In the tables below, you will find some case descriptions. When reviewing these cases, it is obvious that no situation or solution is the same.
| Situation |
Documentation manager responsible for creation, translation and publishing of a large quantity of technical manuals. Format: FrameMaker Size: ca. 12000 words per project Languages: All languages |
| Critical issue | Sales capacity was lost and the customers were not paying for the machine because the supplier was not able to deliver the manuals in the local language at the same time as the machine. |
| Reasons | The sales force was responsible for translating the manuals. Because of increased business, these people were spending too much time on translations. Because of a lack of time and capacity, the manuals were delivered to the customer too late. |
| Vision | The Documentation Manager needed to outsource translation without increasing costs and loosing on quality. |
| We provided | We provided him with these services. By efficiently applying our technology, we were able to reduce costs on short term, while ensuring high quality. |
| Result | The efficiency of the translation process has increased considerably. Manuals are delivered on time, and the sales people can spend their time on selling, instead of translating. |
| Situation |
Printing company, responsible for translation and printing of technical user manuals for an automotive brand. Type: Technical manuals Format: FrameMaker / QuarkXPress Size: ca. 60000 words per manual Languages: German and English into Dutch and French |
| Critical issue | Costs of translation too high and delay too long. Deadlines were not kept. |
| Reasons | The translation process was not efficient. The customer delivered the manuals in FrameMaker. The text was translated in Word. Then the printing company created the manuals in QuarkXPress in order to print them. No translation tools were used. |
| Vision | The printing company lost money on the translations and were not able to meet the deadlines. They needed to review the process to reduce costs and deadlines. |
| We provided | By applying the translation tools we were able to receive the manuals in FrameMaker and deliver the translation in FrameMaker, ready to print. We were therefore able to eliminate unnecessary steps in the translation process (translation in Word, creation of manuals in QuarkXPress). Because of the high number of repetitions between the manuals, we were able to reduce costs considerably. |
| Result | Costs were decreased with up to 70%. Delays were decreased with up to 30%. |
| Situation |
Company with different sorts of documentation (manuals and marketing). Type: Technical manuals, brochures and catalogues. Format: FrameMaker / QuarkXPress / MS Word Size: ca. 2000 - 8000 words Languages: All European languages |
| Critical issue | There was a desire to centralize the translations for Europe. However, bad experiences were holding them back. It was impossible to have one partner, providing high quality for all languages. Especially, respecting the specific terminology was a big problem. Instead, dealers and agents were asked to translate, loosing a lot of time on non-core activities. |
| Reasons | It was clear that there was no supportive system for terminology, lack of native speakers and often different translators per project at the partner that they were working with. |
| Vision | The vision to centralize translations on the European Head Office still existed. The main condition, however, was to have high quality translations for all languages. |
| We provided | When dealing with quality problems, we need to go back to the source; the translator. We provided experienced and technical knowledgeable translators from our wide network of translators. These translators are supported by the delivery of reference material, the creation of a Translation Memory from existing documentation, and a terminology database, making sure that the specific terminology is respected. |
| Result | The customer is very satisfied with the quality of the translations, for all languages. |
| Situation |
A customer had to translate a very large amount of documents in a short period of time. Translations had to be done onsite. Type: Technical manuals Size: 500.000 words Languages: Japanese into English |
| Critical issue | A large quantity of technical manuals needed translation into English. It was impossible to do this project with internal resources. Further, because of confidentiality issues, the translations were not allowed to be outsourced. For the customer it was therefore impossible to find enough capacity on the short term. |
| Reasons | The content was too specific and the volume too big. |
| Vision | The customer organized a project of 8 months, with translators working at the customer’s company. This would increase the capacity and secure the required confidentiality (no material to be sent outside the company). |
| We provided | We provided several translators from all over the world, coming to Belgium for 8 months, to help the customer translating this technical documentation. |
| Result | The project was done within the required time frame. |
| Situation |
International company. International training program for leadership development to be translated into 11 languages. Type: Training manuals, PowerPoint presentations Format: Word and PowerPoint Size: ca. 35000 words per language Languages: European and Asian languages |
| Critical issue | The target group was management on all levels. The critical issue was a consistent high quality for all languages and the lack of time at the customer’s end to coordinate the translation process. |
| Reasons | As in many companies, translation is not part of the core business. This is the reason why LNE International is often asked to take care of the complete process (translation, in-country review, dtp, etc). One requirement is to be able to deliver all services on a high quality level. |
| Vision | A supplier who will take care of the whole translation process for all languages. This to make sure that the people in the customer’s organization can focus on their core-activities. |
| We provided | We provided the complete service, from receiving the documentation, until delivery in a usable layout, ready to use in the training program. This includes translation by native speakers with expertise in the specific field, quality control, in-country review by the customer’s local agents, processing of review, and final dtp. Knowing that other training programs would follow, a Translation Memory and Terminology Database were built. |
| Result | An efficient solution leading to high quality translations in all languages with minimum use of the customer’s human resources. |
| Situation |
Known multinational, producer of printers and copiers. Type: Technical manuals, HTML-help files and brochures Format: Own translation tool and HTML Size: 200 to 15.000 words per language per project Languages: mostly 14 to 16 languages |
| Critical issue | Because of the large volume, number of languages and specialist IT-knowledge, they are not able to coordinate the projects themselves. |
| Reasons | Large volume of technical documentation. They have therefore developed their own translation tool, which on the other hand requires specialist IT-knowledge to be able to work with. |
| Vision | They needed partners who can deal with their own translation tool, provide translations in all languages, and has capacity too coordinate these large and complex projects. |
| We provided | We provide them with the required service. Dedicated Project Manager and close involvement of IT-manager. We have set up a pool of translators to be able to deliver capacity on short term. |
| Result | We are now one of the main suppliers for the technical documentation projects serving them with a complete solution from coordination to translation to DTP. |