A translation management system (TMS) is a platform that streamlines translation and localization processes. A TMS helps companies and organizations manage and centralize your whole localization activity, and gives you full visibility, transparency, and control over every step.
A TMS is the hub for all localization programs. It’s the centerpiece around which the whole localization ecosystem revolves around. You can connect it to other content-creation software, centralize all language assets to maintain brand image across all markets, and allow everyone involved in the end-to-end process to work on the same platform.
Thanks to its advanced automation tools, it also drastically reduces the number of manual tasks involved in the localization process. By doing this, it drives up cost-efficiency and productivity in all processes throughout the whole localization program.
Create a Single Source of Truth
Create a single source of truth for your brand and manage the entire localization process from start to finish with a TMS. A TMS supports translation memories, so linguists can leverage existing translations and glossaries to ensure brand consistency. It also allows you to create customized QA checks, ensuring that the localized content is of the highest quality. All of this happens on a centralized platform where everyone can work on, resulting in localized content of higher quality and consistency and preservation of the brand tone and voice.
This results in saving time and money, and allowing you to track progress of projects in real-time and providing full visibility over all the activity. With a cloud-based TMS, all assets are always up-to-date and accessible by the right users. This removes the need to track changes, look through emails to find the right file, and take the risk of losing key information. Everything that is required to have a strong localization program is available within the same platform, including the ability to create and manage queries.
Eliminate Manual Tasks
Thanks to its advanced level of automation, a TMS greatly reduces manual tasks and makes the overall process much more efficient.
- Automatically import and export files for translation, removing the need to send them manually via emails.
- Create and configure infinitely customizable workflow templates, saving time and removing manual tasks as a new step starts automatically as soon as the previous one is done.
- Leverage templates and create localization projects in seconds while ensuring processes are clearly defined and consistent.
Leverage a TMS’s automation features to lower costs, reduce turnaround times, and accelerate time-to-market.
A Solution That Grows With You
A scalable TMS allows you to future-proof your localization strategy and program. It allows you to add languages, users or output volume to your existing processes without affecting its speed and efficiency, or sending incremental costs spiraling upward.
By deploying a scalable solution, you can rest assured that your localization technology is able to grow with the same level of performance. This will help adjust to any changes to your existing processes in a cost-efficient manner.
Speed Up Projects with Automatic Human-like Translations
A TMS supports leading machine translation (MT) engines, some of which with AI technology like neural machine translation (NMT) and customized engines. Leveraging these engines enables companies to automatically create human-like translations that require minimum input from linguists. Therefore, AI in translation technology is now a basic need and creates a competitive advantage with:
- Faster time-to-market for global content
- Increased volume of content with the same resources and time
- Improved customer satisfaction thanks to higher-quality content
AI is the present and future of localization technology. Leverage the latest AI features in a TMS and speed up your processes with top-quality translated content and lower costs. With AI, you can increase your global-content volumes without deploying additional resources and time, accelerate your time-to-market, and improve customer satisfaction thanks to higher-quality content.
A TMS can leverage both native and external AI technology. Intelligent automation supported by AI features drives efficiency in automated TMS workflows. Integrated CAT tools can also include AI-powered features such as auto-inline placement or the Weighted Token Levenshtein algorithm which greatly boost efficiency.
AI is also the driving force behind NMT engines. NMT engines can be integrated into the TMS and provide human-like machine translation to considerably reduce the need for human input. As a result of this, AI has become an essential part to help companies produce and translate better content more quickly without spiraling costs.
Seamless Integration With Your Content Software
Connectivity is one of the most important features of a TMS. You can connect your content system, such as a CMS, marketing automation software, E-Commerce, and PIM systems or developer tools to a TMS for a seamless and efficient content-localization process. All it takes is an automatic import and export of translatable files, reducing project management tasks to just a few clicks.
Connectors save time, reduce file management costs, accelerate time-to-market, and simplify localization.
All Your Data at a Glance
A TMS allows you to easily export real-time data reports for all projects, from performance statistics per language to comparative supplier costs. This enables you to have a clear overview of all localization activity at a glance and make smart, data-driven decisions to optimize your processes and spending.
A TMS is a hub for all global-content activities. It allows everyone involved in the end-to-end translation and process to work on a single platform.
Content is automatically imported into the TMS from the content system. Thanks to pre-configured automated workflows, the content is automatically sent to the appropriate linguists, who can leverage the centralized language assets for higher-quality output. The automated workflows instantaneously send content from one step to the next after each step is submitted, saving valuable time and unnecessary delays. Once the content has been fully translated and reviewed, it is automatically imported back into the content system, where it is ready to be published.
