Daktela Culture

The Story of Daktela

The history of Daktela began around 2001 when a smaller team of enthusiasts set up their first international Czech-American VoIP service. By 2003, their frustration with corporate jobs led them to make pivotal decisions, resulting in the birth of Daktela in 2005, led by David and Richard.

Emerging in an era of digital solutions and unreliable internet, Daktela embraced VoIP technology. Initially, the implementation of David‘s and Richard’s ideas faced frequent disruptions, but it was certainly worth the effort. In the next years, Daktela established itself as a bold player in the telecommunications market. In 2009, we created the Daktela V3. Using our support and sales SaaS model, we attracted many big companies, which encouraged us to keep going in this direction. Drawing from our experiences and customer feedback, we undertook a complete redesign, leading to the release of Daktela V4 around 2011. This version lasted nearly five years, during which the original call center system gradually evolved into a multi-channel customer care system. Following the growth of the Daktela brand in the Czech Republic, the brand was also expanding in Slovakia, where a separate entity was established in 2011.

In 2016, we released Daktela V6, designed from the ground up as a multi-channel application supporting all communication channels, including social media, and featuring numerous modules to enhance contact centre capabilities. In 2018, David and Richard decided to embark on a targeted global expansion. In mid-2021, Daktela received investment from the Slovak fund Sandberg Capital, accelerating our expansion into foreign markets.

We now operate in the UK, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Serbia. In 2022, Daktela acquired a majority stake in Coworkers.ai, a leading provider of intelligent chatbots and voicebots in the Czech market. This acquisition brought in a dedicated AI team to continually develop technology aimed at improving call center operations and automating simple tasks. With over 150 employees, our growth and global expansion journey continues.

We look forward to what the future holds.

We aim to deliver excellent customer care.

This is what makes us different from our competition, which is often hard to even reach. We create satisfied and loyal customers who will not want to leave us. The positive experience shared via word-of-mouth is the strongest marketing tool.

We maintain our solutions as innovative, up-to-date, and keep up with the market of contact centres.

By using our products, customers will not be left behind with obsolete solutions and will have the option to use modern means to communicate with their contacts.

We don’t make a difference between communication channels.

The customer is the one to choose how he/she wants to talk to the company, and the solutions need to respect that. Our products must reflect this equality and provide the best tools to our customers to work in that manner.

We’re very open about integrations.

And we don’t set up unnecessary hurdles for anyone wanting to connect. While considering technological feasibility and practicality, customers need to have the means to connect to our products in an accessible way so that they can use them in their application ecosystem.

We love our products and believe we deliver great value to our customers.

We don’t sell where we don’t see how the solution could be beneficial. Our products solve vast amounts of areas and help in many scenarios which we focus on. We are the heaviest users of all our products and should always be early adopters of our new features and technologies.

Last but not least...

We respect our employees and partners and focus on developing their skills and personalities. We support personal growth and honest interest in our cause. Anyone interested in improvement shall be given the opportunity.

Use informal language.

Don’t “Hello, sir” or “Good day, madame” anybody, just go with “Hi!”. Talk in a plain, clear, and direct manner. Don’t sugarcoat things with corporate words. Go straight to the point. Be rather brief than use fancy words. Talk to your others like you’d talk to your friend.

When talking or writing something that could be useful internationally, use English.

As we’re a global company, it’s our primary language. When discussing stuff locally, feel free to use the location’s native language. Sometimes it helps understand better, so if something is not clear in English, quickly go through that in your language and then translate it. Nevertheless, it’s rude to talk in a language some participants are not supposed to understand. All technical documentation must be primarily in English. Use Google Translate, DeepL, Grammarly, or any other tool that will help you if you struggle with this.

Each new thing or problem to be solved is a problem of Daktela.

Don’t follow just your goals. Always think of how what you’re doing helps others and what we are building together.

Helping others is as important as asking for help when necessary.

Help each other when it‘s necessary for the good of the company. Each help or consultation should lead to long-term learning and skills development. It should not be a one-time plaster. Accept the information you have learned and try to find logic in it, so you don’t ask twice for the exact same thing. Don’t let others fail. When you see that’s imminent, make yourself heard and help avoid it.

Be polite, considerate, and thankful.

It costs nothing to say “hi” first and “thank you” when someone helps you or does something you’ve asked for. We are all people, and naturally, we like to be treated with respect. Don’t forget we are a global company and there may be cultural differences. Respect each other’s personalities. When you want to really appreciate someone, don’t hesitate to do it publicly. The ability to speak well of someone in front of others is a sign of a mature personality and confidence.

Reach directly to people who can help you.

Don’t overcomplicate working with others by going top-down in the organisational structure and have people carry your messages. If you need to solve something specific and it’s clear who can help you, go to that person. Of course, it’s important to respect his/her own current workload, but you can sort that out when you talk to each other. Always try to solve the problem yourself (with reasonable effort) before asking for help. Also, note that sometimes it’s better to call instead of endless messaging.

Feedback needs to be provided in a constructive manner.

When you have a negative experience and want to share it with someone, support it with hard information and data only. Don’t bring your emotional evaluation into it. Each problem is solvable, but only when all parties solve it together in a professional communication manner. Negative feedback should be discussed in closed groups, while personnel stuff should always be sorted out privately 1-on-1. And even when working with negative things, try to emphasize some positive aspects. Oftentimes, the issues are not that serious when looking at things from perspective.

Set aside your ego and be able to say sorry.

