Who is Arzum?
Arzum has been in the small household appliance business for 55 years, since 1966. Arzum ranks first in the market according to the number of units sold. In 2020 Arzum is the market leader in food preparation, cooking, frying, Turkish coffee making, and hair care categories. Overall, Arzum provides 650 products in 6 different categories, including cleaning, personal care and ironing to millions of consumers in Turkey and around the world.
It is dedicated to spreading their native Turkish coffee culture to countries all over the world on the wings of the motto “The Brand that Makes the World Love Turkish Coffee”. Arzum carries out its business operations over five main sales channels: technology, supermarket/hypermarket and discount chain stores; e-commerce and retailer/wholesale traditional channels; all contributing to their global sales. Arzum provides aftersales services in an all-in-one approach through its Customer Care Portal.
Arzum offers a 4 year warranty for registered products. The company’s mobile application, Arzum Seninle, is a tool designed to make product registration easier and more convenient for consumers. Arzum exports its products under its own brand.
Arzum operates in 43 countries across the Middle East, North Africa and the USA regions. The company has a particular focus on Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Germany with 25% of its export volume sent to the European Union.
Project Background
In Arzum’s own words…
At Arzum, we have been making investments in digital transformation via internal resources for about 3 years while cultivating our “Digital Eyes” movement. Digital Eyes consists of a team of 10 to 15 people, working directly within the company’s internal Digital Transformation and Project Management Office. The Digital Transformation and Project Management Office predetermines the trends Arzum will focus on each year with the involvement of our participating teammates. Throughout this work, Arzum had increased technological literacy within the company and contributed to the digital transformation process through our internal resources.
So, What was Missing?
We had been receiving a positive return from our work with Digital Eyes. However, there was a benchmark missing. We did not have any knowledge about where we were in the market or whether our competitors were focusing on similar areas. We did not know if where we stood in the market average compared to our competitors. It was at that point when a digital maturity study became a necessity. Through measuring our digital maturity, we would be able to explore the possibility of even better digital outcomes for our company’s future digital transformation success.
We had heard about the Digitopia founders and the competencies of their delivery team from other the companies in the market. Such positive references led us to contract Digitopia and utilise their Digital Maturity Index.
The digital maturity measurement process was a smooth experience for us. The Digitopia delivery team took their time to understand Arzum’s inner dynamics before starting the first initiative. They internalized our company’s distinctive business model and managed the process accordingly and we felt this difference from the beginning of the first session to the very last one. Applying a coach-like style, Digitopia empowered us to evaluate ourselves in a very short time by asking the right questions to the right people. Focusing on six different dimensions, they conducted separate studies for each vertical. In this way, we could evaluate our digital transformation efforts in terms of where we were in the market, and what point we aim to reach. They brought these six separately held sessions together and generated a roadmap, where our priorities were indicated. At Arzum, we believe we have increased the efficiency of the process by following Digitopia’s suggested roadmap starting at the executive board level.
The Outcome
Digitopia’s work with Arzum has created both a top-down and a bottom-up approach, enabling the board and the team to achieve efficient common ground for mutual success.
From the moment we completed the Digital Maturity Index, we were able to comprehend clearly how we should act on our digital transformation strategy moving forward. This recognition provied us great convenience while preparing our budget and company strategy. The Digital Eyes initiative continues, and is now pursuing their work in a more enriched and focused environment.
Digital trends are changing quickly, and we see that Digitopia has provided us with a detailed, custome-tailored roadmap for the next 3 years. According to the current results, we have exhibited a balanced distribution across 6 dimensions, and this makes us very happy and hopeful for our digital future at Arzum. We aim to update our work, in this field every two years to maintain this balance, we have planned across DMI’s six dimensions.
Thank you to Digitopia for a great and reassuring Digital Maturity Index service experience.
The digital maturity measurement process was a smooth experience for us. The Digitopia delivery team took their time to understand Arzum’s inner dynamics before starting the first initiative. They internalized our company’s distinctive business model and managed the process accordingly and we felt this difference from the beginning of the first session to the very last one. Applying a coach-like style, Digitopia empowered us to evaluate ourselves in a very short time by asking the right questions to the right people. Focusing on six different dimensions, they conducted separate studies for each vertical.
ARIF EMRE UNAL
COO & Executive Committee Member
