A four-page interview with Zuzana Hofová, our financial director, has been published in the current issue of CFOWorld magazine.
You'll learn, for example, about her beginnings at OKsystem, whether the IT field is truly a male domain, what digitalization specifically means in our software solutions, or how we combat cyberattacks within the company.
We bring you the full text below.
OKsystem, a Czech IT company with over thirty years of history, significantly influences the direction of digitalization in the Czech market today. Family values intertwine here with innovations and a publicly declared commitment to well-executed work. Zuzana Hofová, the financial director and one of the daughters of founder and current chairman Martin Procházka, started here while studying at university in the accounting department. Together with her sister Eva Vodenková, the HR and operations director, all three form the family foundation of this large software company.
In addition to family ties and a share in company management, this trio shares another common passion—a love for tennis. We met for the interview in an informal setting with temperatures exceeding 30 °C, making the first question to Zuzana Hofová quite obvious.
Do you have time and desire for tennis in this heat?
I always feel like playing tennis, regardless of the weather.
At the beginning of September, you launched a campaign with young Czech tennis stars—Jakub Menšík and Linda Nosková. What is the goal of the campaign?
The goal is to showcase OKsystem's relationship with sports and Czech tennis, which the company significantly supports. Besides the mentioned players, we collaborate with the tennis club Precheza Přerov and have been the general partner of the OKsystem Zlatý kanár tennis award and the Z-Group Cup tournament for four years now. The choice of Linda and Jakub was not accidental. Both are young players who, in addition to their undeniable talent, consistently and precisely work on their development. We at OKsystem also deliver diligent work with high-level results. We express this connection with the main slogan of the campaign: "You Can Sign Off on Good Work."
What were your beginnings at OKsystem like?
I started as a part-time worker in the accounting department. I have always enjoyed working with numbers and Excel, so after graduating from the University of Economics, I naturally continued in the growing economic department. I had the opportunity to witness firsthand the company's development—from two rented offices in the Holešovická tržnice with a few dozen employees to a large Czech software house with roughly 500 employees and offices in Prague, Brno, Ostrava, and even in the USA. I have been working in my current position as financial director for nine years. From a basic accounting system that we programmed ourselves, we moved to a sophisticated ERP system where we currently record and evaluate hundreds of our projects.
How do you evaluate such a large number of projects?
In addition to standard accounting and regular reports, we maintain project financial records and analyze results across our products and services. For this purpose, years ago, we implemented the Contracts module as part of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which is linked to our internal reporting system. Every non-overhead employee has a set cost rate and reports their working hours to the projects they participate in. The system allows us to evaluate and financially manage projects from various perspectives—through our products, activities, customers. We monitor and manage the ratio between turnover in the public and private sectors, the share of revenues from abroad, and other indicators. If some values turn out unfavorably, we look for causes and take corrective actions. We might change the parameters of a project, initiate negotiations with the customer, or—in case of a systemic deficiency—intervene at a higher management level. Data from the ERP system is automatically imported into the CRM. Our sales team works with employee cost rates when preparing price offers for customers, obtaining labor estimates from project managers and other specialists.
How do you evaluate the company's thirty years from the perspective of numbers?
With the exception of a single year, we have been profitable all along and continue to grow. This year or next, we plan to exceed a turnover of one billion Czech crowns. We have sufficient capital for further growth through investments or acquisitions, and with financial reserves, we can react to possible unfavorable market developments or change the company's focus as needed. We've only taken out a loan once in our history at the turn of the century—for the construction of an office building in Pankrác—and we repaid it early.
How do you create an attractive working environment for your employees?
We primarily strive to ensure that our employees feel appreciated and supported. The range of benefits is truly diverse. We offer five weeks of vacation and up to five additional free OKdays, contributions to meals and pension insurance. Employees can dine in the company canteen, park in our garages, use the MultiSport card, take language courses, enjoy company breakfasts, and participate in company sports and social events. The home office is also popular if the job allows it. At the same time, it's important for us that teams meet regularly. We consider personal contact in the office irreplaceable.
When people don't see each other, the company spirit fades away...
I agree. We place great importance on friendly relationships and a good corporate culture, hand in hand with high work demands. We're pleased to have lower turnover than usual in the job market. We don't look for people just for one project; if the cooperation is mutually successful, they work with us long-term, many even for decades.
A recent benefit is the DIP. Does it concern you as well?
We have been providing pension insurance, one of the most costly benefits for the company, for many years. Based on employee interest, we offered the option of a Long-Term Investment Product (DIP) at the beginning of this year. Many employees have taken advantage of it, but pension insurance still prevails. We leave the choice between it and the DIP to the employees, as well as the selection of the financial institution.
The IT field is often, and often unjustly, labeled as a male domain. How is it with you?
Our company is diversified in terms of age and gender, which I see as a great asset. We have students working with us during school, mothers on maternity leave, and seniors in retirement. If I were to express it in numbers, which I'm fond of, we have 40% women in the company.
We also cooperate with the non-profit organization Czechitas, which promotes women in IT. Female colleagues work in the payroll outsourcing department, within the financial, HR, or marketing departments, and we also have a number of female programmers. We're pleased with the significant representation of women in leadership positions.
How do you acquire new team members?
Recruitment is usually handled internally within our own HR department. Good feedback on Atmoskop, where candidates can find reviews of our company, helps us a lot. Many new employees also join us based on recommendations from our existing colleagues; referral programs work very well for us. Another source is cooperation with schools and acquiring young talents.
And when an employee decides to leave, do you try to persuade them?
