Late December 2015, the early winter twilight. Near Uzbek restaurant "Peacock Mavlin" on the street Bakuninskaya unusual vanity: Maybach parked out of Alexander Mamut. In traditional Uzbek businessman Palace went deep into the restaurant. Uzbek teahouse outside the Garden ring does not pull into place for a business meeting of the Forbes billionaire list. What led to Mamut?

On that day, the restaurant's New Year's corporate company the UCS, the software developer of the largest in Russia for restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues. According to the SPARK database, its revenue in 2015 amounted to 255 million rubles, and with the satellite companies - almost 500 million rubles. Product UCS R-Keeper are more than 42,000 restaurants in Russia and abroad, over 1,000 hotels and 500 entertainment centers in Russia. Among the clients - "Chocolate", Sberbank of Russia, Ginza Project, Novikov Group. "The leading position of the UCS, no one in doubt - says Lyudmila Alyamovsky, commercial director of UCS nearest competitor, the company Tillypad. - First of all, on the prevalence of the product in Russia and the number of mouthsovok ".

At the end of 2015 Rambler & Co, which is personally led by Mamut, bought a 50% stake in the UCS, according to Forbes estimate of 500-600 million rubles. Billionaire arrived at the restaurant just a couple of hours - to get acquainted with a new team. "He was available even ordinary employees, we were able to come up and ask any question, - says one of the UCS staff. - However, no one has dared to do it. "

Three of the computer

"Modest, not very talkative, wearing of casual unpretentious, still passion programming" - so say the founders UCS Grigory Gurevich and Eugene Malakhov. Gurevich and Malakhov are doing business in Moscow 25 years, during which time they were able to build the largest companies in the automation of the restaurant market, remaining dark horse for him. Since the company's inception in 1992, Gurevich gave a few interviews niche media, and Malakhov and all remained in the shadows. On the site there is no UCS names of any of the three founders, although two of them - Gurevich and Malakhov - to this day engaged in operational management. The third coaxialAttic, a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys (MISA) Philip Maizenberg in UCS worked for long. Basically, he was responsible for the automation of accounting and left the company in 1997. Maizenberg now works as a senior managing director of Sberbank IT-unit.

Gurevich and Malakhov - graduates of the same MISA, met with Maizenberg in 1986 at the Department of Engineering Cybernetics. The idea of ​​the future of the business prompted the co-owner of the restaurant "Manila": he knew that the IT-technologies will help manage costs, and ordered a young programmers to automate warehousing and accounting. As a result, young people have decided to take this seriously and have registered their company. In the 1990s, the restaurant business automation niche was practically free, the Russian market has worked a couple notable Western players (for example, the American system MICROS), Russian was vanishingly small.

"Funds for the development of the borrowed, sometimes parole - says co-owner of UCS Grigory Gurevich. - We even gave $ 2,000 to buy a computer, one for three. We worked on it in turn. " Experience automatizatsii "Manila" and other useful restaurateurs, go orders. The first significant client was the restaurant Holding "Rosinter". "We were lucky: the manager holding Henrik Winther said that they are going to scale the business in different cities, - says Gurevich. - For this task we have undertaken. And at the same time carefully looked closer to the way it works, our Western competitors - there was already an American MICROS ». Today, "Rosinter" restaurants operate on one of the versions of R-Keeper, the beginning of which the development started in the late 1990s.

Sales have gone faster on young programmers know the other players of the restaurant market. First came the restaurant "Azteca", then the creators of "Bar & Grill" restaurant and "Santa Fe." "For some customers we have been able to replace MICROS for our system - boasts Gurevich. - The first time we have felt the growth of his business. "

A first regional dealers started selling in the regions - St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk. «R-Keeper finally managed to dislodge the American market of MICROS, proving that their produt is poorly adapted for the Russian market "- sums up the managing partner of" Mogul Corporation "Magomed Kostoev. - At the R-Keeper was 300-500 units a month, more than the market is not doing none. "

Access to foreign markets started with a fun story. "One day in the early 2000s on the profile exhibition I was approached by IT-director and co-owner of one of the Lithuanian companies - producers of similar software for restaurants Evaldas Remeykis - says Gurevich. - He compared their software with ours and interested. " As a result, Remeykis retired from their own business, became a dealer of R-Keeper, and then headed the representative office in Lithuania. Today Software from UCS sold in all countries of the former USSR, and also in Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Germany, Vietnam and Mongolia. The share of foreign sales in total does not exceed 37%, the remaining 63% comes from Russia. You can relax?

