The paradigm shifts to automated translation

Over the past two years, there has been a definitive shift in the demand and perspectives on automated translation, despite the fact that statistical machine translation (SMT) was a new methodology that would change the paradigm for machine translation, back in the fall last year. While the government was seeing success with statistical MT, translators felt threatened, language service providers were skeptical at best, the commercial enterprise saw little value in what any type of MT could provide.
This year it is evident the dark cloud over automated translation is starting to lift. Companies approached several times in the past are now talkingout of their own free will; translators are opening up to the idea of working with SMT and automated translation is the new buzz. Why the change?
We see several factors that are contributing to the shift:

1. Global companies are feeling pressure to bring products to market faster, leading to greater demand for translation at lower costs
2. Microsoft has developed and successfully deployed its own version of statistically based translation software (SMT) to translate knowledge base content resulting in an increase in user satisfaction – truly a compelling argument to consider SMT!
3. Information is power – maybe a bit cliché, but exabytes of new digital data are being created annually and users want access to this information in their own language
4. More countries are coming “online” and the language of the internet continues to diversify. Users that speak languages other than English are beginning to dominate the web
5. Google keeps automated translation in front of web users with their own version of SMT.
   

Given these factors, it is clear that statistical MT can have a significant impact on global communications. So look out for more automatic translation software or online language translations this year.

Localizing marketing campaign materials

Mass marketing today is replaced by mass personalization. With globalization, marketing gurus have realized the need for localization especially of marketing materials. Marketing campaigns are today brought down to the neighborhood, and are personalized to the customer taste.
Consider this, in the US alone, over 100 languages are spoken. Spanish is by far the most common language amongst non-native English speakers in the US. Of these 100 languages, there are 11 languages that correspond to populations greater that 500,000 people in the US. Communicating with the US Hispanic market in Spanish is not a courtesy; much of the Spanish speaking population in the US is not fluent in English. In fact, almost 50% of this population identifies itself as having limited English skills. This means that nearly 14 million people may not fully understand a marketed message if it is not also provided in Spanish.
According to a recently published Common Sense Advisory survey, nearly three out of four participants surveyed agreed that they were more likely to buy if the marketing materials are in their own language. Global consumers also indicated that they are willing to pay more for products with information in their own language. Nearly three out of four participants surveyed agreed they are more likely to buy products if after sale support is in their own language.
So localization of marketing campaigns cannot be dismissed. Translation or localization of marketing materials is not required by law, but rather demanded by the reseller of a product or service.
Planning a multilingual project can challenge even the most experienced companies. Finding qualified subject matter linguists, available engineers to deal with potential internationalization and localization issues, and the right talent to publish multilingual content are all crucial to the success of a localization project. You can also try machine language software or use language translation software.

Language translation is important for customer care

Customer care has evolved dramatically from the days of the printed user manual and telephone support. Most of the customer care today, is through company’s digital database. With companies going global, so is their customer care service, which has to cater to the global customers from varied background, languages and culture.
From the customer’s point of view, customer care can mean a lot of different things, from getting an answer to a question, to requesting information about a product, to conducting research about new products, to getting help with a bug fix or product update.
For global companies with global customers, language could become a barrier in addressing customer queries, especially while your precious customer is using your digital database for trouble shooting.
However, many translation software today help in tackling language issues. Such software provides a three-dimensional advantage to customer care services.
1) Efficient language translation for customer care content
2) Successful, proven technology that saves time and money while keeping the customers informed.
3) Customized, updated and reliable terminologies for translation, guaranteeing that product/service content is translated with online language translation.
Language translation is the key to good customer care globally.