When an employee is already decided, it's usually too late. In the process of retaining our employees, the manager plays a crucial role. We have various communication platforms, development interviews, evaluations, and feedback sessions. Managers should catch signs of dissatisfaction in time so we can respond—through training, moving to another position, work flexibility, etc. Employees' life situations change over time, and along with them, their motivations and preferences; we must monitor all this and respond appropriately. When an employee has decided to make a change, we thank them for their work with us and wish them good luck in the next professional stage. It has happened several times that they returned after years, which we greatly appreciate.
What work challenges have you faced during your time at the company?
Over twenty years in the company, I've witnessed and participated in several significant milestones. For example, changing the company's headquarters, associated with purchasing land, designing, and building a new administrative building. Also, establishing and managing a branch in the USA. Making tough decisions about whether to terminate or revive a few loss-making projects. In each such situation, I gained valuable experience. But I value most the daily work with great people who are the main asset of an IT company. Without them, we wouldn't have gotten where we are today.
You also help employees during difficult periods in their lives.
In today's world full of uncertainties, caring for mental health is essential. We prepare various professional workshops in this area for managers. Recently, we had one on the topic of burnout prevention. It's important to talk openly about these problems and educate ourselves so we can prevent them or offer a helping hand when they occur. This year, we've successfully introduced an anonymous psychological counseling service for employees where they can address their life problems.
Thirty-three years on the market could be called "from OKmzdy to OKbase."
OKmzdy is a program we developed at the beginning of the 1990s. It still serves for basic payroll processing in smaller companies. In contrast, OKbase is a comprehensive personnel system that, in addition to payroll and salary processing, connects all parts of personnel work—from recruitment and onboarding processes through mandatory reports, work planning including shifts, to attendance records, catering, business trips, and employee evaluations. Managers, HR personnel, and payroll accountants always see current data, accessible from anywhere—from their office, home, or business trips. About 150 specialists work on the development and support of the system with us. Every employee in hundreds of large companies and public administration organizations is an active user of OKbase; we already have 350,000 such "personal numbers" in our records. Our customers appreciate intuitive control, a high degree of automation, paperless work, and significant simplification of personnel processes.
What exactly are you doing for digitalization, which is much talked about?
As an IT company, we've been involved in digitalization from the beginning, developing reliable and useful programs that replace former manual processes and convert paper documentation into digital form. In our personnel system OKbase, we have a classic example of digitalization since 2008 in attendance records. Instead of a logbook at the reception, working time is recorded using computers, terminals, chip cards, and mobiles. Compliance with regulations and labor laws is checked by artificial intelligence; only in non-standard cases does the system require the assistance of a manager.
Digitalization in our solution has gradually been implemented into all personnel processes; the OKbase system is completely paperless. It saves costs on paper and filing cabinets, but especially saves time and facilitates communication. I'll give two examples. For a future employee who doesn't yet have access to company systems, we send a link to an entry form. They fill in the required data, which the manager then checks; the HR person uses it to prepare the employment contract, and after signing, it's automatically transferred to the company database.
The second example of digitalization in the personnel agenda is the signing of labor-law documents. Only recent legislative changes have allowed us, in most cases, to do without paper originals, so electronic document signing is quickly gaining ground. It's not just about the signature but about the overall management of documents, their life cycle, long-term storage, and proof of when, what, and how was signed.
What about digitalization in your other solutions?
Since 1993, we've been developing, on order for the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MPSV) and employment offices, information systems for employment services and non-insurance social benefits. Although the total volume of orders for OKbase and other projects is growing, the extensive information system of the Labor Office of the Czech Republic remains a significant project for our company. In the spring of 2022, the MPSV embarked on extensive digitalization of all its agendas with the aim of simplifying them, saving clients' time, and increasing the efficiency of officials' work. We play a significant role in this activity. The main part of the digitalization process was the creation of the JENDA portal for full electronic submission and processing of social benefit applications. We are currently working on rewriting and modifying employment agendas.
What does NIS2 mean for you?
The issue of cybersecurity is very important to us. According to the Cybersecurity Act, we are a so-called obligated entity and must meet security requirements corresponding to the regime of higher obligations. The new European directive NIS2 aims to increase the cyber resilience of businesses and state organizations. The amendment to the Cybersecurity Act brings a new obligation for hundreds of newly regulated entities and will require investments in modernizing and securing digital infrastructure. What hundreds of newly regulated entities will go through, OKsystem has already experienced many years ago. We applied seven years of practical experience "with the normal operation of the company under regulation" when commenting on the draft of the new law. Our comments were reflected by the National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NÚKIB), also thanks to the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic, of which we are a member. As one of the few in the Czech Republic, we therefore look forward to the new law with positive expectations. NIS2 and the new law will not bring new obligations for OKsystem; on the contrary, our situation will simplify thanks to the revision of existing provisions. We believe it will have a positive impact on our customers because our systems will be safer thanks to the new measures.
Let's return to cyberattacks. How do you approach them?
We are well aware of the threat of attacks. A large IT department under the expert leadership of specialists from the security director's department takes care of the security of our internal and external systems. I myself receive almost every day some email that wants to gain access to our systems, passwords, or initiate suspicious payments. We address this also within our training center, where we offer cybersecurity courses. We've trained every employee on potential threats and plan to update and repeat this training as needed.
What is new in your company now?
Some time ago, we made a strategic decision to sell our software products in the form of Software as a Service (SaaS). The client does not pay for licenses and system implementation but only for its use in the form of a monthly fee. For the client, this is accounted for as an expense; it's not necessary to keep the system as a long-term intangible asset and depreciate it. We also give the client the option to withdraw from the contract without fees. But this happens only in exceptional cases, practically only because the client is forced by their parent company after a merger or acquisition to implement another system. Customers are satisfied with our systems, and that, of course, pleases us.
Thank you for the interview!
The article is published here: https://www.cfoworld.cz/clanky/v-digitalizaci-jako-it-firma-udavame-smer/
