Have you ever played Need for Speed? It was a pretty popular video game franchise in the 1990s and early 2000s. I remember playing it on my PC when I was in high school, and there were some pretty challenging missions—especially when overtaking rival racers.

I’d argue that software localization is no different. Just like racing cars need a pit stop to keep their engines running, software localization projects need to be able to maintain efficient workflows so that they can compete with the software industry’s top players.

Let’s take a closer look at 4 core features of Phrase, the leanest, fastest, and most reliable software localization platform on the market: We’ll see what each feature adds to the software localization experience, and why our customers love them so much.

Speeding up the translation process

One of the most common software localization obstacles that companies face is the sheer amount of time it takes to translate all of their content into multiple languages.

Phrase’s Autofill feature, through a combination of machine translation and translation memory capabilities, makes this process faster and simpler. Autofill works by pre-translating new keys, locales, or files in just a click, so all that is left for translators to do is review and fine-tune.

See below how our customers use the Autofill feature, and what they have to say about it.

komoot—a route planning app to experience adventure worldwide

komoot is an app designed for cyclers, mountain bikers, backpackers, and hikers that allows them to plan their routes, discover new ones, and navigate their chosen path.

With Phrase, komoot has localized their website into German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch. Now, outdoor enthusiasts from all these countries can turn their next experience into an unforgettable adventure. Phrase’’s Autofill feature has saved komoot’s software localization team a lot of time and increased their translation turnaround speed.

The Autofill feature plays an integral role in our localization process. It helps us add new translations a lot faster as it prefills large amounts of copy automatically. Since using Autofill, we have implemented 4 new languages. And for every new language added, we’ve saved around 6 weeks of translation time thanks to Autofill.

Craig Taylor, Copy Team Lead, komoot

Ventura TRAVEL—a global network of experts creating branded travel services

Ventura TRAVEL is a leader in creating, launching, and supporting highly specialized, individually branded travel services. The company works with passionate travel specialists by providing financial, IT, and marketing support, so they can focus on sourcing interesting experiences, destinations, and activities.

With Phrase and the Autofill feature, Ventura TRAVEL has been able to add 4 new languages rapidly—German, Spanish, English, and French—allowing them to enter new markets a lot faster.

The Autofill feature is a great time-saver, especially when launching new languages. We only review pre-translated copy and make adjustments instead of starting the translation from scratch.

Abner Tellez, IT Developer, Ventura TRAVEL

Scaling and organizing localization projects

Idle time is wasted time. And software localization projects are no exception to this rule. It is essential to maximize the output of every minute spent on a software localization project while keeping an eye on costs at all times.

Phrase’s Jobs feature helps software localization companies optimize their projects by splitting them into tasks that can be distributed among several localization specialists.

When product or localization managers upload files with the Jobs feature, they are able to:

• Assign tasks to different team members, with briefings and deadlines
• Ensure everyone knows what to do
• Reduce idle time through automatic notifications that a task is needed or ready
• Track project progress and deadlines at a glance, in real-time, through reporting and statistics

Let’s see what Lyst, the largest global fashion search platform, has achieved by using Jobs.

Lyst—a global platform to browse the world’s most stylish brands

Lyst is a site where more than 150 million shoppers browse the products of over 17,000 of the most sought-after brands and stores.

Lyst uses a proprietary data engine to provide a highly personalized shopping experience for each customer. High-quality localization is part of the Lyst commitment to customers, which is why the localization team has been using Phrase to localize its website and mobile application.

With Phrase’s Jobs feature, Lyst has been able to scale their projects and increase productivity.

Phrases collaboration features have streamlined our localization processes and the collaboration between our 14 translators.

Enrique Quilez, Localization Manager, Lyst

Increasing translation quality

Without proper context, software localization can be difficult, time-consuming, and error-prone.

Phrase’s In-Context Editor (ICE) is a powerful tool that allows translators to translate website content by browsing the page interface. This results in higher quality because translators have context at their fingertips as they edit the text.

The In-Context Editor, which can be integrated within almost any web application, eliminates the need for manually adding screenshots, briefings, and long descriptions, as it provides a live preview of the website to be localized.

Our customers are great enthusiasts of the ICE feature. Ventura TRAVEL and komoot, for example, who we’ve quoted speaking highly of our Autofill feature, are also great In-context Editor advocates:

The In-context Editor is the main reason we chose Phrase. It’s a key feature that is widely used in our company because it provides great context and makes translation much easier. Working with the In-context Editor has certainly decreased the delivery time for translations.

Abner Tellez, IT Developer, Ventura TRAVEL

The In-context Editor is a fantastic tool that we use on a weekly basis. It provides great context and enables us to write copy that is not just accurately translated but also looks great on the website. Moreover, using the In-context Editor cuts down on the manual tasks of adding screenshots and descriptions. In total, it reduces our overall workload by up to 25%.

Craig Taylor, Copy Team Lead, komoot

Ensuring transparency and improving consistency

Doing away with manual processes and automating localization projects from start to finish can help ensure transparency, save time and costs, and increase consistency.

That’s exactly what Phrase’s Review Workflows have been designed to do: Whenever translators need to review or approve translations, the system first automatically marks the content as ‘unverified’ and then sends automatic notifications to the relevant team members.

This might be because:

• The source text has suffered modifications
• Autofill has been used to pre-translate new content that needs verification by a translator
• You want to ensure that a proofreader checks that everything looks good before sending the content to production

The review mechanism can be either Basic or Advanced:

• Basic Review Workflow: It allows you to send automatic alerts to translators every time the source text changes, so they can update their translations accordingly.
• Advanced Review Workflow: It is similar to the Basic one but provides a more complete review cycle that enables you to get feedback from reviewers before publishing or releasing the content that has been translated

How quality control can improve a brand’s perception

Remember we mentioned how Lyst has been using Phrase to localize its website and mobile application?

Well, the review workflows have allowed them to provide top-notch content to each target market as a result of it being under constant scrutiny by translators and reviewers.

This is a critically important step, as it shows a brand’s commitment to its customers and reinforces its image of quality and reliability.

With Phrase we have a highly personalized workflow and benefit from the best translation quality. Our translators can now improve each others’ translations easily within Phrase and act as the final quality control.

Enrique Quilez, Localization Manager, Lyst

All in all, software localization is a much more streamlined process when using a platform like Phrase. It’s not just about efficiency and cost savings; it’s also about ensuring maximum translation quality that will better the user experience for each language. If localization was Need for Speed, with Phrase, you’d be able to drive like a boss.