Analyzing your translation process

The first step that you need to take is to perform due diligence of the existing translation process at your company.

These actions will help you get to know what you already have and decide what you should change in your Corporate Language Policy.

1. Analyze the translation process that runs at your company so far by answering the following questions:
   1. What content do you usually translate?
   2. Which file formats are sent for translation?
   3. Which tools do you use?
   4. Who manages the whole process: is it centralized or dispersed, operated globally or locally?
   5. Do you have any TMs and/or TBs? Where are they stored (internally, at your translation partner’s)?
   6. Do you have a database of translated documents/resources?
   7. How is translation quality managed?
   8. Are there any complaints of internal users and if so, what do they concern (e.g. translation is too slow, quality is poor, it costs a lot)?
   9. How much does the translation cost your company?
   10. Who do you cooperate with (in-house team, freelancers, agencies)?
   11. Do you need any connectors to the systems used at your company?
2. Decide if and how this process should change by answering the following questions:
   1. Who will take care of the new/amended process?
   2. Does it have to fit in your existing workflows or will you create new ones?
   3. What budget do you have at your disposal?
   4. How is the translation process to be aligned with the corporate language policy or business operations (e.g. change to more agile work, more automate processes)?
   5. What is the company’s policy concerning cloud-based tools?

At this stage you should have a document containing the answers to the above questions with recommendation on the further development of the translation process.