IBM Russia

Interests IBM Russia in is represented by IBM Vostochnaya LLC/. EuropeAsia

History

2023: Appointment of Irina Kazakova as CEO

In July 2023, it became known about the change of the head of the Russian subsidiary IBM. The company "IBM Eastern Europe/Asia" was headed by Irina Kazakova, appointed instead of Tatyana Sorokina. Read more here.

2022

IBM WEA completed its commercial activities in Russia. The company sold spare parts for 848 million rubles and spent 536 million on severance pay for the dismissed

As TAdviser found out, at the end of 2022, the Russian representative office of IBM- "IBM VEA" - completed its commercial activities. This was done in accordance with the decision of the management of the IBM group on the termination of commercial activities in Russia, adopted in June 2022, according to the explanations to the balance sheet and the report on the financial results of the company, published in the database of the Federal Tax Service in April 2023. This decision assumes the preservation of legal existence in Russia.

IBM WEA was engaged in the provision of promotion services on the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan for equipment and software manufactured by IBM, warranty and post-warranty services for equipment, consulting services for the development of PO IBM, systems integration services, business consulting, strategic outsourcing, training specialists and other services.

IBM WEA revenue in 2022 decreased by 76.4%, to 2.48 billion rubles. Net loss amounted to about 129 million rubles against 2.7 billion rubles of net profit a year earlier. In the ranking "TAdviser100: The largest IT companies in Russia 2023," such an indicator allowed the company to take 146 lines (46 lines of the list of applicants for inclusion in the number of the largest IT companies in Russia).

The largest revenue item was marketing, advertising, accounting, warranty repair services for IBM equipment and data processing, provided by the Netherlands-based related company IBM Product and Services B.V. (1.156 billion rubles). In second and third place are services for post-warranty maintenance of IBM equipment provided by Infoprint and Lenovo (about 689 million rubles), and services for maintenance of PO IBM (about 462 million rubles).

These three areas of services were the largest for IBM BEA in terms of revenue and earlier, it follows from the explanations for its financial accounts over the past few years, which TAdviser got acquainted with.

In February 2023, IBM WEA sold its spare parts worth about 848.1 million rubles with VAT. The buyer paid their full cost, according to the explanations to the financial account, but who acted as the buyer is not specified.

In connection with the reduction in the staff of IBM WEA in 2022, more than 95% of employees were laid off. At the end of the year, there were only 9 people in the Russian mission.

Severance pay for employees in connection with the reduction is more than 536 million rubles. It was repaid by the end of 2022.

Before the decision was made to curtail commercial activities in Russia, IBM reduced its local presence for several years, and especially actively in 2021. So, in August and July 2021, the activities of separate divisions of IBM WEA in St. Petersburg and Kazan, as well as a center for the provision of services in Kazan, were terminated. A little earlier - in March 2021 - she stopped the activities of a separate unit in Yekaterinburg.

Also in December 2021, the activities of the representative office of IBM WEA, accredited in Uzbekistan, were terminated.

In June 2020, the IBM WEA branch in Azerbaijan was closed. This is explained in the reporting by the fact that in 2018 the IBM group founded a separate legal entity for conducting economic activities in Azerbaijan - IBM Caspian LLC.

The number of IBM WEA employees has been steadily decreasing over the past few years, follows from the published reports. The number of IBM WEA personnel at the end of 2017 was 1205 people, at the end of 2018 - 1119 people, 2019 - 1031 people, 2020 - 902 employees. At the end of 2021, the company had 500 employees.

At the end of 2021, IBM WEA reduced the area of ​ ​ rented premises in Moscow under an agreement with City Center Investment B.V. (Tower on the Embankment complex) to 4813 sq.m. Prior to that, the area of ​ ​ rented office premises was 6,912 sq.m. And in 2019, she rented 7537 square meters of office space there.

In 2022, IBM WEA paid a fine to terminate the lease in the amount of about 249 million rubles.

IBM's Russian subsidiary will pay 31.1 million rubles for refusing to serve Linux in the Central Bank of the Russian Federation

On March 24, 2023, it became known that the Russian structure of the American company IBM, by a court decision, would have to return more than 30 million rubles for refusing to provide prepaid technical support services to the Central Bank.

According to reports, CNews the lawsuit was filed on October 26, 2022 against IBM Vostochnaya/LLC EuropeAsia by Business Telecom-Import LLC, the distributor's legal entity. RRC According to the case file, the IBM representative office in Russia received an advance payment for the services of its technical support, and the confirmed obligations in the form of certificates were transferred to the final customer in the person of the Central Bank. of the Russian Federation The latter is a user of IBM mainframes running operating system on a kernel. Linux

However, in the current geopolitical situation, IBM decided to curtail its business on the Russian market. By the time the American corporation left the Russian Federation, the certificates had not yet expired, but they had depreciated. At the same time, IBM voluntarily did not want to return money for services that were never provided to the client.

According to the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court, IBM Eastern Europe/Asia LLC will pay the plaintiffs 31.1 million rubles, of which 30.1 million rubles are for "unjust enrichment," and another 1 million rubles for interest on the use of other people's funds.

The court conclusion mentions that IBM provides consulting services to the client, installation services, customization and configuration, maintenance, etc. The total amount of the agreement concluded between the plaintiff and the defendant on October 7, 2020 amounted to 84.2 million rubles. The aforementioned amount of unjust enrichment of 30.1 million rubles. - this is underexpended funds, - says the publication CNews.[1]

Completion of all commercial activities in Russia

It was reported that the Russian subsidiary IBM completed all its commercial activities at the end of 2022.

Leaving Russia cost IBM $600 million

IBM calculated that the exit from the Russian market "costs" it more than $600 million. This amount was announced in statements made by the company's CFO Jim Kavanaugh at the end of January 2023 during a conference call with top managers and analysts on the financial results^[2].

From the words of the financial director, it follows that $600 million is profit and cash initially in Russian currency, transferred to dollars, which the company had to write off.

Jim Kavanaugh noted that leaving Russia is one of the strongest external factors that had an impact on IBM's profits and cash in 2022, because business in Russia was profitable.

We got out of a profitable business in Russia, "said IBM CFO.

At the same time, Jim Kavanaugh calls IBM's departure from the country against the background of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict the right decision.

The American corporation, recall, made the decision to completely stop any activity on the Russian market in June 2022. And in October, Jim Kavanaugh said that the company is transforming its business and spending structure taking into account the loss of "valuable profits" and cash due to the departure of^[3].

A former employee of the Russian office of IBM senior management believes that the amount named by the financial director also refers, possibly, to expenses related to the exit from Russia.

A TAdviser source added that IBM had its main business in Russia through partners who purchased products directly abroad. Locally there were only sales of consulting and technical support.

According to a TAdviser source, after February 24, 2022, in addition to leaving Russia, IBM also severely limited its business in the CIS countries - significantly reduced teams or completely closed its presence. For example, in Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, the company closed everything, and in Kazakhstan it reduced it.

IBM estimated at $200 million quarterly losses from leaving Russia

Due to the curtailment of business Russia IBM in lost $200 million. This was Arvind Krishna announced by the CEO of the IT corporation on July 18, 2022 at a conference on the publication of IBM's financial statements for the second quarter of 2022.

He clarified that we are talking about reducing the free flow of funds against the background of stopping activities in the Russian Federation. Krishna also pointed to losses of $300 million due to inflation and currency fluctuations.

