SDL Blog

Emulating the Senses in Technology in 2012

Sophie Hurst — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:13:30 +0100

Technology is constantly evolving and the nature of humankind is to constantly look at how to do things better. Keeping up with those evolutions is the challenge of many - some embrace the change and some prefer the currrent way of doing things. Either works - it's just up to the individual's personal preferences. And that is what companies today are trying to get closer to - the preferences of the individual.

I have been looking into the future today and contemplating what it will look like. One article I read was pointing to 2020 and what the world will look like then but one, highlighting changes which are closer on the horizon is about 5 innovations that will change 2012. Many of the senses are being emulated by technology - something we would never have imagined 15 years ago.

Eye control. This is about being able to control the way your computer works and what it does, using your eyes. Technology is also evolving to detect your feeling based on other facial movements (see an earlier blog on facial recognition technology). The next trend, gesture control is something we have seen used in areas such as gaming, but it is advancing to mean that you could open a file on your computer from 17 feet away or swipe through your music library at a distance. Touchscreen control, mainly now used on smartphones but not on laptops and mainstream computing will become more advanced. And speech recognition is advancing - as has been seen with iPhone's 'Siri' assistant. So this technology can be used to mean that you can talk to your computer just as easily as you use a mouse.

I remember when mobile phone handsets first came out and I saw people apparently talking to themselves. Just imagine, soon we'll be offices and streets full of people talking to themselves.... a sobering thought...But on a more serious note, emulating the senses brings marketers closer to their audience, as it is emotions that connect people with each other and with companies' brands. So many of these technology changes will in the future start to have a profound impact on the way companies are able to engage with their global customers.

A new tribe emerges

Wesley Budd — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:24:52 +0100

Seth Godin, a well known marketer here in the UK and US, explains the power of bringing people together to create a dedicated group of engaged people in his book 'Tribes'.

Godin says that a tribe has the ability to make positive change, motivate, engage and develop new ideas for everyone. This all sounds very good in theory but to have seen this happen right in front of my eyes is something else!

Very recently I hosted our first SDL University Partner training at Roehampton University dedicated to SDL University Lecturers. The aim of the day was to bring our lecturers up to speed on the latest developments within SDL Trados Studio 2011 by highlighting new features such as Tracked Changes, PerfectMatch and some Project Management facilities. The other aim was to have an open forum to discuss teaching techniques and to discuss how lecturers deliver SDL Trados Studio 2011 in their courses.

One thing we had not expected was the emergence of a brand new Tribe of Translation Lecturers dedicated to develop, promote and deliver the very best in Computer Aided Translation courses! From this, currently, small group of Translation Lecturers developed some great new ideas and techniques on how translation courses and computer aided translation courses could be taught in class. As well as this, an informal agreement was made by the attendees to come together at least once a year and to create their own on-line forum to keep in touch. It was great to see this unfold on the day and I look forward to working much closer with these lecturers in the future so watch this space.

All in all the first Lecturer Training day was a real success with the lecturers walking away knowing a whole lot more about SDL Trados Studio 2011. There is certainly a need for not just training our lecturers but for bringing them together as it's a highly rewarding experience for all:

"It was a very enriching experience for me, and I'll definitely try to implement some of the tips that were suggested on the day into my teaching." Stefania Puddu, Middlesex University

If you would like to learn more about the SDL University Program please visit our Academic Portal by clicking here. Alternatively, send me an email to wbudd@sdl.com

Event: SDL Workshop in association with the ITI

Join us for this free SDL Workshop at Aston University, Birmingham, UK on Thursday 31st May 2012 in association with the ITI. You can register by clicking here

Research and development expands to Europe!

Brittany Benson — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:37:12 +0100

SDL is growing! Our machine translation research and development team, which is headquartered in Los Angeles, is expanding “across the pond” to Cambridge, UK. There, a team of research scientists will be working with Bill Bryne, a natural language processing expert, to drive machine learning research.

A December 2011 study by Battelle and R&D Magazine forecasted that the U.S industry will spend $280 billion in 2012 on R&D, a 3.8% increase on last year. They went on to predict that global research and development will increase 5.2% to $1.4 trillion, which is exciting news for the organization as the R&D team has greatly contributed to SDL’s product success.

