The author discusses intervention at the level of translation technology and the management of work practices in the context of the European Union’s translation services. With the new accessions in 2004, long-standing work practices had to be rethought if the translation services were to cope with the workload of nine additional languages. The author had exceptional access to study in-house translators and managers and produces a detailed picture of the recruitment and training of new staff, the redeployment of some existing staff, and the use of electronic resources, particularly computer-assisted translation tools such as translation memories, to make work practices more efficient.