As the CEO of Oxygen Pavel Kulakov told Kommersant, IBM will suffer mainly from large business.

IBM has worked with the largest Russian business for the past few years, supplying two categories of products: heavy risk servers, the so-called heavy-duty machines for heavy databases. A huge amount of heavy, complex software was supplied by IBM. That is, the company has recently been engaged in more software, - he noted.

It is unlikely that in the current conditions, large state-owned enterprises could cooperate with IBM, suggests Sergey Vilyanov, editor-in-chief of the vilianov.com portal. Probably, the company realized that the number of customers in Russia could decrease, he said.

IBM actually engaged in consulting, but did it quite actively in the largest banks and government agencies. The penetration rate was significant. At the same time, it became quite obvious, even if everything more or less improves, they will most likely not be allowed to the most important power sources. Neither to state bodies, nor to natural monopolies with state participation, nor to education. That is, they actually have no feed base left. And in this situation, it is much more harmonious to just take and leave beautifully than to try to do something else through some pads, "Vilyanov told the newspaper.[4]

IBM finally left Russia

The American corporation IBM has decided to completely stop any activity on the Russian market. This became known on June 7, 2022. Immediately after that, her official website stopped opening from Russian IP addresses. Instead, Russian users see a stub with the inscription "There is no more access to this content." Through VPN, the company's website opens without any problems.

According to RIA Novosti, IBM's departure from the Russian market was personally announced by the general director of the company Arvind Krishna, who took this post on April 6, 2020.

However, Arvind Krishna's statement did not say anything about what will now happen to the staff of her Russian office. As long as there are no official statements on this matter, there is a possibility that IBM could offer some employees a move to another country^[5].

Employees of the Russian office of IBM announced its closure in the near future

IBM, whose official representative office has been present in Moscow since the 70s, plans to close its office in Russia in the near future, two market sources familiar with the company told TAdviser on June 2.

According to one of the sources, last week IBM's global office notified Russian colleagues that their division would be shrinking. And on June 1, Tatyana Sorokina, director of IBM WEA, the Russian legal entity IBM, gathered everyone and confirmed the upcoming reductions and closure of the office. At the same time, she said that employees can keep corporate laptops, the source told TAdviser.

According to the second source TAdviser, the closure of the office is planned to be carried out quite quickly, without stretching this process in time. This approach differs, for example, from the approach of SAP, which decided to carry out reductions gradually and close the local office until the end of 2022. Read more here.

In early March, shortly after the start of Russia's special operation in Ukraine, IBM announced the cessation of technology sales in the country, and a little later - the cessation of business activity. The reduction of developers in IBM WEA also began quite soon after the start of the special operation, says the interlocutor of TAdviser. At the same time, the company kept sales and business development managers until the last.

How many employees work at IBM WEA at the moment, sources found it difficult to name.

The company itself was unable to promptly provide TAdviser with comments on the closure of the office.

Some former employees of the Russian IBM work in the Russian IT equipment developer Yadro, and now, due to the release of the staff of the American vendor leaving Russia, the Yadro team will certainly strengthen, one of the sources believes.

Earlier in the financial statements, IBM cited data that its revenue in Russia in 2021 amounted to about $300 million, and in 2022 the company does not expect revenues from the Russian market. Russia, Ukraine and Belarus collectively account for less than 1% of its global turnover, and therefore the effect in consolidated revenue for 2022 will not be noticeable, it was noted there.

At the same time, they emphasized in IBM, the company's business in Russia has historically been high-margin, so the effect of leaving the country can be felt in the profitability and movement of^[6] funds].

Russian companies cannot renew licenses for Cisco and IBM equipment

As it became known at the end of May 2022, Russian companies using Cisco and IBM equipment cannot renew licenses for previously purchased equipment from these manufacturers. We are talking about licenses that must be purchased to activate new equipment or to continue the work and maintenance of previously purchased. Read more [[Cisco Systems Russia
Cisco Systems|here]].

Stopping software certificates in Russia

As it became known at the end of March 2022, the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEC) suspended certificates for, software IBM,, and Microsoft Oracle SAP VMware a number of other foreign manufacturers. In total, 56 certificates were frozen by March 25. More. here

Vice President of IBM informed the Ukrainian authorities about the termination of support for Russian Railways systems

A former IBM employee shared with TAdviser a letter dated March 5, 2022, signed by IBM Vice President for State and Regulatory Relations Christopher Padilla addressed to the Minister for Digital Transformation of Ukraine Fyodor Mikhailov. It contains more information regarding the termination of the company in Russia than was published a couple of days earlier in IBM's statement on its own website. In particular, the letter says about the termination of support for Russian Railways.

According to the source, this letter is circulating among employees of the Russian office of IBM. It is in response to an appeal to IBM by Mikhail Fedorov, Ukraine's minister for digital transformation, who, after launching a military operation in Ukraine, sent letters to many global technology companies asking them to suspend their work in Russia. From the letter that came to the disposal of TAdviser, it follows that Fedorov had questions directly about IBM's work with Russian Railways.

A letter signed by Christopher Padilla states that IBM included Russian Railways in its list of prohibited parties (Denied Parties List) on February 24, and that IBM's export regulatory office instructed regional legal entities to stop all support for Russian Railways for system installations and related software.

The Russian office of IBM was unable to promptly respond to a TAdviser request whether the company really included Russian Railways in the specified list and terminated support. Russian Railways also failed to promptly receive an answer to the question whether IBM notified them of the termination of support. On Mikhail Fedorov's Twitter page, where he usually shares information about the results of his appeals to IT companies, there is also no information about Russian Railways as of March 6.

Cooperation between Russian Railways and IBM for many years. The Russian company has implemented both hardware and software solutions of this vendor. The website of the Main Computing Center (GVC) of Russian Railways states that it applied IBM solutions in the 90s^[7]. In the 2000s, IBM and Russian Railways migrated the main applications related to cargo and passenger transportation management, as well as financial resource management, to three new single disaster-tolerant IT centers based on IBM mainframe technologies^[8]

In recent years, Russian Railways, as part of the import substitution course, planned to get rid of dependence, including on these technologies. So, in 2019, Russian Railways reported on the planned transition from mainframe IBM System z to the x86/x64 platform, open to all software manufacturers, including Russian ones. At that time, a plan was being prepared for approval for the transfer of Russian Railways information systems to the x86/x64 platform in 2020-2024^[9].

The corporate newspaper Russian Railways "Gudok" then wrote with reference to the first deputy director of the design and technological bureau for informatization systems - the Center for Digital Technologies Andrei Kozyrev, that by 2024 at least 80% of 131 information systems dependent on IBM System z should be transferred to x86/x64.

And in 2020, the head of the Russian Railways GVC , Garald Bandurin, said that in the data centers operated by the GVC, there are 19 mainframe servers^[10]

According to Gudka, by November 2019, platform dependence criteria were developed, information systems were examined with an assessment of their dependence on the IBM platform, and the optimal methods and sequence of their translation to the open platform were determined. However, there is no public data on how much IBM mainframes managed to replace.

As for PO IBM, at the same time, in 2019, Russian Railways had a plan to transfer EAM systems (enterprise asset management systems) based on the software of this vendor to domestic software: by 2024, it was planned to transfer from it at least 70% of Russian Railways users and at least 70% of Russian Railways infrastructure facilities^[11]

And in the description of the CRC, IT - the "daughter" of Russian Railways, on the job sites it is indicated that for almost 20 years it has been developing, implementing and maintaining information systems based on solutions, including IBM (Maximo, WebSphere, Lotus).

