This document discusses the translation industry, including its size, standards, and various roles within it. It describes translation as both a product and service. The industry is large but also faces issues like margin reductions and low-cost competition. There are various paths one can take to enter the industry, whether as a freelancer or employed translator within a translation company, agency, or other organization. Quality, costs, and time are three important factors for managing translation projects and the industry overall.

1. Entrepreneurship

2. Is TRANSLATION…
…a Product
…or a Service?

3. A very OLD profession…

4. Things have not changed that much…

5. Processes have…

6. Quality Standards for Traslation Industry
•
EN-15038:2006 (Europe).
•
ASTM F-2575–06 2006 (USA).
•
CAN/CGSB-131.10-2008 (Canada).
•
GB/T 19363, 1-2003 (China).
•
NTC 5808 2011 (Colombia).

7. Other Standards under creation
•
11669 Translation Specifications.
•
13611 Community Interpreting.
•
14080 Translation Assessment (cancelled).
•
17100 Translation Requirements (CEN to ISO).
•
18587 Machine Translation Post-Editing.
•
18841 Interpreting Guidelines.
•
Interpreting Equipment.

8. Translation industry in figures…

9. Source: The Language Services Market: 2013. Common Sense Advisory.
Language matters…

10. 27,768 TSPs
TSP + 1 person
Source: The Language Services Market: 2013. Common Sense Advisory.

11. LSPs/TSPs (MLV, RLV, SLV)
GSPs
Hybrid LSPs
Freelancers

12. US$34,778 billion in 2013
Source: The Language Services Market: 2013. Common Sense Advisory.

13. Source: The Language Services Market: 2013. Common Sense Advisory.

14. 5.13 %

15. Source: The Language Services Market: 2013. Common Sense Advisory.

16. Fuente: The Language Services Market: 2013 Common Sense Advisory.
Region
Market Share
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
US$M
US$M
US$M
US$M
US$M
Africa
0.29
91
101
108
116
125
Asia
11.38
4,318
3,958
4,251
4,566
4,905
Europe
48.75
16,553
16,957
18,215
19,565
21,014
Northern Europe
18.30
6,322
6,364
6,836
7,343
7,887
Western Europe
22.40
7,606
7,790
8,368
8,988
9,654
Eastern Europe
4.66
1,472
1,621
1,741
1,870
2,008
Southern Europe
3.40
1,153
1,182
1,270
1,364
1,465
Latin America
1.80
211
626
672
722
776
North America
35.77
11,683
12,440
13,362
14,353
15,417
Oceania
2.00
670
696
747
802
862
Totals
100
33,523
34,778
37,355
40,124
43,099

17. How to enter the industry…?

20. Translation and linguistic competence

21. Cultural competence

22. Document competence and IT usage

23. TYPICAL OPTIONS FOR NEWCOMERS
Freelancer
Employed translator

24. Freelancer
•
Start-up requirements.
•
Taxation.
•
Operativity.
•
Communication with industry.
•
Knowledge update.

25. •
In translation companies.
•
In translation agencies.
•
In companies of other industries.
•
In government or official bodies.
Employed translator

26. Employed translator in general companies
•
No start-up requirements.
•
Taxation by the company.
•
Own operating rules.
•
Communication with customer or between departments.
•
Knowledge update through company.

27. Employed translator in translation companies
•
Added-value in translation process.
•
Employed staff, with minor labour churn. Payed internships.
•
Implemented (and certified) procedures.
•
Team work.
•
Multiple application use.
•
More restricted professional promotion.
•
Other social benefits.

28. Employed translator in translation agencies
•
Intermediation in translation process.
•
Significant labour churn of staff, pseudo-employees or non-payed interns.
•
Lack of defined operating procedures.
•
Operating improvisation.
•
Scarce applications due to outsourcing.
•
Very limited professional promotion.
•
Lack of social benefits.

29. •
Trainee/intern.
•
Translator and localiser.
•
Reviser, reviewer and post-editor.
•
Translation team lead.
•
Project manager.
•
Production manager.
•
Quality manager (in certified companies).
•
Terminologist.
•
Linguistic engineer or technology specialist.
•
L10N quality tester.
•
Account manager or sales rep.
•
Vendor manager…
•
DTPer or diverse specific tool specialists.
Typical profiles in translation companies

30. Employed translator in companies of other industries
•
Less usual, but they do exist…
•
Reduced labour churn.
•
Usually very well paid.
•
International mobility in staff.
•
Potential promotion to other departments.
•
Many and interesting social benefits.

