The job of digital attachés is to help Russian IT companies enter foreign markets. What is the best way for them to act to really benefit Russian business?
Russian IT companies that are looking to expand to foreign markets spend months just to figure out who is who in this new reality before they can take any steps. Expanding internationally involves significant costs, with extensive travelling, numerous meetings and negotiations, which often provide one-sided and incomplete information.
To understand the ins and outs of the system, one should be constantly spending time in this local environment. Another option is to get qualified help from a knowledgeable expert. Back in 2022, the Government included the digital attaché service in its second package of measures to support the IT industry. The digital attaché service’s main job is to help promote Russian technology in other countries.
A friend among foes
The job of a digital attaché is to be proactive – that is, to collect and process information that a business may need about the market and existing niches, the main players that would be interested in a partnership, major consumers and their pain points, and about any associated legal, political and cultural issues that may arise.
A digital attaché must be immersed in the local industry and market context in order to be able to give proper recommendations on selecting partners and system integrators who will ensure a more effective promotion of a Russian product.
A digital attaché must be well informed about the situation on the Russian side as well – about solutions that exist or are in development and what we can offer in response to demand. So, what is the profile of this specialist in terms of education, experience and key competences?
The industry requires that, in order to speak the same language with developers and understand the solution that they promote, digital attachés must have a deep knowledge of the IT market specifics, and the processes of development and operation. Another important skill is ability to see market demands. Therefore, expert knowledge of IT is a must.
It is also important because other skills like legal, diplomatic, commercial and managerial competences are some way or other present in trade missions and consulates. They can, to a certain degree, deal with legal aspects of international business, special rules of the game and the informal culture in the country of presence, especially since they do not change significantly over time.
What’s missing is specialized industry expertise – professionals who closely monitor current trends and changes. However, hiring skilled industry consultants locally tends to be quite costly.
Assessment, motivation, tools
A digital attaché may have a background as a development director or CEO of a major vendor or integrator, or as the IT director of a large corporation. This individual inherently possesses a wide-ranging perspective in the IT sector. However, transitioning to a new area of focus will necessitate additional training in international relations and intercultural communication.
A key objective is to establish appropriate KPIs for the digital attaché, clarifying how their performance will be evaluated and what factors will drive their motivation. If the role becomes primarily symbolic and formal – where success is measured solely by the number of meetings organized – then the actual outcomes, such as business benefits, finalized deals, and sales volumes, may be overlooked.
In such scenarios, the impact of the digital attaché’s work will be significantly diminished. The challenge lies in the fact that this specialist cannot be held directly accountable for business results, as they do not represent the company.
Another crucial aspect is the authority and status of the digital attaché. If their level of authority is low, bureaucratic challenges can greatly hinder the effectiveness of their efforts.
Additionally, the resources available to the attaché play a significant role. While having access to informational resources is certainly beneficial, enabling them to provide insights into the market dynamics of a specific country, advise on initial steps, suggest negotiation partners, and highlight local legal nuances, it is even more advantageous if they can facilitate introductions, provide essential contacts, and streamline networking opportunities.
A digital attaché’s essential responsibility is arranging receptions, seminars, meetings, and presentations to facilitate the exchange of information and promote the Russian business in emerging markets. This requires finances, premises, and assistance from an embassy or a trade mission.
It would be highly beneficial for a digital attaché to utilize monetary support tools for companies that seek to enter new markets. Those could be used, among others, for providing assistance in obtaining a government subsidy or other form of state support.
Registries and marketplaces
Registries and marketplaces that offer domestic IT solutions should serve as an essential tool for a digital attaché. Resources available for the attaché include the register of domestic software developed by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade.
When using the domestic software marketplace, a digital attaché would benefit from convenient class-based solutions segmentation, with each solution including its technical parameters and use cases, if any. Also, contact information should be provided for prompt communication with the developer.
It would be ideal for such a register to respond to non-formalized queries because same-class products are often described differently on websites of various manufacturers as well as in information materials, which serve as a source of data to be included in the register, typically without extra processing and unification. Linguistic models could be helpful for handling this issue.
The success of Russian software marketplaces will depend on their effective positioning as well as the ability to reach the target audience and become an efficient tool for finding proper solutions for the domestic IT industry.
By Kirill Semion, General Director, National Competence Center for Holding Information Management Systemsautonomous non-profit organization