As a multinational corporation, you have locations all around the world. In some places, your customers and employees may not share the same language, making accurate translation a priority. With the right translation company, you can ensure everyone’s on the same page, no matter where they call home or what language they speak.
As a global language agency, we’ve helped many multinationals expand globally with our translation services. And now, more than ever, our clients ask about machine translation.
Are you stuck on this question: what is machine translation? Don’t worry — the nuts and bolts of machine translation involve an automated program performing the translation rather than a human being.
For a more thorough definition, click on the link above. Otherwise, keep scrolling to learn about how machine translation can help multinationals.
Why Are Multinationals Relying on Machine Translation
There are many reasons why multinationals might enlist machine translation services. However, they often boil down to these two concerns.
1. Time Constraints
Time isn’t always on your side as a multinational. You may be working against the clock to file foreign language paperwork or distribute key documents to customers and staff alike.
Speed is one of the biggest advantages of using machine translation services. Like many other modern tools, these translation services can process information faster than the human brain.
2. Budget Constraints
Whether you have headquarters in every major city or just embarked on your very first expansion overseas, your budget tightly controls your progress. Machine translation services suit nearly any budget.
How Global Companies Use Machine Translation Services
The best machine translation is a responsive, adaptable program that can assist with a variety of tasks. Here are some examples below.
Product details and manuals
If you’re a manufacturer that sells your goods all over the world, you may have thousands of pages of user guides, instructions, or ingredient lists to translate. You’ll free up your employees for more worthwhile jobs by relegating this tedious translation task to the machines.
Localising ecommerce sites
International visitors want to browse your online shop in their own language. That’s according to the “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy” study conducted by CSA Research. After polling 8,709 consumers from 29 countries, CSA Research found 40% of respondents never buy from websites in other languages.
There’s a good chance you’ll see an uptick in sales after making this change.
Another study out of MIT and Washing University in St. Louis shows how machine translation crosses the language barrier between U.S. retailers and Latin American customers. American retailers increased sales by nearly 11% by using automated English to Spanish translation services.
Simply put, better and fast translation service results in greater sales.
Machine language translation can quickly localize your website, tweaking product titles, descriptions, and currencies. These changes make your brand and merchandise more accessible to international visitors who insist on shopping in their native language.
E-Discovery
Electronic discovery (or e-discovery, as it’s also known) is a time-intensive task that may involve scouring through thousands of electronically stored files. Language only complicates this process, as your team may not speak the languages used in spreadsheets, social media posts, or emails.
While we recommend using our human-led legal translation services for high-risk court documents and other important paperwork, automated translation tools are uniquely suited for e-discovery.
These tools can perform faster than any human researcher, so they can run through more files in less time. This means you’ll complete the e-discovery stage under a tight deadline, letting your team move onto the next steps faster.
Corporate Communications
With stores, factories, and offices located all around the world, multinationals have a global team of experts on the payroll. While some international employees might speak a common language like English, there’s a good chance each country operates in its national language.
Company-wide updates, e-learning translation modules, and onboarding have to be updated to reflect these language needs.
Here at LingArch, we can provide convenient machine translation services to convert corporate communications quickly. We also have talented translators on staff to proof emails and modules to ensure these items uphold your brand’s core philosophy and style.
Will Automated Software Replace Human-Led Translation Services?
There are many benefits to using automated translation tools, as detailed above. But for now, machine translation still has a lot to learn. These AI-led tools aren’t ready to take over the reins of every project.
Files with specialised language or high-risk medical texts need an experienced human translator. These individuals have a better grasp of grammatical nuance and industry jargon than the average automated translation tool.
Until machine translation tools are refined, a human-led translation company is still necessary to your multinational’s success in the following key areas.
High-Risk Legal Documents
Accuracy is a key feature of international litigation services and arbitration. That’s why we recommend our top legal translators to handle legal translations for global disputes. Their understanding of the law goes beyond most AI software, and they’re trained to make legal translations in specific dialects.
We assign a native speaker to each project, ensuring they can make accurate legal translations that meet your tribunal’s strict regulations — no matter where it’s held.
Critical Financial Documents Translation
Much like detailed legal work, important financial documents require human-led translation services. Our financial translators are more in tune with the regulations and language of the financial world.
This specialisation has never been more in demand now that LIBOR (the London Interbank Offered Rate) has come to an end. The world’s financial institutions have a big task ahead of them — their financial and legal teams will have to amend all documents that refer to this now defunct benchmark.
Multinational banks may hold trillion-pound contracts in foreign languages that require human-led legal translation services. These professionals have the financial and legal aptitude to handle these documents with care, ensuring all updates match the new protocols.
Medical Texts
Another prime example of when a human translator surpasses a machine is when you’re translating medical documents. Like legal and financial documents, medical texts have too much at stake.
One study outright denounces an automated translation software for translating discharge instructions because it resulted in too many confusing errors.
Even one mistake in medical instructions or records could have devastating effects on patient lives. That’s why we recommend our healthcare translation services for any medical documents.
The Bottom Line
Machine translation has a place in your multinational corporation if you need fast, reliable, and affordable translations. However, it won’t always be the perfect solution for your needs.
Our human translators fill in the gaps left by this software.
Get in touch to learn more about our universal translation services. After we find out about your project, we’ll let you know when it’s appropriate to rely on automated tools and when a medical, financial, or legal translator is better.