Custom Software Development Services

Faces: Eugene Goland

By Natalia Anishyuk

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.”

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IT Outsourcing & Open Source Technologies

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.