Localization

Artificial intelligence has made multilingual content easier to create and process than ever before. Yet many organizations still manage fundamentally different types of content through essentially the same localization workflow. That approach increases cost, slows delivery and creates unnecessary risk.

Artificial intelligence has dramatically reduced the effort required to create multilingual content. Organizations can now translate, adapt and generate content at a speed that would have been difficult to imagine only a few years ago. But greater production capacity does not automatically lead to better multilingual communication because it has also introduced an entirely new management challenge that most organizations have yet to recognize.

Preparing a content marketing campaign for two different markets may include localization and/or transcreation. In the first case, the words are translated correctly, but they don’t invoke the real feel intended by the original wording. In the second case, the written content hits the bull’s eye, both message-wise and translation-wise.

Game localization stopped being a line item and became a growth engine. The studios paying attention are turning translation into a competitive edge, and the ones that aren’t are quietly losing ground in markets they never even knew they were missing.

Translation and localization aren’t the same thing. Yet, they’re frequently used interchangeably. This is especially the case in life sciences, where accuracy and legal compliance are often the backbone of well-performed translation.

In the fast-paced world of localization, maintaining the accuracy and quality of Translation Memories (TMs) is essential for ensuring seamless, consistent translations. As companies scale globally, the size of their TMs grows exponentially, which can lead to inconsistencies, outdated translations, and even redundant content. That’s where AI-powered TM Cleanup comes into play. This innovative solution combines the strengths of AI with prompt engineering, revolutionizing how organizations manage their TMs.

Global expansion is exciting, but navigating the complexities of regulated industries like life sciences, industrial manufacturing, and corporate communications can feel overwhelming.

Translation and localization go beyond simply converting words from one language to another. These are complex processes that can make or break your company’s global expansion efforts.

Over the past year, we continued to share our knowledge and experience through our blog posts. Here’s a roundup of our most popular blog posts in 2023:

Ciklopea offers many different language solutions, including translation, localization, and consulting for more than 150 language pairs.

Last year alone, we translated over 23 million words across more than 40 different industries.

Here’s what we learned by analyzing the language data.

Let’s say you own a multinational company. You’re looking to market a new line of luxury watches in both the United States and Japan. The advertising campaign is centered around the theme of “timeless elegance” and features images of elegant, mature models wearing your watches against a backdrop of classical European architecture.

So, you’ve launched your mobile app. Your user base is growing, NPS scores are pretty good, and you’re continuously collecting customer feedback and improving your product. That’s pretty exciting!

E-commerce has revolutionized the way we shop. With just a few clicks, we can order whatever we want from the comfort of our homes and simply wait for the package to come to our doorstep. In today’s world of modern consumerism, running an e-commerce business is definitely lucrative.

If you plan to expand your business into different markets, localization is the most powerful tool you can have. In contrast to translation, which only focuses on bridging the language gap, localization takes into account cultural specificities, the societal values of the target market, jargon and linguistics, and more.

The 2022 European Language Industry Survey revealed an interesting finding: 35% of participating independent language service providers see Machine Translation (MT) as an opportunity and 41% see it as a threat. Translators’ relationship with technology – especially machine translation – has always been a complicated one.

While the challenging climate of the 2020s may bring a lot of changes and uncertainties to the way businesses operate, it also provides a good opportunity to focus on the things that don’t change and that may help in overcoming the crisis. In this article, we take a look at how and why professional translation/localization services are one of the anchors that can help your business thrive in any environment.

Internationalization or i18n is the concept of product/service design that facilitates expansion into foreign markets (or globalization) through localization. The term is chiefly used in the software localization domain, but it can be easily applied to any other field. In this article, we take a closer look at how the internalization principles can be successfully applied to content production to make the localization process smoother, cheaper and leaner.

