A pioneering digital transformation and competence improvement middle and Türkiye’s largest non-public lender are partnering to ramp up the productiveness of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to make them extra aggressive globally and speed up their digital and inexperienced journeys.
MEXT, established by the Turkish Employers’ Association of Metal Industries (MESS), and Işbank are co-organizing the “Twin Transformation Journey of 100 SMEs” mission to generate insights that can information the Turkish trade upon completion.
Initiated on the event of Işbank’s a centesimal anniversary, the mission will kick off with a “Return on Investment Workshop,” attended by the overall managers of chosen SMEs.
Managers might be briefed on calculating the return on their investments and which standards to think about, with actual examples offered. Following the workshop, the dual transformation analyses of 100 SMEs might be bodily carried out on the individuals’ factories by MEXT, and digital and inexperienced transformation highway maps might be shared.
To implement the tasks outlined within the highway maps, know-how suppliers throughout the ecosystem of MEXT and Işbank might be introduced along with SMEs. As a part of the mission, the financial institution will present varied mortgage help to the enterprises.
The mission’s introduction assembly was held this week on the MEXT Technology Center in Istanbul, attended by Özgür Burak Akkol, head of the MESS board of administrators, and Hakan Aran, common supervisor of Işbank.
Preparation for brand new period
Addressing the occasion, Akkol emphasised the importance of SMEs and mentioned there are over 400,000 enterprises engaged in manufacturing in Türkiye.
“SMEs account for 72.5% of total employment in the sector, constituting 54.2% of the total turnover. We see the Twin Transformation Journey of 100 SMEs project as a strategic step taken for the future of Turkish SMEs engaged in production and our industry. Our aim is to increase the efficiency of SMEs in our country, thereby enhancing their profitability and competitiveness against global rivals,” he famous.
Akkol mentioned they need the SMEs to be extra ready for brand new rules, believing that it isn’t enough for less than giant corporations to be ready for digital and inexperienced transformation.
“Half of the total exports made by SMEs in 2022 were to European countries. Hence, global developments such as the European Union’s implementation of carbon taxation at the border indicate that green transformation is no longer an option but a necessity,” he mentioned.
“Our project will also make significant contributions to Türkiye’s sustainable development goals, especially for our SMEs.”
Enhancing competitiveness
Işbank’s Aran highlighted that the mission could be a major alternative for SMEs to realize competitiveness and foster the emergence of recent business areas.
He famous that the choice standards for SMEs to be included within the mission concerned being in strategic sectors recognized by the Small and Medium Industry Development Organization (KOSGEB), participating in manufacturing, and instantly or not directly exporting items.
“We have created this project with the dream of SMEs standing firmly on the ground, having completed their digital and green transformation, making a difference in global competition with strengthened finances, and contributing to positioning Türkiye differently,” Aran mentioned.
“The SMEs we have chosen will find us by their side in terms of digitizing the managerial processes of production lines, identifying energy efficiency investment needs, and providing financing support at the most suitable costs where needed.”
Aran additionally talked about that alongside MEXT’s digital maturity evaluation evaluation, they might add a inexperienced transformation maturity evaluation beneath the headings of environmental, social, and governance sustainability rules.
“Drawing inspiration from this project, if we assume that other SMEs will complete their twin transformations within three years, there is a potential contribution of up to $269 billion to the national economy. Unless we increase our efficiency and undertake such transformations, we will always focus on exchange rates. We need to break this vicious cycle.”
Aran recalled that 2024 marks Işbank’s a centesimal anniversary, expressing delight at having launched many tasks touching varied elements of societal life earlier than even the tip of the primary two months of the 12 months.
Corporations favor versatile engaged on single bill
In right now’s business panorama, many company entities are redesigning their workplaces with extra versatile areas. Shared working environments, which carry collectively people from totally different corporations and work cultures, not solely boast fashionable designs harking back to cafes but additionally foster the institution of sturdy skilled networks.
Ahmet Onur, the founder and CEO of Türkiye’s main shared workspace initiative, Kolektif House, shared insights into the transformative results of the brand new era’s working tradition.
“By opting for flexible workspaces, companies gain a significant advantage in enhancing employee satisfaction, motivation, and commitment. Inspirational workspaces, with their designs, nurture motivation and productivity. At this juncture, entities of all scales increasingly prefer our services,” Onur mentioned.
Cost financial savings
Flexible workplace areas save corporations money and time and liberate employers and workers, in keeping with Onur.
“Instead of purchasing commercial real estate or committing to long-term leases, flexible office solutions, requiring no initial investment from furniture to technological infrastructure, and bundling various services from reception to refreshments, enable companies to save between 20% to 40% compared to a traditional office setup,” he mentioned.
“This restructuring not only offers companies the ultimate agility in adapting office spaces according to growth or downsizing decisions but also provides extensive networking opportunities through flexible workspaces.”
From one to thousand
Regarding the adaptable construction of their answer, Onur said that they strategically strategy workplace options for startups and company entities ranging “from one to a thousand individuals.”
“We prepare locations tailored to the company’s needs and culture. Depending on the emerging demand, we devise office solutions that offer the optimum benefit to the company and its employees. We are a firm that supports our solutions with technology and we continue to invest in technology,” he mentioned.
