Information Technology in Alrosa

2023: Donation agreement 100 million rubles for import substitution projects in Yakutia

Over the next three years, Alrosa will allocate 100 million rubles to support innovations and implement projects aimed at import substitution of software (software) - primarily in the diamond mining industry. The corresponding donation agreement was signed by the general director of the Alrosa group Sergei Ivanov and the director of the Innovation Development Fund of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Vasily Efimov in the presence of the Head of the Republic Aysena Nikolaeva. This was announced on January 30, 2023 to TAdviser by representatives of AK Alrosa.

Alrosa will allocate 100 million rubles for import substitution of software in Yakutia

According to them, the funds allocated to the fund during 2023-2025 will be directed to the joint development of software products by the IT companies of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Among the main areas of application of IT solutions are named: geological exploration, production and enrichment, maintenance and repair of equipment, industrial safety, etc. At the same time, the developed software should take into account the current needs of Alros in terms of import substitution.

To implement the agreement, it is planned to form a special Council, which will include representatives of Alrosa and the Innovation Development Fund of Yakutia. Among other things, the Council will approve the list and amount of funding for IT projects, their implementation schedule, technical specifications, etc.

"The signing of this treaty is of huge importance for a number of reasons. First, import substitution in the IT industry is the most important task to ensure the technological sovereignty of our country. And the step that Alrosa is taking in this direction means that the company intends to ensure independence from the development of Western companies, investing forces, time and money in this area of ​ ​ work. And secondly, the involvement of the Republic's Innovation Development Fund in this work will ensure the employment of our developers in not the easiest times for the IT industry, "said the Head of Yakutia, commenting on the signing of the agreement.

According to Sergei Ivanov, Alrosa is implementing several dozen projects in the field of digitalization of production, which cover almost all areas and business processes. Some of the IT solutions are developed and implemented by the specialists of the company itself. At the same time, the need for modern software is growing every year, the growth in production efficiency is increasingly dependent on the implementation of complex software, which, moreover, needs to be adapted to the specifics of mining and specifically Alrosa. This task became even more relevant against the background of the withdrawal of a number of foreign developers from the market.

"At the same time, we see that Yakutia is actively developing the IT direction and has already achieved significant success. The leadership of the republic supports this sector of the economy. The Innovation Development Fund of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is located in the very center of these processes, perfectly knows the specifics of the market, the capabilities of its players. The expertise of the Fund's specialists will help us choose the best projects and the best companies that can quickly and qualitatively help us solve problems in the field of digitalization and replacement of foreign software, "said the general director of AK Alrosa.

2021

Alrosa is completing the centralization of IT in an insourcing company. Its revenue approached a billion rubles

The revenue of Alrosa IT, an insourcing company, in Alrosa 2020 amounted to 964.4 million, rubles according to the data in the database of legal entities "." Contour Focus The company received a net profit of 23.1 million rubles. More. here

Alrosa took up import substitution of IT and realized that reality does not meet expectations

Speaking at the TAdviser conference "Import substitution 2021: real experience" on February 25, the head of the import substitution department of Alrosa IT Irina Anasenko, using the example of Alrosa, spoke about the expectations and reality of the processes of replacing Western solutions with domestic ones in companies with state participation.

The company supports more than 13 thousand workstations, 500 servers, as of February it is implementing more than 70 projects, half of which are aimed at the implementation and development of domestic software.

The speaker spoke about the initial approach to import substitution and its subsequent transformation in practice. The approach was developed on the basis of the results of the analysis of foreign software used in Alrosa and the capabilities of its domestic counterparts. At the same time, all foreign software was conditionally divided into two groups:

• high probability of substitution for a domestic solution within the required time frame with the necessary transition efficiency indicators and managed risks;
• low probability of term substitution with key performance indicators.

Based on the analysis results, a sequential substitution approach was formed, starting with the application software to the base software. The company attributed such software as communication, browsers, ITSM solutions to the application, and the office suite and OS to the base.

Slide from the presentation Irina Anasenko

But in the process of implementing this approach, it was transformed: in practice, application software began to be replaced depending on the degree of its impact on data and infrastructure. The first were to replace systems that do not greatly affect data: BI systems, browsers. Next came ITSM systems, information security applications. And then - communication software and an office suite.

Irina Anasenko also stopped at the unexpected problems that she faced during import substitution. For example, Russian software is not always cheaper than foreign software, the choice of an integrated domestic solution for information security turned out to be difficult, problems arose with the mutual integration of domestic solutions. It also revealed low competition between domestic developers in a number of software classes.

We believed that domestic software would be of comparable cost to foreign or cheaper, - said Irina Anasenko. - There are cases when domestic software is both cheaper and more expensive than foreign software. When carrying out procurement activities, Alrosa works according to 223-FZ, therefore, if foreign and domestic software with the same functionality is submitted to the tender, we choose a cheaper product. And not always the preferences that domestic software has allow you to choose it. Sometimes you have to choose a foreign one.

Slide from the presentation Irina Anasenko

The company also thought that it would be quite easy to replace the information security software, because there are a lot of domestic solutions, and Alrosa and other companies use them. But the complex solution turned out to be more difficult to choose than the company expected, says Irina Anasenko.

We also planned that it would be easy to integrate domestic solutions that are in the register of domestic software, and that it would be easy to choose a target analogue if there is already a set of known potential domestic analogues. But sometimes it turned out to be difficult to choose the most suitable software according to functional requirements. For example, it turned out to be difficult to choose a business process management system, because we did not need expanded functionality, but needed a basic one, - said the head of the import substitution department of Alrosa IT.

In addition, in some cases, Alrosa faced low competition at tenders to choose a contractor to support domestic decisions: only 1-2 participants came to some of them.

Slide from the presentation Irina Anasenko

Irina Anasenko listed the classes of domestic software already implemented in Alrosa: BI-system,, EDMS ERP the level of subsidiaries and affiliates, human resources management,, CRM system, transport logistics industrial safety and a number of others.

In 2021, it is planned to switch to a Russian ITSM product, a web access control system, a project management solution, a DBMS and a PLM system.

In conclusion, Irina Anasenko voiced proposals to stimulate import substitution:

• develop flexible interaction between market participants, betting on dialogue and exchange of experience;
• revision of pricing policy by Russian vendors;
• development of partner networks, interaction with universities;
• buying promising foreign startups;
• consolidation at the federal level of the list of target analogues.

2020: Developing a digital transformation strategy

In November, 2020 the Ministry of Digital Development developed a uniform technique of digital transformation for state companies. Maxim Kadantsev, director of information technology at AK Alrosa, said that this technique formed the basis of the concept of digital transformation being developed at that time in the company.

The set of recommended key performance indicators made it possible to assess the current level of maturity and form an approach to monitoring the development of digitalization in the company, and also presented the basis for benchmarking with other industrial companies, - said Maxim Kadantsev[1] The Ministry of Digital[2].

2019: Digital diamonds: How 'Alrosa' is driving innovation in the age of competition with synthetic stones

Director of the Center for Strategic Projects and Analytics "Alrosa" Dmitry Amelkin told how one of the most traditional industries works with innovations, how to find "princess diamonds" and why synthetic diamonds will never replace real^[3].

IT projects in Alrosa

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