eXo Platform is an enterprise digital workplace software. eXo helps connect employees, tools, and information in one digital space. When the company decided to expand above English-speaking markets, integrating localization into the development cycle became critical. With Crowdin, the eXo’s tech team got 3X faster release cycles. The company now offers a product available in 20 languages to their global customers.
Postponed Release Dates and More Work for the Tech Team
The first challenge the company faced was the overwhelming amount of additional workload for the development team. The texts were manually extracted by developers and sent to translators via email. It took days to contact each translation team on the progress. When translations arrived, an additional week was spent to integrate translations back into the software. This way, localization added 3 extra months to the release of a new product version. This wasn’t the scenario eXo’s team wanted to build a multi-language product under.
What’s more, working out of context translators often misinterpreted the source texts. This led to further fixes before the deployment.
Workflows Automation via Crowdin API
eXo’s team decided to find a localization management solution to optimize all the workflows. The choice was made in favor of cloud-based software that wouldn’t require additional setup for translators and was technically advanced to fit into the development process.
The tech team explored Crowdin API and created a script that was sending new texts to the Crowdin project every night. Translators were notified of the new strings and could start their work immediately. The ready translations were integrated into the source code automatically. Reflecting on the newly organized localization workflow Patrice Lamarque, Chief Product Officer at eXo Platform says “the developers were happy: it was the end of their nightmare.”
Context for Translators and Multilingual Releases
eXo’s team engaged their community to help with translations, as well as hired professionals to proofread the strings. eXo Platform managed to grow its community from 3 to 400+ volunteer translators.
Crowdin In-Context tool was integrated right from the start. It enabled translators to work directly within eXo Platform UI and preview translations in real-time. Long discussions on the insufficient context provided were over.
Translators could start working on localizable content on Crowdin while it was still in development. This way, the new version of the eXo Platform was fully translated into 23 languages before the release. The localization-related activities that used to add 3 extra months turned into 2 hours the development team should now spend double-checking everything before the deploy.
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eXo Platform never stops developing, and all the new features the company releases today come translated by default. eXo’s team relies on Crowdin to effectively manage localization and cut release time. The project on Crowdin currently has 500+ members (both managers and contributors), and eXo keeps engaging their customers to be a part of their localization initiative.
To learn more from eXo Platform’s localization experience, read full customer story.
