Translating Multilingual Glossaries into Revenue

By Liesl Leary, Senior Localization Strategist, ENLASO Corporation

Glossaries, like vaccinations, ensure the health of your localization investment and prevent some nasty disorders from ever occurring. But even though conventional wisdom holds that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," many localization professionals miss the value that glossaries and a sound glossary management philosophy provide. To put this in perspective, imagine the consequences of not vaccinating your child. It is possible that said child may not contract any serious maladies before surviving to adulthood, but the chances are equally good that you may invite some long-term permanent damage.

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Many companies fail to understand the importance of a glossary to a localization project. Faced with the indecipherable complexity of a localization-pricing matrix, the additional costs associated with creating a glossary may appear extraneous. But this misunderstood procedure is the cornerstone to achieving high-quality translations, lower long term costs, and faster time-to-market, while developing subsidiary buy-in, and in some cases, effective vendor management.

Using Consistent Terminology
The goal of any good glossary is to make sense of the communication and standardize terms that are essential or used often in your content. Some companies have become so good at standardizing terminology that we use their product names in our personal vernacular. Think about this next time you're purchasing "Kleenex" or "Whiteout" or a "Post-it note." When we're buying generic facial tissue, correction fluid, or sticky notes, we identify the items by brand names that were consistently employed by Johnson & Johnson, the Bic Corporation, and 3M. For more information on the developments of standardizing terminology, I suggest you review Dr. Mary O'Neill's article...Terminology Drives Knowledge.

Terminology management is just as important for technical documentation and manuals where consistency is essential to clearly explain a concept or a product. A classic example of how consistency affects comprehension relates to Hewlett Packard's User Guides. In one version of the User Guide, screenshots employed the term "printer preferences" while help content referencing the screenshot utilized the term "printer options" causing general confusion for the end-user.

Developing Subsidiary Buy-in
Practical purposes aside, glossaries support subsidiary buy-in and prevent corporate political tensions from occurring. All too often, translation reviewers feel compelled to either make edits or actually conduct the translations themselves. It is common for these reviewers to harshly criticize the accuracy of the translation regardless of quality. However, it is important to analyze the value of having this specialized person spend hundreds of hours translating materials versus focusing on core competencies that maintain market share and/or bring in new revenue.

Ensuring All Vendors Use the Same Glossary
In situations of large volume, it is common for global companies to outsource localization to multiple vendors. In this situation, developing and updating a glossary is especially important prior to the project start, in order to maintain consistency between different versions and products.

Once the localization process begins, it is very common for new terminology to be created as the projects are updated and reviewed. This makes it critical for the client to immediately update all vendors with the newly approved terms and glossaries as the translation quality and consistency can be severely compromised.

Implementing a Glossary Management System
The implementation of a glossary management system can involve many team members, creating a logistical nightmare. A brief systems analysis can identify many different stakeholders including: translators, technical writers, project managers, in-country reviewers, product management specialists, distributors, marketing professionals, lawyers, among others—all having a different perspectives as to how a product's attributes and assets should be communicated and translated. Coupled with the traditional challenges of version control, the burden on the managing a glossary can be overwhelming. Ironically, most glossaries today are maintained in MS Excel; an application that is more useful for accounting activities rather than language management.

Glossaries should be treated as business intelligence with a documented process in place that ensures all vendors and reviewers have the appropriate versions. The manager of the glossary should clearly identify and document:

• Who is responsible for submitting terms
• Who is responsible for translating the glossary
• How often should the glossary be updated
• The process by which the glossary is updated

Conclusion
Ensure the health of your localization investment and prevent those nasty terminology disorders from occurring by developing an understanding of glossaries and implementing fundamental glossary management programs that will improve your localization project's quality, processes, costs, turnaround, and ultimately return on investment.

Liesl Leary, Senior Globalization Consultant, ENLASO

Liesl Leary is a Senior Localization Strategist at ENLASO. She consults with organizations, like Satmetrix Systems, who require localization systems and process analysis to deploy efficient and cost-effective localization programs. In addition to her experience working with localization, Liesl has also worked as a Business Systems Analyst where she administered corporate best practice research that led to significant improvements in sales order entry processes. Educated both in the United States and in Europe, Liesl has a degree in International East Asian studies with course work completed in Beijing, China and 5 years of working in the localization industry.