Behind the scenes of localization with one of Europe's leading digital health providers

Kry means “well” in Swedish, which is no coincidence as Kry is one of Europe's largest digital healthcare providers. It was founded in 2014 and has grown into a company of more than 600 coworkers and around 1900 clinicians altogether. By now, the company has delivered over 3 million medical consultations to their patients in 5 countries. 

Kry, or Livi as the company is known and called in France and the UK, provides a 24/7 digital service for people seeking online consultations and treatment from qualified healthcare professionals. All that is needed from a patient is access to a smartphone or tablet to download the Kry app.

Kry's clients can forget about the concept of waiting rooms for good – most of the patients receive an online consultation within an hour of their request. A patient joins a video call via the app at the agreed-upon time. Kry's specialists can provide help with many symptoms or prescribe medication during the online consultation.

If a further physical examination is needed, Kry's clinicians can reserve an appointment at a healthcare center and make sure to follow up afterward if required. Plus, the app holds patients' prescriptions and allows them to order medication with home delivery.

Improving digital healthcare with localization

The company is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, but also operates in Norway, Germany, France, and the UK. Having different markets on the company's plate undoubtedly entails quite a lot of localization, and Anna Söderbom, the company's UX Writing Manager, is deeply involved in the process. "Some things we create in the local markets, some things are created in the headquarters and localized to other markets, depending on what features we're offering," says Anna. Speaking of localization within Kry's workflow, Anna leads an in-house team of eight who are involved in the localization process daily and work closely with developers. 

Anna joined Kry back in 2018, when the company was already working with Lokalise. In her prior professional experience, she had worked with other TMS solutions and gathered expansive knowledge that Kry was happy to put into action immediately. Anna made sure Kry's work with Lokalise was running smoothly and provided qualitative outcomes. As she says herself, it was the result of providing adequate context to the right people.

As Anna describes, by her arrival at Kry, the company worked with translations in a way that is sometimes common for young companies that don't have the expertise but who need to deliver results quickly – assuming that anyone who can speak the language can also translate. Since Anna’s arrival, there is now a process for localization and an internal team of professional writers that makes sure the content is top-notch. Anna and the team focus on always improving the workflow, and technical solutions are crucial for that.

Lokalise's platform provided a helping hand earlier in 2020 when Kry launched Covid-19-specific initiatives as its response to the pandemic. One of them was Livi Connect, a free web-based platform enabling all clinicians to meet patients online and conduct secure remote video consultations. As told by Anna, the company created the solution quickly and localized it to several languages, including some that Kry's team didn't typically work with in-house.

Choosing a localization system that fits various needs

The Swedish-based digital health provider company selected Lokalise as its localization and translation management platform, taking into account both developers' and project managers' needs. At the moment, the company's demands for localization are mostly UX-based.

Having previous experience with localization and translation management, Anna is someone you can ask for a pros and cons review. She emphasizes that Lokalise makes it generally easy to work with copy and allows for having more independence from developers:

To use Lokalise as effectively as possible, Kry also works with a few of Lokalise's integrations. For example, whenever the team deals with a task involving a designer's participation, Lokalise's plugin for Figma is at hand. A copy is usually finalized in the design and prototyping tool, most often in English first. Then it's handed over to the developers, and afterward, when the text keys have been created, the internal UX writing team localizes the content in Lokalise.

Anna says that she's been actively promoting Figma's integration with Lokalise at Kry. Those who have worked with the plugin absolutely endorse it, and Anna thinks it's absolutely worth "spreading the gospel" to a broader audience. She also mentions the convenience of having automated screenshots from Figma connected to Lokalise – they provide the needed context for UX writers.

Additionally, Kry uses Lokalise's integration with Contentful. Having one source of truth for translators is preferred, which is why Anna encourages using the Contentful-Lokalise "union" whenever possible.

When asked about the most helpful Lokalise feature, Anna mentions having a translation memory built into the platform. The ability to search the project's translation memory on Lokalise is often crucial for finding the best adaptations. Moreover, having the entire translation history in one system is a must for an efficient workflow.

Clarity is the key to progress

A smooth and easy workflow is essential for all working at Kry but especially the product teams. Anna explains that it's crucial not only to have all of the processes moving forward but also to make sure that each step is clear and understood, which applies to the company's use of Lokalise as well. Whether it's looking into how Kry's developers work to create more accurate assignments in the future or making sure that the finished tasks are also accurately marked as done on Lokalise – it's all about clarity in Kry's workflow.

Additionally, Anna emphasizes the value of support provided by Lokalise. Whenever there are questions about working on the platform, Lokalise's support chat is quick to reply and help.

When asked what businesses would benefit the most from using Lokalise, Anna answers that tech companies are the main target from her perspective. Companies localizing their products and wishing to maintain quick releases will appreciate the help that Lokalise provides. 

"What takes up most of the time is the manual work of writing text, not the technical process around localization. That part is very smooth now."