"The Russia Journal", September 6, 2002

The implementation of Electronic Russia - a comprehensive program aimed at bringing the whole country online - tentatively kicked off last week.

A consortium headed by IBS, a system integrator and consulting firm, won a project tender that was contested by top IT companies. Other members of the consortium include AYAXI, Hewlett Packard, iFirst, Interfax, Microsoft, Prime-Tass and RNT.

The tender, announced by the Trade and Economic Development Ministry in June, is a preliminary stage in the implementation of the e-Russia program. A bulky program document spells out ways of using information and telecommunications technologies (ITT) to improve everyday life in Russia. A key component of the program is a specialized information portal, owned and operated by the federal government's economic development and finance departments.

Specifically, the program envisages using ITT to help citizens communicate with the government and other official agencies, and to help coordinate the flow of information between the central and regional governments. Ultimately, the aim is to improve efficiency and help bridge the gap between Russia and the rest of the world in ITT.

According to the project's technical blueprint, the development of the portal will run in three phases. The first, scheduled to begin later this year, will build the principles and procedure for developing the portal. The second phase will launch a pilot program to combine the Cabinet's Internet resources; the project will be completed in the last phase in early 2003.

Organizers said in a statement the consortium was chosen for its track record, experience in similar projects for other government agencies, high level of professionalism and a complex approach method proposed in its tender.

Anatoly Karachinsky, IBS president and general contractor for the project, said the creation of the official information portal is a key step in the development of "electronic government" in Russia.

"We are ready to take into consideration all ideas mentioned or tabled during the tender, and do all in our capacity to develop a program that will meet the government's requirements and defend its interests," he added.

"This is a very big project, whose realization requires joint efforts of a big team of participants. It's in this context that IBS has gathered very different companies, including those that even compete with one another, so as to effectively achieve the goals set before us," he said.

As a general contractor, IBS will oversee the execution of the project; HP will supply technological platforms and act as a consultant, while Microsoft will supply the software needed to make the portal functional. RNT will offer its security-enhancing equipment; AYAXI will design the site, while iFirst will liaise between the government and the society on public-relation issues. Two of the biggest news agencies - Interfax and Prime-Tass - will handle the news content of the portal, IBS said.

IBS has a lot of experience in handling such projects, said Tatyana Mamysheva, the company's representative. As an example, she cited a similar project developed by IBS and its partners for one of the Moscow city government departments.

RosBusinessConsulting ( RBC ) also took part in the tender for e-Russia, but the tender commission chose IBS as the best in the portal category, while RBC won the tender for "Organization of the Best Region in the Sphere of Information and Communication Technologies."

"We think the IBS-led consortium was chosen because it agreed to execute the project at about $5.8 million, while we asked for about $8 million, which we felt was the optimal price for a project of this magnitude," said Yuri Rovensky, RBC 's head. Rovensky said he is ready to share his experience in IT developments with IBS and its partners, should they request such help. However, he believes the consortium will be less cost-effective than a project run by a single company. "Though a consortium can help meet the set target, the overall cost of such projects is always much higher and more time-consuming as more time is needed to coordinate programs or decision in a consortium."

What is known about e-Russia project suggests that the government, as a customer, has only a very generic description of what it wants, said Leonid Malkov, president of Cogitum LC, a U.S.-based computer software company with headquarters in Reston, Virginia. If that's the case, some disappointments are inevitable - the only question is the scale of the disappointment.

Malkov, an expert in software, Website and IT programs, said the first and most daunting challenge in software and web development is understanding exactly what the client wants. "I cannot remember a project where we didn't discover that a client actually wanted something different from what was described in specifications, and to avoid this, a customer has to spend reasonable resources on detailed specifications," he said.

Alternatively, he noted, the project can be broken down into several stages with necessary adjustments made after each stage, to guarantee its efficiency. Though this is intensive work for both the client and the consultants, he said, it is part of the nature of software development.

"From my experience I would recommend the government hire a special consulting firm to oversee the project during its development, execution and acceptance procedures," he added.

By Christopher Kenneth