TrueLanguage:
Case Studies

Greenbrier, a company dedicated to railcar management, decided, as part of efforts to internationalize the company, to educate new workers on the management process for orders in Spanish associated with their new branch in Mexico.

CHALLENGE

The process of translating/introducing a tool such as Microsoft Dynamics has several key points:

• Understand the vocabulary of the workers, so the message is clearly delivered (localization).
• Adapt to the changing reality of the material, Microsoft Dynamic, which constantly receives updates. As such, vocabulary must be checked.
• Manage images with a bilingual layout. As part of the process, the idea was to work on each one of the steps with screenshots both in Spanish and English. This process is manual and the people involved actually needed to understand the system or at least be willing to learn about it.
• Highlight the steps in Spanish and English. This translation is given by Microsoft and has to be adapted to each one of the 133 job aids.

Given the previous challenges, the localization and formatting processes for this project changed organically so that the client and project manager could work together more closely to manage the content changes. Also, the system was still under construction when the assignment started.

THE SOLUTION

• Weekly meetings with the client: Understanding the challenges of evolving material helped us to understand that we needed to develop the assignment through a closer relationship with the client. This facilitated faster feedback, and we also advanced faster with the translation. We also made some changes to the format, and we helped the client to improve the system (win–win).
• Weekly meetings with our vendors: Our goal was to finish the screenshots and have the material as clear as possible for our team of linguists in a timely manner. After some meetings to introduce the system, we started working together on a weekly basis in order to catch as early as possible any problems we might face during the process.

RESULTS

• We were able to finish the material at the pace imposed by the client.
• Since we were in constant communication with them, we were able to advance faster with each chapter considered first priority according to their orientation scheduling.

The client is in the document management industry with a lot of COVID training materials to ensure their clients and employees follow proper safety procedures. Due to COVID, employees are mostly working remotely, and the CEO sends a weekly video to all employees.

The Challenge:

Videos are released on Fridays, but the CEO doesn’t record video until Wednesday and usually doesn’t come to TrueLanguage for translation until after hours on Wednesday, or sometimes as late as after hours on Thursday. That means we only have a maximum of one business day to work on it. Videos can be anywhere from 8 to 15 minutes long. The longer the video, the harder it is to meet the deadline. Translations have to be as short as possible so that the captions are displayed properly on the screen and also so that they match the timing of the English audio. This can be very challenging since translations usually grow by 20-30% in comparison to English. All videos need to be watched word for word at the end to make sure that all captions are being displayed correctly.

The Solution:

The translation team is always the same, and they are always on standby on video day to make sure that they can start working as soon as we receive the content. Since content usually comes in after hours, most often it requires the project manager to send out content to translators at night so that they can start working on it in their time zone in the morning.

The Response:

Fast results, top quality, no exceptions.

Videos are translated accurately and delivered on time.

A global leader in lifecycle information management offering document management, digital solutions, data protection, and secure destruction, the client has approximately 300 dedicated operation centers in more than 20 countries on five continents, servicing nearly 80,000 customers worldwide. The client strives to provide its customers with peace of mind by conducting business on a platform of four key pillars: Security, Efficiency, Customer Satisfaction, and Sustainability.

The Challenge:

To assist in the daily execution and operation of its business processes, the client relies on customized PeopleSoft software. PeopleSoft is an integrated software package that provides a wide variety of business applications including financials, customer relationship management, and human resources. Each individual application interacts with others to offer effective and efficient means of working and reporting in an integrated fashion across the enterprise. To reap the full benefits PeopleSoft offers, the client must properly train its employees on how to use the software.  With worldwide employees, this requires translating the training manuals into several different languages. 

The client was looking for a vendor to translate its PeopleSoft training manuals into French and Spanish. After conducting a thorough search, the client selected TrueLanguage because it wanted to work with a company that offered flexibility, local project management, and a cost-effective solution. At first glance, the project appeared to be fairly straightforward. But there was a catch – the manuals were outdated and did not match the customized PeopleSoft application the client was implementing.

The Solution:

Update of English manuals based on the latest software.

Expert knowledge of PeopleSoft in order to recreate the screens for screen captures.

Linguists who are subject matter experts in accounting software.

275,000 words, 180 files and 2,400 graphics.

