Q&A with Adnan Demirkol
As Multitek Elektronik, we started our activities in Istanbul in 1989!
17 September 2021
Can we get to know your company? When and how did it start its commercial activities?
As Multitek Elektronik, we started our activities in 1989 in Istanbul. Our journey begins with Adnan Bey's passion to be useful by returning to his country after his doctorate study in the USA with a state scholarship. The first team to be established is the R&D team and the first job is to develop a telephone exchange. Afterwards, the product range is continuously expanded by developing different user technologies in the telecom field. The aim is always to be one step ahead in technology and to rise above world standards.
At the point we have reached today, we are proud of producing the products developed at the Multitek R&D Center in our high-capacity smart facilities in Istanbul Sancaktepe and being a brand known for its high-end technology both in the domestic and international markets.
As the second generation managers of the company, our aim is to make our brand a world brand that all of Turkey is proud of, by maintaining the high level of quality understanding and R&D passion.
Can we learn what kind of products are in your company's product range?
After the success achieved in telephone exchanges, switchboard type video apartment conversation systems were added to our product range in the 2000s. The know-how and investments in power plant production and studies have enabled the development of the IP power plant. In the following period, we focused on apartment speech systems and added apartment speech systems with analog and IP infrastructure to our product range.
The Smart IP Intercom project, which we developed with the support of TUBITAK and brought to the market in 2016, changed the world of apartment speech systems and introduced high-end technology intercom systems that can be easily installed. With the Smart Intercom used in thousands of homes today, both the safety and comfort level of users have increased.
Our aim is to develop systems that are suitable for our age and even ahead of our age by taking technology one step further today, as it was in the past. In 2021, we introduced new cloud-based products and services that excite us at the point we have arrived at. In this way, our users can control their smart apartments and homes from anywhere in the world.
What would you like to say about your production facilities and employees?
Our factory in Istanbul Sancaktepe has a production area of 7000 square meters. Although the entire facility has smart building control features, it is an environmentally friendly and less energy-consuming industrial facility. The factory facilities have state-of-the-art SMT lines and production lines. We have the capacity to produce 250,000 apartment monitors and 50,000 switchboards per year.
We believe that improving quality in production is an endless process and that quality can be improved continuously. In our opinion, the improvement of quality and production processes is the responsibility of our entire team, not just the quality team. We take care to choose our team from people who do their job in the most accurate way, take responsibility and analyze the problems correctly.
We have a dynamic working environment where experience and excitement are blended with our colleagues who have been in our staff for more than 20 years and our young colleagues who have recently joined our staff. As the second generation owners of the company, we find it very valuable that the bone management team, who has been our companion since the early days, is with us and supports us. Thanks to their knowledge and experience, many problems are solved before they even begin. On the other hand, we start every week with a new idea with the new ideas of our young staff who have just joined the team for digital transformation, software and new generation marketing activities.
We would also like to add that women's employment and the increase in the number of women working in our sector is one of the issues that we attach great importance to as a company. 50% of the personnel working in our production area are women, and we want to increase the number of female employees in the management team in the coming period. On the other hand, we see that the number of women in both our business partners and suppliers is increasing day by day, we happily see the same sensitivity throughout our industry, which is promising for the future.
Does your company allocate a budget for R&D studies? How is your R&D work?
We would like to proudly say that the R&D of all products developed by Multitek Elektronik is carried out by Turkish engineers at the Multitek R&D Center. We call our team, which was described as an R&D Center by the Ministry of Industry and Technology in 2017, as the "heart of our company". The production of high-end technology products developed by Turkish engineers in Turkey and their sales to the whole world is one of the most enjoyable aspects of our work, which makes us come to work excitedly every morning.
All R&D processes of the hardware and software of our products are carried out end-to-end at the Multitek R&D Center. Performing hardware R&D ensures that the designs of the products are unique and that the production quality can be controlled continuously. For example, the MB-43 Apartment Monitor in the Multibus Doorphone Systems family was designed with a thickness of only 18 mm to provide a stylish appearance in front of the doors.
Performing software R&D enables to respond quickly to the demands coming from the field and to be flexible. When our customers request a new feature or add-on, we are able to respond quickly to our customers' requests if the request is in line with our business plan. Software is a very valuable field with high added value and the electronics industry cannot be considered independent of software. The ability to call the elevator to the floor, which is also available in the Multibus MBT-70 Touch Screen Apartment Monitor, is one of the good ideas added in a few days with the software.
