www.insightssuccess.com August 2018
10
The Most Recommended
Language Service Providers 2018
Virtual Reality Providing a New Outlook to Traditional Businesses
Speaking Local SigniďŹ cance of Language Services
Geo Janssens Chief Executive Officer
Offering Continuous Delivery Through Technology
Editor’s Note
www.insightssuccess.com August 2018
Translating Visions into Words
10
The Most Recommended
Language Service Providers 2018
Virtual Reality Providing a New Outlook to Traditional Businesses
Speaking Local Significance of Language Services
Geo Janssens Chief Executive Officer
Offering Continuous Delivery Through Technology
E
vidently everyone has their own style of expression. It’s almost impossible to precisely decode every expression, maybe that’s why we need language; to convey our message with the least efforts but in the most efficient manner. Everybody knows language is the best manner of articulation and it plays a vital role in our communication. Since birth, we start acquiring knowledge of our native language; yet, holding a complete command over that language is rather a tedious and time consuming process. Now imagine there are roughly 6,500 languages spoken in the world today. If we struggle to convey our thought to someone who speaks and comprehends the same language as we do, conversing with somebody who has zero idea about your native language is more than just impossible, isn’t it? “It is important not only to think about what you say, but how you say it.” We all have that experience where we’ve asked an address to somebody from other country in our poor dialect and that person looked at us with a grave question mark on his/her face. Effective communication capabilities are a prerequisite for those who travel frequently, or for someone who addresses his/her global clientele. This is where language services play a crucial role. Language services simply allow associates to express their vision in a way anyone could understand, and also enable them to communicate globally. Particularly, in the extensively integrated global business community the ability to communicate effectively is becoming more and more important. Communicating directly with new clients and companies in their native language is one of the first steps to founding a lasting, stable international business relationship. Being able to do this automatically puts any language specialist ahead of his or her peers in the competition.
An adept language specialist exactly understands how impactful statements, phrases or simple sentences can create an enduring impact on customer minds, and positions words accordingly. It’s not just about positioning the words appropriately but it is also about the ability to use the perfect words, and requires a credible skill to find the right word at the right time. According to a research by Ocla, approximately 2.5% of the world’s population possesses the skill of writing, interpreting or translating, and establishing a team of such individuals is quite a task. That’s exactly what language service providers do. Hence, an annual listing of “The 10 Most Recommended Language Service Providers, 2018”acknowledges some of the leading language solution providers which are translating visions of associated organizations into words. Featuring as cover story we have Jonckers. Since 1994, Jonckers has been a leading force in translation services and localization technologies, supporting top international brands in developing their message and global presence with speed and efficiency. We have also included companies like Agnew Multilingual which is a leader in providing foreignlanguage translation, interpretation and multicultural communication services; Capita TI is a leading global language services supplier; Cloudbreak that helps enable all of your telehealth solutions through a suite of industry-leading services, at the push of a button. CSOFT is a world leader in localization and global communications which provides turnkey solutions to companies facing challenges in engaging customers and markets; Lan-bridge is a specialist Chinese translation agency. Pangea is a translation, localization and content service provider focused on delivering high-quality product, professional service and fast turnaround; Protrans is a language service provider which will always have a personal touch, never allowing only the computers to do all the work; The TR Company is committed to setting the highest standards for quality and client service in the translation industry; Traducta is a Language Services Company for businesses and organizations seeking optimal translation quality and customer service, in all languages. Also don’t forget to flip through the articles written by our very own editorial team and various motivational speakers. Let’s start reading, shall we?
Kedar Kulkarni
20 28
CSOFT International: Harmonizing Language and Technology
18 Agnew Multilingual: Translating Languages Globally
34
Humanizing Health Care
Capita Translation and Interpreting: Providing Seamless Language Solutions
Traducta:
Pangea Translation Services: Gaming and Trading Specialists with High-Quality, Professional Translators
Cloudbreak:
26
Assisting Professionals with Multilingual Translation Services
Protrans: Reforming Language Services with Distinctive Solutions
44
40 Speaking Local
24
SigniďŹ cance of Language Services
Virtual Reality
Articles
Providing a New Outlook to Traditional Businesses
36
Editor-in-Chief Senior Editor Managing Editor Executive Editors
Pooja M. Bansal Anish Miller Kedar Kulkarni Jenny Fernandes Kaustav Roy
Assistant Editors Brian Smith Bhavithiran Murugan Visualiser David King Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Associate Designer Kushagra Gupta Co-designer Aparna Vanzul Art & Picture Editor Paul Belin Jayant Khanna Senior Sales Manager Passi D. Business Development Manager Peter Collins Marketing Manager John Matthew Business Development Executives Steve, Joe, Alan, Tushar Sales Executives David, Kevin, Mark, Vijay Technical Head Jacob Smile Technical Specialist Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Online Marketing Strategist Alina Sege, Shubham Mahadik, Vaibhav K SME-SMO Executives Prashant Chauhan, Uma Dhenge, Gemson, Irfan Research Analyst Chidiebere Moses Circulation Manager Robert, Tanaji Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes sales@insightssuccess.com
August, 2018 Corporate Ofces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com
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Geo Janssens CEO
Jonckers: O ering Continuous Delivery Through Technology
“We Promise Any Word, Any Time, Any Place.”
B
usinesses that function across international borders and language barriers are continually looking for faster solutions to deliver their message to market quicker than their competitors. For them, every spoken and written global communication is not only an opportunity for growth but also vital time taken to deliver products and services to their customers. The need for speed is now the most required USP from a language service provider.
it takes to every solution applied to individual projects, and the follow-up support that characterizes every client relationship. In abiding by these cornerstones of superior service delivery, Jonckers has established itself as an industry leader which can be relied upon to localize any word, at any time, in any place. Tradition Meets Innovation
Delivery of content timeframes have narrowed significantly in recent years. Customers want for quality has been overtaken by a need for faster solutions. Quality is now expected as standard with the advent of NMT (neural machine translation) and the shift of focus to continuous delivery as the main requirement is now upon us. Fortunately for clients looking to fulfil thus need, there is Jonckers.
Jonckers has always embraced a policy of balancing stability and innovation. The company began with a focus on fast and accurate human translation services, and this element remains an essential part of its repertoire. However, Jonckers is also committed to adopting technological innovations that simplify, accelerate and democratize translation. This is the impetus behind its cloud-based technology platform, WordsOnline.
We deliver when you need top quality translations on time, every time.
The concept of WordsOnline evolved from working in partnership with eCommerce customers, processing over 30 million words each month. JONCKERS know that continuous delivery is key for sectors such as retail to get products and messages to their audience. They needed to keep up with this demand and build on their speedy solutions.
Excellence - Past, Present and Future
Succeeding Where Others Fail
For over 25 years, Jonckers has provided a comprehensive range of language services to major brands and organizations across the world, helping them expand globally, and deliver their message to previouslyinaccessible markets and demographics.
None of the successes that Jonckers has earned would have been possible without a talented, creative and committed team behind the platform. Good people and culture are imperative in making a company a success. Jonckers employ people who have a real passion for language and progression. The business is dedicated to the success of it’s customers and have become an integral partner for many organizations not just a supplier.
Among its many clients, Jonckers lists industry giants from fields as diverse as software publishing, consumer electronics, global retail, communications, gaming, eLearning, financial services, manufacturing and travel. Its reputation has been built on the delivery of consistently high quality, irrespective of the size, nature and language of a project or its target audience. Key to this success is the company’s commitment to excellence, speed and scalability, evident in the approach
Adopting a customer-centric approach allows Jonckers to have an intimate understanding of their customer’s needs, which in-turn allows a more pro-active approach. Understanding what issues take priority for customers, makes it much easier for the experienced team to
develop the right solution, combining technology and services to address the issue. “We have been working with Jonckers for over 15 years. Their loyalty to excellence has been rewarded with a Partner of the Year Award and they continue to provide consistency in their delivery.” One of Jonckers longest standing partners, global US based tech giants. CEO Geo Janssens has made it very clear, it is even more true today that flexibility is key. There are now multiple service levels to address the 3 components of projects: Ÿ
Costs : an issue all businesses must address and become able to offer various service levels tailored to specific customer business goals. Generating cost effective solutions helps the client get the most from their resources.
