A 30% annual saving.
Creating an agile TEP process to be effective on a global level.

The challenge set by a major FinTech company based in California was to create a fully comprehensive, synchronized translation and localization process. Realizing that the answer lay in designing a bespoke solution to fit their needs exactly meant that, not only were we supplying a totally new kind of service to this pre-existing client, but also we would be saving them significant amount in revenue – 30% a year.

Traditional approaches

We had been supplying the client with a comprehensive LQA service, quality testing to ensure that the translation (which had been prepared by another company) worked for the target country, with especial care taken over any issues relating to demographic and cultural sensitivity. We initially provided this client with LQA services for 27 languages. Traditionally, the entire translation and localization process has a number of steps which are executed separately by different service-providers.

The project

Briefly, the steps can be outlined as follows:

1. Original content by Client (Company A)
2. TEP (T ranslation, Editing and Proofreading) by Company B and Company C in a two vendor system (and more in a multi-vendor system)
3. Linguistic QA by Company D
4. Functional and Localization QA by Company A again – or even a new Company E

Because of the sheer volume of work, the number of languages involved and the constant deadlines, this traditional process became unmanageable: with so many companies involved, creating a fluid, or even vaguely comprehensible workflow was extremely difficult and expensive. And it was almost impossible to adhere to even a basic timetable.

One of the major problems was communication. Realistically, very little dialogue was desirable or even possible between the different vendors involved. Without communication, every step of the process had to be managed by the client themselves and this was becoming a logistical nightmare.

Re-ordered thinking

Companies of all sizes and involved in many different industries have organically fallen into this multi-step system. We recognized that a radical re-think about how the traditional workflow was constructed was key to solving the problem. And from there we found that, the steps themselves were sound – the issue was with the sheer number of participants in the process – quite simply, there were ‘too many cooks’.

Our idea was to de-duplicate and combine multiple steps, taking out unnecessary cost and improving quality through more effective communication and a more agile workflow at all stages. And central to these changes was reducing the number of vendors involved to just one company who could handle the whole process: Alpha CRC.

Streamlining a 30% annual saving

Alpha was able to make this dramatic operational shift because of our expertise, ability and agility when it comes to providing an end-to-end service. Also, crucially, Alpha is the perfect size, able to provide a bespoke solution that is a boutique service, which is globally scaled.

We sourced a state-of-the-art cloud-based, in-context workflow system which could perform all production and project management. Thanks to our use of in-house teams, together with how we are placed globally, we are able manage the layers of multi-stranded tasks, manoeuvring through the different phases in a large number different languages; currently this stands at 100+ but the number is set to increase. And, in terms of project management, we have the resources to supervise and deliver an ongoing global effort of this size.