Before TrueLanguage could perform the translations, the company had to bring the manuals up to date, which included recreating screenshots from the PeopleSoft application. TrueLanguage hired a project manager with an extensive background in PeopleSoft to update the English manuals and capture and implement the Spanish and French screens into the updated manuals before they were submitted to the translation phase. Managing the project from beginning to end, TrueLanguage demonstrated considerable flexibility to ensure the final product met the client’s expectations.

The Response:

“Our vendors have to meet the same strict requirements for security, service and customer satisfaction that we promise our clients. TrueLanguage exceeded our expectations in every area. Their flexibility was critical to completing the project not only accurately but also on time and within budget.”

Newport News Schools required their school handbook to be translated into 5 languages. The handbook was an amalgamation of different source files and styles that were stitched together to create one PDF file and included a codebook of ethics.

The Rights & Responsibilities handbook entailed:

• Basic rights and responsibilities the students have at Newport News Schools.
• Academic and lunch services the school provides.
• Expected codes of conduct and what potential consequences infractions can have.

Since the English source files were no longer available, we recreated a comprehensive look and feel for the school handbook before the translation phase began.

The five translation teams were carefully selected to include professional linguists who had subject matter expertise with school systems here in the US. This was critical since the languages and respective cultures for this project were Arabic, Farsi, French, Spanish for Latin America, and Tagalog.

The Rights & Responsibilities handbook was designed to bridge any cultural differences and educate the new students and parents.

Once the translation for each language was completed, it was submitted to editors who carefully proofed the text for translation accuracy, ease of reading, and cultural context. After our team performed the final formatting and review, the translated handbooks were submitted to the client for review.

Together, we created handbooks in different languages that were accepted and distributed throughout Newport News Schools.

The client is a private school in Maryland, located just outside of Washington D.C. The significant number of international students in the student body has resulted in a high demand for language services, which TrueLanguage has been happy to provide. Since 2017, TrueLanguage has been the school’s translation partner at every step of the way, providing on-site and telephone interpretation services as well as document translation services.

The Challenge:

At the beginning of the collaboration, TrueLanguage’s first order of business was to set the client up with their OPI (over-the-phone interpretation) service. TrueLanguage’s OPI is accessible from any telephone, in 180+ languages, and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Through this service, the client and interpreter are connected in seconds. The school relies on this service for phone conferences that connect international parents to their children’s education. The client communicates mainly with parents in China and Korea, but OPI would connect them with parents in any other language if necessary, on-demand or with advance scheduling.

The Solution:

TrueLanguage has also completed many translation projects for the client in the course of the partnership, from simple emails and conduct guidelines to commencement speeches and a 50-page illustrated handbook for host families. This handbook came with a special typesetting request: a bilingual presentation, with both Chinese and English appearing on the page on alternating lines. TrueLanguage was able to provide this service without a problem. TrueLanguage translates documents for the client into English as well as out of it—whenever the school receives correspondence in a foreign language, TrueLanguage manages those translations as well.

The Response:

On-Site Interpretation to Keep Everyone Together

In addition to providing translation and OPI services for the client, TrueLanguage has provided on-site interpretation services for the school’s commencement ceremonies. At one of these events, Chinese and Korean interpretation teams were present to relay every word to the students’ families through wireless headsets. The interpreters were requested late in the game. Still, even with very short notice, the families were able to enjoy the words of the ceremony in their native language, making it all the more memorable. All families should be able to enjoy these milestones, without letting a language barrier diminish the emotional importance of the event.

In partnership with TrueLanguage, the client is able to communicate with these international families, making the distance between parents and children a little less far, and a little less scary.

A start-up headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, Quantumlytix is a global strategy and operations implementation consulting company providing solutions that help clients accelerate advancement of their core competencies. The company’s goal is to be better, faster, and different than any other service firm in its industry by providing solutions to enable ongoing survivability for organizations.

 The Challenge:

Having established itself in the United States, Quantumlytix was ready to branch out into global markets. The first stop was Russia. Looking to build relationships with businesses in Russia, Quantumlytix needed a company that could help it enter a new market by speaking the right language.

The Solution:

Ability to react quickly for a young and rapidly growing company ready to go global.

Responsive and flexible project management to meet tight turn-around times and budget.

TrueLanguage helped Quantumlytix open the door to the Russian market by translating written marketing and sales materials as well as providing telephone interpretation services.  To meet the client’s needs, TrueLanguage carefully tailored project budgets as well as schedules.

