TAdviser interview: Post Bank Chief Information Officer Ivan Karpov - on the priorities of digitalization in the new reality

Ivan Karpov: Initially, there were some tasks, but due to well-known circumstances, much of what we discussed with the leadership bank became irrelevant or faded into the background. The planning horizon now does not exceed 3-6 months, while events occur so quickly that you have to constantly adjust your plans.

The main task that has been set before me and has not undergone changes is the audit of all IT infrastructure, equipment, information systems available in the bank, analysis of business processes and the development process. Now it is important to assess the risks, see which companies left Russia, which stopped supporting their decisions or limited access to cloud services. To summarize, I have two strategic tasks in front of me: to make the IT service of the bank as flexible as possible and, where possible, to carry out import substitution.

Ivan Karpov: First of all, long-term projects were postponed or revised altogether. The situation is changing so quickly that it makes no sense to launch projects that will take several years, it is highly likely that they will have to be stopped at least. At the same time, there are many urgent tasks that need to be solved very quickly. The bank is interested in accelerating many processes, the business asks to extremely reduce the time-to-market, speed up hypothesis testing and the launch of MVP. For example, in March, in the shortest possible time, we established production cards UnionPay in huge volumes. The bank is a commercial structure, so the main task facing the IT service is to ensure the stable operation of banking systems.

Ivan Karpov: We are for the prudent use of budget and resources. Post Bank cannot allocate huge funds to purchase everything domestic, and even more so to develop everything from scratch. Those Russian systems that are used by the bank are built into the IT infrastructure, and, in principle, the bank has a solid set of domestic software. So, we use domestic ABS, use the Russian software complex "Contact" to collect overdue debts, we have a large set of products on the 1C platform, RBS, built on open technologies.

In addition, we have the opportunity to use the experience of VTB, where import substitution has received great attention over the past years. VTB not only tested various software of Russian vendors, but also developed solutions itself. Therefore, we often consult with colleagues from VTB on import substitution issues.

Ivan Karpov: Alas, not everything. Import substitution projects require enormous resources, usually they are associated with the restructuring of all processes. It turns out to be not only expensive, but also difficult. Since import substitution involves switching from one system to another. Even if there is a fully functional domestic analogue, then it will need to be launched and for some time support the operation of two systems. For example, if we talk about ABS, then this is already domestic, ON but they were written two decades ago, when everything databases was created on. Oracle Accordingly, in order to move to other bases, data you need, in fact, to write ABS from scratch. It is very difficult to replace professional telephony. For example, we use the solution from. the American Genesys Although the company has Russian roots, now it has stopped updating its products in and does not Russia provide technical support services. And while there is nothing to replace Western telephony, domestic analogues are not sufficiently productive.

Another system that the bank will not be able to quickly replace is Oracle Siebel CRM. This is a single front-line Post Bank system for the entire network of contact centers, on the basis of which all processes of interaction with customers are built. There are so many processes tied to the system that there is simply nothing to replace it entirely. You can, of course, transfer business processes in parts to several domestic systems. At the same time, for a long time Siebel will remain a "front" for these systems. And after the transfer of all business processes to Russian software, Siebel can also be replaced. Such a project can take up to 2-3 years.

Do not rush with replacement, ERP SAP it can be not only prohibitively expensive, but also take more than one year. It is not clear what to do with the complex, SAS which is used to automate marketing campaigns, assess their effectiveness, banking analytics, and manage debt collection. scoring The company left the Russian market back in March and refused to support its products. Everything is still working for us, the bank managed to update the keys at the beginning of the year. We are sure that neither tomorrow nor in a year our systems will "stand up." However, they will cease to develop at the "core" level of the platform, and there is nothing to replace SAS yet. Of course, our specialists have done and will do improvements to individual subsystems, but what to do with the "core" is still in question.

Ivan Karpov: Reluctantly leave, because they are used to these decisions. Because these are not just systems, but entire complexes on which the IT architecture is tied. Replacing Oracle and SAP will require a significant change in the IT landscape of banks. These systems have evolved for decades. So, Oracle has built-in logic that allows you to process transactions from ABS extremely quickly. Switching to another DBMS, for example, on PostgreSQL, will require the creation of a separate logical layer in Java. This reduces performance, DBMS with built-in logic works significantly faster. Migration to another DBMS is a project to implement a new ABS. Large Russian developers have ABSs created under PostgreSQL, but this is a fundamentally different scheme that loses in performance to solutions on Oracle.

With SAP, the story is similar, it is a stable and extremely optimized ERP system. It has a huge number of modules, and banks have deployed many business processes on SAP. The transition to 1C is possible, but this will be a very expensive project, since huge funds have already been invested in SAP. In addition, it will take a long time, projects can take several years. Moreover, for some time it will be necessary to maintain the performance of parallel structures, which will also require additional human resources. In a word, you can leave SAP for "1C," but the process will be very painful.

Ivan Karpov: I can't say anything about the consortium, but representatives of individual funds offer to help consolidate the efforts of market participants in the field of targeted developments.

Potential synergy can be obtained both by saving customer resources and uniting them around the target vendor, and through import substitution grants from the Ministry of Digital Industry and RFRIT.

