About this Author
John Yunker is founder of Byte Level Research and author of the widely acclaimed book, Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies and editor of Global By Design. He has covered the emerging field of Web globalization for half a decade and has published a wide range of reports dedicated to best practices in Web localization and internationalization.
About this blog
Going Global focuses on the risks and rewards of expanding into new geographic and cultural markets, from Web globalization to international marketing to global usability.
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Category Archives
September 5, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
SDL announced interim financials today, showing 34% growth over 2005 and bringing the company in at roughly US$170 million this year.
At this rate, the company stands to break the $200 million barrier in '07.
SDL released a few details on who's buying their software/services...
- New enterprise customer agreements with AGCO, Dell, and FedEx
- Desktop software market share increased to over 90% of translation industries’ professionals, with more than 130,000 installations
- Knowledge-based Translation Solution customer wins include HP, Computer Associates, and Microsoft
The Knowledge-based Translation Solution integrates machine translation (MT) software into the mix, another sign that we're going to see A LOT of activity on the MT front in the years ahead.
No mention of how SDL's new certification program is doing. Could be too early to say. Certification in this industry -- from software to services -- is a topic I plan to write about more in the months ahead. There certainly appears to be a need for it.
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August 25, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
Welocalize announced today that it had made the Inc 500 list for a second year in a row. The company moved up from 407 last year to 327 this year, with three-year sales growth of 409%.
The company announced last year that it generated $10.2 million in the first half of 2005. So that would make the company a $30 million company at the end of this year? It’s hard to say because there was an acquisition/merger in January of this year. Regardless, the company looks to be doing quite well.
UPDATE: I received a press release Friday from Welocalize announcing the completion of its merger with Asian translation agency Transco and confirming that they are now at the $30 million revenue mark. The company now has offices on three continents and a staff of 250.
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July 17, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
Lionbridge issued a press release today on the growth of its new Web-based translation memory (TM) application, Logoport. Here are some notable stats:
- The volume of words managed by Logoport has more than doubled since its launch two months ago.
- Exactly how many words is that? Lionbridge says Logoport is nearing one billion words.
- Logoport supports more than 1,000 unique daily users and more than 40-million database queries per hour.
- One client is seeing an additional 5% to 10% reuse rate thanks to Logoport because it is now leveraging more than 150 separate TMs.
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May 22, 2006
Posted by Hylton Jolliffe
Skype has for several years now helped people around the world communicate with one another, provided they speak the same language.
Now, you don't even need to speak the same language.
Skype has partnered up with Language Line to offer on-demand personal interpreters. According to Skype, this "pay-as-you-go service allows quick and easy access highly skilled & certified interpreters in more than 150 languages directly from your Skype phone, for only $2.99 USD per minute. Service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year."
Skype promises to connect you to an interpreter in 45 seconds. Now, one hour of small talk is going to cost you -- so much in fact that you'd be better off hiring your own interpreter. But for brief calls or for businesses that need to field a lot of different languages, this could be a very nifty service. Skype has put together a handy service that is ideal for small business owners, of which there are plenty.
I'd love to hear from anyone who has tried this new service...
PS: Here are the most-requested languages so far:
Spanish
Mandarin
Russian
Vietnamese
Korean
Cantonese
Portuguese
Polish
French
Japanese
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May 11, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
Skype has for several years now helped people around the world communicate with one another, provided they speak the same language.
Now, you don't even need to speak the same language.
Skype has partnered up with Language Line to offer on-demand personal interpreters. According to Skype, this "pay-as-you-go service allows quick and easy access highly skilled & certified interpreters in more than 150 languages directly from your Skype phone, for only $2.99 USD per minute. Service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year."
Skype promises to connect you to an interpreter in 45 seconds. Now, one hour of small talk is going to cost you -- so much in fact that you'd be better off hiring your own interpreter. But for brief calls or for businesses that need to field a lot of different languages, this could be a very nifty service. Skype has put together a handy service that is ideal for small business owners, of which there are plenty.
I'd love to hear from anyone who has tried this new service...
PS: Here are the most-requested languages so far:
Spanish
Mandarin
Russian
Vietnamese
Korean
Cantonese
Portuguese
Polish
French
Japanese
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April 25, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
Lionbridge today formally launched its new hosted translation memory service: Freeway 2.0.
The press release features glowing testimonials from Sybase, Nikon, and Ryanair. These companies, and roughly 70 others, have been using the "1.0 version" and have been pleased with the results.
No company particularly wants to be a beta tester for new software, so I'm guessing that's the motivation behind the rapid advance to 2.0. The name also ties in nicely with Lionbridge's vision of the "Localization 2.0" generation of content globalization that we are now entering.
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April 7, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
Two certification-related announcements in the localization industry...
SDL has launched a certification program for its products. According to the press release, "SDL TRADOS Certification is a comprehensive program of placement tests, courseware, and multiple-level training exams that will truly test a translator's ability to work efficiently with translation memory and integrated terminology. It is designed to provide all customers in the global ecosystem with an accurate measure of technology expertise." You can learn more here.
Also, Nitish Singh of Chico State told me yesterday that the first class for his new localization certificate program is just about full. Not bad given that the program is a good two months away yet! You can learn more here.
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April 6, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
Interwoven held its user fest this week and unleashed a slew of press releases, two of which caught my eye...
SDL and Interwoven partner
SDL wisely keeps partnering up with the big CMS players. Sun was named as a client who is currently using both SDL and Interwoven successfully.
Toro selects Idiom for Web globalization. And Interwoven is the core CMS.
What's interesting here is that Toro is just dipping its toes in the Web globalization waters -- the French Canadian site is due out shortly. But Toro's goal is 50 locales.
Also, Wessex Translations is doing the translations on this project and is hosting the Idiom server. This is, to my knowledge, Idiom's first big success story for its LSP Advantage Program. Not too shabby.
However, I should note that Idiom software makes it easy to "go local" and farm out translation work around the world to freelancers and small translation agencies. I wonder if this will hurt Wessex down the road?
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March 27, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
SDL announced today the launch of the LSPZone, an online directory of translation agencies who support Trados/SDL products.
While I like the idea of having such a site, the execution of the agency search engine is downright painful. As it stands now I just don't see many clients using it more than once.
For example, I simply wanted to do a quick lookup of every agency in the US. So I selected the country and hit the search button and I got this...
So I have to enter pull-down hell again and select a source and target language. But let's say I've got a dozen language pairs to cover or let's say I just want to quickly find out what agencies are listed in my country. It's as if the search interface is in "advanced" mode automatically. What I'd like to see is a "simple" mode that allows for single-field searching.
But this is just the first iteration of the site. I'm sure it will improve over time. Check it out and let me know if you agree with me or think I'm just being grouchy...
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March 16, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
IBM announced today that it is acquiring Langauge Analysis Sytems (LAS). I interviewed LAS co-founder and CEO Jack Hermansen just a few weeks ago for the March issue of Global By Design and came away very impressed with the company.
LAS helps the government and companies such as banks and retailers analyze and manage names across a variety of languages and cultures. They've analyzed more than a billion names and can use this information to prevent scams, improve personalization, dedupe lists, and so on.
IBM and LAS partnered back in December and I guess IBM felt it needed to pounce -- a smart move.
"The global economy is outpacing our clients' ability to keep up with a changing world of customers, competitors and partners, and can impede their ability to capitalize on emerging opportunities..." said Ambuj Goyal, general manager, Information Management at IBM.
So what else does IBM see on the horizon that will help its clients keep pace? Will IBM see the need to acquire a language services provider like a Lionbridge or someone smaller? Or what about statistical machine translation via Language Weaver?
Here's an excerpt from my interview with Jack Hermansen:
Q: Why do corporations need to invest in your software in addition to their existing CRM and commerce software tools?
A: Quite simply, corporations invest in LAS software to get the most out of the names in their databases. Whether the ultimate reason is risk management, fraud reduction, or improving customer relationships -- and whether the processing is data cleansing, name matching, gender identification or cultural classification -- it comes down to having the best software available to manage databases of names, one of the most valuable assets that an organization has.
People don't often think of names as compact databases of knowledge about a person, but that is precisely what they are. In our multicultural society, understanding the components of a person's name can provide valuable information about the name's origins, its cultural variations, and the meanings of the different elements within a name. To date, names have been treated as no more than character strings, when in fact they are full of information.
Maria Luz Rodriguez v. de Luna, for example, is the widow of a Mr. Luna. Most people -- and all systems -- in the data world are simply unaware of this kind of potentially valuable information. Access to this vital layer of data awareness has never before been more necessary; nor has it ever been as readily available as it is today, the result of decades of research and development.
As consumers, we are growing more and more irritated by the insensitivity with which companies (and their computer systems) treat our names. Every person, no matter how common or unfamiliar their name may seem, has experienced this mishandling of his or her name. And, until recently, we have all grudgingly put up with it. But now, people are throwing away mail that has garbled their name in address labels, and are dismissing salespeople who mispronounce their names.
Until LAS products became available, corporations could not effectively personalize much of their correspondence because -- outside of familiar Anglo names -- there was no accurate way of identifying an individual's proper surname or even the gender of an individual in order to create a respectful salutation. This is especially frustrating to marketers, who know that everyone, particularly those from cultures with unfamiliar names, are much more receptive when they hear someone address them appropriately.
At last, there are products available to make this easier for everyone to do. Smarter searching and locating, more effective customer communications, fewer gaffes with people's names: these improvements to fundamental business processes should be attractive to any company that deals with personal names.
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Posted by John Yunker
With so much going on with translation giants SDL and Lionbridge, it's nice to cover the not-so-gigantic players from time to time. Take OmniLingua. This privately owned firm has been around 20 years and today announced that it was named "preferred localization supplier" by Siemens Medical Solutions. And, yes, the company confirmed to me that this includes Web localization work as well. This isn't a new account but a promotion of sorts. OmniLingua says it has translated more than 26 million words into 29 languages for Siemens over the past five years alone.
