Who are GS Yuasa UK?
As the world’s leading battery manufacturer, GS Yuasa launched the GS Yuasa Academy, online training website which is designed to provide technical training and assessed accreditation for GS Yuasa battery users. These include workshop technicians, distributors and colleges. GS Yuasa academy is the original and only online battery training solution – with 21 main courses and a COVID-19 taster course made up of video and web-based e-learning modules.
What challenges did GS Yuasa face?
When GS Yuasa needed to localise various e-learning assets for the GS Yuasa Academy battery training programme, they turned to ALM Translations for assistance. GS Yuasa needed us to localise the online platform website content, e-learning supporting materials and 126 dynamic videos for the courses into four European languages: German, Spanish, Italian and Swedish.
Additionally, they also needed to find a way for in-country teams to be able to easily review and approve the course content. There were particular challenges to coordinate, with in-depth technical content in the form of copy, images and video, needing to be reviewed by a large number of in-country teams. As this was a new way of working for GS Yuasa, ALM needed to demonstrate how the proposed custom workflow would benefit the wide number of stakeholders.
How did ALM Translations meet the challenges?
As there were many different assets to localise, ALM Translations carried out extensive project planning to bring everything together. For instance, for the dynamic videos for the courses, ALM Translations were required to localise voiceover and on-screen text and deliver each of the 126 videos back as a fully localised .mp4 video. This was no small task, especially as many of the videos included animated graphics and in picture text!
GS Yuasa needed a partner that was ready to provide an end-to-end solution. Previously, GS Yuasa worked with agencies that would only work on the translation element, leaving GS Yuasa to find resources to complete the rest of the required process. This was far from efficient. Fortunately, with ALM Translations, GS Yuasa received usable materials that they could immediately implement into the online training modules, saving valuable time for their internal teams.
ALM Translations liaised with both Yuasa’s internal teams and multidisciplinary teams at ALM to ensure quality output was in line with Yuasa’s unique requirements. When it came to collating all the assets that needed localisation, this was particularly important. ALM worked directly with all in-country offices – each of which had two translation reviewers per language.
How did ALM Translations process the different elements of the e-learning course?
Supporting materials for the training course
Training was provided to all GS Yuasa in-country reviewers and a tailored workflow was created to allow each of the two reviewers in each country to sign off the material translations in a cloud-based translation system. Assets were logically split all for translation into small batches – which enabled the client sign-off in Memsource (our Translation Management System) to happen in manageable chunks and support an effective feedback loop. This also meant that in-country reviewers were not overwhelmed with the workload and able to perform their usual daily jobs.
Video content (voiceovers & on-screen text)
The process of localising the video content for the online training involved many moving parts. Upon labelling the video scripts (spoken) and the on-screen text, professional voiceover artists (including male and female voices for each language) were approved by each of the in-country offices (based on samples provided) before moving forward with any recordings.
When GS Yuasa added further videos to the project scope (including a COVID-19 course), ALM Translations was able to confidently meet their needs. With set deadlines for the in-country offices to sign off the different batches of videos, ALM Translations ensured that all project deadlines were easily met, and everyone was always on the same page.
Online platform website content
Through direct contact between ALM Translations and GS Yuasa’s web developers, the project progressed according to plan, and everyone was kept in the loop. ALM delivered pseudo-translations of the source .XLIFF files for the web developers at GS Yuasa to import into a testing environment. Therefore, the developers could check all translatable content before the live translation work began, allowing any workflow or process glitches to be identified upfront, preventing delays to delivery timings.
ALM Translations was granted access to specific source files that included non-translatable content for the backend. Working with our in-house file engineering experts, internal non-translatable content was protected to prevent any increase in project costs or timescales. With the flexibility to offer fast turnaround times and the willingness to go above and beyond, ALM Translations and GS Yuasa were well-aligned in their project ambitions.
What were the project benefits for GS Yuasa?
By having e-learning content localised in four European languages, GS Yuasa was able to expand its training offering to thousands of trade customers across Europe. This increased their level of service and support as well as improved brand awareness in these countries, GS Yuasa Academy is now fully standardised across EU markets, which created an immensely powerful tool the online training of workshop technicians, distributors and colleges.
Subsequent projects are now more efficiently handled. Approved translations held within the cloud-based translation system has improved in-country reviewer efficiency. Brochures and manuals are produced more quickly. The whole process is more efficient in terms of time and budgets. ALM Translations supports GS Yuasa as a translation partner and an extension of its European marketing departments helping them to achieve their international marketing goals.
You can view the final results of this project here:
Source English: https://academy.gs-yuasa.eu/
German: https://academy.gs-yuasa.eu/de/
Spanish: https://academy.gs-yuasa.eu/es/
Italian: https://academy.gs-yuasa.eu/it/
Swedish: https://academy.gs-yuasa.eu/sv/