When entering the global market, the first question you need to ask yourself is who is your buyer persona. When you start the research and analysis, the first thing that will very quickly occur to you is that, nowadays especially, any modern global customer uses the latest digital technologies. Because of this, companies transform their digital supply chains to cater to such customers and ready themselves to serve their growing numbers.
Traditional translation supply chain
What’s perhaps most surprising is the fact that the modernization of the translation supply chain seems to be left behind. We often wonder how it’s possible that while the translation industry seems to be undergoing constant change, the translation process is still traditionally managed through a cascaded chain.
It starts with a translation buyer, large global vendor (usually, a language service provider) and smaller regional translation agencies. It paradoxically finishes with people, who add the most value – the translators – at the very bottom.
Digitally ‘enhanced’ translation supply chain vs Reinvented digital translation supply chain
Can businesses truly reinvent their translation supply chain, and can it be done in a similar manner as is happening with other processes? The answer that we want to give is yes!
However, it can be done only via the means of technologies such as cloud computing, mobile communications, and big data. These technologies are setting the stage for the emergence of the digital translation supply chain, which has a potential to transform the whole translation industry.
Of course, many companies are already working on introducing digital elements, like machine translation, into their operations. However, simply adding these ‘elements’ is not the future-proof solution that we are looking for.
This approach overlooks the fundamental difference between pushing files through a traditional, cascaded supply chain and a truly integrated, re-invented supply chain where talent, data and finance lie at its very core, and whose DNA is fundamentally digital.
This new breed of translation supply chain is more direct, connected, scalable and rapid than a traditional supply chain. The main difference is that the new translation supply chain enables centralized data to travel across the extended enterprise.
Why do digital supply networks have a distinct advantage over traditional supply chains in the translation industry?
This change from a traditional supply chain to a digital supply network is always considered an upgrade when companies embed it into their operations. After all, digital technology initiates organizational change in critical touch points for translation. This is seen on many levels of the translation project management.
First of all, you can find better solutions to reduce translation cost and speed up turnaround time for small pieces of text. It also allows your business to have full control over data and better address the issues of confidentiality.
Finally, it changes the role and value of that data, making it more useful for global expansion and enabling better resource planning. Last but not least, it can help companies to mass-produce translation as effectively as they mass-customize their products or services.
Choose a better solution for your business
To sum it up, a reinvented digital translation supply chain is more connected, intelligent and scalable.
Therefore, a difference between a digitally ‘enhanced’ supply chain and a new digital supply network is almost tangible, since the reinvented digital translation network is an actual enabler for the rapid and direct reaching of new markets.
