1. Increase productivity via automation
Automation is one of the chief budget-boosting advantages of technology in a localization strategy. Any time you can automate a manual task, you’re saving time and freeing up your personnel for the work that actually needs their attention.
- Importing and exporting strings: A right tool for managing and localizing content can connect to your product so that developers and writers can push and pull content between the two with a single click. And the same goes for translators working on their own CAT tools. No more manual copy-pasting or sending Excel sheets back and forth.
- Collecting screenshots: Do your localization quality assurance (LQA) testers waste time manually playing your game or navigating your app to collect screenshots? An automated screenshot tool can grab all the screenshots you need in seconds.
- Localization status tracking: When you and your team know exactly what needs to be done, everyone can immediately focus on their priorities. Automated status tracking removes the busywork of managing project progress. And when new content is added to your workspace, statuses update accordingly — keeping everyone informed at a glance.
2. Boost efficiency with smoother collaboration
To fortify your localization strategy, it is essential to find a tool that engenders collaboration between teams. And if you’re working with external localization service providers (LSPs), include them in your centralized content and localization management platform so they can work right alongside your in-house team.
A centralized content and localization management platform like Gridly gives your entire team a single source of truth for all the content in your project. And thanks to automatic status tracking and built-in version control, no one ever needs to wonder whether they’re working on the right content or making unwanted changes.
You’ll have everyone on the same page and working under the same set of priorities. That increase in efficiency translates directly to lower costs.
>> Learn more about how to start localizing from a single source of truth
3. Get to market quicker with a streamlined localization pipeline
Agile localization is essential for shortening development timelines and shipping faster with all your multilingual content ready at once. Under the agile model, localization happens alongside product development — rather than at the end, when everything else is complete and ready to go.
That’s why agile localization is also known as continuous localization, since it’s happening on a rolling basis as content is created in your source language. Agile localization saves a ton of time when compared to the traditional ‘waterfall” approach.
A central localization platform is the key to a smooth agile pipeline. Uniting everyone in one workplace, automating manual processes, and maintaining version control — these factors and more are what enable localization writers to dive in and immediately focus on the most impactful priorities.
4. Improve your localization QA processes and results
Localization quality assurance (LQA) is a core part of the process in a localization strategy. Not only can your testers catch bugs and errors before your content launches, but trained linguists and cultural experts can review your content for more nuanced issues. Centralizing your content enables these invaluable team members to check content as soon as it’s localized.
Your testers and reviewers can then provide valuable feedback during the development process for translators going forward. This in turn lessens the risk of future errors, streamlining the overall process and keeping testing costs down.
Even the simplest change can pay off in spades. When Rovio, creators of the legendary Angry Birds game, switched from having testers manually play their games to using screenshots, they nearly tripled their productivity rate. But by creating a simple Unity script that imported screenshots directly into Gridly, they pushed their gains even further, empowering their testers to review 1,000 strings per day.
>> Learn more about how Gridly enhances LQA
5. Get more out of your translation budget
Translation memories and localization glossaries are two powerful features that help translators save time while boosting both accuracy and consistency. Meanwhile, machine translation can massively cut costs when used appropriately. Additionally, integrating generative AI into your localization strategy can further streamline and optimize content adaptation, fostering even greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness while maintaining high-quality localization results.
>> Learn more about improving your translation process
Translation memories and localization glossaries
A translation memory (TM) is a common feature in many localization management platforms and CAT (computer-assisted translation) tools. It’ll automatically prompt translators to use previously-approved translations whenever those terms appear in your content.
Localization glossaries are databases of key terms or phrases for your project along with their approved translations. Depending on your needs, you may also elect to include unwanted translations or definitions and useful context.
These two tools enable both external and internal translators to work much more efficiently, which means lower translation fees and overhead costs. Localizing the same terms in the exact same way leads to a boost in accuracy and consistency — saving even more time during testing.
Machine translation
Machine translation is the use of AI to automatically translate text. When you compare machine translation to human translation, it’s much faster and cheaper. However, even the most advanced AI techniques can’t match a human translator for quality and nuance.
Machine translation post-editing (MTPE) leverages the advantages of machine translation while still providing human-level quality. In this process, machine-translated content is then edited by a human specialist. The overall result delivers superior quality as compared to pure machine translation while often at a lower cost than an entirely human-driven approach.
Generative AI
Leveraging OpenAI’s powerful AI models with billions of parameters, available within a content and localization management platform, empowers you to execute prompts for translation, proofreading, content generation, or summarization of your localized materials.
When seamlessly integrating ChatGPT into your localization workflow, it greatly enhances the translation process. It takes into account style, length limitations, error handling, and can even identify and handle unfamiliar words adeptly.
For secure data management, ensure that the ChatGPT service in your content and localization management platform is opted out of using and storing your data for training purposes.
>> Discover how you can leverage AI translation in your localization workflow
Push your localization budget further with the right tools
The cost-saving benefits of the right platform in your localization strategy can free up valuable resources for meaningful work while automating mundane tasks that eat up money and time.
Compare an automated agile workflow to your current system, then perform a quick cost-benefit analysis. With strong numbers in your corner, you’ll be more than ready to demonstrate to your executives why localization tech is right for your workplace.
Ready to find out more about how to save even more money with Gridly?
>> Find out how Gridly can supercharge your localization strategy
