Every year companies invest a lot of money in outsourcing their translation projects to either freelance translators or translation companies. According to figures, only one third of these businesses are pleased with their language services providers.
What is the difference?
Professional translation companies have in-house IT, DTP, project management and quality assurance departments as well as being an all-in-one solution for all multilingual translation projects.
Translation companies as a rule prefer to work with in-country teams of translators rather than with individual freelancers. Team work is now gradually becoming best practice in the translation industry.
A team of translators usually consists of:
- translators: translators are native speakers of the target language. They input all available resources into the material for translation. In their work, translators interact with a translation facilitator.
- translation facilitator: translation facilitators contribute with linguistic and/or technical help.
- translation reviewer or proofreader
Freelance translator vs a translation company
A freelance translator is usually an expert in one or two language combinations.
For large-scale translation projects or translation projects that involve using more than one translator, using an in-house team of translators has major advantages, especially noticeable in the consistency of styles and convergence of vocabulary.
A freelance translator typically has expertise in one or a couple of industry sectors and might struggle with various specialisations (legal, commercial, technical, medical, financial, IT, chemical translation etc). To be successful, a freelance translator has to also be a computer expert (in a way) investing money in up to date software.
Some freelancers offer project management services but what happens when your translation project requires additional services such as proofreading by a second translator, editing, back translation, transcription and glossary creation?
A translation company that employs in-house translators and designated proofreaders are familiar with each other’s writing styles, preferences and even terminology choices. However the proofreader should always be the favourable party. Proofreaders should be used because they are industry specialists only in one area. They should be highly experienced industry professionals with qualifications and background in their chosen subject area. This is also indicated in the BS EN-15038:2006 standards for translation companies.
Lastly, translation companies offer accountability and follow a policy of building intensive and long-standing relationships with clients.
The odds show satisfaction from freelance translators vs. translation companies been 1:4 in advantage of translation companies. Companies that have a global presence will have the need for what is known as Multi Language Vendors to manage translations from 1 into often 20-30+ languages and therefore managing multiple freelancers will become a task on its own with the need for additional resource to coordinate.
