How to Choose a Translation and Localization Company

If you are looking for a translation and localization company here are some of the things you should be looking for:

Managed owned organization

Some of the localization companies are managed by outside investors and motivated by growth and not necessarily focused on client satisfaction.

Executive mind-share and senior management commitment.

If you don?t get exposure to senior managers during the sales cycle when the company is looking to do business with you, imagine down the road if you have a translation problem.

Make sure you know who are the people in charge and the escalation path. Senior managers from a responsible translation company will even provide their sales phone in case you need to reach them. This is the kind of client focus and responsiveness you would expect from a translation company.

A company that has been in business for a long time

Ask how long the company has been in business and what are the corporate strategic plans for the future. Ask if the company has plans to sell or merge with another company. You should be looking for a stable company that will stay in business for a long time.

A company that has a reputable client list

Request a client list and make sure you choose a company that is capable of keeping clients happy. Ask the references very specific questions about project management responsiveness, quality of the translation, technical capabilities, billing practices, and other key factors that may affect the relationship.

Check references

Ask to talk to at least two or three clients before selecting a translation company. Prepare a list of questions that matches your needs and what you are looking for in a translation company.

A company that focus on customized solutions

Don?t let a translation company dictate their black box process on you. Make sure you select a company who is willing to customize their processes to accommodate your specific needs.

Flexible approach to projects and solutions

Translation projects and translation requirements are constant changing. Software development environment and documentation requirements change constantly. You need to make sure your translation company can adapt and focus on providing solutions as opposed to create difficulties.

Focus on Quality

Some translation companies are only concerned with revenue growth and profitability. The quality of the translation is not part of the process and for the most part the translation is problematic or useless. You should stay away from vendors that do not focus on translation quality and cannot demonstrate they have a quality process in place.

Detailed proposal and transparent pricing

Before selecting a translation company you should ask for a proposal. The proposal should have detailed information about all the services provided and rates.

A detailed and customized proposal with schedule, solutions and analyses of the material to be translated usually demonstrates the translation company is diligently and honest when pricing.

How much should I pay?

Stay away from the lowest pricing. Choose a company that price in the ballpark. Most of the low pricing companies will skip quality steps and employee inexperienced translators. Like most of things in life you get what you pay for. If you are not concerned with quality and deadlines, you can choose a cheap vendor. If you want to make sure you will receive your translation on the date you expect and a quality translation, then stay away from cheap vendors and choose a reputable quality oriented translation company.

Technology Independent and non-proprietary technology

Some translation companies will persuade you to use their own proprietary technology. You should stay away from those companies. This is a way for them to lock you into their system and take away from you your ability to work with more than one translation company or your ability to take the work to another company.

Have you been introduced to some of the production staff?

If you are about to choose a translation company and you haven?t had any contact with the actual people who would be working on your account, this is not a good sign. Please ask to speak with the project manager, technical staff, linguist, etc.

Translation Memory

All of the reputable translation companies these days will use translation memory technology. Please make sure the proposal and price structure has details about the savings you are getting from translation memory.