FREELANCE

MAG December 2010

Issue #0

MERRY CHRISTMAS
& HAPPY NEW
TRANSLATIONS!
 Welcome!
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comments and
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welcome all
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associated with Merry Christmas and Happy
translation or languages
for publishing in future
New Translations!
issues. Once is not custom, Father Christmas is early this year!
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and forward this the first magazine dedicated to the world of translation
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We wish you a happy festive season, great prosperity

and health as well as joyous translations in 2011!

1
Contents
Welcome!
1 Merry Christmas and
Happy New Translations!

Contents
2 Contents of this issue

Translation News
4 Hot news from the
industry!

Business Strategies
6 for Freelancers
By Tess W., freelancer

Marketing Tips for

11 Freelancers
By Riccardo S., freelancer

SDL Translation
15 Technology
By Massimo G., from SDL

2
Contents
An Interview with
21 PROMT
Interview with Julie E.
from PromT

The New MultiCorpora

25 TMS
By Shirley H., from
MultiCorpora

Is The Dragon a
33 Translator's Best
Friend?
A simple report on Speech
Recognition

3
 TRANSLATION NEWS
Systran Desktop 7
SYSTRAN Software, Inc., a provider of
language translation software products
and solutions, has introduced its Desktop
7 product suite. Updates include new
automated customization tools and the
convenience of translating online while
connected to the internet or directly from
a PC.
E-mail: info@systransoft.com, Web:
http://www.systransoft.com
Terminology Practices
Survey
TermNet, an international cooperation
forum, is conducting a survey to collect
data about terminology practices and
issues in the North American market.
TermNet will use the results to create
products and services in line with market
demand. The survey will be open until
December 18, 2010.
TermNet, Mooslackengasse 17, 1190
Vienna, Austria, 43-1-23060-3965, Fax:
43-1-23060-3966, E-mail:
termnet@termnet.org, Web:
http://www.termnet.org

On-Demand Translations
Comsense, a provider of localization
services, has introduced a new solution
for professional translation of short texts
directly in a web interface called
On-Demand Translation.
E-mail: info@comsense.se, Web:
http://www.comsense.se

4
 Multilingual Wordpress
ICanLocalize, a web-based translation service
has developed WordPress Multilingual version
2, a plugin that facilitates translation tasks and
workflow for multiple languages and teams of
writers, translators and editors. Web:
http://www.icanlocalize.com

Magnolia 4.4.
Magnolia International Ltd., has released version 4.4 of its
open-source content management system. A new tool
allows the export and re-import of all text translated by
in-house teams or external agencies. Web:
http://www.magnolia-cms.com

TGPhoto
LinguaSys, Inc., a translation software company, has
created the TGPhoto application, enabling users to
photograph foreign signs on Android and Blackberry
devices and get instant translation in over 50
languages.
E-mail: info@linguasys.net, Web:
http://www.linguasys.net

ProZ.com Conference
1st ProZ.com Europe International
Translation Conference - Rome
Friday 20 May 2011 - Monday 23 May
2011
Registration :
http://www.proz.com/conference/205

5
 Business Strategies
for Freelancers
ess Whitty has eight years of experience as a freelance translator from
English into Swedish with her company Swedish Translation Services.

T
She specializes in software localization, marketing and business
communications. She has a M.A. in Business Communications and PR
from Belgium and a M.Sc. in Economics from Finland.
Before working as a translator she worked for a Telecommunications
company in Sweden as a Product Marketing Manager. She is the
language chair for the upcoming ATA English-Swedish certification program and
is a member of American Translators Association, several local translation chapters
and The Swedish Association of Professional Translators. She has previously
served as the president for the Swedish School in Salt Lake City for five years.
This school was funded by the Swedish government and provided complementary
Swedish education to children with Swedish parents. During this time she also
taught Swedish to teenagers and adults.
She runs a very successful freelance translation business, and works with both
agencies and direct clients. Her background in marketing has given her valuable
knowledge and experience in marketing her own business, and she is now ready to
share this knowledge with other freelancers.
Her blog: http://www.swedishtranslationservices.com/blog

As a freelance translator, I am always trying to manage my time better. The

distractions when working at home can be many, with housework, pets, my
children’s activities and homework, the garden, and outdoor recreation – not to
mention social media. Freelancers have great liberties when it comes to scheduling
their time, as long as the job gets done, right?

