This edition sheds light on the journeys of iconic Founders & CEOs and their motivation to transform the business industry
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The 10 Most Iconic Founders and CEOs to Watch in the Language Industry in 2022
The 10 Most Iconic Founders and CEOs to Watch in the Language Industry in 2022
1. VOL 06 | ISSUE 04 | 2022
The 10 Most Iconic Founders and CEOs to watch in the Language Industry in 2022
Eric
Bauwelinck
Supporting Organizations
with High-End Interpretation
Speaking Local
Significance of
Language Services
Virtualizing Business
Virtual Reality :
Providing a New Outlook
to Traditional Businesses
CEO
Mastervoice
4. Languages:
Weaving the Thread
of Cultural Mix
evisiting the vast shelf of the memory library, I glanced
Rthrough the pages of my childhood, reminiscing a beautiful
time. I traveled with my grandmother to a weekly spiritual
gathering, where I repeated the words I heard from the speaker,
trying to learn a new language I was unfamiliar with.
Years later, when I was introduced to the anime world, I was
intrigued and curious, unknowingly imitating the same I did as a
child. I picked up on a few words and some Jutsu I came across
while watching Naruto. However, at times I couldn't grasp
Japanese quickly; this is where English subtitles came to my
rescue. Now that I think of those moments, from learning different
languages to coming across difficult ones, transcreation has helped
me in several instances.
When you think about it, transcreation has been around us for
decades, though we hardly identify it as a means that helps us
understand things from a different cultural background much
more swiftly. With the rising number of social platforms and
streaming services, people are exposed to consuming content from
corners of the world created in different languages.
The quote “The beauty of any verbal art form is in the language it is
made” is genuinely true, but with the help of transcreation, these
art forms can become widespread globally, generating a loyal fan
base. If it weren't for transcreation, I wouldn't have been able to
enjoy Squid Games the way I did, assisting me in learning more
about the Korean language and culture.
EDITOR’S NOTE
5. The unsung heroes behind these transcreations are the leaders putting their heart and soul into translating
several languages to help people worldwide, from fundamental to complex things. By developing AI
programs that can make these translations seamless and precise, incorporated into the device, you are
reading this note.
Ask your personal AI assistant to translate anything your heart desires Google, Siri, or Alexa; you'll be
amazed. We appreciate the technology but never the ingenious mind behind them.
Thus, to celebrate the enormous efforts of these leaders, CIO LOOK came up with the edition “The 10 Most
Iconic Founders and CEOs to Watch in the Language Industry in 2022.”
Flip the pages to know in-depth about the language as an industry and how it impacts people around the
globe. Be sure to glance through the articles written by our in-house editorial team that will expand your
array of the industry.
Start the new chapter!
Aditya Gaikar
6. Contents
Cover Story
8
Maestros Insights
AI:From Artificial
to Authentic
Tech Evolution
How VideoAmp Evolved the Company
Culture and Process to Increase
the Number of Engineers Employed
46
30
Virtuoso’s Vision
The Shift that broke
the pendulum
16
Eric
Bauwelinck
Supporting Organizations with
High-End Interpretation
7. Agnew Multilingual:
Translating
Languages Globally
CSOFT International:
Harmonizing Language
and Technology
Capita Translation
and Interpreting:
Providing Seamless
Language Solutions Cloudbreak:
Humanizing
Health Care
Pangea
Translation Services:
Gaming and Trading
Specialists with High-Quality,
Professional Translators Protrans:
Reforming Language
Services with
Distinctive Solutions
Traducta:
Assisting Professionals
with Multilingual
Translation Services
34
40
44
28
26
20
18
Speaking Local
Significance of
Language Services
Articles
24 36
Virtual Reality :
Providing a New Outlook
to Traditional Businesses
Virtualizing Business
9. Management Brief
Company Name
Agnew Multilingual
agnew.com
Irene Agnew
Founder & President
Agnew Multilingual is a leader in providing foreign-language
translation, interpretation and multicultural
communication services.
Capita Translation
and Interpreting
capitatranslationinterpreting.com
Antonio Tejada
Managing Director
Capita TI is a leading global language services supplier.
Cloudbreak
cloudbreak.us
Cloudbreak helps enable all of your telehealth solutions through a
suite of industry-leading services, at the push of a button.
CSOFT International
csoftintl.com
Shunee Yee
Founder & CEO
CSOFT International is a world leader in localization and global
communications which provides turnkey solutions to companies
facing challenges in engaging customers and markets.
Lan-bridge is a specialist Chinese translation agency.
Pangea is a translation, localization and content service provider
focused on delivering high-quality product, professional service
and fast turnaround.
Protrans is a language service provider which will always have a
personal touch, never allowing only the computers to do
all the work.
Traducta is a Language Services Company for businesses and
organizations seeking optimal translation quality and customer
service, in all languages.
Eric
Bauwelinck
CEO
Mastervoice is a premium language service provider of
simultaneous interpreting and human language technology.
Lan-Bridge
Communications Ltd
lan-bridge.co
Michael Zhu
Founder
Pangea Translation Services
pangea.global
Michal Shinitzky
Managing Director
Protrans
prolang.us
Elena G. Rojas
Founder & CEO
Traducta
traducta.com
Yves Desjardins
Founder & CEO
Jamey Edwards
CEO & Co-founder
THE TR COMPANY
thetrcompany.com
Manuel Rubina
Marketing Head
The TR Company has been committed to setting the highest
standards for quality and client service in the translation industry.
Mastervoice
www.mastervoice.eu
11. Eric
Bauwelinck
Supporting Organizations with
High-End Interpretation
Our goal is to
offer a contribution
to global understanding
by speaking to the
hearts and minds of
decision - makers with
native speakers as
cultural ambassadors
in all world
languages.
12. nterpreters are people who see language in a way
Ithat others don't, and for them, the sky is the limit.
Knowing various languages entails a thorough
understanding of humanity's culture, and expanding
this understanding throughout the world, Eric
Bauwelinck reshaped the face of the interpreting
industry.
Starting as a freelance conference interpreter and
eventually launching a company that conducts online
and onsite interpreting, Eric leads as the CEO of
Mastervoice, addressing the necessity of online
interpreting for many years, accomplishing the
challenging task by transitioning from onsite to online
interpreting.
Mastervoice promotes globalization by providing
experienced interpreters to international organizations
with an established track record of reliability and
expertise with a human touch.
CIO Look caught up with Eric to learn in-depth about
his experience and journey throughout the industry.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Briefly describe your professional journey up until
now.
Language has always been a true passion throughout
my life and career. After graduating as a translator-
interpreter in 1990, I started my career as a freelance
conference interpreter. In 1998, I founded Mastervoice
to support international organizations with
simultaneous interpreting, including audiovisual
support in my mission as a total language solutions
provider.
What challenges did you face along the way?
Before the outbreak of the health crisis, we had
detailed procedures in place to support meetings with
simultaneous onsite interpretation and audiovisual
support. It has been very challenging to find the right
balance between the expectations of qualified
conference interpreters and the service requirements
of international organizations in a changing market
environment, which is critical to seize opportunities in
the post-Covid era of hybrid meetings. My background
as a conference interpreter was a great asset to
achieving this balance and offering added value to
meeting planners and interpreters alike.
What significant impact have you brought to the
Translation and Localization industry?
As an early pioneer in the market of simultaneous
interpreting, Mastervoice has been promoting the
benefits of online interpreting since 2008 with
campaigns in 2012, resulting in the publication of a
book on the transformation from onsite to online
interpreting in 2016. The health crisis proved to be the
greatest accelerator of this transformation. We were
ready and well prepared to forge strategic alliances
with language technology partners offering reliable
remote simultaneous interpreting solutions.
Tell us about Mastervoice and its foundation pillar.
Our unique service model is built on a core interpreter
management system with integrated quality
management, qualification procedures, and interpreter
selection criteria based on proven expertise with
automated workflows tailored to the specific needs of
multilingual conferencing. My background as a
conference interpreter in more than 3,000 meetings in
Mastervoice
promotes globalization
by providing
experienced translators
with a human touch to
international
organizations with an
established track record
of reliability and
expertise.
13. the past 30 years enabled me to offer this interpreting
service model based on best practices, business ethics,
fair competition, industry standards, and our core
mission to exceed client expectations in interpreting.
How does Mastervoice promote workforce flexibility,
and what is your role in it?
