Main problems of digitalization of a public sector

TAdviser, based on poll of experts, prepared the list of the main IT problems at the regional and federal levels which remain not solved so far

2019

The fact of active work in the direction of digitalization of a public sector cannot be denied. The fact that for a public sector efficiency become a priority question attracts attention. It is made much and already is what to bring in an asset.

At the same time, it is still less tangible results, than the "Digital Economy of the Russian Federation" program or the corresponding federal projects assumes, - Sergey Sherstobitov, the CEO of Angara Technologies Group notices.

According to Leonid Kokovin, the head of the affiliate program of Foresight company, work on digitalization of government institutions is now conducted rather actively. And the national projects starting last year, including "Digital economy", Education and Health care, set higher level of development of digitalization in the country.

But, certainly, such major problem cannot be solved in a short time. There are objective difficulties in this connection decrease in rates of digital transformation of a public sector is observed. In general, such situation is natural: for the state the innovator experimenter's position is uncharacteristic, the verified, working solutions are necessary here, the guarantee of success is required. For this reason the separate directions revolve. We hope that further, with the advent of the effective, checked domestic software products, rates of digitalization of the state sphere will be steadier, - the expert says Foresight.

According to Vadim Deyanyshev, the CEO of IT Departmental Systems company, at regional and municipal levels transfer to digit is implemented no more than for 15-20%.

Huge data arrays, not having the legal importance, are in diverse information systems, and sometimes and on paper carriers. The lack of accurate parameters and KPI on which regional informatization is estimated aggravates provision. Here it is necessary to pass still a huge way, - he considers.

In a gosinformatizatsiiya segment, according to him, the explicit distortion is observed. On the one hand, there is a powerful financing of this direction. Another – the market for one reason or another was left by a number of the large IT companies which were actively working with a public sector. As a result the absolute majority of projects is transferred to hands of state integrators – structures of Rostelecom, Rostec, etc. And the allocated huge funds for digitalization do not correlate with the production resources which are available for them at all, the expert believes.

The project manager in public authorities of Directum company Ivan Bastrikov adds that the regional ministries have no understanding that they need to do.

In federal authorities program implementation, on feelings, is braked because of staff shortage. By our estimates as vendor, work is conducted in the accelerated mode that can affect result, - he notes.

Let's consider in more detail the most often mentioned problems which face during digitalization the Russian state structures.

Lack of uniform standards when choosing the departmental systems and variety of technologies

Serious problem is the lack of uniform standards when choosing the departmental systems and variety of technologies that creates noticeable difficulties in integration and work with data. As a result under each task of management the separate tool, with the standards is created. All this leads to growth of costs, including at a stage of support and upgrade of systems. One more minus of this approach – the fact that the used tools are poorly integrated among themselves as a result – is provided by conflicting data.

The CEO of BFT Alexander Monosov, notes that the insufficient development of interdepartmental data exchange (an exception – rendering state services) becomes result of it and lack of system effect of digitalization of management processes. As a result positive process of digitalization does not lead to reduction of transaction costs.

Vladimir Kokhan, the commercial director Digital Design, considers that formation of uniform methodology of creation of information systems in each of spheres would lead to a uniform method of implementation, thereby minimizing costs including time, on study of possible options of implementation of these systems.

This work is conducted, but, nevertheless, still is where to aim, - he notes.

According to Leonid Kokovin, the head of the affiliate program of Foresight company, the perspective way consists in consolidation of the existing information systems in a whole that all systems spoke "one language". The single platform of the solution of different tasks of work with data is for this purpose necessary.

