Lilt Labs | Bridging Translation Research and Practice

How Translation Management Systems Can Accelerate Global Growth for Fortune 500 Companies

Written by Elly Lee | November, 10, 2022

Growing your business into the global marketplace is the ultimate goal for many enterprise businesses. However, along with the excitement expansion brings comes the inevitable logistic headaches. Challenges like translating for multiple languages or translating a large volume of content can be met by investing in a Translation Management System, or TMS. A TMS is a software platform that helps organizations manage a multilingual localization process from start to finish, and provides localization stakeholders transparency into the entire translation process and pipeline.

How Will a Translation Management System (TMS) Help My Enterprise Company Grow Globally?

In an ever-expanding global marketplace, consumers expect products and services to be offered in their own languages. And with the help of TMSs, businesses are able to create localized content that can reach, engage, and convert customers in global markets. The best TMSs support high-quality translation and localization by contextualizing and considering cultural differences and language trends. The result? Real brand appeal and consistent messaging across locales, which in turn, increase revenue and ROI.

Lastly, a TMS can help guarantee a productive expansion effort by translating product and service descriptions, ordering invoices, and important internal content and documentation, such as technical manuals, marketing guides, and employee manuals. 

How Does a TMS Work? 

A Translation Management System (TMS) is a platform that supports an end-to-end translation and localization workflow. From content upload to translation to review and publishing, a TMS tracks every asset and allows project managers, localization teams, and translators to collaborate in real time. Many TMSs are designed to help you manage all of your concurrent translation and localization projects in one place. You can think of a TMS as a platform for all-in-one communication for every team member involved in each project. 

In addition, modern TMSs use AI technology and smart automation to reduce repetitive translation tasks and significantly decrease labor hours. For example, Translation Memory (TM) helps systems automatically learn from translator edits, and reuse previously translated words and phrases from existing term bases to support translators. TMs not only increase efficiency, but also guarantee a scalable and efficient localization process. 

Enterprise-level TMSs can organize your language assets efficiently across multiple languages and platforms to support scalability — regardless of the volume of content you upload. Enterprises should look for a TMS that can also track invoicing and budgeting, monitor simultaneous projects, generate reports, and control time management.

Benefits of Investing in a TMS 

 

 

Improve Visibility

TMSs empower project managers and localization teams to monitor projects at each stage of development. End-to-end transparency means better ability to track progress, meet deadlines, and stay on budget. As enterprise businesses upscale into new geographic markets and add additional content assets, visibility provides a way to prioritize projects, fast track translations, and detect inefficiencies before they create problems. 

Reduce Manual Tasks

The use of AI technology, such as Translation Memory (TM) Leverage, reduces the time spent by human translators and linguists. by eliminating repetitive translation tasks. In addition, APIs and Connectors make it easy to connect TMSs to existing content systems and workflows for seamless automation. As a result, teams can easily upload content, request for translations, and publish localized content all from within currently used platforms and tools. 

Optimize Global Communications

Localization creates brand trust in every market and can significantly increase favorable brand perception. Since TMSs are an all-in-one tool that enable enterprises to appeal to consumers, they can also provide the means to communicate effectively with vendors, partners, and employees in every region — increasing productivity all along the supply chain.

Accelerate Your Scale

Translation Management Systems excel at managing high-volume projects. As enterprises expand into numerous locales, create a greater number of linguistic assets, and add numerous platforms and systems, a TMS can help expedite translation and organize localization processes across departments. The bigger the global expansion a business is taking on, the more necessary it becomes to implement a quality TMS. 

What to Look for in a TMS

Scalability Means your TMS Grows with You 

Translation Management Systems that can manage projects in multiple languages mean you are set up to expand into any new market at any time. Look for an enterprise Translation Management System that utilizes localization technologies to support growth, like Translation Memory Leverage, automated QA checks, and Connectors.

High-Quality Localization Assets Ensure Brand Appeal in the Global Marketplace 

More than 76% of consumers prefer purchasing from brands in their own language. That said, creating localized content that values cultural differences across a single language shows respect and creates brand trust and loyalty.

Invest in a TMS Partner That Will Help You Scale

There are many TMS options out there, but not all of them can empower you to grow from 500 employees to 5000, or from one marketplace to 100. Request a demo with a Lilt specialist to understand what sets us apart.