Frequently Asked Questions About Clay Tablet

1. Q: What is Clay Tablet 2.5?      
2. Q: Why Is Clay Tablet 2.5 integration software needed?      
3. Q: Who Are Clay Tablet’s Clients?      
4. Q: What product version is Clay Tablet at? And what are the newest features?      
5. Q: How is Clay Tablet 2.5 used in the translation process?      
6. Q: What types of content do you deal with?      
7. Q: What format does this content have to be in?      
8. Q: What is Clay Tablet 2.5’s workflow process?      
9. Q: How can I get Clay Tablet 2.5? Where is Clay Tablet 2.5 sold?      
10. Q: How much does Clay Tablet 2.5 cost?      
11. Q: How is ROI measured?      
12. Q: Does Clay Tablet 2.5 connect to machine translators?      
13. Q: How is content stored and transferred?      
14. Q: Do you manipulate content directly in Clay Tablet 2.5?      
15. Q: How many content management system (CMS) and translation system (TMS) connections can you have?      
16. Q: What languages is Clay Tablet 2.5’s UI available in? And, is Clay Tablet 2.5 Unicode-compliant?      
17. Q: What are the technical requirements of Clay Tablet 2.5?      
18. Q: How does Clay Tablet 2.5 deal with data management?      
19. Q: What types of software systems do you integrate with?        
20. Q: As technology advances will the need for Clay Tablet 2.5 go away? 
    

1. Q: What is Clay Tablet 2.5? 
   
   A: Clay Tablet 2.5 is an easy-to-implement software, that integrates any content management system with any translation system, making the translation process easier, faster and more efficient, saving valuable time and money!
   
2. Q: Why Is Clay Tablet 2.5 integration software needed? 
   
   A: CT2.5 is needed because most companies are wasting time and money manually managing the flow of content that needs translating. Worse, they often miss deadlines, delay product launches and underserve key markets due to slow translation processes. The tragic fact is that, according to recent research, over 90% of the content that’s sent outside an enterprise for translation (or even to an in-house team) is still sent using manual processes. That means huge inefficiencies, as users like localization managers, marketers and product managers struggle to collect, organize, access and then forward content out to their translation vendors or resources. 
   
   When the translated content comes back and is imported into the content management system, the process can be even more challenging. 
   
   We believe, and best practices recommend, that wherever possible, manual, repetitive processes should be automated, systems should be connected and information should flow seamlessly and reliably. Our integration software quickly and easily connects a client’s content systems to translation management systems and technologies. This dramtically streamlines the process, saving time, money and frustration, allowing clients to launch on time, support more markets and drive more revenue, sooner.
   
3. Q: Who Are Clay Tablet’s Clients? 
   
   A: Clay Tablet Technologies has a broad range of clients around the world, ranging from small start-up Web sites through to large, Fortune 100 organizations across a variety of industries. Clay Tablet 2.5 is used daily by global organizations, such as, the United Nations, the Government of Qatar, Electrolux, Mitutoyo, Petro Canada and the Société Générale.
   
4. Q: What product version is Clay Tablet at? And what are the newest features? 
   
   A: Clay Tablet is on Version 2.5, built to scale to very high volumes of data transfer, with high-reliability. Clay Tablet 2.5 is totally Java-based as a Web-based interface, supporting any platform (Microsoft Windows, Unix, Linux, Mac OS etc.), and any database (Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MYSQL Server etc.). Clay Tablet 2.5 is able to connect to virtually any system and scale to any size content and translation project, offering high availability of services with profound scalabiilty.
   
5. Q: How is Clay Tablet 2.5 used in the translation process? 
   
   A: Clay Tablet 2.5 is used in the "export and re-import" phase where content has to be extracted from a data system, send for translation and the reimported into the data system, once translated.
   
