… and why is this particular firm or that freelancer the right choice?

The best possible translation quality, short turnaround times, and low costs? It’s rarely possible to achieve all three of these factors in equal measure. When a company’s purchasing department is responsible for procuring translation services, the focus is often primarily on price—and quality falls by the wayside. This risk is particularly high when the relevant business department isn’t involved. In the worst-case scenario, this can even jeopardize a company’s competitiveness.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Various Options

Depending on the company, the way translation services are handled varies greatly: The procurement department may try to source everything as a package, or there may be translation managers, some of whom also have a background in languages. Alternatively, the technical writer may organize the translations themselves.

Each of these options has its merits, but also its pros and cons. You need to identify these and decide what your company needs: Is it the occasional translation of technical documentation, or the entire set of marketing materials? Or should all of the company’s information—including websites and master data—be translated and localized? What internal resources are available? What technical expertise does the company have?

You can then decide how to proceed: You can work with individual freelance translators based on specific language and text type, or with multiple service providers. Another option is to choose a single, large translation service provider to handle every step—from the initial order to project management and quality control. Of course, combinations of these options are also possible.

Often overlooked, but important: Specify in the contract who owns the translation memory. This is a topic that comes up from time to time. The issue of “liability insurance” can also be critical, depending on the company.

Systematic Training and Evaluation

Using a list of criteria and a standardized process, you can then begin the selection process—ideally by reaching out to candidates directly. Don’t just go with the first service provider you come across who happens to be advertising their services in a mass email.

When making your selection, price should not be your only deciding factor, as appropriate language and technical qualifications, as well as the necessary tool knowledge, are absolutely essential.

Which criteria are ultimately used depends on the company. You must also define in advance what is acceptable and what is not, and then communicate this clearly. It is certainly helpful if the service provider being considered knows what to expect in terms of the process and the evaluation criteria.

An example of the methodological approach might look like this:

  • Start with a test project of no more than one page. You might want to include a few tricky spots to see how the translation service provider handles them. This requires relatively little work, but it gives you, as the client, a good first impression of how seriously the translator takes the collaboration.
  • After that, we'll move on to a small real-world project.
  • And after another successful run, then a “normal” project.

Next, the translation service provider is added to the pool. The following areas may be useful to consider during the evaluation:

  • language proficiency
  • professional qualifications
  • Tool Skills
  • Accessibility
  • Communication
  • … and, of course, the price

Make your ratings consistent. You can choose the rating system that suits you best: school grades (1 … 6) or a scale ranging from – through 0 to ++. If something is important to you, assign greater weight to those categories. And define internally what you consider good, problematic, and unacceptable.

As part of the continuous improvement process (CIP), the translation service provider should also be evaluated on a regular basis.

Open, clear communication from the very beginning is very beneficial—if not essential—for a good supplier relationship.

Conclusion

With a clear set of criteria and a planned process, you can systematically procure and evaluate translation services. It is important that you know what your company needs and can afford.

If you have your process under control, you’ll know “who does what and when.” Transparency helps both externally and internally:

Identify common pitfalls within your company. This makes the translation service provider’s job easier and allows them to focus on the content. It also saves your company from having to ask for clarifications. Make the selection and evaluation criteria for translation services publicly available; a translation guide—similar to an editorial guide—can be very helpful here.

Translation memory systems (TMS) and other tools are undoubtedly helpful and useful. But those involved must understand how to use these tools, because a tool alone does not solve problems!

Other useful resources include the tekom guide to procuring translation services, the VDMA guide to procuring translation services, and the EN 15038 and ISO 17100 standards.