6
People with “real jobs” have an
advantage over us freelancers – they
have to “go to work.” No matter how
late they stayed up the night before, or
how difficult it was to pack the kids off
to school in the morning, somehow
they have to drag themselves to the
workplace on time. If they don’t,
someone is going to notice. But things
are different when you’re
self-employed. One can linger in
pajamas, sipping coffee and reading
the paper for hours, which can be a
problem. The number-one reason
freelancers don’t get things done, and
as a result, often live in a
nearly-continuous state of deadline
dread – is that they simply don’t go to
work.
“Time management/motivation are vital
business strategies for freelancers”
Google Calendar
(Google.com/calendar) is a great tool
for scheduling your work. You can
customize it in many ways and,
because it is online, access it anywhere
with an Internet connection. You can
also sync it with other calendar
programs such as Outlook and iCal.
The best part is, of course, that it is
free!
7
There is no set schedule. Woody Allen
said: Eighty percent of success is
showing up. This means that you must
have a schedule. A schedule means
knowing that at your predetermined
time, you have an appointment with
project X. You’ll show up for work at
that time, start on the project and work
at it diligently until the schedule says
to stop.
The good news is that as a freelancer,
you can make your own schedule. You
can plan your project work in time
slots that fit perfectly with your
lifestyle, family preferences and work
load. You can build in flexibility that
allows you to spend time with your
kids or walk your dog.
Here are some time management and
organizational tips for getting your job
done, reaching your goals and staying
motivated:
1 - Set fixed working hours and stick
to them. Do not allow housework,
errands etc. into this time. Get an
office at home and close the door when
you are working.
This limits distractions. Tell your
family and friends about your work
hours and ask that they respect them.
But you should also block out times
when you allow yourself to do
non-work activities, such as exercising,
errands, playing with kids and seeing
friends.
2 - Limit time you spend checking
email, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. If you
hit a slump in work motivation, get out
of your chair and have a snack, do
some laundry or socialize for a short
time.
“Goals are great for helping to keep on task
”
paper, email etc., and always use them.
Read and file right away. Create a
project management system using an
electronic calendar, a “traditional”
paper calendar, or project management
software. Find something that works
for you.
6 - Create To-do lists and follow them.
Prioritize, check off and add new tasks
every day.
8
3 - Learn to say no. Don’t take on too
much work or work that is too difficult
for you.
4 - Think like a business. Just because
you are working from home does not
mean you can take on all sorts of
volunteer work or help out at school,
church etc. all the time. One of the
perks of working from home is that
you can do so as time and interest
allow, but set limits.
5 - Organize!!! Create filing systems
for electronic files,
7 - Be Goal-Oriented
Goals are great for helping to keep on
task. If you are working to achieve a
specific goal, it is much easier to stay
focused until that goal is
accomplished.Set minor goals for your
day such as getting done with a
specific task by a certain time. Without
goals to work towards, you’re likely to
find that your pace of work slows
down and you get less accomplished.
Make email templates for the most
common requests for information.
Prospective clients often want the
same information and if you have a
template email already written you can
copy and paste this and adapt the
details. Keep a list of questions to ask
new clients (rate, word count, subject
matter, time of appointment, deadline,
payment terms etc.). Keep it close by
so you do not have to think about it
when prospective clients contact you.
“Schedule time to relax. It as important as
scheduling your worktime”
11 - Have a Set Ending Time - One of
the problems with time management
for freelancers is that there is always
the temptation to just keep working
longer in order to get things done.
While this can help in some situations
(such as last-minute work needing
completion in order to meet a strict
deadline), in general working more is
not the answer and it can even
decrease efficiency.
12. Schedule time to relax.
9
9 - Outsource activities that you are
not good at or do not like doing. As an
example, I have outsourced house
cleaning and accounting.
10. Consider hiring virtual assistants
to handle administrative tasks and
other chores so you can focus more on
project work. I have not tried this yet,
but this summer I have hired my
11-year-old son to update my database
of clients and prospects. This is
something I keep putting off and he is
eager to work for some money. It is a
win-win situation for both of us.
Just as it is important to schedule your
work time, it is also important to
schedule time for activities that relax
and reenergize you.
13. A great tip I learned from “The
Wealthy Freelancer” is the 50-minute
focus. With this technique you remain
totally focused on one single task – the
project – for just 50 minutes. Here is
how it works:
a - Get a timer with an alarm.
b - Select the project you want to work
on.
c - Set the timer for 50 minutes.
During this time you should remain
totally focused on that project, don’t
check email, don’t take a break, don’t
let your mind wander.
d - When the timer goes off, the
“meeting” is over. Completely unplug
from the project for 20 minutes.
During that time, you can take a break
or get a few tasks done.
e - After 20 minutes, assuming you
still plan on working, do another
50-minute focus.
“Be Goal-Oriented and Organized!”
Once you know how you are typically
spending your time you can evaluate to
see your weaknesses and areas for
improvement. It’s likely that you’ll be
surprised at some of the things that are
eating up considerable amounts of time
and how you can get more out of your
days.
10
14 - You can fit a 50-minute focus into
even the most erratic of schedules.
Waiting for your daughter to finish her
dance practice? Pull out your laptop
and do a 50-minute focus! Just put the
baby down for a nap? You’ve got 50
minutes right there.
15 - Know Where Your Time is Going
- Tracking your time can involve
simply writing down what you are
doing and for how long, or you can use
one of many resources to track your
time online.
Recently I got introduced to the
website/software “RescueTime.”
(www.rescuetime.com). Here you can
download an application that tracks
your time, and if you choose to use the
paid version you can also program it to
block out certain media during certain
hours. I have now used it for a week,
and it is an eye-opener. I easily get
sucked in to social media, for example,
and RescueTime tells me how much
time I’ve spent on it.
 Marketing Tips
for Freelancers
iccardo Schiaffino has always worked in translation: first as a
freelance translator, then as a partner in a translation company,

R
later still as translator, translation manager and special software
translation project lead for a major software company.
As a translation manager, his main interest was the improvement
of translation quality and the development of translation quality
metrics and tools.
Currently he works in Aliquantum, a small company which he established
with a few friends and colleagues to provide high-quality translation services
and language consulting.
He also teaches translation at Denver University's University College where
he teaches a course on the theory and practice of translation, and another on
the localization of software and web pages.
His blog: http://abouttranslation.blogspot.com

“Don't forget information about your

business”
When you contact a new prospect or when you are contacted by one, the last
thing you want is to forget some important information about your business.
To make sure you don't miss it, it is better to have such information ready in
advance.
What follows is a brief list of tools I find useful. You may decide for a
different set that works better for you; what's important is to have your own
marketing tools ready ahead of time.