Medical device companies are choice account wins in the translation industry because the devices have lots of documentation and because the EU requires that it be translated into 20+ languages. These are BIG contracts.
So I took a moment to browse the Siemens Medical Web site. It's pretty good overall, although there are sections of English text that could use translation. And I hate to call out Siemens on this, but I also happened upon a system error that was in English only (on the China Web site):
Now I must stress that this is not something unique to Siemens -- error messages on Web sites are often the last test strings to be translated, if they're translated at all. I see this on a lot of Web sites.
Don't overlook these pesky little strings because they have an annoying way of popping up when you least expect them (like when your boss is testing out your newly launched site).
I'm sure OmniLingua will be helping Siemens iron out these little details in the months ahead.
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February 15, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
Milen Epik, former VP of Global Services at Transware, has joined Translations.com as part of a newly named division: Epik Global Solutions. Epik Global Solutions is based in Boulder and consists of 15 people; all, I believe, are former Transware people.
It looks like Translations.com made a smart move with this acquisition. It gets some very skilled talent and a close-knit group of people. Keeping this group separate from Translations.com, in name at least, is interesting. Translations.com and sister company TransPerfect have been smart about creating very targeted divisions aimed at verticals and services. This new group could be positioned as a sort of high-level consulting group within the company, free to engage clients across verticals.
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January 3, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
I just got word from ForeignExchange Translations president Andres Heuberger that his company plans to add 27 positions this year -- which is an impressive 50% growth rate.
I used to work for ForeignExchange back in the early days and I want to point out two things this company has done extremely well at: focusing on a specific industry and adding value beyond translations.
The company focuses on the life sciences industry and has made quality control one of its chief selling points. Quality is a life or death matter to medical device and pharmaceutical companies and they will pay a premium for agencies that can demonstrate not just high-quality work but industry and terminology expertise. ForeignExchange is not the only agency to focus on this industry, but it is one of the best at marketing itself as such.
Second, ForeignExchange hosts regular paid Webinars featuring industry experts. These Webinars cover a variety of topics across the industry, not just translations. And these are not just sales seminars dressed up as educational seminars. How many other translation vendors serving the life sciences industry have hosted a seminar titled The Revised MDD: Practical Implications for Device Manufacturers? Nobody, would be my guess. And by partnering with other life sciences companies, such as Quintiles and Pleiad Devices, to develop these seminars, ForeignExchange develops a healthy lead-generation pipeline.
As the translations industry expands, translation agencies will thrive by focusing on specific industries and developing highly specialized services within these industries.
And now here are some immediate job openings at ForeignExchange:
1. Strategic Account Manager (Boston)
Support multinational life science clients: strategy, proposal writing, solutions development
2. Business Development Manager (Denver or Madrid)
Sell our specialized language services to pharma, device firms in the Rockies and on the West Coast
3. Analysis Manager (Boston or Denver)
Bridge sales, operations to scope work and formulate ideal service-delivery approaches
4. Document Localization Lead (Boston or Denver)
Coordinate multilingual DTP projects and provide TRADOS expertise
More information on all of these positions is available at http://www.fxtrans.com/careers.
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December 13, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
Ryan Coleman, CTO of Clay Tablet, writes a blog about the globalization industry called Found in Translation. I just found it today, although he's been publishing it since October.
I'm glad to see it and, while reading it, I wondered why we haven't seen similar blogs from execs at the large globalization software and services vendors such as Lionbridge, SDL, and Translations.com.
I'm not advocating that every company should publish a blog; these things certainly take plenty of time to maintain. But I do think there is a clear need for more information and opinions within this industry and I'd love to see a few knowledgeable and opininated people from within these large companies be heard. Perhaps this is something we'll see in 2006...
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November 29, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
Two recent press releases worth mentioning...
Translations.com has announced a strategic partnership with CMS vendor Percussion. Thrifty Rental Car (profiled in the July issue of Global By Design) is one company currently using the joint solution.
Upstart global CMS vendor Clay Tablet has announced the completion of its first two customer installations. I'm very curious to see how this company does in 2006; I do like its tightly focused Web globalization/CMS message.
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November 18, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
SDL today announced its technology partner program. The key word here is "open" as SDL seeks to convey a partner-friendly approach to other vendors in the content creation and management industries. It also wants clients to know they can "plug and play" SDL software into a variety of other software packages.
Current partners include:
- EMC Documentum
- Interwoven
- Blast Radius
- Trisoft
- Tridion
- Astoria Software
- Day
- XyEnterprise
- Alchemy
- PASS Engineering
This isn't an exclusive partnership, so there's always room for an Idiom or STAR to try to do essentially the same thing. But it is important that SDL form these types of relationships and the company is clearly on the right track.
The magic, of course, is in the execution. Here's the SDL press release.
Speaking of the press release, I'm still not sure SDL's new acronym: GIM (global information management) is going to stick. The companies I've been talking with lately still think and speak in words like "translation" and "web globalization." While I like what SDL is trying to do, I'm not sure this acronym fits the target audience. But time will tell.
And on a side note, two buzzwords that I'm seeing SDL and Lionbridge use a lot of lately are "velocity" and "ecosystem." And I don't particularly like either one of them. Why? Because I've yet to meet with a buyer of localization services ever use these words. Nobody says I need a vendor who "exhibits high velocity" or "embraces the globalization ecosystem."
Perhaps I've just been reading too many press release lately.
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November 4, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
According to this article Chief Operating Officer Satish Maripuri says Lionbridge will triple its India workforce over the next few years.
Lionbridge had its Q3 earnings call this morning...
With one month of the BGS acquisition under its belt, Rory Cowan says so there have been only "pleasant surprises" about the acquisition. He said that had BGS been under their belt for the entire quarter Lionbridge would have hit $100 million for the quarter.
In Q3, Lionbridge won new work in government and with a "global shipbuilding company." It is growing Merck to $7-8 million per year. Is doing more work with Google. I think Google could be a huge software client down the road if it begins to localize Web-based office applications. That said, Lionbridge is still awfully heavy into tech and software localization.
Other notes from call:
- Lionbridge is pushing Web-based translation memory tool Logoport hard. Has trained 1,000+ BGS employees on it.
- BGS had developed some machine translation software which will be integrated by Lionbridge with Logoport.
- Working through $15 to $20 million in cost reductions, a little more than half is due to head count. Consolidating offices in Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Japan, Beijing, Korea.
- Logoport could have a nice impact on margins by this time next year due to lower software (SDL/Trados) costs and translation memory leverage.
- Seeing the number of languages increase -- up to 80 languages required for a recent cell phone launch.
- Seeing more US-ES work.
That said, not all analysts are so bullish about the Lionbridge numbers -- a few on the call wanted to know "where's the growth?" Lionbridge stock is current down about 7 percent. Might be a good time to buy...
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October 30, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
In the August issue of Global By Design, in the article Machine Translation: The Next Generation, I introduced statistical machine translation (SMT):
SMT is a data-driven translation technology. Rather than relying on a dictionary of translations and rules, it starts with data in the form of lots and lots of source and target text. The statistical process involves analyzing this data and identifying patterns. By analyzing millions and millions of words, the software gets pretty good at “guessing” how to translate a given text string. “We’re not really translating,” said Language Weaver CEO Bryce Benjamin. “What we’re really doing is a probability forecast.”
Language Weaver has been one of the pioneers in SMT but has focused only on the government sector primarily serving intelligence agencies.
Until now.
Language Weaver this week launched the “Customizer” and targeted it at large enterprises and government bodies. What makes this tool so unique is that a company can very quickly adapt it to its specific industry and the software will continue to improve in quality as more translations are processed.
According to Bryce Benjamin, “The Customizer allows each customer to create, within just a few hours, a unique set of translation engines that cannot be duplicated by anybody else without access to the same data resources.”
However, the Customizer is not for everyone just yet. For starters, the software currently only supports the following language pairs:
-> French <-> English
-> Spanish <-> English
-> Arabic <-> English
-> Chinese <-> English
-> Hindi -> English
-> Somali -> English
The other two obstacles are pricing and the minimum database of translated content required to get started. For a large enterprise, these obstacles are easily overcome but small businesses will need to wait until a low-end product is launched, or until Google launches its free SMT product, possibly as early as 2006.
I'm glad to see Language Weaver going after enterprises and I think they will find takers, though a good deal of education will be required. Machine translation is still widely viewed as not-ready-for-prime-time technology. I do believe that SMT, over time, will be a very positive development for Web globalization, helping companies publish a great deal more content for local markets, increasing sales, and better serving customers.
I'll have more to say on Language Weaver in the November issue of Global By Design, due out later this week.
PS: Here's another interesting article on the next wave of machine translation.
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October 27, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
TransPerfect Translations announced today that it had acquired Crimson Language Services. According to the press release, the "merger creates a newly-formed Life Sciences Division that combines Crimson’s ISO 9001:2000/ISO 13485:2003 certified quality system and patent-pending risk management methodology with the production resources and localization talent of TransPerfect and its software localization unit, Translations.com."
Crimson is a well-regarded agency with a solid client base in the life sciences and financial services industries. I don't know what the purchase price was but strategically it makes sense. More important, given the fragmented nature of the translations industry, this type of merger is a sign of things to come.
Two thoughts...
If you're a small translation agency: Specialize now or struggle later
If you're a small translation agency worried about competing with the "big boys" like Lionbridge or SDL, find a industry vertical or two that they have done a relatively poor job serving thus far and one that has good growth potential. Life sciences, for example, has been a key vertical because clients will pay a premium for quality. This doesn't mean you won't pitch other industry opportunities as they arise, but you do need to start specializing. Clients are getting savvier in how they select agencies, which means they want agencies who know their industry inside and out. Vertical specialization is the way to create deep and long-lasting client relationships. Also keep your eye on value-added services, like source content editing, interpreting, local-market keyword advertising support, and more.
