In a global business landscape, language barriers can put a full stop to your business expansion plans. How you communicate with your customers, how resonating your brand is, and how well you can deliver your message to your customers, are the factors that are closely linked with the languages that your brand speaks. Translations play a vital role in businesses’ global expansion to foreign markets. With the help of translation, businesses can create an inclusive brand image that is welcoming to diversified audiences speaking different languages around the world.
However, managing a large volume of translations is never easier. Especially, when you have to manage multiple translation projects and work with various clients. Professional translation management system is becoming high in demand these days because of their ability to facilitate the whole translation management process. Let’s have a look at the top advantages of a translation management system.
It is a tool used to streamline and optimize translation management operations. A translation management system makes your translation management tasks easier and effortless. It significantly eliminates the hassle and complications of manual file management. Businesses use this tool for the translation and localization of their websites, apps, and software.
Every translation management system has its features that may vary based on the unique needs of every business. A basic level translation system offers machine translation and file management facilities. Whereas in high-level translation tools you will find advanced QA and data security tools. Similarly, every TMS tool has its workflows that determine how your translation operations will be performed.
Why use a translation management system for brand translations and localization? This is a common question asked by translators and business owners working on multiple translation projects simultaneously. Below are some advantages of the translation management system that might give you some fair reasons to buy one.
Traditional translation workflows could be slow and sluggish because there is a lot of manual work involved. It does not just make the translation operations more time-consuming but also enhances the complexity that leads to more trouble. Having a TMS is a real blessing because it doesn’t just make your translation operations agile, but also reduces the complexities by streamlining the translation workflow.
It would speed up your translation operations and help you manage more work in less time. The professional TMS tool is a must-have for global businesses and LSPS that are managing multiple translation projects at the same time. Moreover, it will save your time by optimizing the translation workflow. There will be absolutely no need for sending emails to translators back and forth or waiting for the updated files. Everything is accessible, and you get automatically notified whenever there is an update.
This is all that a brand needs at the end of the day. Quality translations that deliver the core message of the brand to foreign audiences. Hiring professional translators is an ideal scenario; however, it can be expensive. Moreover, it might not be feasible to hire an extensive number of translators as your translation needs increase. Translation management systems can significantly improve the quality of your translation with their advanced AI-powered tools. TMSs contain translation memory that holds records of all the previous translations and uses them to create new translations with more accuracy and quality.
Similarly, most TMS have brand glossary options that allow you to insert brand terminologies, definitions, and other guidelines. It would help the TMS to understand the brand’s unique tone, style, and context and generate more relevant translations. Moreover, the QA tools in TMSs detect and remove all grammatical, contextual, and logical errors from translations.
Translation project managers, around the globe, prefer using a professional TMS tool because of a couple of reasons. Undoubtedly, having a TMS can make translation management super convenient and hassle-free. It offers more flexibility and transparency to the translation project managers helping them get better control over the project and deliver expected results.
It is much easier to manage remote translators and editors with TMS. Project managers can easily assign the tasks and get the work delivered on time. Moreover, TMS tools allow the project managers to have a clear and broader view of their translation project. The project manager can always track the progress of translation projects in real-time and make timely improvements. Moreover, you can get an idea about the performance of all employees, and give them honest feedback on their contributions and hard work.
There is nothing more critical for your translation project’s success than open communication between the project team, manager, and clients. Collaboration is quite an essential thing that is mostly ignored by project managers, which can even lead to project failure. TMS tools enable effective collaboration between the localization team, project manager, and clients. If you are facing communication challenges, or there are gaps in the communication between employees and managers, then you can consider using a professional translation management system with advanced communication features.
Especially, if you have to deal with remote employees, this tool can be very helpful. Working with freelance employees would be 3x easier with cloud TMS tools. It would allow your remote employees to have real-time communication with the in-house team. Moreover, they can collaborate with other translators working on the same translation project.
When you’re on the way to globalizing your business, your localization needs would increase abruptly, once things get momentum. So, as the demand increases, you have to bring in more resources, which is not always very feasible. TMS tools can be very useful for you to support your growing business needs. Rather than exhausting your employees with excessive workloads, or hiring an extensive number of translators, buying a TMS is always a more convenient option.
