Contemporary Problems of Social Work Современные проблемы социальной работы academic journal

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CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL WORK
application landscape. Figure 8 shows common business plans on investing to special part of 
the business and also specifies which type of modernization they are planning in next years.
24%
24%
25%
32%
36%
22%
8%
21%
26%
30%
27%
14%
16%
6%
35%
34%
21%
24%
28%
19%
15%
26%
24%
25%
25%
20%
15%
18%
20%
26%
31%
34%
14%
6%
10%
44%
27%
30%
16%
25%
25%
22%
Client relationship management
Office applications
Data analitics and business intelligence
Finance and accounting
Knowledge and document management
Human resources
Enterprise resource planning
Re-platforming
New packages implementation
User interface upgrades
Service-oriented architecture
Application management outsourcing Transfer to cloud
Figure 8. 
Strategies Regarding Application Modernization within Next Years
In the customers-oriented solutions, such as CRM and data analytics, there is high interest in 
cloud-based solutions. More and more Russian companies are less reluctant when considering 
the move of customer management into the cloud. Furthermore, as many data analytics are 
coupled with CRM systems, the move is understandable. Moreover, data analytics needs powerful 
computing resources, so the cloud model is the most flexible and affordable according to the 
consumers’ needs. Many companies are set to outsource application environments in the near 
future. This fits with the picture for application modernization and consolidation. There is 
higher interest in finance sector and data analytics and BI, as the companies would be able 
to reduce their IT costs with support and will not need to invest in more advanced computing 
technologies, in the case of data analytics and BI.
Cyber security is one of the major challenges of the current local and global environment, 
especially for financial institutions and insurance companies, as well as for government 
organizations [11]. They are the one with more frequently registered security threats. A 
worrying situation is that the threats are increasing in number and in their sophistication, as 
they produce more damage and companies should put a cyber-security strategy in place soon, 
if they have not already done so. The theft of sensitive data represents a major concern for 
both private sector and public sector organizations and investments in data loss prevention 
represent a key security feature. Moreover, Russian companies are very sensitive to cyber spying, 
therefore being even keener to adopt better solutions to counteract this. An increasing adoption 
of identity and access management solutions is more likely to happen. Russian companies are 
very sensitive when it comes to outsourcing security solutions even to third party services 
providers, not to mention outside the country. In general, security features are not considered 
for outsourcing, especially in a country with lesser tradition in externalization, the latter not 
being a generalized common practice. Maybe in the case of specific tasks, outsourcing will be 
taken into consideration, where the end user lacks the capabilities and knowledge or where this 
involves more human resources, like 24/7 monitoring [12].
All these turbulences registered by end users have impacted the overall IT market and 
generated fewer investments in IT services in 2014 compared to the previous year. On a market 
dominated by local system integrators, certain companies were more affected by the shortage 
of projects than others, depending on their customers’ profile [1]. The companies having a large 
share of IT services coming from the public sector have seen projects frozen or delayed, therefore 
have had decreasing revenue in 2014. On the overall Russian IT services market, infrastructure-

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VOLUME 2, No. 1, 2016
related projects versus application-related projects generate about 70/30 revenue share, which 
demonstrates that the local market has much larger shares of IT investments directed to 
the infrastructure. Compared to a more mature market like Germany, which has a much more 
balanced infrastructure versus application service share – 55/45, Russia still has a long way to 
go and high potential for development, especially in application-related services [2]. However, 
if considering particular cases of large accounts from oil & gas, from the banking industry, from 
retail, the IT demand is very advanced, similar to that of global companies in these industries.
The challenging market situation can provide a good opportunity for the local system 
integrators that have developed from public sector or state-owned companies, to reevaluate 
their business and to take out the non-profitable units. Cleaning up their organizational 
structure [16], making it more agile, and establishing a focused market strategy can reinforce 
their healthy growth by increasing their competitiveness. Failing to do that can generate a slow 
death.
Referring to the current trends, the IT companies are investing in increasing their related 
services to technologies like Big Data, mobility, cloud architecture, security and digital services. 
Higher focus on more industry-specific solutions to answer real business cases is also there. 
Both large and medium-sized integrators try to identify the market segments where to increase 
their market share and to move away from the generalist approach. However, the ability to 
implement large-scale IT projects, combined infrastructure and application-related capabilities 
are still on demand from the large accounts looking to go through IT transformational processes.
5. Conclusions
Recommendations for IT-consulting companies:
•  IT security represents one of the main challenges for local organizations and it is a clear 
priority for IT investments. This area offers tremendous opportunities for the providers that 
can demonstrate their security capabilities and how security is embedded into all their services.
•  One of the key concerns of customers is cost reduction and increasing business efficiency 
and innovation is sometimes seen as a way to keep down or better control the expenses.
• Russian organizations are looking to externalize some of their application systems, 
therefore having a trusted relation can open up new opportunities in the management services.
•  Big data-related projects are expected to significantly increase in the next two years, 
especially in areas like in HR, marketing and sales or IT; investing in such capabilities can 
capture some of this demand.
•  Digital transformation is on, even though companies are more interested in investing in 
individual digital projects for selected business areas; therefore, investing in stronger relations 
is essential, as they are more and more involved in the decision-making.
Recommendations for users of IT-consulting companies services:
•  IT users recognize IT/cyber security as critical. Customers need to pressure the IT services 
partners to provide security credentials of all services. Moreover, as cloud computing is the topic 
where investments are set to grow rapidly, end users need to understand the whole spectrum of 
the related offerings regarding security.
•  On the competitive landscape, the adoption of new technologies such as cloud, mobile or 
big data brings new business advantage; therefore, keeping up with the development speed 
requires innovative technology adoption.
•  Digital transformation is an unstoppable trend that will affect many industries. Being well 
informed about the changes in specific industry, about the overall trends and looking for best 
practices are good strategic measures to be considered.
• Many companies worry about a potential vendor lock-in in cloud environments. The 
conditions are basically similar to outsourcing contracts. Users should negotiate with providers 
for terms avoiding vendor lock-in, with options of migration paths, before choosing the cloud 
contract.

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