OREANDA-NEWS. November 24, 2010. I.T. Co. and The National Research University – The Higher School of Economics (HSE) are among the winners of the second phase of an open public tender to receive subsidies and implement integrated projects aimed at high-tech production.

I.T. Co. and HSE submitted for tender a project titled “Development of high-tech production of cross-platform systems for processing unstructured information based on Open Source Software aimed at improvement of management efficiency of innovative activities performed by companies in modern Russia”

A joint project of I.T. Co. and HSE involves the development of domestic, service-oriented, technological ECM architecture and a library with software service components dedicated for processing, storage and analysis of unstructured information, monitoring of information flows; modeling, analysis and subsequent improvement of business processes. On the basis of these components, it is planned to create customized SW-based solutions which belong to the ECM class, i.e. systems for processing unstructured information to support innovative activities at commercial and government enterprises. The use of Open Source Software will decrease initial costs for ECM solutions, as well as provide a high level of security and vendor independence.

The need for systems which process unstructured information dates by years. As market experts say, volumes of corporate information are growing annually by more than 200%, where 70-90% represent unstructured information. This information deals with office documentation, multimedia data, drawings, XML-documents, HTML-files, e-mail, graphics, etc. In parallel with the increase in data volume, the importance of stored information is growing each year.

ECM systems represent the next phase in the development of enterprise information systems and complement a widely spread ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) class. Presently, ERP systems in many ways have reached their limits regarding the improvement of operating efficiency of an enterprise.  Moreover, operated ERP systems frequently “cement” the business processes: being appropriate at the time of implementation, currently they impede the innovative development of an enterprise and significantly inhibit the response to a changing environment. Thus, ECM systems cover a wider range of tasks in comparison with ERP systems and actually act as an “catalyst for innovation” highlighting and accelerating the innovative processes of an enterprise.

Successful implementation of the joint project performed by I.T. Co. and HSE should provide a significant positive impact on the speed of development and launch of new products and services, quality of research work, which, in turn, will encourage innovative activities throughout Russia.

In the spring of 2010 the Government of the Russian Federation adopted Resolution № 218 “On measures of State support for development of cooperation of Russian educational institutions with enterprises, implementing integrated projects aimed at high-tech production”. This Resolution provides the possibility to subsidize manufacturing enterprises for 1-3 years (not more than 100 million rubles per year) to finance integrated projects aimed at high-tech production and jointly implemented by enterprises and educational institutions.

The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation announced a tender, which consisted of two phases.

Two months ago a joint project of I.T. Co. and the Saint Petersburg University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (University ITMO) titled “Development of high-tech production of integrated solutions applicable to dedicated Cloud Computing aimed at scientific, industry, business and social processes” won the 1st phase of the open tender.