Corporate Localization — from zero to hero

Max Morkovkin 00:06 David Remnick senior localization manager at airhelp. And they were to join us very, very soon, with his presentation, corporate localization from zero to hero. And then it will tell us on how to set up localization tools and processes at a software company, which used Excel spreadsheets translated by internals and freelancers and then decided to move to integrated translation management system with continuous localization scenario. Hello, David. Dawid Dorynek 00:37 Hello, Max, can you hear me? Max Morkovkin 00:38 Yeah, I can hear you very well. How are you? Dawid Dorynek 00:41 I'm fine. I'm glad I can attend look for around home for the third time already. As a speaker. Max Morkovkin 00:50 Cool. So as I understand the past that companies like the industry was having for years, you had to go through just probably with with months or something like that. Right. So from spreadsheets to integrated scenarios, in a year, in a year, well, it took years for the industry to reach that Dawid Dorynek 01:12 point. Yeah, exactly. Can you see my screen? Max Morkovkin 01:15 Yeah, I can see your screen. So encourage you to start and giving the mic to you. Dawid Dorynek 01:21 Okay, perfect. The headline of this edition is stronger by sharing. So in my presentation, I will share my experiences as a localization manager, coming to a more or less a startup company, and my path to set its localization processes on the right tracks. Before I joined airhelp to face this challenge, I worked for almost five years as a Translation Manager at BSH. So it was bought subsidiary manufacturing home appliances. I also had my stint at SDI Media, where I took care of two TV channels, and Lionbridge. So these two were my, my experiences on the seller side. I joined our help with one simple goal, to ensure the highest standards of localization in the company that was written on my job description. And I must say I didn't start with nothing. So it's not entirely from zero to hero, there were processes and tools that proved useful until a certain point in time where they become hardly manageable or actually impossible to manage. So the initial situation looked as follows. Software strings, were stored in GitHub or WordPress contents were copied to Axel. Actually, everything got copied back to Axel, and sent for translations to freelancers or internals, usually in batches once a week, when they were ready, localization team was copying back the translations manually, of course, where they needed to be. And we were paying for all the words copied to excel included, including tags because they were not blocked in any way. The final goal here, an integrated TMS, with all its functionalities, and qualified linguists working in it at this point, it's still far away. As mentioned, it took me about a year to get to it. And from this perspective, I could compare it to a role playing game. So you're you're a newcomer, you come to a new town, because inhabitants have a problem to tackle like a monster to slaughter. And you just take the challenge. And this is why we will see some pictures from our project, The Witcher here from our Polish product, not our hopes product. Obviously, when you hear about this monster, you don't just run at it straight away. You have to take some measures, and prepare yourself for the fight. You need to know the path. You need to choose your weapon, get some information and find let's say partners in crime. Finally, there should be a reward. Hopefully. Joining a new company is probably always tough. When I joined our help, I was introduced to others like hey, it's David, he'll help us with translation He'll serve everything out. So the whole focus was on what as what I was going to do. And I started talking to my new team. I didn't go to a company that did not have any localization in place. So I had to get familiar with the current processes and make sure with my team that we can keep them running until Get, everything gets redesigned. So these excerpts spreadsheets were still being sent, until we got, for instance, the translation management system. Also, the role of the team has to be has to be changed a bit. Initially, it was focusing more on the on the product localization. And I definitely wanted to expand its role. So we are now offering services to all company departments. And then there were all of the meetings with with stakeholders from this company departments such as product engineering, legal, and marketing. During this meetings, we had to get to know the working environment, the problems in translations in these departments. I tried to focus on the technical side of it, especially when talking to developers, I had to know which tools they were using, what kind of file formats and tags they had, just to find the ways for future integration of ATMs. Initially, people sometimes didn't even realize why I needed such information. And no one ever asked them about it before. So sometimes people can get suspicious in such situations. But they need to be convinced that you just want to make their lives easier. And even though you are supposed to bring positive changes, people tend to be reluctant to new stuff, and it's basically in their nature. All the meetings and discussions should help you with drawing up your plan of how the localization processes should look like to ensure smooth delivery of, of contents to all the stakeholders. So we've established that some systems will have direct integration with our TMS. These were GitHub via connector offered by the TMS provider. And our own tool you may be there created for automated mailing was going to be connected to TMS via API calls WordPress that we are using for a website. In theory, there was also a connector in TMS but it turned out that that world WordPress on our site was significantly customized, and the connector will not ensure that all the contents are exported. So here we decided for file import export feature built in WordPress by our developers. And the same solution is working with CRM mailing Ecto, it's called a trouble. And it allows for exporting source HTML file and importing translated HTML files. Various localized files contain different tags and placeholders. You can see them here somewhere examples of them. So we had to configure them in our future TMS using regular expressions. And this feature of editing file filters with regular expressions was very important to us. The next step was the question of using continuous versus project based localization workflows. And we use continuous localization with certain files stored on GitHub, the bigger ones usually and those that are frequently adjusted. So when there are new strings added or changed or removed, and the file is refreshed directly in our TMS, with smaller files, even if they are stored in GitHub, they are just downloaded to TMS and exported to GitHub on a one off basis. And it is sufficient with with that files. And finally, it is also necessary to determine who's responsible for what if