On March 25, the RUSSOFT press conference "Russian Market vs. Foreign Market. Where are there more growth points for IT business?" was held at the Russia Today media center in Moscow. Speakers from Russian product and outsourcing companies discussed current trends and prospects for the development of the IT industry both on the domestic and international markets, especially against the backdrop of the risk of the return of foreign IT vendors. The event brought together leading experts and IT company executives to identify key growth points and formulate strategies for further development of the industry in the context of a changing global economy.
Andrey Vratsky, founder and CEO of the business super app eXpress, shared his vision of the strategy of the Russian communications solution on the international market at the event:
— For a Russian vendor producing a domestic product that is highly breakthrough, the most accessible regions, in our experience, are East Asia and the Middle East. The company will be able to advance and gain a foothold in these regions, first of all, by clearly understanding why our product is better than the Western one. The uniqueness of Russian products is of paramount importance.
We have found the main support for ourselves - the desire of countries for digital sovereignty, for localization of data, products, their development and support in the country. And here it turns out that Russia is one of the leaders of this market, since the long-standing (10-15 years) trend of the Western market is moving to the "clouds". Russia has historically been a conservative market, developing installations within its own perimeter - and this has now begun to bear fruit due to the increasing role of IT for business and the state. In particular, in the communications niche of the IT market in the on-premise segment, eXpress is probably the best in the world.
Andrey Vratsky in his speech also emphasized the role of IT associations and various formats of state support for building an initial dialogue and further opportunities at different levels to tell potential foreign customers about specific products.
At the end of the meeting, the participants agreed that Russian solutions have enormous opportunities for entering the international arena, but it is necessary to have a good understanding of the specifics of specific markets, have your own strategy, and also receive adequate support for promotion to foreign markets from the state. At the same time, vendors still have ample opportunities within the country. Even if some Western IT developers return, it is no longer possible to stop the development of our own solutions.
