What keeps people awake at night in the localization industry?
"If anything, it is the lack of control and visibility", says Arnaud Daix, Director of Localization at Hewlett Packard ACG. "We outsource our localization activities to multiple vendors and we get translations back. But we don't know whether we have an optimal process. It is a challenge to measure efficiency and predict the quality levels. This lack of control is unsettling especially when our release cycles are shortening, our number of target languages is increasing and our volumes are growing. This is why we are investing in technology like XML and globalization management software across the content management chain: to better control our processes and deliver more value to our customers."
After fifteen years of outsourcing to professional translation companies the localization industry shows some clear signs of change.
"We have reached the limits of what is humanly possible", says Fred Hollowood, Director of Translation at Symantec. "Recycling translations is now a given. It is no longer sufficient. Volumes are growing and costs are too high. We need to respond more quickly to customers' needs. Sometimes we must turn-around localized technical articles within an hour. The only way for us to master our localization challenges is by taking ownership and automating much more than that which we have felt was possible. At Symantec we are implementing controlled language authoring, machine translation, XML based publishing and global workflow systems. This will increase our productivity, but more important, it will give us control of our content."
Translation work will continue to be out-sourced, but in a targeted fashion. Buyers of localization need to understand every step in the process, to own and centrally manage translation memories and terminology, to test machine translation and controlled language, to measure quality and to impose standards. All for a good reason: translation as it is today is too slow and too costly. This quiet revolution in the localization industry is evidenced by the establishment of a new member organization: The Translation Automation User Society, or TAUS. Fifteen companies - among them Symantec, Auto-desk, EMC, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard - joined TAUS as founding members. In an exclusive "customers-only" setting, TAUS members meet in person in Round Table meetings or in discussion and user groups on the TAUS portal to benchmark their processes and learn from each other. In the search for clarity and optimization, localization entities often find it more fruitful to talk to their peers in other companies than to their vendors.
"If we hear from colleagues about high implementation costs for a specific techno-logy, we can take precautions or choose a different technology", says Fred Hollowood. "Ideas about new localization applications and technologies in different environments, when discussed at TAUS, help us to broaden our horizons and innovate within our own processes faster. Hearing other companies talk about the successful use of MT in a customer support environment can be very refreshing."
EMC, a world leader in information management, sees control of linguistic data as a key responsibility for corporations.
"We are ensuring a seamless integration of the EMC Documentum CMS system with cen-tral TM databases and MT", says Jessica Roland , Director of Localization Operations for the EMC Software Group. "Outsourcing translation is one thing but losing control over TMs and terminology can lead to liabilities like uncontrolled cost and processes or even product shipment delays. The trend is changing. Localization - for so long an isolated and fragmented activity - now becomes part of the corporate strategy. Management needs control and visibility. Localization is just like any other business process: it can be outsourced but only if it is measured and managed closely. And in addition to corporations pursuing this internally, localization vendors also need to address the current evolution in the area of integrating TM with MT processes, to help customers achieve production goals. TAUS detected these trends and acts as a great catalyst in this quiet localization revolution."