Ÿ
Quality : demands have undergone a shift in recent years. Quality is now a variable target based on the content’s purpose, shelf-life, etc. It is expected as standard, with more focus on speed.
Ÿ
Speed : the importance of delivery is increasing all the time. Companies produce and procure larger volumes of content and there is a need for that content to be in front of their customers faster than ever before. This is a result of the widespread use of Agile and the expectations of the end-user.
Chiara Raimondo VP of Operations
With the knowledge and understanding that these dynamic forces are at play in every aspect of the LSP industry, Jonckers is able to formulate unique solutions that not only address the current needs of its clients, but also to anticipate industry trends. Jonckers leverages that foresight to keep ahead of the curve and allow its clients to do the same. Adapting to Change, Creating the Future The pace at which tech is advancing in the language services industry has become a critical part of how
Engage with your customers across every language, culture and locale.
Marc Jonckers Board member & Chief Strategy Officer
organizations are strategizing for the coming years. Recent trends; the advent of Machine Translation and automation for continuous delivery, have led to capabilities that were firmly in the realm of science fiction not very long ago. With a world moving more towards AI and instant delivery. Jonckers WordsOnline portal has been produced specifically to meet the needs of that shift and change in consumer behavior. The continuing evolution of Neural MT means that tech is now being used as part of day-to-day deliverables. The use of machines as the primary tool for localization services is no longer in development, it is already a reality. Another critical factor with which Jonckers has had to contend is the
exponential increase in the volume of audio, video and multimedia content, and the accompanying accelerated demand for localization services that it has sparked. Multimedia, multiplatform visual and interactive content is now commonplace across many sectors. Video and audio requirement is nothing new, but with smart devices now allowing access to this type of content with the use of a simple finger-tip, the demand is at an all-time high. To address this, Jonckers has designed an NMT engine for quicker / real-time translations, developed with integrated support for a broad range of languages and dialects. This product is coupled with intuitive neural engines which are constantly being improved for even faster delivery of multi-platform content.
The company also recognizes that not all audio-visual content needs to be produced to same quality standards. It instead identifies the level of polish required for individual projects and develops solutions to match the source quality, meaning cost effective solutions based on the project requirements. By applying this nuanced and balanced approach, Jonckers is able to offer a wider scope of price balance and faster turnaround time, matching products to a client’s budget. This does not however influence its capability to deliver the high-value services which remain the lynchpin of its success.
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The
Most Recommended Service Providers 2018
Company Name
Management
Brief
Agnew Multilingual agnew.com
Irene Agnew Founder & President
Agnew Multilingual is a leader in providing foreign-language translation, interpretation and multicultural communication services.
Capita Translation and Interpreting
Capita TI is a leading global language services supplier.
capitatranslationinterpreting.com
Antonio Tejada Managing Director
Cloudbreak cloudbreak.us
Jamey Edwards CEO & Co-founder
Cloudbreak helps enable all of your telehealth solutions through a suite of industry-leading services, at the push of a button.
CSOFT International csoftintl.com
Shunee Yee Founder & CEO
CSOFT is a world leader in localization and global communications which provides turnkey solutions to companies facing challenges in engaging customers and markets.
Jonckers jonckers.com
Geo Janssens CEO
Jonckers tagline describes its services perfectly: Any Word, Any Time, Any Place.
Lan-Bridge Communications Ltd lan-bridge.co
Michael Zhu Founder
Lan-bridge is a specialist Chinese translation agency.
Pangea Translation Services pangea.global
Michal Shinitzky Managing Director
Pangea is a translation, localization and content service provider focused on delivering high-quality product, professional service and fast turnaround.
Protrans prolang.us
Elena G. Rojas Founder & CEO
Protrans is a language service provider which will always have a personal touch, never allowing only the computers to do all the work.
THE TR COMPANY thetrcompany.com
Manuel Rubina Marketing
The TR Company has been committed to setting the highest standards for quality and client service in the translation industry.
Traducta traducta.com
Yves Desjardins Founder & CEO
Traducta is a Language Services Company for businesses and organizations seeking optimal translation quality and customer service, in all languages.
Virtuoso's Vision
he
TShift that
broke the pendulum About the Author Murray Oles is the President of CHALEX Corp. The company is specialized in Workow Management for Marketing Communications Projects through the use of SmartFlo and integrated third party tools.
Murray Oles President CHALEX Corp
C
orporations are shifting their marketing services in-house and re-defining relationships with their suppliers. This is a strategic shift brought about by a confluence of technical, social and political change on a global scale. At the core of this movement is the corporation’s need to control global brand messaging quickly in an increasingly regulated world. Is this a temporary shift or is there more to it, and how far might it go?
16
| August 2018
The rise of mobile computing combined with an explosion in SaaS software development has led to more intuitive purpose-built applications with built in learning tools. The net effect is that corporations can do much more with less. Hence, the rapidly accelerating move to take internal control of the corporate global supply chain. More specifically, control of process, digital assets, resources, and the brand message. Evidence of the shift can be seen in global corporations like P&G who in recent years consolidated their packaging prepress supply chain from hundreds of companies to only three. The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) committee for in-house agencies includes members from hundreds of the Fortune 1000. A Google search reveals many recent articles detailing the rise of in-house ad agencies.
that can be analyzed as a service in real-time. The ability to analyze any combination of process and behavioral data yields valuable predictive insights. Standards such as BPMN notation and the XPDL file format have allowed developers to simplify the user experience for defining, managing, and sharing process maps across BPM platforms. A virtual task can automatically serve up the tools the user will need. SaaS tools have one thing in common. They can be called through a RESTful API without the need for a software developer. The workflow can be configured to invoke access to tools based on the nature of the task. For healthcare workflows a digital radiology file format (DICOM Web) enables secure cross-platform viewing and collaboration over a patient’s scanned images and medical history.
The drivers of this shift are affordable and effective new technology and the need for speed to market. The value of a middleman controlling portions of the marcom workflow has diminished. This does not mean that everything is being produced in-house, just internally controlled and managed by in-house staff who are defining new best practices for their agile enterprise. Many companies go back and forth between insourcing and outsourcing, but this time it is different. Companies are focused on process, and it is not just marketing, legal and business analytics, recruiting, employee services and even providing in-house healthcare.
Business agile companies adjust to market conditions faster by adopting a culture of managed change. It is no longer acceptable to be so disconnected from your projects that you can’t even access your own brand packaging and promotion files. The same is true for legal, regulatory and compliance work. The agile company controls all of these processes. Their DAM enabled BPM system interacts with a SaaS reporting service like EZBI that concatenates and reports on data across distributed systems. Lean manufacturing and Six Sigma programs are used to configure these systems to monitor compliance to regulated processes.
With change comes opportunity. Demand for business process management tools is growing rapidly. Many new companies are developing SaaS products to further enable the agile business. Online workflow modeling and business process management tools are becoming main stream. File sharing and digital asset management services are widely accepted. Integrating these services to meet the requirements of a project has never been easier now that RESTful APIs have become widely available. Artificial intelligence applied to big data analytics will provide the agile business with insights previously inconceivable. Best of all, the enterprise can securely access most SaaS services without making any upfront investments or long term commitments.
These changes are far more profound than may appear on the surface. The gig economy is fueling a virtual cottage industry that circles the globe. Project managers are increasingly in demand. This is not just an IT thing, every business runs on projects. The certified project management professional PMP is a new college certification. Rachel Burger in a Capterra article explained The 5 Biggest Project Management Trends Shaping 2018. In brief, “business agile” is the new way of doing business. A visit to the Fiverr.com web site will show how one SaaS service is bringing buyers and sellers of creative services together. This in-house trend is not just another swing of the pendulum.
