By offering their user experience in multiple languages, software companies expand their market reach and make their products more accessible to diverse audiences. To reach this global audience, translations need to be updated as fast as the code itself. Traditional translation methods cannot keep up with this speed, especially in the rapid cycles of agile software development. This leads to specific challenges that require a tailored approach: continuous localization.
Translation challenges for software companies
Software is constantly evolving, with new features and improvements being rolled out at a rapid pace through frequent development cycles or sprints. This is called Continuous Integration & Continuous Deployment (CI/CD). To keep up with these rapid updates, translators have to work just as fast. In a traditional way of translating, this poses several challenges:
Tight deadlines
Low translation volumes
No context
Translations must follow development quickly, often in dozens of languages and with little time. The traditional way of translating cannot handle this anymore:
Software updates often contain just a few text strings, which leads to low translation volumes. Managing these frequent, small translation requests is a serious administrative challenge for both the customer and the translator.
Translators do not always see their source text in the original environment of the user interface. This can lead to mistranslations, especially when a string can have multiple meanings depending on the context.
Partnership for continuous localization
To overcome these challenges, the translation process must be aligned with the development cycles and processes, this is what we call ‘Continuous Localization’.
To support this, Yamagata Europe recently partnered with Crowdin, a software company specialized in continuous localization. Designed for agile software development teams, Crowdin provides a fully integrated translation management system for end-to-end content streams.
As an official Crowdin partner, Yamagata Europe now has access to a powerful translation environment that enables a seamless collaboration between developers and translators. The platform also ensures faster software release cycles and consistent translation quality.
Crowdin also offers a great platform for the translation of e-commerce websites, marketing collateral, and even software-related content, such as manuals, knowledge base articles, or help centers.
The benefits of continuous localization with Crowdin
Continuous localization with Crowdin is highly automated and offers several benefits for developers and translators alike:
Real-time integration with development tools
Faster translation through real-time collaboration
In-context translations thanks to screenshot functionality
Crowdin automatically synchronizes with repositories, such as GitHub and Bitbucket. This ensures that new content is always available for translation without having to manually upload anything.
The different stakeholders – from developers to translators – work in a centralized environment, which prevents seemingly endless revision rounds and back-and-forth emailing.
Crowdin allows translators to consult the visual context of software keys through its screenshot functionality with automated string recognition, which is invaluable for translation accuracy.
Get started with continuous localization
Continuous localization is complex, but also essential for any software company that wants to grow internationally without slowing down its development process. With the combined expertise of Crowdin and Yamagata Europe, companies can handle this process efficiently. The combination of human translation by Yamagata experts and advanced technology is your guarantee for speed and quality.
Want to make your software localization more efficient?