Business Needs
Several years ago, Samsung selected Logrus as one of its localization and desktop publishing services providers to prepare its marketing materials and technical documentation: catalogues, leaflets, brochures, user guides, help files, corporate presentations for staff members, articles for the company’s Russian website etc.
Logrus cooperates with Samsung Electronics subdivision which sells appliances, office equipment and mobile phones in Russia. Continuous update of model line-up leads to regular revision of marketing materials. So Logrus constantly receives lots of urgent orders.
Solution
Logrus specialists have developed a project management portal to simplify the process of submitting projects from the client to Logrus and back, to ensure that the project is easily monitored, and to maximize time efficiency of project managers on both sides. The portal is based on Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 technology; it is used to place orders, track project status, to submit completed materials and to store information about previous projects. Access to the portal is granted to both Samsung and Logrus managers.
Process
When placing an order, Samsung managers fill out a special project form where project category (i.e., mobile phone), document type (leaflet, sales guide etc.), and deadline are specified. As soon as the order is placed, Logrus project manager receives an automatic e-mail notification. The manager confirms the deadline and makes a quote for the project. Throughout the project, Logrus project manager updates its status on the portal (”being translated”, “completed”, “sent to client” etc.) So the client can check the project status any time.
Completed materials are delivered via the portal, too. The client receives an e-mail notification that the project has been finished. All the manager has to do is visit the portal and download files. That is how project organizational transparency and simple interaction between the client and Logrus are ensured.
Previous projects statistics can also be easily viewed on the portal (filtered by date, category etc.). Moreover, Logrus and Samsung managers can access the archive of previous projects which helps both keep track of projects and to see when materials for the model were localized.
Another portal developed and supported by Logrus for Samsung products facilitates the work with terminology. It contains glossaries for various languages and translation fields (printers, mobile phones, laptops etc.). The glossaries for each language created by native speakers together with Samsung localization specialists are regularly updated. Samsung specialists give their final approval for terms translations and add new ones to the portal.
Samsung demands that its glossaries are strictly followed. The glossaries are centralized and routinely updated. Translators working for Samsung can search the glossaries at any time and from any location. The use of unified glossaries ensures terminological consistency and increases the quality of localized materials.
Working simultaneously on dozens of projects, Logrus specialists frequently have to carry out a great deal of similar tasks. To save their time and decrease the influence of the human factor, Logrus engineers and software developers have computerized many of processes.
For example, for Samsung technical documentation desktop publishing, specific software was created which automatically changes fonts depending on the encoding. The application has improved designers’ time efficiency dramatically due to relieving them from a lot of manual work and helped to reduce the project terms in general.
Another Logrus software checks links to images in documents. The application allows for tracking the links between documents and images and quick assembling the project into a single folder.
Benefits
“A large volume of materials from Samsung encourages search for new work optimization methods to reduce delivery terms on one hand, and to improve quality in the other,” says Vladimir Nakropin, the Deputy Department Head, Design and Graphics Department at Logrus.
So Samsung found Logrus to be a reliable partner delivering high quality services under tight deadlines with maximum project transparency.