Equivital Goes International
Hidalgo, a Swavesey, Cambridge-based company has developed an advanced remote physiological welfare monitoring system called the EquivitalTM Life Monitor.It is designed to protect the lives of personnel operating in hazardous or harsh environments, such as military, emergency services and lone workers, who are exposed to a heightened risk of injury or physical trauma. It is the first field-deployable remote physiological welfare monitoring system and offers a primary measure of a wearer’s cardio-respiratory status, in addition to secondary information about a user’s activity, thermal and neurological status. In addition, it has uses by para-medics when attending a casualty, by health organisations to monitor at-risk patients remotely and for sports and performance monitoring.
Since joining Passport to Export Hidalgo has already received orders from Portugal, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland, the USA as well as the UK.Hidalgo’s sights are also aimed even further afield. Whilst Director Peter Cowley’s contacts in the industry have “a high level of intellectual capability and education, and English is generally the common language”, Peter was certain that communicating with markets in their own language would be beneficial.
Peter called on Emma Sharp, one of RLN’s International Communications Adviser’s to discuss where to start.Language training was ruled out as the number of export markets is too great to cover, and Peter’s time is at a premium (he also already speaks good German!).Recruiting someone with languages was also not feasible.So, it was decided that the company’s two-page product information leaflet should be translated and both posted on the website, as well as printed for distribution at meetings/trade exhibitions.
“We wanted to ensure that anyone using foreign keywords in a search engine would be directed to Equivital product information in their own language.We also designed the page so that when you click on the foreign language pdf you will be taken straight to our website.”
Peter also sees a more subtle advantage to translation: “by making the effort to translate product literature, we made a statement about the company – it shows clients that we are globally-minded and committed to our international markets – in this way translation is a “quick win”. Although most of our contacts speak good English, when you hand them text in their own language often their eyes light up.”
Deciding which languages to translate into and where to get the translations done was also discussed.Emma provided Hidalgo with a list of quality-assured translation companies and Peter received quotes from three.He eventually chose a local firm in Huntingdon who were able to translate into ten languages, proofread the texts and ensure that the texts were formatted appropriately for pdf use. Peter was very impressed by the service he received and the attention to detail shown.