Magnit Opens Digital Office in Skolkovo

The Company’s office in Skolkovo will employ around 100 IT specialists focusing on ERP and Big Data as well searching for innovations and launching new technologies. During the first stage, key objectives of the Digital Office staff will be to implement solutions from SAP in order to speed up digital transformation and optimize business processes of the Company, as well as to conduct pilots for innovative ideas.

Krasnodar, Russia (September 11, 2020): Kirill Kaem, Senior Vice-President for Innovations at Skolkovo Foundation and Florian Jansen, Magnit’s Deputy CEO and Executive Director took part in the event. The Digital Office will allow Magnit to considerably strengthen its IT expertise, secure access to new technologies, and become one of the industry’s leaders in launching and effectively utilizing innovative solutions in traditional retail and e-commerce. Among other things, this year, the Company plans to launch online sales of pharmacy assortment via its Magnit Pharmacy outlets, develop projects for its own regular and express delivery service to deliver purchases from supermarkets and convenience stores, and work on new partnerships.

The Digital Office will employ professionals from Moscow as well as other Russian regions. Its staff will work on implementing SAP products across all of Magnit’s functions. The impact from this implementation is estimated in the billions of rubles. Besides this, the office will also manage startups, pilot new technologies, and evaluate the results of the pilots and the potential for wider implementation.

“The Digital Office is an opportunity to attract strong talent in order to transform and adapt the Company’s digital environment to today’s challenges while also making use of the infrastructure and services provided by the Technopark. This will enable us to effectively support development of Magnit across various areas and be more flexible when responding to the demands of the business and consumers. We’re working in one of the fastest-growing industries and want to be the best choice for our customers; without solid digital foundations, it would be impossible for us to offer them new services and options,” — commented Florian Jansen, Magnit’s Deputy CEO and Executive Director.

“We started to develop the Centre of Technologies for Retail in IT Cluster more 2 years ago, as industry’s interest to innovations was obvious. At that time, there were about one hundred projects relevant for retail in the Foundation. Magnit was the first company that took an interest in our initiative and conducted pilots with some startups. And, today, a significant event has happened – opening of the Magnit Digital Office. We hope that the Company will become a full participant of the Skolkovo ecosystem. On our part, we are ready to give focused support to projects that are interesting to our partner. Now, we work with more 600 companies operating in the field of retail,” — said Kirill Kaem, Senior Vice-President for Innovations at Skolkovo Foundation.