Comactiva och Hästens

User manual for a new product

“Comactiva translate all campaign material, catalogues, instruction manuals and price lists for Hästens,” says Jennie Vestin of Hästens. “It’s reassuring that Comactiva are familiar with our terminology and the way we speak to our customers, worldwide.”

As Hästens is now developing a new product being launched internationally, the local marketing material needs to be updated. Above all, the user manual needs translating into many different languages. This is a far-reaching project, which on this occasion involves up to 50 different contacts across some 15 countries. Comactiva’s project managers keep all the balls in the air, and make sure everyone involved gets the right information at the right time, and that the various translation and proofing stages are delivered on time.

Project meeting including factory and showroom

At an initial project meeting at Hästens’ head office in Köping, also home to the company’s long-established factory, Comactiva’s project managers found out all the necessary details about the upcoming project, and were also able to try out some of the amazing beds in the Hästens showroom.

Back at Comactiva’s offices in Gothenburg, the translation process begins with a close analysis of the textual content. This reveals exactly how much text needs to be translated. It also shows whether certain text, or very similar text, has been translated in a previous Hästens project. While translating, the translator can see these repeated sections, and either use them as they are or edit them, depending on how the current text is going to be used. The analysis also forms the basis of the cost estimate, which the client needs to approve before the job goes ahead.

Next, the specially selected translators and proofreaders are contacted and informed about the project and the anticipated schedule. They are also given any reference material, along with term banks, translation memories and any other information relevant to the project. Hästens’ local market representatives are also given an indication as to when their input will be needed. And now, Comactiva’s language specialists are ready to begin their work.

Translation in the target-language country for – quality

For over 20 years, Comactiva has stood by its conviction that translation is a creative art. Respect for the creative process, along with personal service, is crucial if our language services are to maintain the quality that Hästens can – and indeed should – expect. For this reason, all our translators live in a country where the target language is spoken and the translation will be used. This is our policy for ensuring that the language in the translated versions always feels modern and relevant. And we never have a translation read through just once. It is checked in its entirety against the original source text by two different linguists, both of whom have excellent knowledge of the source and target language. After this, the translator is asked to accept, reject or adjust the suggested changes.

Once the translations are done, they are passed on to Hästens’ local representatives, who carefully read them through to check for company terminology and make adjustments where necessary. After this feedback, the texts once again go back to Comactiva’s translators, making sure that the latest updates are saved into the Hästens translation memory for each language. This in turn ensures that the same terms are used consistently in future jobs.

This may seem like a lot of back and forth, but quality work is worth spending the time on. Our tried and tested, ISO-certified process has been developed and refined over the years, enabling us proudly to deliver premium translations to Hästens and all our other clients for more than two decades. And one thing we’ve learnt is that there are no shortcuts to a great end product: translations by people, for people. Translations that are so good, we prefer to call them… well, texts.