Client background
Our client is a US-based online delivery company for food, groceries, alcohol, home essentials, and third-party orders. It has more than 10,000 employees working across over 1,000 micro-fulfillment centers.
The client wanted to expand into Canada and Europe. They needed a partner who could quickly localize their applications into German, French, Spanish, and UK and Canadian English.
The challenges
Discovery surfaced three challenges.
A fixed deadline. The client's release roadmap couldn't move. Because the strings were hardcoded, the team couldn't see the full scope or estimate the effort upfront. SoftServe had two months to take the project from start to finish.
A wide scope. The work covered far more than the customer-facing ordering app. It also included supporting apps for inventory, scheduling, and drivers, plus the website, Android and iOS frameworks, email and SMS notifications, and award and discount policies. All of it had to be localized into five languages.
Distributed teams. The client, the localization team, and the translators worked in different time zones, which made collaboration harder.
The solution
After a two-week discovery, our team built a workflow that met the client's timeline.
A different localization workflow. A typical project starts with the localization team receiving strings and sending them to a translation vendor. The team then reviews the returned translations and delivers the strings for implementation. Hardcoded strings and a short timeline called for a different approach.
First, our developers manually extracted the hardcoded strings from the app. Our localization team translated them into German, and the vendors covered the other languages.
The vendors used native speakers in different time zones, so translators needed to receive strings as soon as possible. The project also used continuous localization: new strings arrived at all hours while translation was already underway.
A localization tool made file management easier. Automatic translation memory stored common words and phrases, so they didn't need to be translated again.
The translations arrived on schedule. SoftServe QA continuously tested the translations and process flows and fixed translation-related bugs before integration. Once testing and integration were complete, the localized applications and services launched.
The outcome
SoftServe delivered localized apps in five languages, and the client met its launch deadlines. We also internationalized the previously hardcoded strings, so future localization projects will be faster and easier. The client has since expanded across Canada and Europe.
Let's talk if you need to localize on a tight timeline, even when the starting conditions are complicated.
