Translation Agency or a Free-lance Translator?

Zbyněk Zelenka

4. 5. 2012

If you are deciding whether to order a translation from a translation agency or, in order to save on costs, directly from a free-lance translator, the following information may help you in making your decision.

What added value would you gain by ordering a translation from a quality translation agency?

The agency will provide you mainly with following advantages:

1. No need to conduct any personnel work

Translation agencies already have all the necessary professions at their disposal, i.e. translators, proofreaders, IT specialists, DTP specialists, interpreters etc. This cooperation is based on contracts and agencies guarantee the quality of their work, confidentiality etc. There is no need for you to inquire whether these people are available, whether they own the necessary software or whether they are qualified for its use.

Our agency has more than 3,000 contractors available.

2. All the work may be finished on a very short deadline

Translation agencies have large databases of the above-described professions and choose the best and most suitable translators based on various criteria and are able to team them up for big projects. One translator just cannot translate 300 pages in a week. Our agency has enough carefully proven professionals available to deal with all common language combinations and we process projects like this regularly.

We have translators for 110 languages in 220 various disciplines.

3. You can expect a quality and experienced agency to give you advice on how to save both time and money

Project managers in translation agencies deal with translation projects every day. Having done this work for a number of years, they can be expected to be able to give you advice on which procedure will be the best for you and what technology will save you both time and money.

Our agency has been active on this market for 22 years and all our employees and contractors have several years of experience.

4. Quality agencies own the most up-to-date technologies and latest translation tools

Successful agencies need to have all the latest technologies and tools available, as various clients may have various requirements. Some of these tools are very expensive and free-lance translators may not have access to them. Also, a certified agency should own valid licenses for all of its software, and we meet this condition.

5. Quality European agencies work in accordance with ISO 9001 and EN 15038 standards

Internal and external audits improve the quality of all management and controlling activities even in translation agencies. All working procedures are methodically elaborated and conducted with a professional approach, while our basic goal is to continuously improve the level of satisfaction of our clients.

Our translation agency has had cerfiticates of quality for 5 years now.

If your translations are to achieve top quality and are intended for publication or important technical use (machine manuals, promotional materials, a website etc.), due to the above-mentioned reasons, this work should be entrusted to a translation agency.

Not everyone realizes that the slightly higher price of a professional translation agency does not have to mean higher total expenses, as these may be eventually lower.