#5440 tcworld 02-07 - · PDF fileinterview with tcworld (page 13). ... tor and SYSTRAN...

magazine for international information management newschallengecollaborationsolutionsbusiness culturecommunity directory

70906

March/April 2007

Overcoming distancesHow global companies move closer to their local customers

Central and Eastern Europe in the global contextHow the business potential of Central and Eastern Europe compares with that

of China or India

Toward a cleaner information environmentReducing data pollution with efficient global information management

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Overcoming distances – geographi-cal or cultural – is a constant chal-lenge for international companies. Products and spare parts need to be transported over oceans and continents, product information needs to be translated into several languages and foreign customers need to be addressed according to their cultural background. In order to come closer to their customers and be able to operate locally, global players establish subsidiaries in the target markets and send staff to far-away places. However, to what extend a local market will open towards a foreign company, often depends on the company’s abil-ity to understand and react to the country’s specifics. After many years in the Asian region, the Bystronic glass group has found that working with local people, from the service personnel to the management level, is the best way to serve local markets (page 10). Local personnel reporting to the headquarter is the most reliable source for information about local intricacies and prevents the company from implement-ing a global strategy where it is not suitable. Taking into account the different local conditions and looking at corporate branding through someone else’s eyes, is what makes the job so exciting, finds Peter Nischwitz of Bystronic in an interview with tcworld (page 13).Beside the emerging markets of China and India, another region has been gaining popularity with global companies: Central and Eastern Europe. In their article Arturo Quintero and Libor Safar show how the business potential of this area compares to that of China and India (page 23). Jurek and Andrzej Nedoma explain linguistic aspects which should be taken into account when localiz-

ing for the markets of Central and Eastern Europe and show what to consider when looking for a transla-tion service provider (page 26). Standards can be useful guidelines for localization projects. Angelika Zerfaß discusses various standards with their intended purpose and their limitations (page 14). Finally Garry Levitt advises to keep our information environment clean. In his article he explains how this can be done and which technol-ogy can be applied (page 18).

We’re looking forward to seeing you again at the next tcworld conference on November 8th and 9th in Wies-baden, Germany. Booking of exhibi-tion space is now open. Let us know the preferred position of your exhi-bition booth at [email protected].

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5MARCH 2007

content

Overcoming distancesQuality alone is no longer sufficient as a sales pitch for companies seeking to break into new markets. Customers today demand immediate services and no longer accept long delivery times. In order to serve the global market companies need to operate locally. The Bystronic glass group shows how an inter-national organization adapts to the global challenges.

page 10

Central and Eastern Europe in the global contextChina and India are usually among the first ones associated with emerging markets. How-ever, since the early nineties the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have become a major service and production base for Europe-an and US companies and lately also for Japa-nese, Korean, Chinese, and Indian enterprises. The comparison of Central and Eastern Europe with the markets of India and China shows the region’s potential.

page 23

6 news

challenge

10 Overcoming distances

11 Local solutions for a global market How global companies move closer to their local customers

13 Cultural differences make international branding exciting Interview with Peter Nischwitz, head of Corporate Communication at Bystronic glass

collaboration

14 Exchange standards in localization An introduction into TMX, SRX, TBX, XLIFF and GMX

17 Why standards? Standards: Helpful guidelines or unnecessary regulations?

18 Toward a cleaner information environment Reducing data pollution with efficient global information management

solutions

23 Central and Eastern Europe in the global context How the business potential of CEE compares with that of China or India

26 Translations into CEE languages – prospects and risks A linguistic guide for Central and Eastern Europe

business culture

30 Introducing more customer friendly services Business culture in the Czech Republic

community

32 tcworld calendar

33 directory 3 editorial

3 imprint

6 MARCH 2007

news

SYSTRAN 6 LAUNCHED

SYSTRAN Software, Inc. introduced the SYSTRAN 6 line of desktop products. It supports the new Microsoft Windows Vista operating system and Microsoft Office System 2007. Among the new features are a built-in dictionary lookup, an intuitive translation toolbar, new linguistic options, and a new interface. SYSTRAN 6 includes five products: SYSTRAN Web Translator, SYSTRAN Home Translator, SYSTRAN Of-fice Translator, SYSTRAN Business Transla-tor and SYSTRAN Premium Translator.

BABYLON RELEASES TURKISH-ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Babylon Ltd., a provider of single-click translation and dictionary software, has released a new Turkish-English dictionary. The Babylon’s Turkish-English bidirectional dictionary contains more than 170,000 words, phrases, abbreviations and acro-nyms. It includes terms from a wide vari-ety of fields, such as medicine, electronics, zoology, business, computers, and religion among others.

AIT RELEASES ACROLEXIC

Advanced International Translations (AIT), a software development company, has released AcroLexic, a searchable software dictionary of acronyms and abbreviations. The dictionary enables quick lookups for acronym definitions from different areas of knowledge for translators, linguists, tech-nical writers and anyone dealing with text documents. The database contains more than 70,000 acronyms and over 150,000 definitions.

TAVULTESOFT RELEASES KEY-MAN DESKTOP 7.0

Tavultesoft Pty Ltd. has released Keyman Desktop 7.0, a keyboard mapping solu-tion that allows for the remapping of the end user’s keyboard to type in different languages. Version 7.0 supports the latest technology and standards, including Win-dows Vista and Unicode 5.0. The companion product Keyman Developer provides all the tools to create keyboard layouts, including visual editors, character maps, debugging, and a programming language specifically created for designing keyboards.

GALA launches online career centerThe Globalization and Localization Association

(GALA) has introduced LocalizationCareers.net, a

full-service online career center for the language

technology and services industry. The site is de-

signed as a resource to connect employers in the

industry with qualified professionals at all levels.

LocalizationCareers.net will act as a consolidated

talent bank for industry employers seeking to fill

roles in localization departments and companies

– from project and vendor managers to testers

and engineers. The site offers all of the features

of a mainstream job board, such as applicant

pre-screening and statistics on job postings, with

a targeted pool of applicants.

“This site is being created by our industry and

for our industry,” said Stephen Ryan, GALA board

chair. “Unlike the bigger job sites or sites focused

on translation contractors, LocalizationCareers.net

is dedicated to the many job functions necessary

within a healthy localization department or busi-

ness. We are filling that gap so that our members

and other industry employers can find candidates

at all levels – from the recently graduated to the

veteran employee.”

The applicant pre-screening feature enables

employers to create customized questions and

criteria when they post a position. Localization-

Careers.net will also track statistics related to the

employer’s job postings – from number of views

to current applicants and response status.

The site also features an anonymous contact sys-

tem and resume/CV bank, enabling job seekers to

list their experience and qualifications. Employers

are invited to search candidate profiles to con-

nect with contacts who are a good fit for the job

opportunity. To build a critical mass on the site,

GALA has been contacting universities, profes-

sional associations and special interest groups

worldwide inviting professionals to register with

the site.

www.localizationcareers.net

Photo: Tom Mc Nemar

7MARCH 2007

news

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BSI develops translation standardBS EN 15038:2006 is the first European standard to

set out the requirements for the provision of qual-

ity services by translation service providers (TSPs).

It charts the best practice processes involved in

providing a translation service through commis-

sioning, translation, review, project management

and quality control, to delivery.

The purpose of this European standard is to estab-

lish and define the requirements for the provision

of quality services by translation service providers.

BS EN 15038:2006 encompasses the core transla-

tion process and all other related aspects involved

in providing the service, including quality assur-

ance and traceability.

This standard offers both translation service provid-

ers and their clients a description and definition of

the entire service. At the same time, it is designed

to provide translation service providers with a set

of procedures and requirements to meet market

needs.

Conformity assessment and certification based on

this standard are envisaged.

BS EN 15038:2006 specifies the requirements for

the translation service provider with regard to hu-

man and technical resources, quality and project

management, the contractual framework, and

service procedures.

MORAVIA AND TEKTRONIX JOIN FORCES

Globalization solution provider Moravia

Worldwide and Tektronix, a provider of test,

measurement and monitoring instrumenta-

tion announced the joint development and

implementation of a technical authoring, lo-

calization and publishing workflow based on

open standards such as XLIFF and XML. The

combined solution meets the objective of de-

livering more localized content for Tektronix

products, shortening turnaround times, and

reducing costs.

CONVERSIS EXAMINES TURKEY

Recent changes in the European landscape,

including the entrance of Bulgaria and Roma-

nia into the European Union, has prompted

Conversis, a localization and translation com-

pany based in the UK and US, to examine the

growth of possible international investment

within the region. The full report can be

downloaded for free in the “Cultural Commen-

taries: A Closer Look” section on the Conversis

website.

SDL AND TRIDION FORM STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

Provider of global information management

(GIM) solutions SDL International entered into

a strategic relationship with content manage-

ment provider Tridion, to enable corporations

to more effectively combine web content

management (CM) with language delivery.

The combined capability will enable corpo-

rations to author content, translate it once

and reuse it across all web requirements in

marketing, sales and customer support in any

language.

LCJ HELPS ENABLE EARLY VISTA RELEASE

LCJ, a provider of multilingual translation

and turnkey localization solutions for local

and global projects, announced that it has

played a significant role in preparing Micro-

soft Windows Vista for its worldwide release

on January 30, 2007. LCJ’s contribution to Mi-

crosoft Windows Vista was the localization of

Microsoft’s new operating system into eleven

languages.

8 MARCH 2007

SDL International reveals why international organizations risk failure in non-English speaking markets due to localization errors

Spanish leaves global marketers lost in translation

news

In an internal survey, SDL International

has found that Spanish is the language

most likely to result in international

marketing translation blunders. Mis-

takes ranging from inviting passen-

gers to ‘fly naked’ to translating the

infamous ‘got milk?’ slogan to ‘are you

lactating?’ show how easy it is to turn

a successful product in one country

into a figure of fun due to poor locali-

zation.

Recent research estimated 4.75 per-

cent economic growth for South

America in 2006 (source: IMF 2006

Regional Economic Outlook), mak-

ing this the third year Latin American

economies have expanded by more

than four percent.

According to SDL, the top five worst

translation mistakes made by compa-

nies looking to expand into the Span-

ish-speaking world are:

1. Even if you get the word right, using

the wrong gender in many Euro-

pean countries can totally change

the meaning – as discovered by the

Miami T-shirt maker who targeted

the Spanish market with its shirts

commemorating the Pope’s visit:

‘I saw the Pope’ (el Papa) became ‘I

saw the potato’ (la papa).

2. The American milk supplier whose

famous slogan ‘Got milk?’ translated

to ‘Are you lactating?’ when it tried

to expand the campaign to Mexi-

co.

3. An American airline had plenty of

empty seats on its flights to South

America when the promotion of its

new leather seats (‘fly in leather’)

translated into Spanish as ‘fly na-

ked’.

4. A British stationery company tried

to launch its non-leaking fountain

pen in Spain with the angle that ‘it

won’t leak in your pocket and em-

barrass you’. It made the common

mistake of assuming that ‘embara-

zar’ means embarrassed. It actually

means ‘pregnant’.

5. One US beer company assumed

that its slogan ‘turn it loose’ would

translate successfully into the Span-

ish language, where unfortunately

it reads ‘get diarrhoea’.

“With more and more companies go-

ing global, translation and localization

is a vital part of any business,” said Dr.