At the core of the agile business is an integrated business process management platform. This is the tool that enables distributed process control. In-house is only practical when the technology enables the staff to do an order of magnitude more with less. BPM systems capture huge amounts of data
August 2018 |
17
The
Most Recommended Service Providers 2018
Agnew Multilingual: Translating Languages Globally
I
their expectations. She is fluent in Russian, with a working knowledge of Japanese and Spanish.
n today’s business world, communication is playing a more vital role than ever. The need for language services is rapidly increasing across the globe. Organizations ranging from multinational companies to small-scale enterprises are looking for professionals to translate, interpret, localize and globalize their content for all types of customers. In this scenario of growing demand for language services, Agnew Multilingual has been a leader in providing foreign-language translation, interpretation and multicultural communication services.
An Exemplary Approach to Stay Ahead in the Market Distinguishing Agnew from industry competitors is the fact that it is not burdened with layers of bureaucracy. Its team can respond immediately to its clients’ needs. The company keeps its administrative staff lean, but expandable at a moment’s notice. It has carefully assembled a large and diverse talent pool composed of linguists, programmers, narrators, designers, web developers, and video editors to create accurate, on-time and on-budget deliverables for print and digital projects.
Founded in 1986, Agnew provides culturally sensitive and highly effective language solutions to Fortune 500 companies and small businesses alike. It serves companies which are expanding into the emerging markets of the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America. Located in Westlake Village, California, Agnew draws on over 1,500 translators and multilingual talent worldwide. A woman-owned business, Agnew is ISO and WBENC certified, and registered as SBE, WBE and DBE with state and national agencies.
Agnew is a company managed by translators and linguists dedicated to providing the best possible services and solutions based on linguistic skills and technology. The company commits to exceeding its customers’ expectations for translation quality, responsiveness, and professional excellence. It does not limit its service to project delivery but is always watching out for new opportunities for its customers to get the most return on their investment. It strives to pursue new developments in language technology, cultural & international markets, and political & economic conditions that affect its customers’ mission in international business. It also maintains the highest standards of ethical behavior and professional integrity.
A Sophisticated Leader The orchestrator behind Agnew Multilingual is Irene Agnew, the Founder and President. She has more than 30 years of experience in the translation field. Prior to establishing Agnew in 1986, she was a consultant for Bunker Ramo Corporation on machine translation research. She translated Russian radio broadcasts for the U.S. State Department. She was the head translator for Rand Corporation and wrote a monthly column for Science Digest.
Agnew’s language solutions help clients achieve measurable results by reaching out to non-English speaking communities and consumer markets both domestic and international. It serves various industries including aerospace, healthcare, media & entertainment,
Irene’s primary goal is to make sure that clients’ multilingual marketing efforts not only meet but exceed
18
| August | MM 2018 2018
We bring your message to the world. — Irene
Agnew
Founder & President
continuously improving its services. In 2013, Agnew established a dedicated Digital Department to manage the growing number of multimedia projects required by today’s technology-driven business environment. Its expertise in proposals, websites, corporate videos and video games has set a benchmark in the Language service Industry.
advertising & marketing, biotechnology, consumer products, utilities & communications and government. Dynamic Capabilities The top priority at Agnew is to ensure the meeting of its clients’ communication needs in a fast-paced and everchanging environment. Agnew Multilingual provides interpretation for interactive webinars, small meetings, and large conferences with thousands of attendees from across the globe. Its interpreters are selected on the basis of their subject-matter expertise, education and experience. It provides full linguistic, logistic and technical support for all interpretation events, including equipment and professional audio engineers.
Agnew translates hundreds of pages of proposals for international business into Middle Eastern languages for one of the nation’s largest aerospace and defense contractors. It localizes hundreds of web pages with thousands of words into multiple languages along with periodic updates and maintenance. It provides repetition discounts for large scale projects and full-service technical support and staging for worry-free content management. It produces corporate videos with voiceover and/or subtitles with on/off capability for web streaming ranging from 1-minute to 60-minutes for tech companies, biopharma corporations and international manufacturing firms. Apart from these, the company also produces retail trailers and demos into multiple languages with voice-over, animated graphics, international ESRB ratings, UPC codes and packaging using Sony and Microsoft templates. Its clients are among the industry’s largest developers and international distributors of videogames.
Agnew Multilingual’s expertise goes far beyond language translation. The interactive nature of the internet requires a coherent design to address the technical challenges of presentation in other languages and the cultural expectations of the target region. Its video production department delivers superior-quality audio and video production services to help its clients reach their English and non-English speaking customers. Agnew’s ability to provide both translation/trans creation and audio recording or subtitling makes it an ideal choice for discerning clients. Industrial Outreach Agnew is a versatile and forward-thinking translation agency. Since its inception, it has been committed to August 2018 |
19
The
Most Recommended Service Providers 2018
CSOFT International: Harmonizing Language and Technology
e live on a planet with more than 7 billion people who speak more than 7000 languages. Over 50 percent of the population speaks at least 2 languages. But the question remains, how do we communicate with each other when there is a language barrier? One company helping eradicate language barriers while bringing localization and global communications to individuals as well as businesses is CSOFT International.
W
Yee is a recipient of the international Stevie Award for Best Asian Entrepreneur for Women in Business, a Fortune Most Powerful Women award, and was identified by CNN Money as one of Technology’s 36 most powerful disrupters. Throughout her career, she has also been featured in a number of publications, including the Boston Globe, The Economist, Fortune Magazine, and Investor’s Business Daily.
CSOFT International is a leader in language localization and global communications which provides solutions to companies facing challenges in engaging customers and markets because of linguistic and cultural barriers.
A Myriad of Services CSOFT International brings together over 10,000 professional in-country linguists, culture experts, and the latest language technologies to deliver localization solutions to global businesses in IT & telecom, life sciences, automotive, manufacturing, financial services, consumer electronics and more. Few services provided by CSOFT are:
CSOFT leads the localization industry with next generation, supple and on-demand translation technologies and solutions that disrupt legacy translation models. Most recently, they developed the world’s only fully automated human translation solution that can be deployed on all devices. The platform, Stepes, helps clients achieve unrivaled translation speed and scalability, while allowing multinational enterprises to accelerate global business growth and succeed internationally.
·
Technical and Software Localization: CSOFT has a strong technical background due to extensive software development experience across many platforms. It provides end-to-end solutions for software localization including application GUI translation, linguistic testing and cosmetic testing. Powered by professional in-country technical translators, CSOFT provides consistent quality localization for virtually all software applications.
·
eLearning and Training: In today’s globalized economy, businesses must effectively educate their internationally distributed workforces and customers to maximize business success across diverse regions. CSOFT has both the linguistic and engineering expertise to help organizations such as GE, EMC, Google, and others, effectively localize their training materials for global audiences.
·
Medical Translation: MedL10N, which stands for medical localization, is CSOFT’s business unit that offers translations to the life sciences industry and
A Global Leader Shunee Yee is the Founder and CEO of CSOFT International. With over 25 years of experience in the industry, she worked as an executive in Asia Market Development for a major language service provider prior to founding CSOFT. Responsible for its organic growth from a start-up in a two bedroom apartment to an industry leader, Yee oversees CSOFT’s operations across dual headquarters, 16 regional offices, and 3 continents. Led by Yee in June 2016, CSOFT launched the Shenzhen 100 report which utilized hard data and qualitative indicators to create a China Global Maturity Index to assist the Shenzhen Municipal Government in implementing policies to support global market strategies.
20
| August | MM 2018 2018
One World, One Market, and One World, One Team. — Shunee
Yee
Founder & CEO
solutions; the perfect harmony of language and technology. This is the reason behind the name CSOFT: Communications Solutions of Foreign Trade, with the word ‘soft’ affording the implication of technology. As a technology-driven organization, CSOFT has created its own technology suite over the years including tools such as Termwiki, to help with terminology management, and Ubrta, for better management of translation projects.
is also one of the first language service providers to hold ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 13485:2016 quality management system certifications. ·
Global Communications: The GC business unit specializes in creating top-quality content written directly in target languages by a team of native speakers consisting of experts in marketing, journalism, PR, telecommunications, computing, life sciences, and design. By only employing highly-experienced content specialists native to target markets, the global communications team ensures a brand’s message is effectively communicated to all customers around the world.
