

The option that linked the Russian origin of software with Russia's contribution to the revenue of its developer left no chance of becoming a "domestic manufacturer" of either Kaspersky Lab or, for example, Parallels (Parallels Software): both of them generate most of their income outside of Russia. The new criteria, which was supported by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, “are agreed with market participants and are much more balanced and suitable for determining domestic software,” says Sergey Zemkov, managing director of Kaspersky Lab in Russia, the countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia. The criterion of ownership of intellectual property by a Russian legal entity makes sense, but it is important that the development is in Russia, warns Nikolay Dobrovolsky, Vice President for Personal Computer Virtualization at Parallels. Otherwise, a foreign company will be able to transfer the rights to a foreign product to a Russian legal entity not related to its development, but affiliated with it, while it is also impossible to quickly transfer the development to the right country, he argues.

An employee of the press service of the presidential administration limited himself to confirming the fact of yesterday's meeting. And the representative of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications said only that the department, following the instructions of the president, is carrying out “comprehensive work on the development of Russian software”: in particular, on July 18, a meeting was held with representatives of the largest Russian IT companies, where “the expediency and practical benefits of introducing and defining criteria for domestic software” and specific support measures.

July 15, 2014: Definition of "Domestic software" from industry associations

On July 15, 2014 profile IT associations ARPP "Domestic Soft", Russoft, RASPO, APEAP agreed on a single definition of domestic software. The main factor is that exclusive rights to software products belong to Russia. The right holder may be a Russian legal entity controlled by Russian citizens or the state. The criteria are published on the website of the Association of Software Developers "Domestic Software".

Approval of the definition of domestic software is the first step in supporting Russian software products. It is also proposed to create a registry of domestic software and establish priority for software products of the registry in public procurement. At the same time, in the absence of the necessary Russian solution, state customers should still be able to purchase foreign analogues.

“We have been working on formulating the criteria for a long time. Russian software developers, lawyers, and independent experts took part in this work. The rights to a software product determine its control by Russia, and also form a profit center in our country. Thus, this criterion is important both for ensuring technological independence and for the economic development of the country,” says Evgenia Vasilenko, Executive Director of the ARPP Association “Domestic Soft”.

According to her, now it is very important to create favorable conditions in the country for the development of Russian software. First of all, this is due to the stimulation of demand for national products, which is a common global practice.

“The adoption of the definition of domestic software was a response to sanctions against Russia, which unexpectedly sharply increased the risks of using foreign software. The related measures to support domestic manufacturers are limited to the purposes of software purchases by state bodies and enterprises with state participation, and do not apply to the open market. We continue to believe that the main measures of state support for Russian manufacturers should be investments in education and R&D, lowering administrative barriers, and supporting exports,” commented Valentin Makarov, President of NP RUSSOFT.

In the comment of TAdviser Alexander Pozdnyakov, the CEO of First Line Software, also notes the importance of creating comfortable conditions for software developers for the opportunity to grow domestic software.

"The state is already moving towards creating a more convenient environment for software companies. There is a reduced rate of social taxes. This is very correct. As for import substitution and the promotion of Russian solutions, if good software is created in the country, it will be bought side of the state," he said.

“The initiative of the State Duma in terms of legislative support for import substitution is extremely timely. We have tried to give the most complete definition of the criteria for Russian software. Note that this definition allows Russian developers to use free and open source software as part of their software products, while the final solution will be, according to the criteria, Russian,” says Alexander Zhmurko, President of NP RASPO.

The criteria for determining domestic software and a domestic software manufacturer are described in a letter from NP RUSSOFT sent to the State Duma of the Russian Federation. The letter also states that RUSSOFT supports government measures to ensure information security and technological independence. In addition to the import substitution policy, it is proposed to invest in research and development in the field of software engineering, develop specialized education and a system for retraining IT personnel, and create a program to support high-tech exports.

As necessary measures, the creation of a Commission for the legal support of these tasks is indicated, including the legislative consolidation of the concept of "domestic software". Etc. At the same time, it is proposed to limit the range of software solutions for which the use of import substitution is mandatory, the types of solutions that are critical for information security, technological independence and global competitiveness of the country, such as: operating systems (OS), database management systems (DBMS) and data warehouse management , CAD , EDMS , information security systems , cryptography and »

Engineering software market in Russia

Evgenia Vasilenko
Executive Director of ARPP "Domestic Soft"

The article was prepared on the basis of a report at the forum “Development. Russian Technologies for Engineers”, held on September 23 in Moscow.

Russia is traditionally strong in the field of high technologies. However, the situation has developed in such a way that our domestic IT market is relatively small - experts estimate it at 2-3% of the global one. A characteristic feature of the Russian information technology industry is the fact that the volume of exports of IT development is equal to the volume of the domestic software market - about $ 5.4 billion. Exports are quite high - as services for custom software development (they account for 56.5% of exports ), and replicated products (respectively 43.5%). We can safely say that the information technology industry is one of the most competitive in the country, and Russian products are sold and used in many countries around the world.

Our competencies were historically strong in creating engineering software: Russia has a good mathematical and engineering school, there are many teams that have been successfully developing computer-aided design systems and specialized niche products for a long time. In particular, out of a hundred companies included in the ARPP, 12 specialize in engineering software: ADEM, Csoft Development, SDI Solution, ASCON, QuantorForm, Nanosoft, STC APM, STC GeMM, SIGMA Technology, TESIS, Fidesys ”, “Eremeks”.

