Pavel Nagibin, "Is nude": We created this telecommunication holding

Pavel Nagibin: How many times I answer this question, so many time I cannot do without smile. The business birth not strongly differs from the birth of the person: the process which is not too formalized and, especially, has under itself no precise plan. And at first even it seems what just here so turned out. But then, analyzing the solutions and actions, you understand that the birth of the company was predetermined by personal skills and aspirations, desire to make something very important and necessary, support from family.

It is necessary to understand, the modern telecom was born as the industry about twenty years ago. The scale of processes can quite be compared to the birth of such most difficult industries as aircraft construction or automotive industry. Amateur enthusiasts removed outdated state telephony and parastatal Dial-Up/XDSL aside, and from scratch, literally built networks of high-speed access to Internet of "ropes and sticks". Neither knowledge of technologies, nor financing, nor regulation, anything... Complete romanticism.

The considerable number of the present "leaders of the industry" began with several tens subscribers. I managed to be the most directly involved in this process in a position of the cofounder and the technical lead of one of the first "network" operators so, practical experience was more than enough.

"How it is better to make of this experience, understanding", the blog about provider networks was born.

Further everything occurred kind of by itself. But it only at first sight. Literally at the level of feelings there was an understanding that the window of great opportunities opens. "Window" – not "gate". The first commerce - supplies of equipment for providers - was imposed on the blog quite naturally, not so much because of explicit desire to build business, how many in view of existence of knowledge and opportunities and also the strongest request of the market for such activity. It was not any especially profitable case – get to me then the serious advertiser, and, perhaps, I still would work in an operating company, and would write articles only in quality of a hobby. But alas, queue from advertisers did not stand, and it was necessary to advertize own solutions and offers in the blog.

The foundation was laid for business according to the classical scheme of the innovation industries: it is a lot of enthusiasm and not enough money. Seed capital was two hundred dollars - it was enough to purchase the first piece of iron on a foreign flea market, to bring, wash-clean, test and to sell. Everything, as in an old joke:

-  When I was little at me there were 2 cents. I could go to cinema, but I purchased dirty apple, washed it and sold for 4 cents …
  -  And then inherited 100 million dollars?
  -  Alas, it was necessary to buy more and more apples, then to pass to pears and oranges.

Certainly to untwist business processes on "one apple" not so much it is tiresome how many extremely costly on time. It was necessary to refuse to itself in many respects, to reduce personal expenditure to a minimum, literally to the edge of survival. But, thanks to it turnover grew. And still the novelty of the industry and rapid growth of number of its participants helped. The competition in this niche was not felt in principle as everything that was done by enthusiasts, like me, was greedy absorbed by the market in any volumes – that exceptional case when business is capable to drag itself without the credits and investments.

Generally, the industry was born - business was born. And we managed to enter and calculate correctly in it forces for breakthrough when the window of opportunities appeared.

Pavel Nagibin: Now … oh, to tell precisely. If in a few words, then we created this telecommunication holding. First, it is "online megamarket", i.e. the complex supplier of the IT equipment. Secondly, we for a long time the system integrator, with the emphasis on serious, difficult projects, even the draft cost of which is estimated by millions of dollars. Thirdly - the developer and the producer of the Russian equipment, sometimes specific even to world measures. Fourthly, we continue to work actively on an initial, non-commercial mission of the blog (which long ago turned, by the way, in the large industry portal) - we try to help operators and to IT community to be consolidated, give the ideas for development. For this purpose regularly we hold conferences for operators and IT community which bring together many hundreds of specialists from every quarter of Russia.

Such is result of synergy effect of use of natural succession of events in the world of a telecom using our active, creative position when count to "trees" is kept, but we look after all at "forest".

And by the way, it can seem strange, but, actually, it is one of our main headaches. Long time we managed to keep somewhere in the middle, i.e., avoided both transformation into the retailer, and a bias into "heavy" project works. In a niche of solutions for small and average operators who to itself the wholesale consumer and to itself the designer, it is quite real.

But the world changes. Several years as we separated mass b2b-supermarket and the company integrator structurally, inside. But with branding, i.e., - so far we lag behind in the interface seen from outside. But we lag behind consciously as we see how the industry promptly changes and as do, already clear to us, errors, our competitors. A certain pause should provide us understanding how to make the solution which in conditional will not be "day before yesterday" "tomorrow".

The benefit, we can afford it – huge base of partners operators who too "slightly" grew up together with the market, and know our command not on advertizing, and literally "in the person", have with us experience of long-term work – therefore treats our experiments calmly.

Besides, diversification of points of application of efforts allows us not only to feel surely in the conditions of the unstable market, but also to receive the unexpected, and at times and just "explosive" sources of profit which are repeatedly exceeding initial investments. It is possible that so far you read this interview, in a subsoil of our company work on another, still began the undeveloped direction.

Pavel Nagibin: Since we historically grew up from the operator and grew with operators - that we can render a full range of services for operators:

• design;
• commissioning;
• complex supply of equipment from a warehouse in Yekaterinburg, Moscow and several other cities;
• training and consulting.

