I totally “get” the customers who believe that having paid for a segment (sentence, paragraph or whatever) to be translated once, they shouldn’t have to repay every time it is reused in subsequent releases. I understand their frustration when, more than occasionally, the advice coming back from the translators is that stuff already translated, needs to be reviewed. A sentence is a sentence is a sentence, right? Why would it need to be looked at again?

The fact is that often, previous material does need to be reviewed. Firstly there is the obvious situations of “different context”. With English as our source we can re-use the same words and expressions in different contexts, without having to give much mind to the context. Red is always red, regardless of what is red. But in Italian, red can be rosso, or rossa, or even rossi or rosse, depending on what is being described (masculine or feminine, singular or plural). Having a match generate a grammatical error may not be a matter to be overly concerned about, but to some companies it shows a limit to the commitment to providing a local product. By all means accept that risk, as long as you’ve evaluated it.

Next we have the evolution of terminology. As quickly as technology is developing so also are the terms we use for it. If your product is in a market that is changing rapidly (mobile or cloud computing for example) the chances are that key terms agreed and locked away two years ago, may be in need of a facelift. This is especially true where localised versions go to and from using English terms for “new” technologies. A product can often look a little stale if it’s forced to comply with outdated terminology.

Finally, there’s the issue of the individual style of a translator. If a product has been translated over a number of years there can be no guarantee that the translators who worked on it originally (or since then) will be available for the next round. The result of a no review policy can be that the product can become a patchwork quilt of translations, with the local eye able to easily detect two separate segments coming from two separate times and people.

When I talk to customers who are new to translation about 100% matches coming from memories I sometimes use the analogy of painting a room. I tell them to imagine that they want a new wall painted in a colour to match the existing paintwork but you don’t want the painter to look at the existing work in order to find the right match. It’s Yellow…so Yellow will be fine. Yellow is Yellow, right just like German is German and French is French)? What can go wrong?  But the painter uses a slightly paler shade of yellow to the one that was last used, or even sometimes a different shade entirely. We therefore shouldn’t be surprised if someone who looks at the room as a whole detects the different ages and shades of colour.

The 100% match debate is about so much more than price. It’s about the quality of your legacy material and the need for your product to be refreshed (or not!).

So there we were, telling everyone in December to “think global”, and who goes and steals our thunder?

The National Retail Federation [www.nrf.com]  are holding their annual Conference & Exposition in New York at the moment, and one of their panel discussions has centred around what retailers should think about this coming year. The consensus amongst a panel of experts including the former Chairman & CEO of JC Penney? In order for retailers to achieve significant growth this year they will have to look to global markets. It’s estimated that emerging countries such as China, Brazil and India currently account for around 50% of global GDP.

Sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate...

Now is that a compelling reason to have a look at foreign markets?

No, I’m not going to say it. Oh, ok, then. I told you so…..

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the world,

Not a sentence was stirring, not even a word.

The translators all finished, tucked up in their beds,

It had been a hard year kids, editing acute accents and zeds.

I was just settling down to some alphabet soup;

And a Tower of Babel dark chocolate loop.

When all of a sudden there appeared like a flash,

St Nick [that’s Santa] who seemed to have crashed!

I ran out of the house and headed straight for the mess

Toys, presents, everywhere – and a Santa with stress!

The poor man was distraught; he just couldn’t believe

Those toys wouldn’t be delivered on that cold Christmas Eve!

Can IotaLS Save The Sleigh? Oops, The Day?!

It seems that the world had caught up with poor Nick,

New languages, new street signs – were causing him stick.

And in his best efforts to make all children happy

He’d got lost in translation – it had made him quite snappy.

Whilst translating street signs over Latvia and Ukraine,

His language translator had got soggy with rain.

Now he was speechless – in 15 or more tongues.

It was then that I knew how to help St Nick and his toy sack;

How to get Santa, the reindeers and sleigh on the right track.

I called IotaLS – those guys never sleep; I knew they would

help out [but, would it be cheap]?

