To the attention of:
Yvonne Cekel, Vice President of SaaS and Communities, Geoworkz Team
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Dear Sirs,

Since your announcement of the Translation Workspace platform early in March, many freelance suppliers currently working with Lionbridge expressed strong doubts about the platform itself and its terms of use. Some suppliers took collective actions and contacted their local offices but the only official answer issued by Lionbridge has been a generic e-mail sent out by Yvonne Cekel on March 22, 2010.

Unfortunately, the topics put forward in Ms. Cekel's message did not clear up our doubts and we feel compelled to highlight again our approach to the issues raised by the deployment of the SaaS Translation Workspace platform.

The economic crisis that has struck the world has obviously had an impact on our work, as well. As you know, we accepted reductions in rates, volume discounts, extensions of payment terms, the assignment of jobs by "auction", and the introduction of new tools and QA procedures at no extra cost.

We accepted these increasingly challenging conditions almost without complaining. Our professional approach and sense of responsibility urged us to consider this shrinkage in our income as a consequence of the global crisis.
However, we have noticed that our current average income has returned to the levels of the year 2000 for the same quantity of work.

It was in this scenario that the launch of Translation Workspace, the new SaaS platform by Lionbridge, was announced. It is too early to discuss its technical features. The information we have been given during Webinars was generic and mainly commercial in kind.

As to the corporate/strategic issues, we understand that Lionbridge is preparing to explore new markets and business areas. We welcome this approach and hope this effort can further strengthen the company.

We have been told of a number of advantages that subscribers of the new platform will benefit from. We are eager to evaluate them during the 60 days trial period. However, we felt surprised to learn that we were going to be considered as one of the possible sales channels of this marketing action. For the first time, each of us would at the same time be both a supplier and a customer to Lionbridge. This really sounded to the translators community in Europe like a "pay to work" deal.

Hence our request: suppliers who are planning to use TW exclusively under the Lionbridge tenancy should be given free access to the tool and should be considered simply as system users, possibly being assigned a "light" profile with restricted rights, as necessary. This will preserve our reduced margins from further erosion and will make it easier for us to accept jobs from you.

As you will see from the attached signatures, this position is shared by a large number of freelancers from several countries.

We are more than willing to maintain and further develop a mutually fruitful relationship with Lionbridge. We are confident that you will appreciate our frankness and that you will be able to respond positively to our request.

Looking forward to your reply, we remain

Yours sincerely,

(list of names follows)