Through the “Conversations with Our Members” series, we have the opportunity to have an enjoyable conversation with one of the members of the Woman in Technology Association family, listen to their experiences, and learn about their relationship with technology. Our series continues with our Member of the Board of Directors and General Manager of Intertech, Ömer Uyar. In our interview, Mr. Ömer Uyar shares how he became part of Wtech, the value that Intertech brought to Türkiye and its private sector through developing new technologies, the steps taken to ensure diversity and inclusivity at Intertech, and how transformative technologies has been changing the finance sector recently.
1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your career journey so far?
I was born in Balıkesir in 1977. After graduating from Sırrı Yırcalı Anatolian High School in 1995, I started my journey in the field of Controlling and Computer Engineering at Istanbul Technical University. While still a student, I began working at the IT Department of my university. After completing my university education in 2000, I joined the DenizBank Financial Services Group. Over the years, I took on various roles within the DenizBank Information Technologies Group and Intertech.
Since 2012, I have been serving as the General Manager of Intertech. Throughout my career at Intertech, I have emphasized keeping human needs at the forefront, always stating, “Our focus at Intertech should be on people.” My colleagues know that I genuinely value them, not just in words but in actions. I foster transparent and sincere relationships, believing that real success comes from these relationships and the positive impact they leave behind.
2.How did your paths cross with Wtech, and can you tell us about your relationship with the association?
My friendship with Zehra Öney goes way back. I highly value her efforts in combating gender inequality, especially her endeavors to increase the employment rate of women in our industry.
In 2019, when the association was established, we joined as Founding Members with the vision of Hakan Ateş, the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of DenizBank Financial Services Group. Doing so, we started closely following the association’s activities on a corporate level. Subsequently, I joined the Board of Directors of the association.
As Intertech, we are among the leading technology companies in Türkiye and the region, positioning ourselves as the largest software house in Türkiye in this field. Our success in the software industry serves as an example for many companies in the sector. We not only focus on technical matters but also aim to be a pioneer in social issues such as the fight against gender inequality. We attach great importance to our collaborations with Wtech, providing the highest level of support for their training programs and events.
Efforts to increase women’s employment rate in technology cannot be seen only as a social responsibility. It should be a natural progression to witness the increasing presence of women in decision-making positions in our sector day by day.
3. Can you provide information about the initiatives taken at Intertech to strengthen the culture of diversity and inclusion and celebrate the contributions of female employees?
At Intertech, we believe that diversity and inclusion directly contribute to the sustainable success of the company. We think that the diversity in our employees’ backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives promotes innovation and growth. In addition to organizing events to raise awareness about individuals with special needs, we support the “Everyone Has a Place (Herkesin Yeri Var)” project in collaboration with the Down Syndrome Association. We are proud to employ a friend with Down syndrome within the inter-academy.
We continue our close collaboration with Wtech to strengthen the presence of women in technology. We aim to create awareness by bringing together women, who can be role models in gender equality, in various activities. Our top management consists of 30% women executives. We are also very conscious of using inclusive language to make gender neutrality an important part of our corporate culture. In the software world, there is a fundamental term: “man/day,” which is used to describe the work done. We are the first company in the industry to replace this term with “person/day”.
We provide platforms for our employees to share their views and experiences, creating a working environment that appreciates different perspectives. For example, through our Shoutouts application, an appreciation platform, our employees can express thanks and appreciation to each other.
We prioritize equal opportunities in our recruitment processes and talent programs. For instance, our FirstTech program offers the opportunity for first-year university students to participate in a strong program that helps them determine the point where they will progress in their careers at the beginning of their university education. In this program, they have the opportunity to closely follow our agile transformation journey, learn from experts about agile and transformation processes, gain knowledge about different and comprehensive projects, and observe industry dynamics.
We support the Workintech program, which aims to close the gap in trained technology experts worldwide, helping people overcome barriers created by their location and financial situation through education. We hire university students without prior knowledge of programming after their participation in the 6-month training.
In our monthly CEO chat events, our employees can openly share their questions with our top management. Through one-on-one meetings with our employees, we listen to the experiences of almost all our colleagues, determine our actions together, and provide a platform for them to share their views and experiences.
With our remote working model, Remotech, 30% of our employees can work from different cities in Türkiye. This way, we employ young people who have studied at universities in different cities in Türkiye.
4. In early 2022, you launched Inter-cloud, which is the first financial cloud service provider infrastructure in Türkiye. How has Inter-cloud benefited you so far?
Inter-Cloud is not only a technology that provides significant advantages to us as a company but also to the financial sector as a whole. As Intertech, we are currently Türkiye’s first and only community cloud provider approved by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) and the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (TCMB). We have the capacity to host all financial institutions on Inter-Cloud, providing end-to-end cloud infrastructure, and this infrastructure can be managed by our teams. Financial institutions do not need to establish a separate team for any service item such as technical infrastructure, system, application, database, network, or security.
As you know, the software development teams of most financial institutions are quite limited. The scarcity of human resources in the sector makes it difficult for them to find competent workforce in technologies such as the cloud. Our cloud platform and managed services make it easy for them to focus on their own business. Therefore, it provides a competitive advantage in the market. We are very happy to have implemented such a service that the financial sector urgently needs.
5. How are transformative technologies (artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, metaverse, augmented reality, virtual reality, etc.) changing the finance sector, and what fundamental changes do you expect with the integration of these technologies into business processes?
The world is heading in a different direction. The development of cloud, artificial intelligence, and data analytics-supported technologies will add another dimension to the service understanding in the finance sector. To stand out in competition, it will be necessary to offer updated, agile, and more personalized services that capture the rapidly changing attitudes and needs of customers.
In recent years, new concepts such as neo-banking and AI banking have emerged beyond digital banking. Fintechs and banks are moving towards bringing their solutions together in ecosystems where open innovation and banking will come to life, using advanced technologies such as data mining, artificial intelligence, cloud, and APIs. Anticipating this change, we offer our customers the infrastructure to advance in neo-banking with inter-API and inter-Cloud. We have an ecosystem of business partners where fintechs and banks can integrate their solutions quickly and easily. In the coming period, we will focus on developing technologies for neo-banking and AI banking.
