viaLanguage.com -Translation Articles

Once you submit a project to a translation agency, what can you expect from start to finish? Do you know who you can go to with questions, changes, updates, and status reports? Getting to know your project manager and letting them help you through the process can be a freeing experience, especially when you know that a capable and knowledgeable coordinator is working to translate or localize your project.

Usually your contact with a translation agency will start with a sales representative who you have been referred to from one of your colleagues, or the representative will have approached you about your translation needs. The sales representative will typically get your company set up with a corporate account with the translation agency, answer your initial questions about turnaround time and capacity at the agency, and then hand off your first project to a project manager. Any financial questions, requests for new projects, and questions about quotes or estimates would normally go to your sales representative.

The project manager has all the daily contact with translators and proofreaders so that your project can be as perfect as possible. They are dedicated to your account, and often to the subject matter you deal with most. Whether that is automotive machinery or scientific documents, the project manager often has some special knowledge of language and material related to your topic. More importantly, they know exactly who to use to translate and proofread your material. Because project managers have developed good working relationships with their translation suppliers, they can easily find the best team for your project.

Project managers also are dedicated to ensuring that your company guidelines, desktop publishing (DTP) rules, and writing style is followed as closely as possible. You can rely on your project manager (PM) to be the liaison between you and the translation team. This single point of contact makes it easy to know who to call with questions and concerns. It’s the project manager’s job to make your needs and requirements known to the translation team. Therefore, it pays to let your PM know as much as possible about the target market and also the end use of your translation.

To keep each project on track for on-time delivery, your PM is working behind the scenes to manage your project’s schedule and keep the material flowing back to you in a timely manner. The project manager will also keep you informed about the project’s status as often as you require, whether that’s weekly, or even daily!

As your project starts, you and your project manager should talk about the end purpose of the document and also about any files that the translation agency might need in order to begin work on your project. If your agency is performing desktop publishing for you, the PM might ask you to send source files, images, and fonts. They can also advise you on better DTP methods according to the target language. For example, they are knowledgeable on issues such as font usage, and which fonts would be best for your target language. They can also advise on issues such as what degree of word expansion to expect when you go from your English version to the translated version. These things, and others, will not only help to complete the translation accurately and on time, but they also take the responsibility for being a translation expert off the client.

A good project manager will ask you for updates to your company’s terminology as they occur, and perhaps even gather those new terms in a glossary to use in future translations. And after the project ends, your project manager can conduct a post-project review to identify issues and processes to improve in subsequent translations. Additionally, the project manager serves as your inside contact with the translation agency and can handle questions related to management of your account, and not just the current project. They can help get answers to your questions involving invoicing, for instance, or can work with sales to review your pricing plan.

Although it might seem like a lot of questions back and forth at the beginning of your relationship with a PM, this will set up a great long-term working relationship with your agency and with the project manager. Translation agencies and their staff want to be considered an extension of your company’s team, and they’ll work with you to help gain confidence in their choices and to trust them as a team member.


	viaLanguage Translation Articles Once you submit a project to a translation agency, what can you expect from start to finish? Do you know who you can go to with questions, changes, updates, and status reports? Getting to know your project manager and letting them help you through the process can be a freeing experience, especially when you know that a capable and knowledgeable coordinator is working to translate or localize your project. Usually your contact with a translation agency will start with a sales representative who you have been referred to from one of your colleagues, or the representative will have approached you about your translation needs. The sales representative will typically get your company set up with a corporate account with the translation agency, answer your initial questions about turnaround time and capacity at the agency, and then hand off your first project to a project manager. Any financial questions, requests for new projects, and questions about quotes or estimates would normally go to your sales representative. The project manager has all the daily contact with translators and proofreaders so that your project can be as perfect as possible. They are dedicated to your account, and often to the subject matter you deal with most. Whether that is automotive machinery or scientific documents, the project manager often has some special knowledge of language and material related to your topic. More importantly, they know exactly who to use to translate and proofread your material. Because project managers have developed good working relationships with their translation suppliers, they can easily find the best team for your project. Project managers also are dedicated to ensuring that your company guidelines, desktop publishing (DTP) rules, and writing style is followed as closely as possible. You can rely on your project manager (PM) to be the liaison between you and the translation team. This single point of contact makes it easy to know who to call with questions and concerns. It’s the project manager’s job to make your needs and requirements known to the translation team. Therefore, it pays to let your PM know as much as possible about the target market and also the end use of your translation. To keep each project on track for on-time delivery, your PM is working behind the scenes to manage your project’s schedule and keep the material flowing back to you in a timely manner. The project manager will also keep you informed about the project’s status as often as you require, whether that’s weekly, or even daily! As your project starts, you and your project manager should talk about the end purpose of the document and also about any files that the translation agency might need in order to begin work on your project. If your agency is performing desktop publishing for you, the PM might ask you to send source files, images, and fonts. They can also advise you on better DTP methods according to the target language. For example, they are knowledgeable on issues such as font usage, and which fonts would be best for your target language. They can also advise on issues such as what degree of word expansion to expect when you go from your English version to the translated version. These things, and others, will not only help to complete the translation accurately and on time, but they also take the responsibility for being a translation expert off the client. A good project manager will ask you for updates to your company’s terminology as they occur, and perhaps even gather those new terms in a glossary to use in future translations. And after the project ends, your project manager can conduct a post-project review to identify issues and processes to improve in subsequent translations. Additionally, the project manager serves as your inside contact with the translation agency and can handle questions related to management of your account, and not just the current project. They can help get answers to your questions involving invoicing, for instance, or can work with sales to review your pricing plan. Although it might seem like a lot of questions back and forth at the beginning of your relationship with a PM, this will set up a great long-term working relationship with your agency and with the project manager. Translation agencies and their staff want to be considered an extension of your company’s team, and they’ll work with you to help gain confidence in their choices and to trust them as a team member.