   A client can simply flag which content requires translation inside their CMS and Clay Tablet 2.5 takes over from there. Content is sent directly from the CMS through to Clay Tablet 2.5’s integration software where it is then routed to the correct translation provider, or translation technology. And the process is simply reversed to accept translated content back into the CMS. This new process replaces the manual steps of exporting (this often literally means cutting and pasting strings or pages of content), sending (using email, FTP etc) and importing (email and cutting and pasting again!) the content back into the CMS or data store.
   
6. Q: What types of content do you deal with?
   
   A: Clay Tablet 2.5 can deal with any form of content including; marketing collaterals; Web site content, catalogs, technical, medical and support documentation, documents of all kinds, content from knowledge management systems, databases, etc.
   
7. Q: What format does this content have to be in?
   
   A: Every known file type is supported by Clay Tablet 2.5, since our software simply moves the files between systems. A Clay Tablet 2.5 user may even choose to route different types of content to different translation providers, so they have a choice of criteria which includes a variety of variables, such as language pairs, content type (marketing, technical, medical, etc.), file type (Word, ASCII, PDF, Quark, HTML, XML, etc.), or even combinations of all of these variables. Since Clay Tablet 2.5 doesn’t have to manipulate the files, it is capable of handling any type of content, in any format, from any type of content management system to any translation system.
   
8. Q: What is Clay Tablet 2.5’s workflow process? 
   A: Clay Tablet 2.5 is focused on the flow of content between CMS's and Translation services. Both content management systems and translation management systems are excellent at managing the content workflow process internally within their own systems. Where many systems fall short however, is when it comes to moving content outside to an external system for additional content and translation processing (and later re-importing it again). 
   
   Clay Tablet 2.5 fills that gap as a routing intermediary that connects disparate technologies together and automatically manages the routing of content between them. 
   
   This workflow process dilemma is resolved by content management systems connecting directly to Clay Tablet 2.5, allowing the immediate, automatic sending of content out for translation, as it is identified by the content editor. Clay Tablet 2.5 automatically organizes the content into packages based on the client’s routing rules and then pushes that content out to each of the required translation providers or technologies. And then back again once content is translated.
   
9. Q: How can I get Clay Tablet 2.5? Where is Clay Tablet 2.5 sold? 
   
   A: Clay Tablet 2.5 is available globally and exclusively through authorized channel partners, who have been trained on Clay Tablet 2.5 implementations and integrations and who are fully supported by Clay Tablet’s channel partner program. Check out the website for a complete list of Clay Tablet partners or contact us to find the right partner for you.
       
10. Q: How much does Clay Tablet 2.5 cost? 
    
    A: Clay Tablet 2.5 is a licensed software solution based upon the number of system connections and the type of functional tier selected. Hosted (SaaS) solutions start at as little as $250 per month and licensed solutions at $25,000.
11. Q: How is ROI measured? 
    
    A: ROI can be achieved very quickly using Clay Tablet 2.5 – in mere months, depending on the project size. There’s the immediate soft-cost reduction in the amount of people's time and effort to get content organized and sent for translation. Then there are hard-cost savings in project management costs; a translation service provider for example, typically charges a project management fee of 20% of the content translation project cost. If the client submits the content through a Clay Tablet 2.5 connection, the translation service provider can drop the project management fee by 75%, because the projects are hassle free and so much easier to deal with. 
    
    Also, as many more companies are now implementing aggressive globalization strategies, we’re seeing an increase in the volume of content being translated. The easier the translation process, the more content can be translated. So automating the content translation process by using Clay Tablet 2.5 means they can keep up with this increase without additional resource costs. There's no need to add head count to manage growing translation needs.
    
12. Q: Does Clay Tablet 2.5 connect to machine translation systems? 
    
    A: Yes, very well. Clay Tablet 2.5 integrates directly with the leading translation management systems, as well as all other transformation technologies, such as PDF converters, etc. 
    
