Communication in the business environment matters a lot, whether between co-workers or a brand and its consumers.
A brand’s ability to establish effective and concise forms of communication between all stakeholders either locally or internationally comes with numerous benefits, which businesses must exploit.
That said, one way to ensure consistency in communication and ultimately your brand’s message is by effectively managing terminologies associated with your business.
So in this post, we would be looking at the substance of terminology management and better ways businesses can implement it.
What does terminology management mean?
Before delving into the meaning of terminology management, let us first be clear on what is terminology. In simple terms, it refers to a collection of vocabulary (words, terms, and phrases) usually utilized by an entity, industry or organization.
A typical example of terminology is how terms like Random Access Memory (RAM), Central Processing Unit (CPU), Hard-disk drive, and many others are associated with the computing niche.
But it does not end there, terminology does not only involve technical terms. It also involves brand names and trademarks.
Terminology management on the fundamental level refers to the process and procedures in managing (handling, editing and usage) terminologies related to a brand or organization, and it involves the following;
- Collection of relevant terms, words and phrases.
- Assigning definition and description to collected information
- Validation of source information
- Securing and storage of source information
- Onboarding with relevant stakeholders
- Updating terminology database
Why is it important?
Terminology management is relevant to organizations for several reasons, with the crux being improving communication for brands both internally and externally.
From the language perspective, TM helps create a more distinct brand message for the localization and eventual globalization process, and if done well, benefits both parties (Brands and LSP’s). For starters, it serves as the bedrock for a faster and more efficient workflow by reducing research time, and it even translates to cost savings for clients.
Industry leaders Lionbridge estimates that 15% of the total cost of translation is incurred due to rework, which is primarily caused by inconsistencies in terminologies. Proper terminology management eliminates these inconsistencies.
A multi-step approach