Accora Ltd
Accora is a leading manufacturer of assistive care equipment such as specialist adjustable beds and chairs, used in medical, residential and domestic care settings. Based in Cambridge, they serve customers ranging from large public sector organisations to SMEs. The company is increasingly expanding into international markets, from Australia and the USA to Europe, including Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands. Global Compliance Manager, Stephen Skull, was therefore looking for a reliable partner to provide translations of product manuals and instructions for use (IFU).
“As volumes of sales began to increase, we needed to find a reputable translation house to help us communicate effectively with our customers – and within the industry it’s a legal requirement to offer user manuals in the local language” Stephen explains. “I had already used K International for translation work in previous roles. In fact, our relationship goes back about sixteen years, so I knew I could rely on them. I also knew that they provided excellent value for money. A few years ago, in a previous company, we went through a massive exercise comparing the cost of translation services, and K International were among the most competitive.”
But for Stephen it’s the quality of K International’s work and their responsiveness that really stands out. “They progress the job quickly right from the start, coming back with quotes within very short timescales, and they are very responsive to your questions or amendments. For instance, adding independent validation, DTP or proof reading to a quote could be arranged immediately.”
K International will also undertake design work for you, which can be a real time saver. So not only can I send them a text that needs translating, but I can ask them to return it in any format that I need, whether that’s MS Word or publishing packages such as Adobe InDesign. This is incredibly useful, because when you’re translating into German for example, the quantity of text in the finished document can increase from the original English, which can be quite an issue from a design point of view. Knowing that the resulting translation will not just be clear and accurate, but that it will fit into the required space is a great benefit.”
“As far as international markets are concerned, it’s quite early days for us. But I think you can measure success by the comments you get back from colleagues and service users. People tend to pick up on mistakes or lack of clarity in a translation, and there’s certainly been no negative feedback, which is excellent when you consider that medical terminology may be very specific to the country concerned.”
“I have had nothing but good experiences, and I’d definitely recommend them to other businesses too.”
“Actually, a glossary of terms is something that I’d like to put in the pipeline to help us with consistency across all our communications, and to help us get into new markets. I’ll certainly be asking K International to work with us on that. In all the years that I’ve been using them I have had nothing but good experiences, and I’d definitely recommend them to other businesses too.”