Chris Boorman, CMO at SDL Interna-

tional. “These examples show how

organizations will struggle to gain a

foothold in South America if they don’t

successfully master Spanish: the same

will apply as international players

scramble for footprint in all emerging

markets. The challenge for most multi-

national organizations is how to devel-

op locally tailored content efficiently.

Technology driven global information

management will help them launch

into new territories as quickly as pos-

sible and gain that all important first

mover advantage ahead of the com-

petition, without inadvertently alienat-

ing key markets.”

Boorman added: “Quality is paramount

in driving international business op-

portunities. Basic blunders such as

these can be avoided by focusing

on the quality of the translation sup-

ply chain. Organizations should use

certified translators to ensure their

messages do not literally get lost in

translation.”

Photo: Céline Gros

9MARCH 2007

news

New GALA board starts its termThe Globalization and Localization As-

sociation (GALA) recently announced

its 2007-2008 board officers. The GALA

board is composed of five volunteer

members elected by GALA members

for a term of two years.

The board officer positions for 2007

are as follows: Stephen Ryan (Moravia

Worldwide, Czech Republic), Chair;

Kim Harris (text & form, Germany), Vice

Chair; Christiane Bernier (Lionbridge

Technologies, Canada), Treasurer;

Matthias Caesar (Locatech GmbH,

Germany), Secretary; Arancha Cabal-

lero, Board Member-at-Large.

“Our board leadership is critical to the

success of GALA, and we wouldn’t be

the organization that we are today

without them. The group works to-

gether in a highly collaborative envi-

ronment to build on current initiatives

and to find new ways of creating value

for our members and for our industry,”

said Laura Brandon, the administrator

for GALA.

GALA is an international non-profit

association that promotes translation

services, language technology and

language management solutions.

The member companies worldwide

include translation agencies, localiza-

tion service providers, globalization

consultants, internationalization spe-

cialists and technology developers.

OASIS, the international standards

consortium, has announced that its

members have approved version 1.1

of the Open Document Format for

Office Applications (OpenDocument)

as an OASIS standard, a status that sig-

nifies the highest level of ratification.

The result of a unique collaboration

between advocacy groups for the

disabled and open source and com-

mercial software vendors, this new

version of the standard provides key

accessibility enhancements to ensure

that the OpenDocument format (ODF)

addresses the needs of people with

disabilities.

Dave Pawson of the UK’s Royal Na-

tional Institute of the Blind (RNIB) said,

“OpenDocument 1.1 is a practical XML

format that is readily transformable to

the DAISY digital talking book standard

for people with print impairments. The

clear specification of OpenDocument

1.1 will remain usable long after com-

mercial and proprietary formats have

been condemned to the dustbin.”

OpenDocument 1.1 supports users

who have low or no vision or who

suffer from cognitive impairments.

The standard provides short alterna-

tive descriptive text for document

elements such as hyperlinks, draw-

ing objects and image map hot spots

and offers lengthy descriptions for the

same objects should additional help

be needed.

The new version of OpenDocument

reflects the work of the OASIS Open-

Document Accessibility Subcommit-

tee, which is made up of accessibil-

ity experts from IBM, the Institute for

Community Inclusion (ICI), RNIB, Sun

Microsystems, and others.

OASIS members approve OpenDocument 1.1

MultiLing Germany GmbH

Tel: +49 (89) 70 06 57 30 | Fax: +49 (89) 70 06 57 31 | [email protected] | www.multiling.de

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10

challenge

MARCH 2007

challenge

Overcoming distances

Photo: Bystronic glass

11

challenge

MARCH 2007

challenge

Local solutions for a global market

Time is money – in the East as well as in the West. Product quality alone is no longer the crucial sales

argument for companies seeking to explore new markets. Geographical proximity, same time zone, and

short delivery times have become more and more important for customers from around the world. The

Bystronic glass group, a provider for system solutions for the manufacture of architectural and automotive

glass, shows how international organizations adapt to these new challenges and successfully enter

markets like Asia.

By Corinna Ritter

When Karl Lenhardt started up a small one-man-workshop for the manufacture of insulating glass in 1966, it did not take long for foreign customers to take an interest in his machinery. Only three years later he expanded his business into neighboring countries in Europe and by 1972 the first machines were shipped over the Atlantic Ocean to the United States and to Canada. Back then the product itself was enough to make the cash register jingle: Made in Germany was a symbol for high quality and sufficient as a sales pitch. Customers accepted long delivery times not only for the machines itself, but also for the spare parts, should any malfunctions occur. Today the Lenhardt Maschinenbau GmbH together with the Swiss Bystronic Maschinen AG, the German Armatec Vierhaus GmbH and the Canadian Bystronic Solution Centre forms the Bystronic glass group, a member of the Swiss Conzzeta Holding. Exports today are exceeding 80 percent of the total business thus presenting the company with various challenges, affecting product development and technical documentation as well as the management level.

From user-interface to management – facing the international challenge

To enable machine operators from foreign countries to use Bystronic products, operating displays as well as operating software need to be available in the local language of the target market. The content of user manuals – although translated and published in 21 languages – has been largely standardized. “Our user guides are complying with European and ANSI stand-ards”, explains Thomas Willwerth, head of the Technical Documentations Department. The impacts of internationalization are strongly felt in the services depart-ment. While it used to be quite acceptable for customers to wait until the machinery or spare part was delivered from overseas, today this is no longer an option. “Today customers want whatever they want now”, Harry Auer explains. As head of the Service Department for Lenhardt GmbH he has experienced the accelerated pace of time: “Delivery times need to be reduced to the mini-mum, because every minute that the machine stands still, creates costs to the customer.“ In order to avoid any holdup, Bystronic is required to keep parts available close to the customers

and deliver as quickly as possible. Auer even remembers a Norwegian customer who was ready to pay for a special airplane delivery in order to get the necessary spare parts from Germany to Norway within three hours. However, the cross-border deliveries do not always work without complications and neither are the delivery costs acceptable for custom-ers worldwide. Especially for customers in Asia money is still a much bigger issue than in Europe, knows Florian Stoffel, head of the Asia/Pacific region at Bystronic. Also, long distances are not the only issue that can thwart a fast delivery: “As long as custom duties exist,

bureaucracy will also exist. This means that days can pass until parts arrive at the customer’s, which is simply not accept-able, because the customer must be able to manufacture

with his machine”, Stoffel continues.

Local solutions

Although export distances are growing, longer delivery times are unacceptable. Custom-ers today not only demand that spare parts be stored within short distance, but also that service staff come to their workplace

Customers want whatever they want now

12

challenge

MARCH 2007

challenge

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and speak their language. At Bystronic the approach towards the customer is yet on its way. With subsidiaries in Europe, North and South America and Asia and representatives worldwide, the company is still expanding its local presence worldwide. “Markets like Asia cannot be serviced from Europe,” Florian Stoffel concludes. “Companies with activities in Asia need to be present in Asia as well.”Stoffel started his work in Singapore over ten years ago with the target of setting up sales and service structures in Asia-Pacific and increas-ing the sales in this market region. Establishing facilities in Asia did not only make Bystronic overcome the geographical distance to their Asian custom-ers, but also helped to solve political obstacles: “The only country in the region largely free of bureaucracy is Singapore. That’s why we build our first warehouse there. The second warehouse was built in China for precisely the opposite reason: importation rules and regulations are taking longer time, so we must permanently carry large stock.”After establishing a subsidiary in Shanghai, setting up support facilities in the region and improving business from Australia to India, Stoffel feels that the company needs to further

intensify the training of Asian people in each market. “Asia needs to be served by Asians. As Westerners our objective should be to have local people also at management .”

Training local service representatives

Recruiting and training local staff worldwide has become a major task for Bystronic. However, as the battle for skilled workers continues, in particular in China, wages are increasing quickly. “Especially at the executive

level, wages are already adjusting to an international level”, says Stoffel. In addition to the often difficult search for skilled employees, workers in Asia tend to change jobs more often, causing the company to

start the search all over. At Bystronic, new service representatives – mainly mechanics and electricians – are instructed on local worksites and conclude their training with a course in the Swiss or German technology centers. The better the training, the more independently the service staff can work. However, if a service worker cannot fix the customer’s problem, he will report it to the nearest subsidiary or head-quarter. Here customers’ requests are answered in German, English, French and Spanish.

Although the international service hotline is called from around the world, the requests are similar: “All over the world there are people who demand more detailed instructions and those who have a strong ambition to solve the problem by themselves”, Harry Auer says.

The Asian challenge

Differences in mentality are found, however, between the European and Asian customers. “In Asia business takes place around the clock”, Stoffel explains. “It is quite normal that people work on the weekends, harbors and airports are running day and night and that factories run three shifts.” A strong business orientation, a willingness to work hard, a desire to accom-plish changes and an eagerness for further education is found in many Asian cultures. The Asian diligence provides yet another challenge to foreign companies: “In Asia people expect any services they require to be available even during the weekend. If we want to be successful here, our company needs to act just as quickly and effectively.”

As Westerners our objective should be to have local people at management level

13

challenge

MARCH 2007

challenge

Cultural differences make international branding excitingPeter Nischwitz is head of Corporate Communication at the Bystronic glass group.

tcworld spoke with him about corporate branding, cultural differences and the

challenges of good communication.

Interview: Corinna Ritter

Lenhardt Maschinenbau GmbH is active all over

the world. What are the main challenges of corpo-

rate communication in a global company?

In 2002 the Bystronic group was split into two busi-

ness units – the sheet metal division and the glass

division, which Lenhardt Maschinenbau belongs

to. The main challenge during this time was the

launch of a new corporate identity for both busi-

ness units. The result was a common brand – but

in two different colors.

The implementation of this new concept within

the company and on the market has been the

main challenge since. Today the new CI has been

largely implemented, but “to live CI” means that

this implementation will always be in progress. We

cannot simply change our CI from one day to an-

other but continuously have to work on it with our

target audience in mind.

How is the corporate identity communicated

worldwide? Is branding handled centrally or is

each market responsible for its own logo and mar-

keting messages?

Our branding is handled centrally from our corpo-

rate communication department. We have created

a manual for our corporate identity and corporate

design which is valid for all our technology cent-

ers, subsidiaries and representatives worldwide. In

this manual the use of our brand, colors, fonts, key

visuals, office standards, leaflets, advertisements

etc. is defined. If a subsidiary wants to create spe-

cial activities, this needs to be approved in advance

by us.

In marketing and branding, how important do

you think is localization for national and regional

markets?

Our credo is: as much corporate identity as pos-

sible and as much localization as necessary. To

achieve a strong image worldwide local and global

aspects need to be taken into consideration. The

corporate identity must lead the communication

but can be complimented with local “specialties”.

Just to give you an example: at the moment we

are creating local websites within our corporate

website. On these local sites our subsidiaries will

be able to communicate local information, like the

presentation of their staff, local events etc., but in

the style of the global page. This leads to a strong,

corporate design while “uncontrolled growth” can

be excluded.

Have you experienced cultural difficulties or differ-

ences regarding the communication with employ-

ees or customers from different countries?

