The client

DTZ is one of the “big four” global real estate advisers operating across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia Pacific and the Americas. With a team of over 12,500 property professionals and a system operating across 150 cities in 45 countries, DTZ works with clients to provide innovative real estate, capital markets and business solutions worldwide.

The challenge

With such an extensive global reach, DTZ found that their multilingual web presence had become fragmented, with colleagues in different countries creating content in different languages without any unifying consistency. This contributed to “brand erosion”, lessening the effectiveness of DTZ’s global marketing approach, as well as presenting a technical challenge in keeping content up-to-date.

DTZ needed to centralize administrative and technical functions, achieve consistency in linguistic aspects of the information presented via dtz.com, and at the same time ensure that content could be targeted to DTZ’s local in-country markets where relevant.

The tailored solution

Using the Vignette content management system (CMS), DTZ undertook a comprehensive review of what the group wanted to say globally and at the local level. The result was a selection of content from many countries in many languages, which translate plus then localized for the appropriate target markets.

DTZ were able to take advantage of the extensive global coverage offered by translate plus, with 25 different language combinations required. We ensured that the translations were consistent and coherent in the target languages, despite the multitude of different source languages, through the use of highly experienced specialist translators and a customized pre-CMS review stage. This incorporated a check for conformity with the DTZ style guide to ensure that multilingual content returning to the CMS could be published in accordance with DTZ’s corporate identity.

Deadlines are crucial with any project, and never more so than when content needs to be synchronously localized for so many different markets. With a dedicated translate plus project manager specifically assigned to this project, DTZ could take reassurance that every language would be delivered on time and on budget.

The benefits

DTZ achieved not just consistent high quality, but a consistent process across all the different languages involved, by partnering with a single language provider who has a track record of large CMS projects.

From a budgeting point of view, translate plus put in place clear per-word translation rates so that DTZ had full transparency of costs throughout the lifetime of the project; and thanks to careful planning, translate plus provided all the translations within DTZ’s deadlines.

Most importantly, by using translate plus to combine worldwide consistency with in-country focus, DTZ were able to reinforce their “local passion, global team” message—thereby significantly increasing the power of dtz.com as a tool to attract new customers and convey the right image for the group.

Andrew Ellis, DTZ’s Website Content Editor, said:
“The quality of translations we received from translate plus was excellent. The content included a lot of property-related technical terms, which were double-checked by the translate plus team, who were diligent in checking words that could have multiple meanings. The service was fast, the translations of a very high standard and the price very good value compared to other translation firms we received quotes from. I would recommend translate plus to anyone with small or large translation requirements and will have no hesitation about using them again in the future.”