Kolektif House right now serves over 6,000 manufacturers in additional than 30 places, masking almost 100,000 sq. meters.
Network of Mutual Learning
Onur additionally offered a putting instance of the impression of the rising working tradition.
“At Kolektif House, we provide a workspace where individuals from diverse disciplines can come together, exchange ideas, learn together, teach each other, and steadily expand their networks, opening doors to new collaborations. In essence, we offer an environment where they can freely create,” he said.
“At this point, I can outline our flexible workspace solutions as Virtual Office, Nomad, Ready Office, Enterprise, and Suites.”
Türk Telekom presents investments to new PILOT ventures
TT Ventures, the enterprise capital arm of considered one of Türkiye’s main telecommunications and know-how corporations, Türk Telekom, has launched the appliance course of for the newest version of its startup acceleration program.
The twelfth version of PILOT guarantees to supply very important help and assets to aspiring startups and innovators. The first utility interval, which began on Feb. 19, will run by March 17 earlier than a second section from March 18 to April 14.
Beyond monetary incentives, Türk Telekom additionally supplies avenues for networking, mentorship, and worldwide publicity, aiming to catalyze the expansion of promising startups in Türkiye and past.
Selected ventures admitted to this system, restricted to 10 in quantity, stand to learn considerably. Each profitable participant might be eligible for monetary assist of as much as $30,000, along with money help amounting to TL 100,000, offered by Türk Telekom Ventures.
Applications for the PILOT program are processed by the web site www.turktelekomventures.com.tr.
Muhammed Özhan, the overall supervisor of TT Ventures, emphasised the excellent help offered to startups. Alongside monetary help, ventures obtain collaboration alternatives with Türk Telekom, mentorship, networking avenues, entry to traders, and shared working areas.
“We proudly support the entrepreneurship ecosystem with Türk Telekom Ventures and our venture acceleration program PILOT for over 10 years. Through PILOT, we have provided approximately TL 32 million in cash support to 111 ventures to date. Among these, 59 ventures have received investments totaling over $35 million from both domestic and international investors, enabling them to develop their projects and ideas,” Özhan mentioned.
Additionally, he additionally careworn the help offered by bodily areas for ventures to work, each within the central constructing in Tahtakale and within the TT Ventures Entrepreneurship Center positioned throughout the Atatürk Cultural Center, of which the corporate is the principle supporter.
“We have reinforced our contributions in every aspect with our Türk Telekom Ventures office in San Francisco, aiming to open up our ventures to the world from there and to bring the success-filled atmosphere of Silicon Valley to Türkiye. This year, with a program specially designed at Stanford University, our graduate ventures received education and mentorship to enter global markets, grow their ventures, and access and present them directly to the VC network within Stanford’s ecosystem. Additionally, through a special meeting held at Netsia’s U.S. office, entrepreneurs had the chance to meet with local ventures from Türkiye and around the globe, engaging in idea exchange,” Özhan mentioned.
Amazon Web Services expands in Türkiye with new edge location
Türkiye’s quickly rising gaming, media, and comparable know-how ventures engaged in international business will now expertise seamless and uninterrupted providers as Amazon Web Services (AWS) introduced an enlargement within the nation by launching a brand new Amazon CloudFront edge location in Istanbul.
The world’s largest cloud computing supplier mentioned prospects in Türkiye can anticipate as much as 30% enchancment in latency and efficiency, on common, for knowledge delivered by the brand new edge location.
The new AWS edge location brings the total advantages offered by Amazon CloudFront, a safe, extremely distributed, and scalable content material supply community (CDN) that delivers static and dynamic content material, APIs, and stay and on-demand video with low latency and excessive efficiency.
The subsequent anticipated step is the availability of AWS’s knowledge middle providers in Türkiye, though the corporate has not but made any official bulletins.
Burak Aydın, the overall supervisor of AWS Türkiye, expressed pleasure about increasing their presence within the nation and providing extra superior cloud applied sciences to their prospects.
“With Amazon CloudFront, a wide range of customers from startups to commercial enterprises and public sector organizations benefit from faster content delivery and enhanced security,” mentioned Aydın.
He additional emphasised their dedication to assembly the rising wants of shoppers and, supporting native companies’ progress and rising financial productiveness in Türkiye.
“After launching AWS Outposts in January, we are now announcing the new Edge Location for CloudFront in Türkiye. These two innovations underscore our commitment to meeting our customers’ growing needs, supporting local businesses’ growth, and increasing economic productivity in Türkiye.”
Easier site visitors administration
The introduction of native AWS infrastructure in Türkiye will assist organizations throughout varied sectors, similar to training, media and leisure, well being care, monetary providers and e-commerce, in reaching quicker innovation.
BluTV, a number one subscription-based video-on-demand service in Türkiye, is amongst those that welcome this improvement.
Asım Yılmaz, the headend supervisor at BluTV, mentioned Amazon CloudFront is a quick, safe, and simply manageable service for working their purposes.
“The scalability of Amazon CloudFront allows us to achieve maximum productivity when our traffic intensity is inconsistent. The flexibility of CloudFront ensures optimal performance of our CDN infrastructure, providing BluTV users with seamless and high-quality experiences,” mentioned Yılmaz.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