Yes, indeed. Just a few months ago we made this

experience with a new key visual for a new slogan

that we had created specifically for an important

European exhibition. The key visual showed a

thumb pointing up, which in Europe has a very

positive connotation. However, we were aware

that the sign can be perceived differently in other

parts of the world, like in Arabic countries where

it is a very offensive gesture. This example shows

that not every symbol that has a positive connota-

tion for us Europeans is also perceived positively

in other regions. But this makes our daily business

so exciting! It is challenging to position a brand

worldwide while taking into account all these cul-

tural aspects.

How do you ensure consistent quality in your prod-

ucts and services throughout all regions?

All internal production processes are controlled

and monitored via a state-of-the-art central data

network. Prior to delivery, the performance and

function of all machines and plants are thoroughly

tested. This is one key component for achieving our

objective of total customer satisfaction. Further-

more we pay great attention to comprehensive

after-sales services. We have an education center

here in Germany, where we train our customers’

staff as well as our internal staff.

From your point of view, how can communica-

tion help to increase the value added of a global

company?

Communication is a beautiful instrument for carry-

ing the values of a company into the market and it

is very important for creating a strong image. But

it is just one tessera for achieving our main objec-

tive and that is, developing long-term relationships

with our customers. Our sector is still very techni-

cally oriented and quality is highly rated. During

an important exhibition a couple of years ago we

tried to reduce the machinery that we exhibit and

to show more multimedia instead. It was not per-

ceived well. People in our sector prefer to be able

to check the quality of our new developments,

which we are presenting under production condi-

tions during important exhibitions, with their own

eyes and to get their own picture.

Peter Nischwitz is head of Corporate Communi-cation at the Bystronic glass group. He has been working in marketing and communication for twelve years.

14 MARCH 2007

collaborationcollaboration

TMX – SRX – TBX – XLIFF – GMX

Exchange standards in localization

Since 1997, OSCAR (Open Standards for Container/content Allowing Re-use), a special interest group of LISA

(Localization Industry Standards Association), has been working on standards for the localization industry. In the

following article the standards that apply to the technologies being used, like translation memory systems or

terminology management systems are discussed with their intended purpose and their limitations.

Photo: Nagy-Bagoly Arpad

15

collaboration

MARCH 2007

the TMX file, another tool might interpret this

information as pure text, as it handles tags in

a different way. Match rates will be lower after

TMX exchange.

4. Segmentation rules, the rules that govern what

is considered as a segment, are different. One

tool defines a colon as segment end and cre-

ates two segments out of a sentence with a

colon, another tool will see the colon not as a

segment end and therefore this tool would see

just one segment. Match rates with segments

like these will be lower after TMX exchange.

In order to get rid of TMX’s difficulties with differ-

ent segmentation rules, SRX – the Segmentation

Rules eXchange Format – was created. It is an addi-

tion to TMX, as it can store the segmentation rules

that where used at the time of TMX export. When

importing the TMX file into another tool, the infor-

mation in the SRX file can be used to recreate the

segmentation rules, so that the imported data can

be handled correctly. The issues here are:

1. SRX can only provide information on the seg-

mentation rules at the time of TMX export. If the

rules have been changed during the creation of

the translation memory, these changes are not

recorded in SRX.

2. The exchange of segmentation rules will only

yield good results, if the receiving tool is able

to create the rules used in the first translation

memory tool.

TBXTogether with the idea to exchange translation

memory data came another idea to also exchange

terminological data. OSCAR took over the results of

SALT (Standards-based Access service to multilin-

gual Lexicons and Terminologies) consortium as a

basis for the TermBase eXchange format TBX.

The adoption of the TBX format has been a lot

slower than with TMX, mainly because of the fol-

lowing factors:

1. TBX is much more complex than TMX. Most

terminology management systems allow the

user to create own fields and structures to rep-

resent data, not as with TMX where the content

is mostly limited to source and target language

segments. For TBX to work, the structure of both

the exporting and the importing tool need to

be properly analyzed and understood.

2. Terminology work has just about started to

come into focus for the companies in the locali-

zation industry. There are few resources yet that

could be exchanged. And the resources that ex-

ist are often not as structured as they need to

be.

By Angelika Zerfaß

TMXThe first standard was TMX – Translation Memory

eXchange Format – for transporting content from

one translation memory system to another with-

out significant loss of data. Until that time the ex-

change of data depended on the willingness of the

tool providers to support proprietary formats of

other tools, mostly for import, seldom for export.

Now TMX has been widely adopted and every

translation tool out there can import and export

TMX files.

The differences – as usual – are in the details.

Yes, TMX is a standard exchange format, but no,

the exchanged data will not yield exactly the same

results in every tool it is imported into.

1. There are two levels of the TMX format. Level

1 transports text only, level 2 also provides a

means to transport formatting information. A

tool that only supports level 1 will be able to

read a level 2 TMX file, just not the formatting

information therein.

2. Formatting information itself can be represent-

ed in different ways in the TMX file. One way

is to place a placeholder tag, where formatting

starts and ends. The other way is to encode the

formatting information itself into the TMX file.

Again, a tool exporting placeholders does not

give another tool the information what format-

ting is being transported, therefore it will not

appear in the receiving tool.

3. Tag information from the translation of for ex-

ample FrameMaker files can be handled dif-

ferently. One tool writes this information into

Image 1: Multilingual translation unit in TMX format

Image 2: Bilingual terminological entry in TBX format

16 MARCH 2007

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3. So far, the export functionalities of terminology

management systems into Excel or tab-delim-

ited file formats have been used instead.

XLIFFWith the wider usage of XML based file formats,

another idea for a standard came into being. Why

not represent all localizable data, whatever source

file format it comes from, in an XML format?

From the specification of XLIFF (XML Localization

Interchange File Format): ”The purpose of this

vocabulary is to store localizable data and carry

it from one step of the localization process to the

other, while allowing interoperability between

tools.”

1. Translators only have to deal with one file for-

mat.

2. Formatting information can be inserted as for-

mat tags or placeholders, so that all tools can

deal with XLIFF files without problems.

3. Any XLIFF-capable tool can be used for transla-

tion.

XLIFF can even carry matches from a translation

memory system with it, as well as information on

creation tool and author for example.

GMXThe latest discussions on standardization have

to do with the different metrics that are used to

calculate a translation job. GMX – the GILT Metrics

eXchange focuses at the moment on GMX/V, the

volumetric calculation. Other parts of this standard

will be GMX/C – the metrics about the complex-

ity of a translation task and GMX/Q for the quality

requirements of a translation task.

When calculating the volume of a translation task,

the number of words is often used as the basis. But

different tools count differently and the differences

INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET ON THE STANDARDS MENTIONED THERE:

GILT Metrics eXchange

www.lisa.org/oscar/gmx

Segmentation Rules eXchange (SRX)

www.lisa.org/oscar/seg

TermBase eXchange (TBX)

www.lisa.org/tbx

Translation Memory eXchange (TMX)

www.lisa.org/tmx

XML Localization Interchange File Format

(XLIFF)

www.oasis-open.org/committees/workgroup.

php?wg_abbrev=xliff

in word count can easily amount to 10-15 percent,

in some cases, depending on the source file for-

mat, even as much as 30 percent.

From the GMX/V specification: “GILT Metrics Volume

addresses the issue of quantifying the workload for

a given localization or translation task. This is of-

ten commonly referred to as word counts. Word

counts, however, do not convey the true range

of possible metrics that can be used to assess the

cost of localizing a document such as the number

of screen shots for a software localization project,

or page counts for a document layout task. GILT

Metrics Volume is a more precise definition of the

metrics required for billing and sizing purposes.”

GMX/V has not yet been adopted as a standard

and is still in the process of being refined, as most

other standards as well.

ConclusionIn my view, one of the most useful standard for-

mats is TMX. Not only can it be used for data trans-

fer between translation memory tools, but it is also

very useful as a basis for terminology extraction or

TM maintenance. SRX addresses the problems that

were encountered with TMX, but will not solve all

issues. As not many tools support it at the moment,

its usefulness will have to be evaluated over the

next few years.

And with the strong movement towards XML in

the documentation and authoring departments

I feel that XLIFF could be a very good format for

the translation process. It does have some things

in common with TMX, so maybe we will see those

two standards merging over time.

Standards apply to what is known and in (wide-

spread) use at any given time. But standards also

Angelika Zerfaß holds a diploma in translation

(Chinese, Japanese, Computerlinguistics) and

is currently working as a trainer and consultant

for translation software and translation-related

processes.

[email protected]

www.zaac.de

take time before they are defined and agreed on by

the standards organizations and their members.

Any of the standards mentioned are still being

discussed and developed. With new technologies

emerging all the time, the relevant standards will

always be “under development” – but TMX and

XLIFF have been in use for years and are now an

essential part of many localization projects.

Adopting the standards (or even helping to de-

velop them) will help the localization industry to

mature.

Image 3: Segment for translation in XLIFF with one 100% TM match and one Fuzzy Match

17MARCH 2007

Introducing the new ETSI guideline DEG 202 417

Why standards?

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Good Growth Takes Care

www.moraviaworldwide.com

AMERICAS EUROPE IRELAND CHINA JAPAN

contact

By Veronika Rädler

Standards often seem to be time-consuming and

unnecessary additional regulations. Many times,

the ones applying them only have a vague idea of

why the standard was issued and which argumen-

tations preceded the final regulation. The stand-

ards and guidelines strongly depend on the board

which issues them. This board usually consists

of international experts who come together to

share their experiences, aiming for a result, which

will not only increase efficiency, but also help to

provide constant and better quality. That’s what I

had in mind when I received the draft of a new

ETSI guideline and, on behalf of tekom, became

involved in its development.

The European Telecommunications Standards In-

stitute (ETSI) is a good example for a global forum

for experts. As one of the three officially recognized

European standards organizations under the Eu-

ropean Directive 98/34/EC, ETSI is involved in the

policy discussions on the role of standardization in

Europe with the European Commission (EC) and

the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

Besides technical standards such as GSM and

UMTS, ETSI is also concerned with the improve-

ment of user guides and user experience. ETSI’s

human factors department, for example, is a glo-

bal forum of experts dealing with user friendly

telecommunications. This consortium is working

on guidelines which ensure that everyone can

use new technology, including the elderly and

those with disabilities. The experts are working in

specialist task forces funded under the European

Commission’s eEurope initiative, which has target-

ed a number of areas for increased effort, includ-

ing ‘eAccessibility’.

The new ETSI guideline DEG 202 417 – User Edu-

cation for Mobile Terminals and E-services, reflects

the goals of the department. The guideline de-

fines minimum standards concerning contents

and quality of user education for mobile devices

and services. Including well known advices of best

practice, the guideline pulls together the advan-

tages of different media for different contents and

user groups.

The choice of the right media for different informa-

tion during the usage of a mobile device or service

(before purchase until resale or disposal) is a main

aspect of the guideline. The specific aspects of the

media such as paper based, online or audio guides

are in the focus of the guideline which also includes

the specific needs of separate user groups such as

elderly or people with disabilities.

What does the guideline mean for technical

writers? Unnecessary additional regulation or a

chance to profit from the experiences of those

international experts who issued it? I think this de-

pends on themselves. My suggestion is to take the

ideas and aspects found in guidelines and keep

them in mind when working on concepts or writ-

ing user guides. Take the chance and learn from

this pool of experience!

www.etsi.org

Veronika Rädler works as a

technical writer at cognitas,

a German service provider

for technical documentation.