And yes, they could do it! Don’t ask me how

But I suspect some fruit called Blackberry or Apple; that’s how.

They kept Santa going from the East to the West

And when all the toys made it in time; they called it their

best……their best test translation project! The best of the best!

So now you know why IotaLS,

Is used by companies from the East to the West

Who are lost for words, and in translation distress.

Because Iota know how to make an Ils or an Elles,

Spread across the whole world, like Santa’s sleigh bells…

I was at the Gilbane Conference in Boston last week. Well attended, some interesting topics and lively discussion around the coffee breaks. So, when I raised the question of “how was 2009 for you” there was a lot of shaking of heads. Yes, it’s been a tough year for many companies and the phrase “getting by” came up time and time again. So the next question “what about 2010?” was met with slightly more enthusiasm, although many companies are still cautious, as opposed to being cautiously optimistic. So when it came to the last question “so, if you’re still concerned about the US market, have you looked at other markets with potential growth?” there were a lot of blank faces and glazed eye expressions.

It has been a tough year. But it has been less of a tough year in some parts of the world [China still has good growth rates, Facebook has seen huge adoption rates in countries like the Czech Republic and Bulgaria]. The costs of translation and related localisation services are always coming down [or at least negotiable]. According to the World Bank, Denmark ranks higher than Canada in terms of the ease of doing business.

Ok, so a smaller market, but you get the point – there are opportunities out there.  And if you’re considering outsourcing to Eastern Europe or South America, have you checked the potential to sell to there as well?

There’s The Boat. What Will You Do With It In 2010?

We’re in the holiday season. Take some time out to check out the markets, do the ROI calculations, and maybe it won’t be that hard to turn the boat in a different direction and get ahead of the competition in 2010.

Ok, so you’ve heard all the talk about why you should do business in Europe; 500 million consumers, 27 countries in the European Union, 50 countries in Europe – all looking to buy products/software/services; the 2012 London Olympics [you have to be there or advertising there!]. You’re competition is Europe-bound, you’re trying to figure out billing systems for online payments across several currencies; and – you still haven’t figured out the Partner/Distributor model….

But your “soft skills” are telling you; find out more about Europeans so you can capture hearts and minds….and win business.

So here are a few [light hearted] tips. Remember these and your clients and partners will be blown away by your deep insights!

[Of course, if you want some real statistical type details regarding business in Europe, mail me and I'll put you on the mailshot list].

Always A Good Talking Point In Europe

Understand Soccer, You’re More than Half Way There.

Ah yes, the beautiful game. You could be on a long haul flight and the person beside you seems agitated. Then, they lean over to the passing air steward and say “can you ask the pilot if they can tell me the final score between Barcelona and Inter Milan”? What’s that about you wonder? Well, it’s what all the fuss is about in Europe a lot of the time; European soccer games, European soccer nights. If you can tell the difference between Messi & Ronaldo [Messi is smaller]; congratulate a Wolfsburg, Germany, fan on their first ever Bundesliga title last year; and speak knowledgeably about how Manchester United have their own game timing system, then you will wow your European counterparts! [And of course they will warm to your sense of humour].

A Few Words Go A Long Way.

Picture the scene. It’s a Paris commuter train station in June 2009. I’m at the ticket office trying to figure out a family ticket in and out of Paris, and I want it to include the Metro as well. Now, I know what some of you out there might think of Parisians, but hey here’s the thing; I started speaking a few words of French to explain what I wanted, the ticket guy met me half way and we were on a train speeding for Gare de L’Est before you could say bonne journée! It really is important to have a few words – it does mean an awful lot to local people that you make that effort. Of course if your company needs more than a few words in Europe here’s a thought; www.iotals.com/translation.htm

When In Rome

I was at a soccer match in the city of Porto, Portugal a few years ago with some friends. Being Irish, some decided to head off from the hotel to look for an Irish bar to have a beer in. Why do that when we were in this fabulous historic city with its own native bars and restaurants? So the rest of us went in search of a local bar and came across a gem; not only did the locals make us welcome [see, a couple of words like “obrigado” and “adeus” were well received] the owner ended up cooking us dinner and wouldn’t take payment for it. So get out there and see how the locals live – it may give you some idea as to how and what they see as important priorities in terms of purchasing and brand loyalty.

