Translation Project Management Automation Overrated?
In the November/December 2018 edition of trade industry publication MultiLingual, we read the following:
Those LSPs (language services providers) with higher levels of automation—particularly on basic jobs—can process jobs faster, cheaper and more profitably.
Although the writer making this statement doesn’t provide evidence to support this claim, intuitively it stands to reason it might be true.
Still improved processing speed, lower costs, and higher profits (in the short term) might not be the most important goals. What are the disadvantages of translation project automation?
- Loss of project control; the ability to apply human judgment to optimally match unique project requirements with specialized resources may be diminished.
- Inability to leverage personal rapport among project managers and translator resources. Technology might not be the most inspiring of team members.
- Incurring greater risks/unknowns, especially in the early adopter stage of acceptance and implementation.
So with greater automation LSPs might win the battle of project efficiency for some projects, but at what cost?
