How Acrolinx and Fodina Support CellaVision to Create Fast and Impactful Content

Business context (what the organization does)

• CellaVision (med tech; hematology) produces documentation that supports globally sold networked products:
  • Instructions for Use (IFU)
  • Service manuals (for service technicians, repairs, annual maintenance)
  • Installation/configuration guides (fit into hospital IT infrastructure)
• Documents are multi-language: ~30 languages supported via translation.
• Documentation directly impacts purchasing decisions: IFUs are a key artifact customers review before buying.
• Regulatory requirements shape allowed and disallowed use statements (e.g., “intended use” vs “not intended use”).

Core problem / pain points

• Hard to update released content
  • Initial publication is easier than later updates due to regulatory constraints and other reasons.
  • Therefore, quality at release is critical.
• Content governance deteriorating over time
  • Staffing turnover via contractors: individuals rotate in/out, working on overlapping content.
  • Different personal styles and working habits caused inconsistency.
• Scaling complexity
  • As the company grew, product complexity increased and so did the number of content types.
  • Variants of similar products increased documentation management complexity.
• Human review burden and missed errors
  • Writers and subject-matter experts (SMEs) don’t want to spend time on basic issues (spelling/formatting/terminology).
  • Even strong writers can miss issues; humans have limits when quality gates rely on manual checking.
  • Terminology management is difficult at scale (e.g., “a thousand terms” problem).

What they were trying to solve (operational goals)

• Consistency at scale, including:
  • style consistency
  • terminology consistency
  • usage rules aligned to regulatory intent
• Faster, safer content production
  • reduce time spent on errors like spelling/grammar and repetitive editor work
  • reduce risk of regulatory issues by enforcing constraints earlier
• Enable creators to focus on expertise, not proofreading mechanics.

Solution approach (CellaVision + Acrolinx + Fodina)

• Selected Acrolinx to enforce writing and content rules (style/terminology/voice/grammar) and reduce inconsistency.
• Leveraged Fodina as an implementation/integration partner:
  • Helped during the startup phase
  • Remained responsive to issues during ongoing operations
• Integration noted as important for their tooling stack:
  • Acrolinx supports MadCap Flare/Slayer (explicitly called out as important to them).

Framework / “playbook” style elements (rules and mechanisms)

• Consistency-first content governance (“Consistency is King”):
  • Enforce consistent terminology and writing standards through system guidelines.
• Automated conformance checks against writing rules, e.g.:
  • Flags inconsistent apostrophe/quotation mark usage (critical because it can affect translation reuse billing):
    • If punctuation differs between otherwise identical sentences, translation can become “new,” increasing translation cost.
  • Detects passive voice misuse (when it shouldn’t be used).
• Terminology control to reduce translator friction:
  • Better source consistency improves translation quality and reduces translator follow-up questions.

Key metrics / KPIs and targets (explicitly stated)

• Languages supported: ~30.
• Cost-related KPI (translation economics)
  • Inconsistent punctuation can cause sentences to be treated as “not previously translated,” meaning extra cost.
  • Acrolinx helps prevent this by standardizing punctuation across sentences to improve translation reuse.
• No explicit numeric targets for time-to-produce, error rate, or regulatory incident rate were provided, but benefits were tied to:
  • faster production
  • quality and confidence
  • regulatory risk reduction

Concrete outcomes / business benefits reported

• Translation accuracy and cost improvements
  • Improved by enforcing consistency in the source content.
  • Translators face fewer clarification issues.
  • Standardization reduces “paid again” translation work triggered by inconsistencies.
• Faster quality content creation
  • Writers produce content more quickly with fewer correctness/formatting gaps.
• Greater confidence and an extra regulatory safety layer
  • Acrolinx helps catch issues (e.g., passive voice and terminology) that are easy to forget.
  • Results in an additional control layer before submission/publishing.

Actionable recommendations (implicitly derived from their approach)

• Standardize documentation rules before publication because updates are expensive/hard under regulatory constraints.
• Reduce “style drift” by implementing automated style/terminology conformance when multiple contributors (including contractors) touch the same content.
• Improve translation economics by enforcing consistency in punctuation and terminology so sentence matching/reuse works reliably.
• Integrate the content quality tooling with your authoring/publishing workflow (they highlighted MadCap Flare/Slayer support).

Presenter / source(s)

• Daniel Svenson (CellaVision, via the video subtitles).