As effective as TMS tools are, their performance relies heavily on what happens with the content before it gets to translation, primarily in the content creation stage. Authoring practices and content creation methods have an enormous impact on localization success: affecting quality, time, and/or cost.

Not surprisingly, many companies struggle with these common localization pain points: slow turnaround times, quality problems in translated content, and the high cost of the entire process. You can greatly mitigate these issues by optimizing content at the authoring stage. We’ve all heard the adage, “garbage in, garbage out,” but the opposite is also true: improve the source content and you improve localization.

By following just a few best practices during the authoring process, you begin to see how achieving quality in the source content produces better results in translation. At the top of the list are: following a glossary of approved terminology; applying style guide rules; and adopting a content management system (CMS) to manage your content.

Standardize your terms

Writers can increase consistency if they use a glossary of approved terminology in their content, especially if there are multiple teams — some of whom are non-native English speakers. Poor writing is often the result of multiple and inconsistent language structures, vocabulary, and syntax. For example, should we “begin,” “start,” or “commence” an activity? Should your published content exist on a “website,” a “web site” or a “web page?” Do you prefer internet to be spelled “Internet?” “Email” or the antiquated “e mail?”

Many hands contributing to the content bring the risk of unnecessary variation. Having lots of options makes colorful prose in fiction novels, but in the business of localization, consistency is preferable. Using a glossary of preferred terms ensures that your writers reach this consistency.

The bottom line is that word choice plays heavily in the success of the eventual translation. If the goal in localization is to optimize word matching with the TMS, then variation quickly erodes the 100% matches residing in the company’s translation memory databases. Remember that 100% matches in translation produce a faster turnaround time, considerably lower costs, and improved overall quality through consistency.

Enforce style rules

Applying style guide rules during the authoring stage also improves the quality of both source content and the corresponding translation. To illustrate the power of a style guide, consider this common phrase:

Please call the System Admin if more information is required.

Using this example, let’s apply a few basic style guide rules.

• Condition precedes action
• Remove passive voice
• Remove unnecessary words
• Apply approved terminology

When we apply these rules, along with the glossary of terms, we end up with a sentence that looks more like this:

For more information, contact your system administrator.

For one Fortune 500 company, a content audit found that this simple phrase appeared in 98 different variations in their content. This meant that each time they translated their content, this string of words fell short of a 100% match in their TMS — adding time and cost to the localization cycle.

Manage your source content

Driving quality into the content creation process brings us to the third recommended best practice, using a content management system (CMS) to store and manage your content. Similar to a TMS, a CMS stores content for future use: write once and reuse everywhere. Because you’re going to write the content only once and reuse it repeatedly, use your glossary and style guide to optimize content the first time.

However, not all CMS tools are created equally. While they all store reusable content and maintain the ability to publish to various output formats, some store content at a granular level: component content management systems (CCMS). For example, consider the system administrator sentence above. With a CCMS, you’re able to store this sentence as a reusable unit on its own — separate from the section or module in which it appears. This approach provides a much more flexible system, which yields significantly higher reuse rates than a standard CMS.

When you combine the power of a CCMS with a TMS, you get the best of both worlds in the area of recycled content: authoring reuse and translation reuse. Add the glossary and style guide tools into content creation and the quality of both the source and target languages improves. Employing all three of these methods leads to sending fewer words to translation and achieving a higher quality result — all with faster turnaround times and lower overall cost.

The post Achieving Accurate Translation Results: 3 Best Practices to Follow appeared first on Interpro Translation Solutions.

Best Fit for International Members

Word-for-word translation is not enough in this global age. Instead, associations looking to provide international members with experiences that feel fully native and customized, need to take advantage of localization. It is no secret that each profession and each market niche has its own vocabulary, style, and tone. To truly tap into global markets, it is essential to preserve those elements while reaching larger audiences.

Through localization, associations can share documents, journals, websites, training materials, videos, and more with their members across the globe. A localization agency will ensure that the member experience is culturally and linguistically appropriate by considering not just the word choice, but also layout, design, graphics, cultural references, figures of speech, and local formats; including currencies, time, date, and units of measure. By carefully considering the target locale along with its preferences and consumption habits, and preserving the spirit of the original content, members are left feeling that the content has been specifically designed for them and their needs. No matter which language is used to access the content, the message will be preserved consistently while feeling fully personalized to each international member.

