Leonid Glazychev, Logrus IT CEO

The translation industry has reached a certain level of maturity in its modern, technologically advanced shape. Surprising and disappointing as it is, all too often maturity is nothing but a dream when it comes to clients’ expectations or RFPs, especially in the case of huge corporate or state-owned structures. Unreasonable pricing expectations, vague or non-existent quality requirements, lack of basic industry-related knowledge (including clear understanding of risks), oversimplified, untransparent, structurally deficient, and unfair «black box» approaches, and impure intentions are frequently intermingled into a complete mess that makes the situation intolerable for all parties involved, without exception. Clients are not getting what they need or expect, while translation providers, including individuals, are often underappreciated and/or underpaid and/or have to cut corners beyond reason. Unscrupulous or indifferent people on all sides are the only ones who benefit under the circumstances, while true professionals with sufficient self-respect are marginalized. We definitely need to change that!

The article outlines primary principles for a fair marketplace, including:

• Clear and universal understanding of costs and associated risks,
• A cost- and effort-centered, transparent rate structure, and
• Service level agreements (SLAs).

Each of these «pillars» is discussed in detail, including some less understood areas such as the importance of complete elimination of «rate packaging», the cost vs. risk equation and less conspicuous risk factors that come into play, and the frequently underestimated role of SLAs. The document outlines a concrete model for moving forward that should start with universal understanding of the laws of nature and… translation business.

The last but not the least, all these things can only work on a solid foundation that sets an even and transparent playfield, where participants are able to make educated decisions and act meaningfully.

The Ultimate Compromise: Cost vs. Quality vs. Risks vs. Time

Miracles sometimes happen. In theory, you can assign a translation job to an individual with no previous translation experience/references or apply machine translation (MT), then do no editing or proofing whatsoever and still get an almost impeccable translation. But these should be perceived strictly as miracles that are either extremely rare or do not happen at all.

In real life and real production situations one needs consistent, predictable quality, and reasonable scalability. This is only possible with a solid, transparent production solution. Cutting corners as well as setting challenging deadlines inevitably results in lower overall quality and increased risks.

The best solution is always a compromise! One needs to properly assess budget limitations, quality and timing expectations, and acceptable risks for each project or product line and make a conscious, educated decision…

This does not mean that you only need «the best and most expensive» in all cases. What one truly needs is to properly assess budget limitations, quality and timing expectations, and acceptable risks for each project or product line and make a conscious, educated decision on the best solution. This optimal solution combines:

• The budget and scope of work. While it is often hard to increase the budget, it is not completely impossible, especially when you can substantiate the reasons and clearly explain that the current budget does not accommodate all other requirements. Frequently, the best compromise is to reduce the scope or volume but get higher quality.
• Quality expectations and risk tolerance. You need to have both clear quality metrics and well-defined quality expectations in mind, that can be conveyed to and agreed with all project participants in advance. Otherwise, disappointments are almost inevitable, and quality-related discussions will be most subjective and futile. Without these expectations you do not fully understand what exactly you are purchasing or providing 😊.
  Risk is not always directly related to quality. For instance, sometimes quality expectations are relatively lax, but you still need to completely avoid major embarrassments or dramatic misstatements.
  Both quality expectations and risk tolerance directly affect other solution components, such as the production process and supplier profile.
• The optimal production process. While clients do not need to design the whole process on their end, complete understanding of the process and associated costs is critical for proper decision-making.
  • The production process needs to conform to quality requirements and risk expectations.
  • Depending on the process, costs can vary dramatically, often by an order of magnitude.
  • The process needs to comply with the existing IT infrastructure and tool selection, which often impose their own limitations.
• The correct and fair rate structure.
  • A proper rate structure not only dramatically increases overall budget transparency, but often allows to achieve significant savings.
  • Unbalanced or inadequate rate structure can easily make the project unprofitable for diligent suppliers or result in significant extra costs for the buyer.
  • It is important to understand and clearly negotiate particular tasks included (or not included) in each rate to minimize future issues.
• Selected service level. The Service Level Agreement (SLA) covers such areas as expected average and peak capacity, handoff processing times, delay and error tolerance, turnaround time for questions and requests, means of communication, measurers ensuring that the process is followed, quality control procedures and corrective measures, reporting, and much more. It is an inalienable part of any serious contractual agreement.

The SLA determines many other things, including the target supplier profile (a large organization, a midsize company, or an [group of] individual(s). Large companies typically charge higher rates, but they can often offer higher base capacity, better scalability, and more mature processes. On the other side of the spectrum, when volumes are smaller, delays are tolerable, and you have sufficient in-house management resources, working with freelance translators may be the best option. (The mere size of the supplier organization does not guarantee that it is the best match for your projects. You need to diligently research and negotiate all details).

Understanding risks

Most risks clients and suppliers face can be divided into the following three major categories.

• Human factor-related risks
• Process and technological risks
• Other risks related to areas like infrastructure, cybersecurity, disaster prevention and recovery, financial stability, political and economic landscape changes, etc.

Human translation risks

The most obvious human translation/editing risk is dealing with underqualified or underperforming translators/editors (including specific subject matter areas) or their shortage. But this is by far not the only one. Other risks include supplier’s inability to:

• accommodate uneven workload with significant peaks and valleys,
• replace underperforming or no longer available individuals quickly enough, or
• produce uniform, high enough quality across the whole project and over time.

Human factor-related issues cannot be completely eliminated; their scale and number are inversely proportional to the overall availability and qualification level of language resources. Still, proper infrastructure, processes and technology can limit these risks significantly.

Process and technological risks

These risks are spawned by sophisticated processes, complex workflows with numerous steps and multiple stakeholders, problematic or unstable tools, etc. At the same time, proper checks built into the process can significantly lower the risks related to human oversights or tool-related issues.

The key here is to balance overall process and workflow complexity and the number and frequency of quality control procedures. After a certain point quality control no longer produces tangible improvements, but still affects both cost and speed.

Other risks

This group includes all risks related to various in-house and external troubles, starting from critical equipment failure, issues with Internet lines, computer viruses and cyberattacks, pandemics and other natural disasters, government interference, etc. The relevance of these risks was illustrated by the recent COVID pandemic. It demonstrated how well each company was prepared to quickly switch to the work-from-home model for most employees…

There are two types of ramifications that one needs to consider.

• How seriously is the production process affected, including delays and reduction in capacity?
• Is the supplier protected financially in case of major work interruptions and/or client or third-party lawsuits?

Summary + Why sometimes you need to pay more…

Most of the risks (except for MT-related ones) are rather generic, not specific to the translation industry, and tightly intertwined. It is important to understand that there is no way to eliminate risks completely; failures are statistically inevitable. Lowering risks means that failures will be less frequent and less severe.

Clients need to prioritize risks properly, ask the right questions, and include specific requirements and/or expectations for all higher priority risks in the Service Level Agreements (SLAs). For projects with tight deadlines or milestones, large volumes or peaks, complex workflows, sophisticated, multifaceted requirements, or other challenges risks levels are elevated. In such cases more mature suppliers with a serious infrastructure, reliable processes, sufficient headcount, scalability, and financial stability may be the only safe choice.

Suppliers need to understand that risk assessment is essential for mature clients and get prepared to talk not only about their rates, translators, CAT tools, and processes, but also about such areas as infrastructure, scalability, information security and data loss prevention policies, financial stability, disaster prevention and recovery plans, cyber insurance and other types of insurance that may be required, etc.

Part II