en.Wedoany.com Reported - Russian consulting firm Quattor Advisory (ООО "Кваттор Эдвайзори") has developed and deployed "Tessera," a vertical ERP system for the professional services sector, which has enabled the company to more than double its annual project implementations from 275 to 616, despite a 34% increase in the number of professional staff.

Quattor Advisory has now opened pilot deployments of the "Tessera" system to medium and large consulting, legal, and audit firms. The system automates the entire workflow, from business proposals, customer relationship management (CRM), time tracking, and hourly billing, to project and partner profitability calculations, subcontractor and payment agent settlements, as well as analytical reports and economic statistics. According to company representatives, the solution is built on open-source software, deployed on the client's own infrastructure, and does not require foreign cloud services. Its technology stack includes Python, PostgreSQL, Docker, and Nginx. Additionally, the system integrates a Telegram bot for proactive notifications about anomalies such as billing delays, inactive clients, stalled project statuses, and overtime.

Quattor Advisory also disclosed the initial results of its internal deployment of "Tessera": consultant productivity, measured by the number of projects implemented, increased by 67%, from 15.7 to 26.2 projects per year; the operating profit margin reached 46%. The time required to prepare a single billing report was reduced from 45 minutes to 5 minutes, a ninefold decrease, saving approximately 480 person-hours annually.

Gayk Martirosyan, Managing Partner of Quattor Advisory, stated that existing products on the market are mostly standardized packaged software, none of which fully covers the specificities of consulting business. Ready-made ERP solutions require deep customization, while external development demands detailed specifications upfront, which is not feasible for a rapidly changing business, leading the company to opt for in-house development. Quattor Advisory also pointed out that the Russian market lacks specialized software for the consulting industry.

Larisa Semenyuk, General Director of the Consulting Organizations Alliance (ООО "ОКО"), estimates that up to 70% to 80% of Russian consulting firms still primarily use Excel and other basic tools for time tracking, billing, and project profitability control; among medium and large enterprises in the professional sector, this figure is around 40% to 50%. She believes that within the next three to five years, most medium and large enterprises will transition to specialized business process management systems.

In the process of replacing foreign ERP systems in Russia, according to the register of domestic software maintained by the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media, a search for "ERP" yields 287 records, some of which correspond to modules of the same system. Experts interviewed estimate that the share of foreign ERP systems (primarily SAP and Oracle) in Russian enterprises ranges from 10% to 40%. Sergey Shcherbakov, Technical Director of ООО "Стахановец," stated that as of early 2025, approximately 25% to 30% of enterprises use foreign ERP. Ilya Bushmelev, Vertical Director for Custom Development and Services at IT holding company T1, indicated that the share of foreign solutions is about 40%, while approximately 70% of large enterprises are in the stage of ERP import substitution, 15% have completed the full substitution, and the remaining 15% have not yet started. Vladimir Skorodumov, Business Architect at the "1С" department of ГК "Корус Консалтинг," estimates that 10% to 20% of companies continue to use Western systems. Pavel Vlasov, Deputy Head of the "ERP and Finance" practice at ООО "К2Тех," believes that such companies account for about 35% to 40%, while 60% to 65% have either fully switched to Russian solutions, use hybrid solutions, or are in the process of transitioning.

Experts point out that the main barriers to transition are high migration costs, unclear economic benefits, and the need for deep process changes. At the same time, personnel issues are prominent, requiring retraining of employees on new systems. Vitaly Popov, Director of the Infrastructure Project Execution Department at Softline Solutions (Softline Group), stated that typical functionality generally meets accounting, tax, procurement, and warehouse needs. However, in large companies that had deeply customized Western solutions, ERP is no longer just an accounting system but the core of the entire business architecture, around which dozens or even hundreds of integrations have been built. A one-time replacement is almost impossible, so most large companies opt for a phased migration.

In terms of alternative choices, most companies prefer "1С" products. According to Sergey Shcherbakov, 70% to 80% of deployments are based on "1С." Vladimir Skorodumov explained that the prospects for alternative domestic developments are not optimistic due to the small number of successful large-scale deployments and the lack of experts in the relevant field in the market. Other domestic ERP solutions mentioned by experts include Digital Q.ERP from ООО "Диасофт," "Галактика ERP" from АО "Корпорация Галактика," Global ERP from ООО "Бизнес Технологии," and "Турбо ERP" from ООО "Консист." Sergey Shcherbakov believes that there are currently no complete substitutes for SAP and Oracle; domestic solutions usually need to be customized according to business characteristics and are less functional than Western products in complex industries. IT holding company T1 estimates that by 2030, the Russian ERP system market could grow to 120 billion rubles. German company SAP SE announced its withdrawal from the Russian market in the spring of 2022. According to ComNews data, over 400 Russian clients were paying annual technical support fees at that time; SAP completely stopped support at the end of 2023 and cut off cloud service access from March 20, 2024. In March 2026, the Russian government classified ERP systems as critical information infrastructure objects for the country's most important industries, including chemicals, metallurgy, mining, rocket and space, and defense.

Experts have mixed views on the prospects for "Tessera's" success. Pavel Vlasov noted that the system is a vertical niche solution for professional services and consulting firms, not a general-purpose product, so it has the potential to succeed in this area. Sergey Shcherbakov confirmed a shortage of specialized solutions in the professional services field but believes that "Tessera's" success will not be widespread; it targets a narrow but solvent niche within medium and large enterprises, where up to 40% of participants have not yet automated management accounting. If the pilot is executed well, the system has a chance to capture a significant share of this niche. Timur Tsybdenov, Chief Engineer at ООО "Газинформсервис" and SafeERP expert, pointed out that the professional services automation field is not entirely vacant; "Tessera" may find its niche, but it still has a long way to go before becoming an industry leader, and its progress in sales and deployment in real enterprises is far from certain. He also stated that many companies have used a combination of "1С" and industry solutions for years and will not migrate to a new product unless necessary. Vladimir Skorodumov observed that most companies tend to choose proven platforms, and system integrators and consulting firms prefer to automate internal processes based on the IT solutions they offer to clients. Ilya Bushmelev believes that the emergence of "Tessera" reflects the overall trend in the ERP market shifting from general-purpose platforms to industry-specific solutions.