The 1C Group has grown to several hundred companies. Ecosystem Key Asset Map

Variety of "daughters"

1C subsidiaries can be considered in several sections.

In relation to the main activities of the parent company, these are companies directly involved in the sale and implementation of 1C products, and those that work in areas not related to accounting and enterprise management software.

"Daughters," belonging to the first category - the majority, the largest among them

• "1C Rarus" (federal scale),
• "1C: North-West" (focuses on the northwestern regions of Russia),
• 1C Gandalf (works mainly in the southern part of the country),
• "1C-Forus" (Siberia and the Far East).

Key non-1C subsidiary businesses include

• 1C-Bitrix (site management system, collaboration services),
• Smartway (travel, booking tickets and hotels),
• AmoCRM (CRM system of the same name),
• MEO (digital educational resources),
• Mirapolis (human capital management system).

Another section in which you can look at the 1C ecosystem is the age of the participants. According to TAdviser, from 2017 to 2023, the group grew about 30 new companies that are direct "subsidiaries" (i.e., excluding "grandchildren").

In 2022, when, against the background of the departure of foreign vendors, the task arose to sharply increase the implementation resources and competencies demanded by large customers who are switching to 1C, joint ventures were created

• 1C-Business Transformation,
• 1C-Premium and
• "1C-Perspective."

1C Business Transformation provides consulting services in the field of business process transformation and conducts comprehensive automation projects based on 1C solutions. The team is formed from specialists who previously worked in BIG4 (as the four largest audit companies Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and KPMG are called).

1C-Premium was designed to provide premium support services in the corporate market, including planning, project support and the operation of complex landscapes, developing customer expertise and building a model of constant interaction between customers and the vendor.

1C-Perspektiva is a joint venture with former top managers and consultants of the Russian division of SAP, who have a good knowledge of Western technologies and a wealth of experience in complex projects. Tasks: development and implementation of the strategy for the transition of corporate clients to solutions "1C: Enterprise," implementation of "1C" according to the methodology familiar to such clients, general in a row of large projects.

There are a number of companies that have recently entered the 1C ecosystem that are not suppliers of its basic products. For example,

• "1S-BSL" (automation of courier delivery),
• Bidzaar (cloud service for procurement planning, search, qualification and tendering) or
• "Timelist" (autoprotection and task control using AI).

Another angle of view on the 1C ecosystem is the dynamics of the development of companies.

Part of the "subsidiaries" refers to growing (increased revenue for 2022 - among them

• Joint venture with Ascon Renga Softvare, developing a BIM system,
• restaurant automation system "Quick Resto" or the aforementioned Smartway),

another part - to falling (whose revenue in 2022 decreased - among those

• Yumisoft site management system,
• Partner Bank Leader Generator and
• online accounting department "Sky").

Joint ventures - as part of 1C's long-term strategy

We focus on strategic investments that strengthen the 1C ecosystem through a synergistic effect, "explains Boris Nuraliev, director of 1C, to TAdviser. - The peculiarity of the information technology industry is that it is changing and developing very quickly. Large successful IT companies often lose the flexibility they need, while small teams with creative and energetic leaders have a good chance. We create joint ventures with such teams working in related sectors, this is an important part of our long-term strategy

1C builds a V2V ecosystem whose members often grow faster than 1C itself

1C, as a rule, does not buy companies completely, but creates joint ventures with them. In most cases, 1C owns a 51% share so that these enterprises are taken into account in the consolidated assessment of the 1C group of companies.

At the same time, it is very important, adds Nuraliev, that the founders of the company without fear continue to develop the business as their "business of life":

To do this, we prescribe in the constituent documents a number of special obligations on the part of 1C. The founders of the company have almost half of the property and all the levers of operational control in their hands, the drive remains, and they quickly move forward. The role of the central "1C" in such JVs is the coordination of a common strategy and the assistance that is necessary for the development of a joint business: infrastructure, reputation of a large holding, finance, technology, sales network, connections, experience. This allows you to combine the creative energy of promising entrepreneurs with the authority and resources of a large and sustainable firm

Many joint ventures, according to Nuraliev, are growing more dynamically than the central 1C.

