DE
Luxembourg telecommunications provider Mixvoip SA doubled its headcount in just six months and realized that email, chat and SharePoint could no longer keep up. Today, internal information flows through KenCube: in the browser, in the employee app with push notifications and as a digital workplace where every team runs its own space, right down to the “Embracing Mistakes” workspace where mistakes are shared openly.
About Mixvoip
Mixvoip SA, headquartered in Steinsel, Luxembourg, is a B2B telecommunications provider. “We are a telecom provider in the B2B sector, mainly telephony, cloud, phone systems and internet connections,” says founder and CEO Loïc Didelot, summing up the portfolio. This is complemented by SIP trunks, mobile communications, network security and managed IT services. Founded in 2008, the company now operates its own subsidiaries in Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany and France.
Its 85 employees are spread across six locations: two in Luxembourg and one each in Germany, Belgium and France, plus a development center in Bulgaria, because Mixvoip develops a great deal in-house. “We have people who are always in the office. We have people who are almost never in the office,” says Didelot. It is exactly this spread that makes a shared digital workplace with an employee app essential. The platform has no fancy name: “We just call it KenCube.”
The starting point: poor communication as an excuse
Before KenCube, Mixvoip relied on the usual channels: some things by email, some via chat, documents stored in SharePoint. “Those were the classic channels,” Didelot recalls. When the company then doubled its headcount within six months, communication stopped running smoothly. People were not informed, emails went unread and documents were not opened. And that is exactly what became the excuse.
Anyone who shows on the intranet what their own team is working on makes their own performance visible.
Loïc Didelot, Founder and CEO, Mixvoip SA
For the CEO, this is not a matter of discipline but a structural problem. A mass email with a large attachment does not reach anyone who happens to be on vacation, and new employees cannot find the information anywhere later on. His conclusion: “Information has to be made more accessible to people.” The image he uses is as blunt as it is clear: it must be possible to reach people even when they are in the restroom.
The requirements: mobile, measurable, affordable
Four criteria were key in the selection. First, an employee app with push notifications so that news reaches people even without a PC workstation. Second, read confirmations and statistics, which mattered most to Didelot. Mixvoip explicitly wanted to use the platform for legally relevant information as well and be able to prove that a message had been read. Many other tools did not offer this. Third, single sign-on for central user management. And fourth, the price: providers from across the Atlantic immediately came in at 10 to 15 euros per user, which in his view was not justifiable.
“Which features do you use?” – Read confirmations, team spaces and a workspace for mistakes
Read confirmations and signing off on agreements are very important to us, and so is the app with push notifications. We couldn’t do without them anymore.
Loïc Didelot, Founder and CEO, Mixvoip SA
Read confirmations and digital agreements
The most heavily used building blocks are read confirmations and signing off on agreements. “Agreements are close to our hearts,” says Didelot. Mixvoip uses them to cover content that is formally binding: not the employment contract itself, but rules that may well affect salaries. In addition, the company is currently testing the Infobox.
Every team has its own space
The organizational centerpiece is the workspaces. Didelot set up the structure himself, and the teams fill it with content. Every team has its own space and a clear mandate to share updates regularly. With around 20 teams, this adds up to about ten posts per month. Teams communicate what is coming up in the next six months and when maintenance work poses a risk of downtime, right down to mundane matters such as broken toilets on a particular floor. The effect goes beyond information: there is always someone who has a follow-up question or says “I can help.”
Every team has its space, every team publishes its own breaking news, and that no longer has to go through me. Everyone informs everyone.
Loïc Didelot, Founder and CEO, Mixvoip SA
A workspace called “Embracing Mistakes”
Didelot places great value on the most unusual use case. In a dedicated workspace called “Embracing Mistakes,” employees record their mistakes following the pattern “Here is the mistake, let’s learn, measures taken.” If he sees a mistake that is not listed there, that is the real problem for him. Knowledge should be shared so that the same mistake does not happen more than once. Many employees appreciate exactly this openness. And some simply write: “Here is my mistake, I don’t have a solution,” and colleagues reply with suggestions. This takes away the fear and moves the company forward.
We have something that many companies perhaps don’t dare to do: we have a workspace called ‘Embracing Mistakes’.
Loïc Didelot, Founder and CEO, Mixvoip SA
Org chart, calendar and town hall meetings
The org chart is also used very heavily. With six locations in five countries, it is the fastest answer to the question of who is responsible for what. The calendar is also in intensive use for organizing appointments and keeping track of important activities. Mixvoip also uses it to plan regular events and town hall meetings.
“What are the benefits?” – Reaching the right people
Who works where, and who needs to know?
Didelot sees the greatest benefit where email fails structurally: deciding who a piece of information should reach. Without a central platform, distribution lists pile up: “everybody,” “management,” “sales,” plus one for each department. Even at 85 employees, that adds up to many lists, and at some point nobody knows who is behind them anymore. With KenCube, by contrast, the entrepreneur values the transparency of groups and responsibilities.
You can see who works where, and you can address these people directly. You simply find them. I think that’s really the biggest benefit. I honestly have no idea anymore how companies communicate without a platform like this.
Loïc Didelot, Founder and CEO, Mixvoip SA
No more excuses
The second effect is cultural. Anyone who lacks a piece of information today knows that it is probably in KenCube. As a result, a certain kind of discussion has disappeared from everyday work. Even those who used to complain regularly about poor communication have gone quiet.
All the grumbling and moaning is gone. All that negativity has simply disappeared. People listen instead of complaining, and they say: ‘It’s bound to be in KenCube.’
Loïc Didelot, Founder and CEO, Mixvoip SA
Information becomes decentralized, and teams become visible
KenCube’s digital workplace also frees up management to a certain extent. Before its introduction, information essentially had to come from management. Today, every team keeps its colleagues informed itself. Management is no longer the bottleneck. This creates a side effect that Didelot repeatedly emphasizes to team leads: anyone who shows in KenCube what their own team is working on makes their own performance visible.
Employees want to be proud and to get a thank-you. A team can be proud when it shows what it does. If it doesn’t tell the rest of the company what it does, nobody gives it a high five.
Loïc Didelot, Founder and CEO, Mixvoip SA
The rollout: one week on the technical side, the rest is organizational work
Technically, the introduction is very quick, says Didelot. On the KenCube team’s side, everything is done within a week, and the training is straightforward too. What tends to be underestimated is something else, and it has nothing to do with the tool. Anyone introducing a digital workplace first has to answer a few questions: Which information belongs in it? Who is allowed to write what? Which workspaces make sense?
When you introduce an intranet, the question is: How does my company work today, and how do I want it to work tomorrow?
Loïc Didelot, Founder and CEO, Mixvoip SA
Didelot is convinced that management can have a major influence on the success of such a project. He brought people on board and explained that he wanted to do it together with them, until some were almost annoyed. He also motivated two or three champions who helped drive the project forward. Reaching broad adoption took some persistence: “People need a lot of reminders,” says the CEO, and he explicitly does not mean just two emails. At first, he passed the statistics on to the team leads. Later, active use was built into the existing bonus system. Today, 90 to 95 percent of the workforce actively use the platform on a regular basis.
An indispensable part of everyday work
Using the platform and the employee app, along with all the processes, has now become a habit. People would only miss the platform if it were gone. He is clear about where the line lies: up to around 20 employees, a company might manage without a digital workplace. Beyond that, he no longer sees how a company could function without a central platform, an employee app and a digital workplace.