Thales’s Data Security Unit Boosts Efficiencies With a Centralised Translation Workflow

Consistency and accuracy are two of the hallmarks of a good translation. Achieving them is not only up to the linguist and their expertise: the work behind the scenes is also key to ensuring a high-quality output. This is why having effective, centralised workflows and tools such as Translation Memories (TMs) and glossaries, that boost uniformity and quality across the different translated pieces, is essential. 
 
For businesses working on a multimarket (and multilingual) level, this approach is vital to not only maintain brand voice across languages, but also to refine the entire operation so that it is as efficient as possible. 
 
Optimising and streamlining their translation and content publication process was precisely the main goal of Thales’s Data Security business. In the early days, the team worked with a decentralised workflow, without a TM and with multiple teams and stakeholders involved in the content production process.  
 
As the need for localised content increased, they became increasingly aware of the need to improve their workflow to be able to scale their marketing operations nimbly and effectively. As a result, having the ability to publish translated content at speed became a top priority to raise brand awareness quickly across their multiple target audiences. Likewise, ensuring their output was high quality and consistent across different languages and formats was crucial to maintain a uniform brand voice and tone that benefited from a strong long-standing brand name. 
 
To further boost consistency, the Thales Data Security team knew they needed increased visibility and control of the steps involved in content creation, translation and localisation, especially when it came to the review and approval stages. This typically involved multiple stakeholders and phases, so the team knew they had to simplify this cycle.
 
A centralised workflow for improved quality and efficiency 
To optimise its translation process and drive efficiencies throughout, Thales’s Data Security business got in touch with THG Fluently in 2018 to manage the field marketing team’s language needs in the European region. THG Fluently’s end-to-end service included multilingual brand strategy, process and workflow integration, translation, localisation, proofreading and desktop publishing (DTP) for web content and marketing assets in a range of languages.  
 
A key step in addressing the challenges the Thales Data Security team was facing was to introduce a centralised translation management system to efficiently handle translation workflows for the site across all stages. THG Fluently’s platform directly integrated with Thales’s Content Management System (CMS) and enabled the team to trigger the website translation process directly from within their own system without having to change environments. This automatically made the process to translate, review and publish content more straightforward, auditable and direct. 
 
Additionally, the implementation of review tools created an intuitive and fully traceable review environment for all content types, streamlining the checks and approval stages. As a result, Thales’s Data Security business gained greater control and increased clarity over the editing phase, allowing the team to standardise key terminology while minimising potential versioning issues. This meant the process automatically became more transparent and clear-cut. 
 
More importantly, the use of a centralised way of working gave the team the ability to leverage previous translations through TM, saving time and eliminating budget waste. This was also key in maintaining brand consistency and quality across all markets and content formats — a crucial condition for a successful international expansion. 
 
Outcomes
THG Fluently’s overhaul of Thales’s Data Security business’s workflow and the implementation of a lean and centralised system gave way to an agile marketing operation that could adapt flexibly to new content requirements. This updated approach yielded significant results not only in terms of introducing internal efficiencies, but also of consistency improvements and time and cost savings.
 
The team started to see their pieces go live in a shorter time. Meanwhile, the use of TM not only ensured that brand voice was uniform; it also was key in keeping the language services budget under control and removing unnecessary spending. 
 
“Working with THG Fluently to automate and optimise our workflows helped us to significantly limit inefficiencies and potential human errors when importing and exporting content to and from our platform for web translations. It also saved hours of manual page and batch management thanks to the use of translation management software that tracks and reports on the progress of ongoing translations. As a result, the importing/exporting turnaround time for a 20-page batch was reduced by four days,” said Kristen Modesto, from Thales’s Data Security web team. 
 
“Thales Data Security remain a phenomenal partner for THG Fluently. Our goal from the beginning was to help them capture new market share in a manner that was respectful of the brand’s positioning and tone of voice. A localisation strategy cannot be based on a transactional approach; it should aim to achieve a true partnership with a business. That is why from the onset it was important that we worked together to design the best approach to meet the needs of Thales’s Data Security business while working within their ecosystem. The deployment of waste-reduction strategies and smart workflows, together with the introduction of KPIs and clear reporting, was key to demonstrating the value of our mission to the global stakeholders. Through informed decision-making and alignment to differing service needs, we have continued our mission and journey to service excellence,” said Omar Choudhry, THG Fluently’s Head of Enterprise Sales for Europe. 
 
The positive results achieved for the EU region led the Thales Data Security team to broaden the scope of work for THG Fluently. Today, THG Fluently is responsible for the team’s worldwide localisation needs and works with the US, APAC, LATAM, and Middle East offices in the creation and translation of content for a range of different audiences across the world. The partnership has also now extended to include SEO strategy to help Thales’s Data Security business increase its global online visibility.