She is focused on user docu-

mentation for mobile devices.

[email protected]

www.cognitas.de

18 MARCH 2007

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Toward a cleaner information environmentAccording to the independent market intelligence providers, IDC, the worldwide translation/globalization tools mar-

ket is set to grow from US$187 million in 2005 to US$263 million in 2009. A fast-growing segment of this market is that

of enterprise-class global information management (GIM) solutions. This market growth is fueled by an increasing

realization among C-level executives that a holistic approach to how they manage information on a global basis will

drive consistency of brand and reduce time-to-market.

As with our physical environment that we seek to clean up by reducing pollution and by applying cleaner technology, companies must manage their content — or “global information” — across all stages of the content life cycle. This affects not only the people and processes but also the technology that can be applied.This article outlines best practices on how to manage global information. It will show how to

bring together disparate multilingual assets, including translation memories (TMs) and terminology databases,

and clean the overall global content environment.

Forces at work within the environment

The process of managing global information is

often fragmented at the corporate headquarters, regional and local levels, as shown in Figure 1. Across the resulting network, a mix of

content formats is used. Content and multilingual assets are not

shared or leveraged efficiently, as each environment typically relies on the use of different vendors and a complex mix of applica-Photo: Johnny Lye

By Garry Levitt

19MARCH 2007

tions, technologies and processes. A close-up view of the localiza-tion supply chain for each of these environments can be seen in Figure 2. Regional content owners will dis-tribute localizable content (perhaps along with TMs) to various vendors (perhaps, in turn, using multiple freelancers), who will localize this content using different TM tool sets. These vendors will then return the localized content and the different TMs to the content owner, who then may or may not consolidate the content into a single TM while selecting and filtering out unwanted translations. In any large corporation, this process is repeated many times at the different departmental and divisional levels. Manual interven-tion is often the norm throughout this fragmented process. The lack of any tool and process enforce-ment or centralization of mul-tilingual assets means that TM content becomes polluted over time, thus resulting in a lack of consistency and loss of leverage.The deployment of a solution incorporating workflow technol-ogy and optimal control and reuse of centralized multilingual assets streamlines and unifies all stages of the content life cycle. Everyone from

the authoring team to the regional review teams can leverage these assets to support his or her work. Intelligent strategies and processes are necessary to fully leverage the potential of legacy translation assets available in a myriad of different formats. Optimum reuse of existing assets often depends on the ability of a technology or service supplier to develop effective strategies to tackle translation asset consolida-tion and cleanup. Furthermore, architectures and solutions must be designed that are flexible enough to manage and maintain these assets efficiently moving forward.

Measuring pollution

Many global corporations under-stand the need to regularly carry out maintenance of their multilin-gual assets. Others are often sur-prised if not dismayed at the general state that their valuable multilingual assets are in when they submit them to the scrutiny of a team of experts for consolidation, cleanup and migration for centralized use within a GIM solution. It is very common to see the previously fragmented approach reflected in the quality of the multilingual assets. A general “pollution check-up” often shows

unacceptable levels of content pollution. The main contributors are inconsistent localization proc-esses, lack of tool standardization, and the whole range of manual and user errors, which inevitably occur when handling different file types and manipulating TM data.This pollution manifests itself in a range of symptoms, including the failure to fully export TM data from the source application to an exchange format such as Transla-tion Memory eXchange (TMX); the inadvertent existence of multiple locales within TMs that are meant to contain just one source and target combination (Nynorsk and Bokm°al for Norwegian, or Traditional and Simplified Chi-nese); identical source and target segments or empty target segments where there is clearly no linguistic or other reason for them; corrupt or invalid characters within the source TM (bidirectional languages, such as Hebrew and languages using extended characters, and double-byte languages, such as Chinese, are often affected); and so on.Other issues are caused by the fragmented use and incompat-ibility of legacy TM tools and builds with support for different TMX versions (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.4a, 1.4b) or other export formats across the supply chain. Differ-ent TM tools or versions of those tools often handle content in different ways. In particular, the inconsistent handling of formatting information — such as change of font, links and so on — across TM applications and content types can cause incompatibility and loss of leverage through the introduction of extraneous tags, line breaks and soft/hard returns within the TMs. In some cases, the code for certain characters may be contained within the TM rather than the actual character that the code represents (such as ¿ instead of ¿), which will further reduce leverage.

Another frequent cause of loss of leverage is the inconsistent applica-tion of segmentation rules. Each TM tool on the market has its own standard settings for segmenta-tion. While these settings can often be tweaked, any consistent application of settings relies on the correct settings being applied for each project by all the users across the cascaded supply chain. Therefore, the process is depend-ent on the manual intervention of suppliers and in-house staff with a range of ability and expertise.Finally, more and more com-panies are moving away from legacy publication formats such as FrameMaker, Interleaf and Word, favoring migration to a company-wide XML publishing environment. As a result, there is an increasing requirement to clean legacy TMs for optimized leverage when translating XML content.These are just some of the phenomena that can affect the quality of a company’s valuable multilingual assets and the reuse that can be achieved using them. Anywhere from 10 to 50 language combinations and any number of TMs ranging from a few hundred to over a thousand, containing a few million to tens of millions of words, are quite common today. This increases the complexity of the task. Furthermore, corporations often have distinct and elaborate business rules for prioritizing the TMs according to a known vendor or quality hierarchy, by product range or content type, which may vary by language combination.An intelligent automated con-solidation and cleanup process is essential in order to contend with the many intricacies, while maximizing the potential reuse of multilingual assets and ensuring their sustainable growth within a GIM environment. Only a well-considered, best-practice approach will allow for content to be recycled

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Figure 1: To reach world markets, global information goes through a complex, fragmented supply chain.

20 MARCH 2007

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efficiently and effectively and leverage to be optimized within a centralized, workflow environment.

Cleaning up the environment

In terms of approaches to tackle complex multilingual asset con-solidation projects, three different incremental “levels” of cleanup can be identified.Level 1 essentially involves the migration of the TMs to a common format.Level 2 comprises an advanced round of TM cleanup and optimi-

zation based on in-depth leverage testing.Level 3 entails a partial or full lin-guistic cleanup and standardization of the TM content.Flexibility is key throughout the consolidation and cleanup process, and certain TM or content subsets can be identified for a higher level cleanup than others if necessary. The aim at all levels is to increase the consistency and potential lever-age of all assets and to accelerate the time-to-market through the cen-tralization of these assets. A detailed return on investment analysis based on a modeling of the typical reuse that a company is achieving and the expected future volumes will de-termine which degree of linguistic cleanup and which level of overall consolidation is most suitable.

The individual process steps of each level of cleanup are shown in Figure 5.Level 1. The most fundamental step that needs to be carried out in order to fully leverage existing TM assets in a GIM environment is the migration of legacy TM content to a common format. This approach consists of a number of different process steps.Step 1: A full evaluation of all legacy TM materials is carried out, which provides a comprehensive overview of all the TM files available for consolidation, including key data

for each file. This analysis process is automated and produces a detailed bill of materials (BOM) showing each file name, file size, all CAT tools (and build versions) used to create the TM files, an overview of the different TMX versions supplied and a detailed word count per TM, as well as the source and target languages contained in each TM. The BOM also acts as a point of reference to the engineering team throughout the cleanup process, as well as to client-side stakeholders, providing everyone with a clear picture and scope of the task at hand. In addition, empty TMs are flagged, and the language flavors in each TM are logged along with any discrepancies that may need to be fixed programmatically. The BOM is an essential starting point,

especially when consolidating as many as a thousand individual TMs. At this stage, the file size and word count information can be used to assess the time required to complete the export and import of the content, as well as to model the cost for a linguistic cleanup (Level 3) if necessary.Step 2: A full technical assessment of the TM files includes the testing of file integrity, exportability to an exchange format such as TMX 1.4b and importability into the com-mon format that has been decided on. Existing or new attributes (or metadata) can be applied when the TM content is migrated to the common format. At this stage, technical experts and engineers use their extensive working experience of a range of legacy TM tools and knowledge of the TMX standard to identify potential issues. The focus is on identifying problems that may hinder the import into the new common format or negatively impact leverage.Step 3: Scripts and routines are cus-tomized to automate the technical cleanup of any issues that have been identified. These are then run in order to apply fixes and clean up ex-traneous proprietary tagging intro-duced through the use of different legacy translation tools with varying degrees of support for TMX. These fixes are then regressed by a team of engineers. As part of this process, the TMs can be programmatically prioritized in accordance with the corporation’s business rules and ordered correctly for an automated import cycle.Step 4: The TM files are then auto-matically imported into a common format ready for use within the GIM environment. Level 2. Completion of the Level 1 approach foresees a complete migration of diverse legacy TM content to a common platform pro-viding access to a centralized reposi-tory of multilingual TM assets. The

next level of TM cleanup — Level 2 — allows for reuse to be further optimized through an advanced cleanup cycle based on the results of a range of leverage tests.Step 1: The consolidated and cleaned Level 1 TMs are taken and are used to analyze sample projects against, thereby determining the actual leverage. This leverage testing stage involves various different con-tent and format types from actual client localization projects — both old and new.Step 2: The resulting leverage is then compared to the leverage that was achieved on the previous project and the leverage that might be expected under ideal circumstances. Any analysis showing a lower lever-age than expected is then investi-gated by a team of engineers with the support of linguistic analysts and mother-tongue translators if necessary.Step 3: Once this team has deter-mined and verified the cause(s) of any low leverage, scripts and routines are written to program-matically remove the causes of lower-than-expected leverage across the full range of TMs.Step 4: These fixes are then regressed and verified visually within the actual TMs and through renewed leverage testing by a team of engineers and linguists.Level 3. The Level 1 and Level 2 approaches focus primarily on the technical aspects of consolidation, tagging and file integrity. Level 3 involves a partial or full linguistic review by a team of mother-tongue translators with the appropriate sub-ject-matter expertise. The aim is to review the content from a linguistic point of view and identify core de-ficiencies or areas of inconsistency using corporate style guides and terminology databases.Automated quality assurance (QA) tools can then be used to extract sub-standard content from the TMs and correct it while standard-

Figure 2: TMs and terminology assets are distributed, used and maintained in a non-centralized way.

21MARCH 2007

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izing style and terminology where inconsistencies or errors have crept into the legacy TM content. Certain aspects of the Level 3 linguistic review can be automated using ap-propriate linguistic tools. This level is the most time and cost intensive, but it’s crucial nonetheless if the legacy content is of poor quality.The task of consolidating a global corporation’s myriad of TMs, term bases and other multilingual assets within a GIM environment is often monolithic. In some scenarios, the solution needs to allow companies to work with multiple vendors and to structure cleansed and optimized content in the most intelligent and appropriate way for leveraging. This

process can’t be carried out success-fully without a viable automated approach. Global corporations need to bear in mind these key considera-tions, as well as the negative impact that content pollution will have on the entire environment when evolving.

Clean technology is the key

Many sources of TM pollution can be remedied by applying a best-practice approach to the consolida-tion and cleanup of existing TM assets. Global corporations can, however, take a number of measures to prevent pollution rather than having to cure it.

