The results of the ‘Top 500 Informatics Companies Turkey 2019 Survey’, which includes companies that develop information technologies and offer solutions that have significant contributions to the development of Turkey and the business world in every field, have been announced. Successful companies received their awards at the Informatics 500 Ceremony, which also included different events. The ceremony, which was held in a digital environment, also served as an important platform for the development of entrepreneur-investor relations.
The results of the “Top 500 IT Companies Survey”, the only comprehensive survey in the field of IT in Turkey, were announced. The ceremony took place in a digital environment with its stands, stand attendants, information area and panels. On August 26th, before the award ceremony, the Investor Firms Panel provided useful information for companies seeking investment. The panel was moderated by Volkan Akı, Founder of Corporate TV, Journalist and Author, and featured Başak İlsulu, Board Member of GirişimTürk Angel Investment Fund, E. Göktekin Dinçerler, Director of Turkven Private Equity, Dr. Murat Doğu, Vice President of Financial Affairs at Doğan Holding, and Metin Salt, General Manager of Vestel Ventures. Prior to the panel, İhsan Elgin gave a speech in which he evaluated the investor ecosystem in Turkey and abroad and gave recommendations to companies seeking investment.
The “Doyenenler Panel”, moderated by Murat Göçe, President of BTHABER Group of Companies, with the participation of İzi Kohen, Şahin Tulga and İbrahim Özer, evaluated the development of the IT sector and the contributions of the IT 500 Survey to this development.
After the opening of the stands on www.b500toren.com, which will remain open until December 31st, the distribution ceremony of the Bilişim 500 awards began. Murat Göçe, President of BTHABER Group of Companies, made the opening speech at the ceremony and said: “As always, we started our Bilişim 500 journey this year together with our advisory board. We received valuable information and suggestions from our advisory board. In this direction, we have transformed Bilişim 500 into a marketplace where the stars of the IT sector take the podium. Informatics 500, which is the result of the joint efforts of BThaber, M2S and Informatics Summit under BTHABER Group of Companies, is an important value not only for us or the sector, but also for Turkey. That is why BThaber and Bilişim 500 should be protected and supported.”
The opening speeches of the “Top 500 IT Companies Turkey 2019” award ceremony, which brought together important names and institutions from all areas of the sector, were delivered by Dr. Ali Taha Koç, President of the Digital Transformation Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey; Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure; Dr. Hakan Yurdakul, Member of the Economic Policies Board of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey; Süreyya Ciliv, President of Kuika and System Optima; and Mehmet Ali Akarca, General Manager of KoçSistem.
Süreyya Ciliv, President of Kuika and System Optima, said: “The world of technology and business is changing. The new world offers incredible opportunities. Information flows to the cloud with computers, AR, VR, robots, machines, sensors, wearable computers. In the new world, there is communication everywhere with mobile broadband. This environment offers great opportunities in the future, and during the pandemic period, we experienced the development that will take 10 years in 4 months. With 5G, this will go further and bring smarter systems with real-time optimization. With the developments during the pandemic, those who moved their business to the digital environment doubled their value. Those who use technology always go forward. On the business side, we need to use technology well, but we also need to apply the rules well. Customer orientation, offering benefits and difference to the customer is important, and if you do this well, an incredible experience emerges.”
In his speech at the Informatics 500 Award Ceremony, where KoçSistem was the “Digital Ceremony Sponsor”, KoçSistem General Manager Mehmet Ali Akarca said: “In this process we are going through, even though we cannot be side by side today, it is our business “technology”, which we contribute to the development of, that brings us together. The global pandemic has shown countries, institutions, the business world and even individuals that digitalization and the need for digitalization are now “at the very center of our lives”. As representatives of the sector, we have once again proved that we create “value for people” with technology, because we now know from experience that “if IT stops, life stops”.