Russian consumers of PLM solutions

	Large enterprises	Medium enterprises	Small businesses
Share of the total number of engineering enterprises, %
Share of the total number of engineering jobs, %
Ownership type	High share of state participation (state corporations, federal state unitary enterprises)
IT Investment Resources	Greatest Investment Opportunities	There are resources, but they are being saved	limited
Software licensing	Volume Licensing	high share	Low share
The need for engineering software	End-to-end automation of all business processes. Customized PLM Solutions	Typical pre-configured PLM solutions with a short implementation time	Primitive business processes. There is no need to automate teamwork. Affordable CAD/CAE/CAM tool systems needed

Moving directly to the PLM solutions market, let's turn to the data of the American consulting company CIMdata. By PLM she understands the entire range of MCAD/CAM/CAE/PDM systems. According to its research, the volume of the Russian PLM market in 2012 amounted to $ 277 million and, taking into account the annual growth rate of 10-12%, reached $ 330-340 million by 2015. CIMdata classifies Russia as one of the leading countries with a "PLM economy" along with Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea and the USA. At the same time, analysts believe that, given the goals of the country's industrial development declared at the state level, Russia is underinvesting in PLM, and there are still many unfinished automation tasks in the industry.

Russian consumers of PLM solutions

Who today is the consumer of products that support end-to-end product lifecycle management? All customers can be conditionally divided into three groups: large, medium and small enterprises. They differ from each other not only in the scale of production and the number of personnel, but also in the need for automation.

Large consumers of PLM include automotive, aerospace, shipbuilding, industry, and rail transport manufacturers. First of all, global competition requires them to use advanced technologies, as enterprises must demonstrate advanced development. However, a persistent stereotype has developed here that the most advanced technologies are foreign. This group of customers does not consider Russian solutions, almost everywhere using the software of foreign vendors - even where it is unjustified and redundant.

Medium-sized enterprises invest in automation with a rational approach, counting money. It is in this group that the share of using Russian solutions is the highest. Customers understand that many domestic products are not inferior to foreign ones in terms of functionality and reliability, while being several times cheaper.

Here you can draw an analogy with the situation in the ERP systems segment, where there are also strong Russian manufacturers who independently, without state support, won 50% of the market from foreigners, however, large enterprises still prefer foreign systems. For them, the introduction of an expensive Western ERP system is an image aspect. And this becomes a serious obstacle to the development of Russian developments, since a customer with a large budget does not, in principle, consider domestic IT solutions.

The main participants of the Russian PLM market

In its study, CIMdata identified the five most prominent companies on the Russian PLM market, ranking them according to their positions on the market:

• Siemens PLM Software (Germany).
• Dassault Systemes (France).
• ASCON (Russia).
• Autodesk (USA).
• PTC (USA).

The performance of individual product segments varies among the top five companies. For example, ASCON has strong positions in "medium" and "light" MCAD and in PDM, but there is no heavy MCAD.

Another assessment is given by experts from the North-West Center for Strategic Research. Based on the results of a survey of more than 200 industrial enterprises, they provide the following data on the computer engineering software market (including CAD/CAE/CAM/PDM systems).

Foreign and Russian researchers agree that Russian developers successfully compete in their traditional "medium" CAD segment, but their product lines lack heavy-class CAD, CAE and CAM systems.

From January 1, 2016, all state and municipal bodies, state corporations Rosatom and Roscosmos, management bodies of state off-budget funds, as well as state and budgetary institutions that carry out purchases in accordance with the requirements of the “On the contract system in the field of procurement of goods, works , services for state and municipal needs”, are obliged to comply with the prohibition on the admission of software originating from foreign countries for the purposes of procurement for state and municipal needs.

In order to make a decision on the purchase of software, the customer needs to work with the registry. When working with the registry of Russian software, the customer placing an order for the supply of software products must:

1) study the classifier and determine which class corresponds to the software planned for purchase;

2) go to the official website of the registry and find out if the registry contains information about software for this class (see below for how to do this);

3) if there is information about one or more software products for the desired class in the register, the customer will need to independently determine whether at least one of the products meets the characteristics that the customer requires and which he plans to include in the description of the procurement object. To do this, it is advisable to determine the required functional, technical and operational characteristics of the software and compare them with similar characteristics of the software, information about which is placed in the registry.

An example form of performance comparison is given below:

No. p / p	Software Features	Required	Product A	Product B
1.	Functional characteristics
1.1.	Centralized Management	Yes	Yes	Yes
1.2.	Physical and virtual infrastructure management	Yes	Limited	Yes
…	Ability to manage virtualization environments from multiple vendors	Yes	Yes	Yes
2.	Specifications
2.1.	Maximum number of virtualization hosts	64	64	200
2.2.	Maximum number of virtual machines	3000	8000	Not documented
2.3.	Automatic VM crash recovery (HA)	Yes	Yes	Yes
3.	Performance characteristics
3.1.	Integration with AD	Yes	Yes	Not
3.2.	Possibility of centralized management through a web browser	Yes	Yes	Yes
3.3.	Availability of an API for backup	Not	Yes	Not

Note

It should be noted that in accordance with Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1236 regarding the characteristics of the software, the registry entry contains only the address of the page of the copyright holder's website in the information and telecommunication network Internet, which contains documentation containing a description of the functional characteristics of the software and information necessary for installation and operation of the software. In practice, the site of the copyright holder does not always contain all the necessary information about the software. The mechanism for obtaining such information for the preparation of a justification has not been regulated. In case of insufficient information about the required software, it is advisable to ask the copyright holder to provide such characteristics.

