$25. How Companies Can Save 50-75% On Localization Through On- Demand Translation Services. Localization Produces a. Return on the Dollar

Transcription

1 How Companies Can Save 50-75% On Localization Through On- Demand Translation Services What answers can you expect from this report? - How can my organization profit from localization - Can my organization afford localization and what s a typical budget needed to localize - What s the process for localizing my organization s communications - How long does localization take Spurred by increasing global activity, the demand for localization solutions in the corporate sector has been rapidly growing over the last decade and continues to grow. In particular the reduction of communication barriers along with the emergence of a globally available lowcost financial transaction infrastructure (e.g. Paypal, Google Checkout, etc.) have reduced the cost of establishing a presence in international markets. The benefits of localization for companies have been widely acknowledged. A recent study by the Localization Industry Standards Association found that the average return one dollar spent on localization has increased from $10 in 2000 to $25 in The high cost for localization typically incurred with traditional translation has kept non-profits from investing in localization; despite the obvious difference localization could make for their organizations. With the emergence of low-cost human translation offered by market innovators offering On-Demand translation services, companies can now profit from significantly lower localization costs. Localization Produces a $25 Return on the Dollar On-Demand Translation Services make Quality Translation even more affordable, so that ROI is expected to further improve To enable your organization to make informed choices about localization, this guide helps your company investigate questions to ask when looking for the most cost-efficient localization service for your organization by highlighting: 1. Typical cost factors in localization processes; 2. Cost savings potential in localization processes; 3. Typical questions to ask when choosing a translation provider. So in the first part, we ll walk you through some of the important considerations when looking at per word prices. Next, we ll talk about some options to realize cost savings and then highlight some of the important services translation providers must provide. SpeakLike Inc

2 Cost Factors in Localization Processes To establish a presence in foreign markets, copmanies translate product and service descriptions, specifications, manuals, websites, FAQs, shopping carts, blogs, etc. and provide support in foreign languages. There are two major cost factors in any localization project. First, the cost of translation, typically expressed in a per word price. Second, and often more importantly, localization projects cause project management overhead, keep staff from performing productive tasks and delay time to market. Understanding these cost factors better will allow you to make more educated choices when deciding over localization. a) Cost of Translation The major cost factor in translation is the per word price. Although some translation companies use a different basis for pricing, average cost calculations are usually based on the per word cost for a given language path. Typical factors that influence cost for prices are: Size of translation business: Larger and What s in the per-word price? more established businesses often require a premium for their services. Language directions: Supply and demand for languages and for translators define per word prices. Quality Level: Translations usually involve more than one translator when quality is of particular concern. One or even two separate reviews are not unusual. Reviewers with particular industry knowledge and skills (e.g. legal knowledge) contribute to the per word markup on translation prices. Coordination cost: Internal project management cost of the translation service provider results from hiring and managing translators. Traditional translation companies often charge additional fees that are reflected in the per word prices or that are charged separately. Among such fees are: Project setup Project management Glossary preparation Style guide preparation Simple desktop publishing The per word prices in the market depend on several factors, but the most important ones being per word price for single-pass, review or second review, additional services and fees and coordination costs. SpeakLike Inc

3 b) Cost of Project Overhead Administrative effort is feared by any company because it reduces the impact of the actual work it performs. A significant and too often underestimated cost factor of localization projects is the overhead associated with project management and the opportunity costs from decreased employee productivity. Localization projects with traditional translation companies regularly require a large number of back and forth communication between staff and translators or translation agencies. Translation micro-management can thus create significant internal overhead, in particular when key staff is kept from daily business by repeated interactions. Typical project overhead factors include: Recruiting Contracting On boarding or training Text editing and formatting Reviewing Copy & paste processes (from/into website, ppt, pdf, etc.) Invoicing & payment Some of these factors can be reduced when working with service providers who perform these services for their clients. For example, most on-demand translation companies are handling recruiting, contracting, invoicing, payment and provide support for multiple document formats to reduce unproductive copy and paste and other administrative work on the client s side. Assessing your organization s cost reduction potential Companies can approach cost savings for localization by asking either how to cut the per word cost of translation or how to reduce project management overhead. Through working with our clients at SpeakLike, we found that answering a set of questions can help identify cost savings potential for companies. The translation process is typically designed along a desired level of quality of a translation. An initial translation by a translator represents the first pass. A double pass on translation is done when a reviewer is requested to check translations for grammatical or stylistic errors. In a triple pass, a third reviewer reviews consistency of translations in light of specific industry knowledge. Question 1: Do we need two reviews to succeed? Reviews are often added to translations to increase quality (e.g. by ensuring consistency, reducing typos, etc.) Many of our customers at SpeakLike report that adding one or two reviews is not always a requirement to successfully address international markets. Non-reviewed translation can be a costefficient cornerstone of a successful localization strategy. Perceived Quality Threshold by SpeakLike Customers SpeakLike customers frequently observed a quality threshold on translation: Machine translation is too error-prone; customers are aware that the company does not speak through humans and shy away from engaging in transactions because of a lack in SpeakLike Inc