Stopping technology sales in Russia

On March 3, 2022, IBM announced the termination of technology sales in Russia, and also spoke about support measures for Russian and Ukrainian employees.

We no longer sell technology in Russia or do business with Russian military organizations, "Corporation CEO Arvind Krishna wrote in an open letter to IBM employees.

According to him, IBM is working to help and protect employees in Russia who are subject to local rules and laws.

Krishna also said that long before the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, IBM invited local employees to move from this country with their families at the expense of the company, and many of them safely moved to neighboring states.

For over a month now, we have been in constant contact with our local teams to provide them with relocation assistance, financial and other direct support. All resources of our company, including psychological assistance, are used to support all IBM employees. Any employee in need can count on the help of the company, "said the head of IBM[12]

IBM became another major IT company determined to suspend operations in Russia after Russia launched a military special operation in Ukraine. Earlier, SAP, Oracle, Intel, AMD and Apple announced the suspension of work in the Russian Federation.

Expanding the Client Engineering team in Central and Eastern Europe

On January 31, 2022, the company IBM announced the expansion of the Client Engineering team of experts countries in Central and Eastern Europe to improve work with customers and business partners. IBM Client Engineering teams in,, and To Moscow To Warsaw will To Prague promote innovation in the region by helping develop customer engagement and relying on collaborative creation, first-class technical expertise, and project acceleration. The Moscow team will be headed by the Igor Khapov director of IBM's innovative solutions department at and. Russia CIS

IBM Client Engineering expert teams bring together designers, technical developers, solution architects, data scientists, security experts, DevOps engineers, and more. All of them work side by side with customers to quickly find solutions to critical business problems using IBM technologies and services.

Examples of how IBM Client Engineering experts work with customers include:

• transform the process of considering applications for life insurance using artificial intelligence in four weeks;
• From zero cloud, managed services, and automation to Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud, help customers transform their IT infrastructure and application management processes in three weeks
• Demonstrate to public-sector customers that meet stringent data management requirements that IBM technologies can perform analytical tasks eight times faster and half the cost, ensuring a secure computing environment without having to copy or migrate data.

IBM Client Engineering is an IBM concept that puts innovation at the forefront of company development and ensures its rapid and massive implementation. Team experts create a productive business environment that achieves results much faster. To bring commercial benefits is what is mainly aimed at helping our customers to implement intelligent technologies in workflows, "said Wolfgang Wendt, CEO of IBM in Central and Eastern Europe.

COVID-19 has changed the nature of the work of companies around the world: customers and employees switched to a remote format of work, supply chains were disrupted, entire industries faced difficulties. To survive and become even stronger, companies had to revise business models, accelerate digitalization and the transition to artificial intelligence and hybrid cloud technologies, while emphasizing security.

Our customers live in a world where uncertainty reigns, and it is unclear how to invest funds and what profits to count on. They are trying to understand how to recover and in what new capacity to get out of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the type of comprehensive transformation IBM specializes in, "said Martin Schwick, IBM's chief technology officer and head of Client Engineering in Central and Eastern Europe.

During the pandemic, IBM Client Engineering showed noticeable growth (from about 300 interactions with customers and business partners in 2020 to more than 2.5 thousand in 2021), as companies needed to establish interaction in the online format, learn how to make decisions faster and respond quickly to failures, focusing on the results of work.

2021

IBM revealed its dollar revenue in Russia

IBM revealed revenue in Russia last year. According to Jim Kavanaugh, senior vice president and CFO of IBM, in 2021 Russia brought the company about $300 million in revenue and $200 million in profit. He announced such amounts on April 19, 2022 during a conference call with IBM top managers and analysts on the quarterly global financial results of^[13].

Ranking TAdviser100: The largest IT companies in Russia 2022 IBM ranked 28th. The total revenue of IBM in Russia is taken into account. The Russian office of the company - Ibm Vostochnaya LLC/- EuropeAsia accounted for 10.5 billion rubles in 2021.

Earlier, judging by open publications, the company did not disclose its revenue in Russia. Its policy does not imply the publication of financial indicators for individual countries, only indicators in an enlarged geographical context.

At an average annual rate dollar of 73.68 rubles^[14], IBM's^[15] in Russia in 2021 rubles amounted to about 22.1 billion. Of these, Asia less than half of the indicated amount passed through the Russian office of the company - IBM Eastern Europe/: according to the database "," the Contour Focus revenue of this legal entity amounted to 10.5 billion rubles. IBM Eastern Europe/Asia made a net profit of 4.2 billion rubles.

IBM's total global revenue in 2021 amounted to more than $57 billion. Jim Kavanaugh noted that IBM's turnover in Russia is small and focused on high-end infrastructure and software.

The top manager added that in 2022 IBM does not expect cash receipts from Russia. In March, against the background of Russia's special operation in Ukraine, IBM announced the suspension of all commercial activity in the country.

In the same month, at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference, Senior Vice President of IBM Software Tom Rosamilia noted that the direct effect for the company from events in Ukraine will not be significant, and the indirect effect has yet to be clarified due to the fact that these events may affect oil prices, supply lines, sentiment in Europe, etc.^[16]

The Russian office of IBM could not promptly comment on TAdviser the results of its activities in 2021.

Among the largest IBM clients in Russia are Russian Railways, Sberbank, the Pension Fund, Russian Post, Gazprombank, Aeroflot, Norilsk Nickel and many other organizations.

Appointment of Tatyana Sorokina as CEO

The company IBM Russia announced TAdviser its appointment Tatiana Sorokina as CEO on March 19, 2021. More. here

2020: Pandemic helped IBM boost Russian office revenue and profits

The revenue of the office IBM in Russia - IBM Vostochnaya/- in EuropeAsia 2020 increased by 7%, to 11.6 billion, and rubles net profit increased by almost 27%, to 3.6 billion rubles. Such data are contained in the financial statements of the company published in the database of legal entities "." Contour Focus This allowed her to take 43rd place in the ranking of TAdviser100: The largest IT companies in Russia 2021.

It is important to note that local legal entities of foreign vendors may not conclude all their contracts with customers directly, as well as contracts with local partners: some part of them may be concluded with foreign legal entities of the vendor. And IBM itself does not disclose its full regional financial performance. But earlier, market players with whom TAdviser communicated noted: the more priority the country has for the vendor, the more revenue from local business passes through his local office.

In accordance with the global strategy announced at the end of 2020, IBM continues to focus in Russia on IT infrastructure, hybrid cloud platforms and open technology solutions with built-in artificial intelligence and open source software, Tatyana Sorokina, who has been CEO of IBM in Russia since March 2021, told TAdviser.

In 2020, Russian IBM customers had to urgently transfer employees to work remotely to ensure the uninterrupted functioning of their business and its further development. We helped them in this, taking into account our own many years of experience in organizing remote work, including by optimizing and scaling IT infrastructure using cloud technologies, says Tatyana Sorokina. - In addition, we also helped our business partners in Russia by offering marketing initiatives, information resources and platforms aimed at adapting them to dynamic external conditions.

