Translation companies should invest in Computer Assisted Translation tools, also known as CAT tools to improve their efficiency and rentability.
If your company regularly translates documents, you should consider investing in Computer Assisted Translation tools, also known as CAT tools. Here are some reasons why it is a smart investment:
Improve efficiency
The more information you feed into the databases, the faster linguists can work, and the more accurate their translations will be.
- Eliminate repetitive work: When a linguist translated a sentence, it is recorded by the CAT tool in a Translation Memory (TM) system. Every time the same sentence or a very similar sentence comes up, the previous translation is proposed to the linguist.
- Find terms quickly: Terminology management allows instantaneous lookup of terms that have been stored in the database. TMs can also be searched to find terms in the context of a previously translated sentence.
Cut costs
Whether you employ in-house translators or translate work externally, using CAT tools is cost efficient.
- Increase efficiency of in-house translators: Translators who have access to rich translation memory systems and terminology management tools work faster and the output volume will increase.
- Reduce the cost of proofreading/editing: Translators will have access to previously approved translations and terms. They will be able to check for errors and correct their own work before delivery. Their translations will therefore be more accurate and contain less errors, thus reducing the time spent on proofreading/editing.
- Pay for less words: CAT tools have embedded functions that allow you to analyze a file based on your TM. The analysis will tell you how many “new words”, “repetitions”, “exact match” and different levels of “fuzzy match” your documents contain. Rates vary among these categories of text. For instance, if “new words” cost 100%, exact matches may cost you 20% of that, as they only need a quick proofreading, or even nothing if you are sure they are flawless and therefore instruct the translator not to process them at all.
Improve the quality of your documents
- CAT tools ensure consistency in the use of terms, titles and sentences, as they identify and provide immediate access to everything contained in their database.
- CAT tools allow for quality assurance processes, automatically checking for all sorts of potential errors like typos, double spacing, inconsistencies, and tag problems.
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