2012. No. 2(20)

Boris Slavin – Head of Center for IT expertise of The Union of CIOs of Russia, IT Company.
Address: 19, build. 6, Leninskaya Sloboda str., Moscow, 115280, Russian Federation. 
E-mail: bbslavin@gmail.com

Modern Information and Communication Technologies form an environment for information exchange between people. Moreover, those information environments established for improving business efficiency and those designed for personal use differ quite noticeably. However, recently these technologies have tended to converge. Thus, this very convergence is the subject of the research described in the article.

In the course of the research, information environments were compared according to the tasks they accomplish. The first task is to increase self-service, resulting in reduction of costs and time spent on service due to simplification of  procedures and their transfer in electronic form. The second task is to improve the access to information, which includes sharing more up-to-date analytic data, information clarity and completeness. The third task is to establish cooperative work for finding solutions and taking decisions and to form an individual's social space. Furthermore, the principles of organizing the information environment were also taken into account: independence from the information processing devices, users rating and access privileges, one-time data input, contextual prompts, intelligent navigation, etc.

The research displays that Information Environment Architecture in Business gradually accepts the functionality of social networks. Social networks on their side obtain advanced features for organization of their users' business activities. Cloud technologies play a special role in the convergence of business and social information environments, as they allow for the information services to “get rid” of limitations of office buildings, as does automatization of routine work, making it more communication-directed. Expert networks will also contribute to the convergence of business and social information environments as they are likely to become the basic means of data storage and the source of expert evaluation. The convergence of the tasks and the principles in the information environments becomes the trend for developing not only corporations' computerization but also social networks platforms.

Andranik Akopov – Professor, Department of Business Analytics, Faculty of Business Informatics, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
Address: 20, Myasnitskaya str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation.
E-mail: aakopov@hse.ru

Modeling of strategic development of a banking group using system dynamics approach provides the solution of many tasks, in particular, strategic decision making based on key performance indicators (KPIs) within different scenario conditions and restrictions.

The purpose of the paper is development of an integrated strategic simulation of a banking group, using system dynamics methods. In the paper a new approach to development of long-term strategy of banking group using methods of system dynamics is presented. This approach is based on a mathematical model of management by key performance indicators (KPIs) of a banking group. The model is realized using Powersim Studio simulation software. The system is successfully implemented in several large Russian banking groups and is used for supporting of strategic decisions.

Main features of the system are: taking into consideration internal (including direct and feedback) links between characteristics of different business segments of a banking group; possibility of KPI values assessment under different scenario conditions ("What, if" analysis); possibility of management of characteristics of a banking group by the allocation and optimization of values of key control parameters (for example, growth rates of loans, deposits, etc.); possibility of carrying out ‘stress testing’ using Monte-Carlo methods and Powersim simulation software. The simulation model deals with ‘business drivers’ (growth rate of the loans, growth rate of deposits, effective interest rates, reservation rates, etc.), estimating their influence on KPIs, such as net profit, assets and liabilities, capital, net profit margin, etc. The system was applied in practice for assessment of KPIs relying on real statistical data obtained from the official reporting.

Practical application of such system allows to increase quality of strategic decisions, to minimize time required for formulation and analysis of banking group development scenarios,  to expand the range of evaluated scenarios and to determine the best values of banking business drivers.

Natalia Lychkina – Associate Professor, Deputy Head of Department of Information Systems, Institute of Management Information Systems, State University of Management.
Address: 99, Ryazansky prospect, Moscow, 109542, Russian Federation.  
E-mail: lychkina@guu.ru

Yulia Morozova – Postgraduate Student, Department of Information Systems, Institute of Management Information Systems, State University of Management.
Address: 99, Ryazansky prospect, Moscow, 109542, Russian Federation.  
E-mail: limnoria@gmail.com

One of the most urgent problems of government activity isreforms to Russia's pension system which propose an intensive use of quantitative methods and computer models of different types to develop strategies and scenarios within correspondent state policy. These models must be connected with information configuration structure to ensure data processing and decision support by Russian competent authorities. In this respect, thetask of this article to make a stratified description based on results of complex pre-model analysis ofRussia's pension system.

