“Companies that truly believe in and invest in innovation are always one step ahead to succeed in the business environment.”
Mert Oruz, CIO of Arkas Holding, states that “today, every company, regardless of sector, is on its way to becoming a software and technology company because all of our processes run on software and technology.”
Arkas Holding is a geographically distributed business that operates in 23 countries and via 66 entities. The company was one of the first in Turkey to opt to shift both its software and systems to the cloud end-to-end in order to consolidate its operations in one location and make them more agile, using its own software in its core business areas. Mert Oruz is in charge of this digital transformation journey… We had a delightful discussion with Oruz, who is in his 18th year at Arkas Holding, 12 of which as CIO, to discuss Arkas Holding’s digitization process as well as the requirements of being an effective CIO…
Could you please tell us a little about yourself?
I earned a degree in Computer Engineering from Eastern Mediterranean University. I began my career in IT in 1996 as a Network & System Engineer at Sepiciler Holding, and after a while I transitioned to the software side. In the same company, I was the first manager of my career. I held the positions of IT Chief and IT Manager. My career continued with the Teba Group of Companies, which was one of Turkey’s major manufacturers of ovens, stovetops, and air handling systems at the time. I joined the Teba Group of Companies in 2000 as Information Systems Manager, a position I maintained until 2003. Finally, in 2005, I joined Arkas Holding. My Arkas Holding adventure began in the Customer Relations Management unit and has now lasted 12 years as CIO following numerous managerial positions.
What roles do Arkas Holding and Arkas IT infrastructure play?
Arkas Holding has three divisions. The first is a maritime firm with offices in 29 countries. We have Arkas Line, where we manage our own container ships, and domestic and foreign offices where we tie up cargo for all shipowners with whom we have contracts, notably Arkas Line. Port management is our second major group. We provide services at several ports throughout Turkey, in addition to our own Marport and Autoport ports. The third factor is logistics. The logistics department is separated into categories as well. Land transportation, warehousing, forwarding, train transportation, and partial load transportation are all services provided. With the services they provide, these three primary business lines, each of which has a considerable business volume and a distributed structure in its own field, serve as a guiding mission for the associated industries.
We have offices in practically every commercial center in Turkey, however we have more offices abroad than in Turkey. For us, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean are like lakes. We have offices in nearly every port city where there is sea trade. throughout addition to this, we have offices throughout America and Asia. Of course, our presence in Turkey is far larger. Over the years, we’ve been able to transfer the business success and synergy we’ve built here to our offices around the world.
To manage our processes, we require agile software and tools in our IT framework. We can move more easily if we consolidate on the system and network sides because the technologies are nearly same, but we do not have the same flexibility on the software side. There was no software available in our industry, particularly for our fundamental functions. As a result of this decision made 20 years ago, all of our primary activities now run their processes using software that we wrote ourselves. We are exclusively using outsourced corporate software for our Marport and Autoport ports. This is precisely why we now have over 100 software employees in our Technopark organization and why we have corporatized this unit. Only with our own software team can we reply to requests quickly and consistently. Our software teams created corporate software that is used in all of our domestic and international operations. On the other hand, we choose sectoral software that can fit our systems for our other companies that are not in our major fields of activity.
On the system and network side, it was critical to combine and administer our systems through a single route in such a dispersed geography. This decision prioritized our journey to the cloud, in my opinion. We ensured the performance and measurability of every service we produced in this manner.
The adoption of cloud technology in our information security services and solutions has increased our confidence in our overall IT strategy. At a time when data is so important and valuable, it appears that the cloud is the best solution for protecting it and ensuring business continuity. We use ITIL for service management. Service management, which is essential for a structure of this size, maintains the quality and measurable nature of the services we give to the entire structure. To summarize, we have an agile IT department that provides all IT services to our 8,000 global employees.
What do you believe businesses should consider while developing digitalization roadmaps?
I believe that each company’s corporate genetic coding is unique. In other words, each organization has its own set of business practices, strategy viewpoints, human resource positioning, and business practices. Despite the fact that the genetic coding is diverse, the paths pursued eventually cross. As an example, consider the following path:
Setting the goal: Businesses establish their digital transformation goals and develop strategic plans to achieve them.
Internal analysis: Entails analyzing a company’s present position and needs and identifying chances for continual improvement based on these studies.
Market research: Include investigating the competition’s digital strategy and technology developments and developing a digital roadmap based on this information.
Agenda tracking: Ensures that technical breakthroughs are not overlooked.
Agility: Refers to the agile redesign of a company’s business processes to accommodate digital transformation.
Experience: Using digital tools and services to improve and sustain consumer experiences.
Human resource strategy: Creating and implementing relevant HR strategies to assist a company’s digital transformation.
What should CIOs do to make the most of cloud technologies?
Moving to cloud computing is a challenging decision in and of itself. After making this decision, measuring the contribution of the money you spend to productivity and business becomes much more challenging. I believe in CIOs for efficiency.
Determine their cloud strategy thoroughly. The goals and objectives should be obvious. There should be no illusionist objectives.
They should put information security first.
Flexibility and progress are critical. It should be designed to keep up with the company’s growth and ensure business continuity.
Look for and implement cost-effective alternatives.
Work with the right producers and partners to identify service procurement points.
Priority should be given to training and capacity building.
Human resource requirements should be precisely coordinated with HR.
Budget compliance should be monitored on a regular basis.
Today, developing software and finding human resources are becoming increasingly difficult. Did you feel threatened by this process?
