Summa Linguae implements Plunet

Summa Linguae implements Plunet in pursue of synergies with its group partners and thus strengthens global presence

In September 2016 Summa Linguae joined forces with India-based Mayflower Language Services from Bangalore, making it its first international alliance and at the same time marking a first industry M&A transaction in one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Soon after, in December 2016 the company acquired 60% of shares in Romanian translation agency Certitude, as of then now known as Summa Linguae Romania

Summa Linguae was previously using an in-house built translation management system that needed to be replaced as the company started operating globally.

M&A have always been a part of Summa Linguae’s DNA so it was only a matter of time for us to cross the border. As we started working with Mayflower, we faced a lot of challenges regarding legal issues, financial controlling or business culture. All the more we are now very glad that we have a tool that enables our day-to-day operations go smoothly, despite working in two different business environments – says Krzysztof Zdanowski, the CEO of Summa Linguae.

Apart from daily activities such as projects pricing, reporting or vendor management, Plunet will help Summa Linguae achieve synergies with partners and empower corporate governance on the group level. One of the most crucial factors that persuaded Summa Linguae’s management to use Plunet was its answer to the need for collection of all relevant business data in support of strategic decisions and wise management. This is now possible not only in one company, but throughout the whole group of companies connected by ownership but still operating as separate entities.

Madhu Sundaramurthy, Mayflower’s Innovation Hub Manager indicates that the new management system will play an extensive role in consolidating projects between Poland, Romania and India:

In the case of the Mayflower Language Services and Summa Linguae alliance, Plunet will go a long way in assisting us with consolidating our project estimation and management best practices, implementing our translation workflows, automating our delivery plans and providing the finance teams with a detailed overview of how we are optimizing our resources. Imagine the seamless delivery of a project which was commissioned in USA, managed in Poland and executed in India without any loss of time or communication and each process executed using the Plunet SaaS model which provides a clear 24/7 overview of the project progress.

At Summa Linguae it is believed that only measurable business data can make it possible to succeed in such a strongly competitive market as the LSP field. Gathering and managing such data may be achieved by processes’ automation:

Plunet is going to automate our daily production and speed up both quoting and delivery processes. We hope to see a high productivity increase within the next few months. Integration with CAT-tools and automatic availability requests might cut down the turnaround time as well as the PM input related to project management. For both vendors and customers it shall offer a portal, helping to keep track of ongoing tasks.  We believe it is going to improve the transparency of processes not only within Summa Linguae’s production units but also at a global level of integrated companies  – says Barbara Stępień, Production Manager at Summa Linguae.

Plunet also knows the needs of the industry and is thrilled about the successful implementation at Summa Linguae. Stefan Dümig, CEO of Plunet, has observed an increasing concentration of companies in the translation market in recent years: “It is becoming increasingly common for translation agencies to join together, particularly through mergers and acquisitions of companies. As a result, they require a reliable and highly scalable management solution. Plunet is extremely well suited to meet the specific requirements of this kind of cooperation and the necessary autonomy of the individual companies.”