Translation News & Articles

2009 separated the companies with solid business models from those whistling in the wind. SDL (news, site) showed it is on the right track with impressive results.

Lionbridge (news, site) and Author-it (news, site) get together to reduce the costs and complexity of worldwide content translation and management. 

With summer interns on the case, Google added functionality to Google Docs supposedly aimed at students, but we'd say actually aimed at MS Word, among others.

Yes, the back to school with Google Docs is a catchy theme song isn't it -- but it's really more about the enterprise, as you know. Some of these features are just the ticket to get you one step further from your desktop apps.

If you were still not quite convinced that global content management is a pretty big deal nowadays, take a look at the latest research saying that 35% of companies surveyed have more than 10 websites with almost 50% of those published in over 5 languages.

This research comes from a Web CMS vendor e-Spirit (news, site). With all disclosures in place, let’s take a closer look at the numbers revealed during this exercise.

According to the vendor, global proliferation of a multitude of information channels and the general content boom are causing the worldwide web content crisis.

The survey of more than 100 businesses suggests this information explosion contributed to the following findings:

• 78% of content management systems (CMS) content authors are marketers
• 66% of those surveyed are frustratrated with the amount of time it takes to manage their global websites
• 20% of respondents complain about language barriers and content translation challenges
• 30% of marketers have up to 100 intranet sites and 50 external websites to maintain.

Sounds like an outcry for an efficient global approach to content management, doesn’t it?

Organizations struggle with the amount of content they have to manage 9 to 5, we get that. No pressure, but your website visitors are not likely to commiserate with your organizational woes and technological difficulties.

Your visitors are hungry for information, they’re impatient and demanding, and if they cannot find that (preferably, relevant and accurate) info quickly (and we mean really quickly), there’s a chance they may never come back to your lovely and freshly redesigned website with all those sweetly integrated recommendation and text mining engines.

Web content management technology on its own is of undeniable importance, we know. Nevertheless -- dare we say it? -- it is less about which CMS you use, but more about your business strategy, implementation and methods of using it. Most importantly, it is about people and processes around it. Hardly any Web CMS can do that job for you.

Remember when WordPress (news, site) was like, Hey guys! Check out my new multilingual support, because on top of a being *the* most popular blogging platform in all the land, I’m also on the way to being a complete content management cure-all!

Ok, WordPress didn’t actually say that. But the team behind WPML, the mega-plugin for multilingual functionality within Wordpress, no doubt has intentions along those lines. Back with more finesse to impress, OnTheGoSystems has released what they’re calling a “major update” to WPML, which reportedly integrates human translation services.

A new connector has just been unveiled between Straker’s web content management system, ShadoCMS (news, site) and Argo Translation, a US website translation company. The connector will allow ShadoCMS users tap into Argo’s supply chain management system and provide translation cost estimates.

Early estimates by Straker suggest that users will be able to save up to 20% on translation costs just by managing the translation supply chain efficiently.

The latest version of SDL Trisoft – Trisoft 3.7 - has just been released, and if the UK-based vendor of this Component Content Management (CCM) system has got it right, then this solution will dramatically increase the speed and quality of targeted technical writing.

Responding to the need of companies to provide customized content to users in their own language and over the web, Trisoft 3.7 has a number of new feature.

With out-of-the-box DITA functionality, this solution gives companies the ability to handle thousands of variations in technical content that can be integrated dynamically and according to customer needs.

Last summer, SDL (news,site) launched a Worldwide Language Service Provider Partner Program to help organizations get their content in the right format to the right customer. This week, they have announced another strategic partnership with Language Weaver, a self-described human communication solutions provider.

SDL plans to deliver Language Weaver’s translation software integrated within their Global Information Management platform and eventually, as part of SDL Knowledge-based Translation System.

MadCap, a company whose passion is to provide integration solutions for publishing multilingual online content, recently released version 2.0 of their translation and localization tool. MadCap Lingo 2.0 updates expand translation support and facilitate the process.

As promised, the company also added support for the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), along with more familiar tools like Microsoft Word. 

MO Group International (MOGI) and Clay Tablet Technologies announced their intention to combine forces for mutual benefit. The two companies expect the partnership to impact translation and localization services, as well as multilingual SEO strategies and online integration techniques.

With more and more organizations taking global content management and localization more seriously, the race for the best translation management solution is on.

Most recently, a new solution by Vasont and Lionbridge made it to the market. The challenge here is not only to provide an efficient solution for managing and translating content, but also to translate the importance of global content management to customers.

Vasont Systems, a provider of component content management solutions, integrated its Vasont Content Management System (CMS) with Freeway, the Web-based translation management platform from Lionbridge Technologies, Inc.

Lionbridge is known for its globalization efforts and translation, testing and development outsourcing services. This direct integration between the Vasont CMS and Freeway provides clients with a more efficient method of translating content and monitoring the status of translation projects.

Using the Vasont Translation Package with the Freeway integration, customers can initiate translation quotes or translation projects to Freeway directly from the Vasont interface.

Content and status information are automatically sent back and forth between the Vasont CMS and Freeway during the translation process. Clients can monitor the status and history of high-level projects, or of detailed subprojects for each language, using Vasont’s new translation window.

Straker, with its ShadoCMS v8.5 Web CMS, and Across Systems’ Language Server teamed up to deliver a new localization interface, providing an automated process from web content creation to translation management, publishing and handling of dynamic multilingual content.

The partnership promises to deliver savings above 60% for companies that manage large-scale translations of dynamic web sites. Better late than never, as they say. So, welcome to the global content management party!

Recently we reported about how global businesses need to become, well, more global. At least in the way they create, manage and publish multilingual content. Companies need to think more strategically about global content management, if they are to be key players in the global marketplace.

In an effort to provide more context to the conversation and profile an active contributor to the translation and localization industry, we spoke with Paula Shannon, senior VP and chief sales and marketing officer of Lionbridge Technologies.

Oracle Universal Content Management clients must feel a warm rush of excitement hearing that Clay Tablet, an integrator of content management technologies and translation systems/providers will support connectivity to the Oracle CMS.

Clay Tablet does one simple thing: connects any Translation Provider to any Content Management System. Of course that’s not such a simple thing after all, which is why its customers include organizations like the U.N., the Government of Qatar, and Société Générale.