HR contributes to Şişecam’s global growth by digitising its record management

Customer Success Stories

HR contributes to Şişecam’s global growth by digitising its record management with Iron Mountain digital solutions

December 12, 2025

Expert glass producer

With 45 production facilities and 24,000 employees, Şişecam is one of the world’s leading glass and chemical manufacturers and innovators, generating more than half of its sales through exports to 150+ countries.

Like many organisations, the Şişecam HR department was bogged down by paper-based filing systems and labour-intensive workflows. All of which consumed precious time locating and searching through personnel files stored across multiple locations. That challenge was becoming increasingly untenable for a growing global company with operations spanning 14 countries and four continents.

“Employee information was getting harder and harder to manage,” said Cem Oğuz, Shared Service Centre Director of HR at Şişecam. “Our records dated back to 1935 and covered everything from initial negotiation minutes to personnel contracts, accident reports, etc.”

Managing employee information was getting harder and harder to manage. Our records dated back to 1935 and covered many employee data from initial negotiation minutes to personnel contracts, medical reports, etc.

Cem OğuzShared Service Centre Director of HR, Şişecam

“The project we did with Iron Mountain, a global leader in physical archiving and information management, reflects Şişecam’s digital transformation and data- driven insights approach,” added Cem Oğuz.

Meticulous planning and attention to detail

Iron Mountain® implemented a comprehensive solution to automate and streamline HR records management – combining document scanning and digital storage within a secure environment. The first step was preparing a detailed plan prioritising document for digitisation based upon demand, without compromising legal chain of custody policies and procedures.

Indexing around such a robust compliance framework and digitising, storing and making paper documents accessible for a large company like Şişecam required careful planning and accuracy. It also needed to easily scale to support global expansion, while always ensuring data privacy and protecting against potential breaches.

“During transportation and digitisation, we knew that we might not be able to access files briefly,” said Cem Oğuz. “However, there could still be redundancies of other HR matters that needed attention. So, we took cautionary measures with Iron Mountain to be able to handle those situations and prioritise urgent scanning requests.”

Preserving our history for the future

Scanning of the first 500 paper files commenced in September 2022 at the company’s glass production plant, established almost 90 years ago in Pasabahce. Iron Mountain specialists collected boxes from site, checked contents and located the correct active payroll and personnel files. Once prepped, scanned, and indexed using optical character recognition (OCR) technology, the digital files were securely uploaded to Şişecam’s web portal for easy access.

“After completing the work at Paşabahçe by January 2023, some 31,203 personnel files in 1,099 boxes were sent to the Iron Mountain facility. Where required, aging original documents were carefully restored using solutions like acid-free tape and envelopes to counter over-drying and safely protect them against possible deterioration,” noted Cem Oğuz.