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The Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol works with universities across Wales to develop Welsh language medium opportunities for students. It funds Welsh medium lecturers and offers undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships for students to study higher education courses through the medium of Welsh.
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The Coleg uses Simply Personnel, a Human Resources software package which provides an online self-service portal for all members of staff. It was selected due to its ease of use by staff dispersed across Wales; however, it is only available in English.
The need for a multilingual website
Internally, the Coleg operates entirely through the medium of Welsh. When selecting systems for internal use, it therefore looks favourably at solutions which provide Welsh language support. Larger software providers, such as Microsoft and Blackboard, offer multilingual capabilities and Welsh is offered as a default to all staff using Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and Blackboard Learn. Simply Personnel was selected for its Human Resources features, but does not offer built in multi-language support, which does not meet the Coleg’s drive to operate internally entirely through the medium of Welsh.
As the Coleg operates internally entirely through the medium of Welsh, this feature is extremely useful to us. All our staff use the Simply Personnel software frequently, sometimes daily. I very much welcome the fact that we can now have the functionality of the software in Welsh.
Why LinguaSkin?
Not all software vendors provide Welsh language capability, or are necessarily keen to do so in the future. Software which does offer a multilingual option may not give the required functionality. The Coleg sees that LinguaSkin can bridge that gap by providing a multilingual option independent of the vendors.
The Coleg will be able to assess the ease and impact of implementation with a view to using it on other websites and applications. It can test LinguaSkin®’s technology in a controlled environment. It won’t interfere with the functionality or performance of the Simply Personnel system and the Coleg retain full control.
From the user’s perspective, the experience of using the service through the medium of Welsh needs to be equivalent to the experience of using the service in English, and this has been achieved.
Quick to implement
The Coleg was clear from the outset that it didn’t have the resources available to be overly involved with LinguaSkin’s implementation. After scoping the exact requirements, implementation was straightforward, although had to be paced to accommodate the organisation’s needs and timetables. Once ready, configuration was performed via remote access to the Coleg’s servers and was done in less than a week. The Coleg did their own translation work, but this only took a couple of hours.
We’ve not had to be too heavily involved with the technical implementation. They’ve been very flexible in working around our needs and our timetables. What’s really impressed me is the level of detail of the project. The documentation has been fantastic with a level of detail that is often lacking in software projects.
Easy to use
Although Simply Personnel is a third party software package, there was no need for any input from the software vendor. Because LinguaSkin sits between the user and the software rather than making changes to the software itself, it eliminates any need for negotiation with software suppliers.
An essential aspect of the system is that it doesn’t bolt-on or change the underlying system, and it doesn’t interfere with the core application. This allows us to switch the LinguaSkin system off if required, for example, if we need to troubleshoot any problems with the underlying application.
The system is unlikely to require many upgrades as Simply Personnel don’t provide major releases every month. The Coleg will implement any upgrades themselves with support from Interceptor Solutions where necessary.
From the user’s perspective, the system works just as quickly through the medium of Welsh even though there’s a software process that’s replacing the language 'on-the-fly'. It's clever stuff.
Cost-effective
The cost of other options could not be justified for an internal system in what is a fairly small organisation. LinguaSkin has given the Coleg the opportunity to test multilingual software in a low-risk environment.
Key Points
- Structured and detailed approach to project management and implementation
- Implemented on a fully functional application from third party vendor.
- Translation not the issue as word count under 2000 words
- Enabled multilingual software when other approaches were unviable.
- Software vendor now able to offer a multilingual capability .
- Cost-effectiveness made bilingual capability possible.
Technical details
| Deployment: | Inline, integrated with web server |
| Web Server: | Microsoft IIS 7.0 |
| Application Platform: | .Net 2.0 |
| Application Vendor: | Simply Personnel |
| Content Types: | HTML, CSS, Javascript, XML |
| Languages: | EN, CY |
| Num replacements: | 713 |
Partner Network
As a result of this project, we’re excited to be working with Simply Personnel to offer a multilingual interface to their other users.
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 Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol and Interceptor Solutions acknowledge this support.
