Translate 2 Evolve

Website Update

2011-12-12T10:06:00.005-06:00

ICD recently added a new tab to its website to market translation services to U.S. government agencies.

Upcoming Trade Shows

2011-10-20T09:40:00.000-05:00

ICD will be attending the following trade shows:

Process Expo

November 1-4, 2011

McCormick Place Convention Center

Chicago, IL

FABTECH

November 14-17, 2011

McCormick Place Convention Center

Chicago, IL

POWER GEN

December 13-15, 2011

Las Vegas Convention Center

Las Vegas, NV

Hope to see you there!

Promoting luxury goods in China through social media

2011-10-14T16:08:00.003-05:00

This article, published in the October/November 2011 issue of Multilingual Computing magazine, is a good introduction to understand trends in luxury goods consumption and social media use in the People's Republic of China.

ICD is looking for a full-time Sales Assistant

2011-10-10T15:58:00.001-05:00

The position involves helping our sales team to maintain and develop our existing client base by calling on trade show leads and customers, creating new prospect lists, and performing trade show research. Some travel is required. Possibility for advancement into a sales account manager position after a successful evaluation period. Please contact Catherine Deschamps-Potter at translation@icdtranslation.com or call 262-781-1644. Click on the link above to be directed to our website.

AEM' Customer Support Council Seminar, Milwaukee

2011-09-15T09:06:00.001-05:00

ICD will be a seminar supporter at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers' Customer Support Council Seminar at the Intercontinental Hotel, Milwaukee, from September 26-28, 2011. Topics will include marketing, social media, and feature speakers from Fortune 500 construction companies.

ICD Presenting at the Wisconsin Chapter, Society for Technical Communication kick-off meeting on September 13, 2011

2011-09-02T09:15:00.002-05:00

Join ICD for networking, dinner, and an informative presentation on writing for translation, where we will touch on noteworthy topics such as EU directives and CE markings. We would love to see you there!

Professionals Networking Cocktail, Chicago

2011-08-16T11:52:00.002-05:00

Mitch from ICD will be attending the Professionals Networking Cocktail at The Dana Hotel & Spa, 660 North State Street, Chicago. Sponsored by the French-American Chamber of Commerce and the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest, this event will take place on August 17 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. For information and registration, visit www.facc-chicago.com

Join ICD at the Asian American Business Expo 2011

2011-08-04T11:16:00.001-05:00

ICD will be exhibiting at the Asian American Business Expo at the Illinois Institute of Technology on Saturday, August 13, 2011, from 9:30am to 2:00pm. The event is free - register online athttp://www.asianamericanbusinessexpo.com/ Events include international banking, marketing and taxation - as well as designing and developing products for China.

Recommended Play!

2011-07-14T09:30:00.003-05:00

For some great insight on Chinese business and culture, be sure to see the play "Chinglish" at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. The play is running until July 31. We can't recommend it highly enough - not to mention it highlights how interpreters can create misunderstandings...with hilarious results!

Esprit d'ICD Spring/Summer 2011

2011-06-28T11:56:00.000-05:00

Professional translation services or individual translators? You decide

2011-06-23T14:02:00.001-05:00

If your company is thinking of using an individual translator rather than a professional language service provider (LSP), consider some of the advantages of using a professional translation company before taking that next step.

Although individual translators can sometimes offer better prices, a professional translation company can offer competitive prices while still ensuring quality.
Professional LSPs may be more likely to provide free trial translations to help you gauge the level of quality of their finished worked product.
A professional translation firm is far more likely to have set standards for the skills their translation and other company employees must have, as well as criteria for hiring.
Unlike individual translators who may or may not have experience in a given discipline, professional translation services will typically offer subject matter expertise in a much broader range of specialities, such as automobile manufacturing, medical content, and telecommunications.
Because of their more extensive experience and body of work, LSPs usually have comprehensive glossaries and terminology lists as well as the experience in ensuring consistency of terminology across a wide range of documents and outputs.
For any translation work, a critical component to success is good project management and a standard translation process. Professional translation companies have the background in refining their processes to take into account best practices and are able to successfully manage and deliver projects that meet customer requirements, on time and with quality.
Finally, a professional translation company should have the financial resources to ensure their work product and to invest in sophisticated translation memory tools that can help your company save time and money, project after project, by reusing translated content.

