Posted on Thu, Jun 10, 2010
Conducting an efficient in-country review has its challenges. They include finding the staff, dealing with the subjectivity different individuals introduce, and capturing their comments for future project improvements. Turnaround times and meeting launch schedules are two other common problems. Pulling non-dedicated review staff away from their work to tackle a project that's outside their usual duties can also be highly problematic.
Fortunately, there is a way to conduct in-country reviews more efficiently and effectively than the informal methods described above: an outsourced model solution - one that won't use up the precious bandwidth of your own staff. It's scalable to the peaks and troughs of your own product cycles, and it provides unbiased objective feedback in a predictable amount of time.
One Way to Solve the Challenges of In-Country Review: The LQS Service Solution
Lionbridge's Language Quality Service (LQS) is an independent, third-party service that operates separately from the Lionbridge production teams. The teams are completely separated physically and report directly to the client, not to the account project manager. This model has proven successful in numerous large clients to-date, as LQS reviewers provide unbiased and constructive feedback to the client on quality; whether Lionbridge does the translation or another vendor, it's scored equally.
LQS reviewers do quality assurance on any localized product without the overhead of a costly internal department - or pulling employees away from their regular jobs. It has a large scalable pool of native-language speakers, all with specialist knowledge in marketing, telecommunications, banking, etc. All are rigorously certified by Lionbridge's Language Quality Service (LQS) for their role.
This approach removes the subjectivity that an in-country reviewer on your staff might bring to the translation. LQS reviewers review in a completely non-bias, measurable and scientific manner.
Another obvious benefit is a predictable turnaround time. You can expect your review completed within an agreed upon timeframe, based on word count and throughputs. With the LQS approach, you can plan and time a product launch with confidence.
With LQS there are no more headaches about capacity management and scalability - it's a flexible resource. You will have a lower initial outlay when entering new markets where new languages are involved. LQS tailors its full-time and part-time staff to your requirements, so you are not carrying under-utilized fixed costs during quiet periods.
For many companies, in-country review is an important part of delivering quality global products and materials; but to date, it is a severely challenging process. Companies pay a high cost for not seeking greater efficiency:
- the cost of delayed product release cycles
- the cost of diverting local staff into tasks other than their most essential work
- the cost of having a reviewer introduce their personal bias and getting the translation done over again
- the rework factor, which comes into play because feedback isn't captured and utilized in subsequent projects
Done well, the in-country review process can be a strong final check on your products and services before they are launched globally. Effective in-country review reduces overall costs and boosts revenue by enabling you to enter markets faster, with more accurate and timely materials.
Click here to read Lili's The Importance of In-Country Review Part I.
Posted on Wed, Jun 09, 2010
Language quality review is an essential step toward global expansion that can also be an arduous task. Current technology and service trends can address language inefficiencies and enhance effective language review.
As companies continue to expand globally, it is critical they deliver products and services in the local languages of their target markets. How can they ensure their products will gain maximum market share? Do the products accurately reflect the linguistic, cultural, and business practice nuances that exist in each international market?
To answer these questions, more and more companies are making language quality review a normal part of their day-to-day business.
Unfortunately, what you would think should be an easy process often turns out to be quite the opposite. When companies decide to penetrate new markets and use non-dedicated, in-house people for review work, they often find it difficult to recruit and train those individuals. On the other hand, if a company has a dedicated in-house review staff, it has to pay them even when workloads don't merit this expenditure.
Experience shows us this process is often ineffective because a company's in-country reviewers often introduce a bias or subjectivity that can set back the project. It's inefficient because company stakeholders don't know when they're going to get feedback and often don't know what form the feedback will be presented in. This means the feedback is not captured very often for future projects and mistakes are repeated time and time again.
These inefficiencies often mean profitability is reduced by the associated hidden costs. These costs include:
- Delayed product release cycles
- Loss of market share due to inaccurate translation
- Loss of local staff productivity
- The cost of redoing future work because feedback can't be captured and utilized in subsequent projects
Why Review?
