The global information technology report 2014

Executive summary When The Global Information Technology Report (GITR) and the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) were created more than 13 years ago, the attention of decision makers was focused on how to develop strategies that would allow them to benefit from what Time Magazine had described as “the new economy”: a new way of organizing and managing economic activity based on the new opportunities that the Internet provided for businesses. At present, the world is slowly emerging from one of the worst financial and economic crises in decades, and policymakers, business leaders, and civil society are looking into new opportunities that can consolidate growth, generate new employment, and create business opportunities. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) continue to rank high on the list as one of the key sources of new opportunities to foster innovation and boost economic and social prosperity, for both advanced and emerging economies. For more than 13 years, the NRI has provided decision makers with a useful conceptual framework to evaluate the impact of ICTs at a global level and to benchmark the ICT readiness and usage of their economies

The Usage of Analytical SAS Tools in the Audit Practice for Risk Assessment

In a situation when the level of risk increases every day, and regulatory requirements are becoming more stringent, to monitor illegal activities, it is necessary to use advanced analytical tools. Automation of the processes for risk assessment in the era of the digital economy is the key of success for any audit firm, as this will reduce labour and time costs and constantly improve its system for the risk detection of any kind and the submission of reliable information as a result of its activities. SAS offers the best-of-a-kind solution that includes high-performance analytics and combination of detection methods of irregularities, which help to monitor a larger number of risk factors, particularly analyzing large data volumes – in minutes instead of hours

The Use of Analytical Tools in the Conduct of Internal Control Procedures

The work is devoted to the study of the problems of management, the activities of international companies in solving urgent problems of risk assessment, international cooperation of companies in the development and use of software and the applications of the Business Intelligence class, Data Quality and Business Analytics, the role of SAS in the domestic market. The first part is devoted to the activities of international companies in the field of risk assessment. The second part is devoted to the review of analytical products of SAS.   Keywords: audit, risk assessment, in-depth analytics, business intelligenc

Business performance management models based on the digital corporation’s paradigm

Digital development of the global economy has increasingly severe implications for business, society and State. The so-called digital transformation (DX) has already turned from a scientific paradigm to reality, adjusting the development strategies of entire states, changing the face of social infrastructure and reformatting business processes. The market participants now face serious challenges: how to build their own business model and how to find their place in the digital ecosystem of the nearest future, drawing on digital technologies. That is precisely why the research and approbation of approaches to building an information model of a digital corporation are not only topical, but also very timely. The article provides an overview of several important studies in the field of DX, along with a comparative analysis of classical and digital models of corporate governance; it also shows the potential for the development of the CPM concept (Corporate performance management) considering the DX requirements and the advantages of the evolutionary planning approach. The authors present the paradigm of building information and analytical systems for digital corporation management with the use of advanced business intelligence based on dynamic intellectual models. The article describes examples of real projects on the development of support systems for decision-making in terms of marketing and financial management, including business effects from the use of similar systems. The authors have summarized project experience in the field of building a digital system of corporate management based on the Academic Competence Center of IBM "Reasonable Commerce" (located in Plekhanov Russian University of Economics) and outlined the prospects for further research.peer-reviewe

Assessing the Effectiveness of the EU’s and Russia’s Cultural Diplomacy towards Central Asia. EL-CSID Working Paper Issue 2018/9 • February 2018

This paper attempts to analyse the European Union’s (EU) cultural diplomacy (CD) efforts in five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, hereinafter ‘Central Asia’). Beginning in the early 2000s, EU Member States looked at the region with increased interest. Aside from major engagements on trade, energy and security, education and intercultural dialogue were stressed as priority areas in the 2007 EU Strategy for Central Asia. To measure EU effectiveness as a CD actor in Central Asia, a comparative dimension is proposed by analysing the role Russia has pursued. At law and policy level, since Putin’s return to the Presidency in 2012, Russia has reaffirmed its ambitions to strengthen both hard and soft presence in Central Asia, viewing the region within its sphere of influence. This engagement was reiterated in the 2015 Strategy of National Security and in the 2016 Foreign Policy Concept. To draw a comparison, actors’ CD effectiveness is measured in terms of willingness, capacity, and acceptance, based on the theoretical framework proposed by Kingah, Amaya and Van Langenhove1. This paper finds that European CD efforts had mixed results due to an inconsistent policy towards the region. Although EU cultural heritage and educational influence are widely acknowledged, Russia remains today the major foreign actor in Central Asia, displaying strong levels of attractiveness among citizenry and elites. Historical and cultural ties, but also institutional and economic efforts allowed Moscow to keep its leading position. However, Russia’s future regional leadership should not be taken for granted, as all Central Asian states have been looking at Moscow’s cultural engagement with increased scepticism

