During the unified voting days of September 6-8, St. Petersburg will hold gubernatorial elections. This year, the current governor Alexander Beglov faces competition from Maria Mikhailova, co-founder of the IT company RC Group and head of the “InFinTech” corporation.
Recently, the prospective candidate for governor of St. Petersburg appeared on a podcast with political scientist Dmitry Solonnikov, where she discussed numerous intriguing topics, including the digitalization of life in the Northern Capital, the role of the state in implementing digital projects, business transparency, and much more. More details can be found in our report.
The Impact of Digitalization on Life in St. Petersburg
According to Mikhailova, many people do not understand what digitalization entails, and this is a problem. Digitalization is pervasive; it affects all of us in significant ways, yet people are often unaware of how this tool operates.
There are citizens who consider digitalization to be a separate sphere or sector running parallel to critical areas like migration, snow removal, education, and healthcare. They worry that politicians might neglect these other areas in favor of digitalization. Therefore, it is crucial to explain what digitalization is, emphasized the future candidate for governor.
She noted that digitalization is not an isolated direction or sector. It is a supportive framework that helps all areas and sectors develop more efficiently. Digitalization is present in healthcare, education, and even in snow removal.
Digitalization in Education
Mikhailova proposed implementing digitalization across all sectors, including education. This is not meant to replace teachers but to ease the documentation process. Teachers spend a significant amount of time on paperwork, time that could be better spent educating children and students.
Moreover, platforms should be created to store large volumes of data that students can later access. Depending on the objectives, a platform can be designed to save time and enhance learning efficiency.
Education has always been and remains extremely important for the residents of St. Petersburg, and digitalization can help make it more effective and accessible, asserted the future candidate for governor.
She highlighted that June is an important month for education. This year, applicants were allowed to submit documents to universities online, but with a limitation of just five universities. Digitalization could enable applications to be submitted to an unlimited number of institutions, not just within one city but across the country. Such an approach would revolutionize the personnel training system and serve as an excellent tool for both graduates and Russia as a whole.
Mikhailova believes that St. Petersburg could become a pioneer in educational digitalization, setting a precedent for the entire country.
Digitalization in Transport
Digitalization can help streamline St. Petersburg’s transport system. Of course, some management aspects should remain human-operated for greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness. However, there are areas where complete automation is justified and feasible.
When discussing automation, it is crucial to have a well-crafted technical assignment and thorough project development. Any system can be created if there is a clear understanding of its purpose, Mikhailova explained.
Digitalization in Tourism
St. Petersburg’s tourism sector lacks a high-quality application, although this is also relevant to many other areas. Despite this, digitalization exists in one form or another, primarily through websites, Mikhailova noted.
She suggested developing an application that allows tourists to solve various issues they encounter in a new city directly from their smartphones.
“The biggest challenge in tourism, in my opinion, is attracting tourists to make the city appealing and convenient for them while ensuring that tourism does not inconvenience residents. There must be a balance,” explained the future candidate for governor.
Foreign tourists often travel in large groups. An app showing all tourist routes and schedules of interesting places would be convenient for them.
According to Mikhailova, the app should feature infrastructure objects like restaurants, souvenir shops, and other places tourists might visit.
Interaction Between State and Business
The prospective candidate for governor of St. Petersburg believes that the state should have teams dedicated to implementing IT projects. When non-experts handle these projects, progress is slow and difficult.
Mikhailova shared that she knows many examples where people attempted to create a project and hire IT specialists to develop a program but failed because there was no vision from the state.
Digitalization in Healthcare and Education
In the healthcare sector, there is a problem with online appointments. Services exist for booking appointments at clinics, yet long queues still form, and appointments sometimes get canceled for various reasons. Most problems arise because online booking has its peculiarities, Mikhailova noted.
When people book appointments from home, there is less accountability, and many forget their bookings. Additionally, numerous other issues can arise, such as changes in the doctor’s availability, causing patients to struggle with rescheduling.
Mikhailova suggested refining this system and logically addressing issues that arise with digital bookings. For example, accountability for missed appointments without a valid reason could be increased.
From the perspective of medical institutions, IT platforms and multi-level notification systems need to be carefully designed. While some of these elements already exist, with phone calls and SMS notifications, they need to be planned several steps ahead, emphasized the future candidate for governor.
Digital Outsourcing
A significant number of issues within the realm of digitalization stem from the fact that many companies create products according to different standards. This problem is particularly evident in the healthcare sector. There is an ongoing effort to unify standards, but there is resistance, especially among companies that wish to maintain their market positions. Each company has its clients within the healthcare sector, with established document workflows and other processes.
Transitioning to a unified platform could lead to some companies being edged out of the market, creating chaos with software systems within healthcare institutions, explained Maria Mikhailova.
She believes that outsourcing is undoubtedly necessary. She admires the approach of “VKontakte,” a company that operates with a large central firm and numerous partners who develop software according to set standards, essentially as applications within the main company. This method allows individual firms to retain their market presence and continue developing their software while working within a unified protocol and standard, which prevents stagnation.
Mikhailova emphasized that differing standards lead to negative outcomes. It is essential to establish a unified protocol and system of requirements from the outset, under which each company can develop its software and continue to grow.
Digitalization and Business
Regarding large businesses, digitalization is present but is often tailored to individual needs. The processes are complex, and implementing digitalization is extremely challenging. While large companies handle these issues independently, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the sectors that, in Mikhailova’s view, need digitalization the most.
Business activity in St. Petersburg needs to increase as it benefits everyone. To foster the growth of small businesses, entry barriers should be lowered, and overall costs reduced, as many people currently cannot afford to start their own ventures.
Digitalization can help by automating routine business processes, which are abundant in small enterprises, Mikhailova noted.
She also proposed making business operations more transparent. Many entrepreneurs currently attempt to reduce costs by avoiding formal payment channels, pushing small businesses into the grey economy, which needs to be addressed.
Automating everything would make businesses transparent, beneficial for interactions with regulatory bodies, reducing the need for numerous inspections and thereby lowering costs for both entrepreneurs and the state.
Additionally, this would enhance business creditworthiness, enabling small enterprises to grow into medium-sized ones. Presently, micro-businesses exist but do not develop due to existing barriers, which digitalization could help remove, explained the prospective candidate for governor of St. Petersburg.
The Need for Government Participation
Launching and perfecting a global project like digitalization requires direct government involvement. Therefore, the state must have personnel and an apparatus familiar with IT, capable of functioning as a cohesive group and expert community, Mikhailova explained.
She noted that her decision to run for governor of St. Petersburg was significantly influenced by her daily observations of how digitalization helps solve problems.
“I want problems to be solved efficiently, with digitalization serving as an aid,” remarked the future candidate for governor of St. Petersburg.
Mikhailova also mentioned a project named “Digitalization 2024,” aimed at implementing necessary programs in businesses and training entrepreneurs to use them, accelerating processes, which is crucial in today’s world.
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube