SDL announced its Trados 2007, the latest version of its desktop translation memory product — and the first in a wave of product enhancements as the company picks up momentum in its plan to meld the Trados technology with its own. Recognizing that translation memory is just one component of providing high-quality output, SDL focused this release less on translation and more on improving project management and automation. Project dashboards for scheduling and management, automated quality assurance checks, and wizards to automate common operations top the feature list. The new version includes PerfectMatch (née Context TM), a context-sensitive translation memory capability that provides “101% matches.”

A big part of SDL’s automation story revolves around Packages, a translation kit containing all the components required for a project. Trados 2007 packs up translation memories, reference files, terminology, and schedules into one zip-like file that travels from translator to language service provider to corporate customers. So instead of relying on project managers to pack up all the files, this release automates the process. When the package hits the desk of a translator or other cog in the translation workflow, all the files necessary to do the work are there.

While other software developers such as Alchemy have long included this desirable feature in their products, SDL makes up for being late to the party by using Packages to integrate its desktop with its Synergy (a server-based “a translation project management efficiency tool” for LSPs) and TMS (its full-blown translation management system for global information). SDL Trados unit VP Keith Laska told us that its Packages can cut 10-15% off the administrative and project management issues involved in translation. The company hopes that corporate language departments will reallocate this savings to quality assurance, increasing the tiny percentage companies spend on QA.

We like the idea of Packages serving as the backbone of SDL’s desktop-to-LSP-to-enterprise story, but we think that the company is missing the opportunity to create a bigger translation ecosystem. If it were to publish and support the Package file and transport format, SDL’s mechanism could become the middleware for translation wherever it happens — and allow innovative companies to add value to Trados and TMS. The company is understandably nervous about opening up a proprietary differentiator, but it’s exactly this kind of open ecosystem that allowed databases from IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle to become ubiquitous in the enterprise.

In October 2005 we wrote that “preserving client investment will keep current [SDL and Trados] customers happy, but too much caution could create a window for another software vendor to target SDL and Trados users with fear, uncertainty, doubt, and a strong TMX-based conversion story. This rival could go after the 90 percent of translators not using TM today — with no legacy shackles restraining its innovation.” Since then firms such as Alchemy, Idiom, Lingotek, and Lionbridge have introduced innovative solutions exploring different approaches to translation memory and project management. Counterintuitively, this shows that market consolidation can breed innovation.