How to choose your language service partner

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How to choose a linguistic partner

7 essential criteria

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Choosing the right resources, whether internal, external, temporary or long term, is often a tricky business, and it is essential to make the right choice for your company. The fact that there is a vast variety of choice, doesn’t really help matters. A simple web search for translation services can throw up hundreds of options, plus there is also the possibility of ‘compromise solutions’ like native colleagues who can help out with translations. Whichever selection method you use, decisions about service providers should be made on the basis of legitimate criteria. Unfortunately this often isn’t the case, and this can make things difficult further down the line, when it comes to evaluating service quality. The 7 criteria listed hereafter are essential to making the right choice.

Introduction





001 Now for an essential prerequisite: to help identify the type of service your company needs, it’s worth asking yourself the following questions. - Is this a one-off translation or an ongoing project? - Would you like to target a local market or an international one? - Which language(s) do you require? - Which services does this project call for? (E.g. translation, revision, interpreting,

DTP, localisation of a website/software or multimedia, transcription etc.) - What kind of document are we dealing with? (E.g. marketing, technical,

medical, scientific, legal etc.) - Which format is the source document to be translated, and in which format

would you like the translation? - What is the purpose of the translation and for whom is it intended? - What are your expectations in terms of timescales, quality and level of support?

Define your needs





002 Carefully assess your provider

It is important to take a look at a service provider’s profile and check out their background, experience, references and quality standard certifications. Profile The key here is to make sure the service provider has the resources and competences to fulfil your requirements. It is worth taking a look at their: - network of translators, linguists, technical experts and copywriters - project management competences - capacity in terms of lead times - complementary services such as interpreting, localisation and publishing - CAT (computer-aided translation) and DTP software - etc.






Experience and references Whilst the number of years’ experience a service provider has under their belt can help with quality assurance, it isn’t enough to depend on this alone. It is important to check that references are legitimate by taking a look at samples of a provider’s work, or by asking customer references to give testimonials. Don’t forget to consult specialist websites and social networks: these can provide invaluable sources of feedback that will allow you to compare opinions about any one provider.






Standards and certifications It is worth giving consideration to two strategic aspects of the relationship with your service provider: its professionalism and its quality commitment. Putting in place a quality management system based on recognised procedures, and checking certificates awarded by independent accredited organisations, are both good ways to check if a service provider is legitimate. We would specifically recommend: ISO 9001 and CAN/CGSB – 131.10-2008. It would be best to consider these aspects at the time of selecting a service provider, so you don’t waste any time or money later. This is even more important if your translations projects are recurrent in nature.





003 A global approach

A quality translation calls for specific competences, tools and experience. It is important to adopt a thorough approach to ensure that your communications do what they are supposed to do, in the most efficient way possible. As a result, you need to consider both the context of your documents, and the outcomes you would like them to achieve. It is important to define the context of your document and how it will be used – this will help to ensure that your communications are fit for purpose. It is also important to specify what you would like a document to achieve in terms of outcome. For instance, this could include a particular return on investment, achieving a sales target, or effecting a change in the way your brand is perceived.





003 A global approach

All of these points are instrumental in delivering a translation that is appropriate to the context of both the intended use and the user. Failing to take these elements into account can lead to unpredictable hard- to-measure results. This is why you will benefit from choosing a unique linguistic partner who: - shares your vision - understands your objectives - can identify what needs to be done - is in a position to deliver the whole job in line with your expectations.





004 Closely examine the offer

When you ask a service provider for a quote or for further information, you will often get a summary of their offering that seems acceptable on the face of things, but rarely gives enough detail for you to really understand the service properly. Which is why it is vital that you closely examine the quote, paying close attention to the following: The quotation: Which elements have been taken into account when preparing? Deliverables: What does the quote include exactly? Which services will actually be provided? Guarantee: What service guarantees are there and when will they come into play?





004 Production: Who is responsible for project management and who deals with monitoring your project? What is the production process? Who chooses the resources that will be assigned to your project and how will they be selected? Quality control: Which quality standards will be taken into consideration? When and how will quality control measures come into play? Terms and conditions: When and how will payment for services take place? Are there constraints or limitations that you may need to consider about the service proposed (for example security, access to content management systems, online assistance)?

Closely examine the offer





004 It‘s worth knowing that price calculations are generally based on the following criteria: - Combinations of languages - Volume - Timescales - Type of translation (legal, technical, scientific, etc) - Degree of repetitions in the document(s) - Quality control (revision, proofreading, additional control measures).






