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TAIWAN Business.EU l services l production support

Artificial Intelligence:

Cutting Down Translation and Technical

Documentation Costs

More and more companies today are searching for ways to save on costs for translation

and localization of technical documentation

and marketing materials. Some are going

about it by hiring cheaper translators and

agencies but as we all know, a low price also

often means low quality. In the competitive

world, however, companies can hardly afford

to sell their products with poor quality documentation. It has a direct, and very perceptible,

impact on customer satisfaction, which of

course, also affects the saleability of these

products. The solution is to secure translation

and localization of documentation that is of

a high quality but is carried out efficiently to

decrease costs.

Software support for translators of technical documentation and other company

materials (e.g. catalogues, fliers and manuals) has already taken off in countries to the

west of our border. This software enables

computer-aided translation (CAT), with the

goal of making the work of a professional

translator more effective, while increasing

the final output quality through the use of a

translation memory, fuzzy logics and

terminology management. As opposed to

the standard 8 to 10 pages per day, with

this software, a translator is able to translate about 30 to 70% more, all the while

maintaining a high quality level of the

translation (even increasing the quality,

thanks to the advanced functionalities).

BMW for example, is one of the pioneers in

this respect, as it has been using CAT

software to localize its user and service

manuals into 27 languages for quarter of a

century already. Representatives from the

German headquarters report that the

company saves hundreds of thousands of

Euros each year and that the completion

time for the different language versions of

the manuals is reduced greatly. Let us look

at the basic CAT software principles, which

significantly improve the localization

process in terms of efficiency and quality.

special 2019

A Few Important Reminders to Start

CAT software does not replace the translator. It merely makes the translator's work

more effective, while improving the quality

of the work. It uses a translation memory,

thanks to which the software remembers

every translated sentence that the translator ever wrote. When this identical sentence appears again, it is automatically

pre-translated (with the option for the

translator to check it, of course). This

function saves, both, time and money,

especially in texts where certain passages

are repeated over and over again (this is

typical of technical documentation).

Another advantage of this functionality is

the consistency of the translation and

terminology throughout the entire

document, which is a very important factor

for the overall quality of the text.

If the software does not find a sentence

that is 100% identical, it is able to find a

sentence that is at least similar; this is

where fuzzy logics comes in. An example is

a long sentence, where one or two words

change, while the rest of the sentence

remains the same. In this case, the translator receives a so-called fuzzy match, where

he or she immediately sees the differences

in both sentences highlighted in colour.

The translator can then use the offered

translation and manually translate the

changed words. The result is, once again,

improved efficiency and better consistency

throughout the translation of the

documentation, i.e. improved overall

quality. The goal is repeated use of the

translator's work using a sophisticated

comparative mechanism, which results in a

30–70% reduction of time and costs in the

translation of technical documentation.

The function for maintaining consistent

terminology, which is especially important

in technical documentation, also improves

the overall translation quality.

We must also mention a new technology,

which has been developing over the past

few years at the speed of light. By now,

everyone has heard of Machine Translation

(MT), or has at least tried some of the

available free online translating tools.

These often produce comical translations

and cannot be used as a reliable source of

translation if exact formulations are important, which technical documentation,

contracts or marketing materials certainly

require. Translators do not need to fear for

their jobs but the manner in which they