In the same way that many products today bear symbols that show that they are environmentally friendly, compliance with open standards is just such an indicator for TM tools. The use of a tool set with full support for open industry standards is the first step towards a cleaner in-formation environment. One of the most important standards to look out for is TMX, which allows for the transfer of TM content with little or no loss of critical data depending on the version used. TMX is defined by the Localization Industry Standards Association’s (LISA) special interest group, Open Standards for Con-tainer/Content Allowing Re-use (OSCAR) and is currently at version 1.4b. While many localization vendors and technology providers claim that their tools and processes are TMX compliant, only the tools listed on the LISA site (www.lisa.org) have officially been certified and can claim to fully support the latest version of TMX. Standard-izing all localization activities on a single, TMX-certified solution is the first step towards ensuring optimum re-use and integrity of multilingual assets.The next step is the centralization of all multilingual assets within a full-fledged GIM solution. Real-time access to these assets for all the necessary stakeholders and users across the corpora-tion from authoring through localization to publication or content delivery is essential. Such a solution should allow for full workflow automation, mean-ing that most of the manual production steps can be fully au-tomated. These steps include the submis-sion and retrieval of content, the applica-tion and updating of TMs and term bases,

pre- and post-production and engi-neering, in-country review support and many other steps. The need for manual intervention is eliminated wherever possible, and the technical integrity (correct tagging, segmen-tation, attributes, locale informa-tion, code pages and so on) and linguistic accuracy of all content is safeguarded and enforced.The automation of workflows can be fully tailored to a corporation’s business rules and ensures the accu-racy and quality of all multilingual publications and multilingual assets. These assets are updated automati-cally after the translated content has passed through all the necessary QA stages, as applicable to each type of content or publication. All assets are accessible in real time and are tagged with a certain amount of metadata to define the context of a translation (content type, style, do-main, customer, project and so on) and provide the highest degree of granularity. This allows the assets to be leveraged in the most meaningful way and provide maximum value.To summarize, a once complex, fragmented process (see Figure 1) can be turned into a unified, industry-leading GIM solution (see Figure 3). This solution is not only more efficient and scalable, but also far cleaner and simpler to maintain through the support for workflow

Figure 3: A once complex, fragmented process is turned into a unified GIM solution.

Figure 4: Centralizing TM and terminology assets in an automated workflow environment results in clean multilingual assets.

Figure 5: Consolidating and cleaning up multilin-gual assets in three levels.

22 MARCH 2007

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automation, intelligent business rules and open industry standards. The principle of multilin-gual asset centralization, as shown in Figure 4, allows for maximum leverage across the organization, while ensuring sustainable, clean growth of those assets.There are many areas in which technology and service suppliers can demonstrate the value that they can add with regards to “green” tools and processes. In fact, some technology suppliers already offer certification programs that are specifically aimed at helping global corpora-tions to overcome the hurdles of fragmented and inconsistent localization approaches.

The world is turning green

As global corporations increasingly look to streamline the entire content life cycle through the implementation of a comprehensive GIM solution, the significance of open standards continues to grow. An example is the recent efforts to define standards for Segmentation Rules eXchange (SRX) and Global Information Management Metrics eXchange (GMX, a family of proposed standards concerning translation-related metrics). Support for these standards and their development will allow corporations to further enhance the value of their multilin-gual solutions (rather than the assets alone). The deployment of greener, industry-leading technology and processes will also ensure the longevity of their investments.Suppliers, in turn, will increasingly need to demonstrate the necessary bandwidth of technical solutions and consultancy expertise, their understanding of and support for open standards, and in-depth XML expertise. The latter lies at the heart of many of the standards such as TMX, TBX, SRX or Darwin Informa-

tion Typing Architecture (DITA), which have become essential for architecting industry-lead-ing GIM solutions.Not unlike gas, oil and other fossil fuels used to drive our economies today, a global corpora-tion’s multilingual assets are critical resources that fuel a company’s ability to drive the cost out of localization while reducing time-to-mar-ket and improving the accuracy, consistency and quality of communications. A “green,” sustainable approach to the use of these assets will reduce the level of pollution throughout the environment and allow for content to be re-used more efficiently. The entire content environment will become a better and cleaner place for future generations of global products and consumers worldwide.

Further reading

LISA Best Practice Guide: “Managing Global Content – Global Content Management and Global Translation Management Systems”IDC Executive Brief: “Getting from Yes to Ja – How Companies Can Succeed by Managing Global Information”“The Importance of TMX” (The LISA Newslet-ter, Volume XI, no. 3.6)OSCAR: www.lisa.org/sigs/oscar

Reprinted with permission of MultiLingual magazine, Copyright January 2007,

www.multilingual.com

Garry Levitt is opera-

tions manager of the

Alliance division of SDL

International.

[email protected]

www.sdl.com

contact

23MARCH 2007

Central and Eastern Europe in the global contextHow the business potential of CEE compares with that of China or India

By Libor Safar and Arturo Quintero

Today, more than 17 years after the fall of the Ber-

lin Wall, the region of Central and Eastern Europe

(CEE) is thriving. The CEE region has become a

major services and production base for Western

European and US companies, and increasingly also

for businesses from Japan, Korea, China and India.

While the emerging markets of India and China are

very visible, and are the hot topics for media and

analysts alike, the CEE region as a whole enjoys

somewhat less media space. This article provides

some basic comparisons of the CEE region with

China and India – where they differ markedly and

where they share similarities, primarily from the

business perspective.

Regionalization

One aspect these regions have in common is the

opening up of their economies and their inclusion

in international trade and globalization trends in

general over the past few decades. During this

period, they have attached themselves to the

existing “triad” of the major regional trading blocs

of Europe (the European Union), Asia (Japan,

APEC and ASEAN), and the Americas (NAFTA), and

have established themselves as up-and-coming

economic partners.

The CEE region has benefited from the proximity

to – and for many countries, membership in – the

EU. The region has become a major manufactur-

ing base for sophisticated industries such as the

automotive sector, and enjoys fast-growing popu-

larity as an outsourcing center for high-tech and

R&D industries. Effectively, it has become a “near-

sourcing” location for the whole of Europe, offer-

ing the advantages of a talented and educated

workforce, lower costs of living and labor as well

as cultural proximity.

China and India are close to the Asian trading

blocs. China is a member of APEC (the Asia-Pacific

solutions

Photo: Sanja Gjenero

Economic Cooperation) forum, a loose grouping

of the countries bordering the Pacific Ocean.

Recently China has also started to sign bilateral

free trade deals with a number of individual

APEC member countries. The impact of the

regional trading blocs has now also prompted

the members of the 10-strong Association of

Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to accelerate

plans to create a single economic community.

Countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam

and others hope that this will enable ASEAN

to compete more efficiently against the fast-

growing larger economies of China and India.

ASEAN members now hope to establish a single

trading market, similar to the European Union, as

early as 2015.

To complement the triad, NAFTA (the North

American Free Trade Agreement, encompassing

the USA, Canada and Mexico) countries benefit in

a similar way from the proximity of the Central and

South American countries such as those clustered

in the Central American Free Trade Area (CAFTA)

encompassing Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala,

Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Repub-

lic, and also from the relative proximity of the

Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay,

Venezuela, and Paraguay). The CAFTA countries in

particular are well positioned to profile themselves

as the near-sourcing center for the Americas,

providing offshoring operations to the US, mak-

ing use of the same time zones and proximity to

North American markets. While NAFTA has gained

ground since its implementation in 1994, plans to

create a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)

that would include the rest of Latin America are

currently on hold.

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The effects of globalization

The globalization trend, which may have started

over the last 25 years or so, and from which the

CEE countries as well as India and China have

largely benefited, is by no means a given. We

often like to think that we live in unique times, and

perhaps to some extent we do, but globalization

is not a new concept.

In terms of finance for instance, according to

some measures, capital flowed more freely across

frontiers in the late 19th century than today. The

net outflow from the then imperial powerhouse

Britain rose to as high as nine percent of GNP

in that period. By contrast, even at their peak in

the 1980s, net capital outflows from Japan and

Germany never exceeded five percent of their

national outputs. The difference today is that

the flow of capital is becoming increasingly bi-

directional.

In the late 19th century, there were also major

movements of people between countries, regions

and even continents. This is not a major feature

of today’s globalization. Then, the momentum

was lost, and it may equally be that the current

trend towards globalization will cool down.

If that happens, however, it is quite likely that

China, India and the CEE will find themselves in a

much stronger position vis-à-vis the other global

economies.

Unity and diversity

When evaluating the market potential, the CEE

is a region encompassing a population of some

90 million, comprised of a number of countries,

which share some common cultural and historical

perspectives, but are independent nationstates,

each with their own language and identity.

Products sold on these markets will require

localization or translation into these individual

languages, and today, the languages spoken in

the CEE region are an established target for most

companies localizing products for the European

marketplace.

In contrast, China and India are single countries

and by far the most populous in the world, with

China’s population exceeding 1.3 billion people,

and India’s greater than 1.1 billion. While the

economies of scale when launching localized

products in these countries are obvious, the

countries are far from homogeneous. In the case

of China, for instance, producers need to consider

the differences that exist in the Chinese language,

with its seven to ten main classified dialect groups,

some of which are mutually incomprehensible.

These spoken dialects do not differ largely in their

standard written form, which depending on the

country uses the Simplified Chinese character

set (PRC, Singapore) or the Traditional Chinese

character set (Taiwan and the rest of the Chinese-

speaking world).

Microsoft’s Windows operating systems provide

an example of a good support in this respect.

The latest Windows Vista™ operating system is

available in Simplified and Traditional Chinese,

as well as a special Traditional Chinese for Hong

Kong.

In contrast, India provides for a much more

complex market regarding localization and

translation. India has 23 official languages

(including Hindi and English), and of the 1,652

(according to the 1961 census of India) mother

tongues in India, 24 languages are spoken by a

million or more people.

The business potential in India has been recog-

nized by Microsoft, who has extended further the

number of Indian languages in which their op-

erating system is available with Windows Vista™.

During 2007, Windows Vista™ is set to become

available in some 15 Indian languages, including

minority languages spoken in parts of India that

were not previously supported by Windows XP,

such as Pashto and Assamese. This allows many

more people access to software in their own lan-

guage, and also sets a precedent and encourages

other software producers to bring their products

to the market in these local languages.

Labor considerations

Talent has become a global resource, and attrac-

tion and retention of talent is one of the keys to

success for companies. In this respect, the CEE

region, China and India are places which are pro-

viding a large supply of talented and qualified

resources. Certainly labor costs, which are lower

in the CEE region than in the west, and lower still

in India or China, have been one of the main driv-

ers. But it is also the sheer number of graduates

who become available every year, along with their

qualifications and motivation to succeed, which

are equally important to consider.

India produces an estimated 400,000 new gradu-

ates in engineering and science every year – more

than any other country in the world. But the big

three Indian software companies alone – Infosys,

Wipro and TCS – are planning to hire 100,000 new

graduates in 2007. Future growth will require

even higher numbers of qualified graduates, and

in India, as in China, there are fears of an upcom-

ing shortage of qualified resources. There are clear

signs of the labor market becoming over-heated.

This results in wage inflation, especially in local

centers with a high concentration of local and for-

eign operations, and deteriorating staff retention.

These trends exist in the CEE countries too, but

are less acute, and certainly the labor costs are

not set to rise as dramatically in specific industries.

