WEEKLY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMY NEWSPAPER
Consumer focused regulations must be implemented quickly Information Technologies and Communications Authority Board Chairman Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan gave the following information on ‘BTK Strategic Plan 2016 – 2018’: “Effective usage of resources is only possible by efficient management and good planning. Thus, strategic management approach began to emerge in public institutions. In our day and age where not only people, but all of the things are evolved to connect to the Internet; ıssues such as having a strong electronic communications infrastructure, all our citizens benefiting from communications technology and infrastructure that connect us to the internet at reasonable costs and even free of charge for some critical public services being emergency calls gain more and more importance every day. As BTK, our institutions main objective is to have electronic communications and postal sectors to embrace a competitive structure considering those sectors effect to our country’s economic and social life and thus, citizens’ access to quality services at reasonable prices. In order to quickly implement the consumer focused regulations, the industry’s regulatory body BTK should be in line with its objectives and improve itself in this direction.” With R & D activities, development of local and national production is aimed “As BTK, we published the 2016 – 2018 Strategic Plans. Information Technologies and Communications Authority Strategic Plan 2016-2018 is prepared with a participatory approach and public opinion; the institution’s strategic objectives are stated as taking necessary measures to protect the interests and rights of consumers-users and enabling obtaining maximum benefit from the services / providing the necessary conditions for
Prepared by BTK Strategic Plan 2016 - 2018 and also Sectoral Research and Strategy Development Headquarters and covering April - May - June ‘BTK 2016 2nd Quarter Quarterly Market Data Report’ is published.
active sustainable competition, taking the necessary measures to eliminate hindrances preventing, distorting or restricting competitive environment / establishment of a transparent regulatory structure encouraging innovation, R & D activities in the sector, local and national production development / in the process of transformation into an information society in Turkey ensuring the expansion of information and communication technology services and users’ accessing those services rapidly and securely at a reasonable price / setting up an organizational structure that is expert, reliable, objective, open and transparent, innovative and dynamic. I believe that the Strategic Plan will lead to the development of information technologies and communication as well as the postal sector in the next period of time in our country.” Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan commented on ‘BTK 2016 2nd Quarter Quarterly Market Data Report’: “Examining the
improvements in April-MayJune 2016 in comparison with the previous period, it can be observed that the improvements continue to be experience significantly in the sector. The net sales revenue of operators in the sector was 39.6 billion ₺ in 2015; this figure increased to 10.5 billion ₺ in the first quarter of 2016. In the second quarter of 2016, it became 11.14 billion ₺. As the number of the fixed subscribers rose to 11.25 million, the number of mobile service subscribers became 73.65 million and the penetration rate became 93.5%. When we eliminate the subscriber numbers in communication between machines (M2M) and the population in the 0-9 age range, the mobile penetration rate is measured as 106%; as these figures show that average citizens except for the 0-9 age range have at least one mobile phone line. In the second quarter of 2016, the monthly average of mobile usage was 426 minutes in Turkey and we
took the first place among the European countries that can be tracked as in the previous period. During this period, 2.9 million subscribers moved their line number to another GSM operator and in total; so far, over 96 million numbers were moved. When looking at the broadband data, there are 9.9 million fixed subscribers, 45.3 million mobile subscribers within the total 55.3 million broadband internet subscribers. The number of internet subscribers in the second quarter of 2016 compared to the first quarter rose 24.6%. The highest increase was at mobile internet by 30.8% followed by FTTH (Fiber at home) by 20,7%. Began being used in our country on April 1, 2016; 4.5G service is now widely used. The number of 4.5G highspeed internet user number is increasing rapidly. Our 30 million citizens by the end of June made the transition to 4.5G subscription, but some citizens because of device or SIM card incompatibilities were not able to use 4.5G services,
thus the usage number is stated as 13,3 million by June, 2016. Average monthly usage of mobile broadband internet subscribers was measured as 1.9 GB and 4.5G as 3.4 GB. In terms of fiber infrastructure, the fiber length was 256.829 km in the same period of time last year while in the second quarter of 2016; it reached over 277.758 km, increasing 8%. Finally, significant progress was made thanks to many regulations prepared on several occasions for the development of local and national resources usage in the electronic communications infrastructure and projects carried out with the support of institutions, manufacturers and public bodies in line with our objectives for the good sake of our country. As an example, I would like to remind you the ULAK Project, 4.5G base station produced in April 2016 which has the domestic product documentation and I think this will set an example for the operators to use domestic products in the projects.”
Success comes through planning and programming It is not difficult to predict that the companies indifferent towards or incompetent for digital transformation will be wiped out; since IT is an accessible tool for everyone in our day and age. It is significant to know how to use the right tools with the corporate strategy. Corporate scale is no longer the determining factor. SMEs as well as large-scale companies can draw the most appropriate digital transformation road map for themselves. At least, they can see how effective the tools can be used on this issue and make the cost / benefit analysis. Making this emphasis, VMware EMEA Region Vice President and General Manager Jean Pierre Brulard stated the importance of “One Cloud, All Applications, and All Devices” approach and added: “IT solutions are being made to reduce the costs, substantially. However, they should be taken into consideration with a broader perspective. IT investments are not very complex for any company; neither the change. There are three titles highlighted in the EMEA region and these are networking and security, integrated hybrid cloud and mobile business. If you take steps after doing serious research on this subject, you will get significant benefits for the entire organization. But today, it is the most extravagant agenda topic (hype). For us, it has two
meanings: Courage curve and technology. According to IDC researches, 20% of the companies globally took important and successful steps in the digital transformation. Those are the ones creating digital transformation or interrupting digital games. The remaining 80% is ‘digitally behind’ companies. Those companies still exhibits a conservative point of view in the technological development field. The digital resistance rate is 14%. This 14% believes that the digital economy is not cut for them and resists against it.”
July 15 emphasized the value of İşNet Türkiye İş Bankası withdrew from mobile communications sector by selling its shares in Avea to Türk Telekom last year. After this process, the bank started negotiations with Turkcell on its other communication company İşNet. On the last Eid alAdha Festival’s eve, Türkiye İş Bankası announced that they stopped the selling process via a statement sent to KAP. So, what happened and why did the bank change its decision? Türkiye İş Bankası Deputy General Manager Hakan Aran stated that: “İşNet was established in 1998 and back then the internet banking was recently developing and the internet access was pretty expensive. Türkiye İş Bankası wanted to provide an easy and cheap internet access to their customers and founded İşNet. This opportunity was offered to all its customers, as well as all citizens of Turkey. İşNet showed a steady growth since the day it was founded. It became the group’s steadily growing, managing itself and paying dividends to the bank every year initiative. Because communication is an area of great importance to the bank, it initiated a partnership with Aria (Avea) along with İşNet. Meanwhile, after 15 years, the group decided selling Avea shares and withdrawing from the mobile communications area in line with their decision to mainly focus on banking operations. After the sale of Avea shares, İşNet also lost its
Türkiye İş Bankası (Turkey Business Bank) decided not to sell İşNet to Turkcell after the incidents in the country with the increase of the value of communication and security.
strategic importance for the bank. İşNet’s stable growth, continuous profit making, renewing infrastructure and paying dividends to the bank drew the attention of other buyers. Our point of view was this: there is a consolidation in the communication sector; the land and mobile communications are converging. Therefore, if you do not have mobile communication in your hand, land communication does not have too much of an effect.
Although Türk Telekom is a supplier in this regard, it began visiting the retail customers to compete with business partners using their own infrastructure, just like us. This situation reached a point where competition was impossible for companies like İşNet. Then, we told Türk Telekom that; “If there is such an unfair competition in this field and you do not leave us any room to exist and we do not make any sense to you; we are withdrawing from this field. Then İşNet would not be a Türk Telekom partner with its new structure, would be Turkcell Superonline’s partner.” The buyer of İşNet would of course have the opportunity to provide direct services to Türkiye İş Bankası group as well as İşNet’s existing customers. As a result of the developments in the communications sector following July 15 events, we have seen how important and valuable İşNet is as communication and security is significant. As İşNet being successful and profitable, it would make no sense to sell. We had nice talks with Turkcell about it, but those negotiations ended as a result of recent developments in the country.”
Legislation focused expectations are at the forefront Teleperformance Turkey General Manager Utkan stated that they have investment plans for a new city and emphasized on their expectations upon the new Occupational Health and Safety and Incentive Acts. Teleperformance Group provides customer experience for global companies offering services in IT, telecommunication, finance, insurance, health and retail since 1978 with its 190
thousand employees in 65 countries and in 311 call centers. Providing services with high customer satisfaction (CSAT), customer satisfaction (KSAT), employee satisfaction (ESAT) and quality programs in Turkey, Teleperformance’s Turkey operations are available since 1995. Teleperformance Turkey General Manager Engin Utkan stated that: “We provide local excellence in global standards with over 2 thousand
employees in İstanbul and Uşak, business model, technological infrastructure and CRM expertise. We offer customer services, telemarketing & telesales, technical support, receivables management, BPO, social media and Teleperformance Analytics applications and services to Turkey and neighboring countries’ companies in various sectors. Besides 7/24 customer services, we provide our services such
as customer acquisition, technical support, receivables management, BPO services and social media management through phone, e-mail, online chat, social media channels and web forums. With our projects being carried out in CX LAB, Portugal, we are able to examine customer experience, customer satisfaction and customer interaction evaluations over various communication channels for many sectors.”