The fourth edition of XTM Live will take place in London, on May 20 – 21. We are proud to inform you that Argos Multilingual is one of the Platinum Sponsors of the event and we’re happy to invite you to join us at Curtain Hotel this May.

XTM Live 2019 will again host more than 100 professionals from the biggest international enterprises, and attendees will have a chance to widen their network during presentations and panel discussions. This year’s event will have 15 power talks, discussing the latest news in the industry, sharing innovative ideas and finding solutions to the challenges you’re facing in your company. Argos Multilingual’s Senior Project Managers, Agnieszka Zander and Adam Parasion, with more than 25 years of experience combined, will be presenting about how Argos’s partnership with XTM is beneficial for both for us and for our customers. Noel Finnegan, our Enterprise Sales Director, will also be at the event.

For more information about the event, head to the XTM LIVE website. To schedule a meeting with Agnieszka, Adam or Noel during the event, contact them via email. To learn more about Agnieszka, Adam and how it is to work with XTM, check their words below.

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Can you tell us about Project Managers tasks on a regular workday?

Adam Parasion: I think it wouldn’t be a surprise for you if I tell you that my daily duties as a Senior Project Manager is basically planning, leading and controlling many translation projects. But the real struggle concerns multitasking and prioritizing the tasks in a very fast paced environment which means you need to dig through tons of emails each and every day, pick the ones that are important and get your ducks in a row keeping in mind that they could be scattered at any time by any unexpected new incoming task.

Not to get crazy, a Project Manager must accept and learn to live in this constant stream of tasks. If you’re not comfortable with that and like to have your table clear it’s not a job for you. As a Senior Project Manager, I also have the pleasure to be in contact with our clients on a daily basis, analyze their requests, provide solutions and keep them informed about the status of all their projects. Having the burden of all the back-office problems, which are by the way inevitable, you cannot lose your temper, you need to be polite when in contact with clients so you pass on to them an impression of comfort and support.

This job can be really stressful sometimes but it can also give you great satisfaction since it’s a perfect opportunity to learn to be a problem solver.

Agnieszka Zander: Yes, as Senior Project Managers we plan, organize and manage many translation projects simultaneously and countless other people are involved in the process. We work closely with numerous interesting people (clients, translators, language specialists, localization engineers, terminologists and other departments), and we have a chance to develop fantastic relationships with them. We receive hundreds of emails from them every day where most of them require immediate action from us. So we need to prioritize. Almost every day we have several wildfires and it is important to decide which one to put out first. 

In short, we organize the translation process from start to finish and we take responsibility for the translation project as a whole. It can be very stressful but it is also exciting, rewarding and never boring.

How has Argos’s partnership with XTM helped you during those busy workdays?

AZ: Working with XTM gives us the possibility to focus more on planning, problem-solving or simply to work on more projects for our clients. Predefined workflows and groups of users, is also beneficial for end customers when assigning Subject Matter Experts for projects. Thanks to XTM, a lot of our administrative work is reduced and there is more control over the file versions that are sent from one step to another.

A nice example of how we utilize XTM is for one of our clients that needs to have regular projects taken care of the same day. The source text is produced in the US time-zone and one of the target languages is Chinese, which has to be delivered the next day. Automation in XTM made it possible. The projects start in the US time-zone on the client side and while the US and Argos are sleeping, the project is being translated into Chinese and once I reached work in the morning, it’s ready. Time-zone differences do not matter anymore!

AP: From the Project Manager’s perspective, you receive a streamlined workflow with XTM that reduces communicational noise and enables you to focus more on strategic planning rather than dealing with many emails and files handling. XTM as a cloud-based tool has many advantages both for the language service provider and the final client. One of advantages is that translation memory and terminology bases are stored on the server so there is no conflict of versions that linguists and clients work on. One of the coolest features in XTM, at least in my personal opinion, are user groups that makes allocating tasks a lot more convenient on both the project manager and final client’s side, especially when they need to coordinate revision between Subject Matter Experts scattered across the organization.

What can you focus more on now, after having started using XTM for some of your projects?

AP: Before XTM, all the linguistic teams involved in the process of localization project had to be contacted separately on each and every step, which pro-longed the process due to sending numerous emails and handling files. With the help of XTM, you can assign them beforehand and the process happens seamlessly. Project Managers save time, which they can devote to controlling the quality or managing more projects simultaneously.

AZ: Since I’ve started using XTM, my Monday mornings have been easy like Sunday morning. Once you set up the project details in XTM, you define the workflow and assign the groups of users and the translation work is just being done seamlessly. There is no file handling, sending emails, searching for the appropriate linguists to do the job. I can focus more on controlling the quality, solving problems and coordinating more projects at the same time.

During your 20-minute presentation, what question marks you hope to erase?

AZ: During our presentation, we will try to quickly share moments of our experience with XTM. Participants will learn a bit on how XTM automation can facilitate their daily responsibilities, whether they are a project manager, translator or end client.

AP: During our presentation at XTM live in London we will share our personal experience of using XTM from our perspective, how it influenced our daily work and present proof that this tool, when wisely implemented can work for the benefit of all parties involved in process of localization.