TAdviser interview with SberTech CEO Alisa Melnikova

Alisa Melnikova: We have grown greatly in number, now we have almost 10,000 people. The growth is due to the creation of a new technology platform for Sberbank, which is being implemented as part of the largest IT programs:Unified Front System, Business Development Support Platform and Data Factory. The core of the platform should be ready by the end of 2017, in 2018 active implementations and circulation will begin.

No one solved such a problem in Russia, and in some aspects in the world. Due to the high degree of technological novelty, the program is implemented iteratively, by sequentially approaching the desired result.

Another reason for the growth in numbers is the need to support the current needs of the business in parallel with the creation of a new platform.

Alice Melnikova: For the last 2-3 years, we have been consistently working to improve the development process and reduce its cost.

We quickly coped with the task of increasing the transparency and manageability of the production process. To do this, they identified key checkpoints, and introduced the roles of technologists, analysts, testers and quality control specialists. Due to this, errors are detected at the earliest stages, underperforming applications are not allowed into the industrial landscape.

Another problem is solved longer and more difficult - increasing the speed and efficiency of the development process, which is quite difficult with our number. To do this, we switch to Agile and DevOps, implement a development pipeline using continuous integration and auto testing.

Alice Melnikova: The first wave [1]. The methodology has already covered more than 1,100 SberTech employees. Sberbank created all the conditions for comfortable work, allocated a separate office for agile teams on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, where customers sit next to the developers.

The complexity lies in Sberbank's IT landscape architecture, which consists of hundreds of systems implemented at different times by different teams and companies. We already see the results of the work done - the speed and quality of interaction between the retail business unit and developers has increased. However, the introduction of a new platform should radically change the situation.

Alice Melnikova: Yes, we plan to involve the remaining blocks in the agile transformation by the end of 2017. Except for those projects and systems that are technically unsuitable for this. Basically, this is the area of ​ ​ old cor banking and large monolithic old systems. Several commands are working on modifying one such system, which should jointly issue a single release.

Alice Melnikova: This topic remains in the plans. We do not enter the market until the work on the platform is completed. Only after that, together with Sberbank will it be possible to determine ways of commercialization.

Alice Melnikova: We are not just creating new cor-banking, but we are working on a platform for the ecosystem of the Sberbank Group, which includes both members of the Sberbank group, customers and partners. The options for working with the new platform will be different, from connection through the API, to a separate installation.

Alice Melnikova: Sberbank works with a large number of companies, and with all we work as a single team.

Occasionally, the issue of employee transition arises, but it is typical of our entire market. The level of salaries since the creation of SberTech has leveled off, and now people are switching not because of money, but to interesting tasks and unique experience.

Alisa Melnikova: The ratio of external contractors/SberTech has changed in recent years from 80/20 to 20/80. At the same time, the volume of work on the side of external companies did not fall much. The change in the ratio is associated with an increase in the portfolio of IT projects at Sberbank and, accordingly, an increase in the number of projects at SberTech.

Alice Melnikova: We have two types of sought-after competencies. The first are popular, but not new, such as Java. Developers are not only lacking in SberTech, but generally in the market. To solve this problem, we opened several java schools and courses in Moscow, Innopolis, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don. For example, 137 people have already been trained in Innopolis, of which 65 were hired by Sberbank-Technologies.

We also have a shortage of specialists in new technologies that are used to create the platform: data analysis, machine learning, artificial intelligence. We solve this problem by training our employees and launching external schools. In Moscow, together with Sberbank, the Academy of Technologies and Data was launched on the basis of the Corporate University.

Alisa Melnikova: Sberbank-Technologies is an example of complete import substitution. The technologies that we use are not on the market, and we have to create them for ourselves. We develop the entire applied layer of software in Russia on our own. If we talk about low-level layers, such as operating systems, databases, office applications, SberTech is not developing anything like that. We actively help Sberbank IT services in piloting Russian solutions that appear on the market, but we treat them with caution. We do not have the right to reduce the level of reliability and quality of service to Sberbank's customers. Therefore, we cannot switch to a new technology if it is inferior to what is used now. However, we keep our hands on the pulse and piloting Russian solutions, as well as Linux and PostgreSQL. But it is too early to talk about the transition to the industrial circuit.

Alisa Melnikova: Now you can automate many processes that previously required manual labor. The transition to digital interaction will increase the speed and convenience of using government and commercial services. Banks are now the flagships of this movement. Their experience can and should be replicated in other sectors of the economy.