Seven Ways to Leave Your Translation Vendor
A practical
guide to minimizing your risk of change
By Greg Rosner,
US VP thebigword
http://www.thebigword.com/
4,400+ Translation Agencies! Click Here to Buy the Database!
Time and time again I speak with global communication
managers who tell me how they've endured poor linguistic
quality and poor project management from their translation
vendor for quite some time. I often hear how they've
been bounced around from one project manager to another
and how they've tolerated the silent treatment and
reactive responses to questions instead of proactive
communications. I often hear how e–mails with bad
news – like missing Friday's deadline – would appear
quietly in their inbox at 6:30pm on Thursday. I've
been told how much they have been paying for these
services and how projects are completed in time–frames
which seem far too long. Adding insult to injury,
when I ask about their visibility into translation
memory savings and current project status – I am usually
left with a blank stare.
But even though they are black and
blue from vendor abuse, they are still reluctant to
change. Why would anyone in their right mind continue
to work with a translation vendor providing such bad
service?
That is a good question.
Then there are the people who tell
me they are “relatively happy” with their translation
vendor. But why aren't they ecstatic? Why are they
settling for mediocrity? Can they articulate how their
organization has profited from the relationship? And
when the turnaround times and costs they are paying
are shown to be far greater than what thebigword (or
many of our competitors) can offer, that fact is still
not enough for them to make a change. Why?
The risks that change represents
are often perceived to be greater than the reward
that a new relationship can bring.
So how can you lower your risk – perceived
or real – while becoming aware of what advantages
better service could provide you with? While there
may be translation services that can offer you faster,
better and less expensive services, when and how would
you “pull the plug” on your current relationship –
without jeopardizing what you have already accomplished?
How could you make sure your deadlines are met and
your web site stays current in all languages while
you go through this change?
Cover Your Assets
Your strategy should be to first
protect your Translation
Memory ™ assets and your ability to
make your current deadlines before you compare supplier's
capabilities. With regard to Translation Memory, those
assets are estimated to be worth 1.5 times your annual
spend on Translation, so it's typically well worth
the effort to get them from your current supplier.
How do you ask for your Translation
Memory?
You can always tell your vendor that
there is an intellectual property audit and that you
need a full export of the Translation
Memory by Friday to put into your asset
management system.
Unlike many of our competitors, thebigword
doesn't seize clients by their TM, but we act as a
custodian of those assets. In the same way that companies
often outsource their payroll, TM is a critical piece
of a company's intellectual property which should
be outsourced. We provide exports of the TM data as
a deliverable at regular intervals during the year.
Our clients continue to work with us because of the
quality of our service and our experience in managing
multi-language
projects, all offered at the right price
– not because we hold their TM hostage.
The Seven Ways
- Fire them. Now.
While this takes a leap of faith, if you are
really suffering then it may be a good alternative.
Ask for an export of all your Translation Memory
(TM) in Trados
or TMX format and upon receipt, fire them. This
is not recommended unless you have at least 3
months before your next translation project is
due. However, if you've some time to spare for
a proper new vendor evaluation and kick–off, go
for it. If your current vendor is unwilling to
send you your TM, sue them. It's your intellectual
property.
- Get a quote from thebigword
This is a simple way to get a side by side comparison
of services and costs, but realize that volume
discounts can be applied if a year's worth of
work is taken into view. Simply send a Request
For Quote out to both thebigword and
your current vendor. If there is a Translation
Memory, which your current vendor is using to
analyze the new project against, you won't have
an apples–to–apples comparison unless you can
also share those TMs with thebigword. But what
you can see are the rates side–by–side so you
may be able to extrapolate what your savings would
be using thebigword if we also had access to your
TMs.
- Hire thebigword on a stealth
project
This is a good way to benchmark quality and
customer service.
- Tell them: “It's not you – it's
me”
You can split your work load up by sending some
to a new vendor – but only tell them your volumes
are dropping over the next 3 months so they should
expect a decrease in the amount of work they normally
get. This will give you an opportunity to try
out thebigword.
- Conduct an RFP process
This is always an easy out – and a way for you
to get a good view of what's out there.
- Get procurement to do it for
you
If your personal relationship with your vendor
is good, but you are curious if you are really
getting the most value for your money, have your
internal procurement people conduct a RFP process
for you. This way, you can leave the personal
side out for the evaluation.
- Create a “multi–vendor strategy”
You can always say that you are creating a multivendor
strategy to lower your organization's risk on
translation activity and will be working with
2 vendors going forward. While doing this requires
a strategy on what projects go to whom and how
TM is shared, it is done all the time by some
companies with much success.
A Word about Quality, Turnaround
and Cost
Everyone expects a perfect translation,
as fast as possible and for the lowest price, but
each of those measures is relative. Everyone places
a different value on these three elements based on
their job, their goals and their personality.
With regard to translation
quality, you should expect linguistic accuracy
as a given from any vendor you work with. However,
it's the delivery of that translation – the way it's
processed, reported on, and published which reveals
the difference in suppliers. Quality translation also
requires more than just linguistic accuracy; the translation
must capture the tone, style and voice of the source
text, yet at the same time be appropriate in its new
cultural context. You will have to rely on your in–country
reviewers to judge the linguistic quality, but don't
make your judgment of a supplier's quality by only
having them review a single paragraph – that won't
give you the total picture. Some things to keep in
mind when reviewing quality are whether or not they've
used industry experts, whether they've adhered to
your existing style guide or glossary, and whether
or not they've maximized your use of Translation Memory
in the process. Measuring quality is both an art and
a science so be as creative as you want in setting
up quality measures.
Since turnaround time can vary somewhat
from vendor to vendor, the most important thing about
turnaround is that the translation is delivered when
promised. You can test the accuracy of the turnaround
by running a trial project or speaking to one of their
customers who fits your project profile.
With regard to cost, you will always
find lower rates, so at some point you have to make
a gut–level judgment on whether or not you are getting
the best overall value. With word rates at an all–time
low, no translation supplier is making a killing on
providing these services. And if you think the pricing
is too good to be true, it probably is. Many suppliers
will find ways to charge you in the future to make
up for their current word–rate losses in areas such
as localization engineering, project set–up and translation
memory management.
The staff themselves, however, must
have the ability to view and change the files for
analysis, file processing, translation, memory management
etc.
Change takes work
Once you've decided to make a change
to a new vendor, your day is not done. In order for
those new processes – which promise a better return
on your investment – to take root, you need to enroll
everyone who is involved with translations in your
organization to get on–board. To help you with the
acceptance of the new vendor and proposed processes,
thebigword offers an account management methodology
called TranzManagement 360°. This process ensures
that every stakeholder's translation goals and requirements
are acknowledged while they are enrolled in the process
of getting from where they are, to where they want
to be.
Going with thebigword
While there are many translation
services companies to choose from, we will distinguish
ourselves from the competition by the people
we are, the free technology we offer 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 of our Solution Architects,
please call +44–870–748–8000.
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