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5/6th floors, Yamada Bldg.,
2-23-7 Higashi,
Shibuya-ku,
Tokyo 150-0011 Japan
Tel: 03-5485-1672 Fax: 03-5485-1674
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TRANSLATION｜PUBLISHING｜DOCUMENT RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ---
"Quality"
and "Cost Saving" are our key words.
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Discussion:
NEW
GENERATION
of
TRADOS
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ISSUES
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Mr.Yamaguchi: Comsus has utilized Trados to maintain firm control over translation quality,
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turnaround time, and costs. But we began to feel the need for additional capabilities to cope with clients' increasing demands.
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| Mr.Kawamoto: Through my experiences with localization projects, I am aware that companies try to distribute their workload evenly in order to assure quality, however, the reality does not allow it. Projects are becoming larger and turnaround time is getting shorter resulting in rushed schedules. This called for team effort. |
| Y: True. The larger the projects, the more translators you need. The problem is when you involve more translators, regardless of how skilled they are, it becomes more difficult to maintain unity of translation. Obviously that is where the reviewers come in to eliminate discrepancies, but there is a limit. |
SOLUTIONS
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K: Translation memories (TM), such as Trados Workbench, and accompanying dictionary functions, such as Trados MultiTerm (MT), have been quite useful. But when a large number of translators are working on the same project, it becomes difficult to maintain consistency. Now we have the TM and MT for servers, which could solve these problems.
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Translators working on the same project can share the same TM and dictionary. As translations are accumulated, they become available for other translating members to refer to. The TM is always updated. |
QUALITY
CONTROL
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Y: That is truly an ideal situation. With the conventional stand-alone Trados, each translator in a project team worked individually. But by using the TM for servers, it really becomes a team collaboration. Because they can see other member's translations, they can quickly react, exchange comments, and come to consensus. That leads to improvement of translation quality.
（Continues
to
the
top
right.）
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K: Up to now, reviewing was only possible after translation was completed. Often reviewers are given a limited time. With the TM placed on a server, the reviewer can check the translation uploaded onto the TM at any time. This is a tough environment for translators because their work is exposed, but for the purpose of improving quality, it is ideal.
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COST
REDUCTION
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K: "Quality" and "costs are always spoken about at the same time. What sort of influence do you think the server version of Trados will have on costs?
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| Y: The process is streamlined with the shared TM and the quality of translation is unified. Consequently, the reviewing workload is reduced, resulting in cost reductions and shorter turnaround time. |
EMPLOYING
THE
NEW
SYSTEM
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K: A wide-open translation environment requires changes to take place for both translators and managers. Managers must realize this fact.
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| Y: It took us a few years to figure out an effective work routine when we incorporated the stand-alone Trados. |
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| Obviously, with this new generation of Trados, we need to establish new procedures. For example, we may ask clients to evaluate translation in the middle of the process instead of providing feedback, which is usually received after translation is finished. We can view this new system as a collaborative effort between clients, translators, and managers, working together towards achieving satisfactory results. |
| K: The key to success is to find the most efficient way to manage and operate the system. |
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Y: That is correct. We already have a grasp of the upper limit of the number of translation units workable in one TM. We tested the TM for servers for both Japanese-to-English and English-to-Japanese translations, and it works fine both ways. We are now developing ways for collaborating effectively.
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| K: I am looking forward to seeing how Comsus will utilize the new Trados. |
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Mr.
Kiichi Kawamoto
Former member of Digital Equipment Corporation, Compaq (HP), and SAP.
Managing
Director
of Trados Japan (presently SDL Trados Japan) at the time of its formation. Now a consultant for GILT (Globalization, Internationalization, Localization and Translation). |
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Mr.
Sadao Yamaguchi
Director of Comsus |
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