004 Take the time to ensure you understand these points and that you fully understand the offer in detail. This will help you to understand whether or not a service provider will meet your expectations. This is even more important when budget is a key consideration, as in the majority of cases. Indeed, experience has taught us that ultimately an unsatisfactory job usually ends up costing more! If a job isn’t done well, consider the impact for your company in terms of investment, workload, deadlines, credibility, customer feedback and so forth.






005 Sow well to reap well

Only you fully understand the nature of your organisational documents and the objectives of your communications. As a result, it is worth being as organised as possible: this will help get the best results from your translations. Here are a few points for consideration: - Have you got the internal resource capacity to manage your multilingual

contents and to interact with a linguistics partner? - Which content management system and publishing tools do you use? - What type of professional service do you need? - What kind of budget do you have in mind for outsourcing translation and

localisation projects?





005 Sow well to reap well

When it comes to service providers, it is worth finding the answers to these questions: - Has it got the right resources to deliver your multilingual documents? - Does it use the same content management tools as you do? - Is it able to fulfil your requirements when it comes to volume? - Is it able to deliver urgent projects as and when required? - How will your project be managed at their end? - What will it do to ensure quality control, timely delivery and to give you the

after- sales service you need?

It is worth putting together a list of questions for service providers and checking these points. It is always a good idea to focus on the details. A service provider’s vague answers to your questions could suggest there may be potential hiccups further down the line.





006 The end justifies the means

If you decide to start working with a service provider, it is worth doing a trial period to see how things go. Building a relationship gradually will give you the chance to measure all aspects of their service (for example quality, timescales, productivity, etc). This will also enable you to avoid: - an unequal relationship where one of the two parties sets out the conditions of the relationship and there’s little room for manoeuvre - uncertainty about the quality of work, the time input required and how much you’ll need to invest in the project. In order to have every chance of success, it is also worth asking suppliers to do a translation test on a nonstrategic text (or part of one). This will help to limit the risk of any negative impact on your official documents.





006 The end justifies the means

Many areas may not be immediately visible with a new service provider. A trial period, together with a translation test, can give your business a good safety net. In this case, you should be able to check the following criteria: - How will the project be carried out from start to finish? - How will it contribute to your organisational performance or improve your

brand image? - Which quality standards exist and how can you check if they are being met? - Which guarantees are in place and how will they be applied? - How will requests, changes and production setbacks be dealt with (what will be

the impact on quality or timings)? - How will resources be managed to support your business (such as tools,

technology, financial investment and multilingual material).





007 Ready, fire, aim!

After having carefully examined and checked the 6 criteria we’ve discussed so far, it is now time to make a choice from the service providers you’ve reviewed. However, a good choice will always be based on experience. Consequently we suggest that you apply the following 5 steps strategy based on this twisted principle: ready, fire, aim! 1 Define a project test 2 Set the bar: specify exactly what you are expecting 3 Get involved: be available and proactive 4 Compare the candidates 5 Provide feedback and share your conclusions with suppliers.





007 Ready, fire, aim!

Start the relationship with your list of applicants and apply the strategy. The benefits are two- fold: 1. You will identify the best potential partner from a list of applicants. 2. You will create a relationship with several potential partners that have already been through checks and who know you. This will reduce timescales should it be necessary to change supplier further down the line. This method prepares you to manage any changes and transitions in a flexible and efficient way. Remember that there is no such thing as a perfect supplier. In addition, the market, the context and your requirements will change which means you’ll need to monitor the situation on an ongoing basis, and follow up as necessary.





Here are some final pointers which we hope you may find useful: - Making a final choice is often a question of compromise. - Preparation is probably one of the most important tasks we need to undertake

as part of this process. - Carefully review the 7 criteria in this presentation and use the scorecard below

to rank each factor in terms of importance to your business. - If you need to change supplier, take the time to consider the factors which have

made this change necessary. - Get some feedback from a service provider’s past customers and compare

these comments with what they say about themselves. - Getting a second opinion or an independent viewpoint on your findings is

always a good idea.

Conclusion





Appendix: a helpful scorecard

Criterion Order of importance Key words

001 – Needs

002 – Records

003 – Offer

004 – Approach

005 – Involvement

006 – Filter

007 – Evaluation




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How to choose your language service partner