managing translations

Hello All,

All advice is welcome for dealing with translations.

Our current setup:
  - Uses CVS version numbers for tracking (manually updated in each  
translation)
  - Translations include the DocBook markup

Our desired setup:
  - Not use CVS numbers (we are moving to SVN)
  - Have markup changes not affect (outdate) translations
  - Implement translation management software like transifex or similar

We're considering a move to po files but given the size of our project  
(over 6000 files) we're wanting to design the ideal system before this  
likely painful migration/implementation.

So, managing translations... any advice for this seemingly common  
task? Any DocBook translations magic we should be aware of?

Regards,
Philip