The Russian Post has its own digital division - Postal Technologies, which develops software, digital services and products. Pochtatekh's branches have already opened in nine Russian cities, and today we will introduce you to the St. Petersburg office, which has recently moved to a new building on the banks of the Neva.
Why are we moving to a new big space when so many are moving online? Before the pandemic, it seemed that a remote location was very cool and soon offices would die out like dinosaurs. But after several months of online meetings and remote work, it became clear why this would not happen - people need a place where they can meet with colleagues, chat, exchange ideas and focus on work in a comfortable environment.
What is interesting about the branch of Postal Technologies in St. Petersburg? The fact that the emergence of Pochtatekh originates from here and the fact that it was the St. Petersburg team that this spring developed remote services that helped people stay at home during the pandemic: ordering the delivery of parcels and small packages to the door, legally significant correspondence with government agencies in electronic format, online - registration and dispatch of parcels through the portal and mobile application.
How did Pochtateh begin
The history of Pochtatech can be counted from 2013, even before the official appearance of the unit. Then a team came to the Post, which was engaged in the development of digital products. It was headed by Rodion Shishkov, the former president of Yota innovations, who brought his St. Petersburg team with him.
The first employees were accommodated in the historic building of the Palace of Culture of Communications, which is known for the birth of the Leningrad school of Russian rock here: Aquarium and Kino performed and recorded here. Now the former Palace of Culture, together with the Main Post Office and the Lomonosov House-Estate, is included in the renovation project for the postal quarter , where a new public space will appear.
At the very beginning, the team consisted of 14 people. The staff did not have its own developers, only product managers. Then the projects were created by contractors, and we left the competence in product and architecture management to ourselves. So in 3 months it was possible to launch an updated mobile application , restart the pochta.ru portal , then they began to develop a service of registered e-mails and online subscription .
The staff gradually grew and was replenished with new people - architects, analysts, products. Having ceased to be accommodated in the DK Svyazi, we moved to an area of 300 square meters on the territory of the St. Petersburg FPS.
In 2017, the idea of creating a Post Office as a separate division arose. Then it became clear that work with contractors, although effective, has its limitations: it took time to hold tenders, due to which projects were launched longer; there was a danger of a "vendor lock" - the development of solutions that can only be serviced by the contractor himself. But the main reason for switching to our own development was the desire to be closer to business and production. Your team reads requests better, responds to them faster, there is no break in communications, as when working with external performers. In addition, we wanted to develop core expertise within the company. We are still working with contractors on some projects, but we have concentrated all the most important competencies on our own.
Already when Pochtatech was separated into a separate subdivision, new directions continued to emerge: there was a department dealing with the development of services for e-commerce, an integration service, a transport management system, a team of designers. There were more people and we rented the first coworking space, where we transported part of the team, and then rented another one and continued to grow.
In addition to the services and applications for b2c clients, which we mentioned above, St. Petersburg is developing its own software: creating software for sorting machines, with which we will improve and speed up the sorting of parcels, develop an automated control system for franking machines, which is used by thousands employees and customers, in order to apply postage signs on items, are finalizing a warehouse management system (WMS) for the fulfillment process (this is a complex of services for storing, packaging and delivering goods for online stores and marketplaces).
New space for 200 people
We have all the conditions for hiring the best employees: interesting and ambitious tasks; high salaries; you can see how the result of work makes life easier for millions of people. But until recently there was a problem with the office - the discrepancy between the working conditions and expectations prevented hiring. Last year we analyzed the reasons for layoffs and realized that the new office would significantly reduce turnover. This is one of the reasons why the St. Petersburg and Moscow teams are moving to new, more comfortable and modern spaces.
After all the relocations and expansions, the St. Petersburg branch ended up with three offices: two in the city and one in the suburbs, in Pushkin. The office in Pushkin remains for the convenience of employees - so that those who live outside the city do not have to spend two hours on the road. And the teams scattered around the city will now work under one roof in the Avenue Page coworking space on Aptekarskaya Embankment, which offers a stunning view of Bolshaya Nevka. Here, on two floors equipped with workplaces, common areas and beautiful landscaping, we plan to accommodate 200 developers, analysts and support staff.
To minimize the time to market (the time from concept to release to production), we unite employees into small product teams and expect that this approach will allow us to test hypotheses faster, release more often and be more flexible in general. The space of the new office is excellent for these purposes - there are separate rooms for groups of 3-4 and 10-12 people, where mini-teams will be located. In addition to the permanent places, there is its own coworking space for those who do not come every day.
So far, due to the restrictions associated with the pandemic, most of the room is empty, although it is spacious enough to comply with all existing regulations. Now only those employees who are tired of sitting at home come to the coworking space. A little later, we plan to enter the usual mode and return employees to the office, while retaining the opportunity to sometimes work remotely.
Plans for the future
In 2019, the digital products that Pochtatech is working on brought the Post a revenue of 21 billion rubles, which is almost 10% of the company's total income, and in the future there is a task to bring this figure to 50%. So the tasks will be enough for Pochtatekh. Over the next year, we plan to increase its staff to 1200 people and invest 1.5 billion rubles in it to launch new products. Which ones - we will tell in one of the following articles.
Open vacancies of Postal Technologies in St. Petersburg and 8 more cities in Russia can be viewed at hr.pochta.tech/vacancies .
