News - Oktana

Oktana achieves SOC 2 type 2 Certification for 2025

At Oktana, trust is more than a word —it’s the foundation of our relationships with customers, employees, and partners. We are proud to announce our renewal of the SOC 2 Type 2 certification for 2025, underscoring our ongoing commitment to protecting sensitive data and maintaining the highest standards of security, availability, confidentiality, and privacy.

What does this certification mean for our customers?

SOC 2 Type 2 certification assures that Oktana operates under robust security controls verified by independent auditors over a sustained period. For our customers, this means:

Confidence in Data Handling: Your data is managed with rigorous safeguards, ensuring it remains secure and confidential.
Mitigated Risks: Our controls reduce the likelihood of data breaches, service disruptions, or other potential threats.
Compliance Alignment: Our certification simplifies your compliance efforts by ensuring our operations meet industry-recognized standards.
Transparent Operations: External audits validate our commitment to transparency and accountability.

Achieving and maintaining this certification requires robust measures across all areas of our organization, including:

Enhanced Security Frameworks: Implementing advanced tools and processes to safeguard data against evolving threats.
Employee Training: Company-wide education on security protocols and best practices.
Incident Response Planning: A structured approach to quickly identify, contain, and address security incidents.
Continuous Monitoring: Regular reviews and updates to our processes to adapt to emerging challenges.

While certifications like SOC 2 Type 2 often focus on IT and security teams, at Oktana, information security is everyone’s responsibility. Every team member contributes to ensuring a safe and reliable environment for our customers, from developers to marketing.

This collective effort includes monitoring processes, adhering to security protocols, and promoting a culture of trust and accountability across the organization.

SOC 2 Type 2 isn’t just about compliance—it’s about trust. For Oktana, trust means:

Reliable Data Management: Ensuring that your sensitive information is handled responsibly and securely.
Operational Transparency: Giving you confidence in our ability to meet your expectations.
Strong Partnerships: Building relationships based on integrity, reliability, and mutual respect.

SOC 2 Type 2 is not a one-time achievement. It requires annual audits and ongoing improvement of our systems, processes, and controls. This continuous cycle ensures that we stay ahead of potential threats and consistently deliver secure services to our customers.

By achieving this certification for 2025, Oktana reaffirms its role as a trusted partner in technology. If you have any questions about how our SOC 2 Type 2 certification benefits you, feel free to reach out—we’re here to support your success.

Guide for Protecting Customer Data with Responsible AI Use

At Oktana, we fully understand both the opportunities and challenges presented by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in the tech industry. As a global software development company with over 200 developers across seven offices, we are committed to sustaining a responsible AI use throughout our working structure. This commitment is essential not only to drive innovation but also to safeguard our customers’ data and maintain trust.

What’s Happening with AI?

As AI becomes more prevalent, it’s crucial to understand the associated risks. Publicly available AI tools may seem convenient, but using them without caution can compromise sensitive data. Once data is input into these systems, it becomes part of the AI’s learning process, potentially violating confidentiality agreements and legal standards.

At Oktana, we enforce strict policies to ensure customer data remains private and secure.

Do’s and Don’ts for Responsible AI Use at Oktana

Do’s:

Integrity in Use: Be transparent about how AI contributed to your work.
Clear Objectives: Define clear objectives for AI use and maintain documented oversight.
Safe AI Use Cases: AI can be helpful for non-sensitive tasks like writing email templates, performing small translations, or checking grammar.
General Questions Only: When using AI, ask general questions without including any Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from customers or our teammates at Oktana.
Account Manager Approval: Always consult the project’s Account Manager before using AI in any development process to ensure customer approval.

Don’ts:

No Personal Information: Never input or use any individual’s personal information in an AI tool.
No Customer Data: Do not paste customer data—such as proprietary code, internal organization details, or any sensitive information—into AI systems.
No Shortcuts with AI: Don’t use AI as a shortcut for tasks that require thoughtful problem-solving or customer-specific insights. AI should assist in routine tasks, not replace critical, customer-facing decision-making processes.
No Assumptions: Don’t assume AI systems will always get things right. Always verify AI-generated results to ensure accuracy and alignment with project goals.

