Last week, I visited one of our medical devices clients when they asked the following: “We’ve been working with you for over a year and are extremely pleased with your service. How do you ensure that the quality of the translation is met with each project?”
While most language vendors would say something like, “well we use native translators” and the more sophisticated add “with subject matter expertise (SME)”, my answer went much beyond that.
At GlobalVision, we not only rigorously qualify native translators and classify them based on their subject matter expertise, we perpetually monitor their performance as long as they are working with us. How we do that is unique in the translation localization industry. Read on…
When a project manager is tasked to select a translator or a reviewer for a new project, the available resources are tabulated by our Translation Management System gvAccess, in an easy to read grid, specifying all the following information:
gvAccess automatically grades translators based on key criteria
1. Translator’s subject matter expertise. For instance, can the translator handle medical, software, legal, financial or engineering projects? In gvAccess, we automatically classify each project by the customer’s industry, and manually, by the project’s type and style. The translation management system then flags translation subject matter experts to the project managers at the top of the translators’ selector grid.
2. Translators’ style expertise. Even when a translator has the subject and language expertise, at times, he or she doesn’t have the necessary style expertise. For instance, some translators can handle instructional translations very accurately, while others are better at handling creative writing. So the ability of the translator to handle Instructional, Marketing, GUI or Creative translations is of paramount importance when each specific style is needed!
3. How many projects has this translator done at GlobalVision? You don’t want to assign a rookie on critical tasks. Even though that all our translators have many years of experience in translation, our ISO 9001 process requires that newly added resources are thoroughly vetted till proven capable. It therefore requires us to keep track of the number of tasks they have completed for us. At times we find that although our newly added translators have significant experience in translation, using new tools or processes have a chance to create a problem, till they are more familiar with them.
4. How many projects has he or she performed for this client in previous tasks? One, we don’t want to go against the learning curve with each project for a specific client. Two, offering continuity in the style in all your projects is very important to your end-users.
5. How was this translator rated by project managers and clients in the past? This is very important information to share with all project managers to eliminate problems from recurring. Many clients who perform their in-country proofs may have certain stylistic requirements that are matched to specific translators. Project managers need to ensure that they follow these requirements.
6. Are there any comments or notes from project managers about this translator? Some translator-reviewer teams work well (or not) with each other. Comments and notes will help all project managers learn from previous experiences and apply the best fit translator/reviewer team to the project.
Sounds good? Well, we don’t just stop here. Our translation management system applies a proprietary algorithm developed internally over the years to grade each translator based on all the info presented to it, including the above and how often a translator was early, on time, or late with a project. It then sorts them in the order of the highest to the lowest, giving the project manager an analytic method of selecting the best resource for each project. This objective grading is often unique to each project based on the project’s criteria.
Does your language service provider take this much care into selecting the translators that work on your projects? Ask and do find out. It is often the little things that when leveraged correctly make the big difference in meeting quality, schedule and budget requirements!
3 Comments
Hello,
It would be interesting to know how you evaluate a translator’s subject matter expertise and style expertise. Is it done by a project manager or reviewer after each project? How do you ensure objectivity of such evaluation? And how do you ensure that your evaluator has sufficient expertise for such evaluation?
Thank you,
Roman
These are very good points Roman.
A translator’s subject matter expertise is tested with a sample and then monitored throughout projects based on feedback from peers (reviewers) and clients (users).
Objectivity is a key consideration in our rating system. But as you point out, when it comes to language, there is no escape from subjective interpretations. We have translators whose translations are considered outstanding by some clients and completely inadequate by others.
This is why it is very important to have the correct translator/reviewer team on each project for each client.
Our rating system ensures that by taking many objective criteria into the mix, including the number of projects performed for GlobalVision, the number of projects performed for the client, the number of projects delivered on time (or late), the number of projects where quality may have been an issue and then assign weight on the subject matter expertise of the translator, we leverage many objective factors and are much more likely to get objective results.
Of course, getting the correct team in place on the first project for a new client is more challenging than doing repeat projects where success has already been established. This is where the human touch comes into play. The Translation Management System is a key aid to the project manager, but it is only an aid as there is no substitute for human involvement in the final decision making. The project manager will continue to retain full control over whom he or she involves on any project, particularly for new client projects.
Hope this answers your questions.
Jon, you forget to mention that GlobalVision has VERY responsive PMs. They are on my IM and Skype, and I get answers to my questions in the shortest possible time. Such things greatly improve the quality of a translation.