DCC International hires SAP expert

We are glad to announce the employment Dr. Giuseppe Gentile (SAP Associate Consultant) has been hired by DCC International. Some information about Dr. Giuseppe Gentile profile:

Short Biography

After the College of Business Administration in 1986 and an experience as guest auditor at the University of Maryland, Department of Lingusitics (1991) Giuseppe graduates with a dissertation on Generative Linguistics published by the University of Paudua in 1995. In 1999, after serving in the Italian army and four years of work experience in the retail and distribution sector, on the wave of the New Economy, he moves to Germany to participate to dot Coms’ start ups with the role af Content Manger by coupling his experience of the retail industry with his linguistic background at Efoodmanager (1999-2001) and Alitalia (2001). In 2002 he participate as Consultant Evaluator at the European Union in the framework of the Econtent Programme. In year 2002-2003 Giuseppe specializes further in E-business Project Manager with MySAP CDI. In 2007 he becomes SAP Associate as SAP XI Development Consultant. Since 2004 he has worked in change management context in many international SAP implementations and roll outs, across various industry sectors, taking up roles from functional analyst, technical author, tester and trainer. His interest and field of inquiry is business process analysis and development of training in the context of business change. Interest in SAP Knowledge Warehouse. His practical experience over the years falls within SAP Business Suite: SCM and other Industry Solutions: IS-Retail and IS-DFPS.

Area of Expertise

SAP Technical Writer, Change Management, Functional Analysis, Testing, Solution Manager, Trainer SCM, XI Process Integration.

For inquiries please send an email to info@dcc-international.com

SDL Unveils TM Crowdsharing Technology with SDL TM Server 2009

Maidenhead, United Kingdom – October 27th, 2009 – SDL, the provider of Global Information Management (GIM) solutions is pleased to announce the release of its enterprise platform SDL TM Server™ 2009, the powerful new translation memory-sharing technology that provides a scalable, performance-driven, innovative and flexible solution for customers wishing to share translation memory assets. The announcement coincides with the release of SDL Trados(R) Studio 2009 Service Pack 1. Designed specifically with the translation supply chain in mind, SDL TM Server 2009 gives organizations the ability to start experiencing the benefits of TM crowdsharing technology by providing the power to access central translation memories from anywhere in the globe. By sharing and managing translation assets throughout the translation community, corporations are able to significantly accelerate the creation of translation assets, dramatically increase leverage and ultimately substantially reduce the cost of translations

Source: ContactCenterWorld.com

Tricks SAP agents play and how to survive them

How to live with an SAP agent?

How does an SAP agency work?

The best way to understand this question is to compare it to a musical band that you once knew – originally you liked the band because they sounded great – the band still has the same name but all (or most) of the members have moved on – do you still like the band?

SAP agencies have good recruiters in them from time to time and some of those stay on – however, and here is the problem, a lot of people consider that if you go to one agency and have a good experience then using that same agency will give the same good results – well in reality this is simply not the case as the help you get is dependant on the person you speak with – here are a few examples of what can happen at an SAP agency – there are lots more and if you can add anything please do.

One of the tricks that SAP agencies favour is sending out a CV without asking permission first – is this a problem? well yes, best – if a company gets your CV without you knowing it and then you don’t fancy the job – guess who is going to get the blame when the agent tells the client? worse – your CV turns up at a job you do want – but as your CV came twice and no company wants the problems of an agent war they simply turn you down as being too desperate or too stupid to control your CV – worst – you are still permanently employed and you CV gets sent to your current employer for a job working with you – complete with your name.

Another favourite agency game is to call up and ask if you would be interested in a job – best – they know what the job is and who it is for – but wont tell you! worse – they know what the job and will tell you but they lie – because they want to get an interview at all costs – then you get a phone call and you look like you lied on your CV (they only changed a little bit) worst – the agent changes your CV to the point that when you finally get the call you have no idea of what the interviewer is talking about and you end up branded as an idiot and a liar in that companies mind.

Or – they simply call you for every job they have on their books and each time you explain that is not what you do – but they keep calling.

Maybe they simply charge a ridiculous rate for their services – recently I had a friend who was working for €80 per hour – unfortunately the agent had not worked out that the consultant might speak with the client and discover that the agent was earning €40 per hour!

Sometimes it can be the little things that you notice when working with an agent – they offer you a role, explain something about it, tell you that you are perfect – when can you start? and you never hear from them again – until the next job!

Other little problems that exist are – you get the project, the agency gets paid – but where you stay or how you get there is simply not their problem.