11
The Kit
Desktop Folder
Keep together, in the same folder, with
a link on your desktop:
Your résumé
In pdf format; probably in two separate
versions: a short one (1 page), and a
more complete one (no more than 2 or
3 pages).
Source files for résumé:
In MS Word (or whatever you used to
write the résumé). Whenever you
update the editable version of the
résumé, you should also create an
updated version of the matching pdf, to
always keep them in synch.
“Write two versions of your résumé: a short
one and a more complete one”
Source version of your rates sheet:
Probably as Excel (or other
spreadsheet) files. Again, whenever
you update your rates, you should
create new pdf versions of the rates
sheet.
Currency conversion
If you quote in different currencies for
customers in different countries, the
rates sheet should include your rates in
the different currencies - or you should
have a separate rates sheet for each
currency.
12
Rates sheet
A pdf with your standard rates,
including definitions of terms,
currency conversion, terms of payment
and so on.
This should contain your rates and the
definitions of the terms you use that
could be misinterpreted. For example,
I define what is editing and what is
proofreading; I spell out under which
conditions I charge a rush rate, and
point out that words are counted on the
source text normally, but on the target
text when the work involves
non-editable files or hard copy
documents.
If you provide quotes in different
currencies but you base them on your
"home" currency, show your exchange
rate, and update it as necessary.
A simple quote calculator
You don't need anything fancy, in fact
the Google gadget recently offered on
Judy and Dagmar Jenner's Blog
Translation Times is fine. You need
the calculator for providing quick,
nonbinding estimates. For drafting
your binding quotes you also need a
spreadsheet template customized with
your rates.
Graphic files
Any graphic files (for example, your
logo) that you use in your
communications to differentiate your
business from your competitors'. If you
have a website, include in a subfolder
all the graphic files you use. Update as
needed.
E-mail and phone
Your value statement
A one-sentence description of what
distinguishes you from other
translators. For example, ours is "We
are a small partnership of experienced
Italian and Spanish translators, and we
specialize in providing high-quality
translation and editing to larger
translation companies".
“A one-sentence description of what
distinguishes you from competition”
Signature block
In Outlook (and any other e-mail
program you use, including Gmail and
other web-mail services) a signature
block that contains your e-mail
address, phone number, fax (if you still
use it), web site and tag line.
Phone communication
Phone cheat sheet
A file with a bullet list of what you
should always remember when talking
on the phone with a prospect (or when
you
13
Keep this in a text file and use it as a
template for your e-mail and other
communications with your prospects
and customers.
E-mail
Template cover message
Keep it short and to the point. You
may need different versions for
different types of customers.
A shorter version of your rates, with
only a few items.
For example, "Our normal rates are:
translation + editing USD 0.15/source
word, translation only USD 0.12 /
source word, editing USD 0.04 / word,
and proofreading USD 38 / hour."
communicate with a prospect by
e-mail or IM, for that matter).
In the cheat sheet, remind yourself to
be especially clear when spelling out
your e-mail address, giving a phone
number or your surname.
For example, when I leave a
voice-mail I deliberately slow down at
the point in which I give my phone
number, and then repeat it: too many
people speed up and mumble exactly
when they give you their
phone number to call them back.
Remember, if you make it hard for
your prospects to call you back, they
may decide it is too much of a bother
to do so.
Also, if you have to talk on the phone
speaking a language that is not your
native one, write yourself a short
reminder of any word you know you
often mispronounce (for example, on
my monitor I have a post-it to remind
me that I should pronounce "might" as
"mahit" and not as "meit".)
14
Phonetic spelling alphabet
For phone communications, to spell
out difficult words I also keep next to
my phone a printed copy of the
international spelling alphabet (Alpha,
Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and so on).
Finally, get in the habit of using your
marketing kit always: don't reinvent
the wheel every time you contact a
prospect or are called by a customer.
SDL Translation
Technology
 SDL, a brief presentation
of a Giant
DL Trados Technologies develops Computer Aided Translation
(CAT) software Tools.

S
CAT is a form of translation where a human translator translates
texts using computer software designed to support and facilitate the
translation process. Translation memory is at the heart of SDL’s
technology.
Translation memories can aid the localization process by storing all of your
previous translations for future reuse. The result is that the same sentence
never needs to be translated twice, improving efficiency and allowing you to
accept more work and increase your revenue

“Translation memories can aid the L10N

process”
What is the history of SDL and Trados?

Trados (TRAnslation & DOcumentation Software) was established in

Stuttgart, Germany by Jochen Hummel and Iko Knyphausen in 1984.
Hummell and Knyphausen initially set up Trados as a Language Service
Provider (LSP) following their decision to tender for a translation project for
IBM.

