The term "digital transformation" comes up often in management meetings, but it is usually treated as synonymous with buying new software. Yet the real question in a company's digital transformation is not which tool to buy, but how its business processes will be rebuilt on data and digital tools.
In this article we put the concept into a simple framework, look at the latest TÜİK (the Turkish Statistical Institute) data on how enterprises in Türkiye use digital tools, explain what a maturity assessment is for and which model is used on the public-sector side, and then sketch a draft roadmap using example scenarios.
What is digital transformation?
Digital transformation is the redesign of an organization's way of doing business through digital technologies and data. Turning a paper form into a PDF counts as digitization; running the approval flow, records and reporting end to end in a digital process is transformation itself.
The observation TÜBİTAK TÜSSİDE (the industrial management institute of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye) made when announcing its digital transformation assessment model sums up the heart of the matter well: every business's current state of digitalization is different, and therefore the steps it needs to take are different as well. That is why the announcement identifies determining businesses' maturity level and preparing roadmaps specific to them as an important need.
Where do enterprises in Türkiye stand?
TÜİK's Information Technology Usage in Enterprises Survey, 2026 bulletin, published on 10 September 2026, gives the key indicators for enterprises with at least 10 employees:
- The usage rate of paid cloud computing is 20.2% in 2026. The rate is 57.0% among enterprises with 250 or more employees, 33.3% among those with 50-249 employees and 16.7% among those with 10-49 employees.
- The share of enterprises making e-sales (sales via the internet or EDI) rose from 13.6% in 2024 to 17.1% in 2025.
- The share of enterprises employing information and communication technology (ICT) specialists is 15.2% in 2026; this share is 10.8% among enterprises with 10-49 employees and 73.3% among those with 250 or more employees.
- Of the enterprises that hired or tried to hire ICT specialists, 31.7% reported having difficulty in the recruitment process in 2025.
- The share of enterprises taking any security measure in their ICT systems rose from 76.0% in 2024 to 83.0% in 2026; in 2025, 9.4% of enterprises reported having experienced at least one security breach incident.
The picture shows two things. First, the difference in scale is pronounced: large enterprises use the cloud and employ specialists at several times the rate of small ones. Second, even as the use of digital tools spreads, specialists are hard to find, which is a reminder that transformation is a matter not only of technology but of skills and processes. The cloud side is covered separately in the article on where to start a cloud migration.
What is a maturity assessment for?
A maturity assessment is an exercise that uses a structured model to measure where a company stands digitally today and to prioritize the next steps. The aim is not to earn a score but to choose, on the basis of evidence, where to invest.
In Türkiye, there is a model developed by the public sector in this area. TÜBİTAK TÜSSİDE built the DDX Digital Transformation Assessment Model on the basis of the D3A (Digital Transformation Assessment Tool) developed by Boğaziçi University. According to the announcement, digital transformation consultants are being trained to spread the model; the consulting work that consultants who have completed TÜSSİDE training successfully carry out with the DDX model is supported by KOSGEB (the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization) under the cooperation between TÜBİTAK TÜSSİDE and KOSGEB.
The output of this assessment is also an entry condition for a support program. According to the summary information form of the SME Digital Transformation Support Program on the Investment Support Platform (Yatırıma Destek Platformu) of the Ministry of Industry and Technology, small and medium-sized enterprises in the manufacturing sector that have received services from TÜSSİDE-certified consultants and hold an approved Digital Transformation Assessment Analysis and Roadmap Report can benefit from the program. The form states that non-repayable support is provided toward the interest expense of loans taken from partner banks, that expenses for new machinery, equipment, software and hardware are supported, that the program is continuously open, and that applications are made through KOSGEB's online system. The form is dated 27 May 2024; current conditions should be confirmed with KOSGEB before applying.
Digital transformation examples in companies
The examples below are example scenarios; they do not belong to any specific company and contain no figures. The aim is to show what transformation looks like at the process level.
Example scenario 1: Purchase approval flow. Requests arrive by email and phone, approvals wait in people's inboxes, and it cannot be traced who approved what and when. The transformation step is to move the request form into a single system, to run a rule-based approval flow by amount and category, to send automatic reminders for pending approvals and to record every step. The topic is covered in more detail in the article on procurement automation.
Example scenario 2: Incoming invoice processing. Invoices arrive through different channels, the accounting team enters the details by hand, and the matching of orders and dispatch notes is done in spreadsheets. The transformation step is to bring e-documents directly into the accounting system, to put the matching of orders, dispatch notes and invoices under rules, and to route only mismatched records to a person.
Example scenario 3: Production and stock visibility. In a manufacturer with international operations, stock information is kept in separate spreadsheets on the warehouse, production and sales sides; the sales team has to get confirmation by phone when quoting delivery dates. The transformation step is to bring stock and production data together in a single source and to give sales up-to-date access to that source.
The three scenarios share the same pattern: process and data ownership are clarified first, and tool selection comes after that.
How do you build a digital transformation roadmap?
Starting from the logic in the sources of "assess the current state, then build a roadmap specific to the business," the following order offers a reasonable starting point:
- Measure the current state. Using a structured maturity model, assess processes, the systems in use, data flows and team skills.
- Build a process inventory. List the processes that run by hand, repeat and generate errors; assign a business-unit owner to each.
- Set priorities. Start with two or three processes that have high impact and are relatively easy to implement; write down the success measure for each up front.
- Plan skills and security together. Clarify at the start of the project who will operate the new system and which security measures are required.
- Check public support. If the company's size and sector qualify, confirm from the current program conditions how the maturity report can be used in a support application.
- Measure and update. Review the roadmap at regular intervals; do not move on to a new step without measuring the result of the completed ones.
Conclusion
Digital transformation is not a one-off software project but the rebuilding of processes on data. The TÜİK data show a clear gap in cloud use and specialist employment, especially among small enterprises; a maturity assessment makes it possible to see where that gap lies for a given company.
From Orient Global's perspective, the most productive way to start a digital transformation is to measure the current state in a structured way before choosing tools, and to get results in a few concrete processes. This order both clarifies the rationale for the investment and makes it easier for teams to adopt the new way of working.
What logistics teaches about digital transformation. Two of the three example scenarios sit where paperwork meets the physical flow of goods: stock figures held in separate sheets by the warehouse, production and sales, a delivery date that needs a phone call to confirm, and orders, dispatch notes and invoices that have to match. The roadmap steps above (measure the starting point, give every process an owner, write the success measure before the project starts, then re-measure) are everyday habits in a well-run warehouse or distribution network. One of Orient Global's consultants brings more than 30 years in operations, logistics and supply chain: at a technology distribution company of roughly one billion dollars in scale, he ran logistics, warehousing, technical service and administrative operations end to end, building and leading teams of 100+ people and delivering lasting gains in operational performance through KPI-driven programs. He has also managed nationwide warehouse and transport operations, large-scale distribution networks, and network and capacity planning at leading retail, logistics and distribution organizations. An industrial engineer, he now brings that supply-chain discipline to SMEs through AI and automation. Meet our consultants.
This article is for general information purposes; the current conditions of support programs should be confirmed with the relevant institutions.
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