Inspur Russia

History

2020: Localization of production in Russia

On May 15, 2020 localization of production of servers and storage systems of the American Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and the Chinese Inspur knew. As the partner of the company selected the NVision Group system integrator entering into group of MTS. Read more here.

2015

The business development strategy in Russia

In September, 2015 within the partner conference in Moscow the representatives of Inspur shared plans for business development in Russia. The company noted that this market is for it very important.Andrey Kovalyov at the beginning of September appointed the CEO of Inspur in Russia told TAdviser that in five-year perspective his company wants to appear in the three of the leading suppliers of servers in the local market.

As of September Inspur offers in Russia a product line, the including mid-range servers with different number of sockets and in different form factors, several models of DWH, a high-end 8-processor server of the last generation TS860 and also TS K1 mainframe based on the Intel processors Itanium. Further, in process of strengthening of a brand in the market, Inspur is going to expand the product portfolio here.

In Russia Inspur is going to work only through partners, declare in the company, and one of priorities sees building of a partner network. As of September Inspur established partnership from about 10 large system integrators among which –Croc and I-Teco and also with several distributors.

Andrey Kovalyov was appointed the CEO of Inspur Russia in September

Andrey Kovalyov noted that Inspur begins the activity in Russia as vendor – from deliveries of systems, however in the long term sees himself not just solution provider and also the system integrator. He explained TAdviser that in this case this is not about creation of integratorsky business: "Inspur is not going to take away bread from the partners". It is about transfer of the examination to partners in projects: "we want to participate in projects at those stages which will be crucial for our partners, to help them, for example, at the stage proof-of-concept or "dokruchivat" of the solution that they conformed to requirements of the customer", Kovalyov told TAdviser.

According to the president of Inspur in Russia Chi Chuanyyu, the local strategy of the company includes several key directions. One of them – localization of production of the solutions, first of all, servers. At the same time Inspur considers options of both creation of own production site, and production organization based on the joint venture with the Russian partners. In addition to servers in the long term the speech can go also about localization of production of the Inspur PC in Russia, add to the companies.

One more direction - delivery of supercomputers. The president of Inspur in Russia reminded that his company is the leading supplier of supercomputers in the People's Republic of China. Based on its solutions the system holding the first place of rating of Top-500 of the most powerful computers of the world is constructed. In a conversation with Chi Chuanyyu's TAdviser noted that Inspur already has a successful experience of development of supercomputer business and outside China: for example, in Saudi Arabia and the USA therefore it decided to try to come into this segment and in Russia.

Andrey Kovalyov added that before coming to the first projects in this segment, his companies at first should be proved in the Russian market and to gain trust as the supplier of servers.

As one more strategic direction of work of Inspur in Russia Chi Chuanyyu designates creation of laboratories with the Russian partners for joint studying cloud computing both regarding the hardware, and in the field of software.

Plans of Inspur in Russia include also expansion of the local state. As of September its number is small, Andrey Kovalyov says, preferring not to specify absolute number of employees, however already now the company conducts hiring of new personnel. Chi Chuanyyu told TAdviser that at active business development in five-year perspective the number of their state can be 100-200 people.

Representatives of the company did not answer a question of TAdviser of the amount of the planned investments into development of the Russian business. According to them, as of fall Inspur develops business plan, providing several options of investment volume depending on different factors and different scenarios of development of economic country situation.

Inspur calculates that 70-year experience in the native market and the world markets will contribute to the development of its business in Russia, examination on development and a full stroke of production of IT systems – beginning from the chip and finishing software and also support from Russian authorities. The company reminded that in July, 2015 at an exhibition Innoprom the prime minister Dmitry Medvedev during visit of the Inspur stand noted that "it is necessary to join in in every possible way Inspur in the Russian market".

One more important factor contributing to business development in Russia in Inspur call lower prices of the solutions in comparison with solutions of large western suppliers. The representative of Inspur gave TAdviser data that the cost of their systems can differ very much depending on configurations and requirements of the customer, however on average they cost cheaper western for 10-15%.

Besides, Inspur is controlled by the Chinese state, and state support allows it to offer to customers flexible terms on payment, for example, long payments by installments, Andrey Kovalyov noted in a conversation with TAdviser. Work in Russia should be promoted also by a course towards replacement of solutions of the western producers with solutions of Asian and Russian suppliers in connection with sanctions risks, expect in Inspur.

The first customers

Andrey Kovalyov told TAdviser that as of September the company in Russia already has customers provided, mainly, by the large state organizations. Their names in Inspur do not open yet. The main demand in this sector, according to Kovalyov, is observed on solution mid-range.

"For today public sector, perhaps, is the most interesting to a fast input on the Russian market. There is money, and that approach about which I spoke earlier is relevant for these customers: when we offer payment by installments on long term. Besides, our solutions in a public sector are especially relevant against the background of an issue of import substitution", - he says.

According to Kovalyov, also the organizations of the financial sector are in solutions of Inspur actively interested, however, being rather conservative, the companies in this sphere consider the Inspur equipment under auxiliary applications so far, and for the crucial systems treat their use with care so far. One of steps for business development in the banking sector was testing of the solution, joint with Diasoft, under industry problems of the financial sector which showed that the solutions Inspur can be used under certain classes of tasks here, Andrey Kovalyov added.

New partners: Croc, Marvel and Merlion

In the first quarter 2015 the Chinese Inspur, successfully competing with IBM and HP in the native market, got three new large partners in Russia: the companies became them Merlion, Marvel Distribution and Croc. From the first two Inspur signed the distribution agreement in February. At this Merlion the status of "the platinum partner" was given. According to representatives of Merlion, it received it for the account of the developed partner network, logistic opportunities of world level and due to existence of serious resources for testing of IT solutions.

