Silicon Valley in Russian. How # ITX5 works in Innopolis

In the smallest city in Russia, a real domestic IT cluster is located, where some of the best specialists in the field of information technology are already working. Innopolis was founded in 2012, and three years later acquired the status of a city. It became the first city in the modern history of Russia, created from scratch. Among the residents of the industrial city is X5 Retail Group, which has a development center here. Despite the fact that the company in Innopolis is only a year old, the team’s plans are quite grandiose. By the number of employees (more than 100 people) and work efficiency, X5 has already caught up with a number of colleagues who have been in Innopolis much longer.

Future specialists

At the opening of Innopolis, the President of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, outlined his concept: “Live, study, work and rest.” Already today, local residents confirm the success of this idea. In just a few years, the city was able to create the infrastructure, which includes a university that is training future IT-specialists. Innopolis can be called an analogue of the Moscow Skolkovo. The difference is that he focuses on information technology, among which are robotics, artificial intelligence, big data. University graduates are, first of all, a personnel reserve. They are not treated like ordinary students, but rather they are considered specialists who can bring something new to the field. All of them have a certain competence in IT and were specially assembled throughout Russia.

Basically, university students are winners and prize-winners of All-Russian Olympiads. Innopolis University annually trains about 400 people. In addition, there is a lyceum in the science city, which also attracts gifted students who want to work in the field of information technology. For young professionals, this is a good start in their careers, as some of the largest companies in the domestic market provide them with not only practice, but also employment, including the X5 Retail Group.

What does X5 do in Innopolis?

The main area of ​​work of the team # ITX5 in Innopolis is GK – a store management system, including cash desks. Also, teams for the project of delivery of goods perekrestok.ru and SAP are actively recruited. “In my opinion, we have gained good speed and are trying to maintain it. We have an ambitious goal – to become the No. 1 company in Innopolis, ”says Alexander Borisov, head of the X5 development center in Innopolis. He graduated from one of the master’s programs at Innopolis IT University, and 3 years ago he moved to the techno-city with his family and is successfully involved in a number of projects here.

Alexander Borisov: “Thanks to the specifics of training at the local institute: lectures from world-class teachers, international exchange programs, high scholarships and international diplomas, Innopolis really grows professionals in their field. However, we must pay tribute to the complex program – among students of recent courses there is a fairly large percentage of deductions. The university program is difficult, albeit interesting, as it is aimed at training specialists of the highest category. It requires enthusiasm, a desire to develop and good knowledge already at the start upon admission, and, unfortunately, not all possess these qualities. ”

The innovative city and the Innopolis special economic zone, of which Technopark is part of the infrastructure, are attractive both for specialists and for large companies who want to develop an IT area in their business. So, the key object of the business infrastructure is the A.S. Popov is among the residents and partners of which are X5 Retail Group, Yandex, MTS, Sberbank and many others. Resident companies of the Innopolis special economic zone are provided with certain benefits, for example, for income tax, as well as rental of offices on special conditions. However, it is worth noting that becoming a resident of the technopark is more profitable for large companies, since this is a long-term development, which most often can not afford a startup. But startup projects can participate in a general support program for resident companies. To participate in it, you need to draw up a detailed business plan, analyze it, go through the supervisory board of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, and get the status itself. The conditions for start-ups in the SEZ also became more attractive, since from February 2020 the republic has a law on the tax rate of 1% for IT companies that pay tax on total revenue when applying a simplified taxation system.

Ecosystem for IT Development

Yan Anasov, head of the service development group of the X5 e-commerce strategy and development department, shared his impressions of life in Innopolis: “It is really clear that a kind of microclimate is being created that contributes to the development of IT. Various conferences are constantly held, for the most part people are like-minded and strive to constantly develop. In principle, the community that is being created inside is something special for Russia. If you lose a thing in the city, for example, a telephone, nobody will steal it and you won’t have to worry about anything. You just write about it in the general chat, and they will help to return it. ”

Innopolis has its own telegram chat for all residents of the city. When the city had 1000-2000 people, this chat was quite useful. However, with the increase in the population, it began to lose its effectiveness, there was a lot of spam in it. The general chat of the city can be regarded as a social experiment, but with limited potential. Ian is engaged in science city solutions for the online supermarket perekrestok.ru, he assembled the team from scratch. In his opinion, during the quarantine period, the project became even more relevant, showed social significance, because with it people save their health and save time spent on purchases. The team is truly proud of this project. This work is becoming one of the most important areas of digitalization, which will allow the company X5 to enter new frontiers. After all, as Yang notes, soon this process will cover a number of sectors of the economy.

