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Cloud subscription packages: why link number of words to technology use?
Thread poster: Sian Cooper
Sian Cooper France Local time: 13:05 French to English + ...
In memoriam
Sep 8, 2014
Hi. Now I've got the cloud sorted out so I can use the free subscription, I can appreciate the different subscription packages properly.
I do feel, yet again, that those of us who do not necessarily have high word volumes are being discriminated against by SDL. Am I off the mark? I would be most interested to hear from others, not just poor beleaguered Paul!
Just because we do not translate millions of characters a month does not mean we do not want - or need, or could ... See more
Hi. Now I've got the cloud sorted out so I can use the free subscription, I can appreciate the different subscription packages properly.
I do feel, yet again, that those of us who do not necessarily have high word volumes are being discriminated against by SDL. Am I off the mark? I would be most interested to hear from others, not just poor beleaguered Paul!
Just because we do not translate millions of characters a month does not mean we do not want - or need, or could benefit from - the technology and performance improvement tools offered by having access to multiple machines and dictionaries. Fewer words does not imply lower quality or less time pressure (for the individual); nor does it imply a reduced interest in benefiting from technology - indeed, it could of course increase our word-rate capacity.
Yet we have to pay a fee targeted at the high-volume players in order to benefit from the full technology. I would actually be perfectly tempted to purchase some additional technology options. But with the present subscription packages, I feel I would be paying for a big lump of words that I will never use, and don't see why I should. Additionally, 75€/month is nothing much for the big guys, but it is appreciable for the smaller ones (and prohibitive for a lot of solo freelancers). The pro-rata gain offered by the different levels, versus affordability across markets, does not seem equitable to me.
Why not separate the technology from the word count? OK, it may make the subscription packages more complex. But in my view there are two clearly separate needs: 1) word count 2) technology. Is it really that complicated to make a matrix offer allowing customers (remember that word?) a flexible choice, and not forcing the low/middle end clients out of the technology picture?
(The same is no doubt true the other way round in some cases - people want high volume but less technology - although that seems a less likely match, since the high volume brigade also tends to be the highly automated brigade.)
What do you think? Would you be willing to buy more technology but not the additional word count, or vice-versa?
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