Also, although the CEE region produces a lower

number of university graduates than India or Chi-

na, they are on average found to be more suitable

to work for multinational companies according

to the McKinsey report Sizing the Emerging Global

Labor Market.

Cost of doing business

While labor costs in India or China are lower than

the CEE average, they are only part of the total

cost of doing business. Because the business and

overall technical infrastructure in China and India

is still developing, other associated costs are of-

ten considerably higher than in the CEE region.

This applies to support services such as account-

ing or legal services, where working with knowl-

edgeable partners familiar with the international

environment and well equipped with foreign

language skills will necessarily bear higher costs

than where these skills are not such a limited re-

source. Equally, the costs of IT infrastructure are

not markedly lower in China and India, and some,

such as fast and reliable internet connectivity, are

often higher than in Europe. This is certainly one

of the factors contributing to the pressing need to

achieve economies of scale in China. Since non-

labor costs can be high, it takes a large scale and

a high degree of utilization to be successful, and

this has been at the top of the agenda of many a

Chinese enterprise.

The close proximity of the CEE countries to the

rest of Europe as well as to North America in terms

of culture, ethics and business and management

practices, is a major competitive advantage of the

region. In addition, the fact that – today – much

of the region is already part of the European Un-

ion, and hence shares the same legislature and

legal frameworks, simplifies doing business in the

region dramatically, and reduces costs and risks.

Ultimately risk reduction leads to the reduction of

overall costs, which compensates further for the

lower hourly rates for labor in China or India.

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Overall attractiveness

In the 2006 edition of the annual Ernst & Young

European Attractiveness Survey, titled Team Europe

Defends its Goals, one of the conclusions given is

that Europe, as a region on the global scene, “re-

inforces its position as the location of choice,

thriving on Western Europe’s maturity and Central

Europe’s dynamism.” Based on the survey, which

was conducted among 1,019 international busi-

ness executives from Europe, North America and

Asia, Western and Eastern Europe remain the top

two business locations of choice, followed by the

USA and China.

Overall, the attractiveness of China (as measured

by the E&Y survey) has fallen considerably com-

pared with 2005, from 52 percent to 41 percent,

while India remains the fifth most popular global

region with 18 percent, unchanged from 2005.

What is a remarkable change compared with 2005

is that now primarily small-to-medium enterprises

(SMEs) find investing in China attractive, whereas

previously this was mostly the large multinational

companies.

Key factors

Companies evaluating the CEE region against

China or India come from different industries and

work in different environments. Nevertheless the

following are some of the major universal factors

that make for the attractiveness of the CEE region:

Same time zone – The fact that the CEE is

located in the same time zone as much of

Europe allows exploring the critical advantages

of unlimited communication. Even though

much of the IT-related services are today

less vulnerable to the issues resulting from

communicating across long distances, this

continues to be an important convenience and

comfort factor.

Geography – All the CEE countries are easily

accessible, thanks in part to the immense

increase in intra-European air links between

most major cities and even minor ones. For

product shipment this translates into speed

and low costs of transportation.

Legislation – The fact that most of the CEE

countries are now EU members means they

share the identical or harmonized legislature

covering anything from trade, labor, and

regulatory affairs to consumer regulations.

Among other things, this

also dramatically reduces

the costs and requirements

for administration.

Cultural proximity – The

shared cultural background

and heritage, and the largely-

shared set of assumptions

and human experience, can

streamline communication

considerably. In terms of

the business environment,

this results in an overall

compatibility with prevailing

business culture and

ethics. In addition, the CEE

region offers a wider diversity and access to

knowledge of foreign languages other than

English.

Skill pool and costs of labor – The CEE region

provides a large pool of educated, well-trained

and motivated resources with up-to-date skills.

The hourly costs of labor are higher than in

China or India, but still lower than in Western

Europe. The European countries in particular are

well-positioned to make use of this advantage,

before it becomes less significant as the wage

levels in Western and Eastern Europe equalize.

Market potential – Even though as a whole

the CEE region is a smaller market in terms

of population than China or India, it is still

significant, has higher-than-average purchasing

power, and is marked by fast growing

national GDPs and an overall affluence of the

population.

Pan-European benefit – Given the high

degree of integration between the individual EU

member countries, in most cases what benefits

one region has – sooner or later – a beneficial

effect on the whole. The EU is becoming a larger

market and the CEE region increases the overall

attractiveness of Europe as a market as well as

the place for foreign investment.

The individual CEE countries alone may find it hard

to compete with the emerging giants of China and

India. But as a region encompassing a diverse yet

coherent set of countries with cultural, business

and geographical proximity to Western Europe,

it provides for a growing market as well as smart

outsourcing location. Overall, it is well-positioned

for European companies to explore this potential,

as it is for those who want to make the CEE region

a springboard for their expansion into the whole

of Europe.

Western Europe

Central & Eastern Europe

USA/ Canada

China India Other region in Asia

Latin America

Middle East

AfricaJapan Oceania

68%

52%48%

41%

18%15%

12%8% 8%

5%1%

The most attractive global areas 2006(total superior to 100% - 3 possible choices)

Ranking 20051. Western Europe (63%)2. Central & Eastern Europe (55%)3. China (52%)4. USA/Canada (45%)

©2006 Ernst & Young, European Attractiveness Survey "Team Europe Defends its Goals," www.ey.com

contact

Libor Safar is Marketing Manager at Moravia

Worldwide, the localization and testing services

company with global headquarters in Brno,

Czech Republic.

Arturo Quintero is the Chief Corporate

Strategist at Moravia Worldwide

[email protected]

[email protected]


26 MARCH 2007

solutions

By Jurek Nedoma MSc Eng. and

Andrzej Nedoma MSc Eng.

I. Analysis of the prospects of the CEE market

The term “Central and Eastern Europe” is not altogether precise. Habitually it is used as the opposite of “Western Europe” (WE), that is the territory of the 15 “old” EU-member countries (EU-15), along with Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland as well as the micro-countries Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican. Following the recent stages of EU enlarge-ment, several varied groups of countries can be distinguished in the CEE region (Fig. 1):

Translations into CEE languages – prospects and risksExpeditious economic growth, high population, numerous prospective markets for all types of products and

services – the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) offer attractive business opportunities. However,

preparing products and services for these new markets might prove harder than expected, especially when it

comes to translation. The following tips and observations will give you an idea of the region’s potential and

what to consider when choosing a translation service provider.

(1) EU-10 members (countries which joined the EU on May 1, 2004): Cyprus, Czech Re-public, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia

(2) EU-2 members (countries which joined the EU on January 1, 2007): Bulgaria and Romania

(3) The next prospective EU applicants: Croatia and Turkey as well as other coun-tries that are not currently applying for EU membership (other Balkan countries, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Moldova1).

The intuitive boundary between WE and CEE countries is shown in Fig. 2.According to common opinion rapid growth in the CEE countries is expected. Comparison

of the two illustrations that are available on the Eurostat website supports this opinion:Fig. 3 shows the gross domestic product (GDP) per inhabitant in 268 regions2 of the 27 EU member states as a function of the EU average. It is clearly visible that in all of the CEE countries (former German Democratic Republic included) the GDP is significantly lower than the EU average (red and orange color). In the WE countries a similar low GDP level is reported only in Portugal, southern

Fig. 1 – EU enlargement in 2004 and 2007 Fig. 2 – The intuitive boundary between WE and CEE countries

Fig. 3 – GDP per inhabitant (in PPS) as a percentage of the EU average Source: © European Communities, 1995-2007

27MARCH 2007

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taken into consideration that the population of the non-EU countries in Europe (mainly the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Turkey) constitutes nearly 300 million, almost 65 percent of the present EU-27. Forecasts predict an increase of nearly 30 percent with regard to Turkish-speakers – increasing from 67 to 87 million between 2001 and 2050. Although the total population of Russian- and Ukrainian-speakers will drop around 20 percent, the speakers of CEE languages will constitute the majority in Europe by the middle of this century (see Table I).This reallocation of population results in a boom in the translations conducted into the languages of the CEE region. Europe increas-ingly needs translations into these languages. The trend of quick rises in the GDP in this region will play a rather important role. End-clients and translation agencies are taking up

this new challenge. They should, however, keep in mind the risks resulting from the existing technical, cultural, and economic situation at hand. Familiarity with these circumstances is crucial for success in the CEE market, which is really very attractive: expeditious economic growth, relatively high numbers of inhabitants, many

prospective markets for all types of products and services as well as the large variety of official languages. Therefore, the following observations, conclusions, and tips might prove helpful for the decision-makers in WE custom-ers’ organizations.

II. Ten important tips for WE decision-makers

Issue 1:Slavonic languages have grammar rules and structures that are entirely different than those found in German, English, or French. The different forms of plural are only one example. Thorough proofreading is imperative in order to ensure the correctness of the grammatical form. Example:

As a rule, the regular plural form of a noun in English simply requires the suffix “s”. In Polish, there are two different regular plural forms – the first (with the suffix “y”) is reserved for 2, 3 and 4 (respectively 22, 23, 24, etc.), while the second (with the suffix “ów”) is cor-rect for 5-21, 25-31, 35-41, etc.In Russian it gets even more complicated with three coexisting plural forms: the first (with the suffix “a”), is reserved for 2, 3, and 4 (and re-spectively 22, 23, 24 etc.), the second (with the suffix “îâ”) relates to 5-20, 25-30, 35-40, etc., and the third (without any suffix) is reserved for 21, 31, … 1001, etc. This means that e.g. for 21 or 1231 the singular form of the noun is used in Russian.It is clear from these examples that the “full repetition” in English (a segment, in tables of-ten a single word, that has occurred in identical form in the source document earlier) does not mean full repetition in Polish or Russian.

Fig. 4 – Change of GDP per inhabitant as a percentage of the EU average Source: © European Communities, 1995-2007

Table I – Population in Europe – current state and forecast (Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/europa.htm)

distinctly that the highest rate of growth (dark green and light green color) predominates in the CEE countries. In the WE countries a similar situation – quick increase of GDP per inhabitant from a very low level – is observed only in Andalusia and Extremadura (Spain) and in a certain part of Greece.In order to estimate the importance of CEE languages let’s have a look at some figures.According to recent figures the total population of the EU-27 is approximately 520 million, compared with approximately 400 million in the EU-15. This marks an almost 30 percent increase in population due to the 2004 enlargement. Furthermore, it should be

Spain, southern Italy, and in a certain part of Greece.The change of GDP per inhabitant presented as a percentage of the EU average (Fig. 4) shows

EN POL RUS1 segment 1 segment 1 сегмент2 segments 2 segmenty 2 сегмента3 segments 3 segmenty 3 сегмента4 segments 4 segmenty 4 сегмента5 segments 5 segmentów 5 сегментов21 segments 21 segmentów 21 сегмент22 segments 22 segmenty 22 сегмента25 segments 25 segmentów 25 сегментов31 segments 31 segmentów 31 сегмент

Year 2001 (millions)

Year 2001 (%)

Year 2050 (millions)

Year 2050 (%)

EU-15 378.2 48.3% 349.7 48.8%

EU-10 + ROM+BUL 108.7 13.9% 90.2 12.6%

RUS UKR 204.6 26.1% 165.0 23.0%

TUR 66.9 8.5% 86.9 12.1%

Other Balkan 24.5 3.1% 24.7 3.4%

TOTAL 781.9 100.0% 716.4 100.0%

28 MARCH 2007

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TIP: Never cut off the “full repetitions” out of the project. Pay your provider to additionally check for these instances.

