İSTTELKOM

Gathered at the Istanbul Information Technologies Congress held online, IMM’s IT executives talked about their goals for 2021 and the substantial progress achieved in cyber security. In the meeting, transformation of the traffic management in Istanbul into a smart system through employing artificial intelligence was highlighted. Issues such as turning İstanbulkart into a life card also preferred by the private sector and enabling internet access at the subways were also examined.

Six prominent figures leading the IMM information technology processes gathered at the “Smart Cities” session as part of the 14th Istanbul Information Technologies Congress held online. This year’s session was moderated by the Head of the IMM IT Department Dr. Erol Özgüner. IMM Technology Coordinator Melih Geçek, BELBİM Inc. General Manager Yücel Karadeniz, İSTTELKOM Inc. General Manager Nihat Narin, İSBAK Inc. General Manager Esat Temimhan and UGETAM Inc. General Manager Prof. Dr. İbrahim Edin remained as speakers in the panel. Various panels on “Smart Cities”, “Cloud IT”, “Cyber Security”, “Natural Disaster IT”, “Smart Renewable Energy Management”, and “Recent Trends in Data Sciences” were held at the Congress.

IMM SWIFTLY ADAPTED TO TELECOMMUTING SYSTEM

Delivering the session’s first speech, Melih Geçek stressed IMM’s rapid adaptation to the telecommuting system during the pandemic. Geçek continued:

“As the IMM, we achieved to complete such alteration that required three years merely in three days. We quite swiftly adapted to a system where we would normally spend too much time on training and perhaps get around 30 percent efficiency. Since we already embrace a robust infrastructural system, we could provide superior services in terms of technology. We mobilized all our facilities to fulfill the increasing communication requirements. ‘Big Data’ management continues to remain among our prominent topics on the agenda. We aim to launch the ‘Istanbul is Yours’ application in 2021. Our primary target is to further enhance the living standards of our citizens at all aspects of life.”

“DIGITALIZATION OF TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT”

In his speech at the session, Esat Temimhan noted that they focused on three main areas as part of IMM’s new strategic plan and added, “As İSBAK we are continuously working on transportation, earthquake and energy and environment areas that constitute our priorities. Utilization of personal vehicles increased substantially due to the pandemic. We intend to launch smart traffic management through artificial intelligence by increasing the number of data collected from the field regarding the traffic problem. We aim to build charging stations for electric cars at all the parking lots in İstanbul.”

“İSTANBULKART IS NOW A CARD FOR ALL ASPECTS OF LIFE”

BELBİM General Manager Yücel Karadeniz pointed to the level recently achieved by the İstanbulkart and declared that the satisfaction rate of the city’s residents from the card was 95 percent. Stating that the people of İstanbul now owned a ‘city card’, Karadeniz underlined that İstanbulkart was rendered available for commercial transactions and continued:

“We strived to turn the İstanbulkart into a life and city card. We rendered it available at areas such as sports facilities and museums. We conducted negotiations with gross supermarket chains and made headway to render it a charge card. We transformed İstanbulkart into a corporate card as well. The process is launched.”

“WE ARE READY TO COOPERATE FOR DELIVERING INTERNET SERVICE AT SUBWAYS”

Nihat Narin, İSTTELKOM General Manager, underlined that the residents have been commuting without internet connection at the subway and added;

“Presently, nearly 2 million people are commuting at the underground every day without any internet connections. The administrative authorities need to take immediate steps to this end, particularly for urgent requirements and in cases of natural disasters.

As İSTTELKOM, we completed our infrastructural activities for providing dual internet connection at the subways. Whole process is available now and we are waiting for our application to the İstanbul Security Directorate to result. We are willing to collaborate for the solution of this problem for fulfilling the intensive demand of our citizens.”

SMART METERS TO ACHIEVE SUBSTANTIAL SAVING

UGETAM Inc. General Manager Prof. Dr. İbrahim Edin spoke of their new corporate vision and their activities they in energy, information technologies and education that constitute their strategic areas. Edin said, “There is a total of 13 million natural gas and water meters in İstanbul and we have been testing all the alternative solutions for their transformation into smart meters. We plan to achieve a substantial amount of saving in various areas through these new systems. We aim to build new generation worksite management standards in Istanbul where daily 420 site works are being carried out. We transferred all our training activities to virtual environment due to the pandemic. With the ‘Quartz’ Project we aim to reduce the organizations’ operational costs and maintenance expenses and maximize the satisfaction of our citizens.”

Informing the participants on IMM’s remaining Smart City activities, Head of the IT Department, Dr. Erol Özgüner said, “We wish to transform IMM and its subsidiaries’ data into more meaningful data. Our Pending Bill implementation has been one of the most remarkable projects of the pandemic last year. We launched the utilization of Robotic Process Automation services in the organizations. By expanding the IMM WiFi network, we increased the number of subscribers to 4 million.”