How Planisware increased the customer-friendliness of its German products
With support from Gemino, Planisware translated into German the documentation and online help files available in all media for its software, thereby further establishing its products in the German market.
Situation
Planisware, a successful global software firm, has been developing comprehensive, Web-based solutions for project and portfolio management since 1996. The focus of the contract was the Planisware 5 software solution, the documentation for which was produced in English. The extensive online help files and corresponding manual – approximately 250,000 words – were to be translated into German. Planisware found in Gemino a fitting translation service provider: high-quality translations, flexible resources and customised processes and technologies.
Task
The online help files, created using Doc-To-Help, and corresponding user manual were to be translated into German using the previously localised German software as a basis. A modular solution which would grow with the company and be oriented toward additional multilingual capability in the long term was requested. A translation and editing interface was also to be integrated into the process for Planisware.
Realisation
Critical to the project were the intensive exchange of information and a trusting collaboration between Planisware and Gemino: In addition to Gemino’s technical translators, Planisware employees were to work on the translation as well, using server-based translation memory technology. The advantage of this server-based translation process is that all translators and linguists have simultaneous access to the central translation memory, terminology – including updates – and new content. This work method allows the translation to be completed quickly while maximizing consistency. Style guidelines established prior to the start of the project and made available to all translators and linguists can be used for future translations as well. These guidelines include all linguistic rules for the translation and serve as a generally applicable standard. An existing glossary was also used and updated over the course of the project. Moreover, Planisware wanted to approve any terminology changes internally. This requirement was realised with Gemino’s proprietary applications for Web-based management (Gemino Glossary Manager, Gemino Query Manager), allowing for efficient work procedures: Terminology and general questions could be both registered by the technical translators whilst they worked, and processed and cleared promptly by Planisware. As a result, the translations were all completed on time and launched on the market according to schedule.
“Our collaboration with Gemino was a complete success”, says László Dobos, manager of the Planisware translation project. “Gemino immediately understood our needs, in particular with respect to keeping to the tight schedule, flexible reaction to terminology requests, foresighted planning and implementation, through to the linguistic quality of the final product. Nothing stands in the way of our collaboration on translations into other languages.”
For additional information on Planisware please go to Planisware website.