If you're not already working with a translator or agency, and won't be using in-house staff, now's the time to find one. You will want to research three things: (1) how the quoting and purchasing process works, (2) how to find the right translator or agency, and (3) cost.

The quoting and purchasing process
When you begin your search for a firm to provide you with the translation of your documentation, you will need to look to your purchasing department to find out what you must do to place your order. Finding this out up front can facilitate the entire translation process. Some questions to ask your purchasing agent:

• Do I need a purchase order to give a go-ahead on this job?
  
• Is there an amount that I can order without having to go through the purchase order process?
  
• How long will it take to get a purchase order once I decide which vendor I will use?
  
• Can I get a purchase order based on an estimated amount?
  
• Can I get a purchase order against which to bill small jobs? (This avoids having to get a purchase order for every small job you may have.)
  
• Is there someone who must sign off on the order?

Some agencies and translators will not begin work without a purchase order, so be sure and allow enough time in your schedule for purchasing approval.

While settling these questions with your in-house purchasing department, you will want vendors to provide estimates for the translations you have in mind. The best way to get a firm quote is to provide the vendor with the final version of the document that must be translated*, along with an outline of what you will need returned to you when the translation is completed, e.g. hard copy, diskcopy in WP5.1, send by e-mail, etc. If you have electronic files, this can aid the translation agency in quoting quickly and accurately. If you do not have final copy and are seeking information so you can budget properly for translation, you can provide similar materials that your company has produced with an estimated word count for the upcoming project. Many translation firms consider the type of material to be translated. Rates may vary depending upon the difficulty of the material or, in the case of marketing material, the time involved in recreating an advertisement for a foreign market.

Have the translation firm identify what costs might be incurred other than the translation costs. For example, if you are having your software product translated, you perhaps will want to get a rate for on-site product testing. Other added-value services would include formatting, desktop work, typesetting, etc.

Turnaround time is also a factor to be considered when getting a quote. Quality work requires sufficient time to produce. If you are in the beginning stages of writing your documentation, allowing sufficient time for the translation will help ensure that you get the best possible result. Let the vendor know when you need to have the translation returned. If the date by which you need the work done does not fit into the standard rate structure, you should be aware of any RUSH rate surcharge.

Many translators and agencies have a minimum charge for services. This covers the basic costs involved in setting up a job, administration, billing, and all the steps that apply to any project, no matter how small. The amount of this minimum charge will depend on the translator or agency.

Once you have checked with your purchasing department for internal procedures and received your quotes from the translation sources, you are ready to place an order.

In-house translator:

company-internal resources or personnel. These may be persons in satellite offices, sales representatives, bilingual employees, or other persons who may or may not have been specifically engaged to perform translation.

Free-lance translator:

a single individual whose primary professional activity is translation.

Translation agency:

refers to an organized independent business whose primary activity is to provide a range of translation services, including associated ancillary tasks (e.g. typesetting, desktop publishing, software localization).

These are the main options available to companies requiring translation. Almost all commercial translation needs are met using these options, either singly or in combination. For certain types of documentation, machine translation (see below) is also an option.

In-house translation
Advantages - Bilingual staff possibly experienced in your field
- Direct access to translation resources
- Maximum accountability
- Immediate access to technical contacts in your company

Disadvantages - Diversion of personnel (e.g. bilingual engineering staff) from their primary areas of responsibilities
- Increased overhead costs (supporting a "Translation Department")
- Management/coordination headaches

In the current cost-cutting climate of American business, many companies are choosing not to hire staff specifically for translation purposes. And using in-house personnel is not always as economical as it appears at first. Diverting an engineer from development to translation may give you a $60,000-a-year translator, and cost you an engineer! And an employee with four years of high-school Spanish is not necessarily qualified to translate your highly technical materials for use in Spain.

Free-lance translators
Free-lance translators are often an excellent resource. There are many well-qualified individuals who offer their services in many fields and languages.