If you're a translation buyer: Don't buy from a "one size fits all" translation agency
No agency is an expert at every industry, despite what they will tell you. The first thing you should do when evaluating potential agencies is take a good look at their client roster. Then you should call a few of their clients (clients that are in your industry) to get a feel for the agency's track record. The TransPerfect acquisition of Crimson is good news for clients, because it combines in-depth industry expertise with the IT skills and software of a much-larger localization vendor.
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October 21, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
The globalization services and software industry has for years labored under the radar of the mainstream media. But this is gradually changing thanks in part to consolidation among top players like SDL and Lionbridge and investments by smaller players in marketing and PR.
And then there is a phenomenal success of Tom Friedman's The World Is Flat which is awakening the public to the importance of this industry in helping companies expand globally.
Language Weaver and Welocalize are doing their part in raising awareness by earning a spot on two key industry lists...
Welocalize Makes the Inc 500
Translation services vendor Welocalize announced today that it made the annual Inc. 500 ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the country. Welocalize ranks No. 407 on the list, with three-year sales growth of 339%. This is the first year the company made this list and I doubt it will be the last.
Language Weaver makes Deloitte Fast 500 List
Language Weaver, a enterprise software developer for the automation of human language translation, has been named a Rising Star on the 2005 Deloitte Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in North America.
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Posted by John Yunker
TransPerfect Translations announced that it was selected by the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation (NRAEF) to "produce translations of multicultural training tools."
According to the press release, the restaurant and food service industry, with more than 12 million employees, is the second-largest employer in the US. And it has a large and growing percentage of non-native English speakers.
TransPerfect says it is too early to tell what the size of this deal may be revenue-wise, but the company did confirm that they're currently only working on Spanish translation.
TransPerfect is definitely an agency to watch. Privately owned, the company has been growing quickly over the past few years and recently bought back full control of sister company Translations.com. It claims roughly 300 employess and I estimate it will finish the year at more than $60 million in revenues. While it is still a small company compared to the likes of a Lionbridge, it appears to have a high profile among the clients that I speak with and it is rapidly adapting to new opportunities as they arise. And focusing on the US Hispanic market is clearly one of those opportunities.
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September 22, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
Globalization services provider SDL and XML authoring software provider Astoria have partnered to help Siemens Medical Solutions save an estimated $1 million on localization costs, according to this press release.
There were two interesting items in the release worth mentioning...
- DITA is being used. DITA is the hot new XML flavor that was recently open sourced by IBM and now being adopted by major software vendors. It's nice to see a real world example of DITA being used successfully. I'm sure we're going to see many more such case studies. DITA appears to be benefiting on two growing needs in corporations these days: the "chunking" of content for reuse across media and the translation of content for global communication.
- Siemens Medical publishes 190,000 product manuals annually in 18 languages. Given such volume it's easy to see how tools, well implemented, can quickly add up to significant savings. Siemens says it now be able to update technical content on a weekly basis instead of only twice a year.
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September 15, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
Its name is Clay Tablet and it is focused purely on helping companies manage multilingual Web sites. It claims to have a patent-pending technology that makes the process of sending files to translators and getting them up onto the Web site truly seamless.
We shall see. I plan to learn more in the months ahead.
Clay Tablet is not the first vendor to enter these waters despite what its press release implies, but it is wise in targeting this market. There's plenty of room for growth. Most companies are going to pay to automate their Web globalization workflow (although most don't know it yet); it's merely a question of which vendor will get the money.
Other companies in this space include: SDL, Transware, Vasont, AuthorIT, and Idiom.
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August 3, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
Here are notes from today's Q2 earnings call...
-> A strong quarter: $41.3 million. Margins are up.
-> Even though their revenues from HP are down (due largely to HP's reorg), they have done well in growing existing accounts and adding accounts. Microsoft remains their largest account -- strong quarterly revenues from Microsoft in Lionbridge history. Also doing work for Beverly, AOL, Google, Merck.
-> New project wins from GE, Motorola, and Capital One. Capitol One will be using Lionbridge to target non-English speakers within the US.
-> Testing division revenues down, although margins are up thanks to sending work to India.
-> The India offices will execute $30 million in projects this year.
-> Have regulatory approval for Bowne Global acquisition. Now working on integration.
-> Are combining redundant offices, consolidating backend systems.
-> Expect revenues of combined BGS and Lionbridge to be equal to or greater than the sum of the parts.
-> $400m to $430m revenue target.
Here's the press release.
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Posted by John Yunker
Globalization services vendor Welocalize has publicly announced, for the first time, its revenues. For years the company has blasted out glowing press releases about record quarters of growth with little in the way of details. I'm glad to see the company opening up. And the revenue figures are clearly something to be proud of...
For the first six months of 2005, the company says it generated $10.2 million, a 27% increase over the same period in 2004. The company also says that it is cash flow positive.
So if we assume that Welocalize finishes 2005 as strongly as it began, it will come in at around $20 million, getting it into our top 10 list of Web globalization/translation vendors. (This list is a regular feature of Global By Design.
Now I wonder if this announcement will spur competitors to follow suit. Companies like Logos, Merrill Brink, Simultrans, and others have hardly been eager to tell the world how they are doing financially. But with consolidation at the top of the market, there is lots of VC money floating around and these mid-tier vendors may soon realize that a little bit of transparency will also get them a little more publicity. We shall see...
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July 12, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
Last week I interviewed Mark Lancaster, CEO of SDL, and Joe Campbell, CEO of TRADOS (now on the board of SDL), about the merger and their visions for the SDL and the industry.
The good news is that the little semaphore man used by TRADOS will survive the merger. Although he has taken on an SDL shade of green.
As for the TRADOS name, it looks like this too will be around for the near future, although I doubt it will be around long term.
I was also somewhat surprised to hear how well TRADOS was doing in enterprise software sales right up to the merger. This bodes very well for getting the merger off to a strong start.
Here are a few excerpts from the interview:
How does your vision for SDL differ from Lionbridge’s vision?
Mark: We’re trying to minimize the touching of paper as it goes through the cycle rather than deploying bodies in India or China to get the job done – if you use software, you don’t need lots of bodies. We’re an enterprise software vendor with an extensive enterprise services infrastructure. Other service companies are translation companies with a possible minimal investment in a portal. This can never add the value to customers that true tested enterprise software can.
Joe: The easiest distinction is SDL is a solutions company that provides software, knowledge transfer, and services. Lionbridge, on the other hand, is much more about localization services. The localization market has been crying out for leadership in the area of software-based solutions, as opposed to simply integrating service providers. SDL is the one company providing that leadership.
What do you say to translation agencies who are concerned about buying software from a competitor?
Mark: I say that we are selling software that helps LSPs be more productive and achieve higher profitability. There is a huge market for LSPs – where we are not necessarily always going to compete. In fact, I see the LSPs as allies.
Joe: We did not have any cancellations from LSPs since the merger was announced. We’re seeing a major shift with LSPs preferring software solutions as opposed to loose technology fits and continuing to throw bodies at the problem.
How will LSPs benefit from the deal?
Mark: LSPs should get more business out of this rather than less. Corporations are increasingly centralizing their translation processes, and if LSPs support the software tools, they will get more work.
How has TRADOS been doing over the past year in the enterprise market?
Joe: Our enterprise business has been growing exponentially. More than 50% of revenues are now coming out of the enterprise side. We currently have more than 100 enterprise deployments.
SDL has been a very effective marketer of Web globalization solutions. How do you see Web globalization evolving as part of your business?
Mark: The Web is the catalyst. Everything ends up either associated with it or appearing on it, whether its the Internet or intranet. If you’re a global business you’re going to have 90% of your content in a local language. CMS vendors are increasingly asked by their customers for GIM capabilities and are therefore coming to TRADOS and SDL for assistance. I believe the Web is a big driver, and we’re going to continue to focus on the Web.
The full interview is included in the July issue of Global By Design, due out later today.
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July 8, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
On Wednesday, SDL shareholders approved the SDL acquisition of TRADOS. This makes SDL the hands-down leader of the globalization software market.
So let the games begin! The timing of this merger, as well as the Lionbridge/Bowne Global deal, is ideal. The globalization services/software industry is alive and kicking again and ready to move to the next level -- focusing on total solutions and not just cost per word. Global Information Management is what SDL calls it.
And make no mistake: client demand is driving the rebirth of this industry, not VC money (although there is plenty of that flowing around as well).
I interviewed both Mark Lancaster, CEO of SDL, and Joe Campbell, CEO of TRADOS (now joining the SDL board) yesterday. I learned a great deal and I'll be posting excerpts from the interview here next week and the full interview in the July issue of Global By Design.
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June 29, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
With SDL buying TRADOS, the maker of the leading desktop translation memory (TM) tool, globalization tools competitor Idiom is betting that translation agencies will be reluctant to buy TM tools from SDL, since SDL also sells translation services.
Enter the Idiom WorldServer LSP Advantage Program.
Details are light on this announcement (where's the pricing?) but you have to give credit to Idiom for trying. Based on my very unscientific survey the other day, the agencies I spoke with were generally fine with the SDL/TRADOS deal, but sentiments could easily change once it comes time to purchase new software. However, even if a translation agency decides to look around for TM alternatives to SDL/TRADOS, Idiom will have its work cut out in raising awareness and credibility.
The exciting thing about this announcement is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Now that there is all this consolidation in the top tier of the localization industry, we're going to see lots of new and existing companies hoping to take advantage of the new competitive environment.
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June 27, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
The rumors were true: Lionbridge announced that it is acquiring Bowne Global Solutions (BGS) "for at least $180 million (excluding cash received), in a combination of cash and common stock. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2005 and is expected to be accretive to Lionbridge earnings within the first full quarter of combined operations, excluding restructuring and related expenses. An investor webcast and a conference call are scheduled for 9:00 am EST Tuesday, June 28th."
So there you have it. Lionbridge is the new king of the globalization services hill -- "creating a $400 million provider with global scale across more than 25 countries and approximately 500 customers."
