Trados founder Jochen Hummel and SDL tool division VP Keith Laska outlined their notion of "global information management" (GIM), in effect support for the full life cycle of content across multiple languages and markets. They said that SDL's GIM tools would afford new consulting opportunities to LSPs. Hans Fenstermacher, GALA chairperson and president of language service provider ArchiText, summarized the survey results. Most LSPs expressed concerns about the potential for SDL's tool group sharing information with SDL's own LSP division, the consolidation of vendors in the industry, and a variety of pricing, market, and technology issues. Don DePalma moderated the discussion of questions asked prior to and during the webcast. Two big issues stood out:

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  Service competition. LSPs repeatedly asked about the separation of church (SDL-Tools) and state (SDL-LSP), and whether the groups shared information about their clients. Hummel and Laska stated that the two are organized as separate business units, each with its own sales and CRM systems. The LSPs' concern extended to pricing, but SDL asserted that its language services unit buys tools at market prices -- not at the preferential rates assumed by competitors. Since this question of separating its two business kept coming up in different forms, we believe that SDL still has to convince the LSPs that it will not violate its privileged position in their accounts.
  
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  Transition. LSPs echoed a concern that ranges across all users of SDL and Trados technology -- what should they do while SDL merges the two product lines? Some webcast participants asked whether they should wait for the melded products. Hummel said that waiting just delays a return on investment in technology, so it would be best to pick either SDL or Trados tools today -- and trust SDL to integrate them seamlessly. They reiterated their commitment to 5 years of support for both product lines, and said that the merged product set would not involve any pain or drama on the part of buyers. This plan is ambitious and aggressive, especially because SDL must merge both SDL and Trados products in the same categories (translation memory, workflow, and terminology management) plus align Trados disparate offerings (GXT, TeamWorks, and its process management initiative for smaller companies). Hummel and Laska promised a road map later this year.
  

Can they do it? Time will tell -- we'll wait to see the roadmap and chronology of events. In the interim, SDL will have to keep its newly acquired Trados customers confident that their requirements will be met at the same time it tries to broaden the appeal of its translation offerings to global content architects. Of course, the market won't stand still and rivals will enter the fray. Having observed many acquisitions (and participated in a few) in the past 20 years, we know that it won't be easy -- but at least SDL is starting with a credible vision of where it wants to be in 5 years. The rest is execution, investment, customer service, and constant reinforcement in word and action of the separate business unit message.