FORS Group
FORS celebrates 20 years in the IT market
Being the age mate of the IT market in Russia, FORS bore witness to the formation and emergence of a new industry which with time brought about irreversible changes in the life of the society. Today the company celebrates its 20th anniversary but remains true to its original course and the business model put in its foundation. The company’s business is focused on the complete range of services for implementation, support and development of information systems based on Oracle technologies. As in its early days, Oracle Corporation remains the only strategic vendor for FORS determining key areas of activity and competitive advantages of the company.
Alexey Golosov, President of FORS, says: “We have big plans. FORS has to become an international company, we need to attract investments more proactively and enter foreign markets. We have already taken certain steps in this direction in the CIS and Baltic countries where we develop cooperation with foreign companies well familiar with the specific features of local markets. I am sure we have what it takes, i.e. professional staff, expertise and experience in solving complex tasks”.
The main achievement of the company is putting together a highly professional team of experts in Oracle technologies and products in the market. Their unrivaled level of expertise, readiness to solve complex non-standard tasks and the accumulated experience in many areas have contributed to the unique position of FORS in the Russian IT market. The company currently employs over 300 people. 50 of them have been with the company for over 10 years. Over 150 specialists have been certified in various software products, technologies and fields of expertise.
The company can boast stable growth rates, FORS grows faster than the market. Prior to the economic crisis the average revenue growth comprised 47–57%. In 2010 the company’s revenue increased by 20% comprising
FORS is active in almost all industries. Key clients of the company are public sector institutions bringing in about 60% of the revenue, as well as telecommunications companies and banks, utilities and energy companies. Some of the largest projects implemented within the last several years are:
- development of applied information systems for the RF Federal Customs Service;
- a number of integration projects as part of the municipal target program “Electronic Moscow” commissioned by the Informatization Department of the City of Moscow;
- a complex automation project for State Unitary Enterprise “Vodokanal St. Petersburg” base on Oracle e-Business Suite;
- development and implementation of analytical systems on the basis of Oracle Business Intelligence & DataWarehousing in RF Federal Migration Service.
FORS operates its own First Line Technical Support Center certified by Oracle which is used by over 1500 clients. In particular demand is the “FORSified Support” expanded package of services which includes proactive support and maintenance of failure critical systems with an individual set of services and regulations for every customer.
Besides the areas where FORS has traditionally been strong, i.e. custom software development, integration of information systems, business intelligence, portal solutions and business modeling, the company keeps exploring new areas of activity. An example of such is promotion of the most powerful infrastructure solution for quick deployment of private and public clouds, a software and hardware complex Oracle Exadata Database Machine. In ExaStack Studio demo center opened by FORS the partners and clients can test their applications and choose the optimum configuration of the machine.
FORS Training and Consulting Center was one of the first in Russia to be authorized by Oracle and is currently the only training center in the field of IT offering the widest scope of Oracle-related courses as well as Oracle Exadata Database Machine classes.
In the future the company intends to focus its efforts on the development of mobile applications providing internet access to corporate applications from mobile devices as well as comprehensive solutions for the automation of healthcare and sport organizations.
FORS created the largest Oracle Partner Network in Russia comprising over 350 companies and continuously growing by attracting local players. Moreover, FORS is considering expansion to foreign markets, particularly Central Europe, Africa and the Middle East.