Most companies at a certain stage in their development start looking at their options for implementing Information Technology systems that support their management, production, workflow, and other processes. This scenario applies to virtually any economic sector, and the translation industry is no exception here. Relatively often, a company’s managers are the ones who embark on creating such software on their own, confident that it is the most flexible and cost effective solution. Actually, they cannot be more wrong.

I decided to write this short article after many hours of conversations with managers and owners of translation agencies. Many were mesmerised by the vision of developing software that ideally suits their workflow processes and addresses all of their company’s needs. Moreover, the people I talked to were positive that creating your own system would be markedly cheaper than buying it, and that it could keep their company independent of third party suppliers. Admittedly, the prospects of an ideal and cheap solution are tempting, but are they achievable? Let us have a look now at a few aspects that need to be considered prior to embarking on any software development work.