Avantpage recently utilized XTM International's AvantMemory product to deliver a crucial, high quality job - on time and within budget, without compromising on quality.

Read the full case study here, and learn how Avantpage served its large health care client with a 30-file, Spanish-to-English translation project, totalling one million words -- and only 9 days to complete the project.

This new case study details the task, key questions, and outcome of this project. You may also contact Avantpage at (530) 750-2040 or at info@avantpage.com for more information.

The Davis Bridge Educational Foundation is an organization devoted to promoting educational opportunities for all Davis, California students, regardless of income level, race, or ethnicity.

The Davis Bridge works with low-income, under-achieving Davis students in grades K-12. The majority of students in Davis who fit this description are Chicana/o Latina/o students. However, the Bridge serves Anglo, Asian, East Asian, and African/African-American children as well. Bridge volunteers provide tutoring, computer access, school supplies, and after-school snacks to students at four after-school homework clubs in the Davis area.

The Davis Bridge Foundation hopes to make college and academic success a realistic goal for these children by making them feel valued, showing them they have the power to achieve, and giving them the academic tools and support system to do so.

Avantpage and CEO Dr. Luis Miguel have been involved with the Davis Bridge Foundation since 2004, offering IT support, website design/hosting and email support. Avantpage provides all Spanish translations for the Bridge, and has donated several computer systems to them as well. In addition, Dr. Miguel was President of the Davis Bridge Foundation Board from 2004 to 2010. 

The Davis Bridge is a cause close to Dr. Miguel's heart, and he believes that local initiatives such as the Davis Bridge can have a significant impact on communities and their members. According to Dr. Miguel, "I see education, and all it carries with it, as the most important determinant of success for young people. My kids are just like many of the kids served by the Davis Bridge, with education being the main differentiator."

To find out more about Davis Bridge, its mission, and how you can contribute, go to www.davisbridge.org or contact Janet Boulware, Executive Director and Founder, by e-mail at janetb@davisbridge.org or call (530) 574-2804.

Today, LinkedIn announced a major milestone for its site: it's surpassed 100 million users. Congratulations!

Avantpage invites you to link with us on LinkedIn.....

Our Healthcare Language Assistance Group on LinkedIn is a powerful resource for healthcare professionals - providing answers, assistance, discussion forums, up-to-the-minute information and more for professionals looking to bridge cultural and linguistic barriers within the healthcare industry.

We bring together health plan administrators, regulators, patient advocates and linguistic experts to collaborate on the myriad challenges healthcare professionals face every day regarding language assistance.

Make new connections, get your questions answered, and expand your professional network

When you join Avantpage's Healthcare Language Assistance group on LinkedIn, need-to-know information, in-depth discussion, industry updates and more are all just one quick click away.  This group is dedicated to helping you:

• Get swift answers to federal and state compliance questions
• Address language translation issues
• Facilitate document and media preparation
• Examine cultural concerns in the healthcare sector
• Exchange vital information with your peers
• Meet and connect with other industry professionals
•  Stay on top of the latest industry changes and revisions

Why LinkedIn? 
Nothing beats LinkedIn for reaching experts, leaders and innovators in today's business world.  LinkedIn was created by professionals, for professionals, and is an excellent resource for connecting with health care industry leaders who share the same questions and concerns you do. 

Join Us Today
Go to www.LinkedIn.com, and search groups for "Healthcare Language Assistance."  Click to join - and connect online with us today!

Power up your Spanish translation program...

Spanish-speaking Americans are growing in numbers, expanding their reach and buying power, and gaining ground in numerous geographical areas. The 2010 US Census preliminary results indicate that in numerous states, the Hispanic population is on the upswing.

• In Texas, Hispanics accounted for 65% of the overall population growth.
• In Illinois, Hispanics contributed 72% of all minority growth in the state.
• In South Dakota, the Hispanic population more than doubled from 2000 to 2010.
• In Oklahoma, Hispanics accounted for nearly 51% of the overall state population growth.
• The Louisiana Hispanic population grew by over 78% between 2000 and 2010, and the Mississippi population, by 105.9%.

With more state results to come, trends definitely point to robust Hispanic market growth.

Many of these people are Limited English Proficient, and are most comfortable reading and communicating in Spanish.

What does this mean for you? If you are thinking of increasing your presence in the Spanish-speaking marketplace, now is the time to make your move.