We developed such software product in Foresight company: these are powerful, multifunction tools "Foresight. The analytical platform", it contains instruments of creation of storages of metadata, managements of NSI, instruments of administration, visualization and data view in required formats and cuts. Opportunities "Foresight. The analytical platform" allow to overcome difficulties of integration into any information system. It is important that our development has the considerable potential for import substitution, including thanks to advanced functionality and compatibility with the Russian operating systems and database management systems. Our program tools allow to solve such complex problem as creation of an analytical subsystem of GIS of energy industry which helps to analyze and make decisions on the basis of data on all power industry. The analytical subsystem allows to automate processes of storage, consolidation, classification and structuring information on all directions of energy industry, data processing about a status and the forecast of development of the industry, processes of modeling and forecasting of the social and economic phenomena in the field of energy industry, formation of the analytical reporting and also planning and monitoring of actions of energy industry. Also by means of the platform problems of regional state agencies as tools of Foresight provide high degree of compatibility with the softwares different types can effectively be solved. A striking example – implementation of GASU of the Vologda region. Also our tools were used during creation of an automated system of the analysis, assessment and forecasting of emergency situations on objects of nuclear sector for SKTs of Rosatom. This software package for flexible and complex data analysis allows to obtain quickly information on all objects of nuclear sector in the single interface. It integrates all continuous data on atomic objects of the country, provides monitoring of the current situation, supernumerary and emergencies on objects, planning of actions for their warning and liquidation, forecasting of probability of emergency situations on the basis of the available and arriving data, - Leonid Kokovin tells.

Lack of financing of regional IT programs

Digitalization of a public sector happens unevenly: level differs from the region to the region. In some subjects of the Russian Federation basic digitalization of business processes still continues or there is even a need for study of IT infrastructure.

Timur Akhmerov, the CEO of BARS Group, considers that remain basic reasons on which regions do not reach the due level of informatization the shortage of the selected budget on these actions, undeveloped IT infrastructure of the region, the shortage of qualified personnel. Nevertheless, the matters are taken under control, are discussed and gradually are solved (at the speed at the level of each region).

Sergey Sherstobitov, the CEO of Angara Technologies Group, also notices that in the last several years, the situation changes for the better - in some advanced regions more and more funds are allocated for IT programs.

Andrey Burin, the Head of Department on work with public sector of Fors-Centre razrabotki (FORS Group) company, adds that in addition to financing, in regions the initiative of the management and readiness to take the responsibility is important.

And happens to it difficult because the vast majority of subjects are subsidized and substantially depend on budget federal policy, - he says.

Gennady Kopayev, the marketing and sales director of Technology KSK company, considers that on the one hand in some regions owing to an economic crisis very strong managerial collectives (level of the Ministry of informatization of the subject of the Russian Federation) were left without a possibility of the application of the knowledge and abilities. With another - migration of specialists from public sector in private companies is visible. Continuation of the specified trend, according to him, threatens with serious consequences even in case of financing opening.

Personnel problems in regions

The personnel problem is one of the sharpest for regions. Every third expert polled by TAdviser speaks about the shortage of IT specialists in subjects.

In many regions the shortage of the qualified IT specialists capable to set the task is sharply felt and to solve it, to think at the level of modern abstractions – such as digital platforms, digital regions and also at the level of micro and macroservice architecture, - Andrey Burin from FORS group company says.

Nikolay Ganyushkin, the founder of digital laboratory 'MONQ', also considers the main problem deficit of qualified personnel on places.

The national proverb "Is sometimes remembered force the fool Bogu to pray, he also will hurt the forehead". The schedule it is given, budgets are, and knowledge "for what all this is necessary", "as it is necessary to do it" is not at all, - he considers.

Sergey Sherstobitov, the CEO of Angara Technologies Group, believes that it is necessary to develop regional training programs for training of specialists of required qualifications. At the same time it is very important to implement programs for deduction of qualified personnel in regions, creating them conditions for comfortable life and providing with adequately paid work.

Alexey Baryshkin, the expert in digital transformation of Netrika Group, adds that specifics of transition to digital economy such is that digital transformation will affect practically everyone.

For today learning processes and retrainings of personnel go rather actively, but in the existing format they will not be able to solve a personnel problem completely, - he considers.

Without the prepared commands at regional and federal level process of digitalization is impossible, he believes. At the same time, according to him, the big group of regions has a serious staff shortage because of outflow of specialists to the capitals and the large technology centers.

The CEO of BFT Alexander Monosov crucial for all industry sees the "Personnel for Digital Economy" project.

