How to internationalize a large volume of variable and dynamic content?
Whilst reducing time to market and production costs
THE CHALLENGE
5 years ago, PETIT FUTÉ decided to offer its guide to new foreign markets. One of the difficulties of this international strategy is the production of content, which is extremely large and dynamic: 45% of the content is renewed every year! In order to make a viable commercial offer, it proved necessary to use technology to automatize a part of the translation process.
THE SOLUTION
PETIT FUTÉ chose SYSTRAN’s automatic translation technology to meet time and cost requirements. The solution was integrated into PETIT FUTÉ’s in-house production equipment to offer employees seamless daily work for two types of uses: • Provide 100% automatic translation for practical information and advice from users; • Support the team of translators with significant productivity gains.
3 main challenges: content localization, instant translation, performance
- The first challenge was to find a solution that enabled localization of documentary funds. The editorial volume was so extensive that using only human translation was not a viable solution in terms of time and costs.
- It was important to keep the “freshness” of the information in English by minimizing the deadline for the production of a guide in its international version.
- Another challenge was to provide powerful tools to translation teams in order to improve their productivity in a transparent way in the production chain.
A strategic project
PETIT FUTÉ consulted with several providers and ultimately chose SYSTRAN, which has proven to be a valuable partner to accompany them in this strategic project. The project started with translating the English content of practical information. For 3 months, the PETIT FUTÉ project team and the SYSTRAN consultants worked closely together to set up the solution according to the business requirements.
Due to the quality of translation, PETIT FUTÉ decided to switch to 100% automatic translation. The Chinese language has also been set up as a support translation tool for editors.
Feedback experience
Integrating SYSTRAN’s solution into PETIT FUTÉ’s production chain enabled:
• Launching the English website with practical information and internet users’ opinions translated in real time • Increasing production capacity with a much more rapid pace of outputs: PETIT FUTÉ quadrupled its English collection with the publication of twenty titles
• Creating additional businesses thanks to a production tool capable of meeting commercial ambitions at competitive costs and times. SYSTRAN’s solution has been fully integrated into PETIT FUTÉ’s information system, which manages the entire editorial base and the production chain for a transparent use by users.
Next steps
SYSTRAN is now an integral part of the production facility of PETIT FUTÉ’s guides. This close collaboration has led to other projects currently underway:
• New SYSTRAN modules to further improve translators’ productivity
• An innovative mobile application for French tourists abroad: the 1st pocket guide-interpreter
• The last product successfully launched by Petit Futé: the guide on demand will soon become multilingual
• Thanks to a new engine «PNMT» for «Purely Neural™ Machine Translation,» PETIT FUTÉ aims to produce all of its multilingual content automatically according to the level of quality required by its domain.
SYSTRAN and PETIT FUTÉ are working together to create an innovative application for tourists. This application, Ready2go! was selected as part of the 3rd edition of Digital Innovation Competition. It will be the first mobile «tour guide and interpreter» incorporating all of PETIT FUTÉ’s content and SYSTRAN’s translation tools, including a translator for menus and road signs, lists of useful phrases according to the user’s current activity or even voice translation based on models of specialized conversational translation. The mobile application under development will be available within a few months in its free version.
About PETIT FUTÉ PETIT FUTÉ, celebrating this year its 40th anniversary, is today a major player in tourist information and mediation, a pioneer of digital communication on the B2B and B2C markets and an increasingly international company. From the very first PETIT FUTÉ Nancy millésimé 1976 to the book on demand, which will be the great innovation of this year 2016, PETIT FUTÉ never lost sight of its fundamentals. A few simple, essential and unforgettable principles and values that have always accompanied them, including: a commitment in the service of the company; the permanent desire to innovate and move forward; the trust and recognition accorded to all those who participate – or participated – in the common adventure of PETIT FUTÉ .