On the execution level, every localization project has two major distinct dimensions – linguistic and technical. While the linguistic dimension encompasses language adaptation issues, such as language pairs, translation, and review, technical dimension includes physical aspects of the project, such as file formats, required software, digital resources and various additional services that need to be performed before, during and after the project, all with the aim of ensuring the quality and usability of the final localized materials. Both dimensions are of equal importance and we may say that the difference between translation and localization happens at the junction point of these two dimensions.

According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, pivot is “a fixed point supporting something which turns or balances, or a person or thing on which something else depends”. If we imagine for a moment the localization process as a mechanism, the source material will have the function of the pivot, because in every possible scenario, from AI-powered machine translation with post-editing to the good old translation and proofreading, the quality of the source material is the factor that will always dictate both the process efficiency and the ultimate quality of the localized materials, regardless of all the technical magic and linguistic knowledge involved.

When launching a product or service to a specific local market, it is vital to ’’speak their language’’ and making your product or service accessible in various dialects is merely the absolute minimum.

The localization landscape is extremely fragmented, and you probably noticed that it may be a bit confusing to define what types of services you really need, as well as how to deal with the non- familiar industry terminology.

On 26 May 2021, EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR) replaced the EU’s current Medical Device Directives and while the medical devices manufacturers have largely ensured compliance with the new regulation, this change will have an impact on development of documentation related to the medical devices, translation and regulatory cycles in the EU.

In the previous article How to Localize: The 3 Pillars of Localization Process, I shared my views on how the localization process should be set up to deliver the desired results and how the understanding of localization has been somewhat changed by the current pandemic. This time, I am talking about the things that have not been changed and that are not very likely to change – the benefits of localization.

One of the perks of having been in the industry for decades is the ability to calibrate your laser line and get to the core of things easily.

Surely, the language industry is extremely fragmented and each project is a separate universe with specific aspects and requirements, but when you reach that point where you have successfully executed all kinds of projects, more or less complex, with millions of words and in dozens of language combinations, you inevitably begin to see it more clearly what is really important and the undercurrents that lead to success or failure across the different projects begin to show on the surface.

Machine translation. Artificial intelligence. Neural language processing. Predictive modelling. These fancy terms have been flashing everywhere over the past several years to the point when it seems that all your localization problems can be solved with a double click. As of 2021, they can’t. In this article, we will try and explain the exact role of technology in the translation/localization process in the simplest possible terms and help you understand what it really can and cannot do for you.

Cars. They are complex, sophisticated and ubiquitous. Their build quality and safety features are extremely important in our everyday lives. Yet, much of what we need to know when purchasing a car is contained in its brand – luxurious, family, sport cars, SUVs (and more) are all safely tucked in the brand names whose reputation has been carefully developed for decades. And it is probably true that for most of these decades, the localization requirements of the automotive industry were mostly limited to marketing materials and user manuals. But all things change.

Localization is more than a translation. You have heard it many times, we have said many times. But what more really means goes beyond the additional phases that make localization process more complex than your good old translation – localization is more than translation because its effects must be equal (at worst comparable) to the effects of any material generated in the target language/culture/market.

The slightly ominous phrase digital disruption has been a buzzword over the past several years. In this article we will try to explain what does it actually mean, what is the role of translation solutions in the process and how does it affect the language industry. What is disrupted? Digital disruption is another name for […]

Another exciting and hectic year is behind us – we were ranked among the 20 top LSPs in Southern Europe (again), we were present at several conferences, we were awarded our fifth Certificate Employer Partner, and we also produced some content in an effort to share our knowledge and experience with you – and these are the five posts that you liked the most in 2018.

In Part One and Part Two we covered the fundamental values and definitions of localization.

This time we are taking a closer look at how mature organizations approach localization efforts – and of course, by “mature” we mean neither “old” nor “large” – but simply strategically oriented companies with established processes, developed strategies and clearly set goals.

The contemporary business climate encourages you to enrich your portfolio with a few extra services. But the question is what should these added services be? I guess it’s true for any business, but when we are talking about the language solutions and processes, listening closely to your customer’s need might show you the right direction and be mutually beneficial. Being able to offer the solutions that actually help your client grow and that were not available just a few months before is the recipe for success on both sides.

