Çilek appoints Şafak İnce as technology group head, who should lead digital change?

A group-level title says technology serves the whole structure, not one company or one channel. Store systems, e-commerce infrastructure and data come under one roof. That is a different choice from a setup where separate teams run the till software and the website.

The start date, who İnce will report to, team size and priority projects are not in the report. The company’s full legal name and details of its operations are not given either. So drawing conclusions about specific projects or budgets from the appointment would be a mistake.

The only confirmed fact is the appointment itself. “Strengthening the digital transformation structure” is the aim the report puts forward. Make the same split in your own business: a hire is a delivery, transformation is a goal. A budget plan that mixes the two judges a new executive on results from day one.

The language of the shop floor. Till queues, stock counts, season changes and campaign peaks are the first real test of any software. A leader who knows that floor weighs a technical project against the reality of the shelf and the till. For a mid-sized retailer, that is the quality worth looking for.

Experience at senior level. The report says İnce served as general manager of Gürmen Teknoloji and as executive board member responsible for technology at Ramsey-KİP. An executive board seat describes a setup where technology decisions are taken at the same table as management decisions.

Yes. In the same period, Ayşe Kabaş Fıçı became Technology Group Head at the Eczacıbaşı Group as of 1 October 2026, previously serving as Commercial Transformation and Data Analytics Director (Foreks). Two examples do not prove a trend. Still, they show that running technology at group level is on the agenda in large organisations.

Chains that take technology decisions to the board. When stock, campaign and customer data sit in one place, a product sitting on the store shelf can be pushed on the website. Decisions get faster, and the channels stop eating into each other.

Businesses that leave technology to a single IT employee or an outside vendor. In that setup, software gets bought but processes stay the same; the till gets a new screen and the same queue. The problem is not the technology but who makes the call.

According to the Ipsos AI Monitor 2026, 45% of people in Türkiye worry that AI will take over their job, above the global average. That is why bringing the team into the process is not a technical detail for whoever leads the change. We cover the people side separately through Füsun Özdemir’s call to invest in people.

Stock and price information shows correctly on the site, and store pages stay current in local search. If a customer cannot find in store what they saw online, trust takes a hit. It looks like a technical fault, but it is a management problem that touches revenue directly.

Tills, self-checkout and payment systems are the technology customers meet on the floor. These decisions should be weighed not only on cost but on queue length and average basket size too. You can find a comparison of the options in our piece on self-checkout versus staffed tills.

Revenue by channel, stock turnover, return rate and the share of online orders collected in store. If these cannot be read on one dashboard, the first step of transformation is not software but joining up the data.

An internal person knows the processes and the team; an outside person brings experience of other structures. For a mid-sized business, one option is to back an internal lead with outside consulting. The choice depends on budget and on the scope of the change.

They can, but the job descriptions should be written separately. The IT manager keeps systems running; the transformation lead changes how work gets done. If one person holds both, you need a safeguard so daily fault-fixing does not swallow the transformation timeline.

In writing, covering budget, vendor selection and channel targets. Having the lead in management meetings means technology decisions are made at the same time as commercial ones. Otherwise the project gets delivered, yet the complaint that the till is not ringing goes on.

List till software, website platform, marketplace dashboard, accounting and stock programs in one place. Next to each, note who is responsible and whether it shares data with the other systems. The empty column is where transformation begins.

Your own. Write down today’s online share of revenue, stock turnover and return rate; put the six-month target next to each. The desk’s suggestion is to keep targets in a separate column from actuals.

When the systems inventory is scattered and nobody inside has time for the work. On the corporate side, companies such as Çilek hand this job to a group-level executive. For mid-sized businesses, we run the digital transformation management process.

Not always. What it needs is a written decision on who owns digital transformation and with what authority; that person can be an internal lead.

The start date is not in the report. It only covers the appointment and İnce’s previous roles.

No, first list your current systems and who is responsible for each. Choose software once you can see where the data breaks.