13. Q: How is content stored and transferred? 
    A: Depending on the client environment and integrated technologies, Clay Tablet 2.5 has a variety of methods that can be used for storing the content while it is being transferred between different systems. Clay Tablet 2.5 supports local file storage, FTP transfers, and it is Clay Tablet's preference, and standard, that we use high-availability secure remote storage solutions such as the Amazon’s S3 product.
        
14. Q: Do you manipulate content directly in Clay Tablet 2.5? 
    
    A: Typically, no. Clay Tablet 2.5 software doesn’t manipulate content directly as it passes through the system. Think of Clay Tablet 2.5 software as a courier of sorts – we don’t even have to “look in the box” we’re shipping. We just “read the address label” and deliver the content reliably and securely.
    
    However – Clay Tablet 2.5 CAN “batch” collections of content into projects or other useful containers so that interaction with the TMS is as efficient as possible. And while Clay Tablet 2.5 software doesn’t manipulate content directly - localization or content managers can set custom routing rules for content when specific files require exceptions to the standard routing rules.
    
15. Q: How many content management system (CMS) and translation system (TMS) connections can you have? 
    
    A: As many as needed! One of CT2.5's most powerful features, is the ability to connect multiple systems together. Clients who have several content systems or who use multiple translation providers, use CT2.5 as a "hub" for connecting all these sytems together easily. Then, they can manage and monitor ALL the translation activity from CT2.5's web-based dashboard.
    
16. Q: What languages is Clay Tablet 2.5’s UI available in? And, is Clay Tablet 2.5 Unicode-compliant? 
    A: Clay Tablet 2.5’s interface is UTF-8 compliant and can be localized into almost any language a client requires. Clay Tablet 2.5’s interface is currently available in US-English but it can be localized to other languages easily upon request.
    
17. Q: What are the technical requirements of Clay Tablet 2.5? 
    
    A: Clay Tablet 2.5 is integration software that connects any content management system with any translation system. Clay Tablet 2.5 is totally Java-based as a Web-based interface, therefore supporting any platform (Microsoft Windows, Unix, Linux, Mac OS etc.), and any database (Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL etc.). Clay Tablet 2.5 can connect to any system and scale to any size content and translation project, offering high availability of services, a lot more efficiently. 
    
    Clay Tablet 2.5 has open API which allows any content service to easily access and leverage the capabilities of Clay Tablet 2.5. Clay Tablet 2.5 can operate as a silent partner in your translation process infrastructure, accepting content from your various systems and automatically routing them to the appropriate translation system based on your business rules. 
    
18. Q: How does Clay Tablet 2.5 deal with data management?
    
    A: One of the biggest challenges today is getting at content stored in content management systems, legacy databases, and other systems, and out to your translation vendors or resources. Clay Tablet 2.5 can tackle any file formats from source to destination system.
    
19. Q: What types of software systems do you integrate with? 
    
    A: The most commonly connected sytems are content management systems (CMS's) that need to be integrated directly with translation systems. That includes Web content management and enterprise content management systems, but we also routinely connect knowledge management systems, databases, product information systems (PIM's), document management systems and content repositories. Anywhere where the content lives and is managed, can be connected to Clay tablet 2.5. 
    
    On the destination side, translation systems and translation memory systems are the systems we most often connect to. However, we’ve also connected to machine translation and transformation tools and are seeing increasing demand for those types of connections.
    
    
20. Q: As technology advances will the need for Clay Tablet 2.5 go away? 
    
    A: No. There will always be a demand for Clay Tablet 2.5. Even in the unlikely case that a standard ever gets developed and adopted, for every aspect of the content translation life cycle, there will still need to be an intelligent hub, in the middle of the process, to connect multiple systems together while handling the routing of content between the many different systems. Simply connecting each system to all the others individually (using this imaginary standard) wouldn’t be scalable, and always requires substantial custom coding. And over the long term would certainly become a nightmare to try to maintain. You’d have no central routing and no way of gathering status or reporting across all the systems. Clay Tablet 2.5 software already provides those capabilities.