The ABC of Cost-Effective Translation Workflows: Part II
Managing translations can be a real headache and rack up additional costs. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Last week we gave you two tips for saving your company money using smarter processes. In the second part of our blog on this topic, we will discuss outsourcing translation processes and how to make intelligent use of translation memory technology.
Build on what you have
SCENARIO
Companies that have had a wide range of their content translated in the past can rely on these text corpora as a reference for future translations. Following a quality assessment, these older translations can be consolidated and updated in a centralized repository called a translation memory (TM).
One example of recyclable content would be contracts that always include specific standard clauses. When it comes to software, it makes sense to integrate all existing software UI strings to ensure that the terminology remains consistent in future software updates. Automatically including these older translations significantly boosts the translator’s productivity, which is typically measured in translated words per hour – meaning that your company benefits from lower word prices.
STRATEGY
“Recycle” approved translations so that you never pay for the same content to be translated twice.
POTENTIAL SAVINGS
Outsourcing
SCENARIO
Your company translating inhouse can entail certain financial disadvantages. This is especially the case if said employees have actually been brought on board to work in a specific department and are thus prevented from carrying out their other tasks – for example, highly paid developers who have to spend their precious time translating internal product documentation. While hiring professional inhouse translators is an improvement on this model, this can sometimes lead to disproportionally high personnel costs. At the same time, having a fixed team size poses the risk that fluctuation in demand for translations could be nigh on impossible to manage. That’s why it’s crucial to weigh up whether it would instead be more worthwhile to collaborate with a translation service provider who is specialized in your field.
STRATEGY
Outsource internal translation tasks before you’re swamped with personnel costs.
POTENTIAL SAVINGS (depending on the previous setup)
Summary
Clearly graduated quality levels that are oriented to specific circumstances and scalable translation workflows that are based on a highly integrated and automated technology stack could well be the future of translation. The efficiency gains achieved by these means will considerably free up your translation budget and give you the freedom you need to concentrate on strategic tasks.
