Crimson Life Sciences, a division of TransPerfect and the only ISO 13485 and ISO 14971 certified translation provider, will co-present a webinar with noted DITA/XML expert JoAnn Hackos and the Center for Information-Design Management. The webinar, entitled “The $400 Million Prize – Reducing Content Costs and Improving Quality in Regulated Industries,” is scheduled for 12:00 PM EST on 11/29 (registration is here).

A Cure for the $1 Billion Industry Headache

Explains Crimson president and co-presenter Marc H. Miller, “Most manufacturers have document-based content systems and use applications like Word or InDesign to produce their labeling and marketing materials. This severely hampers their ability to standardize and reuse content. It also increases process cost and error risk.”

Document-based systems require manual operations to create or update labeling, both in the English source and all translated versions. Research indicates that manual formatting processes are a significant contributor to the device industry’s $1 billion per year “Total Cost of Content” (research available on request); they are also responsible for 50% of labeling errors, the number-one cause of costly product recalls.

Now, increasing regulatory and economic pressures have prompted manufacturers to tackle the rising cost and risk of document-based labeling and content systems. The most effective approach uses the DITA/XML authoring standard in combination with component content management and process automation software. Device makers who successfully implement XML publishing processes are seeing 40% reductions in total translation costs and up to 70% reductions in turnaround times. Industry-wide, this amounts to an estimated $400 million in potential savings. Says Miller, “In addition to reducing cost, risk, and turnaround, XML publishing also enables content reuse on other platforms, like web or tablet-based apps.” Not surprisingly, an estimated 70% of large device manufacturers have some form of XML initiative underway (research/internal discussion, pilot project, implementation, etc).

EnCompass the Solution

To provide an integrated solution to XML publishing, as well as the many other content management challenges facing today’s global device makers, Crimson and its parent company, TransPerfect, are pleased to introduce EnCompass: content solutions for medical device manufacturers.

Combining Crimson’s patented translation risk management (U.S. Patent No 8,140,322 B2) with technology and resources from the TransPerfect family of companies, EnCompass is the first service to address all the varied content needs of today’s global medical device manufacturer. Says TransPerfect Co-CEO Liz Elting, “We’re very excited to introduce this new service line—the first of its kind in the medical device industry.”

About Crimson Life Sciences

Crimson Life Sciences is a division of TransPerfect Translations International, Inc. and is the only translation practice exclusively devoted to the medical device industry. Crimson is the world’s first translation firm certified to both ISO 13485 and ISO 9001 and the only translation firm certified to ISO 14971. Crimson’s ISO 14971-certified risk management system is the basis for the world’s only translation risk management patent (U. S. Patent No. 8,140,322 B2). TransPerfect, certified to ISO 9001 and EN 15038, is the world’s largest privately held language services provider with more than 80 offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.crimsonlanguage.com.