Issue 2:Many special characters from the Latin and Cyrillic alphabet are used in CEE languages. The variety of diacritical symbols that in turn make different characters in the Latin alphabet is really amazing, e.g. derivatives of “a”, “e”, “i”, “o” or “u”:

Depending on the required operating system and DTP software version, these special char-acters often become corrupted when handling the files.

TIP: Carefully check the shape of all the special “national” characters and perform preliminary tests to see if the necessary special characters work properly with your software.

Issue 3:The application of CAT (Computer Aided Translation) tools for handling short phrases, segmented automatically by these tools might be doubtful because of the grammar differences between the source and target languages.

Example:Let us assume that the proceedings of the tekom conference should be translated into Polish language using a CAT tool. As the cho-sen font size for the title page is large, the title “tekom Conference” will appear in two lines – consequently, the CAT tool will divide this expression into two segments: (1) tekom, (2) Conference.In Polish (and in nearly all Slavonic languages), the order of the words in this expression is dif-ferent: (PL) “Konferencja tekom”.As a result, in a CAT tool we obtain:

Of course this set of two segments cannot be aligned in this way for the creation of the Translation Memory. In other parts of the .ttx file we should have the alignment: (EN) Conference → (PL) Konferencja

TIP: Be very careful with the acceptance of short segments for Translation Memories. It is better to exclude such exceptional segments from the TM in order to avoid serious mistakes.

Issue 4:The hyphenation rules in CEE languages are different from English (and other WE languages) even if the spelling of the words is similar or identical. Examples:

TIP: Remember that the automatic hyphenation system in your Windows system may cause significant mistakes in the hyphenation of texts that are written in CEE languages. Switch off the automatic hyphenation, and always sched-ule a final revision of a PDF file by a native speaker of the target language of the text.

Issue 5:During the communism period (and after 1989) there were several waves of immigra-tion from CEE countries into Western Europe. Many immigrants now offer translation services. But – as a rule – immigrants’ fluency in their native language degrades, in which they no longer have a grip on the contemporary language of their mother tongue.

TIP: Be very careful with assigning projects to trans-lators who have been away from their native country for several years.

Issue 6:In CEE countries the expected quality level for translation work is generally lower than that in developed countries. Good CEE translators demand higher rates than are offered to end clients by many agencies.

Example:The quality of the Polish translation of the Con-stitution for Europe (published in the Official Journal of the European Union EU C 310 dated December 16, 2004) was originally rather poor, and the mistakes were really significant. E.g. in Art. 271 the word “illicit” was missing in the Polish equivalent of the sentence “These areas of crime are the following: terrorism, traffick-ing in human beings and sexual exploitation of women and children, illicit drug trafficking, illicit arms trafficking, money laundering, cor-ruption, counterfeiting of means of payment, computer crime and organised crime”. This resulted in the literal Polish meaning that all factories working for the Polish Ministry of De-fense and trafficking arms – would be banned as a crime, which is an obvious nonsense.The problem was so significant that a special amendment has been published in the Official Journal of the EU (C 112/9 dated May 12, 2005) in order to eliminate these errors. It contains a revision of the 42 most important mistakes. (Source: http://www.konstytucjaue.gov.pl/kon-stue.nsf/dziennik_c_112.pdf)If the translation of such a unique document of international significance did not meet the quality expectations, it is conjecturable that the translations of less important texts do not meet these expectations either.

TIP: When working with CEE agencies place yourself as a high-profile client and avoid cheap services.

Issue 7:Due to cultural differences, contact with free-lance translators may sometimes be difficult. The importance of time, deadlines, and respon-siveness requirements are not always perceived in the same way.

à,á,â,ã,ä,å,ă,ą,ǎ ç,ć,ĉ,ċ,č ď,đ è,é,ê,ë,ē,ĕ,ė,ę,ěĝ,ğ,ġ,ģ ì,í,î,ï,ī,ĭ,į,ı,ǐ ķ ĺ,ļ,ľ,łñ,ń,ņ,ň ò,ó,ô,õ,ö,ǒ,ō,ŏ,ő ŕ,ŗ,ř ś,ŝ,ş,šţ,ť ũ,ū,ŭ,ů,ű,ų,ǔ,ù,ú,û,ü ŷ,ý,ÿ ź,ż,ž

Segment No. Source language (English) Target language (Polish)

1 tekom Konferencja2 Conference tekom

ENG choc-o-late POL cze-ko-la-daENG he-gem-on-y POL he-ge-mo-niaENG park-ing POL par-kingENG plu-toc-ra-cy POL plu-to-kra-cjaENG res-ur-rec-tion POL re-zu-rek-cjaENG sen-a-tor POL se-na-tor

29MARCH 2007

contact

solutions

TIP: Be prepared to face this situation or choose to only work with translation agencies.

Issue 8:In many CEE countries the population is rela-tively small. This results in fewer good transla-tors in certain language pairs. Moreover, many good translators are now engaged full-time in European Union institutions and have disap-peared from the pool of available translators. It is worth knowing that the population of Estonia is roughly 1.5 million, Slovenia – ap-proximately 2.0 million, Latvia –approximately 2.3 million, and Lithuania – approximately 3.4 million. This means that the total number of native speakers in these four EU countries together is nearly equal to the number of native speakers of Catalan, which does not reach the status of an official EU language.

TIP: Try to schedule translations in advance in order to ensure that you have a team that is available for your projects.

Issue 9:The value of the majority of CEE currencies versus WE currencies is significantly on the

rise. The strongest fluctuations were observed in the period August 2004 – August 2006. Therefore, this period was chosen for the graphs shown in Figure 5.The maximum and minimum values of these currency rates for 30 months are shown in Table II.

It is easily noticeable that within around six month (August 2004 – February/March 2005), the currency rate of main currencies (EUR, USD, GBP) dropped by 22-24 percent in relation to the Polish Zloty. At the same time, the living costs in Poland increased because of an inflation. As a result, the rates in WE currencies agreed to by CEE providers in August 2004 were insufficient to cover the local costs after six months (February/March 2005). A very similar situation is observed for other currencies, like the Czech Crown, Hungarian Forint, Slovak Crown, among

others. It seems that this risk will continue to occur until the respective CEE country adopts the Euro. Since January 1, 2007 only Slovenia has officially joined the Euro zone.

TIP: Accept this situation as it stands from the onset,

and be prepared to pay higher rates for CEE languages in the near future.

Issue 10:Many customers do not have sufficient knowl-edge about CEE languages or the individual countries in CEE.

TIP: Be prepared to provide consultancy services in this field or establish cooperation with a lan-guage services provider in a CEE country that will be your one-stop-shop for CEE languages, as well as a reliable consultant for all requests regarding these languages.

1 In certain sources (e.g. Wikipedia), south-Caucasus

countries (Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia) as well as

Kazakhstan are mentioned as prospective EU members.2 These regions are defined by level 2 of the Nomenclature

of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS 2003)

Fig. 5 – Trends of the changes in currency rates for the period Aug 2004 – Aug 2006 Graphs for: PLN/EUR, PLN/USD, PLN/GBP, and PLN/EEK, respectively. (Source: http://waluty.wp.pl/kursywalut.html)

Date PLN/EUR PLN/GBP PLN/USD PLN/EEK

Maximum (August 2004) 4.4780 6.6647 3.6948 0.2862Minimum (Feb. 2005) 3.7565 5.4839 0.2401Minimum (March 2005) 2.9066August 2006 3.9178 5.7572 3.0373 0.2504January 2007 3.8630 5.8449 2.9630 0.2640

Table II – Maximum and minimum values of currency rates for 30 months

Jurek Nedoma is CEO of Lido-Lang

Technical Translations, an agency

based in Cracow, which is specialized in

performing technical translations into

all European languages

Andrzej Nedoma is Development

Manager at Lido-Lang.

[email protected]

[email protected]

www.lidolang.com

30 MARCH 2007

business culture

Business practices in the Czech Republic

Introducing more customer friendly servicesIf you have been living in a Western European or North American country and successfully carrying on business there,

you might think that there should be nothing difficult about doing the same in the Czech Republic. However, before

venturing into one of the former communist countries to try your hand at business there, you need to be aware that

due to historical and cultural differences, it is quite another undertaking.

By Nathan Brown

The major difference is trust

In Western countries, trust is often taken for granted. However, Czechs are not yet used to being taken at their word or taking someone else at his word. Neither do they understand the concept of repeat business yet. They rather focus on the deal at hand, assuming that it is the last deal you will make together. As I’m sure you can imagine, this can make doing business in the Czech Republic not only frustrating, but also a lot more time consuming than it needs to be.Unfortunately, you not only have to regard anyone with whom you may potentially do business as dishonest, but you have to be aware that you are going to be viewed as dishonest as well. This takes some getting used to! Keep in mind, however, that you are not in your own country and Czechs view it as equally of-fensive that you are expecting to be trusted just because you say so. The good news is that once you trudge through all the required formali-ties of making sure everyone feels trusted and that you can be trusted, everyone relaxes a bit and can then focus on what needs to be done in order to accomplish the business at hand.

Don’t expect western service standards

Never expect, though, that you will receive the kind of fast, friendly service you are accus-Photo: Ryan Fox

31MARCH 2007

business culture

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tomed to in the West. It was never necessary under the socialist system for anything to get done quickly or with any pleasantries. So this is a very new concept to Czechs and is only slowly starting to gain any ground here.Some things to be aware of when do-ing business in the Czech Republic: • As soon as you are discovered to be a for-

eigner, you are likely to be charged a higher than usual rate for services and products.

• Often, once you’re sure that all fees and costs have been paid, contracts will come back to you with a list of extra fees and costs to be paid (and most likely conditions to be met).

• After you have made your down pay-ment for services to commence on a project, the service provider fails to perform the work contracted.

• When your partner says “I need a few days to think”, he is actively searching for someone else to counter your deal, and if successful you will not be notified.

• The “real” negotiation begins after the deal is settled and the contracts have been signed, and often the one person left out of these “real” negotiations is you.

All this being said there are, of course, many Czechs who do appreciate the value of good quality service and they strive to provide their customers with it. When you meet with someone or some firm that exhibits this kind of philosophy, it’s always in your best interests to establish a good relationship with them.

Also, these types of companies are really start-ing to build a following, meaning that other companies which don’t offer this quality of service, will be forced to sit up and take a lesson.

Developing customer service

A good example is the company Student Agency. The company was founded by Radim Janèura in 1996. Although active in different areas of business, one of the most notable is its venture into local and longer distance bus transit.Once trips such as those between Brno and Prague were dominated by communist-type bus companies including the state-run one. You could expect a grumpy driver on the journey, uncomfortable and old buses. Then Student Agency moved in offering slightly lower prices with bright yellow new buses featuring a movie on-board, your choice of hot beverage and a very friendly (above average, but not the best) staff. What was the result?With the Student Agency ticket booth beside the competition company in Brno, there was often a ten minute wait to buy a ticket with Student Agency and not a single person at the competition.Within a year, Student Agency had both booths and the competition did not even sell tickets at the depot. Now it is not uncommon to go by and see three to seven yellow Student Agency buses heading off to different directions.

Why the success?

