Mikhail Nelkin: The increased demand for solutions of domestic manufacturers is now felt

TAdviser: AT Consulting, unlike most of players of the Russian market, is multivendor ERP integrator. Describe, please, how for the last one or two years the product demand of the class ERP of different producers changed? Whether the political and economic situation in Russia affects demand?

Mikhail Nelkin: Really, AT Consulting (AT Consulting) (AT Consulting) – it is similar nearly only company in the Russian market ERP which works with three leading manufacturers - it is Oracle, SAP and 1C. This powerful competitive advantage: first, we can offer the customer an opportunity of the reasonable choice, secondly, for us this sure market position. We work only with large corporate clients and also in a public sector and steadily we feel, working with our customers on implementation projects, supports and development of SAP or Oracle for many years. At the same time the increased demand to solutions of domestic manufacturers is really felt now, and in this plan of 1C Company and to us together with them really is what to offer customers.

TAdviser: How do products of these vendors at the cost of licenses, services of implementation and support differ? Give, please, approximate digits for the standard client, for example, from 1000 employees.

Mikhail Nelkin: Here everything is very individual. Licenses of Oracle or SAP even taking into account essential discounts which can provide vendors will really be several times more expensive, than licenses 1C, and in it of huge advantage of the Russian solution. At implementation of standard accounting functionality the western systems will also not be able to compete at the price to 1C, and here if it comes about business process automation, for example, of purchases, logistics or the investment management, then here cost will depend very significantly on the volume of necessary completions under the specific customer. By the way, It is necessary to tell that the average rate for a man-day of consultants for 1C can even be higher than on Oracle or SAP, at least in Moscow.

TAdviser: List, please, the main errors which lead to a failure of projects of implementations of ERP systems (errors of vendors, integrators, customers).

Mikhail Nelkin: If you as the customer, decided on an implementation project of ERP, then it is necessary to be ready to pay to the project the mass of attention and own resources. Option that you the project will formulate in the beginning the requirements, and after a while receive a ready system, just does not exist. Approval of future processes pushes together among themselves divisions of the company, at each of which the interests, and strong-willed solutions at the level of managing committee or the sponsor of the project are required. Considerable efforts are required by preparation of historical data for migration in a new system. And by most of non-management employees of ERP-sistema company it is very seldom perceived as the benefit, it seems to them that it is "collar" which significantly limits their freedom, and the effect of it is gained only by company management. To avoid resistance and counteraction to changes, it is very important to manage correctly changes and communications constantly during all project: conduct explanatory work and explain to people that they carry out the tasks within big end-to-end processes which finally from system implementation become more effective, managed and with measurable KPI.

The same way also integrators can be mistaken. Implementation of ERP is always cheynzhd-management in the company of the customer. It is meant, but practically never pay for it. The temptation is high, but will be big error to say that we are just consultants or even developers and we are not engaged in cheyndzh-management tasks. As a result the project just will rise.

As for vendor, customers very well perceive participation or at least readiness of vendor to help with the project course, it instills confidence and finally positively affects further sales in the client.

TAdviser: By what main criteria the customer is guided, selecting integrator for ERP system implementation?

Mikhail Nelkin: Certainly, it both the price, and experience of implementation of similar projects, but I would stop on "trust". The experienced customer, and recently the level of competences in clients grew up very strongly, perfectly feels that he stands behind the words of sellers whether there is behind them a confidence in the forces, and, above all - aspiration and readiness in case of obtaining the project by all means to finish case in the stated terms and to work for result.

TAdviser: How many SAP implementation, Oracle specialists and 1C work in AT Consulting? How did their number for the last year change?

Mikhail Nelkin: Historically the most numerous ERP of the practician at us is Oracle e-Business Suite, in the company more than two hundred consultants and developers for this product and we keep the biggest projects in Russia according to Oracle. In practice of SAP of an order at us 100 consultants, we are traditionally strong in the fuel and energy sector. As for 1C, practice at us exists many years, however early we were engaged in services in 1C only for those companies at which kept big ERP projects. It were the tasks connected with integration about big ERP or projects in subsidiary companies of our clients. Now practice actively develops, we have already more than 30 specialists in 1C and a number of large independent projects. By the way, many consultants of Oracle and SAP with pleasure study products 1C, and I very much welcome it. Our main idea is in what in large business market is not so important what product you implement how many it to do ability – knowledge of business and the developed implementation methodology.

TAdviser: What development plans for the ERP direction in your company?

Mikhail Nelkin: We will actively continue to work at the market of large ERP projects. It is necessary to tell that practically all clients with whom we successfully started systems, select long-term interaction and buy from us support and development, to finish implementation of ERP as well as speak about repair, it is impossible. We have consultants not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also in big branches in Voronezh and Nizhny Novgorod, and it allows us to be very flexible in price policy.

TAdviser: What, from your point of view, the main trends of the market of ERP? How do you estimate demand for mobile functionality of ERP and for cloud solutions?

Mikhail Nelkin: If to speak about our experience, then the mobile functionality in ERP really gains popularity – on mobile devices managerial BI the reporting and tools under the approval by heads of key transactions in business processes is taken out. And here in clouds large business does not aim to take out data of the ERP systems yet. At the same time around subject of ERP constantly there are different niche tasks under which new solutions including cloud can be born. And these solutions can concern not so much process automation in the companies how many them interaction with different partners.

I will give examples on which we work now. First, changes in the tax law of 2015 regarding the VAT and also the activities connected with "tax monitoring" will demand an output to the new level of processes of interaction of taxpayers and tax authorities; here not to do without automation, and the solutions capable to work with all main ERP systems of our customers, at the same time meeting requirements of tax authorities are necessary. As the second example, I would note the increasing interest of clients in solutions in the field of advanced interaction of customers with suppliers. It integrates both areas of SRM solutions, and logistics and purchases, and interaction there can be both at the level of pair a supplier customer, and within the whole chain of supply. At the moment the complete solution which would meet all requirements of customers while is not present, very much I hope that we will be able to offer it soon, work on it is already actively conducted.