2011-06-22T16:51:00.002-05:00

Check out "Translation for the Safety Industry" - new article published in the June 2011 issue of Professional Safety magazine.

How Do You Get Quality Translation?

2011-06-21T11:34:00.001-05:00

Companies looking for an edge in competing in a global market need to consider and implement practices that will help improve the quality of their translated content to reach a broad international audience. Some key activities to improving translation quality are:

§ Chose a qualified localization service provider (LSP). Look for a company that has experience and a solid base of satisfied customers. Ideally, the LSP should use only qualified translators who are certified by the American Translator’s Association (ATA). Be sure that the translators also have knowledge is the subject matter of your content.

§ Follow a defined translation process. From quote through final delivery of the finished products, ensure that the translation process you use includes all of the steps that will enhance quality like using a translation memory tool, and following quality assurance steps.

§ Write consistent and clear content with translation in mind. Provide your writers with a company style guide that sets out the grammar and style rules you will follow, as well as the standard terminology your company has chosen. Make sure that your standard terminology will translate well into all target languages.

§ Use in-country reviewers or peer translator reviews. Once your content has been translated, ensure that you use qualified reviewers to check the translations against the source English. Reviewers should be native speakers of the target language and be qualified subject matter experts in the type of content.

By following these basic steps, you can expect to see marked improvement in the quality of your multilingual content, which will enhance the professionalism of your product and help your company to achieve its customer satisfaction goals.

Jeff's take on Conexpo

2011-06-07T16:53:00.004-05:00

In March, ICD exhibited at ConExpo/ConAGG 2011, and here is our International Account Manager's take on the show: ConExpo/ConAGG 2011 lived up to its billing as one of the “Greatest Show on earth”. Exhibitor after exhibitor extremely satisfied with the contacts made. If you have never been to ConExpo, you now have to wait until March 2014. It is worth the cost just to see the “Biggest Sand Box in the World.” www.conexpoconagg.com

Introducing International Communication by Design

2011-02-14T15:31:00.001-06:00

Ipad Translation Tool. Really?

2011-01-11T13:42:00.001-06:00

Ever wondered what you would do with a portable translation tool? No, this is not a machine translation app. Well, wonder no more. Wordfast has launched Anywhere, the first professional translation memory software application that allows you to translate on the iPad. It is the largest cloud-based translation environment, which is also the fastest growing, there have been approximately 7,000 users since it's launch about 4 months ago.

Moreover, the best aspect of Wordfast is that this new application is free and accessible to all translator. It also claims to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of the source content, and all TM content. It has a “software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model that allows you to use a translation memory without having to pre-install any software, instead you can just access the application via Safari web browser

Normally you would upload/download files in Wordfast using your main computer. Now, you can translate files (DOC, PPT, PDF, etc.) that are available from the net - by simply using a URL provided by and LSP or client. Once translation is complete, the translated file can be temporarily stored on Wordfast server for three days. You can for example, inform a client or a Project Manager that the file is available, by just providing the URL.

This makes it possible to complete a full job with an iPad, from source file upload to the delivery of the translated file (using a full suite of Translation Memory, glossaries, Machine Translation, etc.), without ever dealing with a local hard disk. You can of course log into WFA from your main computer at any time to upload or download files. With Apple's external keyboard the translation experience is the same as on any other computer.

Some of the key features:

Work in groups and collaborate with other translators. You can set permissions to share memories and work together online
Perform automatic translation integrated and compatible with a wide variety of file types.
Aligning source and target texts for different languages, and create parallel texts from a translation memory.

In short, this application allows you to do virtually everything needed to perform the task of translation. This makes translation more accessible to would-be translators. The limitations of exposing your TM and confidentiality come into question, and this might be a big risk for larger LSPs and their clients, but for small scale translators and small businesses that have in-house employee translators, this could be an easy accessible solution to using a translation memory tool.

