How to choose your translation provider?

Translation - transposing words from one language into another one

Localisation – taking concepts, ideas, images and content and modifying them so as to be understood by the target audience.

Which of these would you choose for your company?

A good translation provider definitely lives according to the second definition and so should you.

A good provider uses every available tool.

CAT tools are extremely useful for terminology management, saving words for future use. Moreover, using a translation memory allows you, as client, to get a better price for future projects while preserving the quality of the final result.

So remember, if your provider is a good one, do not change it. You will thus insure a long term cooperation based on trust, lower costs and consistency in translation and permanent quality.

But is a good translation enough?

A good translation provider knows very well that it is not.

Would you like to get your translation only after desperately trying to get in touch with the translation provider for hours or maybe days without being notified about the current project status?

Or maybe your document has a very complicated format, with many pictures and fonts, or maybe these ones get all jumbled up in a mix of words and images?

Or maybe you need your website translated and one deleted tag can ruin all the information?

For all these and for many others you need a good project manager to oversee all projects from start to finish so you can focus on your own business.

To keep you updated with project's status making sure that all documents are well prepared and analysed before sending them to the translator who specialises in that particular domain and to the specialised proofreader, asking questions about the preferred terminology, your ideas and wishes regarding the final project – all these are crucial for the perfect translation.

A very important part are recommendations. Is the provider pleasant and respected in this field? Even a small company can have a huge impact on your end result.

So before sending your important documents to any provider, ask yourself this: “Is the provider fulfilling all the aforementioned criteria?”