THE Insider’s

Perspective
Why collaborative
technology is helping
translation teams deliver
 The Insider’s Perspective:
Why collaborative
technology is helping
translation teams deliver
Today, the demand for localization is greater than ever, as a growing
number of businesses look to tackle the linguistic challenges
associated with international trade. As a localization professional,
knowing how to optimize your company’s translation process and
keep up with demand is a challenge, even for the most seasoned
professional.

The insider’s perspective: Why collaborative technology is helping

translation teams deliver, offers a concise insight into one expert
translator’s hands-on localization career, and in particular why
technology became an almost immediate and constant part
of the localization process.

If you want to add to this story and share your views on technology
and its place in today’s localization industry, then join our Twitter
discussion using #translatorsview.

Regards

David Morgan
David Morgan
Marketing Manager,
SDL Language Technologies
@sdl_David

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 The Email Client is not
a Workflow Solution
Probably the most widespread tool for assigning translation jobs is
one that has actually never been designed for this purpose: the email
client. When I receive translation jobs through email, they typically
include the following:

■■ The file(s) to translate (naturally!)

■■ Reference material (if available)
■■ The translation memory file or a link to where I can download
the project translation memory (TM)
■■ Terminology, most often a glossary in MS Excel format

Downloading all the resources, neatly copying them to folders

on my hard disk, then importing and converting resources such
as glossaries and TM files alone can take me an hour or two.
During this time I cannot translate a single word. The situation
gets even worse when a big translation job is outsourced to several
geographically distributed translators: in that case emails with all
the above-mentioned resources need to go out to a number of
translators, each of whom needs to spend one or two hours on
downloading, converting and importing TM and terminology data.
Thus, they are doing nothing else but re-creating data that has
already been set up and stored elsewhere.

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The challenges Facing DATA OWNERSHIP and
geographically distributed Intellectual Property
teams Using a server-based approach, companies keep full ownership
of their data, as they never have to send out data exports or
In group projects, translators will often be required to co-ordinate
TMs to third parties. Translators, editors, and reviewers remotely
their work on a regular basis to ensure consistency throughout
connect to the server and access the data when required.
the project. This requires regular conference calls during which
the team members agree on terms, stylistic aspects, etc. After the What’s more, every individual can access the data in real-time
conference calls, typically a lot of emails go around, as each translator right along the supply chain. When, for example, a translator adds
is forwarding the most-up-to-date TMs and glossaries to his or her a new sentence or term to the server, the other users (provided
colleagues. This means that every translator has to re-import data to that they are properly authorized users, of course) can
get in synch with the other team members. immediately retrieve this new piece of information. This also
ensures consistency, as all translators and reviewers are working
Due to the huge communication overhead this approach creates,
with a central data repository, which they access in real-time.
it is little wonder that more and more companies insist on centralizing
TM and terminology data, using a dedicated server, in order to tackle
the challenges of distributed working environments. With server-
based resources, translators do not need to download and store
physical files, which then have to be painstakingly synchronized
on dozens of different PCs through manual import/export work.
The actual data is accessible from one central place, either via an
Intranet or through the Internet.

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DATA IS YOUR MOST
VALUABLE Translation ASSET
When it comes to translation technology, the real value of your Now try to imagine how much work it takes to translate about
investment lies NOT in the server hardware or the CAT tool 100,000 segments. Then you know how much of an investment has
software that you are running, but in the data that you are creating been lost due to a simple file corruption. Something like that could
and storing. Just imagine that you have spent weeks on a major never happen to a server-based TM or termbase. Rather than using
translation job. What happens if the laptop on which you have simple file storage, server solutions leverage robust database systems.
stored your data is suddenly lost? A laptop, after all, can be replaced This means systems that are designed to ensure data integrity, that
relatively cheaply. It is rather the data stored on your hardware that provide automatic backup and recovery mechanisms. And, of course,
you will worry about, as it represents many weeks (or years) of work. such systems are robust and scalable enough to be accessed by many
The replacement value of that will be much higher than the price for users at the same time. A file TM can just take maybe two or three
a new piece of hardware. simultaneous users. A server-based TM, on the other hand, can be
accessed by a large number of users, some of them translating, some
In this context one example comes to my mind. A friend of mine, of them performing heavy-duty tasks such as batch processing of files
who has been running a translation agency for over 15 years, asked - all happening at the same time.
me whether I could help him solve a major problem. One of his most
important TM files (that contained no less than 600,000 units) had
become corrupt (and no backup was available). This is, by the way,
a fate that can befall almost any form of conventional file storage.
I managed to restore about 500,000 out of 600,000 units. I told him
that this was about the best I could do for him. Understandably,
he cringed at the fact that 100,000 units were irretrievably lost.

