Alpha CRC celebrates its 20th anniversary

Alpha CRC expands its in-house localization teams

 

Cambridge - September 2007 | Alpha CRC celebrates its 20th anniversary - Leading European localization company Alpha CRC Ltd celebrated its 20th anniversary on 13 September 2007.

Alpha CRC was founded with a team of five in 1987 in Cambridge, when the localization industry was in its infancy, and has always retained a close affinity with the city. Since launch, it has grown to be one of the localization industry's leading players, with production centres in Cambridge, Barcelona and Beijing, as well as sales offices in Germany and the US. The company now employs 130 full-time staff, and boasts in-house translation teams working into 19 different languages. Alpha's translators are supported by specialists in Project Management, Engineering, DTP/graphics, Audio and Quality Assurance, and it is this in-house approach which founder Isabelle Weiss feels sets the company apart from its competitors.

"When I established Alpha CRC twenty years ago, I had experienced different approaches to localization, and I felt that the best way to guarantee consistency and quality of output was to have all the resources in-house," she comments. "We therefore decided from the outset that wherever possible our localization service should be carried out by teams fully employed by us, and I believe that this philosophy has been the cornerstone of our success."

Alpha's organic growth during its first twenty years has seen it become one of the industry's premier localization specialists for software, multimedia and games worldwide. And as Isabelle Weiss confirms, Alpha's impressive client list, which includes companies such as Adobe, Logitech, Symantec, Sun and Sony, is testament to the vision, professionalism and creativity of Alpha's staff.

"We now count many of the world's leading companies among our clients," she says, "and we are very proud of our track record over the last twenty years. Everything we have achieved is a reflection of the quality of the people we have employed since 1987, and we have also had a lot of fun along the way. We thoroughly enjoyed celebrating our anniversary with our staff and are excited about launching Alpha CRC forward into our third decade with great confidence."

Alpha marked its anniversary with a party for Cambridge staff past and present hosted by directors Isabelle Weiss, Dr Peter Nash and Paul Mangell in the Great Hall and Combination Room at Homerton College. A further celebration for the company's Barcelona staff is planned for October.

Cambridge - September 2007 | Alpha CRC expands its in-house localization teams - Leading European localization company Alpha CRC Ltd has significantly expanded its in-house translation, Project Management, QA, Content Management, Multimedia and Engineering teams to enhance its 'all-under-one-roof' service.

Since its launch in 1987 with a staff of five, Alpha's strategy has been to grow organically to meet the growing demands of its clients. "Our 20th anniversary sees us enjoying a sustained period of significant growth, both with new business acquisitions and increased spend from existing clients," comments International Sales Director Paul Mangell. "Our core strategy has been to target 10 of the top 50 global software companies, and in the last two years we have had great success. We now work with 8 of the top 30 companies, and are making progress with a number of others, so we have needed to gear up to meet the demands of these clients."

To maintain its philosophy of creating multinational in-house teams, Alpha continues to bring together talented individuals from around the world - most recently from Poland, France, Sweden and Spain. Yet this is being achieved without compromising quality or consistency, and experienced staff are being retained on existing projects. "When we add human resource," reveals Mangell, 'our approach is to ensure that key staff continue to work on their live projects. Incumbent staff are allocated to projects to deal with more aspects of our customers' requirements, and all teams are supervised by long-established Alpha management staff."

The specific focus for Alpha's recruitment has been in multimedia, content management and GMS, an area where the company is building its own knowledge base. "Of the 20 new members of staff recruited in the last six months, the majority specialise in new media and GMS," says Mangell. "On the multimedia side we now have greater resource in audio, animated graphics, Flash and Macromedia. Our GMS team, meanwhile, now includes one member of staff dedicated to offering a highly specialised service and building our own internal knowledge base."