Ivan Laskin: Creating TEZIS, we initially went the way ease of use

Ivan Laskin: The Haulmont company is the international developer company which has representations in Russia (Samara) and in Great Britain (London). We are present at the Russian market since 2008. The development center at us is in Russia, Samara.

If to speak about projects abroad, then there we are provided in Europe and the USA, we are engaged in automation of individual business processes of customers and implementation of our drawing product - Automation systems of taxi services Sherlock.

From large projects It should be noted creation of the automation system of activity of commercial court ushers of AR12 for JBW Group company, one of the leading agencies on debt collection in Great Britain. AR12 system constructed on the CUBA.platform platform (own development of Haulmont company) allowed to automate as much as possible in short terms all processes of the enterprise and as a result reduced influences of a human error. A system automatically makes necessary decisions, performs operations or instructs users by means of problem definition. It allows to achieve transparency and controllability of basic processes, to reduce an error probability. The efficiency of police officers as a result of system implementation grew practically by 50%, and the average level of collected debts of clients increased by 8%. At the moment AR12 provides the most full-function and advanced system in the market of Great Britain.

One more large-scale project is an automation of all taxi service of Addison Lee company - it is the largest operator of the taxi in London, is 3 times more, than any of his closest competitors. For them the ERP system which is round the clock ensuring smooth operation of all vehicle fleet (over 4000 vehicles) was developed and implemented. A system works 24/7 in completely automatic mode, processing huge information streams - over 15000 requests for the taxi a day, once in a system over 1000 users work. 

 on the basis of mathematical algorithms a system optimum distributes orders on drivers taking into account a large number of different factors, such as: distance to the order, a downtime of the car, special preferences of the client, etc. The effect of implementation, by estimates of the customer was about 2 million pounds a year, and the annual 30% growth of the company occur in many respects thanks to our system. The solution implemented in Addison Lee was conferred a national award of Great Britain in the field of business innovations of National Business Award.

TAdviser: In the Russian market the specifics of business of the company differ a little?

Ivan Laskin: Yes, our main product in the Russian market is a document management system and tasks of TEZIS, and projects on automation based on it. The workflow system THESIS is the solution which was created especially for the Russian market using our technologies, experience and opportunities. Development functional and at the same time easy in system learning which implementation takes place in a short time and with rather low costs for the customer was the purpose of creation of a system.

Today the THESIS system is an active player of the Russian market of electronic document management systems (according to DSS Consulting), is recognized the best IT project according to the All-Russian award "Business Success of 2012" and Softool is a winner of the Russian national award of Tender of the best solutions in the field of IT ": A product of year – 2011" in the nomination Electronic document management.

TAdviser: Whether it is correct that all solutions Haulmont are under construction on own platform of development of CUBA? In what its advantages? What systems are created on its base?

Ivan Laskin: Yes, everything is right. All our solutions and products are based on the platform of own development of CUBA which thought-over architecture and a broad set of modules provide a possibility of the fast and successful solution of any tasks of business process automation, both forces of our developers, and forces of the specialists of the customer who underwent the corresponding training.

The CUBA platform is result of synthesis of our more than ten years' experience of creation of corporate applications that in application with the most modern technologies of software development allows to create effective solutions on automation of unique business processes of the organizations in most short time.

CUBA allowed us to construct the THESIS system using the most modern technologies among the competing products. In practice it gave a set of advantages, including:

• Full-fledged web client;
• An opportunity for work with the majority of modern OS and also with the most popular DBMS;
• Scalable architecture;
• The mechanism of expansions for creation of projects with specific requirements.

Also the CUBA platform has such advantages as high fault tolerance, security. CUBA is based on the Java platform and contains in the structure only freely extended components open source. Existence of the mechanism of creation of projects of expansion in the platform is for us big advantage, it allows to modify our drawing decisions under needs of the customer without making changes in a product code. Such approach allows to implement on the one hand all specific customer requirements, on the other hand leaves an opportunity to upgrade without serious consequences to new versions of products.

