The main trends of the Russian ERP systems market

Main article: Trends in the IT market in Russia

2023-2024: Technological trends in the development of ERP systems

The balance of power in the Russian ERP systems market has changed significantly with the departure of Western vendors. A significant share is occupied by 1C solutions. The rest of the players need time to develop the expertise and software base. But Russian developers have every chance to offer customers competitive solutions.

According to experts, in the future, 3-5 years, Russian decisions will cease to be inferior to their Western counterparts. Already now they are helping to automate the necessary business processes, and the developers are actively working on the development of additional areas, listening to the wishes of customers.

Let's talk about what technological trends in the development of domestic ERP systems are relevant now and will be relevant in the near future.

Development of cloud ERP systems

It is convenient for both developer companies and customers to work in this format, and the systems themselves allow flexible scaling.

Enhance process automation capabilities with integrations of various external services

For example, within the framework of document management, companies configure integrations with banks, public services and other systems that allow you to see the response of an external participant in the internal document management system.

Demand for information security support and testing solutions

This trend is associated with an increase in hacker activity, tightening requirements for the storage of personal data and security aspects.

DBMS migration

In connection with the departure of Microsoft, migration to other DBMS will take place en masse, primarily to PostgreSQL, Postgres Pro. This is a noticeable trend and migration projects are already quite a lot. This transition allows you to ensure complete technological import independence for Russian ERP systems.

The story using Microsoft and Oracle DBMS looks less attractive than free and open Postgres. Therefore, the main trend in the technological stack is to provide an IT infrastructure that business can modernize, scale and change depending on the situation and its goals, - comments Roman Sadrislamov, Head of 1C at Develonika (Softline Group of Companies).

According to the expert, the technological stack of the Russian ERP platform should be as "democratic" as possible and available to business. Customers today prefer open stacks that can be upgraded, add-ons made, and changes made in the future.

We predict a significant increase in the number of implementations of ″ 1C ″ solutions using the Linux operating system and PostgeSQL databases. The exception will be companies that have historically bought many Microsoft licenses for server OS and DBMS, - says Anton Kolosov, commercial director of the Korus Consulting ERP department group.

Promising trends

As trends that are gradually gaining momentum and will actively influence the market in the future, market participants highlight, Big Data(artificial intelligence AI), robotization of processes (), RPA (), analytics systems BI the first attempts to use language models in the business segment.ON

Already, technologies for recognizing and automatically processing primary documents can significantly reduce labor costs when working in ERP. The trend of finding new niches of the use of artificial intelligence both in everyday tasks and in business analytics will continue in the near future.

This is a logical development of the domestic automation market, which over the past 20 years has been systematically moving towards solutions for forecasting and business management.

Unfortunately, many areas released from the Western IT industry are still not covered by domestic technologies and the business community is experiencing problems. But in light of the rapidly changing context of the Russian IT market, these niches will be actively engaged in high-quality and effective Russian solutions in the very near future, with the conscious efforts of our IT community and state support, - said Alexander Pryamonosov, CEO, co-founder of the 1C integrator "WiseAdvice-IT."

According to Dmitry Vasiliev, director for the development of ERP solutions at IBS, the use of new technologies can only be seen at those enterprises where Russian ERP systems originally stood. Forecasting systems and decision-making assistance, elements of artificial intelligence, blockchain, etc., are actively beginning to be completed with them, but so far this concerns a separate industry specificity and is not widespread in the market.

In the coming years, Russian ERP systems will be developed in such a way as to reach the level of replacement of the most general functionality of ERP systems of Western vendors. Domestic developers will focus on compatibility, security, user experience.

Ecosystem platforms that withstand high loads, with rapidly customizable ERP systems and capabilities at the level of foreign analogues, will set the defining market development trend in the next 5-10 years, "predicts Alexey Nesterov, director of ERP solutions at 1C.

The current situation on the market motivates developers to move forward. Of course, domestic software solutions are at different stages of readiness, but the important thing is that there are many promising products. Some will be tested by customers and will earn the choice and trust of users, someone will not stand the competition. We have the opportunity to make decisions of a national scale, which may be even more interesting. Companies with fault-tolerant technology that can be used to create scalable, circulation solutions will become the leaders of the competitive race, "sums up Vladimir Tarasenko, Commercial Director of Consyst Business Group (TURBO).

2022

Specialists of the Russian IT market believe that in 2022 there were no bright trends in the ERP segment, but many trends of previous years received development. Thus, the growth of data in ERP systems began to require attention in terms of building centralized configurations and the performance of end solutions. The role of ERP continues to increase precisely as enterprise management systems, and not as accounting and economic accounting programs. ERP integration with PCS and various third-party specialized services is also ongoing to improve efficiency.

Cloud solutions, technologies based on Big Data, remote implementations - the industry is developing in the context of general technological trends, says Ruslan Suleimanov, commercial director of KomLine. In turn, Alexey Severukhin, director of the project office of the IT company Lad, noticed the spread of technologies that ensure joint development in large project teams, which in previous years was not in demand in most automation projects of Russian enterprises. In addition, the base software is actively replaced, starting from DBMS and operating systems, with localized Open Source.

Alexander Pryamonosov, CEO of WiseAdvice-IT, highlights Big Data, artificial intelligence (AI), robotization of processes (), () as the main trends. RPA analytics systems BI

This is a logical development of the domestic automation market, which over the past 20 years has been systematically moving from solutions for "posthumous" data accounting to solutions for forecasting and business management, - comments Pryamonosov.

Nina Yakobson, founder of Compass-SPB, believes that ERPs in the cloud have become more common. She also notes the arrival in ERP of graphical interfaces, previously characteristic of CRM and BPM systems.

Ilya Nabatov, Production Director of T1 Consulting, believes that the requirements for information security of ERP systems, which contain sensitive commercial information and personal data, are being tightened. Until recently, it was believed that this class of systems is under the protection of a closed circuit, but with the development of a remote work format, new challenges appeared, so the issue of information security is one of the most important.

A number of experts believe that situations where there is no ready-made replacement for SAP and Oracle on the Russian market, customers will look towards a composable ERP architecture, where the company's end-to-end processes will be cut into functionality implemented in different modules, possibly from different suppliers.

We can say that in 30 years the ERP market has made a full circle and returned to its origins - the ERP system is again not monolithic, various parts are connected by interfaces, fortunately, modern microservice architecture greatly facilitates the task, - said Dmitry, senior partner of the Digital Economy League. - With regard to the current market situation, this means that companies do not need to completely replace SAP or Oracle, they can take individual functional areas and transfer them to Russian solutions within the framework of the general component architecture.

ERP systems have ceased to be perceived as a separate monolithic product, agrees Roman Prikhodchenko, Dynamics 365 & Power Platform Lead of Navicon. He says that customers have begun to choose more often in favor of a set of services, where ERP is a separate functional unit that works closely with other software. Work in such ecosystems is carried out in a single information environment, where data, ERP, CRM and other business applications, business analytics, cloud services and teamwork tools are combined. Additional business applications, connected if necessary, help companies optimize work with customers and suppliers, more efficiently conduct financial and operational activities, and manage personnel. This approach gives customers a comprehensive approach to enterprise management. Roman Prikhodchenko also highlights the possibility of expanding the functionality of ERP systems using Low-code tools.

2020 - 2021

Among the most current trends of recent times for the Russian ERP systems market, three should be mentioned: the development of the cloud direction, the replacement of foreign solutions with domestic counterparts and the faster implementation of projects. It was about these trends at the end of 2020 that domestic experts spoke most often. Let's talk about them and other trends in more detail.

More confidence in ERP in the cloud

2020 showed how the familiar world can change in a moment. In this situation, interaction becomes digital, and the speed of business transformation increases. In this regard, the cloud trend has reached a new level.

According to Alexander Ermakov, managing partner of Awara IT, the spontaneously increased use of clouds contributed to rapid adaptation to new conditions: large volumes of video conferencing, new formats of business. Cloud development has made it possible to provide this amount of traffic with adequate support and storage without effort from customers. This also applies to ERP.

For example, the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central enterprise management system from the Microsoft Azure cloud fully covers all the company's business processes and allows you to prepare the opening of a new branch in 10 minutes, explains Alexander Ermakov.

