Paper leaves the document circulation – Newspaper Kommersant No. 21 (7466) dated 02/06/2023

Operators of electronic document management systems (EDM) reported growth in revenue and user base by 26-35%. Among the main reasons, they cite the requirement to transfer information on the labeling of water and dairy products through EDI, which entered into force in 2022, as well as a sharp increase in paper prices after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine. Market participants note that large companies, for which EDI is beneficial, gradually involve contractors in it. But for small businesses, experts say, the economics of EDI is not yet obvious, and the price is high.

Kommersant interviewed EDI system operators about the results of 2022, and most of them talk about growth. Thus, the revenue of SKB Kontur increased by 16.8%, SberKorus (from EDI products) – by 6.84% (up to 1.87 billion rubles). In Tenzor and SKB Kontur, the number of users of EDI systems increased by 35% and 26%, respectively, and the volume of document flow increased by 22% in both companies. Taxcom is talking about a 32% increase in revenue and a 14% increase in the number of customers, and in 2023 they expect “an additional 10-15% inflow.”

Among the factors that contributed to the growth of EDI, companies name first of all the expansion of requirements for digital marking of goods (the “Honest Sign” system). Starting September 1, 2022, companies must use EDI services to transfer information on the turnover of dairy products to the operator of the CRPT labeling system, and from November 1, also information on the turnover of bottled water.

“This contributed to a threefold increase in connections to services,” explained Docrobot CEO Evgeny Shelkovnikov. The number of documents with marking details transmitted within a month through the EDI service from SKB Kontur increased by 4.9 times in the second half of 2022 compared to the first half, Kommersant was specified in the company.

The growth of connections to EDI was also facilitated by a sharp increase in prices for office paper that occurred in the spring of 2022, said Denis Salih, Commercial Director of the EDI direction at SKB Kontur. Prices rose after foreign manufacturers of bleaching chemicals stopped supplying them to the Russian Federation due to the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine. Demand was also affected by the issuance of electronic signatures by the Federal Tax Service, the emergence of electronic bills of lading, the legalization of EDI in personnel matters, Tensor added.

The EDI market will continue to grow in 2023, mainly due to “the need to support the requirements of regulators and large counterparties,” says Mr. Shelkovnikov. Large companies “traditionally perceive EDI as a way to save money,” adds I. O. Arsen Dumikyan, Head of the Products and Business Development Department at SberKorus. Small and medium-sized businesses follow large companies, Mr. Salih notes: “For example, marketplaces, in order to optimize processes, conduct electronic document management with suppliers, and they, in turn, are actively connected to EDI.”

Polina Duykova, head of the EDMS/ESM direction of Softline Group of Companies, calls the Federal Tax Service the “main driving force” of electronic document management in Russia: “It is she who introduces new reporting rules, including electronic ones, and approves the formats of electronic documents.”

Small companies and individual entrepreneurs are interested in refusing to deliver paper documents by courier, even more than large businesses, says Karen Kazaryan, director general of the Internet Research Institute. However, users of electronic personnel document management, according to him, face problems: “Scenarios for signing and transferring documents have so far been implemented rather poorly and are not integrated with the usual online accounting departments.”

Small and medium-sized businesses have a request for digitalization, including through the introduction of EDI, says Elena Volotovskaya, head of the Opora Rossii IT committee, but its representatives “are often limited in funds for the development and implementation of digital solutions.” According to her, the level of digitalization of small businesses, although it has grown over the past three years due to the pandemic, “still remains at a fairly low level.”

Yuri Litvinenko