The consequences of the pandemic, on the one hand, clearly showed the advantages of hybrid cloud infrastructures, said IBM CEO in Russia, and on the other hand, increased the demand for solutions that automate IT processes and information processing, as well as ensure information security outside traditional corporate perimeters.

2019

The revenue of the Russian office of IBM grew in rubles, and profit decreased

According to Contour Focus the database "," in 2019, the revenue IBM of EuropeAsia the Russian legal entity - "IBM Vostochnaya/" (" IBM WEA ") - increased by 4.3%, to 10.69 billion rubles year-on-year. The company's profit for the same period decreased by 8.2%, to 2.9 billion rubles.

The decline in this indicator took place after its slight growth in 2018. And the largest net profit for all time "IBM WEA" had in 2015: then it was about 5.6 billion rubles.

The total revenue of legal entities LLC Ibm Eastern Europe/Asia and the IBM Scientific and Technical Center in 2019 (10,902,801 thousand rubles, which is 3.6% higher than in 2018) allowed IBM to take the top 50 Russian representative offices of foreign IT companies with the largest turnover "20th place.

Regional financials at IBM do not comment or disclose them in dollars. At the same time, the company's Russian office identified the main areas in which work was carried out in the reporting period. Iris Dzeba, CEO of IBM in Russia and the CIS, told TAdviser that in 2019 IBM in Russia "helped customers from among the leading companies" take advantage of advanced local and cloud IT solutions based on artificial intelligence, blockchain and other technologies that they used in the process of digital transformation of business processes and the development of new business areas. In most such cases, technology or business consulting by IBM was an integral part of the projects, she added.

Among these projects are the joint creation of a self-learning program with the Gazprom Neft Scientific and Technical Center to search for additional oil reserves, the development of the Atomyze industrial asset tokenization platform for Norilsk Nickel, and the introduction of a solution to automate the distribution of pilots on flights at Aeroflot.

The company, in particular, made a special emphasis on clouds and artificial intelligence in public communications throughout the year both globally and in Russia. And in early 2020, new IBM CEO Arvind Krishna called these directions "the two leading forces driving the digital transformation today"^[17].

In addition, in 2019 we paid due attention to the development of the network of business partners and their expertise, OEM customers, as well as companies with which we have Embedded Solution Agreements (ESA) and will continue to provide them with the necessary support, says Iris Dzeba.

As an example, IBM CEO in Russia and the CIS countries cited a project Orange Business Services to create a cyber threat monitoring center (SOC) in Russia and plans to expand cooperation with a Russian developer. storage systems Yadro

It is noteworthy that in 2019, for the first time since 2012, IBM WEA did not conclude a single direct state contract with customers. According to the Kontur. Focus database, in 2016, for example, it entered into 19 such agreements directly, in 2017 there were 16 state contracts, and in 2018 - only 2.

A similar trend can be traced in the case of the Russian office of the German developer. In ON SAP 2015, she had 31 direct state contracts, and in 2019 - only 2 and, like IBM, and in the first half of 2020 - also not a single one. Analyst "" Renaissance Capital Alexander Vengranovich, in a conversation with TAdviser, suggested that one of the reasons for the reduction in direct contracts with state customers may be that it has become more difficult for the "daughter" of a foreign vendor to work at tenders against the backdrop of an import substitution policy in Russia, so it places more emphasis on partners.

It is important to note that local legal entities of foreign vendors may not conclude all their contracts with customers directly, as well as contracts with local partners: some part of them may be concluded with foreign legal entities of the vendor. But earlier, market players with whom TAdviser communicated noted: the more priority the country has for the vendor, the more revenue from local business passes through his local office.

IBM has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the Russian market for itself. In 2019, the company itself and its partners in Russia held many events dedicated to the vendor's technologies, and at the IBM global conference in San Francisco in February 2019, Russian speakers from among customers and business partners spoke.

Opening of the Competence Center in Moscow

IBM Corporation on October 10, 2019 informed TAdviser about the opening of the Competence Center in Moscow - in order to solve the growing number of tasks to optimize air transportation in this region and the transport system as a whole.

Aviation worldwide provides a huge number of advantages to passengers, suppliers and the global economy as a whole, but it needs more than ever new ways to optimize operations, including the compilation and distribution of pilot and flight attendant shifts and ground assignments - taking into account a wide variety of regulatory requirements (RPP and FAR 117) and corporate practices. The accumulated experience of working with the largest Russian airlines and the success of the IBM Research Laboratory project in Haifa, conducted in cooperation with El Al, became a prerequisite for the creation of the IBM Competence Center in Moscow, "said Ruslan Karpov, head of the IBM Intelligent Optimization Methods Competence Center in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Competence Center uses the IBM ECO platform as a key element of the optimization solution, which allows you to solve optimization problems in a wide variety of areas: transport logistics, staffing, allocation of employees to work shifts, optimization of the baseline supply plan of the enterprise, which allows you to take into account the strict and often changing market requirements for commercial enterprises.

The capabilities and services that the IBM ECO Competence Center in Moscow offers to air carriers and other transport companies:

• Air Transportation Optimization
  • Streamlining planning for pilots, cabin crew, ground staff and ground assignments
  • Personal Query Optimization (PBS)
  • Optimization of the sides

• Railway Transportation Optimization
  • Optimization of empty composition
  • Service Interval Optimization
  • Planning and distribution of working shifts of drivers and conductors

• Optimizing Customer Recording Systems
  • Optimizing online recording based on historical data

• Maintenance Optimization
  • Inventory optimization
  • Optimization of service orders (taking into account interruptible and continuous tasks and dependencies)

• Optimizing Work Shift Planning
  • Scheduling and allocation of personnel to work shifts

• Optimizing Mobile Workforce and Logistics
  • Advanced Transport Routing Tasks (RVR)
  • Optimization of changes in the event of unplanned events

Norilsk Nickel, IBM and MIPT will train blockchain specialists

The Moscow Institute of Physics MIPT and Technology (), the company "" and Norilsk Nickel# IBM Russia 2019:_.C2.AB.D0.9D.D0.BE.D1.80.D0.BD.D0.B8.D0.BA.D0.B5.D0.BB.D1.8C.C2.BB.2C_IBM_.D0.B8_.D0.9C.D0.A4.D0.A2.D0.98_.D0.B1.D1.83.D0.B4.D1.83.D1.82_.D0.B3.D0.BE.D1.82.D0.BE.D0.B2.D0.B8.D1.82.D1.8C_.D1.81.D0.BF.D0.B5.D1.86.D0.B8.D0.B0.D0.BB.D0.B8.D1.81.D1.82.D0.BE.D0.B2_.D0.BF.D0.BE_.D0.B1.D0.BB.D0.BE.D0.BA.D1.87.D0.B5.D0.B9.D0.BD.D1.83 entered into an agreement in June 2019 to create To Moscow a Competence Center in (on the basis of MIPT) for scientific research, training specialists in the development of digital technologies for the mining industry using open software and specialized solutions.

2018: Total revenue - RUB 10.5 billion

Revenue IBM Russia (LLC Ibm Vostochnaya/and Scientific and EuropeAsia Technical Center IBM) for 2018 amounted to 10,521,906 thousand rubles.

2017

Plans to create a digital transport research center with Russian Railways and NCC

In October 2017, Russian Railways, the Russian Economic School (NES), the National Computer Corporation and IBM in Russia and the CIS signed a cooperation agreement. It involves the creation of a Digital Transport Research Center on the basis of NES to systematize scientific research and best practices in the field of the digital economy. Read more here.

