The paper describes the architecture and functionality of LTC Communicator, a software product from the Language Technology Centre Ltd, which offers an innovative and cost-effective response to the growing need for multilingual web based communication in various user contexts. LTC Communicator was originally developed to support software vendors operating in international markets facing the need to offer web based multilingual support to diverse customers in a variety of countries, where end users may not speak the same language as the helpdesk. This is followed by a short description of several additional application areas of this software for which LTC has received EU funding: The AMBIENT project carries out a market validation for multilingual and multimodal eLearning for business and innovation management, the EUCAM project tests multilingual eLearning in the automotive industry, including a major car manufacturer and the German and European Metal Workers Associations, and the ALADDIN project provides a mobile multilingual environment for tour guides, interacting between tour operators and tourists, with the objective of optimising their travel experience. Finally, a case study of multilingual email exchange in conjunction with web based product sales is described.

Combining machine translation (MT), translation memory (TM), XML, and an automation server, the LTC Communicator enables help desk systems to handle multilingual data by providing automatic translation on the fly. The system has been designed to deliver machine-translated questions/answers (trouble tickets/solutions) at an intelligible level. The modular architecture combining automation servers and workflow management gives flexibility and reliability to the overall system. The web server architecture allows remote access and easy integration with existing help desk systems. A trial was funded within the framework of the EU project IMPACT.

Using an invented case study, the paper describes how multilingual translation projects can be managed efficiently with an enterprise resource management tool called “LTC Organiser”, which was developed specifically for the particular requirements of the language industry. The talk will describe the most important aspects of the integrated solution, such as client and supplier management, project and finance management, managing tools used in the translation process, reporting facilities, security and user management, directory management, sort and search facilities as well as web functionality available at several levels.