Our internal workforce management has undergone
great changes to meet the fast-changing demands of
the interpreting market in terms of scalability and the
ability to adapt to these changing circumstances.
Instead of relying on isolated internal departments,
Mastervoice values multi-skilled project coordinators
to support meeting planners in their complete
customer journey from a request for proposal to final
delivery.
Selection and qualification of freelance conference
interpreters is based on an adaptive interpreter
sourcing model linked to client history, specific
qualification criteria, and last but not least, client
ranking based on proven performance.
14. As founder and owner of Mastervoice, my role is to
consult clients on total language solutions with
expertise in remote simultaneous interpreting. I see it
as my mission to demonstrate the value of multilingual
conferencing to our key stakeholders: our end clients,
our audiovisual partners, our conference interpreters,
and our employees.
What is your take on technology's importance, and
how are you leveraging it?
Language technology solutions, and in particular
remote interpreting applications, have proven to be a
critical factor since the outbreak of the health crisis,
but also considering the increasing importance of
Sustainable Development Goals as formulated by the
United Nations Global Compact. Online meetings are
essential contributions to a greener environment with
fewer people on the move for meetings, but also to
international exchange, and cooperation.
What will be the next significant change in the
Simultaneous Interpretation industry, and how are
you preparing for it?
Besides the evident contribution to a greener meeting
industry, remote simultaneous interpreting
demonstrated clear benefits in cost and time efficiency
for interpreters and participants in international
meetings. At the same time, videoconferencing also
exposed the limitations of a meaningful exchange
versus traditional face-to-face encounters. An
indefinite number of formerly highly interactive
meetings gradually turned into watch-and-listen-only
webinars without genuine human-to-human
involvement. Meeting technology providers must meet
essential expectations in human communication to
earn a winning edge and should focus more on life-like
presence with eye-to-eye and face-to-face human
encounters, even in a virtual, augmented, or mixed
reality.
15. High-end
language technology
must meet human
expectations in terms
of connectivity,
affordability, and
reliability.
To prepare for this virtual transformation, Mastervoice
has partnered with world-leading audiovisual partners
and strategic language technology providers to
accomplish our core mission of empowering global
understanding, exchange, goodwill, and cooperation.
What are your goals in the upcoming future?
The ongoing global crisis places a heavy burden on the
world economy, and this will also impact the meeting
and language industry at some point in time. Global
understanding and goodwill remain fundamental in
international communication. Our goal is to support
global understanding by speaking to the hearts and minds
of decision-makers with native speakers as cultural
ambassadors in all world languages.
What advice would you like to give the next
generation of aspiring business leaders in the
language industry?
Linking technology to human resources is not sufficient
to make a meaningful difference in the language
industry today. High-end language technology must
meet human expectations in terms of connectivity,
affordability, and reliability. This is a labor-intensive and
highly competitive environment that is not for the
faint-hearted. You can make a difference, however, by
focusing on niche solutions for niche markets with a
qualified pool of expert linguists and by adopting the
latest solutions in applied language technology with
reliable technology providers. This was our own
successful approach in very challenging times.
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18. C
orporations are shifting their
marketing services in-house
and re-defining relationships
with their suppliers. This is a strategic
shift brought about by a confluence of
technical, social and political change on
a global scale. At the core of this
movement is the corporation’s need to
control global brand messaging quickly
in an increasingly regulated world. Is
this a temporary shift or is there more
to it, and how far might it go?
TShift
that
broke
the pendulum
he
About the Author
Murray Oles is the President of
CHALEX Corp. The company is specialized
in Workow Management for Marketing
Communications Projects through the use of
SmartFlo and integrated third party tools.
Murray Oles
President
CHALEX Corp
Virtuoso's Vision
| June 2022 |
www.ciolook.com
16
19. The rise of mobile computing combined with an explosion
in SaaS software development has led to more intuitive
purpose-built applications with built in learning tools. The
net effect is that corporations can do much more with less.
Hence, the rapidly accelerating move to take internal
control of the corporate global supply chain. More
specifically, control of process, digital assets, resources, and
the brand message. Evidence of the shift can be seen in
global corporations like P&G who in recent years
consolidated their packaging prepress supply chain from
hundreds of companies to only three. The ANA
(Association of National Advertisers) committee for
in-house agencies includes members from hundreds of the
Fortune 1000. A Google search reveals many recent articles
detailing the rise of in-house ad agencies.
The drivers of this shift are affordable and effective new
technology and the need for speed to market. The value of a
middleman controlling portions of the marcom workflow
has diminished. This does not mean that everything is being
produced in-house, just internally controlled and managed
by in-house staff who are defining new best practices for
their agile enterprise. Many companies go back and forth
between insourcing and outsourcing, but this time it is
different. Companies are focused on process, and it is not
just marketing, legal and business analytics, recruiting,
employee services and even providing in-house healthcare.
With change comes opportunity. Demand for business
process management tools is growing rapidly. Many new
companies are developing SaaS products to further enable
the agile business. Online workflow modeling and business
process management tools are becoming main stream. File
sharing and digital asset management services are widely
accepted. Integrating these services to meet the
requirements of a project has never been easier now that
RESTful APIs have become widely available. Artificial
intelligence applied to big data analytics will provide the
agile business with insights previously inconceivable. Best
of all, the enterprise can securely access most SaaS services
without making any upfront investments or long term
commitments.
At the core of the agile business is an integrated business
process management platform. This is the tool that enables
distributed process control. In-house is only practical when
the technology enables the staff to do an order of magnitude
more with less. BPM systems capture huge amounts of data
that can be analyzed as a service in real-time. The ability to
analyze any combination of process and behavioral data
yields valuable predictive insights. Standards such as
BPMN notation and the XPDL file format have allowed
developers to simplify the user experience for defining,
managing, and sharing process maps across BPM
platforms. A virtual task can automatically serve up the
tools the user will need. SaaS tools have one thing in
common. They can be called through a RESTful API
without the need for a software developer. The workflow
can be configured to invoke access to tools based on the
nature of the task. For healthcare workflows a digital
radiology file format (DICOM Web) enables secure
cross-platform viewing and collaboration over a patient’s
scanned images and medical history.
Business agile companies adjust to market conditions faster
by adopting a culture of managed change. It is no longer
acceptable to be so disconnected from your projects that
you can’t even access your own brand packaging and
promotion files. The same is true for legal, regulatory and
compliance work. The agile company controls all of these
processes. Their DAM enabled BPM system interacts with
a SaaS reporting service like EZBI that concatenates and
reports on data across distributed systems. Lean
manufacturing and Six Sigma programs are used to
configure these systems to monitor compliance to regulated
processes.
These changes are far more profound than may appear on
the surface. The gig economy is fueling a virtual cottage
industry that circles the globe. Project managers are
increasingly in demand. This is not just an IT thing, every
business runs on projects. The certified project management
professional PMP is a new college certification. Rachel
Burger in a Capterra article explained The 5 Biggest Project
Management Trends Shaping 2018. In brief, “business
agile” is the new way of doing business. A visit to the
Fiverr.com web site will show how one SaaS service is
bringing buyers and sellers of creative services together.
This in-house trend is not just another swing of the
pendulum.
www.ciolook.com | June 2022 |
17
20. In today’s business world, communication is playing
a more vital role than ever. The need for language
services is rapidly increasing across the globe.
Organizations ranging from multinational companies to
small-scale enterprises are looking for professionals to
translate, interpret, localize and globalize their content
for all types of customers. In this scenario of growing
demand for language services, Agnew Multilingual has
been a leader in providing foreign-language translation,
interpretation and multicultural communication services.
Founded in 1986, Agnew provides culturally sensitive
and highly effective language solutions to Fortune 500
companies and small businesses alike. It serves
companies which are expanding into the emerging
markets of the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin
America. Located in Westlake Village, California,
Agnew draws on over 1,500 translators and multilingual
talent worldwide. A woman-owned business, Agnew is
ISO and WBENC certified, and registered as SBE, WBE
and DBE with state and national agencies.
A Sophisticated Leader
The orchestrator behind Agnew Multilingual is Irene
Agnew, the Founder and President. She has more than
30 years of experience in the translation field. Prior to
establishing Agnew in 1986, she was a consultant for
Bunker Ramo Corporation on machine translation
research. She translated Russian radio broadcasts for the
U.S. State Department. She was the head translator for
Rand Corporation and wrote a monthly column for
Science Digest.