Brand Marketing Trends in Russian Social Media

In the paper, the authors have reviewed common actions, an aim of which is consumer engagement in interactions with a brand in social media. They have also reviewed engagement types and effects of their use. Based on a literature review, in a clearer way, the authors have presented attributes of Internet marketing and explored brand-marketing challenges on the Internet. Authors have summarized the information on Russian users' efforts in social media. Based on empirical data, the researchers have made a portrait of media actors and the audience in Russian social media, identified target groups among consumers by a number of criteria. They have also completed an analysis of common ways for promotion of companies (brands) and their products and services, taking into account a structure of social media users and specifics of communication channels. Findings include identified most common lines of business for promotion in a competitive social media based on efficiency of the engagement response (rate) per brand/product-specific page or post. These data have made it possible to formalize strategic goals and possible results of brand marketing for various types of social media

Lawless Privatization?

This paper provides an historical analysis of the four privatization stages of the Russian economy covering the period 1986-2005 with particular attention to the initial period of private capital formation. We use data from the World Bank, the Russian Accounting Chamber and other publicly available sources to reveal how government policy - or lack of it - led to the emergence of privately owned companies, including enforcement agencies for property right protection with business-criminal relationships. Our analysis shows that the ultimate effect of privatization has been the transfer of ownership from the state to a few industry-based monopolistic structures with highly concentrated capital and unstable governance. Analyzed within the framework of new institutional economics, this paper provides a foundation for ongoing research on current Russian corporate ownership structures, capital formation and financial market development

Railway Communication Network Digital Reporting System: A Case Study

The digital transformation of the railway communication network operations is contributing to an increase in data volumes across various functional areas, collecting and processing information from equipment, customers, and the company\u27s various business process management systems. The implementation of a specialized solution for analysis and operational monitoring was a logical extension of the development of data handling, opening up opportunities for building both operational reporting and predictive analytics, distribution and unification of reporting forms, which the reporting in production systems and manual analytics generation tools used before did not allow to achieve. In this paper, we propose to use a digital framework based on open-source big data technologies with different distributed services to process and store KPIs data from Railway Communication Network. We also review literature about challenges and solutions of Data Lake in KPI\u27s Railway Communications Network domain. To assess the applicability of the framework proposed, incidents and event data relating to the production business processes have been tested on the actual railway communication network. The suggested framework effectively processed the data and the implementation setup settings were presented, as well as the results of experiments

e-Skills: The International dimension and the Impact of Globalisation - Final Report 2014

In today’s increasingly knowledge-based economies, new information and communication technologies are a key engine for growth fuelled by the innovative ideas of highly - skilled workers. However, obtaining adequate quantities of employees with the necessary e-skills is a challenge. This is a growing international problem with many countries having an insufficient numbers of workers with the right e-Skills. For example: Australia: “Even though there’s 10,000 jobs a year created in IT, there are only 4500 students studying IT at university, and not all of them graduate” (Talevski and Osman, 2013). Brazil: “Brazil’s ICT sector requires about 78,000 [new] people by 2014. But, according to Brasscom, there are only 33,000 youths studying ICT related courses in the country” (Ammachchi, 2012). Canada: “It is widely acknowledged that it is becoming inc reasingly difficult to recruit for a variety of critical ICT occupations –from entry level to seasoned” (Ticoll and Nordicity, 2012). Europe: It is estimated that there will be an e-skills gap within Europe of up to 900,000 (main forecast scenario) ICT pr actitioners by 2020” (Empirica, 2014). Japan: It is reported that 80% of IT and user companies report an e-skills shortage (IPA, IT HR White Paper, 2013) United States: “Unlike the fiscal cliff where we are still peering over the edge, we careened over the “IT Skills Cliff” some years ago as our economy digitalized, mobilized and further “technologized”, and our IT skilled labour supply failed to keep up” (Miano, 2013)