We are all very often wrong and make mistakes. Don’t be afraid to admit that, but very well accept the honest mistakes of others. In such situations, focus on solving the problem as quickly and efficiently as possible. It’s not about you proving to others you’re awesome and others are dumb, nor about blaming others or finding a scapegoat. It’s only about solving the problem at hand. When you don’t know, simply say you don’t know, don’t find useless excuses. Also, don’t act surprised when someone doesn’t know something, nobody knows everything, even you.

Kick the ball, not the player.

When you don’t agree with someone, focus strictly on the arguments and hard information. If you’re pointing out what’s wrong, make the statement only about what’s wrong and don’t rate the person directly.

Be hands-on and get into problems yourself.

We’re all highly curious technologists, and most of our issues relate to technology. Dig down into the issue, get the context feel, and try to solve the problem as much as you can. Don’t throw all your issues at others right away, try to examine what it could be about and possibly educate yourself. Don’t be afraid to step on someone other’s toes too much, just respect the general guidelines and best practices. It’s better to be an active explorer and make a mistake than to be afraid of everything and do nothing instead. Don’t hide behind complex processes, managerial buzz-talk, or other corporate stuff. Just do what needs to be done.

Always try to find new ways to improve things and don’t cling to the “old ways”.

Just because we’ve done something for a long time doesn’t mean it’s the right way. There’s always room for improvement, and we should strive to get things better and more efficiently. If you see something that is ineffective and impactful, be proactive and help all of us make it better. Innovation is the powerhouse of progress.

Spend money on things that really matter.

Try to handle Daktela’s money like they were your own. Don’t spend it on stuff you yourself wouldn’t spend it on. Each Euro has to be somehow earned back, so think of how the cost investment will return itself. It’s not a problem to spend money on things that have the corresponding value, it’s just important to be sure of that.

The simplest solution is usually the best.

When solving an issue, try to make the solution as simple as possible. Don’t overcomplicate stuff and build very complex architecture just to solve something of a low impact. Simple solutions are easily maintainable. Most of the cost comes from maintenance, not initial development. Bear that in mind when building something. Use the “Minimum Viable Change” approach when it makes sense. Great value can often be achieved with very little work. It’s not always necessary to go for 100% perfection. When designing a setup of several systems, create as few elements as possible, and don’t create proxies that do very little. It’s better to be more open than to have more elements which can fail and complicate changes.

Iterate to find the best solution.

The first version is usually not the best solution, but that’s why it’s the first one. Get the results as soon as possible with the least amount of resources consumed. When the value of the early versions is proven, iterate more frequently to tune the solution out. After several iterations, you’ll find you’ve solved issues you didn’t even think of in the beginning. Nobody is able to build something perfectly on the first try. Everything that’s great has been built on experiences gained during the process of building it.

Host meetings that are meaningful and have the right people.

Have the meeting prepared with the agenda attached to the meeting invitation. When you think someone doesn’t necessarily need to be there, set him as optional. Each meeting should have a clear goal and follow the 5 Ps principle.

If there’s a tool for that, use it.

We’re a technological company and should make efficient use of the latest technology available. Don’t be hesitant to use a tool that will speed up your work. Sometimes, spending a few bucks will save a lot of money on other internal resources. And oftentimes, you’re not the first person in the world trying to solve a specific problem. Look and learn from public information and other people’s experiences before digging into it. Experiment with new things and share the knowledge with others. And fail fast.

Ensure your team works as a part of the company.

You have to ensure your team’s operability with the rest of the company. Define your workflow, team roles, and work methodology, to ensure that your agenda is covered. Your team has to respond to other teams’s requests in a timely manner. This includes handling tickets, responding to team Slack messages, and primarily disaster behaviour.

Be prepared for the worst

You have to ensure your team knows how to behave in case of a major incident and knows all necessary emergency procedures. You should be the leading part of that and know how to respond hands-on if things go wrong. Lead by example and be able to react to disasters even if suddenly torn from something else. Your disaster plans are your responsibility.

Know what your people are doing

You should have a technical or specialised knowledge of your teams’ work to some degree. You’ll be deciding on their part, and you have to know what those decisions will mean in their hands-on world. You’re free to try any job or task in order to understand what it’s about. Don’t be just a people manager, dig down and learn the hard stuff.

Make responsible decisions

You should be able to decide on a lot of things, take responsibility for those decisions, and promote higher managerial decisions to your teams. You’re your team’s leader because you are the most suitable person for that role. There’s no one else who will tell you what’s the right way to decide stuff. Be proactive and take charge. Don’t throw problems up the hierarchy, solve them in a way you think is the best.

Set your team’s way of working

You should set your team’s methodology of work and how you’ll be running things. Design, define, and implement the way of organising work for your team, set meeting structure, and have a system for running projects so that you’ll be able to deliver results.

Daktela was originally founded on the principles of being a dynamic, adaptive, and transparent company, much like many startups in their early days. Even though we‘ve experienced significant growth since those beginnings, our main goal is to preserve this mindset and culture throughout the company. We strive to create a helpful internal environment with a common goal: to provide the best customer care software and tools so our customers can deliver even better customer care. A functional internal culture has a significant impact on how the company performs externally. Let‘s keep up the good work, create great products, and continue becoming number one in one category after another!

Ask anyone, ask anything...

As we maintain our open-door policy, don‘t be afraid to ask questions, discuss ideas, and bring up topics with any team member, regardless of the organisational structure. A functional internal culture has a significant impact on how the company performs externally. Let‘s keep up the good work, create great products, and continue becoming number one in one category after another!

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