Irene’s primary goal is to make sure that clients’
multilingual marketing efforts not only meet but exceed
their expectations. She is fluent in Russian, with a
working knowledge of Japanese and Spanish.
An Exemplary Approach to Stay Ahead in the
Market
Distinguishing Agnew from industry competitors is the
fact that it is not burdened with layers of bureaucracy.
Its team can respond immediately to its clients’ needs.
The company keeps its administrative staff lean, but
expandable at a moment’s notice. It has carefully
assembled a large and diverse talent pool composed of
linguists, programmers, narrators, designers, web
developers, and video editors to create accurate, on-time
and on-budget deliverables for print and digital projects.
Agnew is a company managed by translators and
linguists dedicated to providing the best possible services
and solutions based on linguistic skills and technology.
The company commits to exceeding its customers’
expectations for translation quality, responsiveness, and
professional excellence. It does not limit its service to
project delivery but is always watching out for new
opportunities for its customers to get the most return on
their investment. It strives to pursue new developments
in language technology, cultural & international markets,
and political & economic conditions that affect its
customers’ mission in international business. It also
maintains the highest standards of ethical behavior and
professional integrity.
Agnew’s language solutions help clients achieve
measurable results by reaching out to non-English
speaking communities and consumer markets both
domestic and international. It serves various industries
including aerospace, healthcare, media & entertainment,
Agnew Multilingual:
Translating Languages Globally
| June 2022 |
www.ciolook.com
18
21. advertising & marketing, biotechnology, consumer
products, utilities & communications and government.
Dynamic Capabilities
The top priority at Agnew is to ensure the meeting of its
clients’ communication needs in a fast-paced and ever-
changing environment. Agnew Multilingual provides
interpretation for interactive webinars, small meetings,
and large conferences with thousands of attendees from
across the globe. Its interpreters are selected on the basis
of their subject-matter expertise, education and
experience. It provides full linguistic, logistic and
technical support for all interpretation events, including
equipment and professional audio engineers.
Agnew Multilingual’s expertise goes far beyond
language translation. The interactive nature of the
internet requires a coherent design to address the
technical challenges of presentation in other languages
and the cultural expectations of the target region. Its
video production department delivers superior-quality
audio and video production services to help its clients
reach their English and non-English speaking customers.
Agnew’s ability to provide both translation/trans creation
and audio recording or subtitling makes it an ideal choice
for discerning clients.
Industrial Outreach
Agnew is a versatile and forward-thinking translation
agency. Since its inception, it has been committed to
continuously improving its services. In 2013, Agnew
established a dedicated Digital Department to manage
the growing number of multimedia projects required by
today’s technology-driven business environment. Its
expertise in proposals, websites, corporate videos and
video games has set a benchmark in the Language
service Industry.
Agnew translates hundreds of pages of proposals for
international business into Middle Eastern languages for
one of the nation’s largest aerospace and defense
contractors. It localizes hundreds of web pages with
thousands of words into multiple languages along with
periodic updates and maintenance. It provides repetition
discounts for large scale projects and full-service
technical support and staging for worry-free content
management. It produces corporate videos with voice-
over and/or subtitles with on/off capability for web
streaming ranging from 1-minute to 60-minutes for tech
companies, biopharma corporations and international
manufacturing firms. Apart from these, the company also
produces retail trailers and demos into multiple
languages with voice-over, animated graphics,
international ESRB ratings, UPC codes and packaging
using Sony and Microsoft templates. Its clients are
among the industry’s largest developers and international
distributors of videogames.
— Irene Agnew
Founder & President
‘‘
We bring your message
to the world.
www.ciolook.com | June 2022 |
19
22. When was the last time you watched a film not in
your native language and noticed the subtitles
or dubbing didn’t sound right? Or maybe you
were trying to follow an instructional manual and the
directions didn’t make sense? As the world becomes more
connected, localization plays an important role to
businesses across a variety of industries and sectors.
Localization goes beyond straightforward translation, it
ensures that the new content resonates with the intended
audience, taking into account culture and dialect. One
company who understands this challenge is Capita
Translation and Interpreting.
Capita Translation and Interpreting, also known as Capita
TI, is a leading global language services supplier, with a
strong focus on innovation and technology. It is a part of
Capita plc, the UK’s leading provider of business process
management and integrated professional support service
solutions.
Delivering Extraordinary Services
Capita TI provides translation and interpreting services to
commercial and public sector customers via 2 technology
platforms, namely SmartMATE, a translation, automation
and workflow integration platform, and LiveLINK, a remote
interpreting platform.
SmartMATE provides customers with instant and secure
access to all technology products at their fingertips. From
one central place, customers can request a translation or
interpreting project, download reports, track and retrieve
projects and view historical information. CMS connectors
allow users of WordPress, Magento and Drupal to send
content for translation within their CMS dashboard,
removing the need for copying and pasting or downloading
content.
LiveLINK is a voice and video remote interpreting platform
which allows customers to reach an experienced interpreter
in as little as 15 seconds. LiveLINK covers 170 languages
and can be accessed via mobile app, web browser,
telephone, or direct integration with customer
communication systems.
Trailblazer promoting efficiencies through technology
Managing Director of Capita TI, Antonio Tejada has over
25 years of experience in the localization industry. He
began his career as a translator, with subsequent roles in
operations, sales and technology. It is his experience and
understanding of technology, and how it can be leveraged
within translation, that has impacted Capita TI the most in
bringing new developments in both the SmartMATE and
LiveLINK product suites to improve the customers’
experience, increase efficiencies and help to deliver
sustainable services to them.
Setting itself apart from contemporaries
There are two key factors that set Capita TI apart from the
competition:
Ÿ Its capacity to integrate the best people in the industry
with cutting-edge technology, to deliver an innovative
and customised language ecosystem. Capita TI’s
technology focuses around translation technology and
remote interpreting.
Ÿ Its reliability as a corporate partner, based on the strong
foundations and governance that comes with being part
of Capita plc and the understanding of the requirements
of large corporations.
A Passage through Time
Acquired in 2011 by the Capita group, the company has
undergone many changes and improvements in the past 7
years. Initially, it was highly dependent on a large
interpreting contract with the Ministry of Justice in the UK,
but now the business has transformed towards a highly
Providing Seamless Language Solutions
Translation and Interpreting
| June 2022 |
www.ciolook.com
20
23. www.ciolook.com | June 2022 |
21
innovative technology-based language service provider,
with a balanced service offering in translation and
interpreting.
In late 2016, Capita TI also re-focused their interpreting and
public sector services, deciding not to re-bid for the
Ministry of Justice interpreting contract, following a
strategic decision to focus on developing the contracts with
other public sector customers and further developing
remote interpreting offering with the launch of LiveLINK.
In 2016 and 2017, Capita TI acquired 2 niche translation
providers, including ITR, which focused on software and e-
learning localization, and amity communications, highly
geared towards financial and legal content, which involved
integration and optimization of systems, processes,
customers and suppliers.
Withstanding the demands of Audio, Video and
Multimedia Localization
Capita TI firmly believes that as a society, we are living in
an increasingly visual world, reliant on multimedia. Clients
use video and audio to connect with their employees,
partners and potential clients, and as such, the demand for
high-quality audio-visual localization grows.
In audio-visual localization projects, there are so many
variations to consider, such as translation of the script,
cultural nuances, voice-over artist talent, matching the
speed of the target language speech to the source and the
list goes on. And if any of these components don’t go
according to plan, it impacts the entire project. Therefore,
Capita TI has adopted a 6-step process for audio-visual
localization, ensuring that all these components and teams
work together for a cost-effective project. The steps are:
Ÿ Prepare a brief
Ÿ Confirm and sign-off script
Ÿ Use high-quality audio
Ÿ Synchronizing script, voiceover, subtitles and
animations
Ÿ Select preferred voiceover artist
Ÿ Quality assurance check
Reflecting on the evolution of the Language Service
Industry over the Years
According to Capita TI, translation and interpreting have
become more of a basic requirement for businesses. The
need for speed has increased, whilst still maintaining a
high-quality output and meeting budget expectations.
Hence, automation is vital in addressing this need and
bringing efficiencies, allowing customers to respond to
market demands in different languages through automation
of tasks including file processing, linguist assignment and
quality controls.
What’s more, the company also believes that machine
translation has developed in recent years. What started as
software translating simple and short phrases has advanced
to custom-built, sector-specific translation engines with
huge translation memories, delivering cost reductions of up
to 30%.