2017: Revenue slump to 10.9 billion rubles and profit to 2.7 billion

The revenue IBM of EuropeAsia the Russian office - IBM Vostochnaya/- in 2017 decreased by 8% - from 11.95 billion to rubles 10.92 billion rubles. This follows from the company's financial statements published in July 2018. Net profit for the same period decreased by almost 23% - from 3.5 billion rubles to 2.7 billion rubles.

In 2017, the company significantly increased management costs - by 40%, from 660 to 924 million rubles. Accounts payable of IBM Eastern Europe/Asia at the end of the year amounted to 1.39 billion rubles, receivables - 2.71 billion rubles.

In IBM Eastern Europe/Asia, the company chose not to comment on the results of its financial activities.

IBM's global reports mention the quarterly dynamics of its sales in Russia in 2017 in dollars. Thus, according to the results of the second quarter, the company reported a decrease in revenue by 7.9%, taking into account fluctuations in exchange rates. In the fourth quarter, IBM reported revenue growth in Russia by 12%, taking into account fluctuations in exchange rates.

Of the contracts concluded as a result of trading on the official public procurement portal, in 2017 for IBM Eastern Europe/Asia, the largest were contracts with Rostelecom for equipment support services software DPC and in the amount of 293 million rubles and with Sberbank for the development of interface design and modification of mobile applications in the amount of 106 million rubles.

It should be noted that only part of the contracts with companies in Russia goes directly through the Russian office of IBM, the rest - through its legal entities located abroad.

In 2017, according to the results of an investigation, Western media mentioned IBM among American companies that open the source codes of their products for research to the Russian authorities in order to maintain access to the Russian market^[18].

2016

Revenue reduction to 11.9 billion rubles (-12%), profit - to 3.5 billion rubles

The revenue of the Russian representative office of IBM (IBM VEA) in 2016 fell by 12% - from 13.6 billion rubles to 11.95 billion rubles.

Net profit decreased from 5.4 billion rubles to 3.5 billion rubles.

Revenue reduction of 27% in dollars

In dollar terms, IBM's revenue in Russia in the fiscal year 2016, which ended for the company in December, decreased by 27.1%. This follows from the company's annual report published in March 2017. In absolute terms, IBM does not disclose the turnover for individual countries.

According to IBM's annual report, in the 4th quarter of 2016, its revenue in Europe decreased under the influence of the markets in the UK, Germany and Russia in accordance with "macro and geopolitical trends." In Central and Eastern Europe in the 4th quarter, revenue fell by 21%, and in Russia - by 38.8%.

We have all read about various problems in countries such as the UK, Germany, Brazil and Russia, and our results in these markets reflect this reality, "said Martin Schroeter, Senior Vice President and CFO of IBM, in an explanation for the Q4 2016 report. - Some of the countries - Great Britain, Germany and Brazil, for example - had a significant impact on the overall outcome. Others, like Russia, Turkey and Egypt, also slowed our growth, but had less impact due to the size of these markets.

In 2015, IBM also reported a reduction in dollar revenue in Russia. Then the fall was 32.2%. At the same time rubles , in the Russian office - IBM Vostochnaya/- EuropeAsia the turnover grew by 49.3%, to almost 13.6 billion, and rubles profit - by about 77%, to 5.4 billion rubles (see below in history for 2015). In rubles, these indicators grew in 2014.

Then experts interviewed by TAdviser linked growth in rubles with exchange rate differences and a change in IBM's business scheme, as a result of which some of the operations and transactions that were previously carried out through foreign legal entities now began to be carried out through a Russian legal entity.

IBM told TAdviser that their company's business in Russia includes interaction with a number of large customers who can enter into transactions for significant amounts. One of these transactions was made in the fourth quarter of 2015, hence the difference with revenue in the fourth quarter of 2016, explained in the Russian office of IBM.

At the same time, in 2016, we saw an increase in revenues in Russia in the strategic areas of the company's business, namely, analytics, cloud technologies and information security. Growth, however, was slightly below expectations as customers struggled to maintain IT budgets. And revenues from business consulting, in particular Interactive Experience, and infrastructure services exceeded our expectations, IBM said.

In addition, in 2016, IBM launched an updated line of servers, DSS and other infrastructure on the Russian market. Additional revenue streams came from a growing segment of OEM customers, the company noted.

IBM's Russian office added that it will continue to work closely with its ecosystem of distributors, business partners and developers to focus on the most advanced solutions that the company offers to its customers.

The former director of one of the directions in the Russian office of IBM believes that the reduction in sales in dollars is due to a number of factors. Among them - a change in the strategy of the corporation. With the sales of hardware, the corporation focuses on services, trying to sell them directly. The company has been dependent on the sales channel for a very long time, and now it depends, said a former IBM employee in a conversation with TAdviser. But at the same time, it violated relations with large integrators (earlier IBM terminated partnerships with CROC, Lanit and NVision). The import substitution policy in Russia also affected, added the interlocutor of TAdviser.

Large IBM partners interviewed by TAdviser chose not to report whether they had negative sales dynamics in some areas of IBM products. I-Teco says that historically their company sells mainly IBM hardware: Power, Storage brands.

The demand for IBM budget DSS grown slightly, customers have become more interested in software solutions, as IBM is developing in this direction and actively promoting its software. But in general, we cannot say that the indicators have changed a lot, - noted in "I-Teco" regarding the dynamics of product sales.

Although the new IBM program to software conditionally combined sales figures for hardware and hardware into one channel, at the moment the sales of hardware over the past year, Ai-Teko is enough to maintain Gold partner status, an Ai-Teko representative said in a conversation with TAdviser.

One of IBM's major partners in Russia noted that the highest status in the IBM partner program is Platinum. According to the company, the necessary sales volume to obtain it is $10 million. Platinum partners in Russia, most likely, will not be at all, according to the partner company.

Technoserv notes that the company traditionally works with all IBM product lines. In 2016, IBM System Storage was the most in demand of the infrastructure, followed by IBM Power Systems servers designed to run critical applications. Information security products such as IBM QRadar, IBM Security Identity and Access Management and IBM Guardium are also in demand. In addition, the company is actively developing a partnership with IBM towards IBM Analytics solutions.

Olga Tarnovskaya, Vice President for Coordination of Work with Vendors of the Asteros Group, in a conversation with TAdviser noted that their company has been cooperating with IBM for more than ten years on software and equipment supplies.

If we had a decline in sales, then it is extremely insignificant and is mainly associated with the IBM product update cycle, and not in any way with the partner program update. We have a fairly stable business with IBM and following the results of our work in 2016, we once again confirmed the status of Gold Business Partner in the vendor partner program, "Tarnovskaya said.

At the same time, political and economic factors continue to have a significant impact on the work of Russian representative offices of Western companies, the representative of Asteros added. Given the general optimization of IT budgets, sanctions restrictions and the "freezing" of projects, the management of the Russian IBM maintains a decent level of sales and actively supports domestic partners, she said.

2015

Revenue growth up to 13.6 billion rubles (+ 49%), profit - up to 5.4 billion rubles (+ 77  %)

According to the Contour-Focus database, in 2015 the revenue of the Russian office of IBM - IBM Eastern Europe/Asia - in rubles increased by 49.3%, to almost 13.6 billion rubles. The company's profit increased by about 77%, to 5.4 billion rubles.

