Case Study Transline

Quicker Results with Automated Translation Processes

Transline is one of Germany's largest language service providers. The company translates various types of documents and texts (e.g. manuals, software texts, website contents, marketing texts, online help texts, catalogs, and databases) for enterprises of diverse sectors such as the automotive industry, electrical engineering, medical technology, and mechanical engineering. Most of the texts are provided in German, English, Spanish, French, or Italian and are translated to virtually all languages by more than 2,000 external translators, all of whom are native speakers.

Starting Point

At Transline, the project coordination, the translators and reviewers, the internal quality assurance department, the DTP department, and the process support jointly make up the production department. The project coordinators serve as contacts for customers and translators in the daily business and thus represent the key interface between customers, translators, and the internal production departments. All information accumulates here, is duly distributed, and is systematically stored. Technical assistance is provided in order to ensure that the specific customer arrangements and requirements are complied with. Together with the resource management, the project coordinators select the lead translators for the individual customers, plan and organize their deployment, monitor the due dates for the delivery, and create the digital project schedule. In this way, every project can be traced without any gaps. The management of content-related inquiries is another core task of the project coordination. The effectiveness of the employed processes is evident from the fact that although the daily business involves simultaneous processing of hundreds of projects at various progress stages and by various process players, these can always be distinguished and kept track of.

Hundreds of Translators Seamlessly Integrated

Transline has already used the Across Language Server for several years. "As can be seen from the many further developments and the ongoing expansion of the use, the decision to deploy Across as a leading translation management system was not an isolated move. The function scope of Across covers virtually all fields of application, which also helped to reduce the preparation workload", explains Dr. Wolfgang Sturz, Director of Transline Deutschland Dr.-Ing. Sturz GmbH. Regardless of whether the customer already uses Across, the Transline process support team starts and/or coaches and finishes the entire translation project in Across. All translators and reviewers are seamlessly integrated in the workflows at Transline. As the scalable processes are extensively standardized and automated, the concurrent deployment of hundreds of specialized translators functions smoothly.

The Transline ERP system (Lotus Notes) is used as management software. Among other things, this software interacts with the Across Language Server. "Across enables us to map various requirements effectively, integrate all parties involved in the process, and further develop the degree of automation in project management", adds Dr. Sturz. "Thanks to the deployment and comprehensive application areas of Across, especially in connection with the use of the crossAPI and crossTransform, and the combination with our own automation solutions, we have cut process times and optimized workflows."

Before a translation is delivered to the customer, the Transline quality assurance unit carefully reviews it. For this purpose, a special task is set up in Across; the review comprises the numerous quality assurance options of the translation memory as well as additional customer-specific requirements. Thus, Transline is able to fulfill its own high quality standards and maintain a high level of process reliability. As a result, the process costs of the daily business have been optimized, and process errors are forestalled. Through the extensive use of the Across Language Portal (myTransline Language Portal), these benefits have also been extended to the business with local customers who do not use Across.