#5166 tcworld 2-06 - Technical Communication · magazine for international information management news challenge collaboration solutions business culture community directory 70906

magazine for international information management newschallengecollaborationsolutionsbusiness culturecommunity directory

70906

March/April 2006

Localizing smartCommunicating globally – branding locally

Negotiating in IndiaConducting business meetings and negotiations

Communicating around the globeHow call center agents manage cross cultural customer service

3MARCH 2006

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In collaboration withLocal global GmbHHans Gäng

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editorial

Let’s face it: Globalization is reality.

The rapid technical development of mass media has collapsed space and time barriers in human com-munication, turning the world into a global village. But while making the world smaller, globalization offers enormous opportunities for companies to become bigger. How skills of globalization, inter-nationalization, localization and translation are implemented, can determine a company’s success in the upcoming decade. Communica-tion and information management play a key role in this development. However, globalization also bares many risks, which companies should be well aware of. tcworld will help you jumping on the bandwagon of these new devel-opments. Cultural challenges are discussed among the economical chances of new markets.tcworld portrays companies and managers who are successfully fac-ing the new challenge (see p.10). It documents the process of interna-tionalization, from a company’s first steps into a new culture to success-ful around-the-globe information management (see p.14). Communi-cating effectively not only within the

company but also with customers of different cultural backgrounds is a major topic of the collaboration chapter (see p.16).tcworld delivers news about global players and technological innova-tions as well as trends of inter-nationalization, localization and translation (see p.6).Futhermore tcworld publishes company’s best practices suitable to benefit others (see p.19).For upcoming events relevant to the readers of tc world see the com-munity chapter (p.29)Your opinion about tcworld is important to us. Please write your thoughts, critics, compliments and suggestions to [email protected]

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TC_WORLD_1_03_2006_en.indd 1 22.02.2006 11:31:29 Uhr

5MARCH 2006

content

Localizing smartTo be successful global brands have to adjust to local markets. The car manufacturer smart shows how such strategies can be implemented.page 10

Negotiating in IndiaIntensive communication, a solid foundation of trust and a strong interest in the business partner are key factors to long term business success in India. page 26

Cross Cultural Customer ServiceCall center agents in India and the Philippines get trained to speak with an American accent and be prepared to chitchat. But should a call center agent pretend to be someone he is not?page 16

news

6 SDL releases first combined product SDL Trados 2006

7 California State University offers Localization Certification Program

8 Endangered Languages

9 SAP strggles with strong fluctuation in India

9 Symbio’s Beijing Development Centers grow 500 % in three years

challenge

10 Localizing smart

11 Cult in many languages

13 Brand communication in Japan

Interview with Ulrich Walker

collaboration

14 Information architecture as strategic advantage Siemens Medical Solutions

16 Cross cultural customer service and translation

solutions

19 Simplified English – New application fields cognitas

21 U.S product liability GFT

22 The impact of words on business Word Map Translation

23 Integrating Localization into the software development process Across Systems

14 LTC organizer connects databases LTC

business culture

26 Negotiating in India

community

29 tc world calendar

30 Hannover Messe 2006

32 directory

3 editorial imprint

6 MARCH 2006

news

TRANSLATING PRESCRIPTION LABELS CAN SAVE LIVES

According to a study published

by Meharry Medical College in the

Journal of Health Care for the Poor

and Underserved appropriate lan-

guage prescription labels could

eliminate some of the medical er-

rors responsible for 98,000 deaths

each year in the United States. The

study found, that pharmacies usu-

ally relied on computer translation,

but rarely had an employee who

could check the accuracy of the

translations and correct errors.

CHINA REPORTS LACK OF PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATORS

Despite the growing popularity of

foreign language study through-

out all age groups, China still suf-

fers from a major lack of competent

translators and interpreters, the

news site Xinhuanet reported. The

industry employs around 500,000

people, including retirees, col-

lege students and returnees from

overseas universities who work as

freelancers, but only 60,000 profes-

sional translators can produce accu-

rate translations from Chinese into a

foreign language.

SDL releases first combined product SDL Trados 2006

SDL International, a leader in the

emerging market of global informa-

tion management, announced in

February the early-bird release of SDL

Trados 2006. The computer-aided

translation software, which is the

first combined product evolving

from the SDL/Trados merger in June

2005, provides integrated terminol-

ogy management, quality checking,

translation editing and customer-

driven enhancements such as sup-

port for OpenOffice and Translation

Memory Exchange (TMX). “The new

product demonstrates the best of

both worlds, Trados and SDLX”, says

Keith Laska, Vice president of Desktop

Technology. “Customers now have

the choice of which editing environ-

ment they’d like to use, and can

benefit uniquely from the cross-pol-

lination of functionality between SDL

and Trados.”

SDL Trados 2006 offers the choice

of Translators Workbench, TagEdi-

tor and SDLX editing environments.

It includes new support for Quark,

InDesign CS2 and Java files to sup-

plement its file handling capabilities.

Integration with SDL MultiTerm

provides terminology lookup and

search functions to ensure adher-

ence to corporate terminology and

reduce translation time. Existing and

new translations can be more easily

reviewed and cleansed using quality

assurance checking. New built-in

translation and terminology checks

have been added and any number of

user-defined checks can be set up to

search for particular quality criteria.

SDL Trados 2006 forms an integral

part of the CCM Methodology, which

dramatically improves productiv-

ity and review time for creating,

cleansing and maintaining translation

assets through term extraction, QA

checks for document cleansing and

integrated terminology management

for TM maintenance. “SDL is well posi-

tioned to offer matching technology

to support the CCM Methodology

– and to continue to support the

global ecosystem,” continues Laska.

Customers with older versions of

the two products are guaranteed

continuous support. “We promised

the market that we were committed

to supporting the global ecosystem

of Trados and SDLX users. Anybody

who is on Trados 7 or SDLX 2005 have

been given a guarantee that we will

maintain support for these products

for the next 5 years,” assures Laska.

SDL recently declared the £ 35m (app.

€ 1,46/app. 1,74 US$) acquisition of

Trados as its number one highlight of

the year 2005 with its gross margin

increasing from 41% in 2004 to 47%

in 2005.

www.sdl.com

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7MARCH 2006

California State University Offers Localization Certification ProgramCalifornia State University, Chico Col-

lege of Business, in partnership with

the Globalization and Localization

Association (GALA), The Localization

Institute, and Austin Community

College, is now offering a Localization

Certification Program for students

and professionals.

Localization is an emerging, multi-

discipline field that focuses on how

organizations develop linguistically

and culturally appropriate Web sites,

software, marketing strategies and

messages for a diverse global audi-

ence. Professionals charged with

international marketing, translation,

localization and other business

functions must now possess a blend

of industry-specific knowledge,

technical e-business skills, language

translation management experience,

and a cultural understanding of the

people and markets they serve.

The CSU, Chico Localization Certifica-

tion Program addresses this need

through the delivery of online and

on-site instruction. Participants will

start the program by accessing 45

hours of asynchronous online instruc-

tion which will provide an under-

standing of localization concepts

related to conducting international

business. The online instruction will

be available starting April 5, 2006, and

students will be able to cover the ma-

terial at their own pace. Multilingual

Computing, the leading publisher in

the field, is supporting the develop-

ment of the online content.

The second component of the Locali-

zation Certification Program is a three-

day Summer Workshop, June 20-22,

2006, on the Chico State campus.

The Summer Workshop features 24

hours of on-site instruction, discus-

sions hosted by industry leaders, and

an intensive, hands-on lab experience.

In addition to providing training in

the field of localization, the certifica-

tion program will also emphasize

and include international e-business

concepts and Web marketing.

International executives, project

managers, business executives,

product marketing managers, Web

developers, user interface designers,

entrepreneurs, translators, linguists,

interpreters, technical writers, docu-

mentation managers, government

UN considers outsourcing translation workAccording to an article in the Boston Globe the United Nations is consider-

ing a proposal to outsource translation and documentation jobs to private

companies in order to streamline its bureaucracy. Secretary General Kofi

Annan commissioned a study by two US consulting firms, to investigate

effects of privatization. Possible options reach from retaining a reduced

translation service in-house to completely outsourcing the work of the ap-

proximately 800 workers of the translation and publishing department.

trend

FOREIGN LANGUAGES BECOME MORE IMPORTANT

The United States fear to become less competitive in the global econ-omy because foreign languages programmes and international studies at the elementary, high school and college levels are not sufficient. “America’s continued glo-bal leadership will depend on our students’ abilities to interact with the world community both inside and outside our borders”, warns a statement from the Community for Economic Development (CED).

officials, and small business owners

interested in expanding into an

international market would benefit

from the CSU, Chico Localization

Certification Program and are encour-

aged to attend.

www.csuchico.edu/localize/certificate.html

news

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8 MARCH 2006

news

Endangered LanguagesAccording to a UNESCO report of its endangered languages program

over 50 % of the world’s languages are endangered.

• 80 % of the African languages

have no orthography

Following the definition of the

Wikipedia’s encyclopedia the follow-

ing criteria are used as guidelines for

identifying endangered languages:

1. The number of speakers currently

living

2. The mean age of native and/or

fluent speakers

3. The percentage of the youngest

generation acquiring fluency with

the language in question

For example Ainu is endangered in

Japan, with only approximately 300

surviving native speakers, only 15 of

which use the language actively, and

few youth acquiring fluency in it.

Some languages have tens of thou-

sands of speakers, but are endan-

gered because children are no longer

learning them.

The change in the world’s language

diversity is not new. However,

whereas in earlier centuries extinct

languages were replaced by new

ones, today the rate of extinction

is outpacing the rate at which lan-

guages are replaced.

Languages are not only extremely

adequate tools of communication,

they also reflect a view of the world.

They are vehicles of value systems

and of cultural expressions and they

constitute a determining factor in

the identity of groups and individu-

als. Furthermore the Unesco report

found that:

• 96 % of the world’s 6000 lan-

guages are spoken by only 4 % of

the world’s population

• 90% of the world’s languages are

not represented on the Internet

• One language disappears on

average every two weeks

RAPID INTELLIGENCE BRIDGES WIKIPEDIA LANGUAGE GAP

Rapid Intelligence, a search tech-nology company with a focus on data mining and computational lin-guistics, has today released a beta of Qwika.com, a wiki search engine. The technology is designed to work with wiki-based content and has a number of unique features of inter-est to researchers and Wikipedia editors. It is the only search engine to index machine translated con-tent, so that users may search for terms in their own language and see results translated from English.

www.rapint.com

IDIOM EXPANDS DEPLOYMENT AND LICENSING OPTIONS

Idiom Technologies, Inc., a provider of scalable software solutions for accelerating and optimizing glo-balization initiatives, recently an-nounced expanded deployment and licensing options for its World-ServerTM globalization forum. With new hosted solutions and term licensing choices, Idiom now provides deployment and licens-ing options to suit nearly every IT resource and budgetary need.

www.idiominc.com

BRIDGE360 ANNOUNCES EXPANSION PLANS FOR CHINA

Bridge360, Inc., a technical quality leader for software internationali-zation and localization, announced plans are underway to launch of-fices in China. The company will support U.S. infrastructure compa-nies with manufacturing facilities in China and South Korea. Growth plans will include providing internationalization and localiza-tion certifications for the Chinese market as well as assisting compa-nies with expanding into multilin-gual marketplaces.

www.bridge360.com

phot

o: D

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err

9MARCH 2006

technology

news

PRACTICE YOUR PRONUNCIATION

In a joint project the Japanese

National Institute of Advanced

Industrial Science and Technology

(AIST) and PRONTEST Incorpora-

tion have developed an automatic

English Teaching System. It provides

specific pronunciation instructions

at the vocal apparatus level (e.g. “You

should round your lips more”) and

offers individualized English conver-

sation instructions that respond to

the user’s progress.