Andrei Filatov, CEO of SAP CIS, adds that for several years his company actively promoted the ideas of cloud business applications to the market, and in 2020 customers themselves began to make requests for their cloud placement. After all, cloud technologies are the most effective means of solving the problems caused by the coronavirus crisis, he says, noting that companies need ready-made solutions, they do not want to spend time and investment on long-term implementations and development of SOWs.

At different stages, SAP recorded a kind of demand swing: customers' attention from serious infrastructure solutions moved to separate SaaS and PaaS solutions that allow them to benefit here and now, stimulating the work of enterprises in a crisis, Filatov explains.

Today, new technologies such as AI, ML, IoT, RPA, Process Mining are increasingly integrating with the digital core, ERP systems of enterprises, and end-to-end processes determine business efficiency. In this regard, the demand for intelligent cloud ERP will only increase and cover not only AHO, but also production processes and industry specifics. That is why we are now actively transferring our customers to our new SAP S/HANA ERP. It contains all the possibilities for a speedy transition to the concept of an intelligent enterprise and integration with various services, "says an SAP CIS expert.

Konstantin Smirnov, commercial director of the Korus Consulting ERP department group, notes that Russia already has examples of creating a single IT ecosystem based on cloud platforms.

Our project for Aquaphor is one of the first implementations of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations cloud ERP system in the country. The solution will help the company build a centralized IT infrastructure for end-to-end management of logistics and production processes, he said.

In general, the attitude towards cloud versions of ERP systems has become more trusting, says Sergey Osipov, vice president of GMCS. This also applies to conservative companies. And the driver here was a massive transition to remote work.

But the growth of cloud technologies in Russia is slower than in the world market, adds Konstantin Smirnov. Firstly, domestic companies still have a habit of customizing ERP systems. Everyone understands that a solution with typical functionality includes the best world practices, it is easier to develop and maintain it, nevertheless, often when implementing a project, there is a need for customization.

Secondly, Russian companies feel business risks, because the infrastructure of world vendors is located in the West.

Cloud technologies are mainly interested in customers planning to enter the international market, or owners of foreign capital, says Konstantin Smirnov.

Difficult import substitution

The main trend of today, which very significantly influenced the Russian ERP market in 2020, is import substitution. Many state-owned companies have launched the process of switching from foreign software to Russian.

The priority of domestic products and services in general is growing. Against the background of global precedents, there is also a growing understanding of the importance of import substitution not only in the infrastructure and public sector, but also in IT, "says Vladimir Egorov, Head of TURBO (Consist of Business Group).

The process of replacing foreign software will last several more years, says Andrei Zhilin, project manager of the ERP systems department of Force - Development Center (Force Group FORS Group). However, in some cases, according to him, such a transition is extremely difficult or impossible. He names three main barriers: the limited functionality in Russian ERPs, their insufficient performance with complete automation of the entire production (for example, on explosion tasks) and the cost of such migration.

Suppliers of Russian systems try to bring their product as quickly as possible to the level of competitiveness with leading foreign solutions, and customers and integrators, in turn, try to solve possible problems by customizing their systems. Sometimes switching from a foreign ERP system to a Russian one can cost the company too much and be financially disastrous. But more often than not. Therefore, in each individual case, a detailed study, calculation of the cost of migration and the expected economic effect are necessary. In other words, the work of consultants on the project is required, - says the expert "Force."

Yuri Vostrikov, commercial director of Norbit, adds that the regulator's requirements for the predominant use of Russian software in companies with state participation lead to an increase in the popularity of 1C both for automating individual processes (for example, document management) and for complex implementation projects. At the same time, the share of Microsoft and Oracle, according to him, is significantly decreasing, but SAP has so far managed to maintain its position in the market due to the greater importance of the Russian market for the vendor and the presence of a large base of large customers.

Accelerating projects

Market conditions are changing very quickly. Customers are not ready to wait many months for a decision. Time-to-market comes to the fore, that is, how quickly the solution is ready to enter a real project.

Minimizing time to market is a trend, the earlier the system is launched, the better. If the TA is written for more than 3 months, it can be thrown into the basket. Customers began to worry less about the cost of the solution. The system is being implemented and changed continuously, this is an investment in a flexible stack, - notes Alexander Ermakov, Managing Partner of Awara IT.

Mikhail Ponomarev, head of Navicon's ERP division, adds that due to instability, some companies are not ready for long-term system implementation. After all, while the project is underway, business requests can change greatly under the influence of both internal and external factors.

As an integrator, it is important for us to adapt the capabilities of the selected ERP system to the rapidly changing customer requirements. From this point of view, the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ecosystem positions itself well, in which users can connect new modules and tools as needed, as well as develop their own business applications based on the Power Platform. Also, iterative development contributes to the implementation of high-quality projects in a shorter time, and we see interest in this methodology on the market, "says Mikhail Ponomarev.

The expert of the company "Force - Development Center" Andrei Zhilin also speaks about the acceleration of projects. According to him, if earlier projects could last 5 years, now this is out of the question. Projects are handed over almost "from the wheels," the agile approach is actively used, because it allows you to get the result as quickly as possible, flexibly adjusting the system during its creation.

Now the result, even the most minimal, even in the form of 2-3 functions operating in test mode should be visible a few months after the start of the project, - he explains.

However, with all the popularity and wonderful reviews of agile methods, not all Russian companies are ready to fully trust this approach, says Andrei Zhilin. The fact here is that literature and trainings on agile methods do not sometimes take into account the legal and accounting realities of project activities. For example, at the very beginning, neither the customer nor the contractor understands how to legally formalize the agile project.

How to indicate the "flexible" development within the framework of the contract, how to stipulate in legal terms that over time and depending on the situation in the company or on the market situation, the framework, timing and cost of work can be changed? How to enter into the contract the so-called backlog, user-story, priority of tasks in the backlog, sprints, the role of scrum-master, its powers and the powers of the product owner? These questions repel decision makers from launching projects to implement ERP systems using the agile method. At the moment, there is an opinion in the professional environment that agile methods are more suitable for developing software on the vendor's side or for supporting and modifying already implemented software, he notes.

Simplifying ERP systems Integration

One of the important trends that experts talk about is the simplification of the integration of an ERP system into a single IT ecosystem of the company. Previously, this was often custom development, but now the capabilities of new versions of platforms allow customers to implement integration using only their resources.

The transition to new versions of ERP systems is largely a consequence of this trend, - said Mikhail Ponomarev, head of the ERP division of Navicon. - Some of our customers this year have made such an upgrade to get more modern integration opportunities.

In addition, the extensive integration capabilities of most modern ERP platforms allow you to implement projects not in the form of the implementation of a "monolithic system," but as a set of modules, a number of microservices, as well as numerous integrations with other components of the enterprise's IT ecosystem (data storage, analytical systems, RPA, optimization and forecasting systems, ML/AI services). Moreover, it matters less and less whether the systems and services with which the ERP solution is integrated are located in the cloud or work locally.

Looking into the future, speaking of the trends of 2021, we should expect the expansion of the capabilities of ERP systems through integration with artificial intelligence. Such systems are also called iERP (Intelligent ERP), their use allows you to automate complex business processes using intelligent data processing methods, "says Sergey Osipov, Vice President of GMCS.

Adaptation for "remote"

Alexander Niznik, CEO of Novardis, believes that notable trends include all the technologies and directions that companies were forced to quickly adapt as a result of the pandemic. These are personnel mobility, remote work capabilities, data security, and tools for distributed team work.

Evgeny Gribkov, head of the Razdolye Exhibition Center, says that if earlier it was a tribute to fashion, now, in a pandemic, this is the task of enterprise survival - enterprises will be able to reorganize their processes so that they work as a distributed team - it will exist further, will not be able to close.

I do not think that the story with COVID-19 will end before 2022, so the long remote work of most of the personnel who are not directly involved in production processes is an objective reality. Modern ERP systems are already ready for such work, it remains to implement them correctly. And here we will again return to the problem of organizational changes in the business. Therefore, the main technological trend of 2020-2022 is to change or close, - says Evgeny Gribkov.