31. Employed translator in government or official bodies
•
They do also exist...
•
Long-term jobs.
•
Salaries subject to labour scaling.
•
Access through competition tests.
•
Limited number of job posts.

32. TRANSLATION SERVICE PROVIDER (PST)
According to the European Quality Standard for Translation Services EN-15038, translation service providers are defined as follows:
«Person or organisation delivering translation services».
Physical person or commercial company.

33. Translation Companies
•
Big companies: specialised staff for different Jobs and profiles.
•
SMEs: integration of several functions into one person.
Freelancers
•
Translator copes with different functions in all-in-one environment.
•
Translator establishes virtual or real relationships with other translators for revisiones or additional tasks.
•
Direct: A outsources a job to B to translate their own material.
•
End: A outsources the material of B to C for translation.
PLAYERS IN TRANSLATION INDUSTRY
Customers

34. Request, Quotation & Contract Management
Service Delivery Management
Checking of Service Requirements & Delivery
C U S T O M E R
C U S T O M E R
Where do translation operations take place? (including TM…)

35. SO, WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO…?

36. USUAL PATH…

37. TRANSLATION PROJECT MANAGEMENT WORKFLOW
Plunet

38. System Review by Management
System Objectives and Policies of Quality Management System
STRATEGY
Request, Quotation & Contract Management
Service Delivery Management
Checking of Service Requirements & Delivery
OPERATIONS
Human Resources Management
Technical Resource Management
Outsourcing and Buying Management
SUPPORT
QUALITY
Documentation, Data & Register Control
Internal Audits
Non-conformities, Claim Management, Corrective & Improvement Actions
Customer Satisfaction Assessment
C U S T O M E R
C U S T O M E R

39. Basic organization chart of a certified translation SME
MANAGING DIRECTOR
FINANCE
QUALITY MANAGER
HUMAN RESOURCES
PRODUCTION
PROJECT MANAGERS
TRANSLATORS
CO-ORDINATORS
INTERNAL AUDITORS
PROOF-READERS & TESTERS
REVISERS & REVIEWERS
IT
DIVERSE TOOL SPECIALISTS
INTERNS

40. PMS
Ideal Project Management Scenario

41. Process Indicators

42. 42
Traceability

43. Productivity

44. Quality

45. www.euatc.org

46. ATC
SK
www.euatc.org

47. 47
Other translation company associations

48. Translators associations

49. Advantages of Translation Industry
•
A big market of ≈ 30,000 million Euros.
•
Significant annual growth rate.
•
A big universo of programmes and applications (many of them are free).
•
Anti-crisis industry.
•
Geometric growth of instant communication and information media among professionals: blogs, forums, social networks, etc.
•
Exchange format standards: TBX, TMX, XLIFF, etc.
•
Remote work possibilities.
•
MT translation post-editing as a new and solid service.
Source: Hermes Traducciones & Juan José Arevalillo.

50. •
Margin reduction.
•
Enormous pressure from customers to reduce translation rates by using technologies (not always properly used…).
•
Low-cost marked competition.
•
Gigantic atomisation of industry.
•
Dubious information sources.
•
Uncontrolled use of MT in inadequate profesional environments.
Disadvantages of Translation Industry
Source: Hermes Traducciones & Juan José Arevalillo.

51. A thought on MT…
«Unlike other professions, translation tools are not developed in order to help translators, but to help customers. Machine translation is not an exception: it was initially developed as a substitute to human translators, and now it is used to reduce costs and impose significant reductions in translators’ rates».
Rubén de la Fuente
MT and Multi-lingual Web Translation Manager,
PayPal

52. Costs
Quality
Time
Three magic words in translation project management and in the industry

53. Thank you for your attention!

Questions, suggestions…?

54. Hermenet
Juan José Arevalillo Doval
juanjo.arevalillo@hermestrans.com
www.hermestrans.com
@JJ_Arevalillo
@hermestrans