Second period. Low-speed Internet communications. Offline teleworking

In the second period Internet gradually replaced the conventional means of communication. At that moment Nicotech had dial-up Internet connection with the speed 1200bod, which with the time rose to 2400-4800-14400-28800-33600bod. At first the initial documentation, then short sources, and then all the sources were sent in both directions via Internet. And of course, everyday operational documentation, legal and financial documentation also traveled by Internet.

It became possible to make the smaller projects and the projects not so thoroughly described. Nicotech started to sign with the customers (companies L+T, Consist, Matrix, Metis, Up2date, PallasAthena – all from the Netherlands) the so called frame contracts, which defined hour rates, responsibilities of the parties, other generic conditions, but left aside the descriptions of the particular work. Afterwards, work descriptions could arrive on a day-to-day basis, producing a permanent stream of work for Nicotech.

The contents of the projects also changed. In the period ONE most of the projects were some kind of the “new development projects”, where a substantial piece of software was to be built anew or reengineered from the similar legacy software. In period TWO, due to better everyday communications, it became possible to make “additional development projects”, where there were more pieces of software, each smaller in size.

This was already a telework, where the employer (the boss) sat on a western side, and the employee (personnel) on a Russian side.
This type of work changed the demands for employees and for their development. Originally the employees had to have the definite software development skills, defined in terms of software platforms, programming languages and packages (i.e. AS/400, Wintel, OS/2, Cobol/400, Delphi, C++, etc). The development of their skills was also measured in terms of new platforms, new languages and new packages. In period TWO it became important, what knowledge and experience they have in particular programs of the particular customer. When they gained experience about the particular products of the customer (and not about generic languages), their value to the company increased,.

The most obvious way to gain customer-specific skills was to send a programmer to a customer site for some period of time, and this way was widely used by Nicotech. The legal obstacles for working abroad could be easily overcome by the facts that persons

• Were NOT on a payroll of the customer;
  
• Most of the work was made in Moscow;
  

A visit to the customer site was mostly used for joint testing, elimination of unclearly defined places, starting a new piece of work.

During such trips, which lasted from several days and up to three months, personnel from both sides often established the strong personal contacts, in some cases even friendships between families. What was more important for business, such trips led to closer business and cultural convergence between the parties. The work procedures in Moscow office of Nicotech more and more resembled the work procedures of one or another customer. Nicotech easily incorporated changes from the traditional work procedures to the customer-oriented procedures.

Totally, because the work environment of the western client was different from the one in Moscow, this period brought to Nicotech a knowledge of new platforms, new languages and new programming tools, where all of them were exactly the same which were used by their western counterparts. It may be said that employee qualifications and culture became better synchronized.

Other items also became better synchronized. Nicotech shifted the start of their working day to 10.30-11.00 (8.30-9.00 CET), what allowed full eight-hour period for communications with the western counterparts. At the very beginning of the period TWO, both sides made a common choice of e-mail client package, so all the information sent via Internet were absolutely compatible. They also made other agreements concerning use of Internet e-mail on AS/400 platform, concerning the use of FTP protocol for sending and receiving the files, etc. Later on, when Nicotech was in technical negotiations with other potential clients, this list of agreements could be produced and could constitute a ground for similar agreements with the new counterparts. This was important, because people working in a closed environment, sometime do not realize that the world is a bigger place, and the environments may change from place to place.

The similar synchronization took place in the business area of the projects. The parties used the same Office packages, so the technical and business documentation traveled seamlessly. In many cases, the parties shared the reporting formats, thus the description of errors reported on a western side was easily incorporated into the rework assignments on a Russian side. Adversely, design problems and questions reported by Nicotech, easily found a way to designers of the western counterpart and were easily incorporated into its workplans.

For at least some customers such telework became important and took substantial place in its plans. Such customer, when he planned some new projects using the new tools and/or platforms, had to take into consideration how fast Nicotech can build the corresponding skills and how fast it can build the technical infrastructure. For example, in the first half of 1996 Nicotech had to invest a lot of time in additional education courses on APS and ADW tools on OS/2 platform, and had to accelerate the upgrade of the working places to make them OS/2 compatible.
It is necessary to mention here, that the preparation of the work environment for the growing number of the customers became more and more difficult. The work environment (hardware, software and skills) became more and more expensive, and many projects had to be abandoned for the economical reasons.

Period TWO lasted 3.5 years from 1994 till mid-1997, when it became unprofitable to replicate the work environments of numerous clients. At this moment Nicotech started to investigate different new opportunities for communicating with the customers.

As was said before, the Internet connection during period TWO improved from 1200 bod to 33600 bod. In the beginning of the period TWO, Nicotech paid $60 per 1Mb of traffic, in the end - $0.006 per 1Mb of traffic in excess of a certain monthly level. In 1997, the permanent, low-cost and fast Internet connection became possible in Moscow, thus it became possible to start new types of work. At the same time, there was a split from Nicotech of a new company Cinimex, working for a new client (also Chronotech, the Netherlands). This became possible, because Cinimex could count on a lower cost of the infrastructure, affordable to its smaller size.