How Continuous Localization Tools Can Help Grow Your Business

When high-powered continuous localization tools exist, it only makes sense to free up your developers to work on more crucial tasks. Leading platforms make automated end-to-end localization possible while improving content quality across your markets. By investing in the right localization tools, you set your company up for success in scalability and efficiency.

How Continuous Localization Tools Help Your Developers

Developers can appreciate the value of experience. They’ve learned from mistakes and challenges over the years. They know how to do things right the first time because they’ve already muddled through the miscalculated way. But that doesn’t mean that lessons learned in your own particular industry necessarily translate (pun intended) into the realm of localization technology.The best continuous localization tools are infused with decades of knowledge and sweat. And here’s why developers value comprehensive platforms over their own from-scratch systems:

Fewer Catastrophic Surprises

Even agile teams struggle with localization issues and broken code. But with continuous localization, it’s possible to catch and resolve bugs much more quickly. Continuous localization tools can actually keep up with your agile development process, so you won’t be interrupted.

Reduced Time Pressure

You don’t have time to do extra work, let alone put on hold launch dates. Continuous localization relieves a lot of the time pressure that’s traditionally associated with translation and QA activities. And a robust system allows you to keep up with your time-sensitive priorities while localization efforts take care of themselves. When your team completes product updates, your comprehensive management platform is ready to automatically enter those strings into the localization workflow. After human translation is complete, continuous localization engines ensure that the translated strings get reintegrated into the client’s software with a high degree of automation.

Balanced Human Resources

Developers love to create their own solutions to technological problems. It’s what they’re good at. But just because your engineers can create and maintain basic localization software doesn’t mean they should. Their time is better spent developing revenue-generating products. Continuous localization tools free up your workforce to perform the tasks they were hired to do. As your enterprise scales, the savings continue to add up.

Choosing from Among the Available Localization Tools

A word of caution: many localization tools aren’t actually continuous in the true sense of the word. Within the scope of services offered by some companies, your project managers still have to spend time manually versioning files and uploading/downloading. You’re still outsourcing a large part of your localization efforts, but with these language service providers, you’re taking on a big part of the administrative burden.

A better solution for enterprises is full-scale API integration. The best continuous localization tools pull strings directly from original source code as soon as your developers complete them. After translation, the localized content is automatically integrated again. This may sound risky to developers who are used to push integration. But when efficiency is your chief concern, API integration is a no-brainer. Look for tools that advertise being “100% API based” and those that offer custom CMS integrations.

The ability to optimize a localization platform for your purposes is more important than an impressive list of 50+ off-the-shelf software integrations—because the only integrations that really matter are the ones that work for your needs.Some localization companies offer centralized software platforms accompanied by high-quality back-end service.

One example: integrated quality human translation. Instead of hiring your own translators or working with an LSP that gives you no window into the integrity of your translations, you can invest in a platform that offers top-notch human translation and accountability. The best localization services back that up with an innovative machine translation component to bridge the temporary gap between your updates and the translators’ direct attention to localized content. Ideally, in-market reviewers weigh in on terminology guidelines and to approve translations. And your continuous localization tool completes the loop.

Choosing the right tools takes that same kind of experience and sharp localization perspective we were pointing to before. A localization specialist can help guide your enterprise through use-case thinking.

They can help you come up with an implementation of an existing tool that meets your needs. To really think about successful continuous localization, you need to forget about what you think localization should be from within your own specialized SaaS context. There are so many elements to continuous localization that are probably not on your radar, and there is too much at stake to let things slip through the cracks.

The Best Continuous Localization Tool for Scalable Businesses

Today’s continuous localization tools can completely eliminate the overmanagement and inefficiency that plague in-house localization operations. Plenty of localization partners can get the job done. But if you’re looking for the best of the best, don’t settle for less than:

• A centralized localization platform that’s 100% online
• Automated and customizable API integration for your preferred CMS
• A robust CLI that puts localization API end-points at your fingertips
• Machine translation capability and human linguistic services
• Radical transparency with each and every translation
• Powerful data-driven QA systems

You already know where your developers’ time is best spent. Likewise, let localization specialists do what they do best. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when there is a high-powered tool that already meets your needs and can help you get your product to global markets faster and cheaper than you could with in-house localization.