Stratus Technologies is a leading provider of availability solutions that ensure uninterrupted performance of essential business operations. This is a requirement that is becoming even more prominent in today’s “always-on” era, where tolerance for downtime from enterprises and their customers is significantly reducing.
Stratus’ software-defined availability solution, everRun Enterprise, constantly monitors the infrastructure on which Windows and Linux applications rub, to identify any potential problems before downtime occurs. Users can manage their application environment from one central console and keep all systems running smoothly, receiving alerts and notifications if anything changes.
But what if users can’t understand those alerts and notifications?
Stratus Technologies:
Leading provider of solutions that ensure uninterrupted performance of essential business operations
Wanted to translate interactive, user interface support features to keep users engaged and invested in their products.
The Goal:
Localize 60,000 words of context-sensitive content within the graphical interface.
Translate Mandarin, German, Japanese
The multinational rollout:
As Stratus looked to roll everRun Enterprise out across multiple countries – including Germany, China and Japan – finding the answer to that question became a priority. While everRun Enterprise had a contextually-sensitive user interface built in that displays relevant help topics, Gene Hall, Stratus’ manager of information development, knew that the benefit for non-English speaking customers would be limited if this support function was only offered in English.
So, Stratus embarked on a mission: to localize 60,000 words of context-sensitive content within the graphical user interface (GUI) into three different languages.
'The level of comments we got back made it clear that Rubric’s QA testers knew what they were doing. The experience was excellent; they even found one or two things we hadn’t seen before.'
GENE HALL
MANAGER OF INFORMATION DEVELOPMENT, STRATUS
Context is key:
In many ways, this wasn’t a traditional translation project. Since much of the translated copy had to be within a GUI, the Stratus team knew that it needed to partner with a translation services company that was both linguistically and technically experienced. “This is a style of help that isn’t displayed like a book,” Hall explained. “All of the documentation is on the website, like traditional support, but there are elements such as alerts and warnings that were built right into the interface that also had to be translated.”
Those elements were context-sensitive-depending on the status of the everRun Enterprise system, different alerts would appear.
The Stratus team vetted a number of different Language Service Providers (LSPs), and Rubric stood out from the start. “Rubric showed us the intricacies of the project and the differences in locale, and really helped us through the minefield,” comments Hall. “The team pointed out potential issues up front, which meant we were prepared for problems that other vendors hadn’t even mentioned”.
Rubric won Stratus over with its close attention to those kinds of details. After Rubric showcased a comprehensive schedule for the project, along with the linguistic and technical requirements, Hall and his team decided that they had fought the right LSP partner. Now, it was time to get work.
Process and projects:
Rubric offered Stratus an easy, streamlined way of delivering files back-and-forth. With access to an exclusive FTP, Stratus exported, zipped and unzipped files, so it could be easily transferred to Rubric for localization.
Rubric worked diligently for around five months and delivered the project on time. Aside from translating the copy for the support and GUI, the company also helped with quality assurance (QA).
“Rubric provided in-country QA on the back end,” Hall said. German translators tested the German-language GUI, Japanese translators tested the Japanese product, and similar local testing was done in other target countries. The tech-savvy linguists didn’t just check the copy for any errors – they checked the GUI itself. Did words overlap? Did the context trigger the right notifications, etc.?
The testers helped ensure that the finished GUI would offer a seamless experience for Stratus’ customers. Since everRun Enterprise is a GUI-driven product, this was the critical watermark. If users couldn’t understand what every control did, there was no way for them to manage always-on infrastructure.
The Sale at the end of the tunnel:
When the localized product versions of everRun Enterprise were released to the new markets this year, the Stratus team had one goal in mind when it initiated the project with Rubric: sales and customer satisfaction.
Localized documentation had always been a high priority for Stratus as identified by the sales teams on the ground in each region. Localization of the GUI took this to another level with an added bonus of reducing the burden on customer support.
With Rubric’s help, the team released the first ever Stratus product that was localised for four different countries, from the technical documentation to the GUI.
Stratus understands that in today’s global market, going local to provide the best possible user experience is more important than ever. And when a company can offer a memorable customer experience in a new market, sales are sure to follow.
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