It’s no secret that translation agencies are heavily relying on various advanced technological solutions to increase their performance and deliver more accurate translations to their customers. This isn’t about completely automated translation – that’s probably something that’s still quite far off into the future.
Rather, translation agencies leverage the benefits of various tools that help them streamline their work, allowing them to focus on more important areas. This has allowed agencies to increase their throughput and accuracy without compromising any other factors.
Correcting Issues on the Go
Modern translation assistance tools can help agencies stay on top of their work and ensure consistency and accuracy at every step. It’s no longer necessary to go through lengthy verification and approval processes, as most of the work can instead be checked on the spot.
Not only that, but these tools can provide in-depth suggestions for improvements. AI-driven solutions can sometimes dig beneath the surface of what’s being translated and provide context-sensitive hints to further improve the agency’s work.
Direct Access to Language Resources
Translators are not limited to their own knowledge and basic resources like dictionaries anymore. Relevant resources can be embedded directly into the workflow, providing constant information about the appropriate use of language structures and other important points.
This can help make translation work richer and more expressive, especially in cases where creativity is also a factor. Translators can ensure that they’re covering a broad spectrum of expressions and avoid sounding repetitive and monotonous.
Optimizing Flow and Structure
A common problem in translation work is that pieces can sometimes end up sounding dry, usually when they are translated directly and without any creative thought. Modern assistance tools can provide an in-depth look into the flow and structure of each piece, advising translators on how they could potentially rebuild their work to make it read better.
This is not very relevant for real-time translation of spoken language, but looking at the way the industry has been moving, it likely won’t be long before we reach that milestone as well. Real-time translation assistance services are already cropping up in various corners of the market and are successfully relieving translators of a huge burden.
Integration with Content Management Systems
Managing large workloads and complex orders is no longer a challenge either. Content management systems have evolved significantly over the last decade, and many of them now support direct integration into the workflow of translation agencies.
This can allow companies to collaborate with their clients on a more direct level, receiving instructions and immediately working on them in an optimized manner. On the other hand, customers can provide direct feedback on the work they’re receiving, leading to faster turnaround and a greater throughput for the specialists doing the work.
Context-sensitive Suggestions
Context-sensitive suggestions can make all the difference between an ordinary translation and a fantastic one. Understanding the context of each part of the translation can still be occasionally challenging for translators, even experienced ones.
Sometimes a small change in the way a sentence is worded can have a profound impact on the final outcome. That’s why many companies on the market keep investing into solutions that improve their ability to understand how certain parts of their translation fit into the bigger picture. Making improvements on that front can be as simple as making a few clicks when the right tools are utilized.
Knowledge Bases
A good translator should not only have a solid language foundation, but ideally domain knowledge in specific areas. Some translators specialize in certain areas of expertise where they can provide higher quality work than the average person.
But even specialists with a lot of experience under their belt can’t be expected to understand the entire market they’re translating for. That’s where integrated knowledge bases come in. They can allow translators to research details related to the work they’re translating, providing them with a better understanding of the source material. The final result is a translation that accurately hits all important points related to the specific area of the translation work.
Remote Work
Remote work is here to stay, and every sensible company should have adapted to that fact by now. Translation agencies are no exception. Some of the best companies on this market have been investing steadily into expanding their remote work capabilities and providing their specialists with new tools that streamline their workflow and allow them to work with clients remotely with minimal hassle.
The same tools can also be helpful in cases involving collaborations between multiple people. For example, one or more translation agents working on a project with multiple clients attached. Normally, this type of setup can be very difficult to control, but with the help of modern solutions, it’s a streamlined process.
Real-time Interpretation
While we’re still not at the point where real-time interpretation can be automated, there have been significant improvements in this regard coming from the tech sector. Human interpreters can leverage the assistance of various tools that make their jobs easier and allow them to work faster. These solutions can also help minimize the error rate of translation work.
But in the end, human experts remain of critical importance in this area. It will likely be quite a while until this changes. This makes it important to ensure that you’re working with a competent translation/interpretation agency that hires qualified specialists and supervises their work properly.
Closing Thoughts
Modern translation agencies have been able to reap many benefits from recent technological advancements. And it looks like we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg in this regard. The market is still developing rapidly, and it’s currently going through some major changes. It will probably be a while until the situation stabilizes and specific solutions emerge as long-term answers to the problems they’re trying to solve. But even at this point, we can clearly see that translation agencies which utilize these solutions to their full potential are in a much better position than the majority of their competition.