Joint Venture Principles

In 1C, 6 principles of the work of joint ventures are formulated, which are prescribed in the constituent documents:

• Do what users, society, people really need to do
• Bring profit to both us and co-owners
• Be a reliable and profitable partner, treat partners, end users, employees honestly
• Work well, make and sell products better than competitors - so we can be proud of you
• Focus on the overall 1C strategy and the benefits of collaboration
• Take the best from 1C and other joint firms, and bring your new and promising

Expectations of Ecosystem Development

1C is one of the few Russian IT companies actively investing in young players. At the same time, according to Boris Nuraliev, the company is interested in investments not in IT-Business as such.

The fact that now few people invest in IT-Business is a general trend. IT is a very good industry, but small and not growing much anymore. Now it is effective to invest not in IT itself, but in those who, at the expense of IT, create and develop businesses built on the principles of the digital economy, they are growing at a frantic pace, "he explains.

"We are building a V2V ecosystem," says Nuraliev, adding that the company has already closed about 85% of jobs in the Russian Federation in 2020 for integrated enterprise automation (ERP). To develop further, 1C is trying to more fully and widely meet the needs of user enterprises.

Revenue and profit are important, but the main thing is that the products and services of joint ventures are in demand in their market segments, Boris Nuraliev believes.

We used to tell customers, "Let's automate accounting well for you." Now we say: "Let's automate your basic functions" - for example, we will help automate internal control (MES) for the production plant, select suppliers and better serve customers. And at the same time, we will outsource the providing functions: choose transport logistics and delivery, get a loan and report for it, organize business trips for employees, calculate taxes and salaries - this is reliable and beneficial for customers, "says Nuraliev

One of the well-known examples of businesses built on the principles of the digital economy, which leads to the example of Nuraliev - a network of outsourcing enterprises "1C:Accounting service," which has partners (a small part of which are joint ventures with 1C, the rest are independent). Due to the centralization of processes, a significant increase in their efficiency is achieved.

On the data of hundreds of thousands of enterprises, for example, it turned out to really train the neural network so that it would accurately post the data of bank statements on the accounts and sub-accounts of accounting, recognize and enter data from scans of paper documents into the account system, "says the director of 1C

Another example is the Smartway business travel planning and organization service. Over the past five full years, according to 1C, the turnover of sold tickets and hotels through the Smartway platform has grown 60 times, from 348 million to 21 billion rubles. in 2022.

A very fresh example is the Bidzaar trading platform, a cloud service for planning purchases, search, qualification and holding tenders. 1C became part of its founders in November 2022.

Nuraliev expects that this will be a very strongly connected business with the 1C: Enterprise direction: "If we have completed comprehensive automation of 85% of enterprises, then after all, the" Odineska "of one enterprise can inform the" Odineska "of another that it must purchase and what it wants to sell, you just need to organize the process."

In the first half of 2023, Bidzaar's trading turnover grew 2.5 times, from 25 to 68 billion rubles. For the year, the company plans to triple the volume of trading.

Demand is more important than revenue and profit

A separate question that TAdviser asked Boris Nuraliev to answer was how it planned to deal with companies showing negative dynamics in revenue and profit. We gave examples of such companies above.

"1C" is not a financial investor, the director of the company answers this.

We are developing an ecosystem for business in which any entrepreneur, small, medium or large business could find the tools to solve their problems. Joint ventures are created in accordance with the general development strategies of the 1C group of companies, we assess whether the products of this enterprise will be in demand among our users, whether there is synergy, he explains. - Note that profitability (not super-profitability) is item number 2 in a set of six joint venture operating principles, not number 1. I.e. revenue and profit are important, but the main thing is that the products and services of our joint ventures are in demand in their market segments, benefit not only by themselves, but also from synergy with other areas and businesses of the 1C group

If the products of the joint venture are in demand, 1C finds a way to ensure their reproduction, adds Nuraliev, if not, they are trying to repurpose the enterprise, shift its emphasis on work.

If, after repurposing, the joint venture does not fit into our ecosystem, we can sell it to those to whom it is more suitable. Closure due to the "market impasse" has not yet been, "says Boris Nuraliev