“AI is here to handle the routine, giving us the freedom to tap into what makes us uniquely human—our creativity, empathy, and intuition. By taking care of tasks that follow set patterns, AI allows us to explore our true potential, focusing on areas where only human capabilities shine. This is our opportunity to push the boundaries of what we can achieve, with AI handling the rest.”
Silvana D., Trainer at Oktana

Responsible AI Development and Deployment

At Oktana, we align with Salesforce’s Trusted AI Principles to ensure our AI development and deployment are safe, accurate, and ethical. Our customers can trust that our AI-driven solutions always meet the highest security standards.

Salesforce’s AI Principles include:

Transparency in AI use
Upholding data privacy
Ensuring fairness and accuracy in AI outcomes
Prioritizing the security of AI systems

Building an AI-Responsible Culture at Oktana

As AI continues to evolve, we are committed to equipping our team with the knowledge and tools they need to use AI responsibly. This is why AI upskilling has become a core part of our training program.

When we saw growing demand for AI solutions from our customers, we didn’t just implement best practices—we embedded responsible AI use into our Annual Compliance Training and expanded our upskilling programs to reflect the latest AI trends. Our team’s impressive median score of 19 out of 20 demonstrates their dedication to mastering these concepts.

We provide ongoing education on AI ethics, best practices, and new regulations, ensuring our teams remain at the forefront of responsible AI development. Our AI Ethics Training covers everything from technical best practices to the impacts of AI, ensuring our team understands not only how to use AI, but why ethical use matters.

This continuous training initiative ensures our team is prepared to navigate the complexities of AI, maintain customer trust, and safeguard sensitive data while delivering innovative solutions.

Additionally, we encourage our team to pursue AI certifications, such as Salesforce AI Associate and Salesforce AI Specialist. To date, 41 team members have earned Salesforce AI certifications, with more in progress.

Conclusion

We believe responsible AI use is the key to unlocking its full potential. By adhering to stringent policies, providing continuous training, and aligning with trusted frameworks like Salesforce’s AI Principles, we ensure that our AI-driven solutions are secure, accurate, and ethical.

As AI handles routine tasks, it allows our developers to focus on what they do best—delivering innovative solutions that prioritize creativity, empathy, and human insight. With AI managing the routine, Oktana is ready to push the boundaries of what we can achieve together.

Interested in working with us? Contact us or check our careers page.

Embracing Responsibility: Oktana’s Commitment to CSR

At Oktana, we’ve built our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives to reflect our dedication to diversity, environmental sustainability, and community engagement. As a leading software development company, we understand our responsibility to drive positive change and are committed to making a significant impact through our efforts.

In today’s landscape, CSR is not just a choice—it’s essential. We have made it our mission to integrate CSR into the pillars of our company, ensuring that our progress benefits not only our customers and employees, but also society and the environment. This article highlights the recent updates we’ve made to our CSR page and our vision for a more responsible and sustainable future.

Driving diversity and inclusion

Diversity and inclusion are core to Oktana’s identity. With a team predominantly based in Latin America, we are committed to creating an inclusive workplace that mirrors the rich diversity of the Americas.

Our focus on Equal Opportunity Employment and our initiatives to increase female representation in the tech industry demonstrates our commitment to building a workforce where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. Currently, 24% of our technical team are women, and 38% of senior team members are women. We are continuously working to improve this percentage to align with industry standards and foster more opportunities for women in tech.

Committing to environmental sustainability

Environmental conservation is a priority at Oktana. We have implemented various strategies to minimize our environmental footprint, such as eliminating single-use plastics in our offices and encouraging sustainable practices among our employees.

Our goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2030 and our partnership with One Tree Planted, as part of 1t.org’s mission to plant 5,000 trees, demonstrate our commitment to preserving the environment for future generations.

