Alexei Miller, Executive VP at DataArt, and Mikhail Zavileysky, COO, contribute a by-lined article to FSO Knowledge Xchange, the leading resource on the latest news, market research and analytics for the worldwide banking, insurance, and capital markets industry. The article compares two largest countries in Eastern Europe, Russia and the Ukraine, as key destinations for outsourced R&D work in financial services, and discusses the differences in labor pool and costs, IP and cultural risks, and infrastructure challenges.
“Industry-specific knowledge, critical for financial firms, hasn’t been easy to find in Eastern Europe. That is changing fast,” writes Miller. “Russian banks, money managers and insurance firms are now among the most active buyers of Western financial technology, most notably in electronic trading, derivatives, portfolio analytics and risk management. Many top technology executives are "returnees" – Russian or Ukrainian nationals who emigrated to the U.S. or the U.K. in the 1990s, made a career in investment banking technology and moved back home to oversee massive technology upgrades. This will produce large pools of qualified technical staff.”
“The cost of IT labor in Russia is determined by the competition among local IT companies, off-shore service vendors and R&D centers of large western firms,” writes Zavileysky. “As a result, IT salaries are higher in cities with a large concentration of IT firms. Historically, the salary benchmarks are determined by local companies in Moscow, R&D centers in St. Petersburg and off-shore companies in the regions… In contrast with Russia, there are no large Western R&D centers in the Ukraine and IT salaries in the entire region are determined by the off-shore industry.”
Mikhail Zavileysky, COO of DataArt, was approached by AmCham News, the official publication of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, to share his expert opinion on how to better manage a market crisis with the least consequences for a company.
DataArt has successfully managed two previous market crises, the dotcom burst of 2001 and a loss of a major client in 2004. Zavileysky observes that for DataArt, the current crisis is closer in its dynamics to that of 2004. “For all businesses, crises end either in fatality or recovery,” writes Zavileysky. “A company either dies or adapts. Therefore, the most constructive position is to focus on future turnaround and view current choices in their context.” He stresses the importance of clear internal communications and management’s loyalty to employees, and outlines pros and cons of several strategies for their implementation.
Finance magazine, a Moscow-based business weekly, profiles Eugene Goland, President of DataArt. The feature article addresses the history of the company’s formation, its resilience during this and previous crises, and discusses measures that help DataArt overcome turbulent market times. Goland notes that a tremendous revenue growth in the first three quarters of 2008 allowed the company to stay on target for the projected annual revenue, which has increased by 49%. “DataArt had anticipated the crisis, and we’ve been taking measures since early 2008 to make sure the company is prepared to handle its possible effects, such as delays in accounts receivables, delays in starting new projects and a general “waiting mode” of the market,” said Goland. “We’ve slowed down on our expansion efforts until at least next year, and believe our situation is stable: the company is well-diversified, we don’t depend on any one large client for our financial health, there are no debts and we’ve modified our corporate governance structure, making it more flexible. We see this crisis as an opportunity to flesh out our long term goals, and in the meantime focus on retaining clients and personnel, not on increasing profits.”
Global Services magazine published the first article in the series of expert opinion stories by DataArt executives. Simon Cox, Vice President of Open Source at DataArt, takes a look at how Open Source could be a positive move for any business looking to reduce its bottom line while maintaining productivity in the development of a solid finished product.
After clarifying that Open Source does not necessarily mean 'free' software as is often presumed, but source code that is open for review and allows modification by contributors, Cox outlines potential businesses that might be interested in Open Source and discusses its effect on ROI and TOC. “It’s in the arena of back-end servers where Open Source started making real inroads into commercial organizations, quite often without direct approval or knowledge of those in charge. Therefore, a change in the back-end systems is a viable starting point for any business looking to start a relationship with Open Source.”
Cox explains how Open Source works well in outsourcing engagements: “Open Source provides an excellent platform for development in an outsourced environment. Not only do the developers have a platform to work with, they can take a look under the bonnet of the software to see what’s running underneath which can help with development. When using third party libraries, developers can resolve bugs in the third party library themselves instead of logging a support call with the supplier and waiting for a fix to come (if ever).”
“DataArt is a multi-skilled company, with developers working in a variety of environments on a multitude of platforms. One developer might be using Visual Studio developing for Windows, and another might writing code in Vi on Linux. Any IT outsourcing business these days needs to work in a multitude of environments and use a variety of tools from both the proprietary world and the Open Source world.”
The article concludes with a list of advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing with Open Source.
Travel Pulse, a leading portal covering the beat of the travel industry, picked up the news of DataArt launching the Online Travel Solutions Practice. “Among DataArt’s offerings is development of custom booking engines with support for dynamic packaging and payment systems backed by sophisticated content management systems. The new online travel practice includes a mobile solutions offering. Applying its experience with various technologies, from BlackBerry and Windows Mobile to iPhone and Google Android, DataArt develops native applications helping customers to manage itinerary, from building the route to searching for hotels and instantly booking them. DataArt also facilitates porting of existing client solutions to mobile platforms.”
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Travel Pulse, a leading portal covering the beat of the travel industry, picked up the news of DataArt launching the Online Travel Solutions Practice. “Among DataArt’s offerings is development of custom booking engines with support for dynamic packaging and payment systems backed by sophisticated content management systems. The new online travel practice includes a mobile solutions offering. Applying its experience with various technologies, from BlackBerry and Windows Mobile to iPhone and Google Android, DataArt develops native applications helping customers to manage itinerary, from building the route to searching for hotels and instantly booking them. DataArt also facilitates porting of existing client solutions to mobile platforms.”