16
The 80s
The mid-eighties saw the emergence of
Computer Assisted Translation (CAT)
technology following the increasing
demand for translated content.
Translators were unable to keep up
with number of translation projects
being passed on to them from
customers, leaving a requirement from
technology to help bridge the gap
between supply and demand. Hummell
and Knyphausen recognised the
opportunity for technology and started
developing software to solve this issue.
At the dawn of the translation memory
era in 1988, Trados
“The 90s saw a large amount of
development in translation technology”
The 90s
In 1990, Trados launched their first
product, MultiTerm (a terminology
database, now known as SDL
MultiTerm) into the market place. The
first version of Translator's Workbench
was later released in 1992. Trados also
started expanding as a company in the
mid-nineties. Matthias Heyn, a
computational linguist from the
University of Stuttgart joined the
company and
17
TED, a very early version of a
translation environment. It was around
this time that Trados made the decision
to split the company, passing the
translation services part of the business
to INK in the Netherlands, so that they
could concentrate on developing
translation software. It took a while for
Trados to get established as
a translation technology provider,
however momemtum soon built
up following successful strategic
decisions, including moving software
development onto the Microsoft
Windows platform.
developed the first alignment tool on
the market (T Align, later to become
WinAlign, one of the applications
available in SDL Trados Studio 2009).
In addition, Trados began to open a
network of global offices, including
Brussels, Virginia, UK and
Switzerland.
The nineties saw a large amount of
development in translation software
technology.
Many freelance
translators were benefitting from the
increasing sophistication and
affordability of personal computers,
meaning that CAT tools were
becoming more and more
commonplace. As well as
the time-saving and quality benefits of
using translation memory tools at a
desktop level, the Internet paved the
way for enhanced productivity
through the real-time sharing of
translation assets via server
technology. This helped to rapidly
accelerate the rate at
“SDL Studio brought together Trados and
SDLx”
The acquisition of Trados by SDL in
2005, enabled the two market leaders
to leverage their respective product
and technical knowledge to expand
functionality and features for their
customers.
2009 is a pivotal year as it sees the
release of SDL Trados Studio 2009.
The latest product release, combines
both robust technology built on 25
years work of research and
development, with innovative
18
which content could be localized,
enabling organizations to enter new
marketplaces and communicate their
messaging in the language of their
customers.
The new millenium
Despite the arrival of other translation
software providers, Trados maintained
a significant market share within the
translation industry into the new
millennium.
new features, including automated
translation, to help further increase
speed and productivity within the
translation process. SDL Trados
Studio brought together Trados and
SDLX, whilst adding a number of new
and innovative features bringing next
generation technology to translation
memory software which revolutionizes
the way people work.
SDL Today
The Language Technologies division is
an important part of SDL. As a
company SDL continues to invest and
grow the technology business with the
underlying focus being Global
Information Management. Over the
years SDL has developed and acquired
companies to extend and provide a
comprehensive set of services and
solutions to create, translate and
publish multilingual content across a
variety of media both off-line and
on-line.
“The freelance community is an essential
part of the translation supply chain”
The latest developments
In December 2010 SDL launched the
SDL OpenExchange website to
promote 3rd party applications for
SDL Trados Studio and SDL
MultiTerm. This is a significant
program which brings some fantastic
benefits to the freelance community as
well as offering the opportunity to
truly customize the software.
19
The freelance community is an
essential and crucial part of what is
referred to as the translation supply
chain. The entire eco-system of
corporations, which are they some of
the key drivers of translation demand,
language service providers and the
translators. The use of technology links
all of these groups seamlessly together
in order to accelerate the creation and
translation of multilingual content.
SDL Technology is used by 42 of the
top 50 global brands and this includes
large organizations like HP, Mandarin
Oriental, Informatica and LG.
The SDL OpenExchange web portal
allows developing, marketing and
selling applications and plug-ins that
leverage the open architecture of SDL
products. Over 100 developers have
already signed up to SDL
OpenExchange.
Developers that sign up to the program
are now able to enhance the
functionality of SDL Trados® Studio
2009
and SDL MultiTerm® 2009 by using
software development kits (SDKs)
available on SDL OpenExchange.
They can build applications, custom
filters, extra automation or unique
customizations that can be promoted
and shared through the new SDL
OpenExchange website. SDL is also
committing to deliver free applications
with several new applications being
made available in this launch. SDL’s
thriving user community can
immediately participate by suggesting
the applications to be developed in the
future as well as using and reviewing
the existing ones.
“SDL is committed to the translation
community”
To get the most from SDL TRADOS
software SDL developed the SDL
TRADOS Certification, the translation
industry premier technology based
certification, which provides a
recognized standard of excellence in
SDL Trados software
SDL TRADOS Certification is a
comprehensive professional training
program designed to develop and
validate expertise
20
Whether a developer or a user, please
visit www.sdl.com/openexchange for
more information.
SDL and the community
Beyond the recent SDL OpenExchange
initiatives, SDL is committed to
supporting the translation community.
The extensive and varied range of free
educational webinars includes how to
use the software tools and
presentations hosted by industry
experts on a variety of translation
topics.
in the use of SDL Trados translation
technology tools.
Finally as part of the the commitment
to the translation community SDL
developed an ideas portal website,
ideas.sdltrados.com, which allows
users to work with product managers,
request features and share and vote on
ideas to help enhance the products
further. Please visit
http://ideas.sdltrados.com to submit
your ideas!
 An Interview
with Julie, from PromT
PROMT is a recognized

F
leader in automated
translation software and
enterprise solutions
development. PROMT
products are
acknowledged by
leading reelanceMag: Hello Julie! Thanks for
computer magazines accepting this interview. Can you introduce your
worldwide. PROMT company ?
translation software is
deployed at Julie: PROMT was founded in 1991 by two Ph.D.s in
Cisco, Siemens, NASA, computational linguistics. Both came from a research
DHL, SAP, Adobe, department in Herzen University, which is a well
PayPal and many other known university in Russia (St. Petersburg). Both of
companies and the original developers are still stakeholders in the
government institutions. company. Promt has been focused on solving the
PROMT provides eternal problem of machine translation for more than
automated translation 17 years. Combining innovation and high
between 32 technological standards, the company has developed
translation directions. revolutionary machine translation (MT) technology,
which is at the heart of the @promt product family,
and has become a technology leader in MT.eleifend

FM: Can you present your team?