ENGLISH-SPANISH SPEECH RECOGNITION HANDHELD

ECTACO, Inc., developer and manu-

facturer of handheld electronic

translation devices, has released the

first pocket-sized language transla-

tor with dual-language speech rec-

ognition. It is able to recognize what

is said in either Spanish or English

and then provides a translation in a

human voice.

www.ectaco.com

JAPANESE-CHINESE SPEECH TRANSLATION SOFTWARE

NEC Corporation has developed a

PDA based Japanese-Chinese trans-

lation software, that is capable of

real-time, speech-to-speech transla-

tion of travel-related conversation.

The device boasts a rich vocabulary

of 50,000 Japanese and 36,000 Chi-

nese words, and realizes automatic

speech-to-speech interpretation of

travel conversation.

www.nec.co.jp

PHILIPS PRESENTS SPEECH-MAGIC 6.1 FOR MEDICAL REPORTING

Royal Philips Electronics announced

that the upcoming version of its

document creation platform Speech-

Magic will contain unique features

which optimize the accuracy, secu-

rity and administration of medical

document creation. SpeechMagic 6.1

boosts speech recognition accuracy

and scalability has been raised to up

to 15,000 users per cluster.

www.philips.de

MultiLing takes over Munich-based Localize-IT

Symbio’s Beijing Development Centres grow 500 % in three years

The Symbio Group, a provider of

software development, testing, and

globalization outsourcing services,

announced a 50% increase in capac-

ity in its Beijing Development Center.

This is the fifth major expansion of

the Beijing Development Center,

which has grown 500% over the last

three years. Symbio will now be able

to accommodate up to 1,400 staff

between its Development Center in

Beijing and project centers in Dailan,

Shanghai and Wuhan.

With over ten Offshore Development

Centers (ODCs) dedicated to specific

clients within the Beijing Develop-

ment Center, and numerous on-going

projects contracted directly from

the U.S., Symbio has on of the largest

installed base of U.S. clients among the

outsourcing companies in China.

”As companies move software

development projects from India to

China, Symbio is scaling up to meet the

demand,” said Jacob Hsu, COO, Symbio.

www.symbio-group.com

Google compromises with Chinese government

The American language service and

technology company MultiLing Cor-

poration officially acquired the grow-

ing translation company Localize-IT

on February 1st 2006. The acquisition

took place in Munich, Germany, where

the company’s new offices will be

situated. “Through this exciting ac-

quisition, we will be able to improve

MultiLing’s influence throughout the

European market,” said Michael Sned-

don, CEO and company president. “In

addition, our European headquarters

will allow us to better accommodate

the increasing demand that we’ve ob-

served over the past several years.”

www.multiling.com

Google, Inc., the world’s leading on-

line search engine operator, finally

received official permission from

the Chinese government to provide

domestic search services in China

through its new platform Google.cn

in exchange for accepting govern-

ment censorship on the provision of

search results. Google.cn, the new

search platform launched this week,

is still in its testing period. The Chi-

nese language edition search engine

will automatically prevent Chinese

internet-surfers from access to results

deemed “sensitive” and “illegal.”

SAP struggles with strong fluctuation in IndiaThe independent German software

provider SAP has confirmed that the

production costs in India are higher

as expected. This is due to the high

fluctuation companies in India have to

face. “In Bangalore for example many

IT service providers are competing for

qualified employees”, explained Frank

Hartmann from the press depart-

ment. Many employees leave their

companies after they have finished

their apprenticeship and new work-

ers take their positions. This, however,

leads to high integration expenses.

Plus the high demand for qualified

workers causes rapidly growing per-

sonnel costs. Another concern is the

bad infrastructure in India. “Despite

these concerns India is still an im-

portant growing market”, confirmed

Hartmann. Today there are about

3000 staff members working for SAP

in India. And the number is expected

to grow again this year.

In 2005 SAP hired 3668 new staff mem-

bers worldwide: 1269 in the United

States, 1071 in Europe and 1328 in the

Asia/Pacific region. In 2006 SAP plans

to establish 3000 new jobs worldwide.

Only 20 % of these will be developed

in Germany, where the company has

its headquarters.

Besides India the company is also con-

sidering to invest in China, the Czech

Republic and Hungary. Here the per-

sonnel costs are low too, but unlike

in India the company doesn’t have

to struggle with high fluctuation and

bad infrastructure. Worldwide SAP

employs about 36 000 people.

www.sap.de

10 MARCH 2006

Localizing smart

To be successful global brands have to adjust to local markets. The car manufacturer smart shows how such strategies can be implemented.

challenge

11MARCH 2006

Claudia Wittwer local global GmbH

“smart fortwo was the first vehicle that con-sistently took into consideration the traffic problems in our metropolitan areas”, explains Anders Sundt Jensen, the former president and CEO of DaimlerChrysler in Sweden and Denmark, who is today magaging director of smart responsible for sales and marketing. And although smart was designed for European urbanites, it easily adapted to other cultures as well. “People living in metropolitan areas – even in different cultures – are very much alike. They have the same requirements for their individual mobility”, continues Jensen.

Reacting to the signals

According to a study this target group is char-acterized by a fairly high level of education and net income, but also by an extremely strong affinity to the internet. With this information the marketing activities could be focused on the potential customer and he could be met in his area of life. Expansive national mass media advertising was replaced by focused marketing activities within the surroundings of the target group. With this strategy costs could be reduced among scattering losses. But while the creative concept of the specific marketing activity is left to the decision of the local marketing represent-ative, smart follows an international Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy. This contains the so called lead generating, an integrated concept for developing contacts with

potential customers. It also includes lead quali-fication, a standardized strategy for developing so-far unsealed contracts. But who is a potential customer? “We focus on hand raising, which means we react to custom-ers who show interest in the brand of smart or

its products, no matter through which contact channel”, explains Jensen.

Innovation, functionality and a zest for life

Smart was introduced to the market as an em-bodiment of the values innovation, functional-ity and a zest for life. Communication strategies were directed to people, which are sportive, young at heart and open to new things. Run-ning and beach volleyball became sports trans-porting the brand image. At city marathons, for example the New York City Marathon, smart was the follow-me-car.“smart was introduced as a practical, meanwhile stylish city car for a modern target group” con-tinues Jensen. “It was however the media and the customers who turned it into a cult car. People driving smart characterize themselves through ‘attitude not age’. No matter in which town or country they live or how old they are, they don’t need a big car to show off their status.”

Think Global, Act Local

Today smart models are sold in 36 countries on all continents. “The local dealers not only

The Language Technology CentreMultilingual solutions for your business

• Translations in over 40 languages

• Multilingual websites

• Software localisation

• Software development, sales and CRM:

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Visit us at our website www.langtech.co.ukor call us on +44 (0) 208 549 2359 Language Technology Centre Ltd., 5-7 Kingston Hill, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, KT2 7PW UK

challenge

Cult in many languagesSmall and compact, in bright colors but also in noble, more serious

greyish silver – around the globe smart roams today’s streets. We have

become quite used to the sight of the mini-automobile parked crossways

towards the other cars as if silently scoffing about the way, big cars are

lined up like they had been parked with a yard stick and a spirit level. The

idea of smart was compact, the product more than just another new car:

It aroused emotions. But how did smart come to be a global success?

12

challenge

MARCH 2006

have to react to local demands and competition, but also manage their own market position proactively”, Jensen explains. To help dealers do a professional job, information and advertis-ing material is provided globally at any time. But not every material is suitable for every country. Due to regional factors, such as city traffic, the global communication structure has to be supplemented with country-specific activities. “The CRM method is complemented with country specific actions”, Jensen says. “For example the fulfillment is done via print on demand, so that country specific actions and offers can be added or up-dated any time by digital print.”Big marketing campaigns however are man-aged and accounted for internationally. In this case it is important to integrate all participating markets into the process of the campaign devel-opment as soon as possible. “Only then can you be sure, that a certain idea is suitable for the different markets”, Jensen concludes.

The Customer is always right

The contact with the customer, however, does not end with the buying of the car or the sign-ing of the leasing contract. Also performance and demands of after sales and services have to be integrated in the communication strategies. Being the interface between the company and the customer, the dealers are a crucial factor to success. Even the most cleverly thought out communication strategy is worthless without the car dealer implementing it. Crash courses prepare sellers to the launch of a new product. This is done with a three-part training method. Part one provides the seller with a preliminary qualification. Part two is a so-called international Euro training and part three a work over training. Matching the demands of the specific departments (e.g. product management, communication, after-sales) the central training department once a year develops a training concept. This concept is presented to the trainers of the marketing

challenge

companies and then implemented.Qualified and engaged marketing and sales representatives are of great importance, be-cause: “wherever you are, in Germany, Italy or Japan, the customer is always right”, concludes Jensen.

Ulrich Walker was born in 1951. After stu-dying mechanical engineering, he started working in 1978 as a production engineer at the Stuttgart automobile group Mercedes Benz. After holding a number of leadership positions, he was appointed worldwide head of the division Mercedes Benz Service Passenger/Commercial vehicles in 1999. Bet-ween 2000 and 2004 Walker was a member of the board of directors of the Mitsubishi Motor Corporation Japan. Since October 2004 he is a member of the business area board of the Mercedes Car Group of Daim-lerChrysler AG and chairman of the executi-ve board of smart GmbH Böblingen.

This ad represents the international brand values smart has developed: innovation, functionality and a zest for life.

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os: s

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13MARCH 2006

Brand communication in JapanUlrich Walker is a member of the business area board of the Mercedes Car Group of

DaimlerChrysler AG and chairman of the executive board of smart GmbH Böblin-

gen, Germany. In his years as a member of the board of directors at the Mitsubishi

Motor Corporation Japan he gathered significant experiences in global branding

and observed important differences in corporate cultures.

Interview: Hans Gäng local global GmbH

Mr. Walker, why and how does a strong emotional

brand such as smart work in different cultures?

