Mishustin proposes ICC participants create consortia for import substitution of complex IT solutions
MOSCOW. June 3 (Interfax) - Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has proposed at the Digitalization of Industrial Russia exhibition that companies participating as customers in industrial competence centers (ICCs) create consortia to develop complex IT solutions intended to replace foreign products.
In particular, they should replace the German SAP ERP system, which has exited the Russian market.
In particular, Mishustin suggested that Pharmstandard and Severstal , which belong to different ICCs, jointly participate in the development of a solution to replace SAP software. He also recommended studying the experience of Russian Railways (RZD) and 1C, who are jointly creating a resource management system (RMS) intended to replace SAP at RZD.
However, Severstal Board Chairman Alexei Mordashov said that the company so far has had a negative experience attempting to develop a replacement for SAP's ERP.
"Creating a full-fledged ERP analog is much more expensive and complex and requires much more delicate refinement," Mordashov said. "We tried a solution from the company Consist [Consist Business Group, part of the LANIT IT holding], but it poorly fits metallurgical systems. The company is now testing a solution from another vendor, Global [Business Technologies LLC]," he said.
Pharmstandard Executive Director Viktor Kharitonov said that the group is replacing SAP software with products from 1C, and as of now the German vendor's ERP system is only used at a few enterprises within the group, which it also plans to switch over to a Russian solution.
Russian Railways CEO and Board Chairman Oleg Belozerov said that the company is ready to share its developments. The RMS development is on schedule and the company will fully transition to it in 2027, he said.
"ICC is indeed yielding results. When cooperation reaches this level (of large customers), solutions emerge that benefit many companies. Because the worst approach would be to develop such high-quality solutions, invest substantial resources, and then remain confined within one's departmental [sectoral] silo," Mishustin said.
At the end of last year, Trust Technologies (TeDo, formerly PWC) said that state-owned companies alone invested 922 billion rubles in Russian software between 2022 and 2024, and total IT investments by companies across all industries exceeded 4 trillion rubles over the past four years. Around 76% of medium and large Russian companies have begun developing their own ERP systems to replace Western vendor equivalents, primarily SAP.
In addition, many IT companies have entered or are entering this race. For example, the company Diasoft , a software developer for the financial sector, has begun developing corporate software for the non-financial sector, which includes its own ERP system and a human capital management system. In the ERP segment, the company is targeting, among other things, replacing relevant solutions from the German SAP. To date, Diasoft has developed an independent analog of SAP's ERP core, as well as a converter that allows SAP applications (elements of the system outside its core) to be rewritten from SAP's programming language (ABAP) into C++.
During the Digitalization of Industrial Russia exhibition, Mishustin asked ICCs to prepare proposals for identifying typical critical information infrastructure facilities (CII objects) within their sectors, and to specify possible timeframes for transitioning them to Russian solutions.
"Naturally, taking into account the readiness level of our technologies and solutions," Mishustin said.
He also pointed to the need to establish common rules for replacing foreign specialized equipment with embedded software with Russian analogs, but only after such equipment is decommissioned or becomes outdated.
"It is clear that if temporary replacement is not possible, everyone should use what is available," he said. "The main thing is to minimize the risk of failures at specific facilities."
In addition, ICCs should organize the creation of sector-specific maps of typical management and production processes and give software developers unrestricted access to this information, Mishustin said.
He instructed the Digital Development Ministry to work jointly with ICCs on proposals to launch a unified platform that provides developers with access to all industrial data sets. There is a need to expand ICC involvement in the activities of digital departments (established at more than 100 universities), he said. In this case, the aim is for ICCs to help develop educational programs for students on the use of specific solutions in particular industries.
Another proposal from the prime minister involves improving the methodology for assessing the digital maturity indicators of basic industries.
"It is very important to track progress in the implementation of specifically Russian solutions using generative AI [in companies]," he said. "We need to make public a ranking of how ready our major companies are for such changes and highlight those who have made the most progress in this direction," he said.
The government plans to hold a strategic session in the summer or autumn of this year, at which proposals and recommendations voiced at the conference - including those on the development and launch of new state support measures for the industry - will be considered, he said.
