A number of IT companies have been waiting months for their solutions to be added to the Russian software marketplace launched by the Ministry of Digital Development in October. The problem may be related to the lack of administrative resources and the number of applications
Russian IT companies spoke about problems with adding their products to the Russian software marketplace Russoft.ru, which is supervised by the Ministry of Digital Development. According to one of RBC’s sources in the IT market, back in the fall, the Association of Software Developers (ARPP) “Domestic Soft” compiled a general list of companies that had problems with this site (RBC has a document).
Among the main problems, market participants name:
exceeding the time allotted for adding the product;
the inability to quickly change the information already added to the site (logo, description and / or company name);
inclusion of the product in the wrong category to which it belongs, etc.
What is a Russian software marketplace
The Ministry of Digital Development launched the Russoft.ru software marketplace in mid-October. Prior to this, companies in test mode could apply to have their product added to the portal. The platform was supposed to become “a tool for promoting software on the Russian and, in the future, on the foreign market.” The marketplace website says that the main search vector is by software name and foreign analogues. “If a person needs software for video conferencing, he can enter the names of foreign products in the search: Zoom, Skype. A list of relevant Russian programs will appear in the search results,” follows from the description of the site’s functionality. In order for a company’s solution to get on the marketplace, it must be included in the unified software registry. The site also says
The first users of the site were representatives of specialized associations, development companies, customers of IT solutions, etc., the ministry explained at the time of launch. The ARPP “Domestic Soft” specified that about 1.3 thousand products of 800 copyright holders are presented on the marketplace, while in the software register there are already more than 16 thousand of them from 5 thousand copyright holders.
According to one of RBC’s interlocutors, it was initially assumed that products that did not make it to the marketplace would not be allowed to participate in public procurement, but he does not know whether this idea is relevant now.
Who got in trouble
Problems with adding software to Russoft.ru were confirmed by RBC in several companies.
According to Vladimir Arlazarov, CEO of Smart Engines (developing software for document recognition), the company submitted an application to publish their IT solution on the marketplace through the Gosuslugi portal on November 21–22. As early as December 7, a representative of the marketplace informed Smart Engines that the process of adding a product would take 15–20 working days. On Saturday, February 11, a Russoft.ru representative responded to a clarifying request from the company that the decision would be published on the marketplace in late February or early March. The company’s products are already in the main registry of Russian software.
The Raketa company (developing a digital platform for organizing business trips and managing expenses) submitted an application back in the summer and immediately received confirmation, but so far their IT solution has not appeared on the marketplace, says Daria Zubritskaya, marketing and communications director of the company. “We have repeatedly sent letters to the resource and received a response that our application has been received and soon information about the product will appear. The deadlines have been postponed several times. As technical support for Russoft.ru explained, the reason is that there are a lot of IT solutions, contractors do not have time to quickly add everyone,” she shared.
Vladimir Ulyanov, head of the Zecurion analytical center, pointed out that for external observers, that is, companies, there is a feeling that “now changes in the system have been put on hold altogether”: “We can only guess why this is so, whether there are any technical or organizational difficulties or is it a balanced decision to suspend the filling of the marketplace”. He suggested that the problems with filling Russoft.ru are connected either with the upcoming “significant changes in the regulations or the format of the marketplace”, or with the lack of specific performers who would add and edit information about products. “The fact is that the current format does not imply direct changes or adding entries to the marketplace. Each new product must undergo preliminary moderation, that is, verification,
According to another market participant, initially the creators of Russoft.ru promised that applications would be processed within 10-14 days. Another difficulty in applying, according to him, is the link to the State Services, due to which the session in the personal account is canceled every 40 minutes, which complicates the process of filling out the application.
At the same time, a representative of the MyOffice company stressed that it “quickly enough” took the opportunity to place its products and solutions in the Mintsifra software marketplace. The fact that there were no problems when adding products was reported by several other Russian IT companies.
Renat Lashin, Executive Director of ARPP “Domestic Soft”, said that at the stage of preparation for the full launch of the marketplace, members of the association tested its pilot version. At the end of last year, the association sent a number of proposals to the Ministry of Digital Transformation to improve it. “In particular, they discussed the need to shorten the information verification period, include up-to-date information about Russian developers, correct settings and ease of data search,” Lashin said.
A representative of the Ministry of Digital Transformation told RBC that the site received many more applications from IT product developers “than expected at the time of launch.” “On the one hand, it’s good that so many companies are trying to add their products to the marketplace, but now the preliminary moderation and withdrawal of products takes more time than planned at the start. We are aware of this problem and will solve it in the near future so that all participants market could add their products to the marketplace in time,” the representative of the department said. According to him, the ministry is working on creating a personal account that will allow copyright holders to independently add products to the site and, if necessary, correct information about them. Besides,