In principle, it is possible to call all these services system integration which is also demanded also in other markets: corporate and state. customers. Moreover, the interesting paradox - the operator market much more more "advanced", progressive, in comparison with corporate is observed here. So it is newer, is not constrained by the old dogmas and standards commonly accepted by solutions, and other history.

On the one hand, it is complexity - us as strangers, not always traditional customers correctly understand. But with another … as a rule, we can solve the customer's problems quicker, more simply and with smaller costs. The development and production gives additional flexibility, up to joint software developments or barter. Business - as well as life - piece unpredictable, and it is frequent – unexpected.

If to look at a question in general, then "Is nude" it is possible to provide the universal platform capable to completely provide all requests and to solve all problems regarding network technologies, any complexity – whether it be trunks of global operators, access networks of Internet service providers or the internal corporate network of the large company which was geographically distributed on hundreds of localities.

Pavel Nagibin: Here it is possible to select the main directions:

• Ethernet-switches and subscriber equipment (house routers and Set-top boxes).
• Equipment for wavelength division multiplexing and optical transport.
• Base stations, controllers and sensors for Internet of Things of IoT.
• Server hardware and equipment for data processing centers.
• Equipment for creation of engineering infrastructure of DPC.

Development, generally in Yekaterinburg though, at a possibility of effective remote work it is impossible to localize provision of developers precisely geographically. Production capacities regarding electronics, mostly, the Chinese. In Sverdlovsk region we make components of metal and plastic. In Yekaterinburg production and assembly of a part of the subscriber equipment is localized.

It is impossible to tell that we cover all range available to us, it is simply impossible, but we try to occupy key niches. However, plans at us are extensive and if you repeat this question in a year, is sure that I should answer it much as longer.

Pavel Nagibin: We can list the industries, key for us: telecom, industry, retail. Distinctive feature "Is nude" historically there was strong position in the market of alternative telecom operators. With confidence it is possible to tell that thanks to it we are able to work not only with the selected big projects and customers, but also to service thousands of average and small consumers.

The largest customers:

• AYR Telecom.
• Rostelecom.
• Computer trade.
• Jet Infosystems.
• Talmer.
• Stalepromyshlenny company.

Unfortunately, I cannot list some more large players of the telecommunication market with whom for the beginning of May, 2019 there are intensive negotiations. I think, there will pass several months and this list will fairly extend.

Pavel Nagibin: A part of projects under NDA therefore we cannot write openly and in detail about it. Among the most interesting projects it is possible to select:

• Development and production of the Set-top box for one of federal operators BROADBAND ACCESS RUSSIAN FEDERATION. The prefix based on Android also meets all demands which are made to modern TV-platforms.
• Construction DPC for one of Internet service providers in Moscow. Before we were engaged only in container DPCs and it was our first, but not the last experience of construction of stationary DPC.
• Development of devices of monitoring and power management of ATMs for one of systemically important banks of the Russian Federation.
• Production and supply of equipment of wavelength division multiplexing for one of mobile operators of the Russian Federation. The operator suffered a shortage of fibers to base stations, and we applied the CWDM systems of a channel multiplex on its network through the whole country to increase in channel capacity.
• Development and delivery of management systems and reservation of a power supply for one of the largest DPCs in the country. Using our managed blocks of sockets and load switches, the DPC reserves input of a power supply for server racks and manages a power supply of servers.
• Production of the optical equipment for the organization of communication channels for network of data centers in Moscow. More than 300 DWDM channels by total capacitance more than 3 Tbit / are totally installed to page.

Pavel Nagibin: Competitors … if not to affect "normal" sales of b2b, it seems to me, in our sector in the market of Russia not too serious competition. More precisely, the competition, of course, is, but we so competently built business and protected ourselves from the majority of risks that it is difficult to speak about strong contenders who could move us in the market. We look at them rather, as at colleagues with whom it was not succeeded to establish the commercial relations yet.

Especially it is noticeable in a niche of "average" solutions. To Court integrators i.e. concentrated on one big customer, type of Sberbank or Gazprom, this niche is already uninteresting, they it outgrew. And here "get" to this level from scratch, or with opportunities of the small company - very much, very difficult. And it is even almost impossible - there is an abyss which cannot be overcome "on steps". The developed team of professionals in several dozens of people, from developers and designers to assemblers and managers with specific experience is required - it is months, and it is rather years of work without special economic return … only then it is possible to undertake serious projects.

We for years put a considerable part of the profit in this basis, and now we have an opportunity which deprives our many competitors: risk, mastering other directions and also attract a large number of youth in ranks of employees.

Thanks to it, we can quietly enclose huge resources which many companies spend for infinite "wars" with competitors in development and developments of other systems and directions.

Pavel Nagibin: We work practically with all countries of the former USSR. The main part of foreign business is made by EAS countries. The last year we actively develop the market of Africa: we work through partners, we participate in exhibitions. So far it only the beginning: both the market a telecom, and IT several another, but we see demand of our solutions, for example IoT, in the South African market.

