Benefits of Using Terminology Management Systems (TMS)

On the occasion of finishing the 10th edition of the Workshop III: Terminology Management with Translation Memories, offered by IULA, I have decided to devote this post to one of the primary aspects of the terminological activities, i.e. terminology management (TM). Basically, TM is a set of operations for the creation and maintenance of terminological data, targeting the broad community of translators, terminologists, interpreters, librarians, technical writers, journalists, lexicographers, philologists and linguists as well as specialists of different fields interested in the creation of glossaries for their respective disciplines.

It might sound odd but some institutions, even those organisations involved in terminology standardisation, today are still stuck in the paper world when it comes to controlled and standardised terminology. Some other individuals or terminological centres might have a partial paper-based and partial automatised work. There are often significant obstacles to overcome when implementing TMS. However, there are also many significant benefits that can be had once these systems are in use. Let’s see what a TMS does: