By OXO Innovation —
July 12, 2024

Why Terminology Management is Critical for International Organizations

By Alexandre Johnson-Chalifour, C.Tr., C.Term.

Terminology management is an aspect of language services that is often overlooked, but it’s key to an effective communication strategy for any international business. Without rigorous terminology, communication on technical matters becomes difficult, if not impossible.

This article will provide an overview of terminology management and its benefits. You’ll learn how it can contribute to the quality and consistency of your organization’s messaging, save you time and money, standardize your preferences while promoting your brand, and foster lasting relationships with your stakeholders.

What is terminology?
Clear and consistent messaging internationally
A service that saves you time and money
An approach that supports your business and your brand
A foundation for lasting relationships

What is terminology?

According to the Merriam-Webster, terminology is “the technical or special terms used in a business, art, science, or special subject.”

There are two approaches to terminology:

“Theoretical (or systematic) terminology,” where you seek to “collect all the terms for concepts used in a given discipline.”[i]
“Translation-oriented terminology,” where the focus is on standardizing terminology used in a specific field, for a given client and audience, using a prescriptive approach.[ii] You create a resource that will make it easier for readers to understand the content, as well as facilitate the work of intermediary language professionals.

In the context of translation, terminology management produces a termbase, a bilingual glossary specific to a field of activity or a client, created as the need arises during translation.

Clear and consistent messaging internationally through terminology management

Termbases are used to record your organization’s technical vocabulary and preferences for a specific language and market. For example, if you operate in Spain and Mexico, your content partner will be able to record the specific Spanish terms used in each of these markets in two separate termbases.

Term bases have the advantage of seamlessly integrating with different translation platforms, where terms are automatically detected and highlighted in the source text. The translator can then refer to the relevant terminology entry, indicating the origin of the term and its definition, to see if the suggested translation is appropriate for the current context. If the term is appropriate, it can be added to the target text in a single click. This simplicity encourages consistent use, resulting in more accurate and consistent translations across languages and markets.

That’s not all: termbases also make it easier to check the quality of translations. The QA tool in the translation platform notifies the reviser of any term in the target text that differs from the terms in the termbase.

Terminology management therefore provides protection at two levels, promoting quality and consistency not only during translation, but also during revision.

A service that saves you time and money

Effective terminology management helps language professionals respond quickly to your urgent requests so you can engage with your international customers in a timely manner.

It also saves your staff time as they don’t need to keep repeating the same instructions or answering the same questions: they only need to provide instructions or clarification once, and then this information is stored for all subsequent assignments.

Terminology management also helps prevent potentially costly errors or misunderstandings. Saving critical terms in a permanent database isn’t just a best practice; it’s insurance against mistakes.

With terminology management, your people can focus on the things that really matter to your business and its growth.

An approach that supports your business and your brand

Terminology management isn’t just about technical accuracy—it helps your brand engage customers across borders. In addition to gathering the best terms to describe your business, a term base can standardize your brand voice and identity. It’s a great place to create and store a record of your brand names, slogans, program names, position titles, etc. This ensures that your brand will be represented the way you want it to in all the languages and markets you target.

According to Kayley Brooks, a BDC business consultant, “Consistency is the No. 1 priority for branding. It breeds customer trust. When their experience is consistently positive and aligned with their expectations of how it should be, they’re more likely to return to you and share their experience with others.”

A foundation for lasting relationships

Terminology management helps create a true partnership between your business and its content partner. It allows translators and revisers to put themselves in the shoes of your organization using its vocabulary, and thus deliver a result that truly reflects your voice. Your term base is populated over the course of the projects and conversations you have with your content partner.

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It also helps build lasting relationships with your organization’s stakeholders, including customers. By taking care with your communications, you show customers that they matter to you. As Forbes points out, “Consistent communication isn’t just nice-to-have; it’s a must-have in customer service. […] It’s typically when things aren’t consistent that customers start taking notice.”[iii]

Contact us now for more information on terminology management and other language and content services offered by OXO Innovation.

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References

[i] Wright, S.E., and G. Budin. Handbook of Terminology Management. Volume 1: Basic Aspects of Terminology Management. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins, 1997.

[ii] Thelen, Marcel. “The Interaction between Terminology and Translation. Or Where Terminology and Translation Meet.”, Trans-kom, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 347-381, 2015. Available online.

[iii] Shores, Mary. Forbes. “Consistent Communication: A Must-Have For Your Customer Service Team.” Article published January 4, 2021. Available online.