Even in the translation industry, getting ISO-certified can increase a company’s bottom line by improving efficiency, reducing costs, increasing customer satisfaction, and reducing risks. While ISO certification is too expensive for most small businesses, generally costing between $12,000 and $50,000 plus annual registration and audit fees, [i] many companies can forego the formal certification process and simply use the standard as a guideline to improve their services.
In the winter of 2022 , I saw a need for project management support for my translation business as more work was coming in than I could handle. With the goal of streamlining my subcontracting processes while continuing to ensure quality, I collaborated with a student intern, Anees Gharzita, during a 10-week remote internship focused on translation project management. As a master’s candidate in translation at New York University with a background in regulatory affairs, Anees was the perfect person for the role and immediately suggested doing a gap analysis using ISO 17100:2015/AMD 1:2017 as a reference.
ISO 17100 defines requirements for a quality management system for translation services. It specifies the requirements of many aspects of the translation process that directly affect the quality and delivery of your services such as translator qualifications, production activities, and technological resources. Anees recommended taking the standard line by line in an Excel spreadsheet and verifying whether my colleagues and I were fulfilling the criteria for each section of the standard. If not, we brainstormed ideas on the changes we could implement in order to meet each requirement.
By the end of the internship, we had identified the areas that would most benefit my business and implemented more than 20 changes into my project management process, both minor and major. Here is how and why we made the changes.
Human resources management
The purpose of the human resources management section of the ISO standard is to ensure qualified resources. Previously, when my regular collaborators were not available, I would leverage my professional network but vet new translators in an unsystematic way. Drawing on the ISO requirements, I began to require translators to hold either a translation degree or a certification from a professional translators association, and to have solid experience in the specific fields required. Generalists were no longer up to par.
I also created a qualification checklist, began collecting contractors’ resumes for my records, and now require every colleague to sign a subcontracting agreement before our first collaboration for accountability and confidentiality purposes.
Quality assurance
The quality assurance section of the standard focuses on managing the translation process to ensure quality services. Finding a qualified subcontractor, confirming their ability, and guaranteeing quality can be a challenge when time is of the essence, so I needed to develop a smoother subcontracting process. To get an overall view of my current project management process and where it needed improvement, Anees and I developed flowcharts and identified areas that needed improvement. In the end, I began issuing purchase orders to subcontractors, fielding translators’ questions using a standard template, standardizing project delivery, and consistently following up with clients at the end of each project to ensure their 100% satisfaction.
We also began proposing revision by a second translator as an additional step in the translation process for every quote, as it is a best practice in the field. While not all clients are willing to pay for this service or they prefer to do it in-house, I decided that I needed to incorporate it more into my subcontracting process to improve quality.
Technology
ISO 17100 also provides guidance on how to leverage technology to improve translation quality. Translators commonly use computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools, but when it comes to project management, it can be difficult to navigate all of the different tools available. One major problem was the fact that translators will often translate a document using their CAT tool, and then export it into a Word document to do a final revision. However, when it comes to maintaining translation memories (TMs) for each client in order to be able to leverage previously translated content and ensure consistency from one translation to the next, we needed to find a way to ensure that the final translation could somehow be added to each client’s TM. At first, I considered requiring that all of my subcontractors use a CAT tool called Trados, but after considerable research and consideration, we opted to take advantage of a feature in Trados (which I was already using) that allows me to easily keep my TMs up-to-date regardless of the tools my colleagues use to translate documents.
By referring to the ISO requirements, I also ensured that I could encrypt emails to protect confidentiality, and created a process for storing all documents in an organized way in order to ensure that my virtual project manager could access all previous translations and reference documents moving forward.
Business development
The business development section of the standard aims to promote business growth. Without a solid sales pipeline, I was floundering when it came to managing leads and closing sales. In the end, we incorporated the following improvements into my sales process:
- Follow a five-step sales pipeline (Qualify lead > Contact Lead and Present Services > Provide quote > Follow up on quote > Confirm whether the project is Closed/Won or Closed/Lost, and why)
- Create quotes in QuickBooks, download them in PDF form, and send them to clients in a personalized email
- Include additional terms to quotes, including the audience and purpose of the translation, whether or not a style guide is required, the materials to be provided to Word+Style by the client, the format and layout of the final translation, the delivery method, and whether or not the translator’s name must appear in a published translation
- Retain client’s acceptance of a quote in the form of an email confirmation
- Follow a specific process for adding new clients to the Word+Style client contact list
- Estimate potential revenues from leads and forecast sales
The end result
As a result of my collaboration with Anees, we not only streamlined my project management process, but also improved the quality assurance process, leveraged technology to improve efficiency, and established specific processes to promote business development. Ultimately, I became more productive with the same amount of time. While we had identified additional gaps in my business processes, within ten weeks we prioritized and implemented the most important changes that were needed, and now I know where to go from here. As a bonus, I was able to pass on my knowledge of the translation industry to a budding professional in return for all of her hard work.
[i] BDC, “4 essential steps to ISO certification,” Accessed on June 27, 2022, https://www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/operations/iso-other-certifications/iso-certificate-process#:~:text=Depending%20on%20the%20maturity%20of,%242%2C000%20and%20%2430%2C000%20per%20year.
