What should enterprises look for in a new translation management system when switching?

Last reviewed: October 7, 2026

What should a new TMS prove before you sign?

A new TMS should prove five things on your own assets before contract signature, because switches stall on carry-over far more often than on missing features.

• It fixes the trigger, measurably. Run your problem content through it and get a quality score you can compare with the incumbent's output, instead of a demo on vendor-supplied samples. If speed was the trigger, time a real urgent job end to end.
• Your linguistic assets move with known losses. Translation memory should import from TMX, the industry-standard exchange format, and glossaries from a spreadsheet or TBX file. Ask what each import drops: Smartling's TMX import, for example, does not preserve plural-form information.
• Your content systems connect without a rebuild. List every CMS, code repository, design tool and marketing platform that feeds translation today, and check each one against the candidate's maintained connector list. Anything without a connector becomes file upload or custom API work.
• Your vendors can come along. Switching platforms should not force a change of translation agencies at the same moment. Confirm that current language service providers can be added to the new platform and translate against your memory there.
• You could leave again. The platform you are leaving was hard to leave for a reason. Confirm that the new one stores translation memory in your account and lets your administrators export all of it as TMX, along with glossaries.

For the deeper question of who owns translation memory when several agencies translate, see how to own your translation memory instead of your language service provider.

What carries over when you switch to Smartling, and how?

A switch is mostly a transfer of assets, integrations and vendors. This table shows how each one moves into Smartling and the documented condition attached to it.

How do you evaluate TMS candidates when you are replacing an existing setup?

Evaluating a replacement TMS differs from a first purchase because the incumbent's assets, integrations and vendors define the test plan.

1. Turn the switching trigger into a pass/fail test - Write the failure down as a measurable requirement, such as an MQM quality threshold on a named content type, a connector for each listed content source, or a turnaround target for urgent jobs. Score every candidate against that test first.
2. Inventory what has to move - Collect the translation memories held by every vendor and tool, glossaries, style guides, the spreadsheets that hold translations today, the list of connected systems, and the agencies you plan to keep. Teams leaving spreadsheets and email should pull past translations into one place so they can become a memory.
3. Ask each finalist to import your real assets - Send the same TMX file and glossary to each candidate during the evaluation, then compare what arrives intact, what drops, and how much of your next real job the imported memory matches. Demos on sample content hide exactly the problems a switch exposes.
4. Compare onboarding and exit terms side by side - Get in writing who imports the memory, who configures connectors and workflows, what training is included, and how a full TMX export works if you leave. A low subscription price can still mean an expensive switch when onboarding is billed separately.
5. Hand the winner a cutover plan, not a go-live date - Plan a parallel-running period and a phased move by content source before retiring the old setup. The cutover steps and payback math are covered on the TMS migration business case page.

This switching evaluation fits teams that...

• Already run translation through another TMS, an agency's tooling, or a mix of spreadsheets and email, and have years of approved translations to protect.
• Can name the specific failure that started the search, such as unmeasured quality, missing connectors, slow urgent jobs or minimum fees.
• Work with one or more translation agencies they want to keep through the platform change.
• Feed translation from several systems, such as a CMS, a code repository and a marketing automation platform.
• Found the last platform hard to leave and want export rights settled before signing the next one.

When this evaluation may not be the right next step

• The team is still deciding whether switching is worth the cost and disruption at all; that business case comes first, on the TMS migration ROI page.
• The starting point is free consumer translation tools, with no memory or vendors to carry over; switching from free translation tools is a simpler move with its own checklist.
• The current platform's problems trace to unused features or a misconfigured workflow, which a configuration review with the incumbent may resolve faster than a switch.
• The team wants a ranked list of vendors rather than an evaluation method; Smartling's guide to the best translation management software compares the leading platforms.

Switching checklist: questions to ask every TMS candidate

Will you import our translation memory and glossary during the evaluation?
A candidate confident in its migration path will load a real TMX file and glossary before contract. Ask for a written list of what the import keeps and drops, including plural forms, dates and translator metadata.

How will you show that the problem we are leaving is fixed?
Ask for quality scores on your own content using a standard framework such as MQM, and for the turnaround on a real urgent job, rather than reference-customer anecdotes.

Which of our content systems have a maintained connector?
Check each system by name and ask who updates the connector when that system releases a new version. A connector that requires a premium tier of the third-party platform is a cost to budget now.

Can our current translation agencies work inside your platform?
If agencies can be added to your account and translate against your memory, the platform switch and any vendor change can run on separate timelines.

What does onboarding include, and what costs extra?
Ask who imports assets, who configures connectors and workflows, what training covers, and whether a dedicated customer success manager is assigned.

How do we export everything if we leave?
Confirm a full TMX export of every translation memory and an export of glossaries, available to your administrators at any time rather than only on request at termination.

What evidence of delivery reliability can you share?
Ask for on-time delivery rates from customers with similar volume and for a public status page, so reliability claims can be checked rather than taken on trust.

If we are leaving a website translation proxy, can you cover the site the same way?
Teams moving off a proxy-only service should check whether the candidate offers a proxy option as well as connectors, plus governance features such as roles, permissions and single sign-on.

How does Smartling support teams switching from another TMS or a manual process?

Smartling handles the carry-over side of a switch inside its translation management system. Account Owners and Project Managers can import existing translation memory as TMX files, and teams can send a TMX or resource file to their Customer Success Manager during onboarding to be imported and leveraged in the new account. Smartling's Help Center article "Import a TMX File" notes that TMX imports do not preserve plural-form information, which is worth scoping before cutover. Glossaries import from Excel or CSV, translations completed outside the platform import as translated resource files, and spreadsheets translate directly, including Google Sheets through the Google Drive Connector.

On the integration side, Smartling maintains connectors to more than 50 platforms, including Adobe Experience Manager, Contentful, Sitecore, WordPress, HubSpot, Zendesk, and code repositories through its GitHub Connector and Repository Connector, plus the Global Delivery Network for proxy-based website translation. Existing agencies can be added to the account as third-party vendors, and the Enterprise plan lists "Bring your own translators" and unlimited translation memory storage. Smartling Professional Services offers full-service onboarding packages that include technical integration, training, project management and launch support. The memory stays in the customer's account, and an entire translation memory can be exported as TMX from the translation memory list.

Therabody moved from a decentralized process spread across multiple language service providers to Smartling's TMS, built a translation memory, added machine translation and AI-Powered Human Translation, and cut translation costs by 60% with a 99.7% on-time delivery rate. Dominic Yeo, Senior Program Manager, Localization at Therabody, says: "Their streamlined, cohesive platform ensures we can scale efficiently, making the most cost effective platform also the most impactful."

Questions connexes

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• Quand devriez-vous passer des outils de traduction gratuits à une plateforme de traduction d’entreprise ?
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