ACD reduces localization costs and lead-time to market by 50%

A digital giant with a global vision uses Alchemy CATALYST 3.1 to gain competitive advantage

DUBLIN – June 29, 2001 – In the world of digital imaging, a global market presence is an absolute must. In order to pre-empt increasingly exacting market demands, ACD Systems decided to look for a reliable translation solutions partner to help them build this global presence. It was imperative that this partner provide a flexible translation infrastructure enabling speed, consistency and reduced costs in their evolving software localization workflow.

“Following comprehensive research of several tools on the market, we decided in favor of Alchemy CATALYST™. The decisive feature for us was its ability to completely change our translation process; it also allowed us to minimize the dependency on the development group for the localization process”, said Marco Alvarez, Globalization Team lead for ACD Systems Ltd, “upon introducing Alchemy CATALYST™ to the localization process, we experienced a dramatic increase in productivity, primarily driven by translating binary files directly rather than source files“.

Alchemy CATALYST™ provides an environment in which Windows program and help files (DLL, EXE, INI, RTF, CNT, CPP, HPP, etc.) can be translated to and from foreign languages. This reduces the complexity of handling, distributing, translating and updating large number of varying file formats while making the program and help files available to an international audience.

According to Tony O'Dowd, CEO of Alchemy and previously Executive Vice President and General Manager of Corel Corporation Limited, where CATALYST™ has its origins, “Market leaders like ACD Systems are increasing their global reach and business velocity using our CATALYST™ technology. We're delighted that they've achieved these amazing results and that their International business base is growing because of this.”

According to Mr. Alvarez, “A significant benefit of adopting Alchemy CATALYST™ within our localization process was a 50% reduction in our product lead-time to market, giving our company a significant business advantage over our competitors. This one benefit alone made investing in Alchemy' technology worthwhile for ACD Systems.”

About Alchemy Software Development Limited
Alchemy Software Development is a company formed by the original developers and designers of Corel CATALYST™, an integrated translation environment and a pioneer and leader in visual translation and engineering solutions. Corel Corporation has acquired a 25% stake in Alchemy Software Development Ltd. Alchemy CATALYST™ technology is designed to boost the efficiency and quality of globalizing software products and is used by over 7,000 customers worldwide. Alchemy CATALYST™ is used by translators, software engineers, quality assurance specialists and project managers and is referred to as the Gold Standard in Localization. For more details, please visit www.alchemysoftware.ie

About ACD Systems
ACD Systems Ltd. (TSE:ASA) is a world leader in digital-imaging software, with an estimated client base of 18 million loyal users worldwide. Positioned as the hub of digital imaging, ACD offers such innovative products as ACDSee, PicaView, and ImageFox. They have witnessed consumer interest in their products grow exponentially with over one million downloaded copies of their products in the first four months of 2001.

With their award-winning software available in twelve languages, and clients from over 125 countries around the world, ACD Systems is rapidly becoming the digital imaging company for the world. For more details, please visit www.acdsystems.com.