The business year officially starts in Brazil today. Yesterday, Rio de Janeiro denizens found out that Salgueiro won the 2009 Carnival competition, and, for all practical purposes, summer is over.

In the wake of such partying, Ccaps – a Rio de Janeiro-based LSP — announced that it is making available to the public a free compliance tool that checks Trados translation memories and makes them compliant with the new Brazilian Portuguese spelling rules that have been in force since January 1st. By following a set of simple instructions, translation memories are quickly adapted to the new spelling rules, saving hours of manual work. Ccaps claims that the throughput is around 100 segments per hour.

Even though the law provides for a transition period in which both the old and new spelling can coexist, it is Common Sense Advisory’s recommendation that companies adopt the new spelling right away. Leading Brazilian media outlets and companies like Google and Microsoft already follow the new rules.

Until now, the only barrier to such bold action had been the work required in adapting legacy work, like translation memories. Companies like Lionbridge have developed tools to update their TMs automatically, but Ccaps goes further by offering the tool — with accompanying instructions — to anyone in the market. If your staff is not that technical or if you are a buyer with memories from several LSPs, Ccaps also offers a paid conversion service (US$35.00 per 1,000 translation memory units). This is a good example of an LSP stretching beyond its peers with an innovative, useful offering.