For machine translation services to be satisfactory, communication is key.

Last January 30 and February 23 we had the chance to participate in two TAUS events.

The first was a round table in Vienna where we debated a variety of translation industry issues alongside other top professionals. At the round table, we were able to briefly share our experience and work methods for ensuring the quality of our machine translation and post-editing language services.

The second was a web seminar entitled “Quality is communication”. In the seminar, we went into detail about how we at SeproTec handle machine translation services, with and without post-editing, advising our customers on the best option for them based on their needs.

When we speak of machine translation services with or without post-editing what we are really talking about is different levels of quality. This is why it is essential to have good communication with our customers to ensure that they receive the product they need.

Quality is communication.

This is a statement that must always be at the forefront, especially with machine translation services, because, although these services have been around for quite some time now, only in the last few years has demand for them really taken off.

While machine translation is now commonplace in our day-to-day, it continues to be a great unknown and there are still some misgivings about it. This is why for us:

Quality is communication with the customer to establish their needs from the outset, so that we all know what the expectations are for the finished product and how to provide the advice that will ensure the customer gets the service they require. In our case, this means stand-alone machine translation, machine translation with fast post-editing, or machine translation with full post-editing.

Quality is internal communication: between teams (project managers, localizers and the machine translation team, among others), and with our partners, so that everyone knows exactly what product they must deliver, and what is expected of their work.

Thus, communication is and will continue to be essential. Whereas the machine translation engine is a work tool that we must develop and constantly improve, communication is the channel that makes it possible for all aspects of the collaboration between people, customers, managers and providers to be fruitful.

Machine Translation Department