Localizing your website and multimedia materials, translating your documents and signage and presenting marketing and advertising campaigns in Spanish as well as English will help you target and connect with LEP consumers. New Spanish-speaking prospects are out there in force, and they are ready and willing to use your services, buy your products and support your company - if you commit to reaching out to them in their own language.

At Avantpage, we excel at English to Spanish translation that is high quality, culturally sensitive and audience-appropriate. Our translation teams are experts at choosing the proper wording, sentence structure and terminology that will best get your message across.

Rolf Hecken has spent 20 years in the translation and localization industry, with a strong focus on solution building, linguistic technologies, process management and improvement, and quality assurance.

Rolf has held senior executive positions at a number of successful service organizations and brings a high level of industry knowledge and expertise to Avantpage.

His responsibilities as VP of Operations include implementation and optimization of language technologies, managing the day-to-day operations of the company, and ensuring that all processes and procedures run smoothly and efficiently.

To reach Rolf with questions or to ask how Avantpage's translation services can help your business, contact him by email or at 530-750-2040, x6.

As a translation company, we work closely with many different ethnic groups. In this new series, we'd like you to join us as we take a closer look at some of these groups residing in the United States. We'll focus on a different group each month, and briefly explore their culture, languages and demographics. To kick off our series, we'd like to start with Filipino Americans.

Filipino Americans are the second-largest Asian American group in the United States, with 3.1 million individuals residing here, according to the 2007 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census. Hawaii, California, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Illinois, Texas , Florida, Virginia and Nevada are the states with the largest Filipino populations. While some Filipinos emigrated to the United States seeking political freedom, many more came hoping to establish a better life with more opportunities for themselves and their families.

Filipino Americans may speak Tagalog, Ilokano, Spanish, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Visayan languages, Bikolano, and other Philippine languages at home. However, because English is one of the Philippines' official languages, many Filipino Americans are fluent English-speakers as well. In the Philippines, English is used in the legal system as well as in higher education. Filipino, based on Tagalog, is the other official standardized language of the Philippines.  In the United States, Tagalog is the fifth most-spoken language, with over 1.2 million speakers. Fluency in the languages of the Philippines has declined with second and third-generation Filipino Americans, creating a language barrier between older and younger generations.

Filipino Americans tend to have a strong median household income. Many have gravitated towards the healthcare industry, working as nurses, doctors, dentists and healthcare support staff. Filipino Americans have a high educational attainment rate, with 47.9% of all Filipino Americans over the age of 25 possessing a Bachelor's degree. Filipino Americans enjoy a strong sense of family and community. Festivals and community events celebrating Filipino culture are extremely important to Filipino Americans, with fiestas, street festivals, parades and feasts bringing generations together to celebrate their heritage and culture. 

For the first time, Avantpage will be attending the annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference, held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, February 20 - 24, 2011.

We are excited to be a part of an exhibition of this size and scope, and are looking forward to offering our translation solutions, expertise and experience to today's top healthcare IT providers. As longtime experts in the healthcare translation industry, Avantpage is poised to deliver our unique blend of flexibility, speed, quality and expertise to a new roster of healthcare clients.

Accurate translation in threshold and other languages is a critical component of the healthcare industry. Integrating translation services, IT and Management Systems is vital to the continued growth and success of hospitals, urgent care facilities, hospice providers, emergency care centers, HMOs, health insurance providers and many others in the health industry.

On average, 20 to 25% of all patients or insureds in the U.S. do not speak English at home. Translated content helps to improve patient health literacy at all levels, and allows our healthcare system to support client needs regardless of language and ethnicity.

Why choose Avantpage? At Avantpage, we've fine-tuned our translation capabilities to reflect the very latest in translation technology, healthcare compliance requirements and healthcare strategy and implementation plans.

• Our focus on the healthcare industry has given us a leading edge over other translation firms: We're experienced, prepared and fully qualified to handle healthcare translation projects of any size and complexity.
• We're easy to do business with! Our web-based translation platform offers accessibility, flexibility and customization - all at a very cost-effective price point.
• Although our data and translation processes are highly automated, we've never lost sight of the "human element" of translation. You'll deal with project managers, translators and support staff who always have time to answer questions, address concerns and talk you through the project process.

We are looking forward to connecting with IT and Management Systems experts in a variety of healthcare-related fields at the upcoming HIMSS conference. Our current clients include some of the largest integrated managed care accounts and hospitals in the industry, and we'd love to touch base with interested prospects and talk a little further about our menu of translation services and solutions.

We look forward to seeing you in Orlando!

