Valuable terminology work

Terminology work within a company involves defining specialist terms to be used in internal and external communication. This is first conducted in the company’s main working language and can then be expanded to other languages that are relevant for the company. Terminology encompasses concepts, definitions and terms. A company-wide terminology database has many advantages: misunderstandings in communication are avoided, a consistent corporate identity is cultivated, and the brand image is strengthened. To sustain these advantages over the long term, the responsible employees must continuously maintain the resources by amending or adding entries and terms and regularly checking definitions.

ZF Friedrichshafen AG recognised the benefits of a company-wide terminology, choosing to assess, organise, refine and complete its existing multilingual terminology database. The company entrusted exact! with this task. We began with extensive research to formulate precise definitions for concepts in German and English. Having laid this foundation, we then worked with external translators to determine the right definitions in the other relevant languages. Everyone involved in this process was careful to preserve the company’s established lexicon.

In addition to the aforementioned advantages, the multilingual terminology has yet another benefit for ZF: it sets the groundwork for the deployment of a tailored machine translation system and perfectly positions the company for the future.

The joint project with ZF is an example of the successful terminology work performed at exact!. Our portfolio of services in this area ranges from building corporate terminology to overhauling multilingual databases and on to creating company glossaries. For all of these tasks, exact! uses terminology database systems from the top providers in the market.

More information on the ZF terminology project can be found in our Success Story. There, we explain in more detail the initial situation, our approach and the benefits for ZF.

Download Success Story