Of the contracts concluded as a result of trading on the official public procurement portal, in 2015 for IBM Eastern Europe/Asia, the largest contracts were with Gazprom Inform for the provision of software maintenance and equipment maintenance services. Their total volume amounted to about 1.8 billion rubles. Among other major contracts following the results of the auction are the implementation of software development work for Sberbank for 278.7 million rubles and 153.8 million rubles.

Only part of contracts with companies in Russia goes directly through IBM's Russian office, the rest through its legal entities located abroad. The total sales result in Russia, expressed in dollars, in 2015 showed negative dynamics - 32%. IBM CEO in Russia Andrei Filatov previously commented on TAdviser this result (see below the subsection on revenue in dollars).

The ruble results of the Russian office in IBM Eastern Europe/Asia preferred not to comment. At the same time, the company noted that IBM's business in Russia in 2016 is in accordance with its expectations.

As before, we are helping our customers from various industries use the most modern IT models designed for the cognitive era, TAdviser said in IBM Eastern Europe/Asia. - At the same time, we are seeing a certain revival on the part of customers, in particular in such relevant and highly dynamic areas as analytics, security and all kinds of services.

Sales in Russia sank 32% in dollars

IBM's revenue in Russia in 2015 decreased by 32.2% in dollar terms, according to the annual report^[19]. The fall turned out to be more significant than in 2014: then the company's revenue decreased by 22.7%. An even greater reduction in revenue than in Russia, in the annual report of IBM is given only in the Chinese market - there it amounted to 34.4%.

As the main reasons for the decrease in turnover, IBM CEO in Russia and the CIS Andrei Filatov, in a conversation with TAdviser, called the devaluation of the ruble, which began at the end of 2014 and lasted the whole of 2015, as well as the fixing of IT budgets in rubles from customers: "Customer budgets in rubles last year practically did not grow. There are rare exceptions, but they are "compensated" by other customers whose IT budgets in rubles have fallen. "

Filatov also noted that IBM's revenue decline was lower than the overall decline in the IT market in Russia. According to preliminary estimates by IBM, the market shrank by about half in foreign currency. The slower pace of reduction in the company's turnover compared to the pace of reduction in the IT market means that IBM's market share is increasing, says Andrey Filatov.

If from a financial point of view we did not achieve the desired indicators, then from the point of view of the market position, 2015 was successful for IBM in Russia. I believe that we worked in the past year better than our main competitors, consolidated our positions and increased our market share in all key areas, "he said in a conversation with TAdviser.

IBM did not adjust its strategy in Russia against the background of difficult economic conditions, Filatov told TAdviser. The company continues to implement IBM's global strategy here - focusing on cloud, analytics, mobile technologies, social interaction and security solutions. According to Andrei Filatov, in these areas, revenue in Russia in dollars from IBM increased in relation to 2014. Globally, this direction at IBM in 2015 increased by 26%.

An help in the development of business in Russia for IBM was the opening of a client center in May 2015, where you can show customers new solutions, technologies, and make pilot projects, says Andrey Filatov. In this situation, customers are limited in funds and buy only what gives a real quick effect, so many want to first launch the pilot and see the solution. At the expense of the client center, IBM in 2015 had more pilot projects with the prospect of a commercial result.

The same client center serves as a platform for training partners. The presence of specialists in new solutions is a problem, Filatov notes: "When you need to launch a new technology on the market, it turns out that there are many partners, but there are no specialists who would know the new technology. Accordingly, partners need to be trained quickly. "

In 2015, in key IBM directions, the number of partners in Russia approximately doubled, Filatov says. Now it makes up several dozen companies. In addition, IBM has a new type of partner: cloud service providers and service providers for colocation and maintenance of customer IT equipment.

Opening of the first center for the provision of IBM services in Russia

In February 2015, IBM announced the opening of the first center in Russia to provide its services. The center opened, in particular, in the Kazan IT park "Usady," in the ICL engineering center . It will be part of IBM's extensive network of centers that operate in more than 20 countries and provide financial services, as well as business process outsourcing with support for more than 40 languages ​ ​ for customers from more than 60 countries.

First of all, the Russian service center IBM will be engaged in strategic outsourcing: it will provide services related to administrative and financial activities. IBM employees will coordinate such customer business processes as payment implementation and purchase management through Purchase-to-Pay and Order-to-Cash, as well as registration and reporting. To optimize these operations, IBM's advanced financial management technologies and tools will be used to maximize efficiency.

IBM CEO in Russia and the CIS Kirill Korniliev noted that IBM service centers are an important element in providing customers with services for outsourcing financial and business processes around the world.

"We decided to open such a center in Kazan on the basis of a favorable business climate and the presence of a significant number of highly educated and experienced specialists," Korniliev explained the choice of a place to open a center in Russia.

According to IBM representatives, at the time of the official opening, the center had already hired graduates of financial universities, as well as qualified IT specialists. In the next few years, according to the company's expectations, the staff of the center will grow to 450 people.

IBM also noted that in order to maintain demand for skilled labor, their company signed an agreement with Kazan Federal University to develop programs to improve the skills and skills necessary for young specialists in a global economy in which the service sector plays a large role. As part of the agreement, IBM and the university agreed to combine their efforts in computer and computing sciences, analytics, industrial engineering, financial services, strategy and corporate governance.

The opening of the IBM Service Center was attended by the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov. After inspecting the exposition at the opening of the center, he instructed to create a working group and study the possibility of using outsourcing technology in the budget sector.

IBM opened a customer service center in Moscow

On May 20, 2015, IBM Corporation announced the opening of an ultra-modern client center in Moscow. Using analytics, cloud and mobile technologies, social interaction tools, IBM specialists will help customers solve various business problems.

In the Russian representative office of IBM, in one of the towers of the Moscow City business center, on May 20, 2015, an event was held to open a client center.

The center will provide customers with free access to the capabilities of various technologies and innovative developments of IBM. According to the company, the center will become a platform for customers and business partners to meet with IBM experts to exchange knowledge, experience and advanced ideas.

Kirill Korniliev, CEO of IBM in Russia and the CIS, said: "At the center, each customer will be able not only to get valuable information to solve various business problems, but also to look into the future, work closely with IBM experts and discover all IBM tools that can help him carry out a successful business transformation. The key task is to actively engage and build stronger partnerships with our customers. As part of such a model of cooperation, the center will prepare a whole set of specific measures with clear business results, and not just disparate presentations. "

According to the company's plans, the IBM client center will become a platform for industry briefings, demonstrations of new solutions, presentations, seminars.

The center has a demozone that uses a wide range of digital capabilities to demonstrate industry solutions for the public and banking sectors, insurance, tourism, transport, natural resources, power and utilities, retail. The solutions available in the center cover a wide range of issues that meet the needs of each customer, in particular:

• improvement of process quality control,
• situation management (for operation centers),
• improvement of the traffic management system,
• increased sales for marketing professionals,
• better brand management
• Create customer loyalty and retention programs
• assisting risk management consultants to counter money laundering and combat fraud.

"For example, if a customer wants to see a solution that can manage all the operations of the water supply system during a visit to the center, IBM experts will demonstrate a prototype of such a solution with the ability to monitor the condition of the equipment and predict the main causes for emergency outages by analyzing various parameters. In addition, the demo will present the ability to create a single control center for disparate dispatch services in one enterprise, as well as solutions to help operators optimize resources and manage local events in an open operating environment. Such solutions can be implemented both at the level of urban and regional water supply systems, "said Maxim Serebryanyi, head of the IBM client center

.