“Extending our research organization allows SDL to dedicate more resources to advancing machine learning, statistical prediction, big data and machine-human synergy,” says Daniel Marcu, chief scientific officer at SDL. “These research disciplines are aligned with the technology vision across the SDL portfolio of products, and are catalysts for innovation.

Everyone here at SDL is excited to see what they come up with next. To view the full press release, click: http://bit.ly/K0OpHw.

Stevie Awards Excitement!

Brittany Benson — Fri, 11 May 2012 23:20:49 +0100

Break out your dancing shoes and dust off your formal wear—it’s awards season! Though we won’t be brushing shoulders with George Clooney or swapping stories with Spielberg, SDL is a finalist in the American Business Awards! Commonly known as The Stevie Awards, SDL GroupShare was nominated for Best New Product or Service in the Software division.

The name Stevie is taken from the name Stephen, which is derived from the Greek for "crowned." The Gold Stevie award is almost 16 inches tall, and is hand-cast and finished in 24-karat gold.

Independent judges looked at a variety of nominations and selected ones they felt were worthy of national recognition. The final Stevie Award placements will be judged beginning next week, and announced at the official banquet on June 18^th in New York. Time to make space in our awards cabinet!

Broken guitars, dropped computers and customer experience

Brittany Benson — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:02:25 +0100

Customer care has long been a trending topic amongst bloggers, marketing gurus and sales professionals. Recently though, the wins and war stories of customer care have become
more widespread and more personal.

Take this home security cam video, for example. The FedEx driver was delivering, or tossing rather, one computer to a single home. Despite this being a personal experience, that video went viral - receiving over 20,000 views. (FedEx quickly put out a video with the vice president apologizing).

Or, take the story of musician Dave Carroll, whose guitar was damaged on a United flight from Halifax to Omaha when the ground crew was tossing guitars on the tarmac during a layover in Chicago. One person’s personal experience, shared again via YouTube (now with nearly 12M views), is credited with influencing a 10% drop in United Airline's stock price, costing stockholders about $180 million in value.

The lesson I see is that one consumer’s poor (or positive!) customer experience can influence an entire enterprise. The negative experiences are the ones that seem to go viral, but it is causing companies to put much more emphasis on customer care and customer experience.

We recently conducted a survey, taking feedback from professionals in various industries, to find the top support priorities for 2012 – no surprise, a better customer experience ranked #1! To find out more, check out the video overview of the survey results or download a brief overview of solutions for global customer support.

Think getting that Tylenol from the lab to your medicine cabinet was easy? Think again!

Brittany Benson — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:08:13 +0100

Worldwide medical discoveries and life-saving innovation has made the pharmaceutical industry one of the most compelling sectors to watch over the past decade. Just in 2011 alone, the U.S Food and Drug Administration gave approval for the use and distribution of 35 new medicines, according to an official FDA press release.

To some, 35 new medicines may not seem like a lot, but those who are not directly involved in the industry may not realize what an extensive process it is to get a drug approved for mass consumption. Because of the strong health implications, the pharmaceutical industry is intensely regulated, requiring strict documentation. Where this gets more complex is when working toward market approval in global markets.

To launch a product in a foreign market, all of the detailed documentation needs to be translated and submitted in the local language. The process is extensive, and can involve thousands of pages of content, but it must be done on a short timeline. Even the smallest of updates must be tracked and submitted.

Once a new product has market approval, the pharmaceutical company is also requested to provide the medical information that industry professionals can consult. Too often, this critical information is provided only in English. However, more recently, medical organizations have started making the shift towards translating the information for local language needs to allow doctors, pharmacy technicians and hospital staff to provide better care with confidence.

Though there are many opportunities to expand important pharmaceutical work to help a global market, it is certainly not without challenge. Though innovative technologies and new options for streamlined processes, pharma companies have more options to refine the go-to-market process.

SDL is proud to be a part of this process and contribute to the industry’s success!