Our mission is to combine
innovative people, process and
technology, to enable our
clients to communicate with
anyone, anywhere.
‘‘— Antonio Tejada
Managing Director
26. th
ocalization is the 4 fastest growing industry in the United States. The concept started back in 1980s when
LAmerican software enterprises decided to expand globally. Clearly, there was a need for these services to adapt
according to the given market and this need contributed in the development of Language Service Industry. The
language service industry is growing at an annual rate of 6.46% and is expected to be $45 billion by 2020. It is listed as the
most favorable industry to start a business.
All these facts raise the question on why the Language service industry is not causing any disruption in the market. The
answer is lack of attention. The industry is specific to communication but as the demand for global communication is
increasing, the popularity of the industry is also growing. In recent studies it was found that 75% of the people preferred
their local language while shopping online. There is growth in other aspects as well including the translation in the written
material and documents, interpreting and sign language services and digital documentation.
Terminologies
• Glossaries: Glossaries makes sure that the translation is accurate in terms of style and voice from the original text and
maintains the quality of translations. For example one word in English language means something else when translated
in French.
Speaking Local
| June 2022 |
www.ciolook.com
24
27. • Style Guide: It is a standardized pattern writing and
formatting documents. It can be for generic use or it
can be used specifically for an industry. Style guides
bring standardization and consistency to the content.
• Translation Memory: Translation memory is a set of
stored information that is already translated before. In
order to perfect the new content, it is compared with
the translation memory. This will enhance the
accuracy and reduce the cost at the same time.
• CAT Tools: The process of translation taking place
through CAT tools. This improves the efficiency and
the quality of the process. The tool breaks the text into
segments and translates them separately and compiles
it like the original source.
Importance of Language Services
• With the MNCs Booming
For enterprises that cross the borders or fly overseas to
expand their business, language services has become a
must have strategy. It becomes convenient for MNCs
to run a business using the regional language.
Moreover it enables the companies to share and
receive information from across the globe from
different branches, without any miscommunication.
Proper translation of language makes sure everyone is
on the same page.
• External Affairs
Nations communicate on various global issues including
business, politics, environment, etc. These issues are
addressed in various events where the ideas and
thoughts are shared among the authorities. However,
the language barrier may take the toll on the purpose
of the event. This is why the language services are
very important for governments. It can be a new
economic policy or a global summit in which global
leaders express their thoughts.
• Accuracy in Transfer of Information
Language services are the most important instrument for
news and broadcasting agencies. These agencies share
news and information from across the world and it
needs to be translated into local languages. Be it
international or regional, effective translation of
language helps in order to transfer the news.
• Travel and Tourism
Tourism is one of the major resources for countries as it
not only generates revenue but helps in trade and the
overall development. But lack of communication can
reduce the level of satisfaction from the tourists and
that is why language service industry is
complimentary to tourism industry. Proper translation
services like preferred language materials and
personals enriches the experience of tourists and also
increases the popularity of the country.
• Media Content
The entertainment industry and the literary society cross
the border for business and the content needs to be
translated in order to be relatable to the local audience.
While the translated and subtitled versions of films are
earning tremendously on global platforms, the music
industry and the writers are also benefited by the
language services.
Language Service Providers
Enterprises that are on the verge of expansion need
language service strategies in order to establish overseas.
But it is not an easy job to set up the team that insures
quality and consistency. It is a better option for them to
outsource the services from professional services. There
are various advantages of hiring a language service
provider rather than having in-house team including
guaranteed quality, cost efficiency, professionalism, and
better services.
In conclusion, the journey of this underdog industry has
just started. It may have been on the surface up till now
but has great potential and a very promising future.
However there is huge scope for quality players that are
yet to enter the market. The future seems bright because
as the globalization and localization is growing, the
demand for language services will keep growing and it
will come out as an important service for many industries.
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28. Medicine as a field does not just treat illnesses, it
treats human beings. However, complications
can arise that get in the way of quality care. That
is where Cloudbreak Health comes in.
Cloudbreak Health is a leading telemedicine platform that
specializes in providing assistance to non-English speakers,
deaf patients, and patients with mental impairment.
Cloudbreak Health is unifying telemedicine, making it
easy to access multiple specialities with at push of a button.
About Cloudbreak
Cloudbreak Health is headquartered in Columbus, OH and
on a mission to #HumanizeHealthcare. They deliver on that
mission by resolving healthcare disparities with their
unified telemedicine platform which includes Cloudbreak
Connect (their private broadband network optimized for
telehealth), Cloudbreak Catalyst (a fully private-labeled
software solution, video contact center and workflow
engine) and Cloudbreak Collective (a marketplace of
healthcare services that breaks down silos between
healthcare facilities, allowing them to collaborate
seamlessly).
Their Martti (My Accessible Real-Time Trusted Interpreter)
service line pioneered the video medical interpreting
industry. It currently performs over 90,000 consults per
month at over 800 hospitals nationwide, building trust
through communication between healthcare providers and
their Limited English Proficient and Deaf patients.
Overcoming Initial Challenges
The Cloudbreak brand was established in 2015. However,
the company is an industry pioneer which was originally
founded as The Language Access Network in 2003 by Andy
Panos. At that time, the technology to deliver the platform
was very expensive and a single cart cost more than
$25,000.
As the industry evolved, technology costs decreased
significantly. The Martti platform is now available on a
multitude of devices, including any PC, iOS or Android
device. In addition, Cloudbreak has pursued a device-
agnostic strategy which allows interoperability across many
of the mission-critical systems used in hospitals.
Before Cloudbreak, hospitals and medical centers found it
difficult to staff interpreters because it was impossible to
accurately predict the demand for the service on any given
day. Cloudbreak pioneered a model which allowed these
institutions to subscribe to a monthly minute package to
meet the staffing demand curve of their clients. This
dedication to quality has been the hallmark of Cloudbreak’s
service.
Due to connectivity challenges for video over the open
internet, they implemented a strategy to connect to partners
over their own private broadband path allowing the
Company to provide more secure connections that ensured
higher quality video. While more expensive, this strategy
provided a more direct path between Cloudbreak and its
clients as well as the deployment of Quality of Service
(QoS) on its network and insulation from changes in Net
Neutrality moving forward.
Behind Cloudbreak
Jamey Edwards is a Co-founder & CEO of Cloudbreak, a
leading Telemedicine and Language Services company
currently performing over 90,000 encounters in more than
800 healthcare organizations nationwide.
Prior to Cloudbreak, Jamey was the CEO of Emergent
Medical Associates (EMA) and led its growth into the
leading multi-specialty group in the Southwest US. He
remains with EMA as a Board Member and is also a Board
Member of the Santa Monica chapter of the American Red
Cross, Partners in Care (a healthcare think tank innovating
solutions for the underserved), and Run to Remember (a
charity honoring first responders who have died in the line
of duty).
He is also a member of the Santa Monica Bay chapter of the
Young Presidents Organization. Jamey has been an Honoree
for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award three
times and twice an Honoree of the Los Angeles Business
Journal Healthcare Leadership Awards. Under his
Cloudbreak:
Humanizing Health Care
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guidance, Cloudbreak has been recognized as a MedTech
Breakthrough Award Winner, a Patrick Soon Shiong
Innovation Award Winner and as one of the top
entrepreneurial companies in the country by Entrepreneur
Magazine.
Jamey was also recognized as one of the Top 40 Healthcare
Transformers nationwide by MM&M and as a Healthcare
Transformer by Startup Health for actively addressing the
Cost to Zero and Increasing Access to Care moonshots. He
is a proud member of the #PinkSocks Tribe of healthcare
innovators who are working to disrupt healthcare from the
ground up and drive positive change for patients and
providers.
Jamey received his MBA from Cornell’s Johnson Graduate
School of Management.
Solving Healthcare Disparities
With its core Martti platform, Cloudbreak is an end-to-end
services partner that can fulfill all its clients’ language needs
from outsourcing their departments, to taking advantage of
their expertise and network effects, to selecting services
from Cloudbreak’s offerings based on a client’s specific
requirements.
The company offers healthcare providers a full suite of
services including video medical interpreting (VMI), over
phone interpretation (OPI), document translation, on-site
interpretation, language access plan development,
education, training and other consulting services that
optimize and drive ROI on their language services
department.
Cloudbreak has been regularly recognized for its leadership
and commitment to excellence while its interpreters serve
as subject matter experts for national certification exams.