Stratification of economic and social system proposes to determine its different strata (levels of representation) which unveil each of its specific aspects. The study outlines the following strata of Russia's pension system: semantic, flow, structural-functional, algorithmic and information strata. Thereupon, a unified information display format was proposed, allowing to describeeconomic and social system in terms of semantic, flow, structural-functional, algorithmic and information strata using appropriate ideographic tools of computer modeling. The stratified descriptionlogic is based on key indicators relating to target values of average retirement pension and wage replacement rate taking into account government budget restrictions. Principle used in description is a tree of options allowing to determine best combinations of scenario parameters. The main feature of proposed approach is joint use of dynamic system and agent methods of simulation modeling. Brief conceptualized description of data processing procedures was made based on stratification method taking into consideration information system configuration being able to ensure decision support in Russia's pension system.

Ivan Artamonov – Senior Lecturer, Department of Informatics and Cybernetics, Faculty of Informatics, Accounting and Service, Baikal State University of Economics and Law.
Address: 11, Lenin str., Irkutsk, 664003, Russian Federation.
E-mail: dark@darkis.ru

Service-oriented system concepts and descriptions of interactions between heterogeneous computing environments in scientific literature and international standards customarily use term “business transaction”. However, this object with its properties and characteristics is rarely studied in detail. When specifying distributed systems building templates, transactional properties of a composition of services, orchestration and choreography problems, etc., authors of technical works rely on an intuitive understanding of this term by the reader. Therefore, business transaction is described here as a business process and as some complex operation performed in corporate applications environment. Such environment adds a number of complex characteristics to a business transaction which ensure its ability to interact. This work shows that a business transaction tries to support ACID properties of system transactions; however, due to complex nature, a part of those properties is diminished and cannot be fulfilled which fact substantially limits the use of the existing distributed transaction management tools. On the basis of the analysis of advanced transaction models, and also of orchestration and choreography protocols, this article distinguishes among three different types of business transactions: elementary, long-term and business process transactions. It should be noted that all the three transaction types completely match the broad definition of business transaction, and separate definition of a “business  processes transaction” does not prevent elementary and long-term transactions from performing business processes too. 

Julia Taratukhina – Associate Professor, Department of Innovation and Business in Information Technologies, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
Address: 20, Myasnitskaya str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation.
E-mail: jtaratuhina@hse.ru  

Ineya Baranova – Student of “Electronic business” MSc program, Faculty of Business Informatics, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
Address: 20, Myasnitskaya str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation.
E-mail: binmi@hotmail.com

One of the most popular types of network communities today is knowledge exchange communities (practice communities) that represent social communities, members of which are involved in collaboration and the crucial condition here is their communication.

While open educational resources (OER) provide free official use and reuse of materials, we have to respect the rights of copyright user. As for western countries (cultures) the intellectual right and copyright questions are critical, they have already taken certain steps to form open-licensing framework. All their papers have to include references to all the resources and thoughts involved. These resources should be recognized as reliable for being an official source. And when the author and copyright are absent, the resource cannot be considered as official source of information.

The opposite situation is common for eastern countries, including Russia and CIS. The problem of copyright is the last one to be taken into account. Nevertheless, official promotion, support and recognition of OER is not possible without established copyright policy. And now it’s a huge deal to correctly adopt the mechanisms like Creative Commons licensing for Russia and CIS counties, to make them work correctly, ensure their relevance at all levels.

As a result, it’s clear that cultural differences influence almost every detail in educational environment. They form certain patterns in behavior which in their turn influence even the legal components of OER.

