About TIW: DROTR, the first video call service with the function of real-time automatic translation, may be called the current standard-bearer in TIW. So far, DROTR is a fully-fledged messenger capable of translating a conversation into 44 languages in the call mode and into 100 languages in the chat mode.
- The team consists of 70+ persons.
- The company operates in 5 countries.
- 12 partners.
- Develops and promotes 7 innovation products.
Tool and assistant
When you evaluate Worksection as any other task manager, it is important to understand — this is an instrument. And you should primarily learn how to use any instrument, moreover — not only technically, but with adjusting the company’s entire accounting policy correctly. For effective work, you should combine approaches to it in any department, from any team member, so that such instrument should suit daily and active work.
Nobody likes additional reporting. And the leader has to convey that Worksection = assistant. And it is ultimately difficult to retain in mind everything which needs to be done. But when you see tasks and priorities, you have no question what is to be done and when.
For me as a leader, it is always important and convenient to know the status of all tasks and to receive messages on all updates on a timely basis.
Such resources as Worksection provide real time saving, and it is difficult to overestimate it. Because, passing through stages from studying to permanent active usage, you understand their crucial importance. We often ignore inconveniences as long as they exist. They seem to be a part of due routine. But, as soon as you get rid of them, you fully realize the fact of hindrance.
As a matter of fact, if Worksection stopped functioning for whatever reason, chaos would happen.
Any Task manager can be compared with a blood circulatory system with constant data exchange, with tasks conveyed from one person to another. The automation of these processes accelerates them and upgrades their efficiency.
We know what to strive for
We used to be involved only in development. But now our scope of activities is much wider. It is necessary to adjust sales, to optimize development processes, to actively involve marketing and PR tools. Technical matters are combined with legal, organizational and recruiting issues etc. Each project has such nature. Furthermore, given that all our products are interconnected, and each product is a consumer for another one, then the need for automatic control of projects becomes more than obvious.
Internal communication is inevitable. In major companies, entire departments handle such matters as internal PR, corporate publications etc. Our team is still small for it, but we acknowledge that we need to move in this direction. It is important for people having sorted out one product to navigate in others as well, with the awareness of the company’s activities, of its motivation and achievements, because we are an integral unit.
Each product is handled by a separate team, and not always we have time to share experience between ourselves. Everyone has his/her own accomplishments and achievements, someone has some problem, the other one has managed to solve it. So we try to deal with such inconsistencies. We even have hired a special manager responsible only for administering in Worksection: for supervising the completion of tasks, for monitoring and compiling reports... Actually, we handle all matters through WS, except for IT development. It has certain specific features, and we act in a little bit another way.
But who is flawless?
Operating Wоrksection actively involves not only direct usage of the system, but also constant contact with developers, because each WS customer has individual requirements, and everybody needs to configure the program to fit oneself in order to work in a more convenient and effective manner.
For reports we need task statuses to be clearly determined. For instance, if a task has been set, and then the decision to implement it has been reconsidered, or if it is not important any more, what should be done with it? If we close it, it will get into the report as completed. If we delete it, the time consumed for it will not be accounted for. We offer to introduce the button «closed as cancelled». I think that not only we have encountered this issue. Additionally, we have asked our developers to create a system of reminders for us not to be compelled to use any third-party services.
But, evaluating all these, the main thing to be recognized is that Worksection does fulfill its function. We develop IT products on our own and we understand that it is ultimately difficult to do something at once so that everybody likes it, actually it requires enormous amount of time. Our DROTR translator might be criticized for lack of certain things, but it solves the problem, i.e. it does what it is primarily required to.
Consider, for instance, the generally known Skype. They got launched in 2003, now they have thousands of programmers, and they do something every day. 15 years! But the program worked 10 years, 5 years ago. What are thousands of people involved in? Everybody dealing with IT business and innovations knows that the product should always be developed.
We have decided so for ourselves
Not at once did we end up working with Worksection, we used other systems, studied them. There were both drawbacks and positive points everywhere.
Since we have stopped on WS, the bias here has always been towards advantages.