A POTTED HISTORY
US-based Telecoms giant ShoreTel was founded in 1996 around the belief that setting up and using phone systems should be, and could be, simple for the customer – “there had to be a better way”.
Driven by this passion for simplicity, ShoreTel has become a key developer of business phone systems, unified communications as well as voice and SMS platforms that enhance interaction between people.
THE CHALLENGE
Having expanded across EMEA and Asia, ShoreTel reached a point where it needed to communicate with existing and potential clients in their own language. The company recognised that being global meant that communicating only in English just didn’t cut the mustard; it needed a language strategy. It needed a strong and experienced partner to help the company connect with non-native English speakers across all areas of the business. First step was to localise its online training courses to help its partners sell more effectively across EMEA and Asia.
Next up was a mass marketing localisation campaign, starting with its website, then corporate films and product/exhibition materials. The key was not just to find a translation company which could accurately translate materials but to find a localisation partner who could make the materials fit culturally – to ‘speak’ directly to their end clients. They put the requirement out to tender and chose Dialogue to spearhead this campaign.
When asked why he selected Dialogue, Michael Lambert, Director of Education Services, commented: “We interviewed several candidates for partnership on our localisation effort. What stood out about Dialogue was their attention to detail, their focus on the importance of the customer relationship, and their highly capable and professional staff.”
THE SOLUTION
- From the start Dialogue acted not just as a localisation company but as a language partner, advising and helping to company go in the right direction with their localisation strategy, at the right price for them.
- Dialogue worked hard to establish the particular style and tone required from the outset for both the online training platform and marketing materials. This was the key to success.
- Dialogue created a glossary of specialist telecoms terms which was reviewed and agreed with the local markets prior to embarking on the work.
- Dialogue’s professional voiceover artists recorded the audio in the different target languages, in the style required, time-coding it to fit perfectly with the films used for self-paced learning.
- Alongside this, all course materials were localised in PowerPoint and Student Guides in Word to accompany both the self-paced learning online and classroom-based training.
- Then came the website, starting by using the agreed glossary of terms to complete a full localisation – not just translation of the content but localisation where local references needed to be adapted to the market and target audience.
- Finally, the localised material went through Dialogue’s strict ISO 17100 quality assurance processes to ensure that the translations submitted were 100% accurate, in the right style and ticked all the boxes.
- Dialogue stored the website in its memory software to make updates easy, consistent and cost-effective.
THE RESULTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES
ShoreTel now has a powerful multilingual training platform that is successfully helping its partners sell worldwide. The multilingual website and promotional films is helping to advertise its products globally and the company is continuing to expand rapidly. Dialogue continues to work with ShoreTel for a variety of localisation projects to support this growth and is proud to have helped in its global expansion.
Gary Gould, EMEA Marketing Director, had this to say about the partnership, “Dialogue is a trusted vendor for ShoreTel and has supported major translation projects including local domain website refreshes, marketing campaigns, service documents and technical training. The standard of service is exceptional and the attention to detail is first-class”.
In September 2017 Mitel completed the acquisition of ShoreTel. Dialogue continues to work for the new organisation.