Bureau Works vs Smartcat

Bureau Works and Smartcat are translation and localization management platforms. They establish a cloud working environment for translation professionals and LSPs and connect them with specialists who need localization: developers, marketers, and localization engineers. 

Smartcat’s major feature is its payment processing and supplier marketplace combo. The easiest way to imagine Smartcat is “Upwork for Translation.” Finding suppliers and paying them easily is extremely useful for teams that rely on freelancers for short-term work. 

Bureau Works is an amazing platform for enterprise language teams and developers that need localization. The key advantages are integrations and the ability to manage language data wholly new. This ability is crucial for long-term programs with regular content.

Let’s look at the differences in more detail.

Overview of Both Companies

Bureau Works

Bureau Works was founded in 2018 by a California-based localization company to revolutionize communications in the language industry. The company recognized the need to address the challenges associated with complex projects and automate repetitive translation tasks, leading to the development of its innovative platform.

At the core of Bureau Works' approach is streamlining and automating the localization process. By leveraging cutting-edge technology and automation, they enable efficient project management and improve translation quality. Their platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools and features that simplify the localization workflow, allowing businesses to scale their global content seamlessly.

One of the notable additions to Bureau Works' platform is its marketplace for localization professionals. This marketplace brings together a diverse community of expert translators, interpreters, and language specialists, allowing clients to connect with the most suitable professionals for their projects. This on-demand approach ensures a flexible and agile workflow, enabling faster turnaround times for requests and greater flexibility in meeting clients' localization needs.

Bureau Works has quickly gained recognition in the language industry for its commitment to innovation, high-quality translations and documentation, and exceptional customer service. Their platform has empowered numerous businesses across various sectors to communicate effectively and engage with global audiences. With a user-friendly interface, robust technology, many tools, and a dedicated team, Bureau Works continues redefining the standards of localization and setting new benchmarks for the industry.

Smartcat

Smartcat originated in 2012 as a free computer-assisted translation (CAT) tool developed by ABBYY, a prominent software house. Initially, the free CAT tool provided translators with advanced features to enhance their productivity and efficiency. However, in 2016, Smartcat transitioned into an independent company after securing investment from a third party.

Expanding beyond its original CAT tool offering, Smartcat broadened its scope to provide a comprehensive ecosystem for language professionals and businesses. The company introduced project management functionality, allowing users to seamlessly oversee, track, and coordinate translation projects within the platform. Furthermore, Smartcat developed an API and connectors, enabling integrations with various systems and facilitating smooth data exchange.

Smartcat introduced a payment processing and invoice invoicing system to streamline financial operations, providing a convenient and secure way for clients and language professionals to move money and handle financial transactions within the platform.

A significant milestone in Smartcat's evolution was the establishment of what created a thriving translator marketplace. This marketplace rapidly expanded, amassing over 300,000 language professionals, including translators, interpreters, and other linguistic experts. This vast network empowered clients to easily connect with qualified language professionals based on their specific requirements, fostering collaboration and efficiency in the translation process.

Through continuous innovation and the provision of a robust and user-friendly platform, Smartcat has solidified its position as a leading player in the language industry. Their comprehensive suite of tools and marketplace have significantly simplified translation workflows and enabled efficient communication and collaboration between language professionals and clients worldwide.

The all-in-one functionality benefits translators and project managers, e.g., Connected translation saves time. However, it can be overwhelming for first-time dashboard users. For example, even as a project manager, one must have a translator profile; the purpose of this is quite obscure. Also, While Smartcat for freelancers is free, additional features like machine translation and OCR require payment.

Key differences between Smartcat and Bureau Works

Choosing the right business translation platform is crucial for businesses seeking consistent, high-quality translations. Here, we will explore the key differences between Bureau Works and Smartcat, two prominent business translation platforms. By comparing their features, functionality, and approach to translation management, we aim to provide insights that can help businesses make informed decisions.

Project Management Capabilities

Both Bureau Works and Smartcat offer robust project management features. However, Bureau Works distinguishes itself with its dedicated project manager job role. The project manager acts as a single point of contact, overseeing all aspects of a translation project. This personalized approach ensures clear communication, streamlines project timelines, and enables efficient issue resolution. In contrast, while Smartcat offers project management tools and job well, it relies more on a collaborative approach among team members.