Cheaper prices for sure, but more importantly, the customer service and a breath of something new attracts and keeps the Czechs coming.The good news is that this is rapidly improving as Western culture continues to spread its influ-ence in the Czech Republic and there continues to be a great influx of more foreign-owned busi-nesses and foreign workers and investors. Czech businesses are feeling the pressure of competi-tion, and many are trying hard to learn and integrate effective customer service policies.

Nathan Brown is owner of Czech Point 101,

a consultancy which helps individuals and

companies looking to invest, buy property

and/or relocate in the Czech Republic.

[email protected]

www.czechpoint101.com

contact

32 MARCH 2007

directorycommunity

7th European colloquium for user-friendly product information

The times when technical communicators were “only” technical writers who

sat alone at their desks writing plain manuals are long gone. Nowadays they

are rather managers at the intersection of a large number of areas and tasks

ranging from product development to sales and marketing, public relations

and after-sales services. Information architecture and design, content man-

agement, product data management, terminology, indexing and localization

are only some of the numerous related areas that technical communicators

are involved with or have to interact with.

Knowledge about what characterizes these areas and the specific workflow

at the intersections is thus indispensable. The insight in and interaction with

related professions also helps not only technical communicators but all pro-

fessions concerned to shape and position their own profession more clearly.

TCeurope invites usability experts, IT, content management, marketing and

public relations professionals, translators and localizers, product developers

and designers, process managers, quality managers, information architects,

terminologists and indexers to present their specialized fields and to have

a closer look at the intersections and the role of technical communication

within the process.

calendar

Globalisation Management Strategies Conference

Increased global competition has forced many US companies to take a hard

look at international markets. But international expansion often becomes an

uphill battle as companies enter unfamiliar territory. Ted Levitt’s influential

1983 message of standardized strategies and universal brand recognition has

led some companies to aspire to a global ideal. But while many firms have

tasted global economies of scale, the globalization of markets has developed

in ways not foreseen in 1983. The commonalities among markets are still

counterbalanced by significant differences; activists call for the re-localization

of the global economy, and the claim may be made that regionalization is

increasing in the world, not decreasing. The political climate makes it increas-

ingly crucial for businesses to be sensitive to local needs and preferences.

The conference will address key questions, such as:

How can companies engineer strategies that are inherently “glocal”, reaping

the benefits of global scale and local customization?

• What are the major organizational challenges of globalization as a business

process?

• What are the best ways to culturally customize to emerging markets while

not losing the benefits of global branding?

• What resources are available to help companies manage globalization?

when what where

March 12-15 LISA Forum Asia www.lisa.org/events/2007beijing/

Beijing, China

March 19 7th European colloquium for user-friendly product information www.tceurope.org/colloquium/

aboutthecolloquium.htm

Brussels, Belgium

March 20-22 Localization World Conference www.localizationworld.com

Shanghai, China

March 25-28 Fifteenth Annual WritersUA Conference www.writersua.com/

Long Beach, USA

March 29-30 Globalisation Management Strategies Conference www.globalisation.org/

Monterey, USA

April 16-19 AIIM Conference & Expo www.aiimexpo.com

Boston, USA

April 16-20 Hannover Messe www.hannovermesse.de

Hannover, Germany

April 25-27 Localization Certification Program http://rce.csuchico.edu/localize/

Marseille, France

May 1-2 Outsource World London www.outsourceworld.org/

London, UK

May 14-16 Customer Centric Selling® Workshop for LSPs www.commonsenseadvisory.com/

consulting/customer_centric.php

Boston, USA

May 19-23 2007 IRMA International Conference www.irma-international.org/confer-

ences/2007/index.asp

Vancouver, Canada

33

directory

MARCH 2007

Associations

GALA is an international non-prof-it association that promotes transla-tion services, language technology and language management solu-tions. The 200+ member companies worldwide include translation agen-cies, localization service providers, globalization consultants and tech-nology developers. GALA compa-nies share a commitment to quality, service and innovation in helping clients reach global markets.

www.gala-global.org

[email protected]

OASIS (Organization for the Ad-vancement of Structured Informa-tion Standards) is a not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the development, conver-gence, and adoption of e-business standards. The consortium pro-duces more Web services standards than any other organization along with standards for security, e-busi-ness, and standardization efforts in the public sector and for applica-tion-specific markets. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 5,000 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual mem-bers in 100 countries.

www.oasis-open.org

[email protected]

Technical Communication in EuropeWith the foundation of TCeurope nine European associations of tech-nical writers promote the quality of technical communication across borders, popularize the occupa-tional image, advance educational opportunities and support the interests of their members all across Europe.To enhance these goals TCeurope organizes an annual colloquium on user friendly product information, in which cross-border topics are discussed and viewed from a politi-cal, strategic, economic and techni-cal point of view.

www.tceurope.org

[email protected]

tekom Gesellschaft für technische Kommunikation e.V. is the largest association in Europe representing technical communicators, illustra-tors and translators. tekom is a neutral platform for the exchange of information, knowledge and expertise and promotes profes-sional education and training in the field of technical communication. Founded in 1978, tekom currently represents around 6000 members in all industrial branches. tekom cooperates with associations of related professions, educational institutions, industry organizations and standards bodies worldwide.

www.tekom.de

[email protected]

Service Providers

across Systems is the manufacturer of the across Corporate Transla-tion Management (CTM) software solution. across includes a transla-tion memory and terminology system as well as powerful tools to support the project and workflow management of translations. Prod-uct manager, translator and proof-reader all work together within one system, either in-house or smoothly integrated with translation service providers. There are several partner concepts and the Software Develop-ment Kit (SDK) for system integra-tors and technology partners in order to include both preliminary and subsequent process steps.

www.across.net

[email protected]

cognitas – these are more than 80 experienced employees like technical writers, designers, trans-lators, online-specialists and tool developers. cognitas is one of the largest certified service providers of technical documentation in many different sectors like information and communication technology, the aerospace industry, defense and automotive engineering. Our range of services is based on a system of modules, we accompany you from the first concept phase through roll-out and on to implementation. The company is situated in Munich, and has subsidiary offices in Paderborn, Stuttgart and Salzburg (Austria).

www.cognitas.de

[email protected]

tcwthe content

wrangler

TheContentWrangler.com is a popular online resource for techni-cal and business writers with an interest in content management. Become a member of TheContent-Wrangler.com community. It’s free!Members receive: Our monthly email newsletter Discounts on training, confer-

ences, books, and more Access to an influential network

of content professionals Invitations to participate in

industry surveys Access to survey results Content placement considera-

tion on TheContentWrangler.comwww.TheContentWrangler.com

[email protected]

empolis – The Information Logis-tics Company – offers enterprise content and knowledge manage-ment solutions for company-wide information logistics and for im-proving business processes. Our portfolio includes a wide range of solutions for technical documenta-tion and communication, e.g. • the empolis:Content Lifecycle

Suite – the intelligent publica-tion tool for creation and reuse of media-independent content, version and variant management, integrated translation manage-ment and 3D animation

• the empolis:Industry Catalog Solution – the solution for man-aging, editing and publishing complex product information.

empolis is part of arvato, the inter-national media service company within the Bertelsmann group.

www.empolis.com

[email protected]

34 MARCH 2007

directory

More market leaders choose Idiom® WorldServer™ to

globalize content for websites, software, products and

marketing materials than any other software solution.

See how Adobe, Continental, eBay, Oracle, Staples,

and Travelocity use WorldServer today to achieve more

in the global economy.

Learn more by visiting the Idiom Resource Center —

your one-stop portal for information and interaction,

www.idiominc.com/resources.

Globalization Software Solutions for Your Enterprise

Copyright © 2007 Idiom Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. Idiom and WorldServer are trademarks, or registeredtrademarks of Idiom Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective holders.

More Languages. More Markets. More Business.

www.idiominc.com+1.781.464.6000

Achieve more with the solution of choice for today’s market leaders.

Eskenazy TranslationsEskenazy Translations specializes in state-of-the art technical trans-lation, 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 an XML.Catalogues and brochures are deliv-ered print-ready for Windows and Macintosh. The current customer base includes 500 industrial compa-nies worldwide.References: Liebherr, Siemens, Panasonic, maxit Group.

www.eskenazy-translations.de

[email protected]

Idiom® Technologies optimizes the globalization supply chain by align-ing global enterprises, language service providers and translators. WorldServer™ software solutions expand market reach and acceler-ate multilingual communication by automating translation and localiza-tion processes. Idiom works with global organiza-tions including Adobe, eBay, and Mattel to cost-effectively translate global websites, streamline software localization, and speed time-to-market for international product documentation. Idiom also partners with consulting firms, systems inte-grators, and technology vendors to help customers maximize existing enterprise infrastructure.

www.idiominc.com

[email protected]

medical language service is a professional translation company which specialises exclusively in medicine, medical equipment and pharmacy. We work exclusively with qualified translators from these specialist areas. This means your documents are accurate and easy to understand even after translation and/or localisation. By using state-of-the-art technology we ensure the translation process is efficient at every stage.medical language service covers the entire translation process – from the preparation of information and data, translation and layout in the foreign language through to the finished publication.

www.medical-ls.com

[email protected]

Founded in 1990, Moravia World-wide is a leading globalization solution provider, enabling compa-nies in the information technology, life sciences, manufacturing and financial industries to enter global markets with high quality multilin-gual products. Moravia’s solutions – delivered into over 90 languages and locales – include localization and product testing services, inter-nationalization, multilingual pub-lishing and technical translation. With global headquarters in Brno, Czech Republic, Moravia has local offices in Ireland, Central Europe, the United States, Japan, China and Argentina.


europe@moraviaworldwide.

com

the medical information company the medical information company

mt-g medical translation is the leading provider of translations and global information services dedicat-ed to medical science. We specialize primarily in medical technology and diagnostics, regulatory affairs, dental medicine and other specialist medical fields.We offer a range of professional services covering translation, information production, global information management and XML documentation applications.More than 450 medical and phar-maceutical experts in over 100 countries are engaged in translat-ing, producing, managing and documenting medical information.

www.mt-g.com

[email protected]

VAW-arvato is a global service provider for the creation, manage-ment and delivery of technical information. From information sourcing to global delivery, we help make work-flows more efficient and use latest technology to achieve optimum cost savings, shortened production times and consistent quality.Our core industries are automotive, engineering, energy and medical.Over 200 experts in 9 locations on 4 continents produce• Owners literature• Service and repair manuals• Training literature• Diagnostic procedures• Spare parts cataloguesand translate these documents in more than 30 languages. Our own Content Management System al-lows intelligent integration into your software environment.

www.vaw-online.com

[email protected]

directory

More market leaders choose Idiom® WorldServer™ to

globalize content for websites, software, products and

marketing materials than any other software solution.

See how Adobe, Continental, eBay, Oracle, Staples,

and Travelocity use WorldServer today to achieve more

in the global economy.

Learn more by visiting the Idiom Resource Center —

your one-stop portal for information and interaction,

www.idiominc.com/resources.

Globalization Software Solutions for Your Enterprise

Copyright © 2007 Idiom Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. Idiom and WorldServer are trademarks, or registeredtrademarks of Idiom Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective holders.

More Languages. More Markets. More Business.

www.idiominc.com+1.781.464.6000

Achieve more with the solution of choice for today’s market leaders.

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