From Silvia Villon, Manager of the GTEC Distinction Awards: I am happy to share this Blog from a Recipient of the 2015 Distinction Awards Program.
By Richard Després, Public Services and Procurement Canada | Services publics et Approvisionnement Canada, Translation Bureau | Bureau de la traduction
(cliquer pour la version française)
In a world where the speed of change is phenomenal, organizations have no choice but to innovate to meet the needs of their clients. The Translation Bureau is constantly involved in this exercise so that it can remain the language services leader in Canada and continue to offer services that help Canadians communicate in the official languages.
Inspired by Blueprint 2020, it has implemented an innovation program that leverages new technologies to modernize the workplace and promote use of the official languages. Here are a few examples of its innovative approach.
Remote interpretation
The modernization of methods of communication across government has increased the use of videoconferences, teleconferences, WebEx meetings and other similar vehicles. In accordance with its mandate and attentive to its clients’ needs, the Bureau has expanded its services to help its clients hold virtual meetings in both official languages. Thus, it has developed a remote interpretation solution. This practice has many benefits for clients, as it eliminates travel expenses for public servants, reduces costs associated with leasing and installing interpretation booths, and eliminates geographic and language barriers, in addition to promoting bilingualism and increasing compliance with official languages obligations.
The Technolinguistic Toolbox
As part of its innovative approach, the Bureau has strived to adopt technolinguistic tools to improve the viability of its operations and improve productivity. It was with this in mind that it implemented Bitext and the Analyzer, two powerful tools that reduce the number of tasks that formerly had to be performed manually by translators and administrative staff.
Bitext is a powerful, customizable search engine available to all Translation Bureau translators and revisers. It is integrated with the Bureau’s 4.2 billion word megacorpus of previously translated documents and provides a quick, easy and reliable way to find previously translated material.
The Analyzer is a Web interface used by administrative staff to start the translation process. At least 90% of translation requests submitted by clients are processed by the Analyzer. Practically speaking, the program automatically goes through the Bureau’s megacorpus, assigns a request number, finds exact and approximate matches, calculates the word count, and creates a folder/file structure on the shared drive.
The Technolinguistic Toolbox has enabled the Bureau to reduce the number of repetitive or duplicate tasks, reduce turnaround times, streamline its processes and, above all, return the resultant savings to various clients—approximately $6 million in 2015-2016.
The Translation Bureau is continuing along this path by undertaking new projects, such as telepresence and crowdsourcing. It is determined to continue innovating unceasingly in order to provide its employees and the public service as a whole with state-of-the-art tools that eliminate language barriers and promote co-operation.
Our experience as an Honouree at the Distinction Awards Gala
Indeed, the Translation Bureau is… More than words and this is what the Bureau was able to bring forward at the GTEC 2015 Gala. The fact that the Bureau’s contribution was put forward during the GTEC 2015 Gala shows the important contribution made by the Bureau towards technical innovation within government. The visibility of our organization has been showcased as well as its leadership and expertise in all aspects linked to language technologies. By its participation in a very glamorous and fun event like the GTEC Gala, Bureau’s representatives were able to network with peers in order to develop other technological projects linked with Blueprint 2020 and demonstrate the organisation’s commitment to promote linguistic duality within government for the Canadians.
Stay tuned for another Blog posting from the Translation Bureau focusing on their 2016 Honouree Nomination… coming November 2016!
Want to learn more about how to participate in the awards? Join our mailing list by emailing me at svillon@gtec.ca.