Our goal at Multitek R&D Center is to complete at least 2 TUBITAK supported projects every year. While developing these projects, we carefully analyze the possibilities of increasing the technology level of our country and the areas of social use, as there are no similar projects in the world.
For example, with the IP Intercom in the Cloud project, which was completed in 2021, we changed the world of intercom completely and moved to a structure that offers an internet-based solution. Now, wherever you are in the world, when your doorbell rings, you can make a video call on your mobile phone and open the door for your guest.
The fact that the products developed in our R&D Center attract attention from foreign companies and allow many cooperation projects is one of the things that add value to both our company and our country. We increased our exports by cooperating with many foreign companies, especially with the Smart IP Intercom project. Exporting in the electronics sector is very important for our country, considering the volume / value ratio. Our country has the competence to sell R&D to the whole world with its young engineers, and we are happy to do this in the electronics industry.
Which countries do you mainly export to?
In order to introduce our unrivaled products worthy of the world market to the world, we have established a team of experts in the field and carried out marketing activities in many countries. Our growth continues exponentially, especially in the Gulf countries and North Africa. Turkish made products are used in the most prestigious projects in Iraq and Iran.
In order to increase exports, we offer our products to our customers in English, Arabic, Persian, German and French languages. The fact that we own all the software in R&D enables us to respond quickly to the demands of our foreign customers and to offer products customized for the market.
What would you like to say about your company's short and long term goals?
We are going through a process where we are making new expansions and the future gives us excitement. We have established a business model that takes fast action and immediately responds to the problems of its users with high-end technology domestic products and reliable business partners that have been perfected with experience.
Despite the pandemic, we grew by 50% in 2020 and we anticipate a 25% growth in 2021. In the last two years, we have digitized all our processes, from production to sales, from technical service to field services. Thanks to real-time reporting, we monitor all our processes instantly and take action quickly.
At the end of each year, we determine our sales, R&D, production and quality targets meticulously. One of our main goals in the short term is to increase our export volume by increasing the number of countries we export to and to make our brand a well-known brand all over the world. The way to do this is through advanced R&D competencies, quality production and continuous monitoring.
In the country, we want to increase our cooperation with our business partners and bring wisdom to all homes in Turkey and increase both the safety and comfort of our users.
ANSWER THE QUESTION WITH ADNAN DEMİRKOL:
What does Multitek mean to you?
Multitek means passion for Turkey, R&D and production for me. We use all our resources and efforts to add value to our country. Every new product we develop, every young engineer starting a job, every new business partner we meet excites us. It is an indescribable pride for our country to develop business together and create products with high added value.
What are your plans for the future of your company?
Our company has taken great steps towards digital transformation and institutionalization with the participation of second generation managers. We continue these steps with determination and are on our way to becoming a brand with global standards. R&D and production in our country will always remain our priority; We will continue to develop world-class products and services that stand out with their quality and technology level.
Can we learn what are the problems you are experiencing in your sector and what are your suggestions for the solution of these problems?
The raw material crisis, which creates problems for all manufacturers during the pandemic process, is also a big problem for us. We are especially having trouble supplying chips. Even though we have increased the stocks of raw materials, the deadlines are still very long. We foresee that this problem will end in the third quarter of 2022 at the earliest. Of course, another problem we have is to compete with the cheap but poor quality products of the Far East. However, we see that brand and quality awareness in our sector has improved considerably in recent years.
Can you give us information about the development of your industry? Can we learn about the situation of our country in the world market regarding your sector?
Smart home and intercom technologies are developing rapidly all over the world. As Multitek, we are in a leading position in terms of technology in our country. We do not buy technology from abroad, we produce it ourselves in our R&D Center.
There are dozens of companies working on smart home technologies in the world, there is no single standardized protocol. In any case, a single protocol or brand cannot be expected to meet all smart home needs. The future will be open source platforms that can speak the common language. As Multitek, we also focus on devices that work in harmony with devices of different protocols and brands. For example, our Smart IP Intercom product is compatible with RF (wireless), KNX and relay control; it is also designed to run smart home applications of different brands.
