You decided to open your product for the world to discover. Congratulations! Translation is one of the next steps to open the doors of the global marketplace.
One problem: you do not have an in-house translator team, and now is neither the time nor the priority to hire them.
One solution: connect with vendors who will assist you in your localization projects.
One better solution: discover vendor management in localization to experience the best coordination and organization for your international product.
Save time and money. Gain visibility and credibility.
What is Vendor Management?
Vendor management consists of the synchronization and coordination of third-party suppliers for given services. It includes, but is not limited to the vendor selection, contract negotiation, and task assignment.
In the industry of localization, vendors to manage can be translators, editors, and project managers, among others.
Vendor Management, a Crucial Step in Localization
When globalizing your product, you might need to work with a full localization team. However, if you do not work with in-house talent, hiring third-party vendors comes into play. Managing these individuals is key to your localization project for the following reasons:
- 1 language = at least 1 vendor: for each language into which you expand your product, you need at least one professional to localize it. Quickly, you reach a number of vendors that require management to stay organized.
- Avoid overspending: your localization budget should remain roughly the same from beginning to end. To avoid going off-track, managing your vendors helps you maintain clear visibility into your project’s progress.
- Centralize communication: Managing your vendors allows you to communicate more easily with them, thanks to Project Management Software (PMS) or Translation Management Software (TMS)
- Improve scalability: When your localization project is well-organized and your vendors are fully managed, it is easier to implement more languages over time, as your work structure is already solid.
Vendor Strategy to Lead You to Global Success
Managing your vendors also includes your localization strategy, and how you want different experts to contribute to your project. Different factors should be considered to get the best results and succeed globally.
| Action | Explanation |
| Collaborating with native speakers | Native speakers have a better understanding of the language and the culture into which they localize your product, and are able to provide relevant insight. This ensures high-quality localization. |
| Setting a realistic budget | Does your budget allow you to work with more vendors, such as translators and reviewers? Would you benefit from Machine Translation Post-Editing (MTPE)? A clear number means clear objectives. |
| Picking the right languages | Which languages are a top priority for your product? Trust your data analyst to determine which potential markets you should expand into, to avoid unnecessary localization, which would result in time and money loss. |
| Relying on localization testing | Quality Assurance (QA) testing is essential to analyze whether your product is well-adapted or not. Focusing on localization testing during the localization process gives you room for improvement as you go, without spending extra time and money on post-editing. |
The more detailed and extensive your strategy, the smoother your localization process. As you progress in your project, more factors need to be taken into account to refine your strategy and become more efficient.
How to Nail Your Translation Vendor Management
Language vendor management is not a one-size-fits-all process. The translators you pick, your global objectives and the result you will get are personal and specific to your company and your product. Understanding the main pillars of translation management is an effective way to succeed and reach your international goals.
Set Clear Objectives
You have better chances to reach your goals faster when you know the path you need to take. Ask yourself questions such as:
- Which markets do I open my market to?
- Which languages do I localize my product into?
- What is my budget?
- When do I plan on expanding my product?
Having clear guidelines helps you progress better, and communicate more effectively with your vendors and your localization team.
Pick the Right Vendors
There are plenty of professional translators in the translation industry. However, each of them has strengths and weaknesses, and you need to evaluate that to collaborate with the right people. For example, you can:
- Look for translators on B2B platforms, or ask for references from fellow partners.
- Find translators who are experts in your niche. Say you are in the retail industry. An outstanding video game translation expert would not necessarily provide you with the best work for your needs.
- Create a short test to assess your potential vendors beforehand. It is a common practice that Language Service Providers (LSPs) and companies do to pick from a pool of candidates. This helps you evaluate who is the better fit for your product.
Onboard and Train Your Team
Once your localization team is complete, you need to teach people what you expect from them. Be specific. Create files and presentations that gather all the information they need to provide you with the best translation possible, such as:
- Tone of voice
- Core values
- Copy bible
- Previous and current campaigns
- Sensitive topics and terms to avoid
Test, and Provide Feedback
Once the first batch of translation is ready to be implemented on your website, your app or your social media, run some tests to identify the areas of improvement for the future batches, like:
- Running QA tests to make sure the vendors did not overlook formatting or linguistic mistakes
- Asking your development team how the translated content integrates online
- Asking your data team how the newly translated platforms perform and if they match your KPIs.
After you gather all this precious information, you need to share it with your team of vendors. Clear feedback will help them make relevant decisions in future translations to improve the quality of your localized product.
Common Vendor Management Pitfalls
Now that you know the good practices in vendor management, it is just as important to be aware of the main challenges you will face. Some pitfalls are unfortunately tempting to fall into, but to each problem its solution. Note that each company faces different challenges, but the ones presented below are the most common:
| Problem | Solution |
| Choosing vendors with the lowest rate | Pick vendors based on their expertise and their portfolio to avoid loss of time and money in the long run. |
| Relying too much on Machine Translation (MT) | MT works for generic content most of the time. For niche, technical and creative copy, prioritize human input, to ensure locally accurate results. |
| No centralized communication | Choose a channel to communicate with your whole team. It can be an instant messaging platform or a PMS. |
| No back-up vendors | Relying entirely on one vendor per language is risky, in case they are not available. Have extra vendors you can ask for urgent help from when needed. |
| No audit or quality check | External companies can run unbiased audits or quality checks to make sure your translated content is accurate and free of errors. |
As you go, you will face new challenges that you need to discuss with your localization team. Struggling with different issues does not mean your translation strategy is ineffective. However, fixing problems at the root is the best way to improve your workflow over time.
Tools for Foolproof Localization Vendor Management
Translation vendor management includes various steps. Working with the right tools saves you and your localization team time and stress. Find the mandatory options you need to integrate into your translation vendor management strategy.
Translation Management System (TMS)
An effective TMS allows you to have all your projects in one place. This way, your different linguists work from the same original file, but their work is organized into locales so they can be found easily. Moreover, you can track progress on the different localization files and languages. Finally, it is easy to assign projects to the right vendors, who are notified of what they need to work on, the word count, and the deadline.
Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) Tool
This tool is mandatory for vendors. CAT tools help them analyze the text they need to translate. From word count to matches, glossaries and translation memories, everything is available to assist their work and maintain consistency. Vendors can also run individual QA checks on their task, to make sure their translation meets your expectations.
Communication Platform
As mentioned above, when managing vendors, it is important to maintain clear communication between the project manager and the vendors. When dealing with a pool of languages, it is easy to lose track of who does what. Choosing a platform and onboarding your team on it allows your localization team to communicate easily and efficiently. It is also easier for linguists to raise concerns and help each other.
Vendor Database
You need to gather important information about your vendors; what language they work into, their rates, and their availability per day, week, and month. This way, when assigning projects, you know who can jump on your next task, and who does not have the capacity anymore. It is also a solution to store contracts and performance records.
💡Did you know?
If dealing with vendor management is too big of a challenge for you, LSPs are here to help you every step of the way! Usually, the only thing you have to do is send them all the materials the linguists need to work, and wait for the translated content. However, keep in mind that you have less control over who works on your product, how it is done, and that these services are not the cheapest option.
Lokalise Helps You with Vendor Management
Lokalise is here to assist you with your translation projects. With automation features and the help of AI, you have everything you need to create a seamless workflow for you and the vendors with whom you collaborate.
We help you centralize all the data you need; glossaries and style guides, translation software, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)… All aspects of vendor management are available in one place, for everyone.
Translation projects get confusing because of the amount of data and the number of parties you deal with. It is for that reason it needs to be easy and seamless, for you and your localization team to dedicate more time to translation quality than administrative tasks.
