The Future Is Now: Alexander Skalabanov Of Intellectsoft On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Build motivated and ambitious surroundings, deal with those who stand ready to invest heavily — paying either with their time, or effort — hand-in-hand with you. Not just because you pay them, but owing to their commitment, because they believe in your work. From my experience, I remember some hiring decisions that I would regret here and now, definitely. I’m convinced that when making a decision, soft skills come first and foremost. Any other skills, qualifications, or hard skills can be easily obtained over time.

As a part of our series about cutting edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alexander Skalabanov.

Alexander Skalabanov is the co-founder and CEO of Intellectsoft, the technology partner of Fortune 500 organizations. With deep roots in software engineering, Alexander leads the team behind innovative software solutions in the healthcare, fintech, construction and hospitality sectors. As a technology visionary, he is an active investor and mentor to startups.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I founded Intellectsoft right after graduation from university, so it is true to say that entrepreneurship is my true passion and dedication. I had the rather bold goal of founding a company that would use the power of technology to make a real difference in the world — and I did it. It has been nearly 15 years since we started, and the company has seen tremendous success. Our great ambition helped us serve like-minded companies such as Jaguar, EY, Land Rover, Walt Disney and other Fortune 500 organizations that look to introduce cutting-edge technology into their business processes.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Having moved to England at the age of 21, I immediately started building my professional network and soon enough started working with one of the largest retail companies in the UK. We were working on enhancing their internal software and had regular status update meetings where we would all present the progress of our work. Each time we received modest and neutral feedback. Obviously, we figured that we didn’t quite meet the client’s expectations and worked on providing an even better service. At some point, we received an email from the company’s Chairman, stating that our software had increased the effectiveness of specific departments by 300%. We then learned that the client was indeed pleased with our work all along, but expressed their gratitude differently, given their culture and etiquette. This occasion taught me to invest time not only in digging into the client’s technical requirements, but also their cultural code.

Can you tell us about the cutting edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?

We’ve recently rolled out a massive financial analytics solution to one of the largest investment management conglomerates in the world. We have built a system with a set of capabilities that includes disaster recovery, data replication, managed service identity, and a web application firewall. This makes it possible for the company to become truly flexible and quickly adapt to the ever-changing market. The process of data collection and analysis is fully controllable and disruption-free, even in the case of violent fluctuations on the market.

The ability to move business actions proactively and make better decisions is what helps our client effectively stand out, saving tons of man-hours and directly impacting their bottom line, especially over the longer-term. Fintech is actually a sector among our main expertise and this project helped us further establish a leadership position in the market as we join up with outstanding companies to revolutionize the financial and investments sectors.

How do you think this might change the world?

With all the above-mentioned technical enhancements, the company gets the working tools to quickly react to market changes and remain stable. New entries and data processing operations we’ve described significantly facilitate data management and analysis, providing firms with the much-needed level of control over their IT infrastructure. The data inputs come quickly, the updates happen automatically, and notifications to all the stakeholders are sent instantly. In the long run, this investment enables companies to establish a proactive approach to serving clients, and improves the quality of their data-driven decisions. And all this comes for far fewer man-hours — and with real enhancements in the bottom line!

Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?

I don’t see any dark sides of the product from a security point of view. No employee has full access, so there is no option for data leaking.

Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?

At the very beginning of my career I realized this world needs changes. When I first came to London, I realized one day I needed to exchange some cash and, looking back, there was a big problem to find the right place on a Sunday, I must admit. There was a need for a single universal currency you can use in every corner of the world, with no need to look for cash exchange — and here is when cryptocurrencies came into play. The topic is my sharp interest and I was personally involved from the very beginning, that’s why Fintech has been initially among the key areas of software development working here at Intellectsoft.

What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?