Accommodation for the Customers CSOFT combines the power of AI and human translations to help customers achieve the highest return on their localization investment. They have simplified much of the workflow into an easy-to-use and 24/7 online model. CSOFT is a world class translation service provider with the experience, track record, breadth of services, and unique just-in-time (JIT) and translation technology. The digital transformation has fundamentally changed customer expectations for speed.
Businesses today demand translations in hours or even minutes versus days and weeks in order to respond to changing market demands quickly. CSOFT’s ability to translate digital content fast and on-demand enables their customers to beat the competition and get ahead faster in the global market. CSOFT believes in improving customer experience by making their services better, simpler, and cost effective.
Lastly, as champions of providing language and globalization solutions, CSOFT people are true global citizens, working from around the world to enable better communications among businesses and their customers and more broadly, to enable better understanding between cultures.
Tackling Initial Struggles and Challenges After establishing the company in 2003, a major challenge was running as a China-operated company and retaining global talent. CSOFT recognized the importance of a strong culture within their people and this unique quality has cultivated a strong corporate culture and identity in the multinational team.
CSOFT has run campaigns such as I Translate, I Transform, created to celebrate the world’s linguists, as well as the #GetSchooled Initiative that used CSOFT’s network in over 170 countries to train and educate about the problems girls face in education. Each day, they break down more and more of the world’s language barriers to realize their longcherished vision, One World, One Market, and One World, One Team.
Shunee always wanted to create a company that used the latest technology to power language communications August 2018 |
21
Speaking Local
L
ocalization is the 4th fastest growing industry in the United States. The concept started back in 1980s when American software enterprises decided to expand globally. Clearly, there was a need for these services to adapt according to the given market and this need contributed in the development of Language Service Industry. The language service industry is growing at an annual rate of 6.46% and is expected to be $45 billion by 2020. It is listed as the most favorable industry to start a business. All these facts raise the question on why the Language service industry is not causing any disruption in the market. The answer is lack of attention. The industry is speciďŹ c to communication but as the demand for global communication is increasing, the popularity of the industry is also growing. In recent studies it was found that 75% of the people preferred their local language while shopping online. There is growth in other aspects as well including the translation in the written material and documents, interpreting and sign language services and digital documentation. Terminologies
•
Glossaries: Glossaries makes sure that the translation is accurate in terms of style and voice from the original text and maintains the quality of translations. For example one word in English language means something else when translated in French.
24
| August 2018
•
Style Guide: It is a standardized pattern writing and formatting documents. It can be for generic use or it can be used specifically for an industry. Style guides bring standardization and consistency to the content.
•
Translation Memory: Translation memory is a set of stored information that is already translated before. In order to perfect the new content, it is compared with the translation memory. This will enhance the accuracy and reduce the cost at the same time.
•
not only generates revenue but helps in trade and the overall development. But lack of communication can reduce the level of satisfaction from the tourists and that is why language service industry is complimentary to tourism industry. Proper translation services like preferred language materials and personals enriches the experience of tourists and also increases the popularity of the country.
•
CAT Tools: The process of translation taking place through CAT tools. This improves the efficiency and the quality of the process. The tool breaks the text into segments and translates them separately and compiles it like the original source.
Importance of Language Services
•
With the MNCs Booming For enterprises that cross the borders or fly overseas to expand their business, language services has become a must have strategy. It becomes convenient for MNCs to run a business using the regional language. Moreover it enables the companies to share and receive information from across the globe from different branches, without any miscommunication. Proper translation of language makes sure everyone is on the same page.
•
External Affairs Nations communicate on various global issues including business, politics, environment, etc. These issues are addressed in various events where the ideas and thoughts are shared among the authorities. However, the language barrier may take the toll on the purpose of the event. This is why the language services are very important for governments. It can be a new economic policy or a global summit in which global leaders express their thoughts.
•
Accuracy in Transfer of Information Language services are the most important instrument for news and broadcasting agencies. These agencies share news and information from across the world and it needs to be translated into local languages. Be it international or regional, effective translation of language helps in order to transfer the news.
•
Travel and Tourism Tourism is one of the major resources for countries as it August 2018 |
Media Content The entertainment industry and the literary society cross the border for business and the content needs to be translated in order to be relatable to the local audience. While the translated and subtitled versions of films are earning tremendously on global platforms, the music industry and the writers are also benefited by the language services.
Language Service Providers Enterprises that are on the verge of expansion need language service strategies in order to establish overseas. But it is not an easy job to set up the team that insures quality and consistency. It is a better option for them to outsource the services from professional services. There are various advantages of hiring a language service provider rather than having in-house team including guaranteed quality, cost efficiency, professionalism, and better services. In conclusion, the journey of this underdog industry has just started. It may have been on the surface up till now but has great potential and a very promising future. However there is huge scope for quality players that are yet to enter the market. The future seems bright because as the globalization and localization is growing, the demand for language services will keep growing and it will come out as an important service for many industries.
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The
Most Recommended Service Providers 2018
Translation and Interpreting Providing Seamless Language Solutions
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hen was the last time you watched a film not in your native language and noticed the subtitles or dubbing didn’t sound right? Or maybe you were trying to follow an instructional manual and the directions didn’t make sense? As the world becomes more connected, localization plays an important role to businesses across a variety of industries and sectors. Localization goes beyond straightforward translation, it ensures that the new content resonates with the intended audience, taking into account culture and dialect. One company who understands this challenge is Capita Translation and Interpreting.
in as little as 15 seconds. LiveLINK covers 170 languages and can be accessed via mobile app, web browser, telephone, or direct integration with customer communication systems. Trailblazer promoting efficiencies through technology Managing Director of Capita TI, Antonio Tejada has over 25 years of experience in the localization industry. He began his career as a translator, with subsequent roles in operations, sales and technology. It is his experience and understanding of technology, and how it can be leveraged within translation, that has impacted Capita TI the most in bringing new developments in both the SmartMATE and LiveLINK product suites to improve the customers’ experience, increase efficiencies and help to deliver sustainable services to them.
Capita Translation and Interpreting, also known as Capita TI, is a leading global language services supplier, with a strong focus on innovation and technology. It is a part of Capita plc, the UK’s leading provider of business process management and integrated professional support service solutions.
Setting itself apart from contemporaries There are two key factors that set Capita TI apart from the competition:
Delivering Extraordinary Services Capita TI provides translation and interpreting services to commercial and public sector customers via 2 technology platforms, namely SmartMATE, a translation, automation and workflow integration platform, and LiveLINK, a remote interpreting platform.
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Its capacity to integrate the best people in the industry with cutting-edge technology, to deliver an innovative and customised language ecosystem. Capita TI’s technology focuses around translation technology and remote interpreting. Ÿ Its reliability as a corporate partner, based on the strong foundations and governance that comes with being part of Capita plc and the understanding of the requirements of large corporations.
SmartMATE provides customers with instant and secure access to all technology products at their fingertips. From one central place, customers can request a translation or interpreting project, download reports, track and retrieve projects and view historical information. CMS connectors allow users of WordPress, Magento and Drupal to send content for translation within their CMS dashboard, removing the need for copying and pasting or downloading content.
A Passage through Time Acquired in 2011 by the Capita group, the company has undergone many changes and improvements in the past 7 years. Initially, it was highly dependent on a large interpreting contract with the Ministry of Justice in the UK, but now the business has transformed towards a highly
LiveLINK is a voice and video remote interpreting platform which allows customers to reach an experienced interpreter
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Our mission is to combine innovative people, process and technology, to enable our clients to communicate with anyone, anywhere. — Antonio
Tejada
Managing Director
innovative technology-based language service provider, with a balanced service offering in translation and interpreting.
Capita TI has adopted a 6-step process for audio-visual localization, ensuring that all these components and teams work together for a cost-effective project. The steps are:
In late 2016, Capita TI also re-focused their interpreting and public sector services, deciding not to re-bid for the Ministry of Justice interpreting contract, following a strategic decision to focus on developing the contracts with other public sector customers and further developing remote interpreting offering with the launch of LiveLINK.
Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ
Prepare a brief Confirm and sign-off script Use high-quality audio Synchronizing script, voiceover, subtitles and animations Ÿ Select preferred voiceover artist Ÿ Quality assurance check
In 2016 and 2017, Capita TI acquired 2 niche translation providers, including ITR, which focused on software and elearning localization, and amity communications, highly geared towards financial and legal content, which involved integration and optimization of systems, processes, customers and suppliers.
Reflecting on the evolution of the Language Service Industry over the Years According to Capita TI, translation and interpreting have become more of a basic requirement for businesses. The need for speed has increased, whilst still maintaining a high-quality output and meeting budget expectations. Hence, automation is vital in addressing this need and bringing efficiencies, allowing customers to respond to market demands in different languages through automation of tasks including file processing, linguist assignment and quality controls.
Withstanding the demands of Audio, Video and Multimedia Localization Capita TI firmly believes that as a society, we are living in an increasingly visual world, reliant on multimedia. Clients use video and audio to connect with their employees, partners and potential clients, and as such, the demand for high-quality audio-visual localization grows.
What’s more, the company also believes that machine translation has developed in recent years. What started as software translating simple and short phrases has advanced to custom-built, sector-specific translation engines with huge translation memories, delivering cost reductions of up to 30%.
In audio-visual localization projects, there are so many variations to consider, such as translation of the script, cultural nuances, voice-over artist talent, matching the speed of the target language speech to the source and the list goes on. And if any of these components don’t go according to plan, it impacts the entire project. Therefore, August 2018 |
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The
Most Recommended Service Providers 2018
Cloudbreak : Humanizing Health Care
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edicine as a field does not just treat illnesses, it treats human beings. However, complications can arise that get in the way of quality care. That is where Cloudbreak Health comes in.
agnostic strategy which allows interoperability across many of the mission-critical systems used in hospitals. Before Cloudbreak, hospitals and medical centers found it difficult to staff interpreters because it was impossible to accurately predict the demand for the service on any given day. Cloudbreak pioneered a model which allowed these institutions to subscribe to a monthly minute package to meet the staffing demand curve of their clients. This dedication to quality has been the hallmark of Cloudbreak’s service.
Cloudbreak Health is a leading telemedicine platform that specializes in providing assistance to non-English speakers, deaf patients, and patients with mental impairment. Cloudbreak Health is unifying telemedicine, making it easy to access multiple specialities with at push of a button. About Cloudbreak Cloudbreak Health is headquartered in Columbus, OH and on a mission to #HumanizeHealthcare. They deliver on that mission by resolving healthcare disparities with their unified telemedicine platform which includes Cloudbreak Connect (their private broadband network optimized for telehealth), Cloudbreak Catalyst (a fully private-labeled software solution, video contact center and workflow engine) and Cloudbreak Collective (a marketplace of healthcare services that breaks down silos between healthcare facilities, allowing them to collaborate seamlessly).
Due to connectivity challenges for video over the open internet, they implemented a strategy to connect to partners over their own private broadband path allowing the Company to provide more secure connections that ensured higher quality video. While more expensive, this strategy provided a more direct path between Cloudbreak and its clients as well as the deployment of Quality of Service (QoS) on its network and insulation from changes in Net Neutrality moving forward. Behind Cloudbreak Jamey Edwards is a Co-Founder & CEO of Cloudbreak, a leading Telemedicine and Language Services company currently performing over 90,000 encounters in more than 800 healthcare organizations nationwide.
Their Martti (My Accessible Real-Time Trusted Interpreter) service line pioneered the video medical interpreting industry. It currently performs over 90,000 consults per month at over 800 hospitals nationwide, building trust through communication between healthcare providers and their Limited English Proficient and Deaf patients.
Prior to Cloudbreak, Jamey was the CEO of Emergent Medical Associates (EMA) and led its growth into the leading multi-specialty group in the Southwest US. He remains with EMA as a Board Member and is also a Board Member of the Santa Monica chapter of the American Red Cross, Partners in Care (a healthcare think tank innovating solutions for the underserved), and Run to Remember (a charity honoring first responders who have died in the line of duty).
Overcoming Initial Challenges The Cloudbreak brand was established in 2015. However, the company is an industry pioneer which was originally founded as The Language Access Network in 2003 by Andy Panos. At that time, the technology to deliver the platform was very expensive and a single cart cost more than $25,000.
He is also a member of the Santa Monica Bay chapter of the Young Presidents Organization. Jamey has been an Honoree for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award three times and twice an Honoree of the Los Angeles Business Journal Healthcare Leadership Awards. Under his
As the industry evolved, technology costs decreased significantly. The Martti platform is now available on a multitude of devices, including any PC, iOS or Android device. In addition, Cloudbreak has pursued a device-
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Our mission is to humanize healthcare by leveraging technology to break down language barriers, provide access to multiple medical specialties, and build trusted communication and relationships between patients and providers.
— Jamey Edwards
CEO & Co-Founder
speaking counterparts, the Company realized that its video endpoints and expertise could be deployed to help its partner hospitals with their broader telemedicine strategies and bring skilled specialists to underserved communities.
guidance, Cloudbreak has been recognized as a MedTech Breakthrough Award Winner, a Patrick Soon Shiong Innovation Award Winner and as one of the top entrepreneurial companies in the country by Entrepreneur Magazine.
The X-Factor Cloudbreak offers its partners single vendor simplicity, customized workflows and a fully private-labeled solution spanning multiple telemedicine specialties. This is complemented by the integration of its live video medical interpretation services for Limited English Proficient and Deaf and Hard of Hearing patients.
Jamey was also recognized as one of the Top 40 Healthcare Transformers nationwide by MM&M and as a Healthcare Transformer by Startup Health for actively addressing the Cost to Zero and Increasing Access to Care moonshots. He is a proud member of the #PinkSocks Tribe of healthcare innovators who are working to disrupt healthcare from the ground up and drive positive change for patients and providers.
The company pioneered Video Medical Interpreting and has grown rapidly as a result of its focus on quality and customer service. All of the company’s video interpreters are based in the United States in HIPAA-compliant language centers and are all Certified Medical Interpreters or on the path to certification within 6 months of employment.
Jamey received his MBA from Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management. Solving Healthcare Disparities With its core Martti platform, Cloudbreak is an end-to-end services partner that can fulfill all its clients’ language needs from outsourcing their departments, to taking advantage of their expertise and network effects, to selecting services from Cloudbreak’s offerings based on a client’s specific requirements.
Cloudbreak also offers unified reporting services that allow a hospital to gain a full perspective on their language services departments, with interactive dashboards giving them the insights they need to optimize the management of these departments to drive better compliance and patient satisfaction across vendors.
The company offers healthcare providers a full suite of services including video medical interpreting (VMI), over phone interpretation (OPI), document translation, on-site interpretation, language access plan development, education, training and other consulting services that optimize and drive ROI on their language services department.
Making a Global Mark Cloudbreak has experienced dramatic growth over the last few years and their rate of growth is accelerating. The demand for their services will only increase as the country shifts to a Majority-Minority population, a change which is happening faster than expected.
Cloudbreak has been regularly recognized for its leadership and commitment to excellence while its interpreters serve as subject matter experts for national certification exams.
As the country’s patient population increases in diversity and the technology costs continue to drop, Cloudbreak expects to see even more rapid adoption of their services.
While initially targeting to ensure a level standard of care for non-english speaking and deaf patients vs. their English August 2018 |
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Maestros Insights About the Author Mr. Jay Klein drives Voyager Lab’s technology strategy and core intellectual property. He brings more than 25 years of experience in data analytics, networking and telecommunications to the Company. Before joining Voyager Labs, he served as CTO at Allot Communications where he steered Allot’s data inspection and analytics core technology offerings, and as VP Strategic Business Development at DSPG, where he was responsible for strategic technology acquisitions. He also co-founded and held the CTO position at Ensemble Communications while founding and creating WiMAX and IEEE 802.16. He also served as the CTO and VP of R&D at CTP Systems, acquired rst by DSP Communications and later by Intel. Jay Klein holds a BSc in Electronics & Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University as well as numerous patents in various technology elds.
AI: Artificial From
to Authentic
W
ith so much attention focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI), it’s worth remembering that one size does not fit all. There are specific business-related pain points in mind when a company decides to deploy AI technology, so making the right choices can be a tricky task.