It would aid your translators to manage high volumes of translations without spending much money. Most TMS tools have machine translation and proofreading abilities that allow you to manage more translations in limited resources – that too spending very much time. Not just that, it will significantly improve the performance of your employees and lead to higher job satisfaction.
In a TMS tool, all the translation files and other data are stored at a centralized location. It makes the data accessible to all team members, and they can retrieve and access it anytime they want. Having centralized data storage saves a lot of time and effort. Moreover, it doesn’t just make it easier to maintain records but also reduces the chances of redundant information. Redundant information is a major issue in manual file management, and you have to ask another team member every time you need the updated version of a file. It makes things very complicated.
In the translation system, there is only one version of each file (which is of course the latest one). Whenever a redundant file is detected inside the storage, the system automatically removes the duplicate file and keeps the latest version only.
Not every TMS tool is the same. Based on your unique translation needs, you have to choose the best option out there with the right features. Following are some essential TMS features you must look for in your TMS system before buying.
Starting with the most essential one. Your overall translation quality and speed highly depend on the translation memory. Your TMS tool keeps a record of all previously approved translations to improve the speed and quality of future translations. These stored translation files act as guidelines for your TMS to keep the context and style of translation consistent. So, for every new project, there is a separate folder of translation memory dedicated for that specific project only.
This is the tool that makes your TMS tool get wiser with time. The more translations it has done, the better it gets at translating content for your brand. Because your system is using the previously done translations as a reference, the translation process also takes less time.
Without brand glossaries, your translation will be inconsistent and out of context. To communicate with your foreign audiences and deliver your brand message effectively to targeted customers, it is important to understand the brand, and you have brand glossaries for this purpose. All your brand terminologies, definition, acronyms, and other guidelines are provided in the glossaries to generate in-context translation. It also helps the TMS to recognize your brand style and the terms that would remain unchanged through the translation process.
So, having these features ensure a consistent brand voice in all regions. It also helps you build a trustworthy brand image in foreign markets because there will be fewer gaps in what your brand stands for and what message translations are delivering.
The above two mentioned features are primarily responsible for maintaining the quality and consistency of translation. However, to add an extra layer of quality and ensure error-free translations, there are QA tools responsible for eliminating all potential mistakes in your content. When you have a built-in QA tool in your TMS, it takes way less time to proofread your translations. Once your translation is generated by the system, it is sent to the QA tool for further testing and editing, and after proofreading the translations, you now have an error-free, much better version of translations.
Cloud TMS is more convenient because of its higher flexibility and portability. First of all, a cloud-based TMS is much easier to configure and maintain than a server-based TMS. Moreover, it is going to cost you less than a server-based TMS. One best thing about cloud technology is that there would be no restrictions on space and devices. You can access the TMS system from any place, using any device. It makes it an ideal option for translation agencies with remote employees. It would be much easier for your freelance employee to collaborate with in-house teams.
If you are using a cloud-based TMS, you better know that your data security is at high risk. Cloud technology comes with many benefits, but you have to be careful about its drawbacks as well. You must choose a system that performs advanced security measures to keep the data protected. Especially, the financial and legal documents should be kept confidential. Advanced TMS tools with regular security measures can save you from data breaches and cyber frauds. So, you better choose a system that provides good security.
Almost anyone who does professional translations. Whether you are a language service provider, a global business, or a freelancer who does translation as a side hassle, having a translation management system would make your translation job much easier and effortless. Businesses might need translation for multiple regions, so it is important to have a smart tool in place that manages your global translation efficiently.
LSPs managing translations for multiple clients need a reliable system to streamline their daily operations and keep things in control. Similarly, freelance translation can use these systems to manage multiple clients without compromising on quality. It is a good idea to have a reliable TMS because it not just shares your translation burden but aids you through the translation management process from project understanding to final deliverables.
There are enormous advantages of a translation management system that would make your translation operations much more convenient and easy. Using a TMS, you can significantly enhance the quality of your transitions through effective communication and smart QA processes. However, make sure to get your hands on the right TMS that fulfills your unique business needs.
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