Development of a management package for translators in translation management

This paper examines some of the problems of day‐to‐day management and control of work passing through a busy translation office, aspects which are common to both translation companies and internal translation departments, such as maintenance of ‘client’ and ‘supplier’ databases, production of printed papers, statistics and control of ‘work in progress’. It then passes on to consider some of the solutions available. One specific solution, which developed over a number of years in close collaboration with Bruce Carroll, a computer consultant, is the Electronic Translations Manager (ETM). ETM is a standalone or network computer program written by specialists for specialists, with the aim of minimising the repetition and routine drudgery of job and data handling. In addition to ‘job’ management, ETM manages the ‘client’ and ‘supplier’ databases, and merges data from all areas to provide instant information on the current and historical status of work These data, when suitably merged, also provide a wealth of statistical reports.