Interview with Documentolog's Deputy General Director Yernat Asanov on Cloud Technologies

Yernat, your company is ranked among the top 10 IT companies in Kazakhstan according to the "Expert RA Kazakhstan" rating. Can you tell us what has contributed to achieving such results?
Customer satisfaction is our main performance indicator. We have achieved high results only through diligent and persistent work on improving our Documentolog platform. As a result, the Documentolog product line has become in demand and earned trust across various business sectors, including large financial organizations, national holdings, and government agencies. Currently, we have over 50 technical specialists and programmers focused exclusively on the development of the Documentolog platform. More than 25,000 people use our products daily. We are a participant in the "Innovation Technology Park" free economic zone and, since 2013, we have been implementing a pilot project in collaboration with JSC "National Information Technologies" to provide cloud document management services to government organizations in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

How did you come up with the idea of providing cloud document management services?
In the process of selling our products, we encountered the fact that most potential clients in small and medium-sized businesses did not have the capacity to maintain IT specialists qualified enough to support a product like EDM. Additionally, customers often asked us to advise them on what equipment they needed to purchase for installing our products. Ultimately, we came to the logical conclusion that the market was ready to rent our products, and we decided to offer all our products also under the SaaS model.

What benefits does an organization gain if it decides to purchase cloud document management services?
By acquiring cloud document management services, an organization delegates all issues related to equipment procurement, system deployment, data storage, ensuring fault tolerance, and system support to the cloud operator. This significantly reduces the implementation costs compared to the traditional method of implementing EDM. The implementation time is also shortened, from about three months to three weeks. Since there is no need to install client EDM modules on users' computers, the process of working with the system is simplified; for example, to work with Documentolog EDM, it is sufficient for the user's computer to have a pre-installed web browser and a network connection to the cloud operator.

Can you name a few organizations that work with you under the SaaS model?
Currently, we provide cloud document management services to organizations such as the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the youth wing of the "Nur Otan" party, JSC "National Managing Holding "Baiterek", LLP "Lemonadoff Food", and others. I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that we are currently running a promotion that will last until February 1, 2015. Everyone who applies for the cloud EDM service will receive 6 months of free service usage.

What are the prospects for cloud document management - EDM in Kazakhstan?
Cloud services and mobile technologies will remain the main IT trend in 2015. Commercial and government organizations have a clear understanding of the benefits of moving their document management to the cloud. However, it is worth noting that rigidly programmed "bureaucratic" solutions do not meet market needs. In the long term, a significant share of the cloud document management market will be occupied by highly optimized ECM platforms, on the basis of which the EDM configuration is deployed. It is expected that the ECM platform should allow for flexible restructuring of business processes in the configuration "on the fly."

Share your plans for the future.

We will continue to improve the Documentolog platform in accordance with our clients' needs and develop specialized solutions for automating business processes.