Other trends

Andrey Filatov, CEO of SAP CIS, is among the trends in changing customer requests regarding the functionality of ERP systems. According to him, companies are already requesting the provision of information to counterparties directly from the internal ERP system, for example, through the "client's office." That is, the customer gets access to information about calculations. This reduces the cost and time of routine operations, and was previously impossible due to the long preliminary preparation and verification. In addition, the set of indicators that management wants to see in real time is expanding. If earlier these were mainly shipments and revenue, now they are increasingly looking at costs and intermediate P&L, says an SAP CIS expert.

Vladimir Egorov, Head of TURBO at Consyst Business Group, refers to trends in the distributed nature of collective work and business processes that have not previously left one production site.

ERP is increasingly becoming not a monolith, but a hub in the business information system, he says.

In addition, according to him, the undoubted technological trend in the Russian ERP market is interfaces and services for external consumers.

Retail competes in online sales, fintech companies (technology companies, financial institutions and infrastructure players) build super applications, and all this requires advanced interfaces for demanding retail customers, and best practices are transferred to business, the expert explains.

GMCS Vice President Sergei Osipov calls another trend - a change in the architecture of ERP platforms, within which there is a transition to the implementation of modifications and improvements through the "extensions" mechanism. He notes that most vendors offer the ability to change or increase the standard functionality of solutions, but the "dark" side of this has long been the problem of "portability" of improvements and modifications made during the implementation to the new version of the basic ERP platform. Now the architecture of solutions of leading suppliers, including Microsoft Dynamics, allows you to implement design improvements as special "extensions," which makes the process of switching to new software versions minimal labor-intensive, and in some cases automatic.

Evgeny Gribkov, head of the Razdolye Exhibition Center, talks about two more trends. The first is related to the centralization of automation projects in holding structures.

If earlier each plant initiated its own project for the implementation of an ERP system, now these tasks are often taken over by management companies, or centralized IT units created with them, which develop uniform corporate templates at pilot enterprises, which are then planned to be put into circulation at other enterprises of the holding. This approach is due, in part, to the desire to save money, in part, to the desire to standardize accounting processes at subsidiaries, in part, as a result, to unsuccessful automation projects at individual plants. The approach is generally correct, but requires project teams of the highest level, which, first of all, will be able to creatively rethink the business processes of all enterprises and determine some uniform rules of the game, and then create a single technical solution is an extremely difficult task, - he clarifies.

The next trend is the active involvement of consulting companies in automation projects. As Yevgeny Gribkov notes, the ERP system implementation project is primarily a business reorganization task, and only then a technical task.

This is the market niche that has not yet been filled and here you can even wait for the appearance of Russian consulting companies on the scale of the big four - after all, most of our customers of ERP systems are tied to the defense industry, and this is the area where access to foreigners is limited. This will certainly not happen quickly, but the direction of movement has been set and the previous trend with the centralization of projects for the implementation of ERP systems will only stimulate and feed resources, the expert explains.

2016 - 2017

Import substitution

The vector for import substitution leads companies towards Russian ERPs. The demand for domestic solutions of this class is growing and this is noticed by many market participants.

Of course, within the framework of the import substitution program, the demand for solutions based on 1C and other domestic technologies has sharply increased, "Semyon Danilov, director of the corporate solutions department, told TAdviser. IBS

Products such as Mirapolis, Galactica, 1C have recently been gaining momentum and attracting new customers to their products, competing with Western counterparts, "added Andrey Li, Director of Human Resources Systems at I-Teco

1C has become fashionable, says Artem Padeisky, director of strategic marketing at Prof-IT Group. In particular, he notes an increase in the number of 1C solutions being implemented when automating large companies and largest holdings.

Sergei Petrov, a member of the board of Galactica Corporation, says that after the state turned to the priority use of domestic software products for a long time, customers and IT companies were in "standby mode" in matters of implementing this policy. Making a decision to replace Western software that is already in use is a serious issue related to investments already made.

Today, gradually large companies began the transition from Western systems to Russian ones. This applies to both migration from already implemented solutions, and the choice in favor of domestic systems in the implementation of new automation tasks. We note these trends in the market as a whole and directly on projects that have started on Galaxy products recently, "he said.

According to Dmitry Potapov, partner, director of the ERP block of AT Consulting, import substitution, of course, concerns the public sector, as well as companies with state participation. But non-state enterprises, according to him, began to increasingly look towards Russian decisions.

A new impetus to import substitution was given by the President's message to the Federal Assembly at the end of 2016, when the IT industry was named a priority area of ​ ​ development for the first time at the state level, Potapov said.

Ivan Fedorov, director of the ERP department of Korus Consulting Group, also says that the trend of import substitution is clearly felt in the public sector and large corporations. At the same time, he notes that many projects were initiated only because of the change of systems to domestic analogues.

Roman Dzvinko, executive director of the SPC BusinessAutomatics, sees the main trend of the ERP market as a transition from boxed proprietary solutions to open technologies or solutions from domestic manufacturers.

If a couple of years ago companies sought to implement ERP solutions from SAP, Oracle and other foreign vendors, then, at the moment, companies are considering primarily Russian solutions or open source. If these solutions are not suitable for them for some reason, then companies are ready to even start developing information systems themselves, while the cost of such a development can be 2-3 times the budget comparable to the implementation of a ready-made solution from a foreign vendor. This increase in demand for domestic ERP solutions allows us to develop our own Visari-ERP platform, taking into account the trends and challenges that Russian companies face exclusively. We are engaged in ERP systems primarily for Russian companies, taking into account the specifics of work in our country, - noted Roman Dzvinko.</cite></span>

Alexey Kazarezov, Director of the Center for Information Technologies and Consulting of Parus Corporation, talks about the continuation of work on import substitution of ERP systems using non-standard DBMS.

<cite>All participants in the import substitution process strive to minimize the risks of unnecessary costs for replacing the existing IT infrastructure and losses in the performance of ERP systems as a result of IT restructuring, the likelihood of which is high in the absence of a wide choice of non-import-dependent DBMS of the Oracle level. Currently, Sail ensures that the performance of its systems on PostgreSQL is preserved, comparable to their performance on Oracle, and the ease of switching customers to non-proprietary DBMS. To do this, we have developed a fully functional universal Oracle database converter in PostgreSQL. It allows you to quickly and losslessly convert all database objects to PostgreSQL, including user experience. Taking into account the enormous amount of operational data from the customers of our solutions, this is an important condition for their painless transition to non-proprietary software, "a representative of Parus Corporation explained in a conversation with TAdviser.</cite>

Clouds

As around the world, ERP in Russia is moving from a model of ownership to a model of service consumption.

<cite>With the growing ERP demand from mid-sized businesses, private clouds gave way to hybrid and then SaaS models. According to a survey by the research agency Panorama Consulting, in 2016, 21% fewer businesses than in 2015 connected to private cloud ERPs. At the same time, the demand for Solution SaaS increased by 10%. Now all the largest vendors of ERP solutions, such as SAP or Microsoft, rely on cloud products, create a cloud ecosystem for their users, and specifically for Russia - create their own data centers for storing data in the country, - Roman Konovalov, CEO of ID Management Technology, told TAdviser.</cite>

Dmitry Potapov, partner, director of the ERP block of AT Consulting, believes that the transition from buying iron and licenses to renting licenses using the SaaS (software as a service) model is just the first step. This is followed by BaaS (business as a service) or, in other words, outsourcing entire functional areas of accounting, payroll, logistics, etc.

<cite>Automation of basic ERP processes is becoming a commodity of mass consumption, the choice of the solution by the client is increasingly made at a price. And the best price can be given by companies that specialize in a specific process, provide outsourcing services for business processes, "Potapov added. </cite>

The President Borlas of Alexey Ananyin "" calls the cloud implementation of ERP a very complex and multifaceted topic. In his opinion, in Russia, the transition of ERP to clouds as a trend has not yet gained enough strength to push the market.

<cite>It is probably necessary for several more years that we reach a decent pace and the process takes on a massive character, - he said</cite>

Read more about what holds back the "claudization" of the Russian ERP market, what ERP functionality is most in demand among customers and how it is possible to grow in the mature market of ERP systems in an interview with the president of the Borlas group Alexei Ananyin.

Post-ERP

One of the key trends in the ERP market in 2016-2017 is the transition to a stage that market participants conditionally call "post-ERP."