Yana Lavrushina – Senior Manager, Operational and Credit Risk Division, Gazprom Export LLC.
Address: 9, Strastnoy bul., Moscow, 127006, Russian Federation.  
E-mail: ya.lavrushina@gazpromexport.com 

Anastasia Makarova – Senior Specialist, Operational and Credit Risk Division, Gazprom Export LLC.
Address: 9, Strastnoy bul., Moscow, 127006, Russian Federation.  
E-mail: a.makarova@gazpromexport.com 

Alexander Kulikov – Senior Specialist, Operational and Credit Risk Division, Gazprom Export LLC.
Address: 9, Strastnoy bul., Moscow, 127006, Russian Federation.  
E-mail: a.kulikov@gazpromexport.com

Operation risk management process is one of the methods of managing a company’s changes, conducted through improving business-processes and technologies. While bringing the business to a new level of performance, information technologies lead to its dependency on safe and trouble-free functioning of IT-equipment, infrastructure and user systems. The model considered in the article enables non-financial sector companies to calculate expected and unexpected losses due to technical risk in the statistical incorrect environment.

The business architecture is supposed to be divided into independent scenarios comprising business-processes with different execution time frameworks and relevant IT-systems. Risk assessment results from modeling the support systems availability taking into account critical execution time framework. Risk exposure is derived from matrix determining scenario feasibility through access to a correspondent supporting system. The exponential twisting method is implemented to minimize calculation errors as a tool for more adequate probability assessment of the events which are in the «tail» of loss distribution.

To find the unexpected losses in the model described in the article, the right-hand boundary of confidence interval is to be taken. The risk contribution analysis is based on the whole scope of business-process and IT-systems in the «tail» of loss distribution, and thus leading to severe losses.

The technical analysis of the IT-architecture is an issue, but the key-note of the operational risk analysis is business-process architecture adequacy control. Therefore the proposed model allows not only to assess the operational risk but also to examine the enterprise’s business-architecture adequacy in conformity with existing IT-architecture and trouble-free functioning requirements for further reliability category establishment.

Oleg Gorbachev – Associate Professor, Department of Mathematical Fundamentals of Management, Faculty of Control and Applied Mathematics, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State University).
Address: 9, Institutskiy per., Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, 141700, Russian Federation.
E-mail:  gorbachev@sk-europe.ru

The fact that at present time information plays a so important role, led to introduction of a new economic term – information capital. Information capital of insurance company comprises of an updatable and sustainable customer base. The subject of this research is information resources created during insurance activities and, primarily, a customer base of insurance company. Such base consists of information (retrospective data) to identify a potential insured person and his/her insurable interests. The homogeneity parameter characterizes a generalized information quality of customer base data. The task was to develop a customer base homogeneity model.

The article proposes a cutting edge information model of insurance portfolio that is based on author’s determination of homogeneity classes and enables to improve significantly the effectiveness of information capital of insurance company. This information model helps to establish price targets for new insurance product with no adequate statistics regarding to insurance object available, using outdated statistic data or statistic information on other regions.

To test the information model, 300 insured events in connection with motor vehicle accident damage were selected. Resultant 36 hybrid empirical functions were tested by pairs using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Based on test results, the conclusion was made that captured data complied with homogeneity hypothesis with significance level of five (5) per cent. If we consider marketing discounts available in majority of insurance companies (up to 10 percent) as adequate accuracy cues, test results may be recognized to be ambitious enough from a practical standpoint.

Roman Vasiliev – Professor, Head of Department of Information Systems Strategic Management, Faculty of Business Informatics, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
Address: 20, Myasnitskaya str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation.
E-mail: rvasiliev@hse.ru

Galina Levochkina – Associate Professor, Department of Information Systems Strategic Management, Faculty of Business Informatics, National Research University Higher School of Economics
Address: 20, Myasnitskaya str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation.
E-mail: glevochkina@hse.ru

One of the key sectors in the global IT market is IT services, including various, mostly intellectual, services with a high added cost.

The article represents the analysis of the current state and prospects of the Russian IT services market. The objective of the research is to assess the maturity of the Russian IT services market and to identify the factors influencing the activities in this sphere.

Identifying the parameters to describe IT services market is a rather difficult process. There is no general methodology and tools for this kind of analysis. When conducting their researches, consulting and analytical firms use different methods and approaches. As a rule, the market is analyzed on the basis of quantitative parameters, such as revenue, while to evaluate the maturity of the market,  one should take into account not only numeric data, but quality events and trends.