Julie: PROMT has more than 120 full-time

employees and 20 freelancers.

21

Team and department leaders have
worked in the field of automated
translation for more than 25 years.
PROMT devotes a great deal of effort
to the education and training of its
employees in order to stay on top in
the industry. With a highly skilled
team of professionals and numerous
man years of experience in technology,
PROMT has the capabilities and skills
to remain the leader in the MT field
and develop MT systems for many
more language pairs.
The company’s quality assurance
procedures, flexible business approach,
and team spirit contribute to the
reliability and stability of the software,
as well as the company itself.
FM: What are PROMT technologies?
22
Julie: PROMT core technologies make
valuable information available to all
people, no matter what their native
language. Today, PROMT provides a
full range of translation solutions:
machine translation systems and
services; dictionaries;translation
memory system;data mining
system;tools for human
translators;online real-time
translations.
FM: What countries do you cover?
Julie: The company dominates the
Russian and CIS market for MT
software. PROMT is also actively
marketing its software in Europe and
the USA. The company has opened a
subsidiary in Germany and is
developing distribution networks in
Germany, Austria, Switzerland,
France, Spain, the United Kingdom,
Portugal, Italy, the USA, Canada, and
other countries.
FM: What languages are supported by
your tools?
Julie: PROMT software currently
support seven of the most widespread
European languages: English
(including British and American
English);
Spanish (including Castilian and Latin
American Spanish);
German, French and Russian.

FM: There are now many free
automated translation tools on the
market like Google's. What is the
benefit for a translation professional of
using your paying product?
Julie: When people use a free
translation service, they are subject to
the old adage, "you get what you pay
for". In other words, they are only
going to
get one possible translation for any
given phrase or sentence. Essentially,
it is rigid and cannot be altered,
updated, or personalized to reflect
different dialect options and/or things
like slang and formalized names. There
is no way to customize the translated
phrase or sentence to suit the various
uses for which it might be put to use.
23
As we all know, language is a
ever-changing and dynamic part of
society. Using ProMT's software
allows the user to customize a set of
dictionaries to allow for specific
"catch"words and phrases that make
any correspondence specific and
pertinent to that individual and that
content can continue to be changed and
updated as language trends play out
over time. Also, when someone uses a
free translation site, all of the
information they plug in is now the
property of that site. There is no
allowance for privacy and any
proprietaryinformation can be seen and
used by that site. Using ProMT
software allows the user to keep the
material s/he wants to translate private
and controlled. ProMT allows the user
to have much more ownership of their
information. So, as you can see, there
are numerous and good reasons to use
our software.
In light of current global affairs more
and more individuals and
organizations are facing the challenge
of getting the word out on their
services and endeavors to the
non-English speaking audience.
Utilizing a ProMT software can
prevent that from happening by
opening doors--and it can be
done instantly and affordably!
FM: Thanks Julie!
 The new
Multicorpora TMS
n the summer of 2009 at Localization World, MultiCorpora celebrated its
10th birthday as a translation technology provider. Yet, the company

I
remains little known in the LSP world. This is largely because to date,
MultiCorpora has focused its sales and marketing efforts for its flagship
product, MultiTrans, on large entities with predominantly internal
translation departments whose primary efforts are on document translation
as opposed to software localization.
MultiCorpora has added a second flagship product to its solution palette,
MultiTrans Flow MMX, which extends the company’s reach into the LSP world
with a compelling value proposition: a fully comprehensive Translation
Management System (TMS). With this in mind, there is no time better than the
present for MultiCorpora to announce this new enhanced TMS solution. By
describing the attributes that make up a best-of-breed TMS, this article explains the
fundamental precepts of a TMS solution as it is envisioned at MultiCorpora. It also
underscores why we at MultiCorpora believe that we can further extend, to both
existing and new customers in the LSP universe, our culture of helping translation
entities achieve competitive advantage.
We will start by listing and explaining the primary components of our TMS
system. Because different components are of different importance to TMS system
users, they will be listed in alphabetical order, not in order of perceived importance
to us:

· Alignment

Alignment can be a very important component of a TMS. An LSP might have a

neophyte client that has a lot of legacy translation available, but no translation
memory. Or perhaps one LSP wishes .