Commercial operation of the first version of the platform began in 2009. Now CUBA is released as the independent product and already more than 100 companies and state institutions in Russia, Great Britain, France, the USA and other countries use the solutions constructed on our platform.

TAdviser: When did development of TEZIS begin? What key features? How many clients in the world?

Ivan Laskin: Development of TEZIS began 3 years ago. When we planned entry into the Russian market, we already had some experience of business process automation in Russia, and considerable practices abroad. Having studied at that time the market of ESM of Russia, we understood what moments require improvement.

Got acquainted with rather heavy systems which offer other companies, and the decision to implement a product which will be the lung simple in implementation based on the web client was made. We selected the main business challenges which are similar at most the organizations and implemented their automation at rather high level. Thus, a system incorporated the best in the domestic market of EDMS and in combination with our innovative technologies of software development became the rule of new generation. It is confirmed by different awards which we receive, and these analysts of the largest independent consulting agencies.

At the moment the THESIS system is the ready-made solution for operation in the commercial and state organizations. A system solves all problems of control of performing discipline, classical office-work and document flow.

Besides in a system there is a flexible designer of business processes who allows to solve without completions not only those problems which are in the standard solution, but also to automate different client business processes. Thanks to the open code it is also possible to automate unique, specific business processes of the organization as independently, and using our partner or having addressed vendor, i.e. us.

The THESIS system at the moment already received a wide scope not only in the territory of Russia (the number of the organizations using our system already exceeded 100), but also reached also the international level, and now the geography of use makes more than 30 countries of the world.

TAdviser: If to compare TEZIS to others EDMS the platforms available in the Russian market, then in what its main advantages?

Ivan Laskin: There is a lot of advantages at a system, to them, for example, it is necessary to carry an opportunity for work from any place in the world, it is in principle a trend rather popular at the moment. Now people became more mobile, spend much time in business trips, work from different devices. Therefore time of modern technologies, one of which is web client, i.e. access to a system via the browser from any place where you are that allows to be aware of events always, came. The web client allows to save a lot of time and efforts at system implementation, it is not necessary to set anything on jobs – unrolled a system on the server, sent to users the link, provided training and users are ready to work.

The following advantage is a cross-platform. Our system has an opportunity to be built in any infrastructure of the enterprise. Installation of a system is possible both on the server hardware under Windows, and under Unix. By our experience a half of our clients work at Windows servers, and a half on the different yuniksovy systems – Ubuntu, Debian, etc. This advantage allows the organizations which already have a built infrastructure, not to adapt to EDMS, saving at the same time resources.

The following thing on which it would be desirable to stop attention is an excessive complexity of many domestic EDMS. In many systems there is such shortcoming when more and more functionality is built in a product, a big set of setup ticks, some parameters appears, the form is overloaded. Users when opening such screen, in which many details are confused, respectively, such systems are accepted by users rather badly. We initially went the way ease of use and still we move on it.

If adaptation of certain processes under itself then there is one more advantage of our system is required, it is ease of completions, scalings and expansions. Thanks to the open code, technologies which are our know-how of projects of expansion any customer in whose staff there is a developer can add a system "under himself". Plus there are ample opportunities of the designer of business processes which are built in a system which can be used without special skills of programming.

TAdviser: Tell in more detail about 2-3 large projects executed based on TEZIS in Russia?

Ivan Laskin: If to speak about large examples of implementation projects, then one of them - the Alyans oil company. It is vertically integrated company which part about 15 divisions - the oil-extracting and sales companies in the territory of the European and East Siberian part of the Russian Federation, the Khabarovsk Refinery, management company in Moscow are. The feature of the project consists in creation of a common information space for all geographically distributed divisions – automation about 2,400 jobs in Moscow, Samara, Almetyevsk, Usinsk, Tomsk, Ulan-Ude, Blagoveshchensk, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok. At the first stage the preproject was made, integration mechanisms with seven accounting systems are created, data migration with Lotus Notes/Domino is performed, the system of management company is substituted (further UK). All this was made in rather short terms, passed about 3 months from the moment of the first communication until the beginning of work of UK. After that there took place large-scale implementation in 14 divisions in the territory of the Russian Federation, generally they are located in the territory of the European part and in the Far East. Now a system works in the industrial mode in all organizations, the mechanism of exchange entering - outgoing messages between divisions is started, the solution continues develops also according to the policy of the company, all processes which require approval are implemented in an electronic document management system of TEZIS. Projects on automation of budgeting, processes of MTS, personnel efficiency evaluation are at the moment already started, automation of treasury is in process. And all this is implemented within our THESIS system.

