Time and time again Translation clients are left baffled by
the Translation
Agencyquote process. The fact that there is no formal method for
translation quotes means that quotes can be interpreted in many different ways.
A client may think he is choosing the cheapest quote while in fact this may be
the opposite.
The following article describes some of the headaches and
remedies to confront the quoting process. Normally, someone looking for
translation services will shop around and receive at least three quotes.
Firstly the needs of the client must be taken into consideration.
Is the client is only looking for a single language to be
translated with no additional translation services such as software
localization, desk top publishing or software localization? In this case it is
often recommended to go straight to the translator and avoid the middle man,
the translation services company, as they of course take a percentage of the
translation which in some cases can be up to 50% of the translation quote. This
is justified by the additional value they add to a translation.
Does the client need multiple languages translated? In this
case the client may have the in-house resources and knowledge to deal with a
multiple translation language project however this is often not the case as a
lot of projects tend to be one off or a lot of the multilingual projects
require a lot of specific translation expertise and skills which are only
available within a translation services company. For instance, the use of
translation memories, the availability of a large database of specialized
translators, Desktop publishing specialists or software localization engineers.
For many companies this expertise and resources would be a sizeable investment
and not worth it in the long run so they tend to outsource their translation
needs.
On the plus side a lot of translation tasks are very
measurable, for instance word counts to measure the cost of translation, page
counts to measure the costs of desktop publishing, string counts to measure the
costs of software localization. Even though all these tasks within the
translation process are very measurable translation quotes can differ to the
extent that clients may even wonder if they are looking at the quote for the
same project.
Here are some pointers to bear in mind when requesting a Translatorquote:
With regard to the cost of translation some translation
services companies may charge by:
· Word count which tends to be the most reliable
· Character count which can be especially the case with
Asian languages
· Page count which can be unreliable as there are often
great variations in the number of words per page
Word counts and translation rates can vary greatly too due
to the following factors:
Some translation companies use Translation Memory
technology. This technology can reduce the word count greatly even with new
translations as there may be a lot of repetitions within a file. For instance,
in the case of software a lot of the User Interface strings are repeated
throughout the software. A lot of companies will offer a discount on these
repeated strings or offer the repeated terms at a reduced word count. One thing
to bear in mind however is that the cost of translation memory technology will
be factored into the translation price. At the beginning the prices may seem a
little more expensive but once the translations are in progress and the
translation memories of previous work built up, the benefits of reduced word
counts and more consistent translations are clearly evident. Paying that little
bit extra will increases quality and in the long run reduce cost provided the
translation memories are managed correctly. The aforementioned gives an insight
as to why some prices and word counts can vary from one translation quote to
another.
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