Announcing the ProZ.com Plus Package

Plus-subscriber video library

We are proud to announce this first feature of the new Plus service package: the Plus-subscriber video library.

Plus subscribers now have unlimited access to the translation industry's fastest growing collection of on-demand video training content – over 870 hours of continuing professional development material with a combined value of over $9900 (if purchased individually).

Basket item #1: Friendly, full-featured CAT tool

We told you that the Plus subscription would include a “basket” of tools and services from third-party vendors, which you can use without further charges. We are pleased to announce the first basket item that we have secured for you: a CAT tool called CafeTran Espresso.

If you are a Plus subscriber, odds are that you already own a CAT (computer-aided translation) tool – and probably more than one. But if you have not yet seen or experienced CafeTran, you may want to take a look. This is a full-featured, industrial-strength tool that you can now use, any time you want, from as many machines as you want – Mac, Windows or Linux – without needing a license. Why? Because CafeTran Espresso will respect your ProZ.com login, and, if you are a Plus subscriber, will never require you to obtain a license.

What is more, CafeTran Espresso integrates ProZ.com features such as KudoZ and “What I am working on”, to add both efficiency and a community feel to the unique tool.

Website widgets & social networking

Do you have your own website? It is now possible for you to use ProZ.com website widgets to engage more deeply with your visitors.

Three widgets are being released, to start. The first, intended to help you market your services, enables you to show your recent ProZ.com “What I am working on” entries to your site visitors, so they get a sense of the type of work you handle. The next, designed for networking, makes it possible for colleagues to “Follow” you. The third, related to customer engagement, enables outsourcers who visit your site and who happen to be ProZ.com users, to save you to their vendor management lists at ProZ.com, so that they will remember you whether they come back to your website or not.

You can imagine these widgets coming in handy in two scenarios. In the first, a person searches Google for a translator and arrives at your website. They know nothing about ProZ.com and don’t need to… but ProZ.com services are working for you, behind the scenes, to help you connect with that customer. In the second scenario, we can imagine a person using ProZ.com jumping off from your profile to your website, and deciding to “save” or “follow” you based on the content on your website. They can do this without needing to return to ProZ.com. In this way, the potential customer or colleagues connects with you thanks to a seamless experience that spans both ProZ.com and your own website. In this scenario, as a Plus subscriber you are able to present yourself in a more customized and more compelling way.

CPN interpreter screening / Boostlingo partnership

Here is something for ProZ.com members who also interpret: a program designed to create new channels, external to ProZ.com, to help you obtain interpreting work, and to help you gain relationships with interpreting clients.

CPN screening of interpreters began in September; now ProZ.com is proud to announce that a partnership has been struck with Boostlingo — providers of a platform for LSPs and linguists who offer interpreting services. See the videos to the right for details.

Real-time communications

The ability to establish real-time communication at the click of a button – by text, voice and/or video – is having a significant impact on business in general,and on the translation industry in particular. Meanwhile, translation companies are under pressure to complete translation projects more quickly. Given these factors, being able to make yourself readily available to a project manager in a time of need is a significant competitive differentiator.

Not every translator and interpreter will choose to make her/himself available for immediate contact from potential and existing clients and colleagues. But for those Plus subscribers who do, ProZ.com and ProZ.com Mobile will in the next few years become a much more dynamic experience.

ProZ.com has begun to integrate a unified communications platform, and to present configuration options, that will enable you to specify the methods of communication that prospective clients may use to reach you, and the time ranges during which those methods of communication will be appropriate. A new "click to call" feature can allow authorized users to phone you even if your phone number is not visible in your profile. And you can opt to let potential clients send you "high priority" profile messages for urgent job-related communication, and get an instant notification by SMS or mobile app in addition to the normal email. More real-time communication features are planned for the future, such as chat and video calling.

Full access to ProZ.com Meetups

ProZ.com Meetups are online networking sessions exclusively for ProZ.com members. Each session has a theme based on topics of interest to language industry professionals and businesses, and starts with presentations from experts, followed by free time to network, communicate, share and have fun with colleagues. Check when the next Meetup is taking place.

As a Plus subscriber, you can also access recordings of past Meetup presentations in case you missed one or just want to rewatch.Watch past recordings on ProZ.com TV.

Confidentiality assurance - the ProZ.com SecurePRO program

Increasing confidentiality and security requirements in various industries – banking, medicine, agriculture, manufacturing and so on – have been widely publicized. As the responsibility of ensuring data security and confidentiality passes into every aspect of affected companies' businesses, the translation industry is adapting to support it. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity for freelancers and LSPs alike.

Against this backdrop, ProZ.com is proud to announce the next feature in the Plus package: the ProZ.com SecurePRO™ program. The SecurePRO™ program will support freelancers and LSPs in meeting the challenges presented by increasing confidentiality and security demands, in a way that not only improves the industry, but also enables those participating to benefit.

What are the goals of the program? How will they be achieved? What benefits will there be for Plus subscribers? Interested parties are invited to view the video presentation and read the forum post to learn more!

A paradigm shift is underway. Whereas in the past ProZ.com members needed to come to ProZ.com to access site services, today, thanks to API's, ProZ.com services are being brought to users, when and where is most convenient to them: in CAT tools, mobile apps, TMS's, personal websites and more. In this release segment, a vision of a distributed ProZ.com is introduced. And then the next Plus benefit – TM-Town membership, a $144 value – is released.

Dear ProZ.com member, the ProZ.com team wants to help make sure that you get the most out of the tools and opportunities available to you at ProZ.com! Those of us on the site staff have always been available to take your calls and field your support requests, but until now, we have not been in a position to go out to you to make sure you were making the most of your investment. In 2017, that will change and we will be reach out to interested Plus subscribers by email. If you would like to join a small group session or even have a one-on-one call, a ProZ.com staff member will be available to discuss your profile and membership objectives. This is not sales – you have already purchased membership – but rather, our desire to make sure that membership yields everything it can for you. See the video to learn more, and then either call the office or wait to hear from us!

ProZ.com is proud to announce Blue Board "category ratings". Until now, the Blue Board has permitted expression only of one\s willingness to work again with given outsourcers. Now, it is possible to rate outsourcers you have worked with in five specific respects, including how easy they are to work with, whether or not their onboarding processes are straightforward, and so on.

Additional Blue Board and job posting improvements to be released in 2017 are also announced. See the video for an overview!

With the exception of the two additional "basket" items, the release of which has had to be delayed until the start of 2017, the initial rollout of the Plus package is now complete. Today we announce some of what is included in the "And more..." item in the feature list, including:

• Ability to remove banner ads from site and see them all at once on one page
• Support for Translation Mastermind facebook group – and a new joint offering for translators who want to gain direct/end clients
• Free download of Henk Sanderson's IATE Terminology Packages (available in 552 language pairs)
• Enhanced profile visitor statistics

This will be the last video for this year. Happy New Year! We look forward to building upon this start with the 2000+ professionals who subscribed to Plus in this initial campaign. Here is to your business success in 2017!