Victor Diachkov, ICL-KME CS: ‘In the public procurement market, we often lose against companies with three workers’

Mr Diachkov, could you tell about the state of affairs in your company? What is of your concern as a director?

We are working in the economic situation that came about in the country. As a head of the company, I worry about both getting a sufficient amount of orders to provide the workers with work and conservation of growth rates. These are the most important questions today. At the same time we need to provide the infrastructure for a sufficient development of the business, deal with the quality of working places and preparation of specialists. There are enough difficulties abroad. The conservation of growth rates concerns. Two years ago we set a task to grow by 150-200 specialists per year. In reality, at the moment we manage to increase only 50-70 new working places. Of course, it is not bad. But we will be looking for possibilities for growth.

Has the situation in the domestic market changed for you when the course for import substitution was set?

Now the trend on import substation is on paper only. There are no certain orders on import substitution. It is very difficult to make these changes in practice quickly. This is why at the moment we are investing our own money without any guarantee.

I have to say the existing system of state procurement motivates trade more, not private production.

What about the ban on state procurement of foreign software? It is positive news for you?

There is no complete ban on foreign software. Even if there are bans, there are schemes that allow to buy western software saying that it doesn't have alternatives in the domestic market. Speaking about the support of the development of Russian production in general, I have to say the existing system of state procurement motivates trade more, not private production. A factory that produced 40% of the computing machinery in the Soviet Union was the founder of ICL! Now we have more than a 60-year history and 2,500 workers, own factory, our production line, test laboratories and a developed chain of service centres in Russia, we compete with a company who has three workers. This company risks and offers a lower price and wins (because client's goal is to get a more favourable price), purchases Chinese equipment and supplies it.

Whom do you compete for the largest order in the domestic market with?

Mainly with big Moscow and Petersburg companies.

But Moscow and Petersburg companies obviously face more difficulties in Tatarstan.

It seems so. Once there was a research that assessed the volume of IT orders. It turned out Tatarstan companies got only 15% of the local orders. 85% of the orders went to Moscow contractors. Then the IT market of the republic was estimated at 10bn rubles.

What are the chances of ICL to get an order for production of data storage systems, which will be needed for the Yarovaya Law? It is told about a creation of Russian servers for 7,15bn rubles, processors for 5bn and software for 2bn rubles.

President instructed the industries to provide the execution of the law concerning the production of data storage systems. We have already sent our offers to the Ministry of Communications of Russia.

There are areas that the country needs to invest in, for example, support of Russian OS, development of the architecture of our microprocessors, creation of a basis for micro scheme production.

In your opinion, what is stopping the Russian market now?

The Russian IT market is much smaller than the world market, and this volume is stopping its state of the Russian economy. Yes, much should be done to improve the quality of teaching of IT; IT students should be given more opportunities for getting a state-funded education. But it is wrong to say that we need 50 million IT specialists like it is done at federal level without comparing this number with the volume of the domestic market. At the same time the country has an opportunity to affect the domestic market. Moreover, it is its prime duty. There are many examples of such an influence in the world. Ten years ago the Government of Portugal decided to implement unique hardware solutions in kindergartens that gave kids an opportunity to work with educational programmes. So having used these solutions in kindergarten, a kid will be ready to use on e-books at school. The same project was fulfilled in Brazil. It is a huge market for the industry. And I offered to create it in Russia too.

Do you think that today the country needs to create orders for the market artificially?

There are areas that the country needs to invest in, for example, support of Russian OS, development of the architecture of our microprocessors, creation of a basis for micro scheme production.

Mr Diachkov, was the inclusion of ICL's production site in Laishevo Disrtict a part of Innopolist SEZ your own initiative?

Yes, first of all, we made this proposal in order to make our ready site a part of the SEZ because the infrastructure of this site and its location suited the development concept of special economic zones. In general, I think there will be an excellent result in the future because the SEZ's goal is to create special conditions for developing business. I constantly continue repeating that in order to develop the economy, it is very important to create conditions for developing business. Any support of business, while the SEZ is a creation of the most comfortable infrastructural and economic conditions, will have an impact on the quality development of the economy. However, it is not quite correct to speak about an immediate effect of the creation of special economic zones and their demand and occupancy after their 2-3-year work during the economic crisis.

The fight for good workers in your market is serious. But ICL has a reputation of a good employer. How much does it cost?

As far as I'm concerned, nowadays the preparation and retraining system of the enterprise covers about 80% of specialists. In other words, 8 people in 10 improve their qualification this or that way during the year. Speaking about the numbers, the company annually expends several tens of millions of rubles to improve its personnel. Moreover, ICL's mission is a wider educational activity. Not only the company's employees learn. The company has about 60 specialists who give lectures on Maths and technical subjects in leading universities of the republic. They are coaches who teach at the KFU and KNRTU-KAI and teachers with unique skills who were certified by vendors (one or two per region) who provide their colleagues with a better qualification inside the group of companies.

Nowadays about 80% of specialists are in the preparation and retraining system of the enterprise. In other words, 8 people out of 10 improve their qualification this or that way during the year

Can you assess the effectiveness of these investments?

These investments justify themselves. We know our specialists are in high demand in the market. What is more, we have quite a low brain drain. But I think we should lower it more and approach it to the natural level at 2-3%. In the company, we work on looking for a solution. We want our workers to perceive the living and working conditions as a weighty argument to continue their professional development in our company. Our project on construction of an IT Village in Usady (the second stage is under construction) also helps our goals. People need to have a comfortable flat, decent environment, opportunity for development, including for their family. I am also living in the IT Village now. I built a house. I am observing how many kids are outside. It pleases much because people connect their fate with the company, the city and the republic.

How much money is invested in the construction of the village?

Actually, the republic helps in that much. Particularly we were given a piece of land to construct the village. Our workers get land for their house and a plot for free. They pay for the registration of the land. It is a very big and right job we managed to do together with the country. The republic doesn't have enough money to provide it with amenities. Here a state and private partnership solves the problem. If the country gives the plot, the company can provide it with infrastructure. So did we: we built sewage treatment facilities, laid gas, electricity and drainage system. And the President helped us to build roads inside the village. I calculated: the state invested about 100m rubles in our project. We are investing about a billion. Roughly speaking, the private capital gives 10 rubles for every ruble of the state.

People need to have a comfortable flat, decent environment, opportunity for development, including for their family

What specialists are the skeleton staff of your collective today?

The skeleton of the top management comes from the Factory of Computing Machines, the Kazan Manufacturing Enterprise of Computer Systems. Today it has had young workers. They are the driver of the company now. I am sure there are many strong young people. There are many talented people. The Programming Schools at KFU and KAI are still very strong. I am in love with the job we all are doing. If I wrote a book, it would be about romanticism of the periods when we created computing systems, coded for our computing machines themselves. We were real romantics and the people who are the top managers at ICL today. They told: we have such an interesting job, and we are paid for that. And they still tell it.