The translation management system you’ve been looking for

When benchmarking TMS providers, it can be difficult to know what to look for. However, you can get a strong idea of their suitability to your organization’s translation needs with a demo account that allows you to explore the solution for yourself. 

A good, transparent provider will be more than happy to ask any questions you may have too. Some of the most important benchmarks to analyze are translation quality and consistency of quality, cost of translation, and turnaround time of the content lifecycle on a particular TMS.

A translation management system works by managing the workflow of your content for translation and localization. It acts as a central system through which to process your content and it translates it through one, more, or all of human translators, static machine translation, and AI translation. It also implements the use of translation assets, including a computer-assisted translation (CAT) tool, translation memories, and translation glossaries.
More sophisticated TMS’s also provide a marketplace of vetted, professional translators, a collaborative workspace, and a procurement process, which oversees the linguist processes of onboarding, legal and contracts, and payment.

Many startups and companies in general actually don’t have a defined translation function in place. Instead, they adopt an ad-hoc approach as and when translation needs arise. This lack of process invariably leads to inefficiencies, including superfluous expenditure, excessive time spent sourcing linguists and managing the translation lifecycle, and in many cases, failing to take advantage of advanced translation technology solutions that can generate enormous KPI gains.

For startups and other companies with a process in place, it tends to involve working with legacy translation agencies. These traditional agencies typically have ample translation resources to complete translations. However, supply chains tend to be complex, long, and expensive, while agencies also generally aim to generate as much revenue markup as possible on each translation commission. For these reasons, startups may work with different agencies at the same time, switch between different providers, or try to keep translations in-house where possible.

A software localization tool offers unique value as it allows your organization to adapt translation specifically for a specific country or region. A generic English to Spanish translation might translate “milkshake” to “batido”, which is the correct term in Spain. However, in Latin American countries “milkshake” is correctly translated as “licuado” or “malteada”. 

A localization tool helps your organization to get this country or region–specific terminology right, so it sounds natural and native in the local tongue. In this way, your communication campaigns will resonate as best as possible and you will also avoid using language that isn’t familiar to the target audience.

Translation companies use computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools, a type of software that uses so-called translation memories as well as glossaries to prepopulate new translations based on previous translations with the same words, terms, and sentences.

Innovation-minded translation service providers also use AI translation engines to provide software-as-a-service products, which can automate much of the translation lifecycle, helping to generate faster turnaround times, higher accuracy, and lower costs.