Signify, formerly Philips Lighting, is the largest lighting company in the world offering a variety of solutions, including software, controls, fixtures, lighting sources and modules. The company, which has a 130-year heritage, aims to take light beyond lighting and completes successful works on LED and connected lighting services and systems. Signify offers digital lighting innovations that create commercial value, provide a rich user experience and improve the quality of life with its deep technological know-how. We talked with Selin Turkmenoglu, the Emerging Platforms and OEM Commercial and Business Development Director at Signify Türkiye and the Maghreb Region, about the brand's work and goals.
Would you like to tell us about yourself a bit?
After completing my secondary and high school education at Denizli Anatolian High School, I received a bachelor's degree in engineering in software at Istanbul Technical University, then an MBA at Bahcesehir University and a master's degree in Global Politics and International Relations at the same university. I started my business life in 2000 as a Business Analysis and Software Development Specialist in the IT department at Turkcell as I received a software-oriented education at ITU. After staying in this position for about 2.5 years, I realized that I wanted to make my way in the commercial side of the business, and after taking on the responsibilities of Product Manager in the Marketing Department, Sales Engineer in the Industrial Solutions and Business Development department, Solution Sales Manager and finally Solution Sales Management Team leadership at Turkcell, I started working at Philips Lighting, which was re-branded under the new name “Signify” at the beginning of 2016. After taking on different roles in transformation, sales, strategic marketing and business development at Signify Türkiye organization in the last 5 years, I am finally working as Sales and Business Development Director in Developing Platforms and OEM Channel in Türkiye and Maghreb Region.
Can you tell us a bit about Signify?
Philips Lighting with its former name and Signify with its new name, is the world’s largest lighting company that has been offering uninterrupted services globally since 1891, and in Türkiye since 1930. In order to be able to reveal the different “language” of lighting and adapt quickly to new technologies, we became a company standing on our own feet as Philips Lighting all over the world in 2016 and in 2017, and became a lighting company using various brands, including Philips. In May 2018, we took the name “Signify” according to our global commercial title change process. Since 1891, we have been aiming to carry our sustainable technological solutions forward in line with our goal of brighter lives and a better world, also with Philips' legacy on the lighting side. We are working hard with our 38,000 employees in more than 70 countries to offer new solutions by analyzing and using the developing technology and the technological revolution in the most accurate way, so that our customers and business partners can get the best services with all our operations.
What would you like to say about Signify solutions?
Signify offers a wide range of solutions from simple bulbs that we use in our homes to LED light sources, from end-to-end turnkey system and service projects to connected lighting, UV-C, Agriculture, FIBER, IoT and artificial intelligence-supported technological products and solutions. We manage both our organization and manufacturing capacity in order to address the most accurate solution with all our resources in line with the user's needs. Connected lighting systems, which have recently shown an increasing demand worldwide and allow the users to manage their lighting systems remotely so that they can dynamically manage the ambiance of the environment as they wish, or even integrate it with their building management systems and measure and manage their operating expenses, are our top priority. The ability to control, measure and manage in both indoor and outdoor lighting systems offers great advantages in terms of costs, not only for the businesses but also for the users. As the technology develops and particularly the LED light sources are rapidly becoming more preferred in for their energy efficiency, our investments are also focused on solutions such as Agriculture, LiFi, 3D Printing, solar lighting and UV-C, which we address under developing platforms. While doing this, we act with organic and inorganic growth with a business model based on both controlling our investments and catching up with the speed brought by digitalization. Increasing the satisfaction of our end users by prioritizing sustainability and technology in all our solutions is our first priority.
Can you give us information about UV-C Lamps, which are very much on the agenda with the pandemic?
Due to the effects of the pandemic, we are facing a serious increase in demand, especially in the field of UV-C light sources. As Signify, we maintain our leading position both in Türkiye and in the world. We also have been continuing our cooperation with scientific research and international organizations on the conscious and reliable use of UV-C light sources along with the activities we have been carrying out on UV-C light source technology, like design and production, for more than 35 years. Particularly during this pandemic period, we draw attention to its use in different areas such as supermarkets, schools, hospitals, the retail sector, and even service vehicles, with the confidence that its ability to fight against the virus has been approved by the Boston University. In order to meet the increasing demand for disinfection due to the pandemic, we have accelerated our works on UV-C lighting by expanding our portfolio with state-of-the-art products specific to professional applications. As Signify, our new UV-C product line includes lamps and cabinets for a wide range of professional applications. Disinfection of air, surfaces and goods with a family of 12 UV-C lighting fixtures specifically developed for this purpose, disinfection of many areas can be carried out quickly. As an institution that has been pioneering this technology for many years, we have a proven history in the field of UV-C lighting. Therefore, we focused on contributing to societies by using our experience in this field in a more useful way during this process. We also have increased our UV-C light source production capacity 8 times this year to meet the increasing disinfection needs for our UV-C technology, which is of great importance today when the institutions are researching ways to continue their operations and offer services in a safe environment.
What kind of works do you do about sustainability?
So far, we have set out from our motto of “A Sustainable Life” for future generations in all our works, including our products and projects. Today, we see that the world needs more lighting, particularly more energy-efficient lighting and more connected digital lighting. Combined with increasing prosperity, this will mean an increased need for lighting, especially in new developing markets. There are currently 50 billion lighting points in the world. This number is expected to reach 60 billion in 2030 and 70 billion in 2050. For this reason, within the scope of the ”Brighter Lives, a Better World” sustainability program, we have undertaken the mission of both improving the world and people's lives.
