The third TAUS Executive Forum held in Brussels on November 29 and 30, 2007 welcomed thirty senior localization, translation and information industry professionals from the United States, Asia and Europe. This Forum was devoted to the critical topic of innovating the translation business model. Stimulated by contributions from among others Autodesk, CNH, Medtronic, Xerox critiquing the relevance of current business models for continuous publishing, user-generated content and customer support, the Forum broke out into groups to analyze the pros and cons of word-based translation pricing, and propose alternative models. Consensus merged around the need for an incremental shift towards managed services or trusting relationships between vendors and buyers conditioned by clear service level agreements. A number of participants, however, wondered aloud whether the current vendor model would survive at all.