The emotional charisma of the smart brand is always the same and this also goes for the rational, convincing values it stands for. The smart brand always focuses on its international brand values, namely innovation, functionality and a zest for life. This makes it possible to op-erate consequently in different cultural arenas and to take the lifestyles of our clients into consideration with the implementation.

Do the different market requirements in different

countries influence the development?

Today the requirements are not so different at all. We experience the same basic problems in the different cultures regarding the inner mu-nicipal infrastructures ever more often. smart rises to these challenges and offers products which represents the most functional way of commuting privately in congested urban areas.

Who conceives the communication messages in

the different markets and from where? Is it done

locally or globally?

We work with a healthy mixture of global and local orientation. Broad strategies and cam-paigns for the positioning of the brand, or the products, are developed by head office. Tactical national campaigns are the responsibilities of those operating on the markets.

How are the communication concepts coordi-

nated?

smart works with an extranet platform which enables the exchange of ideas between markets. Operators in the different markets have access to all communication activities around the globe - from the strategy stage to the artwork.

Which strategies and instruments are essential to

build an international dealer network in different

markets as partners in a global brand concept?

Also here we concentrate on the consistent implementation of our brand values to present a consistent image of the smart brand – also to our dealers. Because nothing is more important than to produce a clear picture in every stage of the buyer’s decision-making process - from the com-munication to the end consumer to the trade.

What is the most important difference in the

corporate culture?

It is very difficult to lift out single factors. What is more, there are many differences between regions and even inside countries such as Japan or Germany. In general it is accepted that a Japanese company has a completely different thought pattern than a German company. In general, the Japanese are focused on the welfare of the group: If it goes well with a social group, then it also goes well with every individual in the group. So the Japanese individual very selflessly applies himself for the good of the social group he identifies with, which is usually the company. In western cultures, especially in the German culture, the people identify in the first place with them-selves. They are usually motivated to apply themselves for the benefit of the company by their own, individual goals. This fundamental attitude of the Japanese manifests itself in many ways encountered daily in a Japanese company.

What is the most surprising common ground in

the corporate culture?

Of course, there are also things people have in common. One common ground, more or less developed, is the hierarchical thinking and the process orientation. Especially, in large companies one gladly looks to the level above you and to previously fixed processes to do the job. This is done even more pedantic in Japan than in Germany.

Ulrich Walker – chairman of the executive board of smart GmbH Böblingen

challenge

14 MARCH 2006

collaborationcollaboration

Siemens Medical Solutions

Information architecture as strategic advantageOver the past decade Siemens Medical Solutions has totally reworked its content management and information

delivery system, converting it from a problem and liability into a source of competitive and strategic advantage.

At the heart of Siemens’ implementation is a thorough rearchitecture of its information assets.

The company now manages information in XML, at a very fine level of granularity.

In a comprehensive case study Content Tech-nology Works (CTW), an industry initiative administered by The Gilbane Report, dealt with this subject.

In the following tc world provides a summary outline of the interview contained in the study. CTW talked with Uwe Danner – who plans and optimizes as Principal Consultant, IT-Processes at Information Systems as well as Key Com-munication Technologies for Siemens Medical Solutions. Mr. Danner was joined by Markus Deisböck and Alexander Witzigmann of TAN-NER AG.

What motivated the change from your existing documentation management system to a new, more comprehensive approach to content management?

Uwe Danner: “We ran into a number of different problems. We had trouble with the traceability of our documents. We also ran into trouble because of new regulations from the FDA that were difficult to comply with under our old system. Speaking more generally, we just had lot of information, and nobody could handle all of this information in the right way.”

What did the new system need to be able to do that the old one could not?

Uwe Danner: “One thing […] was that we needed to make sure that our information would continue to be useful and available as we developed new systems. So, back at the time we were doing this, we decided that the information would need to be captured in SGML, which is an ISO standard and guaranteed that the informa-tion would be useful over a long time.”“For our customer service, we needed up-to-date information in the field. This not only had to be up-to-date, but also complete. It needed to include installation guides, maintenance guides, service guides, and lists of spare parts. All of this needed to be available in a single set of computer-based documentation – which we call CB-DOCs – with all the information cross-referenced internally.”

Markus Deisböck: “There are actually two groups of users, and also two groups of require-ments. One is the customer services group with all the field engineers. The other is the group that develops the product and so needs to develop manuals for the end users.”

Uwe Danner: “Yes. And with this other group the requirement was to save time by being able to reuse information in the process of translation.””We increased the number of languages that we support for operating manuals from 4 lan-guages to 22 languages. We need to be able to

deliver operating documentation in all of these languages at the same time that we deliver the product.”

How did the new content management system help with managing the transla-tion requirements?

Alexander Witzigmann: “Moving to a system that provides element level addressability and versioning allows us implement language variant management at the element level. That means that if information within a particular element changes, only that specific information needs to be translated into all the languages that we support.”

Were there other requirements?

Uwe Danner: “One of the big requirements was to have less information on paper and more on the machine. We have done this using a common platform and single internal operating system across all the medical devices.”

Have you been able to quantify results? Do you know that you are meeting your objectives?

Uwe Danner: “It is very difficult to measure the results of individual parts of the system because

15

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MARCH 2006

there are many factors and many interrelated objectives. I have already mentioned our goal of having less information on paper and more available on online help. That changed many things about the process.”“A different factor is our emphasis on using more pictures and less text. Capturing and add-ing good pictures takes time. So, while we are improving efficiency and reducing time in some areas, we are adding new work in others.”“Or, take translation for example. We have started using a translation management system, but also use our content management system to improve the translation process. The systems are used together. It is impossible to know how much advantage comes from one system and how much from the other.”

I see. So, the improvements in pro-duction time are difficult to measure because you have also used the new con-tent management system to expand the quality and quantity of the documenta-tion that you deliver. I would assume that these changes have an impact on what happens in the field …

Uwe Danner: “We have about 3,900 service engineers. For every product we provide them with computer based information. To keep it up to date we support a data download of the changed information – enabled by our ele-ment-level change control. Service engineers

The complete case study is available at

www.gilbane.com as free PDF-download.

Results as a whole:

• Siemens Medical Solutions is currently providing up-to-date documentation and online help to 60,000 customers around the world.

• The company is supporting more than 190,000 product installations across this customer base.

• Customer documentation is supported in 22 languages.

• This support requires about 15,000 translations a year.

• The company produces approximately 100,000 new pages of documentation a year.

• There are 150 technical authors, world-wide, producing this information.

• The documentation supports the work of 3,900 service engineers.

• Service engineers are able to find what they need on their first try more than 70% of the time, resulting in an increase in “First Time Fix Rate” (FTFR).

The improved FTFR has resulted in a decre-ase in “Mean Time To Repair” (MTTR).

download updates before going out on a service call.”“We have the same CMS worldwide. In Europe we have a server in Germany. We have one server in Shanghai, and one server in Califor-nia.”

Where is Siemens Medical Solutions tak-ing this investment and new system as you look ahead over the next few years?

Alexander Witzigmann: “The overall strategy is to bring the documentation more closely into the product.”

Uwe Danner: “We sell diagnostic machines, for example. Every product from Siemens Medical Solutions has integrated software to support the operating interface. We could, for example, have interactive online help.”Markus Deisböck: “You don’t need this infor-mation in the manuals. You need it on site, so that is there when people need it.”Alexander Witzigmann: “One approach is that the information itself can drive the product. For instance, in one project, the operating work-flow comes from the documentation. So the documentation actually drives how the product interacts with the user. That’s really what the future is.”

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16 MARCH 2006

collaboration

Erik Granered

So, is it realistic to expect a call center repre-sentative to pretend to be someone he or she is not and to pull it off convincingly? Is that not what we do when we put call centers halfway around the globe and ask customer service representatives in India and the Philippines to speak with an American accent and be prepared to chitchat about how the New England Patriots did in the Super Bowl? The answer to that question is no. There is some level of consensus that customers are not fooled. Customers understand that they are talking to a person who is culturally and linguistically different from themselves. It is, however, pos-sible to train customer service agents to com-municate effectively across cultures, allowing customers to have a positive experience. This involves a lot of accent training and a thorough understanding of how customers in different places tend to react to situations. This article is about applying a methodology to allow you to know how successful your organization is in this area. First, the focus is on customer interaction via the telephone, and then we will explore whether this methodology can also allow you to know how successful your software and website translation are. Before we explore the evaluation methodology, however, it is useful to take a closer look at the media of interaction we are evaluating and how various dynamics of translation can affect its ef-

fectiveness. Context is an important dimension in cross-cultural communication. To demon-strate, let’s look at the following scenario. An American executive needs to transfer money from one European account to another in order to make a purchase. He logs onto his German online banking site, reads the menus in English, makes the transfer – no problem. For whatever reason, the transfer does not happen in time. The purchase falls through, and the American executive is very upset. He picks up the phone and calls the customer service line. The call gets routed to the German bank’s multilingual call center in Hamburg. The call center detects the call as coming from America and provides an English call menu. Entering the customer number confirms the account as an American account, and the call is assigned to an English-speaking German customer service agent. The American executive proceeds to fume over the error. The agent checks the ticket, verifies that all procedures have been followed and reassures that everything has been handled correctly. This makes the American furious, which in turn makes the German agent take an even firmer position. The issue goes unresolved, the American changes banks. As simplistic as this example is, many things are going on. The German bank’s language menus created no problems,. It is often true that translations that require little contextual mean-ing work quite well. The reason the transaction did not go through in time could have been

translation related. E.g. there could have been a holiday in the time period that was not com-municated clearly to the customer. For whatever reason, the problems start when the German and the American interact on the phone. Each evokes the wrong meaning in the other when they speak. The American would have gotten a better response with a less emotionally charged approach, and the German would have appeased the American with a more empathetic and less procedural approach. To make a long story short, it is important to be able to evaluate how effective these internation-al customer situations are, whether in person or in writing.

The Kirkpatrick Four Levels of Evaluation

In 1954, the now legendary Donald Kirkpatrick finished his doctorate degree at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The thesis contained four very simple, yet brilliant, steps that to this day serve as the model for how we evaluate the effectiveness of training programs — the Kirk-patrick Four Levels of Evaluation: Reaction, Learning, Behavior and Results. A training program is introduced for a reason. We want results. So, we always begin with the results in mind. Results is the fourth level, the ultimate evidence of whether the training intervention worked. In our example, we want customers to have a positive experience when they interact with our overseas call center. To

Cross-cultural customer service and translation Call center agents around the globe are trained to communicate effectively with customers, internal and external, from other

cultures. A metaphor for this is the movie Analyze This, in which comedian Billy Crystal plays a very serious-minded therapist to

tough-guy Robert DiNiro’s character, who has anxiety attacks and is trying to get in touch with his feelings. World-class actors as

they are, they did their best to pull it off convincingly. In the end, however, watching them behave in ways that are contrary to

their nature was comedic. It made us laugh.

