By Aurora Wang
Aurora Wang is a MA Candidate in Translation and Localization Management (Class of 2023) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS).
The XTM Live event was my first ever in-person experience where I got to partake in meaningful conversations on the future of the localization industry. Although seasoned localization professionals focus on different subareas such as machine training, platform integrations, or SEO optimization, here there was a shared vision of better automated, customizable, and interconnected ecosystems for localization work.
One customer case study I found inspiring was scaling localization within a large fashion retail company. The localization team involved adopted a centralized model and transformed itself early on by adopting the TMS XTM Cloud. To increase the visibility of localization across the company, the team also worked with different stakeholders to develop a self-serve model that accommodates their various localization needs. In total, there are 250 templates the team has developed to serve different content types. Many templates are specialized with unique resources included for more demanding content types, such as marketing materials. Since most multimedia materials entail transcreation and desktop publishing efforts, the localization team provides design teams with several options of workflow templates. Considering the uniqueness of multiple sub-brands under the company name, workflows can be customized based on specific needs. Development of these templates gave the localization team leeway to focus more on identifying pain points for workflow optimization and less on manually taking on requests.
Additionally, the team is in the process of scaling an integrative ecosystem around its TMS. Connectors developed allow content to be automatically transmitted across different platforms, including the corporate website, eCommerce sites, and marketing assets hosted on the CMS. Seamless information transmission also helps maximize TM and terminology leverage for consistency. The latest addition to this ecosystem is the localization of customer support chatbots. Since customer support materials follow structured patterns and use concise and clear language, the team chose MT training to improve localization efficiency. Overall, timely adoption of technology and standardization of internal localization processes with room for customization lay the basis for increased scalability.
This echoed with TMS providers’ vision of transforming the localization supply chain. For all parties, including clients, suppliers, and freelancers, the goal is to automate business processes from start to finish, from source content preparation to invoicing. Apart from improving the availability of API connectors, TMS providers also aim for a flexible combination of APIs that overlap, such as vendor management, project management, and performance metrics. Ultimately, players in different industries will have autonomy over tool selection and personalization within the same ecosystem. XTM Cloud, for example, is setting up XTM Labs, a functionality granting customers early access to tools and features they were engaged in and soliciting feedback on such beta versions. It also creates a Wish List database for customers to submit desired features and vote up ones they prefer on the list. Active customer engagement contributes to a virtuous cycle of continuous improvement and innovation in this localization ecosystem.
Another interesting piece of this ecosystem that our MIIS curriculum has not touched on much is strategizing SEO. As Google’s search algorithms are evolving dramatically, critical challenges exist for localized content to reach the target audience. Common silo mentality categorizes SEO exclusively under the marketing domain, but successful SEO starts from deliberate product content creation and entails collaborative efforts of cross-functional departments as well as alignment of global and regional objectives. The guest speaker at the session proposed a mini-SEO strategy: localize one piece of content that really stands out and has relatively high SEO ranking. Content writers are valuable resources to tailor the content to local user persona, whereas selective promotion campaigns on industry-specific websites increase visibility and help drive traffic. The key is to have the right content properly optimized rather than all of the content rashly translated. This kind of “start small” mindset might sound counterintuitive at first, but the core message aligns with the essence of localization: appeal to the audience in the right way.
To sum up, the XTM Live event was truly an eye-opening experience for me as it shed light on major industry highlights and future localization trends on a more granular level. Many of the examples given reflect how theories we learn in class are practiced and adapted for different real-life scenarios, and I hope to attend more of them in the future!