Project: Multilinguality Platform for Industrial Collaboration

Problem statement:_x000D__x000D_Globalisation and competitive pressures have a significant impact on the industrial value chains, in production as well as in product engineering. Obvious effects are the distribution of production sites and a scattered international network of suppliers and customers. Working groups at different locations collaborate across frontiers and language boundaries. Content which may be highly dynamic (working documents, manuals, documentation, work instructions, reports) is frequently shared. Multilinguality becomes a prerequisite for efficient collaboration environments._x000D__x000D_Traditional translation is frequently based on outsourced translation services. While demand for translation is increasing - like the demand for accessibility, distribution and management of parallel multilingual content - this translation approach turns out to be not very efficient. In practice, content is often not available in the required language._x000D_ _x000D_The fragmented process, high cost and considerable delay in delivering multilingual output by traditional human translation needs to be overcome by integrating translation support directly into the working environment of the engineers and technicians. However, this is not well supported by current IT systems._x000D__x000D_The proposed project addresses the integration of automated workflows and translation routines into a multilingual IT solution. _x000D__x000D_Proposed solution:_x000D__x000D_The proposed project will deliver a "Multilingual Platform for Industrial Collaboration". This platform is an IT component that allows content and collaboration systems to be connected to automated translation systems. It can be configured and operated as an intranet or as an extranet e.g. within an engineering value chain._x000D__x000D_The platform provides several features, so_x000D_- content creators can publish high quality translations within a defined publishing and approval workflow and manage this content_x000D_- content users can translate content ad hoc where no published translation is available; quality of translation will increase by increasing the size of the translation memories (self-learning system)._x000D__x000D_While MultiPlatform's concepts are generally applicable to various underlying IT systems, implementation and demonstration within the proposed project will be done on the 2 Ps' strategic IT modules (content and collaboration by Infoman, multilinguality and translation by LTC)._x000D__x000D_The content and collaboration system provided by Infoman is a solution based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS). Translation requests initialised by the system's workflows will be synchronised with LTC's multilingual component. _x000D__x000D_The multilingual component provided by LTC acts as a 'black box' with integrated workflow facilities. Machine translation and translation memory (TM) technology can be combined with human post-editing to enable instant translations in many different environments. The system comprises a translation memory for each language combination, populated with relevant bilingual material such as bilingual software, documentation, online help, and frequently asked questions. The brand of TM is chosen depending on the user's needs. It also features an interface to a machine translation program including a custom dictionary holding key terms relevant to a given customer and doCO. The current interface to an expensive commercial machine translation system is to be replaced by a new open source system available as a prototype from Edinburgh University._x000D__x000D_

Acronym	MultiPlatform (Reference Number: 5186)
Duration	01/04/2010 - 01/04/2012
Project Topic	MultiPlatform is an IT component that allows content and collaboration systems to be connected to automated translation systems. It thus enables working teams to dynamically translate content and make it automatically detectable and accessible in different languages.
Project Results (after finalisation)	"Multilingual Platform for Industrial Collaboration" is an IT_x000D_component that allows content and collaboration systems to be connected to automated translation_x000D_systems. It can be configured and operated as an intranet or as an extranet e.g. within an engineering value_x000D_chain._x000D__x000D_The content and collaboration system provided by Infoman is a solution based on Microsoft Office_x000D_SharePoint Server Sharepoint 2010 (market leader in portal and collaboration systems). Infoman also included a Sharepoint Learning Management System. Users of these widely spread systems can initiate translation requests that automatically are answered by our P's translation system. The project's results is a software toolbox to build and integrate these translation link into IT-based workflows._x000D__x000D_MultiPlatform concluded with a successful test. Infoman plans to integrate the component future customer projects.
Network	Eurostars
Call	Eurostars Cut-Off 3

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
2	Infoman Informationsmanagement GmbH	Coordinator	Germany
2	Language Technology Centre Ltd.	Partner	United Kingdom