When designing for an internal translation group, the following 4 pillars are essential for success. If any one of them can not be achieved, the planning should be adjusted.

1. LANGUAGE NEUTRALITY -The architecture as well as the processes in use have to language-neutral. This means that they have to be usable by ALL languages to at least 90 percent. If you have to re-invent the wheel for every additional language, you will lose all benefits for the economy of scale.
2. EXPANDING HORIZONTALLY WHILE MAINTAINING VERSION CONSISTENCY - Expanding horizontally means simply that another language can be added at any given time without interruption to the workflow per se, and at the same time maintaining version consistency.

Note: One of the most under-used and overlooked facets in localization marketing is version consistency. It is also a huge advantage for technical support, because if every language is on a different version, it is a nightmare to recreate client issues. Having the same version across all languages eliminates the majority of these issues. Additionally, if for example certain new functionality is included in a new version, the functionality is instantly available in all languages. This is achieved through the architecture, which is comparable to Legoland®, aka just add another block and you are done. At the same time, when files are being prepared, upon completion of the preparation and prior to sending it to the translators, an additional copy of the source files is made, so in case a language is added, they are ready to go and maintain version consistency.

1. EXPANDING VERTICALLY - Expanding vertically means simply adding another Translator for an already existing language. This is achieved through the architecture, which is comparable to Legoland®, aka just add another block and you are done. The translation memories and terminology databases are all network-enabled and can be shared by multiple translators. In this manner newly added translators can instantly use the existing translations and terminology, which in turn reduces turnaround without compromising quality.
2. LANGUAGE REVERSAL - Although not as much of a technological issue today as it was a few years back, it should be taken into account, and it can lead up to a considerable advantage. Lets say for example an affiliate in a German office develops a new gizmo, which proves to be extremely valuable for the product line and should be available in the English market as well. In this manner, normally it would get translated after extensive terminology research. However, having the option of language reversal allows the group to provide the translation memories in reversed direction to provide the affiliate to translate from German into English. In this manner, there is consistency in the use of terminology and other established standards. The finished translations can neatly be inserted into the memories over here and then re-used for the other languages as well, based on the English translation, which then becomes the source language.