Encouraging community engagement

Giving back to the community is a vital part of Oktana’s CSR strategy. We support a range of volunteer initiatives, empowering our employees to engage with causes they are passionate about from teaching kids to code, to 3D-printing PPE for healthcare workers during the pandemic.

Our involvement in the Pledge 1% initiative further reinforces our commitment to making a meaningful impact beyond our workplace.

Proud of our progress, excited for the future

We are proud of the efforts we have made in our CSR journey, but we recognize there is always more to be done. As we continue to grow, we are dedicated to expanding our initiatives and leading by example within the industry. By prioritizing social responsibility, we believe we can drive positive change both within Oktana and in the wider world.

We are also committed to improving how we calculate and monitor our carbon emissions, ensuring our environmental efforts are as impactful as possible. This includes expanding our sustainability measures and working toward better reporting and accountability for our environmental footprint.

To learn more about our ongoing efforts, visit our Social Responsibility page.

Oktana Paraguay is Certified as a Great Place to Work®

We are privileged to announce that Oktana Paraguay has been certified as a Great Place to Work® with a score of 93/100.

Congratulations, team, for all the effort you’ve put into creating a happy and inspiring work environment!

Founded in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 2018 we opened a second office in Asunción, Paraguay. We have since expanded into other countries including Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and the U.S. – many of the lessons that enable us to successfully grow have been learned as we continue to mature in Paraguay. We are so proud!

Great Place to Work® certification is the most definitive ‘Employer-of-Choice’ recognition organizations aspireto achieve, considered the‘Gold Standard’ in identifying and recognizing great workplace culture. More than 12 million surveys are completed each year across 10,000+ organizations in 60+ countries.

The survey investigates three employee relationships with:

The leaders of the organization
Their work
Their colleagues

These relationships translate into five dimensions: Credibility, justice, respect, pride, and camaraderie.

Next steps: We’ll review all survey feedback to identify action items to continue to improve the Oktana experience across all offices. We will also adjust our internal survey, sent twice annually, to include aspects of this survey.

Be part of the team! See our latest Oktana Paraguay job openings for developers, testers, business analysts, and designers in Asunción, Paraguay.

Oktana is Growing: 200 Developers

The first half of 2019 has been a period defined by growth and expansion for Oktana.

200 Developers

We are thrilled to report we’ve officially reached a headcount of over 200 developers, testers and designers worldwide. As our family grows, our available skills grow which is exciting for all of our partners.

Introducing, Paraguay

Our company was founded in Montevideo, Uruguay. Like any technology company, we’re always on the hunt for great talent, encouraging our team to learn new skills to provide additional value to our partners. With that in mind, we expanded into neighboring Paraguay in late 2018, opening an office in the capital, Asunción. Over the past six months, we’ve been able to bring on new team members in Paraguay in a wide variety of roles. The team has become an essential part of the Oktana family.

Why Paraguay? The population is young and entrepreneurial. There has been increased investment by the government in science and technology and several accelerators and other programs have launched to help fuel entrepreneurship. For us, this is the right environment to find developers eager to work on big projects and expand their knowledge.

Fun Facts about Paraguay

Population: 7,000,000+
Slightly smaller than the state of California
Literacy rate is 94% (vs. 86% in the United States)
World’s fourth-largest exporter of electricity
Host of Guinness Book of World Records world’s largest barbecue, attended by approximately 30,000 people

Next Stop: Peru

With offices in New York, San Francisco, Montevideo, and now Asunción, where are we headed next? After the successful expansion into Asunción, we looked for other cities to grow into and found Lima. So, we’re excited to announce our office in Lima, Peru is open and ready for business.

Why Peru? The capital, Lima, has a population of over nine million people, making it one of the largest cities in South America. Because the majority of our customers are based in the United States, it’s important for us to ensure our team schedules align with US timezones and work hours to enable collaboration. Like Paraguay, Peru’s workday naturally overlaps with the US workday. Peru is a growing and stable country, so we’re confident it’s a place we will be able to continue to grow.

