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State of the industry: A comparative overview of CAT tools and TMS solutions

In today's world, a truly global company must present its products in the target language of the countries they wish to sell. In addition, products tend to have a shorter shelf life before an updated version appears, so there is a continuous demand for globalizing the products. To meet the global demands and the quick product turnaround, these companies must get their products into the market as quickly and as cost efficiently as possible. This white paper discusses the role Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools for documentation and software play to help meet the global demands, as well as the increasing importance of Translation Management Systems (TMS) to further aid the translation industry in its continual striving to increase efficiency and decrease costs. The basic functionalities of CAT tools are covered and five leading proprietary products discussed. Three leading proprietary TMS and two open source contenders also come under review here.

GILT: Taking a single-language product and making it global is accomplished by the GILT industry:

Globalization
Internationalization
Localization
Translation

CAT tools: Tools assisting in this myriad-step process are known as CAT tools. CAT stands for "Computer Aided Translation". The definition of a CAT tool is a computer program, which assists the translator to work more efficiently. There are CAT tools for software and CAT tools for documentation. The core functions of a CAT tools are:

breaking source text into manageable segments for easier manageability
ensuring both target and source segments remain together as a translation unit
saving these units in a database known as translation memory (TM)

A CAT tool breaks the text into segments (sentences and sentence fragments for documentation, strings for software) and presents these segments in an expedient way to the translator, thus increasing productivity by decreasing repetition and inconsistencies. Each translated segment is saved together with the source text: both source and target are considered translation units (TU). These translation units are saved in a database called translation memory (TM) for instant retrieval when the source text has a repetition of the exact or similar segment, so that the translator is able to reuse the same translation, thus becoming more efficient and the translations more consistent.

There are many CAT tools on the market to handle software and documentation. The majority are either proprietary or GPL (General Public License [free]). The proprietary CAT tools for discussion here are SDL TRADOS, Wordfast and Déjà Vu for documentation, and Alchemy Catalyst and SDL Passolo for software. Features of each CAT tool, as stated by the company, are summarized briefly. A summary evaluation of these CAT tools by professionals in the GILT industry then follows.

All CAT tools have the same standard claims to increase quality and consistency of multilingual content, reduce costs and decrease time to the global market. When products propound the same results, it is necessary to search for the distinctions within each.

SDL TRADOS, a CAT tool developed in Germany and purchased by SDL in 2005, has been the leading CAT tool in the GILT industry: over 90% of professional translators use Trados. SDL Trados provides 3 core technologies:

Translation memory
Terminology management
Project management

Trados has been a major player in the industry for two decades, so SDL Trados focuses on this CAT tool's global lead by encouraging professionals to join the industry standard and to work with a reliable and solid partner.

In addition to considering itself the industry standard with the greatest number of users, its strongest features include:

Capability to use with many different file formats — filter development provides the translator with the widest choice of file compatibility
Many different editing environments
SDL MultiTerm™, a powerful and integrated terminology management tool
SDL PerfectMatch™, a further development in reusing already-translated text

SDL Trados also offers a certification program, as well as being part of over 100 university curricula giving SDL added credibility.

Wordfast, a relatively recent propriety addition to the GILT arena (in the market for eight years), is more limited in scope than TRADOS in that it works solely with Microsoft Office, but it is also considerably less expensive. The initial idea of Wordfast was to develop a power-to-the people TM package¹ at an affordable price. The developers of Wordfast solicited feedback from real translators. Based on an ease-of-use mindset, Wordfast uses only a plain-text format for TMs and glossaries so that translators can use standard tools — e.g., their own word processor — to manipulate data. "Wordfast is a comprehensive CAT tool made up of a set of macros that run in Microsoft Word. Some of the features in Wordfast include translation memory with fuzzy matching, a range of glossary functions, context and reference searching, the ability to handle tagged formats, and the ability to translate documents from the entire Microsoft Office suite."² Wordfast's own translation memory and glossary formats are simple tab-delimited text files; its TM is accompanied by an index created by Wordfast itself. Since Wordfast is basically a set of macros running within Microsoft Word, any number of macro-based tools can be used in conjunction with it. However, it does not offer direct support for OpenDocument formats because the current versions of Microsoft Word do not have import filters for OpenDocument files.