There are no operators as in the Russian Federation, any more anywhere (behind an exception, maybe Ukraine). In other countries everything is monopolized and concentrated in hands of two-three of the largest players. Building of broadband access or in general not (everything relies on mobile LTE 3G/-networks or old xDSL/DOCSIS), or is based PON with attraction of financing from the Chinese leaders HuaweiZTE (/).

Therefore we should look for niches in industrial automation, Internet of Things, video surveillance and security systems, or power.

And here again there is important that experience, and that basis about which I already spoke above. We begin to see certain general system trends that we are inherent in telecom industry of this or that country under the guise of seemingly absolutely unique conditions. And we can propose such ideas and solutions that allow our clients to get in other country competitive advantage just because they rely on the passable stages of the same problems in other countries long ago.

Pavel Nagibin: Import substitution – a subject difficult. On the one hand it is clear what the more in the country is made the, the it is more than highly paid jobs, taxes, the standard of living of the region and country is higher. With another - the market of Russia is objectively very small. And network technologies actively develop, there are new protocols and their versions. To adequately implement a network stack independently - the difficult task requiring effort of big development team, testers, network engineers and already created customer base for identification of real problems of users. Any more not that time when users are ready to be beta testers on the network – the competition is too high. In the world there are several commercial organizations which professionally are engaged in development of a legal stack. For the purpose of saving of time, resources and money many global manufacturers of network equipment go the way purchases of already implemented checked program components worldwide. If to do them, then … it is difficult to provide quantity of necessary resources. These are tens if not hundreds of millions dollars - and, without any chances to return them. Whether it is worth it?

So, we try to adhere to common sense - to do what is profitable. At the same time, in department of development at us 18 people, work at assembly - 16 people, in development of software - 14 people. It not really is a lot of, but … it turns out, nearly 20% of our employees are engaged in import substitution.

In many respects, problems with import substitution to me seem in the certain ambivalence occupied by the state, positions., It seems, import substitution, but guarantees is also necessary for business any – only weak promises something good sometime. There will be a distinct appeal of the state with clear support (and can be even – we will dream – and providing) – and our engineers in short terms will be able to develop and substitute practically any product. The price of similar efforts for normal development in actual practice of our market, is disproportionately high, and just will never pay off.

Pavel Nagibin: Cadres are the key to everything. This phrase which was fixed in minds from 30th years of the last century did not lose relevance and until now. People – the most valuable resource of any company working in the field of high technologies. Who does not understand it – just leaves the market. We not just well understand this maxim, but also we consider a personnel problem crucial, and can be – and fundamental.

We have a lot of youth – average age of the employee hardly exceeds a level in 30 years. It is simpler to young people to be guided in huge information streams, they study easier and are more inclined to creative finding solutions to difficult tasks. We take great pain to encourage people in their personal professional growth.

We have communications with profile educational institutions, we regularly invite students to a work practice or just to excursions on office during which we explain the purposes and the mission of the company. We give information and technical support at the organization of the competitions held among students.

Problem with a shortcoming of qualified specialists, we solve the simplest and efficiently: we train new employees. For this purpose in the company there is a specialized division organizing regular training courses for employees. And it is not just a course of lectures – each "student" without fail takes examination. Further, as a rule, those who leave the company for any reasons all the same remain in the industry – i.e. we make the contribution to process of preparation for the Russian telecom.

Pavel Nagibin: I already said earlier that we consider the mission of our company much more widely, than just profit earning. Consolidation of market participants in the questions requiring system approach, saturation of the industry by qualified personnel, aspiration to increase qualification of the average Russian technical specialist force us to look for other formats and methods of communication with all operators of Russia and neighboring countries.

And observing as year by year the audience of each our action grows (KROS in 2019 will accept about 800 participants, "Academy It is nude" – about 300), we understand that the rate is selected correct and that we will not be able to refuse this mission any more, even be at us such desire. However, our desires and requests of the market here wonderfully match and therefore to new seminars, training courses and webinars – to be.

Pavel Nagibin: Technologies are improved, speeds grow, consumption of Internet traffic grows, requirements of corporate IT systems become complicated. There are also other directions in the form of video analytics based on machine learning, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence.

It seems as, not new subjects, hype several years proceed, however real business needs appeared, in our opinion, quite recently. Our current projects to that in confirmation:

• industrial security in power holding based on the systems of video analytics;
• analytics of work of employees and their interaction with visitors in federal network of cellular shops;
• creation of a data collection system based on LoRaWAN technology for the federal telecom operator;
• creation of a control system of the equipment based on LoRaWAN technology for agro-industrial holding.

Difficult, multiefficient, financially expensive subjects. Hardly their mastering will make for us profit from the first, or even the second project. But … there is no other exit. We are obliged to follow modern trends. In general, in IT as it is easy to experience Alice's words from the novel by Lewis Carrol anywhere: it is necessary to run at full speed only to remain on site and somewhere to get, it is necessary to run, at least, twice quicker!