The Software House transformed XTRF's aging chat tool into an automated vendor management solution that helps translation companies find and book translators in hours instead of days.
After the project, XTRF’s clients were able to start work days faster.
Partnership goal:
To design and implement an interactive chat feature that automatically notifies qualified vendors and manages the entire recruitment and negotiation process.
XTRF
XTRF provides an all-in-one productivity tool for translation service companies.
The platform handles project tracking, task assignment, client and vendor data storage, and payment processing. It's the most comprehensive translation management system on the market today, serving over 250 B2B clients worldwide.
INDUSTRY
B2B SaaS, translation and localization services
COUNTRY
Poland
SERVICE PROVIDED
Team augmentation, software development
Challenge
XTRF faced two significant problems that were holding back their platform's potential and frustrating their clients.
1. Manual vendor acquisition process
Finding the perfect translator for each project was slow and tedious.
Each time XTRF's clients had a new project, they had to sift through vendor databases, send individual translation requests to multiple candidates, and negotiate fees through back-and-forth emails.
The lengthy process of finding people with the right skills for a translation job often held projects back and required extra manual administrative work across hours or even days.
2. Underperforming chat system
XTRF had an existing chat system that generated costs without delivering real value to users,
While the chat wasn't performing well, XTRF saw it as the perfect potential platform to solve their vendor selection problem and transform a cost center into something valuable.
3. Technology know-how limitations
The project required specific technical expertise to build a serverless system with Node.js and React Native which XTRF’s team needed help with.
Key challenges
-> To cut vendor selection time from days or hours to minutes
-> To automate multi-step communication and negotiation workflows
-> To transform an underperforming chat tool into a revenue-generating feature
-> To build a serverless architecture that could intelligently match vendors with project requirements
-> To handle negotiations automatically without project manager involvement
-> To create a solution that works across web and mobile platforms
The stakes
In the competitive translation management market, speed matters. XTRF needed this automated solution to become an irreplaceable tool for their customers and turn an existing cost center into a marketable product.
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We built the solution architecture from scratch, allowing XTRF clients to find the best vendor for the job, depending on required vendor competencies and their availability.
Solution
The Software House rebuilt XTRF's chat system from the ground up, transforming it into an automated vendor recruitment platform.
The new system uses a bot to handle the entire vendor selection and negotiation process, cutting project managers out of time-consuming manual work.
Building intelligent vendor matching
We created the solution architecture from scratch. The system analyzes project requirements, vendor competencies, availability, and rates to automatically notify only the qualified candidates.
The bot initiates communication through the chat interface and can even handle wage negotiations based on predefined parameters, working across time zones without any human intervention.
Creating an accessible user experience
The interface makes it easy to track vendor selection status at any time through a summary page accessible from both the chat and XTRF's main platform.
We also built an interactive demo feature that lets XTRF showcase the solution to potential customers.
The chat tool works across multiple platforms to meet users wherever they are:
-> standalone web application,
-> embedded application within XTRF's Home Portal,
-> standalone mobile application for both Android and iOS.
Technologies
-> Node.js (frontend and backend), React/Native (frontend), GCP (cloud infrastructure), Selenium (testing)
Process
Team composition
The Software House formed a dedicated team of 3 Node.js developers, 1 React developer, 1 QA engineer, and 1 project manager.
We worked alongside XTRF's team, which included 3 QA specialists, 1 project manager, and 1 product owner.
Development process
We operated using Scrum methodology with two-week sprints. The teams participated in all refinement, planning, and daily standup meetings to maintain clear communication about requirements and priorities. Regular sprint reviews with live demos kept everyone aligned as new functionality came to life.
Because we had previously developed the chat system this feature was built on, we didn't need to deconstruct the existing tool. We already knew the architecture.
This allowed us to focus on designing and integrating the new vendor management functionality rather than rebuilding foundations.
Development approach
The development followed a systematic process.
-> XTRF provided product design specifications,
-> We created the solution architecture from scratch and implemented it in iterative sprints, delivering consecutive parts of the project in sequence.
-> We also added demo functionality to help XTRF present the complete solution to prospective clients.
The partnership between TSH and XTRF stretched over three years across various projects, with this chat recruitment feature taking 18 months to deliver.
Once we completed development, XTRF's QA team took over for comprehensive testing before the production release.
"We worked in Scrum methodology, participating in all refinement, planning and daily standup meetings with the TSH team. This ensured very good communication and understanding of our requirements and priorities during development. But for me as the product owner, the most favorite meetings were the review meetings, combined with a live demo of the new functions."
Bogusław Reich
Product Owner at XTRF Translation Management Systems
Outcome
XTRF turned an underused chat tool into a monetizable product that automates vendor selection and saves project managers hours of manual work.
→ The new functionality completely automates the translator selection process
→ Users gained automated negotiation capabilities, allowing the bot to handle rate and deadline discussions without project manager involvement
→ XTRF created a unique, marketable product feature that ties together their platform modules and differentiates them from competitors
