Norwegian Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce (NUCC) together with the IT Ukraine Association and ICT-Norway conducted a seminar earlier this week where the status of Ukrainian tech sector was the topic. During the seminar we got to learn about how sector has evolved during the last 12 months. Here are my key take-aways from the seminar.
Konstantin Vasyuk from IT Ukraine Association giving an update about the status of IT services in Ukraine.
Despite the full-scale invasion of Russia, the Ukrainian IT-industry has seen a rise over the last 12 months. The collaboration between private companies and the government has drastically improved during this period. For example, digitalization of the public sector has never gone faster than it does today. In 2020 Ukraine launched the national project Diia.Business and Diia.City. The Diia app has shown how old and bureaucratic procedures can be digitalized and improved. And the app has even been exported to other countries during this period.
Another key take-away for me is how Ukraine has used the cloud. Working with digital procurement in Norway, I see some hesitation in using the cloud. Problems with legislation across countries and the Screms II verdict makes it difficult to procure cloud services. Ukraine has done it quite differently. Most of public services was moved to the cloud before the full-scale invasion started, whish have made it possible for government services to operate even if there have been massive amounts of cyber-attacks. It is probably not a bold prediction to guess that Ukrainian IT-security specialists will speak more frequently on seminars all across the world in the years to come!
Roundtable discussion. Left to right Konstantin Vasyuk (IT Ukraine Association), Irene Blessvik (TietoEvry), Oleksandr Radchenko (Intellectsoft), and Jon Erik Høgberg (Itera)
Delivery of IT-services from Ukraine was another topic that was discussed. It was quite interesting and also emotional to hear how the companies operating in Ukraine worked during the first few days of the full-scale invasion to ensure safety of their employees. Business continuity is a key word here, and the Ukrainian IT-industry has shown that they could manage business continuity in a situation that no other countries have experienced before. This is a learning that other companies and countries can learn from.
Thanks a lot to everyone who made the seminar possible and gave a lot of insight. Special thanks to our friends from Ukraine who made the travel to Norway.
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