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At a time when companies are looking for ways to
save money, terminology management and research
may seem like an attractive target for cost-savings,
but companies stand to hurt themselves and spend
more money on localization and support than they
would if they invested in terminology management
up front.
Why is terminology so important for companies,
and how can investment in terminology save them
money? The following factors all play a role:
1. Inconsistency in terminology is confusing
to end users and drives higher support costs. If
a user finds one reference to a software function
that says "Select the capture data set option"
in a manual, but the user interface says "write
data set to disk" instead, he or she will likely
be confused, and may fail to accomplish the task
he or she set out to do. In addition, this user
is much more likely to call a support center for
help with this task than would have been the case
if the manual and the user interface were consistent.
While this problem is likely to arise in source
language materials, it is not uncommon for different
translators to work on manuals and user interfaces,
increasing the likelihood that such problems will
arise from users who do not speak the source language,
the users most expensive for a company to deal with.
2. Lack of terminology data makes localizers
duplicate effort and leads to inconsistency. Whether
a company pays for terminology research directly
or not, terminology research has to happen. Translators
need to understand how to translate company specific
terms, and will take time to understand them and
correctly translate them if they are not given terms
and their translations in advance. When multiple
translators are working on a project, each of them
will have to take the time to research terms, and
may come up with different solutions. At the end
of the project, these different solutions may lead
to a need for extensive review and editing, depending
on their severity.
3. Lack of terminology increases time to
market. Authors of product literature know
a lot about their products, while translators generally
know much less about them. This means that translators
have to spend a lot of time to become familiar enough
with the products to make appropriate decisions
about terminology, and this can slow their work
down considerably. These delays can increase time
to market and reduce local market sales. On the
other hand, if translators are provided with terminology
lists and information that help them understand
what terms mean without having to do extensive research,
they can be more productive and produce better quality
localizations.
4. Terminology represents products to the
outside world. People perceive companies
through the words they read. If a company’s
literature is inconsistent and confusing, users
will perceive the company as being confusing and
inconsistent, and this can lead to lowered sales.
So what steps can a company perform to ensure that
it does not neglect terminology research and does
not bear the costs of not properly preparing terminology?
The first step is to make sure that your localization
partners are performing terminology research and
that it is part of their process. If you see it
in their process, chances are they are doing a better
job than those who simply complete it on an inconsistent
ad hoc basis.
The second step is much harder, but is where companies
can best achieve cost savings because it benefits
all localized versions and the source language version.
This step is to perform an in-house terminology
audit that looks at how the company uses terms in
the source language. This audit should look at how
terms are used and controlled: are they consistent
and are they documented? Are they available in some
form to partners and all parties in the company
that author documents? If terms are not documented,
an effort should be made to identify important terms
and define them, which will allow document authors
to use them consistently, and will allow localizers
to benefit from the definitions. (One way to identify
problems in terminology is to identify what areas
support staff report as causing particular trouble
for end users.)
This sort of informal terminology audit is just
a first step in managing terminology and improving
documentation and localization, but will help companies
identify problems and start implementing solutions.
As a next step, companies may want to work with
their localization partners to document terminology
in localized languages as well and set up formal
terminology management practices.
By understanding the importance of terminology
and the ROI of investment in terminology (lower
support costs, improved time to market and corporate
image), companies can make intelligent investment
in terminology to improve overall profits and sales.
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