Across continues to focus on controlled processes in translation management

Across Systems Releases Language Server v5 SP1
August 3 2010 PressreleasePoint After release of an extensive service pack, the Across Language Server is now available in Version v5 SP1. The Across Language Server is a central platform for all corporate language resources and translation processes. In addition to a multitude of small improvements including support for Office 2010 documents, the service pack introduces a series of essential new functionalities and modes of operation. In particular, these relate to the areas of project management, machine translation, crowdsourcing, and authoring assistance.

The new capabilities in Across v5 SP1 address current trends in language technology without giving up the central concept of controlled processes and open interfaces. With this clear focus in its solutions, Across has also landed many prominent new customers in recent months, in particular, those from the finance and pharma/medical technology sectors.

Optional Web-based Translation Workflows
In hardly any other area is there as much decentralized work as in the localization of product and company communication. A multitude of various in-house and external parties are involved in the process, including project managers, in-house translators, language service providers, freelancers, and proofreaders. With the new Across version, it is now possible for all parties to work entirely via the Web to perform all functions, from translating and proofreading, to project and workflow management. The worker does not need to have an individual installation of the Across software; instead, he can work using a Web browser as client on the respective Language Server. Despite distributed locations, this simplifies continuous processes and client/server-based work across all workflow steps and delegation levels.

Optional Crowdsourcing
Recently, crowdsourcing has been one of the most-discussed buzzwords in the localization industry. In localization crowdsourcing, translation orders are offered to a "crowd" of people instead of being assigned directly to individual people.
The new Language Server version takes this approach, but does not conceive of a "crowd" as an anonymous group of people. Instead, managers of translation projects can define groups of registered users and assign a translation or proofreading task to the person within the group who confirms the order first. Thus there is no need to engage in time-consuming inquiry into whether translators are currently available; at the same time, the client maintains full data and process control.

Optional Integration of Machine Translation
Machine translation (MT) is currently experiencing a renaissance, even if it cannot yet be used to produce publishing quality results. However, as an integrated process step within a translation workflow, MT can – depending on the type of text, language direction, and quality requirements – increase productivity in the professional environment.
Therefore, in its new product version, Across has implemented a generic interface for the incorporation of nearly any external MT solution. Using MT, text segments not found in the translation memory can, for example, be pre-translated automatically and post-edited by a professional translator.
Across users can thereby take advantage of all available technologies and are not bound to individual MT suppliers. For many MT systems, including the products of Asia Online, integration with Across v5 SP1 is already prepared.

Optional Authoring Assistance
Inconsistent wording, grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and deviations from defined style rules not only reduce the quality of the source text, but also drastically increase the workload and cost of subsequent translation. Therefore, the authoring assistance component crossAuthor has been further optimized in the new version v5 SP1 as an optional module.
crossAuthor is available for all common text editors. It compares the source text with the Across translation memory and terminology system on the one hand and with the grammar and style rules of the Controlled Language Authoring Tool (CLAT) of the IAI Saarbrücken on the other.
The editor receives an extensive data and decision-making basis for controlled language and translation-oriented authoring in real time. The unique integration of database- and rule-based approach optimizes the quality of the source text - and prevents inconsistencies that otherwise multiply with the number of target languages.
"The new version of our Language Server makes the current trends in language technology truly usable for professional users," says Daniel Nackovski, president of Across Systems, Inc. "For example, for the incorporation of machine translation, we are the only supplier to make an easy-to-use test environment available. And our solutions for authoring assistance offer a degree of integration like no other product in the market."

About Across Systems
Across Systems (www.across.net), based in Karlsbad, Germany, and in Glendale, CA, is the manufacturer of the Across Language Server – the world's leading linguistic supply chain technology.
The Across Language Server is a central software platform for all corporate language resources and for controlling translation processes and workflows. The system simplifies, accelerates, and improves the management, coordination, and implementation of translations. Open interfaces enable the direct integration of corresponding systems, e.g. CMS, catalog, or ERP solutions. By using Across, translation costs can be cut drastically, and the investment in Across usually pays off in a very short time.