Mitchell International, Leading Provider of
Property and Casualty Claim Solutions, Relies on MadTranslations to Localize 30-Plus Online
Help and Documentation Projects
Industry
Property & Casualty claims
Collision repair
Software services
“
The attention to detail in the MadTranslations samples was extraordinary because it understood the technical end of assembly and troubleshooting. As a person implementing the solution, that’s huge.
Don Rasky Senior Technical Writer, Mitchell International, Inc.
Accuracy - MadTranslations has demonstrated an extraordinary attention
to
detail, according to Mitchell, ensuring first-class translations while minimizing work
for
the Mitchell team.
Efficiency - Mitchell pulls content straight into MadCap Lingo from a
MadCap Flare project, and then turns it over to MadTranslations for translation and
localization.
Collaboration - Mitchell cites MadTranslations’ collaborative
approach, from initial steps to scaling the solution, as central to the success of
Mitchell’s localized documentation and Help.
Ensure that international customers can effectively and efficiently use Mitchell’s
solutions to process their transactions.
Improve the quality and efficiency of translating online Help and documentation for
Mitchell WorkCenter, RepairCenter™, and estimating products.
Support near-term requirements to translate more than 5,000 pages of documentation and
provide the ability to scale and meet growing content demands.
Since 1946, Mitchell International, Inc. has been a leading provider
of technology, connectivity, and information solutions to the property and casualty
claims, collision repair and workers’ compensation industries. The company
processes over 50 million transactions annually for 300-plus insurance companies and
more than 30,000 collision repair facilities throughout the United States and Canada.
With an expanding global footprint, Mitchell’s solutions now operate in the
Americas, Europe, and Asia, working behind the scenes of auto insurance claim filings to
simplify, enhance and accelerate claims handling processes. Ensuring that customers have
intuitive, localized information to optimize their use of Mitchell’s solutions in
processing these transactions is a top priority.
Today Mitchell relies on MadTranslations, Inc., a
subsidiary of MadCap Software, for the translation and localization of its
WorkCenter™, RepairCenter™, and estimating
products’ documentation and online Help.
Growing Beyond Machine Translation
For years, the Mitchell development team relied on publicly-accessible online tools to
help with its translation needs. However, as the company expanded internationally, it
realized that there were more issues than answers with this approach. With an eye toward
finding a translation and localization service provider, Mitchell embarked on an
extensive research, request for proposal (RFP), and evaluation process to identify the
company that could best support its needs.
Anticipating upwards of 5,000 pages of documentation to be translated, Mitchell wanted to
be diligent in selecting the best primary vendor for its needs. Translation quality
combined with customer service would be critical to the company’s evaluation
process.
“Entering this new area of translation and localization, we wanted our primary
vendor to have the expertise to guide us,” says Don Rasky, Mitchell Sr. Technical
Writer. “If the first step is a misstep, it’s an uneasy feeling.”
Mitchell RepairCenter™ Canadian French Online Help
Results-Focused RFP Process
Significantly, Mitchell wanted to provide a level playing field in examining the benefits
and challenges of working with each vendor, unbiased by any current or past affiliations
the company had with the vendors.
“We had the vendors translate a small piece of content, so we could have it
evaluated anonymously,” Rasky explained. “It was helpful for us to see
firsthand what we were getting back. It highlighted the technical issues we were
experiencing and gave us a chance to experiment a bit.”
To document the evaluation process, Mitchell’s technical writers relied on MadCap Flare for single-source authoring and
multi-channel publishing, software which they already were using to produce online Help
and documentation. Using Flare, the Mitchell team single-sourced both the website and
RFP documents that needed to be distributed to every bidder in the RFP process. This
ensured that the evaluation form was consistent across the board, and that every bidder
would have access to the same information at the same time.
“We kept things very organized with a website that included documentation related
to the RFP process,” recalled Sheila Truesdell Manager Mitchell Technical
Communications & Education Services.
“It’s the only RFP we’ve seen done
that way,” added Scott Bass, MadTranslations’ Production Manager.
The MadTranslations team has been dedicated to our success on each and every translation and localization project. In 20 years in the tech communications industry, I’ve never seen better support.
