Connexion Corporate Communications Case Study
Connexion Automates Multilingual Translation and Delivers Results for European Clients
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Connexion Corporate Communications NV (www.connexion.eu) prides itself on being able to speak the language of business - in several different tongues.
The Belgian company started out in 1987 as a multilingual translation agency that handled copywriting and editing. Two decades later, it has grown into a Web and communication solutions provider that also builds Web sites and database applications for multinational corporations.
Connexion discovered Hot Banana, a leading Cold Fusion-based Web CMS, when its own custom-built, in-house system could no longer keep pace with increasingly involved client demands. A channel partner since 2004, Connexion now deploys Hot Banana for most of its Web CMS accounts.
"Hot Banana offers out-of-the-box eMarketing features that make it simple for clients to optimize their Web sites for search engines, generate email campaigns and publish press releases," said Stany van Gelder, marketing director, Connexion. "Because it is available as licensed software or as SaaS, we are able to offer it to a broad spectrum of companies, large and small."
With its specialized focus on languages, Connexion was also attracted to Hot Banana's multilingual capabilities. The Web CMS complies with the Unicode language standard, enabling it to handle non-Roman character sets, such as Chinese, Arabic and Punjabi. It also maintains a direct link between the primary-language site and translated versions of the same site, easing the process of updating content.
Even with these capabilities, translating a typical 50-page Web site into six languages took a time-consuming 30 working days. All site content, from text to alt tags to meta data, had to be cut and pasted manually into the software commonly used by human translators. Then, the translated text had to be painstakingly copied back into the CMS.
Fortunately, Connexion was able to leverage another Hot Banana hallmark - its open-code Cold Fusion underpinnings - to build a multilingual translation plug-in that cut the 30-day translation window down to less than 12.
Reducing translation time by nearly two-thirds
Connexion developers built a Hot Banana plug-in, called the Automated Web Translation Workflow, that serves as a bridge between the Web CMS and the computer-aided translation (CAT) software favored by linguists, such as Trados, DéjàVu, Wordfast and SDLX.
From the Hot Banana interface, site publishers can now send Web pages, portions of Web pages and even entire Web sites to the translation software in an XML file that keeps all of the Web-site data intact.
Once human translators have edited the content in their favorite CAT tool, they can send the new translation back to Hot Banana in just a few clicks. The content, navigation, metadata, pictures and links appear in the same layout as the original pages, which the Hot Banana user can then choose to further validate, submit for approval or publish.
The new Hot Banana plug-in made it possible for Connexion to translate a 50-page site into six languages in less than 12 days - a far cry from the 30 days it used to take.
"In addition to saving time and money, Connexion's Automated Web Translation Workflow frees our clients from having to freeze content on their primary-language site a month or more in advance," said van Gelder. "And they no longer have to use technical people to update the Web site, because any secretary can do the job."
The new multilingual translation plug-in works with any Hot Banana implementation, enabling Connexion to actively market and resell its custom add-on.
"We created something that is extremely unique for the mid-market sector," said van Gelder. "The multilingual plug-in is the ultimate illustration of how intuitive and easy-to-use Hot Banana is. It enables companies to affordably bring local languages and cultures to their online marketing programs, without relying on third parties."
Launching a seven-language intranet for Ingersoll Rand
The European headquarters of Ingersoll Rand is one of the clients benefitting from Connexion and Hot Banana's multilingual capbilities. With 10,000 employees across Europe, Ingersoll Rand needed a modern, easy-to-use tool to inform new staff about the company's history, philosophy, products, divisions, HR policies, code of conduct and other essential, practical information.
The "Welcome to Ingersoll Rand" intranet is a secure Web site with automated user authentication. HR personnel can automatically save a static copy of the full Web site to a removable USB flash drive, customized with the first and last name of each new employee. For employees who lack access to a computer, they can also create a full PDF of the Web site, with the latest content in an easy-to-read, printable format.
Ingersoll Rand quickly localized its intranet into seven languages within an exceptionally short time frame, using the Automated Web Translation Workflow.
"With our recent, numerous acquisitions across the world and our rapidly growing staff, the Hot Banana/Connexion solution means substantial time and cost savings to our multinational organization," said Jean-Philippe Dara, vice president, human resources, Ingersoll Rand. "Hot Banana's ease-of-use and effectiveness are well suited to our industrial environment and requirements."
Growing Boom Chicago's online sales by 50 percent - and winning awards
Connexion's most cutting-edge Hot Banana implementation is one that did not require multilingual capabilities at all.
Connexion built a new Web site for Boom Chicago (www.boomchicago.nl), a comedy institution that experienced a 20 percent surge in traffic and a 50 percent boost in online ticket sales just 15 days after the new site went live. The project earned Connexion two CMS Awards 2006 in the "Best Content" category.
Boom Chicago brings a mix of comedy, improvisation and music to worldwide audiences through fast, funny stage shows, tours, and video content for broadcast, broadband and mobile.
The comedy institution required a Web CMS that would allow visitors to obtain show information, watch video, interactively communicate, and easily purchase tickets and DVDs online. The system also needed to manage large-scale viral marketing and emailing campaigns in a simple and straightforward manner, and produce excellent search-engines rankings.
Connexion integrated Boom Chicago's legacy stage-show ticketing system with Hot Banana to manage seat availability and sales in real time. It also connected the Web CMS to email solution Addemar and Europe's market-leading analytics tool, Nedstat.
The new Web site, built in a few months' time, helps Boom Chicago maximize its revenue from online tickets, viral videos and merchandising.
"The great thing with Hot Banana is that the content maintenance cost is very low," said Luke Hilton, IT manager, Boom Chicago. "Our marketing team can update all content themselves in a swift and easy way, without relying on external resources or any Web expertise."
