They found that much more is needed to manage large multilingual sites than translation memory. Language Service Providers (LSP) and Translation Agencies have long coordinated translators for major clients who did not want to staff internal translation teams. With the increasing sophistication of business process management tools, the workflows around translation are now being managed with project-management-style applications.
First, the vendors of sophisticated globalization solutions and the largest LSPs built these project management solutions for themselves. The greatest single benefit was the ability to estimate project costs, by analyzing new source material for the fraction that could be leveraged using existing TM, and knowing the current cost schedules for translators. The result was a much better idea of return on investment (ROI).
Major clients soon wanted these capabilities in-house, preferably integrated into their "Enterprise Content Management" (ECM) systems. From the language vendors perspective, they want to call these Globalization Management Systems (GMS), Translation Management Systems (TMS), Global Information Management (GIM), or Global CMS. But from the client perspective, globalization management is just one more characteristic of their ECM solution.
Today, with web-based service-oriented applications the rule, large globalization vendors offer web-based online versions of their tools hosted on their servers. Software as a Service (SAS) is the largest growing sector of the industry, since it allows companies to better predict and control costs. SDL (who acquired TM leader TRADOS, thus combining the largest service provider and software provider under one roof) as well as L10nBRIDGE and Idiom (who have developed their own TM tools), all offer web-based interfaces to the translators themselves, who can now either download the source material, or actually work on it online, with access to the latest TM, controlled vocabulary termbases, etc. L10nBRIDGE's Freeway is perhaps the leading example of SAS.
Who are the major vendors of Global CMS? They are divided between large CMS vendors, now fully loaded with globalization tools, and the traditional globalization vendors, who are prepared to offer CMS to clients wanting to work with them as a single vendor, especially when the whole solution is out-sourced. SDL claims to have over 100 major corporate clients, numbers that compare to the large ECM vendors.
A new group of smaller and medium-size players are the XML CMS vendors, who tout their XML architectures as superior for the task of storing reusable content. With the standardization of XML translation memory databases in LISA TMX (Translation Memory eXchange) and OASIS X-LIFF (XML Language Interchange File Format), they may have a strong point.
| EMC Documentum |
| FatWire |
| FileNET (now IBM) |
| Interwoven |
| Mediasurface |
| Microsoft (CMS > SharePoint?) |
| Tridion |
| Vignette |
| Astoria |
| Bluestream |
| IXIASoft |
| Mark Logic |
| SiberLogic |
| Trisoft |
| Vasont |
| X-Hive/Docato |
| XyEnterprise |
XML CMS Systems Integrator(s)
| Innodata-Isogen |
| across | The across Enterprise Edition has been specially developed for use by the language services of multinational organizations and global translation service providers. Corporate Translation Management (CTM) with the across Enterprise Edition means infinite scalability and smooth integration with all locations, process levels and working environments. |
| Convey | Convey Localization Suite is a fully integrated suite of applications designed to optimize localization performance management. The suite is comprised of three integrated yet modular applications to address the unique requirements of the individuals responsible for content localization - ContentDirector, Project Manager, and Localization Toolkit |
| Idiom | Idiom provides globalization software to optimize the globalization supply chain by aligning enterprises, language service providers (LSPs) and translators.
Idiom solutions optimize globalization on a single standards-based platform - allowing a choice of language service providers, translation tools and content management systems. They include various WorldServer editions from QuickStart to Enterprise, and WorldStart professional services. |
| L10nBRIDGE | Freeway is L10nbridge's online service delivery platform. Access to Freeway’s collaboration features and language technology is free for Lionbridge clients and translators. Using Freeway, clients can initiate and track translation projects, collaborate with their project teams, manage linguistic assets, and generate enterprise budget and status reports.
Built upon the Logoport language management system, Freeway can support thousands of concurrent users ensuring greater productivity and consistency among your project teams. Freeway is an on-demand, web application enabling immediate addition of new users and simultaneous release of new features to all users. |
| Sajan | Sajan offers ISO-certified services fused with its single platform end-to-end solution - GCMS. GCMS centrally manages and streamlines the entire content creation and translation workflow processes. GCMS is a hosted online offering so there is no buying, installing or learning additional applications or tools. Sajan integrates and simplifies what has been a disparate and hard-to-manage process within most companies. |
| SDL | SDL International is the world’s largest provider of technology solutions for global information management. These solutions span the global content lifecycle, from authoring through content management to publishing, and cover all the different aspects of translation and localization. |
| Transware (was GlobalSight) | Ambassador, Transware's localization process automation technology, automates the content localization service process for customers and connects with CMS such as Interwoven and EMC Documentum. |
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