One more our large project is the Russian maritime register of shipping. It is the only register of sea navigation in the territory of the Russian Federation, it enters in 10ku the largest classification societies worldwide, totals 1500 thousand employees in 34 countries of the world. There process of implementation proceeded in a little non-standard way. The first stage made automation of requests for survey of courts as it was the task most relevant at that time. At the beginning of 2012 we started automation of collecting of requests for survey of courts in the territory of Europe, during 2012 carried out works on automation of different processes. Since January 1, 2013 mass commercial operation on all divisions of the register began. Both requests, and standard clerical modules, approval of agreements, creations of accounts were during this time automated, integration with enterprise accounting based on web service was implemented. Now daily loading makes about 600-700 simultaneous connections, these are about 1500 registered users. They work in all possible time zones, beginning from Cuba, finishing with Sakhalin. At the moment a system continues to develop, long-term plans on automation of adjacent processes using ESM THESIS are made.

TAdviser: As for support of a system, how effectively it is organized?

Ivan Laskin: At the moment the customer support of the THESIS system is performed in several ways: by e-mail, on Skype and phone. The most popular means of the communications used by our clients become covered by it.

For support of our partners and clients who perform completion of the THESIS system the forum where everyone who faces problems in development process can receive the help of our specialists was unrolled. Due to the wide geography of use of the THESIS system rendering regional support was organized that gave to users the chance to receive the qualified help in their time zone. By this principle at us now the partner network extensively develops, in the Far East the Competence Center on technical support appeared. We are interested that our partners were closer to our clients and the number of clients grew.

TAdviser: What main options of acquisition of TEZIS exist?

Ivan Laskin: TEZIS – a system which is expected use in the organizations of different fields of activity and different scale – from the small organizations to large corporations, holdings. With respect thereto there are three editions of a system – basic, standard and expanded which on the one hand have the general set of standard functions and opportunities, and on the other hand differ with aiming at application in the organizations of different scale.

Basic edition resolves all standard issues of workflow automation of the small organizations. The standard editorial office assumes a possibility of expansion of use of the THESIS system. It includes designers of business processes, reports which will allow the customer in the visual mode independently to automate the specific processes and tasks. And at last, expanded edition is the edition aimed at use in the large organizations, holding structures. It assumes a possibility of modification of a system. In case of existence in the organization of difficult tasks which are not solved standard functionality we can offer or our services in completion of a system, or the customer after a certain preparation can independently expand functionality up to the level of ERP systems. Thus, based on ESM THESIS it is possible to create the system of complex automation of business. These are options of acquisition of the THESIS system, its different editions with different opportunities of use further.

As for system implementation, it also depends on existence of specific tasks of workflow automation. If the ready feature set solves all problems of the customer, we speak about standard system implementation. We hold the presentation, we communicate with the customer, we install a system. Then the minimum set of events for implementation including training of the system administrator and key users is held. Then trial operation during which we give consulting support of the system administrator until the beginning of work begins. Then the personnel are ready to work in the THESIS system.

If we speak about the solution of the difficult tasks connected with specifics of the organization, requiring automation of unique business processes, then here we implement absolutely other approach to implementation. First of all it includes preproject inspection which is made in the territory of the customer by our specialists. Based on such inspection the functional specification – result of the business analysis is formed. This document will be approved with the customer then it becomes the basis for development. In the course of all works we reside in contact with the customer, it has an opportunity to get acquainted with intermediate results of work. After completion of works, our implementation specialist who carries out installation of the modified system, training of the administrator and employees comes out to the territory of the customer, and also helps at start of use of a system. Thus, implementation of the modified THESIS system happens in bigger contact with the customer.