Ivan Karpov: In Russia there are good office packages, for example, "P7-Office" or "MyOffice." These are quite developed products that you can work on. At the same time, office packages in banks are needed only by administrative personnel. The bulk of our employees work in a single front-end system built on Oracle Siebel. They do not need to edit "word" documents, since even in terms of formats they use PDF. The management staff, just in case, already has a completely free LibreOffice package. If suddenly Microsoft "turns off" its products, then employees will immediately switch to open source.

The worst thing is with professional postal services. However, there is something to choose from, for example, you can purchase CommuniGate Pro. It is inferior to the Microsoft Exchange product, but in general it is a completely modern solution. Another option is to purchase a comprehensive package for the office from Mail.ru, it includes corporate mail, a calendar, a corporate messenger, and a VKS system. To summarize, I do not see problems with applied office software, it is.

Ivan Karpov: This is a difficult question. Now many banks who did not have time to buy out the balances from suppliers are waiting for the situation to be resolved. There are two basic strategies on the market: to purchase familiar equipment is significantly more expensive according to the model of parallel imports or to change the architecture of the solution, switching to domestic hardware or equipment of "nameless" Chinese manufacturers. Both options have their drawbacks. For example, back in February, we planned to purchase a batch of blade arrays. Unfortunately, now they are not on the market, but there are less fast rack servers, including from Russian manufacturers. We are now assessing how they can be used and how this can affect the bank's IT infrastructure.

The situation with DSS is more complicated, of course, there is an opportunity to "go down" from hi-end to the middle class. However, this is a loss in performance at times. Which is sometimes unacceptable for the bank. We have reserves, we can optimize the use of IT infrastructure a little, but this is not a solution to the issue.

Ivan Karpov: To solve some problems, we are already using Russian equipment. For example, you can use Russian Wi-Fi points, rack servers from Russian manufacturers, DSS. In general, in 2022 there will be a "take-off" of domestic "hardware," colossal investments are being made in the creation of Russian equipment, state programs will accelerate, which before that were unhurried. Leading domestic manufacturers, which have established development and production, will apply and receive grants from the state. The volume of equipment that is being developed in Russia and produced in mainland China will increase. Alas, not all of this equipment suits banks, but the situation may force to reconsider the attitude towards the purchase of IT equipment and the creation of IT infrastructure.

Ivan Karpov: I can't say that the situation in the IT personnel market has changed dramatically. Our specialists did not "run." In conditions of instability, working in a large bank is a guarantee of security. And there are unlikely to be many people who want to put everything on the line and get a job in a startup that is in the process of being relocated abroad. The risks are extremely high. At the same time, there is no queue of IT specialists on the market who want to get a job, so the bank effectively combines its team and IT outsourcing. We have key partners in various areas, there are companies that ensure the operability of our infrastructure, others serve office equipment, others provide us with development services. We will strengthen the internal IT team, increasing competencies in critical areas. Today, about 250 specialists work in the IT department, and in total about 500 IT specialists work in the bank. For a large bank, where everything is tied to technology, this is not much.

Ivan Karpov: You need to retain specialists, since we have very small teams in many areas. An experienced expert not only understands IT systems, but also thoroughly knows banking business processes. Therefore, we will develop intangible incentives. For example, invite IT stars to communicate. Also, career elevators will be launched in the near future. We will clearly prescribe the process and conditions under which employees will move to higher positions. The IT service introduces the eNPS indicator, which will allow you to track the dynamics and react quickly in the event of a "negative." For young specialists, we launch onboarding, this will simplify and speed up the involvement of "newcomers" in the company's processes. We want it to be convenient for a person to go to our work so that he can see where and what to arrange, to whom to turn. The impression that employees have from their first contacts with the company is very important, so it should be pleasant.

Ivan Karpov: Our level of loyalty is high, and we do not have a turnover in IT. Most often, people leave the testing department. This is due to the stressful nature of the work. The fact is that when launching a particular system and introducing new software, there are frequent delays for analysts, developers and other departments. Testers - at the final stage. Deadlines for units are gradually accumulating, while no one cancels deadlines. And it turns out that testers must do their job on the last night, signing up for a product that several teams worked on. In the plans, we want to restructure the processes so that the Abrahls with testing are less and, as a result, less stress for employees.

Ivan Karpov: We do not have many open vacancies. There are definitely not enough testers. As I said, the work is stressful and people can't stand it. To solve the problem, we have already begun to rebuild the processes, we are trying to build work in such a way as to remove part of the load from people. For example, by increasing the level of automation and active use of RPA. The bank also lacks ABS specialists. The fact is that we use the VA Bank system, and if not the largest, then one of the largest developer projects. Therefore, there are not many specialists familiar with this ABS on the market. Another growth zone is the developers under Oracle Siebel. The system is widespread, but young specialists do not really want to deal with it. Accordingly, we find resources within the bank, train, interest, actively use outsourcing.

Ivan Karpov: First of all, all processes in banks will accelerate, the development of hypotheses and the conclusion of mvp will take less time. This will require restructuring internal processes. Long-term projects, if not strategic, will be discarded as risky. In some areas, the consolidation of the efforts of IT divisions of different banks to develop requirements for domestic developers is not excluded. The import substitution process will accelerate, which will require the involvement of specialists in domestic systems and solutions. Outsourcing will be used even more actively. In general, the policy of IT departments will depend on the economic situation and the business climate, now it is too early to say what will change.