Every company is different. Every company is built for a different reason, based on a different motivation. ProLingo is a small business founded on the principle that knowledge and creativity can create value.
Knowledge is structure. Technical knowledge delivers the foundation for solid construction. Our creativity is the skill to find quality in the chaos of vast experience.
When ProLingo was first started by a sole operator as a professional simultaneous interpretation service, a basic need was served. Back then, in 1999, the mission was to provide the customer with the best interpretation experience possible, which was largely based on good customer service and professional delivery. Similar to other niche markets, individualism and personal touch often substituted for technical achievement.
During the next five years, nearly 1,000 assignments built up a vast treasure of accomplishments and experiences. When the service team achievements reached a point where an improvement in service alone would not result in actual advancement, the technical challenge was presented to improve the one item immediately affecting the customer experience. In interpretation, we knew the listener’s interface experience could be improved.
ProLingo needed a new receiver. The receiver is the device that delivers the service, and we felt this delivery experience could be improved on. At the same time, ProLingo had reached critical mass justifying large ordering quantities. The decision to build our own receiver product was made in 2005.
ProLingo at the time, was comprised of a team of eight technicians and project managers, but there was no R&D, no design team, no additional sales staff hired, no complex testing process, no market research, or even a single airline ticket to China bought. The following exchange of emails and interpreter supported phone calls lasted about six months.
And then the first PL 5 Plus receiver was born, based on an existing housing to avoid tooling expenses.
Our resulting product immediately outperformed all established brand products in quality of sound, reduced shipping size and weight, modern design, and most of all in the smart features such as the lock button, automatic reset to the preset stations, and the fortunate arrangement of the buttons allowing the event staff to set and hand out the receivers to even the largest crowds with great speed. Yes, the quality increase in service was accomplished. The first production run was for 2000 units, all ProLingo needed for the ongoing rental inventory, based on the 2006 forecast.
They say: “If you build it, they will come.”
With the sole intention to increase our competitive advantage to other rental companies we had budgeted ZERO dollars for sales marketing. ProLingo was founded as a rental company and professional simultaneous interpretation service. When better equipment was not available, we went the extra mile and simply made it.
When rental customers started buying the receivers, mostly because they could now actually afford to own inventory, we found that there is a need for this beyond ProLingo.
And while our current annual production schedule for 2009 requires 10,000 units, this time with our own proprietary housing and the associated tooling expense, we are still a professional simultaneous interpretation service. Our equipment is just more specialized, and we have a lot more people calling to buy.
2009 will also be the year during which the receiver production will gain a new identity under the brand “Congress Audio.”Additional products such as transmitters and the long needed interpreter control unit will be introduced during infocomm09 in Orlando in June.