We covered some of the basic concepts of localization in our previous article. This time, we are taking a look at the real stuff – the monetary and non-monetary benefits of localization.

People won’t buy a product/service they don’t understand. This is the core reason for every localization effort and everything that it may include, from market research, development of custom technological solutions, translation to linguistic fine-tuning. But is product/service localization really sufficient for the global success?

In case you have heard about localization, your coworkers are telling you about its stellar benefits and its differences from the good old translation, but you are still struggling to grasp the full story, this mini series of articles is for you.

Time is money and that is why the methods of translation and localization are continuously made more efficient. Agile localization workflows have been developed to follow the fast pace of software development and to provide the final deliveries in short time.

Here’s the basic scenario: you have the translated versions of your documents, but the translation wasn’t performed in a CAT tool and you have to build a translation memory because these documents need to be updated or changed across the languages, you want to retain the existing elements, style and terminology, and you have integrated CAT technology in your processes in the meantime. The solution is a neat piece of language engineering called translation alignment.

Web designer Emanuel Blagonić (Blagonic Brothers) was kind enough to share his experiences and views on WordPress web development and website localization solutions.

When I first started writing this article, I had to decide how I’m going to style the head noun of the title. Is it e-Learning with a hyphen or without it and what’s the difference anyway? So, I did a little research and found out that the former was used in the earlier days when the concept was still new and unfamiliar to many. But as it was rising and slowly becoming a regular part of our lives, we dropped the hyphen so we could save ourselves from pressing one more key of the keyboard. That’s how I got to learn something new, even if it’s as banal as learning how to style a word.

Since a project manager is a member of the production team, the role of the PM is often too easily associated exclusively with the production part of the service, or “what we deliver”. However, a project manager is equally important in the “how we deliver” part of the operation, in building a positive experience for the customer who works with us.

Did you know that producing good and relevant content not only attracts traffic to your site, but also helps you spread brand awareness? So, my question to you is what’s your strategy for keeping customers close? How do you approach new clients?

Ciklopea representatives attended yesterday’s AmCham event “The need for Digital Marketing Transformation – embrace it or get left behind” with the keynote speaker Ms. Katie Axam, Chief Marketing Officer, IBM Central and Eastern Europe. In her speech, Ms. Axam reflected on the changing role of the CMO and the need for organizations to adapt in […]

The global markets require content that anyone can understand, which is why website localization is necessary. It is not only cost-effective, but it can also be a time-saver, since processes are optimized and automatized. It can also be a way to connect with your customers and build strong relationships with them.

I can’t emphasize enough how much it bothers me to start an article with cliché phrases such as “more and more people are using the Internet nowadays“ or “technology is rapidly improving“, but these sentences are very important for what follows.

Following our introduction into the entire e-commerce website L10n affair, we now take a look at further technical, cultural and marketing aspects that need to be considered if you want to make a strong foreign market entry and achieve positive global presence.

How does the process of multilingual L10n run in a global SaaS company? What are the benefits and challenges of this process? Our CBDO Zana Čizmin recently talked with Pierre-Marie Gestas, Localization Manager at Prezi who shared these and other information with us.

E-Commerce is not an unfamiliar term anymore, and the rise of the Internet has made us change the way we think and act about shopping. We’ve got used to having everything at the tips of our fingers and it seems like online shopping is all we’ve ever dreamed about. It’s popular, cheap, affordable and accessible – could we ask for more?

Expanding your business to global markets implies that you already own a website that represents what you do in the best possible way. However, it will hardly get you any traffic if most of the online population can’t understand it. Having in mind that well prepared and optimized website is your first contact with your prospective clients, I’m guessing you’d want to make website localization your priority.

Living in the new digital era might be overwhelming for some people or the business owners, but we can’t deny the fact that many activities are now happening in the virtual world, along with tourism and booking your next destination. Croatia is apparently trying not to drown in its own sea and the new market trends. So far so good, I would say, considering the statistics for 2017 which shows an increase of 13% in arrivals of foreign tourists, in comparison to the previous year.

