Commoditisation is sweeping through every industry as products and services are made as uniform, plentiful and affordable as possible to make them more attainable – just think how cellphones have converged on features, size and form factors with similar products competing at similar price points. In the language services industry, translations are also frequently bargained down to the lowest cost per word.

But as the demand for global collateral grows, translation services have become much more than just changing copy into another language. Recreating a product manual of 50,000 words in three new languages involves a magnitude of work to manage the project, solve technical snags and assure quality. These specialised capabilities don’t come standard with a cut-rate price per word.

You get what you pay for

The question of ‘how much is all this translation going to cost?’ always comes up right at the beginning of any localisation campaign.

Different teams have different expectations when it comes to translation budgets, but cutting corners around services can mean trouble and more costs down the line. Every piece of collateral has to be perfectly translated, especially if you’re breaking into a market. Or, you could stumble before you’re even out of the gate. More.

See: Bizcommunity

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