Software translation
means translating the software in a manner, enabling the software to work in
any part of world. This is essential to reach a larger consumer market. Nowadays,
almost all the software companies have global business and they want to supply user
friendly and the best local language version of software. Let’s take Microsoft
as an example, each year Microsoft spends millions of dollars on software
translation of various language pairs. Software translation being the most imperative
step during the product development requires a professional translation company
to achieve the constancy and accuracy in translation. Before selecting any agency for translation, one must check
the capabilities of the agency.
To evaluate a translation agency investigating the following
points can be helpful:
- Company must have expert translators who are specialized in the industry of software. The translator being specialized in the industry can provide translated document such as software front end or user interface, online help files, user guides and many more with accurate terminology. Like for SAP software translation project, the translators should have experience in software translation of ERP industry. Software translation demands professional and profound knowledge on the software usage and modules and a very deep understanding on the local language environment.
- Agency must provide localization of software to make it relevant and acceptable to local audience of that place. Localization makes the product correct in terms of culture and terminology.
- Agency should have a smart quality control system for software translation project; the best QA system in the TEP procedure, which means translation, editing and proofreading for software translation project can lower the issue rate in the software translation to the minimum level.
- Company should test the software to check the
translated software compatibility. While testing, the agency checks linguistic
issues that ensure the correct use of currency, date, calendar and measuring
symbols. A testing team validates that every feature works as it is in
translated version as it was working in the original source language. Agency
must provide a team of professional testers who run manual and automated test
scripts to locate a bug or failure. Bugs must be reported to the concerned
person, through bug tracking tool and retested once the bug gets fixed. All
bugs needs to be fixed before the final delivery of product.
- Agency should ensure that the font and formatting remains same in all versions of software. Color scheme used should be innocuous and there should be no deviation from the original theme. It should be culturally correct.
- Agency should possess the capabilities to provide timely delivery of product. Most agencies make false promises that are completely intolerable, when it comes to deliveries. Such delays can lead to delay in product launch and may generate the possibility of launch of same product by other brands. In this day and age, when time is of the essence, such delays are not only unwarranted, but can be cataclysmic to a brand. This can influence the market value of product. One can check with other client references to ensure the timely delivery of product or can sign a legal document freezing deadlines.
- Last but not the least is confidentiality. A proper agreement for security and privacy policy needs to be signed to ensure that the information about company confidential documents will not be misused, misplaced or misrepresented.
These guidelines can be a very useful guide for anyone
looking for translation company or translation services.
