The Neotech Story
We’re convinced that for us to be the best, we have to dare to dream.
1991: the year of Neotech’s establishment. As its symbol, which would later become the company logo, we chose the footprint of the thunderbird of North American Indian mythology, which was considered a messenger of the gods and held a place of honor on totem poles. Thus, with this hint at our equality to the greats, we were on our way.
In the first years of the company’s existence our efforts were directed towards studying world translation practice, adopting and adapting the best in business solutions. Our customers were and remain our primary teachers: Neotech’s clients include companies that comprise the world business elite, the best-known brands, those that set the trends in their respective sectors. With many of them we have been working since the first days of their presence in the Russian market, and it’s no exaggeration to say that we grew alongside them. Many business processes and procedures that we actively employ today were borrowed from our clients and adapted to Neotech’s working conditions.
1992. The foundation for an operative database is laid. Over the years of the company’s existence this underwent numerous changes and technical improvements, but it remains the company’s most important strategic resource. Today it has become one of the key elements in the new i-Pie information system.
1993. The foundation is laid for the company’s formatting and layout system. The necessity of processing and preparing documents before submitting them for translation, then making them correspond to the originals before delivering them to the customer, would seem to be a simple and perfectly obvious matter. But, time we save in the process of fulfilling the entire order is improved quality in the materials delivered to our clients!
1994. The oil and gas industry is determined as the company’s primary focus. In this area of work, solutions are used for the first time that would subsequently be extended to other Neotech topical subdivisions: the best translators, the strongest editors – each must not only be a professional linguist, but also a certified specialist in the oil and gas industry. Customers from the industry include the world’s leading oil producers and extracting and refining companies.
1995. The year the automobile industry is determined as one of Neotech’s priorities. The KIA “Operator’s Manual” became the first document in a countless line of translations produced over the years. At the time we were still just learning to fulfill orders in this sphere, using the VAZ operator’s manuals as a model and poring over their western counterparts.
1996. Interpretation is determined as a perspective area of focus for the study, development, and formulation of client proposals. The creation of a pool of partners in technical support of simultaneous interpretation services and a competitive base of operatives, and the study of the extralinguistic and psychological aspects of interpreting work, are but an incomplete list of our concerns at the time.
1997. Particular attention in the company is given to development in the editing sphere. Its principles and the algorithm of the specialists’ activities are worked through in detail and included as a significant part of the “Technological order processing cycle” – patterns describing work conducted on Neotech projects.
1998. Neotech includes in its services a proposal for a graphic arts and duplication area of focus. The importance of this type of work became especially evident following the results of Neotech’s successful collaboration with the Fiat concern, for which we not only translated automobile repair and diagnostic manuals, but also effected subsequent duplication of the translated documentation. This year saw the beginning of the company’s use of Translation Memory programs, Trados in particular.
1999. Neotech’s first internet site is created. Project management and quality control systems formed over the years underwent rigorous testing during a major project for the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex, when each month saw the translation of 5,000 pages and more. Constant work was begun on monitoring Neotech’s every operation and every stage of translation; knowledge of customer companies’ management and quality control techniques continued to be systemized; and an information storage system was developed for subsequent development of a new version of the Quality Management System (QMS).
2000. A year of new technological solutions for the company. New scalable information systems are introduced for processing and storage of large volumes of information. For purposes of further improvement of our own work with customers, structural reorganization is conducted based on appraisals of previous experience, in which the translation, editing, layout, and graphic arts departments are defined as independent. A special manager group is established for work with clients. This year the Transit system was added to the list of Translation Memory programs employed.
2001. Specialized project groups are created in the oil and gas and automobile areas of focus. A program of systematic education of Neotech associates is begun. Right at this time it becomes obvious that style of work and project techniques require special preparation. Selection of mentors for young specialists from among long-term senior associates lays the foundation for a continuing exchange of knowledge and experience. The idea arises for creation and subsequent implementation of QMS corresponding to international ISO standards. An agreement is signed regarding permanent collaboration with Trados developers, according to which Neotech uses and tests new versions of the product, developing recommendations of changes.
2002. Creation of the marketing department. The necessity of repositioning Neotech and developing new solutions, now related to integrated marketing communications, was mentioned in 2001, but more than half a year was spent on defining the role and place of the department in the company and to seek out the people who would become flesh of Neotech’s flesh. One of the first innovations of the marketing department was the term “linguistic engineering”, which more precisely and ably described the essence of the services offered to customers. Active development of modern QMS is begun.
2003. Neotech becomes the first Russian translation company to successfully complete certification confirming compliance of Neotech’s QMS to the requirements of international standard ISO 9001:2000. Neotech’s first information system is implemented.
The IT area of focus is created, appearing in conjunction with the beginning of a large-scale and long-term project with a leading software producer.
2004. The first contests are held among students of leading Russian institutions of higher learning of both linguistic and technical orientations (N.E. Bauman MGTU), as well as among freelance translators. The purpose of these was to search for new associates from among young people whose technical proficiency might correspond to Neotech’s requirements. Upon completion of a range of events, at the end of the year a decision was made to develop a regular program for work with graduates.
Participation in the KIOGE-2004 exhibition. Travel to the Republic of Kazakhstan. Talks with a range of customers from the region lead the Neotech administration to decide upon the necessity of opening their own representative office in Kazakhstan.
This same year Neotech becomes a member of the American Chamber of Commerce.
2005. Official opening of the Neotech representative office in Almaty. Launching of a standing professional training program for students of the University of Astrakhan marks the beginning of the Gain & Share program. Now-routine requests from customers for internal translation services auditing and consulting and training of associates lead to the necessity of creating a new area of focus: Customer Consulting.
Analysis of requests coming to Neotech from potential customers revealed the necessity of creating a structured subdivision for work and services for a “small and medium businesses and individuals” target group. Systematic monitoring of demand, research of the given segment of the translation market, and experimental work for the purpose of defining a list of services required by the given constituency are begun.
Opening of the Neotech representative office in Japan. The model for creating our own business presence was the establishment of a joint project with one of our partners, who acts as an agent and guarantor. Development is begun of a new information system, subsequently to become known as i-Pie.
2006. Official opening of the “MegaText Translation Bureau Network” is announced. The network is preliminarily presented as two independent spheres: corporate (offices in Sokolniki and at Pushkinskaya station) and for physical persons (in Yasneva, at Skobelevskaya station, and in Krylatsky). Development of a “MegaText Network” franchise system is begun.
This year was dubbed “Year of the Kazakhstan” by the company. It became clear that the decision to open an office in the Republic of Kazakhstan was strategically sound and highly promising.
In December of 2006 the company celebrated its 15th anniversary, and released the first volume of its corporate magazine Hand-Made, dedicated to translation.
A permanent program is begun jointly with the Lomonosov MGU Graduate School of Translation for preparation of future translation specialists.
The first model of the new i-Pie information system is released, which differs from the previous model primarily in its capability of remote access to the system for both associates and clients of Neotech.
2007. Read it in the news.
Our dreams were different. They changed along with us.