The client center has its own data center equipped with a modern audio and video system.

Breakdown of relations with "Lanit"

In July 2015 , IBM unilaterally terminated partnership agreements with Lanit, depriving the integrator of the ability to purchase and supply equipment and software. More details at# link.

Severing relations with NVision Group

Since mid-July, NVision Group has ceased to be an IBM partner. ^[20], having lost the opportunity to supply its equipment and software. IBM said in relation to this that their company "conducts a regular assessment of its channels of interaction with business partners."

The loss of NVision as an IBM partner coincided with the change of ownership of the integrator. On July 18, AFK Sistema signed an agreement to sell its subsidiary MTS 100% to NVision Group. MTS noted that they understand "the political and economic context that accompanied this IBM decision." According to the representative of MTS, this decision was expected and had no impact on the formation of the terms of the transaction, because the share of business related to IBM equipment was insignificant at NVision. "

2014

Growth of 3 times profit in rubles at the end of the year

According to the database, in Contour-Focus 2014, the profit of IBM Vostochnaya/increased EuropeAsia 3 times - from 1 to 3 billion rubles. The company's revenue for the same period increased by 24%, to 9.1 billion rubles. In dollar terms, according to IBM Russia the annual report, revenue in decreased by 22.7%. The local revenue amount is not specified in the report.

The company declined to comment on its financial results. Experts interviewed by TAdviser cite several factors that they believe could have contributed to significant profit growth. Thus, two respondents - a top manager of the Russian representative office of one of the largest computer vendors and a top manager close to one of IBM's distributors - believe that exchange rate differences played the main role in increasing profits.

The third interlocutor of TAdviser - a top manager of one of the largest Russian integrators - believes that the exchange rate difference in this case hardly played a significant role. Most likely, IBM changed the business scheme, as a result of which part of the operations and transactions that were previously carried out through its foreign legal entities, now began to be carried out through IBM Eastern Europe/Asia, he suggests.

In the past few years, IBM has been demonstrating a strategy to move to direct work with the largest customers. This is indicated by the deprivation of partner status of several major integrators and the conclusion of direct contracts with customers.

In 2014, in particular, IBM ended its partnership with CROC. CROC CEO Boris Bobrovnikov then expressed a version based on expert assessment by his American partners^[21]all manufacturers behave the same in emerging markets at the very moment when they are going to go to customers directly: they "shoot" some of the largest integrators. In 2015, IBM also severed partnerships with Lanit and NVision Group.

In 2013, Sberbank and IBM signed a memorandum of strategic cooperation aimed at "optimizing the supply of equipment and software" to the bank, and in 2014 Sberbank signed IBM contract in the amount of about 3 billion rubles.^[22], which provided the Russian representative office of IBM with a third of the revenue. In 2015 , Gazprom Inform also entered into direct contracts with IBM for a large amount.

A top manager from another major integrator believes that the strategy of moving to direct contracts with large customers is unlikely to affect IBM's profit performance. In addition, the interlocutor of TAdviser notes, it would be incorrect to judge all IBM revenue in Russia by the indicators of IBM Eastern Europe/Asia LLC alone, since a significant part of IBM's contracts are concluded through its legal entities located abroad.

Severing relations with "CROC"

In early 2014, IBM severed relations with one of its largest partners, CROC. The integrator had the status of Platinum Business Partner (IBM Cloud Specialty as an Infrastructure Provider). As a result of the termination of cooperation, CROC lost the opportunity to purchase new equipment from IBM, but retained access to the spare parts warehouse to support the servers of existing customers.

The breakdown of relations occurred against the background of checking the legality of importing IBM servers in 2011 for the needs of Sberbank. As a result of the investigation, it turned out that Sberbank paid Krok for servers four times the selling price of IBM.

"We were surprised to learn about the inflated amounts that CROC received from Sberbank for these servers, and as a result, IBM terminated its relationship with the company," IBM representatives told Forbes.

2012: More offices

In June 2012, it became known that IBM will invest $6 million to increase its presence to 22 offices in the Russia and CIS region. By the end of 2012, IBM will also double the number of employees in the Russian regions. IBM's business partner network in the region will be expanded to 4 thousand participants.

Kirill Korniliev, CEO of IBM in Russia and the CIS, said: "Business in the regions is showing steady growth, and it is obvious that this trend will continue in the future.

IBM will open offices in Voronezh, Ufa, Khabarovsk, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara and Krasnodar, cities that have demonstrated steady growth over the past few years.

The opening of new offices will provide IBM with a presence in 7 federal districts of the country:

• In the Central Federal District, IBM is opening offices in Voronezh and Samara in addition to its headquarters in Moscow;
• In the Southern Federal District, IBM will open a new office in Krasnodar in addition to the existing one in Rostov-on-Don;
• In the Volga Federal District, IBM will be represented in Nizhny Novgorod and Ufa in addition to the existing office in Kazan;
• In the Ural Federal District, IBM will open new offices in Tyumen and Chelyabinsk in addition to offices in Yekaterinburg and Perm;
• In the Far Eastern Federal District, IBM is opening an office in Khabarovsk;
• In the Siberian Federal District, IBM is present in Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk;
• In the Northwestern Federal District, IBM already has an office in St. Petersburg.

In addition to existing offices in Kyiv and Dnepropetrovsk, IBM is opening new offices in Kharkiv and Donetsk. Both cities are significant industrial centers and have a high level of GDP growth. IBM already works with a number of customers in these cities in the banking, metallurgical, chemical and retail industries.

IBM is also considering expanding its presence in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, where the company already has offices in Almaty and Tashkent.

Leonid Altukhov, Vice President for Regional Development of IBM in Russia, assured CNews^[23]the partnership scheme will remain the main one for the vendor. Now, according to him, out of almost 4 thousand registered partners (registration itself through the site does not require real sales), about 1.5 thousand are actively selling the manufacturer's equipment and software.

2011

The Prosecutor General's Office revealed embezzlement of 300 million rubles during the supply of IBM equipment

On August 30, 2011, the Prosecutor General's Office announced the identification of embezzlement of budget funds allocated for the implementation of the federal target program "Electronic Russia (2002-2010)." Later, it became known that the incident was related to the supply of IBM equipment.

The materials of the audit carried out by the Prosecutor General's Office were sent to the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"The Ministry of Telecom and Mass

Communications of Russia has concluded state contracts with Rostelecom OJSC worth more than 2 billion rubles. for the performance of work within the framework of the federal target program" Electronic Russia (2002-2010), "the Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement. - During the audit carried out by the General Prosecutor's Office in the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of Russia and OJSC Rostelecom, data were obtained indicating the embezzlement of part of these funds by deception or breach of trust. "

Thus, by creating schemes from numerous intermediary firms by almost 270 million rubles. the cost of software and hardware acquired by the Ministry of Communications through Rostelecom under the state contract was overestimated, the Prosecutor General's Office said.

"The Ministry of Telecom and Mass

Communications paid 653 million rubles for the purchased equipment, with its actual cost of 383 million rubles," the investigators say.

