ALM in the final 4 of industry awards!
In our usual sea of emails, the email from the Association of Translation Companies (ATC), confirming that we’re one of this year’s Company of the Year Award finalists stopped us in our tracks!
Our reaction – the whole team cheered and there was a great buzz in the office for the rest of the day.
This highly prestigious award in the translation industry would be far more than just a trophy sitting on a shelf, gathering dust if we’re lucky enough to win.
The great thing about awards like this:
- Our whole team’s hard work is recognised
- It contributes to staff happiness and job satisfaction
- People want to build their career with a company like ours
- The best talent is retained.
- Our clients have confidence in our services
So, what set us apart?
We have never felt the momentum of the business pushing forward building up as we have in the past 18 months. For starters, we had a whopping 25% increase in turnover for the last financial year, without a reduction in profit margins and this trend is set to continue.
We’ve achieved so much in the past couple of years – from being a humble Birmingham translation agency to opening a virtual office in France, (we now employ a dedicated French-speaking project manager), launching a dedicated French website, starting networking in earnest via the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce to gaining a presence in Mexico and London.
We achieved ISO17100 certification at the end of December 2018 and are now also ISAE3000 accredited, through working with a client who requires the highest levels of security due to the nature of their work.
The addition of a 2nd Vendor Manager to our team was much needed to ensure our plans for growth are kept on track and that our quality remains assured.
Our team of in-house linguists has also expanded, as we now have a dedicated localisation department working on English adaptation for a variety of clients.
What’s ongoing?
We’re reaching out to clients in the US with our fully localised US website going live towards the end of 2019. We’ve had a sudden influx of enquiries from the US so are busily producing a fully localised US website which is due to launch at the end of 2019.
On the technology side, technological advances are coming thick and fast and as a small company, we are mindful that we have to keep up with current trends. We have invested in a new Project Management system, that will help us to streamline our processes further, using a much higher level of automation. We are also building MT Engines for certain clients as part of our Research and Development programme. MTPE is now part of our offering to clients, where relevant.
ALM is well equipped for the future and we are heading towards our goal of GBP 4 million turnover by 2021.
The whole company is invested in our vision for the future and our team synergy is now aligned in accordance with our goals. This team focus is making a real difference.
ALM’ has worked very hard at personal development within our team. We learned lessons from poor staffing decisions and now offer university graduates who come and work with us can see a clear career path and progression.
But isn’t just rolled out to brand-new starters – there are clear career paths as well as new opportunities for longer-serving members of our team. Opportunities and different roles have been created to ensure the team is motivated and feels valued.
By this time next year, if all goes to plan, our business will have taken further leaps forward; our team is up and running and trained to cover all aspects of the business and we are now focused on specialising in what we do best – technical, marketing and legal translations and language services for companies in the manufacturing sectors.
As for the awards, we’ve since had a second notification that one of our PMs has reached the final of the Project Manager of the Year at the Association of Translation Companies’ awards dinner, but this deserves a separate article in its own right.
In the meantime, we’ve made space on the shelf in anticipation.
About ALM Translations
ALM Translations is Birmingham translation agency and a member of the Association of Translation Companies and an ISO 17100:2015 certified company based in Henley-in-Arden in Warwickshire. In business since 2002, the company also has offices in Birmingham, London, France and Mexico.
ALM Translations is a professional translation company with in-house linguists, some of the industry’s leading translators, and advanced technology. It is in the midst of an exciting period of proactive growth and development.
ALM Translations consistently helps its clients to communicate through multilingual online and offline content in over 70 languages.
Visit: www.almtranslations.com to see the range of services we offer.