Online Translation Services

The topic of online translation services more than once or twice went up to Habré. They talked about various ideas of start-ups , and about the use of ready-made collective translation services , and even about how google can turn the world of online translation across with translate and voice . We want to tell you about our experience of launching and developing a live online translation service, with which you can translate texts as quickly as possible, as well as telephone calls and online events . In Russia, services of this kind are not very common, in fact, we offer them only. Therefore, very often people who want to use our services or become our partners have questions about what we can offer and how it will work.

Text translation

The online text translation service is a form that allows you to estimate the cost of translation and place an order for translation on the website.
The main question that confronted us during the development of the service was how to minimize time costs. The time of translation, in our opinion, should be limited only by the speed of the translator’s work . Therefore, the main purpose of the service is to minimize the time spent on routine operations: estimating the cost of translation, placing an order, and paying. These are fairly standard functions of an online store engaged in online trading of various products, however, the practice of selling services in online mode is quite rare, since it is associated with a number of difficulties. In addition, the work of our service involves the automatic distribution of text to the translator. Those. managerial work is also automated. Due to this, it is possible to minimize the time spent on translation - the text goes into processing immediately after payment, and the time of translation is determined only by the physical capabilities of the translator.
The beta version of the service, built on the basis of these ideas, was launched in the spring of 2006, and at the end of 2006, the first integration of the service to the Lingvo Online site took place. Now the work of the services provides ABBYY Language Services . At the moment, the translation is carried out into 53 languages, the total number of translators supporting the work of various services is more than 400. The service is integrated into the ABBYYonline.ru portal and into the ABBYY Lingvo X3 program. This year a number of new introductions are being prepared. However, it is worth noting that at the present time automatic settlement and ordering is possible only for language pairs containing the Russian language, since all the sites in question are focused primarily on the market of Russia, Ukraine and the CIS countries.
In our service there are no restrictions on the minimum size of the loaded text - you can translate as unspecialized texts of small volume (for example, personal or business correspondence), and specialized documentation of a large volume (for example, instructions, etc.). Various technological and production processes are used for this. Translation of a serious voluminous documentation, of course, goes through a completely different process than express-translation of a short, non-specialized text.
With express translation, you can focus on the fact that the maximum speed of a professional translator is approximately equal to the 1st page per hour. If the volume of a small letter is about a third of a page, then with maximum optimization our service will return the translated text to the client within 20-25 minutes after placing the order. The procedure for placing and paying for the order does not take more than 3-5 minutes. It should be borne in mind that at the moment our audience does not need such speeds, so we set the minimum comfortable time of 1-2 hours.
We believe that when integrating, for example, into a postal service, there will be a need for maximum optimization of working time with translation, and then the work speed of 15-30 minutes to translate a letter will be very relevant. If there is a need to translate individual sentences in 5 minutes (for integration into the IM, or social network, for example), this will also be realized, since we have no technological or organizational obstacles for this.

Translation of telephone conversations

The idea of ​​developing and developing this service was born in the analysis of the overseas translation market. In the United States and Europe, this service is quite common, providers of TAP (telephone call transfer) services are known along with mobile and fixed-line providers. Our situation is completely different. PTP is a service of telephone conversations with the participation of interpreters in the conference call. The service can be used both for telephone conversations with foreign friends or business partners, and for ordinary face-to-face conversations via the speakerphone. Sometimes it is faster, easier and cheaper to put a speakerphone on the table, call our call center, connect an interpreter and talk with a partner, rather than seek and order an interpreter to the office.
Developing this direction, we strive to ensure that the PTP becomes a massive service, because only with a large volume of customer calls can the service be made truly convenient: reduce the response time when providing an interpreter to seconds and reduce the cost of translation. Just think how convenient it is - regardless of your location and time of day, to know that you have no problems communicating with people, in what language they would not say that if something happens, you should dial the number and your conversation will be translated into any language, and immediately. This is what we strive for.
Now, the TAP service is provided in our scheduled mode (by pre-order) in 8 languages. The advantage of the “fast” on-demand transfer (at the time of the request) can be enjoyed only by regular customers. You can place an order on the website or by phone. As soon as the service is integrated with one of the telecom operators, the majority of customer calls will be transferred to on-demand mode.
The provision of the TAP service revealed some peculiarities - when translating by telephone, working questions are often discussed “on the fingers”. The voice channel alone is often not enough to convey the necessary information, or to achieve complete understanding with the interlocutor. Therefore, we decided to introduce an additional service - translation of web-conferences.
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Web conferencing translation

Webinars are a powerful tool for collaborative remote work. Therefore, ways should be provided for convenient communication of people speaking different languages ​​within the webinar.
Now, together with Webinar.ru, we offer the organization of multilingual web-conferences. At the same time, we expect that such web-conferences will be in demand not only for holding business discussions with a small number of participants, but also for mass online events - broadcasts, conferences, round tables.
Standard for telephone conversations and online events, consistent translation is provided when the translator uses pauses in the speech of the interlocutors to perform the translation. We are planning to create precedents for simultaneous translation (the translator speaks simultaneously with the speaker) to show that even massive and serious events can be held online and the quality of the translation will not be inferior to the quality of translation at ordinary events held offline.
Web conferencing as a simultaneous translation tool is quite convenient. For webinars, translation into several languages ​​can be provided at once, and participants in the event will be able to choose their target language, i.e. “Room” in which the translator they need broadcasts. Just like on offline conferences. At the same time, web-conferences do not require additional equipment, and the cost of such translation will be lower than for the translation of regular events.
By the way, remote translators work easier - one thing is when you translate in the booth at an event, and quite another when you're at the office or at home - in silence and familiar surroundings.

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