Transparency through technology | Part 3: Open communication

Following the discussion panel ‘Transparency through technology’ at the recent Localization World conference in Dublin, which featured SmartlingRunkeeperShutterstock and Anja Jones Translation, we wanted to provide a more in-depth overview of how language service providers (LSPs) in particular benefit from increased transparency in translation. In this final part 3, we take a closer look at open communication.

One of our jobs as a translation company is to ensure that the translators have all the information they need to provide an excellent translation, and that customers are aware of any issues that arise during the translation process.

In the traditional translation process we would have collated questions from the translators and then sent them on to the client, who would reply with their answers, which we would then have disseminated back to our team. This tended to be a laborious and time-consuming manual process. Especially for websites and apps, where content is added, updated and outdated at a breath-taking pace, it’s nearly impossible to provide truly agile translations without a means for open, fast and uncomplicated communication.

Faster response times thanks to communication automation

Using a cloud-based technology like Smartling eradicates the need to send emails back and forth by allowing translators, editors, reviewers and clients alike to ask questions and highlight localisation issues right within the translation interface. Everyone who is involved in the project receives a notification and can answer questions and add comments inside the interface. This way of openly communicating with everyone significantly speeds up the translation process since there is no unnecessary manual middle step involved in getting questions to the right people.

Adding comments at segment-level and in-context view for more efficient communication

Within the Smartling interface, questions and comments are added at segment level, so everyone can see exactly what sentence or word the question is in reference to, and can see the context surrounding the segment as well. This is hugely helpful as it makes it easier to answer questions faster and more accurately. Any segments with questions or comments attached are clearly highlighted for everyone to see and can be filtered out  to ensure a fast response and issue resolution.

Ultimately, open communication among everyone involved in a translation project creates a collaborative and more efficient work environment and helps to achieve the two goals each stakeholder in the project strives for: providing quality translations and delivering the project on time.


Image credit: Photo by david laws on Unsplash