Enterprise Language Strategy Roundtable Enterprise Language Strategy Roundtable A TAUS MEETING...

Enterprise Language Strategy RoundtableA TAUS MEETING REPORT

Maastricht, 7 September 2010Sponsored and hosted by MedtronicFacilitated by TAUS

ENTERPRISE LANGUAGE STRATEGY ROUNDTABLE

COPYRIGHT © TAUS 2010 2

COPYRIGHT © TAUS 2010All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system of any nature, or transmitted or made available in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of TAUS. TAUS will pursue copyright infringements.

In spite of careful preparation and editing, this publication may contain errors and imperfections. Authors, editors, and TAUS do not accept responsibility for the consequences that may result thereof.

Published by TAUS BV, De Rijp, The NetherlandsFor further information, please email [email protected]

COPYRIGHT © TAUS 20103

A TAUS MEETING REPORT

Relevance

This report is the first in a series and provides invaluable guidance for any corporate translation function seeking to be prepared for changes in globalization and localization practices going forward.

Subsequent reports will be based on the outcomes of TAUS Round Table meetings on the theme of ‘Translation in the 21st Century’ which will be held throughout the globe in 2011. If you are interested in participating in one of these meetings please see our events calendar.

Participating companies

Alcatel Lucent CA Technologies

Canon John Deere

GE Energy Medtronic

Océ Technologies Philips

SAS Institute

Invited observer

EMF (Invited Observer)

Author: Rahzeb Choudhury

http://www.translationautomation.com/events/calendar.html



Contents

Background and aims 5

Approach 6

Translation Business Profiles 7

TAUS Translation Process Audit 8

Summary table of groups conclusions 10

Finding balance outsourced and in-house activity. Word-based pricing 11

TM versus language data management 13

Wishing for a passionate language community 14

The day concluded 15

TAUS conclusions 16



Background and aims

This was the first in a series of one-day meetings for buyers of translation and localization, aimed at an open exchange about language business innovation and translation technology. This invitation-only brainstorming was sponsored and hosted by Medtronic and took place in Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Language and translation needs are undergoing dramatic changes, driven by changing market forces, shifting consumer roles, and technological evolution. A thorough overview of the nature and impact of these change drivers is provided in the 2008 TAUS report on Language Business Innovation.

In this rapidly changing environment existing translation business models may not provide the flexibility and scalability required. At TAUS Round Table meetings, globally operating companies share their perspectives and knowledge, and help to define new enterprise language strategies.

TAUS believes that global organizations need an enterprise language strategy to embed translation needs in everything we do as opposed to the current project-oriented approach to translation.



Approach

The format of the meeting was open and informal. Prior to the meeting participants prioritized the focus areas to review, and provided information on their current translation models, activities and issues.

During the morning participants split into three groups to undertake a part of the TAUS Translation Process Audit. This enabled everyone to brainstorm a virtual 21st century translation organization in an attempt to obtain a clear analysis of how possible changes in processes can affect and improve efficiency and quality for each of the participating companies.

This TAUS approach anchors the ideation of future models in the context of the different functions and practical process steps involved in translation. Participants use a standard template to discuss whether specific functions and tasks would ideally be outsourced or undertaken internally, and review the scope for automating, innovating or eliminating a task or function. Each group reported back on their discussions and conclusions.

In the afternoon there was a plenary discussion on the areas which participants had prioritized during the pre-meeting survey as requiring review. These were:

• Finding the balance between outsourced vs. in-house activity• Word-based pricing• TM versus Language data management• Wishing for a passionate language community

The day was rounded up with a recap of the recurring themes that had come up during the day, with participants voting to prioritize criteria that they consider most important for defining an enterprise language strategy.

The remainder of the document summarizes the participants’ translation business profiles, outcomes of morning, afternoon, and concluding sessions.



Translation Business Profiles

Almost all of the nine companies represented combine outsourced and in-source activity. One outsources all activity. Three in-source a large majority of work and the remaining five outsource a large majority of activity. The volume of translation ranges from 1 million words and 2 languages to hundreds of millions of words and 45 languages per year for participants.

