When it is necessary to translate large documents, many people worry that the costs will significantly exceed the planned budget. However, we have a number of different options, allowing you to find the optimal solution that meets your needs. If the translation is to be used for internal purposes, or only to achieve a general understanding of the text, one choice is raw machine translation. This allows the rapid implementation of the project for a minimal financial outlay.
One of our clients is a Scandinavian company that produces trucks, tractor units, buses and diesel engines for trucks, marine vehicles and for use in industry. It operates on the international market, manufacturing its products in Argentina, Brazil, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia and Sweden, as one of the key players in the transport and logistics industry. The Polish branch often has the need to translate extensive documentation, usually involving machine parts imported from abroad that are to be used on the Polish market, as well as procedures and instructions that the company uses internally. Taking into account the scale of the company’s operations, it can be easily assessed that they have clear translation needs involving real support in the implementation of large projects.
They contacted us by phone asking for a quote for technical translation – the imported documentation was prepared in Swedish, English and French, and they needed it in Polish. However, the inquiry was unusual in that they did not have the materials as digital files – everything was provided as a printed version. They explained the situation and asked whether we could make scans of the documents for the translation valuation process. He also noted that there was a lot of material, sending a large courier shipment for inspection. Since we are not afraid of any challenges, we immediately confirmed our readiness to help with the project. They were very happy that they could entrust us to comprehensively handle the case, meaning that they did not have to waste time scanning the documents themselves. After completing all the details regarding the transfer of the material, we received two boxes of documents, each containing forty full binders and the whole thing weighing about 60 kilograms.
Our conversations clearly signalled that the project would be very demanding. One experienced member of our customer relations department was delegated to the task, supervising the entire process from the beginning, starting with the telephone conversations, the physical receipt of the documentation, all the way to the finalization of the valuation process itself. It took us about a week and a half to scan all the material and to ensure that the digital files were saved in the correct order. For the next 2–3 days we had to convert the files and analyse the entire text in order to prepare a precise and reliable quote, as well as take into account the best discounts due to the similarity of the documents. Once the value of the order was clear, we presented our projected cost estimate; however, the amount significantly exceeded the budget that the company had set for the work. We decided to offer them a different solution – machine translation, with or without post-editing by a translator. The submitted materials contained technical documentation, a good choice for machine translation. After presenting the various benefits of this choice, as well as preparing a free sample of the raw translation for them, they agreed, without any additional verification by a linguist. Finally, all the selected materials from the binders were subjected to raw translation, all for a much lower price than traditional translation.
They accepted our price for performing raw machine translation, and thanked us for the entire negotiation and offer process. In the case of this type of project, the most important thing was clear and understandable communication, which always took place in a friendly atmosphere. Thanks to our flexibility and individual approach to theirs needs, they managed to complete the translation at a low cost while we acquired an interesting project for our portfolio. The quality of the raw translation from the special translation engines was positively received, and they thanked us warmly for the way we implemented the project, announcing their willingness to work with us on similar orders in the future. This experience clearly proves that nothing is impossible for the Skrivanek team – we are always happy to help you, even with the most difficult tasks, proposing a number of different solutions while always advising you on the most advantageous paths for your project.