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MARCH 2006

achieve these results, a training intervention is designed — let’s say it is a two-week training program that includes accent training, cultural awareness training, and some actual customer interaction scenarios. Th e program is designed, and the money and the commitment to do it are all in place.

Level One: Reaction

We have all fi lled out the evaluation sheets at the end of a training program. Th ese are Level One evaluations. It may seem silly, but how the learner reacts is actually quite important. It is hard to learn if the room is cold and the facilita-tor is unprepared. In our example, we are going to want participants to enjoy learning about the customer’s culture, exercises should be relevant and clear, and the accent training should be interactive and exercises should allow participants to record themselves so they can hear their own improvement. A Level One form usually asks participants to rate materials, exer-cises, facilitators, and facilities. Most organiza-tions are good at Level One.

Level Two: Learning

Level Two is all about whether participants have gained any change in knowledge, skills or attitude. In our call center training program example, we will be able to detect a little bit of each. Participants will gain knowledge about customer culture, skills in dealing with those cultural traits, and cross-cultural training always involves confronting one’s own attitudes about peoples who are diff erent than you are. Th e specifi c knowledge, skills and attitudes that we want to aff ect with the training intervention are listed in the learning objectives for the pro-gram. A pre-test and a post-test are oft en given to assess whether the program has its intended eff ect. If you are hiring vendors to do this kind of training, it is a good idea to insist on this kind of testing, and it is also a good idea to be very involved with both the articulation of the learning objectives, Level One analysis and the Level Two learning that the program has had.

Level Three: Behavior

Th e training has taken place, and the employee is back on the job taking calls and solving prob-lems. Level Th ree deals with the extent to which the learner has changed his or her behavior on the job. Th is is an area where call centers actually do a much better job than many other

job settings. Th e reason is that the customer service agent sits in a very controlled environ-ment, where every minute is accounted for using various forms of technology. One piece of technology allows supervisors to listen in on how the agent handles calls. Using some kind of score card to evaluate the extent to which agents are living up to the best practices presented in the training is a great example of a Level Th ree training evaluation. Let’s look at a specifi c example of how this kind of training can be evaluated at a Kirkpatrick Level Th ree. Th is is a generalization, but some cultures perceive Americans as being pushy at times. In business conversation, Americans will sometimes jump right to the matter at hand without fi rst establishing some rapport through

small talk. By creating awareness (knowledge) about this tendency through a training pro-gram and by providing some culture-specifi c conversational strategies (skills), the American agent in this real example was able to reduce the amount of time spent on the phone with a customer. Reducing the amount of time spent on the phone is very important in call center settings because this allows each agent to take more calls, making him or her and the call center as a whole more productive. Th e American agent in question was having issues dealing with internal company custom-ers from the United Kingdom. Th e issues they had to deal with were very high stake. Th is is another generalization, but many people in the United Kingdom really resent being pushed and

18 MARCH 2006

prodded. The training program coached the US agent to slow down in the beginning of the conversation and chat about the weather for a minute. Talking about the weather for a minute or two immediately created empathy and trust, allowing the issues to be resolved more quickly. You see, this colleague in the United King-dom so resented being pushed that she would actually slow the process down. The magic hap-pened when the US agent transferred learning to behavior. Only when this happens is there an opportunity to see results.

Level Four: Results

The training intervention was introduced for a reason — to create a better customer experi-ence. In our example, the best way to verify this is to conduct a survey of customers or perhaps a focus group. At this point, it is not rocket science to do some cost analysis to compare the cost of the program and estimate the benefits of retaining customers. Other metrics in the call center such as reduced talk time and reduced call-backs can also be used to see whether the training has been helpful. There are so many evaluation programs avail-able today. All evaluation programs try to accomplish the same thing — to make sure that things get done as efficiently as possible in terms of low cost and the least amounts of defects. The most popular, especially in manufacturing settings, is Motorola’s Six Sigma approach. A few years ago it was total quality management. There are other models out there, including return on investment introduced by Jack Philips and value on investment intro-duced by a consulting company called Booz Allen Hamilton. These are all good if they work in your setting. Frankly, the Kirkpatrick model is the least complex and most intuitive of them all. It has stood the test of time, and it is nearly impossible to poke holes in it or claim that it is somehow invalid. “Reaction, Learning, Behavior and Results” is some really good stuff. In fact, it even works as a model for validating general translation and localization projects. Let’s take a look at how this might work. The Four Levels in a translation projectLet’s say that you are a localization vendor and that you have just landed a job to localize an English-language intranet portal to five other languages for a company that is experiencing rapid growth. We are going to apply the Kirk-patrick Four Levels to establish whether you are

providing the client with the kind of results that he or she wants from translating the content for local markets. First, we start with the end in mind. You are a company, you have services and you want to meet client needs. What is it that the client wants to accomplish? Think of these as your learning objectives, using the model above. Your objective is to allow employees in five new markets to take advantage of company information as accessible as if they were native English-speaking American employees. They want employees in these five markets to have a better understanding of products and services, to have a better sense of company history to build citizenship. They probably want better integration of processes and procedures. Later, under Level Four, we will examine what kind of data collection points we might want to keep track of whether results have been attained. Next, you do the translations. This is a complex process that involves many people. Every company will do this a little differently. Stick-ing with our Kirkpatrick model, this is the equivalent of developing the program. In fact, you could view the whole translation initiative as a learning intervention. Your client wants its employees to be able to learn about all the products, services, company policies, processes, procedures and everything else by being able to read about it in their native languages. Let’s analyze how things went using the Kirkpatrick Four Levels.

Level One: Reaction

This level deals with the pre-launch quality vali-dation that most translation companies would go through in a project like this. A company would allow a few test users to read through the content, browse through the menus and in general provide feedback regarding their reac-tion to the intranet site. If there are any nega-tive reactions, corrective measures would be taken. This might involve awkward sentences, bad color choices, inappropriate pictures or anything else that would not work. Things that don’t work are things that would inhibit users from arriving at Level Two, Learning.

Level Two: Learning

Here, we are concerned with whether employ-ees at the client company are able to gain the knowledge, skills or attitude changes that we intended for them to have. This level is easier to

apply in a more controlled learning environ-ment. One could, however, hold a focus group to see whether employees have changed their attitudes about the company, whether they have a better understanding of company processes and procedures, if they have more knowledge about the history of the company, whether they now know more about the company’s products and services. Online surveys and even anecdo-tal evidence are other ways to gain Level Two information.

Level Three: Behavior

Again, Level Three is the key to the kingdom. What changes in behavior did the client want in requesting the translation work? Probably better adherence to policies, increased use of automated processes to reduce cost. There might even be better customer service as em-ployees improve their knowledge and attitudes about the company. You could probably think of many more examples of changes in behavior that can come about in an organization from better access to information.

Level Four: Results

Last, you want to be able to demonstrate to the company that there were results. Here is a list of possible results. The more specifically they can be tied to this specific initiative, the better. But as Dr. Kirkpatrick senior and junior would agree, it is not always possible to have proof. Evidence in the following areas is often good enough when establishing results:– Increased rate of online automated tools

such as human resources benefits, travel arrangements and financial processes

– Improvement in specific areas of employee satisfaction surveys

– Increased use of the intranet in itself can be a desired result

– Improved response times and other per-formance-related indicators that can be tied to the translation effort.

It is not really possible to completely localize direct interpersonal interaction the way we can written language translation. But with the Kirkpatrick Four Levels, we can begin to know how well we are doing in each.

Text by courtesy of MultiLingual

collaboration

19MARCH 2006

Dr. Rolf Grönberg cognitas

However, new markets also bring new challenges. Differences in culture and mentality can give surprises. In the field of technical documentation, internationalization means: translate, translate and, once again, translate. More versions of more documents in more languages.But: must all these documents really be always translated?

Simplify your language – and make yourself understood

The aerospace industry has been demonstrating it: for many years now, service documentation has been written only in Simplified Eng-lish. It can be understood without difficulty by technicians of different nationalities. It seems that one language is enough to set the rules for the servicing of airplanes all over the world.

Simplified English – the idea

Simplified English is a controlled form of English: vocabulary and sentence construction are limited, and writing rules must be strictly obeyed. The purpose is to pro-vide texts in a clearly structured language, so that they can be easily understood even by those not par-ticularly proficient in English. Non-native speakers of standard English can learn Simplified English in a short time. The limited vocabulary and the fixed set of rules gives them

Simplified English - new application fieldsAs more and more companies profit from the internationalization of their markets, small and medium-sized

companies have been eager to jump on to the bandwagon previously ridden only by the large players.

confidence in the knowledge that they are producing quality English documentation. Simplified English provides consistency and avoids ambiguities.

New application fields

Other industries can profit from Simplified English too – but not without preparation. Current Simplified English solutions, like the ASD Simplified Technical English used in the aerospace in-dustry (former AECMA Simplified English), cannot be transferred to

different application areas without modification. In order to be ac-cepted by the authors as well as by the readers, the solution should fit perfectly. Vocabulary and rule sets must be adapted to the particular area of application. But the basic idea remains the same: a set of style rules and recommendations offers a clear orientation frame in which to formulate understandable language.

Basis for translation

Of course there are many cases in which Simplified English is not an

cognitas solutions

alternative to translation. In most cases consumer products require lo-calized instruction manuals, written in the national language. Yet even here, Simplified English can help to reduce costs, by providing an easy and unequivocal source language for the translation process. When using a translation memory you can keep the number of segments low.Even for new sections, the steady formulation patterns of Simplified English yield a high rate of fuzzy matches.

20 MARCH 2006

An example: Simplified English for servers

Cognitas developed a special variant of Simplified English for the service documentation of servers. In a first step, lists of words were generated from a body of existing service manuals. The lists gave a good overview of words that are currently in use. It also showed their frequency of use. This was a good basis on which to create a restricted vocabulary set significantly smaller than the original one. Unnecessary variants in the meaning of words and synonyms were eliminated. Then the existing writing rules of Simplified English were reviewed. Were these special rules useable for the service documentation of serv-ers? Did the expected improvement justify the expense of the conver-sion? The results were fed into a tool developed by cognitas: the Language Checker for FrameMaker. With the help of this tool, the exist-ing documents were converted and the new documents created.

cognitas Language Checker – the handy tool

There are various tools which support the produc-tion of texts in Simplified English. However most of these tools are designed for the requirements of the aerospace industry. They offer an immense variety of functions, but are not cheap.With the Language Checker for Frame Maker cog-nitas has developed an inexpensive, easy-to-use and easily adaptable tool to introduce Simplified English. The Language Checker helps you in introducing Simplified English as well as in the writing of texts according to the rules of Simplified English. You can easily create lists of words and sentences

to improve vocabulary. The vocabulary set is made available to the Language Checker in the form of an Excel list. During the writing process, the Language Checker tests the use of the restricted vocabulary and the ob-servation of writing rules. Appearance and the range of tests can be individually customized. If required, the allowed vocabulary can be complemented easily.Of course, not all the rules can be checked by a tool. An example is the rule: ”Each paragraph must have only one topic“. Therefore training of editors is as necessary as a good check tool.

