Overall, collaborating with Ulatus has been highly rewarding. We deeply appreciate the professionalism, expertise, and proactive approach exhibited by all teams and departments at Ulatus.
Our client is a global management consulting firm offering strategic and operational services to businesses, governments, and non-profits. With over 60 offices in more than 40 countries, the firm provides expertise in strategy, operations, technology, innovation, mergers and acquisitions, and sustainability across various industries, including automotive, consumer products, energy, financial services, healthcare, high tech, public sector, and transportation. Known for its collaborative and client-focused culture, they emphasize integrity, diversity, and delivering measurable results while engaging in thought leadership, pro bono work, and sustainability initiatives, while offering extensive career development opportunities and global mobility for its consultants.
They needed a translation partner for a project involving the translation of approximately 400 legal classified documents, totaling 6.5 million words, from English to Japanese. The complexity of the legal subject matter posed significant challenges, requiring specialized knowledge and precision along-with providing the translation in a bilingual format.
Our client set a demanding deadline for this extensive project, stipulating that it must be completed within a tight 4-month timeframe. They also required interim deliveries every alternate week, emphasizing the crucial role of punctuality and consistent progress in meeting project milestones effectively. This time-sensitive schedule added significant pressure, necessitating meticulous planning and execution to ensure both quality and adherence to deadlines.
Considering the nature of the documents to be translated and the extensive volume, it was paramount to form a team of specialist translators, proofreaders, and editors with expertise in legal matters. The confidential and crucial nature of these documents added an extra layer of complexity, as any errors could have serious legal implications. We needed professionals not only fluent in both source and target languages but also well-versed in legal terminology and concepts. Additionally, the content had to be translated into Japanese without any loss of meaning, ensuring that the intended message was accurately and consistently conveyed through all the files. This required meticulous attention to detail and a deep understanding of the legal context in both languages. All these factors constituted a significant challenge that proved challenging to surmount.
One of the critical client requirements was that the translated files be delivered in a bilingual format,this has been a common and challenging demand among organizations nowadays for reasons such as accessibility, accuracy, clarity, compliance, verification and validation, international business, education and training, and government requirements. In this case, the bilingual format was essential due to legal compliance and the need for the documents to be legally binding and enforceable in different regions. Given the sheer volume of files and the specific format requirement, this posed a significant challenge, necessitating meticulous planning, specialized expertise, and rigorous quality control to ensure successful delivery.
The Project Management Team began by conducting a comprehensive scope assessment of the entire project to gauge its maturity and competency. Following this evaluation, the team translated their findings into actionable tasks, aligning them with the project lifecycle. Interim deliveries were marked as Project milestones as requested and a customized project management methodology tailored to the project's unique requirements was devised. This systematic approach played a pivotal role in efficiently meeting the client's demanding deadline.
The Project Management team, assisted by the Global Talent Acquisition Team, meticulously reviewed the extensive linguist database to find the ideal candidates. Once finalized, the Quality Team collaborated to finalise a linguistic team comprising translators, proofreaders, and editors. The next crucial step involved ensuring consistent translation of technical terms across all documents. To achieve this, a Glossary was created using our in-house Terminology Management Tool and shared with all linguists involved in the project. Furthermore, all files were processed through a Translation Management System (TMS) to maintain consistency. The Quality Analysis Report generated by the TMS aided the Project Management Team in promptly identifying and resolving any issues that arose, ensuring efficient and reliable translation across all documents.
A dedicated and specialized DTP team was established to format the files into a legal binding bilingual format as per the client's specifications. Project goals and requirements were clearly communicated to the DTP team, and daily scrums with the project managers kept the project on track. Meeting daily page targets was crucial for the DTP team, as they were responsible for efficiently formatting the extensive volume of translated files within designated timeframes. After rigorous quality checks, the final bilingual files, totaling nearly 10,000 pages, were delivered to the client on time. This project underscores the proficiency of our Legal Translation team in ensuring compliance with legal requirements. Moreover, the seamless execution demonstrates the capabilities of Ulatus, a Professional Translation Company in handling large-scale, complex translation projects with precision.