there are changes they there will also be such changes concerning priorities. And I wanted to keep it clear. So at our help stakeholders are always responsible for source files. And we as a localization team, are responsible for preparing or delivering translations to the requested place integrated projects and delivering files in regular projects. Obviously, we cooperate very closely with our stakeholders and We cooperate closely with our content team that creates source content, also for various departments. The next big thing is choosing your weapon. So the best translation management system. And here I don't mean the best one on the market, but the one that is going to fit the company needs. Recently I listened to one webinar, there was a consultant working with various companies and implementing TMS, on in there in other companies. And he said that in for companies that he was offering services to, he implemented a different, different tool. So you don't need to choose the one that is recommended that the one that is highly placed on the market, but the one that that is going to fit your company's needs. And it's not that TMS selection can start only when the whole plan is 100%. Ready, you can start doing your research earlier. At our help, we started off with drawing a up a list of 33 necessary features that we send to potential TMS providers. And this was this face requests for information. And they provided us with the comments about various functionalities. And he can provide you with that list. If you reach out to me later after the presentation. And we were granting points based on the functionalities and selected six suppliers. Kumar requested for proposal with financial details and demo. So initially, we wanted to focus on functionalities Only later, we wanted to get to know the prices, demos at the next stage. I think they're probably the most pleasant part of the process, they involve direct contact, you can see how the tool works, how the two looks because user interface is an important element of a TMS in my opinion, because you're going to work with it for a couple of years probably. However, don't get yourself caught off guard during demos prepare questions beforehand and remain focused on the product that is being presented. The last phase before making the decision is testing. And here I wouldn't recommend to take more than three tools to or even on if you're pretty convinced should be sufficient. It involves because this phase involves consulting people who are going to integrate TMS. With other tools in the company. localization team needs to tap check all those functionalities they needed. So this phase might be a bit mundane, but in the end, it will help you make the right decision. And you'll have your weapon to tackle localization needs in the company. But before you before you face this monster and start sending multiple requests for translation with your new PMS, it's advisable to prepare style guidelines and glossaries probably everyone knows this at this point. And when it comes to glossaries we start off with reviewing our source contents, we prefer definitions, examples of users and requested linguists also to take into consideration what we have already localized so so as not to create unnecessary inconsistencies. Style Guides, I think are a bit more complicated. And we created them in cooperation with our content team due to their know how on our help. And on our site, they consist of two parts the first one is describing tone of voice, how we address customers, greeting types and so on. And the second one is a bit more formal formal with formatting punctuation, grammar, measurement units and such other stuff. Then you need someone to help you with delivering this 15 languages initially, and this was going for a really long time we recover cooperating with freelancers internals, and one boutique translation agency serving three languages. And with 15 of them we had to have at least 30 linguists, so translator and reviewer for every language and we were still having difficulties with with their availability in case of For instance, holidays, or sicknesses. We had been working this way for half a year since implementing TMS. And it turned out that partner management, task communication, and so on took us quite much of our capacity and hindered us from focusing on our clients. So the internal stakeholders to whom we should act as consultants who may should, on whom we should focus. So at what, at one point, we reach out to the translation agency, we were cooperating with it, and ask them if they wanted to expand the number of languages. However, we insisted on this LSP to onboard those reliable freelancers who worked with us. So we're still no who delivers translations to us. And we wanted the agency to accept that the rates that we have agreed with this fleet freelancers. So in the end, I think it was a win win win situation. On our site, we regained our capacity and solved our availability problems, we did not have to find some random linguists, whenever someone was sick, the LSP. Initially, we were working with two product managers, and it didn't change. So the LSP expanded their services probably gained some more margin. And they're happy with that and freelancers gained more work as this language service provider, this boutique agency, when they saw that they are effective and deliver quality translations, the agency offered them translations also from other accounts that they had. And coming back to internals, we still reach out to them from time to time, for instance, for feedback, or with some internal review tasks, we value their internal know how, but we also realize that they're involved with their regular tasks in operations or marketing departments be because we never had an internal team of linguists delivering localization. These were usually native speakers from operations are marked and marketing departments. And our cooperation is so valuable, but at the moment, rather occasional. So when you get to know the company, prepare, plan, implement a translation management system, drop linguistic assets, find reliable linguists, I believe you're ready to handle localization in an efficient way. And this monster will not be as scary as it seemed. So at the beginning, initially, localization, which is always very subjective, can look out thick, but with all these steps that we take, we've taken, we are satisfied with our processes at the moment. Also at a later point, we have written down those processes, so that for instance, newcomers in the team can have them available or others from the company can can take what we do easily internal liking. And when everything is up and running, you are actually the company can rip off the benefits. Obviously, at the beginning, you need to convince management to implement a TMS but then you need to prove that it was beneficial and the management needs to see the advantages of having a translation management system. So we show them a translation memory and machine translation savings