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Are You Getting the Quality You Need?
Quality Control Is Key

I recently took part in a panel discussion on "Preparing for Translation and Localization" organized by the Society for Technical Communication, Philadelphia chapter. The meeting clearly highlighted how authors and translators have to work together to successfully address the challenges of global content. When authors and translators aren't aligned, content often ends up disorganized and inefficient. The panel covered the topics of writing for translation, project workflow and collaboration between authors and translators as well as the specifics of handling graphics during foreign language conversions.

Our experience as a translation vendor involved in creating technical communication in foreign languages shows us that successful localization begins with the technical writers. Like translators, technical writers deal with words and are invested in ensuring that the message is communicated well. Indeed, raising the quality of the content in all languages represents the greatest challenge and opportunity for global businesses. (For more on writing for translation, check out our Introduction to Simplified English).

In this newsletter, we address the impact of translation errors and how to prevent them by implementing a quality control process. Whether small or large, all our projects follow this process and our revenue growth shows that it pays. Thanks to our clients, staff and associates - and our rigorous project management process, our results for the first quarter of 2007 show a 300% revenue growth compared to the first quarter of 2006.

Coming up... The release of our re-designed website is planned for this summer. The new site will provide the ability to browse our portfolio of past projects as well as previous newsletter articles. In the meantime, should you need detailed information about our services, methodology, experiences ... request a comprehensive marketing kit.

Warm regards,

Myriam Siftar

Translation Errors Cause Lost Revenue
80% of Firms Surveyed Reports Problems

According to a survey of global businesses carried out by SDL International, eight out of ten international businesses are suffering because of translation errors that have caused lost revenue, delayed product launches or even resulted in fines for non-compliance. The survey also revealed that half of the firms that responded have on average ten different departments involved in the process of localizing information.

These figures alone should be a warning sign for businesses that they need to improve their translation and localization processes to avoid serious impact on the bottom line. Firms don't always openly report the monetary impact of such errors, but readers can find a few amusing translation mistake anecdotes online and in the press. We decided not to publish specific case studies here, but we can make them available to you. Included in the case studies are Air France, Indian Air, and the New Jersey Human Services State Agency. Please contact us to receive them by email.

As the pressure to rush products to market increases, the ability to correct errors decreases and the costs of mistakes grow. Further magnifying the cost of poor-quality translation is the fact that many errors go undetected until they create more expensive problems. For example, an error in a CAD file might not be apparent to CAD users, but could cause errors when engineers are creating physical prototypes or even further downstream. In the pharmaceutical industry, translation errors may result in non-compliance fines or, worse, product usage and safety may be compromised, impacting human lives.

So what processes are in place to prevent these mistakes?

• Resource management:
  
The selection of highly qualified and tested language specialists according to strict criteria is the first step towards error-free translation. Translations are only as good as the translators and proofreaders working on them. Be sure to hire professional translators who are native in the target language and who are also subject matter experts in the relevant fields. An additional building block in creating quality translations is a project manager who develops an in-depth knowledge of your localization needs. Project managers also ensure that your requirements and expectations are met for every project. They will ensure that quality checks are performed at every point of the translation process.


• Project process:
  
The implementation of several quality checks throughout the project helps catch errors early and, therefore, minimizes the cost of fixing them. The use of tools such as translation memory and terminology management contributes greatly to reducing mistranslation, ambiguity, and omissions. The tools currently available on the language industry market have started to aid project teams in their efforts to manage consistency and perform quality control checks in an automated manner.
At MTM LinguaSoft, we implement quality control checks at every stage in the translation and/or desktop publishing process, starting with the creation of a customized "translation and localization quality control checklist" that travels with each project, and continuing with at least two rounds of proofing. The creation, maintenance and use of translation memory databases allow us to efficiently manage these steps and to keep content consistent across documents.


• Customer surveys:
  
Translation quality is hard to measure objectively, especially outside the markets where the translations will be used. The final test is done by the in-country buyers and users. The "best" translation is the one that doesn't look like a translation. Therefore, another way to assess the quality of a translation is to verify that it conforms with the client's expectations and requirements. This is why we ask a lot of questions, both at the beginning of a project and at project completion. A systematic follow up with clients allows MTM LinguaSoft to ensure total satisfaction and build in continuous improvement for future projects.

Additional reference: "Blunders in International Business", by David A. Ricks, Blackwell Publishing, 1999.

Featured Article

Translation Errors Cause
Lost Revenue

Projects

MTM LinguaSoft creates Spanish documents for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) of PA
The CHIP program, run by the Caring Foundation, has released their updated brochure and registration packet in Spanish. MTM LinguaSoft handled the translations and desktop publishing of the materials. Adobe InDesign files with Spanish content were delivered and are on their way to commercial printing.

Completion on schedule of 260,000 words
During the second quarter of 2007, MTM LinguaSoft completed on time the translation from Arabic to English of 260,000 words for one of its on-going clients. This represents a 50% quarterly increase in the amount of work entrusted to us by this client, demonstrating their satisfaction with our performance on previous projects.

Please contact us for more details about these projects and others.

Tips

Most Competitive Cities
In what cities of the world are business costs lowest? That's a question many international businesspeople would like answered. You can find a detailed report on it at www.competitivealternatives.com. This site features a study of international business costs done by the accounting firm KPMG. The study tracks 27 cost components, for 128 cities in nine industrialized countries. You can search and compare cost data by industries or cities. These reports are free.

Look up trade terms in four languages
SciNet Corporation's Multilingual Trade Documentation page makes it easy to look up trade terms in four languages: English, French, German, and Spanish. The list includes approximately 200 words and phrases commonly used in the day-to-day business of international trade.
Reproduced from FITA.org newsletter

Trends

Do you know what POI files are?
POI files contain coordinates and descriptions for a set of locations (which are commonly referred to as "POI" or "Points of Interest"). Many newer GPS models are able to use this data to show what's nearby or even give an alert as you get close to a location (such as a red light enforcement camera). You can download and create POI files at www.poi-factory.com, the website where GPS users share interesting locations and discuss GPS!

Past Articles

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