Gauging AI success in one field in many cases can be meaningless for another. To make things worse, even when trying to go deeper into the technology and attempting to evaluate, for example, which Machine Learning algorithms are utilized by the product, or what are the number of layers in the Deep Neural Network models mentioned by specific vendors, in the end it will be possibly pointless as it does not directly reflect the solution deployment ‘success’ implications.
For example, several months ago, an AI related breakthrough was announced – a robot learned and demonstrated the ability to perform a perfect backflip. While it is well acknowledged that the invested research and development for this mission was huge and the commercial potential for some applications is enormous, it is somewhat unclear how this specific innovation or the core models and algorithms of it, can serve other industries and verticals. Herein lies the problem.
Nevertheless, it seems that the market ignores this reality and continues to evaluate AI-based products by buzzword checklists using familiar and related AI terminology (e.g.,
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Supervised, Unsupervised, Deep Learning etc.). While checklists are an effective tool for comparative analysis it still requires the ‘right’ items to be included. Unfortunately, what typically is absent are the items which are important to the customer, from a problem-solution perspective.
While there is no need to re-invent the wheel repetitively for any problem, there are distinctive characteristics which require optimizing. Holistic – How complete is the proposed AI technology? It takes into account the capability of handling the end-to-end aspects of the solution, the competence of harmonizing the operation of the various AI components of the solution and the ability to adapt to ever changing conditions of the AI application.
Introducing Authentic AI Given all of this, there is a need to change the narrative around AI technology and solutions to something meaningful and authentic that reflects the real-life challenges and opportunities that businesses are facing. This is the time to introduce Authentic AI.
Pragmatic – Can the technology solve real world problems in their actual and natural space in a commercially viable way? This means that for example the data sources can be processed in their most native format (both unstructured or structured) as well as provide insights or results matching the pragmatic needs of the specific market expectations. In addition, the ability to be quickly deployed and rapid to act are assessed.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘Authentic’ as both ‘worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact’ and ‘conforming to an original so as to reproduce essential features’. This is not about ‘Fake’ to be contrasted with ‘Real’. It’s about the essential features of AI which need to be acknowledged, and hence, redefine the ‘checklist’. Often, these essential ‘authentic’ features are hidden and only surface when a CIO/CDO is faced with a new problem to be solved. This is seen especially when the AI aspects of a proposed product or solution are fully explored by asking questions such as:
All of these elements should be used to systematically assess and evaluate AI-based products and solutions to assess their authenticity and therefore effectiveness in specific use cases. For example, many home-loan mortgage evaluation and recommendation systems utilize a somewhat isolated machine learning based applicant classification method, one of many other processes included within the solution. The AI in this solution cannot be considered Authentic AI to a high degree as it ‘scores’ low on the ‘Original’ and ‘Holistic’ classes as it isn’t innovative ‘enough’ (from an AI sense). In addition, the AI component itself does not cover on its own the end-to-end aspects of the solution (hence affecting the overall performance and precision). It could be considered to be ‘Pragmatic’ to some level if it can handle the required data sources of financial institutions or the customer applications natively, and if the solution ‘output’ are the explicit results required as a specific recommendation (e.g., loan conditions). However, the deployment timeline (time-to-market) and commercial aspects need to be evaluated as well. This is just one example of many others, covering all kinds of variations.
- Is the AI technology utilized by the product aimed specifically for my problem, optimally (e.g., performance, cost, etc.)? - Is it capable of addressing the complete problem or only a part of it? - Can it be assimilated into the existing ecosystem without imposing new demands? - Can it address the compelling environmental conditions of the problem space?
These issues can be grouped into three different ‘classes’ ‘Original’, ‘Holistic’ and ‘Pragmatic’: Original – How innovative is the solution? This can be quantified by assessing the following: - the invention of new algorithms or even new models and - the use of complex orchestration techniques or - through the capability to handle complex data formats and structures.
August 2018 |
Perfect backflips may grant you a gold medal if you are a gymnast but if you are a master chess player don’t expect a winning move.
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The
Most Recommended Service Providers 2018
Pangea Translation Services:
Gaming and Trading Specialists with High-Quality, Professional Translators
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have the experience and knowledge to translate various kinds of content ranging from articles, mailers, manuals, legal documents and platforms. They ensure that correct terminology is used, especially in sensitive industries such as the legal sector so that the original context is maintained. Currently, Pangea is offering localization services in over 50 languages. Its objective is to help businesses reach new markets worldwide by delivering impactful content in these competitive markets.
he language service industry is increasingly being supported by different technologies. There are companies that consider this as undesirable but some experts believe it is an exciting time to be at the forefront of this revolution. Language service providers are deploying modern technology to core language operations such as spellcheck and eliminating grammatical errors. This has allowed expert translators to leave basic language operations to the machine and focus on their core objective of recreating/translating the essence of the original document. Due to the inclusion of modern technology, businesses have achieved higher productivity and efďŹ ciency in many cases. A company that is helping clients achieve such results is Pangea Translation Services. Located in Cyprus, this ďŹ rm has adopted modern and up to date technology in the industry in order to stay ahead of the curve.
A Passionate Leader Michal Shinitzky is the Managing Director at Pangea Translation Services. She has over twenty years of experience in localization, software development and linguistics. Throughout her career, Michal combined her technical knowledge, linguistic curiosity and passion which helped her play an important role in managing the localization departments of several prestigious companies. In 2015, Michal decided to expand her horizons and explore different options which led to her experiencing many challenges. She then established Pangea Translation Services and today, she is bringing additional expertise to the language industry with her passion and experience.
As a Translation and Localization company, Pangea focuses on delivering high-quality end product, professional service and fast turnaround. It specializes in a variety of sectors including online trading (Forex, Cryptocurrency, Binary), iGaming (Casino, Sports Betting, Lottery, Bingo) and video games (mobile, social, PCs/consoles). Real estate and tourism are two new sectors they are testing at the moment and they are recruiting the linguists needed to offer a high quality specialized result. The professional linguists at Pangea
A Cutting-Edge Translation Service The company’s project management services are catered to client needs. Some of its clients request for more tech-
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There’s no fun if the whole journey is a smooth and simple ride. — Michal
Shinitzky
Managing Director
delegates the right staff members who can support Pangea to achieve its missions and conquer the next milestone.
based support or for localization consultancy and Pangea’s project management team can deliver just that. Apart from this, the project managers identify the needs of each client and propose additional services such as copywriting or localized graphic design. This way, it reassures the clients that Pangea is aware of their marketing needs too.
Future Expansion The Pangea team expresses that their journey has been an interesting and surprising one so far. They find every experience to be filled with positive and refreshing vibes. The bright side of working for Pangea is the challenge present in every new project. About its future, although the company hasn’t delved too deeply into translations for multimedia experiences, it is dipping its toes into the water by offering subtitling services. As the director of the company, Michal says, “We are keen on looking further into audio, video and multimedia localization services in the near future.”
Although the company is rapidly growing as a fast-paced company, it still manages to nurture a close relationship between its project managers and clients. It embeds strict quality checks as part of the entire package and takes pride in achieving thoroughness and accuracy as a standard practice. Over the years, the company has learned to balance quality and speed to meet client expectations. Sometimes, it uses cutting-edge translation technology to achieve the best results. The company only uses technology to a certain extent with translation management systems and translation memory, ensuring that all human jobs such as the actual translations are performed by linguist experts. To undertake these detailed operations, Pangea divides its translators into teams based on industry expertise. For instance, it never offers a chance for a financial writer to translate a piece on gaming. Nowadays, Pangea has the capability to offer quality and fast turnaround services to its clients. It also recruits and August 2018 |
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Virtualizing Business
Providing a New Outlook to Traditional Businesses 36
| August 2018
V
R is a way to escape the real world into something more fantastic. It has the potential to be the most social technology of all time. — Palmer Luckey Virtual reality (VR) has been around for many years now, in spite of this it is a very underdeveloped technology. It holds a vast potential outside of entertainment, it has taken over various aspects of our lives right from the way we shop, experience, converse and even ways to conduct business. With time this technology has gained popularity with many powerhouses, which has encouraged them to invest profoundly in VR technology. It has become more and more accessible for users, with manufacturers having already released household sets and are continuing to do so. The recent advancement in the VR technology has made it more accessible for the general public. Due to this, it has had a remarkable impact on the business world also. The sole aim of the technology is to change human perception using virtual systems. The adoption of VR by users is still in its nascent stages and has gained popularity, and more and more businesses are coming up with VR based solutions. The reducing prices of VR headsets have also posed to be an advantage for the consumers as well. It has also posed to be an advantage for the consumers as well, with the reducing prices of VR headsets. This has proved that VR is a tough and emergent market, with great scope for platforms which can allow businesses to leverage VR for process development and advanced marketing.