<cite>Following the needs of the business, after the implementation of the functional core of ERP - accounting loop, planning loop, corporate reporting, which has already been done for many, companies are moving to the implementation of functionality to improve their main activities. Each industry and each company within this industry has its own unique operational processes and there can be no universal solutions here. In this paradigm, we can say that we have moved to the post-ERP stage, and interest has shifted from basic systems to deeper process automation and specialized applications, [1] "said Alexey Ananyin, president of the Borlas group, in an interview with TAdviser .</cite>

Roman Konovalov, General Director of ID Management Technology, recalled that in the early 2000s there was a stage of active implementation of ERP as the main accounting and transactional system in organizations, and today the vast majority of large companies have either completely completed this process or are at the last design stage.

<cite>At that time, the business was only learning to work effectively with data and manage its business using IT. Many customers expected the "magic wand" effect from ERP. But it did not happen: the introduction of ERP systems turned out to be quite expensive, the projects were long-term and resource-intensive. At the same time, the complete manufacturability and autonomy of the work of employees, which the managers dreamed of, was not achieved, - said Konovalov.</cite>

Over the next 15 years, the amount of data has grown tenfold, and the business has faced new tasks related not only to taking into account current operations, but also to their analysis, planning according to various scenarios, and more efficient use of existing assets and resources. Therefore, there was customer interest in solutions that would improve or "complete" the ERP infrastructure and extract new value from the data accumulated in it.

<cite>These are solutions that allow you to integrate ERP functionality with client analytics systems CRM (), analytical solutions (), BI digital content management systems (), ECM smart data visualization tools based on machine learning, "continued Roman Konovalov. - These organizations, from all sources, are collected in a single repository - a kind of "IT ecosystem" is created within the company, which allows you to manage any information without switching between systems and interfaces. As well as evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of employees at each level of the company and subordinate the work of individual departments (for example, Customer Service) to the overall strategic goal of the enterprise. It is to solve these problems that Microsoft, for example, in 2016 presented a comprehensive solution that Microsoft Dynamics 365 combined ERP, CRM, BI modules in the cloud. Azure</cite>

Growing interest in open source solutions

A number of Russian experts talk about the growing interest of customers in open source solutions.

<cite>The introduction of free software systems allows customers to save on license payments to vendors. In addition, the possibility of developing and improving open source software is interesting - especially for those customers who have specific needs, - said Roman Konovalov, General Director of ID Management Technology.</cite>

Automation of Production Control Processes

In 2016-2017, the task of automating production management processes and implementing ERP systems that can link production operations with enterprise resources and ensure an increase in efficiency indicators was urgent for defense industry and civil engineering enterprises.

Management of production activities in mechanical engineering, according to Parus Corporation, is automated at 5% of enterprises.

"It is objectively more difficult to automate the main activity than the financial and economic one. Therefore, examples of successful implementation of such projects are rare and in the industry, this task remains one of the strategic trends, "said Alexey Kazarezov, director of the Center for Information Technologies and Consulting Corporation" Parus. "

The main difficulty lies in the large volumes of production and technical NSI and operational production accounting data, which can amount to tens of millions of records per month.

"Processing these amounts of information is possible only on the basis of very powerful software with high speed and scalability. Parus has become such software for many large industrial enterprises. In particular, the Tractor Plants (KTZ MIG) concern at Parus automated production planning, part accounting, workshop logistics, order-based cost accounting, procurement planning, operational scheduling at the workshop level, in Votkinsky Zavod JSC - batch accounting of the movement of detail assemblies in 30 workshops of the main production, - said Kazarezov.

The Russian industry is still lagging behind banks and telecom in terms of automation, but it is already significantly narrowing the gap with leading industries, said Sergei Petrov, a member of the board of Galactica Corporation. In his opinion, the ERP systems market will receive significant development due to an increase in the level of automation of the Russian industry.

ERP integration with smart devices and Industry 4.0

Enterprises have become more interested in integrating ERP with smart devices: IoT sensors, wearable electronics and mobile devices of employees, including mobile and sales personnel.

<cite>Connecting network equipment to ERP allows you to generate and analyze more data, for example, about the state and load of production equipment, the situation in warehouses, transport logistics. As a result, control over production processes, trade and logistics chains becomes more transparent, - said Roman Konovalov, General Director of ID Management Technology.</cite>

Alexey Kazarezov from the Parus Corporation calls the integration of endpoints with ERP systems an important direction in the development of informatization of the Russian industry. According to him, as a result of such integration in the production process, the influence of the human factor is reduced. As an example, he cites a project in the company "High Technologies."

<cite>In OJSC "High Technologies," we have tested and propose for replication at other engineering enterprises the organization of electronic interaction of the operational planning and accounting system "Parus" with automated warehouse rack systems, laser and needle marking systems. This allows you to control all movements of the tool and tooling, leads to a reduction in the time required to provide workers with the tool and tooling during the work shift. Integration with the information racks installed in the workshops is also implemented in order to control the workers of their development and load planning. We predict in the future a large-scale deployment of IIoT technologies, - Alexey Kazarezov told TAdviser.</cite>

Dmitry Potapov from AT Consulting also mentions the concept of Industry 4.0 or, as it is also called, the fourth industrial revolution.

<cite>Production is becoming more intelligent, with various automated devices generating more and more information. The task of the ERP system is to help use this data to make optimal decisions in the company online. I believe that such innovations as the Internet of Things, machine learning, blockchain will quickly become part of the ERP, "he said.</cite>

Large-scale ERP implementations

Another trend noticed by some participants is the recovery of the market in the field of large-scale projects for the implementation of ERP systems.

So, Semyon Danilov, director of the corporate solutions department, IBS told TAdviser that in 2017, several large companies started large-scale ERP programs at once.

<cite>Since such programs usually last more than one year, this will have a significant impact on the market in subsequent periods. At the same time, a steady demand for consulting in the development of ERP solutions continues, "he explained.</cite>

Product trends

Some market participants highlight trends in the implementation of specific products. So, Yuri Vostrikov, commercial director of Norbit, in part 1C observes a trend towards the implementation of the 1C: Corporation solution (1C:ERP + "1C: Holding Management" + "1C: Document Flow"). As a rule, this is a transition from previous solutions 1C (1S:UPP and 1C: Consolidation).

In the 1C-Bitrix part, he observes a trend towards using this framework for building Unified Customer Accounts. In Microsoft Dynamics AX, Norbit sees a significantly increasing interest in the Dynamics 365 solution both in the cloud and in the local implementation.

In terms of SAP, according to Yuri Vostrikov, recently the leaders are the idea of ​ ​ building integrated planning systems and the implementation of forecast modules based on the SAP product line, especially from companies with locations in Central Asia.

Alexander Niznik, CEO of Novardis, notes the start of the mass implementation of the S4/HANA (ERP solution of the latest generation from SAP) on new projects. According to him, in-memory solutions are becoming massive.

<cite>The reason is that the cost of RAM is steadily falling, which allows you to store the entire set of operating data directly in memory, thereby increasing the speed of their processing many times, "he explained.</cite>

Other trends

Among other trends, market participants highlight an increase in demand for industry ERP solutions that take into account the specifics of enterprises and the continuation of the transition from "patchwork automation" to single solutions (platforms). This, in particular, says Artem Padeisky, director of strategic marketing at Prof-IT Group.

Ivan Fedorov, Director of the ERP Department of Korus Consulting Group, says that like all recent years, customers in the Russian IT market expect a quick result from the implementation of IT systems, while the business result is calculated in advance and the decision to start projects is made on the basis of costs and expected benefits.

<cite>Taking into account the deadlines and budgets, the implemented IT solutions no longer try to fit into the logic of the existing accounting system by any means, but, rather, integrate them with each other. That is why the domestic market has recently offered so many solutions of both well-known vendors and startups that allow you to point out the issues of forecasting, optimization of supply chains or very narrow zones, such as integration with social networks, - said Fedorov.</cite>

Andrey Li, Director of the Human Resources Systems Department at I-Teco, cites cloud solutions, mobile services and applications that allow user interaction, and Big Data technologies as trends.

Denis Kosenkov, vice president of consulting at Columbus Russia & CIS, speaking of trends, highlights a shift from accounting functions (in many companies these tasks have already been solved) to tasks for data analysis, planning and management of the company's main activities. In addition, he attributes restrictions on the purchase of foreign software by state-owned companies to the trends of the domestic ERP market.

