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For the past couple weeks, SimulTrans has been undergoing our annual financial audit. Like most companies, each year we invite external experts to come in to review our financial records, ensure we are accounting for everything correctly, and provide some input on the health of our business. Thanks to changing auditing standards, I have had an opportunity this year to spend a bit more time with the auditing team, as they have expressed more interest in our operations behind the numbers. It is always helpful and interesting to get the perspective of outside consultants in our programs.
Realizing the value these annual audits provide, I was thinking that perhaps companies could benefit from localization audits.
Some areas you might want to examine in a localization audit include the following:
Ownership and format of translation memory
Often we find new customers to SimulTrans may believe they have translation memory files and deliver them to us, only for us to find they are in shambles. Since many companies do not have the tools or expertise to review their translation memory files they have no way to measure this deliverable. Even worse, we see some companies fail to require translation memory be provided to them by their localization providers. A quick look at translation memory files could confirm if they were complete and formatted in a way to maximize their effectiveness.
Costs incurred for previous localization projects
It is always helpful to look back after a project is completed and confirm the costs. Were there any change orders? Was all the time allocated to engineering and testing used? Did you receive all the services for which you were billed? Did the translation memory leveraging strategy optimize the results to reduce cost?
Thoroughness of editing, proofreading, and other revision
If you are paying for translation and revision, spread over several steps and people, you should confirm you are getting this level of linguistic involvement. A quick way to audit these activities are to look for changes between the initial translation and final delivery and to confirm which individual translators worked on a project (which can be accomplished through initials or codes if your vendor is not willing to share the actual names).
Completeness of localized file packages
You may be so rushed to ship the international versions of your product that you may immediately only care about final output (such as PDF files, compiled help, and compiled software files). Once the initial rush to ship is over, it is important to confirm you received all the localized source files, translation memories, and any other components.
Qualifications of translators
You may ask for the qualifications the translators your localization partner uses at the outset of a relationship. The company will probably give you general information about qualifications but would not know at that point which specific translators will be assigned to your project, which could vary depending on schedule, file format, and other factors. By confirming the qualifications of the translators who actually performed the work, you will be able to ensure they are as competent as you expected, even if you cannot read the target languages yourself.
Of course there are dozens of other areas you could audit in your localization program. In addition to this month's annual financial audit, SimulTrans regularly experiences audits of the other areas of our company through our ISO 9001 and EN 15038 certifications, which require our processes to be thoroughly examined by external auditors.
If you would like SimulTrans to check-out your localization program, look at some files, and give you suggestions please let us know. We would be happy to apply our expertise to help you streamline and optimize your translation efforts. |
