New innovation in healthcare needed best-in-class translation solution

Winning new business with the right language skills

Executive summary

CPSL approached MedaPhor back in April 2012, anticipating a potential need for translation support. It was perfect timing. MedaPhor was developing a virtual simulator called the ScanTrainer, which teaches doctors and sonographers ultrasound scanning skills without the need for live patients or lengthy tutor time. See here the MedaPhor ScanTrainer.

CPSL could see the potential for such a revolutionary product, and we made sure that we contacted the client early on so that, when the time was right, they would be ready to discuss localisation. This time came around two years later.

Challenges

As MedaPhor had already had limited localisation success in Japan, the company needed a team who understood that the project had some challenges. This involved gaining hands-on experience with the actual product so that we at CPSL could see how it worked and how the training content would be viewed on-screen in the various languages. This all followed a small pilot project for some simple French translation. Then, after the initial meeting, CPSL evaluated a large set of XML and other files, in order to quote for the first language (Japanese), allowing us to identify any potential teething problems with localisation. From there we would move on to other languages for the ScanTrainer, providing localisation in German, Spanish, French and Simplified Chinese.

Both the initial briefing and subsequent conversations highlighted a complexity in determining which files needed translation, which tags to avoid, and how to work within the client’s own tool specifications, which they had developed to facilitate the localisation process and manage the content. One of the main issues was;  MedaPhor had a lot of content that was essentially the same string with only 1 or 2 different words. However, as no Translation Memory existed, the translation software was indicating a high number of “new words”. This meant the quotes were coming out relatively high.

How CPSL Helped

We at CPSL are global translation experts, and we investigated the use of our Translation Memory Tool. We focused our time on exploring whether there was another way of analysing the word counts, to benefit MedaPhor.

After some reworking of the quotes, we found that a new feature of the CAT tool allowed us to obtain “internal fuzzy matches” even when no Translation Memory was yet available, as in the case for these three languages. Most translators did not yet have access to the version as it was a recent innovation.

The project manager (Elena Twose) was extremely competent in understanding this client’s highly specialised needs and, consequently, MedaPhor had nothing but high praise for her and the CPSL team’s efforts.

Results, Return on Investment and Future Plans

We saved the client around 25% in terms of costs on a number of quotes working this way, so they were very happy as our solution was based on a deep understanding of their needs and a focus on where we could save costs.

Whilst understanding complex projects is second nature to the CPSL team, it can be a refreshing change for our clients. It is a testimony to this that MedaPhor will continue using the services of CPSL for their project work. Since then, we have won a new language (Russian), and we have discussed the possibility of providing voice-overs or subtitling for some of their YouTube videos as well. Since we first started working with them, MedaPhor has floated on the stock market, and there is a great deal of growing interest in the ScanTrainer. They are also selling the product in more countries. CPSL now has in-depth knowledge of their product and their way of working, so we hope to continue as their sole localisation partner and do the best job we can to help them market the ScanTrainer on a global scale.