With the thousands of translation and language service providers, it’s critical that you find the right partner to help you reach your business goals. Here are some considerations to keep in mind to find the right translation partner to grow your business.
Know Your Business Needs
1. What is your industry?
The first step to finding the right translation services partner is understanding your own unique needs so you can communicate them and find a partner with those capabilities. There are several factors that may require custom capabilities. When searching for a prospective translation partner, here are some special requirements to keep in mind.
2. Do you have any uncommon language pairs?
Some language pairs are more common than others. For example, common language pairs often involve English. However, some language pairs that don’t involve English may be less common and may add another layer of complexity.
If you have an uncommon language pair, a special team may need to be brought in. For example, if translating from German to French it’s likely that your content will need to be translated from German to English and then from English to French. It’s important to know if your language partner has that capability.
3. What is your workflow and pace?
Different industries and organizations require different pace, teams, and workflows. When choosing a partner, find one who can meet product deadlines, is flexible enough to work with your existing workflows and vendors, and can meet your budget expectations.
Is this a one-time translation project or something that will need to grow? As your company expands, you may need increased content or dynamic content on your website to be changed frequently. Depending on your budget or timeline, you may also want to stagger translation focusing a larger portion of your budget on marketing or supporting a product launch with more specialized human translation. This can grow over time to include technical support and user forums.
Questions to Ask a Translation Service Partner
1. Who are your content creators?
Who is creating your content is often overlooked, but the “who” is critical to the quality of your content. Content writers should be regional, in-country experts and understand locale-based language nuances as well as your company’s technical and stylistic needs.
Lingotek’s linguistic experts have top certifications (ATA, ITI, CATTI, LISA, etc.), go through security protocols, and provide samples to make sure that your brand can be reflected appropriately. The quality of your content will make a difference in your brand’s digital visibility and the overall user experience.
2. What technology do you use? What are its capabilities?
Your translation partner will be collaborating with your team members and within their own teams (content creators, engineers, designers, marketers, etc.). Integrated tools and connectors that make collaboration seamless are vital to this process.
Lingotek’s technology connects to the most popular software for designers, marketers, and project managers to allow them to focus on producing quality content and spend less time on duplications and unnecessary conversions.
3. Do you have a method to check the quality of translations?
Quality evaluation tools are critical to efficiency. Lingotek leverages translation memory with its Linguistic Quality Evaluations (LQE), a premium evaluation software that allows managers to provide analyses of current processes and workflows with proactive recommendations and improvements.
Coupled with our Translation Management System (TMS), we are able to provide real-time transparency and performance metrics for your company and build agile workflows to help the measurement of your KPIs.
4. Can your processes align with our processes?
There are thousands of language service providers on the market. But the main difference between a provider and a partner is the ability to create custom content and strategy aligned to your company’s goals.
This may mean creating a customized strategy from Point A to Point B; but sometimes getting your product to market also means working with existing vendors and workflows. Knowing if your vendor can be flexible from the start is critical. At Lingotek, we listen to your needs first and align to meet those needs with custom strategies that meet your needs, timeline, and budget.
A True Partner Adds Value
It’s easy to find a translation services provider — there are thousands of them! But a true partner looks out for your best interest and works alongside you to understand your business, build trust, and tailor solutions to give you a competitive advantage. A partner is aligned with your strategic objectives and goals to create custom solutions in order to enter new markets quickly and effectively.
At Lingotek, we aren’t just looking for the next transactional exchange; we are here to help you create quality content that adds value with premium technology and expert strategy. If you’re ready for a true language services partner, contact one of our experts at Lingotek to create your translation strategy.