4 trust. When using single-pass translation (i.e. non-reviewed translation by only one translator), customers are appreciative of the human nature of the translation, and therefore develop a higher level of trust that results in higher transaction volumes. While quality improvements gained by adding one or two reviews can add to the overall transaction volume, many SpeakLike customers responded that they rather use single-pass translation and shift the money saved into marketing for user acquisition. These companies and copmanies seem to observe that the customer lifetime value gained from adding larger numbers of new customers is higher than the customer lifetime value lost through missed sales from using single-pass translation. There are exceptions, in particular in the market for high-end luxury products, but for many markets, in particular the corporate environments, stakeholders respond extraordinarily well to single-pass translated content. Companies may be well advised to start localization with single-pass translation and estimate the impact of localization from a ROI perspective. The chart below highlights potential cost-savings by example of a website translation Example Cost Structure And Budget For Website Translation Question 2: Are we overpaying for value added services? Traditional translation services are increasingly charging for value added services. Companies are well advised to get a feel for how much they are actually paying. Since value added services can significantly influence quality, companies must ask if cost savings will compromise quality. For both, traditional and on-demand translation, quality is a variable that needs to be adjusted given the specifics of a given project. The major innovation of technologies for on-demand translation is that they optimize process efficiency of translation projects to reduce project overhead. On-demand translation companies leverage sophisticated technology as well as custom translation crowdsourcing to optimize translation processes. At any given quality level, on-demand translation can thus be expected to deliver faster and cheaper translation compared to traditional translation. Leading on-demand translation technologies are designed to support any desired quality more efficiently and more scalably than traditional translation services. SpeakLike Inc

5 Question 3: Is there unrealized Automation Potential? To assess if your company can benefit from on-demand translation, check if any of the following questions can be answered with yes : Do we currently have frequent and long wait times for translations? Do translation capacity bottlenecks keep us from being productive or offering value added services to our customers? Are there integration or automation opportunities through using software to support internal processes? On-Demand translation services typically provide the following tools to enable and facilitate process automation: 1. String File Support: For website and software translation, strings products facilitate the process in that the source language files can directly be uploaded into the system and target language files in the required formats are automatically generated. What used to take hours to translate and update now only takes a few minutes with Strings Products. 2. API: A programming interface allows companies to create seamless integrations in virtually any system that is able to connect to an API. Using APIs to on-demand translation enables companies to put localization on autopilot. 3. Ready-made Integrations: Many companies use standard software to e.g. publish their blogs, to build their websites, or to manage their social media presence on Twitter and Facebook. Some on-demand translation technology companies offer ready-made integrations with these tools that can save companies from having to program these solutions manually. To highlight only few of the available areas to integrate automated localization solutions, consider some of the following applications: Websites User Interfaces: Translation of user interfaces into languages for target markets enable companies to increase customer acquisition Product descriptions: To generate faster profits in international markets, the multi-lingual release of new product information and updates as well as the corresponding marketing collateral can be automated Landing pages: Translation of landing page copy can be applied for to acquire customers (e.g. through PPC campaigns) in different languages FAQ: To reduce support tickets, FAQ translations help to increase customer acquisition and retention PR: To optimize the impact of the release, companies can simultaneously launch any PR campaign in multiple languages within an hour of approval of a final draft Intranets, Company Wikis Knowledge / research: to provide the entire enterprise with the same and up to date information at any time, companies can either offer on-demand translations for employees or automate translations on every update/release Trainings: To boost sales (e.g. during a product rollout), companies can equip all sales and marketing staff with up to date reference and training material in any language of their choice within the hour. SpeakLike Inc