Of the many claims by Wordfast — ease of use, power to handle complex tasks, compatibility and versatility, collaborative power, speed, platform independence, enhanced file format support, link to multiple external reference material, customizable interface, batch processing, sever-based TM integration, price, active worldwide user base, customer support — its strongest features for the novitiate might include:

Ease of use
Power to handle complex tasks
Speed
Price
Customer support

Results from an independent survey were published a comparison chart in November 2006, in the Imperial College London's Translation Memories Survey, comparing Trados, SDL Trados and Wordfast.

Comparison Chart^*

Ratings in terms of:	Wordfast	Trados	SDL Trados 2006
Average rating	3.95	3.25	3.33
Functionality	3.9	3.5	3.6
Efficiency in match recall	3.4	3.3	3.3
Efficiency in speed	3.9	3.7	3.7
Reliability	3.8	3.3	3.4
Usability	4.2	3.5	3.5
Learnability	4.1	3.3	3.4
Value for money	4.6	2.9	3.1
Customer support	3.7	2.5	2.6

* Ratings excerpted from Imperial College London's Translation Memories Survey, November 2006.

The results gave Wordfast a higher rating than either Trados or SDL Trados; however, as stated previously, SDL Trados is still the industry leading retaining 90% of professional users. Wordfast's user based is approximately 15,000 users.

Not included in the comparison survey was Déjà Vu. The makers of Déjà Vu X consider it to be the most powerful and customizable CAT system by combining state-of-the-art TM technology with EBMT (example-based machine translation) techniques. In addition to the standard CAT tool claims, Déjà Vu states: "Déjà Vu X goes…beyond traditional TM tools. While other systems only display exact and fuzzy matches, Déjà Vu X intelligently uses the translation memory, terminology database, and project lexicon to increase the quality of fuzzy matches by working with smaller segments and words. For close fuzzy matches, Déjà Vu X will often produce a perfect translation, in the translator's own style."³ Déjà Vu maintains that although it is full-featured, integrated translation environment with additional translation and project management features, it is easy to use because of myriad wizards to guide the inexperienced through all the major processes. Déjà Vu X provides a uniform interface regardless in which file format one is working. Also, it displays only translatable text protecting any coding information.

Déjà Vu's trump cards might well be its latest offering of 'Guaranteed Matches'; that is, complete matches for which it is able to verify that the surrounding sentences are also complete matches plus its "Filter" function, which allows the user to find all sentences containing the word/phrase needing attention. Another feature which is virtually exclusive to Déjà vu allows the user to compare examples in various file formats easily and quickly. If time is money, then saving time is saving money.

Every CAT tool has its admirers and followers: Déjà Vu is no exception. In 2007, one faithful Déjà Vu follower wrote a Web article entitled, "14 reasons why I like Déjà Vu best".⁴ The article, which has since been edited to include 2 more reasons, could be enlightening for those searching for an explanation about some of the functionalities of CAT tools. Admitting that Déjà Vu is not perfect and that it has many features/fixes on his — and other users' wish lists — the author places these Déjà Vu features on the top of his best-in-class list:

Robust
Logical
Flexible
Display several sentences/paragraphs above and below current working point
Fast — enables user to work very fast
Lacks the complexities inherent in other TM tools, e.g., "cleanup" (SDL Trados and Wordfast)
Allows handling of many documents simultaneously
Includes almost all required tools for TM
Assemble function — "first guesses" — easier to edit than the other CAT tools, machine or human translations
Terminology check function
Allows one set of databases using subject and client tags
SQL functions

Alchemy Catalyst, a software CAT tool, claims that it is the pioneer of and world's most popular visual localization technology being used by 80% of the world's largest software development companies. Catalyst promotes the usual benefits — reaching markets more quickly by reducing localization times up to 50% and localization costs by 40—70%. Catalyst 7 propounds to have a powerful integrated visual localization environment for all desktop, mobile, online applications with proven technology which streamlines the localization process. Using advance TM technology with an intuitive user interface, Catalyst can be used for software applications, online help, and Web sites. Alchemy Catalyst 7 claims it enables the user to manage all aspects of the localization workflow, including translation, project management, localization, engineering and testing. Some of the new and improved features Catalyst 7 promotes include:

A comprehensive .NET solution
Alchemy Layout Manager — automatically creates localized layouts for applications
Help localization solution — manages thousands of compiled help files
Java support
Comparison Expert — quickly determines scope of change between project revisions
Analysis Expert — works with all industry standard TMs
Export Project Expert — exports translations to virtually all known TM formats or 3rd-party content management systems

There are no reviews for Catalyst 7; however Catalyst 6 was reviewed by an independent resource.⁵ In March 2008, Alchemy Software Development merged with Translations.com, a global leader in software localization and Globalization Management System (GMS) technology solutions. The other contending software localization CAT tool, Passolo, merged with SDL Trados in 2007 to produce another powerful GMS technology solution.