It's been a very busy week in the globalization industry. First SDL/TRADOS and now Lionbridge/BGS. I'll have lots to say about this deal as I learn more, but I do think it's a good move for Lionbridge, provided the company can continue to diversify beyond the software industry.
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June 25, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
Last week, I asked for reactions to the SDL/TRADOS acquisition and boy did I get an earful, most of it positive and most if it from translation agencies. Here are a few excerpts:
• " If SDL keeps its promise, and continues to listen to customers and produce good products, which they have promised, the result could be a combination of 2 great ways of approaching TM."
• " It certainly doesn’t feel good to take your money to your competitor, but I wonder if buying from SDL can really harm us. ... And what will the end result be? A withering Workbench and a blooming SDLX? A mix of both? Just SDLX? And if two distinct tools will continue to exist, it may be interesting to observe if SDL is using the same tool for their customers as they promote to others (us). I think for SDL it will be challenging to build and retain the image of a neutral business partner."
• "As a Trados user, I have reservations about the support and future products from the new SDL. I hope that this is a step in the right direction in creating better tools and services for our industry. I will be interested to see how limited competition will affect the pricing."
• " We've been struggling with which company to purchase software from and now that won't be an issue. Glad we had some patience."
I'm still talking to buyers of translation services to get their reaction to the deal; so far the responses have ranged from neutral to positive. Most clients aren't terribly concerned about who makes their software, just so long as standards are supported, price is held in line (or reduced), and usability continues to improve.
Finally, a number of readers said they thought the TRADOS purchase price of $60 million was too high. This price is roughly 2.5 times earnings. Compare that against a multiple of 1 that translation agencies generally command and this price may indeed seem high. But it's also important to note that the past two years were hardly the best time to be hawking new enterprise software, which was precisely what TRADOS was trying to accomplish. This year, we're seeing new optimism, increased spending, account consolidation, and a sense of urgency among companies seeking to expand globally; the timing may play nicely into SDL's hands.
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June 24, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
So now that SDL has announced its plans to buy TRADOS, the buzz around the industry is when Lionbridge is going to finally pull the trigger on purchasing its larger competitor Bowne Global Solutions (BGS). Based on what I'm hearing, the question isn't "if" but "when."
Last month, I asked Lionbridge CEO Rory Cowan what the main benefit of buying BGS would be and he answered "volume." Now that Lionbridge has production centers up and running in India and a brand-new translation memory tool, it is ready to scale.
And the acquisition would put Lionbridge within arm's reach of a half billion dollars in annual revenue, making it the gorilla in this industry (at least until an IBM Global Services decides to drop in).
But, regardless of what happens, the globalization services industry is really starting to get exciting again. Between the consolidation, innovation, and overall industry growth, this is a great time to be in the business of helping companies go global.
PS: I wrote about Lionbridge's new translation memory service in the June issue of Global By Design
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June 20, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
SDL International, the world's third-largest translation/localization agency announced today its plans to acquire TRADOS, the maker of the world's most popular machine translation software.
In the translation industry, this is very big news.
Every translation agency that uses TRADOS (which is most of them) and thousands of their clients that also use TRADOS will be affected by this deal.
And this is also a very big gamble for SDL. The company is betting that the "full service" solution of software and services is what clients want and need.
Meanwhile, Lionbridge is bettting on a different business model and it will be very interesting to see how this all plays out.
I had a brief chat with SDL on Friday about this deal and they are clearly very excited. SDL has been competing with TRADOS with a lower-priced software tool that was steadily gaining market share. In fact, SDL had been running a marketing campaign that basically urged companies to "switch" from TRADOS to SDL. Now, companies don't need to switch.
The larger question will be if SDL can succeed where TRADOS has struggled: in selling enterprise content management software. SDL thinks it can, and I think they'll do a good job, provided they get a handle on what large enterprises really want and need. The traditional business model of selling enterprise software is broken and in need of new ideas and pricing models. I look forward to seeing how SDL tackles the TRADOS GXT software.
Here is the press release
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June 5, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
The standards organization OASIS recently approved Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) version 1.0 as an OASIS Standard -- a "status that signifies the highest level of ratification."
So what exactly is DITA?
According to the press release, "DITA consists of a set of design principles for creating "information-typed" modules at a topic level. DITA enables organizations to deliver content as closely as possible to the point-of-use, making it ideal for applications such as integrated help systems, web sites, and how-to instruction pages. DITA's topic-oriented content can be used to exploit new features or delivery channels as they become available."
Still not clear?
I'm afraid this is one of those standards that only an information architect could love. Fortunately for me, I did have the benefit of an Idiom presentation on DITA recently. The presentation illustrated how the standard will aid in managing content across languages as well as across departments and media (Web, print, mobile).
And there is a real need among enterprises for an XML standard that allows them to "chunk" content in a way that allows for such wide-scale reuse and translation. I'll know more when I see some real-world success stories, of which there are none as of yet. But I'm sure the folks at Idiom and Arbortext are writing up their case studies as we speak.
So where will we be seeing DITA commercially?
Here are the principal vendor supporters: Idiom, Arbortext, BMC, IBM, Intel, Nokia, Oracle, and Sun. The ones to watch are not just these folks but also the folks not on the list, particularly Documentum, Interwoven, and Vignette. It will be interesting to see if other CMS vendors jump on the DITA bandwagon.
If you want to learn more, and have a few hours to spare, here are the tech specs on DITA.
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May 28, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
Last week I received a "Factory Tour" invite from Google but didn't give it much thought. I wish I had because I missed a preview of the company's ambitious machine translation (MT) efforts.
Thankfully, Philipp Lenssen includes a great recap of the Webcast at this site: Google Blogoscoped. It's worth a read.
Apparently Google is taking massive libraries of source and target text and dumping them into a database where the relationships between source and target text are analyzed and memorized. This database is then leveraged to translate new source text. Philipp explains it better than I...
This is the Rosetta Stone approach of translation. Let’s take a simple example: if a book is titled “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” in English, and the German title is “Also sprach Zarathustra”, the system can begin to understand that “thus spoke” can be translated with “also sprach”. (This approach would even work for metaphors – surely, Google researchers will take the longest available phrase which has high statistical matches across different works.) All it needs is someone to feed the system the two books and to teach it the two are translations from language A to language B, and the translator can create what Franz Och called a “language model.” I suspect it’s crucial that the body of text is immensely large, or else the system in its task of translating would stumble upon too many unlearned phrases. Google used the United Nations Documents to train their machine, and all in fed 200 billion words. This is brute force AI, if you want – it works on statistical learning theory only and has not much real “understanding” of anything but patterns.
This sure is brute force MT. I'll be very interested to know just how long a string a text Google can effectively translate. More important, how will Google handle the flood of brand names, oddball terms, and local slang?
But let's just assume that Google does make this ambitious project a success; how will this affect the translation industry in general and Web globalization in particular?
Assuming this all does work moderately well, companies will be incented to pull all text out of graphics to make the most of this free translation service. After all, if Google is providing users in Vietnam a free translation of your company's Web site, why not do what you can to make everything translatable.
This would also be yet another blow to Macromedia Flash, not that the emergence of AJAX isn't doing enough damage.
But what about the impact on translation vendors? i don't think they have much to worry about, yet. The need for high-quality, human-edited translation isn't going away anytime soon. Long term, however, all bets are off. Google should be on every translation vendor's radar; this company has lots of money, lots of smarts, and lots of incentive to provide the world's text in all the world's languages.
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April 28, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
After missing its Q1 revenues estimate, Lionbridge is taking a hit in the stock market, down about 10% over the past two weeks.
And here's why, according to an AP article: "The company -- whose services help clients such as Microsoft Corp. globalize their products -- posted a loss of $217 thousand, or nil per share, compared to a profit of $693 thousand, or 1 cent per share. Revenue was $38.8 million, down from $39.9 million last year."
These are tough numbers to swallow, particularly at a time when it seems so many companies want to take their businesses global. But I do think the market is overreacting a bit. Lionbridge is diversifying itself from relying so heavily on large tech clients like HP and Microsoft. When the tech sector coughs, Lionbridge gets the flu, and the tech sector has been coughing a lot lately. Fortunately, Lionbridge is winning non-tech clients; it claims a tech/non-tech client ratio of 55%/45% today (tech clients comprised 70% of all clients just 18 months ago).
But analysts seem to be stuck on that “pricing pressure” comment from CEO Rory Cowan. Pricing pressure is a recurring theme in this industry. I do believe Lionbridge's forthcoming hosted translation memory platform is a good step in the right direction, but I'm not sure if it will be enough to get the margins back up again long term. Keep in mind that these large enterprise clients know full well what translation should cost because they have translators on staff and multiple vendors on call. It's a brutal market, no question.
But the good news is that the need for Lionbridge's services isn't going away anytime soon; the globalization services market has not even begun to take off. And the company is getting its production costs down thanks to its two India operations centers. i think if Lionbridge can do more to move up that so-called value chain it will do just fine.
On a separate note, Bowne Global Solutions posted a healthy increase in revenues for Q1. So why do I keep hearing rumors that they're up for sale and that Lionbridge is a potential suitor?
So many rumors, so little time...
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Posted by John Yunker
Perhaps I expected too much. I loved The Lexus and the Olive Tree, and when I heard the title of Tom Friedman’s new book back in the fall, I got my hopes up. Just by the title, I knew what he was getting at, and I was thrilled to see such a high-profile columnist calling attention once again to this phenomenon that is globalization.
But now, having read The World is Flat, I’m a little disappointed. And yet I will recommend the book (three stars on Amazon) because I agree with his message, and I think it’s critically important that we have writers like Tom out there explaining the many ways that globalization makes the world a better place to live.
However, the book could have been much better with some ruthless editing. As a reader, I don’t like being talked down to, and I feel that Tom does that a bit too much, primarily by repeating many of the same concepts and buzzwords over and over again. For example, he explains why the world is flat early on. It’s a good metaphor, but Tom proceeds to attach "flat" to everything he sees. He sees customer service reps in India "flattening" their accents. He writes of the "coefficient of flatness" and "compassionate flatism." I felt as if Tom tried way too hard to make his flat metaphor stick. And maybe it will stick.