At the same time, it was established that one of the main equipment suppliers carried out dubious operations related to the transfer of funds in the amount of 150 million rubles. to the accounts of an offshore company. At the same time, the General Prosecutor's Office discovered the presence of a conflict of interest among persons who worked at Rostelecom and in the commercial structure that purchased equipment within the framework of the Electronic Russia federal target program.

In this regard, the Prosecutor General's Office sent the inspection materials to the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia to resolve the issue of initiating a criminal case under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud committed on an especially large scale).

• On August 31, 2011, Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Media Ilya Massukh commented on the results of the audit by the Prosecutor General's Office of the implementation of the Electronic Russia program. The audit was carried out for the period 2009-10. in connection with the expiration of the program, the deputy minister said. But the statement of the prosecutor's office is surprising in the Ministry of Communications, since the materials for the check were provided to the supervisory authority only five days ago.

The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications does not know which supplier and which heads of Rostelecom are in question, since they have not seen the inspection materials. If violations are discovered, the ministry is ready to cooperate with the Prosecutor General's Office, Massukh stressed, adding that "we live in a legal state and only the court can make a decision on guilt."

Rostelecom also expressed disagreement with the conclusions of the Prosecutor General's Office. In its statement, the company claims that all purchases are carried out during tenders, suppliers are certified distributors of the world's largest vendors, and the prices of government contracts are agreed with the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economy.

The supplier to which the Prosecutor General's Office drew attention is NVision Group, a source close to one of the audited organizations of the Ministry of^[24] told CNews^[24]. The contract in question is the procurement of IBM equipment, he adds.

"It is not clear where the Prosecutor General's Office got the figure of 270 million rubles," says the source of CNews. - Even the difference between the price of the state contract concluded by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications with Rostelecom and the cost of equipment purchased for its sale is less - 130 million rubles. This despite the fact that this difference includes not only Rostelecom's margin, but also the cost of commissioning. "

"Perhaps, by the market value of the equipment, the Prosecutor General's Office understands the price of components without taking into account delivery and assembly," the CNews source continues.

As its own version, the interlocutor of CNews suggested that under offshore the Prosecutor General's Office could mean the structure of foreign developers of technology: "Maybe these are companies from Southeast Asia that supply equipment?" NVision does not comment on the situation, since they have not seen the inspection materials.

Opening virtual offices in regions

On August 1, 2011, virtual offices were announced in nine cities. Russia Virtual offices will allow customers IBM to receive up-to-date information about current regional events, offers and initiatives of the company and choose the nearest business partner. Virtual offices are open in, To Ufa Chelyabinsk,,,,, Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod Sochi Krasnodar Omsk and Vladivostok. Previously, Khabarovsk they were available to customers and. St. Petersburg Perm

Visitors to the virtual office can directly contact IBM regional representatives or leave a request on the site for IBM representatives to contact them. The plans for the development of virtual offices include the introduction of customer communication functionality with technical support, as well as the expansion of the representation of the business partner network in the virtual office. The virtual office is a separate page on the IBM website in Russia and the CIS, containing contacts of IBM regional representatives, IBM business partners, as well as proposals, a catalog of completed projects and a calendar of IBM events to be held in each city.

2006-2008: Corruption transactions in the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation

In 2006 IBM , he became a defendant in the scandal that affected the Russian market. According to law enforcement agencies, when supplying equipment Pension Fund to IBM, she participated in the creation of a chain of dummy one-day firms that allowed her to receive additional income illegally. According to law enforcement agencies, the contests held to select an IT supplier for the FIU were fictitious. Companies, and R-Style LANIT IBM were initially determined by the winners. The cost of the equipment supplied by them exceeded the market by several times. The difference in prices was shared by the agreed parties.

On December 6, 2006, the investigation team of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted a number of inspections in the Pension Fund, as well as in the above companies and at the place of residence of their management. The Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that it was investigating the fact of embezzlement of 1 billion rubles.

The companies LANIT in R-Style whose offices were searched are at the top of the list of the largest IT suppliers of the Pension Fund. In Russia 2005, both companies delivered 423 IBM iSeries 400 servers to the FIU for a total of 643.3 million rubles.

• Ilya Massukh, later appointed to the post of Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation, oversaw work with the Pension Fund at IBM. At the end of 2007, by order of Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, the chairman of the PFR board, Gennady Batanov, was dismissed.

• In January 2008, the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that the total damage caused to the state during the supply of equipment to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation in this case is estimated at 200 million rubles.

• In May 2008, the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs completed a preliminary investigation into the sensational case of the supply of computer equipment to the Pension Fund of Russia. The only accused was an employee of the fund, who turned a blind eye to the delay in the supply of equipment and did not take a penalty from companies in the amount of 3.76 million rubles. (in 2006, the damage was estimated at 1 billion rubles).

Later, the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported on the results of a preliminary investigation, during which it found out that in September 2006, state contracts for the supply of personal computers and computer systems worth more than 940 million rubles were concluded between the Pension Fund and six companies, RIA Novosti reports. However, the executors of state contracts (companies, R-Style"" and LANIT) IBM could not fulfill the obligations to supply the goods on time, which should have led to the payment of a penalty for non-compliance with the deadlines for the supply of goods and work for state needs.

According to the Investigative Committee, an employee of the fund, Zoya Kiryukhina, who served as head of the logistics department of the Main Directorate of Subordinate Organizations and Logistics of the Pension Fund, was supposed to organize the reception and subsequent dispatch of purchased equipment to the regional departments of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation.

However, using her official powers, out of personal interest, she adopted the specified technique without a thorough recalculation of models and modifications, checking its configuration and quality, having drawn up documents for the acceptance of the FIU goods and transferring it for storage to the executors of state contracts.

Kiryukhina's personal interest, according to the investigation, was expressed, firstly, in reducing the amount of his work on collecting members of the commission and organizing their departure to warehouses, and secondly, in facilitating the procedure for accepting a large volume of goods as soon as possible. Thus, the employee demonstrated high results of her activities, according to the Investigative Committee.

The investigation found out that Kiryukhina knew about the absence of part of the goods in warehouses and the delay in its deliveries for four days, but at the same time signed consignment notes containing deliberately false information about the date of receipt and transfer of the goods. By her actions, she deprived the FIU of the legal right to receive a penalty for non-compliance with the terms of delivery of goods.

According to CNews, the project for the supply of equipment to the FIU was indeed accompanied by a lot of difficulties. For example, IBM computers required understaffing and installing software, the number of delivery points exceeded several hundred, many of them were in extremely inconvenient places for delivery, and some regional branches of the FIU simply did not exist yet.

2006: Discovery of a research laboratory

In 2006, he Russia IBM opened a research laboratory, IBM RSTL (Russian Systems and Technology Laboratory) which, among other things, will use the experience of Russian engineers to develop technologies (it is mainframe high-performance computers). In the first three years, the company planned to invest about $40 million in it and increase the number of employees to 200 people.

1999: Company Registration

"IBM Vostochnaya/ Europe" was Asia registered Russia in 1999, in 2005 it was registered with the tax authorities.

1972: Yuri Luzhkov signs the first contract with IBM in the USSR

In 1972, Yuri Luzhkov signed the first contract on the territory of the USSR with IBM. At that time, the future mayor of Moscow was the head of the informatization department of the Ministry of Chemical Industry. Mainframe was purchased from IBM.

See also

• History of IBM
• Work and Human Resources at IBM
• IBM financials

Notes