As part of the Interviews series “Let's talk about digitals”, launched by the UNDP in Turkmenistan together with the SalamNews, we continue to raise important topics on digital transformation.

We are pleased to present to your attention our next interview, this time with Ms. Gulshat Petrosova, General Director of Lotta Business Group, Executive Director of the consulting company Arassa Nusga.

Ms. Petrosova, we know that Lotta Business Group is a company with various businesses from IT services and business consulting to design, distribution and projects of online clothing and cosmetics stores. Could you please tell us briefly about your company, its specialization and performance in Turkmenistan?

We are a young company with a rich experience. Young, because the average age of our employees is about 25 years old.

Our company was founded in 2008, and for the first years we were engaged only in the distribution of consumer goods. Every year we have grown our portfolio of brands, increased the number of employees, opened new branches in different regions of Turkmenistan and solved business problems building on international practices.

In 2018, we began diversifying our business into the service sector for actively developing companies in Turkmenistan in line with the national programme of digitalization of the economy, timely launched by the government of Turkmenistan.

Noticing our expertise and innovative approach, some partners expressed an interest in introducing our developments into their businesses. We decided to take a professional approach to this issue and created a consulting company Arassa Nusga to provide IT and business consulting services. The company aims at building an organization management system based on objective data. This includes the implementation of the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) of the LOGO system (we are the official distributor of LOGO in Turkmenistan), reengineering and automation of business processes, the introduction of management accounting in the organization, and we also integrate our own developments for KPI tracking, which allows to get any KPI indicators in online mode and manage them based on a data from anywhere in the world.

Tell us more about the project on business processes automation and introduction of the LOGO ERP system in the work of organizations? How will these kinds of innovations help to improve work efficiency in the future?

The goal of the business process automation project and the implementation of the LOGO ERP system is a balanced distribution of production resources, management accounting and strategic decision-making based on a transparent data.

Moreover, by improving business processes, we increase the quality of manufactured products, which significantly enhances the companies’ export capacity. An ERP system helps eliminate the need to make double entries to update information, as the system automatically exchanges data, which in turn ensures greater accuracy and collaboration across organizational units. This means that LOGO improves the efficiency and effectiveness of an enterprise by: integrating financial information, integrating orders, providing information from customers, standardizing and accelerating production, standardizing personnel information, standardizing purchasing, supply chain, facilitating management reporting and planning, thanks to a better data.

What are other outstanding developments in the field of IT which support the digital transformation in business?

Among our outstanding IT developments are: programming the unique requests for building key management reports; mobile application on Android and IOS "My Dashboards" with the ability to synchronize with the company's accounting programme based on a SQL database; synchronization of the accounting programme with an online store; mobile application "Delivery app" with a GPS navigator, synchronization with the cloud servers and the ability to send information to the database; mobile application "Task list" for setting tasks for drivers from the office manager; mobile application "Sales Assistant" with a barcode scanner allowing to collect and send orders to the cashier. Also, the services of the IT department include the development of all types of websites.

In addition, since March 2021, we have become the official distributor of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Bitrix 24, whose functions include: simple CRM, maintaining a customer base, the history of each transaction, robots and triggers, sales tunnels, online workflow, chats and HD video calls, disk for storage, knowledge base, business processes and smart processes, time tracking, reports to the manager, setting and monitoring tasks, deadlines, kanban, Gantt chart, calendar, etc. Bitrix 24 allows you to create a business control system and an online office for employees.

Now more and more girls, when choosing their development path, move away from professions, traditionally associated with women. They strive to get technical education, study control systems and programming. How does your company help young people, especially women and girls to develop in the field of IT?

Our company has an internship program for MUGNIR students, the purpose of which is to familiarize and train young people for the professions of the 21st century related to digitalization. During the internship programme in 2022, we conducted the training sessions to develop “soft skills” for teamwork, and students also underwent adaptation at the workplace and partially performed work functions. It is worth noting that the internship in the IT department was held by students-girls, who managed to demonstrate their potential to work as a system administrator and a website developer. Within six months, more than 14 students completed the internship, two of whom received a job as a LOGO operator, and one as a business consultant.

The acquired knowledge, self-determination, and desire to develop further allow women and girls to work successfully in the field of IT, or in any chosen specialty.

In our company we also have women and girls working as developers of mobile applications, web content creators, and also administer Bitrix24. When choosing a profession, girls are guided by their interests, career prospects and high salaries in the IT industry.

We know from our own experience that it doesn’t matter who you are, a man or a woman, an experienced businessman or a start-up beginner, there are all opportunities for self-development and the development of your business in Turkmenistan, you just need not to stand still and always move forward!