Need the best translation application for businesses that are focused on their bottom line? You’re about to join the productivity ranks of the most successful global companies.

In this article, we’re not going to tell you to outsource all your translation tasks. And we’re certainly not going to encourage you to take the lowest-cost approach, because that would actually hinder the quality of your translations.

But if your business is serious about your reputation among foreign stakeholders, customers, employees or regulatory agencies, the decision about what is the best translation application for businesses mustn’t be taken lightly.

There are many considerations you must make when it comes to adopting a translation app. Use the following guidelines to find the best translation application for bottom-line-focused enterprises.

A Translation Application for Business Should Exhibit These Qualities (if it’s Truly Bottom-Line Focused)

1. Intelligent

As you shop for an translation application for business, keep in mind that 2018 will likely go down in history as the year artificial intelligence (AI) penetrated almost every market in some way, shape or form.

And as we head into the future, there is no reason your organization shouldn’t get on the AI bandwagon. AI serves the purpose of performing mundane tasks for us intuitively, and even repurposing information. It is meant to save us time and money in both the short run and long run.

2. Fast

As the demands on business translation applications ramp up with our increasing global economy, you can’t settle for translation software that is going to slow down your computer or take eons to upload, process and translate bulky batches of files.

After all, time is money. And although the saying is cliché, it always rings true in business.

We live in the information age, and there are so many forms of communication our customers and stakeholders count on for us to distribute to them. This is why when you’re in the comparison process for a translation app that your business will use to create files in other languages, you need to make sure the platform and its user interface are optimized for speed.

3. Secure

Security is one of the most pressing topics in technology today.

You can’t go a single day without seeing a headline about a data breach, can you? But you might wonder what exactly makes data security a quality of a business translation app for companies focused on the bottom line.

Well, data breaches cost companies billions of dollars a year in fines, lawsuits, reputation re-building, lost customers, lower share prices and more. This makes security one of the most important considerations when choosing a translation application for your business.

If you’re the decision-maker for the investment in this type of software, you’ll be well-respected to consult a security expert on your IT team after you have narrowed down your top choices for a platform.

Since translation applications will process and store a lot of data contained within your business documents, it’s important that you mitigate risk by checking out the security offerings of the application you go with.

Don’t Consider Translation Applications That Don’t Have These Productivity Features

Translation applications for businesses should include the following features if they are truly bottom-line focused. Adopting an app with all these features combined has been proven to save companies more than 50% of the time it takes to produce high-quality translations.

1. Web Access

If you want scalability, flexibility and productivity for your team across the world, you need to centralize your translation projects. The best way to do this is by choosing a web-accessible business translation application.

This way, all your source language files and target language files will be accessible from one centralized hub. What’s more, there is no clunky software on your desktop, and you can access your translations on-the-go.

2. Gisting

In international business, it’s a common need to quickly get the gist of an instant message chat online or an email sent to you in a foreign language. In this situation, what good is it to have a translation application that only accepts file uploads?

The best translation app for businesses will also include a gisting feature that allows you to quickly copy and paste text for translation.

3. Automatic File Formatting

Automatic file formatting is another essential feature of translation applications for businesses. This is because it’s likely that file translation will be the most common type of translation that you will need to perform in a business environment.

When you need to upload a file to your translation app, not many people will anticipate that the file’s layout will look different upon download. However, this is the case with many translation programs.

Oftentimes, the user will spend hours reformatting a document to match the original. This makes it imperative to find a translation application that will retain the format and layout of your translated files upon export.

4. Batch File Translation

When you translate files for multilingual communication, it is common to have multiple files that share common words and text segments–especially within a department.

For example, if you work in your company’s marketing department, you might be preparing a marketing campaign that includes Google AdWords copy in an Excel spreadsheet, a print brochure created within InDesign, a website HTML file, a blog post written in Microsoft Word and subtitles for a YouTube video, all pertaining to the same marketing campaign.

Batch file translation enhances your productivity not only by allowing you to quickly upload multiple files at once, but also to edit first-draft translations across one of the files and have the edits automatically applied to the same text that exists across the other files within the batch.

5. Team Collaboration

Business translations rarely involve just one individual. They often have multiple touch points internally, as well as externally.

Whether you’re working with freelance translation professionals or sharing documents for translation with bilingual colleagues, it’s important that your translation application facilitates team collaboration.

Specific capabilities to look for are translation editing history, user permissions control, Translation Memory access by group, and the ability to invite translation professionals into the platform from within the user interface.

This streamlines team productivity and keeps the latest version of a translation accessible to everyone without needing to email file attachments back and forth.

6. Translation Memory

Translation Memory is the gold standard for productivity in business translation applications.

Storing edited translations in a Translation Memory will help you reduce the amount of time and effort needed to produce translations and improve quality.  Search for a platform that provides your users with an easy-to-use user interface so you don’t spend a lot of time training your users.

The best app you can find will use your Translation Memories to improve the quality of its machine translation engines.

Want to learn more? Read What is Translation Memory.

7. Dynamic Machine Learning

As we mentioned earlier, today’s most bottom-line-focused business translation applications are powered by AI.

Dynamic Machine Learning is AI technology that enables you to edit multiple files simultaneously, thereby reducing the amount of time you spend translating. When you look for a solution, you shouldn’t settle for one that doesn’t include this technology.

Every machine translation software platform requires training in order to provide the highest-quality translations possible. Dynamic Machine Learning trains your machine translation engine. And as more and more users edit translations, you’ll see impressive continuous quality improvements in your translations.

The more frequently you train the software, the less machine-translated content you need to edit in the future. This helps you cut costs and save time in the short and long run.

8. Automatic Spellcheck

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but it can take you far in terms of productivity.

9. API

If your company is truly focused on the bottom line, opt for a business translation application that gives you access to its application programming interface (API). A business translation API will provide more functionality than simply delivering raw machine translation. All the above features should be available via API calls.

Having access to a robust API means you give other software systems in use by your company more than just access to raw machine translations. You can deliver high-quality, human-edited translations and updated content to other programs, which will save your company time and money.

10. Live Human Tech Support

And last but not least, make sure that any business translation applications you consider will give you live customer support. Ultimately, this will save you time. When you speak to a live agent, you get quicker, higher-quality support when in comes to troubleshooting problematic files and onboarding users.

Include this Business Translation Application in Your Comparison List

At Pairaphrase, we developed the all-around best translation management software available today. We’re hyper-focused on ease-of-use combined with the powerful technology you need to get smart, safe and fast translation.

With multiple plans available to support your organization’s specific needs, we’re here with you as your organization grows.

Not to mention Pairaphrase includes all of the qualities and features we list above, plus much more.
Schedule a live demo to see it in action. Or, request a free trial of Pairaphrase.