 The Response:

“TrueLanguage played a strategic role in preparing our company to enter the Russian market,” said Jack Mensch, owner. “TrueLanguage had the knowledge and experience to help us put our best foot forward in a new country, and we were extremely pleased with the level of service and quality provided. It’s refreshing to find a company you can trust to deliver what they promise.”

Chemence is a leading specialist in chemical and medical device manufacturing. At the present time, we work primarily with their medical division on translating their materials.

Medical products require the highest standards of translation accuracy since the translations are designed for life-saving products used during and after surgery. These medical instructions and manufacturing translations must not only pass the nation’s strict medical standards but also be readily understood by the medical community they are intended for. Chemence began expanding into the international market with their initial 4 products needing to be translated into 29 languages.

For Chemence, we assembled a team of medical translators to ensure that the critical medical terminology would be accurate. After the translation and proofreading process, we then had the same language teams review the typeset material so that the material followed their language-specific layouts, as well as to catch any remaining changes. Through this process, all relevant translation and review steps were double-checked, guaranteeing that all medical and proprietary information would be accurate and would pass each nation’s medical board review.

Throughout the process, we also consulted relevant feedback from Chemence so that all ongoing projects would have all change requests implemented accurately.

The client is an international organization in the United Kingdom dedicated to safeguarding human rights in everyday business. Human rights are a global topic, so ensuring compliance and accounting for all people requires documents in the languages of all readers. Unfortunately, with the current COVID-19 pandemic, many people are finding their basic human rights infringed upon. The client recently published an article in English on the effects of the global crisis on human rights around the world, and what action should be taken to avert further damage to these rights.

 The Challenge:

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire globe, with most regions seeing drastic consequences from the virus. TrueLanguage has provided many companies with translations during this difficult time, enabling communication with employees, clients, staff, and, in the case of the client’s paper, the world. The client reached out to TrueLanguage at the beginning of April to request a quote, for the translation of an English-language paper into French for France. The client engaged TrueLanguage as a provider after discussing the many economic and linguistic benefits that the TrueLanguage service package could offer them.

The Solution:

The paper consisted of approximately 60 pages that needed to be translated, reviewed, approved, and typeset. After a consultation to identify the client’s needs, TrueLanguage assembled a hand-picked translation team according to those needs. This involved:

• Engaging only native speakers of French in France (as opposed to Canada, for example).
• Setting rules for the translation of footnotes and quotes, based on guidelines from established global institutions (such as the United Nations).
• Working with the client to create a glossary of approved terms for consistent use throughout the document.

The Response:

Client Engagement Leads to Satisfaction

The client was involved in the translation process from beginning to end, which ensured that certain references localized for France were approved. The client accepted translation questions for certain terms, while receiving regular updates throughout the process as the project moved from stage to stage. Once the TrueLanguage team finished with translation and review, the file was passed back to the client for an internal review. The client found the document to be “a very high-quality translation” and discovered no corrections to make. Upon approval from the client, the translation moved to the typesetting stage, during which the translation team read through the French version to identify any errors with typography or diacritical marks and to verify that the text flowed well from page to page.

The client was very satisfied with the results provided by the TrueLanguage team. At some language companies, project managers are simply doing a job and don’t put in any more effort than the minimum required. But at TrueLanguage, the collaborative process is the guiding principle. The entire team, from translators and reviewers to project management and executives, cares about each and every client relationship, and this project was a testament to that.

Access is an integrated information management company that strives to ensure the protection and management of sensitive documents for their many clients. Access has offices throughout the Americas, including the United States, Canada, Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago.

The Challenge:

As is the case with most companies at the present time, the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the need for constant and consistent communication across all departments and offices. Access had worked with other translation companies, but needed very fast turnaround and high quality translations for a particular project. They decided to reach out to a new company, TrueLanguage, to assist them with their growing translation needs amid the pandemic.

The Solution:

Each week, the CEO of Access prepares a check-in video for all employees. Since the video will be distributed in multiple countries, high-quality translations are essential. TrueLanguage has assembled and trained a dedicated team of professional linguists to handle these videos so that the translations live up to Access’s quality and service standards. Any Access industry and internal vision/mission/values terminology and preferences are noted beforehand and compiled into a glossary, allowing the translation team to incorporate these terms into their work.

