EICOM handles the biggest tasks with help from WebProof

By Jan Eskildsen

When a lot of texts in many different languages need to be produced, the demands for the software products used in the production are extraordinary.
And when texts both have to be written and translated into several different languages, and they then have to be paginated in many different versions, the task can quickly become immense. The solution is to use software that can help overcome the time-consuming routine tasks that always come with the job.

EICOM has delivered translations and linguistic support to the Danish market for almost 20 years, and today that has expanded into copywriting and also, graphic solutions. The work is coordinated from Vejle in collaboration with IT and terminology departments in Chile, and a graphic department in China.

- We have developed our own Word Bank™ system, that makes it possible for us to rationalise the work, and make sure that we use the terminology and the form of expression that the customer wants, without us having to start from scratch every time, says the founder and managing director of the company, Robert Etches. He continues:

- This system is now used by several big companies, among others Bang & Olufsen and the LEGO Group. Moreover, we’re in the process of developing a CMS-translation system that makes it easy to handle multi-lingual websites.
- The fact that we have cooperating partners in several countries mean that we have access to more than 90 linguistic specialists and project coordinators, who can assist us on big projects. This network consists of more than 300 suppliers of language and communication all over the world.

Terminology

- With our terminology control, we’re making sure that there is consistency in the use of language, which prevents confusion and doubt in the reader. That’s what happens with Word Bank, that we developed ourselves.
Word Bank is a user friendly and flexible online tool, that can be linked to many other programs, and that can be tailor-made for a client’s individual needs, for example in connection with their economy program or website. Word Bank makes it possible to control multi-lingual term bases, do multi-lingual searches, work with an unlimited amount of languages, have secure data transfers between in-house and freelance translators, integrate with CMS-translating module, Microsoft Sharepoint, and many more things.
EICOM’s CMS Translation for automatic updating of multi-lingual websites is an application that is closely linked to Word Bank, by which it’s possible to secure an advanced control of the terminology and a high efficiency.

Print friendly localisation

Anybody who has translated an article – or who has seen an article that has been translated, because it needs to be used in a similar media in another country – knows that it can be difficult to get the article in the foreign language to have the exact same size as the original.
- If the translation is from Danish into English or German, it’s certain to be quite a lot longer, and that means an adjustment of the layout - something that EICOM also has a lot of experience with – so that everything ends up fitting in. Since precise translations for the corporate world demands sound knowledge of words and sayings in the different countries, we’re only using native translators, Robert Etches explains.
EICOM links three different services together – proofreading, rewriting and copywriting, which means that they are consistent in the use of text and grammar. That way the original meaning from the client’s original message is kept, and ends up getting out to the end users, no matter where in the world they are. At the same time, they help the client finding the right rhetoric to approach their customers with.

Big clients

- When we work for a big client with international relations, it would earlier have brought on an infinite amount of correspondence. Professional companies, such as B&O, that produces quality products, obviously have to make absolutely sure that they don’t send out any printed matters with anything that’s wrong, could be mistaken, or seen as offensive in another country, which we wouldn’t notice.
- Our automated systems are a big help for us, and they also give us the opportunity to follow the development from one version of a document to the following ones. When we get to the distribution and exchange of the tasks, well actually, the whole communication between the different sections, it can easily get a bit more complicated to keep track of things.
- That’s probably easier to understand when hearing that B&O’s catalogue is produced in 32 different languages, and that 140 people have been involved in the project – translators, proofreaders, coordinators – and obviously the client himself, explains Robert Etches.

Lots of people involved

- All these people are working on the project. They’re checking, correcting and checking again, until the catalogue is completely cleansed for mistakes and other dodgy things. Let’s say that every version of the catalogue involves 4-5 proofreading procedures between 4-5 different sections. Then you can start calculating how many emails and attachments that would result in.
- Fortunately, we don’t have to do that calculation anymore. Because with the help of the WebProof software, we can make the documents accessible online, where the next person in the production chain can download them – and upload them again, when the project is to go to the next link in the chain.
- With these big projects, we really benefit from WebProof, and we expect to keep benefiting from it, says Robert Etches.
- We’re distinguishing ourselves by linking quality with know-how and ground-breaking products, such as Word Bank and CMS Translation, which are helping us getting better. It’s always going to be our goal to get better at what we do, and at the same time deliver high-quality products and services at a price that no other company can beat.
- WebProof is helping us getting an overview of the workflow, and at the same time helping us to be more efficient. We are therefore well-equipped to take in more projects, and to get even better at helping our clients communicate their values globally, EICOM’s managing director Robert Etches sums up.

WebProof has the wind in its sails

In the last six months, WebProof has had installations at more than a dozen companies, and it sees the clear signs of how the global competition’s demand for reduction of prices and time within the graphical field has made many companies automate and outsource their production.
The fight for the contracts is both global and very tough, and it takes minimising of costs and use of time. This all applies, no matter if you’re an advertising agency, if you have an in-house production, or if you’re a full-service printing house, for that matter. Newspapers and magazines are not exempt from this, and it’s necessary to reduce time and costs in the production, even down to the smallest of ad levels.


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Graphic arts specialist Jan Eskildsen serves as freelance editor for AGI and PACKmarkedet (in Denmark) and as contributor to The Seybold Report (USA).

Published April 16, 2007