Here are a few nuggets from the book that did stick with me:
- "In the future globalization is going to be increasingly driven by the individuals who understand the flat world, adapt themselves quickly to the processes and technologies."
This is such a key point. The interesting thing about globalization is that it empowers individuals, even more than countries.
- Tom stresses that globalization helps the small firms as much as the big firms, perhaps even more. As the owner of a small firm, I agree. Tom quotes UPS CEO Mike Eskew: "You know who the majority of our customers and partners are? Small businesses. They are asking us to take them global. We help these companies achieve parity with the bigger guys."
- Tom talks about Eriksen Translations, a New York-based translation firm featured in my firm's Savvy Client’s Guide to Translation Agencies. Tom mentions how Eriksen embraced Skype, the VoIP service that is revolutionizing the telecoms industry. After the first six months of using Skype, the company cut phone costs by 10%. I only wish Tom had talked a bit more about translation agencies – these firms have been outsourcing work for decades and have always been early adopters of new technologies, from email to VoIP.
- "The Indians and Chinese are not racing us to the bottom. They are racing us to the top." The Lenovo/IBM deal is one example. And just wait until Chinese automakers start making their way into the US…
- "China has more than 160 cities with a population of one million or more."
Wow.
While I didn’t love this book, I liked it. If you’ve been reading The Economist for the past few years then much of this book will come across as old news. But if not, it’s worth a read. Tom is truly passionate about all that is good about globalization, and it comes through in his writing. The world needs more voices like his to prevent the US (and other nations) from knee-jerk protectionism as we collectively slouch toward a more connected world.
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April 22, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
TRADOS is promoting version 7 of its translator desktop software, and it looks like the key improvement in this edition is full XML support, including the hot new DITA standard. These acronyms mean very little to marketing teams, but will mean a great deal to information architects and IT departments, the folks who are struggling to make content and translation management work smoothly (and cost-effectively) across enterprises.
Support for open standards is all the rage in the content management industry and this is driving force in the translation software space as well. This is great news for both companies and their vendors, because XML-based systems, software, and workflow is now (finally) starting to pay off.
Here are the new or improved features listed on the TRADOS press release:
- Complete XML Open Standards Support - Increased compatibility, no matter what the format, including XLIFF, DITA, conditional XML and other common XML flavors
- Enhanced TMX Compliance - Translator’s Workbench fully supports the latest open TMX standard, TMX 1.4b, as well as related standards such as Segmentation Rules Exchange (SRX).
- Full Support for Hindi and Twenty Other New Languages - Complete Unicode Language Support - Localization into the languages spoken in emerging markets such as India are becoming more and more vital for enterprises going truly global, and TRADOS fully supports this trend.
- Improved Ease of Use - Including improvements to user experience for frequent activities such as AutoText to store frequently used expressions, Change Case for rapid capitalization of text and better performance for large documents Complete XML Open Standards Support - Increased compatibility, no matter what the format, including XLIFF, DITA, conditional XML and other common XML flavors
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Posted by John Yunker
Apparently needing to boost its Arabic-language localization capabilities, SDL acquired Dubai-based Lingua Franca. Here's the press release. Arabic is one of the more expensive languages to support -- and it can be brutal finding good talent these days, particularly since the US government is creating a seller's market for Arabic language services.
I filed this entry under the "Globalization Vendors" category, but given the pace of consolidation in this industry lately, I'm considering adding a "Consolidation" category. There's lots more such announcements coming...
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April 15, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
I spent some time with the folks at Idiom earlier this week and they are looking bullish on the future of their company in particular and the globalization industry in general. So are their investors, who just ponied up an addition $6 million in cash for sales and marketing, as detailed in this article.
According ot the article, "In January, Idiom said sales doubled for the second straight year during 2004 as several major international companies -- including General Motors, Catepillar and Symantec -- signed up for its WorldServer family of products. Other customers include: Adobe, Oracle, Motorola and Travelocity."
I'm in full agreement that the globalization services and software industry is bouncing back nicely this year. And, based on a number of conversations I've had over the past six months, I expect we'll we hearing about additional VC-fueled consolidations and expansion plans in the months ahead.
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April 14, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
In yet another sign that language services vendors believe software is key to their future growth, Transware has acquired GMS vendor GlobalSight.
Tom Kelly, the newly appointed CEO of the company -- to be called Transware (not GlobalSight) – recently filled me in on some of the high-level details.
Although I plan to write an in-depth feature on this deal in Global By Design after I get more information, my initial thoughts are:
- This is a good news for GlobalSight. The company was floundering for the past 12 months and I think a creative and aggressive company like Transware is a good fit. Transware officially enters the big time with this acquisition.
- I don’t believe that GlobalSight’s product is the reason for the software vendor’s floundering. The software does have a future, provided it is well priced, well managed, and “plugged in” to all other major CMS tools (not a simple task).
- Tom Kelly is from outside the localization industry, which I think could be a very good thing. Outsiders have the benefit of looking at the globalization industry as many new clients now view the industry – with a sense of intimidation and bewilderment. As I’ve said before, as this industry continues to expand, services firms must continually remind themselves that many of these new buyers need a great deal of education. Transware recently sponsored my participation an educational Webinar, so I have a feeling that under Tom’s leadership that this strategy will not only continue but possibly be expanded. After all, when you add software to the mix, you need to do even more education.
- Does this acquisition mean that services/software sales is the way of the future for all major services firms? And what about the assertion (made to me recently by Idiom) that clients want to keep their globalization services vendor and globalization software vendor separate? Certainly Idiom is doing well these days selling software independent from services. I suspect that their assertion probably rings truer in the larger enterprise space than the SME space, and perhaps both models will be equally successful. But the ultimate proof will be in in how vendors like Transware, Translations.com and SDL do in the years ahead selling services and software.
PS: Other language services vendors are also planning software-related announcements. More on this in the weeks ahead...
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April 1, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
The PR engines at globalization vendors SDL and TRADOS are busy churning out releases lately. Two of them are worth noting:
SDL claims its first "switcher"
As I mentioned previously, SDL is asking companies to drop their current translation software in favor of SDL software. I imagine SDL had their first switcher lined up before the whole campaign began and it just happens to be a very high-profile company: Sony Europe. Not too shabby.
TRADOS claims 71% market share
Meanwhile, TRADOS (the software company SDL hopes to "unswitch") sent out a release claiming a record year in revenues and a 71% market share of translation agencies and freelance translators. The number seems right to me, though I suspect it was higher a few years back. Still, I'll take a 71% share any day, particularly since this market as a whole continues to grow.
And that's not all...
There are rumblings underfoot of a new challenger to SDL and TRADOS with a new business model. I'll have more on this development soon.
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March 24, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
In a page borrowed from Apple's playbook, globalization services/software vendor SDL is asking prospects to switch over to SDLX.
What is SDLX? It's a computer-aided translation (CAT) software tool used by translators and agencies to more efficiently and more quickly manage translation. The leader in this space by a long margin is TRADOS.
And, as I written previously, it's not easy to get companies and translation agencies to switch their CAT tools, particularly away from the market leader. That's why I like SDL's new Web-based campaign so much. It poses and answers the types of questions that prospects will naturally ask, like:
- Why switch?
- What companies have swtiched?
- How hard is it to switch?
My only question is will this campaign work as well for SDL as it did for Apple?
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March 6, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
I'm at the IA Summit in Montreal and have been pleased to find that IA (information architecture) professionals are tackling the challenges of content globalization in a big way. And this is a great thing, because the IA industry is critical to the evolution of truly successful global Web sites.
I'm not much of an IA guy, so I've been getting up to speed on industry buzzwords like facets and taxonomies and folksonomies. And the presentations by far have been terrific.
There were a total of four sessions that spoke directly to content globalization, touching on everything from translation testing to global IA (I gave a talk on one of my favorite topics, the global gateway). And there were a good number of attendees across these sessions -- mostly internal IA professionals and their agency counterparts. I did not find one localization industry professional (besides myself), but I expect that to change in the years ahead.
Thanks to the efforts of Louis Rosefeld, Peter Van Dijck, Jorge Arango, Livia Labate, and many others, I expect we'll see some really exciting things coming out of the IA industry, which will have a large impact on the localization industry. My personal goal will be to do what I can to get the localization industry and the IA industry to work more closely together to share insights and do a better job of advancing global Web sites, from taxonomy to translation.
PS: I spoke with more than a dozen IAs who are all working on brand new multilingual Web projects (from IT to services to apparel), another strong sign that companies have awakened to the importance of Web globalization. I said it before and I'll say it again: 2005 is the year that Web globalization goes mainstream.
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February 27, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
SDL announced last week that sales of its translation memory (TM) software were up 85% with more than "10,000 new product units across all markets." I'm still trying to get a handle on how these numbers translate to market share; TRADOS is still the undisputed gorilla in this space.
For years, TRADOS has been the standard among translators, translation vendors, and their clients. The nice thing about being the dominant software tool is that it is very hard for a competitor to take market share away from you.
But SDL appears to be making progress. Although the larger trend of companies moving to XML-based content could make the battle between the TM vendors largely irrelevant.
What I find interesting is that SDL has had success selling both software and services. It looks like some clients appreciate having a vendor who can manage everything, from translation to content management workflow to software support.
Looking ahead, I wonder if we see the other members of the "big three" -- Lionbridge and Bowne Global Solutions -- get into the software biz. I would not be surprised to see one of them follow SDL's lead.
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February 17, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
TRADOS has announced a Globalization Partner Program in an effort to bring "together leading globalization software and services companies to remove complex, persistent barriers that prevent enterprises from effectively reaching global markets." In other words, if we can all get along with one another perhaps we can all make a little extra money.
In all seriousness, this is what the clients want: content management software, localization software and globalization management software that all play well with one another. I'm glad TRADOS is taking the lead on this.
