The Russian subsidiary of one of the world's largest pump manufacturers has replaced Microsoft and SAP with Russian IT products

Vilo Rus, a Russian subsidiary of major German pumping equipment manufacturer Wilo, migrated from imported software to the Astra Group software stack. To tell about this project, the press was invited on July 30, 2024 to the Vilo Rus plant, located in the Noginsk district of the Moscow region. Company representatives announced the transition to other domestic solutions as part of the import substitution strategy, including migration from ERP SAP to 1C.

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The plant has implemented the most advanced practices and methods of organization of production. Products of the enterprise: pumps and pumping units, as well as automatic control devices. The equipment is widely used in housing and communal services systems, construction, power facilities, water utilities.

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Of the solutions of Astra Group as of the end of July, Vilo Rus has installed Astra Linux OS for workstations and servers, ALD Pro directory service, RuBackup backup system, Brest PC. In addition, the company's employees have access to a solution for organizing corporate mobile workplaces WorksPad and a RuPost mail server . The compatibility parameters with the existing fleet of peripherals were also configured and all requirements of regulators in the field of personal data protection were met.

Vilo Rus became the first customer to transfer its infrastructure to a software stack of 7 Astra Group products at once, said Timurbulat Sultangaliev, general director of Astra Consulting. At the event, the companies signed an agreement on further cooperation.

source = From Astra Consulting presentation

In addition, Vilo Rus acquired an expanded training complex from the vendor: the L&D process automation platform - Knomary and Astra Group software courses. Knomary specialists provided the customer with a set of tools for managing corporate education: a system for integrated automation of employee development processes (Knomary TMS), a platform for joint development of educational content (Knomary Leenda) and a platform for managing employee motivation and automation of C&B processes (Knomary Goal Setting). Thus, the Russian corporate educational product replaced the entire range of Western solutions used by Vilo Rus for personnel training and management: Article 360 , SAP SuccessFactors and MS SharePoint.

Previously, the OS was used at the Vilo Rus workplaces, Microsoft Windows the service helped manage the domain infrastructure, Microsoft Active Directory Windows Windows Server Essentials was responsible for data backup and recovery, ON Acronis software acted as corporate mail, and MS Exchange platforms acted as corporate mail virtualizations. Hyper-V From the arsenal of Microsoft software, the customer also used a set of business applications: a full stack,, and Office 365 Teams so on. Outlook

The project for the transition to Astra Group software covers all branches of Vilo Rus in 30 cities of Russia. Preparation for it lasted about six months, and directly moving to new solutions took two months. The Astra Group software was introduced into the circuit of the Vilo Rus digital system and put into commercial operation in May 2024. The work was carried out by specialists of the Astra Group together with the Vilo Rus team. And the support of the new software, first of all, is carried out by the team of Vilo Rus itself, which has undergone the necessary training.

source = From Astra Consulting presentation

In addition to migrating from Microsoft solutions, Vilo Rus has already switched from ERP SAP to 1C solutions, company representatives said at a meeting with the press. Their support is also carried out mainly on their own, and external contractors are involved, if necessary, TAdviser was specified in Vilo Rus.

In addition, the company is now switching from an imported PLM system, which is used throughout the Wilo corporation, to a Russian one, but they chose not to voice the name of its vendor in Vilo Rus.

Unlike many foreign companies, the German Wilo after 2022 did not leave its Russian business and did not disconnect it from the international IT infrastructure. Answering TAdviser questions, Vilo Rus CEO Nikolai Samoilov explained that the idea to disconnect from the foreign IT infrastructure came from the Russian subsidiary itself, because in late 2022 and early 2023 the company was afraid that something could happen to IT infrastructure against the background of geopolitical events.

All licenses of imported software used by Vilo Rus were previously granted to it by the parent organization as part of its global software purchases. And after 2022, together with the German side, the Russians planned when the transition and disconnection of Vilo Rus from the foreign IT infrastructure would take place. Due to this, for example, for customers of Vilo Rus, the transition from SAP to 1C was seamless and turned out to be almost invisible. Similarly, in the case of OS, noted Nikolai Samoilov.

The big question related to the ERP system is historical data, which is needed not only for the work of the company, but also for regulatory authorities. Archives were created, historical data can be used.

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It is noteworthy that before SAP, Vilo Rus, like Wilo's global business, used Microsoft ERP, as well as some of its other business applications, including CRM. At the Wilo group level, the decision to switch to SAP was made in 2012-2013.

Vilo Rus says that they plan to transfer the Belarusian division of Wilo, which is supervised by the Russian company, to Astra Group products. Businesses in other regions continue to use Wilo group solutions, but, Nikolai Samoilov notes, the German leadership sees a global trend: in a number of regions in local Wilo companies, operating systems and ERP may also change in the future.