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Businesses are Using VR to their Benefit VR has the potential to become the most important tool that businesses can leverage to add on to their success. Established businesses are taking the help of VR to train their new employees in a more cost-effective and efficient way. With the help of VR, one can have an employee in Los Angeles meeting with the one in London as if they were/ are in the same room. VR offers an added advantage when it comes to the outward focus of the businesses; it allows a novel way to connect with customers. The company can build up a more story driven way of marketing which draws people into the company's brand, in a tangible and relational way. Virtual reality has potentially transformed the world of media. It has opened doors for businesses; to advertise in a way they had never imagined before. Consumers are now equipped with the ability to test out and experience products, that they intend to purchase, in an entirely new way. It allows you to precisely visualize how a piece of furniture or painting would look in a particular room, or even test different makeup styles without leaving the room. A structured assessment, planning of the future of businesses, and with the right data VR can even give a valuable insight into the success of the business. VR is now being used to simplify and reduce the cost of the process of product prototyping. Since VR has made it very cost-effective for businesses to design a product or an intricate component of an outsized machine virtually than actually build
the prototype, the use of VR in this sector is likely to develop quickly. VR and AR have also advanced the area of Computer-Aided Design (CAD). Prototypes can now be shaped within the virtual space, allowing designers to accurately pin down its working way before the resources to build the product are acquired. This has eased the process of testing the product while saving both money and time. The major setback that the e-commerce industry faces is the sales; customers are reluctant to buy products that they haven’t tried. With the help of VR, the consumers can potentially try out and visualize demonstrations for various product categories. Allowing a more clear vision of how their post-purchase experience will look like. Novel business opportunities There are as many applications for VR as you can think of; it’s restricted by your imagination. — John Goddard. Virtual Reality has numerous businesses perspective; not just by providing innovative features to the business products, but also in helping innovators create novel businesses with these technologies at the core. Just like old-fashioned cafes, VR cafes would soon be a hit. These places will be a social gateway for people looking for augmented and virtually enhanced experiences. VR cafes would offer choices on diverse virtual reality equipment, comprising of games, videotapes, team-building exercises, social media practices, 3D books and content experiences, and virtually enriched meditation. In real estate markets, VR platforms
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permit house tours to people from anyplace around the globe. People can design and even paint their homes with this technology as they would in real life setting, to provide an outlook into the future look of their homes. Cars like Audi R8 offers a VRpowered “test drive” experience. Similarly, even Airbus has introduced aircraft tours for its airline executives, which allows them an enriched experience and tour of the aircraft without actually visiting it. The Future Looks Promising As VR and AR carry on development, more and more knowledge about how it can be efficiently incorporated into the businesses has come to light, this amalgamation of new with the old will potentially have a huge positive impact on every sector. New entrepreneurs, startups, and businesses should surely keep an eye out for this technology, as it has become an integral part of marketing and businesses processes in the near future. Bearing in mind how several industries and businesses are quickly validating and accepting virtual reality, the estimate is that it will take over the business scenario almost completely, isn’t bloated by any means.
| August 2018
The
Most Recommended Service Providers 2018
Protrans :
Reforming Language Services with Distinctive Solutions
I
nternational communications have become a vital part of the business world. This global reach is achieved through effective comprehension of various languages. Language is one of the most complex yet most important medium to maintain clear communication and data transmission. To give simplicity to language and its understanding, Professional Translators & Transcribers, Inc., (dba Protrans) has come up with its cutting-edge solution. Protrans is a private corporation which provides federal, state and local law enforcement with Analytic Linguists. These are elite language experts who work alongside the law to investigate crimes.
creating Translation Skills Training™ (TST) in 2014. Along the way, in addition to providing expert language services, she has also won prestigious awards and recognitions, inspired her staff and transformed lives all along the way. A dedicated CEO who never considered herself as the boss, counted herself as more of an employee, to maintain discipline at work. She began by providing her services to the California Department of Corrections, then to the Los Angeles Police Department, and eventually to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). While at the DEA, the need for elite language experts like her grew exponentially, and Ms. Rojas was asked by them to train more language experts to do the even more specialized levels of work she was doing for the DEA.
Protrans occupies a specialized niche that other Language for Specific Purposes (LSPs) entities do not provide. Protrans is dedicated almost exclusively to providing expert language services in support of law enforcement. It screens, trains, assesses and certifies its Analytic Linguists through Translation Skills Training’s™ (TST’s) program, administered in partnership with Montclair State University (MSU).
Exemplifying Language Solutions Protrans has grown because Ms. Rojas committed herself to develop the company’s operations alongside maintaining harmony with the changes in the general work environments in the linguistics industry. Being au fait with relevant emerging technologies alone is not enough. Protrans always aims to have a personal touch and never let the computers do the work.
In addition, Protrans sponsors applicants in the process of obtaining security clearance once they are accepted into TST’s training program. Since Protrans is a sole proprietorship, it has no bureaucracy, making it able to adapt to change of all kinds and respond quickly to satisfy the needs of clients. Aboard a Global Voyage
This personal touch extends to Ms. Rojas’ spinoff company, Translation Skills Training™ (TST) which is exclusively dedicated to screening, training, assessing and certifying Professional Analytic Linguists.
The CEO of Protrans, Elena G. Rojas, founded Professional Translators and Transcribers, Inc. (dba Protrans), in 1972. Since its inception, she has been the sole and continuous owner, expanding its operations and
Protrans provides Analytic Linguists to a variety of federal, state and local agencies and private entities, offering language services in various languages, to interpret or translate from one language into another, to
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Protrans will always have a personal touch, never allowing only the computers to do all the work. — Elena
G. Rojas
Founder and CEO
that specifically addressed the skills sets needed by Analytic Linguists. This training requires technologies for delivering instruction and assessment efficiently, while maintaining high standards. This twin challenge offered opportunities and Ms. Rojas sought experts of various kinds to develop an in-house curriculum. The demand continued to grow until it was too great to handle under one roof and that became the stimulus for Ms. Rojas’s creation of Translation Skills Training™ (TST).
monitor oral communication intercepts in foreign languages, summarizing them in English, as well as transcribing verbatim oral communication intercepts in the source language for subsequent translation into English. Exertion to Stand Tall The most prominent changes in the language service industry have resulted from technology. Technological innovations have and will continue to impact all types of LSPs in many ways. Word processing and email have enabled LSPs and freelancers to work remotely, freeing everyone from even the most severe geographical restrictions.
Envisioning Glory Protrans and TST are ceaselessly delivering their respective cutting-edge services, and in so, defining the future of their industries, and are committed to remaining so. Whether in terms of developing and continually improving its intuitive, effective website interactions with clients in need of language experts on the one hand, or, on the other, delivering online learning, Protrans and TST are already ahead of the curve due to the specialized nature of each of their activities.
The internet and access to vast amounts of lexical data and information have empowered the LSPs and language experts to harness these tools and work smarter. Some LSPs and freelancers have advanced in ComputerAssisted-Translation (or Machine-Assisted Translation) which is known as CAT/MAT software that has increased output and earnings. Similar to the case with literary works, the idiosyncratic nature of the spoken language of various groups and types, especially the colloquial, cannot be translated by automated means. This reality highlights the fact that skilled language experts need to be trained further in order to work as Analytic Linguists. The challenges involved knowing what was needed from a pedagogical perspective in order to develop training August 2018 |
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The
Most Recommended Service Providers 2018
Traducta:
Assisting Professionals with Multilingual Translation Services
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knowledge in language translation inspired Yves to initiate his own translation firm.
n the present business world, multilingual translation services are extremely important if one is observing opportunities in the international market. To reach the global market, organizations need to constantly communicate with clients from all over the world and make effective interactions. One of the prominent requirements of doing business nowadays is a strong online presence. The official website is the face of a business to the world and while it targets a wider spectrum of audience, it needs to be translated and localized into preferred languages.