All participants of IT market have deficiency of qualified specialists, especially in the perspective directions and technologies today (big data AI VRAR\ machine learning , etc.) and this deficit in the long term will only increase taking into account a demographic situation in Russia. Certain large players create the corporate universities and own educational programs, but implementation of uniform system policy on this direction, certainly, taking into account the interests of business, is represented to significantly more effective, - the expert considers.

Ivan Bastrikov, the project manager in public authorities of Directum company, notes that his company feels a staff shortage at the clients:

We as vendor feel staff shortage at customers at implementation projects. For the solution of this problem we create competence centers at big customers, for example, based on subordinated organization or the local IT company. Besides, the Directum company developed the program for universities. We develop it, we give opportunities of free training and certification for students.

Normative regulation of digitalization

One of common problems which concerns both regional, and federal levels is normative regulation of digitalization. The speech even not that the existing legislation strongly lags behind realities of digital economy – just changes of the regulatory base it has to be cardinally accelerated, participants of the market of state informatization believe.

The legislation should go level with real processes of digital transformation, and it is better – to advance a little them, - Alexey Baryshkin, the expert in digital transformation of Netrika Group considers.

The head of group of implementation in public authorities of Directum company Konstantin Lyanguzov gives the increased interest in long-term electronic archives as an example. According to him, development of normative regulation of this area was expected in 2019. Having corresponding to the NPA on work with state archive, it would be possible to refuse completely paper and to integrate EDMS and departmental archives with the state archive. However so far it did not occur. As a result there is a duplication of information on paper carriers, and projects for development of regional information systems are braked.

It is worth carrying outdated process regulations to the same field of normative regulation. For example, office-work which regulations were developed for work with paper documents.

Therefore to refuse double document registration, sent between departments, working in one EDMS, practically any region does not decide, - the expert adds.

The CEO of BFT Alexander Monosov also sees the main problem affecting both efficiency of state bodies, and on life of each citizen, and work of legal entities, preserving of a high share of paper documents (and by quantity of their types, and on providing frequency, and on terms of their processing).

This problem is connected as with imperfection of the legislation, first of all - governing bodies completely to pass with existence of a large number of the obsolete rules and rules requiring the obligatory "physical" document with the signature and "mastic" printing, and with unavailability (technology, organizational, moral) to legally significant electronic document management. It is sure that a considerable part of these problems will be eliminated using "the regulatory guillotine" (regarding liquidation of obsolete rules and rules) and also within the actions for development new the NPA, provided by the plan of implementation of the Digital Economy national project, - he considers.

Import substitution problems

Certain difficulties remain concerning the direction of IT import substitution. The head of group of implementation in public authorities of Directum company Konstantin Lyanguzov selects two problems – applicability of such products and their maintenance.

So, according to him, difficulties arise at transfer of historical documents in new office suites as not all ancient documents can be opened in an invariable type. Also at it reliability and scalability of free DBMS raises questions.

It connects the second problem with absence on places of the specialists who are deeply knowing import-substituting products. From there are problems with maintenance of such systems and solutions. As a result, if to undertake import substitution thoroughly, with a quality assurance and result, then on a contract basis of vendors of OS, DBMS, office suites and other import-substituting products not to do without attraction. And in this case process of substitution of foreign solutions can cost serious means, and budgets, as always, are limited.

Insufficient coordination of processes of digitalization at the federal and regional levels

In spite of the fact that in all regions of Russia regional analogs of federal projects of "Digital economy" are accepted, real actions of the regional level are not always connected with the federal agenda.

According to Alexey Baryshkin, more safely the situation is in issues of development of infrastructure and information security support. At the same time coordination of processes in the field of digital public administration and development of end-to-end digital technologies requires improvement.

It is possible to hope that it will occur based on implementation of pilot projects in regions, - he notes.

Ivan Skorodumov, the head of the department of development of information systems of EOS Group company speaks about deficit of information in the field of digital transformation in regions.

We see that the regional level feels acute shortage of information from the supervising federal executive authorities in a number of the directions in the field of digital transformation. An example – development of the electronic government. Earlier the Ministry of digital development, communication and mass communications of the Russian Federation regularly carried out subcommittees where regions took active part, problems were discussed and solved. There is no it or now, or similar actions have the closed character. As result – regions are aloof, the part of problems is not solved at all. Few methodical materials in the directions which should be implemented within "a digital state administration", - the expert says.

