Morningside

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work in the HR department at Coastal Sunbelt Produce. We’re a produce distribution facility and have four main locations — two in the Jessup area, one in Virginia, and our headquarters in Laurel, Maryland.

What challenge were you trying to address with Morningside?

We’re a pretty large company and have a very diverse population with people who speak all kinds of languages. We needed help translating company announcements and anything else our members need to read into a minimum of 6–7 languages.

We were using a couple of translation services because of the number of projects that we had coming in. We wanted to make that process quicker. Of course, last year looked different than previous years because of COVID-19. However, prior to the pandemic, we were spending several thousand dollars every month just on translation services because we were doing a lot of events.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Morningside helps us with all of our translation projects. They helped us translate all of the documentation regarding the entirely new process for COVID-19 that we created. The documentation included information about what our crew members needed to do when they became ill.

They also helped us translate all of the documents related to the open enrollment that we just wrapped up. The open enrollment documents included InDesign files, which they broke apart, translated, and put back together.

The translation process is really simple. We just submit a request on their website. There are 1–2 people from our team who have access to the account for request, but I primarily make them. We get an immediate automated response saying our request was received. They reach out again to give us a quote, and once it’s authorized, we receive another email saying that they are proceeding with the project. If it’s a larger project, they keep in touch every other day to let us know where they’re at, make sure nothing has changed, and that we don’t need anything different with the project.

What is the team composition?

Our representative is Sarah (Strategic Account Manager) — she’s always on it. There are also other representatives from the customer service side who are always included.

They also have a translation team, but I’m not sure how many people work on that team. I imagine there’s at least one person per language, which means around 6–7 people per project, not including our two reps.

How did you come to work with Morningside?

Coastal Sunbelt Produce had been using them as a vendor long before I entered the company, and I’ve been here for two years now. Based on my understanding, my previous manager found the company and created the partnership.

Morningside had the manpower to do all of the work themselves, which was worth whatever increase there was in terms of cost. It was easier to work with just one company on a big project, rather than trying to remember what you sent to whom and gathering all of the information back from different companies.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent at least $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in April 2019, and the partnership is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

With Morningside’s translation services, we’ve been able to communicate with people a lot more clearly than before. The COVID-19 project was pretty hard to get everyone to understand because it was brand new. However, Morningside hugely helped us in making sure everyone was on the same page. In addition to that, during our open enrollment process, they helped our newest crew members be aware of what they needed to do in order to sign up for benefits.

How did Morningside perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate primarily through email, but Morningside calls me on my cell phone when things are more urgent. Sometimes, given our company, we have to send out projects that have quick turnaround times. In those cases, they always give me a call to confirm everything at once instead of having to email back and forth. Morningside does a fantastic job and is always on top of everything.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Morningside has never said no to a project. Regardless of what language, how detailed, or in-depth the translation is, they’re always able to do it for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they could improve. They’re doing great.

Any advice for potential customers?

Maintaining the relationship with your representatives plays a huge part in the process. When I started working with them, we were assigned a different representative and didn’t seem to have a close relationship. The representative didn’t know a lot about our company. We just emailed the generic customer service message every time.

However, when Sarah entered, I knew communication was key. I needed a way to reach out to her and keep her in the loop of any difficulties or upcoming projects. She has become very familiar with our company ever since. Now, she’s always able to help us prepare and predict the different aspects of work that we need.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Documentation team leader. We provide 3D printing solutions for a wide range of industries. My team produces technical documentation for service engineers and customer customers around the world.

For what projects/services did your company hire Morningside?

I needed to update the translations of user guides and site preps in 9 languages.

How did you select Morningside?

We have been working with Morningside (previously Net-Translators) for more than 10 years and they are our trusted partner when it comes to translations and localization

Describe the project in detail and what their cost structure looked like.

In this project, we requested translations of 2 types of guides, a user guide and a site prep in 9 languages. For the user guide, we required 2 types of outputs - PDF and HTML - from Madcap Flare, our DTP software.

How would you describe/assess the quality of their work?

Their work and professionalism allow us to deliver our outputs on time and on budget. We needed some targets earlier than the others and they adjusted the schedule of the project to accommodate this.

In addition, during the project, we found a mistake in the files and needed to provide an annex to the customer. The annex was translated free of charge by Morningside, even though it wasn't part of the price quote for this project. I feel that I am working with professionals and have a great relationship with our focal points at Morningside. I typically consult with them before starting a project and they are always ready to assist us in planning it properly, so that it is on the scope and on budget.

What impressed you about their services?

I think it is the flexibility and people that are great to work with. Many times during a project, there are issues that need to be addressed ad hoc either by the project manager or by the translation engineer - it is always a good experience and a good feeling that there is someone on the other side that is willing to assist.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I feel that the QA could be a better and catch issues before I get the files. Also, we have at time experience issues with billing service and although it is always straightened out in the end.