Dr. Hakan Yurdakul, Member of the Economic Policies Board of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey, started his speech by thanking the teams that organized the Informatics 500 Award Ceremony and the Informatics 500 Survey under the supervision of Murat Göce, all sponsors who supported this event and all companies that will receive awards, and said, “This year, the pandemic has structurally changed the whole world and our perceptions. This is important for both the economy and the IT sector. In this process, there has been a change in profitability, efficiency and, more importantly, sustainability and security have gained more value. With this change, our perceptions have changed along with risk management, and self-sufficiency has become valuable. This once again showed us how valuable localization is. On the other side, with the need to expand relatively small supplier markets, the importance of countries with production potential like ours has increased. The IT sector stood out as one of the sectors that can benefit from the increase in exports. Along with exports, employment and R&D in the sector need to increase. It is extremely valuable to receive investment for this.
When we look at it, the public sector has three main tasks for the IT sector. First, it works as an incubation center for our software and ICT companies in general due to its power in public procurement and legislation. Secondly, it works as a pre-financing source through the incentives it provides. Thirdly, it stands out as a reference point for our IT companies due to its prestige in the eyes of other countries and its relations with them.
The main responsibility for increasing exports and investments in the IT sector lies with the private sector; they are the ones who will benefit the most from the growth here. Our IT companies have to offer integrated, lean but scaled technological solutions to their potential customers through strategic partnerships, acquisitions or mergers, and they need to be ready at any time by formulating their strategic plans in a reasonable and understandable way. Finally, they should follow the sector of their business globally in every sense. They need to invest in information if necessary. It is necessary not only to receive information but also to give it. They need to support informative studies such as Bilişim 500 and be more generous than they are in sharing their not-so-private information so that we can understand the sector.”
In his ceremony speech, Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure of the Republic of Turkey, started by congratulating the esteemed Murat Göçe and his team for carrying out this tradition online and making Bilişim 500 one of the most valuable brands in our sector: “As the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, we are very proud of the success of IT companies. In the presence of everyone here, I would like to congratulate these companies that add value to our country one by one. These companies not only make their names known with their achievements, but also make our country and us proud. In today’s world, those who do not have sufficient technological infrastructure are unfortunately doomed to be left behind, so we need to make the right investments in the right place at the right time. We have come a long way as a country in this sense, and the point we have reached in the last 18 years is proof of this. Turkey has proved its strength in many areas, and has achieved very important successes. One of the sectors where this is most clearly seen is IT, and we owe this success to the steps we have taken in digitalization.
Every step we have taken under the leadership of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has carried us further, and the national technology move implemented under his leadership is a guide that shows us the way to success. Turkey has been making history with its domestic and national technologies in recent years. Our Fatih drillship has succeeded in its 9th attempt in a manner worthy of its name. Fatih drillship has made the largest natural gas discovery in the history of the Republic of Turkey with 320 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Tuna-1 field, and this is just the beginning. We firmly believe that if we move forward on the path we believe in by sticking together, we will reach the biggest targets of 2023 in a very short time, in this context, we have increased our localization rates in mobile technologies 20 times.
In a changing and developing world, we cannot stop, we cannot pause, and as I have just said, we have to continue our investments in the informatics and technology sector rapidly. There is a point I would like to underline for potential investors operating in the field of informatics and potential investors who will enter this sector, and even for our young people who choose a profession and choose fields related to informatics. The growth statistics in the field of informatics worldwide are about ten times the growth rates of national economies. While the average economic growth worldwide has been between 3.50 and 4 percent in recent years, this rate is around 4 to 5 percent in developing countries and around 22 percent in developed countries. As the Ministry, we attach great importance to investments in technology, digitalization and human resources, and we are conducting some research in this context. In order to do it in the most accurate way, we continue on our way breathlessly with an understanding that puts stone upon stone, not words upon words.
As a country, we are carrying out many activities for some components of our growth and development strategy. Within the framework of this vision, we attach importance to establishing an effective competitive environment, making technological products and infrastructure accessible at reasonable prices, supporting domestic production, improving cyber security capacity and creating added value through big data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning. In these areas, we are continuing the work we have been carrying out since the past, targeting the supply and demand-side needs of the sector.