In 2019, we made significant progress in our sustainability goals that we set for 2020. We have made all our operations carbon-neutral in 2020. We have managed to reduce our operational emissions by over 70% since 2010. In addition, we use 100% renewable electricity with two electricity purchase agreements we have signed, one in Texas and the other in Poland. We also achieved a balance in emission reduction with our carbon offsetting program, in which we carry out projects aimed at benefiting the health of the local population.
As Signify, we have been selected as the Industry Leader in the Electrical Components and Equipment category in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) for three consecutive years. We were selected as the best in class in the categories of Economy, Environment and Social. At the same time, we support sustainable technologies by contributing to energy efficiency with environmentally sensitive Philips lamps and lighting fixtures with energy class A+ and A++ labels. We also have a very important system that we are working on for energy efficiency: BrightSites. The Smart City trend is on the agenda of the government and cities in Türkiye, as it is in every city administration in the world. In this regard, we have launched BrightSites, our smart lighting poles under our urban lighting projects. With our new products, we offer a ready-made platform for lighting and 4G/5G, as well as Wi-Fi infrastructure used throughout the city. BrightSites features a wide range of “Internet of Things” sensors and cameras that offer advanced security options such as perimeter monitoring and incident detection, while also offering services to potentially increase revenue generation through several telecommunications and advertising channels.
Another of our studies within the scope of our sustainability studies is Urban Agriculture (Horticulture). As Signify, we have been led to seek alternative solutions as global climate change makes traditional agricultural conditions increasingly difficult, water issues are on the agenda, and rural areas are emptying due to the rapid increase in the world population. We have taken action to develop new technologies to support Urban Agriculture. We have also carried our sustainability studies to the sea, and created a technology that mimics the summer sunlight by providing light of up to 100,000 lumens with the underwater bulbs we use. These underwater bulbs make the baits more nutritious, and thus less fish feed is used to feed the fish. This offers lower cost and cleaner water. Our another product, which we put sustainability at the forefront, is the manufacture of armatures with a 3D Printer using recyclable materials. The basic material of the fixtures manufactured by recycling CDs is polycarbonate, which is a strong, high-quality and 100% recyclable material. We are just starting to use recycled plastic. We have the technology to manufacture 3D fixtures individually. This product is currently on sale in the UK. We have also presented an online service, a first of its kind, allowing users to design the fixtures they want over the Internet and manufacture it with 3D printer technology and send it to their addresses.
“So far, we have set out from our motto of “A Sustainable Life” for future generations in all our works, including our products and projects.”
Can you give information about Interact, your IoT platform?
The Interact IoT platform is our secure and scalable IoT platform that delivers insights from your connected LED lighting, integrated sensors and IoT devices through an IoT-ready connected lighting system. It allows you to take advantage of the latest technologies, big data processing and analytics, as well as machine learning to offer new operational productivity, and offers several advantages and services to the customer. It enables bidirectional data sharing between LED light points, sensors and the Interact IoT platform, lighting software and system architecture data sharing with open-ended API support. It is actually a platform where you can prepare user and device security, authorization management, data collection, processing, management, and thus forward-looking forecasts with historical analysis. With our Interact solutions designed for different segments such as Interact Office, Interact City, Interact Retail, Interact Industry, Interact Landmark, Interact Sports and Interact Pro, we offer the highest secure technological infrastructure where you can manage your lighting system from end to end.
You have become the first global lighting company to make regular office lighting fixtures compatible with LIFI. What would you like to say about this?
LiFi is one of our solutions that we are very excited about. Instead of using radio waves (Wi-Fi, 4G/5G, Bluetooth, etc.), the Trulifi system uses light waves to offer a secure bidirectional wireless communication at speeds far beyond what conventional wireless technology offers. Trulifi, overcoming the increasing congestion in the radio spectrum, offers the possibility of extremely fast use even in areas where radio frequencies do not work well, do not work at all, or are not allowed to be used. Trulifi uses optical wireless transceiver technology that has been added or adapted to Philips fixtures. Thanks to this, users do not have to dismantle and replace their existing lighting infrastructures in order to achieve light and wireless connection.
Can you tell us about your cooperation with Ozdisan Elektronik?
Ozdisan Elektronik is the leading component distributor in the sector that differentiates with its professionalism, wide distribution channel and successful long lasting operations. Especially with its experienced and expert staff in technological solutions, its contribution to the development and growth of the sector is very high. As Signify and Ozdisan, we have started our partnership process as of 2021 in order to deliver our competencies to our end users in the fastest and most accurate way, to provide the right solution support and to make a difference in new projects in this field. At this point, a wide range of Philips indoor and outdoor lighting products are offered with a service and distribution infrastructure that all manufacturers can easily reach via Ozdisan Elektronik , including LED drivers, LED modules, LED emergency lighting kits, UV-C lamps, sensors and related accessories, as well as related lighting components. We aim to reflect new technological solutions to the field in the fastest way possible with the training programs that we have started with Ozdisan teams and that we will carry out regularly, as well as to be able to maximize the support that our expert teams will offer before and after sales. This is a requirement we have seen in the field for a long time, and our main goal at this point is to keep service quality and customer satisfaction at the highest level as always and to adapt our customers to technological developments as quickly as possible. In this regard, our partnership with Ozdisan is very important, and we have full confidence that together we will undertake quality, fast and customer satisfaction-focused works in the sector.
