Note: This blog post was originally written in Japanese for our Japanese website. We used our machine translation platforms to translate it and post-edit the content in English. The original Japanese post can be found here.
Let’s say your company has signed contracts with companies overseas and is expanding its international sales channels. Or your company has decided to work with overseas factories and have to create manuals for them.
So, you are going to outsource translation for the very first time. And you may be wondering how to ask a translation agency to get the translation done.
Translation agencies aim to deliver the best possible deliverables within the given time and budget that customers desire. When they receive a request from a customer, they want it to contain as much information related to the translation project as possible. To discuss how to achieve a more satisfactory translation, we have compiled two sections in this post: "Preparation" to list what to prepare and "Contact" to guide you how to contact a translation agency.
Preparation
First, let's consolidate your own translation needs.
Content and usage
- What are the target documents? And who are the target readers?
Make sure what the target documents are, and what (for what kind of readers) they need to be translated for.
In translation, it is very important what the documents will be used for and what kind of readers they are intended for. For example, presentation materials, instruction manuals, internal documents, and press releases.
Of course, as a professional translation company, we can get a rough idea of what kind of documents they are and what they will be used for just by checking the documents provided by customers. However, it is only a guess, and the information provided by customers is the most specific and accurate. This information helps us to select the right translator and plan the translation project.
Also, if you have any documents or reference materials related to the target documents, remember to hand them over together when you make the translation request. These include previous version of the same document, materials for specialized terminology, and websites with related information. Doing so will help to make the translation better.
Schedule
- By when do you need the translation?
Whether you need the translation for a presentation on a specific date, you have a rough target deadline for the translation, or you just want to know how long it will take to get the translation done, make sure to provide the translation agency with your preferred schedule. Also, if you have a preferred date to get your estimate, it might be better to tell them about that too.
Budget
- Do you have a set budget?
If your budget is set, you should provide that information This will help the translation agency to provide alternative options, such as limiting the translation scope so that it will fit in the budget or adjusting the work processes to handle. If you do not have a specific cost in mind, the agency will provide you with an estimate for the work done with a typical workflow that matches the nature of the documents.
Information security and other
- Do you have any other requests?
For example, there may be cases where some customers have internal regulations that restrict outsourcing work due to their information security policy. Some translation agencies have a certificate of international standard on information security (ISMS: Information Security Management System, ISO 27001). Translation agencies with ISMS and other ISO standards usually have that information on their websites, so we encourage you to check for that in advance especially when you need to translate confidential documents.
If necessary, you can also ask the agency whether they can sign an NDA or not before you hand over the target documents.
That's all for the preparation part. Hopefully, this will help you when you make a translation request. Here’s a checklist of what we’ve just discussed.
| - What are the target documents? And who are the target readers? - By when do you need the translation? - Do you have a set budget? - Do you have any other requests? |
Contact
Now, once you are ready for the translation request, it’s time to contact the translation agency. Whether you contact them by phone or email, you may want to summarize and tell them something like this:
| "I have made minutes of the departmental meeting on market research and would like to ask you to translate it into English. The translation is going to be shared only within the department, so it is no problem if the expression is not perfectly fluent. We can 't spend much on it, so can you make it as cheap as possible? And I 'd like to check it before the next meeting, so could you deliver it by Thursday? I can send you the flowchart used at the meeting as a reference." |
This much information is enough for now.
Then, just attach the data of the minutes to be translated to your email and send it to the translation agency, and the contact person at the agency will most likely suggest a translation plan without any questions.
The translation agency does not have all the information that you have. Therefore, actively providing information to the agency will get you closer to receiving the services that you want. This will also prevent problems and errors. In addition, low-cost proposals can be made depending on how you want to use the translation or by utilizing past translation data or terminology. If you are worried about what materials to give to the translation agency, we recommend you to just simply ask them.
You might be concerned about the confidentiality of the materials, but don't worry. Kawamura International is ISO27001 certified (ISMS certification), an international standard for information security. This means that you can count on us to handle both highly confidential and highly specialized translation projects.
Of course, there may be times when you need a translation quickly and you don't have time to prepare the information. In that case, just tell the translation agency that you need the translation as soon as possible. They will ask you some questions before presenting the best plan.
Kawamura's translation services
Kawamura International offers translation services in fields such as IT, medical devices, legal, finance, and patent, supporting more than 40 languages.
We provide high-quality human translation services along with consulting on the effective use of machine translation with post-editing services to meet the various needs of our customers. Not only that, we also handle a variety of language-related services, such as editing and localization services of video and audio data.
Get in touch with us if you need professional translation services or have any other questions about translation and localization services in general.