Inaugural partner members include:
-> EMC Corporation for EMC Documentum products (enterprise content management)
-> RedDot Solutions (enterprise content management)
-> Blast Radius (XMetaL XML content creation)
-> Glemser Technologies (systems integration for life sciences)
-> Day Software (enterprise content management)
-> InterDoc (integrator for enterprise content management systems)
-> Alchemy Software Development (visual software localization solutions)
-> PASS Engineering (visual software localization solutions)
-> acrolinx (controlled language and linguistic tools)
-> Transclick (real-time translation services)
-> Transmissions (desktop publishing localization tools)
This is a nice mix of large and small vendors. I have no hard research to base this on but I get the feeling we're going to see another wave of CMS vendors emerge, spawned in part by the open-source movement and the failure of the "big boys" like Documentum and Vignette to ever ship a low-end solution.
So, for the clients, content globalization is going to get more complicated before they get less complicated, which is why the TRADOS partner program is a good idea at the right time.
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December 22, 2004
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Lionbridge on Hiring Spree
Globalization services vendor Lionbridge is on a hiring spree. It posted more than 20 job positions in December, gearing up for a big 2005.
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December 20, 2004
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SDL Wins Microsoft
Globalization services and software vendor SDL announced today that it won a 3-year language services contract from Microsoft. Although Microsoft outsources work to nearly every major localization firm, this is still a very nice win for SDL.
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December 18, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
Bowne Global Solutions, one of the "big 3" in the content globalization industry, uses Salesforce.com to manage its global sales team. I have found over the past two years that more and more globalization companies have begun using Salesforce.com, and it is no coincidence that the software is now available in nine languages.
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December 11, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
Globalization services vendor Lionbridge just recruited sales exec Kathleen Bostick from archrival SDL. This is a blow to SDL's North American sales efforts and a big win for Lionbridge.
Kathleen played a key role in SDL gaining strategic accounts in such industry verticals as hospitality, elearning, automotive and life sciences. She also understands the growing importance of Web globalization within organizations. Lionbridge clearly needs to do a better job of selling itself to companies outside the software industry; Kathleen should be a very good fit.
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December 9, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
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December 7, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
Content management sofware (CMS) provider Ektron has beefed up its support for content localization and multilingual content management. This is becoming a recurring theme among CMS vendors and I'm glad to see it.
Also nice to see is Ektron's support for the XLIFF standard. XLIFF is an emerging open standard for exchanging multilngual data.
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December 3, 2004
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CA Goes Global With SDL
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November 5, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
SDL announced that it has released a Chinese version of its translation memory tool SDLX. The company claims that this is the "first time a major translation technology player has localized its product for the growing Chinese market."
I'll have to touch base with competitive vendors to see if this claim is true, but it seems absurd at this point if they don't have a Chinese version of their software.
I found this blurb on SDL's press release particularly interesting:
According to the Hong Kong Trade Council, China's translation industry currently accounts for $1.5 billion annually, and that number is expected to grow to $2.5 billion by 2007 with the Translation Association of China stating that there are currently over 3,000 translation companies operating in China.
So when you hear analysts like myself say there are 6,000+ translation firms around the world, you can assume that half of them are in China. But be aware that a "translation firm" is often one person.
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November 3, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
Language Weaver, a San Diego-based developer of machine translation software, scored additional funding from In-Q-Tel, the VC arm of the CIA (yes, even the CIA likes to gamble). It appears that Language Weaver has made great strides in creating software to effective machine translate Arabic. Given the CIA's backlog of untranslated Arabic intelligence, this software can't be delivered a minute too soon.
I noticed that the press release sizes the MT market at $4 billion. Not sure where they came up with the stat, but it certainly sounds nice. But I would agree tha MT appears to be coming into its own finally. Note to translators: I'm not implying you'll be out of business anytime soon. But I am saying that MT is going to find its niche and this niche will grow exponentially. There is simply not enough translators in the world to handle the content necessary in this increasingly global economy.
Here's the press release.
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November 1, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
Globalization services firm Moravia is hiring bizdev people throughout the US. Check out the latest job listings here.
Is your translation or globalization services firm hiring? Let me know and I'll try to post it.
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October 29, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
SDL announced that it helped Philips simultaneously launch new product marketing communications materials (Web site, collateral, etc) in 29 languages using SDL software and services.
I've only just skimmed the new site but it does appear to be an improvement and I'm pleased to see a global gateway splash page included (shown below).
I'll have a full review of the site shortly. Here is the SDL press release:
SDL International, the world's leading provider of translation services and technology solutions, announced today that Philips Consumer Electronics, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, has successfully launched new product marketing communication materials simultaneously in 29 languages using SDLWorkFlow 2004 and SDL translation services.
SDLWorkFlow 2004 integrates with Philips XML-based authoring, content management systems to automate product marketing translation management, ensure maximum re-use of translation assets and enable rapid translation of any type of content. This includes product leaflets, website and call center support documentation, with translation overhead reduced 85% and translation costs 35%. The increased automation of processes from authoring to publication has enabled the simultaneous launch of consumer web catalogues in 29 languages in support of Philips' new "sense and simplicity" marketing campaign.
"Our new 'sense and simplicity' campaign is one of the most significant marketing investments ever made by Philips," commented Luuk de Jager, Senior Manager for Global Content Management at Philips Consumer Electronics. "By concurrently launching in 29 languages we are able to reinforce our global brand, communicate consistently with our customers wherever they are located and achieve economies of scale in our product, marketing and e-business operations. This has provided our customers with immediate access to appropriate product literature. We could not have achieved this without our strategic language technology and services partnership with SDL."
"Philips is leading the industry in utilizing XML-based technology to improve its product and marketing communications processes," said Terry Lawlor, Vice President Worldwide Marketing at SDL International. "Our software, consultancy and language services have helped Philips reduce the cost of translation by over 30%, achieve faster time to market and creating consistent quality across multilingual business communications. The simultaneous launch in 29 languages would not have been possible without the advanced capabilities of SDLWorkFlow 2004 and the rapid turnaround, high quality translations from our services operations."
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October 12, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
Just as “time to market†has accelerated across all industries, so too has “translation to market.†After all, you can’t promote a new product globally if the marketing collateral and support materials aren’t available in the necessary languages.
When it comes to the Internet, the content management system (CMS) plays a critical role in accelerating (or decelerating) translation to market.
Up until recently, Briggs & Stratton was clearly suffering under the weight of its CMS. Briggs was using a now-defunct product called Eprise, from the now-defunct company Divine. Managing translation workflow through the software was cumbersome, time-intensive, and prone to error; translating a Web page into five languages could take a week or more, not because of the actual translation but because of the software overhead.
Briggs & Stratton turned to Northwoods Software Development for an XML-based software solution. Now, when a Web page is added or modified in the source language, Briggs’ translation agency (Cogen) is automatically notified. But that’s just for starters. Because the CMS is native XML, Cogen can export pre-translated text strings and re-import them when the job is complete. Only those text strings that need to be translated are exported saving a great deal of time; what used to take a week now can be managed in hours.
I spoke with Pat Bieser, CEO of Northwoods. He said that Briggs first looked at Vignette, Broadvision, Microsoft CMS, and a number of smaller vendors before selecting Northwoods. “They choose us because of our reasonable price and because our feature set compared well to the high end products,†he said. “It also didn't hurt that we have had 300 installs in the past two years, including ome big names like Snap-on, AIG, VISA, Time Warner, and the City of ilwaukee. “
Pat believes the translation workflow feature will become a critical feature of their CMS platform in the years ahead: “All of our clients who do business overseas have an interest in our translation process and multi-language CMS.†However, he does not believe that the feature alone will drive sales. Translation workflow support is well down the priority list with most companies: “Unfortunately, this feature is often a ‘next year’ or ‘next phase’ option.â€
I found the Briggs & Stratton deployment interesting for three major reasons:
- For starters, Northwoods appears to be growing rapidly despite the presence of global heavyweights like Vignettes. This tells me that there is plenty of opportunity for smaller vendors to succeed and to conintue to exert pricing pressure on the large vendors, as well as the globalization management software vendors like Idiom and Globalsight.
- Translation services vendors have an opportunity to gain new business through these new developments. Although Cogen kept the Briggs account throughout this transition, they could have been unseated had Northwoods entered with a services partner. Cogen appears to have had a strong enough relationship that Briggs did not “throw out the baby with the bathwater.†Other agencies in this situation may not be so fortunate.
- Speed kills. Multinationals will “kill†their existing software and service vendors if they can’t help them get translated content out to the Web sites as quickly as possible. Vendors would be wise to leverage “speed†as a marketing device to “kill†the competitioin.
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October 8, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
Lionbridge shares took a major hit today, down more than 30%, on news that the company was coming up roughly $6 million short of its revenues target.
Lionbridge blames its Veritest testing unit for the shortfall and says it is making progress in diversifying itself beyond the tech sector. I've never been a huge fan of its Veritest division. Over the past few years, the company pointed to Veritest as an example of diversification. But that's not diversification in the larger sense of the word; Lionbridge needs to be well diversified outside of the tech sector, not just within the tech sector.
The company has been aggressively going after medical device, chemical, and automotive accounts. But I believe that Lionbridge is still largely perceived to be a software localization company. The company doesn't speak the language of the medical device community; see ForeignExchange Translations for a company that gets it right.
Now Lionbridge has good management and very bright prospects, particularly given its production facilities. But it needs marketing help, sooner rather than later.
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Posted by John Yunker
Globalization management software vendor Idiom has been on a hiring spree lately; they tell me that they plan to double revenues in '05 and are hiring field sales and consultants to help make this happen. I must confess that I've had my doubts about Idiom's survival but this development tells me that things are not nearly so dire. They also announced a recent new win from Information Builders.
Setting the Record Straight on Oracle and Idiom
A month ago I commented on the Idiom press release regarding the "new" Oracle account win. I suspected that an overzealous PR department was trying to make an expanded Oracle account sound like a new account.