Don Rasky Senior Technical Writer, Mitchell International, Inc.
From Samples to Selection
During the research and RFP process, Mitchell took detailed notes on its experiences.
When comparing vendor experiences, the company was able to lay out the different costs
as they were presented via the RFP process.
“Even though we asked for cost information in a specific way, we got a potpourri of
information back. Those results were valuable in showcasing how each vendor
worked,” Truesdell observed.
The Mitchell team also observed that the service and interactions the company experienced
throughout the RFP process reflected the quality of the vendors themselves.
For example, Truesdell said, “One of the vendors submitted information that was
incomplete. Another submitted translations that seemed appropriate for one part of the
world but not Europe.”
Significantly, Rasky noted, “We didn’t care if there was a problem, but we
did care about how those problems were solved. Having to deal with certain issues in
your native language is hard enough, but when it’s a language you don’t
speak, it’s much harder.”
After comparing different vendors’ samples, MadTranslations emerged as the clear
choice, providing translation samples that went above and beyond expectations.
“I almost broke out into a Halleluiah Chorus when I couldn’t find anything
wrong with the translation samples from MadTranslations because it meant I
wouldn’t have to deal with a range of problems,” Rasky noted. “The
attention to detail in the MadTranslations samples was extraordinary because it
understood the technical end of assembly and troubleshooting. As a person implementing
the solution, that’s huge.”
Mitchell WorkCenter™ Spanish Online Help
30-Plus Translations in 2014
Today, working with MadTranslations, Mitchell has localized the online Help and
documentation for several products with multiple modules across its three principle
solutions paths: WorkCenter™, RepairCenter™, and
estimating products. Effectively supporting different languages–French, Canadian
French, Spanish, and German–Mitchell published between 30 to 50 multilingual Help
file deployments for North America and Europe in 2014 alone.
Because of how Mitchell’s development
architecture is setup, some of the internationalized files are posted locally in
development. Additionally, there are production and user acceptance testing (UAT)
environments setup for the different regions in the world, including Canada, Europe and
the United States.
MadTranslations helped us to design a tool-independent methodology and process, showing us where things are realistic and how they can be more practical.
Don Rasky Senior Technical Writer, Mitchell International, Inc.
Streamlined Translation Process
One key to the success of the localizations has been the development of tool-agnostic
translation process.
“MadTranslations helped us to design a tool-independent methodology and process,
showing us where things are realistic and how they can be more practical,” Rasky
explained. “It’s helpful that the MadTranslations team has been willing to
work with any software we’ve chosen.”
Mitchell authors content in MadCap Flare and then packages it in translation bundles for
MadTranslations using the fully integrated MadCap Lingo
translation tool. Once MadTranslations receives the bundles, the localization
professionals there run the content through up to three different translation systems to
leverage the best automation available.
“We’re able to take content, pull it straight into MadCap
Lingo from a Flare project, and then turn it over to MadTranslations,” Rasky
notes. “We now have a process that works like a pit crew, which is critical
because our software development and supporting documentation is a vehicle that does not
stop moving.”
Stellar Service and Support
Beyond technology and process, service and support have also played a central role in
Mitchell’s success working with MadTranslations.
“Without the level of service that we received from MadTranslations, from initial
baby steps to scaling the solution, we wouldn’t have succeeded. We needed that
level of collaboration and cooperation. It was essential,” says Rasky.
Working with source files–some of which were created more than a decade
ago–the support and knowledge provided by MadTranslations was critical to solving
any technical problems arising from the older software.
“The MadTranslations team has been dedicated to our success on each and every
translation and localization project,” Rasky notes. “In 20 years in the tech
communications industry, I’ve never seen better support.”
Truesdell adds, “MadTranslations support is fantastic. We always get this feeling
like we’re the only customer.”
Scaling into the Future
Looking ahead, Mitchell anticipates that the localizations in 2015 will
significantly expand its multilingual Help file deployments for the US, Europe, and
Canada “We’re scaling fast,” Rasky observes. “We’re
excited to see how we can continue expanding and growing with MadTranslations by our
side.”
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