While initially targeting to ensure a level standard of care
for non-english speaking and deaf patients vs. their English
speaking counterparts, the Company realized that its video
endpoints and expertise could be deployed to help its
partner hospitals with their broader telemedicine strategies
and bring skilled specialists to underserved communities.
The X-Factor
Cloudbreak offers its partners single vendor simplicity,
customized workflows and a fully private-labeled solution
spanning multiple telemedicine specialties. This is
complemented by the integration of its live video medical
interpretation services for Limited English Proficient and
Deaf and Hard of Hearing patients.
The company pioneered Video Medical Interpreting and has
grown rapidly as a result of its focus on quality and
customer service. All of the company’s video interpreters
are based in the United States in HIPAA-compliant
language centers and are all Certified Medical Interpreters
or on the path to certification within 6 months of
employment.
Cloudbreak also offers unified reporting services that allow
a hospital to gain a full perspective on their language
services departments, with interactive dashboards giving
them the insights they need to optimize the management of
these departments to drive better compliance and patient
satisfaction across vendors.
Making a Global Mark
Cloudbreak has experienced dramatic growth over the last
few years and their rate of growth is accelerating. The
demand for their services will only increase as the country
shifts to a Majority-Minority population, a change which is
happening faster than expected.
As the country’s patient population increases in diversity
and the technology costs continue to drop, Cloudbreak
expects to see even more rapid adoption of their services.
Our mission is to humanize healthcare by
leveraging technology to break down
language barriers, provide access to multiple
medical specialties, and build trusted
communication and relationships between
patients and providers.
‘‘— Jamey Edwards
CEO & Co-founder
30. We live on a planet with more than 7 billion
people who speak more than 7000 languages.
Over 50 percent of the population speaks at
least 2 languages. But the question remains, how do we
communicate with each other when there is a language
barrier? One company helping eradicate language barriers
while bringing localization and global communications to
individuals as well as businesses is CSOFT International.
CSOFT International is a leader in language localization
and global communications which provides solutions to
companies facing challenges in engaging customers and
markets because of linguistic and cultural barriers.
CSOFT leads the localization industry with next generation,
supple and on-demand translation technologies and
solutions that disrupt legacy translation models. Most
recently, they developed the world’s only fully automated
human translation solution that can be deployed on all
devices. The platform, Stepes, helps clients achieve
unrivaled translation speed and scalability, while allowing
multinational enterprises to accelerate global business
growth and succeed internationally.
A Global Leader
Shunee Yee is the Founder and CEO of CSOFT
International. With over 25 years of experience in the
industry, she worked as an executive in Asia Market
Development for a major language service provider prior to
founding CSOFT. Responsible for its organic growth from a
start-up in a two bedroom apartment to an industry leader,
Yee oversees CSOFT’s operations across dual headquarters,
16 regional offices, and 3 continents.
Led by Yee in June 2016, CSOFT launched the Shenzhen
100 report which utilized hard data and qualitative
indicators to create a China Global Maturity Index to assist
the Shenzhen Municipal Government in implementing
policies to support global market strategies.
Yee is a recipient of the international Stevie Award for Best
Asian Entrepreneur for Women in Business, a Fortune Most
Powerful Women award, and was identified by CNN Money
as one of Technology’s 36 most powerful disrupters.
Throughout her career, she has also been featured in a
number of publications, including the Boston Globe, The
Economist, Fortune Magazine, and Investor’s Business
Daily.
A Myriad of Services
CSOFT International brings together over 10,000
professional in-country linguists, culture experts, and the
latest language technologies to deliver localization solutions
to global businesses in IT & telecom, life sciences,
automotive, manufacturing, financial services, consumer
electronics and more. Few services provided by CSOFT
are:
· Technical and Software Localization: CSOFT
has a strong technical background due to extensive
software development experience across many
platforms. It provides end-to-end solutions for
software localization including application GUI
translation, linguistic testing and cosmetic testing.
Powered by professional in-country technical
translators, CSOFT provides consistent quality
localization for virtually all software applications.
· eLearning and Training: In today’s globalized
economy, businesses must effectively educate their
internationally distributed workforces and
customers to maximize business success across
diverse regions. CSOFT has both the linguistic and
engineering expertise to help organizations such as
GE, EMC, Google, and others, effectively localize
their training materials for global audiences.
· Medical Translation: MedL10N, which stands for
medical localization, is CSOFT’s business unit that
offers translations to the life sciences industry and
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Harmonizing Language and Technology
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is also one of the first language service providers
to hold ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 13485:2016
quality management system certifications.
· Global Communications: The GC business unit
specializes in creating top-quality content written
directly in target languages by a team of native
speakers consisting of experts in marketing,
journalism, PR, telecommunications, computing,
life sciences, and design. By only employing
highly-experienced content specialists native to
target markets, the global communications team
ensures a brand’s message is effectively
communicated to all customers around the world.
Businesses today demand translations in hours or even
minutes versus days and weeks in order to respond to
changing market demands quickly. CSOFT’s ability to
translate digital content fast and on-demand enables their
customers to beat the competition and get ahead faster in
the global market. CSOFT believes in improving customer
experience by making their services better, simpler, and
cost effective.
Tackling Initial Struggles and Challenges
After establishing the company in 2003, a major challenge
was running as a China-operated company and retaining
global talent. CSOFT recognized the importance of a strong
culture within their people and this unique quality has
cultivated a strong corporate culture and identity in the
multinational team.
Shunee always wanted to create a company that used the
latest technology to power language communications
solutions; the perfect harmony of language and technology.
This is the reason behind the name CSOFT:
Communications Solutions of Foreign Trade, with the word
‘soft’ affording the implication of technology. As a
technology-driven organization, CSOFT has created its own
technology suite over the years including tools such as
Termwiki, to help with terminology management, and
Ubrta, for better management of translation projects.
Accommodation for the Customers
CSOFT combines the power of AI and human translations
to help customers achieve the highest return on their
localization investment. They have simplified much of the
workflow into an easy-to-use and 24/7 online model.
CSOFT is a world class translation service provider with
the experience, track record, breadth of services, and unique
just-in-time (JIT) and translation technology. The digital
transformation has fundamentally changed customer
expectations for speed.
Lastly, as champions of providing language and
globalization solutions, CSOFT people are true global
citizens, working from around the world to enable better
communications among businesses and their customers and
more broadly, to enable better understanding between
cultures.
CSOFT has run campaigns such as I Translate, I Transform,
created to celebrate the world’s linguists, as well as the
#GetSchooled Initiative that used CSOFT’s network in over
170 countries to train and educate about the problems girls
face in education. Each day, they break down more and
more of the world’s language barriers to realize their long-
cherished vision, One World, One Market, and One World,
One Team.
— Shunee Yee
Founder & CEO
‘‘
One World, One Market,
and One World,
One Team.
32. With so much attention focused on Artificial
Intelligence (AI), it’s worth remembering that
one size does not fit all. There are specific
business-related pain points in mind when a company
decides to deploy AI technology, so making the right
choices can be a tricky task.
For example, several months ago, an AI related
breakthrough was announced – a robot learned and
demonstrated the ability to perform a perfect backflip.
While it is well acknowledged that the invested research
and development for this mission was huge and the
commercial potential for some applications is enormous, it
is somewhat unclear how this specific innovation or the
core models and algorithms of it, can serve other industries
and verticals. Herein lies the problem.
Gauging AI success in one field in many cases can be
meaningless for another. To make things worse, even when
trying to go deeper into the technology and attempting to
evaluate, for example, which Machine Learning algorithms
are utilized by the product, or what are the number of
layers in the Deep Neural Network models mentioned by
specific vendors, in the end it will be possibly pointless as
it does not directly reflect the solution deployment
‘success’ implications.
Nevertheless, it seems that the market ignores this reality
and continues to evaluate AI-based products by buzzword
checklists using familiar and related AI terminology (e.g.,
AI:From
Artificial
to Authentic
About the Author
Mr. Jay Klein drives Voyager Lab’s technology
strategy and core intellectual property. He brings
more than 25 years of experience in data analytics,
networking and telecommunications to the Company.
