4 recurring issues in a localization project

This blog only addresses issues that many localization managers face on a regular basis. Plus, we discussed how adopting an appropriate translation management tool can help solve them.

The key to effective localization project management is one thing: you need to keep spreadsheets at bay. They are the biggest hurdle and consume a lot of time. When you move away from the manual workflow, you’ll begin to see how efficient your teamwork is, and plus you’ll make fewer errors.

Instead, try adapting a translation management system or TMS. You’ll not have to spend many hours sorting through spreadsheets just to find the latest version of a translation. In fact, a single central repository will house all of your translations. Thus, not only will you be saving time but reducing the risk of mistakes as well.

Tracking changes will also become easy. This will in turn help in keeping all stakeholders aware of any last-minute changes or versions.

When you handle your project manual like by using spreadsheets, you’ll find it tough to track progress. Why? Because this workflow is altogether an inefficient one. For instance, while working with individual translations, you could lose sight of the overall, broader picture of the project. This can lead to various inefficiencies such as duplicate workflow. You may also face the challenge of consistency across language versions of the project.

What happens when you invest in a localization management platform? Such platforms often come with a progress tracker built into them, allowing you to quickly examine the overall picture. Plus, you can easily see how far along your translators are with their responsibilities without needing to follow up with them over numerous emails.

iii) Remote team collaboration becomes a challenge

Do you know what’s special about managing localization projects? They are typically managed remotely. You will see this in around 90% of the cases. If you’ve ever looked for a Japanese translator in New York, you’ll understand why. Even though this may not be an obstacle in and of itself, this can make communication and collaboration a lot more challenging and tricky. But localization management tools such as TMS can make your job easier. By bringing everyone together, a translation management system will help reduce the number of outgoing messages and emails by 80%. As a result, the chances for miscommunications are less. That often helps speed up the project completion time. 

When you have a single place of work for all your stakeholders - project managers, translators, proofreaders, editors, etc., productivity and quality are sure to witness improvements. Since management of the localization project becomes easy, the PMs will love tools like TMS. Since there will be no need for tedious tasks like manual editing and checking the quality, everything will look easy and simple to them. Communication with the remote team will no longer be a challenge. Plus, it will be saving them a lot of time, money, and resources.

Moreover, if there is any task on-going for which you have certain queries. A translation management tool will mostly enable you to tag the appropriate person. As you leave your comments, the relevant person would also be able to respond on the same page and do the needful. 

4- Documents publication is labor-intensive 

Alright, so you’re done with translation. Isn’t the difficult part over? Not really. Because the layout and design elements are not yet adjusted. You have to modify them to suit the needs of your target language and audience. Look for a translation management system that also offers translation help, in addition to collaboration and management features.  You will see that before this, you might be spending several weeks entering your translation into the old files. But this time will now be reduced to almost immediate, increasing your time to market.

As a global business, your business might need to translate marketing collateral into multiple languages. But if you go with typical InDesign work, it will require a single person to spend 2 or 3 weeks, at least, to finish reentering the translation for each language. But when you get help from computer-assisted translation, your productivity may increase up to 60%. And you would be able to manage multiple language projects at the same time now.

As soon as your translation task is completed, the translation software will generate a document that would retain the original style and formatting. All you will have to do is: click the download option and you’re done. So, instead of spending so much time tinkering with the layout and design elements of your content assets. Now you will get instant access to a document that’s nearly ready for publication.