Idrakas Dadašovas, head of a group of companies “Penki kontinentai” that works in the field of banking and IT technology solutions, forecasts: Lithuania shall not fall behind the rest of the world in most of the areas of digital innovation; however, it shall also have to face some serious challenges.

How to get the most out of smart technology increasingly overtaking both office and home spaces? How to contribute to the development of systems that protect banking databases from cyber criminals? These are only some of the many important issues today, dealt with by digital innovation developers and scientists working with them. On the latest trends: an interview of “Veidas” with I. Dadašovas.

Which region shall dictate the directions and trends for IT technology development in 2014?

Asian countries: China, Hong Kong, South Korea, where the latest technology such as mobile devices, e-commerce and Internet are specifically oriented towards daily lives of people, will remain the major driving force. It is worth noting an initiative of the government of New Zealand, which introduced insurance for software patents as a means of promoting innovation. After all, the worst thing that can happen to an inventor is finding out that someone already has a patent for their invention.

Unfortunately, IT market situation in Lithuania is not very favourable at the moment. Global companies that invest here and supposedly create new jobs attract the best IT specialists. However, positions are taken by qualified specialists into whom Lithuania has invested (educational institutions, professional development courses paid for by Lithuanian companies). Therefore, there is a significant shortage of IT specialists in our country. By the way, both business representatives and government officials are already talking about it.

What significant changes can be expected in the IT market in the near future?

Companies that wish to quickly integrate any type of service are more and more often offered on demand services. Moreover, hardware is becoming equally popular as a type of service. Thus, IT as a service begins to shape. It is very likely that cooperation as a service, security as a service and, ultimately, everything as a service (XaaS) will emerge. This type of service helps companies reduce costs, because it gives access to powerful software and latest technology without a need to create an extensive IT department or waste time and money.

Over the next year or two, huge growth is expected in the field of e-banking and multi-channel payment as well. Both businesses and individuals will experience an increasing importance of digital identification. Already today some of the products are equipped with biometric solutions, smart phones have integrated public key infrastructure (PKI) that should become the main means of identification and ensure the digital security. This trend will only grow, because multilayer biometrics, including face and voice recognition, is already being developed.

The development of Internet Protocol Television (IP television) demonstrates the fusion of Internet and television. This development will continue to expand and IPTV has already become an actual channel for banking and retail trade services. The latest models of TV sets are comparable to computers in terms of their capacity. Having connected a TV set to the network, you can use YouTube, download music and movies. The second screen technology will become yet another innovation in the market. Once installed on a tablet computer, an app with viewing recommendations will enable the viewer to use the tablet computer to control the TV set and select the desired TV program. I believe that some of the viewers will opt for such smart device in the future, thereby reducing the scope of use of desktop computers. Prototypes of the so-called worn devices such as “smart” watches, “Google Glass” glasses, etc. will continue to be actively developed. Eventually, augmented reality applications will become commonplace and will provide opportunities to get all necessary virtual information in a timely manner.

Emergence of 3D screens on smart phones and tablet computers will be yet another breakthrough. This trend is already apparent in computer gaming sector; and in the future, 3D emulators will be actively employed in various fields: military industry, architecture, fashion and entertainment industry.

Certain actual items of technology often become part of a modern man’s image. What innovations will be popular in the next couple of years?

Mobile technologies, mobile broadband access to the Internet will lead to new and more functional models of smart phones. Today, it is popular to have a top-line “Apple”, “Samsung”, “LG” or “Nokia” smart phone anywhere in the world. Experts speculate that the use of multifunction smart phones will grow 12 times in the future.

It is predicted that in 2016, more than 30 percent of the planet’s population will be located in densely populated urban areas. These agglomerates will cover about 60 percent of the total mobile data traffic. Moreover, according to the estimates of “Ericsson” company, more than 80 percent of Earth’s population will have access to high-speed 3G/HSPA networks in the next few years.

