Localization Trends That Never Arrived: All translation will be done online

Over the years there have been many exuberant predictions of change that would fundamentally alter the localization business. However, most of these dreams of the industry have never come to pass.

Trends that never arrived: All translation will be done online

This is really the dream--that project managers and SLVs can be eliminated by somehow automating the process flow of localization. This posits that project managers and engineers do not really add anything valuable to the localization process and can thus be factored out of the equation.

Many of these systems succumb to the lure of being used to lock clients in to proprietary methods and raise the cost of switching to the competition. Those in localization production hate such systems when end clients, allowed to log on and check the progress of their jobs, use them to second guess project managers on projects they think are behind schedule.

Ultimately, the online translation model is predicated on the idea that all content can be economically produced or molded to fit such a system. The reality is that content most often comes in many non-ideal forms (non-unicode websites, scanned pdfs, legal exhibits, quirky elearning platforms, etc.) and these kinds of projects are higher volume and thus higher value.

The online model might be suitable for translating a couple page Word document, but when it comes to complex source files--not to mention layout issues later--a simple online translation system is not going to get the job done.

NEXT: Trends that never arrived: All translation will be done online, for free

Localization Trends That Never Arrived: A Few Big Players Will Dominate

Over the years there have been many exuberant predictions of change that would fundamentally alter the localization business. However, most of these dreams of the industry have never come to pass.

Trends that never arrived: An industry leader (a “Microsoft of translation”) will emerge and grow by buying up mid-sized players to dominate the localization marketplace

There still is little in the way of a dominant leader (much less standards) in the industry. While we still see many acquisitions in the business, it seems mainly along the lines of original owners cashing out of the firms they founded by transferring client bases to other companies. These acquisitions also seem to run along the lines of “we are all out of ideas of how to add value and thus gain customers so let’s just buy market share from other companies instead.”

Additionally, it could be that acquiring customers by buying one’s suppliers is a better business strategy long term than by having to compete for them with lower pricing or giving increased levels of service.

NEXT: Trends that never arrived: All translation will be done online

Localization Trends That Never Arrived: Translation is no longer a commodity

Over the years there have been many exuberant predictions of change that would fundamentally alter the localization business. However, most of these dreams of the industry have never come to pass.

Trends that never arrived: Translation is no longer a commodity

This is the idea that translation will drift away from the “per word” model and be seen more as a service that requires skilled project managers and other technicians to deliver. This idea has mainly been promoted by salesmen and the owners of small MLVs who saw themselves being compared to emerging Chinese and Indian vendors offering cut rates on per word pricing.

Of course, the opposite has happened. Translation is more commoditized than ever with an attempt to eliminate translators entirely in favor of systems that auto-translate. While such “solutions” are far from mature and probably will never fully replace the nuanced work of human translators, it cannot be denied that the per-word rate continues to dominate with prices at or below what they were a decade ago.

NEXT: Trends that never arrived: An industry leader (a “Microsoft of translation”) will emerge with several companies growing by buying up mid-sized players

Admerix is available in July and August!

Admerix is open and working during July and August. This is a period when traditionally localization work is slowed by business holidays in both Europe and the U.S. It often becomes difficult to source translation work during this time and many companies and linguist teams take time off.

During this time Admerix will be continuing to handle projects so our clients can leave the office on time and be certain that we are solving all issues while they are asleep.

Also: Our audio studios will also be open as well, providing commercial-grade audio localization in all the languages Admerix specializes in: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Thai, Khmer, Burmese, Lao, Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, Dari, Hebrew, Hindi, Punjabi, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Tamil, Nepali, Armenian, and Turkish

Why not allow us to quote on your next project? I am sure we came help you reach your sales goals this year.

Difference between Nordic languages

Not our specialty, but this is very interesting: Difference between Nordic languages

Why can’t qualified subject specialists work on your project?

The biggest challenge for production staff these days is not finding qualified linguists.

There are many very qualified translators with very specialist capabilities who would have no difficulty with even complex content. However, in many cases they cannot be used on a project because they are not equipped with the particular flavor of new TM tool that is demanded by the client.

Most professional linguists at least have Trados, but, as we know, most of the industry is attempting to break away from using this TM tool. This has led to a dizzying grab bag of emerging translation tool systems that linguists must invest in and then be trained in.

The requirement that linguists use one of these new tools vastly limits the linguists who can undertake a project.

The overlay of processes, systems, specific software, on-line registrations and procedures by translation buyers is ensuring that the pool of translators available in our oversized cottage industry is considerably limited.

These systems are sold with the promise that the company will have its own unique process management and QA tools that will guarantee consistency and a perfect translation every time.

But down at the production level where the work is actually being produced, such tools waste time and have the opposite effect of creating quality. They instead ensure that the subject specialist resources who would be the very best translators for the job can no longer be used because they do not have the tool.