Xerox Unfurls Document Translation Service

5 New Use Cases for the Public Cloud

The rise of cloud computing has transformed not only the way IT is managed, but also the class of services that can be delivered around almost any given product. By way of example of that phenomenon, Xerox today announced that its multifunction printers (MFPs) can tap into a document language translation service provided by Xerox via the cloud.

Making use of machine learning to translate documents, the Xerox Easy Translation Service app can be invoked directly from a Xerox MFP via a mobile device that can take a picture of a document that can be uploaded to the Xerox cloud service. While the ensuing translation may not be perfect, it is good enough to capture the gist of the document. If customers want a perfect translation, Xerox is also making available a service through which humans will translate the document. In all, the Xerox Easy Translation Service app currently supports 35 languages.

At present, Xerox is making available 14 Xerox ConnectKey apps that can be used for everything from uploading a document directly into a third-party cloud storage service to providing the ability to print documents using a mobile device while preserving the fidelity of, for example, the original Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file. Most mobile devices today often convert those documents into a format that fits the device being used to access them. When those devices are used to access a printer, however, they can’t consistently preserve the way the document was originally constructed.

While document translation services already exist in the cloud, Jim Rise, senior vice president for Office and Solutions Business Group at Xerox, says Xerox is committed to leveraging cloud services to enhance the management of workflow around its MFPs. To achieve that, Rise says Xerox is building out a connected ecosystem around its hardware and document management services.

It’s not clear what the ultimate impact of cloud services will be on the way people work. A broad range of services have already had a significant effect. The challenge now is weaving them all together so that the sum of the whole is much greater than the individual parts.