I am often surprised to hear that Localization managers are not happy with the level of service they are receiving from their translation vendors. Frequent complaints about missed deadlines, poor linguistic quality and unresponsive project managers seem to be the norm. Then when I ask about their prices I wonder why they wish to stay with the same translation services company when receiving such a bad level of service. To add insult to injury when the words Translation memories or translation savings are mentioned they seem unaware of the idea. Similarly with Managers complaining of prolonged schedules the same question springs to mind, “Why stick to the same vendor with such a poor level of service”.
The main reason why these Managers are reluctant to change is the risk involved which outweighs the unknown reward. To lower this risk and have visibility of the partial benefits of two or multiple vendors why not protect your Translation assets thus ensuring full independence when out-sourcing. While maybe being a little more labor intensive the multiple vendor model keeps current vendors more competitive and allows you to easily draw comparisons on the level of service you are receiving. How can you possibly tell how fast your vendor is, the competitiveness of their translation prices and the efficiency of their processes with a single vendor model?
Implementing the multiple-vendor model?
The first thing to do is to request your Translation memories. At One Stop Shop we acknowledge the importance of our clients requesting Translation Memory imports to protect their intellectual property while at the same are not worried about entering the competitive vendor model because of the confidence we have in the level of our service.
Remember you have every right to your TMs as it is your intellectual property.
1. Phase in alternative Vendors.
Ask One Stop Shop Translations for a quote here and your current vendor for a quote. If you have supplied us the TMs you will have a direct comparison of the price per word rates and the savings from using the TM. If the TMs are not supplied at least you will have a comparison of the translation rates which will not let you down. You, you will have clear visibility on additional services you are being charged for e.g. Project Management
2. Hire One Stop Shop Translations on a test project
This is a good way to measure our quality and customer service.
3. Phase in more projects to One Stop Shop Translations
Provided you are happy of course phase in more work to your second vendor.
Quality, Turnaround and Cost
All vendors profess a quick turn around, high quality and unbeatable prices so at least now with the multiple vendor model you can draw your own comparisons. It may be helpful to keep a checklist or post-project feedback form to collate all criteria scores over a period of time. Apart from the quality, price and turnaround other effective criteria that may be selected are responsiveness, relationship, due diligence, reporting and technology.
One Stop Shop Translations can help you draw up these checklists free of charge and help you phase in a higher level of translation services.
With regard to quality you may not have the luxury of your country reviewers to judge this but there are other methods which One Stop Shop Translations can guide you through. Extensive quality criteria are always recommended.
With regard to cost, apart from having lower rates One Stop Shop Translations have no hidden costs with regard to the pre-project quote, that’s right, no Project Management costs, no update costs within reason. Due to our due diligence One Stop will negotiate any grey areas of the project at the Quote stage, still remain competitive and avoid any nasty surprises for the client with the invoice.
At all stages the client has to right to the analysis files (Trados, Catalyst, FrameMaker etc.) and will receive a clear explanation if there are still in the dark.
Choosing One Stop Shop Translations
While there are many translation services companies to choose from, we will distinguish ourselves from the competition by our friendly and highly qualified people, free consultancy and Project Management services and our expertise in your industry. We would love the opportunity to demonstrate these things to you and describe how we've been able to help other clients in your position make a change for the better. To schedule a discussion with One Stop Shop Translations, please call +34–91-365-9608.
Mark Kieran,
Director,
One Stop Shop Translations S.L.
mark.kieran@onestopshoptranslations.com
(Madrid) 0034 91 365 9608
3 comments:
Doesn'tit cause consistency issues using different vendors
Of course there are consistency issues but this is avoided if you use the same vendor for each language. It is then up to the vendor to ensure consistency using terminology lists and maintaining their TMs effeciently.
I also find that using different vendors for different languages increases their competitivity and it is great for measuring one against the other. It also ensures that we are ot totally dependent one on translation services company.
Curently we use One Stop Shop Translations, www.onestopshoptranslations.com, for alll our translation services but after a careful study we have decided to outsource some of our languages to another vendor to gain the benefits described in the article.
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