Periodic Reporting for period 1 - VAL (tle Easy identification of optimal translators in a global digital marketplace)
Berichtszeitraum: 2019-09-01 bis 2020-02-29
The demand for translation services is growing due to industry globalization and increase amount of data generated, among other factors. Only in Europe, we have 24 official languages, holding 50% market share of the total translation industry market. The translation industry is dominated by Language Service Provider companies, that match clients with suitable translators, relying heavily on freelance translators. However, the industry is facing several challenges: 1) difficulty to find adequately qualified translators, 2) increase pressure to deliver high quality translations, and 3) need to cut down on costs and time of job delivery. Despite improvements on automated computer translations by software tools, human translators are still necessary to provide high-quality work. To solve these challenges, our company is developing VAL (Virtual Assistant for Language Translation), a SaaS-based marketplace platform that directly puts in contact clients with the most adequate human translators. VAL is a self-learning platform that analyses and classifies the text to be translated by keywords and matches the tasks to the most qualified translator for that particular job. VAL links the customer seamlessly to the translator and makes an instantaneous best value offer thanks to a dynamic pricing algorithm. The customer therefore enjoys a faster process of higher quality, with lower costs and better transparency on the VAL platform.
Our key objective for this Feasibility Study was to verify technical, commercial and financial viability of our solution.
1. Commercial feasibility: We have carried out a full market study by revising target regions, market trends, customer segments, and competitors landscape. We have defined our business and revenue model after obtaining feedback from customers, as well as our commercial strategy for international deployment.
2. Technical feasibility: We have confirmed that VAL is easy-to-use and answers customers’ needs. We have detailed final VAL specifications and prepare a series of technical maturation and verification tasks. We have also engaged with key partners for performing these tasks. Finally, we have prepared a work plan for the Accelerator project, including technical and commercial activities.
3. Financial feasibility: We have updated our cost and pricing model and prepared a financial forecast to demonstrate profitability of our product. Then, we have revised the total investment needed to bring our solution to TRL9 and prepared a budget for the Accelerator project grant and post-project equity investment.
Our key objective for this Feasibility Study was to verify technical, commercial and financial viability of our solution.
1. Commercial feasibility: We have carried out a full market study by revising target regions, market trends, customer segments, and competitors landscape. We have defined our business and revenue model after obtaining feedback from customers, as well as our commercial strategy for international deployment.
2. Technical feasibility: We have confirmed that VAL is easy-to-use and answers customers’ needs. We have detailed final VAL specifications and prepare a series of technical maturation and verification tasks. We have also engaged with key partners for performing these tasks. Finally, we have prepared a work plan for the Accelerator project, including technical and commercial activities.
3. Financial feasibility: We have updated our cost and pricing model and prepared a financial forecast to demonstrate profitability of our product. Then, we have revised the total investment needed to bring our solution to TRL9 and prepared a budget for the Accelerator project grant and post-project equity investment.
1. Technical feasibility: We have further defined VAL main specifications according to industry needs and end-users’ feedback. Therefore, we have detailed the technical maturation steps needed to achieve final commercial prototype: Text-to-Translator matching system maturation, self-learning AI pre-translation engine update and Progressive Web App (PWA) development and integration of all the modules. We have also prepared a detailed plan for verification of final VAL prototype with partners and current clients interested in testing and implementing VAL in their daily translation activities. After defining these technical and validation activities, we have prepared a comprehensive and detailed work plan for the Accelerator project, including technological and commercial activities. We have also studied in detail the technological and competitor landscape in order to verify our freedom to operate (FTO) in target countries and update our knowledge protection strategy. We have also studied the regulations we need to comply with in order to commercialise VAL.
2. Commercial feasibility: We have performed an in-depth study of the translation industry, including growth opportunities, trends, size, target segments, competitor landscape and commercial strategies. Our study has confirmed that VAL answers the most pressing needs of customers: 1) selection of adequate human translator to perform the job and transparency in the process of selection, pricing and rating, and 2) cost-effective and high quality translated documents in a short period of time. VAL is the only solution that offers high-quality and affordable translations, promoting savings for our clients of 35-60% of the total cost, and is also the only solution that selects the most adequate translator for each job thanks to our LDA probabilistic analysis algorithm that matches translation document type with translators with the most appropriate backgrounds. Moreover, our business model is sound and have been validated by previous products of the company and interviews with clients and KOLs in the area, who expressed enthusiasm in the cost-savings promoted by VAL without losing quality of their translated jobs.
