The Central Bank will deliver the mail – Newspaper Kommersant No. 11 (7456) dated 01/23/2023
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The Bank of Russia, among the first import substitution projects, is going to modernize the postal service and the directory service. The regulator is going to spend about 40 million rubles on testing new solutions from Russian companies. According to Kommersant’s sources in the software market, there will be few bidders due to high qualification requirements. Experts emphasize that so far the capabilities of Russian players do not cover the increased demand for the full functionality of large international vendors.
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation began to accept applications for work “to create an experimental site and test technical solutions for import substitution.” Judging by the technical documentation of the lot posted on the Sberbank-AST electronic platform, we are talking about the development of a new corporate mail service, as well as a multi-link messaging system between employees. Additionally, it is necessary to test technical solutions for import substitution of the Unified Catalog Service of the Central Bank. It took 12 months to complete the work. Their cost is 19.6 million rubles. and 19.8 million rubles. respectively.
Kommersant did not find other Central Bank tenders for import substitution. The Bank of Russia itself did not respond to Kommersant’s request.
According to Anna Avakimyan, Chief Analyst at RegBlock, the Central Bank nevertheless implemented at least one import substitution project – in the field of teleconferencing, opting for a solution from Rostelecom. “The amount of costs is unknown,” she said.
The use of foreign software, especially by subjects of critical information infrastructure (CII), carries many risks, such as the lack of control over access to data, the prospect of revoking licenses, and a ban on receiving software updates, emphasizes Renat Lashin, Executive Director of ARPP Domestic Soft. With regard to the tender of the Central Bank, he noted that “so far we are talking only about a request for proposals for the arrangement of a test stand, and not about the purchase of a domestic solution itself.” According to Mr. Lashin, “the regulator is in the process of switching to domestic software and is interested in choosing contractors with experience in deploying and maintaining complex enterprise-class IT systems.”
The Russian authorities have been dealing with the issues of import substitution of CII facilities for many years. Moreover, more than a year ago, the deadlines for the transition to the predominant use of domestic software and equipment were approved (see Kommersant dated November 30, 2021). The events of last year, when almost all international vendors left the country after the start of the CBO (see Kommersant dated March 3, 2022, August 17, 2022), only exacerbated the situation. At the same time, according to the guidelines approved by the government in August 2022, CII subjects will have to increase the share of domestic software.
A Kommersant source in the software market notes that “according to the qualification requirements of the tender, it will be very difficult to pass, so it is unlikely that there will be many participants.” Renat Lashin claims that there are several solutions in the country that meet the requirements of the Central Bank – these are CommuniGate Pro, Mailion and VK products.
The companies closest to the state today are Rostelecom and VK (which also owns Mail.ru), adds Dmitry Alexandrov, managing director of Ivolga Capital. Already existing solutions are certified by the FSB and FSTEC, and it will be relatively easy to adapt them to the needs of the Central Bank, he believes. Of the small vendors, according to experts, Iva Technologies, a developer of video conferencing systems and specializing in communication solutions, could compete for the contract.
According to the ARPP, the process of transition of large organizations to domestic software takes 1.5–2 years. “During this time, integrators conduct an audit of business processes and infrastructure, initiate a series of tests and pilot implementations that show that the functionality of specific products meets user needs,” explains Renat Lashin. The interviewed experts found it difficult to estimate the total costs of such a structure as the Central Bank for import substitution.
Banks prioritize tasks in the lists for implementation in favor of transferring systems to domestic solutions, noted Olga Blednova, director of the practice for providing consulting services to companies in the financial sector, Kept. “The Russian market has the potential to develop its own products,” the expert notes. However, she clarifies, “today it does not cover the sharp demand for the full functionality of large international vendors.”
How banks implement import substitution
Sberbank reported to Kommersant that they use more than 60 of their own products, combined into a cloud-based digital platform Platform V. They cover the development needs at all levels of the bank’s architecture: backend and frontend, integration, storage and data analytics, and also provide a full set of tools for production process control and implementation of artificial intelligence models. In 2022, Sberbank transferred its ATM network to its own software. In addition, our own communication solutions were introduced — the SberJazz video conferencing service and the SberChat corporate messenger.
VTB claims that it has increased the share of application systems independent of imported technologies to 57%, the retail segment already uses 95% of domestic technologies. More than 30 projects are open in the bank, including projects on migration from RISC servers to x86-processor architecture, virtualization, replacement of office and system software, corporate portal, application software, solutions for data storage systems, etc.
Rosselkhozbank speaks about import substitution of 75% of information systems. In the electronic document management system, front-end solutions, anti-virus protection, information leakage prevention system, according to the bank, the replacement has reached 100%.
The ICD notes the experience of successfully replacing corporate communication systems, information security, and others. The bank is currently piloting solutions in areas such as system and office software, development tools, various communication tools, virtualization solutions, IT infrastructure management technologies, database management systems, backup systems, data storage solutions and others.
Post-Bank promises to replace up to 90% of products and software with domestic counterparts within three years.
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