With more than 80 experienced

employees cognitas is one of the

largest service providers of techni-

cal documentation in the fields

of information and communica-

tion technology, the aerospace

industry, defense and automotive

engineering. The company is situ-

ated in Ottobrunn, in the vicinity

of Munich, and has subsidiary

offices in Paderborn, Stuttgart and

Salzburg.

contact:

Dr. Rolf Grönberg,

Managing Director

[email protected]

www.cognitas.de

cognitas contact

solutions cognitas

21MARCH 2006

US Product Liability Mistakes in manuals can be more dangerous than design or manufacturing defects

By Mathew Kundinger GFT

“Product liability” is a buzz word that scares manufacturers who want to market their products in the United States. News reports concerning sizable product liability awards by U.S. juries are every-where. Many articles on the subject mention that most product liability lawsuits include allegations of fail-ure to warn or other instructional defects in the manual, be it an in-dustrial installation, power tools, or a consumer product like a stroller. Those in the industry need to understand that lawyers are ready to pounce on unsuspecting manufac-turers and exploit the many, often all too glaring, defects to be found in written product materials.Despite all the reports on the subject, there is hardly anything available on how manuals should be structured and what kind of detailed information they must contain. This article gives an overview of how the author examines product liability dangers in his German language booklet “US-Produkthaftung” writ-ten for German technical writers.

Making the Case

If a person has sustained injuries after using a product and wishes to collect damages, the attorney will try to find grounds to sue. The easi-est attack points are often:– The manual’s lack of comprehen-

sibility;– Outright translation mistakes;– Missing or incorrect warnings;

and– The manual’s overall lack of

detailed instruction.

It is often easier to find something wrong with the written materials than with the product itself. When such defects can be linked to and legitimately claimed to have been the cause of the injury or accident, then the plaintiff is on his way. To minimize the risk of being sued for having less than sufficient manuals, the following eight points and recommendations should be implemented.

1. Make sure the manual is not too superficial In the U.S. manuals must contain more detailed instructions than are normally given in Europe. In Europe people in many trades complete formal apprenticeships. By contrast, most people in the U.S. are more or less “well trained on the job.” Foreign manufacturers often as-sume that the U.S. readers of their manuals have the same level of tech-nical skill, expertise, and experience as those back home. This mistaken expectation leads to manuals having insufficient detail. Lawyers quickly focus in on such defects.

2. The information has to be found easilyMany manuals lack even a table of contents, and a large majority does not have an index.

3. A picture says more than a thou-sand wordsDiagrams and photos should always be liberally employed if they en-hance a manual’s comprehension.

4. Show all important parts and components at the beginning of the manual

Always include a picture, photo, drawing or enlarged view, or any combination thereof, and a clear de-scription of what the product does and its most important features. If a certain part is mentioned anywhere in the text, the reader must be able to see how this part and compo-nent fits into the whole product, machine, or installation.

5. Stick to a consistent terminologyA manual is not a novel nor is it prose. It does not suffer from constant repetition of words, but is enhanced and made safer by consistent terminology.

6. Manuals for the U.S. market must be written in U.S. EnglishManuals translated in Europe often end up quite “British” because most Europeans learn Oxford English in school. This is a huge and often the most important problem.

7. Forget the metric systemDuring one of my lectures, some wise guy once interjected that the metric system is, and has been for decades, the legal system for measurements in the United States. My reply: “Who cares?” Only a mi-niscule percentage of the population is aware of this fact, and even less people use the metric system. The metric system alone is useless in the United States. Some people get this concept, others don’t.

8. Give sufficient warnings based on the latest standardsThis is a subject of great confusion. At the moment, there is no ANSI standard that addresses the warn-ings that are to be used in product

manuals. There is, however, a stand-ard in the works that is expected to be published in 2006: ANSI Z535.6 Product Safety Information in Prod-uct Manuals, Instructions, and Other Collateral Materials. Up to now people seeking guidance often looked to ANSI Z535.4 Stand-ard for Product Safety Signs and La-bels when they designed the warnings for their manuals. The new standard will fill a real void, and might become the bible on the subject.

Conclusion

Missing or false warnings and instructional defects, if they can be linked causally to any injury or dam-age, can often provide a much easier way for attorneys to make successful product liability claims.With a new standard for safety information in manuals now on the horizon, it becomes more important than ever for anybody involved with manuals for the U.S. to be aware of the mandates and to adhere to them, or to get expert advice if they are unclear on any point.At least a final review by an U.S. attorney (with appropriate technical background) is highly recommended.

GFT solutions

GFT GmbH, Technical Services

Technical documentation, transla-

tion and GFT publishing house.

Further information is available at

www.gft-online.de

www.gft-verlag.de

contact: [email protected]

GFT contact

22 MARCH 2006

The impact of words on businessHow companies can gain competitive advantage by creating the right message for an increased global presence.

Denise Satchell Word Map Translations

In our everyday lives, we often real-ize that communication can be very precarious and complex. Children across the globe play the game of whispering a message across the classroom only to discover it has a completely different meaning when it finally emerges. There is a natural tendency to dissipate it as it travels to the next listener. In every attempt to communicate, the message is slightly damaged. Marketing departments spend a lot of time and effort in generating the right content for its product or service to the targeted audi-ence. Whether this is in the form of packaging, documentation, user guides or even web sites, the words are carefully crafted to achieve an anticipated effect. However, com-panies often overlook the fact that these especially prepared messages have to produce the same effect in completely different cultures, for example through localization. Even so, some messages may not achieve global status because they are simply too specific and intrinsically cultural. When creating content, companies need to ask themselves if it has the potential to attain global appeal.

Modifying the message

Translation vendors strive to rein-force the company’s global brand so that consumers world-wide feel

confident and inspired by it. The aim of translation is to have the content modified so that the mes-sage can be adapted to the cultural, linguist and business needs of the targeted audience without losing its tone and meaning. This modifi-cation is part of the localization process; however, any loss of the original meaning, or a lack of local knowledge, can have catastrophic consequences in a new market, which may lead to damage of the brand. Localization produces a revised text which is carefully crafted for the targeted market. The essence of the original message remains, but it contains new elements which are relevant to the new specific audi-ence. This familiarity in language, nuance and tone motivates consum-ers embedded in a culture that

they know and understand well. The consumer can be empowered strategically to embrace a product or service that has a familiarity at-tached to it.

Stay loyal!

Companies know that consumers need the message reinforced. Trust is built by the message being con-sistently delivered. Consumers learn to rely on the brand, not only in terms of the product itself but also in respect of the packaging, word-ing, design, etc. The underlying message, often assimilated subcon-sciously, is the key to brand loyalty. Any alteration in the way the mes-sage is transmitted may affect the perception and trust of the brand. This is demonstrated to good effect by the following example: Walt Dis-ney World portrays its theme park as being a ‘magical place’ and uses ‘Discover the Magic’ as its strap-line. How would we perceive the brand if we suddenly started seeing the word ‘enchantment’ instead of ‘magic’? How would that make us feel? The meaning is similar, but we are very used to seeing the word ‘magic’ and all that it symbolizes. Over time, we have learned to as-sociate the word ‘magic’ with the whole concept of what we believe Walt Disney World is and what it represents for us. Consumers are inclined to feel betrayed by this sud-den change of words; equally, they would feel particularly confused if the word ‘enchantment’ was

changed back to ‘magic’. The trust is likely to be broken. The receipt of the message is supposed to be a pleasant experience which reflects in the reinforcement of the brand. Companies cannot take the risk of breaking the consumers’ trust.In order to ensure this level of consistency, translation vendors can centralize the resources, create structures and processes to ensure that consumers receive this brand message time and time again. These established and formalized proc-esses, which include quality assur-ance, development of glossaries, and use of specific terminology, amongst others are vital for achieving the expected result. By doing this, a link between products and companies can be created, which the customer understands - a connection that only language can provide.

Word Map contact

Word Map Translations Ltd. is

totally committed to ensuring that

the highest quality standards are

achieved through using the latest

technology combined with experi-

enced project managers and a vast

pool of hand-picked translators.

[email protected]

www.wordmaptranslations.com

solutions Word Map Translations

phot

o: W

ord

Map

Tra

nsla

tion

23MARCH 2006

across systems solutions

Integrating localization into the software development processWorldwide distribution of software releases in various language versions is a challenge global players in the industry have to face.

At Nero AG the Central Versioning System triggers the Corporate Translation Management system across.

The seamless integration of localization results in a quality process, reduction of time-to-market and thus in cost savings.

Axel Schmidt across systems

Founded in 1995, Germany-based Nero AG has become the leading manufacturer of CD and DVD application software. Starting with a tool for simply burning CDs and DVDs, the software has developed into a multimedia suite including a wide variety of applications. The Nero package of today includes

around 40 different applications and is available in 24 languages.

The Challenge

In the course of localization not only rc and dll files, but also a whole range of database and XML-based formats had to be taken into account. All up an enormous amount of Nero Builds had to be generated. These are continually

compiled while at the same time the desktop is translated. In the past this was done with a tremen-dous amount of coordinative effort divided over more than 100 local computers.The localization process had to be simplified. Also the quality of the translations in the localized ver-sions was to be improved without disturbing the workflow.

The introduction of across

In order to accomplish this highly complex task, Nero AG introduced the Corporate Translation Manage-ment (CTM) system across, a prod-uct of across Systems GmbH.The system combines translation management with project and work-flow management. In-house employ-ees, external service providers and

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24 MARCH 2006

CVS translation workflow

solutions across systems

their appointed freelance translators all work together via LAN and WAN clients using the same database.With the help of the Software Devel-opment Kit across Systems was able to customize the entire localization process to suit the requirements of Nero AG.

Central data exchange

The central repository for all Nero resources is the Concurrent Versioning System (CVS). This is where developers manage the vari-ous version updates of the different components. Compilations destined for customers are all generated from this central point. In case the Nero destop changes translations are also initiated from here.The rest of the process is mostly au-tomated. It starts with pre-process-ing, which means that the various

resource formats are prepared for translation using a tool called cross-Transform.In the next step, the rc and XML files are checked into across and a temporary project is created. The update workflow matches the content of the files that need to be processed with each of the pre-ver-sions and applies the delta to the pre-translation. The pre-transla-tion is also done automatically by matching the delta with the across translation memory crossTank.Only those parts of the delta that across cannot match in the transla-tion memory are left to be processed manually. The across project management module automatically assigns these translation orders.The essential component in the translation environment is an editor, which continually displays cor-

across Systems contact

across Systems GmbH is a division

of Nero AG. The company develops

and markets a tool of the same

name for Corporate Translation

Management (CTM) that supports

the project and workflow manage-

ment of translations.

contact:

[email protected]

www.across.net

responding entries from the transla-tion memory or the terminology system. GUI-specific requirements such as checking the text length are supported by the across editor alongside quality assurance rou-tines.After the translation has been completed, the files are checked out in the course of post-processing and then returned to their original formats before finally being passed on to the CVS.

