In the second half of November, a conference titled "Automation and standardisation of the translation process", which was organised by the Volgograd State University, took place in Russia. XTRF™ Translation Management Systems was one of the main conference partners.

The problems faced by the translation industry, the role of standards in the work of translation agencies, the use of special software for business management and translation processes, tools to improve collaboration with the suppliers of translation services, and customers were all discussed during the conference.

The XTRF™ representative, Stanisław Zalewski, conducted a series of lectures and training sessions, presenting all the possibilities of TMS family systems. To highlight the role of the Russian market in the XTRF™ brand development strategy, the speaker demonstrated the first elements of the latest version of XTRF™ 2.0 (edition planned for the first quarter of 2010).

The conference was attended by translation agencies from Volgograd (Apex Pro, Talvis, Notabene, Volgograd Chamber of Commerce), Stavropol (Lex), Krasnodar (Prime Ltd), Voronezh (Academ-Class), Moscow (Exprimo, Global Link, iTrex, KGTC, Language Link, Roid), cooperating companies and Volgograd State University students from the departments of philology and intercultural communications.

All of the participants received special certificates and the possibility to purchase the system at attractive prices.

On the second day of the conference, the Volgograd State University professors participated in a special training on the use of TMS systems.
As a part of the co-operation agreement, the university received a licence to use the XTRF™ Enterprise system for 40 simultaneously logged in users. Ultimately, this product is to be used for teaching purposes, to organise the flow of tasks for the students, and to evaluate their work. A specially appointed team is currently developing a plan of optional courses on the XTRF™ TMS system, which will soon take place at the Volgograd State University.

According to the first vice-rector of Volgograd State University, Vasily Tarakanov, the conference and collaboration with XTRF™ "will be the beginning of a new quality of education and will increase the competitive edge of our philology and intercultural communications students on the labour market."

In turn, the XTRF™ representative, Stanisław Zalewski, emphasised that co-operation with universities is a new experience for the company. He said: "We understand that investment in education is necessary and profitable for both sides, and it constitutes an undoubtedly important element of XTRF™ Translation Management Systems’ development."