One of the biggest challenges for translation teams today is that the translation tends to be pushed to the very end of the product cycle and, if deadlines aren't met, can have an adverse impact on the total cost of product marketing campaign due to delayed releases. Regardless of our role in the translation process, we need to understand how both the documentation process and the translation process affect each other, where are the bottle-necks in the workflow, and how we can merge the two so that our customers can meet their goals.

1. Translation Integration into the Documentation Process:Translation Integration into the Documentation Process:
Embracing the ChallengeEmbracing the Challenge
Vyacheslav Guzovsky
March 2015

2. About the presentation
• How the documentation process
and the translation process affect each
other?
• Where are the bottle-necks in
the workflow?
• How can we merge the two so that
our customers can meet their goals?

3. Who will benefit?
• Translators/interpreters
• Translation & localization teams
• Content creators
• Project managers

4. Agenda
• Translation as part of content
management
• Documentation process: shifting
priorities vs. meeting deadlines
• Writing for translation
• Understanding the target culture
• Translation integration: impact of
change

5. Embracing the challenge
• Most organizations will shrink or disappear
in the long term: only a third of excellent
companies remain excellent for decades,
as economic, political, social and
technological change continue to
accelerate, and competitive pressure grows
more intense. (Scott Keller & Colin Price)

6. Embracing the challenge
• In 2000, there were 360.985.492 people online.
In 2010, we passed 2 billion ... most of the new
users don't speak English. (Internet World Stats)
• The Internet has tripled the amount of text read by
people. In 2009 on average every US citizen
received 12.5 GB worth of text, equivalent to 12
pick-up trucks filled with books. (IDC)
• When making a purchase, only 15% purchasers
are comfortable buying online in non-native
language. (Common Sense Advisory)

7. What’s trending?
• Transition from project orientation to
content stream orientation
• Increasing integration of machine translation
• Increasing emphasis on velocity rather than
price or quality
• Increasing reliance on global single
language vendor partners

8. Areas of concern

9. Areas of concern
• Ridiculous deadlines
• Ambiguities in source text
• Misapplied machine translation
• No proofreading by a native speaker
• No client input
• Poor coordination of large projects

10. Going global

11. Going global
• Promise of new technology
• Workflow automation
• Machine translation
• Open market projects
• Virtual teams
• Community translation

12. Feeling like this?

13. How bad are our projects?
• Only 32% of all projects succeed
• The average project has 43% cost
overrun

14. What’s your project?

15. What’s your project?

16. What’s your project?

17. Translation process

18. Translation process
• Client inputs
• Translation
• Integration
• Quality check
• Final submission

19. Content creation

20. Documentation process

21. Why integration?

22. Benefits vs. downsides
Benefits:
• Simultaneous global releases
• High quality products meeting the
needs of all customers
• Improved perception of customer service
Downside:
• Short-term loss of revenue on a
project

23. Understanding global
maturity

24. Understanding global
maturity
• Organization
• Process
• Product
• Documentation

25. Integration tools

26. Integration tools
• Start with a pilot project, set up metrics
• Educate the documentation team
• Efficient interface with clients
• Early involvement of project managers
• Early review of templates, terminology
• Split the translation into modules

27. Writing for translation

28. Writing for translation
• Message and scope
• Layout
• Your copy
• Formatting
• Timelines
• Partnering with vendors

29. Understanding the culture

30. Understanding the culture
• Names and titles
• Images and colors
• Government assigned numbers
• Addresses and postal codes
• Currency
• Weights and measures

31. Understanding the culture

32. Benefits of change

33. Benefits of change
• Faster times to market
• Fewer cultural issues
• Improved customer service
• Larger market share

34. Benefits of change

35. Questions?

36. References
1. About Translation. <http://www.aboutranslation.com/>
2. Center for Information-Development Management. <http://infomanagementcenter.com/>
3. Common Sense Advisory. <http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/>
4. Globalization and Localization Association. <http://www.gala-global.org/>
5. European Language Industry Association. <http://www.elia-association.org/>
6. MultiLingual. <http://www.multilingual.com/>
7. Multilingual Matters. <http://www.multilingual-matters.com/>
8. ProZ.com Translation Article Knowledgebase. <http://www.proz.com/translation-articles/>
9. The Institute of Localization Professionals. <http://www.tilponline.net/>

39. Helping customers to succeed
• Thinking international from the start?
• Translation vs. interpreting?
• Does it really need to be translated?
• How much will the translation cost?
• How important is the style?
• Finalizing before the translation starts?

40. Helping customers to
succeed
• What about translation software?
• Telling the translator what it’s for?
• Knowing the subject inside out?
• Having typeset copy proofread?
• Do you know that typography varies?
• Producing an in-house glossary?