Conservatism of state customers

Digitalization of executive authorities often restrains conservatism of customers. For example, a popular subject for discussion in state structures is implementation of RPA: this technology can exempt employees from routine transactions and it is essential to increase quality of work of public institutions, at the same time, it very quickly pays off. But most departments stop on automation of several simple tasks and do not go further.

According to Igor Leypi, the director of the department of work with state the organizations of Softline company, it is caused by two reasons. First, the full-fledged work with RPA requires deep understanding of process which it automates. Secondly, prejudices of employees who are afraid that process automation will lead to staff reduction interfere with development of technology. Upon most departments suffers from staff shortage, and robotization of routine processes allows skilled workers to focus on more difficult tasks.

Problems SIEI and MEDO

A number of experts reports about a problem with replacement of the SIEI 2 services by competent services in SIEI 3.

According to Vadim Deyanyshev, the CEO of IT Departmental Systems company, the initiative with total transition to SIEI 3 accepted a few years ago was not up to the end implemented. And today a number of departments continues to work for SIEI 2, he says.

The head of the department of development of information systems of EOS Group Ivan Skorodumov considers a vital issue use of outdated services for interaction of different information systems.

For example, in MEDO there is version 2.7 for a long time, but many still use earlier format that, certainly, slows down development of interdepartmental interaction, - he notes.

One more problem, according to him, is the permanent growth of number of electronic documents in the absence of clear rules from the regulator about what, actually, with them to do next.

We see that regions make independent decisions in this industry, but there is a concern that after formation of a position at the federal level the set of collisions is possible, - Skorodumov considers.

Problems of state procurements

One more problem is connected with processes of purchases in public sector. In spite of the fact that it also is in the normative plane, Alexey Baryshkin, the expert in digital transformation of Netrika Group, notes it especially.

Specifics of purchasing control in public sector (Laws 44-FZ and 223-FZ) such is that process of implementation of modern technological solutions is strongly dragged out because of what solutions can become outdated or lose relevance by the time of their use. For separate types of the solutions, for example, connected with intellectual data processing implementation of purchases according to 44-FZ in general is not always possible, - he says.

Problems of information security

More and more close attention in a public sector is paid to questions of information security.

The progressing growth of number and complexity of cyberthreats forces departments to increase expenses on information security, sometimes to the detriment of less priority projects, - Sergey Kosetsky, the commercial director of the company notes X-Com.

According to Sergey Sherstobitov, the CEO of Angara Technologies Group, to the forefront there are problems of data security provision of citizens and the organizations:

Here and security of personal data by government institutions the and also the commercial operators having access to such data and processing them and mechanisms of protection against fraudulent activity using the electronic signature of citizens and the organizations.

As Alexey Novikov, the director of expert center of security of Positive Technologies (PT Expert Security Center) notes, two thirds of the APT groupings attacking today the Russian organizations are aimed at state institutions.

And it is not accidental. The companies of public sector are often attacked purposefully because they have valuable information for which malefactors hunt. Motives more than are enough: strategic plans of development, partnership agreements on the international scene, economic plans and so forth — everything depends on an organization type, - he tells.

Malefactors most often perfectly know what means of protecting and what is set to software in the specific organization and as it functions. On the Internet criminals can find in open access without effort information on what purchases and in what time were performed by the organization — what an anti-virus software, monitoring systems of events what firewall was bought by this or that company were purchased. Therefore, criminals can always selectively be trained for an attack to the specific organization.

Certainly, state companies think also of practical application of requirements of cyber security today, but nevertheless fulfillment of requirements of regulators and the legislation has the first-priority importance. The reality such is that it is sometimes more important to have the specific certificate on these or those means of protecting, and at the same time attention is not paid to its settings. And correct setup among other is necessary in order that the means of protecting carried out the tasks (including on identification of the attacks) with maximum efficiency, - Alexey Novikov explains.

In more detail about methods of opposition to the target attacks on state institutions read here.

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