Albany Times Union  2/24/01  E1

INTERNET VENTURE

Cyberspace links Russian
workers with local firm

John Carl D'Annibale/TIMES UNION
Vladimir Kuperman, above, information manager for Demidov's Style of Tula, Russia,
works in Colonie for Logical Net, which uses programmers in Russia to help reduce casts.

Albany- Tula Alliance builds a win-win deal

By Jean DerGurrahian
Business writer

Logical Net Corp. may have found a better way to use foreign workers: Keep them overseas.

The company, a Col onie-based Internet service provider, has been working with a Russian software firm through a program established by the Albany Tula Alliance, an organization established 10 years ago to foster communication and business between local companies and firms in the Russian city.

While most employers are rushing to grab foreign workers for full-time positions in the United States, Logical Net is using the alliance to bring over people short-term. Even finding quality workers for projects of shorter duration is a struggle, but Logical Net has located a virtually untapped resource thanks to the alliance, said Tush Nikollaj, president and chief executive officer.

"We have an incredibly scalable, potential work force we can tap into out-of-area," he said.

Vladimir Kuperman, information technology manager for Demidov's Style, a Tula software engineering firm, arrived in mid-January to be part of Logical Net's business development team. Kuperman received a three-year business visa for the trip; he'll stay until mid-April and can return over the next few years if needed.

Most of the work is conducted over the Internet; Logical Net sends programming codes to Tula, and Demidov's Style tests the products.

Both parties say it's a win-win deal: Kuperman is gaining knowledge about American management styles and access to other potential contracts, and Logical Net is getting very cheap software development.

Logical Net is saving 75 percent in development costs by outsourcing work to Demidov's Style, Nikollaj said.

Surveys released this month indicate companies bemoan the lack of workers in the Capital Region; indeed, labor is a widespread problem across the country. But "there is an abundance of excellent programmers in Tula," said Charlotte Buchanan, founder and director of the AlbanyTula Alliance. "This can be a strong role" in local economic development, she added.

Most American high-tech employers bring over foreign workers on a H-1B visa, the expensive and lengthy process to get highly skilled employees in their doors. For a company that wants to hire people overseas, the H-1B visa is "absolutely essential," said Leslie K. L. Thiele, an attorney specializing in immigration issues at the Albany law firm Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna. But if a company just needs work on specific projects and a foreign worker wants to sharpen his American skills, the short-term business visas — which cover unpaid internships and consultant work — are the way to go, she said.

"You use them for different purposes," Thiele added.

Kuperman said working with Logical Net improves his business management skills and teaches him about American business culture — knowledge he can take back to his colleagues, who want to learn more, too. "The internship is very efficient," he said.

Logical Net is the first American firm Demidov's Style has worked with, but the company expects to expand its contacts here. It is talking to other local firms about other joint development projects, Kuperman said.

Kuperman has been introduced to Pinnacle Technology Solutions, a high-tech recruiting and human resources consultant firm based in North Greenbush, to see what type of needs companies here have for software engineers.

Greg Moran, president of Pinnacle, said the Russian company has some "incredibly brilliant engineers."