Translation firm crowned region’s best in awards
Business Staff
AFIRM that works with people to overcome language barriers has been crowned the region’s top company at an annual business awards.
Birmingham-based Word360 provides on-demand translation services to a host of different clients in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.
It won the contribution to the community and customer service categories at the 2024 Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce Awards before being picked from all the category champions to be crowned overall business of the year.
Among the other winners at the annual ceremony were Birmingham’s Hippodrome theatre, PR agency Story and event venue and museum Millennium Point.
Word360, which is headquartered in Edgbaston, was founded in 2013 by husband and wife team Tiku Chauhan and Kavita Parmar and uses its own tech platform called Wordskii.
It taps into a network of selfemployed interpreters who can help
clients with translation services at any time, either in-person or via video or telephone.
Offering 350 different languages and dialects, the team has focused on health and social care, especially supporting local communities and people from disadvantaged and hard-toreach backgrounds.
Its roster of clients includes the NHS, various government departments such as the Ministry of Defence and local councils in the West Midlands. In their citation,
judges described the business as “an excellent company that exemplifies Birmingham – combining tech, innovation and entrepreneurialism with diversity and wellbeing for communities”.
They added: “Word360 demonstrates a high level of flexibility and responsiveness to customer needs, uses data and understanding of communities to target provision and find out about emerging needs.
“Their innovative technology solutions change the experience of both patients and healthcare providers. “Word360 really understands what is needed to give the most diverse people access to health and care services and enable communications for all abilities.”
Ms Parmar said: “Awards like this mean so much, especially for the underrepresented voices in tech. It reinforces the idea that diversity is not just a buzzword but a catalyst that drives innovation and success in the region.”
This is the latest award for the company, which was also crowned a double winner at our West Midlands Tech Awards 2022. A special award was also handed out by chamber president Nasir Awan to Hany El-Banna for his work founding Islamic Relief in Birmingham in 1984.
The charity now operates in 45 countries assisting individuals, families and communities at emergency response incidents and development projects, helping around ten million people each year.
The award ceremony and dinner welcomed more than 1,000 guests to the ICC in Birmingham city centre and was hosted by BBC broadcaster Noreen Khan.