Many large companies around the world have a lot of products or services to offer in different markets. Often times, the content depicting these products needs to be localized—this can become a very difficult task.
In my experience, the time and cost required to keep content updated and localized can actually be a significant impediment to the international expansion of a company. One solution to help reduce the time and cost required is to invest in translation memory software.
Imagine that you own a video game company and that there is a new version of a game about to be launched in Spain; you are faced with the difficult task of having to update all of the content related to this video game, including specifications, product descriptions, online marketing material, etc.
Despite having had all of this content translated in the first version of the game, now you have to send back all of the updated material to have it translated, localized, and corrected yet again before your new product reaches the Spanish market.
Translation memory software was created and designed for cases and situations like this, among others. The memories function as databases that store the translated text segments, which can be sentences or phrases of text. In this way, translators use translation memories to “autocomplete” sections of a text that have already been translated. Therefore, given the situation described previously, the Spanish translation of the first version of the advertising material of the game would already be stored in a translation memory. Whenever your company needs to apply updates, the translation memory will autocomplete any sections of the translation that have already been translated.
Following this example , when a new version of the game is needed, the translator should analyze the content using the translation memory, reviewing and translating all content that is not identical to the text already translated. From that point, the translator must translate only those segments that have been updated or are new.
Depending on the size of the project, translation software can greatly help companies and translators alike to save hours, days, or weeks of time translating new material. Additionally, it is more economical, since the translated content that is kept in the translation memory is usually charged at a reduced rate.
In addition to the fact that international companies can benefit financially from this translation method, generating huge savings in time and costs, translation memories also make it easier to maintain consistent, quality terminology throughout global material. That is, regardless of the translator or agency that is carrying out a localization, terminology will remain consistent for all future versions of a product.
If your company is in a similar situation, do not hesitate to contact us for a free quote.
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