A Scalable Model

Membership societies and trade associations offer countless benefits to their members. Since associations represent members from virtually every industry, they provide comprehensive knowledge, networking, research, and advocacy. In fact, the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) recently estimated that the United States was home to over 92,000 trade and professional associations, including the National Safety Council, AARP, and the National Education Association.

Members are privy to problem-solving, strategizing, and business planning on a much larger scale due to workshops, newsletters, and online forums sponsored by the association. Additionally, members also benefit from sharing contacts, protecting common interests, and lobbying for government support. Given the global reach of many associations, a partnership with a localization agency is an important step to ensure that all members reap these benefits.

While associations have multiple options when it comes to translations, a localization agency can offer key benefits that surpass in-house translations. A major benefit is the use of translation memory during the localization process. Translators work in professional translation tools to conduct the translation, enabling them to build a Translation Memory. It is not machine translation; however by translating within a translation memory tool, it enables the translator to create language pairs known as translation units that allow the source text and the corresponding translation to be stored. This linguistic database is then used by skilled translators to produce quality content while maximizing efficiency, which yields a faster turnaround time and a competitive edge. Translation memory can also prove to be cost effective for associations whose content includes documents and manuals with phrases or messages that need to be translated once and then can be repeated multiple times.

In addition to translation memory, localization agencies can take content from any sector and adapt it to new language markets. An experienced and robust team can handle multiple languages with translation and localization expertise spanning most modern languages. Associations looking to grow their communications effort by providing web localization, documentation translation, and multilingual desktop publishing, will find partnering with localization companies to be deeply advantageous.

Ongoing Success by Partnering with a Localization Agency

A localization company like Interpro is adept at handling projects of all sizes. As a scalable business, the team can help associations in all stages—from those that are just venturing out into the global market to others who are looking to grow their presence across multiple continents and in dozens of languages and cultures.

Whatever the content, market analysis, and company growth model, accurate localization will convey an association’s message more clearly to global audiences throughout the implementation of strategies like simultaneous translations, experienced localization professionals, and in-country partnerships. These efforts ensure that the message and information from each association is preserved and conveyed accurately during every step of the expansion process.

Final Thoughts

Working with a professional localization company provides associations with incredible benefits. Not only does it provide a more scalable business model, it also allows associations to enhance their audience’s experiences from a linguistic and functional standpoint. Partnering with a localization agency is a strategic way for any global association to make a lasting impression on members in new language markets as they look to share content accurately and authentically.

The post Why Associations Need a Professional Localization Agency: Benefits and Best Practices appeared first on Interpro Translation Solutions.

So, what is translation memory?

Translation memory is a linguistic database, commonly known as TM, a translator uses to help leverage words and during the translation process. Leveraging words helps to keep translation costs down, produce quicker turnaround times for projects, and maintain consistency from start to finish.

Versus working within a native application format, files are prepared in a format where the text is easily readable and a translator is translating line by line within the translation memory tool– as seen below.

Whether  you are researching companies for first-time translations or have already built a translation memory, there are three major benefits to translation memory that you need to know.

1. Economical costs over time

Think about how your company writes about its brand. You may catch consistent terminology within your marketing content or repeated sentences and phrases on your web pages. Translation memory recognizes anything that has been previously translated which decrease costs on future translations.

Translation memory determines what percent of a match each segment is so you can leverage previous translations for future localization projects. To determine the leverage, TM is broken down into categories: context matches, 100% matches, fuzzy matches, and repetitions. The closer the match, the less the cost per word. Interpro Translation Solutions uses an industry standard Translation Memory segmentation breakdown to analyze against the translation memory.

2. Quick turnaround time

The more you build in your Translation Memory, the less a translator has to translate which will generate quicker turnaround times for your projects.

For example, if you are a manufacturing company translating an updated version of your 40-page user manual into French, there will be segments within your previously translated user manual that are recyclable. If you are localizing an eCommerce site, you may find words that can be recycled for each update. As new products are being updated to your eCommerce site, usually the color and size of the item will remain consistent.

3. High-quality translations: never miss a segment

Translation memory is not just a benefit to you, but also to the translators using it. Translators see the files line by line and translate accordingly. When translators receive big projects, translation memory helps ensure that every piece of the copy will be translated which helps to produce high-quality translations.

Partnering with a translation services provider utilizing translation memory technology will keep the quality you require at its best by maintaining consistency, saving time, and reducing costs.

The post The Benefits of Translation Memory: Why You Need to Build One Now appeared first on Interpro Translation Solutions.