3. Financial feasibility & Business plan: We have updated our cost and pricing strategy, based on market trends, customers’ demands and our ability to reach adequate profit margins. We have updated our financial projections for a 5-years period post-Accelerator project to demonstrate the profitability of our pricing and business models. We have also updated the financial needs to bring our VAL product from current TRL6 to TRL9 and readiness to market, both in terms of EC grant and investors equity.
2. Commercial feasibility: We have performed an in-depth study of the translation industry, including growth opportunities, trends, size, target segments, competitor landscape and commercial strategies. Our study has confirmed that VAL answers the most pressing needs of customers: 1) selection of adequate human translator to perform the job and transparency in the process of selection, pricing and rating, and 2) cost-effective and high quality translated documents in a short period of time. VAL is the only solution that offers high-quality and affordable translations, promoting savings for our clients of 35-60% of the total cost, and is also the only solution that selects the most adequate translator for each job thanks to our LDA probabilistic analysis algorithm that matches translation document type with translators with the most appropriate backgrounds. Moreover, our business model is sound and have been validated by previous products of the company and interviews with clients and KOLs in the area, who expressed enthusiasm in the cost-savings promoted by VAL without losing quality of their translated jobs.
3. Financial feasibility & Business plan: We have updated our cost and pricing strategy, based on market trends, customers’ demands and our ability to reach adequate profit margins. We have updated our financial projections for a 5-years period post-Accelerator project to demonstrate the profitability of our pricing and business models. We have also updated the financial needs to bring our VAL product from current TRL6 to TRL9 and readiness to market, both in terms of EC grant and investors equity.
We aimed at verifying that our solution challenges the current status quo on the market and provides a superior performance in translation jobs quality, timing and costs than competitors. Therefore, we conducted the following activities:
1. Detailed product development plan with technology maturation activities and full large-scale piloting to elevate our product to TRL8 and prepare it for commercial deployment;
2. Comprehensive report on the market, competitor landscape and commercialisation plan;
3. Elaborated business plan, including full cost and pricing breakdown;
4. Establish final requirements for undertaking maturation and large-scale demonstrations under real operating conditions to be implemented in the envisaged Accelerator project.
We were able to obtain feedback from current and prospective customers about our innovative VAL solution and they confirmed the value in our offering, especially referring to:
- Cost efficiency: we have implemented our domain-specific dynamic pricing algorithms (translators set prices based on nature of translation task), visible to customers to find best value. Combined with increased efficiency of translator search and AI-assisted post-editing, up to 60% price reduction is possible.
- Automated text-to-translator matching function: this tool automatically matches end-user documents to experienced specialist translators (experience with translating similar documents) in the subject area of the documents (field/subject area, complexity, audience), based on our unique 400-dimensional LDA algorithm.
- Customisable, flexible and secure platform: VAL is built onto the established ET translation platform, offering users a customizable dashboard to control multiple linguistic projects, compatibility with common corporate ERP and other data management systems, and guaranteed data security.
- Highly integrated PWA: VAL’s service is accessible directly from any word processing application on the client’s device thanks to the implementation in a Progressive Web App (PWA). This allows for an uninterrupted workflow, bringing us as close to customer needs as possible.
1. Detailed product development plan with technology maturation activities and full large-scale piloting to elevate our product to TRL8 and prepare it for commercial deployment;
2. Comprehensive report on the market, competitor landscape and commercialisation plan;
3. Elaborated business plan, including full cost and pricing breakdown;
4. Establish final requirements for undertaking maturation and large-scale demonstrations under real operating conditions to be implemented in the envisaged Accelerator project.
We were able to obtain feedback from current and prospective customers about our innovative VAL solution and they confirmed the value in our offering, especially referring to:
- Cost efficiency: we have implemented our domain-specific dynamic pricing algorithms (translators set prices based on nature of translation task), visible to customers to find best value. Combined with increased efficiency of translator search and AI-assisted post-editing, up to 60% price reduction is possible.
- Automated text-to-translator matching function: this tool automatically matches end-user documents to experienced specialist translators (experience with translating similar documents) in the subject area of the documents (field/subject area, complexity, audience), based on our unique 400-dimensional LDA algorithm.
- Customisable, flexible and secure platform: VAL is built onto the established ET translation platform, offering users a customizable dashboard to control multiple linguistic projects, compatibility with common corporate ERP and other data management systems, and guaranteed data security.
- Highly integrated PWA: VAL’s service is accessible directly from any word processing application on the client’s device thanks to the implementation in a Progressive Web App (PWA). This allows for an uninterrupted workflow, bringing us as close to customer needs as possible.