Starting point: Liebherr Group has more than 43,000 employees across 130 companies in more than 50 countries. The family-run business also has 11 product divisions with areas of specialization ranging from construction machinery through to components, domestic appliances and hotels. The Liebherr Tower Cranes division is active in five locations: Germany, Russia, India, Spain and Brazil. Its communications activities need to address the specific requirements of these different markets – while also creating a consistent and recognizable global brand identity.
The marketing team for the Tower Cranes division is headquartered in Germany, with team members based at its various locations worldwide. The team members develop material themselves, which presents challenges when it comes to ensuring brand consistency. Translations have to go through an internal correction workflow because they include specific technical terminology. Coordinating these corrections is often time-consuming due to the fact that they are performed by colleagues within Liebherr’s regional organizations worldwide.
The translation process was not clearly defined: Corrections were made in different ways and sent in different formats. This meant there were several rounds of feedback and often led to implementation errors when placing the translated text into the final layout. This process – and its many approval cycles – took up a lot of time because Liebherr never compromises on quality or brand consistency.
The task: To introduce an efficient translation process for all employees in Liebherr Tower Cranes worldwide that minimizes errors and is easier to work with.
The challenge: Implementing a TMS (Translation Memory System) with an automatic learning function that can be used around the world, regardless of local differences in IT and software availability.
The solution: With one2edit™, we made the translation and adaptation processes significantly faster and easier to use – while minimizing errors and maximizing brand consistency. Its simplified workflows are now enabling Liebherr Tower Cranes to create communications material in additional languages without increasing costs. Brochures and flyers are now produced in 9 languages, while the employee magazine is published three times a year in 6 languages.
The implementation: Liebherr Tower Cranes uses one2edit™ as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) for translation management. Its marketing team – or external agency – begins by making a master version in German and entering it into the system. Next, workflows covering the required languages are created in one2edit™. Translation providers or Liebherr employees at various locations can then translate the content at the same time.
In the next step, Liebherr employees at its regional sites or in the company’s headquarters make corrections and give their approval online. one2edit™ keeps a record of all changes so that it’s always possible to go back to a previous version. Corrections can be saved in the TMS and sent to the translation agency or translator as feedback. The comment function allows specific and precise feedback on individual points, making the process simpler and more transparent. Employees from other departments, including Sales and Human Resources, are also extremely satisfied with one2edit™. They’re able to use a range of flexible templates to create and adapt materials like job advertisements or service labels. This saves Liebherr Tower Cranes time and money, while also ensuring that all communications material is 100 % on-brand at all times – right down to the menus in the canteen.
user satisfaction
languages
reduction in costs
The success:
Significant
Savings
Global
Collaboration
Full Process
Control
Shorter
Self Sufficient
Markets
Performance
and Reliability
