Why's Technical Translation More Expensive?

Whether you need technical translation services in the UK or elsewhere, high quality makes the difference between a professional translation and an improvised one. What’s more, accurate, first-rate technical translation services are becoming increasingly necessary at a time when a wide range of tech industries are rapidly growing, selling their products across the globe, and are thus in need of finding ways to communicate their message to various target audiences free from error or ambiguity.

Should Technical Translation Services Be Accurate?

When it comes to translation of technical content, nothing should be left to chance, as this type of translation requires an understanding of specific technical terminology, along with extensive specialist knowledge of the products themselves.

Moreover, your business cannot afford to compromise quality in this specific area. There are many reasons for this, which include but are not limited to the following:

Let’s suppose that a single word, which appears continually throughout your document, is mistranslated – This would certainly wreak havoc, with people failing to understand the content frequently calling your business’ support line, thus increasing your company’s customer support costs, in addition to creating an army of highly dissatisfied clients!
Working with poor translation agencies or carelessly depending on online translation tools will ultimately result in misleading safety instructions. Many products are currently offered with safety warnings about equipment operation. Should these instructions be translated incorrectly, people may get hurt, which could, in turn, have dire liability consequences. Beware of going to court!

Why Are Technical Translation Services More Expensive?

That said, chances are that your company will be paying a bit more for professional technical translation services. So, the question remains: why are technical translation services more expensive than the translation of other types of content? For now, suffice to say the high cost may be attributed to the following reasons:

Integrated Process: The technical translation services process comprises of a lot of elements in addition to just text translation – including steps such as glossary creation, editing & proofreading, quality checks, correction of any errors, review by an in-country expert, and, lastly, final review & delivery. It goes without saying that these consecutive steps will ensure the accuracy, professionalism and reliability of the final translated technical text despite the higher cost!
Expert Knowledge at a Cost! Needless to say, the translation and localisation of a wide range of technical company materials, from software to manufacturing gear to aircrafts, requires translators who have technical expertise and special, mostly industry-specific knowledge. Understandably, these native-speaking subject matter experts are highly paid in comparison to mediocre translators.
Desktop Publishing: Businesses usually submit their original pieces of content to translation vendors in the form of digitally designed manuals, which may contain a lot of visuals and graphs with embedded content. Once translated, the content may have to be formatted to resemble the original content design ─ a technique called Desktop Publishing (DTP), which also raises the cost of the translation project.

How to Cut the Cost of Technical Translation Services?

But don’t panic! There are still many ways that make it possible for your business to control the high cost of technical translation services ─ including the use of Translation Memory technology (TM). Its numerous tools can help reuse translations, which usually results in significantly cutting project costs. Moreover, if your technical translation project comprises of enormous quantities of technical material in an unstructured format, you can, in this case, move your content to a structured format. Structured authoring tools can considerably reduce the cost of desktop publishing tasks.

How to Choose the Best Technical Translation Services Provider?

When it comes to the important decision on which technical translation services company is the right fit for your company, you should avoid basing your choice solely on price or turnaround time. Accordingly, what are the decisive factors for preferring one technical translation services partner to another one? In fact, there are many criteria, but, for now, let’s focus on the following:

Experience: The experience which the translation agency might have in technical translation matters a lot. Another important factor is the technical translation services provider’s advantage of hiring translators who are versed in the industry-specific specialism as well as holding high-level language qualifications.
History: Your business should look for clients who have previously dealt with the translation agency that you’ve chosen, with a view to identifying both its strengths and weaknesses. This is a crucial step before making your final decision.
Translation Memory: As it’s likely that your business will need to have similar content translated in the future, it’s imperative that you choose a technical translation services provider that has an excellent translation memory technology, which will help retain full consistency of all your translated content in addition to cutting the cost of your upcoming projects.

Why TW Languages?

If your translation project is in the technical domain, TW Languages will undoubtedly be your choice, because we pride ourselves on the following advantages, which are not shared by other translation companies:

TW Languages is an ISO 17100 certified and a member of the Association of Translation Companies (ATC).
We’ve provided our second-to-none technical translation services to more than 200 companies and translated about 40 million words in this field.
We’ve put in place a rigorous quality process, with a proven methodology, which has given highly satisfactory results to many clients.
Our team of technical translators comprises of highly experienced, professional, native translators who cover over 250 languages, and are passionate about delivering high-quality technical translation services to all our customers, whether large or small.
We place a high premium on reliability, confidentiality and timely delivery of the translated content.
We provide country-specific localisation services, which consider colours and iconography in addition to the written word, so that you can be confident that all documentation, labelling and packaging are culturally appropriate for each of your particular markets.

You can leave it to TW Languages’ expert teams to deliver your translated content with the highest quality and within the agreed time schedules. Contact us to provide the details of your requirements and we will be happy to handle them with the utmost professionalism.