Master Class at The Association of Translation Companies (ATC) Annual Conference

I had the pleasure to join the ATC Conference in Brigthon last September. It was an impressive event, very well organized, in a nice location, and with more than 150 attendees. I learnt as if I were a kid at the keynote presentations from Jack Welde and Jost Zetsche. I'm becoming a big fan!

On Friday 26th September, I presented my master class, What you need to put Machine Translation into practice: Tools, People, and Processes, where we could share experiences on how to take the most Return on Investment (ROI) out of Machine Translation. I also showed some good examples of what can be achieved with good quality Machine Translation (MT).

In summary, the main ideas I wanted to share is that you really need to invest in people, processes, and technology as strategic assets if you really think Machine Translation will be a key tool for your company in the future. In particular:

1. People: we are all reluctant to change, and even when we are decided and committed, it usually takes time and effort to make it real. Therefore, the first people in your company that need to have a clear strategic goal are the CxOs, who should transfer the passion and need to their Project Managers (PMs), with guidelines on how/when to apply MT. And do not forget your translators, who should also win by using MT! Let's put a simple example: if they double their productivity thanks to MT, you could pay them an unattractive 50% less, or better, only 25% less. That means that you reduce your costs by 25%, and you give them 25% extra time to do other things, where they can either earn more money or have free time. If you reduce the price a little bit for the client, then it's a win-win-win deal. Please adapt the percentages to your particular case taking into account other costs/investments you have made :-)
2. Process: there are good practices and even standards on high quality processes. However, choosing the right one on how to integrate MT into your existing translation company is not a binary decision, i.e. it is not a one size fits all. It depends on your people, your culture, your clients, and your technology, among other factors. Currently, there is a trend on how best companies integrate MT, which is described on slide 13, but depending on your objectives, other alternatives might be best-suited. Please give this a thought and go step by step before choosing a bad strategy that might harm your ROI.
3. Technology: when you compare the machine translation landscape now from the one six years ago, you realize how many MT companies have been created! What is good for the market and for our industry in general - we all improve thanks to the presence of good competitors, might become a headache for a company trying to sell new MT services, or reduce their costs and delivery times thanks to machine translation. Not only technology itself is important, but also other aspects such as confidentialty, customization, control, user friendliness, flexibility, and the business model. Even in today's connected world, the relationships and trust are still relevant. So evaluate your key parameters, and then choose, either one provider or more depending on your company size.

These are my 3 cents that we discussed during the master class.

Battling for the price doesn't make us a better industry, but rather sharing experiences and learning from others. That's why I enjoy so much when I can show what we have learned at tauyou language technology during all these years, as well as my entrepreneurial experience to try to help people start their own ventures.

So feel free to contact me if you want me to speak at one of your events!