Last month we wrote about upheaval in the translation automation sector following declarations of independence, a nascent surge of open-source projects, the continuing development of purpose-built solutions at LSPs, newly refurbished partner programs, and even software from Google. We asked for your opinions on the importance of vendor independence. We heard from more than 100 language service providers who had plenty to say.

Nearly 83 percent of the 109 respondents hailed from Europe and North America; the balance were from the scattered republics that comprise “Rest of World.” Our first question asked, “How comfortable are you buying software from a company that also sells the same services as your company?” Nearly 85 percent professed to be “very nervous” or “somewhat nervous” about the proposition.

Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

Let’s remove the coy indirection from the query. Given the environment in which we conducted the survey, we basically asked LSPs how concerned they are about buying software from SDL, the hybrid provider of both language services and most of the translation sector’s technology. Their anxiety about a rival’s ownership of business-critical tools is palpable.

Next, we inquired about LSP attitudes toward using open-source software: “How likely is your company to use open-source software for its translation automation projects?” More than three quarters of the service providers said they were “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to use open-source tools.

Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

However, there’s open source and then there’s “let’s see how open it really is” projects. In response to “What if the open source initiative is headed by a company that also sells the same services as your company?”, the response was similar in direction but not scale to the question of buying software from a competitor: 61.4 percent said they were “not too likely” or “not likely at all” to consider open-source software offered by a rival. This question indirectly referenced Welocalize’s decision to open up development of its newly acquired GlobalSight Ambassador technology.

Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

Finally, we asked “Are you developing your own solutions for translation automation?” More than half said that they would not, a tad more than 30 percent are already writing some of their own tools, and 12.7 percent of LSPs are thinking about it.

Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

What did our short survey tell us?

• The LSP jury is still out on buying software from a competitor. Our members-only Quick Take on “Language Software and Service Providers” provides more analysis and commentary on what translation agencies are saying about their translation automation plans — and what it means for buyers and suppliers.
• Many language service providers would consider using open-source translation products, but the same concerns they have about buying software from a rival supplier extends to open-source software dominated by another service provider.
• Many LSPs continue to think about developing software themselves. From many discussions and past research, we know that their do-it-yourself mentality springs as much from their belief that their needs are unique as much as their distrust of the software vendor community, independent or captive. Translation software suppliers like Across, Kilgray, Language Weaver, MultiCorpora, Plunet, Project Open, and XML-INTL have their work cut out for them in building products that meet the needs of LSPs, convincing them of their good intentions, and reassuring them that they’ll never be bought by a language service provider.

Are you a non-LSP buyer of translation services and technology? If you buy or influence software purchases, take our survey. It will take less than five minutes to complete.