6 Customer Support Software Ticket software: To reduce churn and optimize the customer lifetime value, companies can use local reps to provide customer support in any language Online chat: As with support, companies can use local reps to provide chat support in near real time in any language Customer Forums: Similarly, companies can offer users to order a quality translation for Q&A that not available in their languages CRMs By translating notes and data from an international sales team, companies profit from significant information advantages in their sales process and at the same time make sure they avoid information gaps that could lead to missed opportunities Social Media Blog: Blog posts can automatically be published within the hour in numerous languages Facebook and Twitter: Companies can start to run globalized campaigns with automated translation for Twitter and Facebook Evaluation criteria for choosing a translation provider Any good translation company will work closely with you to maximize the cost/quality ratio for a given project. You should ask to get a sample translation and ask the translation service provider to make use of the available quality tools (see below) to get a first impression of the results. From our experience, the following considerations are particularly important for choosing a translation provider: 4. Number of Languages: A major requirement is, of course, whether the provider offers the language you need to localize for. An important factor to consider here is if the company can provide cross-language translations if required (i.e. for example translate from English -> German and German -> English as well). 5. Translation Memory: Translation memory technology can achieve significant cost savings. If translation memory is available, customers only pay once in the case the same sentence gets translated twice or more often. 6. Style Guide: To give translators information about how to translate, Style Guides add context and increase quality in any project. 7. Terminology Manager: Any larger translation project requires filtering words that either do not need to be translated or that need to be hidden from translators. Consider for example names of companies or brands that typically don t require translation (and should not be paid for either ). Similarly, HTML tags frequently need to be filtered out and reinserted into text and in many cases addresses need to be hidden. Terminology management technology enables this. 8. Custom Translator Crowds: For some projects, quality can only be assured when translators are individually selected and carefully trained for the project. The ability for SpeakLike Inc

7 customers to work with custom translator crowds is a key factor to consider when selecting a crowdsourced translation provider. 9. QA and Issue Tracking Process: As with any human system, sometimes things can go wrong, no company can avoid human errors. But good translation companies offer a transparent quality assurance process including issue tracking and a fair return policy for their clients. 10. Speed guarantee: In many situations, speed is key to enable precise planning and to keep up specific internal or external service levels (e.g. a policy to reply to customer requests within half a day). Good crowdsourced translation companies can guarantee document turnaround is as fast as one hour. 11. API: A programming interface allows companies to create seamless integrations and to put their localization on autopilot. Consult with your technology team if the API offers all required functionality. 12. Strings: For website and software translation, strings products facilitate the process in that the source language files can directly be uploaded into the system and target language files in the required formats are automatically generated. What used to take hours to translate and update now only takes a few minutes with Strings Products. 13. Multi-User & Administration: Often more than one person in the company requires access to translation services. Good on-demand translation services offer multi-user capabilities. To control costs, to adjust accessibility, to adjust company-wide translation policies such as Style Guides etc. or to monitor the status of translations, an administrative backend is offered by all credible crowdsourced translation services. 14. Ready-made Integrations: Many companies use standard software to e.g. publish their blogs or build their websites on or their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Some crowdsourced translation companies offer ready-made integrations with these tools that can save companies from having to program these solutions themselves. Furthermore, any good service provider will provide advice during any stage before and after implementation and stands out through instant availability and quick response times via , IM or phone. This report has been provided by SpeakLike. To learn more about how on-demand translation can be leveraged to enable efficient, cost-effective localization for your company, please contact Martin Huegli at mhuegli@speaklike.com or call: +1 (212) About SpeakLike Inc.: SpeakLike Provides The Fastest Way To Get Quality Translation. We combine crowdsourcing with proprietary technology to deliver quality human translation on-demand. SpeakLike Inc