Dealing with SAP Agents without your blood pressure rising (too much)

Always work with a person rather than an agent – if you have a good relationship with one agent make sure you know if they are going to leave the agency – it is quite easy to explain to any agent that you want to stay in touch even if they move and ask for a personal email address.

Before even sending a CV make sure that you have, in writing, a confirmation that your CV will not be sent to anyone without written permission.

Ask the agent, if you don’t know them, how long they have worked in SAP recruiting – recruiting is the same for most businesses but someone with SAP experience will have a better understanding of what they are doing and the problems of the job – less surprise is usually a good thing for you!

Take some time talking with the agent to make them understand what it is that you actually do on an SAP project – if they understand what you do there is less chance they will call you about the wrong job – although this wont always work.

Avoid signing up with too many agents at one time – but, regardless of what the agent tells you, always remember that any agent will only get a certain amount of the jobs that are available on the market at any one time, some companies will get contracts from IBM while others will have agreements with Deloittes etc – so you need to know who each agent has as their clients before sending your CV there.

Obvioulsy, when setting your rate expect the agent to tell you that they will do their best but ask if you are flexible on that – but do consider that the less the agent pays you the more they will earn, both as a company and on a personal level.

One the best ways of living with an agent is to ask a friend for a recommendation to an agent – not an agency but one very specific person in an agency

Finally, how ever much you spend time checking on an agency you are going to have to accept that agencies (if used) will cost you money for every hour that you work, they will not do the work but they will get paid for yours and so the food chain continues!

Best of luck with the agency battle, however you work with them you will always need to be careful – a good agent is hard to find, if you have any tips or hints then please add them here, for everyone’s sake.

• SAP White List – agent free jobs where your reputation counts
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• SAP – Business Software Solutions Applications and Services
  is the market and technology leader in business software solutions, providing comprehensive business software through SAP applications, services and support. Learn what SAP business solutions can do for your business.
• Homepage for SAP Professionals – SAP News – Help – SAP Security – SAP AG
  The Homepage for SAP Professionals gives lots of necessary information about SAP, its initiatives and also connects SAP professionals worldwide.

Source: Mad Swede , HubPages.com

DCC International on Twitter!

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Project Management Courses Come to Learning on Demand by SAP

Project Management Courses Come to Learning on Demand by SAP.

On SDL and Lionsbridge TM Solutions, insights in 2010

You can read here an interesting study on Lionsbridge and SDL MT Solutions. In this regard it is interesting the following evaluation of the state of the art of automated translation. To view the article click here

MAXwidget

What is TMX Standard?

Translation Memory eXchange

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TMX (Translation Memory eXchange) is an open XML standard for the exchange of translation memory data created by computer-aided translation and localization tools. TMX is developed and maintained by OSCAR^[1] (Open Standards for Container/Content Allowing Re-use), a special interest group of LISA^[2] (Localization Industry Standards Association). Being in existence since 1998, the format allows easier exchange of translation memory between tools and/or translators with little or no loss of critical data^[3]. The current version is 1.4b – it allows for the recreation of the original source and target documents from the TMX data. TMX 2.0 was released for public comment in March, 2007^[3].

TMX forms part of the Open Architecture for XML Authoring and Localization (OAXAL) reference architecture.

Contents   1 Third-party tools 2 See also 3 External links 4 References

 

Third-party tools

A number of tools can be used to create TMX files

• TMXValidator is an open source application that checks the validity of your TMX documents in any platform.

• CSVConverter, published by Maxprograms, creates a TMX document from a CSV file.

• Mikel Forcada and Susana Santos’s aligner, bitext2tmx, creates a TMX file from bitext.^[4]

• Olifant is an open-source .NET application to create and maintain TMX documents.

• Stingray Document Aligner is a cross-platform commercial aligner written in Java that generates TMX files from document pairs in a variety of formats.

• The Translate Toolkit‘s po2tmx converter can be used to create TMX memories from PO.^[5]

• SDL / TRADOS TM Server can export in TMX format.

• Kilgray’s [1] software is capable of import and export in TMX format.

See also

• Translation memory
• Computer-assisted translation

External links

• TMX Home
• XML in localisation: Reuse translations with TM and TMX

References

1. ^ OSCAR – Open Standards for Container/Content Allowing Re-use
2. ^ LISA – Localization Industry Standards Association
3. ^ ^{a b} TMX Home
4. ^ bitext2tmx – Aligner written in Java by Mikel Forcada and Susana Santos
5. ^ po2tmx – Convert Gettext PO files to a TMX translation memory file

What is Xliff?