Based on the results of the work performed, the customer makes one of two decisions: either to purchase one of the Russian software products specified in the register, or to justify the purchase of software that is not included in the register.

The second is possible if:

a) the registry does not contain information about the software of the required class;

b) the software, information about which is included in the register according to the required class, does not meet the requirements of the customer in terms of its functional, technical and (or) operational characteristics.

In this case, the customer must prepare, approve and publish (together with the procurement documentation) . Such an obligation is established by part 3 of article 14 of the Federal Law of April 5, 2013 No. 44-FZ “On the contract system in the field of procurement of goods, works, services to meet state and municipal needs”. The procedure for preparing the justification (Procedure) is approved.

It is worth noting that, in accordance with clause 4 of the Procedure, the customer must approve the specified justification as of the day the notice of procurement was posted. It is not enough to approve the rationale simultaneously with the entire package of procurement documents.

To comply with this provision, given the complex procurement procedures in general, contracting authorities should monitor not only the registry itself, but also applications submitted for inclusion in the registry (they are also posted on the registry operator's website). This will allow you to foresee the inclusion of a particular software in the registry.

It is advisable to prepare a draft justification at the time of preparation of a complete package of procurement documentation, and then update and approve it on the day of publication.

The justification must contain an indication of:

a) a circumstance in connection with which it is impossible to comply with the ban (subparagraph "a" or "b" of paragraph 2 of Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1236 is selected);

b) class (classes) of software, which (which) must correspond to the software that is the object of the procurement;

c) requirements for the functional, technical and operational characteristics of the software that is the object of the procurement, established by the customer (with an indication of the class (classes) to which the software must correspond, see above);

d) functional, technical and (or) operational characteristics, including quantitative ones, according to which the software products from the registry do not meet the requirements established by the customer for the software product that is the object of the procurement, for each software product from the registry (indicating its name). Software products compared in this way must belong to the same class ().

See also examples of justifications for the impossibility of purchasing software from the registry: ; . You can see more examples of similar documents submitted to justify the impossibility of purchasing a domestic software product.

If the registry does not contain information about the software for the required class (subparagraph “a” of paragraph 2 of Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1236 is selected), the last block (“d”) is not included in the rationale.

For this block (“d”), it should also be borne in mind that Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1236 does not provide for the mandatory indication of both functional, technical and operational characteristics of the purchased software in order to prove its difference from the software specified in the register. However, incorrectly specified characteristics of both the software required by the customer and the software placed in the registry may serve as a basis for claims by regulatory authorities. The reason for claims may be, for example, an appeal by a software developer, information about which is entered in the register, with a complaint to the Federal Antimonopoly Service about the incorrect justification by the customer of the impossibility of complying with the ban.

In case of insufficient information about the characteristics of the software, information about which is placed in the registry, it is advisable to request the copyright holder to provide such characteristics.

If such information is not provided, it is advisable to take screenshots of the pages of the copyright holder's website, which contain information about the characteristics of the software from the registry (at the time of publication of the justification), and attach these screenshots to the justification.

An example of justification for the inability to comply with the prohibition on the purchase of software is given in.

Checking for the presence in the registry of information about software for a specific class on the site reestr.minsvyaz.ru in its current form is performed as follows:

1) on the website of the registry of Russian software, go to the section "Registry";

2) select the required software class(es):

3a) if there is no information about the software for the required class in the registry, a corresponding message appears:

3b) if the registry contains information about the software of the required class, a list of software products appears:

Current additions (as of December 2017)

In March 2017, the government approved programs for electronic computers and databases, information about which is included in the register of Russian software. The requirements determine the composition, architecture, and functions of the software required to replace imported analogues.

In particular, the software interface must be implemented in Russian. The software must not require the installation of other software (additional software modules, fonts) that has any restrictions on its free distribution in Russia, with the exception of operating systems. Software updates should only be performed after confirmation by the user or authorized personnel. At the same time, for each type of software (operating system, communication software, office suite, mail applications, organizer, viewers, Internet browser, presentation editor, spreadsheet editor, text editor, file manager software, legal reference system (ATS), software electronic document management systems and anti-virus protection) special requirements are provided.

According to the resolution, the registry entry is supplemented with information on compliance or non-compliance of the software with additional requirements. However, as of the end of 2017, no such information could be found in the registry.

In June 2017, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications published on the implementation of plans for the transition of federal executive bodies and state off-budget funds to the use of domestic office software, including instead of previously purchased office software.

For a complete list of regulations related to software import substitution, see

The implementation of the import substitution strategy in the field of information technology is under the special control of the government. First of all, state-owned companies will have to abandon foreign software products, in the second half of the year all of them will have to switch to Russian software without fail.

At the end of March, Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with members of the government, said that this year state-owned companies should abandon foreign software within a year. They should use cheaper and more accessible Russian counterparts, especially since domestic developers can meet all the needs of companies. Restrictions on the purchase of foreign software should apply to all government customers.

Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Communications, Nikolai Nikiforov, reported that state authorities purchase foreign software for 20 billion rubles a year, but now they will fight against unreasonable purchases: “Together with the FAS Russia, we will catch the hand of those government customers who still prefer to buy foreign software in the old fashioned way, despite the fact that there are Russian solutions."

To support the domestic software development industry, the government allocated 5 billion rubles. Developers will be able to receive these funds in May-June.

However, industry experts doubt that such a global transition from imported software to domestic developments can be implemented in such a short time. Among the reasons are the lack of competitive domestic software for solving certain problems and the lack of necessary budgets from companies.

Import substitution in the field of IT became a strategic task not so long ago, about two years ago. “At that moment, experts noted that far from all segments we have solutions that can compete with Western ones, and it will take three to seven years for these solutions to appear,” explained Dmitry Mramorov, CEO of SKB Kontur. And the mere presence of this or that product does not mean that it will be able to completely replace the foreign solution.”

Emphasis: The government allocated 5 billion rubles to support domestic software

Today, almost all state-owned companies could decide to switch to domestic software and start it. But, according to industry representatives, this should be done carefully, as needed, and not for the sake of a formal replacement. "The transition process can take up to three years, - confirmed Sergey Maslov, director of state and corporate projects at ALT Linux. - There are several reasons for this: on the one hand, the amount of work to replace is very large, on the other hand, it is advisable to do many software replacements in the process of upgrading , that is, changing existing solutions to more modern ones. According to him, some solutions will require additional development, and this also takes time.

At the moment, there are more than 400 software titles in the register of domestic software, and it continues to grow. But whether there will be enough solutions from Russian developers for the normal functioning of state-owned enterprises, only the practical application of the registry can show.

According to Vyacheslav Medvedev, a leading analyst at Doctor Web's development department, there is also a danger of problems with software compatibility: "Most of the replacement software is clones of free software. But OpenOffice, for example, is not fully compatible with MSOffice document formats. How do you feel about the risk that your important document will not be read by the recipient or you will not be able to study all the nuances of the received document? And there are a lot of such risks.

Experts noted that now there are good domestic solutions in the field of security, software for IT infrastructures, but there are practically no solutions in the field of operating systems. It is important to fill this niche. "The registry has one version of the Linux OS and no Windows OS. This means that companies will have to migrate their entire landscape to Linux," said Dmitry Sergeev, director of business development at the Jet Infosystems software solutions center. "It will not be easy to do this in the near future, but it's more of a question of priorities and funding. If you want, you can, if not completely replace, then at least minimize the presence of foreign software. " True, for some time, state-owned companies can still use the opportunity provided for by a government decree. That is, refuse to purchase Russian software included in the registry if it is inferior to foreign software in terms of technical characteristics.

As for state support for developers, not everything is clear-cut here either. Experts note that with a meaningful distribution of funds, a positive effect will be noticeable, but one should not expect cardinal changes only from cash injections. "Support measures alone do not solve anything," Vyacheslav Medvedev stated. "The fact is that the country does not need import substitution as such, but import independence. It is necessary to create conditions under which competitive software will be created."

There are several more barriers to a quick and, most importantly, voluntary transition to domestic software. "Among them, the low popularity of our software products, the great marketing opportunities of Western competitors, and, perhaps, the habit of IT departments to simply select premium brands from the Gartner magic square, which our software cannot get into," said the CEO of 1C-Bitrix. Sergey Ryzhikov "The actions of the government and the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications are aimed at shifting the focus of consumer attention to our colleagues, software manufacturers. The ban on the purchase of foreign software for government agencies has already aroused great interest in domestic developments, however, there is still room for strengthening requirements and tightening control over purchases" .

However, according to the expert, a ban on the use of foreign software will not be enough, PR support will be needed. "This story has already begun with the registry of domestic software. And this is a great achievement," Sergey Ryzhikov is sure.

2020: 300 IT companies in Russia warn: the FAS project can ruin the IT industry

At the beginning of March, 2020 it became known that the Association of Computer and Information Technology Enterprises (APKIT), the Association of Software Developers (ARPP) "Domestic Soft" and the non-profit partnership "Russoft" (these organizations unite more than 300 leading domestic IT companies) sent a letter to the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications with a request not to support the draft law of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) on the regulation of the results of intellectual activity.

The agency wants software producers to be subject to general antitrust rules: a ban on "abusing" a dominant position in the market, participating in anti-competitive agreements and setting an arbitrary price for their product. Such

So far, developers can freely choose partners based on their competence and build multi-level channels with them. Such immunity, which the FAS wants to abolish, creates risks of market monopolization, benefits for foreign right holders and discriminates against Russian right holders, the regulator believes.

If the FAS initiative is accepted, such actions of market participants will automatically be considered illegal, regardless of the presence or absence of harm, the authors of the letter believe. According to them, this will be "a blow to domestic developers."

Instead of creating conditions for qualitative growth, the FAS is trying to limit developers and actually imposes a ban on their activities. It is obvious that these measures will ruin the entire industry, - said Dmitry Komissarov, CEO of the New Cloud Technologies company.

In his opinion, the FAS unreasonably wants to separate software developers from the general business and apply substantially stricter measures to them than to other players on the Russian market.

