Swann has sold do-it-yourself security products for 27 years, growing into a global company that spans six continents and more than 40 countries. It prides itself on providing customers with peace of mind through not only its surveillance and alarm equipment but because it offers lifetime product support and 24/7 customer service. 

In fact, Swann’s tagline is “Advanced security made easy,™.” To keep that promise of simplicity to customers, Swann needs to provide clear, understandable user manuals. Because the company has customers all over the world, the company places a high priority on translating user manuals and other easy-to-use materials. 

The traditional translation process was slow, inflexible, and not user-friendly. Previously, Swann project managers manually sent a text to the translation agency. Once it was translated, managers pasted it back into the document or format they wanted, often taking days. Time zone differences added extra challenges to communication and flow because the company is based in Australia.

Swann project managers had little or no control during the translation process. They had no visibility into the project until they received the translated files. The translation was a several-step process that needed to be simplified.

Seeing the need for a change, Swann moved to Verbatim Solutions’ new real-time translation management system, Verbingo.

Since the change, Swann has translated 220 documents—from small brochures to larger documents of 50 pages and longer—into several languages including Spanish, French, Russian, and Portuguese. Many of the translations have taken only hours to complete.

The Verbingo process of directly loading and retrieving material to and from the cloud database requires mere seconds per document. The initial scan provides an analysis report that allows Swann to see exactly how much of the text matches portions of previous translation projects, eliminating repeat work and unnecessary cost.

Texts are translated in pieces, or segments, then saved to Swann’s translation memory. Then the next time one of those words, phrases, sentences, or segments is used in another document, it does not have to be retranslated. Cutting translation redundancies has saved many days of project time over the past year. It has also saved money. Seeing the matches up front allows project managers to make quick and accurate budgetary decisions about the company’s globalization effort.

Once they initiate a translation project, Swann team members see status reports in real-time. They can also access the company’s own translation memory at any time to ensure accuracy. When a project is complete, all Swann’s in-house desktop publishing team needs to do it is format the final translated material to look just like the source material.

Swann has a history and a reputation for quality, so the brand protection offered by Verbingo is just as valuable as the time, savings, and control it provides. In fact, users can select an option not to translate certain words or phrases or to always translate certain phrases in a particular way. That control gives Swann the peace of mind that all of its materials carry the same message, and they can focus on providing security and peace of mind to their own customers.