The result: On-demand localization

The introduction of across as a cen-tral translation environment has led to a coordinated approach and well-defined process at Nero AG. Both the consistency and the complete-ness of translations were optimized, costs could be reduced. General

Manager Klaus Bock: „There was a lot of hard work involved – but it was more than justified by the result.“

25MARCH 2006

LTC organizer connects databasesHCR - Informática e Traduçõnes –

lets the software do the work Foto

: Pet

er S

kadb

erg

Bettina Madlener LTC

It was an organizational mess: clients, suppliers, prices, projects, quotations, translation tools and accounting administered in seven different databases. Not being con-nected properly, the databases were vulnerable to frequent er-rors, information didn’t match or overlapped. Employees spent hours correcting mistakes and updating data. Nobody was sure of where to find what data.

Do the symptoms sound famil-iar? The good news is, that the Portuguese translation agency HCR discovered a digital anti-stress pill, that would cure them: The LTC Organizer.This software, that was developed by the Language Technology Centre Ltd in the UK, manages all business processes and controls work flow for companies in the language industry.

For HCR the seven databases belong to the past. For the last seven years they have successfully relied on the LTC Organizer, that

integrates all files. All 23 employees and freelancers working for the 22 year-old company with an annual turnover of US$ 1m, have access to the system. The flow of information has improved, misunderstandings can be avoided. Files and data are always up-to-date, without having to copy and paste them from and to different databases.

Gone are the days when financial calculations were constantly caus-ing trouble. Purchase orders, for example, were created in Excel, then had to be re-imported into the ap-propriate database and finally linked to the project itself. Since the e-mail program was not connected to other applications, files had to be attached manually and sent to clients.

Creating the same results, the new software saves time and effort. Today purchase orders are created in the LTC Organizer, the software calculates the total and sends the file directly to the supplier. MS Outlook is also connected to the Organiser, and the project manager receives a message via e-mail confirming that the purchase order has been sent.

The project manager also learns when the translator has downloaded a file from the website or returned a completed translation. Logs are created automatically.

In the past employees were not up to date on the status of projects due to the lack of a common system. Often they couldn’t provide satisfac-tory information for customers and freelance translators. Today the LTC Organiser performs the time man-agement and deadline control. The deadlines for all projects are clearly visible and can be checked by every employee at any time. Through the internet clients and suppliers are also connected to the LTC Organ-iser. They can track projects via a supplier and client web interface.

Thanks to the LTC Organiser, labor costs have decreased. Instead of five, only one project manager at HCR is now responsible for the workflow – from the initial quotation to the final invoice. Management is less time-consuming and more efficient. Clients, translators and the whole team are more satisfied. Errors and stress have been reduced.

LTC solutions

LTC contact

The Language Technology Centre is

a limited company based in the UK.

The company was formed in 1992

by Dr Rinsche with a view to provid-

ing language technology solutions

to a wide variety of potential appli-

cation areas.

contact:

LTC

www.langtech.co.uk

[email protected]

Meanwhile the LTC Organiser has even made it to Angola. An associ-ated company of HCR has been working with the LTC software for more than a year, and the feedback is also very positive.

26 MARCH 2006

business culture

have been recommended by existing business partners. For this reason, it is recommended that you have ac-cess to someone with an established network in India. When doing business in Germany, the focus is placed on the item of business itself; in India, however, personal contact and establishing mutual trust with your business partner is most important. For this reason, the „many Germans meet many Indians“ model of meetings is not suitable; rather, the flow of information should be concentrated

Margit E. Flierl

While seminars teach strategies for negotiating with overseas business partners and companies employ hoards of corporate communica-tions specialists and consultants, communication between two peo-ple is increasingly becoming swept aside in the business world. In India, business relationships are usually forged for the long term. Indians do business with friends, people from inside their own networks, and people who they either know well, have known for a long time, or

YES OR NO?IN EUROPE IN INDIA

YES Agreement

Clear promise of under-

taking

I hear you

I understand

I agree with you

NO A no is a no is a no –

impossible!

Saying no is impolite!

NODDING Signals only that you are

paying attention

on a few German representatives who meet as few Indian representa-tives as possible. The German and Indian “bridgeheads“ then have the opportunity to get to know each other well and form a solid foundation of effective, complete communication. From the first contact onward, Indian priorities will differ greatly from the German agenda. Indians first want to get to know their business partners well and concentrate on small talk. Germans, however, like com-ing straight to the point.

Conducting business meetings and negotiations in India

To negotiate or not to negotiate? In India, that‘s not the questionIntensive communication, building a solid foundation of mutual trust between business partners, indirect questions,

and frequent inquiring about progress are key factors to long-term business success in India.

You‘ll need to adapt to the country itself and the mentality of its inhabitants.

27MARCH 2006

business culture

that neither they nor their business partners lose face; unfortunately, this also applies to simple ques-tioning to establish the details and facts of a given situation. From an Indian perspective, needing to ask a question about something that has already been covered suggests either that the business partner has not ex-plained it properly or that it was not properly understood. Indians avoid this situation if possible; for this reason, German business partners should be sure to enquire about the status of a project using open ques-tions and by clearly displaying their interest in the information. In India, information is not given automati-cally, but rather must be asked for and enquired about. In India, infor-mation is imparted in fragments; in Germany, information is transferred in cumulated form. Germans prefer to keep a written note of unresolved issues, while Indians place emphasis on important issues by making ad-ditional phone calls to discuss them.

Summary: Business Meetings

– Collect information before or during the meeting

– Read between the lines– When asking questions, be

patient and approach the issue from a number of different directions

– Ask open questions that cannot be answered with yes or no

– Summarise the information obtained together

– Repeat important points (redun-dancy = relevancy)

Indians behave pragmatically in crisis situations

Good meeting skills are particularly important when dealing with Indian business people in crisis situations. Germans tend to take the „no news is good news“ approach advocated to them by German commercial law, whereby silence is considered agree-ment. If a problem occurs, Germans address the conflict situation directly. They express themselves in clear language, demand answers, and insist that the explanation given

Saying „no“ directly is considered impolite on the subcontinent, and a clear „yes“ carries not nearly the same weight as in western countries. An Indian „yes“ – or similar comment from an Indian business partner – should under no circumstances be considered bind-ing (as it is in Germany), but rather as a serious expression of intent. Indian managers are bewildered by direct questions that force either “yes” or “no” as an answer. For this reason, asking open questions – that is, detailed questions that do not refer only to the end result or final deadline – is a better strategy for successful realistic information gathering at German/Indian busi-ness meetings.

For conversations with Indians, it is important that you have both strong listening skills and good powers of deduction. While Indians are very good at reading between the lines and hearing what most Indians would rather not say out loud, German managers often have the feeling that their Indian busi-ness partners either cannot or do not want to get to the point. Both in the Indian business community and in Indian society in general, people treat their elders and those superior to them in terms of hierarchy with great respect. Team meetings with free exchange of ideas, open criti-cism, and suggestions for improve-ment are difficult, if not impossible, at the beginning of a business partnership. Indians are particularly careful

PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS MEETINGSIN EUROPE IN INDIA

Important points are dis-

cussed

at the beginning

Small talk and unimportant

issues discussed at the begin-

ning

Focus on the issues at hand Focus on the persons involved

Information is imparted in

collected form

Information is imparted in frag-

mented form

Either/or As well as

Principles over pragmatism Pragmatism

Avoid repetition Redundancy signifies rel-

evance

Direct questions, short an-

swers

Indirect questions, subtle an-

swers

does not portray the situation to be better than it is. They are often also keen to focus on the business prin-ciples that may have been broken before looking for a solution to the problem. Indians, however, act as though there is no problem while silently thinking of a pragmatic solution. Early warning systems do not suit the Indian style of com-munication; instead of delivering explanations, Indians concentrate on taking countermeasures and verbally defusing the situation in order to create a positive environ-ment for communication. The full explanation of the situation desired

28 MARCH 2006

by the Germans is often not possible at this time. In India, conflicts are discussed in terms of the facts of the situation before solutions are devel-oped and realized; only then are the causes of the problem analyzed.

How to Behave During Conflict Situations

– Factual discussion– Pragmatic solutions– No blame!– No scapegoats!

Negotiating in all types of situation

Negotiation is considered good form in India and is also expected of foreign business partners. The Indian motto of „the more time spent, the better result achieved“ stands in stark contrast to the German dogma of „reach the goals set in the time allocated“. In India, time is a permissible and often used means of exerting pressure on the party being negotiated with. Despite extensive preparatory talks, Indian business people never expect to reach a result during the first round

of negotiations. For this reason, two or three-day trips to an Indian city are a waste of time.While Indian customers often formulate their vastly excessive demands with German precision, Indian suppliers tend to first tell the customer what they think he or she wants to hear. In India, nothing is impossible, and everything can be negotiated. Indian negotiation style does not suit German business people‘s negotiation style, which is usually based on careful cost calcu-lation and typically offers little room to negotiate or allows only cosmetic improvement.

Indian negotiation could not be simpler, although they may initially seem unusual to German managers:

– Start with a maximum of de-mands (the excessive or impos-sible)

– Negotiate aggressively– If possible, do not give in (loss of

face)– Do not accept initial counter-of-

fers– Do not make early concessions

(or only minimal concessions)

– Force the other party to make concessions (gain of face)

– Bluff and argue extensively– Create leeway for both sides;

plan concessions and leave back doors open

– Do not negotiate individual points based on their priority

– Create a win-win situationThe German conclusion of „if that‘s the case, we‘re finished here“ shows only that the Indian party has bluffed somewhat too successfully; it should not mean that negotiations are over or have reached a dead end. Quite the opposite: Indian managers do not hold a monopoly on strate-gies for negotiation such as these. The more skilful and able their foreign counterparts are in using the same strategies, the more lively dis-cussions on business aspects of the negotiation and the more respected the foreign business partner will be. European managers can and should always be willing to walk away from negotiations without a result; they can be taken up again at any time. Negotiations should stay on topic at all times; personal attacks and threats of taking business elsewhere are taboo.

business culture

Summary

Plan to leave leeway and make concessions

Negotiate aggressively

Bluff in moderation

If appropriate, leave topics and

come back to them later

Do not set an agenda based on

the priority of individual points

If you didn‘t fight for it, it

doesn‘t count!