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 Introducing SDL Studio Simplifying translation
GroupShare project management
SDL Studio GroupShare is the collaboration hub for small and With a project server you never have to send translatable files via
medium sized localization teams using SDL Trados Studio and email. All you have to do is create the project, then publish it to the
SDL MultiTerm. It comprises of three components: a robust TM server. Publishing means that those users with the required privileges
server system, a termbase server, based on the SDL MultiTerm will be able to view and open the server project. They can then
terminology system and a project server. The project server download (i.e. check out) the required file(s).
centralizes the one aspect that is arguably the most critically
important resource of the translation supply chain: the In my line of work I often experience how incredibly tedious the act
translatable files themselves. of sending a file via email can be. For example, I once had to forward
a small file (just 16 KB) to a customer. However, the email attachment
The costliest project related mistakes can actually occur when did not make it through, as it was blocked by the customer’s firewall.
the right files are not sent to the correct team members, or when The usual tricks, i.e. zipping the file or changing its extension had no
a file just gets lost somewhere in the supply chain. Just think of effect. I then uploaded the file to a shared drive on the Internet, and
situations in which translators receive the wrong files, or in which forwarded the download link to my customer. Just when I wanted to
team members are accidentally assigned the same file to edit. congratulate myself for having resolved this problem, my customer
This is why I have made it a habit to double and triple-check informed me that according to their security policies they were not
whether I am sending out the correct files, rather than finding allowed to access Internet drives from a company PC. All in all,
out two weeks later that I have attached the wrong documents. I ended up spending two hours trying to figure out a way of getting
a simple 16 KB file to my client! It goes without saying that such
problems get even worse as files get bigger.

With SDL Studio GroupShare, no email attachments are necessary

to deliver jobs to a third-party. Once translators are finished, they
upload (i.e. check in) the file directly from SDL Trados Studio 2011
with a simple click. Thus, rather than having to switch to a separate
email or FTP client, users perform the required download or upload
from SDL Trados Studio 2011. This means that all the file-handling
capabilities are smoothly integrated into the application in which
project managers, translators, reviewers, etc. are working.

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Instant Roll-back Capabilities Real-time Transparency
and Standards Compliance throughout the Supply Chain
SDL Studio GroupShare automatically keeps a copy of each file as it When using SDL Studio GroupShare, once a translator has
was in a certain stage of the workflow, e.g. pre-translated, translated, downloaded a file, all other members in the supply chain can see
edited, reviewed, etc. If anything goes wrong in a particular step of that the file has been checked out - and by whom. This prevents
the workflow, you can roll back to a previous stage with a simple click situations in which two users accidentally are working on the
of a button. Being able to do so is actually required to comply with same document.
certain certification standards for translation workflows. Without a
server automatically taking snapshots of every file at every stage,
you have to manually make copies of files and folders. On the hard
disks of a lot of translators or agencies I know, multiple copies of the
same files exist, which have been stored under names such as:

■■ document_original.doc,
■■ document_translated.doc,
■■ document_reviewed.doc, etc.
Just imagine how tedious it is to constantly keep multiple copies
of the same files. Moreover, manually keeping multiple copies
is highly error-prone. It once happened to me that I accidentally
overwrote an updated file with an older version, thereby undoing
five hours of translation and editing work in just one second.

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3 key THINGS TO consider when
Evaluating a Server-based Solution

1
Hosting in-house or in the Cloud? During one memorable product demonstration, I remember an
One of the basic aspects you should consider when pondering SDL trainer using the 3G connection on their iPhone to open a
a server-based solution is where to host the actual server large remote TM via SDL Studio GroupShare, one that contained
machine(s)? SDL Studio GroupShare needs to run on a machine, about a quarter of a million translation units. The audience
e.g. on a Windows 2008 Server. You might have the hardware was quite stunned to see searches and batch operations being
available on site. Maybe you can also provide connectivity performed so quickly that they got the impression that the
for the ‘outside’ world, which allows external players to access TM was actually residing on a local hard disk. Well, it was not.
the server. If so, hosting the solution in-house is an option. The TM was hosted some 1,000 miles away from the location.

However, if these resources are not available to you, then you

3
might consider renting a ‘cloud server’ for a monthly fee. Hosting Security
providers rent servers for a monthly fee starting from around As far as the security aspect is concerned, SDL Studio
20€. The price usually depends on factors such as capacity, GroupShare allows you to leverage a set of commonly
performance, etc. It is then the provider’s responsibility to keep available features: first of all, the remote server can, of course,
the server running, installing updates, securing the connection, be protected by a firewall. The data stream can be further
etc. You then only have to install the SDL Studio GroupShare and protected by SSL encryption, which is the same technology
do things like setting up the required users, passwords, etc. used for securing online banking and credit card transactions.
And for added security, the exchange between clients and

2 Speed servers can, of course, be further protected using common

VPN (virtual private network) connections.
Even the best centralized TM in the world will be of little use
if it takes 10 seconds to retrieve a segment, or if you need to wait In a world where we get more and more used to smaller devices
half a minute for a termbase or concordance search to execute. accessing data (e.g. documents, pictures, music, etc.) over
Response times like that will certainly reduce acceptance of almost ubiquitous Internet connections, it is only natural that
server-based systems among end users. Well, the good news is that we leverage this trend also for supporting the information
that Internet connection speeds required to assure seamless and flow in translation supply chains. SDL Studio GroupShare offers
smooth working with server-based resources are readily available. a scalable, efficient, and highly flexible for doing just that.

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About SDL
SDL enables global businesses to enrich their customers’
experience through the entire customer journey. SDL’s
technology and services help brands to predict what their
customers want and engage with them across multiple
languages, cultures, channels and devices. SDL has over 1,500
enterprise customers, 400 partners and a global infrastructure
of 70 offices in 38 countries. 42 out of the top 50 brands work
with SDL. For more information, visit [Link]/lt