How to Tell if your Language Solutions Provider Takes Quality Seriously

Ciklopea — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 12:24:23 +0000

All reputable translation agencies have some kind of translation quality assurance process in place. But for a translation buyer, knowing what’s right and what’s wrong is sometimes hard to decipher. This is why we’d like to give you our recipe for a lean and efficient quality management system.

What is a quality translation?

First and foremost, we need to have a clear idea of what quality really is. Although this may also depend on specific features of each particular project, such as industry, language pair, type of material, target audience, there are four basic elements that define quality of translation:

Accuracy – the translated content is consistent with the source content.
Correctness – the rules and norms of grammar, orthography, vocabulary, date/time and currency formats of the target language / country are followed.
Consistency – the translated material lexically and stylistically consistent.
Fluency – the translation stylistically appropriate in terms of material type, intent and the target language/audience.

Check out our white paper on translation quality for more in-depth information.

It’s all about the team

Language solutions are developed by people, so all quality QA systems start with a quality team.

Having a vendor manager who can source the best translators, test them, and then help them grow into irreplaceable members of the team is just the start. Project managers need to be trained on how to put a translation team together and how to match the right translator to the right project.

Some agencies even have a dedicated Quality Manager who oversees the quality side of all the projects the agency does. They’ll normally be responsible for overseeing things should anything go wrong, too. The final piece of the puzzle has to lie with the rest of the team. This involves training sales teams to know all about the company’s processes, and ensure that management is ready to deal with quality-related issues.

Certification

One way of telling if an LSP is a reputable one is by seeing if they are certified. There are three different certifications to look up in this regard – the ISO 17100:2015 Translation Standard Certificate, international standard that establishes and defines the requirements for the provision of quality services by translation services providers, the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System certificate and the ISO 27001:2013 Information Security Management System certificate.

These certifications ensure that agencies have to document things like their translator evaluation process, their quality control procedures, and all about their project management, to name a few.

Quality Assurance tools

The translation technology market is highly developed and dynamic. It not only helps us with productivity, but it also helps us with QA too. CAT tools (Computer-assisted translation tools, also known as translation productivity tools) have in-built quality checks that really help translators stamp out minor errors that might get missed. Specialized QA tools like Xbench and Verifika also provide an extra pair of eyes and really help a project manager out, especially if they don’t speak the target language. Also making sure that glossaries and translation assets (translation memories and term bases) are regularly developed, maintained and used prove a vital part of a quality QA process.

The post How to Tell if your Language Solutions Provider Takes Quality Seriously appeared first on Ciklopea.

ISO 27001:2005 Certification Successful

Ciklopea — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 09:57:00 +0000

In early 2013, CIKLOPEA made the strategic decision to implement and certify its own processes in compliance with the requirements of the Information Security Management Standard ISO 27001:2005. The harmonisation of CIKLOPEA’s business activities with the requirements of the standard was completed in late 2013 by integrating the requirements into the existent quality management system and its certification by the certification body Bureau Veritas Croatia d.o.o.. The certificate was awarded in early 2014 for a validity period of three years, with regular annual audits. This has made CIKLOPEA the first translation company in Croatia to be certified in compliance with the requirements of the ISO 27001 standard.

The ISO 27001:2005 standard is the basic Information Security Management Standard and it specifies the methods for organising information security in any type of organisation. The application of the ISO 27001 standard ensures a process approach for establishing, implementing, operating, monitoring, reviewing, maintaining, and improving the information security management system of an organisation. In addition to a comprehensive and detailed approach to the protection and security of information as an intangible asset of an organisation, the standard lays down the controls and methods for the protection of such tangible assets such as computers or computer networks. The implementation of the information security standard ensures confidentiality, which means that business data is available only to those for whom it is intended; access to information by authorised persons, when required; as well as accuracy and integrity of information.

In the world of global accessibility and flow of information, information security is the cornerstone of trust and a pivotal factor of security in the business community. This ISO certification once again highlights CIKLOPEA’s dedication to the development and improvement of the company, to the requirements of our long-standing and future partners and clients, and to the highest business standards.