Fun Facts about Peru

Population: 30,000,000+
Nearly twice the size of Texas
Founded in 1551, National University of San Marcos is the oldest in the Americas
Incan Empire was larger than imperial Rome at its peak
Home to both the world’s highest sand dune and deepest canyon

Company Culture

As we continue to expand, it’s important to ensure our Oktana family feels connected regardless of location so we’re increasingly focused on building our company culture and communication between offices. As the year progresses, we may reach out to you, as our partners, to share your story so each developer is able to better understand the projects keeping their colleagues up at night.

MuleSoft & Informatica Certification

With a growing team, we’ve also expanded on our certification game. We believe in continuous learning, so our developers are always training and working on new certifications. We recently stepped outside of core Salesforce certifications to explore other options that fit our team, including MuleSoft and Informatica certifications.

Hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about us. Our team has worked with different organizations and their projects. We are Salesforce platform experts and offer custom development to help you build your platform and solve the right problems. If you want to know more about our work, go check out our latest success stories.

Salesforce Silver Consulting Partner

Everyone at Oktana is thrilled to announce that we are officially a Salesforce Silver Consulting Partner. We’ve all be working extremely hard to grow as a team to reach this milestone and are extremely proud of how far we’ve come together. We want to thank all of our incredible partners for working with us as we’ve grown as a company. They’ve been essential to this growth and we look forward to continuing to work with them and new partners as we head towards what’s next.

“Becoming a Salesforce Silver Consulting Partner is something we have been working very hard at Oktana and we’re excited about this new achievement. Our new distinction will open new opportunities in new sectors and industries. We’re excited to see how this impacts 2019 and beyond.” – Jaime Solari, President of Oktana

Thank you all again and stay tuned to see what everyone at Oktana has in the works.

Paraguay Joins The Fold

You may have seen hints on our social channels lately but now we’re finally ready to give you a closer look at the plans for our new office and why we’re excited to be adding another country into our fold.

As you may know, we have three offices at the moment in New York, San Francisco, and Montevideo, but everyone here at Oktana is very excited about the opening of our new office in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. If you didn’t know, Paraguay is one of only two landlocked countries in South America. It shares borders with Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia. Paraguay is a growing market for software development, and we’re excited to join in on the ground floor.

Asunción, Paraguay

Currently, our office in Montevideo acts as our primary location for all delivery related functions. As we’ve grown we’ve come to recognize that there is an opportunity for us to take our experiences in building the team in Uruguay and apply them elsewhere.

One of the things we’re most proud of as a company is how we hire and help train our new and upcoming talent. Our belief is that when we bring people in and teach them how to work within the Salesforce platform from the beginning they are able to truly master it without getting stuck on preconceived notions of how things should be working. This is a core tenant of our company culture and it’s something we will be continuing to do as our new team in Paraguay joins us.

Our New Team Members!

We’re currently in the process of moving into our new offices and hiring people but 9 people have already started working. Our Paraguay team is currently sharing a co-working space in Asunción and plan to inaugurate the new offices before the end of the year. We’re thrilled to bring this new country on board and are even more excited to continue growing the team. Right now we’re looking for Web Developers and Quality Assurance specialists to join us so if you happen to be in Asunción and are interested in joining our team, check our open position.

The New Office

At Oktana we value our people and our culture as a company above everything. We’ll be working hard to carry our culture over to the new office and the new team. We strive to make all of our offices to feel like they’re part of one big community.

The team in Uruguay drinks their Mate hot, in Paraguay, they drink it cold, and in New York, they might not even know what Mate is but that’s ok because even with some differences we’re still all part of one team working together. Even if we’re not all in one office or even one country, or even drinking the same tea at different temperatures, we still feel connected.

