Just a minute, senor! I'll call the translator now

In 1991, British politician and public figure Michael Young noticed that the Royal Hospital of London is experiencing major problems with non-English speaking patients. It is difficult to treat a person who cannot say what exactly hurts him. To provide all patients with quality medical care, Young organized the first telephone translation service in the UK - now that a foreign patient was admitted to the hospital, the doctor could simply dial the number of the desired translator and continue to communicate with it.

Today, in Europe and the United States, telephone translation is a large industry, which is expected to reach $ 1.2 billion by 2012. The main users of telephone translations in the West are the courts, hospitals, migration services, the police, emergency services, banks, legal and insurance companies. If you are sick or robbed during a trip to the UK, feel free to contact the hospital or the police. Be sure that they will understand you there - these institutions use the telephone translation service.

There are several hundred companies in the global market for telephone translation, ranging from small highly specialized ones that work in one language pair (for example, English - Spanish) or with one theme (for example, translation for law firms), to real giants who are able to within a few minutes provide by telephone translation from 150 languages.
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How are such services technically implemented? I'll tell you on the example of ABBYY ruPhone - a service that we launched in June. Currently ABBYY ruPhone 4 languages ​​(English, German, Chinese and Japanese) are available immediately on demand, 4 more (Spanish, Italian, Korean and French) - by prior arrangement.

ABBYY ruPhone is an integration of a third-party phone platform and a self-developed CRM system. The built solution allows you to automatically create telephone conferences with the connection of a free translator with the highest rating, possessing the necessary skill.

Client interaction with the system takes place in 4 stages:

1. Call to service. A user who wants to immediately use the services of a telephone interpreter, calls the toll free number and enters the voice menu.

2. Collection of information. Using the voice menu, the user is authorized (by phone number or by id and pin code) or is registered in the system, and then selects the desired language. Each telephone call registered user is automatically associated with his account in the CRM-system. The user can assign a specific language to himself so that he does not choose it later every time a new service is accessed.

3. Select and connect an interpreter. CRM-system in real time monitors the status of translators and their willingness to process the application. Each active translator has a rating, which is calculated based on the estimates received by him for the performance of previous orders. After receiving the data about the user and the order, the system uses them to select the most suitable translator available at the moment. A teleconference is automatically created, the translator receives a call, and the order data is displayed on the screen simultaneously.

4. Connecting buddy. Having connected to the teleconference, the translator discusses with the user the essence of the upcoming conversation, after which, at the command of the translator, the system dials to a third party. The third party picks up the phone and is surprised to hear the foreign partner greet her in their native language :) If the user does not specify the phone number of the interlocutor, the connection with the translator will still be completed. In this mode, you can, for example, turn on the speakerphone mode and use the help of a translator in face-to-face negotiations, or simply ask him how a phrase is translated.

Business negotiations with foreign partners is not the only or even the most important area of ​​application for telephone translation. All over the world, telephone translation is used primarily to enable people who have come to a foreign country to work, rest or travel, to use the services of local organizations.

In Russia, it is still difficult to imagine, but it is quite possible that after a few years, some Spanish tourist, arriving at the Olympics in Sochi, will be able to hear at any bank, clinic or insurance company from the girl at the reception: “One moment, senor! Now I will call the translator. ”

Yegor Zaikin
ABBYY Language Services