25
but another LSP is holding the
prospect’s TM “hostage.” Fast and
accurate alignment is the ideal
solution. Over and above initial
alignment to create translation
memories where there previously were
none, it must be possible to easily
repair misalignments, should they be
found. In many translation memory
products, this is a tedious and
mind-numbing, hands-on process that
is a source of human error.
Automation of alignment creation and
care alleviates much of the tedium
while promoting higher TM quality.
This automation can therefore increase
reuse potential and reduce revision
burden.
“Automation can increase reuse and reduce
revision burden”
In the context of a TMS, automation
can deliver project material analysis,
pretranslation, resource assignment
and materials routing, translation
memory updating, and a myriad of
other tasks that are frequently carried
out manually at LSPs. Furthermore,
these processes can run 24/7 to move
projects forward while humans sleep.
But even the most thorough
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· Authoring
A full TMS should, at a minimum,
support analysis and post-editing of
source documents. It should be able to
extract terminology candidates and
fuzzy repetitions that could be
harmonized to enhance translation cost
savings. Translation technology that
supports advanced leveraging is
especially good at this kind of task.
· Automation
The purpose of automation is to
remove costly human interaction from
tasks that can be done equally well or
better by machines.
also needs a certain amount of
monitoring and control as well as
flexibility to be optimally effective; it
must interact smoothly with human
steering, and not cause humans extra
work to correct processes that have
gone off tangentially due to process
bugs.
· Business management
The business model employed by most
translation service
providers suffers from substantial
downward pressure on margins. A
complete TMS should provide
technological capability to reduce cost:
by optimal leveraging of translation
memory, by reducing personnel cost
through automation of tasks that can be
done as well by computers as by
humans, and by providing reporting
that highlights cost and revenue
structures and thereby illuminates
opportunities for financial
optimization.
“Any usable TMS provides centralized
management of all client data”
· Ease of use
To be cost-effective for the purchaser,
a TMS should reduce work for
employees and external users alike, not
create new or different, additional
work. The user interface should be
intuitive, not complex, and should be
well-localized and well-documented.
The file storage structure should be
easy to understand and navigate.
Highly competent training should be
readily
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· Client management
Many LSPs have let their client
management systems to fall into
disrepair over time. Client data gets
spread out between repositories: some
may be in Excel lists on project
manager computers, some may be in
an accounting system, and some may
be in CRM applications on sales
personnel’s workstations. Storing data
in this distributed fashion risks
introduction of conflicting or obsolete
records, or even loss in the event of
personnel change. Any really usable
TMS provides some form of
centralized management of all client
data.
available. New users, whether they are
internal employees or are LSP clients
who access an external portal, should
be able to quickly and easily interact
with the system.
· External collaboration
A TMS should not exist in isolation
from other associated infrastructures
and business systems. The ideal TMS
can exchange data with ERP, CMS,
and accountings applications. This
may be achieved in two
open and documented APIs, or
implementation of support for Web
services.
· Invoicing
No TMS should pretend to be a full
accounting system but, because
management of both inbound and
outbound invoices is closely aligned
with project management, some degree
of invoicing management can be a
valuable functional attribute of a
TMS. A great TMS will interact with
a full accounting system either via
financial data file import/export
functionality or, in an ideal world,
directly and with dynamic
bi-directionality.
“A great TMS will interact with a full
accounting system”
· Reporting
A TMS should store project data that
can be a valuable source of business
intelligence. The capability to easily
reach into this data repository to
produce reports on trends, profitability,
language mix, and other manifest
operational data is a prime function of
a top-of-the-line TMS. If reports can
be easily and flexibly created by users,
even better!
· Scalability
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· Open access and support for
standards
A TMS should not be a closed system.
Through open, documented APIs and
support for de jura industry standards,
the TMS should provide maximum
flexibility and configurability to the
user. A TMS should not attempt to
impose a de facto standard on users in
an effort to exclude competitive
systems, as this is not in the best
interest of the individual customer or
the industry as a whole. A TMS
should, at a minimum, embrace the
TMX, SRX, TBX and XLIFF industry
standards.
LSPs are business entities that, when
well run, tend to grow in size and
complexity. A TMS should be
intrinsically scalable, designed to be
able to grow and morph, thereby
ensuring ongoing support over time for
the needs of its users. This can be
partially achieved by modularity, but
the fundamental application
architecture must also support
scalability. It should be designed to
avoid clumsy
future “bolt-on” extensions that do not
satisfactorily harmonize with the core
system.
· Shared memory and machine
translation integration
An ideal TMS most definitely should
have a translation memory component
but, in addition, the system should be
able to reach out to publically available
memories. For instance, it should be
able to reach MyMemory or the TDA
and even beyond to machine
translation engines to retrieve
segments where none are available
from internal or proprietary TM.
Furthermore, because the notion of
“Good Enough”
“An ideal TMS should elegantly support
post-editing”
State-of-the-art translation memory
systems not only produce full and
fuzzy segment matches plus
terminology for translators’ use, but
also match sub-segment word groups
that enhance re-usage of TM content.
Systems that do this, of which
MultiTrans is one of the acknowledged
market leaders, provide substantial and
measureable savings, and improved
quality for users. An ideal TMS
system includes
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is gaining credibility in the industry as