Embrace The Differences, Understand The Sameness.

Europe is an amazing continent of cultural, language, ethnic and historic differences; some of which you need to be acutely aware of, when doing business here. But underneath it all we are all pretty much the same – lots and lots of us use low-cost air carriers to carry us across the continent, we all like to think we have got a bargain, we discuss the weather to distraction and we love technology in our lives [we’re influenced from both Asia in the East and North America in the West which is the best of both worlds].

So just remember that Messi-Ronaldo difference, and best of luck!

Took a Ryanair flight out of Dublin last Saturday morning. Gazing out of the window at the spot where our plane was supposed to be (and wasn’t!) at 8:05 AM, I wondered how much later than the scheduled 8:15 AM departure we would eventually be.

At 8:35 AM we took off for London.

In the half hour in between, the incoming plane parked, luggage and passengers were dumped out, new luggage was loaded, outgoing passengers were allowed to stampede onto the plane (no seat assignments of course, every man and woman for themselves!), plane was refueled and checked.

Which left me thinking a few things. Is everyone comfortable with this new “norm” for flying? Does the low price justify ANY level of discomfort you might experience? What corners are cut to make these low prices work? Is that safe? Are there still people out there who will actually pay a reasonable premium for the “luxuries” of assigned seats and an overall higher quality of service (for this read a more comfortable flight)?

I think I see parallels between what is happening in the travel/flight industry and what is happening in the localisation/translation industry. Price, while always important, has now become king. If you can’t do it cheaper, we’re not interested. We don’t care that’s it’s done by resources that are neither skilled, trained or (in the case of translators) that they’re even target language natives.

Surely there must be savvy people out there who recognise and will pay for a good job well done?

If you’re in the business of buying words you may be attracted by all sorts of companies offering you cheap deals – hey, there’s a lot of cheap hotel and airfare deals going on at the moment, so why not a summer sale on words? It does sound good doesn’t it?

You get a bunch of translation work completed for your software, documentation or marketing materials at a lower rate than some of those professional translation companies are offering, AND you can tell your Boss you’re saving the company a whole bunch of cash [which should be your bonus at review time]!

Buying this could be a short term cost saving strategy...

However, you may want to consider some more factors when looking at translation and translation partners.

First up, what translation processes are your prospective vendors going to use – are they using the most up to date translation memory tools? Good translation memory tools [specialized language database apps] enable a more cost-effective means of updating translated text between product versions – so essentially they reduce the cost of translation over the period of a product revision or iterative versions of Marketing collateral. And if you’re told that you don’t need translation memories for your projects, be afraid. Be very afraid.

Secondly, you need to ask your translation partners what their policy is on translations that don’t exactly match between releases – or sentences that are repeated; or even match exactly. Sometimes there can be hidden higher costs for these items, affectionately known as “fuzzy matches” – though they may make your brain go fuzzy when you see the cost. So whilst it seems the word rate for new words is very low, the higher rates for other types of words in the project could make for a longer term higher cost [darn, there goes the bonus].

So, I’ve managed to go through two points without mentioning the famous “Q” word. Yes, as you can guess it’s all about Quality. A company that charges slightly higher rates for translation may be a safer bet if that “Quality” word is important to your product or service – or sales pitch. And this can really come back to bite you when Distributors, or local Sales people – or in-country Tech Support personnel get a look at what you’re saying in their native language. If quality does matter, you just don’t want to get into that haggling “re-work” process [especially if the translations are linked over a variety of source materials such as websites, manuals with screenshots, and tag lines in marketing collateral].