2019

Domestic software developers can receive state subsidies in the amount of about 15 billion rubles

On July 10, 2019, information appeared that domestic software developers could receive state subsidies in the amount of about 15 billion rubles. The corresponding project is being prepared by the working group in the direction of "Information security" at the ANO "Digital Economy". The authors of the idea did not specify the exact amount. Read more.

About 35% of Russian software companies are active abroad

On July 9, 2019, it became known that, according to a study of the development of Russian software companies in 1990-2019, carried out by NP Russoft specialists, more than 50% of Russian software companies either do not work abroad at all, or have irrelevant and irregular export earnings. At the same time, companies often implement individual projects only in the near abroad. About 35% of Russian software companies are active abroad.

As noted in the press service of Russoft, the association annually presents the distribution of software companies by groups depending on the location of the head office, year of establishment, specialization, business model, share of exports. “However, according to the survey data for only one year, a very large error was obtained, allowing only a wide range of distribution of companies in each group to be represented. Since a number of characteristics of companies remain unchanged or change insignificantly over several years, it was quite justified to combine the survey data of recent years - from 2016 to 2019," Russoft said, adding that the combination of survey results made it possible to quite accurately see the main characteristics of Russian companies - software developers (SW). “In particular, it made it possible to obtain quantitative indicators related to the problem of low entrepreneurial activity. These indicators have improved in certain periods, but still in the last 30 years they have remained at about the same, low level, and this fact, together with the shortage of personnel, hinders the development of the industry,” Russoft said.

The association also noticed that after combining data from its study over several years, information was received from 458 software companies. At the same time, a relevant sample was obtained, which well reflects the history of the Russian software industry in terms of changes in activity to create successful companies.

As noted in the study, out of 458 companies surveyed by Russoft over the past four years, 22.5% indicated that they had no foreign sales. “However, in some years this figure can be much higher. For example, the latest survey showed that in 2018, 35% of the surveyed companies did not have export earnings, which is associated with a clear reorientation of companies to the domestic market,” the study notes,

40.5% of companies, according to the research data, in 2018 had a turnover of $1 million to $5 million. In general, from 2015 to 2018, as indicated in the study, the distribution of the number of surveyed companies by turnover did not change dramatically . “It can be assumed that companies have become faster to overcome the bar of turnover of $1 million,” the study says. “Naturally, the share of small companies in the general population is much larger than among the surveyed companies.”

As for the business model of software companies and their specialization, the study states the following: “It is only possible to determine the share of product and service companies among all software companies, since about a third of enterprises have both custom development and their own replicated solutions. Russoft refers them to one of two groups, depending on what prevails in the revenue structure for the year preceding the survey. This structure in many companies changes significantly from year to year. Therefore, they can be considered either food or service.

In the last three years, as noted in the study, from 30% to almost 50% of companies that receive the main income from the sale of their own standard solutions, indicated that they are engaged in custom development. “Apparently, in most cases they customize their solutions to the needs of a particular customer. However, there are cases of a separate line of business with classic custom development, ”the study says.

At the same time, the study draws attention to the fact that, according to the 2019 Russoft survey, 26% of all surveyed companies develop software products, but do not have income from custom development. “At the same time, 38.7% of companies specialize in custom software development with zero sales of their own software products. 35.3% of the surveyed companies use both business models at the same time, but among them there are pronounced both service and product companies,” the study says.

At the same time, it notes: “If we smooth out fluctuations that are random in nature, then in the total population of surveyed companies in the past few years, an increase in the share of companies that can be attributed to food products in terms of income structure is visible. For example, it seems quite logical to increase this indicator from 22% in 2012 to a record 46% in 2019. Nevertheless, the service model is not only alive, but new companies have been created for it in recent years. This phenomenon can be explained by the depreciation of the ruble since 2014, which increased the competitiveness of Russian outsourcing companies in the global market. In the 2019 data, there are no development centers of foreign corporations at all. Most likely, their share has not changed, but they have become more informationally closed, and therefore participate in surveys less frequently.”

The study also points out that, based on the results of the survey, it is difficult to identify any dynamics of changes in the industry in terms of the share of surveyed companies with a certain specialization, since no obvious patterns have been identified in fluctuations in indicators in almost all areas. “It is more correct to use them to establish the approximate value around which fluctuations occur,” the study notes.

It also adds: “There is every reason to believe that the share of companies with a line of business such as Embedded Software has been steadily increasing in recent years. The rapid development of the Internet of things may well explain this. And those devices with embedded software that do not transmit information over networks are becoming more and more. The share of those companies that develop websites has also increased. However, this figure could change due to an increase in the share of respondents from the regions due to increased attention to the survey in regions where there are especially many such developers. It is possible that the share of companies developing computer games has increased throughout the industry. However, there are not so many companies with such specialization, therefore, identifying the dynamics by their number is associated with a particularly large error.”

Taking into account the results of research over the past four years, as indicated in the study, allows you to determine the real geographical distribution of software companies much more accurately than a survey for one year. However, in this case, as noted in the study, the final results were also more influenced by the degree of activity of conducting surveys in individual cities and regions, which gives some distortion.

