Even so, Lionbridge's business mix is shifting rapidly away from products. Two years ago, 85 to 90 percent of the company's localisation business came from handling technology products, with the remaining portion being content changes. Today, 30 to 40 percent of the localisation business is in content. In one recent contract, a global retail chain hired Lionbridge to help its workers create a consistent customer experience worldwide. Lionbridge is responsible for translating documents such as company policies, work rules and information about new products. Lionbridge also has clients in the automotive and financial services sectors. "As you can imagine, language is very pervasive in all global business," said company spokeswoman Sara Buda. "And language is our business." Although they're high-tech in origin, localisation companies still rely on human translators either in-house or as contractors. That's because computer translation technologies have not improved to the point of providing consistent, high-quality translations, said Robin Lloyd, Lionbridge's vice president of marketing. "They are not there yet," he said. "They don't replace a human native language translator." IDC's Motsenigos said that machine translation will come to the market slowly, one language pair and domain at a time. But he said it has the potential to be a "disruptive technology." "The higher level of (machine translation) quality will allow higher levels of operational efficiency in localisation firms, ultimately changing the pricing structure," he has written. Already, localisation companies use some technology that helps them get the job done. Translation memory, for example, allows a localisation company to keep track of previously translated material, which can speed the process along. The companies also face price competition from small outfits that may focus on translating into one language, or from people with personal ties to corporations. Companies continue to farm out work to such individuals, but are learning that a more sophisticated provider may be a wiser choice, said Rees-Evans. "It's somebody's granny working above some shop in Nuremberg," he said. "Then they realise that there are actually economies of scale to be realised and questions of quality." The bigger localisation players have project management skills, and are in a position to simplify business for customers, Motsenigos said. "An SDL or Bowne can certainly step up to the plate and say, 'Let us integrate better with you. We'll assume responsibilities for some of your other vendors'," Motsenigos said. "It's a better model at the end of the day." Rees-Evans thinks the global debate over Iraq also may give his industry a boost. "People have become more sensitised to the fact that there are a lot of different cultures," he said. "And if you want to engage with them effectively, you need to speak their languages."
More enterprise IT news in ZDNet UK's Tech Update Channel.
For a weekly round-up of the enterprise IT news, sign up for the Tech Update newsletter. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.