Every Friday, Access sends the team an email to introduce the video of the week. This email includes an SRT (SubRip Subtitle) file containing a timed transcript of the video, and a link to the English version of the video.

The SRT is a simple text file, but it includes lines of timecode that are essential for aligning the on-screen text with the audio. Once the team has received the introductory email and the attached SRT, and the translation has been completed, reviewed, approved, and adjusted for timing in each new language as necessary, the English video is uploaded to Vimeo, where the translated SRT file is added to generate on-screen subtitles. The video is then given a final review and quality check.

The Response:

Fast results, top quality, no exceptions.

Due to the quick turnaround requested, Access’s translation team is always on standby on Wednesday evenings. If any delays occur, the linguists are informed as soon as possible. Access receives the translated email by the end of the day on Thursday in two formats (Word and PDF), and the subtitles at the same time, again in two formats (SRT and TXT). On Friday morning, Access publishes the subtitled videos and distributes the translated emails.

Because Access is so satisfied with these translations, they currently entrust the TrueLanguage team with their language needs across their many departments, including a number of high-volume projects in their main three languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Latin American Spanish, and Canadian French. What once was a bump in the road has now become a smooth and easy task for the Access team, resulting in consistent, high-quality translations on a weekly basis that keep them connected with their international team in an uncertain time.

NEC is a leader in enterprise telecommunications solutions and was the first software developer to deliver Service Oriented Communications (SOC) software technology to extend the value of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). SOC allows organizations to enhance business applications and business processes with voice, email, conferencing, video and instant messaging functionalities. NEC’s award-winning SphericallCSE IP PBX software is used by enterprise, education, government and U.S. Department of Defense organizations in more than 15 countries around the world.

The Challenge:

As a global company, NEC must ensure its software, documentation and online help are available in many different languages. Because NEC uses multiple platforms to produce its software interfaces, it was looking for an extremely flexible software localization firm that would be able to adapt to its formats, applications and tools.

The Solution:

• Software Localization Services
• 10 languages
• On-going translation needs
• Mobile-related, specialized terminology
• Over 150,000 English words translated to date

TrueLanguage has established an ongoing relationship with NEC based on its ability to offer multi-source translation and localization services. Serving as the linguist and subject-matter expert, TrueLanguage provides software localization for NEC’s Sphericall, Mobile Client and UC Client product lines into 10 languages, including the resource files (GUI), documentation, and online help. To accommodate the client’s various platforms, TrueLanguage relies on project managers and linguists with extensive experience in software engineering and localization materials. By working with the client-specified authoring tools (which have changed over the years), TrueLanguage created online manuals and context-sensitive online help for simultaneous release in 10 languages. Over time, we developed client-specific glossaries and style guides to help our linguists maintain translation consistency and accuracy.  By working with a single vendor, NEC is able to streamline the software localization process and enjoy faster turnaround times.

The Response:

“We would unquestionably recommend TrueLanguage,” said Shawn Fradin, Project Manager. “They have earned our trust by delivering on their promises and providing timely and accurate translations, and they keep us informed during all phases of the project. TrueLanguage has always completed projects on time and in a professional manner.”

This global leader in logistics offers a broad range of solutions including the transportation of packages and freight. It serves more than 220 countries and territories worldwide.

The Challenge:

Since 2007, TrueLanguage has been translating the shipping giant’s flagship shipping software user guides and installation manuals in over 19 languages. The translation requires a significant amount of typesetting, making the ongoing engagement more complex and challenging. The client also requires close interaction with in-country subject matter experts (SMEs) in order to maintain strict corporate standards.

The Solution:

Simultaneous release in 19 languages

Yearly updates

Shipping/logistics specialized terminology

Client SME review coordination/implementation

500,000 words translated into 19 languages to date

TrueLanguage developed a specific quality control review process that involves the client’s SMEs and provides the desired level of ownership and control. Unlike many of its competitors, TrueLanguage possesses the necessary typesetting and desktop publishing expertise this client needs. As a result, the client receives print-ready files, saving time and money. Located in the same city as the client, TrueLanguage is able to respond quickly, resulting in faster turnaround times and more effective project management.

 The Response:

“We’ve had an ongoing relationship with TrueLanguage for nearly five years. We have been extremely satisfied with the level of professionalism, quality and service TrueLanguage delivers on every project and we look forward to continued success together.”