Recent Posts View All

Blog - Mission-Critical globalization and translation management

Mission-Critical globalization and translation management

posted 2007-12-04 11:28:59
by Kevin Moss

On my travels around the country, I occasionally discuss with individuals what categorizes an application or system as “mission critical” to the success of a company. The term “mission critical” is often used to describe something that is essential to any endeavor. Examples include having a plan for a specific project or an application as it relates to a company’s success. Typically, most people think in terms of the later and usually relate applications such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or having a system to manage online ordering as mission critical.

So where do globalization and translation management applications fit into this picture? Most folks in the localization arena clearly understand that enterprise-class Globalization Management Systems (GMS) are absolutely mission critical for an organization to meet its primary objectives. The system might be essential for a corporation to efficiently localize their products and services for the global market place, driving revenues. At the other end of the spectrum, it could be a school system that must communicate to parents in a multitude of languages. In these cases, having a system to manage the localization process is critical because it allows them to optimize resources from the human and non-human perspectives. Without a GMS, the potential for chaos exists because it is difficult manage the complexities of the localization process, without at least some technology to manage business and technology processes.

So is my translation technology mission critical? This is not necessarily the case. The application must be an enterprise-class application for it to serve an organization as a whole. A globalization/translation management system is made up of many different components. It should provide powerful workflow capability to support complex business processes and have incredible strength in terms of linguistic technology. It should be open so it can interoperate with other systems and also utilize a common architecture to provide stability and ease of use. The system should also offer linear scalability so when users and throughput expand you can grow from a workgroup solution to the enterprise, without having to throw away your existing software and start from scratch.

In summary, when you work with technology such as WorldServer, you can be assured you are working with an important technology that is mission critical to the success of many large organizations.

Share:

Back to the Blog

Back to Top