The share of Moscow should in practice be larger (at least 32%) than the share of St. Petersburg - up to 15%. The third place of Novosibirsk is not in doubt, but, most likely, with a slightly lower figure. The share of Nizhny Novgorod should be higher. There was no such large city as Yekaterinburg, which has a lot of software companies, in the top 16, which, apparently, is explained by the fact that it is impossible to fully cover the Yekaterinburg companies in the survey. However, there are really few exporters among them. In total, the software development industry exists in approximately 55 cities of Russia (companies participating in surveys over the past four years indicated 56 such cities). In this case, it implies the presence of at least a few companies that have sales outside their region, as well as development centers of nonresident and foreign companies, the study notes.

To speak about the existence of a full-fledged software industry at the regional level, as stated in the study, can be applied to 10 subjects of the Federation.

In another 10-15 cities, this industry is being formed. In other regions, there are successful companies only in isolated cases, but they can also be successful even abroad. In general, the number of companies in the city is a quite objective indicator of the degree of development of the industry. However, not in all cases. For example, in Voronezh there are a lot of development centers of large companies in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as foreign corporations, but few of their own home-grown companies. The undisputed leader in terms of the number of companies per capita is Taganrog, located in the Rostov region. With about 250,000 inhabitants, it has at least 100 software companies, the study says.

2018

Russian software developers increased turnover by 25% in rubles

According to Russoft's preliminary estimates, announced in February 2019, the total turnover of Russian software companies at the end of 2018 in dollars increased by 18% and amounted to $16.87 billion. In ruble terms, the turnover of companies is estimated at 1.042 trillion, and its growth - 25%.

For product companies, the expected turnover is $8.88 billion with an increase of 12% compared to 2017, for service companies - $7.37 billion with an increase of 26%. Service companies mean those whose turnover is dominated by custom software development, specified in Russoft.

Preliminary estimates are derived without taking into account the questioning of the players. It will be held in mid-February 2019, after which Russoft plans to provide the final figures. Russoft noted that the discrepancy in the numbers before and after the survey turned out to be mostly insignificant earlier.

According to the results, the volume of foreign sales of Russian software should exceed $10 billion with an increase of 19%, Russoft expects. This indicator also includes revenue that remains abroad and can be used to develop overseas offices and marketing.

Experts note that the conditions for increasing foreign sales in "new markets" may be better (for example, state support for marketing activities in these markets and the formation of an institution of intermediaries) than in the markets of Western countries. However, the shares of South and East Asia, Africa, South and Central America, and the Middle East are growing slowly. This growth cannot be fast, since entering new markets is difficult and usually takes 3-4 years. This is especially true for countries with a mentality that is very different from Europe.

However, the share of New Markets in the revenue of Russian software companies over 4 years increased from 14.5% to 19.3% in 2018, if we analyze the structure of sales in non-CIS countries only. Within 10 years, growth of up to 40% is allowed, which corresponds to the share of “new markets” in global software sales.

According to the study, the proportion of companies that plan to return or enter these “new markets” for the first time during 2019-2020 has increased significantly. In the vast majority of cases, it is not a comeback that is planned, but a debut. The share of such companies in 2019 increased by 1.5-2 times compared to the survey in 2018. Particularly great interest is shown to the African market.

The Russoft report also indicates the potential for increasing exports in the near abroad. The Ukrainian market has shrunk significantly over the past few years and has become more difficult for Russian companies to operate on it. However, the decrease in sales in Ukraine is fully offset by growth in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other former Soviet republics, whose domestic markets are developing quite dynamically. At the end of 2018, the share of the CIS in the total export of "Computer Services" increased to 5.9% from 5.5% a year earlier (data from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation).

Software companies grow with a severe lack of investment

One in four software companies grew by more than 20% in dollar terms in 2017. At the same time, the volume of investments once again turned out to be at least 2 times lower than the planned value. The Russoft company reported about it on July 24, 2018 according to the results of an annual interrogation in which 160 companies participated.

The average growth of Russian software companies over the past 5 years was 10% in dollar terms and 19% in ruble terms. There is quite a decent increase in sales, despite the crisis in the domestic market and political tension, which had a negative impact on the promotion of Russian solutions and services in Western countries. At the same time, cases when software companies cease to exist are extremely rare, and turnover at the end of 2017 decreased only in 3% of the surveyed companies, the annual survey showed.

According to Russoft experts, there are all the prerequisites for an annual growth of over 10-15% in the coming years: a favorable situation is developing for this both on the domestic market and on the international one. About 3% of companies grew by more than 2 times in 2017. It is difficult to find in Russia and abroad such an industry that would be so attractive for investment. However, most investors remain only potential, the company noted.

A Russoft survey in 2017 showed that 14% of companies expected to receive external financing at the end of 2017. In reality, there were only 6% of them. In terms of volume, the difference is even greater - instead of the projected $57.5 million, it turned out to be $4.5 million. At the same time, Russoft analysts recorded an almost fourfold reduction relative to the volume of investments in 2016 ($17 million).

Such a significant discrepancy between the planned and actual volume of attracted investments has been observed for the last 7 years, starting from 2011. As a rule, companies that reported the availability of external financing in the previous year are 2-3 fewer than those that had corresponding plans a year earlier. noted in Russoft. Need may be even more at odds with actual investment, as companies don't always count on attracting investment when it can help grow even faster.

