WorldLingo's Email Translation Solution
Since there will be more non-English speakers than English speakers on the Internet by the end of 2001, many companies are translating their marketing material and Websites into a variety of foreign languages.
However, this has created an unanticipated problem - the foreign email.
Dealing with a daily deluge of email is enough of a headache for most companies without having to scramble to find a translator each time a foreign speaking customer or supplier sends an email. Email translations are a hassle for translators, often viewed as an impediment to larger and more lucrative translation jobs. With many translators setting minimum prices for translations, having an email translated can be expensive and time consuming.
For localization vendors the problem is - no matter how great the job you do localizing a website, if the foreign language email does not run smoothly, it will be a problem the client is reminded of day after day after day. This is not the way you want a client to remember your last job when you are pitching them for more business.
Australian company WorldLingo has stepped into this gap by developing a free automatic email machine translation service. The free machine translation will allow your client to deal with most emails very quickly. For the rest, a human translation is just a click away, but a small fee applies.
And as the localization vendor who integrates WorldLingo's technology into your client's website, you earn a commission on these human translations.
Since the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA) has laid down the challenge "To eliminate multilingual barriers across a global enterprise" for its LISA Forum 2000, WorldLingo is using the forum as the official launch for its new service.
"Communicating with clients is hard enough if you do not speak their language, but not being able to communicate with others in your organization is really tough, says WorldLingo Director Phil Scanlan. I am sure global enterprises using WorldLingo will notice a big difference in terms of ability to respond quickly as well as cost."
(The LISA Forum 2000 will be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City from March 8-10, 2000 in Washington DC, USA)
Experts predict that by the end of next year more than half of all Internet users will speak a language other than English. For companies seeking a share of these lucrative and growing markets the ongoing cost of servicing customers responding to translated marketing materials and Websites can be prohibitive. According to WorldLingo Director, Phil Scanlan, small companies cannot afford to have linguists on staff for customer inquiries. "Even large firms find this a significant overhead."
"Engaging contract translators for emails can be difficult, by the time you have found a linguist with the right skills and obtained a quotation, the minimum charge for even a brief email makes this an expensive process, especially if you discover it's only junk mail. With WorldLingo the email arrives in your inbox with a machine translation and a quote for a quality human translation."
Phil Scanlan says it's dead easy. "By simply opening your email you can get the gist of the message from the machine translation and quickly decide if you need a human translation. Should you need the human translation, click on the WorldLingo link and you will receive a quality translation in Internet time."
To the foreign speaking customer all this is seamless. They don't know that the translation service has been out sourced. They just get a timely response to their email. WorldLingo is creating new work opportunities for translators, by bundling email translation work. They have established a global network of skilled translators who undertake the email translations.
How does it work?
WorldLingo clients set up an email alias for each of their specific national markets. All emails go to WorldLingo and are automatically machine translated and forwarded to the client with a quotation for a human translation. The machine translation allows the recipient to determine if it is junk mail, something that can be answered with a standard pre-translated reply or if it is an important order or contract which must be human translated to ensure the details are correct.
The company can then respond to the machine or human translated email and run the email reply through WorldLingo for a machine translation. This arrives at the destination with the original reply in English, a free of charge machine translated reply and a quote for a human translation for the recipient to pay if they choose to use the service. If it is a valuable customer and an important communication a company may choose to foot the bill at their end if a human translation is required for the reply.
In other words depending on the nature of the business a significant amount of non-critical translation work can be accessed for free. WorldLingo clients only pay for secure and confidential human translation work when and as they need it and at a price which is quoted and known up front.
This new service is a boon for companies that have been struggling to get accurate and timely translations for incoming foreign language email. For instance a company targeting the Japanese market recently distributed translated marketing materials in Japan and had their Web-site translated. Only to discover that incoming Japanese email arrived as gibberish because their computer could not recognize the Japanese characters - this is the case with most computers running Windows 98 outside of Japan. This meant they could not have translated the email even if they had a translator.
WorldLingo eliminates all these problems and enables small companies to trade in a global marketplace with all of the aplomb and at a fraction of the overheads carried by a multinational company with offices around the world and multilingual staff. If email has made the world a small place then WorldLingo has just shrunk the boundaries even further. It provides companies of all sizes with a cost and time effective solution to developing and communicating with marketplaces around the world.
-ends-
About WorldLingo
WorldLingo is a leading provider of integrated, online translation solutions. The company's services range from cost effective machine translation solutions, to professional human translation and culturally sensitive localization. A global network of over 5,000 professional translators produces human translations. WorldLingo also offers unique, real-time translation solutions for two-way email and instant messaging. These solutions make it easy for businesses and professionals to interact with internal and external multilingual audiences anywhere in the world. By combining accurate and cost effective translation, WorldLingo is taking great strides towards breaking down language barriers in the world of commerce.
WorldLingo produces thousands of translations every day. Clients include AT&T, Sony, Eli Lilly, Belkin, Cadbury Schweppes, Qualcomm, Priceline, and Tribal DDB. WorldLingo is also an official supplier of translation services to the European Union. In addition, Microsoft has integrated WorldLingo's technology into Office XP and Word 2002. WorldLingo is a global organisation with offices in the US, Australasia and Europe.
For more information: contact WorldLingo