Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: End client Looking for feedback and information on investing in a CAT
Poster: Jorge Payan
Post title: Your already existing content management structure can give you some pointers
[quote]I wanted to post here to find out how having our own tool would help the linguists we hire. I work for an engineering organization, and due to the technical nature of the translations, all of our projects undergo an in-country review by Subject Matter experts. [/quote]
I think the first aspect to be considered is if you already have a Content Management System (CMS) in place. if so, which CAT tools to use will be basically dictated by the interfaces that CMS features for translation and technical writing. if the volume of the content and number of languages to translate to justify so, you should also consider a full fledged TMS (Translation Management System).
[quote] Therefore, another aspect of having this tool would be that the SMEs would also use it for their reviews. My boss uses a similar tool that SMEs use to review the online courses she develops, so we wonder if this is a direction in which we should go.[/quote]
It would be equally important to define how to interface the authoring tools (Arbortext, Articulate, MadCap, for mentioning the ones I have dealt with) your boss and the SMEs are using for developing and reviewing material , with the CMS you may have in place at the moment.
Specifically on your questions:
[quote]1. I envision that we will continue to use translation companies for our projects. Would you (as linguists) accept jobs from translation companies in which the end client has their own tool? Would that be considered a negative or a positive thing in your opinion? Also, please explain why you feel this way.[/quote]
My personal opinion, as an engineer and technical translator myself (I am not a linguist): The end customer has made a well-thought and considerable investment on tools, and expect to get a full return from whatever system it puts in place. For simple competitive reasons, I have to cope with whatever is requested from me in that sense: interfaces, procedures, work flows, deliverables, etc., and yes, I do accept jobs from end customers having their own tools.
[quote]2. Which tools/software are considered the best? What at are positive aspects of each?[/quote]
As stated above, it would depend on your current infrastructure and the extent of your foreseeable needs
[quote]3. How is tech support for the tools?[/quote]
I have found that most of the providers are fully responsive for the system they sell, but they want to have nothing to do with the interfaces, for example, for TMS to CMS.
[quote]4. Is there a compelling reason why my company should not invest in such a tool?[/quote]
Depending on the scale of your needs, you would need to have anything from a small server-based collaborative schema to a full CMS -TMS system. In my experience, the aspect which weights the most at the time of investing is the need of having IT specialized staff resources devoted to the Project Management and similar tasks.
Topic: End client Looking for feedback and information on investing in a CAT
Poster: Jorge Payan
Post title: Your already existing content management structure can give you some pointers
[quote]I wanted to post here to find out how having our own tool would help the linguists we hire. I work for an engineering organization, and due to the technical nature of the translations, all of our projects undergo an in-country review by Subject Matter experts. [/quote]
I think the first aspect to be considered is if you already have a Content Management System (CMS) in place. if so, which CAT tools to use will be basically dictated by the interfaces that CMS features for translation and technical writing. if the volume of the content and number of languages to translate to justify so, you should also consider a full fledged TMS (Translation Management System).
[quote] Therefore, another aspect of having this tool would be that the SMEs would also use it for their reviews. My boss uses a similar tool that SMEs use to review the online courses she develops, so we wonder if this is a direction in which we should go.[/quote]
It would be equally important to define how to interface the authoring tools (Arbortext, Articulate, MadCap, for mentioning the ones I have dealt with) your boss and the SMEs are using for developing and reviewing material , with the CMS you may have in place at the moment.
Specifically on your questions:
[quote]1. I envision that we will continue to use translation companies for our projects. Would you (as linguists) accept jobs from translation companies in which the end client has their own tool? Would that be considered a negative or a positive thing in your opinion? Also, please explain why you feel this way.[/quote]
My personal opinion, as an engineer and technical translator myself (I am not a linguist): The end customer has made a well-thought and considerable investment on tools, and expect to get a full return from whatever system it puts in place. For simple competitive reasons, I have to cope with whatever is requested from me in that sense: interfaces, procedures, work flows, deliverables, etc., and yes, I do accept jobs from end customers having their own tools.
[quote]2. Which tools/software are considered the best? What at are positive aspects of each?[/quote]
As stated above, it would depend on your current infrastructure and the extent of your foreseeable needs
[quote]3. How is tech support for the tools?[/quote]
I have found that most of the providers are fully responsive for the system they sell, but they want to have nothing to do with the interfaces, for example, for TMS to CMS.
[quote]4. Is there a compelling reason why my company should not invest in such a tool?[/quote]
Depending on the scale of your needs, you would need to have anything from a small server-based collaborative schema to a full CMS -TMS system. In my experience, the aspect which weights the most at the time of investing is the need of having IT specialized staff resources devoted to the Project Management and similar tasks.