What do you like best?
The product has been very useful for us, making our translation process much more efficient, for example the API integration has made translation work seamless meaning that we can send and receive translated content with very little manual input.
Being able to view individual strings, seeing their history, issues and comments, is really useful when trying to diagnose issues with our CMS.
When we are implementing new features, the Smartling team have always been very responsive and helpful, meaning that we are able to translate new file types with little delay.
What do you dislike?
When new features are developed and released, such as the new layout, certain older tools like the translation view and context reset are hidden away making it difficult to access them.
It would be good if there was version function. Several times I've accidentally uploaded a file, overwriting the original, causing extra translation cost. It would be great if previous versions could be restored if needed.
When emailing Smartling support, if you don't chase up on the issue then you won't get a reply.
Some of the UI can be a bit confusing, for example I would think that the workflow setting would come under 'workflow summary' as opposed to 'project settings'
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Having not had any other experience with cloud based translation software providers I can't really compare, but based on my own experience with Smartling I think that it is a good product that meets our business needs and is sufficiently flexible to keep up with our ever-changing products.
What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
The biggest issue Smartling solved was the inefficiency of our previous translation process. The files would have to be downloaded, and then sent off for translation manually, with these changes then having to be manually uploaded to the website. Now what would have taken hours takes minutes.
