Translation Bureau Benchmarking and Comparative Analysis - Final ...

Translation Bureau Benchmarking and Comparative Analysis• Machine translation, although a key productivity enhancing tool, is generally notconsidered to produce a level of quality sufficient to correctly convey a full message inanother language, and its output must be reviewed by a qualified translator 13 . As a resultof the significant post process editing, machine translation is not widely adopted. It isgenerally used for large volume translations with an accuracy rate of 75% to 85%.• Human Assisted Machine Translation (HAMT) is growing in usage. A 2009 study byCommon Sense Advisory indicated that HAMT doubled the translation output thathumans could do alone and was 45% cheaper.In general, innovation in the industry is extremely limited as fragmentation preventscollaboration and investment in key transformational technology. Translation service buyersare acting as the driving force for technology changes. Broadband and web proliferation isopening the market to a larger pool of translators providing on-line translation servicesassisted by machine translation. The aggregated effect is a downward pressure on translationprices as more suppliers enter the market 14 . Appendix B provides an outline of somecommon linguistic tools.3.7 TrendsA number of important trends and challenges are emerging within the translation industrywhich are affecting how services are delivered, as well as the cost of delivering these services.We have grouped the trends into three main components;• Technology;• Services and resources; and• Translation languages.3.7.1 TechnologyIt is interesting to note that many of the identified trends are all either directly or indirectlylinked to technology. Significantly, these trends continue to evolve as the applications andtechnologies expand and mature. Tools such as translation memory are now significantenablers supporting translation services and driving greater efficiencies. In addition toimproving machine translation, a number of community and on-line services are becomingmore broadly utilized. Table 5 highlights some of these key trends in the industry.13Source: Canadian Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters Council14Source: State of the Translation Industry - MyGengo - 2009Page 19 of 43