This month's Language Spotlight focuses on Khmer. We've been getting more requests for this language lately, and we thought it would be an interesting language to explore in more detail.

Khmer is the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language spoken after Vietnamese. Khmer is spoken in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, the United States, France and Australia. There are a total of about 8 million Khmer speakers worldwide, and in the United States, there are an estimated 190,000 Khmer speakers. The Khmer language is written in Khmer script, using the Khmer alphabet, which closely resembles the Thai and Lao alphabets. There are also influences from Sanskrit, Pali, French and Chinese in the Khmer language. The Khmer script has symbols for 33 consonants, 24 dependent vowels, 12 independent vowels and several diacritic symbols. Many words have more than one accepted spelling. There are no spaces between words in the written language, only at the end of sentences or phrases.

The history of modern Cambodia is a tumultuous one. In 1887 Cambodia became part of French Indochina, but following Japanese occupation during WWII, Cambodia gained full independence from France in 1953. In 1975, Communist Khmer Rouge forces captured Phnom Penh and at least 1.5 million Cambodians died of execution, forced hardships or starvation under the new regime headed by Pol Pot. In 1978, the Vietnamese invaded and drove the Khmer Rouge into the countryside. This began a 10-year Vietnamese occupation, and touched off 13 years of civil war. The 1991 Paris Peace Accords sought to establish democratic elections and a ceasefire, but it was not until 1999 that Khmer Rouge forces surrendered. Today, Cambodia's government is a multiparty democracy under a constitutional monarchy, and national elections are generally peaceful.

Cambodia's two main economic forces are textiles and tourism. This beautiful, lush country is rich with stunning ancient temple ruins, picturesque villages, seaside resorts, architecturally dazzling cities and gorgeous natural beauty. Tourism is growing, and many foreigners have made Cambodia an exciting and unusual travel destination.

Avantpage's Khmer translation experts are fully equipped to provide clients with high-quality, expert translation for a variety of needs - healthcare, government, financial and more.

For information about Khmer/Cambodian translation, click here.

You may have heard us talk about the exceptional quality of our translation work. What does "quality" mean when talking about translation? Don't other companies provide quality as well? What sets Avantpage apart?

Over the years, we've built a stellar industry reputation on maintaining excellence of quality in every translation we provide. Quality of translation means much more than translating words or sentences correctly. High quality translation is intuitive, it is accurate, it seamlessly adjusts for reading levels, and it addresses individual client and language requirements.  

Avantpage translation is always accurate, culturally sensitive and audience-appropriate.

The reading level of the audience being translated for plays a critical part in the quality of the translation. Avantpage translators are extremely sensitive to this, and even when translating difficult medical terminology, complex financial data or legal documentation, they maintain strict adherence to the reading level of their audience. Avantpage translators accommodate reading levels from elementary school  through high school/college, and are well-versed in choosing the proper wording, sentence structure and terminology that will best serve their readers' needs.

Avantpage creates meticulous style guides and glossaries for clients to further enhance the accuracy, consistency and high quality of the translations. Style guides let translators know the linguistic and stylistic preferences of the audience they are translating for, and glossaries provide important terms and their preferred translations for each client.

At Avantpage, our commitment to quality encompasses consistency, accuracy, linguistic excellence, the knowledge and expertise of our translation teams, and the processes and procedures we follow to ensure exceptional service. Providing quality to our clients is our number one priority, day in and day out! 

Localization is the process through which businesses customize their products, services and Internet presence to reflect differences in distinct markets - for example, when branching out to reach non-English-speaking or international markets.

Localization involves much more than just translation. Graphic design, use of color, currency, symbols, writing style and cultural references are just a few examples of elements that come into play when preparing to localize.

Why localize? In today's marketplace, the better question would be "why not?" As global markets grows ever more accessible, and more non-English speakers gain buying power and online acumen, localization represents the future of successful businesses. Localizing your online business presence allows you to tap into previously inaccessible markets, shows that you are culturally and ethically sensitive to customer needs, and gives you a leg up on your competitors. Localization also polishes your corporate image, and increases your visibility as a trusted provider of products and services.

Avantpage specializes in helping businesses develop and execute a localization strategy that reflects their specific needs, markets and products. For more information on how Avantpage can help you localize your website, download our new localization guide, AvantWeb: Essentials of Web Localization. Inside, you'll discover answers to all your questions about the localization process: how it works, what's involved, what you need to provide, and how the workflow will proceed.

To find out more about  localization and how Avantpage can help, call 877-ANY-LANG or email today!