Five reasons why you should collaborate with a single translation agency
Does your company operate worldwide? Or will you be doing business abroad in the near future? Then it’s very likely you’ll be using a translator, whether it’s a colleague, a direct supplier, or perhaps you’ve already enlisted a translation agency.
By scattering your translations across separate agencies, your brand could be left at risk in other languages. For instance, you increase the probability of quality issues and inconsistencies amongst your content. Aside from avoiding these issues, opting for one dedicated translation agency will also help streamline your translation process and decrease your overall translation costs.
In this article we propose five simple reasons to choose for one central translation partner.
1. Reduce your translation costs
Expenditure is an important factor to consider when deciding how to set up your translation process. That’s why keeping your translation in-house might seem like a tempting option. You could consider asking your bilingual colleague, or you might wonder how much Vietnamese Kelly from HR picked up during her gap year. You might even entertain the idea of hiring an internal translator.
However, in practice, allocating translation work to your colleagues is only effective if it concerns small-scale, simple content, to avoid taking away from their usual daily tasks. Most importantly, you need to be aware you’re demanding professional translations from employees whose primary role and skillset does not lie in translation. No matter how much time Kelly spent soaking up the culture in Vietnam.
The scenario of setting up an internal translation team also comes with a set of risks. For example, the fixed costs that come with hiring dedicated employees, and the subsequent lack of flexibility. Only companies that can ensure a daily influx of translation work will benefit from such a in-house translation team, and even then they should rely on an external partner to handle the excess work.
It can’t be overstated that choosing a single, dedicated translation agency can bring down your costs considerably. A good translation agency will offer an efficient translation process that will have a positive impact on your company results. An excellent example of how this is achieved is the use of translation memories. These ensure that the same text is never translated twice – its translation is stored and reused for accurate, consistent translations across your brand’s content. Should you request a translation that includes a piece of text we’ve translated before, we will utilize the previously stored translation. As you can imagine, this means your translations are handled more quickly and at lower costs – and this only gets better the more translations we process for you. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
2. Rely on fixed deadlines
By allocating your translations to internal staff, you’re creating a situation where issues could start to arise. For example, if you need a job done that’s especially urgent, of a large scale, or in a highly specialist language, there’s a chance your team does not have the capacity or the experience to handle such a request. These obstacles won’t be an issue if you work with a translation agency. You’re only one email or phone call away from getting that Chinese trade contract translated into Mandarin. Should you want to spruce up your Swedish marketing content in preparation for your exciting pitch in Stockholm, all you need to worry about is how to pronounce “Trevligt att träffas” (Nice to meet you) on the big day. We’ll take care of the rest. At Nimus translations we always set realistic deadlines, and we give it our all to complete your request by the desired deadline. That way you can focus on sales, not semantics.
3. Safeguarding your brand identity
First impressions are important. The impression your brand gives off in a foreign country is largely dependent on the quality of your translation. It’s therefore essential for your brand identity that your translations follow your tone of voice. How else are you meant to speak to your target audience? Using a reliable translation partner ensures that your brand is represented in a consistently and appropriate manner, in every language. A translation agency will help you set up a style guide and terminology list for your intended language(s), so that you know you’re using the same style and terms across the world. Besides, because translation agencies make use of translation memories, these selected terms will be used consistently across your content. By setting up a style guide you can safeguard your brand identity by setting up predefined rules that apply to every country where you operate. In a style guide you can describe matters such a date notation, tone of voice, acronyms, and key terminology.
This combination of style guide, terminology list, and translation memory is essential to safeguarding your brand identity in every desired target language.
4. Privacy is a picnic
Ever since the introduction of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in 2018 the pressure to protect sensitive data has only increased. By collaborating with a translation agency this task is centralized and all proper procedures are followed, and you can breathe easy knowing all your data is handled with care and stored safely. All the information that we ask you to share with us is in good hands. We strictly adhere to all relevant confidentiality and privacy laws. For instance, all our colleagues and linguists have signed an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) and your files are stored securely or even destroyed after delivery.
So when you work with a professional translation agency that has their business in order, you don’t have to worry about the safety of company’s sensitive information of personal data.
5. Reap the benefits of innovation
There has been a growth spurt in terms of technological advances within the translation industry in recent years. Whatever file type you want to have translated, most translation agencies can handle it. Aside from that, Nimus translations has its own IT-department that has developed an online portal, allowing clients to upload their translation files with ease. This way you’ve got all your translation in one place, organized and easy to oversee. Aside from optimizing an efficient translation process, translation agencies also make use of innovative translation software.
This innovative software also ensures that our customers can save on “volume”: if there is any duplicate text in the translation, you only pay for the first time it appears. This is particularly beneficial in, say, new releases of your software or a small update to a recently published document: you only pay for the new words and sentences. After all, the rest was already translated previously.
By facilitating the collaboration between man and machine, you increase the quality of your translation and you retain the desired tone of voice for your brand.
Maybe your demand for translations is still small at this point, and you might wonder if this approach is really necessary. We cater to every organization, whether their translation workload is big or small. Do you want to explore the options for outsourcing your translations? Please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Get in touch
Would you like more information about our services? Feel free to contact us! Just send an email to sales@nimus.nl or call us at +31 50-5844030.
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