Across the board: Siemens AG Division streamlines translation processes with Language Server
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 6/13/2008 12:28:00 PM
The technical writing office of the Power Distribution Division of Siemens, which belongs to the Energy Sector, is using Across Language Server from Across Systems to manage numerous translations of product documentation. Across Systems says the Siemens has cut translation-management costs by up to 70 percent. Concurrently, the writing team improved the transparency and security of translation processes, as well as the quality of foreign-language texts.
The Siemens Energy Sector currently occupies a spearhead position in the field of gas-insulated switchgear technology in the medium-voltage range. Technical writers prepare needed product documentation such as operating and installation manuals and their customer-specific adaptations. Each of these documents consists of approximately 150 to 180 pages and must be translated into multiple languages. Additionally, the writing team is responsible for the translation of other texts, such as drawing sheets and Siemens standards, which are required in several languages as well.
According to Christian Zimmerman, head of the technical writing team in the Power Distribution Division at Siemens, workflow was manageable when they needed only four or five languages. “The situation changed about a year ago, when the sales departments started asking for more and more languages, especially those spoken in Eastern European countries,” says Zimmerman. “We wanted to optimize administration processes associated with order processing—in particular, keeping track of the progress of various translations, and ascertaining which files still needed translation or were already in the correction stage.”
With a requirement for 19 language variations and the need to react promptly, the company decided to evaluate systems for corporate translation management (CTM).
For the writing team, the three central criteria for the selection of a CTM system were cost savings, process reliability, and quality improvement. Also desired was an easy way to transfer existing translations to a translation memory system to allow reuse and eliminate redundant translation costs.
For Siemens, one decisive factor was that Across Language is based on an open software architecture that allows corresponding systems like TCToolbox, an editorial system from Ovidius in use by Siemens, to be connected. Now the content to be translated is transferred directly from TCToolbox to Across, where the project is set up with defined information. Upon completion, the translations are automatically returned to the editorial system.
The centralized language resources ensure high-quality translations and consistent text for all products. The high degree of recycling of existing translations also is yielding significant cost savings. The savings potential for a translated text that needs to be localized anew due to changes or updates is about 70 percent. Even in the case of an entirely new translation of a text, approximately 25 percent is covered by existing entries from the translation memory.
"We were able to cut the administrative overhead for translations by more than 50 percent," concludes Zimmerman. "Moreover, the processes are much more transparent, and project status can be queried at any time."
