How to Select a Translation Service Provider?

Knowing and working with these rules will help you to avoid:

•  Having to re-do a botched-up translation job

•  Spending inconsiderate time and money proofreading and correcting errors

•  Having to repair a corporate image marred by a wrong translation

•  Being criticized by unhappy clients and scornful readers

•  Litigating with suppliers and customers

When asking for a quote from a translation service agency for translation services, ask what are the qualifications of their translators. Always ask what is included and what is not.  A reputable agency will provide you a brief background of their translators. A translation service provider should not have a problem signing NDA's with you as well.

Do not blindly award a contract based soley on price. The old saying " you get what you pay for" is also true for translation work. If the price is much lower then everyone else, you have to wonder what their qualifications are, how many translators they have, what quality control measures they have in place and what is the quality of your final product. Is it going to be on time? Will the documents be formated? If not, what are the additional charges?

Ask for valid references for translation work similar to what you require. Sample of documents are meaningless, because a reputable agency will tell you documents are confidential and the property of each client. Reference will allow you to speak or contact other cleints.

Establishing client-specific glossaries is common practice. A good translator will work with you to develop and agree on terms that adequate for you.

Ask whether the translation will be human or computer/machine translated.Many companies will simply input your work into a translation software program and have corrections manually reviewed (if that). This may be okay for non-critical correspondence or e-mails, but is this the type of translation work you want to have as your own work? Remember, translation software are templates, one word is matched to another word in a different language. But one word may have ten different meanings. Which meaning did they translate? Be very careful.

A translator is limited by his own speed. And sharing a job between several translators often means compromising quality.  It is generally accepted that a translator can process about 1500-2000 words within an 8-hour day. Some translators are much faster, but it is a good rule to reckon your deadline based on this figure. So, if your volume is too large, review carefully with your translation agency how exactly they intend to proceed to ensure a high quality translation.

Does the cost of a translation include the time spent providing a final proofread?   Selecting the wrong translation service provider and you may drastically increase the cost of your translation. Saving a penny may wind up costing you a dime (depending on how bad the translation is, and the size of the project). Do not base your judgment only on word price; pick the translation company/translator most suited for the job.

Translating is not an industrial process. Errors do occur. Reputable agencies will assign a team of two to your job: a translator and a proof-reader/editor. The team system allows for errors to be picked up. And agencies with quality control standards, such as EN 15038 will always do a better job than free-lancers operating alone.

Agencies specialized in Translation Services (language specialists) will often provide better service since:   (a) you gain a larger share of their attention because your business is more essential to their survival; (b) their recruitment is more focused than that of general-purpose agencies; (c) they usually take greater care of their translators' continuous training. You can have everything from Printing Companies to Web Designers who can tell you they also do translations, but you may be asking for trouble.

The more specialized your translator is, the better the outcome will be. Just as you would not choose a cardiologist to treat a back pain problem, do not ask a finance specialist to translate a computer operator's manual. Pick a computer specialist instead.

•   Arabic
•   Bengali
•   Chinese
•   Denmark
•   Finnish
•   French
•   German
•   Greek
•    Hindi/Punjabi/Urdu
•   Italian
•   Japanese
•   Korean
•   Dutch
•   Portuguese
•   Russian
•   Spanish