Is Web 2.0 really here?

I'm currently sitting at MemoQFest, Kilgray's first user conference, but this questions interests me for much longer, and especially at each conference I attend.

People are speaking about Web collaborations - that's OK and possible now even in Russia where some freelancers still use analog modems to connect to the Internet. But people are also speaking about submitting online requests for quotations etc. Nothing new indeed, translation portals exist for ages, and what people are talking about now is just tools that work behind the portal to automate workflows. But are our clients really that mature?

Well, some of them are. They use their own workflow systems which upload project files to their FTP servers and automatically generate e-mail notifications to our project managers. How can we connect it with our Web-based workflow management system? The answer I just heard was to have project managers enter this information into the portal form instead of the client. This indeed will work, but isn't it really ridiculous from the technology point of view to have project managers do something manually in order to have it then processed automatically while both steps can be done automatically?

Clients that are not that mature are often secure. They do care about their information, and they often have a list of software and procedures they can use and a list of those they are not allowed to use at the office. File transfer via a portal is often on such "black lists".

I'm not even going to touch the clients who are just tough and wouldn't want to change the manner of their work just because some technology requires it. Later on they can fall in love with translation portals, but it will take a year or more for them. Do we have just to drop such clients off?

I really wonder what other LSPs think about it. I agree that we can be strict when it comes to payment terms, pricing issues or other things like that because this is what our clients owe us. But as soon as it concerns the way we provide services to our clients, i.e. what we owe them - do we have to push the clients and make them accept our work style? I think, no. That's why I'm still looking for the translation management system that would do everything such systems offer now and will provide integration with customers systems and/or e-mail service.