Travel and hospitality industry requires frequent updates of content, changes of target audiences and the advertisement media and therefore represents one of the most active areas of the language industry. The particular challenges of the industry can be overcome easily if the clients and providers of language services work together and, of course, if they both have a clear understanding of the nature of the industry and the benefits of language solutions to its growth.

In the beginning was the Word, said John, and little did he know it will stay the default part of the Office 365 package. But long before computers and Microsoft Word, even long before writing there was the good old spoken word. Which, in my opinion, remains the best way of human interaction and therefore […]

Usually when I’m lurking around the World Wide Web – which is 24/7 – I get involved with content originally written in English. Which is why I make search queries in English, even though it’s not my mother tongue. It’s not so much due to a lack of content in my first language, but rather […]

Over the past 12 months, we launched the new website, we were ranked among top 20 Southern Europe’s largest LSPs, we received the fourth Employer Partner Certificate, we traveled the world and we also produced some content. 2017 is a wrap and here are the top 5 posts most liked, read and/or shared by our readers.

Pharmaceutical and medical industries are the two biggest players in the life sciences sector who frequently launch and sell their products on the global markets. Of course, to do so, they need to approach each of these markets with the utmost care. We are all their customers and we all have different healthcare needs and desires.

We met up with Renato Beninatto, the renowned language industry veteran and thought leader and CEO of Nimdzi Insights, earlier this month at LocWorld35 – Silicon Valley conference in Santa Clara. His latest book The General Theory of the Translation Company written with Tucker Johnson has just hit the stores and this was a perfect occasion for our Chief Business Development Officer Zana Čizmin to discuss both the book and the present and the future of the translation industry with Renato.

Just the other day I read an article on how we should be more open to the natural fluidity of language and its capacity for change, allowing the usage to define the rules and not vice versa. Therefore, it doesn’t surprise me that new complex words and neologisms are popping up at every corner. And like language, neither other products and services should be immune to change. I’m sure you’ve already heard of globalization and most definitely of localization, but the word glocalization opens up a whole new dimension.

When my colleague first introduced me to the term culturalization, I thought it was yet another synonym for localization. I wanted to believe I wasn’t completely wrong, but the facts showed me I wasn’t right either. My spell checker, too, thinks I’m definitely wrong as I’m typing this. So, to educate myself, I did a little research on the enigmatic term and what I found really stuck with me.

Many software developers are confronted with certain challenges in the software localization department that they might have trouble overcoming. Instead of trying to find an adequate solution to their problem, they just leave it as it is and hope for the best, which often results in a product that is full of bugs and glitches. It should not be forgotten that the process of localization is a complex one and requires a great deal of planning, patience and coordination, so we’ve made a list of things that should help you with L10n of your product.

If you are still having trouble figuring out what is localization (L10n), or even worse globalization (g11n), you came to the right place. Many people seem to think these are just fancy words for translation, but it’s not really the case. Even though these terms are interconnected, they have their own specific definitions, applications and scopes of meaning.

Getting your brand noticed on the foreign markets is a tricky job, especially if you don’t speak the target language and need more cultural intelligence about the target market – and that’s where LSPs come in.

Localization of a website to one or more markets is always a serious task that takes time, resources, smart project management and a good deal of patience to be performed the right way. Thankfully, there are technologies designed to optimize the L10n process and integrate it into website development, regardless of the scope of content or the number of locales.

Verifika QA is a dedicated quality assurance solution with an option for development of custom profiles to meet the requirements of various projects in different language pairs. Its ratio of flexibility and reliability is the reason we have been using Verifika QA for years. Verifika has also been a Ciklopea Summer School Technological Partner every year since the school’s inception in 2015.

All businesses should know by now that a quality SEO strategy is essential for success. As people are now googling more and more, international audiences are the next step to growing your business. But how do you know when to expand into international waters?