Tok is Rising on the Chatter Horizon

Enterprise collaboration is one of the major catalysts in building a successful workplace environment, one where employees are engaged, where they’re meeting KPIs, and where they’re achieving consistent success towards their business goals. Constant connectivity enables team members to break down the barriers between departments and locations so they can seamlessly collaborate on projects. As in most industries, Salesforce decided to jump on board with their very own instant messaging product, Chatter

Salesforce Chatter is an enterprise collaboration platform which is used as a company intranet or employee directory. It became a popular option for Salesforce users because it is heavily integrated with all of Salesforce’s clouds, objects, and features. Using Chatter, employees can tag, follow and share cases, opportunities, leads and much more to constantly keep updated on their tasks in real time.

What if we told you there was a way to make Chatter even more functional than ever? Well, we’ve got just the thing to enhance your experience; our product, Tok!

Tok Interface

Tok completely elevates Chatter to the next level by enabling users to maximize Chatter capabilities with an easy-to-use messenger application that includes interfaces for desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. What’s even more awesome about Tok is that users don’t even need to log into their Org to communicate with their colleagues.

“Finally, someone is making Chatter do what it always should’ve done!!! From the first day, I started using salesforce over 6 years ago I always felt that Chatter could and should be so much more. Everyone I know has to find another company-wide instant messaging platform because Chatter is so inept as a real-time communication platform. “ – Michael Irving, Business Development Specialist, InTech Together, Inc.

What else? Team members can send cool and customized messages by adding attachments or files like images, GIFs, videos, etc. Tok is also super intuitive where users can drag and drop items from their desktop directly into the platform for simple sharing amongst colleagues.

We certainly can’t forget about Tok’s coolest features: the TokBot! The TokBot automates commands on Tok as well as on the Salesforce platform. You can create polls and surveys in Tok and share them in Groups on the Tok interface. Also from within Tok, you can list views, create new contacts, leads, opportunities and much more. Since Tok is fully integrated with Salesforce, all of this info will automatically be stored in your Salesforce Org.

TokBot

Enterprise collaboration is a tool that will never go unnoticed because of the impact it has on team member engagement, and that’s why Chatter has stood the test of time on the Salesforce platform. But if you want to extend your Chatter capabilities seriously and on a killer UI, Tok is the solution!

TrailheaDX or Dreamforce: Which is better for Developers?

As a platform development services company, we value hard work, dedication, passion and really honing in on the complexities of building out these environments. This means that our developers are thoroughly examining the structure of these platforms from a very granular level and building a foundation that will thoroughly support the development process. Oktana’s talented team of developers and designers truly embody these core qualities, however, we know that collaboration and eagerness to share and learn are what also makes us grow as a company.

TrailheaDX vs. Dreamforce

This starts with attending conferences and events that serve as a sounding board for like-minded technology professionals to bounce ideas around and come up with innovative and tech-forward strategies for development services. One such event is TrailheadDX; a Salesforce conference that welcomes tech companies from all over the world to attend and share best practices for the tech industry, especially with regard to the Salesforce platform.

We recently had the pleasure of attending this year’s TrailheaDX conference in San Francisco for the first time ever! We were pleasantly surprised by the conference, specifically with how much it focuses more on platform development, which is what we here at Oktana marvel in. On a much smaller scale than Dreamforce, TrailheaDX allows companies like ours to really shine and network with individuals who share these similar interests.

TrailheaDX provides a more intimate approach to presenting subject matter panels for topics like automation processes, cloud environment optimization, omnichannel customer environments and panels for just overall improving platform efficiency. Furthermore, since its a smaller venue there’s more face time with product managers, engineering team leads and industry professionals to really share and discuss industry trends. This is also a big plus because you have direct access to decision makers which can expedite future partnerships.

With keynote speeches from Salesforce Chairman & CEO, Marc Benioff, to Star Wars actor, Mark Hamill, we found that TrailheaDX still carried the same weight and star power as Dreamforce, but it caters more to developers which was especially exciting for Oktana. We think it’s tailored specifically for developers and that if you’re a high-level developer you’ll definitely benefit from attending the conference, so we encourage those who specialize in platform development to attend TrailheaDX as well as Dreamforce!