Most companies work with a few multiple language vendors. A few also use single language vendors. One uses a single global vendor. While another uses regional vendors. In some cases a few companies also work directly with freelancers/individual translators.

Most companies use centralized, regional, or division-based organizational models or a combination thereof. Funding models include profit and cost centre approaches. Most companies use a word-based pricing model.

Participants with engineering backgrounds expressed a strong preference for standardization and automation of processes. This helps to ensure efficient operations, and is particularly important when working with multiple vendors. A number of participants operate in continuous translation mode in response to simship/agile rollout requirements. One company uses machine translation internally, with both MT vendor supplied and self-built engines. This company has more than doubled its translation volume since 2005, while reducing fully loaded cost per word by almost two-thirds over the period. Another uses MT through one of its language service providers. One other plans to pilot MT.

The diversity of approaches used by participating companies ensured a good balance of views for the Translation Process Audit exercise.



TAUS Translation Process Audit

As expected cost, quality and time were highlighted as the most pressing issues for most companies with the priority ranging between all three.

The three groups reported back following breakout sessions outlining their conclusions on whether specific functions and tasks in their ideal process model would be undertaken internally or outsourced, and whether they would be automated, innovated and/or eliminated. The graphic below illustrates a fairly typical translation process flow.



This graphic helps to demonstrate the complexity of a typical process, as well as the risk of repetition given what is often a cascaded supply chain.



Summary table of groups conclusions

The table below summarizes groups’ conclusions by focusing on areas of consensus and difference. There was far greater agreement on sets of task that should be automated/eliminated than whether this would ideally be done internally or by a vendor. These conclusions helped to prime discussions for the plenary sessions which followed.

Function Group 1Internal or external

Group 2Internal or external

Group 3Internal or external

Comments on whether to automate/innovate/eliminate

Client Internal Internal Internal Consensus that translation request & order confirmation should be automated through a web portal

Engineering - Internal or external

Internal and external

Consensus that almost all engineering tasks should be automated/eliminated. One group preferred to automate source control to a limit after which point human approval would be needed. Updating the TM was considered a human task by one team. There was no consensus as to whether automation should be done by an internal team or vendor.

Project Management

- Internal Internal and external

Consensus that most project mgt tasks could be automated/eliminated. No consensus on whether internal team or vendors should undertake the automation.

Terminologist External Internal Internal The group preferring an external solution wants to automate with term harvesting.

Validation Internal Internal Internal Consensus that validation should be done internally, but one prefers to automate the function.

Translation - External External One group wants to use MT for certain work. Two groups want to eliminate the edit task if quality is sufficient.

Language specialists

- Internal Internal Groups want to combine and innovate tasks.

DTP - - Internal and external

Group 3 would have vendors automate all DTP tasks, except the artwork/illustration stage which remains internal and is innovated.



Finding balance outsourced and in-house activity. Word-based pricing

During the plenary session participants discussed the following questions to consider how a 21st century translation operation can be managed most efficiently.

• Are large translation vendors quick enough to adapt to changing market requirements?• Do we know who is doing what in the cascaded supply chain? How do we avoid replication of tasks and responsibilities and create more efficiency?• Should we move away from word-based pricing, as it seems to shift the focus away from quality and efficiency?

It was clear from the morning’s process audit exercise that there is a lot of scope for automation and innovation. But how to make this happen?

There is no one model that works in all situations. However, as with most things, having the right mindset is vital to ensuring companies are able to create scalable and flexible operations that drive continuous improvements and meet future needs.

The right mindset involves staying up-to-date with key industry developments and ensuring the internal team has the knowledge needed to make informed decisions. To be able to make informed decisions client organizations must ensure there is sufficient transparency into what is often a cascaded supply chain. Transparency requires reliable and timely metrics to measure and control performance. With sufficient knowledge and transparency to understand what is feasible, translation buyers can then decide the optimal timing and approach for making improvements. One participating company has used the simple measure of calculating cost per word of an in-house process vs. the cost per word from vendors to get view of the efficiency of operations. The in-house cost per word is calculated by dividing the total words translated in house during a period by the fully loaded cost. They found that over a 3-year period in-house projects were 27% cheaper. The same participant has calculated that the translation part of the overall process is less that 50% their cost.

