It is always fascinating for me to discuss technology with our current and potential clients. Helping clients to understand the potential savings they can achieve with the intelligent use of technology, as well as the associated improvements in quality and all the other benefits, can truly be rewarding and fun. At the same time, it can also be the beginning of a major misunderstanding if we don’t make sure the client is aware of all the tradeoffs associated with technology, and the risks if not used and understood by everyone in the translation and localization process.
A beautiful example of this occurred recently when we sat down with a large multi-national client to discuss planning for the next major release of their product into 15 languages. It turns out that the client had staff members in each locality where the product was used review the previous translations prior to their release, as is good standard practice. However, the client didn’t capture the changes made by those reviewers and feed them back to Verbatim so we could update the Translation Memory for the client.
When this problem came up in the planning meeting, the client was frustrated that they wouldn’t achieve as great a savings as otherwise possible, due to an outdated Translation Memory. But what got them really upset was that the improvements in terminology and style that were the result of those reviews were also lost, and the same changes would have to be made again in the new version of the product. To quote the client, “It’s like we threw away the benefit of the technology and everything we learned on the last version, because no one told the reviewers to send the marked up documents back to Verbatim!” I think it’s a safe bet that this painful lesson won’t be repeated again this time around.
Luckily, this example is more than balanced out with the many clients who work hand-in-hand with their Verbatim Project Managers, to communicate through the entire translation process, in order to insure that they achieve all the benefits of the technology, every time they go through the process. It is truly rewarding to see how our experienced people can work seamlessly with client staff, to make sure every aspect of the process is planned, executed, communicated, and recorded, in order to give our clients the highest in quality, with quick turnaround, and low cost. This doesn’t happen magically, all by itself. It takes our experienced people and the client’s knowledgeable staff, communicating and cooperating openly and synergistically so that in the end, it all comes together as everyone hoped it would.
I invite everyone to take advantage of our experienced and dedicated people, and allow us to help you succeed. We are more than happy to discuss lessons learned, plans, frequent problems, and when to and not to use what tools, to help you meet your needs. We ask lots of questions, and get into lots of details, but our experience has taught us that only by paying attention to every detail, do the little issues get addressed and not allowed to become big problems. It’s never to early to talk about the next project, so take us up on the offer and talk to your Account Executive or give me a call personally.
