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With this type of proliferation of choices and broad discrepancy in prices, you might well question whether you should pay above the minimum or, indeed, in case you should pay anything in any way.
It's simple to see horror stories and the potential pitfalls that free internet machine translations can result in. If the workload is the exact same after all, you might ask yourself, why should I pay any more? The answer is quite straightforward; a professional service is provided by professional translation bureaus, with all of the expertise and customer service you'd anticipate from any professional company.
While a freelance translator working for 2 cents a word and swearing a same-day turnaround may look very appealing, typically you'll be paying for an unedited, un-proofread translation. It's just not possible for them to ensure the exact same amount of quality, consistency and specialisation offered by professional translation bureaus. On the flip side, an agency will employ the necessary staff, resources and quality-driven business processes to ensure that, from the minute of contact before the final delivery, the service you get is of the highest standard.
The most useful resource that genuinely professional translation agencies have is a team of capable, native, in-country linguists, both in house and freelance, possessing multiple language combinations in addition to a wide selection of subject matter expertise. This implies that they'll also have a translator with the proper linguistic skill and subject matter knowledge on hand to manage your project, which saves you the hours spent trawling the net for an individual who may or might be unable to to do the job. The translator's work proofed and will then always be reviewed with a senior editor according to a strict set of demands. The fact that your project will be managed by the Übersetzungsbüro Hamburg until delivery from reception will also mean savings when it comes to resources and time for you. Generally you only have to e-mail them your job files for a translation that is whole, checked and corrected on budget as well as on time.
Professional translation agencies will also have at their disposal all of the translation technologies, such as CAT tools, which are required to best finish your translation job. Translation memory technologies including Trados let previous translations to be leveraged, while terminology management tools like Xbench ensure the consistent use of language throughout a project. A broad collection of these applications as well as completely skilled translators will probably be accessible to professional translation agencies, while cost constraints will mean that freelance translators often work with just one (or sometimes none) of these tools, necessarily leading to a lack of consistency, and to additional costs for you. Translation memories are especially significant for on going endeavors as repeats may be charged in a reduced rate, creating long term savings for you. The combination of project management expertise, highly skilled staff, and also the most up to date technologies mean not only the caliber of the finished product is higher, but that professional agenciescan handle a far higher quantity of work than other translation alternatives.
Probably the most important factor that sets professional translation bureaus besides the remaining field is the fact that they execute quality-driven business processes which ensure that each and every individual translation project is allocated all of the resources required to provide you with the perfect translation in the shortest turnaround time website.
