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MEDIA
CONTACT: GlobalConcatTM
The
international concatenation coding generator for
perfect playback of voice prompts and text in
200 languages ATLANTA
(May 7 2002)--@International Services
(@IS),
one of the foremost leaders in telephony and web
translation, today officially launched
GlobalConcatTM, the international concatenation
coding generator that prepares computer telephony
products and dynamic web for perfect playback of
voice prompts and text in 200 languages.
GlobalConcatTM resolves all concatenation issues
for unified messaging, voice response products,
dynamic web and other applications with up to
thousands of prompt variations, plus variables,
numbers, dates and times. "Global
expansion is the future revenue source, yet 90% of
U.S. CT/IVR Japanese releases play: "You have 2-boo
messages. To hear this message, single press.
Message 1-boo, at PM 8:45 received. ", says Sue
Ellen Reager, @IS CEO and inventor of
GlobalConcatTM. "Application developers are not
addressing these problems, citing high engineering
costs and ROI. Yet for each potential sale, the
company is facing at least six competitors, three
of whom are overseas in-country developers with
systems that play flawlessly in that language. Once
upon a time, when the U.S. was leading the world in
this industry, systems sold no matter what their
condition. Now, competition is fierce and systems
that are not 100% localized see decreasing
sales." GlobalConcatTM
creates coding for flawless concatenated text and
voice prompt translations without spending hundreds
of thousands of unnecessary engineering dollars for
each additional language translated. "The end
result is increased salability and competitive
advantage," Reager adds. The
new GlobalConcatTM is comprised of database,
language rule sets, programming guidelines and
services which together produce exact code in any
computer programming language, on any platform,
with any operating system. Customized code for an
application is created in the computer language of
choice by a script that "crawls" through a unique
database structure. The "crawl" results in code
that drives flawless concatenation &emdash;
grammatically and stylistically &emdash; in up to
200 world languages with 99.9% exactitude in
addition to perfect dates, times and compound
numbers for telephony applications. The end result
is concatenated strings that sound like complete
sentences recorded by professional native speakers.
After the initial programming, the system can be
expanded and modified without engineering time.
Once the English base version is done, the entire
system will function effortlessly. The
GlobalConcatTM system was in development over a
period of three years, an invention of necessity.
"@IS had translated over 200 sets of system prompts
for telephony companies across the US and Canada,"
says Reager. "The more Japanese, Chinese, German,
Swedish, Arabic and Hindi we produced, the more
depressed executives in charge of budgets and
marketing became when customers --lost customers --
submitted complaints of playback deficiencies
related to English-based programming. There is only
so much a translator can do to massage a
translation to fit dysfunctional coding. And
reprogramming in those languages to meet or rise
above overseas competitors was cost and time
prohibitive. Even after reprogramming for each
language, when it came to adding new prompts,
versions or features, the reprogramming began all
over again in up to 30 languages, debugging, paying
outside linguists to come in to verify their
programming, ad infinitum. A solution that offered
infinite expansion, plus internal developer full
control and flawless localization with no further
engineering expense was mandatory." Cisco
Systems bought the first full GlobalConcatTM
available and was quickly followed by CMG
Telecommunications, partner Ericsson, and Hutchison
Telecommunications in Europe, Australia and Hong
Kong. "There is great benefit and substantial
knowledge in the @IS techniques, knowledge that is
not readily available elsewhere," said Cisco
Systems engineering manager, Paul Nussbaum.
About
@International Services Founded
in 1990 by CEO Sue Ellen Reager, @International
Services is a network of member companies and
experts in 30 countries that specialize in
international translation and recording for CT,
IVR, IT, TTS, TUI as well as associated interfaces
and web or digital text. The 300 professional
members and 1,000 international voice talents
deliver first-class media translation, a form of
translation incorporating the skills of
professional translators who also have additional
expertise in marketing composition, computer
telephony, advertising copy, software, CD-ROM, DVD,
video or website text. @IS end-users include 150 of
the Fortune 500 such as IBM, CNN, Cisco Systems,
UPS, Merck, Motorola, Siemens, Intel, Nortel,
Disney, Philips, Ford, BellSouth, Home Depot,
Fitzgerald & Co., Holiday Inn, Hewlett-Packard,
Ogilvy & Mather, and other companies that serve
Fortune 500 corporations. Further
information on GlobalConcatTM: Questions
and Answers |
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