2015 - 2016

Import substitution

The main trend of the Russian ERP market, as a year ago, is import substitution. Most of the companies participating in the market, one way or another mention this process among the main trends of recent years.

Thus, Dmitry Chernykh, Chairman of the Board of Galactica Corporation, believes that trends in import substitution contribute to an increase in interest in the market for the development of complex solutions - from DBMS, operating systems to ERP-class systems - from large Russian IT companies.

<cite>Some companies, including large ones, are forced to revise their policies on the use and development of IT infrastructure based on foreign software. Due to fluctuations in the exchange rate and a sharp rise in the cost of projects, they began testing Russian products in order to decide on a complete or partial transition to their use, says a representative of the Galactica Corporation.</cite>

In addition, Dmitry Chernykh recalls the strengthening of the legislative framework to limit purchases of foreign software:

<cite>In particular, new directives appear to amend the procurement provisions for state corporations. In this regard, the largest state-owned companies are forced to analyze the effectiveness of using Western software and revise their IT strategies.</cite>

Many enterprises have carried out an inventory of software, determined how optimal the costs of their maintenance are, to what extent IT products meet the needs of the enterprise in terms of ensuring the security of the information infrastructure as a whole, says Alexey Nesterov, director of ERP solutions at 1C. This, he said, played a positive role in terms of promoting domestic developments in the market.

<cite>I know more than 20 precedents for switching only from "heavy" foreign ERP systems to "1S:UPP" and "1C:ERP," this is not counting many failures from "light" foreign ERP systems. The reason for the transition in the vast majority of cases was the cost-effective implementation and maintenance of our solution and greater flexibility when it is necessary to adapt the product to business changes. We observe that enterprises often do not want to adapt to the so-called "best practices" imposed by Western solutions, but not very suitable in Russian conditions. Taking the motto of the moment "change or die," they are increasingly interested in quickly restructuring their business processes in accordance with the requirements of the new economic reality - and this requires adaptive, flexible ERP systems, to which enterprises have now begun to switch more actively, says Nesterov.</cite>

The latest state initiatives are also called upon to strengthen the process of transition to Russian solutions in state-owned companies. First of all, this concerns the government decree, approved in September 2016, on the priority of domestic goods and services when making purchases in companies with state participation.

Maxim Andreev, director of business applications at CROC, connects the dominant role of the import substitution trend with the current market situation. In his opinion, this is facilitated by the fact that the main IT budgets are now in the state and near the state sector of the economy.

Alexey Deryabin, Development Director of EnergoDat, among the main market trends, names the processes of import substitution and optimization of the foreign software license portfolio, including the costs of its technical support.

ERP and Clouds

Another important trend that ERP market participants have often talked about in recent years is cloud solutions.

<cite>Cloud infrastructure and a full-fledged web client are the main technological requirements for a modern ERP system, - said Ivan Fedorov, director of the ERP department of KORUS Consulting Group.</cite>

This trend is explained simply. First, clouds help save money, and in difficult economic conditions, this opportunity is especially relevant. And secondly, the convenience of use due to the fact that access to the system can be obtained from almost anywhere where the Internet is available.

Yuri Prikhodko, Head of the Implementation and Consulting Projects Department of Gandalf Group, talks about cloud solutions as the main trend:

<cite>The fact is that migration to the clouds allows you to optimize costs, which is especially important in a crisis. Enterprise managers take control of financial flows, and at the same time save on the implementation, configuration and support of systems. And even medium-sized businesses that have not previously considered ERP management solutions can afford cloud models. The demand for cloud technologies is also growing because they are modern and easy to use. To work in the system, you only need access to the Internet, and the supplier is responsible for its performance.</cite>

The need for automation of resource planning within the framework of public administration

The need for automation of systems for resource planning in Russian business has been manifested for a very long time. Large companies have almost completely closed this need and are now developing their systems in the direction of CSRP (Customer Synchronized Resources Planning). But the formation of the ERP market for public administration began only a couple of years ago.

As noted in the "Corporation" Parus, "the emergence of the need for automation of resource planning within the framework of public administration can already be called the most interesting trend in the development of the Russian ERP market as a whole since 2015. At the same time, the public sector seriously differs from all other sectors of the economy and the very specifics of resource management and the prerequisites for demand for automation.

<cite>The authorities do not have enough understanding that without clear resource planning, it is impossible to improve the efficiency of budget management. The demand for relevant IT tools in the public sector began to form only after the emergence of various regulatory legal acts enshrining new approaches to planning - in fact, a resource management model. Specific laws now put the public sector precisely on the path of resource management. Previously, the authorities planned estimates and financed their subordinate network, now they must calculate the volume and cost of the public services provided, and therefore cost standards, taking into account all types of resources, form tasks and ensure the effectiveness of the provision of services as a ratio of quality to costs. Exactly as in business, in public administration now you need to plan programs, that is, the main activity, ensure their implementation with maximum financial efficiency, for which you need to optimize the use of all types of resources and have reliable information about actual costs, "says Mikhail Burdukovsky, Deputy Head of Marketing and Analysis Department of Parus Corporation.</cite>

Of course, crisis phenomena seriously limited the development of the ERP market for the public sector, aggravated the phased nature of the creation of automated resource management systems in the authorities (although most Russian companies introduce ERP stages, often with long interruptions). At the same time, according to Mikhail Burdukovsky, the requirements for Russian systems for automation of public administration are sharply increasing.

<cite>From the point of view of functionality, the ERP system for the authority, obviously, should automate program-targeted planning and management of all types of state resources: finances, personnel, property and material and technical base, - says the expert of the corporation "Parus."</cite>

Demand for ERP in the defense industry

Financed Russian defense industry enterprises are currently forming a significant demand in the ERP market. This situation in a certain way revives this segment, in which there have been few new large-scale projects in recent years, and even those were more related to modernization and technical support.

<cite>This definitely gives a second chance for Russian manufacturers of ERP solutions with the ability to gain a foothold in a market where foreign manufacturers have dominated for quite a few years, says Maxim Andreev.</cite>

<cite>Defense industry enterprises are another segment that has become a promising niche for the introduction of integrated management systems, adds Dmitry Chernykh.</cite>

Mikhail Burdukovsky, notes that defense industry enterprises, with an increase in production and the need to develop new weapons, began to "supplement" their information systems, automating production management and R&D.

Automation of production management processes at the holding level

Another area of ​ ​ development of ERP systems determines new priorities in approaches to automating the activities of holding structures.

As Dmitry Chernykh from the Galactica corporation notes, now an increasing number of customers are considering automation in terms of production management processes at the holding level.

<cite>This is necessary to manage the construction of production networks, organize synchronous deliveries of products for dozens of enterprises and redistribute orders, and identify underutilized enterprises. I cannot but note that the Galaxy corporation is directly involved in the formation of this trend. We were the first on the Russian market to form this idea and present a product for managing the cooperative production of products. "Galaxy" has developed a methodology for its application and has already completed a pilot project with one of the major Russian companies, "says Chernykh.</cite>

Industry ERPs

Currently, solutions "sharpened" for specific industries are relevant.

Alexey Zherikov, director of the MicrosoftDynamics AX department at Norbit, notes an increase in requests from the market for M&R and Commercial Real Estate Management solutions. In turn, Dmitry Chernykh speaks of a great attention to specialized solutions in the power, chemical and oil and gas industries (for example, MR, Reliability Management).

"ERP of the postmodern era"

ERP is no longer a luxury, not an outlandish novelty and not a panacea for all the problems of the enterprise. According to Alexei Ivanov, commercial director of Informcontact, the failures and disappointments of many ERP projects are due to the fact that the system soon after implementation became "out of shape" for the enterprise, but it was too long and expensive to "adjust" it.

In his opinion, now a new approach is on the agenda - the creation of an "ERP of the postmodern era" - more flexible systems that tightly cover all aspects of the enterprise's activities, including through the use of transparent integration mechanisms with solutions of other classes. In addition, today solutions are required that will grow behind the enterprise, quickly implement and bring results, allowing you to recoup investments, the expert believes.

Integration of corporate systems with fiscal services

Over the past 6 years, there have been a number of changes in the state's fiscal policy, for example, insurance premiums have gradually increased. Observing the actions of the state, we can conclude that over the past few years there has been a lot of work to improve the quality of tax collection. This is the mandatory delivery of VAT in electronic form from January 1, 2015 and the form of 6-NDFL from 2016, tightening control over alcohol excise taxes - EGAIS, exchange of legally significant electronic documents.

