The IT Cluster Friends clubbed on March 6, 2013 to find out more about innovative programs in information technology of several major Russian companies
Among the speakers, who presented their corporative programs of innovations to the Skolkovo residents were Sergey Kiryushin, Deputy General Director of Pochta Rosii (Russian Post); Alexander Kashirin, Director of Innovations with the Rostekhnologii; Dmitry Shaykhatarov, Deputy Director of the Sberbank-Technology company and Pavel Svistunov, deputy director of the Center of Innovation Development of Moscow.
The meeting, moderated by the IT cluster’s Projects Director Albert Efimov, with presentation of a new executive director of the IT cluster, Igor Bogachev. Igor Bogachev, the new executive director of the cluster, told the club’s guests about his 20-years’ experience in the industry. Then he expanded on three main goals of the cluster for the coming two years. The main objective, he said, is to increase the revenue, which companies of the cluster generate. IT cluster will also be reporting on such indicators as the jobs growth, as well as dynamics of growth in the number of new IP objects. "In general, Bogachev said, we’ll try to move from quantitative to qualitative indicators". Thus, according to him, the new projects will be selected on a competitive basis, based on the priorities voiced by him.
Then Sergey Shubin, head of projects development, presented 2012 annual results for the cluster. He said the cluster had gained leading positions within the Skolkovo ecosystem, achieving 40% of the total number of the Skolkovo Foundation residents (270 companies). “We work with 14 key partners, our experts panel counts with 126 members, " Shubin said. “Many companies have already passed the stage of so called “death valley”, "our innovative grass has turned green,” as he put it. Last year the cluster, along with other colleagues introduced the institution of account managers. "The involvement of our key partners remains an important part of the cluster work, in the short term, efforts will focus on the promotion of technologies and products," Shubin said. Albert Efimov conducted a poll on the issue of enhanced cooperation with the residents with the Virtual Skolkovo project, announced that there will be a work finished soon on a virtual library, which will equip residents with online archive of key documents, including grant and other critical documents.
Sergey Kiryushin introduced innovative programs of the Russian Post, a state enterprise with some 300 thousand employees, modern GLONASS-monitoring systems of post cargo vehicles (about 15,000 cars) and other projects. Among them marked promising innovative directions: RFID technology to track, the new automation of mail, which required the transition to the new platform, more innovative tasks in which residents could potentially participate. The next speaker was a representative of The Rostechnologii corporation, a defense industry group with 13 holding companies, with a total revenue of about trillion rubles, 30% of Russian defense sector.
Corporation, said Alexander Kashirin, headed for open innovation and conducts corporate events to interact with innovative and scientific community. Rostechnologii are ready to consider for a “startup plus” (a term used the Kashirin) cooperation in the provision of facilities to scale up businesses. He also announced that the corporation continues its open call for innovative technologies. “Gradually, we’ve come to understanding that even ideas for military rockets may appear on the side,” he said. The corporation in the near future will create a venture fund, a corporate engineering center and a business incubator, announced at the club meeting Alexander Kashirin. Dmitry Shaykhatarov, deputy director of the Sberbank-Technology, said his company has now gathered all its IT forces under one a roof of this company, about 2,500 employees today. The bank also established its center for technological Innovation, which uses crowdsourcing technology to find innovative ideas.
Bank recently introduced real-time system of financial calculations and needed technological solutions for its development. The speaker said Sberbank is also interested in mobile applications. And the last presentation was made by Pavel Svistunov, deputy director of the Center for innovative development of the city of Moscow. The center specializes in the maintenance and support of innovative projects, including for the implementation of public procurement of the city, and it around 600 billion rubles a year. “Minimum improvement for government procurement contracts with innovative IT products can make a huge impact," said Svistunov said.
He also said the city plans to issue a special on-line public offer, targeted at solutions offered by innovative companies. At the end of the club meeting new residents of Skolkovo received certificates and symbolic crystal cubes.