Demand software – Newspaper Kommersant No. 231 (7432) dated 12/13/2022
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The Ministry of Digital Development is developing a new support system for Russian software developers: it is planned to provide them with a guaranteed demand for solutions that have not yet been developed at the expense of anchor customers, which may be large state-owned companies. An attempt to create such a mechanism can be justified by the lack of budgetary funds to support software import substitution projects. The proposed measure, experts say, is similar to the “end-to-end projects” scheme that did not work, launched by the Ministry of Industry and Trade a year ago, to support electronics.
Sources of Kommersant in the Russian IT market said that the Ministry of Digital Development plans to launch a new mechanism to support domestic software developers as part of two new roadmaps for the development of the industry – New System-wide Software and New Industrial Software. According to them, the market participants received the preliminary versions of the documents for review last week. Kommersant’s interlocutor, close to the office of Deputy Head of the Ministry of Digital Development Maxim Parshin, clarifies that the ministry is discussing with market participants the idea of creating a mechanism for guaranteed demand for Russian software.
The software developer must find a potential customer for a solution that does not yet exist, and then conclude an agreement with the Ministry of Digital Development on the release of software within a certain period, one of Kommersant’s sources says. “The ministry, together with the anchor customer, for its part, will provide the developer with a guaranteed demand for this solution in a certain amount,” he adds. Kommersant’s interlocutor suggests that to launch the mechanism, the Ministry of Digital Development will develop a separate government decree. In fact, the Kommersant source believes, it is planned to launch an analogue of the “through projects” mechanism in electronics, but only for software.
The Ministry of Digital Development told Kommersant only that “various mechanisms are being worked out to attract extra-budgetary investments in the development and development of software products.”
The “end-to-end projects” mechanism formally appeared in the fall of 2021 after government decree 1619 came into force. It assumes that anchor customers guarantee electronics developers demand for equipment that does not yet exist. In return, the state compensates up to 50% of the cost of ordered electronics. Projects are selected by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. However, in reality, there is still not a single “end-to-end project” that would be approved by the government, the interlocutor of Kommersant assures in a large electronics manufacturer and confirms a source close to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Officially, the ministry does not comment on the work of the mechanism.
In November, it became known about another attempt by the Ministry of Digital Development to find mechanisms to support market participants without direct budget injections – through advantages in the public procurement market (see Kommersant of November 25). Initially, the ministry planned to finance their projects through grants from the Russian Information Technology Support Fund and the Skolkovo Foundation. However, according to Kommersant’s information, the allocated funds are not enough for all approved projects to replace foreign software.
In the absence of direct financial support for Russian IT companies, ensuring guaranteed demand can become one of the mechanisms for the development of the industry, says Kommersant’s interlocutor in a large Russian IT company. “Any large public or private company interested in the import independence of its IT infrastructure can become an anchor customer,” he says.
The emergence of such a support mechanism may be due to two factors, admits the head of the department of digital solutions at Polylog, Lyudmila Bogatyreva. “Firstly, the amount of federal funds for grants may not be unlimited. Secondly, not all developers want to use grant support, because in the long term this implies extensive reporting and the obligation to achieve revenue targets,” she says. And here, the expert clarifies, the key problem for the grantee is that the market can change dramatically, as a result of which it will be impossible to achieve the declared revenue volumes, then the money spent long ago will have to be returned.
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