Can you recall how confusing your first day at a new job was? At the time, it was likely very chaotic: learning new systems and dynamics, new locations, and new terminology. Of course, within 3 months you had mostly adapted to it, and, maybe after 6 months, it had become a routine. But what if it didn’t? What if every day felt like that first day?
While it might sound absurd, many companies make this exact mistake when it comes to their translation needs.
Businesses develop their own terminology which applies solely to their business/industry and which is an essential part of their corporate identity or branding.
Managing a comprehensive terminology database ensures successful and efficient communication within the corporation as well as between the corporation and its stakeholders, suppliers, and customers worldwide. And when it comes to communicating with overseas branches or foreign businesses in another language, an inability to correctly interpret and understand this specific terminology can complicate communication.
If an organisation doesn’t require full-scale translation services or if it breaks-up its translation needs among several providers, this could lead to a focus on defect management, i.e. the costly process of rectifying mistakes.
Learning a specific terminology set and creating individualised terminology glossaries takes time. When using multiple translation providers (or possibly the same provider who does not apply professional strategies for content management), a corporation risks repeating those “first day” mistakes: essentially, your business is spending time and money for a different translation services provider to learn/re-learn the same thing, and, due to this, wasting additional resources in the future to correct mistakes stemming from this practice.
We are all under pressure to save time and money. Proper terminology management can lead to an increase in overall efficiency, better adaptation of your products and services to global markets and local needs, easier legal and standard compliance, and a better customer experience.
So, while the development of an applicable terminology management system will require an initial outlay, it can also provide increased value for your language assets, as well as ROI.
Consult the translation technology team at EVS Translations. They can advise you on best practice for corporate terminology management and help your business implement the right strategies today.
