The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2022 - 34

GS
Useful Links
Passolo
Trados Enterprise
Trados Studio
Trados Team
provide updates to customers.
RWS will develop new features
more slowly for these systems
and " assumes " that the
clients who still use them will
eventually switch to Trados
Enterprise. (This was-at least
from Daniel and Andrew's
perspective-the preferable
solution to switching to a
competing product.)
So, Trados Enterprise is
the full-fledged translation
management solution RWS is
now actively promoting and
selling. (I was promised that
in the not-so-distant future,
pricing and such things will
be much more transparent
on the RWS website).
Trados Team: The product
for translation teams of all
sizes is now called Trados
Team. RWS bills it as a
" cloud-based translation
project management
solution. " It's very similar
to the GroupShare product,
except everything is
cloud-based. (By the way,
GroupShare is the only one
of the old guard of products
that's still being proactively
offered on their website-but
just kind of tucked away
between marketing copy for
Trados Team.)
Trados Studio: This leaves
the last of the three products,
and the one that's the
most familiar to all of you:
Trados Studio. Trados Studio
obviously is the solution for
the individual translator and,
if used in relation with one or
both of the other products,
forms the tail-end of any line
in the language business (i.e.,
the one where translation is
taking place-aka " the most
important one " ).
Unlike the two other
products that have completed
the switch to an online,
web-based environment,
Studio is still a decidedly
hybrid product, with the
hybridization process in
the 2022 edition mostly
complete. What I mean by
that is that the Online Editor
(which in its first incarnation
in 2016 really was " only "
a secondary environment
for maybe proofreading
purposes) is now a featurerich
environment that allows
for productive translation
work. (Of course, this doesn't
mean all of you will like it-I
know that the prejudices
against a browser-based
translation environment
run deep for many.) You can
switch between the desktop
and the Online Editor
seamlessly-and you'll
be able to do it even more
seamlessly when the desktop
editor in an upcoming service
pack is updated with data
from the online environment
in a more automated fashion.
Also, Trados Studio 2022
gives you access to all " base
level of cloud computing, " so
there shouldn't be any extra
cost for any online resource
you create and use.
Other changes, aside from
the typical bug fixes, etc.,
include relatively minor
features such as multilingual
34 The ATA Chronicle | July/August 2022
Excel, a handful of binary
software file formats (there's
still a new version of the
localization tool Passolo,
but my sense is that it won't
have a particularly illustrious
future as a stand-alone tool),
and a new " view " in the
desktop's main interface. This
view is called the Manage
view and essentially combines
the Project and Files views.
This is still in beta version,
so you'll have to activate it if
you want to use it.
Positive Developments
What does all this mean?
Overall, I think it's positive
that, in the midterm view,
Trados Studio will no
longer have to serve all
kinds of unconnected and
discombobulated translation
management systems. It
should certainly be easier
for the technology teams at
RWS to move forward with
further development now
that everything is all in one
business unit. (According
to Daniel, " the current
reorg is the best reorg ever "
because " it was centered
around technology and not
corporate, " and I can testify
that he has gone through a
lot of those reorgs.)
The Trados Studio user
can be pretty certain that the
desktop environment is going
to stay for the foreseeable
future, but they also know
that the Online Editor is
actually productively usable.
For larger clients, this
looks like another " TSO "
moment. That's what I
called the (Trados Studio)
opportunity when Studio
2009 was first released as
a complete redesign of the
previous Trados. (Oh, was it
buggy!) Back then, I thought
this was a great opportunity
for a real market shakeup.
Everyone who was using the
earlier Trados version (the
gorilla in the market) had to
decide whether to eventually
upgrade and relearn a new
tool from the same vendor or
switch technologies and learn
that technology. Amazingly
enough, SDL was able to
" squash " the " Trados Studio
opportunity " and maintain
its top dog position-partly
because competitors didn't
present attractive enough
alternatives. Today, RWS
is in a different position
when it comes to translation
management systems.
Between XTM, Memsource,
memoQ, and a few others,
there are very strong
contenders, some of which
are already stronger than
RWS in the cloud TMS space.
RWS knows that, so it will be
fun to see what happens.
Oh, and with the strong
reliance on the Online Editor
for Trados Studio, I cannot
imagine that RWS will offer
perpetual licenses for Trados
Studio for much longer.
Subscription-based models
have been too successful and
make too much business
sense, especially when an
online environment is
frequently updated anywhere.
But that's just my guess.
Jost
Zetzsche is
a translation
industry and
translation
technology consultant. He
is the author of Characters
with Character: 50 Ways
to Rekindle Your Love Affair
with Language. jzetzsche@
internationalwriters.com
www.atanet.org
https://www.trados.com/products/passolo/ https://www.rws.com/localization/products/trados-enterprise/ https://www.trados.com/ https://www.rws.com/localization/products/trados-team/ http://www.atanet.org
The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2022

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