clients both demand and accept
moderated quality levels that
correspond to cost/benefit analyses for
certain types of content, support for
machine translation output now has
become a desirable TMS component.
Also, an ideal TMS should elegantly
support post-editing to combine the
speed and cost savings of MT output
with human interaction in order to
improve output quality to a prescribed
level as well as help train MT systems.
· Sub-segment matching:
Advanced Leveraging
technology that can produce
sub-segment matches from existing
TM without requiring huge translation
memory volume to do so.
· Terminology management
Often underrated by those who do not
feel the “pain” of translation,
terminology management is core to
consistency and, hence, quality. A
TMS must provide a robust and
flexible terminology management
option. Access should be role-based:
some users may use the system for
lookup only, others may be able to
suggest new terms, and yet others may
be allowed to modify and approve
terminology. Ideally, such a system
should be available to users over the
Web. The system should also facilitate
provision of terminological input
during the translation process, and
should allow translators to store terms
in a temporary repository for revision
and approval when they are created as
a by-product of other translation tasks.
“Translators should not have to exit their
work environment”
Translators should not have to exit
their work environment to gain access
to contextual information; an ideal
TMS provides it, intrinsically, within
the work environment.
· Translation memory
management
Most LSPs have diverse customers
from diverse domains.
Customer-specific and domain-specific
translation memory must be easily and
transparently managed.
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· Translation environment
The physical, onscreen environment in
which TMS users do their work is a
primary factor in overall productivity.
If translators have access to translation
memory and terminology in their
day-to-day work, they are helped a
great deal. If they have access to
contextual information about the
documents they are translating, they
are helped more. But if they have
access to contextual information about
where the suggestions for translations
or terms that the system produces
come from, they are optimally aided.
If a project from a particular customer
for a particular domain enters the
system, the TMS should readily
facilitate association of the correct
memory repositories to the project.
There is practically no better way to
destroy customer trust than to return
Customer A’s translations with
Customer B’s content.
· Vendor and resource
management
No translation project would function
without human resources to carry it
out. A fully-featured TMS should
provide robust management of contact
information plus skill set and
availability data for project participants
of all kinds. Ideally, such a TMS
should be able to automate assignment
of resources to projects in situations
where such automation is desirable.
“Workflow is the glue that binds the
translation process together”
that occur along the trajectory can
interactively influence the pathway
followed to achieve greater
optimization. Workflows should be
easy to set up and alter, and they
should automatically kick in when
certain entry criteria are met and stop
immediately when exit criteria are
produced. Finally, workflows should
remain a means to an end, not be an
end in and of themselves; they should
only force projects and project
managers to conform to a certain
design when that is specifically desired
because, in
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· Workflow
Workflow is the glue that binds the
translation production process
together. Workflow consists of a
series of interdependent steps that a
translation project employs from initial
scoping to final delivery. Project
materials move along a trajectory as
various human resources interact with
them and with each other. The best
TMS systems support workflow
flexibility, whereby events
some circumstances, workflow
inflexibility can lead to inefficiency
that negates any value that the
workflow might have generated.
Any LSP evaluating a TMS for
purchase should carefully map the
foregoing conceptual criteria to
attributes offered by TMS systems, and
should ask tough questions, both of
themselves and of the TMS providers.
Systems should be evaluated in detail
by trying out sample projects. Please
note that the word in the foregoing
sentence was “sample,” not “simple.”
Nearly any TMS can look good with a
simple project; they begin to show
their warts when projects become
complex, workflows loop back upon
themselves, and semi-automated
resource management becomes more
hassle than it is worth.
LSPs very frequently find themselves
unpleasantly squeezed between
customer pricing demands and supplier
costs, and cash flow is therefore a
common and perennial concern. To
ensure real ROI, the TMS must be
affordable within the LSPs cash flow
constraints: the investment must
remain in proportion to the return.
“The MultiCorpora TMS solution is highly
compelling”
line-up, this trendsetting and popular
application is now supported by
MultiCorpora’s processes for
development, data security,
responsiveness to and tracking of
customer issues, etc. These are
processes that have been refined
through years of supporting
highly-scalable, very large
implementations at Canadian
government agencies, the United
Nations, International Criminal Courts,
and large industrial clients.
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An ideal TMS, then, should be
available to the customer at a price that
makes proper business sense. Some
suppliers of these systems offer
attractive and flexible payment plans
that do not require a crippling or risky
investment up front. MultiCorpora is
among them.
To remain useful for the long-term
after purchase and to produce the
lowest overall cost of ownership, a
TMS must be backed by a company
with a track record of service
excellence. With the acquisition of
Beetext by MultiCorpora and the
integration of Flow MMX into
MultiCorpora’s product
The combination of the power of
MultiCorpora’s experience with
MultiTrans, the intuitiveness of the
Flow MMX product that has made it
so popular, and the philosophy of open
support for translation memory
products produced by other
manufacturers, makes the
MultiCorpora TMS solution highly
compelling.
Is the Dragon
a translator's
best friend?
29
 Voice Recognition
A Productivity Booster
peech recognition is a computer technology that allows a word or a
phrase spoken into a microphone to be analyzed and transcribed as