ICD has Moved

2010-10-14T12:38:00.000-05:00

We moved into our new office this week:

International Communication by Design, Inc.
13040 West Lisbon Road, Suite 600
Brookfield, WI 53005
Ph# 262-781-1644
Fax# 262-781-1654

We are excited to begin a new chapter in our company's history.

ICD's New Home

2010-09-21T10:27:00.000-05:00

International Communication by Design, Inc (ICD) is excited to announce that we are moving! For the past 19 years, ICD has been located in the “Fortress Building” in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Due to sustained growth, ICD will relocate to a larger more advanced facility in Brookfield, Wisconsin by October 15, 2010.

Here’s our new contact information:

International Communication By Design, Inc.

13040 West Lisbon Road, Suite 600

Brookfield, Wisconsin 53005

Phone: 262-781-1644

Fax: 262 -781-1654

translate@icdtranslation.com

www.icdtranslation.com

We are delighted to move into a larger space, adding more staff, and implementing new technologies to better serve you and improve your presence in the Global Market Place. We’d love to show you our new facility the next time you’re in the Milwaukee area.

Together we can Translate To Evolve^SM.

ICD is Moving Soon

2010-09-15T11:30:00.001-05:00

ICD will be moving its headquarters from Milwaukee to Brookfield, WI. We'll be moving to a larger more advanced facility in an effort to expand our presence in the industry. Our new address will be posted soon. I'll also post some pictures of our new facility once it's ready.

ICD in the Milwaukee Business Journal

2010-07-01T11:09:00.002-05:00

Recently, Catherine Deschamps-Potter, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, and one of the founders of ICD, was profiled in the Milwaukee Business Journal.

She talked about how trade agreements, international politics and the worldwide economic recession have wrought huge changes to the global marketplace in the last 20 years, and how one thing has remained clear throughout: The U.S. economy will grow increasingly dependent on the global economy in years to come. This outlines the basic importance of Translation Service Providers.

Photos form Recent Shows in Milwaukee, Chicago, and Las Vegas

2010-05-28T11:39:00.002-05:00

Here are recent photos from Trade Shows where ICD was an exhibitor.

MWTA Trade Days: Milwaukee

ASTD: Chicago

AEM Exhibitor Education Meeting: Las Vegas

ICD's Experience at the AEM Exhibitor Education Meeting

2010-05-28T10:22:00.003-05:00

AEM Exhibitor Education Meeting, May 18th-19th, 2010

Danielle and Catherine attended this meeting as ICD sponsored the AEM vendors meeting, and is the chosen vendor for CONEXPO translations. Here is Danielle's insights on the meeting:

The CONEXPO Trade Show can appear quite daunting at first glance: In March 2011, over 2,000 exhibitors from countries all over the world will come together for a five day trade show in Las Vegas. During the 2008 CONEXPO show, over 144,600 industry professionals representing 28,000 companies attended the show. Come to think of it, even after a second or third glance, the CONEXPO is still an imposing figure. How does a company prepare to exhibit at a show of this magnitude?
This is exactly the question that The AEM Exhibitor Education Meeting sought to answer for its attendees. Over the course of two days, industry professionals and trade show analysts provided seminars on a diverse range of topics, such as marketing, booth design and how to create the best return on investment. However, two topics seemed to be the underlying message of the show: the importance of branding your company, and the need to create a goal or objective for your company experience at CONEXPO.
Branding your company into a unique entity within your industry is essential to stand out in a tradeshow of 2,000+ exhibitors. Creating a Branding Proposition for your company means promoting your company not just as “the best of the best,” but instead as the only company that does what you do. How will we stand apart as different than our top 3 competitors at the show? To do this, we will need to create a brand that goes deeper than great quality, low prices and excellent customer service, and instead look at what makes us unique and memorable within the industry.
It is also important to have an explicit goal or objective for exhibiting at CONEXPO. Without a clear objective, it becomes too easy to be swept up into the enormity of the CONEXPO show. Before the show, staff will need to be trained on how to accomplish our goals, the booth will need to be designed to best reflect our objective, and marketing materials will need to be sent out that will aid our goals. During the show, every action the company takes should be working towards our final goal. After the show, a thorough analysis and reflection will need to be taken to make sure all of our efforts were used to accomplish our goals for CONEXPO. March 2011 may seem like a long way off, but every moment of planning will be essential to create a positive experience for International Communication by Design at CONEXPO.

