What is Smartling?
Smartling is a cloud-based Translation Management System (TMS) designed to help organizations manage and translate content on a global scale, streamlining the localization process to reduce time, energy, and costs.
Key Features and Functionality
Automation and Integration
Smartling is renowned for its powerful automation and integration capabilities. It integrates seamlessly with a wide range of platforms, including content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, Drupal, and Sitecore, as well as marketing automation tools such as Hubspot, Marketo, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud. This integration enables users to automate the entire translation process, from uploading content to publishing translated material, without the need for manual intervention.
Content Management
Smartling offers robust content management features that allow users to organize, store, translate, and publish content efficiently. The platform is integrated with existing CMS systems, enabling centralized multilingual content management. It also includes features like the Global Delivery Network (Web Proxy), which allows brands to deliver translated content on-demand as it is requested by the end-user.
Translation Tools
- Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) Tool: Translators work within the Smartling CAT tool, which provides visual context, real-time translation memory, version control, and brand assets to ensure accurate and contextually relevant translations. This tool prevents the need for translators to download documents, keeping all work within the Smartling account.
- Machine Translation: Smartling utilizes machine translation with AI-powered tools, such as the LanguageAI™ platform, to produce high-quality translations. The system can auto-select the best performing translation engine for each translation and use GPT to enhance fluency and brand voice.
Quality Assurance
Smartling includes several quality assurance features:
- Quality Checks: Automated checks for translation quality issues, such as misspellings, which can prevent translations from being submitted to the next workflow step if they fail to pass.
- Issues Feature: A communication system between content owners and linguists to address required changes in the source content, context, or translations.
- Linguistic Quality Assurance: Tools to ensure high-quality translations, including real-time quality checks and the ability to create custom quality checks using regex.
Workflow and Collaboration
- Automated Workflows: Smartling allows for the automation of workflows, ensuring that translations are routed to the next step in the process efficiently.
- Real-Time Collaboration: The platform supports real-time collaboration among team members, facilitating smoother project management and faster turnaround times.
Reporting and Analytics
Smartling provides comprehensive reporting and analytics tools to analyze translation quality and effectiveness. This helps organizations monitor and improve their translation processes continuously.
Security and Compliance
Translations are processed in a private, safe, and secure environment, ensuring data security and compliance with various standards. This is particularly important for businesses handling sensitive information.
Additional Features
- Glossary Management: Management of glossaries to ensure consistency in terminology across translations.
- Translation Memory: Utilizes translation memory to leverage previously translated content, reducing the need for redundant translations.
- Customizable Workflows: Allows users to customize workflows according to their specific needs, enhancing flexibility and efficiency.
- User Permissions: Provides granular user permissions to control access and ensure that only authorized personnel can manage and translate content.
In summary, Smartling is a comprehensive TMS that combines robust content management, automated translation processes, powerful integrations, and advanced quality assurance tools to help organizations efficiently manage and translate their content on a global scale.