Reviewing translation quality is something companies do either for regulatory compliance, peace of mind, and or for ensuring they are getting the best bang for the buck from their translation providers. Life Sciences companies may review every document, usually for regulatory reasons, but also because the stakes are high- an inaccurately translated package insert could in theory put someone's life at risk. Consider the risks to your business if you publish documents that haven't been reviewed. The risks include your company's reputation and profitability, which can be damaged by a product recall due to faulty translation.
Check back tomorrow to read Part II of this blog!
Posted on Tue, Dec 15, 2009
Today Lili provides her perspective on how terminology management and glossaries impact language Quality...
Unfortunately, terminology is not recognized for its true worth as a Quality Tool. Terminology is very powerful: it helps transmit expertise, knowledge and culture locally within a company, as well as globally.
I see terminology like a gateway or an entry gate into the different worlds inside a company. It is important that these worlds understand each other since they all work towards a common goal: customer satisfaction and growth of the company.
Correctly used terminology leads to reduced costs caused by unnecessary communications and misunderstandings, and it guarantees appropriate translation into different languages.
Thus, the necessity to use the right term at the right place!
Glossary Creation - The Client's Perspective
Quality of the source documents on which the glossary creation will be based. These documents should be correct linguistically speaking, conforming to the rules of the source language.
Quality of the term candidates for the glossary. The client must keep in mind that to be efficient, the glossary creation work must be based on the following process:
- Terminology collection: the first step is to gather all communication material available inside the company pertaining to the field concerned by this terminology work.
- Analysis: this step consists of analyzing the data in order to extract the relevant term candidates. In other words, we will need to identify recurring terms and concepts, whether domain-specific or customer-specific terms with their meaning (definition and context).
The use of extracting tools is very helpful, but keep in mind that often words are extracted on their ownwithout any context. So if an extracting tool is used, the list of terms extracted would need to be reviewed by a language specialist, a terminologist for example, and that all the more since the list goes to translation.
If the glossary creation is the first step in a translation process, it is important that the client understands that the translatormust be provided with reference material (contextual information) and that validation of the glossary is essential before translation starts.
Glossary Creation - the Vendor's Perspective
Vendors should pay attention to the points described in the previous two sections (understanding quality of the term candidates), with the work being done by a terminologist or a language specialist.
If the vendor has to create the glossary prior to translation, he should ask for all the reference material relevant to his task. This can include marketing and sales documents, specialized documentation, etc. Then he should analyze the data to identify the terms to be included into the glossary. If an extracting tool is used, the same steps as described above should be followed.
What to Watch For
To sum up and to add a "technical" viewpoint, I've asked our terminologist, Fabrice Chabot, about the points he would watch out for when creating a glossary. He says:
- The frequency of the term in the analyzed documents
- The field concerned, ensuring the term belongs to that field
- The grammar category of the term: most terms extracted are nominal groups
- The meaning of a term: if an individual term belongs to a longer term (one that is several words long), it would probably be more relevant to choose the longer term as candidate for the glossary. For example: if "mask" is extracted as well as "subnet mask" and "character mask," it would be more relevant to take "subnet mask" and "character mask" as candidates, not "mask", since "mask" alone does not represent the same concept in both cases.
Posted on Thu, Sep 24, 2009
Another great blog by Lili Kachakhidze...
Every time you shop, you evaluate quality. You check the expiration date, look at the brand name, the place of origin, etc.
The same applies when you buy Translation and Localization services. You evaluate the quality of the translation service provider (or "LSP," which stands for Language Service Provider in this industry) using specific criteria, and then you measure the end project against specific goals:
- Accuracy: Faulty translation; omission; overtranslation.
- Compliance: Unacceptable terminology or usage according to your corporate standards.
- Linguistic: Violation of language norms; incorrect or inappropriate style; unacceptable punctuation, syntax, or usage according to dictionaries and other established standards; lack of fluency.
In order to get the best in accuracy, compliance and linguistic quality from your translation provider, you're responsible for ensuring they have (and know how to use) all the materials necessary: a glossary, style guide, instructions, language rules, translation memory (TM) from a previous project, reference documents, software when applicable, etc.
Best Practices
- Always be sure your translation provider reads your instructions and the style guide before starting a new project and make sure they stick to them during the whole process. Work with them on anything they think is unclear before starting the project!
- Review the terminology in the glossary or the terminology database with your translation provider. If the Project TM is linked to a Master TM, the Master TM prevails. If there are inconsistencies between the TM and glossaries, take the time to discuss and clarify with your translation provider before the project begins.
- Don't expect a literal, word-for-word translation from an experienced, high-quality translation provider. They will convey the meaning using natural phrases from your target language, so that it is engaging and flows well.
- Make sure your translation provider runs a grammar and spell-check on your files, and ask them for a thorough review after the translation work is complete.
This should give you a good start, and if you'd like more ideas, my Lionbridge colleagues have recently published a free whitepaper, "Ten Translation Best Practices: How to Turn Your Efforts into Strategic Advantage." It's a great paper, I encourage you to check it out (and no registration required)!
Posted on Thu, Sep 03, 2009
Today Lili explains the genesis of Lionbridge's Language Quality Services (LQS) and provides a little more background about that part of the company. Watch this space next time for insight into language quality itself.
Back in early 2000, Berlitz It launched their Language Quality Services (LQS) division to support Microsoft's International Language Services group. Two acquisitions later, in 2005, this service was acquired by Lionbridge and established as a completely independent entity within the company.
The quality and reliability of the LQS model has since been well proven by many companies in the IT, Electronics, Life Sciences, Healthcare and Lifestyle sectors, all of whom outsource (either totally or partially) the Quality Assurance of their translated products and content.
The LQS vision is to engage in strategic partnerships with clients:
- to offer them a long-term customized model for outsourcing content review and linguistic Quality Assurance
- to ensure that their products reach the marketplace with both linguistic and content integrity built in
- to provide an ongoing consultative service that consolidates brand image through consistent quality products and marketing materials
We act exclusively on behalf of, and under the instructions of, our clients. LQS does not work for other divisions within Lionbridge, either directly or indirectly. This allows us to preserve our impartiality and avoid any conflict of interest.
Posted on Fri, Jul 31, 2009
Please welcome Lili Kachakhidze, Lionbridge's Language Quality Services (LQS) Operations Manager, who kicks off her part of the Lionbridge Team Blog with an introduction to LQS.
LQS is like...
Air... One can't see air, can't feel it, can't touch it, and can't hear it. But all one's senses will notice if there is not enough air.
Blood... Heart beat and a pulse are the only normal signs that blood is circulating in one's body. The severe problems start as soon as blood circulation stops.
Imagine you have just bought new plasma TV. It is a really great piece of equipment with a lot of state-of-the-art functions and amazing remote controller. You are going through user manual and in a couple of minutes you are fluent in operating your new TV.
Or imagine you are visiting your dentist. The doctor uses various equipment to smoothly do all necessary actions to examine your teeth.
You could have a great time with your new entertainment equipment or you could feel comfortable in the dentist's chair if everything goes properly. But any issues with your TV user manual or any doubts about the injection could be painful. These are cases where quality counts.
In fact, each time you are receiving information from your environment and it is understandable, it is easy to think it is normal. It is normal because someone done his or her job very well. So, if something is normal, it begins to be unnoticeable. Like in the case of LQS.
Quality assurance delivered by LQS is unnoticeable when a customer reads nutritive information on the snack pack. It is unnoticeable when the mother follows the instructions on how to use nappies for her child. And it is unnoticeable when you switch on the microwave in a proper way. Thanks to quality assurance, ordinary people get confident with other people and things surrounding them. High quality becomes so unnoticeable like air and blood are in your daily life.
The next time you face high quality information in any form in the press, on the internet or any product and service, you may be seeing the work of LQS...
Next up from Lili... a brief history of Lionbridge LQS.