However, I've been told by Idiom that this was indeed a new account win. The first sale to Oracle was for Idiom's Web globalization software. The second sale was for a different Idiom application; Idiom sells three different applications:
- Website globalization
- software localization
- global electronic publishing
According to Idiom, "The new deal was with a different Oracle group, for a different application. Oracle's Worldwide Product Translations Group (WPTG), in Dublin, Ireland, bought an enterprise license to use WorldServer across all translation and localization efforts at Oracle (documentation, Oracle Univ., etc.). The first license was for Oracle.com only. They were two separate deals, with two different Oracle organizations, with two different multi-month proof-of-concept pilots, etc. In both cases, Idiom and our GMS contemporaries were considered."
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October 7, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
Language Weaver, a machine translation (MT) software developer, has announced a $4 million VC infusion. This is just another sign that MT is inching closer to real-world/commercial applications.
Slowly but surely we're seeing companies make limited use of MT to translate text that would have been cost-prohibitive to translate manually. SDL recently launched such a service.
I'm not suggesting that MT is anywhere near replacing human translators. In fact, the better way to look at MT software is like desktop publishing software - it did not replace designers, but it did give them the tools to help them do their jobs more effeciently.
Here is the full press release:
LANGUAGE WEAVER RAISES $4 MILLION IN SERIES B FUNDING -All major Series A
investors reinvest in round led by Palisades Ventures -
LOS ANGELES - Oct. 6, 2004 - Language Weaver, Inc., a Los Angeles-based
software company developing statistical machine translation software (SMTS),
today announced it has completed the initial closing of its Series B funding
round of $4 million. The round was led by Palisades Ventures of Los Angeles.
Palisades Ventures is a venture capital fund making growth stage investments
in systems, services, software, and hardware companies driving the adoption
of leading edge information technology, communications, and media
technologies. Paul D'Addario, senior managing director of Palisades
Ventures, will take a seat on the Language Weaver board of directors.
"Palisades Ventures invests in companies with strong technologies, proven
market traction, and where we can leverage our many strategic relationships
in the IT, communications and media sectors for the benefit of our portfolio
companies," D'Addario said. "Language Weaver's translation technology has
immense commercial potential. The company will be well supported by
Palisades Ventures with introductions to potential customers and strategic
partners as it positions itself in the commercial markets."
Palisades Ventures first became aware of Language Weaver at LARTA
Institute's Los Angeles Venture Forum in April 2004 where Language Weaver
was chosen as start-up company of the year. In addition to Palisades
Ventures, all of Language Weaver's major Series A investors have also chosen
to invest in the Series B round, including Sulphur Creek Ventures and
Athenaeum Fund.
According to Bryce Benjamin, CEO of Language Weaver, the money will be used
to support the company's entrance into commercial markets. "The obvious
first mover for Language Weaver's technology was the government, where we
have now established several contracts and excellent relationships,"
Benjamin said. "With this new investment we will grow our team and expand
our marketing and sales efforts into the international and domestic
commercial markets, which are hundreds of times larger than the government
markets and where the need is even greater for high quality language
translation."
About Language Weaver
Language Weaver was founded in 2002 to commercialize a unique approach to
automatic language translation using proprietary statistical translation
algorithms that resulted from 20 person-years of invention and development
at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute
(USC/ISI). Its resulting product, statistical machine translation software,
provides the highest quality output to date from machine translation. The
company has 15 patents pending on its SMTS technology. Bidirectional
language pairs available include: Arabic/English, Chinese/English,
French/English, and Spanish/English; unidirectional languages include Somali
to English and Hindi to English, with others coming soon. Language Weaver's
software is available as licensed software in client server and stand-alone
versions. Website: www.languageweaver.com.
-end-
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October 5, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
The NHS is the UK's national health organization and the largest health organization in Europe. It announced recently that it would be offering multilingual phone support through Bowne Global Solutions.
Approximately 500 calls per month come into the NHS in a language other than English. Now when non-English callers phone in, they will be connected with a confidential interpreter who communicates between the patient and an NHS doctor.
I'd be curious to know how the NHS will seamlessly direct patients to their interpreters given the range of languages that they will have to field.
The most-requested languages so far are Asian and European languages such as Punjabi, Hindi, French, Portuguese and German.
Now that the phone support is in place, the NHS will need to tackle its Web site, which is only available in English:
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Globalization Vendors | Translation
October 4, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
Trados has been on a partnering spree lately, hooking up with a growing array of content management software (CMS) providers. Overall, this is a good strategy, as every CMS application will eventually need to support the creation and management of multilingual content.
Here is the press release:
Day Software and TRADOS Strengthen Leadership Positions by Introducing World-Class Branding Solutions
Day (SWX:DAYN) and TRADOS today announced an initiative that delivers global branding solutions combining TRADOS globalization management software with Day's content management solutions. It enables corporations to deliver the same, accurate messages to all their global markets, speaking in one voice across the linguistic divides. This Day-TRADOS initiative gives multinational companies a single, consistent, quick-to-implement way to manage and globalize brand content.
With the rise of global trade, companies who have nurtured global brands have benefited greatly. Brand value accounts for about one-third of the shareholder value of companies with the leading brands, and the majority of the world's top 10 brands have increased their value over the previous year, according to Interbrand studies. Moreover, global brand management requires that a company's core brand messages be delivered in multiple types of local language content. The initiative from Day and TRADOS enables timely and effective delivery of global brand content in multiple languages, offering:
-- Joint Day-TRADOS technology solutions for delivering global content with consistent messaging and branding.
-- Coordinated marketing, sales, delivery, and support from Day and TRADOS to ensure the highest quality customer experience.
Day and TRADOS technology have been united in an integrated framework that streamlines globalization and delivers localized brand content across a multilingual environment. This framework brings together Day's enterprise content management technology for global brand management, including features for creating generic templates and separating design and content, with TRADOS translation memory and terminology management, including centralized termbases, corporate glossaries and global terminology management. Leveraging the framework, customers can improve the performance and productivity of content creation, cut costs and cycle time for document management and localization, and deliver final content with consistent messaging and branding to all markets.
Today TRADOS and Day provide solutions to many blue-chip customers, including DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen Group and Johnson Controls. TRADOS is the leader in globalization software with over 80 percent market share and over 65,000 seats. Currently, TRADOS has developed globalization solutions for thousands of world-class companies -- including VERITAS, Siemens and HP. Day has provided content management branding solutions to over 150 companies with leading global brands, including McDonald's, General Electric, UBS, Shimano and DHL.
"Together, Day and TRADOS provide a powerful solution for today's global companies," said Michael Moppert, chairman and CEO of Day. "In our globalized economy almost all key business processes rely on the efficient management of the enterprise's Web properties. Our joint platform enables customers to make sure that all their Internet-based communication channels speak with one voice -- regardless of location, geography, time zone or language. With this we significantly increase business process efficiency and time-to-market while driving down cost."
"This Day and TRADOS initiative delivers a powerful, new solution for global branding," said Jochen Hummel, chairman and chief technology officer for TRADOS, "by unifying Day's innovations for achieving consistent global brand management with TRADOS' globalization management software."
About Day (www.day.com)
Day is a leading provider of integrated content, portal and digital asset management software. Day's technology, Communique, offers a comprehensive, rapidly deployable framework to unify and manage all digital business data, systems, applications and processes through the Web. Communique's content-centric architecture, and its innovative ContentBus, turns the entire business into a virtual repository, bringing together content from any system, regardless of location, language or platform.
Day is an international company, founded in 1993, and listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange New Market (SWX:DAYN) since April 2000. Day's customers are some of the largest global corporations and include Audi, DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Post World Net, General Electric, Intercontinental Hotels Group, McDonald's, UBS and Volkswagen.
About TRADOS Inc. (www.trados.com)
The worldwide leader in globalization software and services, TRADOS empowers multinational organizations to speed the delivery and improve the quality of multilingual content to global markets. Through software that captures, stores, analyzes, standardizes and reuses chunks of previously localized content, TRADOS has enabled 3,500 corporations -- including Microsoft, IBM, Deutsche Bank, Wal-Mart, Sony, John Deere and others -- to reduce costs and drive greater revenues with a more efficient, more accurate globalization process. More translators, localization service providers and companies use TRADOS products than all competing products combined. With headquarters in Sunnyvale, TRADOS has offices worldwide
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October 2, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
Kang & Lee, a multicultural marketing agency, offers a number of informational resources on its Web site, including an Asian Americans 101 primer.
Here are some interesting stats:
- Between 1990 and 2000, the three fastest growing Asian groups were (in rank order by population growth rate): Asian Indians, Vietnamese, and Chinese. (Source: US Census Bureau, Census 2000)
- On average, Asian Americans spend $635 per trip, nearly 50% more than the average spending per trip among all U.S. travelers. (Source: The Minority Traveler, 2000)
- As of 2000, and for the first time in history, Chinese is now the second most prevalent foreign-language spoken in US households. (Source: US Census Bureau, Census 2000)
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Business Globalization | Cultural Issues | Globalization Vendors
August 4, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
The title of this latest Idiom press release makes it sound as if Idiom just won the Oracle account. However, if you read past the first paragraph you'll find that Oracle is not a new account. The deal appears to be an expansion of an existing software deployment. Make no mistake, this is very good news for Idiom. Still, I wish the PR folks would turn it down a notch.
Here is the press release:
Oracle Chooses WorldServer to Help Reduce the Time, Cost and Complexity of Translation and Localization
Aug. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Globalization Management Systems
(GMS) leader, Idiom(R) Technologies, Inc., today announced that Oracle(R), the
world's largest enterprise software company, has selected Idiom
WorldServer(TM) as an integral component of its "Translation Factory", the
translation infrastructure used by Oracle to simultaneously ship products, Web
content, collateral and documentation in 32 languages across all geographies.
