What is Translation Memory (TM) and why does it always come up when talking about translation services? Known as translation memory, TM first commercially appeared in the early 1990s and has since played a crucial role in translation efficiency and helping businesses go global. Translation memory is essentially a linguistic database that stores previously translated sentences, phrases, and words into a system that allows translators to translate content more efficiently and consistently across projects.
For businesses looking to go global, ultimately all the content ranging from website pages to image captions needs to be localized. This can add up to an alarming amount of content and become overwhelming. This results in businesses searching for the most cost-effective and efficient way to deliver localized content to consumers or clients without compromising the quality or message. In order execute a smooth translation project; consider a translation service provider that utilizes TM as it can benefit your business in the following three ways:
Faster Time-to-Market:
By using translation memory tools, you can increase productivity and avoid unnecessary headaches such as re-typing existing translations or adjusting select parts of text. Especially for industries containing content with repetitive text or new products differing only slightly from previous models, using TM will accelerate the translation process. With less to translate, translators can produce faster turnaround times for projects, resulting in quicker time-to-market and business growth.
Increased Savings:
Not only does using TM produce faster turnaround times, it also saves your business money in the long run. When releasing company content, a business will most likely use repetitive terminology and phrases to keep branding consistent. Since TM recognizes previously translated text, this reduces costs for future translation projects. According to a 2004 Microsoft research report, TM tools can reuse anywhere from 20% to 80% of sentences and phrases, saving about 40% of translation expenses.
Improved Customer Satisfaction
Clear communication with consumers and clients is vital for any business. For companies planning on or are in the process of going global, it’s important to localize content accurately and consistently to each language and culture to ensure consistent brand recognition and business operations. Particularly for highly-regulated industries such as life sciences and banking, storing commonly-used terminology and phrases into a memory system standardizes quality and content across all mediums and languages.
Whether you’re looking into translation services for the first time or are already using an existing provider, implementing a TM database can make the biggest difference in quality, speed, and cost. At CSOFT, we understand how important it is to deliver quality content as efficiently as possible and we take pride in delivering fast, accurate, and high-quality translations to our clients without ever compromising the message and quality.