Translation memories (TMs) can be your best ally when it comes to achieving consistency and cost-efficiency…provided they are properly managed.

Over time, TMs grow considerably, hosting a wealth of knowledge. That means that with a simple concordance search in your CAT tool, translators can quickly see how a UI element or product feature was translated in the past.

However, TMs are also vulnerable databases. They are modified and processed by many users with little or no control. A typical TM could contain hundreds of thousands of segments translated into multiple languages. They can quickly become a blocker instead of a catalyst for quality. Some of the symptoms of a faulty TM are:

• Multiple Translations for the Same Source String: This can happen over the years because different linguists apply personal preferences or because context or instructions have changed over time. This results in translators not knowing which translation to pick.
• Outdated Terminology: This can happen when companies go through a rebranding or decide to discontinue a product, for example. If terminology is not properly adjusted in TMs, translators won’t know if they should follow the termbase or the translation memory. And this can cause an increase in the number of queries, which slows down the localization process and can negatively affect quality.
• Poor Overall Quality: This can be a consequence of having many linguists updating the database, mixing machine-translation with human-translation workflows, or having translation only and translation and LQA workflows feeding the same TM.

At Chillistore, we understand the value of this asset and take a 360 approach to managing TMs. At an early stage, we can assist you with TM creation, analysis, and alignment to make sure you’re set up for success right from the get-go.

If you have more mature translation memories, managing them proactively is key to prevent quality degradation. This is how we can assist you with TM maintenance:

• Termbase-TM Harmony: There’s nothing more confusing than having one translation of a term in the glossary and a different one in TMs. Whenever a change is introduced in the glossary, we make sure to assess its impact on TMs. This is key to ensure consistency.
• Language Ownership Program: When translators and reviewers have a chance to discuss, the root cause of quality issues is brought to the surface. Access limitations to reference TMs inside the CAT tool, inconsistent translations, errors in exact matches, different levels of formality, excessive use of placeholders…Once we understand the issue, we can tackle it head on.
• AI TM Cleanup: If your TMs need a full-fledged makeover, we have the tool you need. Our proprietary AI-enabled TM cleanup tool offers a smart, financially viable, and reliable solution. Beyond the use of AI technology, this tool also incorporates additional methods and checks to streamline the TM cleanup process, such as terminology checks, regular expression checks, and consistency checks. This solution is 90% faster than if the same activity was performed in the traditional way.

We take an all-encompassing approach to quality management. We believe that excellent quality is the result of different pieces fitting together. And your termbase is key to ensure your users receive a product or service that doesn’t feel translated.

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