Why Translation is Important in English-Speaking Business Environments
The need to communicate across languages and cultures is growing at a rapid pace. One main reason for this is the increasing internationalization of companies, even small companies have the potential to serve clients globally. This worldwide globalization leads to markets and industries growing together and eventually merging, increasing the need to communicate in different languages and breaking through language barriers.
While English remains the primary language of international business and the Internet, less than a third of the estimated 4.5 billion Internet users are English speakers.[1] While it is still the most popular language in the world, of the approximately 1.5 billion people who speak English, over 1 billion speak it as a secondary language. Almost without exception, people respond better to the language they grew up speaking. To effectively sell to people, it’s not enough to communicate in a language that they understand, especially if their understanding is limited. In fact, a study from Common Sense Advisory found that 75% of customers prefer to buy products in their native language.[2]
But, cross-context communication is hard and costly. Poor translation due to translation errors or differing interpretations can lead to a damaged reputation, loss of potential customers, and legal exposure to name a few. Furthermore, few companies employ translators and, as a result, assign translation agencies, which require additional money and time, and frequently lead to texts being translated more than once as no central repository exists. For these reasons, clear, accurate and effective translation is needed to ensure a high-level of communication between languages and industries, and is only increasing in priority in today’s globalized world.
According to the “Language Services Market: 2018” report by Common Sense Advisory, the global market for outsourced language services and technology reached $46.52 in 2018 and is expected to increase to $56.18 by 2021, illustrating the importance and size of this business.[3] Besides increasing globalization, growth is also being energized by new technologies. Organizations are more and more counting on artificial intelligence in the form of machine learning to reduce the costs of translation.
A translation solution for SAP customers
SAP customers worldwide have the opportunity to support their international business or the expansion of their activities with SAP Translation Hub. They can use this solution to translate user interface (UI) texts. In the process, they can access extensive databases of approved SAP translations in different languages, terminology, and machine translation. In addition, a company-owned translation memory can be created and added. These translation resources can be accessed by a number of interfaces, so-called APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), or through integrated workflow scenarios on a user interface. Developers can receive suggestions for their source texts during development, thereby improving the accuracy of the texts and saving time. Furthermore, the quality of the translation can be evaluated in order to increase the efficiency of the translation process. The integrated workflow scenarios enable users to translate texts from different development environments on a single user interface. Furthermore, the UI can be used for post-editing and additional language checks, as well as to transfer the translations into the final development environment.
Going forward, the number of new language opportunities is substantial and represents a new market for many businesses. According to Common Sense Advisory, enterprises will need to translate content into a steadily increasing number of “niche” languages in order to reach small but fast-growing economies. Where approximately 14 languages are enough to reach about 75% of global Internet users today, reaching the next 20% requires adding about 40 more.[4]
Altogether, this combination of today’s decreasing hegemony of English along with non-Western centric developments in global business means that there is an increasing demand for translation between many new languages, and this demand will last for years to come.
Already convinced? Check out the SAP Store for more detailed information on SAP Translation Hub.
[1] https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm
[2] https://csa-research.com/More/Media/Press-Releases/ArticleID/31/Survey-of-3-000-Online-Shoppers-Across-10-Countries-Finds-that-60-Rarely-or-Never-Buy-from-English-only-Websites
[3] https://insights.csa-research.com/reportaction/48585/Marketing
[4] https://csa-research.com/Insights/ArticleID/106/Plan-for-the-Future-Now-Must-Have-Languages-for-Global-Enterprises