Advantages - Consistency of translation
- Direct contact for resolving translation issues
- Often less expensive than agencies

Disadvantages - May be unavailable when you need them (they have other work, are on vacation, etc.)
- Limited throughput (typical output: 800 to 2000 words per day; one person can only do so much so fast and still do a good job)
- Technical limitations (may not have high-end desktop software, software localization expertise, adequate libraries and other resources, etc.)
- Usually limited to a single language

Thus, a free-lance translator may be the answer if, for example, you translate materials only into German, do not have high volume, and can sometimes be flexible about deadlines. You may also have the capability of managing a large pool of translators. However, trying to manage several free-lance translators, particularly on the same project, while ensuring consistency and communication among them can be extremely difficult and time-consuming.

Translation agencies
Translation agencies offer the best solution for certain clients.

Advantages - Available and responsible just like any other business
- Access to extensive translator pools
- Broader technical expertise and flexibility (usually provide output in many formats, may be able to do desktop work or software localization, etc.)
- Offer many additional services
- Provide job/project management and coordination
- Often apply quality-control procedures to translation work

Disadvantages - Usually more expensive than free-lancers
- Introduce a layer between you and the translator

Agencies are often preferred by companies with unpredictable or large-scale multilingual translation needs. A good agency can coordinate complicated projects and select the most appropriate translators for your work. The agency acts to pass technical information on to all the translators, and works to meet tight deadlines. It can also make sure that if you send source material in a certain format, you get it back in the same format.

Agencies can also handle your project from beginning to end, relieving you of the headaches of testing and compiling programs, desktop work, typesetting, and printing.

Finding the right translator or agency
Finding qualified translators and good agencies can be difficult if you don't know where to look.

The only organization for translators at the national level is the ATA (American Translators Association), based in Arlington, Virginia. In addition, there are organizations and chapters at the local level (statewide and regional) that provide directories of translators, including phone numbers and languages translated. The Yellow Pages (particularly in metropolitan areas) also have listings of services and translators and agencies. If these fail, you can contact the language departments of the nearest college or university. These departments will often have the names of individuals or students who work as translators.

Evaluating a translator's work can be even more difficult than finding the translator. Just as with any service, you should be ready to determine whether you are getting what you paid for. You can tell if the hardware you ordered meets your specifications, but how do you know whether the Arabic (or Chinese, or Danish ...) you're looking at really says what you want it to? It's always a good idea to have a resource you can rely on review the translated material. Don't accept: "...well, it just doesn't sound right...". Your reviewer should be able to tell you specifically what is right and what is wrong, and not quibble on points of style.

What should you look for in a translator?
Some rules of thumb:

- Your translator should be highly experienced in the desired language;
- Ask potential translators about their experience. It is useful for a translator to have worked in a particular field, but it is often just as good to get someone who knows how to do the research that proper translation requires;
- Ask your translator about his/her equipment and platform. The last thing you need on a tight deadline is problems reading the file.

Make sure your translator feels comfortable asking a lot of questions. Questions don't mean that a translator is not qualified, they are a sign that he/she is trying to do the best job possible. Give him/her all the support you can, including technical contacts, if possible. All of this will help ensure that you get the best translation possible.

What should you look for in an agency?

- What are the agency's quality-control procedures?
- How long have they been in business?
- How do they select their translators?
- Are they an "envelope shop" (see the Glossary) or a true translation house (with full-time translators)?
- How do they ensure consistency?
- What technical resources do they have?
- How do they price jobs and what is the typical turnaround?
- How do they bill?
- Do they have and enforce confidentiality agreements with their employees and translators?

You also want to make sure that the agency is responsive. Do they make every effort to get you what you need when you need it? Do they listen to you?

Once you find an agency that meets your needs, it is a good idea to stick with it. If you have access to several good agencies, it makes sense to keep specific types of work with the same agency. This will ensure that the terminology used in your documents stays consistent (see Glossary-Building).

Warning: The same laws apply in translation as elsewhere: You can't pay Volkswagen prices and expect to get a Mercedes! Although this axiom is obvious with automobiles, it is not so obvious with translation services. To avoid comparing apples and oranges, you must ask the questions listed above. Choosing Agency A over Agency B may look like a good deal: after all, Agency A is 25% cheaper! But will Agency A avoid the many mistakes that Agency B's quality control would have caught? Will Agency A cause you to have to pay your programmers overtime to fix software resource files because it didn't understand how to leave the embedded coding intact?

It is important to get the most for your money, but don't be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Know what you're buying!