Why Outsourcing Translation Makes Business Sense
by Christian Arno, 16th June, 2006
Outsourcing Translation: Lingo24 Managing Director Christian Arno explains why it makes business sense for companies to outsource translation
More and more companies are outsourcing their translation and localisation work to professional translation companies. The translation industry has grown enormously over the last twenty years, and is predicted to be worth in excess of $8bn in 2007 (source: Forrester Research). You can find out why companies large and small are outsourcing their translation work below: Having in-house resources tied up doing translation work costs a lot of money. Your colleagues should spend time building your business and shouldn’t be distracted by other tasks. Furthermore, thanks to our globally distributed workforce and low cost base, you can be sure our charges will amount to much less than the total cost of you undertaking work in-house. The requirement for translation, like that for other non-core business functions, fluctuates significantly. The most cost-effective way of dealing with this variation is to outsource to a trusted translation service provider who you can call on whenever the need arises – and not pay when it doesn’t! Even if you have good translators, it is unlikely that you are using the latest translation technology in-house, and that you have an R&D department constantly evaluating the best way of managing translation. Lingo24 has this capacity, and can use its technological expertise to cut your costs. Those tasked with translation internally may have responsibilities other than translation – and if this is the case, and a task from their core area of responsibility comes up, you may not get as high a level of service from them as you would get from Lingo24. Likewise, in-house translators may not be as motivated as external translation providers – we have to maintain an industry-leading level of service in order to keep our clients, so you can be sure you’ll get the very best level of service. Many employees are given translation work because they “speak another language” or have lived abroad for some time. Translation is a unique skill that requires innate talent and years of training. Our translators are all experienced professionals and know translation inside out. This skill is much more than just speaking another language. Do you have an in-house translation department working 24 hours a day to deliver translation as quickly as possible? We can be that department. With offices around the world, we can achieve turnaround times most commissioners of translation can only dream about. Companies often have their own ways of saying things. This is perfectly normal. But this does not mean that a professional translation service provider could not manage terminology better. Using the latest terminology management tools, we can work with your publications teams to make sure we hit the right tone and use the right terms when talking about your products or services. We can probably do this more effectively than them because of the tools and expertise at our disposal.Cost
Fluctuating levels of requirement
Technology gaps (workflow and TM)
Level of Service
Professionalism of translators
Speed
A counter-argument which (we believe!) don’t hold sway
Company-specific terminology
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