In the smallest city in Russia in terms of population, there is a real domestic IT cluster, 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 technocity is X5 Retail Group, which has a development center here. Despite the fact that the company has been in Innopolis for only a year, the team has rather grandiose plans. In terms of the number of employees (more than 100 people) and the efficiency of work, X5 has already caught up with a number of colleagues who have been in Innopolis for much longer.
Future Specialists
At the opening of Innopolis, President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov outlined its 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 an infrastructure that includes a university that trains 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 as 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. Every year, Innopolis University 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 career, as some of the largest companies in the domestic market provide them with not only practice, but also employment, including in the X5 Retail Group.
What X5 does in Innopolis
The main direction of work of the #ITX5 team in Innopolis is GK - a store management system, including cash registers. Teams are also being actively recruited for the perekrestok.ru and SAP goods delivery project. “In my opinion, we have gained good speed and we 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 the Innopolis IT University, and 3 years ago he moved to a technocity with his family and is successfully working on a number of projects here.
Alexander Borisov: “Due to the specifics of the training of the local institute: lectures from world-class teachers, international exchange programs, high scholarships and international diplomas, Innopolis really raises professionals in their field. However, we must pay tribute to the complex program - among the students of the last 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 of admission, and, unfortunately, not everyone has these qualities.”
The innovation city and the special economic zone "Innopolis", part of the infrastructure of which is the Technopark, are attractive both for specialists and for large companies that want to develop the IT direction in their business. So, the key object of the business infrastructure is the technopark named after A.S. Popov among whose residents and partners 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, on income tax, as well as office rental on special terms. However, it should be noted that it is more profitable for large companies to become a technopark resident, since we are talking about long-term development, which most often a startup cannot afford. But startup projects can also participate in the general support program for resident companies. To participate in it, you need to draw up a detailed business plan, analyze it, pass the Supervisory Board of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, and get the status itself. The conditions for start-ups in the SEZ have also become more attractive, since since February 2020 the republic has a law on a tax rate of 1% for IT companies that pay tax on their total income under the simplified taxation system.
Ecosystem for IT development
Yan Anasov, head of the service development group of X5's e-commerce strategy and development department, shared his impressions of life in Innopolis: “It is indeed clear that a kind of microclimate is being created that contributes to the development of IT. Various conferences are constantly held, people are mostly like-minded and strive to constantly develop. In principle, the community that is being created inside is something special for Russia. If you lose some thing in the city, for example, a phone, no one will steal it and you will not 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 there were 1000-2000 people in the city, this chat was quite useful. However, as the population increased, it began to lose its effectiveness, and 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. Yan is engaged in solutions for the online supermarket perekrestok.ru in the science city, he assembled the team from scratch. In his opinion, during the quarantine period, the project became even more relevant, showed social significance, because with its help people maintain their health and save time spent on shopping. The team is truly proud of this project. This work is becoming one of the most important areas of digitalization, which will allow X5 to reach new frontiers. After all, as Yang notes, this process will soon cover a number of sectors of the economy.
“The essence of the main direction of work of the #ITX5 team in Innopolis - development of cash register software - is to support and simultaneously develop the old system, which operates in more than 16 thousand stores of the company. We can say that we are working with the “heart” of Pyaterochka,” says Dmitry Taranov, team lead of the development team, who moved to Innopolis in June last year. GK developers apply new technologies, move away from project management, add scrum and agile. A variety of areas are involved, Java, Kotlin, C ++ and PHP developers are used. Manual and automated testing is carried out.
How Innopolis copes with difficulties
In the near future, it is planned to open the second technopark Lobachevsky in Innopolis. Some of the offices in it have already been booked by future residents, which indicates a certain success. However, the science city also 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 who wanted to settle in Innopolis. However, if technology parks and housing continue to be built in the region, they will most likely be in demand, since many companies already have plans to increase the number of employees.
X5 is also one of 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 X5 partners are built and developed. SAP ERP X5 is the basis of the company's EDI solutions, along with tasks that are standard 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 is SAP ERP developers and consultants, and developers are also in demand in the team to integrate various systems and use electronic signatures.
The city is on its way to becoming a real competitor to Silicon Valley. And although the city has certain difficulties, for example, with shrinking office space, time, location, and the residents themselves are on its side.
Cultural life of the city
Innopolis is located in the Verkhneuslonsky district of the republic. Travel time from science city to Kazan is only about 30 minutes. Not far from the "smart city" there is a ski resort "Sviyazhsky hills". Despite the special economic zone, absolutely anyone can come here. Tourism is actively supported by the mayor's office, which organizes various educational events and excursions. However, so far the city's infrastructure lacks entertainment facilities for young people, there are no nightclubs or discos, so it may not be so easy for students to find their soul mate. But the children are completely free here: a new school building, sections for dancing, martial arts, floorball, robotics, scratch and many other areas. Each house in the courtyard has a playground, and toys, by the twist of fate, have become “inter-yard car sharing”. In total, about 900 children currently live in the city, and they are the main target audience at general city holidays. They come up with contests for them, invite animators and generally try in every possible way to entertain and interest.
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 technopark, a university and a lyceum for teenagers from 7 to 11 grades. A kindergarten (soon there will be a second one), a school, medical and sports centers, supermarkets, cafes and other services are actively operating in the smart city. And by August this year, the construction of the building of the cultural center will be completed, which will make the cultural life of Innopolis more intense. The city already has a sports complex and a stadium necessary for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and in the near future there are plans 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 have been 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. The income is enough to provide for 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 headcount in the next year. We have a lot of vacancies open, but we will be especially glad to see strong Java developers and system analysts.
Source: habr.com