Given competing client requirements, vendors can struggle to deliver on process improvements that bring down translation cost, time and/or manage quality. This is hindered by the industry standard word-based pricing model, which does not incentivize change/innovation. One participating company overcomes this by setting targets for vendors. Vendors then need to propose projects to deliver the required improvements. This long-term partnership approach also includes the potential for the client funding projects to help ensure projects are delivered. A number of participants expressed a preference for smaller vendors as they are thought to be more engaged than large providers. Project management is considered a challenge when using many small vendors.



In principle the more functions that are in-house the more direct control there is when executing improvements. For example, automating the engineering tasks that take place before translation is easier to carry out internally, especially working with multiple vendors. However, it is expected that outsourced costs will continue to get lower, especially as a result of the increased adoption of MT and lower postediting rates. At a minimum an internal team is needed to control quality/validate, and to evaluate vendor performance. Under these circumstances it may get difficult to justify the need for an internal linguistic team.

The earlier in the content creation process that translation needs are considered the better. For example, taking account of translation related engineering issues at the research and development stage makes for a more efficient execution thereafter. One participating company allows its translators to make changes to source content and in this way helps to create a virtuous circle between content creation and translation. A large majority of participants would like to be able to apply controlled authoring.

A company’s perception of translation activity is important. At the risk of stating the obvious, board-level interest and general company-wide awareness of the cost and value of translation engenders a culture where it is easier to make good translation decisions and continuously improve practices. For example, awareness in a sales team of the cost of specific elements of translation ensures that bottom as well top line is considered when making a pitch.

Regular and clear communication internally and with providers is essential for managing and delivering any function, process or improvement.

Whether work is done in-house or outsourced, the execution of open, vendor neutral industry standards, such as TMX, TBX, XLIFF, is key to ensuring interoperability up, down and across a supply chain. Without such execution genuine long term flexibility, such as opportunities for process standardization, automation, optional reuse of content, and more, are lost.



TM versus language data management

The plenary discussion was framed by a presentation by TAUS about the evolution of TM and aims of the TAUS Data Association. Participants considered the following questions:

• Is translation memory management on a project and product basis being replaced by a cloud and corpus-based approach to managing translation data? What is the impact of this on our technology infrastructure?• How quickly will machine translation become a relevant and useful tool in our enterprise language strategy?

Over the last twenty years TM has moved from the desktop to enterprise server and is now moving to the cloud. However, the functionality behind much TM technology and operational practices remain project based.

Companies that have invested in data management as opposed to traditional project based TM, such as in storage, delivery, granularity (corpus vs. product based), segmentation, consistency, cleaning, and maximizing the re-use have found this to be a key factor in achieving successful on time, within budget and good quality translations.

The member-driven industry sanctioned TAUS Data Association takes these language data management good practices and applies them at the supercloud level to billions of words across industry sectors to enable language data and technology exchange. It is the execution of a vision of shared investments and resources to maximize the utility of language resources. Participants recognized the value of the TAUS Search language search engine and for MT training.

The graphic overleaf illustrates the importance of language data and its management as publishing moves from a push to pull model, takes place continuously, and translation is increasingly automated.



The evolution of language data management will include greater focus on TM cleaning, semantic clustering, corpus linguistics and is likely help to preserve endangered languages. Better language data management will also open the way for new innovations that enable mass customization/ personalization for consumer linguaspheres. Given the size of most TMs make manual cleaning a time consuming and mundane process we can expect a growing focus on the automation of cleaning routines in the near term.

Wishing for a passionate language community

This plenary discussion was framed by a presentation by TAUS to highlight the community translation landscape. This presentation information can be found in the 2009 TAUS report, The Innovation and Interoperability Roadmap. The report summarizes extensive primary research into the innovation plans of a wide cross section of industry stakeholders. The section on community translation describes the benefits, various approaches, quality assurance, the issues, and features for an ideal software solution.