report. Because at the moment, we are also using machine translation in some cases to pre translate our contents. The report shows the difference between what we pay at the moment and what we would pay if there were no discounts coming from using these technologies. And it turns out that our yearly savings are almost three times greater than the whole cost of yearly TMS subscription. And in certain high volume months, the savings can be can even cover the costs of the whole team that consists of three persons but sat months need to have really big requests. And this style, these are the stories that management likes. But they will probably be setting the bar higher from time to time for you. And to bring in more money. Recently, we decided to try to sell our translation memories. Recently, such a platform became available where you can just upload a translation memory, put a price tag on it, and wait until some company processing data buys it. I think this platform will also be mentioned later today. And we hope that selling our bilingual data will bring us additional revenue, especially is important, especially in the COVID times. And in my opinion, this would be a very nice milestone for a localization team. Because up to now, we were purely generating costs cost of translation, we were trying to minimize it with technologies such as TMS, and so on. But we were we are still generating costs, these costs are obviously very beneficial, because we reach out to more customers in the market. But sometimes it's it is difficult to calculate whether you get more customers from a certain country thanks to the localized content or thanks to the marketing campaign that happens at the moment in that country. So the opportunity to bring in directly the money like a cash back for, for for translations. I think it will increase the visibility of localization team and will be really nice to have an eye I'm looking forward to, to see how it how it evolves with this platform. That Okay, cool. Yeah, Max Morkovkin 22:05 I was about to step in. Dawid Dorynek 22:09 Yeah, I'm glad I could share the story with you, even though it can be squeezed into this 30 minutes, I think we'll, we'll make it. It was more than one one year. And I must say that this challenge is really enjoyable. And they had all the freedom to set everything up at our hub. As I mentioned, with the Data Silo, there are still more challenges ahead. So leading localization in a, in a company in any startup company, or more developed companies still an exciting grow. And I hope that participants here will also have such interesting quests as mine without our help, perhaps they perhaps they will also like to share some experiences or share some problems that they're facing. So here we can have some time for questions still. Max Morkovkin 23:00 Yeah, yeah, sure. From zero to hero in 30 minutes, whatever. And you still have an opportunity to become a true here hero for the attendees by answering the questions. We already have 14 of them. Will someone appreciate David for having these nice Witcher screenshots in his slides? David, what's your approach regarding data security when selling teams on platforms? The question from Robert pollack. Dawid Dorynek 23:32 Obviously, it took us over a month to discuss it with our legal team. We took the translation memories that are already published. So for instance, translations of our website which is available so to everyone who would like to access it also, our application is available to everyone who registers account. So these contents are not top secret. We got an approval from the legal team after they reviewed the contents in English, we send them the translation memory exports in English. We also anonymized certain things like addresses, and names and so on. So I believe that we took all the measures to make it both valuable and beneficial and steal, secure. Max Morkovkin 24:33 Cool. So another question from Martine crushtec. Did your LSP help you with coming up with the technical side of the new authorization process? Dawid Dorynek 24:45 Well, actually not. I mean, setting up the translation management system was strictly internal part. We were focused on into on buying a subscription to the system that is so let's save vendor agnostic. So with with the system that we have, we can choose which translation agency we would like to onboard. Obviously, they have some some costs of the account on their site. But still, it's not that we cannot change the agency. However, we were very happy how they reacted to having a new tool. They were very happy to work in the new environment. And this is also very valuable for partner as a translation agency, because previously, they were not working in this DMS. And I must say that the cooperation concerning the partners and the linguists onboarding, our freelancers was was really great. We had a couple of great meetings, and it went really smooth. So now we are working with freelancers the one that we had, but they are they are managed by the translation agency. Max Morkovkin 26:06 And how did you manage revision process first, second, revision, proofreading, etc. Was it outsourced or the question from Alfonso Gonzales. Dawid Dorynek 26:18 It is also sourced. Initially, the one agency that cooperates with us does translation and review on all the projects. So these four, two pairs of eyes rule is obeyed. Sometimes we apply internal review with with internals as an additional points of review. And from time to time, once per quarter, we select a sample of some visible contents. And we send it to another translation agency for for quality assurance. This process allows us to put metrics on the samples. And this way we can measure the quality. Obviously, we don't measure the quality of all the contents because we can we can take only samples, that it allows us to track the quality. Max Morkovkin 27:21 And then Alfonso asks, How did you solve communication related to source text problems between LSP and content creators? Do you establish a direct communication between them? Or like tools like extra ref or something? Dawid Dorynek 27:37 In this case, localization teams team is acting as an intermediary. We are taking the questions from from the translation agency. Whenever we were able to answer them ourselves, we we do our best in case where it's not possible we reach out to the stakeholder or to the content team, who is usually the creator of all the content. And here we act as an intermediary between stakeholder and LSP. And LSP should work as an intermediary between all the all the translators they have. Max Morkovkin 28:17 Okay, great. So we still have several questions, but unfortunately, limited time. So at this moment, we say thank you for sharing these wonderful presentation and reminding everybody of these good old times when we were playing Witcher Dawid Dorynek 28:37 live, getting back to it from time to time again. Max Morkovkin 28:41 I think the attendees who played it, appreciate it very much. Thank you. Okay, good. So thank you very much.