Oticon
Software localisation for Oticon: using Passolo to streamline workflows and decrease costs

The client
Oticon A/S, part of William Demant Holding, is a leading hearing aid manufacturer that designs and manufactures both hearing solutions for adults and specialised paediatric instruments. Its core audience comprises those with hearing difficulties who wish to lead active lives, while remaining conscious of and educated about their wellbeing. Its mantra, "People First", drives Oticon to tailor its hearing solutions in line with not only its customers’ expectations, but their input as well. Thanks to its people-orientated ethos, its products are now used and worn by people in over 100 countries around the world.
The challenges
One key feature of Oticon’s service offering is its bespoke software for fitting solutions. Prior to their collaboration with translate plus, they had been translating in-country, using their own marketing and audiology personnel to ensure their products were saleable across Europe and beyond. For Oticon, this meant re-assigning valuable resources from other departments, and asking colleagues to use complicated software localisation tools, which were time-consuming and ineffective. Oticon needed to find a way to free up time by removing core localisation responsibility from their marketing and audiology personnel, while still involving them in the approval of final translations.
The tailored solution
One key feature of Oticon’s service offering is its bespoke software for fitting solutions.
To solve these challenges, translate plus implemented Passolo, a specialised software localisation application, in conjunction with our highly experienced linguists, who are not only trained in Passolo but who are experts in Oticon’s subject area. This enables us to successfully translate all content into 18 languages, including non-Latin scripts such as Chinese and Arabic.
Passolo allows the automatic identification of UI (user interface) strings that need translating, separating them from those that have already been translated and signed off in previous versions of an application. What’s more, it shows all the interconnections that allow linguists to visualise what they are translating, making it easier to see whether the text belongs to a menu item, dialog box, button or other UI element. Passolo also creates a map with pop-up windows, showing what is being worked on by the linguist at any given time.
The benefits
The biggest benefit for Oticon is that they have been able to optimise their workflows by omitting their previous dependence on in-country staff to take care of the translations. Furthermore, Oticon have also been able to enjoy significant cost savings, thanks to our localisation consultants identifying non-software content – such as MadCap Flare help projects – that could be translated in a more streamlined way than before. By using advanced glossary and translation memory technology, we were able to ensure better consistency between the help content and the software it describes.
Oticon are also able to benefit from review plus, a component of our cloud-based translation management system, i plus, which allows Oticon’s marketing and audiology personnel to validate the translations provided by translate plus. If any changes are made, translation memories are automatically updated and the final files are automatically amended and prepared for delivery.
The improved workflow implemented by translate plus has overall led to a more accurate and consistent level of translation, while significantly improving time and cost effectiveness for Oticon, helping them to achieve faster time to market with a better multilingual software offering.
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