ENGSPAN, a machine translation program (English-Spanish), has been used by the Translation Services unit of the Pan American Health Organization since 1985. In 1999, a total of 2,106,178 words were translated in that language combination, 86% of which were done with the help of ENGSPAN; the cost per word was 8.75 cents, that is, 31% below the normal rate. These positive results are explained by a combination of factors: the use of an MT program especially designed to meet the needs of the institution; the close collaboration of translators and computational linguists in the improvement of the program; the application of a pragmatic, flexible, and selective approach with regard to the quality of the end product; and in particular the support of competent translators who do the postediting work.