“The essence of the # ITX5 team’s main line of business in Innopolis, the development of cash register software, is to support and simultaneously develop the old system, which operates in more than 16,000 thousand stores of the company. We can say that we work with the “heart” of Pyaterochka, ”says Dmitry Taranov, team lead of the development team, who moved to Innopolis last June. GK developers are applying new technologies, moving away from project management, adding scrum and agile. Various areas are involved, Java, Kotlin, C ++ and PHP developers are used. Manual and automated testing is carried out.

How Innopolis Deals With Challenges

In the near future, it is planned to open the second Lobachevsky technology park in Innopolis. Some of the offices in it are already booked by future residents, which indicates a certain success. However, the science city encounters difficulties on its way, one of which is housing for company employees. Two years ago, the city was already faced with the fact that there were simply not enough apartments for everyone to settle in Innopolis. However, if technology parks and housing continue to be built in the region, then they are most likely to be in demand, as many companies already have plans to increase the number of employees.

X5 is also among the active employers and is constantly looking for specialists for its projects. For example, SAP now requires a dedicated integrated development team, which includes several technological competencies, on the basis of which electronic interaction services (EDI) with external partners X5 are built and developed. SAP ERP X5 is the basis of the company’s EDI solutions, along with standard tasks for systems of its class. The installation of this system in X5 is recognized as one of the largest in the world retail. The core of the team are SAP ERP developers and consultants, and developers are also in demand in the team for integrating various systems and using electronic signatures.

The city is on its way to competing with Silicon Valley. And although the city has certain difficulties, for example, with declining office space, time, location, and the residents themselves are on his side.

The cultural life of the city

Innopolis is located in the Verkhneuslonsky district of the republic. Travel time from a science city to Kazan is only about 30 minutes. Not far from the “smart city” is the ski complex “Sviyazhsky hills.” Despite the special economic zone, absolutely anyone can come here. Tourism is actively supported by the city hall, which conducts various awareness-raising events and excursions. However, while the infrastructure of the city lacks entertainment facilities for young people, there are no nightclubs or discos, so it may not be easy for students to find their soul mate. But the children here are completely expanse: a new school building, sections on dancing, martial arts, floorball, robotics, scratching and many other areas. Each house in the courtyard has a playground, and toys, arbitrariness, have become “inter-yard car sharing.” In total, about 900 children currently live in the city, and they are the main target audience at the general city holidays. They come up with contests, invite animators and generally try to amuse and interest in every possible way.

Ten years have passed since the idea of ​​2010 to build a new innovation center in Russia. During this time, Innopolis was not only designed, it managed to build the entire basic infrastructure, opened a technology park, a university and a lyceum for teenagers from grades 7 to 11. In the “smart city” there is an active kindergarten (soon there will be a second), a school, medical and sports centers, supermarkets, cafes and other services. And by August of this year, the construction of the building of the cultural center will be completed, which will make the cultural life of Innopolis more eventful. The city already has a sports complex and a stadium necessary for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and in the near future it is planned to build a public garden for pleasant walks in the fresh air. Today, about 150 companies are registered in the science city, and more than 88 thousand square meters of real estate are leased. So, in Innopolis, hundreds of IT specialists work in leading domestic companies and develop the country’s innovative industry. At the moment, the payback of Innopolis has already been achieved. There is enough income to ensure the city itself, and work on the construction of the second building of the technopark will resume this year. Commissioning is scheduled for 2021.

X5 in Innopolis has an ambitious plan to double the size of the office over the coming year. We have a lot of vacancies open, but we will be especially pleased to see strong Java developers and system analysts.

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