<cite>All these changes would not have been possible without appropriate technical equipment. Accordingly, now we have a number of services provided by the tax service. The most popular are the ability to automatically enter counterparties by TIN and the ability to submit reports directly from the information system. The modern corporate system should have integration with the described services, - said Dmitry Moroshkin, head of the sales department of the 1C: Franchising department of SoftBalance Group of Companies</cite>

Unified Information Space

Enterprise automation covers a large number of sections - this is workflow and MES-system, management of design documentation and engineering data, a system of consolidated financial management, project management, etc. ERP systems cannot always cover all sections and companies are forced to use separate systems to automate specialized tasks.

At the same time, users want to work in the same system, and not switch between programs.

<cite>Modern technical means make it possible to implement seamless integration between different products. As a result, the user works in one program (or in one interface) without feeling the gaps between products, - explains Dmitry Moroshkin, head of the sales department of the 1C: Franchising department of SoftBalance Group of Companies.</cite>

2014 - 2015

Interest in import substitution

The trend towards import substitution, according to the TAdviser Report, has not yet had a significant impact on the Russian market for ERP systems, however, customer interest in domestic software has clearly increased. The most popular Russian products will be in the oil and gas industry and mechanical engineering. In addition, from January 1, 2016, the real demand for domestic ERP systems should increase in connection with the entry into force of the federal law on preferences for Russian software in the public sector.

200px 'Mikhail Nelkin, Partner, AT Consulting, ERP Practice Director

"Both customers and large integrators began to pay more attention to Russian developments, and the software manufacturers themselves have become significantly more active. The call [for import substitution] is also very effective, "confirms Mikhail Nelkin, partner at AT Consulting, director of ERP practice

.

In his opinion, in the future, domestic ERP systems will be able to replace foreign ones: "The potential of our developers is very high, and the current situation has given a powerful impetus to the development of domestic products. Naturally, the longest Russian ERP systems will take the path to the largest companies, most of which, regardless of the industry, have already implemented ERP systems for themselves and are unlikely to decide to replace them. But growing companies that are moving from the mid-sized business segment to a large one will remain on Russian systems or consider their implementation. "

Maxim Andreev, director of business applications at CROC, also speaks about the growing interest in Russian ERP: "Customers are increasingly interested in ERP solutions from Russian manufacturers. In particular, among the latest projects of CROC are two major implementations of 1C systems for accounting and cash flow management in aircraft and oil companies. "

Maykor-GMCS sees interest in highly specialized solutions of Russian development in various fields, but primarily in the production and industrial industries. "Here demand is stimulated by the state, which has set the task of increasing the competitiveness of domestic products and gradually replacing them with Western ones," says Ekaterina Voropaeva, President of Maykor-GMCS.

At the same time, if the company considers the possibility of entering the IPO market or selling the business to a foreign partner, then it will most likely choose a foreign product, because there is higher investor confidence in it. "The point is not that our ERP developments are worse or better, but what is the ultimate goal of the company. Only the business goal forms the need to choose a local or foreign ERP, "says Konstantin Bukhanov, CEO of Skyrise.

"Foreign ERPs dominate companies with foreign participation. In addition, the share of foreign ERPs in monopolies companies is also significant, and there is no need to expect sharp movements in course change, "he adds

.

Even in the public sector, the introduction of foreign ERPs did not stop. "We are implementing SAP products (solutions for business analytics and project portfolio management) in a number of governments in Russian regions," says Oleg Muratov, director of consulting at AFM Consulting. At the same time, commercial companies, according to his observations, are still trying to choose the most functional solutions, and these are not always domestic products.

Elena Starynina, business analyst at Custis, agrees with the latest statement. According to her, among private companies, import substitution has not acquired gigantic proportions, despite forecasts.

"Large companies that have already started projects to implement imported systems are in no hurry to abandon them. Many made adjustments to strategic plans: if earlier they included the purchase of an imported system, then it was most likely postponed. And in 2015, the noise about import substitution subsided. Large companies with varying degrees of detail and corrosiveness prepared possible scenarios of import substitution, carefully looked at the Russian market, noting who they would cooperate with if necessary, and stopped in thoughtfulness and waiting for the budget, "Starynina notes, adding that for large companies import substitution is manifested so far mainly in very close attention to the possibilities of Russian custom development.

"However, there is no conviction of the full functionality of Russian ERP systems yet. That is why the matter did not go further than close attention, since even the project for the implementation of the finished ERP system, not to mention its custom development, is a strategic long-term investment project, and companies are now massively claiming that they are not up to strategy, and are concentrating on the short and medium term. "

As for small companies, according to Elena Starynina, they previously could hardly afford imported ERP solutions. At the same time, "the increased cost of ownership of an imported ERP system (which was already high) for small companies led to the fact that in behind-the-scenes discussions the opinion" 1C is our everything "is gaining more and more popularity.

The fact that import substitution has not yet had a significant impact on the market is also said in the Galactica corporation. According to Olesya Lachugina, head of marketing at Galactica, "at the beginning of the year, certain expectations were related to the topic of import substitution, but now it is becoming clear that focusing on Russian products can lead to a significant redistribution of market shares no earlier than 5 years."

Alexey Petrushov, vice president of the Galactica Corporation, adds that import substitution is a painful procedure and should be carried out smoothly. "It is easy to remove the Western ERP system at the enterprise - the question is how to minimize risks and preserve the investments already made in automation. We believe that we need to build a threat model, prioritize and build a roadmap for import substitution. This is a way to avoid large simultaneous costs. We isolate the production circuit that needs to be protected. Business processes for the production of final products at most enterprises are not automated, so you can use domestic solutions, integrating them with the existing information environment, and gradually move on. Complete import substitution in our area is work for years, not months. "

If we talk about some intermediate results, then according to the vice-president of the Galaxy, they are not the most rosy: "Objectively, there are several reasons for this:

• It was stated: "We must import substitution." And how to do it, and who should do it - not defined;
• Not everything can be replaced today. There is a lack of technology and techniques;
• For import substitution, significant money is also needed. And in the country difficulties. "

"Retrofitting" of already implemented ERP systems

The difficult economic situation in the country, which led to a reduction in IT budgets, led to the fact that many companies began to "squeeze" to the maximum from investments made, including in ERP systems.

According to Elena Starynina, a business analyst at Custis, at the end of 2014 and in 2015 there was a tendency to "add" the capabilities of ERP systems.

"The concentration on savings, the desire to improve business efficiency, combined with the desire to get the maximum possible effect from the money spent, became an engine of accomplishment. ERP systems in a sense were lucky - they were always considered as an investment in IT, but for a long time the players in the market were limited only to partial implementation of individual loops, and the use of functionality was incomplete. Against the background of the crisis, the management of companies and business greatly increased the pressure on IT divisions (and those, in turn, on contractors) and began to "squeeze" everything possible from investments made, including in ERP systems. In a situation where the need to buy any new IT system is considered "under the microscope," the unused capabilities of existing systems are more readily mastered, they are adjusted to obtain additional functionality. Such "booster" implementations are not new projects and often do not significantly increase the income of IT companies, "says a representative of Custis

.

Andrei Li, Director of the Human Resources Systems Department of Witte Consulting (I-Teco Group of Companies), says the same: "2014 was marked by a crisis that primarily affected small projects. At the moment, customers continue to reduce costs, so the development of the segment is more likely towards cost optimization through already used solutions "

Demand for highly specialized functions

Another trend identified by TAdviser is the change in demand of large corporate customers from ERP systems as a whole to individual solutions that close private functional areas.

According to Oleg Muratov, director of consulting at AFM Consulting, most customers have already implemented the basic functionality of ERP systems (automation of financial, logistics and production functions), and now demand has shifted to solutions that perform narrow, specialized functions. "The focus of our clients has shifted to solutions for portfolio and project program management, contract management, quality management, business analytics, etc.," he adds.

Olesya Lachugina from "Galaxy" agrees with him. In particular, she notes that the ERP market has been saturated over the past three years and any large enterprise in one form or another has already automated key functional areas of administrative and economic activities. "Now narrow tasks are in demand and because the products for managing production enterprises from all vendors are based on a modular architecture, the market is following the path of closing individual tasks - there is a tendency to divide large projects into independent functional parts."

