Translation tools are a ubiquitous part of the language services industry these days, but not everyone knows exactly what they do or how their business may benefit from them. As a result, companies often buy expensive translation tools with hefty licensing fees that in reality add very little value to overall operations. Before buying a technology or outsourcing all of your processes, it is important to evaluate the problem at hand and find the simplest solution to correct it. Below I’ve provided three examples of translation tools that are used to help solve the problems that global companies face every day:
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Glossary creation
Everyone uses translation memory (TM), but far fewer companies make efficient use of glossaries and style guides. I used to work for a company that had a different translation vendor for each business unit (one for legal, marketing, technical writing, and so forth). There was no continuity in the way content was translated, and information was simply not being shared. For years things remained inconsistent because the company opposed centralizing its processes. However, after creating standardized glossaries and style guides for their most widely used languages, the company saw immediate improvements to their consistency without even switching vendors.
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Machine translation tools
When I first started in this industry I worked with various law firms. In mergers and acquisitions, firms would often handle financial and legal documents one million pages long, sometimes with very little context. Machine translation proved to be a fast and accurate solution to see what the documents contained, allowing the firms to get certified translations of the content relevant to them. Needless to say, this saved a huge amount of time and tens of thousands of dollars.
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Stepes
A large multinational client needed to communicate with its global workforce quickly and conveniently, but with higher accuracy than a simple Google Translate. Stepes is an ideal solution for this, as it uses an API connection to the company’s internal message board to facilitate daily communication. With the success it experienced using Stepes, the client decided to use it across their social media channels to streamline the translation of their digital content.
At the end of the day, no one knows your business better than you. In order to receive the best help from an outside vendor, it’s important to understand what you are trying to achieve and how to communicate it to your LSP. Sometimes that solution may involve an expensive translation tool, other times it may be as simple as establishing best practices and standardizing processes across your organization. At CSOFT, we understand how to successfully reap the benefits of translation tools, by focusing on customer needs and up-to-date technologies. Coupled with the expertise of our global team of translators, we provide our clients with the highest quality translations and localization services.
Thank you to James Davidson, Senior CSOFT Business Development Manager
Written by William Simpson- Senior Technical Writer at CSOFT International