When buying at a very low word rate, you are often buying non-professional translation; and you are definitely not buying services. Do not underestimate services! The higher word rates include services that you will not get at cheaper rates. The work is done by professionals, chosen for their knowledge in your area of expertise, for their experience and for their quality. What you are buying is non advertised tips, suggestions, advise and the occasional free translations for smaller urgent requests. What you are buying is insurance that you will not have to worry about localisation or localisation issues because someone else is doing it for you.

Before I head for the summer sales, here’s my final advice; think through the process; if you’re in the International market for the long haul the lowest bid may not be the cheapest in months to come. You need to match your requirements around cost and quality, to what’s on offer. Caveat emptor!

Let me set the scene. I recently had a three way conversation with a very valued and long established customer and a senior executive from a machine translation technology company. The meeting was called to discuss the possibility of using machine translation to help bring down the costs of localisation (currently a $4m annual spend for my customer) and was prompted by a senior executive at the company who had heard at a recent conference (as one does!) of the enormous and instant savings that can be made in this area. My customer contact was simply told to “make it so”.

After 45 or so minutes of a concerted and collaborative effort on the part of the MT company representative and myself to convince the customer that her material was neither suitable or large enough to warrant even the investment of a pilot project (I am not joking here!) she decided to go ahead and spend the $20,000 it would cost to do such a pilot anyway.

Such was the power of the original suggestion that a usually controlled and circumspect professional was willing to disregard the people who she knew would know better and try to reach for the fantasy world of “free” high quality translation. Wishful thinking in the extreme.

Maybe you have been asked to investigate machine translation as a potential cost saving vehicle for your company or maybe you’ve seen enough of the web based free apps (here’s one!) that accurately translate “can you direct me to the nearest train station”  in almost any language, to believe that it’s not a leap from that to the full blown free translation of your UI, Help and Documentation. Or maybe you’ve just seen enough evolution in technology in the last five years to make you believe that this must be possible soon, if not now.

Whatever you’re reasoning, here are the “undeniable truths” that you’ll have to get your head round before you can even begin to think about putting any plan into action:

1. There are companies far, far bigger than yours who have invested millions of dollars into machine translation over the last ten years who still will admit to being a ways from having a viable solution (certainly in a general sense). Microsoft is one (if you’re looking for one!).
2. Any machine translation system needs a whole lot of coaching and coaxing to even begin to generate results. By this I mean it needs hundred of thousands of paired segments (or matches) so it can learn what to do and what not to do. You need to pay for this coaching, most likely by the hour. You’ll need to do this for every language you want to make savings on.
3. A typical “industry standard” minimum source word count needed to  justify any savings is 1 million words.
4. Some language pairings are more “advanced” than others. This is because some languages (Asian languages like Simplified Chinese for example) are simpler in construct (lack of gender and cases). German, for example, is much more difficult to program for. On an interesting side note, Arabic to English is a good pairing, following the multi million investment on behalf of the US government as part of their fight against terrorism.
5. Once a machine translation system generates a translation, it needs to be post edited (by a human!). Basically, the task of the post-editor is to edit, modify and/or correct pre-translated text that has been processed by a machine translation system. More on post translation can be found here if you’re interested. Suffice to say that the “better” translators tend to avoid post editing duties, with some preferring to work with the original source rather than trying to understand the machine output when trying to get a sense for what is being said in the text.
6. In all likelihood the adoption of any machine translation system will result in restrictions being placed on your source material. Machine translation systems need simple constructs (or at least as simple as possible) to generate results. You need to know that the quality of your source material will be affected accordingly.
7. On a related point, the subject matter needs to be “straightforward”. If your material is in any way complex you’re probably wasting your time.
8. On a positive note (I need to appear balanced on this subject!!) some companies have found that they benefited from machine translations in applications where the material will not be seen (or seen very rarely) by customers. Knowledgebase systems for example (where you have a company wide HR database or something similar (that is for internal company use only)) might lend themselves to a possible benefit.

In summary, my advice to anyone who is considering a machine translation trial, is to talk to people who have benefited from it. Be suspicious. Assume what you’re being sold is being talked up. Get references, and be sure to check that their material is similar or has a similar application, to yours.

