Localization is an essential part of business growth and global reach. Regardless of the size of your company, proper localization ensures that your message gets across to potential customers around the world in a clear and effective manner. However, with so many different stages involved—from deciding which content to translate to rolling out localized versions—it can be difficult to manage the process efficiently without overflowing resources or missing crucial steps.
Keep reading for four tips on how you can streamline and optimize your translation workflow for maximum impact.
Consider Automating Key Processes
If you were to analyze your current localization workflow, you’d probably find that a lot of time is usually spent in manual processing. You should consider automating processes wherever it makes sense. Translation management tools are a great example of technology that can really come in handy. They ensure that your localization team stays effective, organized and connected. It’s easy to upload content and make all your modifications instantly, so you won’t experience any disruption in the workflow. Additionally, you can publish any content that is ready immediately, as well as manage more than one team at a go. Through this software, you will have easy access to various vital data anytime and from any device. All this information and more are conveniently stored in one place for quick reference.
Set Up a Process for Queries & Feedback
This may not seem obvious at first, but you need to have a process in place to handle queries and feedback efficiently. If there isn’t a clear process to handle the queries the translators may have for you during the project, or the feedback that you may have and needs to be implemented, the whole localization process can be delayed. We recommend creating centralized query sheets and a process for feedback implementation.
Continue to Monitor and Improve
Localization workflows are a constantly changing entity, especially in the modern world of business growth and advancement. As many aspects can come into play such as the scope of work, language pairs needed, formats, and volume, it is crucial to monitor how efficient the current workflow is performing to ensure success. This involves confirming that the quality is maintained and that new tools available for use are being properly investigated for how well they might mesh with or simplify existing components of the workflow. Thus, an up-to-date knowledge of both current and emerging software is necessary in order to maintain a streamlined workflow which offers maximum efficiency.
Team up with an Experienced Localization Partner
We can’t stress this enough, having the right partner matters. An experienced localization partner is able to design a workflow from scratch so that it meets your specific requirements and needs. They are also able to quickly adapt a workflow to accommodate changing needs.
A great localization partner will be proactive in suggesting workflow tweaks that reduce time or money, or that at the very least improve the general experience people on the team are having with this workflow.