SDL Passolo 2007, developed to enable the translation of User Interfaces (UI), also claims to accelerate software time to market and improve translation quality optimizing both manual and automated localization workflows, either as a stand-alone application or integrated with other SDL products such as SDL Trados and SDL MultiTerm.

An overview of Passolo's features includes handling a large number of software file formats, ease of use, pseudo translation, easy compilation, exchange and process of translation data, several WYSIWYG editors, TM technology, fuzzy matching technology, data exchange formats, VBA-compatible scripting engine, and is OLE automated⁶. In addition to direct access to SDL Trados' TMs and SDL MultiTerm databases — which is a given — new and updated features for SDL Passolo 2007 include:

Full visual editing environment the latest Microsoft localization technology
Parser technology supporting all Windows development platforms: NET 3.0, Windows 64 bit and Delphi 2007
Direct display of source files for additional context information when working on XML, Java and text files without visual support
Enhanced navigation during translation of active links in comments/other feature fields.
Simplified localization of non-Windows based User Interfaces: hardware devices or embedded systems
Automatic exclusion of repeated content

A comparison chart for software localization tools is found at the localization works Web site: www.localizationworks.com/DRTOM/Conclusions.html. It is dated, but might still prove useful. Another comparison chart, also dated, is found on the Passolo Web site, so might well be biased: http://www.passolo.com/en/comparison.htm.

Translation Management Systems (TMS) focus not on a specific function but on the GILT process as a whole with the oft-stated goals of increasing efficiency while decreasing cost and time to market. To establish a single environment for authoring, editing, localizing and publishing global content with real-time access to databases, (including translation memory and terminology systems), to automate content management as much as possible, to cut translation costs by leveraging legacy files: these are some of the goals of TM. How well do they accomplish this? As always, it's important to have an objective report, this is often accomplished by Common Sense Advisory. This company researches localization companies, CAT tools and TMS solutions. The results of its extensive Translation Management Technology research of two dozen TMS offerings at the end of 2006 was published early 2007 in a report entitled, Translation Management System Scorecards.⁷ This has been followed up by their recent publications, Translation Management Systems, Assessments of Commercial and LSP-Specific TMS Offerings and TMS — Unanswered Questions, available on the Common Sense Advisory Web site.⁸

In the Translation Management System arena, there are three major proprietary contenders under review:

SDL
Across
Sajan

A fourth major proprietary contender, Idiom, would have also been included had the company not been bought out by SDL early in 2008. Included also is a brief look at Idiom, its global success, then acquisition leaving its customers in a quandary and potential looming quagmire, followed by brief mention of a growing perceived need to go with open source platforms in order to eliminate the loss of time, revenue and Angst to clients when the proprietary software on which they built their global launch disappears. A cursory glance at two open source TMS technologies concludes the overview.

SDL, an across-the-board major player in the localization industry, has its own, dulynamed Translation Management System. As mentioned earlier, it has SDL Trados for documentation and SDL Passolo for software; in the TMS ring, it has SDL Translation Management System. Purported to be "the global information management application that unifies the translation and localization supply chain, providing the collaboration, control, integration and process flow required to prepare content for a global audience⁹, SDL TMS has three major components — client side, vendor side, and specific user. It hooks up the client's multilingual content repository into the SDL TMS environment, so that individual user responsible for carry out specific localization tasks has access to content, TM, terminology databases and dictionaries. It comprises a task-based workflow — both human and system. The TMS system automates the repetitive work, e.g., extraction of translatable text, application of TM, cost estimates, invoicing, as well as pushing the project through the translation process. Scheduling, launch, and translation are done on the human side. It also has user portals, enables on- or offline translations, includes templates for reports, and integrates with SDL MultiTerm, as one would anticipate. This might be where SDL pushes its all-in-one suite, tempting the perspective buyer with a one-suite-covers-all approach: it might be time to consider the convenience versus cost scenario.

Across by Transline Groups from Reutlingen, Germany is a Corporate Translation Management (CTM) system. Transline's CTM handles 164 languages in, amongst other fields, technical and software translation and serves as a complete seamless process chain for technical documentation. Their motto — "As much computing as possible, as much human activity as necessary": their goal — to keep costs down by making the processes and networking of the many involved parties effective, transparent and lean. Transline's transcycles® utilizes legacy files, translation databases and terminology management producing what it terms as rational pre-translated text modules. This process accelerates, in Transline's estimation, time to market.