Therefore, in early 1978 Yves founded Traducta a Multilingual Translation Services Company which majorly focuses on translation solutions for business professionals. Yves manages the whole business and contributes to the continued success of the company. He’s also actively involved in the company’s Quality Assurance processes. Consistently Delivering Quality
Traducta excels at delivering professional translation services offers industry-specific business translation services to support fields as diverse as Retail, Healthcare and Pharmaceutical, Real Estate, Human Resources, Marketing, Consumer Electronics, and many others. The company’s value-added services are Desktop Publishing, Terminology Management and on-demand Over-thePhone and Video Remote Interpreting (OPI and VRI). It delivers consistent quality in any language, any subject matter and any format an organization may require.
Traducta is celebrating 40 years in business, making it one of the oldest Translation Companies in North America. It aims to consistently deliver quality, regardless the complexity of projects. The company has standard processes and unified tools, along with an expert team which guarantees its customer to get best value and quality. Traducta offers many unified services including Multilingual Translation Services, which covers Document Translation, Adaptive Translation, and Professional Interpreting. The company also offers leading Language Review Services which consist of three types of revisions, namely Unilingual Revisions, Multilingual Revisions, and Third Party Revisions. Traducta also delivers Language Process Consulting Services to its clients to ensure their entire languagerelated workflow.
The Architect of Traducta Yves Desjardins is the Founder and CEO of Traducta. He did his graduation from the University of Montreal with a Specialized Degree in Translation in 1976. Yves acquired solid experience in translation as an employee of large International Corporations such as Merck Sharp & Dohme, Stelco Canada, RCA Canada, and IBM Canada. The wealth of experience and unified
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Leading Translation Services for Professionals. — Yves
Desjardins Founder & CEO
Developing a Network of Translators
Yves states that “Traducta has been providing professional multilingual translation services for 40 years into over 150 languages. The most popular translation services we provide in North America are English to Spanish, English to French and English to German, close to English to Portuguese.”
Globalization and the rise of the Internet have had a significant impact on the language industry. More content is created every day, and businesses need to communicate in more than one language to stay competitive.
Improving Customer Experience Traducta is also focused on this primary reason to develop a compact network of translators to cover practically all language combinations. The company is consequently working on translation services more effectively to enhance business communication.
Traducta is providing its customers using functionality with the help of unified Customer Portal. It enables them to securely submit their documents, track their status and retrieve final versions 24/7. The company also offers services to connect a user with a professional interpreter over the phone or via video call in any language. The whole process works within 30 seconds through an app installed on their smartphone.
Traducta in its Future Proceedings Over the last years, Traducta has developed processes and tools to help its customers with audio, video, and multimedia localization requirements. The company has developed some projects including National TV Campaigns, Radio Spots, E-Learning Materials, Microsites, and Social Media Content, etc. Traducta is also established in handling any file format virtually and delivering publishing-ready content in any language.
Changing Industry Scenario Over the years, Traducta has reinvented itself several times to adapt to the changing prospect of the industry. Back in 1978, the firm received documents by courier, which were translated on typewriters using carbon copies. In the 1990’s, the company was revolutionized with computers and text processing. At present, the company’s production capacity enables it to turn around large quantities of text in the same day, while ensuring the same quality.
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Tech Evolution
Dave Gullo Co-founder & CTO VideoAmp
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How VideoAmp Evolved the Company Culture and Process to Increase the Number of Engineers Employed
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ideoAmp turns 4 years old this month. So many memories, and so much growth. Let’s reflect on some of the worst decisions and associated learnings that have been fundamental to our growth. Why the worst you say? Because when you accelerate your learning rate in a fail-fast environment, it then allows you to make fast decisions vs the analysis paralysis predicament. Ref lection One of my favorite wildcard interview questions for managers is: “Describe the failure you’re most proud of.” This sometimes catches people off guard, so I’ll share mine first to get the conversation going. Inevitably it comes down to choosing because there are so many.
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“Promoting out of hand” is another variation of this where you don’t put someone through the normal due diligence because they already present. In our case, individual contributor (IC) engineers don’t go through the rigorous reference checks that new managers do.
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“Hiring under duress” or lowering your bar simply to meet headcount goals. I strongly advise to hire fewer “full-full stack” senior engineers vs a bunch of junior or mid-level career developers who require more time, nurturing and precious attention units from your senior staff.
Process You can’t talk about growth and success without talking about these failures. Unless you’re some kind of hybrid AIrobot-space-alien who’s absolutely perfect, there’s going to be mistakes. What’s important is that as a leader you own your mistakes and be transparent about them.
This is a moving target, and one which has definitely been an ongoing series of blogs. In the early stage, we “over prescribed scrum.” Something that a very early stage company can do, along with too much agile processes too soon.
Hiring For example, prototypes and proof of concepts should not have a rigorous definition of done, with endless unit, functional, and end-to-end tests because the product’s requirements will probably zig-zag wildly.
Finding the right people is the single most important aspect of growing a startup. The biggest mistakes in hiring have been: Ÿ
“Hiring out of hand” or short cutting the normal processes because the candidate is well known by other engineers in the group. August 2018 |
Conversely, having too little process when you are supporting enterprise customers can also be a problem. I spent my prior days as an IC and
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contractor retrofitting and scaling CI/CD pipelines and training engineers how to write better tests.
When doing initial contact with a candidate, I often ask “why are you in market?” I have seen countless folks who are looking because their current management does not have their growth and career pathing in mind. In extreme cases, they can do a day’s work in four hours, feel like they are under-challenged, and have not learned anything in years. They work in an environment like the movie Office Space.
The challenge is right-sizing this all along the way, and the trigger points on when to change may not be obvious. I say this because we grew headcount by 22 engineers from Oct 2017 to Feb 2018, and in the process we did not modify our simplified Kanban approach to a prescribed Scrum process quickly enough. Growing pains emerged, to say the least. Now we’re in a spot where we can withstand a magnitude scale of growth with roughly the same squad and tribe-level process.
Taking an opposite approach is to engage in the growth and pathing of every individual. We do this by:
Riffing off rapid growth of Brains in engineering, we didn’t scale management fast enough. Almost all startup engineering orgs start very flat, with all ICs and no management. You have “tech leads” who may split their time doing light managerial functions, but they all write code and dive into the operations.
Aligning the growth of the individual with the company’s growth. Ÿ Having management check in frequently on the success of this, and Ÿ Setting up formal quarterly check-ins on measuring these goals. Google adopted this early on from John Doerr in the form of OKRs, and there are great platforms out there which can formally measure and track these objectives.
The biggest fail here in scaling the ICs was not scaling the org and management structure to follow. At ~44 engineers and data scientists, we have a duty to deliver on our mission to provide an environment where they have the opportunity to do the best work of their lives and be worth more in the marketplace.
Career pathing is a longer-term concern. I ask candidates from the start “so what’s the next job after VideoAmp?” This often catches them off guard, then after careful thought most reply with a role 1-2 levels beyond where they’re at now. It’s our goal to help steer them in whatever path they currently see.
Without this vital management structure, there is a vacuum. Do not bolt this on later, build it as you go. We took inspiration from Spotify’s model of engineering organizational scaling.
Many earlier-career engineers think management is their ultimate path, but I have found that many will stay on a tract of engineering excellence. Whether it’s a Principal Engineer or a VP of Engineering, the goal is to orient the new challenges in a manner which grows them in that direction, even if we can’t fully realize their ultimate pathing goal while at the company.
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Management
Growth & Career Pathing We’ve talked about all of these fails, how about something that has worked well for us?
By paying careful attention to these details, we have found our annual retention rate in the high 90%.
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