Time is a legitimate means of

applying pressure!

TransWatch Verwaltungsprogramm für Übersetzungsbüros

... work in a network

... manage translation projects easily and efficiently

... monitor the status of translation projects

... assign jobs to translators under consideration of their current workloads

... keep track of deadlines

... manage vacation schedules

... settle translators‘ accounts

... apply various discount rates

... charge by characters with or without spaces, words, lines, hours, or flat rates

... give your customers individual prices

... bill your customers for individual jobs or on a monthly basis

... calculate your profit margins

You want to ... ®

Administration Suite for Translation Agencies

JABRO GmbH & Co. KG • Johann-Kuhlo-Str. 10 • D-33330 Gütersloh • Phone: +49 5241 9020-0 • Fax: +49 5241 9020-41 • E-mail: [email protected] • Internet: www.jabro.de

Remaining silent - an often used German tactic - is considered a sign of weakness in India.

by courtesy of local global

29MARCH 2006

LISA’s CHINA FOCUS program will be the place for companies and profession-

als to meet and discuss how they can develop the business knowledge and

technical skills necessary to succeed in China’s globalization, internationalization,

localization and translation marketplace. How these skills are implemented and

used may determine a company’s success in the coming decade, as more and

more products and services are exported from China throughout Asia and the

rest of the world.

Through case studies, tutorials and best practice advisory sessions, participants

will learn how China can be successful in importing and exporting products,

services and technologies from the West; review the tools needed to educate

Chinese companies about the migration strategy from a low-cost labor and

manufacturing market to one of service, expertise and quality; and what China

must do to prepare itself for the inevitable price-gap change.

Participants come from the business sectors of finance, insurance, public rela-

tions, government trade groups, telecoms, automotive, chemical, market

research, pharmaceutical, management consulting, and education – and are

responsible for Strategic Planning, International Business Development, Product

Development and International Communications Strategies covering Web Man-

agement, e-Commerce, Customer Support, Public Relations, and Multimedia

Development.

Comprised of more than 200 corporate clients and their globalization solutions

partners, the Localisation Industry Standards Association will build on its history

and knowledgebase of companies and government institutions providing the

best practices, business guidelines, and multi-lingual information management

standards for the Chinese and Asia-Pacific markets.

The Forum’s estimated 250+ attendees will include local, national, and foreign

business and industry leaders, service professionals, and business, high-tech and

“new economy” reporters.

The focus of the THIRD LOCALIZATION WORLD CONFERENCE will be the

old - yet new - trend of “industry collaboration.” We welcome perspectives from

the past and the present - the visionaries with the bright ideas. We welcome

the practitioners who implement the ideas and work on the nitty-gritty. And

we seek the dialogue, or rather the debates between the “uniforms” and the

“uniques,” on questions whether size really matters, if company borders no

longer exist, and how to go forward.

We see many cases of true collaboration and genuine sharing, such as:•

internet-based sharing of translation memories

• open-source translation technologies

• volunteer and virtual translation teams

• cross-company project teams

• unified industry terminology

• new forms of alliances in online market places

• authoring and translation collaboration

In short, we see the language industry ecosystem changing. Localization

World Barcelona 2006 is the theater where this battle gets a name: Working

– Together!

community

calendar

when what where

March 19

2006

TCeurope Annual General Meeting

Sophia Antipolis,

France

March 20

2006

6th European Colloquium for user friendly product information

Sophia Antipolis,

France

April 3 - 5

2006

Content Management Strategies Conference 2006

San Francisco, CA,

USA

April 18 - 21

2006

Lisa-Forum Asia, China Focus Shanghai, China

April 25/26

2006

Third International Conference on Terminology, Standardization and Technology Transfer

Beijing, China

May 23/24

2006

IQPC Web Site Globalization San Diego, CA,

USA

May 22-28

2006

International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation

Genoa, Italy

May 30

2006

GALA Member Meeting Barcelona, Spain

May 30

- June 1

2006

Third Localization World Conference

Barcelona, Spain

October

3-5 2006

ISTC (Institute for Scientific and Technical Communicators) confer-ence 2006: There is a better way

Crawley, UK

December

4-6 2006

International Conference on Translation, Identity and Heterogeneity

Lima, Peru

30 MARCH 2006

community

The Hannover Messe is a global showcase for industrial technology. Many foreign

exhibitors and visitors come to Germany each year to attend this international

exposition. New products are introduced while communication and knowledge

related topics receive more and more emphasis. Today localization is a hot topic for

companies operating on international markets. The Global Business Forum in Hall 6

focuses on issues of globalization and localization and offers an excellent platform

for developing new business contacts, building collaborations, and setting up deals.

As part of the Global Business Forum, tekom will offer the following presentations at

the Hannover Messe:

tekom makes a stand at the Hannover Messe

Topic:Globalization and its particular impact on user interface design

Presenter:Detlef ZühlkeDFKI GmbH, German Research

Center for Artificial Intelligence

International markets are an

important factor for success in the

consumer goods industry. But while

functionality stays the same in differ-

ent countries the usage philosophy is

often the differentiating factor for the

acceptance of products. A research

project – “INTOPS–challenges on

designing user-interfaces in non-

European countries” and industrial

projects concerning the develop-

ment of international accepted user-

interfaces (UI) demonstrate examples

of different markets and their impact

on UI design.

Topic:Global readiness of the enter-prise: Strategic contribution of global information manage-ment solutions

Presenter:Matthias HeynSDL International,

Business Consulting

Today brand value has been widely

adopted as a key performance indi-

cator to predict future revenues.

Global brand consistency in written

communications across multiple

target markets is gaining increasing

importance as a recognized intangi-

ble asset.

This presentation will address the

strategic importance of “global readi-

ness” of corporate communications

with special emphasis on global

information management and its

contribution to

• Global brand consistency and to

• Support a strategic shift from a

domestic to a global organization.

31MARCH 2006

Eskenazy Translations specializes in state-of-the art technical translation, software localization and website localization.

The company uses the following CAT and localization tools: Trados, across, Transit and Passolo.

Translation into 45 languages is offered in Word, Framemaker, QuickSilver, Pagemaker, InDesign, QuarkXpress, Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, Photoshop, HTML, SGML and XML.

Catalogues and brochures are delivered print-ready for Windows and Macintosh. The current customer base includes 500 industrial companies worldwide.

References: Liebherr, Siemens, Panasonic, maxit Group.

Contact: Ing. Albert Eskenazy eskenazy@eskenazytranslations.de

ESKENAZYTRANSLATIONS

community

Topic:Moving into foreign markets – the challenge for small and medium-sized enterprises

Presenter:Henrietta HartlSelf employed consultant

“Global player”, “Internationaliza-

tion of products” – many SMEs ink

these buzzwords are only for the big

companies. Smaller enterprises may

fear that they simply don’t have the

resources to cope with a move into

foreign markets, even if considerable

profits may be possible. This lecture

will illustrate that using a “multido-

mestic” or “transnational” rather than

flatly “global” approach SMEs can

actually move into foreign markets in

a controlled way, minimizing the risks

and maximizing the gain.

Topic:How to align your data inter-nally to meet your external communication requirements

Presenter:Natascha PottierPironet NDH AG,

Product Information Management,

Sales & Business Development

As soon as you are operating with

different organizational or physical

entities, you face the challenge of in-

tegrating heterogeneous systems, ap-

plications, processes and approaches.

This challenge is further increased by

the complexity of multinational busi-

ness. For example, product information

including Master Data is not managed

centrally nor is it aligned across the

company, and is thus communicated

inconsistently. These challenges can be

addressed by standards and standard-

ized proceedings as well as by commu-

nication via certified master data pools

(e.g. SINFOS, Agentrics, 1Sync, etc.).

Aligning internally and externally is one

of the biggest challenges in today’s

globalized world.

Topic:Achieving efficiency in the translation of multilingual documentation

Presenter:Michael Sneddon

MultiLing Corporation,

Operations Management

At the beginning of a relationship

between a producer of multilingual

documentation and its localization

partners, one can organize proc-

esses and technology to effectively

integrate for maximum efficiency

and quality. All processes to produce

multilingual documentation have

at least four variables: Authoring,

Terminology, Reuse of Content, and

Customer/Supplier relationships. This

presentation will guide both novice

and experienced producers of multi-

lingual documentation through the

options and tradeoffs for each vari-

able. In addition, it will highlight the

overall benefits of creating relation-

ships with multi-language vendors.

Topic:Creating value by the Transfer of Knowledge

Presenter:Tim LindeReinisch AG,

Sector Manager Aviation

Whenever organizations change and

tasks are distributed internationally,

there is a need for knowledge transfer

in order to ensure the best possible

integration of knowledge holders

and to allow others to take advan-

tage of their knowledge. In times

when raw materials are becoming

increasingly scarce and expensive it

is important that existing knowledge

within companies is integrated

into the organization’s procedural

landscape.

Knowledge transfer solutions thor-

oughly analyze the knowledge area,

the knowledge holder as well as the

recipient and the environmental fac-

tors that might influence the transfer

process. The range of possible

transfer methods includes mentor-

ing, storytelling, workshops, training,

structured transfer sessions, video

documentation, etc. and allows an

adaptation to various different trans-

fer settings and people. The main

objective is to reduce transaction

costs as well as errors, and to improve

product and process quality.

All speeches will be held on

April 28 2006 between 9.30

a.m. and 12.30 p.m. in hall 6.