To read how our solutions are assisting the pharmaceutical industry, check out the latest solution brief here:

http://www.sdl.com/en/language-technology/resources/solution-briefs/pharmaceutical.asp

For current happenings within the pharma industry see:

http://www.fda.gov/Training/ForHealthProfessionals/ucm274163.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/19/breast-cancer-study-new-generation-drugs

http://www.wndu.com/mmm/headlines/139384018.html

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/16/newly-approved-fda-drug-dramatically-changing-lives-cf-patients/

XTRF – SDL integration platform launched.

David Morgan — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:31:27 +0100

By David Morgan, Marketing Manager, SDL Language Technologies

Users of SDL Trados Studio, who also employ XTRF Management Systems to manage the business aspects of their projects, are now able to take advantage of the new XTRF-SDL platform integration, in order to accelerate the project creation process.

Suitable for XTRF™ 2.6 upwards, the integration works with both SDL Trados Studio 2009 SP3 and 2011, and is specifically designed to further automate the most repetitive activities involved in the project creation process - at the click of a button.

It does this by carrying out the following tasks:

A predefined Studio-Integrated workflow creates a project in Studio,
XTRF™ asks Studio to do the analysis,
XTRF™ retrieves the results of the analysis and performs a financial calculation
XTRF™ sends the created SDL XLIFF file together with all resources to the specified translator
Once the translation workflow is completed the original format of file is created and sent to customer.

The result is a faster, simpler project creation process for XTRF™ users that eliminates errors and enables them to be more flexible in terms of project creation and management.

According to Tomasz Mróz, Operations Director of XTRF Management Systems Ltd “With the SDL Trados Studio integration it is possible to increase responsiveness to customer requests and substantially decrease the overhead costs of creation and management of repetitive projects with quick turnaround time. Everything can be done with one click!”

The XTRF-SDL platform integration is available from XTRF™ from the 17^th April 2012, and can be activated by speaking to an XTRF™ sales representative. A link to the integration can be found in the SDL OpenExchange

You can learn more about XTRF™, an SDL Technology partner, in our technology partners section

To learn more about the SDL OpenExchange, click here

New SDL Knowledgebase portal

Paul Filkin — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:14:01 +0100

Last year Judith de Jong, our Client Services Infrastructure Manager, wrote a post about the new knowledge base portal being under construction. Today we are very pleased to announce that she can present it to you...

... so what does it look like?

What’s new
The URL http://kb.sdl.com did not change and the portal still contains the quick access tabs to My Support, Online Help and Documentation. Also the FAQ, Glossary and Solution Finders are still available.

What's new are the tabs for YouTube and the RSS Feed: on YouTube the SDL Support Team regularly post short video instructions on specific features in our products, as well as Tips & Tricks and licensing instructions. Via the RSS tab you can set up a feed per category in the knowledge base, which means you will be automatically notified via your browser or email inbox every time an update occurs for the product of your choice. You can also set up feeds for more than one category, and you can unsubscribe whenever you like.

Breadcrumbs facilitate navigation through different pages, and on the Home page you can drag-and-drop all available widgets to customize your view. The widgets are things like Top Searches, Hot Topics etc. that you can pick up and move around when the mouse changes to a cross as shown:

However, the really exciting features are in the actual display of the articles:

Icons to print, mail, bookmark, save and link to the article with 1 click:
Icons to publish the article on various social media, like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious and Reddit:
Quick rating of the article via thumbs up and thumbs down icons:
It is still possible to subscribe yourself to a particular article and you can also still send up your valuable feedback on an article:

Advanced searching
The most important improvement for the search facility is that the whole knowledge base is now accessible to the Google Search Engine, which means that SDL knowledge base articles can be found when you type your error string in Google.

