Translation Technology Acceleration

The rate of change in the translation industry is such that tools and processes as little as 5 years ago fast become out of date. That means that translators and translation agencies alike are having to adapt faster or risk becoming less efficient and less competitive. But what are the actual implications on decision makers in the industry?

Despite the narrative behind industry technology developments, and buzz words such as Neurolinguistics or Automization. Tools need to solve actual problems and also be usable by the whole supply chain for them to create real efficacy gains.

The number of tools, apps features and machine translation developments are now too great for even a super user to be able to be an expert in all but one or two of the platforms.

When there are hundreds of options to choose from, there is inevitably, a paradox of choice for CTOs or company directors in selecting how to plan their technology use. The result can be either an inability to choose, or over spending on tools that in reality, the company did not need but felt pressured by current news developments.

So how to choose the best path forward?

This answer is simple, spend to fix and improve current problems, not market perceived problems, respond to client demands, and choose tools that can be implemented and used by all parts of the supply chain.

Analysing what parts of your workflow are the most labour intensive, and then searching for simple solutions for these actual issues results in a lower spend and a higher chance of your software spending solving actual issues.

Applying common sense to company technology can be greatly undervalued, after all, there is no value in a drilling company investing in a spaceship, despite “space travel” being a great feature.

As the sector picks up speed, and companies seek to out compete on technology, there is a risk that mismanagement of funds, inappropriate, or over spending in technology results in an impact to bottom line.

This applies to translators, agencies and clients alike.

Would you like to talk to us about your Translation Technology or CAT tool requirements?

We’d be happy to help, email us at translate@latinlink.com

Latin Link