IT-market

March 23, 2015 15:49

The State Duma of the Russian Federation continues to consider the possibility of limiting access to the Western IT-companies which are not able to provide services in all regions of the country to the Russian market. The corresponding proposal was received from the Commission on the development of strategic information systems. The appearance of the document was largely due to orders from the US and the EU Council, according to which a number of major foreign producers were prohibited from selling their software in the Crimea.

Russian law has caused serious concerns of the leading players in the international IT-market, since they might lose an impressive part of income due to this. For example, in 2013 only one German company — SAP earned on government contracts with CIS countries more than 5 billion rubles, losing in terms of revenue only to Microsoft (11,34 billion rubles).

To retain the right to participate in the Russian state procurement, SAP is committed to investing in technology and promises to increase the number of jobs in the Russian Federation. According to a reliable source, the initiative for the conclusion of an investment agreement has already been sent to the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Communications. SAP also intends to confirm in writing its willingness to undergo any checks on the absence of undeclared capabilities in software. In addition, it is reported that the company is considering cooperation with Russian organizations on the basis of OEM, presupposing the assembly of the final product based on the SAP software.

The fate of the company in the domestic market is not clear, because in the end of February the Ministry of Communications has drafted a resolution of the Government, restricting the access of foreign software to public procurement. The Ministry plans to create a register of the domestic software and to oblige state agencies and state-owned companies to buy the software only in accordance with it. If the software from the list for some reason does not meet the requirements of the organization, the company will be able to buy imported software only after providing a proper written justification.