2012 GALA Webinar: Machine Translation for LSPs. A practical guide

©2012 tauyou <language technoloy> #1

Machine Translation for LSPs:

a practical guide

Diego Bartolomé, CEO


some pains

of human translation

clients pay less for higher value

difficult with fast turnaround times

quality cannot always be guaranteed

... and ... machine translation

is/was expensive

takes time to learn

quality / usability


where to start?


step 1: set realistic objectives (I)

why do we want machine translation?

increase revenue

reduce costs

open new markets

our clients are using it

because everybody is using it

just to play for a while

...


why do we want machine translation?

increase revenue

reduce costs

open new markets

our clients are using it

because everybody is using it

just to play for a while

...

step 1: set realistic objectives (I)


step 1: set realistic objectives (II)

a) increase revenue by 5% in 1 year by offering new solutions to our existing clients

b) reduce costs in 10% by increasing the productivity of our freelance translators

c) market a low cost medium-quality service in Brazil for the language pair EN-BR with MT + post-editing

d) become the leader in post-editing training services for freelance translators


what are yours?


step 2: decide the requirements (I)

all possible language pairs we work with

in all the language domains of the company

in real time

with a 95% quality

service 24x7x365

paying less than 0.01% of our revenue


step 2: decide the requirements (I)

all possible language pairs we work with

in all the language domains of the company

in real time

with a 95% quality

service 24x7x365

paying less than 0.01% of our revenue


step 2: decide the requirements (II)

our top 3 languages to start with

possibility to extend it to the top 15

translation and do-not-translate glossaries

medical, legal, IT , and automotive domains

web service to handle all CAT tools formats

Word Error Rate below 30%

12x5 support


step 2: some hints to start with

your top languages

the most similar languages

as a stand-alone tool to handle any file format

the cleanest translation assets

the biggest translation memories

the innovative freelance translators

the clients willing to test/try


step 3: evaluation of solutions

open source – in-house or service company

Moses, Joshua, cdec, Marie, Apertium,...

online services

Bing, Google, ...

RbMT

Gramtrans, Lucy Software, Systran, ...

SMT

Asia Online, SAIC, SDL, tauyou, ...


step 3: evaluation of solutions

open source – in-house or service company

Moses, Joshua, cdec, Marie, Apertium,...

online services

Bing, Google, ...

RbMT

Gramtrans, Lucy Software, Systran, ...

SMT

Asia Online, SAIC, SDL, tauyou, ...


step 3: some hints

own solution or 3rd party

in-house or hosted

language combinations

is confidentiality an issue?

customization capabilities

improvements over time

evaluation reports


step 4: carry out pilots

testing is the only way to know if it works

gather all your translation assets

choose 3 alternatives and pay for a test

how it starts

how it improves

how it achieves the goals

the biggest cost is your time


step 4: some hints

test all posible alternatives in providers

try to measure results over a period of time

define your key metrics and track them

the improvement ratio is a key indicator

customization capabilities are relevant

advanced NLP capabilities

ask other clients about it


now, move on


step 5: ongoing processes

measure, measure, measure

translation time

translation costs

your preferred metric, e.g. Word Error Rate

client complaints

create new engines in new language pairs


a number of failures

unlimited testing offering leads to failed systems

not enough good data

difficult language pairs

technological issues

unclear expectations

...

detect it fast and pivot

failure makes you learn and improve


several successes as well

tourism site EN/FR

patent translation EN/FR

bicycle e-commerce site EN/DE

legal EN/PT,ES,FR,IT,CA,GA

automotive ES/RO

information Technology EN/ES, EN/KR, EN/HE

medical EN/ES

generic web service public institution

...


Questions?


more info at

http://speakerdeck.com/u/tauyoucom


Thanks!

// Diego Bartolomé, PhD

<address> C/ Les Planes 39 – 08201 Sabadell – Spain

<phone> +34 93 711 29 96

<cell> +34 670 331 225

<email> [email protected]

<www> tauyou.com