According to the survey, CEOs of many companies believe that they could increase sales even faster with external financing. First of all, money is needed to work abroad. A survey conducted in early 2017 as part of a study initiated by SAP Corporation "Prospects for Russian IT developments in the global market" showed that for 52% of software companies, the growth of foreign sales is constrained by an insufficient marketing budget, and for 33% - a lack of funds for developing solutions which can be competitive in foreign markets.

It can be assumed that with the availability of annual external financing in the amount of $200-400 million, the industry can accept up to $1 billion. Moreover, if we sum up all the free resources of investment funds, state development institutions and private investors, then this amount is not so difficult to gain. Representatives of the funds claim that they have the money, but they can't find good projects for it. High-tech entrepreneurs, on the contrary, complain that there are no investment offers on acceptable terms. At the same time, there are no difficulties with short-term financing of successful companies that have been operating for a long time, but there is not enough, first of all, “long money” (for 3-5 years). Despite the apparent contradiction, both representatives of funds and entrepreneurs are right to some extent. Indeed, there are a lot of ideas that are not supported by market expertise, as well as crude, ill-conceived projects. A serious problem is the presence of such teams that have learned how to make excellent presentations of their projects, but are not going to work on them. At the same time, claims to investment funds are still more justified, since there are a lot of dynamically developing companies in Russia, and they need external financing only for faster growth, - Russoft explained the situation on the market in detail.

Thus, a paradoxical situation has developed in Russia: on the one hand, there is an unsatisfied need for investment, and on the other hand, the owners of free funds cannot invest in the high-tech sector of the economy, although they are interested in it. There are investors in software development, but they usually have been in the software industry for many years. The funds of such venture capitalists are clearly not enough, complain at Russoft. Foreign potential investors fail to attract because of the very scarce information about the Russian software industry abroad. By and large, no one in Russia works with such investors.

Most software companies, including startups, grow with their own funds. According to the results of the study "Startup Barometer 2018", initiated by venture investor Alexei Solovyov in partnership with IIDF and the company, 71% of Russian startups are based on their own funds. Only 11% have a non-core investor, 5% have a business angel, and 3% have a venture fund.

According to experts, all the problems associated with the lack of investment resources can theoretically be solved by attracting money from other industries and from abroad. However, the intersectoral flow of capital is constrained, first of all, by the lack of expertise (technological, coupled with the market).

Small business is better off in the domestic market

According to Russoft, the prospects for sales growth in the global market in the coming years are good, despite the problems created by Russian companies in the markets of Western countries. At the same time, it is more difficult for small companies to work abroad than in Russia. Thus, the results of 2016 confirmed that in order to increase foreign sales, it is desirable to have a turnover of $10-20 million. But in the domestic market, the growth rates of small product companies are higher (there is no big difference for service companies). In order for such companies to quickly gain a foothold in the global market, more powerful state support is needed.

Change in sales volume in Russia and abroad depending on the size of companies and the business model used (according to the results of 2016 in dollar terms):

2015: Rating of software developers from Russoft

According to RUSSOFT (May 2016), the total sales of domestic software companies in the domestic market (including sales of software and services for its development and support) in 2015 amounted to approximately $5 billion. foreign vendors.

In September 2015, the Russoft Association, as part of its own annual study, for the first time compiled a rating of Russian software development companies. By and large, it is a list of the largest software companies, divided into categories depending on their turnover and taking into account growth rates (including forecasted indicators for 2015-2016).

No one has yet created such a complete rating of Russian software developers. RUSSOFT's task was rather not to rank companies by size, but to cover all the largest software companies in Russia. Probably, RUSSOFT has no information about some companies that deserve to be included in the rating. However, it can be argued that there are few such companies, most likely only a few, and they have a turnover of no more than $50 million.

Some media outlets have already compiled ratings of IT companies, in which software development companies were ranked separately. However, their ratings were clearly incomplete (they covered a maximum of half of the largest software companies), they also included system integrators (who have software development, but it is not their main line of business), equipment manufacturers, as well as foreign software companies that sell their Software on the Russian market.

The main reason for the incomplete coverage of software companies in the existing ratings is the lack of reliable information on the total revenue of companies, according to which they were ranked. In the course of this study, RUSSOFT collected information on both the sales volumes of Russian companies and their growth rates, which made it possible to have an objective criterion for ranking companies. However, a significant part of such information was obtained as a result of a survey of companies on the terms of its non-distribution, and the Association strictly observes this condition. Therefore, data on the turnover of companies is not published, and the participants in the rating are sorted into categories depending on the range of turnover and taking into account the forecast of their growth rate.

The RUSSOFT rating also uses data from other ratings (CNews, TAdviser100, RIA Rating and Expert RA), but with careful verification.

RUSSOFT considers it not entirely correct to compare the indicators obtained from the audited statements of a number of companies with the results of the past year, presented by the company's employees in the course of a survey, or obtained as a result of expert assessments. Strict ranking and comparison of companies with different business models will also not be entirely correct.

However, the rating made takes into account, first of all, the size of the companies (its turnover). In order not to disclose confidential information and refuse from strict ranking, 4 groups were formed from all companies in accordance with the turnover range in which this or that company falls. All companies were divided into these groups, but data on their specific turnover was not provided.

For each group, a fairly wide range of total revenue was determined. However, the distribution of companies into groups took place not only according to existing turnover, but also taking into account the trend of their development. The association focused primarily on the turnover at the end of 2014, but in some cases the company moved higher if it had good development prospects and high growth rates (that is, it could achieve the necessary turnover to get into a higher group at the end of 2015 or 2016) .