Before joining Voyager Labs, he served as CTO at
Allot Communications where he steered Allot’s data
inspection and analytics core technology offerings,
and as VP Strategic Business Development at DSPG,
where he was responsible for strategic technology
acquisitions. He also co-founded and held the CTO
position at Ensemble Communications while founding
and creating WiMAX and IEEE 802.16. He also
served as the CTO and VP of R&D at CTP Systems,
acquired rst by DSP Communications and later by
Intel. Jay Klein holds a BSc in Electronics & Electrical
Engineering from Tel Aviv University as well as
numerous patents in various technology elds.
Maestros Insights
| June 2022 |
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33. Supervised, Unsupervised, Deep Learning etc.). While
checklists are an effective tool for comparative analysis it
still requires the ‘right’ items to be included.
Unfortunately, what typically is absent are the items which
are important to the customer, from a problem-solution
perspective.
Introducing Authentic AI
Given all of this, there is a need to change the narrative
around AI technology and solutions to something
meaningful and authentic that reflects the real-life
challenges and opportunities that businesses are facing.
This is the time to introduce Authentic AI.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘Authentic’ as
both ‘worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or
based on fact’and ‘conforming to an original so as to
reproduce essential features’. This is not about ‘Fake’ to be
contrasted with ‘Real’. It’s about the essential features of
AI which need to be acknowledged, and hence, redefine
the ‘checklist’. Often, these essential ‘authentic’ features
are hidden and only surface when a CIO/CDO is faced
with a new problem to be solved. This is seen especially
when the AI aspects of a proposed product or solution are
fully explored by asking questions such as:
- Is the AI technology utilized by the product aimed
specifically for my problem, optimally (e.g.,
performance, cost, etc.)?
- Is it capable of addressing the complete problem or
only a part of it?
- Can it be assimilated into the existing ecosystem
without imposing new demands?
- Can it address the compelling environmental
conditions of the problem space?
These issues can be grouped into three different ‘classes’ -
‘Original’, ‘Holistic’ and ‘Pragmatic’:
Original – How innovative is the solution? This can be
quantified by assessing the following:
- the invention of new algorithms or even new models
and
- the use of complex orchestration techniques or
- through the capability to handle complex data formats
and structures.
While there is no need to re-invent the wheel repetitively
for any problem, there are distinctive characteristics which
require optimizing.
Holistic – How complete is the proposed AI technology? It
takes into account the capability of handling the end-to-end
aspects of the solution, the competence of harmonizing the
operation of the various AI components of the solution and
the ability to adapt to ever changing conditions of the AI
application.
Pragmatic – Can the technology solve real world
problems in their actual and natural space in a
commercially viable way? This means that for example the
data sources can be processed in their most native format
(both unstructured or structured) as well as provide
insights or results matching the pragmatic needs of the
specific market expectations. In addition, the ability to be
quickly deployed and rapid to act are assessed.
All of these elements should be used to systematically
assess and evaluate AI-based products and solutions to
assess their authenticity and therefore effectiveness in
specific use cases.
For example, many home-loan mortgage evaluation and
recommendation systems utilize a somewhat isolated
machine learning based applicant classification method,
one of many other processes included within the solution.
The AI in this solution cannot be considered Authentic AI
to a high degree as it ‘scores’ low on the ‘Original’ and
‘Holistic’ classes as it isn’t innovative ‘enough’ (from an
AI sense). In addition, the AI component itself does not
cover on its own the end-to-end aspects of the solution
(hence affecting the overall performance and precision). It
could be considered to be ‘Pragmatic’ to some level if it
can handle the required data sources of financial
institutions or the customer applications natively, and if the
solution ‘output’ are the explicit results required as a
specific recommendation (e.g., loan conditions). However,
the deployment timeline (time-to-market) and commercial
aspects need to be evaluated as well. This is just one
example of many others, covering all kinds of variations.
Perfect backflips may grant you a gold medal if you are a
gymnast but if you are a master chess player don’t expect a
winning move.
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36. The language service industry is increasingly
being supported by different technologies. There
are companies that consider this as undesirable
but some experts believe it is an exciting time to be at
the forefront of this revolution. Language service
providers are deploying modern technology to core
language operations such as spellcheck and eliminating
grammatical errors.
This has allowed expert translators to leave basic
language operations to the machine and focus on their
core objective of recreating/translating the essence of the
original document. Due to the inclusion of modern
technology, businesses have achieved higher
productivity and efficiency in many cases. A company
that is helping clients achieve such results is Pangea
Translation Services. Located in Cyprus, this firm has
adopted modern and up to date technology in the
industry in order to stay ahead of the curve.
As a Translation and Localization company, Pangea
focuses on delivering high-quality end product,
professional service and fast turnaround. It specializes in
a variety of sectors including online trading (Forex,
Cryptocurrency, Binary), iGaming (Casino, Sports
Betting, Lottery, Bingo) and video games (mobile,
social, PCs/consoles). Real estate and tourism are two
new sectors they are testing at the moment and they are
recruiting the linguists needed to offer a high quality
specialized result. The professional linguists at Pangea
have the experience and knowledge to translate various
kinds of content ranging from articles, mailers, manuals,
legal documents and platforms. They ensure that correct
terminology is used, especially in sensitive industries
such as the legal sector so that the original context is
maintained. Currently, Pangea is offering localization
services in over 50 languages. Its objective is to help
businesses reach new markets worldwide by delivering
impactful content in these competitive markets.
A Passionate Leader
Michal Shinitzky is the Managing Director at Pangea
Translation Services. She has over twenty years of
experience in localization, software development and
linguistics. Throughout her career, Michal combined her
technical knowledge, linguistic curiosity and passion
which helped her play an important role in managing the
localization departments of several prestigious
companies. In 2015, Michal decided to expand her
horizons and explore different options which led to her
experiencing many challenges. She then established
Pangea Translation Services and today, she is bringing
additional expertise to the language industry with her
passion and experience.
A Cutting-Edge Translation Service
The company’s project management services are catered
to client needs. Some of its clients request for more tech-
Pangea
Translation Services:
Gaming and Trading Specialists with High-Quality, Professional Translators
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based support or for localization consultancy and
Pangea’s project management team can deliver just that.
Apart from this, the project managers identify the needs
of each client and propose additional services such as
copywriting or localized graphic design. This way, it
reassures the clients that Pangea is aware of their
marketing needs too.
Although the company is rapidly growing as a fast-paced
company, it still manages to nurture a close relationship
between its project managers and clients. It embeds strict
quality checks as part of the entire package and takes
pride in achieving thoroughness and accuracy as a
standard practice. Over the years, the company has
learned to balance quality and speed to meet client
expectations.
Sometimes, it uses cutting-edge translation technology to
achieve the best results. The company only uses
technology to a certain extent with translation
management systems and translation memory, ensuring
that all human jobs such as the actual translations are
performed by linguist experts. To undertake these
detailed operations, Pangea divides its translators into
teams based on industry expertise. For instance, it never
offers a chance for a financial writer to translate a piece
on gaming.
Nowadays, Pangea has the capability to offer quality and
fast turnaround services to its clients. It also recruits and
delegates the right staff members who can support
Pangea to achieve its missions and conquer the next
milestone.
Future Expansion
The Pangea team expresses that their journey has been
an interesting and surprising one so far. They find every
experience to be filled with positive and refreshing vibes.
The bright side of working for Pangea is the challenge
present in every new project. About its future, although
the company hasn’t delved too deeply into translations
for multimedia experiences, it is dipping its toes into the
water by offering subtitling services. As the director of
the company, Michal says, “We are keen on looking
further into audio, video and multimedia localization
services in the near future.”
— Michal Shinitzky
Managing Director
‘‘
There’s no fun if the
whole journey is a
smooth and simple ride.
38. Providing a New Outlook to Traditional Businesses
Virtualizing Business
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39. R is a way to escape the real
Vworld into something more
fantastic. It has the potential to
be the most social technology of all
time. — Palmer Luckey
Virtual reality (VR) has been around
for many years now, in spite of this it is
a very underdeveloped technology. It
holds a vast potential outside of
entertainment, it has taken over various
aspects of our lives right from the way
we shop, experience, converse and
even ways to conduct business.
With time this technology has gained
popularity with many powerhouses,
which has encouraged them to invest
profoundly in VR technology. It has
become more and more accessible for
users, with manufacturers having
already released household sets and are
continuing to do so.
The recent advancement in the VR
technology has made it more
accessible for the general public. Due
to this, it has had a remarkable impact
on the business world also. The sole
aim of the technology is to change
human perception using virtual
systems. The adoption of VR by users
is still in its nascent stages and has
gained popularity, and more and more
businesses are coming up with VR
based solutions. The reducing prices of
VR headsets have also posed to be an
advantage for the consumers as well.
