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The ESTnet is the network for the electronic and software technologies industry in Wales. It provides a collaborative environment in which people and organisations working with these enabling technologies can create strong business relationships, exchange knowledge and share ideas.
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The ESTnet is the voice of the industry for the industry in Wales and aims to help its members grow their businesses through trade and collaboration.
The need for a multilingual application
The ESTnet is based in Wales but its members trade internationally already, or have the potential to.
Its website is its shop window to the world. It needs to position the technology industry in Wales as innovative, dynamic and authentic.
Showing a commitment to multi-lingualism, particularly the Welsh language initially, shows that the organisation is representative of its members and outward looking.
The ESTnet chose to test the product using the Welsh language. As an organisation based in Wales it recognised that its members are increasingly doing business in Welsh, for example developing bilingual websites for their clients.
From a global perspective, many electronics companies are owned outside the United Kingdom. Trade exhibitions are held in other countries, such as the Electronica show in Munich, or the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Having a multilingual website could increase exposure for ESTnet members.
On average 20% of our monthly web visitors are from overseas. We also provide information on international trade. It is therefore important to have the potential to translate sections of our website easily and cost effectively.
Why LinguaSkin?
ESTnet was initially concerned that implementing LinguaSkin may disrupt or corrupt its existing website. The financial risk was minimal, and any disruption fears were allayed by implementing the system on a development site until ESTnet was happy to launch. Above all, the organisation was convinced of the ability to make its website not just bilingual, but available in other languages easily and cheaply.
The potential of LinguaSkin for an organisation with visitors from all over the world is very exciting.
Quick to implement
As in all cases, LinguaSkin was implemented according to PRINCE2 methodology. Once the ESTnet decided to go ahead, the project and plans were defined in a Project Initiation Document and a configuration site was built using LinguaSkin as a reverse proxy. All the technical aspects of the project were handled by Interceptor Solutions and the web developer.
I didn’t need to get involved in the technical aspects, Linguaskin took care of everything working with our web team.
Implementation was straightforward, although it had to be measured to accommodate ESTnet’s resources. Once ready, configuration was performed in a week before being handed over to ESTnet to translate the content.
Easy to use
The ESTnet was able to use the Management Centre to review and edit content. Staff also received training in how to add new pages/content and apply translations to them.
Cost-effective
Prior to giving the LinguaSkin implementation the go ahead, the ESTnet enquired about making its website bilingual. This was not an insignificant amount but would have been considerably less if the website had originally been developed as a bilingual site. In comparison, the cost of implementing LinguaSkin was minimal.
The only ongoing cost is for the annual license fee which includes maintenance and support.
Key Points
- Capability - ability to have a multilingual site with minimal effort
- Risk - minimal disruption to existing website
- Quick - straight forward and rapid implementation
- Flexibility - easy to add further languages for selected areas/content
- Cost - cost effective to implement and small ongoing operational costs compared to the use of multilingual CMS capabilities
- Innovative - natural fit for an organisation based on innovation and support
Technical details
| Deployment: | integrated with web server |
| Web Server: | Microsoft IIS 7.0 |
| CMS: | Umbraco |
| Content types: | HTML, CSS |
| Languages: | EN, CY (& other) |
| Num replacements: | 1867 |
Acknowledgement of support
Through its Welsh language Technology and Digital Media Grant, the Welsh Government has funded several LinguaSkin implementation case studies to research the potential of multilingual software interfaces. The ESTnet and Interceptor Solutions acknowledge this support.