A central hub for localization provides you with a systematic and scalable approach to content globalization. By using a translation management system, you can achieve significant and proven gains and savings, including:
Leveraging existing translated assets means the same content is never translated twice. Using high-quality machine translation means that linguists only have to focus on ensuring that the translated content meets the quality standards.
Combining the automation of manual tasks and leveraging existing translations coupled with machine translation means that content can be localized much more quickly and efficiently without compromising quality. This allows companies to publish their content in a timely manner and maintain their competitive advantage in their global markets.
Thanks to centralized language assets available to all linguists, the quality of translations increases considerably, and inconsistencies are removed, enabling companies to maintain their brand tone and voice across their global markets. With a TMS’s automated workflows, the localization process becomes much more efficient, allowing companies to more than double their localized output without requiring any additional resources.
A translation management system can provide qualitative and quantitative granular data from all actions in the localization process at a glance, enabling you to make smart, data-driven decisions and take your localization program to the next level.
A TMS is a cloud-based platform, which means it can be accessed from anywhere in the world, regardless of the device or operating system. This removes any accessibility issues by users, facilitates connectivity with other cloud-based software, and contributes to everyone involved in the process working together on the same platform.
Control access to content through robust security settings and have full visibility over all actions and who performed them at any step of the localization project. A TMS also provides enhanced security features such as private clouds, which are cloud-based servers used only by a single company, giving you full control on where your data is stored and hosted.
Most translation management systems are vendor-agnostic, which means that as the owner, you have the freedom to choose the fastest, most skilled, and cost-effective providers for any given project who can use the TMS. Increase the quality of your content by having a centralized localization ecosystem in which all your vendors can work on the same platform.
As localization programs grow, managing them becomes a bigger challenge, and deploying the same methods and processes during this growth can result in delays and problems. If you have encountered any of the following scenarios or asked yourself the following questions, it may indicate that you need to use a translation management system.
I need technology that can grow with our expansion
As localization programs grow in size and complexity, which can be due to increased content volumes or the inclusion of new languages as a result of market expansion, companies can struggle to transition from a small-scale effort to a larger-scale process and still maintain the desired level of quality and efficiency without deploying additional resources.
Managing a growing localization program becomes impossible using the standard tools and resources deployed when it was in its infancy. More advanced translation management software is required to accommodate growth—technology such as a translation management system. A TMS enables companies to scale at speed without requiring growing resources or driving up costs thanks to its advanced automation features, making the end-to-end localization process quicker and enabling the human team to use their time more efficiently by removing manual tasks.
I need full control over my brand tone and voice
Companies may seek new options for their localization program with companies who deploy a multi-vendor approach if they lack control and visibility over their language assets, see inconsistencies in brand tone due to lack of communication between vendors, and realize unnecessary costs associated with unnecessarily duplicated translation.
By having a centralized platform like a TMS, all vendors can work together and leverage the same assets, ensuring consistency and quality in the brand tone and voice across all markets.
I need to go to market faster despite increased volumes
A TMS optimizes existing or brand-new localization programs and streamlines your processes so you can localize their content more quickly and efficiently or land in new markets more quickly and gain a competitive advantage.
There is no global online presence without localization, and there is no efficient localization without a TMS.
There are many TMSs available on the market, but not all of them have the same features. Therefore, you should ask a few questions before making your choice.
The best TMS for you can support not just your present needs but also your future ones.
Can it support your current and projected content volume?
Does it have a connector for your content system?
Does it integrate your choice of machine translation engine?
Does it allow you to scale at speed and incorporate increasing volumes, languages, and users on the fly without affecting performance?
Will it be able to support the latest emerging technologies?
One of the most important aspects to consider when choosing a TMS is that it can seamlessly incorporate and support not just your needs of today but also those of tomorrow. Future-proofing your localization program starts with making the right choice of localization technology and having one which can grow with you is a big step towards ensuring your localization success in the long term.
Most TMSs support connectors or integrations with other content systems. This is a key feature of any TMS, since it is the cornerstone of an efficient localization process. Connecting your content system to your TMS allows you to automate most manual tasks and increase productivity while reducing time-to-market goals.
Create and track localization projects within your existing content system. |
Create and use fully customizable and automated workflows to speed up your localization projects.
Get your content translated and localized faster and publish it to your global audiences in a fraction of the time.
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Save time, cut down on excessive email communication and reduce manual actions using your TMS connectors. Integrate your TMS with your existing content management systems, source control systems, and other solutions to streamline and automate the localization workflow.
From terminology management to project-management software, your TMS can be integrated into a wealth of translation-technology platforms to make your localization process more efficient.
Machine translation (MT) engines are integral to the efficiency that comes with having a TMS, allowing you to automate translations while still maintaining the quality of your localized content.