The Ministry of Digital Development, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Industry and Trade are coordinating software import substitution - seven nannies have a child without gas

20.11.2021       

I like the persistence with which «Kommersant» monitors events related to import substitution of software (SW). It makes you want to exclaim: “Finally! We are not the only ones showing interest!».
If the share of domestic office systems is 7%, then it is easy to imagine how little domestic software is in the industry. We estimate this share from 0 to 10% depending on the industry segment. The main thing is that this share has not grown in recent years. But the situation, we hope, is changing for the better, the political will seems to have appeared.< br /> We believe that the forecasts for the growth of the domestic office software market have every chance of coming true. This is facilitated by Microsoft itself, which regularly limits sales of its software to industry and universities in Russia. This is facilitated by domestic office software developers, who have a real sales market.
Many people speak about the limited functionality and average quality of domestic office software. I want to say that the quality and functionality develop only with the growth of the client base. The transition of one or two industrial giants to domestic office software will lead not only to an increase in its quality, but also to greater user confidence.
Office software is used in the workplaces of all company employees without exception. At the same time, 90% of employees of any company use other professional software on the same computer: financial, industrial, other specialized. And if office software with Windows for the purity of import substitution switches to Linux, then who will ensure the transition of financial or industrial applications to Linux on the same computers and servers? Synchronization will most likely not be available in the coming months, possibly years.
I can confirm that the production software uses a lot of standard features from Microsoft's office software. For example, to work with reports. Imported firmware is used for graphical presentation of data, analytical applications, and for working with mobile devices. These built-in functions of industrial software should be changed to domestic counterparts. Do they exist? And who will pay for all this shaft of improvements?
The reasons for the desynchronization are not only organizational, although there are such good reasons, but that no one stimulated domestic developers of industrial software to switch to domestic operating environments and databases. And what kind of environments should they switch to? There is no answer.
And, as we know, devices (computers, tablets, controllers, sensors, etc.) on domestic processors Baikal and Elbrus are also going into industrial use. Porting software to them also requires some effort and resources. Who plans these expenses today? We don't know. Who pays developer costs? Or should they invest themselves? Then, what exactly and what is the business case? There are still almost no domestic standards in the field of information technology! This requires a joint leadership role and the will of the Ministry of Digital Development and, in our case, the Ministry of Energy. She's not here yet.
It is necessary to create an Expert Council on industrial software under the Ministry of Digital Development, which would at least discuss all acute problems and involve responsible federal executive bodies or experts in their solution. There cannot be three different councils under the Ministry of Digital Development, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and this is precisely the risk that is visible today. The result will be like seven nannies. Why does the Ministry of Digital Development have different expert councils, even for online cinemas, but not for industrial software and the transition strategy to it? The Union continues to ask this question to responsible officials of the Ministry of Digital Development.
We believe that the biggest risk when switching to any domestic software is the lack of synchronization of actions and a single transition plan for each company. The consequence of this will be that the transition to any domestic software technologies will stall, starting with office systems, ending with industrial software. The problem is technically difficult, but solvable. We need detailed business-specific plans and architectural solutions. The walking one will master the road.

Chairman of the Union of Software Developers for the Fuel and Energy Complex Kharas Boris Zakharovich