English - Eurologos

TRANSLATING AND PUBLISHING WHERE THE LANGUAGES ARE SPOKEN
The organization of projects for their profitability
Lisette Luteijn, Project Manager
Amandine Verraghenne, Project Manager
Technological activities
Four or five years ago Eurologos-Brussels again started using project managers with full
language training backgrounds (graduated translators or interpreters; female version!): indeed
specific skills in activities to be managed proved to be essential in our profession. We had to
find translators who were willing to “betray” their training in order to devote themselves to a
marketing activity towards clients and control/coordination with the producers of
multilingual texts.
Faced with the issue of project management of activities that are primarily technological, i.e.,
those of localization or translation are only a part of it; we are at the same point. Project
managers must not only master linguistic activities but also graphic design involving
localization support: websites and software.
In the same way that project managers with marketing training only proved to be unbearably
incomplete in the management of translations, we observe the same gaps in the management
of localization projects. Quite precise knowledge of technological processes of programs and
systems is a sine qua non for the efficient and profitable management of localizations.
While being unable to confirm that it is preferable for a computer specialist to learn to
manage languages or for a linguist to become familiar—at least generally—with the IT area
professionally linked to websites or software, we must leave a certain amateurism behind in
localization project management. The two professions (the management of multilingual
projects and the graphic design of websites or the IT of software) should blend into a single
know-how that we as traditional project managers should be happy to have!
That is the challenge that we as simple translation project managers are faced with.
Becoming Localization Project Managers: what are the crucial points?
Four challenges
With respect to clients
Just as for traditional PMs, it is important for localization PMs to be able to provide the
correct, precise and convincing explanation to clients as to what localization is as well as the
issues linked to the production process.
Faced with a market that does not see the advantage of having a multilingual localized
website (or software), we have to employ PMs that are good computer specialists as well as
marketers and translators: such is the requirement made by localization.
Especially in the economic situation in which we currently find ourselves, clients are not
especially ready to invest in the translation/localization of their website. But they are wrong.
There is no need to explain the importance of and need for a website localized in several
languages. The website is the company’s business card and the door through which clients
and future clients enter the business. More even than is the case for printed brochures, it is
important to communicate the right image, to use the right corporate technolect on the
website, in order for this information to be available to thousands of people with the simple
click of a mouse. In order to be able to explain the importance and need for a localized
website, it is not enough to be a computer specialist, marketer or translator. There must be a
right blend of these three professions.
EUROLOGOS Group. When localization becomes « glocalization »
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TRANSLATING AND PUBLISHING WHERE THE LANGUAGES ARE SPOKEN
With respect to language producers
In the localization process, language producers (after all) perform the same work as for
traditional translation. It is clear that they have other tools available and that they work with
other formats and supports, but the basic work remains the adaptation of ideas and concepts
(texts) from one language into another. For localization PMs more than for traditional PMs, it
is important to know these various tools and supports—at least in general terms—in order to
be able to organize and anticipate the possibilities and requirements for each project, in order
to be able to provide the right instructions to language producers and solve any problems
along the way.
With respect to IT producers
In the localization process, so-called traditional translation only takes up a segment of
production. An increasingly significant segment of work is taken over by IT specialists.
Namely:
- The analysis of files in order to be able to establish the price and lead-time to draw up
the quote.
- The preparation of files before translation.
- The processing of files after translation (cleanup, handling of images).
- Engineering work, debugging and layout.
In the case of localization PMs the problem comes up of as to the areas of expertise and
responsibility: where does the PM’s work stop or where does the IT specialist’s work start
and vice versa. Experience teaches us that we simply have to learn how to coordinate these
activities.
With respect to profitability
By its complex nature, i.e., the multitude of processes, profitability for localization projects
and more complicated to manage.
Profitability of localization projects not only depends on the profitability of translation but
also on the profitability of IT work.
At least two questions come up:
- How to incorporate preparation and finalization work (by the IT specialist and the
PM) into the price to the client?
- How to optimize efforts/work by IT specialists?
If from a methodological point of view, traditional PMs know how to proceed, from a
technological point of view they may come up short as already seen with respect to clients
and IT specialists. A “Localization Project Manager” will soon be hired (the online ad was
posted recently). This will not solve the issue of the transformation of us, PMs, into efficient
localization managers. We already know how to proceed: we have already learned HTML
techniques.
Thanks
EUROLOGOS Group. When localization becomes « glocalization »
Ostend Eurologos Conference
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