DESCRIPTION OF CL SERVICIOS LINGUISTICOS S.A.

CL Servicios Linguisticos S.A., a CL Group company, was created in Madrid in 1987. CL is primarily active in the field of linguistic services : translation, localisation and terminology, and has designed and developed computer systems and software for translation, terminology and multilingual documentation.

Over a seven-year period, the company has consolidated its position - being one of the most important European companies in its sector of activity - offering services and solutions for multilingual information and documentation processing to some of the foremost organisations, companies and corporations demanding high quality services.

CL employs translators, terminologists, computer scientists and documentalists (30 people in total), and has created its own international network called CL International, with representation in 7 EU countries as well in Russia and the United States.

CL is the most important partner of the CEC's SdT in the field of terminology (several contracts awarded to CL in the past 6 years), and has been designated by the DG I (Tacis and Phare Unit) as a consultant to carry out terminological projects with CIS countries and edit several dictionaries. CL is the only private company to employ 17 full time terminologists in Europe.

The work completed thus far by CL's software department, which amounts to over 20 men/years, has led to the design and development of a series of tools for the complete management of multilingual terminological data bases. CL has created its own data base, containing 150.000 terms in 9 languages, around its TWE (Translation Workbench Environment) program.


ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Company name : CL Servicios LinguĦsticos S.A.
Address : c/ Fuencarral, 123, 5§, 28010 Madrid, Spain
Organization type: B
Employees : 32
Turnover : 3.100.000 ECU
Man cost (medium man/month cost) : 8.000 ECU

Contact person : Norbert Kalfon
Job title : general manager
Tel : 341 448 58 61
Fax : 341 593 05 95
E-Mail compuserve : 100125,3014

TRANSLATION

Major undertakings
Software: Localisation of over 20 software products.
Translation and localisation of the following BORLAND products:
Quattro Pro (1.0 and subsequent versions), Paradox 3.5, Proshow, Proview, Object Vision
Translation and localisation of the following LOTUS products:
ccMail (DOS, OS/2 and Windows versions), Polaris, Remote; Notes (Windows and OS/2 versions), AmiPro 3.01, Lotus
Notes:
Document Imaging, Freelance Graphics
Translation and localisation of products for COMPUTER ASSOCIATES:
SuperCalc, Compete 5.0
Translation and localisation of Norton Utilities 7.0 for SYMANTEC
Localisation of QuarkXpress
Participation in the translation and localisation into Spanish of DIGITAL's Linkworks product
Translation and localisation of Open Image Link for WANG
Other products for: GN-ELMI, WANG, SOFTWARE AG, to name but a few.

Telecommunications:

Translation of over 400,000 pages in the field of telecommunications

Other fields:

TERMINOLOGY

Major undertakings:
Main collections processed: aerospace, food and agriculture, milk and milk production, beer, textile industry, paper industry, cancer and AIDS, industrial medicine, toxic substances, the environment, insurance, financial markets, iron and steel industry, telecommunications, town planning, fishing, sports, etc.

Main references: CEC (Brussels and Luxembourg), CILF, PEPSI, TACIS, PHARE, EUROSTAT, DGLF, Rennes University, Alcatel, Groupe Schneider .

SOFTWARE DEPARTMENT

CL's Software Department is primarily active in the field of research and development of computer systems designed for terminology and multilingual documentation. Over a five-year period, this department has consolidated its position, offering services and solutions for multilingual information processing to some of the foremost organisations involved in terminological management and production.

Work completed to date, which totals over 20 man/years, has led to the design and development of a series of tools in the creation of a large modular system for complete management of multilingual terminological data bases.

The CL Software Department's team is composed of computer scientists possessing in-depth training in the fields of multilingualism and documentation who have consolidated their experience through a series of important projects, notably those undertaken for the different Directorates General of the CEC.

TWE: Terminological Working Environment

TWE is a computer working environment for the complete management of multilingual dictionaries and represents the culmination of the most positive aspects of projects completed by CL. Its design is the result of experience acquired over a number of years from continuous contact with a large number of professionals in the field.

TWE is made up of several modules which can operate jointly or individually. The combined system forms a complete series of tools that enable the efficient and coherent processing and control of all the stages involved in dictionary compilation, ranging from the collection of terms and dissemination to publishing and quality control.

The programs that constitute the system all derive from a basic technology developed by CL. It comprises a file format for terms which optimises the needs of processing space and speed in different multilingual/multi- alphabet character sets and keyboard configurations that enable work to be carried out simultaneously in a number of different languages. Great care has been taken to enable the use of other alphabets than Latin, with the result that all TWE components can manage alphabets with total transparency.

Windows 3.1 has been selected as the operating system as its graphic environment offers an extensive range of possibilities and it is widely accepted among users.

The following paragraphs contain a summary of the most important TWE modules.

TWE-CE: Collection Editor

CE is the editing module for terminological data bases. It is a complete data base manager with characteristics specifically designed for the processing of multilingual cards.

TWE-DTM: Domain Tree Manager

DTM is a program that enables the creation and organisation of subject fields for the thematic classification of dictionary terms. DTM currently works with the Lenoch classification but is able to manage any other field structures.

This tool enables the creation of new thematic collections of terms based on a selective extraction from existing collections.

TWE-FC: Format Converter

FC is a format converter which enables importation and exportation between TWE and other systems (data bases, word processors, etc.). It comprises a table editor (TWE-TE: Table Editor) that permits the creation and definition of any kind of character conversion (character to character, character to string or string to character). This enables importation and exportation filters to be created to facilitate the exchange of information between different character coding systems and different formats (data bases, ANSI, UNICODE, SGML, RTL, etc.).

TWE-DM: Dictionary Maker

The DM module undertakes to generate the dictionary's corpus and the corresponding indices for each language. The output formats vary widely: all types of printers and filmers, RTF format files, text files, Term Access format, HLP Windows help format, etc. Both the text typography and composition are fully configurable.

This tool permits the creation of dictionaries ready to be disseminated by different means, departing from any collection or group of collections of terms.

TWE-TA: Term Access

TA is a rapid consultation program that enables searches to be undertaken in electronic dictionaries complied by TWE. It can work with data stored on magnetic or optical support. This module provides end users with simplicity in the use of terminology: consultation of terms and equivalents in any language, rapid insertion in any word processing , printing of all or part of the dictionary, etc.
This tool is designed for terminology users who are not involved in the process of producing collections.