The partnership agreement about Croc was signed in March. The integrator notes that thanks to this cooperation it will be able to replace the similar systems of the American or European origin within some projects if it is demanded by customers against the background of other alternatives offered by the company.

"In general on the market we see drop in sales of "iron" at the level of 10-20%. The American producers in addition sink because of sanctions. Against the background of it we note increase in interest of customers in equipment suppliers of the non American origin", - the associate director of department of computing systems Croc Andrey Tyshchenko told TAdviser.

The Inspur server (a photo - TAdviser)

He added that more interest of the solution Inspur is attracted of a public sector, but there are also requests from the commercial organizations: as of March Croc studies the offer, for example, for telecommunication company and retail chain stores.

In the short term Croc is ready to perform deliveries, integration and maintenance of a line of servers of h86-architecture and storage systems of the corporate level, speak in the company. Tyshchenko told TAdviser that his company tested the products Inspur and came to a conclusion that its solutions in data storage area and the X86 servers of architecture are a worthy alternative to the American products.

It should be noted that at the beginning of 2014 IBM suspended cooperation about Croc^[1]. As then it was reported, the company lost an opportunity to buy the new equipment from IBM, but saved access to a warehouse of spare parts.

In further Inspur and Croc consider the possibility to increase partnership at the expense of solutions on information security, the systems of the class big data and mainframes. At the same time believe in Croc that in the short term of Inspur will not be able to compete with mainframes and the heavy RISC equipment of the American producers: "So far the solutions Inspur did not even out on technologies of ensuring continuous work. Also there are yet not enough certifications on compatibility with other equipment and the commercial software and examples of successful implementations and long operation", Andrey Tyshchenko told TAdviser.

In the presentations for clients and partners of Inspur puts the mainframe in one row with the American producers

In March the representative of Inspur at the international exhibition told TAdviser that the company is interested in further expansion of a local partner network and looks for new partners among the large Russian companies. According to him, to start Inspur is going to strengthen the positions in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and then, in process of growth of local business, to develop a partner network and in regions. It also provided data that in the native market in China Inspur has more than 2 thousand partners.

The representative of Inspur also noted that the company sees the economic situation which developed in Russia as very favorable for business development in the country. Inspur invests huge amounts of money in research and development to turn out the innovation products therefore from the technology point of view of its solution can make a worthy alternative to solutions of the American vendors, he believes. Besides, the solutions Inspur are cheaper than the American servers, the representative of the company added.

2014

Opening of local representation

In August, 2014 Inspur registered Inspur Russia subsidiary company in Moscow. Its authorized capital is 10 thousand rubles, and as the founder the "subsidiary" of Inspur registered in Hong Kong - Inspur Overseas Investment and Development company acts.

Industry accessory of the company according to RCEAP includes production electro- and radioelements, the television and radio-transmitting equipment, the equipment for acceptance, record and a sound playback and images, wholesale by office appliances and the equipment and some other.

The CEO Inspur Russia at the time of creation of the company became the vice president of Inspur Chi Chuanyyu.

Registration of home company in Russia was preceded by studying Inspur of the local market and establishing cooperation with the local companies and the authorities. So, for example, in 2012 the representatives of Inspur visited the Ryazan region for the purpose of sales research in the territory of the region of the large investment project on creation of IT production and the center of cloud computing.

The minister of informatization and communication of Tatarstan Roman Shaykhutdinov and Chi Chuanyyu during the visit to Kazan.

In 2014 the Far East company Navikom which offered to the market the product line of the company including two - four - eight-processor servers of rack execution, a blade-system and high-performance server solutions based on 32 processors became the official distributor of Inspur in Russia.

A partner of Inspur in Russia also is already the BARS Group which is based in Tatarstan, and at the beginning of 2014 Chi Chuanyyu came to Tatarstan where met the minister of informatization and communication of the republic Roman Shaykhutdinov and visited the Kazan IT park.

In August, 2014 during the official visit of delegation Russian the head of department Nikolai Nikiforov declared to the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media to China interest of Russia to expand purchases of servers and DWH in China, and, in turn, to increase deliveries of software to China. In the end of the meeting agreements on cooperation of Inspur were signed with a number of the Russian enterprises working in the field of IT.

Plans for deployment of local production

In September, 2014 I-Teco announced obtaining the partner status Inspur and powers of the dealer of the Chinese company in Russia. It agrees to the agreement on cooperation signed by the companies, I-Teco acquires the right to sale of a full range of solutions Inspur in the domestic market, including high-power Unix - and Linux system and corporate DWH.

In addition to joint promotion of complexes, partners will deliver servers of standard architecture and storage system of Inspur for domestic customers and also are going to organize local assembly of the equipment of the Chinese vendor in the territory of Russia. Information on what equipment of Inspur and how soon it is going to begin to manufacture in Russia, to TAdviser in the company was not provided.

Inspur considers that partnership with I-Teco opens great opportunities for business development of both companies. According to the marketing director of Inspur in Russia Jun of Zhang, "advanced examination, rich experience of project implementation of any complexity and knowledge of specifics of work in the region will allow I-Teco to create the most favorable conditions for entry of the products Inspur into the Russian market".

"Cooperation with the Inspur group which showed the highest growth rates in a profile segment of the market will provide significant replenishment of a portfolio of offers of I-Teco at the expense of an extensive line of unique products and highly effective innovations from the most fast-growing IT company in the world" — note in I-Teco.

Notes