It's Official! ICD is a certified Woman-Owned Business

2010-04-21T08:39:00.002-05:00

PRESS RELEASE

CERTIFIED WOMAN-OWNED BUSINESS

DATE: April 14^th, 2010

CONTACT: Catherine Deschamps-Potter

TITLE: Vice-President

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION BY DESIGN, INC.

State Certified as a Woman-Owned Business Enterprise

International Communication by Design, Inc. has received certification as a Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE) through the State of Wisconsin Department of Commerce. The designation is pursuant to the state administrative rule requirements of Comm 104 which provides validation that International Communication by Design, Inc. meets the requirements of being at least 51 percent woman-owned, controlled and managed. It qualifies International Communication by Design, Inc. to be considered for contracts with corporations and government entities that seek vendor relationships with businesses owned and operated by women.

International Communication by Design, Inc. was established in 1991 and specializes in Language Translation and Localization. To better promote state certified WBE’s and to make it easy for buyers to find them, the Department of Commerce maintains an on-line WBE Directory at http://commerce.wi.gov/BD/BD-WBECertification.html).

Changing the Game

2010-04-20T15:06:00.002-05:00

The recession has forced many translation companies to re-think their sales and service approach. The price for translation is a never ending bottom line battle, and companies have to choose to either make less money while providing the same level of quality, or come up with added services at no-cost to justify their prices.

No doubt new technologies have been developed to help the industry move forward as a whole. Machine Translation and Editing by human translators is one service that many translation companies have chosen to offer. It's sort of a budget version translation. A compromise in cost. The quality is probably a B, and that's enough for most instructional manual. The problem here is finding a good translator to edit a machine translation.

Other translation companies have started offering services like 24 hr instant translation. Naturally, they probably use a machine because it's going to be pretty hard to have a translator work on-call for them. There's one company that goes as far as offering a hotline for "translation emergencies". This is a great idea on paper, but when is translation really an emergency. Even if it is, I doubt that a 100 pages can be done in less than 1 day. The hotline does work as a tool for client's to find out the progress of their projects, or to inquire about the completion date.

Overall, we have to adapt to the changing economic climate to satisfy our clients needs. We may have to streamline the process, and offer more competitive prices, or justify the current prices with added services. There is a value attached to every dollar, and we must remember that there is a value attached to a good translation.

Getting Started with Translation Style Guides

2010-03-17T11:55:00.004-05:00

Creating a style guide for translation is essential for translators, editors, and desktop publishers. It keeps everyone on the same page through the translation and localization process. Translation tools are able to preserve most formatting and keep the punctuation intact. However it fails to account for spacngs before punctuations (in French), measurement conversions, decimal points to commas, and units of conversions.
One simple rule to start your style guide is to record every choice that can not be recorded in a translation tool glossary or a translation memory. You can find instructions and choices that you should included in your translation style guides here: Annex D of European Standard 15038 for translation services (see page 15). Here are some of the criteria listed:

Punctuation
Spelling
Formatting
Adaptations
Language-specific and client preferences
Common errors to be avoided
Other miscellaneous elements

An effective translation style guides can vary in length and detail, as exemplified by the following downloadable style guides from the technology industry:

Oracle and Sun’s Language Style Guides: guides in 8 languages, each of at least moderate length, French, Spanish, German, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Swedish

Microsoft’s Language Style Guides: guides for 90+ languages, each of varying length

Other international organizations and governments with respectable translation teams have also made their translation style guides available online for download:

The World Bank Translation Style Guide: English, French, Arabic, Spanish, Russian
The European Commission Translation Style Guides: English, Danish, Finnish, Portuguese, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, and other languages

These should help you get started creating your own style guide.