Thanks to easier methods of communication and transportation, more companies are able to expand and reach a global market. When you first start trading internationally, you might be able to get by by using (or hiring) a multilingual staff member to carry out your French translations or Russian translations. However, as your business expands, you’ll probably find that there’s more work than they are able to cope with.
Setting up your own translation department within your organization is costly and usually unnecessary unless you require the use of document translation services all day, every day. As a company expands, all human resources get stretched to a certain extent and this is when mistakes can happen. When you use a translation agency such as Wolfestone for your French, Spanish or Russian translations, for example, it won’t make a difference how much or little translation work you have on at any given time. We use our network of over 6,000 professional freelance translators to provide document translation services for work of any volume. You can also be sure that you will be getting the services of someone who is a specialist in your field, with an understanding of the market you operate in.
As well as experience and quality, another reason for employing a translation agency rather than relying on multilingual staff members is the tools that they available at their disposal. Professional translators use translation tools that build translation memories. These work by ‘remembering’ words or phrases that have been seen before and automatically translating them in the same way. Unlike a machine translator, this improves the accuracy, particularly in very long documents where the same terms might keep coming up. There are usually several (correct) ways of translating these terms, but a translation tool will ensure that they are translated the same throughout, giving your document consistency and allowing you to present more professional and accurate copy. What’s more, it leaves less for the translator to do, giving you a lower cost price too. These tools are complicated to get the hang of and expensive to buy, yet with a professional agency you don’t have to worry about this – it’s all part of the service.
Consistency in translation should be a large focus for anyone working on your documentation. Multiple French translations for what was one term in the English throughout leaves your customers and staff confused and provides a confused image of your company too – as if you don’t know what’s going on. Inconsistent translations often come about when too many people get involved – if you have one staff member focusing on any translation work that comes along, for example, and then they leave or get moved into another role, so someone else takes over but doesn’t have time to look up every term and how it was previously translated, then they leave and so the cycle continues. Professional translation agencies have terminology lists for specific industry sectors, set up glossaries, and take direction from you regarding style and tone.
