Arkas Holding Information Systems Director (CIO) Mert Oruz was the guest of the video series Teknolojiyle Birlikte (Together with Technology) prepared by Microsoft Turkey. Speaking to Tarık Tüzünsü, Deputy General Manager of Microsoft Turkey Corporate – Public Sales, Oruz stated that cloud technology simplifies business processes, reduces costs, and creates healthier data security.

Expressing that Arkas’ main fields of activity are maritime services, logistics, port and terminal operations, Oruz then stated that Arkas carries out these main activities in a wide geographical area. Oruz said, “We have offices in the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, West Africa and America. We set out on this path, believing that we would reap the benefit of working towards singularization and simplification in this distributed geography.”

“Our Operational Costs Decreased”

Explaining that this transformation enabled them to move into a more manageable and flexible structure for Disaster Recovery, Oruz underlined that they regard this transition as an opportunity. Oruz said:

“First we migrated our systems, and then we started to benefit from the blessings of cloud technologies and cloud services. First of all, we acquired the advantage of ‘Capex’, that is, converting our investment costs into operational costs. When you take control of operational costs, in the next step you can start to monitor the capillaries of every one of your cost items, which is an advantage. That has been the biggest benefit.”

Expressing that they gained the advantage of managing their IT services within the holding with a financial perspective, Oruz drew attention to the fact that they pay as much as they use. Oruz said, “So it is clear how much we use, but momentary pictures, their meaning in terms of budget and cash flow are important points. Where we stand compared to our budgeting, what our general situation is, how much we spend, how much we will spend, what we will get when we invest, these are no more the questions we ponder”.

“We Make Information Smart”

Emphasizing that they have 66 offices established in 23 countries, employing over 8,000 people in total, Oruz expressed that this faces them with extensive amount of data. Oruz went on to state there are more than 100 ports in 23 countries which their ships call at, emphasizing that there are more than 100 customs points to account for these ports, and that they work with customers, to which these customs points are affiliated. Underlining that they operate in a huge pool of data, Oruz told that they are after collecting many different types of data properly and added:

“After we have the proper data, we begin to carry the work into the classification phase. We do this with Microsoft’s technologies. We make the information smart, and then collect it and determine strategies for it accordingly. But of course, there is a security side as well”.

“Our Data Security is Entrusted to Microsoft”

Dedicating a separate section of his speech to security, Oruz explained that they store their data in Microsoft’s data centres. Emphasizing that they can flexibly operate and manage security-related processes, Oruz said that this occurs as a response to their trust in customer information at the customer side. Stating that information security is a very vital issue, Oruz noted that entrusting data security to Microsoft gained them competitive advantage.