In the mid '90s, several venture capitalists, seeing globalization as an opportunity, invested millions of dollars trying to develop systems that would deliver cheap, fast, centralized translation. Names like Uniscape, Globalsight, e-translate, Trados GXT and Idiom Worldserver bravely promised much to many, but have not always delivered the anticipated ROI.
What exactly is a TMS? "A translation management system orchestrates the business functions, project tasks, process workflows, and language technologies that underpin large-scale translation activity." ~Common Sense Advisory
Wordbank has no vested interest in any of the technology solutions, but we are at the TMS coal-face in terms of using them to deliver translated content on behalf of clients who have made the strategic decision to invest in this technology. So here is our summary of the pros and cons based on our experiences:
Benefits of enterprise Translation Management Systems (TMS)
- Potential reuse of up to 70% of pre-translated content through centralized translation memories, minimizing both translation costs and the dependence on translation resources.
- Automated workflow allowing non-linguist staff to run translation projects with the minimum of effort, removing the need for specialized project management.
- If TMS volumes are high and the system comprehensively used, then the supply chain can be readily rationalized and consolidated, thus potentially dramatically reducing the cost per word.
Potential drawbacks
- "One-size-fits-all" tends to limit flexibility of process, content type formats, etc.
- When making marketing decisions, not all countries or content have equal value, so different external processes and methods are required, diluting the economies of scale.
- Very high volumes of content are required to justify investment and setup.
- Process and content formats must be standardized.
- APIs are required for each CMS and filters for each content format.
We are convinced that this technology can offer a lot to the localization process, but only if applied correctly and preferably where high volumes of similar content in simple formats are involved. However, it is best not viewed as a universal solution to every translation need.