It has also posed to be an advantage for
the consumers as well, with the
reducing prices of VR headsets. This
has proved that VR is a tough and
emergent market, with great scope for
platforms which can allow businesses
to leverage VR for process
development and advanced marketing.
40. Businesses are Using VR to their
Benefit
VR has the potential to become the
most important tool that businesses can
leverage to add on to their success.
Established businesses are taking the
help of VR to train their new
employees in a more cost-effective and
efficient way. With the help of VR, one
can have an employee in Los Angeles
meeting with the one in London as if
they were/ are in the same room.
VR offers an added advantage when it
comes to the outward focus of the
businesses; it allows a novel way to
connect with customers. The company
can build up a more story driven way
of marketing which draws people into
the company's brand, in a tangible and
relational way. Virtual reality has
potentially transformed the world of
media. It has opened doors for
businesses; to advertise in a way they
had never imagined before.
Consumers are now equipped with the
ability to test out and experience
products, that they intend to purchase,
in an entirely new way. It allows you to
precisely visualize how a piece of
furniture or painting would look in a
particular room, or even test different
makeup styles without leaving the
room. A structured assessment,
planning of the future of businesses,
and with the right data VR can even
give a valuable insight into the success
of the business.
VR is now being used to simplify and
reduce the cost of the process of
product prototyping. Since VR has
made it very cost-effective for
businesses to design a product or an
intricate component of an outsized
machine virtually than actually build
the prototype, the use of VR in this
sector is likely to develop quickly. VR
and AR have also advanced the area of
Computer-Aided Design (CAD).
Prototypes can now be shaped within
the virtual space, allowing designers to
accurately pin down its working way
before the resources to build the
product are acquired. This has eased
the process of testing the product while
saving both money and time.
The major setback that the e-commerce
industry faces is the sales; customers
are reluctant to buy products that they
haven’t tried. With the help of VR, the
consumers can potentially try out and
visualize demonstrations for various
product categories. Allowing a more
clear vision of how their post-purchase
experience will look like.
Novel business opportunities
There are as many applications for VR
as you can think of; it’s restricted by
your imagination. — John Goddard.
Virtual Reality has numerous
businesses perspective; not just by
providing innovative features to the
business products, but also in helping
innovators create novel businesses with
these technologies at the core.
Just like old-fashioned cafes, VR cafes
would soon be a hit. These places will
be a social gateway for people looking
for augmented and virtually enhanced
experiences. VR cafes would offer
choices on diverse virtual reality
equipment, comprising of games,
videotapes, team-building exercises,
social media practices, 3D books and
content experiences, and virtually
enriched meditation.
In real estate markets, VR platforms
permit house tours to people from
anyplace around the globe. People can
design and even paint their homes with
this technology as they would in real
life setting, to provide an outlook into
the future look of their homes.
Cars like Audi R8 offers a VR-powered
“test drive” experience. Similarly, even
Airbus has introduced aircraft tours for
its airline executives, which allows
them an enriched experience and tour
of the aircraft without actually visiting
it.
The Future Looks Promising
As VR and AR carry on development,
more and more knowledge about how
it can be efficiently incorporated into
the businesses has come to light, this
amalgamation of new with the old will
potentially have a huge positive impact
on every sector. New entrepreneurs,
startups, and businesses should surely
keep an eye out for this technology, as
it has become an integral part of
marketing and businesses processes in
the near future.
Bearing in mind how several industries
and businesses are quickly validating
and accepting virtual reality, the
estimate is that it will take over the
business scenario almost completely,
isn’t bloated by any means.
| June 2022 |
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42. International communications have become a vital
part of the business world. This global reach is
achieved through effective comprehension of
various languages. Language is one of the most complex
yet most important medium to maintain clear
communication and data transmission. To give simplicity
to language and its understanding, Professional
Translators & Transcribers, Inc., (dba Protrans) has
come up with its cutting-edge solution. Protrans is a
private corporation which provides federal, state and
local law enforcement with Analytic Linguists. These
are elite language experts who work alongside the
law to investigate crimes.
Protrans occupies a specialized niche that other
Language for Specific Purposes (LSPs) entities do not
provide. Protrans is dedicated almost exclusively to
providing expert language services in support of law
enforcement. It screens, trains, assesses and certifies its
Analytic Linguists through Translation Skills
Training’s™ (TST’s) program, administered in
partnership with Montclair State University (MSU).
In addition, Protrans sponsors applicants in the process
of obtaining security clearance once they are accepted
into TST’s training program. Since Protrans is a sole
proprietorship, it has no bureaucracy, making it able to
adapt to change of all kinds and respond quickly to
satisfy the needs of clients.
Aboard a Global Voyage
The CEO of Protrans, Elena G. Rojas, founded
Professional Translators and Transcribers, Inc. (dba
Protrans), in 1972. Since its inception, she has been the
sole and continuous owner, expanding its operations and
creating Translation Skills Training™ (TST) in 2014.
Along the way, in addition to providing expert language
services, she has also won prestigious awards and
recognitions, inspired her staff and transformed lives all
along the way. A dedicated CEO who never considered
herself as the boss, counted herself as more of an
employee, to maintain discipline at work.
She began by providing her services to the California
Department of Corrections, then to the Los Angeles
Police Department, and eventually to the Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA). While at the DEA,
the need for elite language experts like her grew
exponentially, and Ms. Rojas was asked by them to train
more language experts to do the even more specialized
levels of work she was doing for the DEA.
Exemplifying Language Solutions
Protrans has grown because Ms. Rojas committed
herself to develop the company’s operations alongside
maintaining harmony with the changes in the general
work environments in the linguistics industry. Being au
fait with relevant emerging technologies alone is not
enough. Protrans always aims to have a personal touch
and never let the computers do the work.
This personal touch extends to Ms. Rojas’ spinoff
company, Translation Skills Training™ (TST) which is
exclusively dedicated to screening, training, assessing
and certifying Professional Analytic Linguists.
Protrans provides Analytic Linguists to a variety of
federal, state and local agencies and private entities,
offering language services in various languages, to
interpret or translate from one language into another, to
Protrans:
Reforming Language Services with Distinctive Solutions
| June 2022 |
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43. monitor oral communication intercepts in foreign
languages, summarizing them in English, as well as
transcribing verbatim oral communication intercepts in
the source language for subsequent translation into
English.
Exertion to Stand Tall
The most prominent changes in the language service
industry have resulted from technology. Technological
innovations have and will continue to impact all types of
LSPs in many ways. Word processing and email have
enabled LSPs and freelancers to work remotely, freeing
everyone from even the most severe geographical
restrictions.
The internet and access to vast amounts of lexical data
and information have empowered the LSPs and language
experts to harness these tools and work smarter. Some
LSPs and freelancers have advanced in Computer-
Assisted-Translation (or Machine-Assisted Translation)
which is known as CAT/MAT software that has
increased output and earnings.
Similar to the case with literary works, the idiosyncratic
nature of the spoken language of various groups and
types, especially the colloquial, cannot be translated by
automated means. This reality highlights the fact that
skilled language experts need to be trained further in
order to work as Analytic Linguists.
The challenges involved knowing what was needed from
a pedagogical perspective in order to develop training
that specifically addressed the skills sets needed by
Analytic Linguists. This training requires technologies
for delivering instruction and assessment efficiently,
while maintaining high standards. This twin challenge
offered opportunities and Ms. Rojas sought experts of
various kinds to develop an in-house curriculum. The
demand continued to grow until it was too great to
handle under one roof and that became the stimulus for
Ms. Rojas’s creation of Translation Skills Training™
(TST).
Envisioning Glory
Protrans and TST are ceaselessly delivering their
respective cutting-edge services, and in so, defining the
future of their industries, and are committed to remaining
so. Whether in terms of developing and continually
improving its intuitive, effective website interactions
with clients in need of language experts on the one hand,
or, on the other, delivering online learning, Protrans and
TST are already ahead of the curve due to the
specialized nature of each of their activities.
— Elena G. Rojas
Founder & CEO
‘‘
Protrans will always
have a personal touch,
never allowing only the
computers to do all
the work.
www.ciolook.com | June 2022 |
41
46. In the present business world, multilingual
translation services are extremely important if one
is observing opportunities in the international
market. To reach the global market, organizations need
to constantly communicate with clients from all over the
world and make effective interactions. One of the
prominent requirements of doing business nowadays is a
strong online presence. The official website is the face of
a business to the world and while it targets a wider
spectrum of audience, it needs to be translated and
localized into preferred languages.