With Across, all involved — internal and external — parties in the translation process are connected: the Across Language Server serves as the central platform for all corporate language resources and translation processes. Throughout client/server-based operation, the company purports that Across ensures maximum consistency of the texts and data security, stressing the following features:

Maximum transparency —transparent translation workflows
Seamless supply chain
Automate the translation management by up to 90%
Integration of external and internal team members
Seamless processes also mean seamless integration of the quality management.
Seamless networking: customers, translation service providers, translators

Sajan takes the lead in Translation Management Systems — according to a report published in October 2008 based on a study done by the previously mentioned Common Sense Advisory, the results of which are in, Translation Management Systems, Assessments of Commercial and LASP-Specific Offerings. As cited:

To conduct the study, Common Sense Advisory divided the report into two sections: Analysis and Assessments. The report presents scores and comparisons of 24 translation management solutions and shows how well these TMS offerings met the criteria Common Sense Advisory set for business, workflow, language management, connectivity, and business process monitoring, as well as other relevant functions. "We also offer insight into how each vendor views the market from a positioning and marketing perspective. We also outline a "Coolness Factor" and "Problem Areas" to alert prospective buyers to positive and negative aspects of the products,"¹⁰

The results of another study, this one conducted by the Gilbane Group and sponsored by Sajan, was published in 2008, Multilingual Communications as a Business Imperative: Why Organizations Need to Optimize the Global Content Value Chain. The purpose of the Gilbane study was to aid organizations with current/intended content globalization plans by providing the tools to show bestand worst-practices: do investments in services lead to genuine ROI? To provide an in-depth view of the current globalization state of affairs, initiatives and best practices, Gilbane conducted a series of in-depth interviews with content and translation/localization management practitioners.

Sajan professes to believe in a "holistic approach of quality process and integration components that bring together all constituents of the global content lifecycle and strategically aligning with our clients needs". It seems that the Gilbane study confirms this. Citing a general "lack of integration and interoperability across content authoring, localization and translation, content management, and publishing prevents companies from deriving real value from their investments in multilingual content,"¹¹ the Lead Analyst for Gilbane's Globalization Practice states that "Gilbane has identified the requirements for a Global Content Value Chain (GCVC) strategy that addresses these major obstacles. Sajan has clearly embraced the GCVC concept by providing technology and services that can deliver the top-line business results our report identifies as critical to global business success."¹² An excellent article elaborating on Sajan's quality in/quality out approach to the localization process entitled, Quality In, Quality Out: The Value of Technology in the Global Content Lifecycle can be found on its marketing Web site, http://marketing.sajan.com/marketing.

Idiom® Technologies, Inc. was considered to be the leading independent supplier of Software as a Service (SaaS) and an on-premise, server-based globalization management systems (GMS) — though many contend that WorldServer 9 (released in the autumn of 2007) is really a TMS, since Idiom promoted it as redefining translation management. By many, Idiom was considered to be the "Switzerland" in the localization world, neither in competition with Language Service Providers (LSP) nor Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems. Reaction in the localization world to SDL's purchase of Idiom ranged from being less than enthusiastic to shock, and for some — a sense of betrayal. Only six months earlier, the president and CEO of Idiom Technologies announced that Welocalize joined the Idiom LSP Partner Program, both companies promoting the idea that combining Idiom WorldServer with Welocalize's Hybrid Delivery Model provided a unique service capability in the localization industry. Idiom advanced its goal to provide customers with a maximum choice in finding the globalization solution that best fits individual needs: Idiom's acquisition — not integration — by SDL has effectively shut the door on that. A panel held on "Cisco Day" during the LISA Forum USA at the end of June focused on the post-Idiom world of Translation Management Systems now and in the future. Since SDL has stated that it will only support .NET, Idiom WorldServer users were cautioned to starting planning migration during the 1.5-2 years while WorldServer continues to serve them in good stead.13 On a positive note, it is widely accepted that standards in the localization world are important — Idiom strongly supported standards and was an active member of OSCAR14 — hence, WorldServer users will be able to migrate their data to any OSCAR-supported platform. To conclude, there are Web sites which have blogs focused on SDL's acquisition of Idiom and its ramifications¹⁵. Also, Common Sense Advisory published an 18-page survey results entitled, SDL Buys Idiom: The Market Reacts. Some of the areas the article covers are reaction to Idiom's demise and how it affects the market, its users and competitor, views that the deal as anti-competitive, the impact of the industry's leading independent solution being absorbed by a company in language services, as well as mistrust by corporate buyers and LSP users of SDL's intentions as well as an analysis and some graphics.¹⁶

