A grab bag of recent Clay Tablet happenings…

I was always a little disappointed when magazine editors used their introductory column for a seemingly unrelated collection of tidbits. It’s as if (in fact many would actually admit) they didn’t have any one topic that deserved a complete column – so they mopped up the leftovers and cooked up a stew of an editorial. However – I now find myself in the same boat. So much has happened recently at Clay Tablet – that to commit a complete post to every one would take weeks. So – tail firmly between my legs and with apologies to editors and publishers everywhere – here is my collection of recent Clay Tablet news…

Of Connections…

Our goal at Clay Tablet is to connect the world. And while this is a lofty goal, we’re actually making remarkable progress. Latest connections that are up and running include two great TMS products, Plunet Business Manager and Andra AG’s ontram. Watch for demo’s of both these connections soon.

And speaking of demos…

Clay Tablet 2.0 has been shuffling content to and from translation solutions for years now. Dozens of implementations worldwide, lots of happy clients and ecstatic content and translation managers. But still – potential clients and partners prefer to SEE the product in action early in any relationship. With the help of Sitecore – one the leading CMS integrations we’ve built – a compelling and enlightening demo is at hand. This is a double edged sword I’m finding. While it’s a lot of fun to show off how easy Clay Tablet 2.0 makes sending content for translation (and getting it back!) we find we’re getting overwhelmed with demo requests. But I have to say – it really is so much fun to experience the sense of revelation and excitement that users feel when they see how easy CT2.0 makes the translation process. That’s keeping it very easy to crank out the demos every day.

And speaking of large demand…

We’ve always touted the efficiency that CT2.0 delivers to the translation process. And we’re always reminding new clients that the return path from translation is often the real pinch-point. This is because so much more content can be returned than is sent. Every document, webpage or asset gets multiplied by the number for target languages. You send out 25 pages of your website – translate into 5 languages and then have to deal with over 100 pages coming back. But what happens when you’re sending 1000’s of pages or assets? And you’re not translating into 5, 10 or even 15 – but twenty-nine languages? For every 100 pages of content sent – almost three thousand return! So it was no small win for baby furniture maker Stokke of Norway Stokke.com to connect their Sitecore CMS directly to their translation firm using Clay Tablet 2.0. This allowed them to translate all the content in on the site and made the process much simpler – in fact it may have simply made it possible! Another case where CT2.0 delivers tremendous efficiency. All in a days work.