Traducta excels at delivering professional translation
services offers industry-specific business translation
services to support fields as diverse as Retail, Healthcare
and Pharmaceutical, Real Estate, Human Resources,
Marketing, Consumer Electronics, and many others. The
company’s value-added services are Desktop Publishing,
Terminology Management and on-demand Over-the-
Phone and Video Remote Interpreting (OPI and VRI). It
delivers consistent quality in any language, any subject
matter and any format an organization may require.
The Architect of Traducta
Yves Desjardins is the Founder and CEO of Traducta.
He did his graduation from the University of Montreal
with a Specialized Degree in Translation in 1976. Yves
acquired solid experience in translation as an employee
of large International Corporations such as Merck Sharp
& Dohme, Stelco Canada, RCA Canada, and IBM
Canada. The wealth of experience and unified
knowledge in language translation inspired Yves to
initiate his own translation firm.
Therefore, in early 1978 Yves founded Traducta a
Multilingual Translation Services Company which
majorly focuses on translation solutions for business
professionals. Yves manages the whole business and
contributes to the continued success of the company.
He’s also actively involved in the company’s Quality
Assurance processes.
Consistently Delivering Quality
Traducta is celebrating 40 years in business, making it
one of the oldest Translation Companies in North
America. It aims to consistently deliver quality,
regardless the complexity of projects. The company has
standard processes and unified tools, along with an
expert team which guarantees its customer to get best
value and quality.
Traducta offers many unified services including
Multilingual Translation Services, which covers
Document Translation, Adaptive Translation, and
Professional Interpreting. The company also offers
leading Language Review Services which consist of
three types of revisions, namely Unilingual Revisions,
Multilingual Revisions, and Third Party Revisions.
Traducta also delivers Language Process Consulting
Services to its clients to ensure their entire language-
related workflow.
Traducta:
Assisting Professionals with Multilingual Translation Services
| June 2022 |
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44
47. Yves states that “Traducta has been providing
professional multilingual translation services for 40
years into over 150 languages. The most popular
translation services we provide in North America are
English to Spanish, English to French and English to
German, close to English to Portuguese.”
Improving Customer Experience
Traducta is providing its customers using functionality
with the help of unified Customer Portal. It enables them
to securely submit their documents, track their status and
retrieve final versions 24/7. The company also offers
services to connect a user with a professional interpreter
over the phone or via video call in any language. The
whole process works within 30 seconds through an app
installed on their smartphone.
Changing Industry Scenario
Over the years, Traducta has reinvented itself several
times to adapt to the changing prospect of the industry.
Back in 1978, the firm received documents by courier,
which were translated on typewriters using carbon
copies.
In the 1990’s, the company was revolutionized with
computers and text processing. At present, the
company’s production capacity enables it to turn around
large quantities of text in the same day, while ensuring
the same quality.
Developing a Network of Translators
Globalization and the rise of the Internet have had a
significant impact on the language industry. More
content is created every day, and businesses need to
communicate in more than one language to stay
competitive.
Traducta is also focused on this primary reason to
develop a compact network of translators to cover
practically all language combinations. The company is
consequently working on translation services more
effectively to enhance business communication.
Traducta in its Future Proceedings
Over the last years, Traducta has developed processes
and tools to help its customers with audio, video, and
multimedia localization requirements. The company has
developed some projects including National TV
Campaigns, Radio Spots, E-Learning Materials,
Microsites, and Social Media Content, etc. Traducta is
also established in handling any file format virtually and
delivering publishing-ready content in any language.
— Yves Desjardins
Founder & CEO
‘‘
Leading Translation
Services for Professionals.
www.ciolook.com | June 2022 |
45
49. Ÿ “Promoting out of hand” is another variation of
this where you don’t put someone through the
normal due diligence because they already
present. In our case, individual contributor (IC)
engineers don’t go through the rigorous
reference checks that new managers do.
Ÿ “Hiring under duress” or lowering your bar
simply to meet headcount goals. I strongly
advise to hire fewer “full-full stack” senior
engineers vs a bunch of junior or mid-level
career developers who require more time,
nurturing and precious attention units from your
senior staff.
Process
This is a moving target, and one which has definitely been
an ongoing series of blogs. In the early stage, we “over
prescribed scrum.” Something that a very early stage
company can do, along with too much agile processes too
soon.
For example, prototypes and proof of concepts should not
have a rigorous definition of done, with endless unit,
functional, and end-to-end tests because the product’s
requirements will probably zig-zag wildly.
Conversely, having too little process when you are
supporting enterprise customers can also be a
problem. I spent my prior days as an IC and
VideoAmp turns 4 years old this month. So many
memories, and so much growth. Let’s reflect on
some of the worst decisions and associated
learnings that have been fundamental to our growth. Why
the worst you say? Because when you accelerate your
learning rate in a fail-fast environment, it then allows you to
make fast decisions vs the analysis paralysis predicament.
Reflection
One of my favorite wildcard interview questions for
managers is: “Describe the failure you’re most proud of.”
This sometimes catches people off guard, so I’ll share mine
first to get the conversation going. Inevitably it comes down
to choosing because there are so many.
You can’t talk about growth and success without talking
about these failures. Unless you’re some kind of hybrid AI-
robot-space-alien who’s absolutely perfect, there’s going to
be mistakes. What’s important is that as a leader you own
your mistakes and be transparent about them.
Hiring
Finding the right people is the single most important aspect
of growing a startup. The biggest mistakes in hiring have
been:
Ÿ “Hiring out of hand” or short cutting the normal
processes because the candidate is well known by other
engineers in the group.
www.ciolook.com | June 2022 |
47
50. contractor retrofitting and scaling CI/CD pipelines and
training engineers how to write better tests.
The challenge is right-sizing this all along the way, and the
trigger points on when to change may not be obvious. I say
this because we grew headcount by 22 engineers from Oct
2017 to Feb 2018, and in the process we did not modify our
simplified Kanban approach to a prescribed Scrum process
quickly enough. Growing pains emerged, to say the least.
Now we’re in a spot where we can withstand a magnitude
scale of growth with roughly the same squad and tribe-level
process.
Management
Riffing off rapid growth of Brains in engineering, we didn’t
scale management fast enough. Almost all startup
engineering orgs start very flat, with all ICs and no
management. You have “tech leads” who may split their
time doing light managerial functions, but they all write
code and dive into the operations.
The biggest fail here in scaling the ICs was not scaling the
org and management structure to follow. At ~44 engineers
and data scientists, we have a duty to deliver on our mission
to provide an environment where they have the opportunity
to do the best work of their lives and be worth more in the
marketplace.
Without this vital management structure, there is a vacuum.
Do not bolt this on later, build it as you go. We took
inspiration from Spotify’s model of engineering
organizational scaling.
Growth & Career Pathing
We’ve talked about all of these fails, how about something
that has worked well for us?
When doing initial contact with a candidate, I often ask
“why are you in market?” I have seen countless folks who
are looking because their current management does not
have their growth and career pathing in mind. In extreme
cases, they can do a day’s work in four hours, feel like they
are under-challenged, and have not learned anything in
years. They work in an environment like the movie Office
Space.
Taking an opposite approach is to engage in the growth and
pathing of every individual. We do this by:
Ÿ Aligning the growth of the individual with the
company’s growth.
Ÿ Having management check in frequently on the success
of this, and
Ÿ Setting up formal quarterly check-ins on measuring
these goals. Google adopted this early on from John
Doerr in the form of OKRs, and there are great
platforms out there which can formally measure and
track these objectives.
Career pathing is a longer-term concern. I ask candidates
from the start “so what’s the next job after VideoAmp?”
This often catches them off guard, then after careful thought
most reply with a role 1-2 levels beyond where they’re at
now. It’s our goal to help steer them in whatever path they
currently see.
Many earlier-career engineers think management is their
ultimate path, but I have found that many will stay on a
tract of engineering excellence. Whether it’s a Principal
Engineer or a VP of Engineering, the goal is to orient the
new challenges in a manner which grows them in that
direction, even if we can’t fully realize their ultimate
pathing goal while at the company.
By paying careful attention to these details, we have found
our annual retention rate in the high 90%.