XLIFF: An Aid To Localization

Download the Translation Editor »

Introduction

Translators today can expect to receive documents for translation in any one of several formats:

• HTML
• Docbook
• Microsoft Word (many possible versions)
• XML (many possible DTDs!)
• FrameMaker
• Software resource bundles (many different formats such as .properties, .po, .msg, .java, etc. )
• etc.

From a translator’s point of view, this is quite a difficult mix to deal with. You would need to maintain several editing tools, be proficient in many file formats (knowing the syntax and grammar of each type), and that’s before you’ve even started to translate the content.

As a localization engineer, a similar problem exists: it’s difficult to write tools for each file format. For example, if your boss asks you to calculate the number of new words for translation between the last delivery and the current one, you need a tool capable of dealing with all formats or a separate tool for each format.

Normally during localization, files are processed by tools such as translation memories and machine translation systems. Translation memory systems, known as TM systems, work by looking up segments in a database containing a large number of previously translated segments and their translations. (Segments are pieces of source files, usually sentences, that can be translated reasonably independently.) The database might contain segments that match the input segment exactly or segments that are similar to the segment presented for translation. These translations are then provided to the translator as suggested translations for each segment.

Machine translation systems, known as MT systems, are another type of translation technology. Instead of using a large database of existing translation, a machine translation system uses a set of language-specific linguistic rules that describe how to translate sentences into the target language.

The translations these systems produce might undergo some post editing, and any remaining untranslated text is given to human translators to complete. Translations are then reviewed, and sometimes commented on, corrected, or retranslated. Source formats tend not to have support for these localization processes.

XLIFF, which stands for XML Localization Interchange File Format, is a format for exchanging localization data. XLIFF could be used to exchange data between companies, such as a software publisher and a localization vendor, or between localization tools, such as TM systems and MT systems.

What is XLIFF?

XLIFF is an XML-based format that enables translators to concentrate on the text to be translated. Likewise, since it’s a standard, manipulating XLIFF files makes localization engineering easier: once you have converters written for your source file formats, you can simply write new tools to deal with XLIFF and not worry about the original file format. It also supports a full localization process by providing tags and attributes for review comments, the translation status of individual strings, and metrics such as word counts of the source sentences.

The XLIFF format grew out of a collaboration between a number of companies, including Sun Microsystems, but was soon brought under the management of an OASIS Technical Committee. In April 2002, the first Committee Specification for XLIFF was published. This is available at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/xliff/documents/xliff-specification.htm.

The XLIFF format aims to:

• Separate localizable text from formatting.
• Enable multiple tools to work on source strings and add to the data about the string.
• Store information that is helpful in supporting a localization process.

Summary

In summary, XLIFF aids localization in a number of ways.

• XLIFF removes the complexities of localizing different types of source files.
• XLIFF provides a common platform for localization tools vendors to write to, thus increasing the number of tools available.
• XLIFF highlights the parts of a file that are important to the localization process.
• XLIFF provides support to the localization process, through its commenting features, support for phases, and metrics.

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Authors: John Corrigan and Tim Foster are software engineers working on translation technologies at Sun Microsystems.

Also by Tim Foster: Translation Technology at Sun.

How to prepare a CMS for website translation

Published by ForeignExchange Translations on Sunday, September 27, 2009 at 6:06 AM

So, you think you really, really need a translated website? Well then, get ready for a wild ride.

If you have never been part of a localization effort, there is lots to learn. And if you deploy a content management system (CMS), you need to be aware of some unique challenges associated with these tools.

Luckily, the Search Laboratory blog has just posted a good how-to article on this subject. Beyond the usual “don’t have any baseball images on your French site” advice, the post gives hands-on dos and don’ts, including:

• Don’t build a user interface for translators
• Be careful using a cookie-based language selector and support language switching on every page
• Use localizable, SEO-friendly URLs
• The importance of internationalizing your database
• Remove text-based logic
• and much more

As more and more groups at drug and device companies are installing a CMS, the folks responsible for international support are gearing up for the next challenge – translation and localization. Preparation, I have often said, is rightly two-thirds of any venture.

To help you get prepared, here are some additional resources:

• Ccaps’ article provides good advice, regardless of whether or not a CMS is localization-ready
• It’s always a shame when international web sites fail – learn how to avoid this fate
• Learn from CaridianBCT’s experience implementing a CMS