In the business world, there is no industry that does not have its own procedures and way of working. So why would translation be any different? Let’s forget about all friends who are “experts” in a particular language, and machine translation. A good translation service depends on high quality standards. Leemeta has been complying to high standards for the entire 16 years of its existence, so the quality management system that is in line with the requirements of ISO 17100 for translation services is just a cherry on top.

In the world of translation, quality refers to several aspects and everyone has their own expectations. Thus, it is a good thing there are rules and mechanisms that apply only to the translation industry. To make clients such as yourself as satisfied as possible, the ISO 17100 rules and mechanisms require a number of adjustments. Which ones? Translation agencies operating in accordance with this quality standard must introduce and ensure compliance with certain specific requirements.

What are the benefits of the standard for you?

We have summed them up in five of the most important points:

1. Increased trust and certainty that the service will be performed in accordance with your expectations as well as the expectations of the translation industry.

2. Guarantee that the translations will be performed within the agreed deadline, with professional activities performed before, during and after the sale. Also, a relationship will be built with you according to a well-defined procedure and a fully traceable system will be set up. The same applies to the retention of your data, confidentiality and protection against access by unauthorised third parties.

3. Provision of several types of audits, from the translation audit of one’s own work, revision by a second linguist and external review (four-eyes principle), to the assessment of the suitability of the translation according to the agreed purpose, scope and recommended corrections. This applies both in terms of project management as well as its implementation.

4. Provision that the entire team participating in your translation project is adequately trained in the professional and efficient performance of tasks according to the latest industry standards. Translators must be experts in their field, be experienced and educated, know the grammar and characteristics of the target language and also know the culture of the target language.

5. Confirmation that the translation team is constantly professionally perfecting itself in the field of new standards, technologies and technical requirements.

Does ISO 17100:2015 provide a complete translation service?

Bureau Veritas, who has performed the certification assessment, states on its website:

At the same time, we must be realistic and admit that we ourselves are not infallible, so additional professional review is even more important. Particularly when it comes to “exotic” language combinations (e. g. a translation into Mandarin, Catalan or Kazakh), potential errors can be prevented together with you:

• With a free test translation: we never approach a demanding project without a preliminary test translation. In doing so, we provide you with an accurate insight into the quality of our work, and we can see whether we are the right partner for you.
• With terminology, customised to you and your industry: we adapt to the terminology you would like to use. At the same time, we create custom terminology bases and glossaries that improve the consistency of the translations.
• With continuous improvements of the terminology used: with the help of the translation memory (TM) as well as additional quality checks (QA or Quality Assessment) we eliminate potential errors. Learn more about translation tools here.
• With close long-term cooperation: our desire is to get to know each client better also through translations. This allows us to more quickly adapt to your writing style and graphic design, and learn about your specific needs, take into account your feedback and advise you on additional possibilities and solutions.

Certificate included in our warranty

In fact, ISO 17100:2015 places particular emphasis on the process of verification and revision of the translation and the importance of revision, review, proofreading and final confirmation. I guess there is no need to explain why.