And even then you should realise that it’s a long, hard and expensive road to when those machines start spitting out your  material in multiple languages.

At least that’s how it looks from where I’m sitting…….

I was coming out of a hotel last week when I came across this scene in the parking lot. Just look at it – how did they park like that?! Now you may think, “well, the lot was full and that’s just the way it goes”.

But actually, the parking lot was half-full [for you pessimists out there, it was half-empty]!

It’s a picture that doesn’t need words. So how did it come to pass that no one was willing to budge an inch? I’ve no idea, but it does remind me of negotiating; well, how not to, I guess.

To me, negotiation in this business is all about building relationships. Unlike buying a car, when we negotiate contracts for our localization services, it rarely happens in isolation; we will work with Company A or Company B, etc. on a continuous basis - and probably with the same people with whom we negotiated in the first place. So if we effect bad relationships with these people, it can come back to haunt us at a later time.

Essentially, negotiating will involve a series of events and therefore we will want those events to be good ones for both sides. Now, take the guys in the cars; this hotel they parked in is a very popular one, so the chances are high that they will be back again sometime in the future.

Will they have learnt from this visit? Hopefully.

A series of good events/negotiations allows us to build relationships with companies we do business with; part of the negotiation process involves us [and them] looking at the bigger picture; can we come to an agreement that will benefit the business of both sides? And that does involve now and again, some creativity and flexibility. Which is fine, we love flexibility!

In this case, all it required was for one driver to figure out how their actions would affect the others around them. But I would suspect this wasn’t up for negotiation…

Now, talking of flexibility, it’s time to go squeeze into my car

So you’ve decided. Those pieces of Marketing collateral just have to be translated for the German, Japanese and Chinese markets. Just send it out to us and you’ll hear back sometime yesterday when it’s finished, right? Maybe not – so here’s your quick 4-point checklist for eternal enlightenment.

1. Do You Really Know What You Want?

Ok, so you have the collateral. But have you checked with any in-country people [your Distributor, your Sales office] that this piece of collateral is locale-ready? Maybe they’ll want to re-write parts of it to make it more specific and maybe some parts just don’t wash locally [those stories about Coca-cola taglines in China are still legends].

Are there any screen shots in the piece that require either part of the relevant software to be translated, or the shot to be “faked” with some clever artwork? And do you really, really want that Flash Demo localized?

2. Which Part Of The Content Is Most Important To You?

When you’re writing the content for a piece of collateral you may be able to pick some terms or words that are key to your marketing messages. You’ll use these over and over again in a campaign or over several campaigns. Once you’ve indentified these, we can use them to create a “Glossary” of key terms that can be re-used in subsequent campaigns, saving you on costs. And also they will be a valuable starting point for any new language translations you decide to add along the way.

It's Not As Cold As It Seems, Go Ahead Try It

3. Who’s Approving Who?

Have you considered how the approval process will work – if we translate the marketing collateral, who will approve the final translated content – will it be an in-country Distributor, a Sales person on the ground or will you have someone in corporate HQ give it the thumbs up? Who you choose [if anyone] to approve final content, will affect Point 4……

4. How Much Time Have you Factored In?

So you want the job completed yesterday….Ok, well, here’s a rough example of how long “yesterday” will actually take. Say you have 1,000 words of copy, one or two graphics/screenshots in the piece and an in-country Partner who will sign off that the translated piece is good for the local market.

1,000 words translation = 1 day

Graphics manipulation = 1/2 day

Review [by Partner] = 1 day [Just think time difference!]

Implement review feedback and approve final copy = 1 day

Total:  3.5 days

But of course being a good project manager as well as top notch Marketing person, you’ve padded out the schedule and told everyone it will be 4 to 5 days turnaround time!

This is just a quick overview of what is entailed [no mention of file formats, source files, etc], but it should give you Marketing folks some baseline for judging the time and steps involved in the translation process. Now then, about the costs…….