Top 4 Tips For Rush Translations
In today’s expanding global market, the importance of delivering high quality projects at competitive prices with tight deadlines has never been so critical. While working as a senior account manager in the translation industry, I see that “RUSH” projects with short turnaround times are starting to become a common client request. After 4 years of experience, I have indentified 4 important tips to take into consideration when both time and quality are as equally crucial for a successful delivery.
1) Pre-Planning: It is important to provide at least a sample source file along with a detailed description of the projected scope prior to the start date in order to begin the translation process “RUNNING” upon final approval. Simply assigning the project to properly qualified resources can take up to 1 full day depending on the language pair and content complexity. Any extra time you can save pre-planning can make the difference between the project’s success or failure.
2) Set Guidelines: Starting any project without setting predetermined guidelines is not a good idea, especially when it is time sensitive. The key factors to be confirmed before starting your project are target market, dialect, tone, register and measurement conversion/localization. When working with hard deadlines, there may not be enough time to correct and update the translation after final delivery.
3) Additional Fees: If there is any reason not to wait and hurry a project, it is to avoid additional rush fees. Translation companies can charge up to double their normal rates due to last minute requests and translators working through the night and weekends in order to meet deadlines.
4) Reformatting Issues: If you require the translated files to mirror the original source materials, reformatting often will add additional days to the project work flow. If this is not considered, the translated files will be delivered as text only, without formatting, which often can make or break the project in the end.
I guarantee, if you follow each of my 4 tips for all of your future Rush translation projects, you will not be sorry.