There was consensus amongst participants that this was an important change scenario that they ideally want to leverage. They recognized the value of engaging users for both brand equity and customer satisfaction. All participants are at an early stage of the learning curve. A period of acculturation through greater interaction with social media and crowdsourcing is one recommendation coming out of meeting.

It is possible that by opening up translation to communities of users localization functions take on greater strategic value for their organizations, albeit with changed profiles.

The day concluded

The day ended with participants’ voting to prioritize the key criteria for developing an enterprise language strategy. Each gave a score from 1 (not important) to 5 (very important). These are aggregated in the table below.

Key attributes of an enterprise language strategy Scores Meeting conclusion

1. Get the source right, control in the authoring process 67 A must have

2. Interoperability through open standards 63 A must have

3. Regular communication internally and with suppliers 56 A must have

4. Language data management 55 A must have, but not yet sure how

5. Knowledge about good practices and latest developments 54 A must have

6. Internal education on the role, value and cost of translation 52 A must have

7. Moving quickly to adopt new approaches 47 Important, but not necessary

8. Transparency in a cascaded supply chain 46 Important, but not needed if there is trust

9. Passionate language community 44 Important, but more knowledge required before action

10. Review company translation policy 43 Important, but expect this to be the existing modus resulting from (5)

11. Connection to cloud: sharing data with the industry 34 Not a priority



TAUS conclusions

The deep knowledge and dedication of participants was apparent during the whole meeting. The scores resulting from the final session highlight the areas where we can expect focused attention in the coming period.

However, this scoring does not reflect a detailed assessment of the feasibility of achieving key criteria. Very few companies have been successful at controlling source content and executing such discipline will only get more difficult as user generated content, such as for knowledge bases, continues to grow. In our view this number 1 aspiration could perhaps be combined with the attribute that got the fourth ranking: language data management. If all language data, source and target, are stored in a central enterprise repository, automatic cleaning and optimization of text may prove to be a lot easier and more efficient than the currently most commonly advocated approach of trying to control the creative authoring process. Automatic routines can be applied to harvest terminology (as proposed by one breakout group), tag synonyms, shorten sentences, standardize grammatical structures, and automate translation. Participants discussed and understood the potential power of language data management, but were uncertain about ways to implement this in their business. The effectiveness of greater automation in language data management is directly related the volume of the database. The more words in the database, the more effective data management can be. Given this context it is interesting that participants did not see their corporations opening up to sharing data in a cloud environment that quickly. Clearly, there are many other factors at play. We note that the low score for connecting to the cloud reflects the fact that TDA is still at an early adopter stage. The idea of shared investments for utility style translation features is yet to gain currency outside those building their own MT systems. We expect that that will change as companies come to grips with the significant investments and language resources needed to make the transition to sophisticated language data management.

Interoperability requires major technology vendors, service providers and in some cases publishers themselves to genuinely buy-in and implement open standards. This needs a ground swell of pressure and a change in mindset that can only come about through a concerted industry-wide effort.



A passionate language community was on most participants’ wish list. A community of dedicated and expert volunteer users in a variety of locales seems to be a great route for quality and correct style and terminology. But just how to do it remains an open question for participants.

Other criteria in the ranking of attributes that compose an effective enterprise language strategy; knowledge (5), education (6), communication (3), transparency (8) and policy validation (10) are exactly what this constructive day of brainstorming was all about.

Thanks to all participants and especially Medtronic for a highly engaging meeting.

For more information on TAUS’ planned activity for promoting the interoperability agenda, industry collaboration, data sharing and informed translation automation, please download the TAUS Annual Plan for 2011.

http://www.translationautomation.com/about-taus/annual-plan.html

http://www.translationautomation.com/about-taus/annual-plan.html

TAUS is a think tank for the translation industry, undertaking research for buyers and providers of translation services and technologies.

Our mission is to increase the size and significance of the translation industry to help the world communicate better. To meet this ongoing goal, TAUS supports entrepreneurs and principals in the translation industry to share and define new strategies through a comprehensive program of events, publications and communications.

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