The article analyzes the Russian IT services market and evaluates its maturity on the basis of the criteria, developed by the authors, which take into account specific features of the Russian IT market and approaches used in profile analysis for assessing market maturity level. The research results in the ultimate conclusion that currently Russian IT services market has insufficient maturity level and stands on development (growth) phase. Results of the research can be applied by different enterprises, organizations and firms when purchasing IT services, as such decisions should be based on the reliable and up-to-date information and a thorough analysis of all factors influencing the decisions. The research may also be of use to IT services providers when determining and implementing their development strategies, marketing moves and introducing new IT services, when buying or selling shares, or fulfilling their IT projects.

Rufat Gulmammadov – Associate Professor, Department of Information Economics and Technologies, Azerbaijan State Economic University.
Address: 6, Istiqlaliyyat str., Baku, Azerbaijan.
E-mail: gulmamedovrg@rambler.ru

As evident from the international experience, there is a direct relation between the level of computerization and the economic growth in the regions. However, high rates of investment and the computerization alone do not guarantee the speedup of economic growth. This article concludes, that in comparison with the costs of hard- and soft-ware, the expenses for the cognitive analysis usually do not exceed even a half a percentage point of the regional computerization budget, while the losses due to the lack of such analysis will be much higher.

The study’s objective is to develop a method of regional computerization cognitive maps, designed to improve efficiency of the regional IT development planning. The basis of the developed map is a structural model of economic growth, suggested by the EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit) analysts, at the commission of Microsoft. The model establishes a conceptual dependence of the economic growth on a number of key and up-to-date computerization problems. For taking these features into the account there was developed a cognitive map of a special type, focused on the regional objectives and based on the production rules (Rule-Based Cognitive Map - RBCM). The rule base of a production network describes an entire set of cross-factor relations, defined by the EIU-model. The cause-and-effect relations characterizing the strength and the sign of the factor-on-factor influence are defined by a linguistic scale.

As a result, based on RBCM, an active prototype of the regional computerization cognitive model has been developed. The prototype tests showed that the model does not produce trivial or absurd results, but allows to formulate non-obvious alternative strategies, which tended to be better than those proposed by managers of the regional computerization. The main advantage of the model is the fact, that it allows to do the divergent analysis of alternative projects, which is very useful at the early, but the most complex and important stage, which is the stage of conceptual synthesis of the regional projects.

Vladimir Ershov – Associate Professor, Department of Business Informatics, Institute of Economics, Kostroma State University.
Address: 14, 1 Maya str., Kostroma, 156002, Russian Federation.  
E-mail: yvn@mail.ru

Polina Smirnova – Student of MSc Program, Department of Business Informatics, Institute of Economics, Kostroma State University.
Address: 14, 1 Maya str., Kostroma, 156002, Russian Federation.  
E-mail: perovapol@gmail.com

This article is focused on personal data protection methodology and practices used in Russia which are derived from Federal Law "On Personal Data". This area substantially lacks detailed studies and analyses of personal data protection practices. Comments on the Law itself are also ambiguous and unclear. All this adds trouble and risk to operators of personal data who are left on their own on how to respond, and have to solve arising problems on the spot.

In this conjuncture, the object of this work is to review existing practices described in formal and informal standards and guidance materials in the area of personal data protection, and to develop missing aspects of personal data protection methodology.

The key concept of an advanced personal data protection system is the principle of generating an intruder model with the help of which the process of threat structuring may be implemented. However, there is no method for building such a model. Therefore, the article also proposes a method for configuring an intruder model for a personal data protection IT system on the basis of a review of existing standards and guidance materials, and through modification of existing methods. The model enables a detailed review of a threat and an assessment of probability of its fulfillment by all reasonably relevant groups of intruders. Relevant security threats should be selected on the basis of assessed probability of fulfillment of one and the same threat by all possible groups of intruders, i.e. in view of the predominant threat sources. To introduce an intruder model to a standard method, it is suggested that the parameter of threat emergence probability should be substituted with corresponding indicator of the probability of actual threat fulfillment by the intruder. Choice and systematization of actual threats may be most efficiently performed on the basis of multidimensional data presentation in the form of hypercube.