New wave

In February 2015, the complex "Ethnomir" in the Kaluga region between etnodvorami and workshops appeared unusual brightly colored van. On the face of classic American mikroavObus with a spacious interior. Only instead of passenger seats - refrigerator, coffee machine and a stand-alone generator. Business for mobile coffee shop brings its creators to 300 000 rubles a month.

The set of points of sales "on tap" and the establishments where instead of expensive software solutions used on tablets, - the trend of recent years. "A couple of young software companies just felt a wave and thrown to the market a simple low-cost solutions for the management of restaurants on the plates - says Lyudmila Alyamovsky of Tyllypad. - Automation of street food should provide the necessary range of possibilities, not hitting much limited start-up budget. "

Demand for "easy" solutions and the emergence of the "young and evil" competition spurred UCS to a change in product line strategy. Partners have decided to move towards mobile services. "We realized that we can supplant, and decided to join forces with a major technology company, capable of close functional b2c-technology," - says Eugene Malakhov. According to him, there were many proposals, includingAmong the competitors. As for the alliance with Rambler & Co (50% of the company owned by Mamut and Vladimir Potanin), it was the initiative of Mamut, says Gurevich. He remembers the first impression from contact with Mamut in September 2015. "I thought he was very enthusiastic person, for the layman deeply versed in the specifics of our business." UCS needed technological expertise "Rambler", as well as its expertise in the service of individuals, in the turned-based private clients. "By virtue of the merger of the assets of complementarity and partnership disputes rationality did not cause - handed Alexander Mamut through his assistant. - UCS - the dominant force in the target market, and all without a large infusion of investment from venture capital funds. Implementation of joint projects with companies with a market share of less than 50% would not bring the desired effect us. " Four months after the beginning of negotiations Mamut was in control of 50% UCS. What he bets?

Future technologies

Hall Hotel. Instead reception - a mobile terminal, similar to the kioskpendently airport check-in. By the terminal fit young couple: their room is booked online, at one of the mobile devices they received a number of reservations and the barcode. The young man is making the mobile device (compatible with NFC-technology) with a bar code reader to the terminal: there is identification, payment numbers, and settlement is confirmed. Just a few seconds - to a mobile device, "issued" electronic key. Open the door of the hotel you can directly phone. On the same lines occurs and check-out. A scene from the future?

Nothing of the sort: an experiment in one of Moscow hostels recently spent UCS, testing its technology. Software for hotel automation is among the five best-selling in Russia. The company is almost monopolized theater automation market - decision "Premiere" is used all Russian cinemas except "Karo-Film". The share of the automation market leisure centers and sports parks - 50%.

The presence of these developments have one company in conjunction with the domination of the markets and interested in Mamutations: from Rambler & Co is "Rambler-Cashier", "Poster-Food", "Rambler-Travel". "Synergy products will help develop dynamic loyalty system, to carry out special promotions tailored to the needs of restaurants, cinemas, - opens the card executive director of Rambler & Co Rafael Abrahamyan. - Create world-class solutions, "In the near future the alliance with UCS will enable us first in Russia.

What does he mean? For example, in May 2016 in the capital cinema "Pioneer" technology launched "Living card", it allows you to pass in a cinema without a printout of the electronic ticket on the scanner at the entrance. The next step - the payment service dinner at a restaurant or coffee shop without the participation of the waiter, "Bill-Restaurants" from the application. However, the restaurant market expert Magomed Kostoev evaluates an idea without enthusiasm. "Such services contribute to the growth of non-cash payments, and the small restaurateur profitable cash - they are necessary for the procurement and payment of wages."

It is planned to develop and reservation on the menu before the arrival to the restaurant. This is a bold innovation, even foradvanced California. There is a mobile services, such as Doordash, through which restaurants you can order food, pay for it using a card or PayPal, and the order will take home. But the possibility to pre-order on the menu there. "Most likely, reservations must be guaranteed by credit card" - explains Malakhov. No other details he did not disclose.

Anyway, the overall goal - to work together to develop the technology seamless mobile services for restaurants, hotels, cinemas and entertainment centers. Then to offer customers a complete "package" offer, says Abrahamyan.

How could it look like? A couple of years ago took UCS automation fitness clubs. "Over time we will be able to accumulate a significant amount of information about the client, from his heart to the gastronomic tastes and cultural preferences, - says Malakhov. - To the right time through the mobile services to recommend to the client specific load in the gym, meals at the restaurant, experience a journey. And a ticket to the cinema as a bonus. "