Focus on efficiency

The delivery of technical documentation, marketing content, and other external communication in 19 languages is an important factor that has contributed to the international success of Busch Vacuum Solutions. Prior to the introduction of Across, the translation process consisted of 14 manual steps that involved a major coordination overhead.

Busch decided to introduce Across in order to establish a robust, highly automated translation management that would be able to handle the targeted translation volume speedily, cost-efficiently, and with a high quality.

Another objective was to standardize the corporate terminology from the various departments, eliminating contradictions and making it available to the employees from a central point for use whenever needed.

• 434% more translated words than prior to the introduction of Across, and counting
• 92% faster integration of the translated website content in the web CMS
• 50% lower translation costs per word since the introduction of Across and MT
• Use of corporate terminology in translation and review, provision of the corporate terminology to all employees from a central point
• Increased translation quality
• Amortization within 19 months of the introduction of Across

Prior to the introduction of the Across Language Server, Busch worked with manual, though nevertheless highly structured translation processes. For example, the process included a review of the source text, since a translation-optimized source text constitutes an important basis for high-quality, inexpensive translations. However, it was not possible to manage the targeted translation volume with the manual process.

Once Across had been introduced, all steps relevant in the process were integrated in the translation management system. Now, the project management works smoothly despite the large number of translation projects. Central task assignment, the central overview of the status and costs of the projects, and the communication routes integrated in the system all play an important role. For example, all people involved in the process are automatically notified at the right time. Since the two work steps that are performed manually within the Busch translation process (post-editing and internal review) take place in the uniform work environment regardless of the file format of the source text, it is no longer necessary to extract the texts from the source systems. The pre-translations from the translation memory and the uniform corporate terminology greatly contribute to shorter time to market and better quality.

Moreover, Busch has further optimized the process by automating various steps in the translation process. The authors of the source texts benefit from the authoring assistance provided by Congree. The two main source systems SCHEMA ST4 and FirstSpirit communicate directly with the Across Language Server via interfaces. Thus, translation projects are set up automatically, and finished translations are automatically sent back to the source system. Furthermore, a translation engine (MT) trained with company-specific translations from the translation memory and the corporate terminology translates sentences that are not translated on the basis of the translation memory during pre-translation.

To ensure uniform corporate terminology, a process was implemented with crossTerm Web to validate and release term proposals by employees in a structured way in the "terminology group". Moreover, all employees can access the corporate terminology online via crossTerm Now. In the web application, they can systematically search the database for terminology.

Busch Vacuum Solutions reached all its goals in connection with the introduction of Across. The measured results impressively demonstrate the progress that Across makes possible in the field of translation management. The investment was amortized within only 19 months.