Volume 2

Issue 4

December 2005

Editorial In today's "global economy", translation and localization are not options; they are required to do business around the world. For many organizations, one of the key motivators for moving towards content management is the potential cost savings realized through reduced translation and localization costs. Ben Martin opens this issue with a discussion of how up-front translation strategies can save you a lot downstream in translation, and he has the numbers to prove it: a 290% return on investment. Hélène Keufgens provides insight into what happens in the translation workflow and provides guidelines for best practices. Tanya Stevenson’s case study discusses how the use of a content management system with integrated translation workflow helped them to overhaul the documentation environment of a small software company. And Peter Argondizzo discusses the benefits a CMS brings to the translation effort and how to build a case for content management.
Feature Article Up-front translation strategies save big time downstream Effective delivery of content across languages requires up-front attention to three main areas: 1) translation-friendly authoring strategies, 2) leveraging of content management technologies, and 3) aligning translation activities with an international market strategy. This article pulls from the author’s experience and explores best practices in each of the three areas.  More...
Best Practices Managing a translation flow: best practices Managing global content combines content management and content translation processes. Each of these draws on different technologies and skills. Companies publishing multilingual information without internal translation skills find that they fare best by keeping both workflows apart, and creating an effective hand-over between them. More... Gaining Management Support Content management systems and translation memory: creating management buy-in Your department is faced with tighter deadlines, more products in the pipeline, staff reductions, an expanded list of standard languages for a typical release as well as pressure from management to reduce your translation budget. Most of you have probably faced one or all of these challenges. More...	Case Study Agile Software This case study discusses the use of a content management system to overhaul the documentation environment of a small software company. The company, which creates computer telephony software for the international contact center market, required user manuals and HTML Help in 12 languages. More... Tools and Technology Due Diligence in Selecting Technology for CM Localized content can be managed in many different ways with content management systems and global language management systems. This article reviews the technology options. More...