Copywriters use a variety of stylistic devices to create catchy and effective marketing messages. Most of the time, though, these devices only work in the source language and can easily get lost in translation. This is where transcreation or creative translation comes into play.

Translations are one of those things that you only really notice once they’ve gone wrong. The internet is full of jokes about bad translations, which although may be funny, are actually a very serious issue for all stakeholders. Quality Assurance (also known as QA) is one of the steps taken within the language industry to prevent translation errors.

Companies in the life sciences industry invest huge amounts into keeping their businesses growing, especially when moving into a new market. Behind the scenes lots of work goes into keeping these companies afloat, and it couldn’t be done without localization.

Localization is a multilevel process that can be assessed, defined and redefined from various perspectives, but when it comes to global business, there’s only one definition – the localization of a product/service is a powerful vehicle designed to take your company directly to the international clients and customers.

The complex and diverse landscape of the South Slavic linguistic area may often seem bewildering from the outside. How many languages are spoken in the Balkans? Is it Serbo-Croatian? Do I have to localize my product to Bosnian or to Croatian? – These are some of the questions every LSP is likely to hear from new clients entering into the markets of Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro or Serbia, while the scientific and technical acronyms and names for these languages such as BCS, BCSM, Serbo-Croatian or Central South Slavic diasystem are of little help in clarifying this confusion.

In fact, it doesn’t really matter – as long as you use the writing system of choice consistently.

Regardless if it is an interactive presentation of a brick and mortar company or if it is the interface of an online service, website is the main channel of communication of contemporary world. Thus, the fastest, safest and the most efficient way to reach the global customers and expand your business globally is through website localization.

Financial companies often require language services, but due to the highly sensitive nature of the translation and localization of financial materials can be demanding and finding an adequate LSP can present a challenge.

Considering the dynamics of industrial translation, one of the most essential things is free and clear flow of information within the teams, the uncluttered communication and a positive human connection between the people who actually perform the linguistic services.

Whatever the price of professional translation may be, the price of a bad, inadequate or missing translation is always higher

If the content is originally written for localization (i.e. globalized), the localization process can be streamlined to take significantly less energy, time and resources.

Every startup has essentially one advantage when compared to big companies – a clean slate and the possibility to create a unique corporate identity and write a whole new success story, without being burdened by the failures or successes of the past. Beginnings are always exciting and promising, but for these very reasons they are also risky and that is why the examples of big companies should not be ignored. This article features some of the translation and localization lessons every startup can learn from the big companies.

This article features some of the tips that may help you choose the right course for your business expansion.

The world is big and replete with possibilities. The Internet is constantly growing more multilingual by the hour and reflecting these possibilities. Yet, picking the right one for your business may be tricky.

The old adage says that the most personal is the most universal, and it is this seemingly paradoxical idea perfectly describes the relation between localization and globalization

Once you have set up your business and your website is online, there are several points of consideration that will lead you through the localization process easily and successfully.

The tasks of project managers in charge of localization projects include a wide range of activities, all of which have one ultimate goal – the timely, cost-effective, and high quality execution of a localization project.

Translated and localized website is speaking to people on the local market. A multilingual SEO strategy is required to make it speak to the search engines on the local market as well.

When we talk about the life sciences in the context of language industry, it is, for the most part, about the translation and localization of medical and pharmaceutical content.

It is necessary, but it is just not enough to translate the textual and to adapt the nontextual elements of the website. Quality, style, tone and accuracy of the localized information are essential.

People prefer to use products and services in their native language wherever they are,

In addition to revolutionizing the learning process and providing a multilevel benefit to society, e-learning is also a vital and expanding market expected to hit the US$107 billion mark during 2015.

Online store localization is one of the language industry fields where the differences between translation and localization truly come to the fore.

Toponyms are the names of different geographical elements. They refer to real places and have a specific historical-political context, and therefore it is important to translate them in the right way.

Making a website global means having it localized into one or more foreign languages and territories. In this article, we look at the things that one needs to know before having a website localized.