Synchro Systems Ltd

Synchro Systems Ltd, based in Newcastle-under-Lyme, provides ticketing and membership software for major sports tournaments, premiership and other league football clubs, including Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Celtic and Manchester United. They also include all but one of the county cricket clubs, all home rugby union clubs and theatres including the Royal Opera House, Nottingham Royal Centre and the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow, in their list of customers.

 

The company, who employs 65 staff, have exported their Venuemaster software to Australia, South Africa, Malaysia and various parts of Europe. Although they have experienced English speaking interaction in these countries, staff have recognised that it is better to be able to communicate in the local language as well, even if only on a basic level in order to instruct taxi drivers and hotel staff.

To improve international communications, Synchro Systems has used a variety of methods including recruiting staff with a basic level of language skills and employing translators to enable written documentation to be understood by the target market. It has also made use of the local skills base, as General Manager (Director) Carol Leach states:

“When visiting potential customers in Russia, we employed language students from the local University at Keele to help us with our project delivery.”

More recently, the team at Synchro has taken advantage of the ConnectFree programme of language training, organised through Newcastle-under-Lyme College. This scheme, offering free language training to local businesses, has enabled the company to introduce some foreign language communication into their day-to-day contact with clients. It is difficult to measure the success of this training as Synchro Systems is the specialist supplier in its field, it has however been helpful on an individual basis, as staff who were involved now feel much more confident and relaxed about conducting business overseas in French, Spanish, German and Italian, and can meet, greet and converse basically with international customers.

As the company continues to pursue activities overseas, General Manager, Carol Leach believes that language skills will infiltrate all parts of the company and will be a necessity for those working on the technical helpdesk. Synchro Systems has proven that even a little investment in language learning will take you a long way, as Carol states:

“I continue to be astounded that a lot of UK companies feel it acceptable to communicate in English with an assumption that everyone else will accommodate their inadequacy. I would urge all companies to make the effort to make some communication in the client or partner language.”

To find out more information about Synchro Systems Ltd visit their website at www.synchro.co.uk

 

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