For further information see

www.hannovermesse.de

phot

os: l

ocal

glo

bal G

mbH

32 MARCH 2006

directory

Localization Software,

Translation, Service Provider

Across/ Nero AGKarlsbad, Germanyintegrating powerful tools for trans-lating and terminology work

www.across.net

beo Gesellschaft für Sprachen und Technologie mbHStuttgart, Germanytranslation, DTP, terminology, software and e-localization

www.beo-doc.de

EXACT!Mannheim, Germanytranslation, translation tools, qual-ity assurance, terminology, process management

www.exact-gmbh.com

Alchemy Software Development Ltd.Dublin, Irelandcreator of Alchemy Catalyst, tool for translators, localization engi-neers, QA specialists, project man-agers and software developers

www.alchemysoftware.ie

Bowne Global Solutions Deutschland GmbHMunich/ Sindelfingen/ Wuppertal, Germanyprovider of translation, localization, technical writing and interpretation services

www.bowneglobal.com

D.O.G. GmbH – Dokumentation ohne GrenzenLeonberg, Germanytechnical writing, translation, soft-ware localization and development

www.dog-gmbh.de

PASS Engineering GmbHBonn, Germanycreator of Passolo, software locali-zation tool

www.passolo.com

STAR GroupRamsen, Switzerlandcomprehensive infrastructure for the globalization of product infor-mation

www.star-group.net

Term SolutionsLangenargen, Germanyconsulting and training in the field of language technology, in planning and building terminology admin-istration and translation manage-ment systems

www.term-solutions.com

RKT Übersetzungs- und Dokumentations-GmbHSchramberg-Sulgen, Germanytechnical inhouse-translations, terminology management

www.rkt-online.com

Text- och ProgramhusetBuxtehude, Germanyspecialized on German-Swedish translations and software solutions

www.text-och-programhuset.

de

text und form – Technische Übersetzungen GmbHBerlin, Germanysoftware localization and technical translations

www.textform.de

SDL Multilingual Services GmbH & Co.KG/ TradosStuttgart, Germanysoftware products, global services and information management

www.sdl.com, www.sdlx.com

Content Management

4.ST Services Systems Software Support Technologies Belgium N.V.Leuven, Belgiendeveloping end-user Support man-agement systems

www.4st.com

AuthorIT Software CorporatonAuckland, New Zealandsoftware products for managing vital information

www.author-it.com

Blast Radius XMetaLVancouver, Canadainternet business solutions on a high technological standard

www.blastradius.com

COMIDOC FranceBoulogne-Billancourt/ Franceefficient, web-based systems for the collection and development of struc-tured, multilingual documentations

www.comidoc.fr

Corena Deutschland GmbHFrankfurt, Germanysolutions for business process en-gineering, archiving, SGML- and XML-based document and content management.

www.corena.de

docufy document computing GmbHBamberg, Germanyoptimizing editorial processes and single-source publishing

www.docufy.de

technotrans AG global document solutionsSassenberg, Germanycreator of docuglobe, software for modular development and structur-ing of documents in diverse lan-guages

www.technotrans.de

www.docuglobe.de

empolis GmbHGütersloh, Germanycontent- and knowledge manage-ment solutions

www.empolis.de

Mai KGReutlingen Bronnweiler, Germanyauthoring system based on CMS with publishing-tool for the development

of XML-based documentationwww.mai-kg.de

GFT GmbHSchenkenzell, Germanyrisk analyses, technical translation and technical documentation

www.gtf-online.de

Siemens AG, Industrial Solutions and ServicesErlangen, GermanyXML-based content management, directWeb

www.siemens.de/hybrix

mediaTEXT Jena GmbHJena, GermanySML/SGML-workflows

www.mediatext.de

Noxum GmbHcontent management systems for technical documentation, software-documentation, translation manage-ment, internet, print and eCatalogue

www.noxum.com

Fischer Computertechnik GmbHRadolfzell, GermanyXML authoring and content manage-ment system TIM-RS

www.fct.de

Idiom Technologies, IncWaltham, USAXML-based publishing and globaliza-tion solutions

www.idiominc.com

Inmedius UKPortsmouth, UKinnovative, performance-oriented applications that capture, create, manage and deploy data and techni-cal information assets

www.inmedius.com

Ovidius GmbHBerlin, GermanySGML/XML-based authoring, infor-mation and publication systems

www.ovidius.com

33

directory

MARCH 2006

Trisoft NVAntwerpen, Belgiumsoftware for technical communication

www.tri-soft.com

Riedel GmbHMunich, Germanygathers information required for the operation of technical systems, processes the information and develops solutions for information distribution

www.riedel-doku.de

SCHEMA GmbHNürnberg, Germanysoftware for professional manage-ment of product information

www.schema.de

Wilken AGUlm/ Freidorf, Switzerlandsoftware for editorial systems and technical writers

www.wilken.ch

Online Support Systems

Digitect B.V.Zaandijk, Netherlandsdesign and implementation of information strategy and architec-ture as well as application infra-structures

www.digitect.nl

MadCap SoftwareSan Diego, USAsoftware development for the tech-nical writing community

www.madcapsoftware.com

dokay GmbHFreiburg, Germanycreator of the single-source-product office help for software documenta-tion and user manuals.

www.dokay.de

Systec GmbHNürnberg, Germanytest-systems, tecnical communica-tion, e-publishing

www.systec.gmbh.com

Technical Illustration

Corel GmbHUnterschleißheim, Germanycreator of Corel Designer Technical Suite, for the design of technical illustrations

www.corel.de

Intelliact AGZurich, Switzerlandsupporting companies with the intro-duction of CAD and PDM projects

www.intelliact.ch

Auto-trol TechnologyDüsseldorf, Germanysystem solutions for technical illustration and configuration man-agement

www.auto-trol.de

ITEDO Software GmbHHennef, Germanysoftware for technical illustrations for spare parts catalogues and user manuals

www.itedo.com

Quality Assurance

Acolada GmbHNürnberg, Germanyspecialist for content management and multilingual terminology management

www.acolada.de

acrolinx GmbHBerlin, Germanycreator of acrocheck, software solu-tion for linguistic quality assurance in technical documentation

www.acrolinx.com

IAI – Institut der Angewandten Informationsforschung an der Universität des SaarlandesSaarbrücken, Germanycreator of CLAT (Controlled Lan-guage Authoring Technoloy), for linguistic QA for the development of technical documentation

www.iai.uni-sb.de

trioCheck GbRKernen-Rommelshausen, Germanycreator of GUI-Checker, check-soft-ware for technical writers

www.triocheck.net

Spare Parts Catalogues

Bokowsky + Laymann GmbHMunich, Germanycreator of PlusParts for spare parts identification and ordering

www.bokowsky.de

www.plusparts.de

CATALOGcreator GmbHAmberg, GermanyElectronic 2D and 3D spare parts catalogue

www.catalogcreator.de

TID Informatik GmbHHerrsching am Ammersee, Ger-manysoftware for technical illustration and electronic spare parts catalogue

www.tid-informatik.de

Docware GmbHFürth, Deutschlanddirect use of 3D CAD-schemes for technical illustration

www.docware.de

Print

DATACOPY publishing solutions GmbHCologne, Germanyautomated publishing

www.datacopy.de

Digital Print Group O. Schmiek GmbHErlangen, Germanyindividual solutions around the printed product

www.digital-print-group.de

DIP – Digital-PrintWitten, GermanySAP data transfer, online data updating and print

www.digitaler-druck.com

Griebsch & Rochol Druck GmbHHamm, Germanydata and print services

www.grd.de

Océ-Deutschland GmbHMühlheim an der Ruhr, Germanydigital print solutions for technical documenation

www.oce.com

Survey

Pilodata GmbHOlching, GermanyFormgen and Pilodata, professional survey generators

www.pilodata.de

www.formgen.de

Associations

BDÜ – Bundesverband der Dolmetscher und Übersetzer e.V.Berlin, Germany Germany’s largest association for interpreters and translators

www.bdue.de

Publishers

Beuth Verlag GmbHBerlin, GermanyDIN Terminology

www.beuth.de

Service Providers

Actino Software GmbHHamburg, Germanyconsulting for the use of PDF’s

www.actino.de

Cognitas GmbHOttobrunn/ Paderborn/ Fellbach, Germanydocumentation for IT, telecommu-nication, automotive and machine engineering, defense and medical technology

www.cognitas.de

34 MARCH 2006

directory

Comet Computer GmbH, Comet Communication GmbHMünchen, Berlin, Karlsruhefull service for technical print and online documentation

www.comet.de

docConsult GmbHrealization of editorial, terminology and translation solutions

www.docconsult.de

Dosco GmbHHeidelberg, Germanyspecialized on SGML/ XML-based documentation software

www.dosco.de

Arakanga GmbHHanau, Germanyeditorial compilation, technical illustration, translation, layout and grafic, norm analyses

www.arakanga.de,

www.information-mapping-

online.de

euroscript Deutschland GmbHBerlin, Germanyservices in document lifecycle management

www.euroscript.de

reinisch AGKarlsruhe, Germanyservice provider for information management

www.reinisch.de

CARSTENS + PARTNER GmbH Munich, Germanytechnical communication and information management

www.carstens-techdok.de

com-a-tec GmbHVillingen-Schwenningen, Germanyproject time recording, project con-trolling, terminology management

www.com-a-tec.de

ESG Elektroniksystem- und Logistik-GmbHMunich, Germanydevelopment, integration and operation of IT and electronic systems

www.esg.de

HEITEC AGCrailsheim, Germanyautomation, information technol-ogy and documentation systems

www.heitec.de

SL innovative GmbHDinkelsbühl, Germanyinformation management

www.sl-i.de

t3 medien GmbHErlangen, GermanyOptimizing knowledge transfer

www.t3medien.de

IndustrieHansa Consulting & Engineering GmbHErlangen, Germanyprovider for technical communica-tion

www.industriehansa.de

infowerk agNürnberg, Germanymedia consulting, system develop-ment

www.infowerk.de

JABRO GmbH & Co.KGGütersloh, Germanytranslation of user manuals and other technical documents

www.1a-uebersetzungen.de

KOTHES! Technische Kommunikation GmbH & Co.KGKempen, Germanytechnical documentation

www.kothes.de

HelpDesign, technische & elektronische DokumentationLichtenstein-Unterhausen, Germanysoftware, seminars, solutions and services

www.helpdesign.de

medionet AGBerlin, Germanytypesetting and workflow automation

www.medionet.de

plan business integration GmbHHamburg, Germany

www.planbusiness.de

RS_GlobalizationBased in the South of Germany, RS_Globalization is a young com-pany founded in 2005, but its per-sonnel has many years of successful international experience in various functions and departments of the localization industry. RS_Globali-zation offers multilingual transla-tion and localization services for projects of all sizes through an international network of seasoned translators, localization experts and DTP specialists.

www.rs-globalization.com

Tanner AGLindau, Germanytechnical documentation, product catalogues, information management

www.tanner.de

TÜV SÜD GruppeEssen, Germanyconsulting, tests, expert opinion, certification and education

www.tuev.sued.de

TEDOPRES INTERNATIONAL B.V.Tilburg, Netherlandsservices to efficiently create and manage multilingual technical information and documentation.

www.tedopres.com

ServiceXpert GmbHHamburg, Germanytechnical information systems

www.servicexpert.de

tecteam GmbHDortmund, Germanytechnical documentation and edu-cation of technical writers

www.tecteam.de

VAW-arvato GmbHGrefrath, Germanyfull service provider of technical documentation

www.vaw-online.com

Word Map TranslationsTo expand your business into the global market, you need to meet your customer’s cultural, linguistic and business requirements – an ex-perienced partner who can deliver your products and documentation to your customers globally in most fields and in all languages. Word Map offers: – Technical translations– Software localization– Website globalizationWord Map combines the latest tech-nology, experienced project man-agers and hand-picked qualified translators to deliver high quality translations on time and within budget.

www.wordmaptranslations.com

‘06‘05The Global Ecosystem Are you connected?

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Desktop OnlineSupport Center Launch

SDL CertificationProgram

Best of Both WorldsInteroperability release

Launch ofSDL Trados 2006

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Official LSPzone.comlaunch

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Copyright 2006 SDL International.

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