The value of high-quality translations has been proven time and time again. Yet there’s a crucial issue with their execution, that, even in our age of almost almighty technology, has yet to be resolved.

The issue: context—or rather, the lack of context that’s being provided to translators.

There are enormous benefits to be gained by providing your linguistic team with style guides, glossaries, screenshots—as many reference materials as possible. But even with all these materials provided, the amount of context available is limited by the translation process itself.

Translators increasingly need to be well-versed not just in linguistics, but also in technology. Just as the worlds of typography, accounting, medicine, and a myriad of other industries were revolutionized in recent decades by computers and information technology, translators need to understand the evolving impact of technology on their own profession.

In the future, the greatest divide that may develop will be between technologically-fluent translators —who understand the technology revolutionizing their profession — and those who limit their interests exclusively to the field of linguistics.

I recently sat down with Michel Lopez, the CEO of e2f, to discuss an emerging trend in the language services industry: managed services.

Peter Corless (PC): e2f is now offering managed services. What are they, and why is it important to know about this trend?

Michel Lopez (ML): The traditional model of the language services industry is an outsourced, offsite vendor model, where the client sends trials to localization companies around the world, and the vendor sends files back. More and more, especially in the gaming and tech industry, clients are requesting translators and editors, testers, as well as project managers, work onsite at the client’s location. At first this was just individual contract employment, but now the entire department is being outsourced, yet still remaining on-site.

Dear Marketers,

When publishing a new blog post, website update, or important press release for your international users, there’s a key step you can’t afford to neglect: translation / transcreation / copy adaptation.

This step is far more involved than simply seeking a word-for-word translation from your translation services provider, and hoping your international users will benefit.

Marketing content requires attention that is distinct from your app or website’s continuous translation, which typically involves ongoing translations by a single linguistic team. These materials requires the expertise of a linguistic team that specializes in such creative translation, or transcreation as it’s called in the localization industry.

In 1602, the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC), literally translated as the United East India Company, but better known in English as the Dutch East India Company, was founded as the world’s first transnational, publicly-traded company. Granted a monopoly charter by the nascent rising Dutch Republic, the VOC logo became recognized internationally, bringing spices into Europe, while exporting all manner of manufactured goods to East Asia and the Pacific.

Since that time to the present, companies operating internationally have wrestled with how precisely to structure and strategize their global efforts. How much should be left to the corporate headquarters? How much should devolve to local control? How do you create a mutually-beneficial, productive relationship across all levels and regions of the organization?