Are all language suppliers equal?

所有语言供应商都是平等的吗?

2020-03-11 01:30 Star Transit NXT

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When it comes to buying translations, a key consideration is your choice of supplier. Should you entrust your project to a freelancer? Should you choose a larger agency with locations all over the world, or a smaller company that has very narrow specialisms? There’s no correct answer to this. In the same way that I can’t give a translation quote over the phone because I haven’t fully analysed the source texts, I can’t give a definitive answer to that question. The only thing I can say? It depends! What do our customers need from us? Aside from blog writing, my role at STAR UK is varied. Lots of it relates to supporting colleagues, but my main focus is on our customers. I’ve been pondering this question a lot recently, and my answer is not as simple as “words in another language”. Our customers need us to help them communicate. We’re not selling words on a page; we’re selling a means of sharing information. Helping our customers define what result they want from their translated content is the first step in delivering top-quality translations. The same is true when it comes to choosing a translation supplier. Freelancers, small agencies and global corporations all have different benefits and each one will be the correct choice for certain types of customers and projects. Let’s look at each of the options and what they offer the translation buyer. Why choose a freelancer? For many businesses, working with a freelancer is the perfect way to source your translations. In many ways, they offer the best of both worlds. You are working closely with one supplier who learns all about your company, becoming almost as familiar with your product offering as your other employees, but is not salaried and therefore only invoices for the work they complete. Freelancers are usually a cheaper option because they have smaller overheads and are often able to be flexible and offer evening or weekend work to accommodate urgent requests. However, one freelancer can only deliver a certain volume of translation, and in one, perhaps two, language combinations. In addition, you have to find the freelancer yourself, and it can be difficult to judge quality when you don’t speak the language. If you find that your translation requirements are growing, working with an agency might be the next logical step. Why choose a small agency? With a small agency, you still retain the ability to develop personal relationships. Most agencies will offer you a dedicated project manager who will become familiar with your translation orders and any specific requirements that you have. Smaller agencies are often specialised in a certain industry or language area so have become experts in their field. They also develop close relationships with their freelancers and will try to ensure that the same resources work on your projects. However, smaller agencies are simply not equipped to deal with very large scope projects, such as those that require localisation to many, many world languages, or those that include millions of words a year. Why choose a global corporation? Global corporations can offer scalability for projects – they already have solutions in place for customers ordering millions of words of translation, and they often have a network of locations around the globe, allowing them to offer the majority of world languages. They are able to offer a 24/7 service and can more easily deal with tight turnarounds or unusual requests. However, in such companies, the volumes involved with certain translation projects can require increased levels of automation leading to that personal touch being diminished or lost. In some cases, corporate processes can get in the way of flexibility. Which is right for you? Each one of the three options listed above is the perfect choice for a different kind of customer and hopefully this article will be useful to help in making this decision. Here at STAR UK, we fit somewhere between small agency and global corporation. We have a team of 4 full-time project managers and we pride ourselves on the personal relationships that we develop with our customers. Yet as part of the STAR Group, we belong to a network of over 40 offices with nearly 1000 employees. We work with some of the biggest names and can handle your project, whether it is one tagline for a new product, or a technical manual to be translated into 20 languages. If you have a potential translation project and you’d like to see if we’re the supplier for you, please chat to one of our team.
当谈到购买翻译,一个关键的考虑是你选择的供应商。 你应该把你的项目委托给一个自由职业者吗?你应该选择一个在世界各地设有办事处的较大的代理机构,还是一个专业范围很窄的较小公司? 没有正确的答案。 同样的,我不能通过电话给出翻译报价,因为我没有充分分析原文,我不能给出一个明确的答案。 我唯一能说的是什么?这要看情况而定! 我们的客户需要我们做什么? 除了写博客,我在英国 STAR 的角色是不同的。很多与支持同事有关,但我主要关注的是我们的客户。 我最近一直在思考这个问题,我的答案并不像“用另一种语言表达的话”那么简单。 我们的客户需要我们帮助他们沟通。我们不是在页面上销售文字,而是在销售分享信息的方式。 帮助我们的客户定义他们希望从他们翻译的内容中得到什么结果是交付高质量翻译的第一步。 选择翻译供应商也是如此。自由职业者,小机构和全球公司都有不同的利益,每一个都是正确的选择,为某些类型的客户和项目。 让我们来看看每个选项和他们提供的翻译买家。 为什么选择自由职业者? 对于许多企业来说,与自由职业者合作是获得翻译的最佳方式。在许多方面,它们提供了两个世界中最好的。 您正在与一个供应商密切合作,该供应商了解您的公司的所有情况,变得与您的其他员工一样熟悉您的产品提供,但不是工资,因此只为其完成的工作发票。 自由职业者通常是一个更便宜的选择,因为他们有较小的管理费用,往往能够灵活,提供晚上或周末的工作,以适应紧急的要求。 然而,一个自由职业者只能提供一定数量的翻译,并且可能是两种语言组合。此外,你必须自己找到自由撰稿人,如果你不说这门语言,很难判断质量。 如果你发现你的翻译需求在增长,与一个机构合作可能是下一个合乎逻辑的步骤。 为什么选择一个小机构? 有了一个小机构,你仍然可以保持发展个人关系的能力。大多数机构将为您提供一个专门的项目经理,他将熟悉您的翻译订单和任何特定的要求。 规模较小的机构通常专门从事某一行业或语言领域,因此成为他们领域的专家。他们还与自由职业者建立了密切的关系,并将努力确保同样的资源用于你的项目。 然而,规模较小的机构根本没有能力处理非常大的项目,例如那些需要本地化的项目,许多世界语言,或那些每年包含数百万个单词的项目。 为什么要选择一个全球性的公司? 全球企业可以为项目提供可扩展性,它们已经为订购数百万字的翻译的客户提供了解决方案,而且它们通常在全球拥有一个位置网络,使它们能够提供大多数世界语言。 他们能够提供24/7的服务,并能更容易地处理紧密的周转或不寻常的请求。 然而,在这些公司中,某些翻译项目涉及的数量可能需要提高自动化水平,从而减少或失去个人接触。在某些情况下,企业流程可能会妨碍灵活性。 哪一个对你合适? 以上列出的三个选项中的每一个都是不同类型客户的完美选择,希望本文将有助于做出此决定。 在英国 STAR ,我们在小机构和全球公司之间。我们有一个由4名全职项目经理组成的团队,我们对与客户发展的个人关系感到自豪。 然而,作为 STAR 集团的一部分,我们属于40多个办事处的网络,拥有近1000名员工。我们使用一些最大的名称,可以处理您的项目,无论是一个新产品的标语,还是一个技术手册翻译成20种语言。 如果你有一个潜在的翻译项目,你想看看我们是否是你的供应商,请与我们的一个团队聊天。

以上中文文本为机器翻译,存在不同程度偏差和错误,请理解并参考英文原文阅读。

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