BACKGROUND
IBM Japan was given directives from HQ to consolidate the number of localization vendors whilst cutting costs by 20%. To complicate matters, IBM Japan needed to translate 25-million words a year, and this number was growing at annual rate of 15-20%. And with domestic suppliers having to charge premium rates to cover their costs, IBM Japan knew they had to seek an alternative solution. They needed a solution that could sustain the delivery of more translated content, whilst contributing to consolidation and cost-saving goals. EQHO is the first ever non-Japanese offshore vendor to be selected by IBM Japan. We never scored less than 96% on IBM’s global evaluation framework.
CHALLENGES
- IBM Japan needed to halve the number of vendors and reduce localization expenditure by 20%
- The amount of content that required translation was increasing by 15-20% per year (25+ million words)
- The pricing model of Japanese localization firms would not allow IBM Japan to achieve the cost-cutting goals
- IBM Japan had to maintain translation quality
- All procurement, training and project communications needed to be conducted in Japanese
SOLUTIONS
- A regional purchasing model with central or local billing
- A standard set of procedures for all countries to follow
- A single email address and FTP account so local offices could send/receive translations to/from a central point
- A single vendor providing a range of processes including, multi-lingual desktop publishing, and audio/video production
- A set of localization best practices, including industry-standard tools, and process customization
RESULTS
After successfully completing preliminary testing and due-diligence, IBM Japan selected EQHO as their first ever non-Japanese offshore vendor. EQHO was able to leverage our 6-years of IBM experience in order to meet IBM Japan’s goals without sacrificing quality or time:
- Efficiency – Japanese was used for all communications from procurement, to training and project management which made the entire process run smoother
- Knowledge – the knowledge transfer from the training sessions on IBM proprietary tools, project management, and workflow processes was fully maximized
- Compliance – a complete understanding of IBM Japan’s instructions and expectations allowed processes to be customized to comply with existing IBM standards
- Continuity – project teams, including managers, linguists, and production-support staff, were maintained throughout multiple projects, giving more continuity and greater levels of consistency
- Innovation – by selecting their first offshore vendor, IBM Japan now had a model that could be used to balance domestic providers and offshore suppliers
- Costs & ROI – when compared to local vendors, EQHO was able to help IBM save on costs by over 20% in some cases, whilst giving a road-map to follow in order to continue cost-cutting and vendor consolidation