Both Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are already becoming commonplace in many spheres. The biggest block to further adoption for now is the fact that there is a lack of specialists with sufficient experience implementing these technologies. At Intellectsoft, we solve this issue by recruiting world-class engineers with different tech skills and motivating them to learn new technologies. We actively invest in the education of our people, and this approach is working, as evidenced by the team’s dedication, engagement, and results.

What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?

As we are a service company and we don’t make any product of our own, we focus on showcasing our clients’ projects in which we participate as technology partners. We prefer to educate, rather than aggressively promoting our accomplishments and leverage the power of content and social media to tell the story behind the projects and inspire others to innovate and adopt new technologies.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I would say this person is my business partner and co-founder of Intellectsoft, Artem Kozel. In fact he was the first CEO at Intellectsoft and was in close contact with all employees on a daily basis. Artem’s opinion is very important for me and I am always consulting with him. As we both graduated from technical universities, we were sure that the only possible option for the future is a digital future, so we decided to speed up the revolution and founded our company.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Being a technology partner to industry giants is beneficial as we are not limited to any sector. For over 14 years, we have introduced new innovative concepts in healthcare, fintech, construction, hospitality and other sectors. Our solutions have helped non-urgent patients receive treatment only during strict lockdowns. Other solutions allowed us to streamline and forecast treatment outcomes months, or even years ahead. We created solutions that helped automate and enhance business processes in other sectors, subsequently increasing Return On Investment and saving jobs. You name it — we’ve seen it. And if not — challenge us!

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Think “big and bold”. Never be scared to start a large-scale business. While some are still hesitating whether to get started, or rather to put it on hold, the truth is — the best time to act is now.

2. Build motivated and ambitious surroundings, deal with those who stand ready to invest heavily — paying either with their time, or effort — hand-in-hand with you. Not just because you pay them, but owing to their commitment, because they believe in your work. From my experience, I remember some hiring decisions that I would regret here and now, definitely. I’m convinced that when making a decision, soft skills come first and foremost. Any other skills, qualifications, or hard skills can be easily obtained over time.

3. Think about your health (good things, bad things) and energy level before you start. You should be energized to inspire others and drive your joint effort to a conclusion. When you are out of power, there is no good chance to win. So, I like modern trends for mindfulness and a healthy lifestyle very much, and I think these two are the two main pillars of success.

4. Choose what you like and listen to your heart. Sounds like a no-brainer, but you should follow your passion — and this works both at home and in the office. When driven mainly by cash compensation, we all tend to burnout, simply because we don’t see a true value in what we do every day.

5. Think about your “ideal” work-life balance, better do it early, in the very beginning. Sharing lessons learned from my own mistakes, I would like to highlight this — giving all of yourself to your business is never the way to go. There should always be a balance. We don’t want to miss your kid’s graduation just because of the heavy daily workload, do we?

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I would say it’s education for children. There’s no secret that our current system is rusty and outdated. The kids grow up in a world that is changing faster than they grow and many of them cannot catch up. They should learn how to find their passion in life and have no boundaries. It is hard to do so for yourself, I am a kind of “product” of an old education system. We learned how to count, write essays. We know why the sun goes down. But what about Finance, or at least the very basics of bookkeeping? After graduating from school, we seek to find the best job right away, but do we actually know how to make up an impressive CV? With all this in mind, I’m doing my best to avoid this with my own kids, trying to show a full picture with more opportunities.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.” Is a fantastic quote from ‘The Light in the Heart’ by Roy T. Bennett.

This is a perfect quote for all tech enthusiasts out there. No great invention has ever been created easily. Being afraid to fail is completely normal. Just don’t let it stop you.

Some very well known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

We know how to transform the present for a better future. We help companies catch up with all modern technologies and make their lives more interesting. They can encounter any challenges and so-called “black swans” and thrive — despite any crisis. We are already trusted by the best, so join our circle of innovators and let’s change the world together.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Let’s connect on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-skalabanov/

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.


The Future Is Now: Alexander Skalabanov Of Intellectsoft On How Their Technological Innovation Will… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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