Consistent Translations

Ensuring consistency across translations is paramount for businesses. Bureau Works addresses this by utilizing translation memory technology. Translation memory (TM) allows the storage and reuse of previously translated segments, ensuring consistency in terminology and style. Bureau Works emphasizes the importance of building and maintaining high-quality translation memories. By leveraging these repositories effectively, Bureau Works minimizes translation errors and discrepancies, delivering a consistent brand voice.

Translation Memory Features

While both platforms incorporate translation memory functionality, they differ in terms of their capabilities. Bureau Works strongly emphasizes translation memory management, offering advanced features such as cat tools, version control, and collaborative TM updates. These features enhance the accuracy and quality of translations, enabling multiple translators to work on the same project concurrently. On the other hand, Smartcat's translation memory features are more straightforward, primarily focusing on basic segment matching and reuse.

Integration and Automation

Automation plays a pivotal role in streamlining translation workflows and reducing manual effort. Bureau Works offers advanced automation capabilities, allowing businesses to integrate their content management systems (CMS), enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and other tools directly with the platform. This integration automates the transfer of content for translation, eliminating the need for manual file handling and reducing the risk of errors. Smartcat also offers automation features but with a slightly more limited scope.

Translation Quality Assurance

Ensuring the highest level of translation quality is crucial for businesses operating in international markets. Bureau Works incorporates robust quality assurance measures, including a comprehensive review process by experienced linguists and subject matter experts. This meticulous approach ensures accuracy, fluency, and adherence to client-specific guidelines. While Smartcat also provides quality assurance monitoring features, it may require more manual intervention than Bureau Works.

Scalability and Global Coverage

Both Bureau Works and Smartcat offer scalable solutions, but their approach to global coverage differs. For example, Bureau Works boasts a vast network of linguists across the globe, allowing businesses to access a diverse pool of knowledge of language experts for various translation needs. On the other hand, Smartcat emphasizes its collaborative community, encouraging freelance translators to join its platform and offer their services.

Customization and Flexibility

Bureau Works offers a high degree of customization and flexibility in its translation processes. Businesses can define their specific translation workflows, incorporate client-specific style guides and glossaries, and tailor the platform to meet their unique requirements. This level of customization ensures that translations align perfectly with the brand's voice and tone. In contrast, while Smartcat provides some customization options, it may have more standardized workflows and fewer customization features.

Collaboration and Team Management

Collaboration among translators and effective team management is essential for seamless translation projects. Bureau Works offers robust collaboration features, allowing project managers to assign tasks, monitor progress, and facilitate communication within the translation team. It promotes collaboration through centralized communication channels and shared translation memories, enabling translators to work together efficiently. Smartcat also provides collaboration tools but may have a more decentralized approach, relying on individual translators to manage their tasks and communication.

Pricing Structure and Transparency

Pricing is a crucial consideration when choosing a translation platform. Bureau Works offers a transparent pricing structure tailored to each project's requirements. Clients receive detailed cost breakdowns based on word count, language pairs, complexity, and additional services. This transparency enables businesses to make informed decisions and budget effectively. Smartcat also provides pricing transparency, but its pricing model may be more standardized, with fewer options for customization.

Additional Services and Support

Beyond core translation functionalities, Bureau Works and Smartcat offer additional services and support. Bureau Works provides comprehensive linguistic services, including transcreation, localization, and consulting. Its team of experts assists businesses in adapting their content to target markets effectively. Smartcat, on the other hand, focuses more on the technology aspect and offers additional services such as API integrations, machine translation training, and developer support.

Marketplace for Freelancers

Bureau Works includes a procurement platform with translators available on-demand and matched automatically. The management system provides a budget control dashboard as part of its cloud platform, which can serve as an online financial helper for an SME user. It also offers a single invoice to pay to all freelancers. Smartcat has built a much more developed functionality for searching specific freelancers, negotiating with them, adding them quickly to the project, and paying them in their preferred way. Around the world, freelancers have different preferences in payment systems.

Language Support and Expertise

Bureau Works offers extensive language support, covering various languages and language pairs. It has a network of professional linguists with expertise in various industries and subject matters. This enables businesses to find specialized translators who understand the nuances of their specific domain. Smartcat provides language support but may have a narrower focus or less specialized expertise in certain languages or industries.

