What Is a Translation Management System (TMS)? 5 Multilingual Growth Pain Points

Introduction: When Enterprise Content Is No Longer in Just One Language

In the early stages of a company, translation is often considered a “supporting task.”
After marketing teams complete the original content, it is handed over to translation vendors, with communication going back and forth via email, Excel, or cloud documents, which seems to work fine.

However, as the company grows and expands into new markets, the situation often begins to change:

• The corporate website needs to support multiple markets and languages simultaneously
• Product content, marketing materials, and documentation grow rapidly
• Different departments and regions submit translation requests independently

At this point, companies gradually realize that the real problem is not whether “translation is fast enough,” but rather the lack of a manageable workflow and system for translations and multilingual content.

What Is a Translation Management System (TMS)?

A Translation Management System (TMS) is a professional platform that helps companies centrally manage translation workflows, language assets, and multilingual content.

Unlike standard translation tools or machine translation alone, a TMS focuses on the “overall workflow and governance,” with core purposes including:

• Centralizing translation requests from different departments
• Automating translation workflows to reduce manual communication costs
• Creating translation memories and terminology databases to avoid duplicate translations
• Ensuring content consistency across languages and markets

As the number of contents and languages increases, a TMS evolves from a “nice-to-have tool” to a “necessary infrastructure.”

Five Translation Challenges Every Growing Multilingual Enterprise Will Face

Challenge 1: Translation Workflows Heavily Rely on Manual Processes and Excel

Many companies still manage translation workflows manually:

• Manually organizing translation files
• Sending via email or cloud folders
• Tracking progress and versions in Excel

As project volume increases, the workflow can easily get out of control, making translation a bottleneck for content publishing.

Challenge 2: Version Control Issues and Duplicate Translation Costs

Without centralized management, common situations include:

• The same content is translated multiple times by different departments
• Translated versions are not updated after source content changes
• Old content versions are mistakenly used in new contexts

These issues not only waste budget but also increase content risk.

Challenge 3: Inconsistent Translation Quality and Brand Voice

When translations are distributed to different translators or vendors, common problems include:

• Inconsistent terminology
• Brand tone weakened across languages
• Local markets adjust content independently, lacking unified standards

Over time, enterprises present content across markets that no longer feels like the same brand.

Challenge 4: Content Release Speed Lags Behind Market Pace

When marketing cycles accelerate, if translation workflows cannot keep up, it can lead to:

• Global campaigns not launching simultaneously
• New product information released late
• Marketing teams sacrificing quality for speed

Translation is no longer a back-end task; it directly affects market responsiveness.

Challenge 5: Lack of Traceable and Manageable Translation Governance

Most companies struggle to answer:

• Which content is translated most frequently?
• Where are translation costs concentrated?
• Which languages or markets are most prone to delays?

Without data and visualization, translation can only be reactive and cannot be continuously optimized.

Why Do These Issues Inevitably Appear as Content Scales?

The root cause is:

Enterprise content has entered a “systemized production” stage, but translation workflows still rely on “manual management.”

When CMS platforms, marketing automation, and product development processes are already highly systemized, translation that still depends on manual coordination naturally becomes a bottleneck.

This is when a TMS begins to deliver real value.

Conclusion: When Should Enterprises Start Implementing a TMS?

If your enterprise is already experiencing the following situations, it is usually time to seriously evaluate a TMS:

The value of a TMS is not simply about “speeding up translation,” but about turning translation into a manageable, optimizable, and scalable enterprise process.

Enterprise-grade translation management platforms such as TransPerfect GlobalLink are specifically designed to address complex translation scenarios that span multiple departments, markets, and systems.

However, technology is only the beginning.
What truly determines success is how the system is implemented, how workflows are designed, and how governance strategies are established.

If you are evaluating whether your translation process is already impacting content efficiency and time-to-market, we invite you to connect with us. Our consulting team can help assess your current situation and design a multilingual content and translation management strategy tailored to your organization.

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Further Reading

• Why Enterprises Need Translation Governance: The First Step in Multilingual Content Management
• From Content Platforms to Translation Management: Building a Global Content Architecture
• How TMS and CMS Integration Prevents Multilingual Content Gaps