Friendly ERP interfaces

Constantly growing with new functionality, ERP systems are becoming more complex. This leads to difficulties in expanding, increasing the cost of support, and they begin to suffer from the lack of flexibility so demanded by modern companies. In response, the developers are trying to simplify the user interface of the system towards a more friendly and convenient one.

"We can be said to be getting closer

to the intuition of social media. And more and more functions are becoming available from mobile devices, "says Azat Nizamov, Deputy General Director of SAP CIS.

Daniil Vorlchev, a consultant analyst at Custis, also notes the need for business clients in understandable interfaces. "With the growing popularity of beautiful and convenient interfaces that can be customized in B2C services, the need for such interfaces for business users is also steadily growing. Despite the complexity of ERP systems, the client wants to see a simple and easy-to-use interface. Given the high cost of ERP systems for the customer and high competition, suppliers begin to improve the products and services offered by changing interfaces. "

Adaptation of systems to legal requirements

Talking about ERP market trends, some integrators talk about adapting systems to the requirements of legislation. Thus, Awara IT Solutions CEO Yuri Shumakov notes the growing desire of systems to meet the changing requirements of tax accounting: "In 2015, all organizations had to submit tax returns in electronic form. Russian developers and many Western ERP systems suppliers have prepared an update package for active versions in a timely manner. "

In addition, according to him, in the light of the law entering into force on September 1 of this year, the protection of personal data is one of the cornerstones for international organizations operating in Russia and accounting for the unified ERP system. "Over the past year, companies and their IT partners have designed and implemented solutions that do not contradict the law and allow them not to lose the benefits of using a centralized accounting system," Shumakov notes.

Also, adaptation to legislative requirements was called one of the drivers of the ERP market and in Bauer Media referring to the support of regulated documents and the prompt response to changes.

Customer maturity

According to a number of system integrators who are implementing ERP systems, a very noticeable recent trend has been an increase in the level of maturity of customers who are actively moving from implementing basic accounting scenarios to solving more specific business problems.

In addition, as noted by Pavel Zavgorodny, key customer manager at Parma-Telecom (part of the ITPS group of companies), many customers realized the need for serious preparatory work before implementing ERP systems, which, in particular, includes competent construction of budgeting processes and maintaining regulatory reference information at the enterprise.

"Customers understand the importance of processing not only structured data, which is the basic task of a transactional system, but also involving unstructured data (enterprise content) in the process - such as financial, contractual, design and technical documentation - using ECM-class systems, in particular, OpenText solutions, closely integrated with other business applications," says Zavgorodny.

Daniil Vynlchev from Custis has a similar opinion. "Customers who are in the process of choosing ERP systems have begun to pay more attention to studying the services offered. They have become more aware of what they need, how ERP can help their business in the long term. In such a situation, suppliers have to not only demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed ERP systems, but also show a personal approach to each customer, "he notes.

ERP Transformation

Market participants - both vendors and integrators - are increasingly talking about ERP transformation. Alexander Rakhmanov, General Director of KORUS Consulting Group, in particular, notes that the very concept of ERP has undergone significant changes. "Now ERP is not perceived, as before, as the only enterprise system, but it is still considered the core of the entire information environment, it is the concentration of master data."

According to him, manufacturers continue to invest in the development of ERP: systems are functionally filled, switching to new infrastructure technologies, modules are added that allow automating work with specific processes (for example, in the field of logistics management or e-commerce).

Anton Chekhonin, General Director of Norbit (Lanit Group of Companies), notes that "the transformation of ERP today is moving towards unification and, accordingly, reducing the cost of the main blocks of business processes, as more and more customers of the middle segment request" best practices, "realizing that they are expensive, and there is no need to invent their own bike.

"Of course, in Russia ERP is still a rather expensive pleasure that quite large companies can afford. However, with the trend of development of industry "package" solutions, the ERP system becomes available to medium-sized businesses, "says Chekhonin

.

Azat Nizamov, Deputy General Director of SAP CIS, speaking about the transformation of ERP, notes that now there is close integration with business networks of counterparties. "The advantages are obvious - without leaving the usual system, you can find out information about the availability of the necessary equipment from suppliers, analyze the availability of employees in the market with the required qualifications, and much more."

Mikhail Nelkin, partner at AT Consulting, director of ERP practice, also notes the increasing interest of clients in solutions in the field of advanced customer-supplier interaction. "This combines both the areas of SRM solutions and logistics and procurement, and interaction can be at the level of a supplier-customer pair, as well as within the entire supply chain. At the moment, there is no comprehensive solution that would meet all the requirements of customers, I really hope that soon we will be able to offer it, work on this is already actively underway. "

Maxim Andreev, director of business applications at CROC, also talks about integration with partners.

"The business has been

increasingly demanding integration with external partners and customers over the past few years. Thus, the "sales management" module has already grown into a whole class of customer service systems - CRM. Procurement and warehouse management is now only a small part of the huge SCM (Supply Chain Management) block, which allows companies to more efficiently manage logistics based on information that lies far beyond the classical accounting system. And modern BI tools allow users far from IT to work efficiently with data. After all, ERP is a storehouse of actual data. Therefore, the business benefits obtained from ERP systems using modern analytical tools are quite high. "

According to Yuri Shumakov, CEO of Awara IT Solutions, recently there has been a tendency to include in the standard delivery of an ERP system not only a mechanism for keeping track of the organization's resources, but also a tool for data analysis. "For example, in MicrosoftDynamics AX, such a tool is predefined OLAP cubes, whose data can be viewed and analyzed in Microsoft Excel without involving developers," Shumakov notes.

Yuri Prikhodko, Head of the Implementation and Consulting Projects Department of Gandalf Group of Companies, says that together with the 1C:ERP Enterprise Management 2.0, 1C solution, he offers his clients useful services for electronic document management, cloud data archiving, counterparty verification and others. "In the complex, ERP and services organize a system that allows the manager to control all processes, resources, assets, activities of employees, be sure of the safety of data."

Interest in cloud ERP

Despite the fact that the developers talk about the demand for cloud ERP systems, according to TAdviser observations, one can only assert the interest of customers. There is no massive transition to the "clouds" yet.

The main concerns of customers are related to data security issues. And not all integrators are yet ready to provide such services. But all this applies primarily to big business.

"According to

our data, the cloud ERP sector is gaining momentum more and more. One of the problems so far is data security. But this problem has already been resolved. Our company has allocated an additional resource to support cloud solutions, and we are successfully implementing this type of service. First of all, this is due to the cost of the solution and the speed of its deployment. We already see very great market interest in this sector of solutions and we are one of the few who have rebuilt internal processes to provide high-quality service, "says Konstantin Bukhanov, CEO of Skyrise.

The use of cloud technologies is called a strategic direction in Maykor-GMCS, pointing to the prevailing economic conditions and global trends in the IT market. The integrator is on the path to moving their solutions to the cloud. "There will be a large and complex work on transferring solutions to the cloud, organizing effective interaction with hosting providers, restructuring internal production processes. Today, some of our solutions are already available to customers in the cloud, and we are working to transfer a number of solutions to the cloud by the end of 2015, "says Ekaterina Voropaeva, President of Maykor-GMCS.

In turn, Mikhail Nelkin from AT Consulting notes that large businesses have not yet sought to bring the data of their ERP systems into the clouds. Similar data are provided by Andrey Li, Director of the Human Resources Systems Department at Witte Consulting (I-Teco Group of Companies). According to him, despite the fact that cloud services are gaining popularity in the ERP market, not all customers are ready to transfer their data "to the side."

But in addition to security issues, there is also a question of expediency. Daniil Vorlchev from Custis explains that only companies that install the system for the first time, or those for which the time has come to update the existing version, are ready for cloud ERP. "Replacing with a cloud alternative to a newly implemented system is not warranted. For some time, this will be a kind of brake on the development of the segment of cloud ERP systems, "he said.

