Supporting schools in England and Wales through translation
Capita Translation and Interpreting carried out translation, proofreading and desktop publishing for a series of documents, which form part of set releases by Capita SIMS in Spring, Summer and Autumn.
Capita SIMS (School Information Management System) has been partnering with schools for over 30 years. This system helps to drive improvement in schools, and enable greater support for all students. SIMS moves away from a more admin-focused system, to one designed for entire school improvement.
With over 20,000 schools already using SIMS, it is vital that all of the information they need is ready for them, in the right language. Capita SIMS is committed to providing their Welsh customers with the same high-level of customer service, and therefore looked to translate their key documents into Welsh.
This followed the Welsh government’s initiative of providing all key documentation in both English and Welsh.
The challenge
Multiple file formats
Quick turnaround time
Conistency across languages
This project was incredibly comprehensive; the Capita SIMS Documentation Centre hosts a variety of content and formats, including releases notes, tutorials, handbooks, and fact sheets – all of which required translation.
Tight turnaround times were also required as Capita SIMS were bound by their own release dates, to ensure all user documentation is available on the release dates via the online Documentation Centre, in both English and Welsh. There were also specific instructions on formatting and which text to translate. For example, in some user guides, screen labels, button names and page names needed to remain in English.
How we helped
Terminology management
Linguist sourcing
Quality checks
Dedicated team
Due to Capita’s collaborative nature, Capita SIMS has a dedicated Account Manager, who acts as the main point of contact for all translation requests and queries, leaving more time for Capita SIMS to focus on what they do best, alleviating some of the administration work on their side.
Communication was key to this project, in order to ensure strict guidelines were fully understood before the project was underway.
Capita TI and Capita SIMS set aside time to discuss and implement rules and processes in order to ensure deadlines were met and translations were returned in the right format, in order to allow documents to be imported easily and displayed correctly in Capita SIMS’ system.
Being aware of release dates ahead of time also allowed us to ensure that Welsh linguists were available on certain dates and able to complete translations in short timeframes.
In order to ensure that specific instructions from Capita SIMS were followed, we implemented linguistic glossaries and a Quality Assurance stage for each project, in order to thoroughly check consistency and terminology for each translated piece.
In addition, our experienced translators suggested linguistic amends to certain phrases, advising to translate words that had been marked to remain in English, as they believed it would improve the piece, and Capita SIMS agreed with these modifications.
The result
5 translation projects as part of the Spring release
Over 27,000 words translated and proofread into Welsh
18% costs savings from Translation Memory
As a result of translation, Capita SIMS customers now have a dedicated content hub in Welsh, allowing all schools in Wales to access important information, guides and documents, allowing for effective process management across UK education institutions.
In addition, expenditure can be closely monitored and costs are more transparent, as budget is managed within the Capita business framework.
The initial set up time at the start of the project ensured that all potential issues were dealt with, which meant everything ran smoothly and worked well first time around. Capita SIMS will continue to develop the Documentation Centre, adding more content and ensuring all relevant information is available for their customers, in both Welsh and English. We will be providing translation for their Summer and Autumn releases.
What the client said
“From our initial conversation with Capita TI through to the successful completion of the entire project to schedule, we have been very impressed with the professional and friendly service offered.Once the delivery schedule was agreed, and ‘translation rules’ for the various documents were defined, Capita TI took ownership of the project, including the translation, review and formatting of the content. Knowing that the translation work was being carried out by such a dedicated, professional and thorough team, enabled me to concentrate fully on other key areas of user documentation for the forthcoming release. From time to time, the project milestones that were agreed initially had to change; Capita TI worked closely with us to ensure we still delivered to schedule.
We are delighted with the fantastic translation service offered by Capita TI and look forward to working with you again.”Nigel Rozzier, SIMS Publications Team Leader