There is a fierce battle for the fifth generation mobile communication technologies in the world. When we made the 4.G tender, we drew our vision for the 5.G within the framework of the vision drawn by our President, and we entered Turkey into this race. We have set ourselves another goal to communicate with the highest possible level of localization rates for 5G. Under the umbrella of 5G Turkey Forum, we brought together our businesses, universities and technology companies to prepare Turkey for 5G and beyond, and established the 5G TR forum. On the other hand, our Ulak communication company, which produces 4.5 G domestic base stations, and our companies that make up the communication technology cluster that set out for an end-to-end 5G network, we look to the future with hope.”
In his speech, Dr. Ali Taha Koç, President of the Digital Transformation Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey, said: “Information Technologies expenditures are expected to fall by an estimated 5.1 percent to $2.25 trillion in 2020. Although a decline is predicted in hardware, software and IT services, 3.8 percent growth is estimated for infrastructure. This pandemic, which affects our lives, lifestyles and habits, has once again reminded us how important the use of digital technologies, together with telecommunications infrastructure, is and that it creates new opportunities to exit the crisis. Today, the life cycle of companies depends on innovation and adaptation to innovative technologies. Otherwise, we cannot be competitive. In this respect, we are working hard to be a force in tomorrow’s competitive economy and to restructure a better and more resilient labor market in the field of digital transformation. Our sector representatives, who have taken their place in different categories of the IT 500 ranking, are the best examples of this effort.
In order to become a Turkey that produces technology, not just consumes it, we are continuing our efforts to expand the domestic and national technologies we support in all sectors, especially in the public sector, on the path we set out with the slogan ‘National Technology Move’. Developing domestic and national solutions in cyber security is a must. In fact, we aim to raise the bar in this field one more level and aim for ‘Global and National Solutions’. In the opening of our domestic software and hardware products to the global market, everyone, both producers, consumers and supporting authorities, should take a hand in this endeavor.
An era in which strong technologies are gaining importance for strong economies is beginning. The measures we will take today and the steps we will take are very important for us to become a country that directs technology rather than following it in the competitive world of tomorrow. On this occasion, I would like to emphasize that we, as the Digital Transformation Office, will support every work to be done by our IT sector in order for the digital economy to come to life rapidly, and I would like to congratulate all our companies that have entered the Informatics 500 ranking.”
According to the 2019 Informatics 500 survey, the total turnover of 500 companies reached 133 billion TL…
According to the information provided by Özlem Unan, General Manager of M2S Araştırma ve Pazarlama A.Ş., which conducted the research on behalf of BThaber; The total turnover of 500 companies reached 133 billion TL in the 2019 Bilişim 500 research. Among the companies, where 25 companies grew by more than 100 percent, the highest growth rate was realized as 344 percent. Compared to 2018, the total revenue of IT 500 companies grew by 11 percent in TL terms. In dollar terms, 30 percent of the companies in the ranking, where revenues shrank by 6 percent, are looking for an investor. More than half of the companies seeking investors are Turkey-based manufacturers and employ 16590 people. The total turnover of the companies seeking investment has reached 5.8 billion TL.
At the ceremony, “35 Years of Labor” awards were presented to Güngör Kaymak, Fethi Demir, Fikret Kavzak, Ali Suat Erduran, Süreyya Ciliv and Murat Kasaroğlu, who have worked in the IT sector for 35 years or more.
As every year, BThaber Newspaper prepared special awards this year. “BThaber Friendship Award” was presented to Tuncay Işık and “Women’s Hand in Technology Award” was presented to Zehra Öney.
At the ceremony, where each company competed in its own lane with the changing and developing category structure, and where a total of 99 awards, including special awards, found their owners by providing live connection to each of them; 11 Distributor, 24 System Integrator and Business Partner, 12 International Manufacturer’s Turkey Representative, 27 Turkey Based Manufacturer, 10 PLUS and 6 Contribution to the Turkish Economy Special awards were given.
