One of the most important steps in business is effective communication. In this age of globalisation, communicating with customers in their native language is becoming a key factor for success. Consequently, the translation of a website, effectively a business card, is another step towards achieving international goals. Thanks to a new client, Skrivanek has faced the challenge of adapting the content of their website from Polish to German through the use of full post-editing.
The client this time is one of the largest online platforms, specialising in the supply of spare parts for production equipment, industrial automation and machine technology. The company offers a wide range of products, services, and tools for the industrial sector, allowing easy access to the latest innovations and technologies. Thanks to the trust shown by their customers worldwide and their extensive product range, our client has become a leading player in the industrial automation market.
Receiving more than one hundred system files from the client in a variety of formats, including .xlsx and .php, we were asked to provide a quote as quickly as possible, considering both the turnaround time and budget approach. We knew that, in addition to the standard website translation and proofreading by a native speaker, another alternative would be required here, which would save both time and costs for the client.
With little thought, since time was playing a crucial role, we proposed a translation service involving post-editing. This variant is not yet as popular as web translation, and we know from experience that this is often considered a poor attitude. However, we explained to the client that post-editing involves the correction and improvement of the machine translation performed by qualified linguists. In this case, it turned out that the client was already seeking this type of solution and, out of the many offers they received, only Skrivanek created such a tailor-made proposal.
With the green light from the client, it was important to ensure that the content that they cared about was properly prepared for post-editing using the chosen CAT programme (‘Computer-Assisted Translation’, a programme designed for the process of translating texts, providing a range of functions and tools for an efficient and effective process). This meant that we had to organise and optimise the content to enable an effective translation, as most website type files contain a lot of side information, such as code snippets, metadata, file identifiers and class names that are irrelevant to the content of the translation itself. In this case, most of the files required minimal changes to the settings, which we dealt with immediately. However, one of the .php files was not loaded correctly and contained an error, meaning the CAT programme considered it to be translated already, when the file did not yet contain our translation.
While we tried a number of ways to resolve the problem with the unloaded .php file, nothing that we applied, unfortunately, was satisfactory. This was a moment when our determination and problem-solving abilities were put to the test. Luckily, we still had one more option available: we contacted the CAT programme support. With their help, we were able to determine that the software did not fully support this version of the file, which prevented the content from being displayed for translation. As support suggested, we adjusted the .php file, saving it to .txt format and then applied some regex rules that allowed the content to be loaded correctly. We were now able to proceed with the machine translation and then full post-editing, i.e. checking the correctness of the translation by our translator, who is an expert in this field.
In this case, we were looking at an approach that could be an effective solution for companies seeking more cost-effective and quicker ways to translate their websites. Post-editing, the technique we used here, allowed us to reduce the translation time, including reducing the cost of the service by approximately 20%.
Our aim is always to understand the effectiveness of an approach and the benefits it brings. Post-editing always requires a correction made by a human being, a specialist in the field and in the chosen language pair. There is no question of the translation being done solely by a machine, which is something many customers fear.
With extensive experience in content localisation, substantial resources, technical knowledge, and the ability to look for solutions on multiple levels, the Skrivanek team ensured a high-quality translation through post-editing, while maintaining consistency and clarity for German-speaking audiences.
The client received the finished files on time, which enabled them to quickly implement a multilingual version of their website, attract new foreign customers and expand their business reach. In turn, Skrivanek has gained another satisfied customer, who is not only happy with the results, but also continues to work with the company, selecting further projects for translation.
If you have a website, application or game that you would like to localise into other languages, feel free to contact Skrivanek today, to open up new opportunities for your business internationally!