SDL is a leader in global content management and language solutions, emphasizing quality in the translation industry as the highest priority. The 2016 survey of over 2,700 respondents highlights trends in technology, revealing quality is valued four times more than cost and 2.5 times more than speed. Integration of technology for enhanced productivity and user experience is becoming increasingly important, with a shift towards cloud-based collaboration tools despite a preference for desktop applications.

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than 20 years of experience, SDL helps companies build relevant digital experiences that deliver
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SDL_ig_TTI_Research_Overview_130616
Quality Productivity
User
experience
System and
workflow
integration
New ways
of working
1 2 3
4 5
The challenges of a
growth industry
You told us there were five
significant technology trends
and associated insights that were
worthy of further consideration.
Quality is king
For you there is always a balance between
quality, speed and cost which can flex
dependent on the individual project or client
but your key priority is always constant; quality
is your most important factor. However, your
future expectation is for standardization on
quality assessment across the industry.
* Unless otherwise specified, all results in this eBook come from the SDL TTI survey of more than 2700 people in the translation industry. For further information, see
the survey executive summary at www.sdl.com/tti or www.translationzone.com/tti
When we asked respondents to specify the relative importance of quality, speed
and cost for translation projects, quality came out clearly on top:
Speed Cost
Even for cost-
conscious
corporates and
LSPs (language
service providers,
or agencies),
quality is
4x
more important
than cost.
Quality is
2.5x
more important
than speed
6x
more important
than cost
Quality
$£¥€ $£¥€
Quality
Most aren’t even aware
that standardized
metrics exist
3/5 are not aware that standardized
metrics or models exist for assessing
translation quality
60%
Productivity: Going beyond
translation memory
You demand continued productivity gains
from each subsequent release of technology
but your question is: where can we expect
to go with translation memory? Could the
next wave of productivity increases be from
harnessing machine translation technology?
believe they would
lose competitive
advantage without
translation
productivity tools
40%use machine
translation (MT), of whom
64%say it makes them
more efficient.
72%
Survey Scope
We had 2,784 respondents across
115 countries and in 9 languages,
from translation professionals across
the entire translation supply chain –
enterprises, corporates, government
bodies, language service providers
and freelance translators.
SDL Translation
Technology Insights
Executive Summary
Research Study 2016
A comprehensive survey investigating the
role of technology in the translation industry
and how it is helping to shape the future.
How is technology supporting
new ways of working?
You are seeing an increasingly distributed
workflow in the industry and the nature of
your work is changing. You are considering
cloud as a future option but you still
believe desktop-based tools are more
productive and more secure.
Remote working is
now the norm. 4 in 5
respondents work with
remote teams
80%
Only a third think
cloud-based tools
are as productive as
desktop-based tools
49% of
respondents use or
have used translation
collaboration tools...
35%
49%
...of whom 30%
(15% overall) use cloud/
SaaS-based versions
The nature of translation
work has changed: 70%
are faced today with
more‘chunking’and faster
turnaround times than
five years ago
70%
Speed Cost Cost
A seamless, integrated workflow
You work with many types of specialized
technology such as CAT tool software and
applications, terminology management
databases, machine translation tools, server-
based collaboration systems and software
localization tools – you tell us that the future
will see the demand for integration rise so
that efficiencies are increased by a seamless
flow of information.
use 2 or more categories
of translation productivity
software
79%
as important today as
5 years ago
Corporates and agencies
find access to APIs in
CAT tools more than
x2
over standalone software
Corporates and agencies
prefer integrated software
4:1
The future is about a
better user experience
Consumerization has reached translation
technology. You expect your translation
tools to be easy to use, available any time
and personalized to meet your individual
requirements. And you look to translation
technology applications to support your
increasing need for more functionality.
75%expect CAT tools to be easy
to personalize in 5 years...
...a third more than the
57%who feel they’re easy
to personalize today
In summary …
Analysis of the findings of the SDL Translation Technology Insights 2016 Research Study
produced some surprising and thought provoking results.
See the full survey results here
Corporates: www.sdl.com/tti
LSP: www.translationzone.com/lsp/tti
Freelance Translators: www.translationzone.com/fl/tti