Schindler_Supertext

Supertext elevates Schindler’s web content – in multiple languages

The global company is constantly improving the technology behind its elevators and escalators. And it relies on Supertext to give its web content the same treatment.

The company’s success story began in 1892, when Robert Schindler switched production at his plant in central Switzerland from agricultural machinery to electric elevators with belt drives. Over the next 120 years, a boom in hotel construction transformed the local business into a global player.

Today, more than 65,000 Schindler employees in over 100 countries ensure urban mobility everywhere from skyscrapers to soccer stadiums. And the international, safety-focused company appreciates the central role that language plays in its success: its website, schindler.com, is available in 28 languages, from Icelandic to Korean.

Texts and translations, from precise to creative

Schindler’s Swiss subsidiary has been working regularly with Supertext since 2018. In the spring of 2020, the two companies collaborated on their first major project: revamping the content of around 70 webpages. In addition to handling several copywriting jobs, Supertext was primarily responsible for translating content from German into French and Italian.

Schindler required a full spectrum of services, from specialist translations for complex technical passages to transcreations for a wide range of marketing material. These free, creative translations pay particular attention to rhythm, style, wordplay and cultural factors, ensuring that the final product isn’t a carbon copy of the original, but a super text fresh off the production line.

First floor: test translation

Lea Kathriner, Digital Marketing Manager, managed the project on Schindler’s side. A single smaller test job for each language pair served to check that the translators were striking the right tone and had taken the corporate language guidelines to heart. Supertext passed the test with flying colors, and Schindler could then keep using the same language experts throughout the project.

“Thanks to Supertext’s reliable support and attention to our corporate language guidelines, we were able to achieve our ambitious schedule. When translating the texts and keywords, Supertext always kept the channels they would be used for in mind, and prepared them optimally for the website.”

Then things started to move quickly. The Supertext team handled 51 individual jobs during March and April. The comprehensive terminology database (termbase) and translation memory that had been built up over the course of the collaboration were a major advantage here: they ensured consistent terminology and made the process significantly quicker and cheaper for Schindler.

Cover image via Schindler



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