September 2024 Meetups

September 6: Coffee Hour with Experts - Advanced Features and Remote Teams

Here are the highlights of the coffee hour:

Advanced Features:

• Frank Tagader shared about using variables in a multilingual environment, suggesting how it can function like a terminology list for efficient translation. He emphasized self-policing by organizing variables alphabetically for easier access.
• Jessica Betterly demonstrated the use of variables to update report dates automatically in a user-friendly manner, highlighting how it improves efficiency by reducing outdated content.
• Sarah Cawlfield showcased the classification and filtering system that allows users to quickly narrow down search results by product type and category, making it easier to manage large sets of content.
• Mike Terry discussed how they used media manager for content reuse, especially with screen captures and PDF documents, improving efficiency by managing permissions and ensuring consistency across multiple regions.
• Jessica Betterly highlighted the use of paths to create user-specific learning experiences, alternating between videos and articles, especially useful for new users.
• Frank Tagader introduced Link Manager, a feature that tracks and fixes broken links, significantly reducing time spent manually identifying and correcting links in large content libraries.

Remote Teams:

• Frank Tagader mentioned that managing remote teams requires flexibility and strong communication. He emphasized the importance of being proactive in using tools like Teams to coordinate work, have impromptu check-ins, and collaborate effectively, even when team members are in different time zones.
• Jessica Betterly highlighted the need for intentional relationship-building when working remotely, noting that informal communication channels (like group chats) help mimic in-office interactions and maintain team cohesion.

Community Members Leaving:

• Mike Terry announced that he is leaving his role at Circular Materials after nine years to become an independent consultant. He expressed his gratitude for the community and the knowledge management system that helped him in his career.
• Carol Hattrup also shared that she is leaving her role managing the CX-1 platform at her company and transitioning to a different position. She mentioned her love for the platform and her hope to return to the community in the future.
• Both Mike and Carol were praised for their contributions to the community and will be missed by fellow members.

September 19: Globalization with Waters

Highlights from this customer meetup:

• Johannes Hokamp from Waters Corporation presented their approach to globalization and translation management. He emphasized the need for localized content in languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, catering to customer preferences and market demands.
• The Waters team highlighted the importance of translations as a key factor in improving customer experience, especially in regions where English proficiency among support staff and customers has decreased over time. They implemented a bidirectional translation process to make knowledge articles available across multiple languages, starting with English and moving to local languages such as Japanese and Chinese.
• Machine Translation (MT) is used for cost-efficiency, with two quality levels:
• MT only for quick translations, costing about 2 cents per article.
• MT with post-editing by bilingual linguists, which ensures higher quality at a cost of $10 per article.
• Marc Noble shared that 80% of traffic on local language sites comes from customers, reinforcing the critical role translations play in customer satisfaction and user engagement.
• The Waters team leverages AI tools to assist with translations, and Libby Healy shared how internal AI tools have greatly improved their ability to handle translations in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese with minimal errors. However, human proofreading is still necessary for technical terms like product names that require careful handling.
• Amy Etheridge, Director of Customer Success and Advocacy from Expert, emphasized that organizations should involve Expert teams early in the process to address the complexities of translation, including the tone, technical level, and synchronicity of content.
• Frank Tagader from Sylogist raised the potential advantages of using AI for handling regional language variants such as converting simplified Chinese to traditional Chinese, which Johannes Hokamp agreed could be efficiently managed by AI translation tools.
• Sriram Srinivasan from Versuni shared his organization’s exploration of translation management systems (TMS) and their evaluation of Spartan for integrating translation workflows across digital channels.
• The Waters team, including Johannes Hokamp, Libby Healy, and Marc Noble, provided insights into how translations benefit both internal staff and external customers, enhancing global customer support and increasing customer engagement.