Where to start your company?

Question

Business Informatics

Good afternoon. Now I work in a bank as a team leader, and I am extremely dissatisfied with the management. The idea is brewing to bud and cut your company with blackjack and agile. The question is:
Is it worth getting into government contracts in the healthcare sector? Because I want to benefit in this area through the automation of processes and, most importantly, to benefit people. As far as I know, there is a lot of bureaucracy and clumsy people with whom it is difficult to conduct a dialogue and resolve development issues. This is what different people whispered to me. But I would like to hear your opinion on this matter. Is it really that bad there? How painful is it to develop in this area?
Or is it better for everyone to start working with a business?

Answer 1

In no case should you climb into the state-owned companies - this is a dead option!
1) You need to get a government contract - how do you do it? (without strong acquaintances ANYWHERE)! Although, of course, you can try on the State Procurement website to try to win a tender ..... 4) From personal experience - I worked as a developer in one state-owned company - and so there was one Lady who didn’t understand anything in development (but nevertheless taxied 10 programmers), and all because she had access to the Deputy Minister who approved government contracts, and so the company's management received 300-400 thousand bonuses, and the developers 20-30, and the whole management prayed for this lady - otherwise the product is shit and the development is at a low level everyone was crazy....
2) Suppose you, at your own peril and risk, write down a program for healthcare - how will you make it so that our hospitals use it ?? point 1 - FRIENDLY
3) Hence the conclusion that the easiest way is to be an intermediary (even if for 2-3% of the state contract) and not produce or program anything - in principle, all state-owned companies in Russia live this way.

Answer 2

Do not listen to anyone ... the majority has an opinion about state-owned companies, state contracts, and, in general, what the state does is only negative, so you will be dissuaded by any means.
It is always possible and necessary to work, especially if the solution is interesting and somehow distinguishes you from the rest of the gray mass. If there are 2-3 or 5 analogues, this is not competition ... no one occupies 100% of the market, and no company has 100% satisfied customers, therefore they can be your market ... besides, in a market without competition it is often difficult to promote your exclusive product, and if there are competitors, then look from the other side... they actually help you develop the market, use it correctly...
Government contracts, public procurement - it's not difficult, it will take some time, it will probably need a separate person, but it's all solvable ... and without money (corruption) ... and in this area it's not bad, but rather, on the contrary, it's good, it's guaranteed there is money that is allocated every year, which is necessarily spent, so everything here is much more stable than anywhere else ... figure out how to make it so that they spend on you)))
To develop your product, look at business incubators, etc. ... they really help in development.

Answer 3

The main disadvantage in the state. contracts that you will receive payment in half a year or more. Usually around New Years.
If you have your money and the desire to wait, then go ahead. And not as much money there as it might seem.

Answer 4

Better with business, it will immediately be clear there is value in your product or not

Answer 5

In general, the topic of healthcare is extensive: equipment, software for equipment, information systems, all sorts of nat. projects, etc.
The question was most likely about the latter, and here the difficulty is that everything has been divided up for a long time and you will have to compete with well-known system integrators and government agencies. outsourcers. Without outside help, a small business has nothing to do here.
I recommend studying the ARMIT materials in order to roughly understand what is happening there.
If we talk about creating a breakthrough product / service, then it is better to do this through an incubator (of which there are enough now)

Answer 6

I tried to automate an appointment via the Internet in my county town. He offered for free, on a volunteer basis, he just wanted to do a good deed for himself and fellow countrymen. It was not possible to agree, but I learned from experience - the vertical of management works fine there. You need to negotiate from above, as far as it is available to you. By the way, there are also private clinics, they are open to contact.

Answer 7

Let me ask you a clarifying question:
1. What exactly do you dislike about the management at your current place of work?
2. Why are you going to "saw your company with blackjack and agile"?

Answer 8

in government contracts

The specifics are such that without you coming to those people with whom you have already discussed what they need, there will be a minus in finances and karma.
There are examples of how, during the banal development of a website, people went into minus 3-4 times the cost of work - because no one from the Customer’s side could decide what they needed, and it’s impossible to work with governments in the format - “we made you 2 concepts according to your desires, for 3 it would be necessary to add finance. Here you have to cut what they say within the budget of the contract or fly into the list of unscrupulous :)
If there is a potential client who has a need and with whom you discussed this need, it will take off.
Gradually, exceptions to this approach appear, but very slowly.
As for the money at the end of the year - this is not entirely true, it depends on the terms of the contract. There are quite a lot of contracts where payment is broken down by months/quarters/stages. But development is not advance, so you need money to start, yes.

Answer 9

You can get into government contracts if you know how to work with them (that is, you worked with state-owned companies and understand their internal processes, their budgeting system, you know how to compare the needs of employees and managers (and in state-owned companies they can be very different), you know how to convince an extremely inert person, know how to prepare all the documentation (tender / project / operational, etc.)
If you have experience with all of the above, then you need to determine what scales you are interested in:
1. Large - from 20-30 million
2. Medium and small
If they are large, you must (as mentioned above) really have connections in the state structure (at the level of top managers), otherwise no one will let you in there. In any state structure that manages such budgets, there are at least 2-3 outsourcers associated with the tops, who write the documentation for the competition (and know how to write it in such a way that only their company is suitable) - in fact, they win this competition. These projects have their own peculiarities - but if you communicate with a top manager of a state structure, you yourself know everything;)
Medium and small - you can get it completely (if you can prepare the tender documentation), but at such tenders, as a rule, the technical specification (and it is an annex to the tender) was written by the customer himself and often wrote rather crookedly. And therefore, you have to work on a crooked TK (there may be options - but in 80% this is so) - i.e. in fact, for the entire period you find yourself in a kind of "slavery" to the customer - therefore, your main task will be to correctly leave within their budget / deadline and Wishlist (i.e. be able to negotiate and push certain things through all the accompanying bureaucracy) - otherwise there is a possibility fail the deadlines and fly into the list of "unscrupulous".
Again, as mentioned above, the state customer pays after the fact (either for the completed stage / project, or for the period (but this applies to support projects)), and they often "forget" to pay on time (in the end they will pay, of course, but the question is when? - delay payment for six months + - a very common situation). Also, often in the contract, the state customer prescribes extremely non-parity conditions for you (well, for example, a free 24x7 support throughout the year, with such and such an SLA, otherwise a fine of 1 lam, for non-compliance with this SLA, since the system is of regional importance or you have overstayed the terms of the contract - a fine of 1% of the cost per day of delay, they overdue payment - a fine of 0.01% of the cost per day of delay (somewhat exaggerated - but still) - and for your sake they will not change it).
So whether you need it, decide for yourself.
General conclusion:
You can work with government customers if you have experience working with them and / or have the appropriate acquaintances - then it will be profitable and interesting (although you will also see enough of their internal insanity), otherwise you risk very large losses (which can be fatal for a young company) .
You can also try to work with a government order on small orders (up to 1 lyam) or if there is the appropriate capital to ensure the company's activities for the duration of the contract + 6 months.