Leveraging Translation
Technology to Accelerate International
Product Launch

Internationalization

A critical step in the translation cycle is adequately preparing products and content for translation – a process that helps flag up any likely obstacles when converting original source content into a new target language.

Internationalization software focuses on structuring and tracking the pre-translation phase, automating the detection of common issues such as alphabet characters (on the very basic level, introducing Unicode), user interface design, coding structure, and website metadata translation. Many translation management platforms offer integrated internationalization functionality, while specialist tools like Lingoport or QT focus exclusively on this phase of the process.

Machine Translation

MT software uses advanced computing power to automatically translate between one language and another, without involving a human being. The technology has advanced rapidly in recent years, moving from clumsy rule-based logic, through Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) to advanced ‘Neural Machine Translation’ or NMT.

Today, whether built by global tech giants like Google or Microsoft, or specialist developers such as Systran, Omniscien, Kantan or Globalese, machine translation has many commercial use cases - especially where the content to be translated is of a functional nature and requires little or no nuanced adaptation for a specific regional market. Despite its progress, however, MT is seldom deployed alone – a typical workflow involves expert human translators who will review and edit machine-generated content in a hybrid model (so-called Post Editing, MTPE/PEMT).

Translation Memory

Often confused with machine translation, Translation Memory (TM) tools (such as memoQ) work by creating a database of words, phrases, and even entire paragraphs that have been translated before in prior translation projects.

By leveraging and continually improving this repository (supported by human input to approve, edit and update translations), TM software can rapidly accelerate translation time by instantly detecting sections of content that may not require re-translation and considerably drive the localization costs down, especially on repetitive content. Effective use of translation memory databases can help global organizations focus their efforts on new or updated content, eliminating the need for redundant checking of text that remains unchanged.

Terminology Management

Terminology Management differs from Translation Memory software by focusing on the specific way keywords, acronyms, slogans, or other text is translated into each new target language. Examples include TermWiki, Acrolinx, qTerm, and MultiTerm.

With large, ongoing content creation and teams of global linguists collaborating to ensure high-quality localized product versions, Terminology Management tools ensure brand consistency and a unified tone of voice, equipping translators with authorized translations of essential vocabulary.

Translation Project Management & Collaboration

Commonly referred to as ‘Translation Management Systems’ (TMS), these tools offer broad functionality for translation project teams to collaborate and track project progress. Purpose-built for translation programs, they provide an important bridge between internal teams and external agencies, linking in any third-party collaborators (such as content writers, graphic designers, testing teams, etc.) in a single portal.

As well as providing a hub for group work, TMS platforms often integrate directly with CMS and WCM systems to access source content and with TM and MT tools. They can also offer built-in translation/terminology management features, as well as financial tools to manage budgeting and translation costs. API, integrations, and connectors are the keywords that make all that magic possible. Examples of TMS platforms include Across, XTM, memoQ, XTRF, Plunet, Smartling, and Wordbee.

Website Localization

Platforms to assist with website localization range in complexity and structure. Some are based around a web proxy approach, essentially creating a ‘mirror’ of the original website and creating an automated workflow to generate and update foreign-language versions. For brands requiring international sites with content different from the original source-language site, web localization systems may act more like specialized translation management platforms, integrating with WCM systems and managing collaboration between teams to create highly localized regional sites.

Voiceover, Dubbing & Subtitling

Audiovisual translation tools have a specialist focus on adapting rich media files for global audiences (for examples, check out Ooyala or VoiceQ). From feature films and TV shows to product tutorials, marketing content and e-learning resources, adapting multimedia content calls for a whole new toolkit. As well as working with a wider range of file types to allow video and audio, specialized platforms for dubbing, voiceover and subtitling require additional capabilities for editing, annotation and collaboration.

Developer Tools

For software Product Managers, a world of applications exists designed specifically to help minimize back-and-forth between programmers and language teams. These tools can involve integration with platforms such as GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, Slack or JIRA, and place emphasis on automating manual processes as well as ensuring translatable content can be quickly and easily extract from source code to be distributed to translation teams, together with any necessary contextual annotations, screen captures, or other guiding information.

QA & Testing

For both functional and linguistic testing, QA tools provide thorough frameworks to ensure every aspect of a localized product is error-free. Specialist applications replace confusing Excel-format bug reports, enabling real-time review and editing of translated content. This allows testing teams to accelerate key QA steps by performing locale-specific reviews, automating batch edits, detecting inconsistencies or cross-referencing text with terminology databases. QA-focused software tools include XBench, Verifika, QA Distiller and lexiQA.

Designing Detailed Workflow
& Communication Plans

With a blend of in-house and off-site resources collaborating on complex projects, knowing where and how the work is going to happen is critical. When multiple technology systems are connected in a single workflow, there can often be an overlap of functionality, especially when it comes to communication. This can lead to comments and annotations going unseen, duplication of correspondence in emails as well as within platforms, or key pieces of information never reaching their intended recipient. To eliminate this risk, an overarching plan detailing steps, communication channels, and feedback or collaboration platforms brings everyone onto the same page.

Conducting Detailed Content & Asset Audits

Along with clarifying processes, making sure that a full assessment of all content requiring translation has been completed is vital when looking to reduce translation time frames. Nothing slows projects down or delays launch as much as additional requirements appearing unexpectedly, derailing workflows, and throwing timing into disarray. Audits help track what needs translation, where it lives and ensures all necessary users have access, including:

• In-product content
• Help & support documentation
• Sales materials
• Contracts & legal materials
• Marketing & social media campaigns
• Pricing information

Key Project Stakeholder Technology Training

As self-evident as it sounds, technology won’t accelerate anything if intended users don’t understand how it works. Investing time in training key users on software functionality can feel like a frustrating hold-up when the clock is ticking, but the long-term efficiencies of a team who know their tools inside-out often outweigh any short-term downsides. To double down, knowledge libraries offering self-serve refreshers or troubleshooting also eliminate time-lost to on-the-job training or workflow bottlenecks.

Confirming Compatibility
& Integration Across Systems

When building a translation tech stack, it doesn’t always work to ‘Frankenstein’ a set of tools together. When choosing which technologies to evaluate, demo (and, most importantly, pay for!), it’s an important step to ensure that they will play nice with the rest of your toolbox. As such, designing a stack that is not only comprised of best-in-class components but also works seamlessly as an overall program is a key to creating a framework that allows for accelerated delivery.

Consolidating Benefits

Lastly, with so much effort, energy, and investment in technology, it’s essential to make sure that it’s actually working. This means tracking and benchmarking translation projects against previous language programs to ensure that new tools are in fact shortening development cycles and allowing teams to roll out new products and features to international consumers faster than before.

A focus on incremental workflow improvement, adjusting process steps, or the way key tools are used, also works to further improve efficiency and ensure that each new project is quicker than the last – without sacrificing thoroughness or quality. The technology itself will also feed into this process of consolidation, as terminology and translation memory repositories reduce the amount of human input required to replicate source language accuracy, tone, and brand.