Oracle first purchased WorldServer in 2002 to support a strategic
initiative to better deliver its online content globally. The success of the
Oracle.com globalization effort suggested that similar benefits might be
achieved if WorldServer was used for other types of content that required
globalization. After an evaluation of competing GMS offerings, WorldServer
was again selected for a multi-month pilot project that focused on delivering
globalized product help, documentation and training material. This extensive
pilot confirmed that the same WorldServer benefits could apply to all of
Oracle's translation and localization efforts, based on its ability to address
the following needs:
- Accelerate Time-to-Market: The pilot showed that WorldServer could be
seamlessly integrated with Oracle's internally developed globalization
tools, thereby delivering the process automation needed to achieve
"SimShip".
- Improve Translation Quality: Oracle also found that it was able to more
consistently reuse commonly translated terms, phrases and sentences and
that they were able to share these translation assets across more
content types. As a result, they were able to eliminate translation
inconsistencies that often result from working with multiple third
party vendors from project to project.
- Simplified Vendor Management: The pilot also showed that with
WorldServer, Oracle would be able to simplify the management of its
vendor base for many content types thus reducing the workload on its
internal staff.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Business Globalization | Globalization Vendors | Software Localization | Translation | Web Globalization
August 3, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
GlobalSight, a developer of globalization management software, announced today that it "has entered into agreement with enterprise content management software provider, Mediasurface, for integrating end-to-end Web content creation into GlobalSight's Ambassador product. The new functionality will be sold as an add-on module to Ambassador."
Who stands to gain the most from this deal? I'd say that would be GlobalSight. Mediasurface has 300 clients while GlobalSight is hovering at around 30.
This is the second OEM deal that GlobalSight has announced this year and these deals certainly don't hurt. But I have only seen one new client announcement this year and I'm starting to wonder how long this company can hang in there. Granted, many new clients these days prohibit any splashy announcements, so the company could be selling software left and right. But based on a survey I recently conducted, times are still a bit slow for globalization software management companies.
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May 20, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
(PRESS RELEASE)
Lionbridge (Nasdaq: LIOX), today announced that Siemens Medical Solutions, one of the largest suppliers of healthcare equipment, has signed a master agreement that names Lionbridge as an external globalization partner.
With the agreement, Lionbridge will help Siemens Medical Solutions further its European and Asian market strategy by localizing syngo, Siemens' software platform for medical systems and applications and LEONARDO, the syngo-based workplace for intelligent post-processing. Lionbridge is localizing the user interface, online help and Web documentation of the software suite into several European and Asian languages. Lionbridge will also provide ongoing services for Siemens, including localizing marketing materials, online documentation, support and other content.
"Lionbridge is providing the reliability, process efficiency and industry expertise we need to support our complex, international product cycles," said Robert Hebel, Vice President Marketing for Software Components, Siemens Medical Solutions. "By working with Lionbridge we are able to meet the regulatory needs of a growing number of markets and further our proven reputation for delivering the most advanced, highest quality medical software products in the industry. With Lionbridge as a long-term localization partner, we are reducing costs, enhancing quality and speeding our time to market."
Lionbridge is working with Siemens Medical Solutions to enhance and
implement a highly reliable localization process and methodology. This,
combined with Lionbridge's technology-based service model, is enabling Siemens Medical Solutions to shorten its product release schedule, improve operational efficiencies while ensuring consistency of product content across all
languages and end markets.
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April 8, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
The BBC writes about the expanding translation demands of an expanding European Union. When 10 additional countries join the European Union on May 1st, they bring with them the demands of translating and interpreting nine additional languages. This is on top of the existing 11 languages the EU currently manages (and Turkish will be next).
The world's largest commercial translation agency, Bowne Global Solutions, is a $200 million company. Compare that with the EU, which is about to devote more than $1 billion (US) to translation and interpreting.
Here are some interesting stats from the article:
EU Translation: Before and After
- European Commission has 1,300 translators
- They process 1.5 million pages a year
- They cost the EU 550 million euros
After May 1st, staff will almost double in size:
- They will translate 2.5 million pages a year
- Their budget will be over 800 million euros
The article also touched on the challenges of interpreting. For example...
The need for translation already takes away the cut and thrust of a normal parliamentary debate.
When the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, last year likened a German MEP to a Nazi camp guard, it took several seconds before the German realised he was being insulted and pulled off his headphones in disgust.
This is a great article, as it touches on so many issues. Some within the EU are calling for a common language. Naturally, English has been proposed, but the French will have none of that. Esperanto has even been proposed. I think it's safe to say that for the foreseeable future, European translators and interpreters face a bright future.
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March 27, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
Here is a very nice article by Evelyn Olsen on the New Zealand translation industry.
Her company is NZTC, and for those who manage competitive companies, I recommend taking a look at their Web site (excerpt below).
They present bios of their teams divided by language specialty - a nice touch. Translation companies increasingly run into prospective clients who naively believe that translation work could easily be managed by computers. By emphasizing the people behind the scenes, NZTC makes it very clear what value they add to the process.
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February 26, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
From Verizon Wireless to Office Depot, executives have finally awakened to the importance of the Spanish-speaking market within the US. Consider the following stats, compliments of The Cobalt Group:
The US Hispanic population is the fastest-growing demographic group in the
country, doubling in the past 20 years and now representing nearly 40 million people, and 12.5% of the total US population.
Despite the fact that many US Hispanics are bilingual, almost two-thirds of
US Hispanics identified Spanish as the language they are most comfortable
speaking, and 92% of Hispanic adults read, watch, or listen to media in
Spanish.
The Cobalt Group is a Web design and management firm specializing in the automotive retail market. They provided me with these statistics to help promote their recently launched “Nitra Spanish eBusiness Program†at www.spanishnitra.com.
The service consists of Spanish Web design templates and translation support services of up to 500 words per month. Here is a sample site:
According to the Cobalt Group, 84% of Hispanic Internet users indicated they would be more likely to do their automotive shopping online if they could do so in Spanish. This is a compelling number, and I can foresee an increasing number of dealers heeding this advice and looking to The Cobalt Group for translation services.
Another reason for translation agencies to worry?
While the translation industry is clearly booming, the agencies themselves are being commoditized like never before. In the case of The Cobalt Group, no mention is made of any translation agency or the quality of the translation itself. The client only knows that they get 500 words of translation per month. In the eyes of the automotive client, The Cobalt Group IS the translation agency, despite the fact that they farm out the translation work. Perhaps over time clients will demand greater transparency –- wanting to know who the agency is and how it manages quality. If not, translation agencies are in increasing danger of being treated like so many print shops -- where buying decisions are based on pricing and turnaround and little more.
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November 4, 2003
Posted by John Yunker
To succeed in software these days, you need really tight alliances and Idiom's "go it alone" approach over the years has cost it dearly. The latest warning flag came in the form of a press release from Idiom issued today. Here is the lead sentence:
Globalization Management Systems (GMS) leader, Idiom Technologies, Inc. today announced WorldServer(TM) support for Documentum 5, the latest version of Documentum's leading enterprise content management platform.
The reason this is such an odd release is because on this very same day Documentum also issued a press release, a release that appears almost at odds with Idiom's press release. Here's the lead from the Documentum press release:
Documentum (Nasdaq: DCTM - News), the leader in enterprise content management (ECM), today announced a new joint offering with TRADOS, the global leader in language technology, and Lionbridge (Nasdaq: LIOX - News), a leading provider of globalization and testing services. Extending existing partnerships, the three companies have worked together to integrate the TRADOS Language Server(TM) with Documentum 5, the latest version of the company's ECM platform. With this announcement, Documentum becomes the first and only content management vendor to integrate key language technology directly into its content management platform.
So here is Documentum announcing a "first" and Idiom announcing what appears to be pretty much the same thing. Very mysterious. The interesting thing about the Idiom press release is that there is no boilerplate quote from Documentum in it. In fact, I doubt Documentum had anything to do with that release.
I hate to be so cynical, but I just don't believe Idiom will be around this time next year, at least not as a standalone company. After all, even Documentum is no longer a standalone company. EMC Software recently acquired them.
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October 11, 2003
Posted by John Yunker
Here is a great article about Unicode and how it affects Web developers and programmers. Here's an excerpt:
The Single Most Important Fact About Encodings
If you completely forget everything I just explained, please remember one extremely important fact. It does not make sense to have a string without knowing what encoding it uses. You can no longer stick your head in the sand and pretend that "plain" text is ASCII.
There Ain't No Such Thing As Plain Text.
If you have a string, in memory, in a file, or in an email message, you have to know what encoding it is in or you cannot interpret it or display it to users correctly.
Almost every stupid "my website looks like gibberish" or "she can't read my emails when I use accents" problem comes down to one naive programmer who didn't understand the simple fact that if you don't tell me whether a particular string is encoded using UTF-8 or ASCII or ISO 8859-1 (Latin 1) or Windows 1252 (Western European), you simply cannot display it correctly or even figure out where it ends. There are over a hundred encodings and above code point 127, all bets are off.
For the article, go to: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html
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September 28, 2003
Posted by John Yunker
The New York Times has a great profile of Michael Everson, one of the many architects of Unicode. I hope some day there are more profiles like this about the many people devoting great chunks of their lives to the Unicode cause, people like Mark Davis, Asmus Freytag, and John Jenkins (to name just a few).
The article did a good job of describing Unicode -- something I find extremely hard to describe:
A more technical explanation of Unicode is this: When Mr. Everson sends e-mail in ogham, his computer isn't sending ogham letters through the ether. Instead, strings of 0's and 1's are transmitted, and when they arrive on a friend's computer, they generate on its screen the same ogham letters that Mr. Everson typed. Unicode is the master list that resides in both computers and translates individual letters and symbols into strings of 0's and 1's and back again. Most current software is Unicode-compliant, which means that this master list of all the world's writing systems has been built into operating systems, browsers and software.
Even though Unicode includes more than 50 different writing systems. it is far complete. I was surprised to learn that there are nearly 100 more writing systems left to be included, which means that we will likely not be around to see Unicode completed. I guess it's kinda like Boston's Big Dig.
Want to learn more about Unicode? Visit the Web site.
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