Quality assurance
Our way to achieve the pinpoint accuracy on the dot:
Rules and regulations
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Since 2008, we have been developing and improving our rules and regulations that are compatible with the Russian and international standards of translation services (GOST R 50.1.027-2014; ISO 17100:2015). To have consistently stable results not depending on people or weather conditions, all the processes must be clearly described and their implementation must be monitored. |
Our staff
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Office and remote employees. Our team is comprised of 22 people who give their undivided attention to their work, making sure that all requests have been promptly responded, all translations are impeccable and error-free, all files are properly formatted and ready for delivery, all numerous technical and professional nuances have been resolved to the customer’s fullest satisfaction. |
Selection of freelance linguists
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All our freelancers — translators, interpreters, editors, layout designers — go through the selection process and must abide by our rules and regulations. A CV > job interview > tests > signing of an agreement, including non-disclosure of confidential information, compliance with the translation requirements > registration and adaptation to our system (TMS), gradual integration into our work process. |
In-house training and skills upgrading
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Practice makes the master. Every Tuesday, we have one hour dedicated for training of managers in our corporate rules and regulations, for analyzing and discussing difficult cases, innovations and changes. Every Thursday, the same training hours are scheduled for translators and editors. In addition, our employees take regular courses in new subject areas and technologies. Falling behind the trends is impermissible. |
Rating and long-term monitoring of translators
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After the translator has successfully passed all the steps of the selection process, he/she is included in the rating system. There are translators we have been happily working with for many years: They invariably demonstrate the highest quality of translation and the highest rating; they are frequently invited to participate in translation projects. On the other hand, if the translator shows the downgrading or inconsistent quality, his/her rating goes down; they are less frequently invited to participate in projects; their translations are more thoroughly checked. If the translator failed to deliver the required quality or to meet the deadline, we discontinue his/her participation in our projects for a long time. |
Order tracking and management
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From the submission of a request to the delivery of the completed work to the customer, the manager stays in charge of the translation project, using the well-developed translation management system (TMS). All the stages are recorded; all the versions of work files are loaded; nothing is lost; the information about the assigned translator, the time details and the work status are readily available. |
Statement of work
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One of the first and most important stages of the work process is development and approval of the statement of work. The statement of work can be short and simple, or it can be long and detailed. Its size may not depend on the size of the project; it can depend on the complexity of the project and on the customer’s requirements. The expanded statement of work is required for complex projects like site localization or audiovisual translation. |
Glossary and translation database development and management
Groups of companies and large companies operating in multiple sectors need subject-specific terminology bases (glossaries). Their consistent development and maintenance are essential to prevent any risk of terminology chaos, when documents in the same subject area are translated using different terminology in different departments, business entities and regions of the company’s operation.
The principle of uniformity and consistency of the used terminology is critically important. For example, the name of the company’s new product or the name of its top managers must be identical in all marketing materials, product specifications or legal documents!
When completing small-size projects, we also prefer to create and use a glossary, being aware that the customer’s company can have its own established terminology that may be different from the conventional one.
Translation editing and proofreading
These are two essential stages of our quality control process. They are automatically included in the price (unless otherwise has been agreed with the customer). Editing goes hand-in-hand with quantitative evaluation of translation quality. Each work completed by a freelance or in-house translator is checked by the editor and assessed through our scoring system. The editor is a highly experienced translator who has a keen eye for mistakes of other translators, while correcting them and assessing the translation quality.
If the translation fails to reach the threshold score, it will be returned to the translator who will have to fix errors and inconsistencies.
The translation approved by the editor is further proofread by the proofreader who checks its compliance with the target language rules, corrects spelling and punctuation mistakes, verifies that it is compatible with the source text, and nothing has been omitted after the formatting and desktop publishing.
The editor can do proofreading, depending on the language, subject matter, the scheduled turnaround time, and some other factors. Exclusions can apply when, at the request and upon the approval by the customer, the translated text is delivered without editing and/or proofreading to reduce the time or to lower the price.
Customer feedback management
Collecting customer feedback on complex projects and handling complaints are critically important for maintaining our high-quality performance and translation expertise. When we work with high-volume, complex, high-profile projects, the manager collects feedback from the customers: We want to know if the project or the event involving our linguists or interpreters was a success.
If there is any complaint, the project manager collects all the information and transmits it to the Quality Assurance (QA) manager who performs a detailed analysis of all the process stages and the customer’s grievances, evaluates the performance, offers the solution to the problem and remedial measures, offers ways to prevent similar problems in future.
