Innovation and transformation: Technologies are shaping the new reality

For 16 years now, Deloitte has been preparing the annual global predictions for the telecommunications, media and technology sector. Over the years, the accuracy of forecasts has increased, and now it exceeds 80%. That is why this research has become a recognized guideline for the growth strategy development by businesses across the globe.

The event was attended by a special guest – Paul Lee, Partner at Deloitte UK, Head of Global TMT Research, and author of global survey. This is the first time that Paul has visited Ukraine and personally presented the updated survey results.

After the presentation there was a panel discussion dedicated to impact of global technologies on the development of Ukrainian business as well as the role and perspectives of Ukraine in the context of global technological transformations. The discussion was attended by top management of the leading companies: Nadiia Vasylieva (Microsoft), Serhii Tereshchuk (Ericsson), Ihor Novikov (Singularity University), Yevhen Pasichniuk (IBМ) and Serhii Huliaev (Lifecell).

The expert insights on the perspectives of introducing certain technologies in Ukraine not always coincided. In particular, the experts voiced different opinions on implementing 5G in Ukraine by 2020: some see an obstacle in the state regulation and imperfection of 3G implementation process, while the others are positive about such an implementation, but in a very long-term perspective.

Serhii Tereshchuk, Chief Technology Officer at Ericsson in Ukraine and Eurasia, said: "It all depends on us. It depends on how skilfully we will use and how fast we will implement the global experience. 5G is a revolutionary technology, but by itself it does not offer great benefits to mobile operators. The important aspect is what services will be developed based on this technology.

At present, it is important for Ukraine to optimise available infrastructure and continue investing in 3G network to improve customer experience and prepare for the launch of 4G. It is technologically impossible to go straight from 3G to 5G because it is an evolutionary process.”    

All participants of the panel discussion are positive about the future development of technologies, and believe that it is possible to take Ukraine to a completely new level of technological progress by joining efforts of business, young talented professionals, and the state as well as investments in the development and education.

Moreover, even a difficult economic situation can be viewed from a positive side because such circumstances contribute to faster development: it makes you stronger, teaches you to take decisions quickly and seek advanced problem-solving methods.

Therefore, the companies, the state and the developers should look at the current situation in the country and business environment at a different angle. To analyse areas where disadvantages are transformed into advantages and that can be attractive to the world and investors. To discover the world of opportunities here and now instead of looking for a better place and time.

Ukraine has all the resources and opportunities to reach the developed countries in terms of the technological development of certain spheres. To do this, we must first of all change the attitude towards our country and ourselves.

In particular, Nadiia Vasylieva, General Director at Microsoft Ukraine, noted that our main problem is in the lack of knowledge and skills in management: “First of all, people need to learn to be confident in themselves and in building the country’s image. There are many investors who are ready to invest in domestic projects.

Our main problem is not in the lack of ideas and ready-made solutions – we have a problem with business, management, determination, and acceptance of responsibility. Together with our partners, we teach the teams how to build business models, how to present themselves, and how to be determined. We want our country to have a healthy ecosystem, and this requires teaching and developing.”

Nadiia also addressed business managers: “Do not be afraid to offer your own vision of a strategy, do not wait for a CEO or Chairperson of the Board to express their vision. Do not be afraid to try and start something.”

The state will become successful after it stops trying to catch up with the others. We need to look for an industry where we can be successful and become leaders in the global market. “There are several spheres of machine building that are already using the augmented reality. I believe that Ukraine can be among the advanced countries that use this technology in practice, and not just talk about it," says Nadiia Vasylieva.

Nadiia believes that the artificial intelligence models that are created in Ukraine are quite attractive and can adequately compete at the global level. Among other things, Nadiia Vasylieva considers Ukraine to be a thought leader in the Internet of Things.

As regards the promising directions of technological development for Ukraine, Ihor Novikov said: “Given the quality of highly skilled personnel, we can talk about real chances of success for the domestic developments in machine learning, data science and augmented reality.” Ihor believes that Ukraine can be considered as the country of trends in terms of new technology penetration rate. He also believes that cyber security is one of the leading areas for development. 

More recently, it has become clear that the only way to make the government activities transparent and to restore confidence in it is a technological one – by minimizing the human factor in the decision-making processes. The discussion participants named the development of block chain technology among the most promising directions for Ukraine.

“Business Transformation” is a term that is increasingly mentioned by large corporations around the world. By developing long-term strategies and building new business models, we need to be very careful and know exactly what results we want to achieve. Yevhen Pasichniuk, Head of IBM Cloud in CIS and Ukraine, commented: “We often substitute the term transformation for the term technology use. Transformation is not about adding technology to business, it is about restructuring business through technology.”   

“Businesses recognize the growing impact the technologies have on their operations, and regularly invest in the technology development to meet market requirements. However, it is very important to correctly identify the priority areas for such investments. We hope that our study will help business and the state to identify the most effective and innovative strategies,”  said Volodymyr Yumashev, moderator of panel discussion, Tax and Legal Partner at Deloitte Ukraine, TMT Group Leader.