Entrepreneurship

Is TRANSLATION…

…a Product

…or a Service?

A very OLD profession…

Things have not changed that much…

Processes have…

Quality Standards for Traslation Industry

• EN-15038:2006 (Europe).

• ASTM F-2575–06 2006 (USA).

• CAN/CGSB-131.10-2008 (Canada).

• GB/T 19363, 1-2003 (China).

• NTC 5808 2011 (Colombia).

Other Standards under creation • 11669 Translation Specifications.

• 13611 Community Interpreting.

• 14080 Translation Assessment (cancelled).

• 17100 Translation Requirements (CEN to ISO).

• 18587 Machine Translation Post-Editing.

• 18841 Interpreting Guidelines.

• Interpreting Equipment.

Translation industry in

figures…

Source: The Language Services Market: 2013. Common Sense Advisory.

Language matters…

27,768 TSPs

TSP + 1 person

Source: The Language Services Market: 2013. Common Sense Advisory.

LSPs/TSPs (MLV, RLV, SLV)

GSPs

Hybrid LSPs

Freelancers

US$34,778 billion in 2013

Source: The Language Services Market: 2013. Common Sense Advisory.

Source: The Language Services Market: 2013. Common Sense Advisory.

5.13 %

Source: The Language Services Market: 2013. Common Sense Advisory.

Fuente: The Language Services Market: 2013 Common Sense Advisory.

Region Market Share

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 US$M US$M US$M US$M US$M

Africa 0.29 91 101 108 116 125

Asia 11.38 4,318 3,958 4,251 4,566 4,905

Europe 48.75 16,553 16,957 18,215 19,565 21,014

Northern Europe 18.30 6,322 6,364 6,836 7,343 7,887

Western Europe 22.40 7,606 7,790 8,368 8,988 9,654

Eastern Europe 4.66 1,472 1,621 1,741 1,870 2,008

Southern Europe 3.40 1,153 1,182 1,270 1,364 1,465

Latin America 1.80 211 626 672 722 776

North America 35.77 11,683 12,440 13,362 14,353 15,417

Oceania 2.00 670 696 747 802 862

Totals 100 33,523 34,778 37,355 40,124 43,099

How to enter the

industry…?

Translation and linguistic

competence

Cultural competence

Document competence and IT usage

TYPICAL OPTIONS FOR NEWCOMERS

Freelancer

Employed translator

Freelancer

• Start-up requirements.

• Taxation.

• Operativity.

• Communication with industry.

• Knowledge update.

• In translation companies.

• In translation agencies.

• In companies of other industries.

• In government or official bodies.

Employed translator

Employed translator in general companies

• No start-up requirements.

• Taxation by the company.

• Own operating rules.

• Communication with customer or between departments.

• Knowledge update through company.

Employed translator in translation companies

• Added-value in translation process.

• Employed staff, with minor labour churn. Payed internships.

• Implemented (and certified) procedures.

• Team work.

• Multiple application use.

• More restricted professional promotion.

• Other social benefits.

Employed translator in translation agencies

• Intermediation in translation process.

• Significant labour churn of staff, pseudo-employees or non-payed interns.

• Lack of defined operating procedures.

• Operating improvisation.

• Scarce applications due to outsourcing.

• Very limited professional promotion.

• Lack of social benefits.

• Trainee/intern. • Translator and localiser. • Reviser, reviewer and post-editor. • Translation team lead. • Project manager. • Production manager.

• Quality manager (in certified companies).

• Terminologist.

• Linguistic engineer or technology specialist.

• L10N quality tester.

• Account manager or sales rep. • Vendor manager…

• DTPer or diverse specific tool specialists.

Typical profiles in translation companies

Employed translator in companies of other industries

• Less usual, but they do exist…

• Reduced labour churn.

• Usually very well paid.

• International mobility in staff.

• Potential promotion to other departments.

• Many and interesting social benefits.

Employed translator in government or official bodies

• They do also exist...

• Long-term jobs.

• Salaries subject to labour scaling.

• Access through competition tests.

• Limited number of job posts.

TRANSLATION SERVICE PROVIDER (PST)

According to the European Quality Standard for Translation Services EN-15038, translation service

providers are defined as follows:

«Person or organisation delivering translation services».

Physical person or commercial company.

Translation Companies • Big companies: specialised staff for different Jobs and profiles.

• SMEs: integration of several functions into one person.

Freelancers • Translator copes with different functions in all-in-one environment.

• Translator establishes virtual or real relationships with other translators

for revisiones or additional tasks.

• Direct: A outsources a job to B to translate their own material. • End: A outsources the material of B to C for translation.

PLAYERS IN TRANSLATION INDUSTRY

Customers

Request, Quotation &

Contract Management

Service Delivery

Management

Checking of Service

Requirements & Delivery

C U S T O M E R

C U S T O M E R

Where do translation operations take place? (including TM…)

SO, WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO…?

USUAL PATH…

TRANSLATION PROJECT MANAGEMENT WORKFLOW

Plunet

System Review by Management

System Objectives and Policies of Quality Management System

STRATEGY

Request, Quotation &

Contract Management

Service Delivery

Management

Checking of Service

Requirements & Delivery

OPERATIONS

Human Resources Management

Technical Resource Management

Outsourcing and Buying Management

SUPPORT

QUALITY Documentation, Data & Register

Control Internal Audits

Non-conformities, Claim Management,

Corrective & Improvement Actions

Customer Satisfaction Assessment

C U S T O M E R

C U S T O M E R

Basic organization chart of a certified translation SME

MANAGING DIRECTOR

FINANCE

QUALITY MANAGER

HUMAN RESOURCES

PRODUCTION

PROJECT MANAGERS

TRANSLATORS

CO-ORDINATORS

INTERNAL AUDITORS

PROOF-READERS & TESTERS

REVISERS & REVIEWERS

IT

DIVERSE TOOL SPECIALISTS

INTERNS

PMS Ideal Project Management Scenario

Process Indicators

42

Traceability

Productivity

Quality

www.euatc.org

ATC SK

www.euatc.org

47

Other translation company associations

Translators associations

Advantages of Translation Industry

• A big market of ≈ 30,000 million Euros.

• Significant annual growth rate.

• A big universo of programmes and applications (many of them are free).

• Anti-crisis industry.

• Geometric growth of instant communication and information media among professionals: blogs, forums, social networks, etc.

• Exchange format standards: TBX, TMX, XLIFF, etc.

• Remote work possibilities.

• MT translation post-editing as a new and solid service.

Source: Hermes Traducciones & Juan José Arevalillo.

• Margin reduction.

• Enormous pressure from customers to reduce translation rates by using technologies (not always properly used…).

• Low-cost marked competition.

• Gigantic atomisation of industry.

• Dubious information sources.

• Uncontrolled use of MT in inadequate profesional environments.

Disadvantages of Translation Industry

Source: Hermes Traducciones & Juan José Arevalillo.

A thought on MT…

«Unlike other professions, translation tools are not developed in order to help translators, but to help customers. Machine translation is not an exception: it was initially developed as a substitute to human translators, and now it is used to reduce costs and impose significant reductions in translators’ rates».

Rubén de la Fuente MT and Multi-lingual Web Translation Manager,

PayPal

Costs

Quality

Time

Three magic words in translation project management and in the industry

Thank you for your attention!

Questions, suggestions…?

Hermenet

Juan José Arevalillo Doval juanjo.arevalillo@hermestrans.com

www.hermestrans.com @JJ_Arevalillo

@hermestrans