Lotus translation portal under fire

Lotus has unveiled a portal that claims to break language barriers by integrating Quickplace and an enhanced version of Sametime. But some analysts claim it is not up to the job.

Lotus has unveiled a portal that claims to break language barriers by integrating Quickplace and an enhanced version of Sametime. But some analysts claim it is not up to the job.

The launch of K-station at Lotusphere 2000, held recently in Berlin, confirmed the company's adoption of wireless technology. It gives mobile workers a single point of access to business information, collaboration tools and knowledge management.

The launch included the release of a beta version of Sametime 2.0, the company's real-time platform. It offers interactive audio and video conferencing and broadcasting facilities throughout a corporate network.

Lotus presented its Translation Services, an extended application of Sametime, as the key to its success, and claimed that it allows multilingual chat sessions and translation of instant messaging in no less than 14 languages.

However, the functionality of the language feature was strongly questioned during the presentation to industry analysts, causing Lotus to back down from its original claim that the application could handle all business speech.

When doubts persisted and an analyst stood up to say that the engines could not deal with business translation, a Lotus spokesman offered an explanation that "the technology is evolving".

Martha Bennet, vice president at analyst Giga Information Group, confirmed doubts about the translation ability, and said that it was not powerful enough for business use. "The translation is only good for common chat," she said. "It has taken them 30 years to not get there."

Jeremy Wray, director of strategy at Lotus, said that this was the first of three steps. "This extends Lotus from the intranet to mobile employees, and from there it will go to an extranet of business partners, and finally to customers," he said.

Separately, Former Lotus chief executive Jeff Papows has been named president and chief executive of startup company Maptuit. The company, which has developed technology for providing mapping and routing information to corporate customers' logistics departments, announced his appointment last week.

First published in Computer Reseller News