But there is more:

AutoSearch: if the search engine does not find any results using your keyword, it comes up with alternative keywords based on the built-in Spelling Checker
Progressive Search: search within the results of the current search
Recent Searches: the display of the most recently performed searches and viewed articles is based on cookies
Filter: you can filter your search results on various items like categories and attributes
Suggested Search: the search engine suggests links to other topics that are related to the initial search query
Sorting and Browsing: the default sort setting is by Relevance, but you can also select Title, Modified Date and Created Date; navigation between the pages can be carried out using the blue arrows to go to the next/previous or the last/first page, or you can simply type the page number in the box
Progressive Search: like mentioned above, you can search within the results of the current search to refine the results

New knowledge base for SDL Tridion
At the same time we have launched a portal for SDL Web Content Management on http://tridion.kb.sdl.com:

This new portal has the same interesting features and contains a wealth of information for all SDL Tridion users.
It has direct links into the SDL Tridion Forum and SDL Tridion World and is a wonderful new addition to the SDL knowledge sharing initiative.

Your ideas count…

I hope you enjoy working with these 2 new portals. Our work does not stop here and we are committed to grow, improve, expand and update our portals and their content.

If you have ideas on how we could continue to improve and make these solutions better please do not hesitate to drop me an email via jjong@sdl.com.

What stories are you telling with social data? Chapter 1

James Ainsworth — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:55:00 +0100

The story of your business is being written and rewritten every day. You may have little to no control of how the plot is being spun, what sea-changes occur Chapter to Chapter or you may be commanding the narrative by the decisions you take with your carefully crafted business strategy and steering a confident course.

How you track the unfolding story and course correct, if needed, can be critical to your business. There are any number of streams of data that you can draw on to tell the story but let us focus on the social data surrounding your business as an area of attention where the pace can be frightening, the plot most intricate and the ‘Happy ever after’ to be secured.

Take an unfolding PR crisis as an example of an environment where the plot thickens with every Tweet or blog post and the sentiment behind the words convey a narrative of their own. If you are monitoring for conversation around the brand or business in question, you will be identifying the most relevant keywords that matter to you. If we are in a scenario of something bad taking place around these searches, you will soon know when the readership swells, the hits increase, the mentions multiply and the whispers weave around the web.

A useful feature of monitoring is to have threshold alerts that are triggered when volumes reach a predetermined limit, this will let the relevant stakeholders know if things are bubbling over (or indeed, under) the normal levels. A timely email alert when the data spikes may be an untimely interruption over dinner or in a meeting but you will appreciate it when it allows you to make adjustments or important decisions when it matters most.

As with any thing in business that you invest in, social media use should be an application of business that is intended to move you from position A to position B on a dial, you are affecting a change and so monitoring whether you are moving in the right direction will help you develop the story on your own terms and not have the nightmare scenario of being the latest social media case study or #Fail when the data, and the content that makes up that data catches you unawares.

Vote for us! Love to see you at Internet Week New York

Ian Truscott — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:18:39 +0100

We at SDL are looking forward to the opportunity to participate in Internet Week New York (https://www.internetweekny.com/).

It’s an event that has run since 2008 as a festival that takes place all over the city, with diverse events in different locations "celebrating NYC's thriving and diverse internet industry and community".

The result is a critical mass of web-focused events that I’ve heard described in the same breath as SXSW (http://sxsw.com/), presumably without the films, music, but with a firmer focus on web engagement tech and what excites the digital engagement professional.

However, the folks behind Internet Week New York have an interesting model for choosing the sessions that that will be on their agenda.They open up submission and then let their community vote for who they’d like to see. Calling it Make the Stage, you can read about it here. (#makethestage on twitter)

Working with our partner Siteworx we have put together two sessions that I’m excited about presenting with them.

One of our sessions is called “Developers: The Rock Stars of Marketing?” that is inspired by a blog post I wrote, when I was back at Alterian and something I am really looking forward to talking about withTim McLaughlin, President and Founder of Siteworx. You can vote for that session here: http://bit.ly/H8zQQX

Alternatively, we have also proposed a slightly different session titled: “Saving the CMO … Bridging the Gap between What Designers Dream and Technologists Create!” where together with Tim from Siteworx we are going to present: "a roadmap to achieve both big ideas and measurable, provable success by bridging the gap between what designers dream and technologists create". You can vote for that session here: http://bit.ly/HXDLhD

But, we won’t be there without your votes! So please, check out the links and follow the #makethestage Twitter hashtag and see how we get on.

See you in New York?