This brings us to a final — and brief — look at two open source TMS technologies: Freeway (Lionbridge) and Global Sight. Benefits of Web-based Freeway:

free — users can divert their budget to handling more languages
immediate connection with nothing to download, install or cause IT frustration
all localization files stored in one secure location
supports 17 language interfaces

Setting by example, Lionbridge uses Freeway internally, thus cutting their annual TM software licensing costs — Freeway's TMs reside in a central location, but kept separately. In July 2006, Global by Design published a detailed, 30-page report, Lionbridge Freeway: The Test Drive.¹⁷

Welocalize announced the launch of its Open Source GlobalSight 7.1 on Jan. 6, 2009. The GlobalSight Mission statement: GlobalSight is a collaborative, open source initiative to develop a flexible and sustainable Translation Management System (TMS) that leverages the best ideas and addresses the true needs of the industry. GlobalSight embraces an ecosystem of enterprise clients, translators, language service providers, technology suppliers, universities, research institutions and individuals alike."18 Business Week has published several white papers on GlobalSight technology.¹⁹

Those seeking either CAT tools or a TMS system must first list their specific requirements, goals, and investment limits. To be caught up in the "easy solution" of a packaged suite might not be the best answer to specific needs. However, there are many smaller, less well known tools, many of which are open source tools. It would be wise for companies searching for the best solution to meet their multilingual global needs to juxtapose their needs with solutions offered.

This high-level comparative overview of some of the localization industry's better-known CAT tools and TMS technologies: five leading CAT tools and three TMS solution possibilities. Up-to-date studies are limited, but previous years' studies still serve a useful purpose to any prospective client. Current studies in TMS gave resounding acclaim to one particular TMS. Regarding CAT tools, it is best to list needs and priorities, and then decide on the best fit.

Conclusion

As technologies advance, today's business demands crystallize and challenges in the current market create a heightened focus on generating global sales, we increasingly see the need — perceived or real — for a translation solution, whether it is simply standardized tool usage across resources or something more ambitious, such as implementing a translation management solution.

There are no lack of options and choices. Determining the best fit inherently presents the greatest challenge. One must have a thorough and in-depth understanding of one's specific localization program, as well as the content types and requirements associated with each: budget, interoperability, duration of use will also be critical factors in the final decision.

There is, as yet, no gold standard; the market place is flooded with exaggerated and election-esque promises targeting the client's three primary pain points: cost of service, time to market and quality of deliverable. Each makes claims to increase quality of deliverables, reduce time to market without increasing cost of service. While some claims are true — e.g., content types in certain situations — to claim for all now would equate to fuzzy math. Presently, providers are truthfully able to provide two out of three and ask the client to choose the top two priorities: quality, time-to-market, or cost.

Retrospectively, how were initial content management system (CMS) offerings viewed upon entering the market place: modular; robust; portable; growth potential; or simply centralizing content. Once implemented, custom plug-ins were required to bring on a TMS or a publishing solution: that is far from a seamless install or from avoiding the need to develop custom APIs (application programming interface). However, how much closer are we today to the 'seamless' install? Moreover, how far did the various systems come to obtaining their other promised goals of fully centralizing content; avoiding version control; successfully integrating rouge departments; evoking economies of scale; and maintaining site updates more coherently?

A savvy client truly interested in a TMS solution or combined TMS and CMS solution will seek out potential systems/partners, then carefully vet them by using a questionnaire or similar based on the client's specific requirements. It is important to see beyond the sales pitch and to actually work with the demo system on site. Conversely, it is important to set reasonable exceptions: what is absolute and what would be nice. Remember to include personal service in your list of important features. Moreover, regardless of one's need, it is always important to keep the following questions in view when making a decision for the global future: who are the experts, is there an inherent conflict with those who sell tools and translation services, who is anticipating tomorrow's needs and how are these being prepared for?

Planning well and in detail to meet global localization needs provides the greatest assurance to bring products to the world in the most cost-efficient way possible.

State of the industry: A comparative overview of CAT tools and TMS solutions

Comparison Chart*

Conclusion

Comparison Chart^*