Medical device company launches global rebranding initiative

Case Study 07 | Medical Translation

Introduction

A global Class III medical device manufacturer saw the opportunity to standardize its documentation across business units. With ULG’s partnership, 5,000 files were successfully translated into 18 languages.

This large, global Class III medical device manufacturer decided to conduct a master branding initiative. After completing a number of acquisitions and spin-offs, they recognized an opportunity to standardize their documentation throughout several business units of their organization.

Chapter 1

THE CHALLENGE

The company wanted to standardize all product documentation and associated translated materials from its business units and acquired companies. Using their current document authoring system, the ultimate goal was to:

  • Expand document translation to support 18 languages
  • Author all documents in the same software platform and application [Adobe® InDesign® (PC version)] to achieve consistency in design and layout
  • Deliver all new documents on time to prevent any disruption to the global sales and distribution of their products

After assessing their options, the company chose ULG to provide medical device translation services and desktop publishing for this initiative.

Chapter 2

THE SOLUTION

ULG worked closely with the client to coordinate the scope and complexity of the file management, translations, desktop publishing, and final file delivery components of each project. Altogether the project involved the fastidious management of more than 5,000 files and translations. The initiative required ULG to do the following:

  • Convert documents from Adobe® FrameMaker® (PC), QuarkXPress® and Adobe® PageMaker® (MAC) to Adobe® InDesign® (PC). This included challenging languages with font incompatibilities, such as Greek and Japanese
  • Provide converted documents back to the client for making necessary updates to the English source text
  • Take updated English source text documents back from the client and prepare files for updating the translations of 10 existing languages and seven new languages. The translation languages included: English into Chinese-Simplified, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese Europe, Spanish-Europe, Swedish and Turkish
  • As needed, build and validate glossaries for new terminology and languages
  • Format completed translations to match the client-specified layout and design criteria
  • Run the translated and formatted documents through a quality check to verify compliance with the client’s master brand requirements
  • Deliver all documents back to the client in print-ready format

Despite the magnitude of this initiative, each of the client’s translation projects was processed with the highest level of quality and efficiency thanks to ULG’s technologies and experience with international standards of safety and security.

This provided the client with the confidence needed to submit projects to ULG’s assigned project manager and simply wait for final file delivery, with little or no additional involvement. Below is a summary of other resources used:

  • Translation memories − Consisting of text segments (blocks, paragraphs, sentences and phrases) in a source language and their translations into one or more target languages. Client-specific memories were shared with linguists and maintained and updated by ULG.
  • Qualified linguists – Linguists who were qualified on the basis of education/ certification, experience, area of expertise,
  • Client glossary – In addition to the translation memories ULG assisted with the building and validation of glossaries for key terminology in all of the required languages. These glossaries were referenced by the linguists to maintain consistency.
  • Octave – ULG’s Web-based workflow management system enabled our project teams to schedule, resource, manage and deliver projects on time, with efficiency and to the client’s expectations.

Chapter 3

PROVEN RESULTS

All 675+ projects were delivered on-time. This prevented any disruption to the sale and distribution of products and any lost revenue.

Some files were delivered ahead of schedule, allowing the client to sell and distribute to the market faster.

Cost savings: Client-specific translation memories were utilized, maintained and updated by ULG for every project and every language, resulting in cost and time savings for the client.

Compliance: ULG’s commitment to recognized quality and risk management standards provided our client with the quality of translations required for Class III medical devices.

Professional responsive service: ULG’s team is specifically trained to handle the highly regulated documentation of life sciences companies. This enabled timely and accurate response and fulfillment of the client’s very specific language translation and desktop publishing needs.

Unparalleled organization: Since the start of this initiative, ULG has processed more than 5,000 individual files and translations specific to this initiative. Efficient file and translation management was achieved through ULG’s latest technology solutions, such as Octave, and the expertise of our linguists, project management and desktop publishing teams.

Client satisfaction Comments obtained from ULG’s quarterly client satisfaction surveys over the course of this initiative indicate that ULG either met or exceeded client expectations for “level of service, quality, turnaround times and overall value.”

 

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