Year of collaboration
2008 – ongoing
Context
A world leader in marine electronics
Raymarine (now a division of FLIR Systems) is a UK-based marine electronics company. They are a world leader in high-performance marine electronics for the recreational boating and light commercial marine markets. Raymarine products are renowned today for their ease of use, rugged design, and reliability.
Aim
A localization strategy and delivery service for user interface (UI) strings and technical documentation
Back in 2008, Raymarine’s approach to translation was patchy, inconsistent and inefficient. It had relied on the distributors to organise translations themselves and this approach simply wasn’t consistent with a global strategy of providing a great customer experience. Raymarine recognised they needed a coherent localization strategy. They needed an expert partner to develop a uniform approach across the UI strings and documentation and across a growing number of markets.
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Challenges
Increasing numbers of markets, and building on a shift to xml-based UI and documentation assets
Raymarine’s export ambitions demanded a single, repeatable localization process, which would be flexible enough to respond to the different development processes of the UI Development and Technical Documentation teams. The process would also need to deliver across all document types and product versions.
The Technical Documentation team were already making the move to a DITA-based xml Component Content Management System (CCMS), and the localization strategy would need to build on that.
Several of the markets had been using individual translators for several years who really knew their products, and key stakeholders were reluctant to lose that expertise.
Solution
A single localization process delivering 30+ languages
The 3di team:
- Provided initial consultancy to advise Raymarine on the best approach to localization.
- Deployed XTM Cloud to manage the efficient workflow of xml file packages from both the UI Development and Technical Documentation teams.
- Integrated individual legacy translators into a new team of 3di translators, working consistently across markets.
- Established a localization framework agreement reflecting quality, commercial and service level agreements.
- Created, aligned and manage Translation Memories (TMs) for each language, across content types.
- Provided a flexible and scalable localization service, responding to Raymarine’s product development cycles.
See our work for Raymarine
See examples of manuals localized into multiple languages for Raymarine here
Result
Far more efficient product-to-market capability, and a consistent customer experience across 30+ languages
The 3di team:
- Raymarine now delivers their products in over 30 languages.
- It is much quicker and easier for Raymarine to launch and support products in new markets.
- The localization process adjusts to reflect new technologies and tools used by the UI Development and Technical Documentation teams.
- Raymarine customers worldwide have a consistent experience and a clear understanding of how to get the best from Raymarine’s products.
Testimonial
“Localization helps Raymarine to open up new markets and to support existing ones. It also helps to give our customers a much better experience because if both the product and the manuals are in their native language, then not only can they understand a lot more about the product, but it also gives them more confidence to use it and helps them from a customer support and servicing point of view.”
Andy Wilman, Raymarine