Sell-Through Solutions is the Consumer Electronics industry’s leading provider of training content development and retail sales training support. The company provides innovative training solutions to some of the world’s largest manufacturers, retailers and service organizations, including Monster, DIRECTV, Sony and Logitech. When Sell-Through Solutions received its first-ever translation request from the world’s leading manufacturer of high performance cables, the company turned to Language Services Associates (LSA) for professional translation support.
LSA’s Marketing Manager recently sat down with Charles Thompson, the President of Sell-Through Solutions, and Molly MacPherson, LSA’s Senior [tooltip content=”A member of the Translation and Localization division assigned to manage a client project from the estimating phase through completion, delivery and follow-up.” url=”” ]Project Manager[/tooltip], to discuss this translation project.
LSA:
Why was your client interested in translating its e-learning content into French?
Charles:
With the translation of its e-learning content into French, my client will improve sell-through services in its existing French market, while reaching a larger audience among retailers there.
LSA:
Can you give me an overview of this project from a Project Manager’s perspective?
Molly:
LSA was tasked with translating a Web-based training module that detailed the different product features of the company’s high-performance headphones, used to train associates at retail stores. The project itself had two distinct phases: first, the translation of the audio script and screen text, then a voice-over recording of the audio component.
LSA:
You used [tooltip content=”The only e-learning authoring tool that’s simple enough for beginners, yet powerful enough for experts.” url=”” ]Articulate Storyline[/tooltip] software to build this training module. Can you take me through the process of getting your e-learning content exported for translation and then imported back into the system to be published?
Charles:
Articulate has a very simple and user-friendly process in place for the export / import of files for translation. Storyline allows users to export all text in a course to Microsoft Word or XML format. After the course content was translated by LSA, I simply imported the translated version of the file back in to the system. Storyline preserved all of the original formatting so I could concentrate on resizing elements such as callouts, images, and text boxes for French wording—and retiming the animations to match the new narration.
LSA:
I understand your client had very specific instructions on how the audio file was to be recorded. Can you talk about that?
Charles:
Because the training module was already available in English for all product lines, it was imperative LSA match the audio quality and delivery of the English voice recording. My client wanted the audio to be enthusiastic, but relaxed and genuine. They wanted it to be dynamic, clean, and sparkly up top without being overly reverberant or sibilant.
LSA:
How did LSA meet the audio requirements set forth by the end user?
Molly:
LSA has extensive experience providing multilingual audio services to clients across various industry segments, including the e-learning sector. We worked very closely with Charles and, by extension, his end client to identify the appropriate voice talent that matched their quality, schedule, and budget requirements.
LSA:
How did you assign Translators to this project?
Molly:
LSA has an expansive network of native-speaking Linguists who possess subject-specific expertise. For this particular project, we selected a[tooltip content=”The Team of Linguists assigned to a given project. This usually includes Translators, Editors and / or subject matter experts.” url=”” ] Linguistic team [/tooltip]that had experience translating content for the e-learning and marketing sectors. The result was a high-quality French translation that the end client was extremely pleased with.
LSA:
This was your first time overseeing a translation project. What was your overall experience with LSA?
Charles:
Working with LSA has been a home run for us! I can’t say enough good things about the employees there, especially Molly and Jim Freville, our dedicated [tooltip content=”A member of the Sales team who performs a variety of duties aimed at managing the client relationship.” url=”” ]Account Manager[/tooltip]. Throughout this entire project the team at LSA was attentive and responsive to my needs, and they were always available to answer my questions and guide me through the translation process, which was somewhat unfamiliar to me at the time.
LSA:
What is the current status of this project?
Molly:
After successful delivery of the first training module in the [tooltip content=”The language into which a text written in another language is to be translated.” url=”” ]target language[/tooltip], others followed rapidly. At this point, we have already completed translation and audio recording of a third module with a fourth one in the works.
Charles:
LSA’s highly skilled team exceeded my expectations at every turn, and they made the translation process seamless, easy, and natural. I look forward to seeing our partnership with LSA grow as our translation needs continue to evolve.
