SDL, the leading provider of Global Information Management solutions, is pleased to announce the expansion of its open strategy with the inclusion of the industry-recognized LISA QA Model and SAE J2450 linguistic standard as part of the latest release of SDL Translation Management System™.   The LISA QA Model and SAE J2450 standard are designed to help manage the quality assurance process for all components of a localization project.

According to LISA, 20% of all companies involved in localized product testing use the LISA QA Model in some way, making it the most widely-used QA metric in the localization industry today. Users of the LISA QA model include: 

•  Content creators who need to verify the quality of their localized materials

• Localization service providers who need to certify the quality of their localizations

• Translators who need to check their quality prior to 3rd-party review

• Reviewers who need to evaluate translated text

• Project managers who need to validate localization quality

• Anyone who needs an objective measure of localization quality

The latest release of SDL Translation Management System adds support for both the LISA QA Model and SAE J2450 standard from SAE International, formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers and a standards-setting body in the automotive industries. The LISA QA Model and SAE J2450 standard are now available as part of  the SDL Translation Management System review process.

As well as supporting these industry standards, SDL customers can now also create their own customized review models by defining error categories, severities, weights, scoring methods and acceptable thresholds. 

During the SDL Translation Management System review process, the reviewer counts the errors that occur in each of the categories/severities defined by the selected QA model. The total score is calculated as the reviewer proceeds and is compared to the threshold defined in the chosen QA model. The reviewer is shown the score and advised as to whether the translation has passed or failed according to the threshold. The reviewer has the option to correct mistakes or to reject back to the translator.

SDL’s industry-leading platform is expanding support for third party machine translation engines, providing integration interfaces for developers and embracing open standards in its translation management systems. The support for the LISA QA Model and SAE J2450 standard comes as a direct response from translation management system customers requesting the feature be integrated into their solution.

"SDL is taking the right direction by supporting open standards and thereby helping customers of language automation technology to produce better quality results," said Michael Anobile, LISA Managing Director. "Pushing standards to the forefront of globalization services will not only motivate end users to become more active in the community but will also encourage buyers that are new to the industry to implement language technologies."

“SDL is listening to its customers by providing support for the LISA QA Model within SDL Translation Management System.” said Alan Sloan, CEO of SDL’s Language Technologies division. “With over 80% of the translation and localization supply chain using our products, SDL is committed to supporting industry standards.”

SDL is attending the LISA Forum USA, 13-16 April 2010 as exhibitors and is presenting in two sessions:

• 2pm, Wednesday 14 April  - The Challenges of Post-Editing Machine Translation and How to Avoid Them 

• 1.30pm Thursday 15 April  - Localization Trends and Global Business

Find out more about SDL Translation Management System