The Top Division (Group A) includes companies that already have a capitalization calculated in billions of dollars. Not a single Russian software company has reached such a volume of revenue yet, but at least 5 companies have a billion-dollar value (capitalization). Most likely, the 1C company could already have a billion turnover, given its income not only from the sale of its own solutions, but also the proceeds received from its distribution activities. However, the economic crisis (first of all, the depreciation of the ruble) had an extremely negative impact on its turnover in dollar terms, since the company receives its main income in Russia.

Group B also includes fairly large companies. Their turnover ranges from $100 million to $500 million. Among them, there is only one company that, according to RUSSOFT, can move to the Top Division in the coming years - Veeam.

Group C ($50-100m) has two upsides, judging by their turnover, which is close to $100m. However, their growth rates have not been very strong in recent years.

In Group D, almost all companies have revenues from $20 million to $50 million. However, it includes 3 companies whose turnover is still $14-16 million, but they are able to significantly increase their income in the next 2 years.

Premier Division (Group A)

Group B

	Novosibirsk
	Saint Petersburg
	Saint Petersburg

Group C

	Saint Petersburg
	Saint Petersburg
		Saint Petersburg

Group D

	Saint Petersburg
	Saint Petersburg
	Saint Petersburg
Almost a third of the surveyed companies assessed the infrastructure as more than satisfactory, which, in comparison with other countries, reflects not so much the state of the infrastructure itself, but the progress in its development. In 2014, for the first time, there was also a significant improvement in the assessments of how the problem of bureaucratic and administrative barriers is being solved: the share of respondents who believe that this problem is being solved badly decreased from 57% to 39%. At the same time, RUSSOFT analysts emphasize that the results of the survey indicate that there is clear progress in relation to business to the actions of the state, but not that the conditions for business are already favorable in all respects. Only the presence of modern infrastructure is assessed by respondents on average as more than satisfactory - the average score is 3.17 ("three" corresponds to the assessment of "satisfactory"), and "State support for international marketing activities", the most problematic area, received only a score of 2.44. Surveys conducted over the past three years also show a significant improvement in the attitude of respondents towards the current taxation system. The share of companies dissatisfied with how and how much they pay taxes decreased from 66% in 2011 to 30% in 2014. Compared to last year, there were not only fewer dissatisfied among company executives, but the share of those who who assesses the tax system as "good" - from 9% to 17%. In recent years, progress has also been observed in the area of ​​protection of intellectual property rights, primarily for foreign companies operating in Russia. At the same time, in the course of the 2014 study, 86% of respondents did not see any changes in the field of intellectual property rights protection over the past 2 years, although they indicate the desirability of such changes. Despite the improvement in estimates in the latest survey, RUSSOFT believes that over the next few years, business estimates of government support can be expected to deteriorate. Russian software companies are already having sales problems in foreign markets despite the fact that the Russian IT market is stagnating due to the economic crisis, NP analysts state. “It is possible that the Russian market may become more accessible for domestic companies due to the import substitution policy caused by sanctions and the EU countries to reduce Russia's access to modern solutions for the banking sector and the oil and gas production sector, as well as access to dual-use technologies, - noted in RUSSOFT. - However, the state's ability to provide preferences for domestic companies is very limited. Even if government support does not change in reality, or improves only marginally, under the impact of the sanctions, future respondents are likely to perceive it in 2015 less positively.” 2011: 3 companies from Russia in Software 500 rating In 2011, among the companies included in the Software 500 ranking (issued annually by Software Magazine), in general, profit growth by 2010 was 17%. In total, 85% of the companies in the ranking showed positive revenue dynamics in 2011, as opposed to 72% in 2010. In total, revenue of 500 ranking companies in 2011 amounted to $643.6 billion compared to $549.3 billion in 2010. Top 20 Software 500 companies, 2011 Software Magazine, September 2012 According to the results of the ranking of 2011 in terms of revenue, the top ten global software companies were included in descending order of positions in the ranking: IBM, Microsoft, and only one company is ranked 292nd with a revenue of $82.6 million (plus 40.2% by 2010 year) and R&D expenses in the amount of 4% of revenue. On the 466th line, you can also find the Russian company Artezio (Artesio) with revenue for 2011 in the amount of $10.5 million (39.5% growth compared to 2010), R&D expenses in 2011 - 4.8%. It is interesting that the compilers of the rating erroneously attributed the Minsk Softclub to the “Russian” companies. It is located on the 460th line with a revenue of $11.5 million in 2011. 2010: Gartner: Russia is a "good" place for software development In December 2010, Gartner analysts announced a new list of 30 countries most attractive for offshore development. This year, only countries with developing economies got into it, and the rating of Russia is Ukraine. In comparison, in the Top 30 countries, Gartner observed some deterioration in the assessment of education systems in the EMEA region in 2010. Russia slipped from “very good” to “good” in 2010, while Hungary and Romania moved from “good” to “mediocre”. In addition, the leaders in 2009 in terms of cost attractiveness - Egypt, Slovakia and Ukraine - rolled back from "very good" to "good", while Russia returned from "good" to "mediocre", thus pointing to costs, currently under pressure from a combination of economic downturn and rising demand for scarce resources.