In the segment of small and medium-sized businesses, experts note the active development of "cloud" ERP and partner offers. "ERP-class systems no longer mean many years of implementation and a complex infrastructure that is beyond the reach of small companies. The use of "cloud" infrastructure solutions offered, as well as the purchase of ERP licenses by subscription, allows you to start using the ERP system without capital investments at the expense of operating funds, which undoubtedly contributes to business growth, reaching a new level, such opportunities for growth simply did not exist 5 years ago, "- said Yuri Shumakov, CEO, Awara IT Solutions.

Maxim Andreev, director of business applications at CROC, speaks of the growing interest in cloud ERP solutions in the form of SaaS services for accounting and financial reporting: "Such systems are relevant for the most part among small and medium-sized businesses."

Growing popularity of mobile functionality

The mobile functionality of ERP systems is gaining popularity in Russia. Business users need the ability to access current information not only in the office. They want to have access to various reports and see the level of performance of key indicators not only from a corporate laptop, but also from a mobile phone or tablet on the road, at negotiations or conferences.

According to Yuri Shumakov of Awara IT Solutions, web clients and client applications for tablets, phones and other devices with which ERP manufacturers complement their systems allow offering new forms of interaction to customers and partners, as well as accelerating supply chain processes.

AT Consulting also notes the increased popularity of mobile functionality of ERP systems. "If we talk about our experience, and we work mainly with large corporate clients, then mobile functionality is really gaining popularity - analytical reports and tools are submitted to mobile devices for approval by heads of key operations in business processes," says Mikhail Nelkin.

Mark Samoilovich, head of Sage ERP X3 practice at Energy Consulting Group, sees a similar trend: "Now there is an increasing need for mobile applications for business. The system should allow you to manage an enterprise from anywhere in the world, wherever a person is. This is a new reality: in order to have time a lot and at the same time, you need to be mobile and not sit in one place. And the system should allow a person to be not tied to the place of its installation and provide all the necessary convenient tools for solving everyday tasks. "

Representatives of Parma-Telecom (part of the ITPS group of companies), an SAP partner, also speak about the active use of mobile devices in the business. Pavel Zavgorodny, Key Customer Manager at Parma-Telecom, in particular, gives an example of a recently completed project to implement mobile logistics management solutions for one of the largest oil and gas customers.

"Mobile functionality is rapidly gaining popularity, perhaps because often key persons of the company see convenience in accessing systems from mobile devices, and approval of the costs of introducing such capabilities is faster," sums up Daniil Vynlchev from Custis.

2013 - 2014

Market saturation and competition

By 2014, the Russian market for automated enterprise resource management systems reached maturity: in one volume or another, most medium-sized and large business companies already use ERP systems. All suppliers and implementation companies interviewed by TAdviser, without exception, noted a sharp decrease in the demand for ERP products in 2012-2014. Potential demand exists among SMBs, but instability in the global economy and foreign policy does not add enthusiasm to investment in long-term IT projects.

According to the chairman of the board of the corporation Galactica"," Dmitry Chernykh competition between suppliers in the ERP system market is Russia very high. "

Many companies in fact blocked certain segments of the market from competitors: where" "has been used for a long time, it is 1C very difficult to break through to the Galaxy, and where Galaxy has good positions, there is little chance," SAP he said.

In order to abandon a working system in favor of some other, the enterprise must have very good reasons. Therefore, the struggle is mainly for new customers and for projects to expand the functionality of existing solutions. Only redistribution of the market is possible, but this process is not fast, Dmitry Chernykh believes.

Tight Project Finance Framework

Another significant trend for the market ERP- systems Russia in - is the desire of customers to reduce the cost of implementing and owning enterprise resource management systems. Experts 1C told TAdviser that at the same time, customers of ERP systems, although there is a very clear return on the implementation, a certain economic effect.

To achieve these goals, various means are used: replacing the ERP system with a more "economical" one (due to royalties and lower support costs), implementing ERP in stages (allows you to split a large-scale project into slightly cheaper ones). In addition, to achieve a visible economic effect, customers are striving to expand the scope of ERP application, apply modern production management methods, and switch to electronic document management. For the same reasons, ERP suppliers note an increase in the popularity of industry solutions that minimize the enterprise's costs for the implementation project due to the availability of pre-developed functionality for management and accounting in accordance with the requirements of the specifics of the relevant industry, they say in 1C.

Mark Samoilovich, Head of the Sage ERP X3 Projects Directorate of Energy Consulting Group, believes that while maintaining project budgets at the level of previous years or reducing budgets, there is an increase in the functional requests of customers to ERP systems. "The time

for huge IT budgets has passed. Now in the SMB segment, customers increasingly want to get a good ready-made solution for minimal means, "he said

.

Platforms are half operational

ERP systems are one of the most complex products among business systems in terms of functionality, usually platforms include at least a dozen units that automate all key areas of the company's activities, from human resources department to production sites and warehouses. This leads to the fact that projects in which full functionality is used 100% are very rare.

IT companies surveyed by TAdviser estimate the percentage of ERP functions involved in the average statistical company at 30-50%. Moreover, the efficiency of a platform fully installed by one customer may be very low, also not exceeding 30-40%.

1C In they say that the most often implemented contours include, distribution production and. finance Least often, according to 1C experts, such a functional block as salary and personnel is used. "

This is due to the fact that often companies either have various wage accounting schemes, or already keep records using a specialized application, as a rule, of domestic development. And this is true, because Western systems are quite difficult to maintain and localize for personnel workflow and payroll in, "the Russia company explained.

It is quite rare among functional blocks of ERP systems in Russia to use product planning (Production Planning - PP), quality management (Quality Management - QM), extended warehouse management (Extended Warehouse Management - EWM), management supply chains (Supply Chain Management -), SCM as well as management of property funds and assets, cost management, weak use of corporate resource management functions.

Narrow functionality is in demand

Experts say that much greater results allow achieving the modules acquired for specific tasks, here the efficiency can already be up to 70-80%, said Dmitry Chernykh, chairman of the board of the Galactica corporation. That is why ERP supplier companies and implementers fix the attention of customers to solving using automated systems of narrow tasks.

More and more popular are: the organization of repair activities, operational production management, management by goals, noted in. 1C, Efim Fish Director of Business Development, Microsoft Dynamics AX Tops Consulting added that these can also be tasks such as cash management (treasury), accounting IFRS for and so on.

There is a difference in how ERP systems are used in various industries. So, according to Efim Fish, in the industrial segment, as a rule, customers actively use production modules, MR, logistics, finance, many in a single system manage and personnel.

"At the same time, the overall level of penetration/use of functionality is on average small. Many companies still perceive ERP as an accounting system, "he concluded

. Dmitry Chernykh, Chairman of the Board of Galactica Corporation, told TAdviser that his company has created solutions that solve a narrowly specialized task for enterprises in a certain industry and at the same time integrates well with a variety of ERP systems. For example, there are MRO modules in ERP systems Galactica"" and, SAP ERP but an enterprise using such a universal solution needs a more powerful property and asset management system that includes repair and maintenance functions. "

We created such a solution," "Galaktika EAM and it went well in a variety of organizations that do not necessarily use the Galaktika ERP," he shared his experience.

Such work goes in five directions, but so far in addition to the above, only one more is revealed to the Galaxy - the Advanced Manufacturing Management Galaxy (planning and management of the life cycle of production, supply chains and R&D in discrete production).

Cloud and Mobile Development

See also: Cloud ERP systems

See also: ERP on the tablet screen

The development of [[Cloud ERP systems|cloud the ERP solutions segment]] is a logical consequence of the desire of customers to access the capabilities of automated enterprise resource management systems for less money.

"Customers expect that the ERP system will be flexible and will allow them to fulfill their requirements and wishes. As options when considering ERP, the demand for web interfaces and mobile applications for ERP has intensified. The demand for cloud ERP is slowly beginning to grow, "said Efim Fish, director of business development at MicrosoftDynamics AX TOPS Consulting

.

The number of offers to access the 1C platform from the cloud is growing quite quickly on the Russian market; numerous franchisees of the company are developing such opportunities. IT companies note that the demand for such solutions mainly forms medium and small businesses. As for the solutions of Western vendors, while their use from the cloud is limited by a narrow range of projects.

In the field of mobile access, most of the largest ERP systems vendors on the Russian market either already offer appropriate clients for mobile platforms, or are preparing their imminent release as, for example, Galactica.

See also

• ERP Overview
• Enterprise Management Systems (Russian ERP Market)
• Geography of ERP projects