Reporting and Analytics

Efficient reporting and analytics are essential for tracking translation projects' progress and performance. Bureau Works offers robust reporting and analytics features, providing clients with comprehensive insights into translation metrics, such as word counts, project timelines, and translator productivity. These reports help businesses monitor their translation activities, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions. While Smartcat offers reporting capabilities, the depth and breadth of its analytics may be more limited compared to Bureau Works.

Compliance and Security

Compliance and security are critical considerations for businesses dealing with sensitive or confidential information. Bureau Works prioritizes data security and compliance, implementing robust measures to protect client data and maintain confidentiality. It ensures compliance with industry standards, regulations, and data protection requirements. Smartcat also emphasizes security but may have different compliance and data protection approaches, so businesses must evaluate their specific security needs when choosing a platform.

Integrations 

Both Bureau Works and Smartcat aim for a continuous and integrated flow of content to localization. Bureau Works has continuous localization covered out of the box, while with Smartcat clients typically add a third-party open-source middleware from Evernote called Serge. The pool of connectors and plugins to CMS is significantly larger in Bureau Works. 

• Bureau Works provides integrations to AEM, Drupal, WordPress, Kentico CMS, and Zendesk. By default, Smartcat is compatible with Drupal, Magento, and WordPress only.
• Bureau Works supports marketing automation via HubSpot and Marketo, which are currently absent from Smartcat.
• In Bureau Works, there is more context for the translators to work with: it allows for web & screenshot extraction. 

For app and site developers, Bureau Works offers integrations to GitHub repositories.

• Both services have access to exchange with major content repositories (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive). However, Smartcat does that via third-party (Zapier) or intermediate (HotFolder) solutions, while Bureau Works has developed direct integrations.
• Both options integration options are expandable via the use of API\CLI.

Bureau Works and Smartcat are two translation platforms that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) technology to enhance language translation. While both platforms utilize AI, they differ in their approach. Bureau Works emphasizes human involvement, using AI to support translators, whereas Smartcat relies heavily on AI algorithms for automated translations. The contrasting strategies cater to different translation needs.

AI Capacities, Features and Tools

Smartcat

GPT-4: Smartcat utilizes the AI GPT-4 for translation. This artificial intelligence can ensure accurate and contextual results for any content type. It’s configurable to tailor the translation experience to your needs and improve productivity.

Translation Memory: Thanks to Smartcat translation memories, translators do not have to translate the same phrase twice. Translation memories are databases where the source text and its translation are stored. 

Machine Translation: Smartcat integrates well-known machine translation engines, including free Yandex MT, but charges for Google Statistical MT, Google Neural MT, Microsoft Translator, DeepL, Amazon Translate, and Baidu Translate.

Bureau Works

Collaboration Tools: Bureau Works enables team members to collaborate in real-time, allowing for seamless communication and coordination during translation.

Localization Automation: Bureau Works assists users in automating repetitive localization tasks, improving efficiency and reducing the need for manual effort in the translation workflow.

Machine Translation: Bureau Works incorporates machine translation technology to translate content, automatically saving time and increasing productivity.

Quality Control: Bureau Works prioritizes quality and implements measures to ensure the translated content's accuracy, consistency, and overall quality. Using the quality module of the platform you can choose either of the option to review or report.

Terminology Management: Bureau Works provides a centralized repository for approved terminology, ensuring translation consistency and accuracy.

Translator Database: With Bureau Works, you can maintain a database of qualified translators, making it easy to search and select translators based on specific project requirements.

Workflow Management: Bureau Works allows you to streamline and automate the translation workflow, ensuring smooth coordination and efficient execution of tasks.

Conclusion

Bureau Works and Smartcat are two prominent translation and localization management platforms that cater to the needs of businesses and language professionals. While both platforms offer robust features and tools for creating efficient translation workflows, they have key differences that may influence the choice of businesses.

Bureau Works excels in its comprehensive approach to project management, emphasizing personalized communication through dedicated project managers. The platform's focus on translation memory technology ensures consistent translations by leveraging previously translated segments. Bureau Works also stands out in terms of integration and automation capabilities, allowing seamless integration with various systems and automation of content transfer; being a one-in-all platform it is much more suitable for enterprise use. Smartcat distinguishes by integrating payment processing with a supplier marketplace, catering to businesses seeking short-term freelance services. This unique combination makes it an excellent choice for companies relying heavily on freelancers for operational needs.

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