S
readable text. Speech recognition as well as speech synthesis, the
identification of speakers or their verification all form a part of
speech processing techniques. These techniques particularly include
the ability to carry out vocal interfaces where part of the interaction
is the voice. Among the many applications, we can name the vocal
dictation applications on a PC, where the difficulty lies in the vocabulary size
and sentence length, as well as voice server telephony applications, where the
difficulty lies rather in the need to recognize any voice in variable and often
noisy acoustic conditions (mobile phones in public places).

“I translated up to 3,000 words in one

hour!”
Speech recognition goes as far back as the early 20th century. The first system
that can be considered a speech recognition system dates back to 1952. It is
mentioned in "The First Circle" of the Soviet dissident writer Alexander
Sojenitsyne as a tool of repression in the service of Stalin.
This electronic system developed by Davis, Biddulph and Balashek at Bell
Labs was mainly composed of relays and its performance was limited to
recognizing isolated digits. Research then increased dramatically during the
1970s with the work of Jelinek at IBM (1972-1993).

34
In 1972 the company Threshold
Technologies was the first to market a
recognition system, the VIP100, with a
capacity of 32 words. Today, speech
recognition is an area of strong growth
thanks to the wave of embedded
systems which represents a significant
productivity tool for all writing
professions.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a speech
recognition software developed and
sold by Nuance Communications for
Windows personal computers. The
most recent package is version 11
which supports 32-bit and 64-bit
editions of Windows XP, Vista and 7
“The human being is able to pronounce 120
words per minute...”
Dr. James and Janet Baker founded
Dragon Systems in 1982 to create
products based on their speech
recognition prototype. DragonDictate
was first released for DOS, and
utilized hidden Markov models, which
is a statistical method for the
recognition of speech. At the time, the
hardware was not powerful enough to
address the problem of word
segmentation and DragonDictate was
unable to determine the boundaries of
35
Dragon Naturally Speaking is based on
a minimal user interface. Dictated
words appear in floating tooltips, and
then the program transcribes them into
the active window, at the location of
the cursor. The software has three
major features: dictation,
text-to-speech and command input.
Indeed, the user is able to dictate
commands that are recognized as such
by the program. In addition, user voice
profiles can be accessed from different
computers in a networked
environment.
words in during continuous speech
input. Users were forced to pronounce
words one at a time distinguishing
each by silent pauses.
Dragon Systems released
NaturallySpeaking 1.0, the first
continuous dictation product in 1997.
The company was then purchased in
June 2000 by the group Lernout &
Hauspie. Following the bankruptcy of
Lernout & Hauspie, the rights of the
Dragon product line were acquired by
ScanSoft. In 2005, ScanSoft partnered
with Nuance Communications,
creating a company simply called
Nuance.
Application to translations
If speech recognition was just a gadget
a few years ago, it is now a formidable
tool for increasing translation
productivity. Compatible with most
translation tools, it leaves the translator
as master of his work, unlike other
productivity techniques such as
machine translation which relegates
the translator to an editing position.
Unmatched processing speed
“...but is rarely able to type more than 40
words in the same amount of time”
The taming of the dragon, a lesson in
humility and perseverance
As with any new technology, speech
recognition requires a period of
adaptation and perseverance. However,
productivity gains are so significant
that the investment is well worth it!
To use this tool effectively, the
translator must mentally construct the
sentence or the phrases before
dictating. With practice, the initial
benefits become quickly apparent.
36
The human being is able to pronounce
120 words per minute, but is rarely
able to type more than 40 in the same
amount of time. Some fairly editorial
texts, of which the translator masters
the subject and terminology, are well
suited to the use of this technology.
Used in conjunction with hardware
technologies such as touch screen
monitors (see the related topic in this
magazine), the program can handle
documents with many tags or proper
names.
Translators experienced in speech
recognition work sentence by sentence.
Once the dictated sentence is
transcribed, a quick glance can correct
errors or mistakes in agreement, and
the software can even learn to avoid
such errors. You can correct, delete,
put in capital letters, bold or italics and
control the CAT software by voice.
The voice does not free the translator
entirely from some keyboard shortcuts
that allow working more quickly. Each
translator will assess what can and
what cannot be processed by voice.
Without a translation support tool,
some translators argue that in a text
processing program it is possible to
translate by voice almost 3000 words
per hour for short texts.
Speech recognition allows users to
reduce musculoskeletal risks resulting
from typing and using a mouse.
However, it should be noted that
dictating is quite tiresome, even when
one is accustomed to it. Translators
using speech recognition rarely dictate
more than 6 hours straight and prefer
to alternate dictation periods with
review periods.
“Speech recognition can be considered as a
productivity tool by translators”
and dictate something else instead.
Proofreading is essential for
translations that have been typed as
well as for translations carried out
using speech recognition.
The process remains the same even if
the errors are not similar and allows its
proposals to be reformulated over and
over again in order to improve them;
the overall productivity gain remains
substantial, even in the event of
numerous revisions.
37
Proofreading is required after speech
recognition processing. The software
makes mistakes that you would not
make naturally, which can be annoying
in the beginning. However, the
software is able to learn from its
mistakes and never commit them
again, which represents a significant
gain in capitalizing on errors.
The joint use of speech recognition and
translation aid gives the translator
three choices: keep the fuzzy resulting
from the translation memory and
revise using dictation, maintain and
revise by keyboard or delete
Speech recognition must be considered
as an additional productivity tool for
the translator. Contrary to automatic
translation, it allows the translator to
focus on the core of the profession
which is adapting and transferring the
meaning of a text in a foreign language
in his mother tongue, just as was done
some thirty years ago, when translators
dictated their texts to secretaries. The
emergence of word processing
software has gradually led translators
to have to type their texts themselves,
nibbling irreparably away at their
productivity and income, since they
have not necessarily become
outstanding shorthand typists. A
portion of a job was transferred to
them that has not been returned.
Speech recognition eases this burden,
allowing translators to regain their
productivity, increase their income and
focus on what they do best: translate.

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