What trend would you deem inevitable?

Intelligent video surveillance systems, which employ mathematical algorithms to capture movements and unauthorized events that pose threat to the environment or the entire infrastructure, will continue to be actively developed. The software used enables automatic filtering and analysis of material obtained from the video cameras. Video content analysis technologies allow viewing it in both real time and after a specific event. Information about the potential risk or a dangerous situation is provided by means of audio or video signals, SMS or directly to the relevant services. The key benefit of video analytics is that it solves the problem of an operator’s fatigue. The statistics show that the focus of attention of even highly motivated security guard on a monitor drops by 90 percent after 20 minutes. Logic software instruments help to avoid errors based on the human factor, reduce the number of monitors used, enable optimal search of records of events and reduce the likelihood of false reporting. Furthermore, a significant reduction in human resources is achieved.

Internet of Things, i.e. a network of technology that ensures the impact of objects to one another or to the environment, penetrates daily lives of people. Some of the actions can already be performed by things themselves. By the way, China already has a state program for the manufacture of hardware related to the Internet of Things and support of software products.

Experts believe that issues of development of Big Data, i.e. technology that enables processing large amounts of data, are becoming more and more relevant. According to the estimates of analytical company IDC, the volume of information stored in the world grows by 40 percent every year. Of course, the analysis of unstructured data flow provides enormous business opportunities. For example, through the use of data stored in customer databases, large companies can obtain detailed information about consumers.

What capacities will be deployed for the development and introduction of data protection systems and tools?

First of all, we should discuss the security of personal and corporate data here. Cyber criminals do most damage to financial stability and the reputation of financial institutions. And this type of damage exceeds the amount of pecuniary damages more than twice. According to the data of the British analytical company “Riskskill”, significant mobile payment opportunities lead to major problems. After all, serving of information about potential risks to the customers falls behind market growth rates. Moreover, rapid evolution of mobile technologies and e-money development poses a threat to installation and application of many existing standard programs. Thus this year, development of an effective protection from potential attacks will become an important task for mobile technology developers.

With an increasing level of sophistication of technologies, the gap between the older generation and their environment grows. Do you agree that something considered useful and convenient by some may isolate others even more?

Yes, this is possible. Greater levels of technological development of a country lead to greater options for its younger generation, whose views and ideals may sometimes seem incomprehensible to the elderly. But, at the same time, it is new technology, intuitive and practical graphical user interfaces and communication tools that can help seniors feel full-fledged citizens of the world.

Recently, cooperation of business and science has been encouraged. What kind of projects is your company involved in?

Company “Penki kontinentai” has used the EU funds and its own investment to implement a number of research projects. For example, a member of our group of companies “Penkių kontinentų bankinės technologijos” (BS/2) together with Kaunas University of Technology has created an intelligent system designed to manage ATM maintenance infrastructure. According to the estimates of the scientists, it should reduce the costs of ATM networks by 6-10 percent. Furthermore, we have built a prototype of an electronic board for the monitoring of the surrounding area and video signal processing that operates in real-time mode. It helps to ensure effective security of self-service devices.

More recently, we have completed a project on the management of e-payments. Specialists of a company “ASHBURN International” have performed numerous applied research procedures and created versatile prototypes on the basis of the obtained data that are already being employed in the company’s activities. This innovation enables standardization of e-payments and allows us to deal with highly relevant security problems, which in turn contributes to customer loyalty and improved image of the company.

E-signature technology is yet another area that requires active involvement of both scientific society and the government. These services are currently provided by the only privately owned company in Lithuania, a member of our group of companies “Skaitmeninio sertifikavimo centras”.However, in spite of the fact that e-signature technology is slowly making its way in Lithuania, it will definitely step into daily lives of people and significantly change our habits. By the way, perhaps a conference on e-signature organized by the European Forum on Electronic Signature, wich will take place in Poland in 2014 will give rise to new ideas.

Thank you for the interview.