Trados upgrade path gets a little rocky.

Iota LS typically stay out of the localisation tools debate. Sure, we have an opinion (on everything!), but when it comes to choice of tools we tend to work with what our customers prefer; after all they pay the bill.

The uproar caused by the introduction of what is essentially the latest version of Trados however has caused enough concern among the people who work for us, that it seems appropriate to at least ask the question if the benefits outweigh the cost in this case. Even if you leave aside the discussion about the relative merits of its features, the fact that it will be seemingly impossible to upgrade to the new version AND still maintain a foothold in the old technology will cause untold problems for the translation footsoldiers who have to cater for the widest spectrum of tools and versions in order to service their customers. SDL have moved to quell the discontent but stuff still doesn’t smell right.

For more in-depth material, go to the TW_users group on Yahoo Groups. You’ll find one or two unhappy bunnies there.

I’d imagine that publishers and content providers need to think long and hard before taking this particular plunge. Many fine translators will not follow and some loss of linguistic continuity might well be expected. And as I understand it, there literally is no going back on this one.

It seems to me that it’s always clever to at least talk to the people doing the work before deciding how it should be done!

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

Addendum: July 14th 2009:

A quick trawl through the web today and a poke to many of the translation contacts I have worked with for many years revealed no progress in the situation. I’d imagine that SDL will try to ride this one out, hoping that as the top content providers succumb to the “lure” of the 2009 product, the ducks that line up behind them (the MLVs and in turn SLVs and freelance translators) will follow suit and any unhappiness will just die down over time; as befits the typical modus operandi of a “dominant” player in most markets.

What they should do, of course, is to actually listen to their users, rethink the whole situation, call a time out and revise their plans and products.

For those of you that feel compelled, you can find about a million discussions on the issues though a simple Google search. Here are a couple; one here and another here that I read with some interest.

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