Perhaps contrary to what is expected, young people want to return to the office more. Because they need more socialization. They find it important to develop themselves and their careers.
Volkan Akı talked to Bircom CEO Can İlkhan about trends and Bircom…
In Bircom, which has been serving in the sector for many years, İlkhan has been at the head of the company for about 11 years. Talking about the developments in the sector, Can İlkhan says that unified communication services are growing very fast:
• First of all, technology is constantly changing, and as a company serving in this field, you are a company that has caught the change. Because you have been in the sector since 1972. Shall we talk about this?
Yes, as you said, Bircom, which was established in 1972, provides high quality communication solutions to companies of all sizes and sectors, as well as world-famous brands, with its own brands, and carries out the Turkey distributorship of companies that are technology leaders in their field. Bircom has been providing nationwide distribution, localization, training, field installation support, central management services and after-sales services for many global brands for years. Although brands and areas have changed, Bircom has been offering the same level of service for years and is involved in the change. Our understanding has always been this: To provide the most comprehensive solutions to the needs of corporations in the field of informatics and telecom, in line with the most advanced technologies, with the highest customer satisfaction.
• In this field, you have been among the fastest growing for years…
In 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2017 and 2018, Bircom succeeded to be included in the list 8 times in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Turkey Program, which ranks the fastest growing technology companies. In 2007, 2009 and 2012, we successfully represented our country by entering the 'Fastest Growing Technology Firms' lists in Europe, the Middle East and Africa region prepared by Deloitte.
We are also the Turkey distributor of Yealink, which is the most preferred SIP phone manufacturer in 140 countries by developing IP phones, video IP phones and IP Dect phones, and Grandstream, which has been producing SIP unified communication products and solutions since 2002.
Not long ago, by enabling businesses and organizations to communicate seamlessly online, in this context; It serves its customers as a Zoom partner, offering video, audio, content sharing and chat solutions. In this area, we have started to provide service in a completely different area with Zoom's starting to provide phone service.
The Corporate Headphones Market Will Grow
• Yes, we almost had a big boom in this regard, how do you see the developments?
Although we do not have concrete information about the market size, we can say that more and more people prefer to work remotely every day. According to a Gallup survey conducted in recent months, 43 percent of working Americans spend some time a week working from home. 34 percent of these people work out of the office four or five days a week. In 2024, 50 percent of the workforce will be composed of 'gig workers', which we describe as self-employed, independent contractors and concert workers. If we evaluate all these situations through our own portfolio, we predict that the bluetooth UCC corporate headsets that enable wireless communication technology will show a great growth with the transition to online working environments. We also expect the use of collaboration tools to triple and the trend for video conferencing tools to increase significantly. The video conferencing market, which was at the level of 5 billion dollars in 2019, is expected to exceed 10 billion dollars by the end of 2026.
Our Range of Consumer Products Expands
• What are the current trends in the sector? What do you foresee?
Millennials prefer video conferencing systems by refusing to attend meetings while traveling long distances. Thus, while benefiting from the advantages of technological advances, they can also devote more time to their social lives. However, if we look at the young people, they want to go back to the office more than expected. Because he wants to socialize and be with people. Our solutions range from call center and office earphones to IP phones, VoIP communication products, video conferencing products and elevator communication solutions.
As for the products, nowadays people care too much about sound quality while listening to music, watching movies or playing games. Those who want to have lossless sound prefer the products produced by the brands that are experts in their fields. We are also starting to bring Bang&Olufsen products. It is an important brand in this field. In short, we are expanding our product range in consumer products, which is the other pillar of digitalization. In terms of products, we aim to be present at some points on the retail side, as well.
There's More Time To Hologram
Although hologram technology has not yet reached the point where it will be presented to the end user, video conferencing solutions continue to show great development all over the world. Another very popular technology, especially these days, is 'augmented reality'. It can also be foreseen that the number of applications of this type will increase rapidly in the coming period.