The integration of digital solutions into the work of housing and communal services, which is only getting stronger from year to year, is useful for dwellers, resource providers, and management organizations. The experts presented interesting cases and real solutions to the participants of the 21st International Exhibition «Housing and Communal Services of Russia» during a thematic pitch session at the Expoforum Convention and Exhibition Center.

The penetration of high technologies into human life is getting deeper from year to year, including in the field of housing and communal services. «What do we expect from the digitalization of housing and communal services? Openness and transparency of business processes, increase in collection of payments, accounting for resources, collection of big data, predictive analytics and prevention of man-made disasters. In any industry, the end user is at the forefront. Digitalization can provide us with a comfortable standard of living — inexpensive, stable and safe,» Natalia Filina, Head of the Special Projects Department at the Association of Internet of Things Market Participants, prefaced the discussion of various examples and cases of digitalization.

Semyon Shvetsov, Director of Argo-Center LLC, one of the oldest Russian companies involved in the development, production and integration of energy metering systems and smart city class systems, spoke about how digitalization can protect cities from large-scale utility accidents. «Leaks on heating networks, which at first barely infilter, can eventually lead to serious accidents. During our work with Tatenergo, we have developed and implemented operational leak management systems. The system measures the resistance of the control conductors of insulated pipelines and every 10 minutes sends information to the server in the control room about the condition of the insulation, about its getting wet. If it gets wet above a certain threshold set by GOST, it informs the dispatcher about the leak,» said Semyon Shvetsov.

The project took place in Naberezhnye Chelny, Nizhnekamsk and Kazan, and about 550 leak monitoring devices were installed on heating networks. The number of thermal power supply interruptions decreased by 15–20%. At the same time, Argo-Center also knows how to save electricity — this is a large segment of the company’s products. For example, in Kotovsk, the introduction of a lighting control system allowed for savings of up to 20%, ensuring full compliance with all established standards. And this is only a small part of the technical capabilities of Argo-Center, and its range is constantly expanding, including devices such as a thermostat or a three-channel current meter. One of the latest innovations in the company’s arsenal is current shunts. Until recently, they were all bought in China, but it became difficult, and the Argo Center launched its production.

Digital services and integration can also be very useful in improving the quality of work, as evidenced by the case presented by Artem Ipatov, Technical Director of Digital Ombudsman of Residents LLC. He spoke about the company’s pilot project in the Perm Region under the leadership of the Governor of the region and the Ministry of Construction. It consisted in the fact that the company used its digital services to control the maintenance of 15 apartment buildings and six social institutions. «For each facility, we created technological maps for each facility, conducted offline and online consultations with employees of institutions, monitored the performance of all types of work at the facilities, and identified problems,» said Artem Ipatov.

In residential buildings, there was a regular failure to carry out preventive and planned work or their chaotic execution, or even work was carried out only upon the fact of accidents. But, according to Artem Ipatov, the scariest thing that the pilot revealed was «global problems in the maintenance of social institutions». As a result of the project, the company proposes to develop uniform standards of service for social facilities at the highest level. Digital monitoring is also worth considering, because this method has proven itself well during the experiment and has increased the volume of scheduled preventive maintenance by 4 times.

The versatility and inevitability of even more dense digitalization in housing and communal services were confirmed by the cases presented by Ivan Mochalov, General Director of Vallab Fiscal LLC. Using many concrete examples, he demonstrated how digital services can help businesses in general and management organizations in particular avoid tax problems caused by the vicissitudes of the calculation process.

«For example, a payment of 5 thousand rubles dropped through the cloud sales register, and the receipt flew to the tax office. What does it say? That the payment is 5 thousand rubles, of which the maintenance is 2 thousand, everything else is communal service. But the bank or the cash settlement center does not know that my VAT should be calculated not from 2 thousand, but from one and a half thousand, because the contractor performed it on his own. And what will they say in the receipt? 5% of 2 thousand. And so on for each personal account. As a result, it turns out to be one and a half times more than the VAT-taxable revenue, although it should not,» Ivan Mochalov explained one of the options for problems with accruals.

His company, Vallab Fiscal LLC, promises to solve the problem of unfair taxation and provide a digital system that «connects accruals, payments, and accounting». Given that the number of VAT payers has increased since the beginning of 2025, a denser digitalization of financial accounting will be relevant not only for management organizations.