Today, every company, regardless of industry, must be a software and technology company. Arkas Holding is no exception, as all of our procedures rely on software and technology. Parallel to this, it is extremely difficult to locate qualified individuals, particularly in software and information security. This is where the HR departments’ strategy comes into play a little more. Processes that are coordinated with HR and have continuity are required.
As a corporation transitioning to cloud technology, our job becomes much more challenging since we must recruit the most sought-after and demanded profiles from a limited pool of human resources. However, because we are a “Full Cloud” company, we are one step ahead in terms of candidate preference. To recap, we are confronted with a difficult problem, and we are attempting to be nimble and continuously improve our HR procedures in order to solve it. Examples of these enhancements include the recruitment processes we have implemented, our hybrid working style, and our benefit packages. Job descriptions, job prioritization, recruitment processes, salary management, and technical training are, in my opinion, the world’s established HR processes. However, issues such as increasing work motivation, improving work experience, reviewing and improving job offers, increasing employee cooperation, and changing benefit packages have also become critical in our HR processes. I believe we make a difference by emphasizing these concerns as well as the good practices I highlighted before with our HR personnel.
What projects do you have planned for 2023?
First and foremost, we have a hybrid cloud project. We are investigating whether we can obtain the services we receive from their own sources. I am confident that, in the medium term, most IT managers will be unable to recall where they obtain IT cloud services other than the primary services. Many services will be received and consolidated from various locations. The rest of the globe is following suit. Instead of being the sole actor on this issue, technology behemoths are now collaborating. Another critical consideration is information security. Information security will improve as connectivity improves. We will keep working in this area.
Aside from that, we will integrate data and artificial intelligence to make our systems smarter. With the data we have, we will increase the number of strategic dashboards. Moving corporate system decision procedures to mobile will also be one of our priorities for 2023. We intend to implement full SD-WAN, which is required for our corporate data connections. Virtual desktop is another significant project for 2023.
Do the demands come from the business units, or do you make the decision?
In fact, both. This is also somewhat related to company culture. In general, we develop annual goals with C-level executives and create IT roadmaps for the next 1-3 years based on these goals. The most significant problem here is that targets can be lowered from the top down, and communication can take place in both directions.
What does it take to make a company a market leader?
Competition has already become increasingly difficult, even dividing itself into classes and continually changing its shell. Especially since the pandemic, every corporation has questioned its approach to competition. They have determined their weaponry, plans, and fresh route maps in order to win this difficult fight. The difficult part was getting away from the traditional. In other words, after setting the organizations’ vision and strategy, the pandemic shattered the procedures by which the companies learned how to supply their products and services, agilized themselves with market research, and put the consumer in the middle.
The pandemic has catapulted one word to the forefront and into the minds of businesses: INNOVATION. Every company that does not prioritize innovation is doomed to fail. Innovation is no longer a term found just in ancient procedures and corporate documents… Companies that believe in and invest in innovation, in my opinion;
They obtain a competitive advantage through increasing competitiveness and developing new products/services.
They structure their business procedures in order to increase efficiency and save time and resources.
With new services and products, they boost revenue and automatically enhance profitability as a result of innovation.
Companies that invest in innovation attract talent with their forward-thinking and dynamic structure, making them more appealing to human resources.
They are prepared for market shifts in advance, thanks to innovation, and can quickly adapt to new trends and technology.
In short, businesses that truly believe in and invest in innovation are constantly one step ahead of the competition in a fast-paced commercial environment.
How should senior management and the CIO communicate, in your opinion?
To begin with, IT managers must have complete mastery of the subject and demonstrate confidence in order to obtain permission for their projects. Of course, technical competence is required, but the CIO should also have a strong network, be able to convey the benefits of the job in a visionary manner, and make them feel how much added value the project can offer to the organization. Furthermore, they should be knowledgeable in the fields of finance, audit, procurement, and human resources so that they can both find the “new” for these units and transfer the beneficial projects to the units in the proper manner. If you can’t put a business benefit next to each IT function, you’ll only stay there for a short time.
Which specializations, in your opinion, are required for being a CIO, and what type of function is it?
Being a CIO requires a combination of leadership, management, communication, openness to change, risk management, and financial knowledge, as well as experience in technology and business understanding.
In his own words, Mert Oruz…
Do you have any interests?
I enjoy sailing as a hobby. It gives me great joy to participate in yacht races and to compete as much as my power and energy allow. I am also an avid basketball fan, and I try to attend as many of my son’s basketball games and EuroLeague events as time allows.
What are your favorite pieces of personal technology?
Cell phone and tablet.
What was the most recent book you read, and which would you recommend?
“Human Centered Leadership” by Sinan Canan and Sesil Pir was the most recent book I read. Podcasts are more appealing to me than books. Zihnimin Kvrmlar, HBR IdeaCast, TEDx Talks Technology, How to Be (Nilay rnek), Ha Geldi, Ha Gelecek! (Aykut brişim), Bunu ben de yaparm (brahim Selim), and Barş zcan are my recommendations.
What kinds of movies do you like to watch?
Depending on my mood, I prefer to watch action, sports, and success tales.
What would you learn if you could learn something you don’t know how to do?
I’d like to improve my volleyball skills. I serve on the Arkas Spor board of directors. Our volleyball squad is quite successful. I think to myself, “I wish I could play volleyball,” while I watch their contests. I’d like to learn to play the drums as a musical instrument.
