When seeking ways of improving the work of the production department, it is worth answering the following questions:

• Is the company able to immediately monitor all of its current projects, the tasks due for execution on a given day, and the state of the advancement of each project, subproject, or work being performed by a translator? 
• How much time does it take to find rates for clients and subcontractors for specific project-related work? What method is used to find them? Finally, how frequently are erroneous rates given? 
• A confirmation of the purchase order for your subcontractor, a valuation, and the confirmation of a project sent to your client are the basic documents for each project. How much time do project managers devote to preparing and sending these documents? 
• Do multilingual projects constitute a significant percentage of all orders? If so, then doesn’t the definition of such a project consist in the repeated re-entry of the same settings for each language pair? Can this copying process be automated? How are the ready files sent to clients? Are the translated documents archived (e.g. following translation, proofreading, quality control, and typesetting)? How much time does it take to transfer all the files between subcontractors and project managers? 
• Does the office receive regular orders for recurring language combinations that are executed by the same team of subcontractors? If so, then is it possible to create models containing all of the usually recurring project elements?

Selected advantages of the XTRF™ system for the production department:

• Automation of repeatable activities: The experience and skills of the production team are an invaluable asset for the company. The added value that is generated by the XTRF™ system is the automation of all recurring activities. Improvements of the production process considerably shorten the time, and increase the efficiency, of project execution, while at the same time enabling employees to concentrate on more demanding tasks of greater importance.

• Structure of catalogues: The system makes it possible to automatically create catalogue structures for the valuation and project – irrespective of the degree of complexity. The set of folders that are created by the system enables you to prepare and subsequently control the flow of files and information between the project manager, client and subcontractor.

• Rate prompting: Once introduced, the rates for the individual types of work will be automatically prompted for each successive project. This facilitates the work of project managers and increases the work efficiency of the entire department, while minimising the number of errors in settlements.

• Flow of documents: The flow of documents takes place automatically. Each confirmed order, valuation or project confirmation is archived on the server immediately upon being sent to a client or subcontractor. The entirety of the data (information about language combinations, specialisations, rates, discounts, surcharges and CAT discount tables) is entered in the document directly from the XTRF™ system.

• Automatic project procedures: Automated project workflow procedures facilitate the sending of files between project managers and translators, proofreaders, and other subcontractors. Each participant of the process is immediately informed by the system of any project changes that concern him/her.

• Project models: Repeatable projects that are executed for regular customers are created based on models containing all of the recurring elements of an order. In consequence, the establishment of a multilingual project is not rendered any more difficult and only takes a few minutes.