In the aftermath of the EuroMaidan Revolution that toppled Victor Yanukovych as president, Ukrainian politics saw quite a few people with business backgrounds enter government service, with Dmytro Shymkiv, former head of Microsoft Ukraine, among them.
As
Shymkiv accepted President Petro Poroshenko’s offer to become his deputy chief
of staff in July, the Ukrainian unit of the U.S.-based company, known for
developing the popular Windows operating system, started looking for a replacement.
On Oct. 17, the corporation finally announced its new general manager in
Ukraine, Nadiya Vasylieva, who was its public sector director since 2012
and who acted as an interim head since Shymkiv quit.
Vasylieva
has more than 12 years of experience in Russia-owned telecom provider Kyivstar, one of the largest operating in Ukraine, and another 2.5 years with Amway Ukraine, a personal
care company that bets on direct marketing. She holds degrees in economics and
law.
“We
have to combine two strategies — one is the restructuring of the company in
accordance to the economic situation in Ukraine, and another is the
transformation of Microsoft as a whole into a service business,” Vasylieva
told the Kyiv Post in an interview on Oct. 30.
Ukraine’s
tech market participants told the Kyiv Post that Microsoft’s local subsidiary
focuses mostly on sales, though Shymkiv denied this saying that research &
development is also among the tasks of the corporate staff in Kyiv.
Hardware
is too hard
Microsoft’s
switch to become a service company with a focus on software and cloud
applications was officially announced in the first half of 2014, and since then
was being gradually implemented. In the new strategy, the corporation places
stake on cross-platform solutions, allowing users to access its services from
anywhere. Microsoft won’t be competing as actively with Apple or Google,
Vasylieva explained, because it’s not that important anymore, device of which
vendor is being used by the customer.
For
Ukrainian users, the new focus also means that many of Microsoft gadgets,
including smartphones and tablets, won’t get to the local market. This is
especially true for high-end gadgets — from Surface Pro 3 hybrid tablet to the
recently announced Microsoft Band activity tracker.
“Our
devices are expensive, and we need a certain level of demand,” Vasylieva
explained. “The capacity of the Ukrainian market is quite low.”
Microsoft’s
new head admitted that the company’s revenue has decreased in 2014 comparing to
the previous year. Vasylieva explains this with the economic difficulties that
Ukraine goes through, while company is also seeking for new revenue sources.
Selling the cloud solutions is especially promising.
“Just
1.5 years ago it was very difficult to sell cloud solutions, especially to
large customers,” she said. “Now, however, it’s not a problem at all.
The situation in the economy drives us towards increasing the efficiency of
business.”
Now
clients often choose to move their physical IT infrastructure to the cloud or
creating hybrid solutions, which are still cheaper than having a full-fledged
hardware installation on-site.
Piracy
Having
two years of experience in working with the Ukrainian government as Microsoft
Ukraine’s public sector director, Vasylieva hopes to have a meaningful dialogue with new people coming to the parliament after the recent elections. Microsoft
Ukraine is actively working with the government on a few projects that include
launching an e-government, an online system for submitting and receiving all
kinds of documents from the public offices.
However,
software
piracy in the public sector is a major issue that has proved to be extremely
difficult to deal with, she said.
“We
want to be a European country, we want to have a fair court system, which would
help to get rid of corruption and improve the economic situation. However, it
appears that it all does not apply to the intellectual property. A deputy
minister recently asked me: “If Microsoft has endured (piracy in the
public sector) for 8 years, why can’t it wait for 10 more years?”
Vasylieva said.
According
to Vasylieva’s data, 83 percent of all software in Ukraine is counterfeit,
while in the public sector this figure reaches at least 30 percent. Fighting
the piracy in this segment is among the priorities of the new head of Microsoft
Ukraine, however so far it has not been able even to get an official estimation
of personal computers’ install base in the governmental offices. Moreover, in
2011 this information was classified by the Defense Ministry.
“Once
the government openly shows us how many computers there are and what’s the
piracy level, we’re ready to help (with legalizing),” Vasylieva said.
“But so far they only want to argue over percentages — is it 30, or 40, or
60 percent.”
After
the numbers are revealed, Microsoft claims to be ready to offer a long-term
plan of standardization and legalization of the software installed in various
governmental offices all over the country. Vasylieva said that in 2013, before
the EuroMaidan Revolution, the company offered more than 25 percent in discount
on its products together with “amnesty” for some computers after the
government showed the first 66,000 PCs with pirated software.
The
deal, however, has never been made, which means that some of the members of the
new parliament and their colleagues in other state bodies will still have to
work with illegal Windows operating system for a while.
Andrii Degeler is the Kyiv Post’s information technology reporting
fellow. Degeler has been covering the IT business in Ukraine and
internationally since 2009. His fellowship is sponsored by AVentures Capital, Ciklum, FISON and SoftServe. He can be
reached on Twitter (@shlema) or [email protected].
