Understanding the Hidden Costs of Internal Translations

In today’s expanding global economy; companies recognise they need to offer their products in multiple languages. Companies must market, sell, produce and support their products in the regional language of their buyers in order to gain and keep market share in a foreign country.

Often a company with a large global presence will make the decision to leverage internal resources in an attempt to manage and handle translation requirements. The degree of internal involvement varies depending on the nature and scope of the project requiring translation.

Unless a company establishes a dedicated Translation Department, using internal, in-country resources, it may run into issues that influence both cost and delivery. For instance, the employees tasked to work on these projects may be asked to do so in addition to their primary job duties. Which responsibility will suffer? In reality, this additional translation work automatically becomes a low priority compared to their actual job responsibilities. Because of this, it is almost impossible to commit to a project timeline with firm delivery dates. The time that can be spent on a translation project is usually the time that remains after the employee has completed his/her daily tasks; this "available time" is often rare and can be extremely unpredictable.

Another problem that may surface when attempting to handle translation duties inhouse is that not all in-country resources are qualified to carry out translations. Even though these individuals are native speakers of the target language, they have not been trained as translators. They also may not be fluent enough in English to fully understand the true meaning of the source content. Additionally, their writing skills, even in their own language, may be inadequate, and the complexity of the content requiring translation may be more difficult than they anticipate. Documentation translation is a fairly straightforward process, but localising dynamic e-commerce websites and validating application software for multiple platforms requires specialized expertise and a great deal of experience.

When companies rely on internal resources for translation, it isn’t unusual to see the final version of the translated materials be inconsistent. This typically occurs when the source content was rewritten to an internal employee’s local interpretation of the meaning, regardless of actual messaging or meaning of the source content.

The reality is, using non-dedicated internal staff for translation projects adds both time and, more importantly, cost to projects. Hidden costs are involved in using internal employees to carry out translation projects as a secondary responsibility. Consider the potential downside: Was a promising sale lost because the appropriate resource was not available for a key pre-sales presentation? Was an existing client lost because he/she didn’t receive timely support concerning a critical product issue?

In reality, using internal, in-country resources for translation projects is never really "free."

About Merrill Brink:

Merrill Brink International (www.merrillbrink.com) is a leading provider of complete translation and language solutions for global companies and law firms, with special expertise in serving the legal, financial, life sciences, software, heavy machinery and corporate markets. A proven leader with more than 30 years of experience, Merrill Brink offers a wide range of language solutions including translation, localization, desktop publishing and globalization services.

For more information, please contact Merrill Brink, Tel: 888-601-9814; Email: translations@merrillbrink.com; Web: http://www.merrillbrink.com

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