Resource and Quality – EC Innovations

EC Innovations believes that great employees create great quality – resources give them the means to do so.

At EC Innovations, our people are our largest strength and our most enduring competitive advantage. As a worldwide company, we hire talent from around the globe. Our employees come from a wide range of experiences, environments, and expertise – all of which are essential in shaping our exceptional service quality and proven process.

Over 3,000 specialist technical translators at your disposal.

EC Innovations, Inc. has more than 350 full time employees and over 3,000 freelance contractors around the world: among them are 300 full-time linguists on staff, all of whom must be carefully vetted, tested, and (where applicable) certified, in addition to beinginternally rated on a regular basis.

When it comes to translating, only native speakers are trusted to deliver accurate and acceptable translations. Furthermore, we only utilize resources currently residing in the target-language country. In our 20 years of experience, we’ve found that occasionally even native speakers lose track of the most current usage in their language if they are residing outside of their home countries.

About 80%-90% of our partners are ISO or J2450 recognized, and 50%-60% our translators are certified by their in-country translation associations (not all countries have such certifications/recognition).

Project Team Composition

Each unique localization team consists of a Global Project Manager (GPM), Language PM (LPM) or Project Assistant, Resource Coordinator, Language Lead, Translators, Editors, Proofreaders, and Localization and/or DTP Engineer if needed.

Project roles andresponsibilities:

Project Manager is the dedicated point of contact for the client. The PM is responsible for everything, including project kick-off, project scoping, quotation, schedule, quality assurance, communication, resourcemanagement, and risk management. For large multilingual projects, we assign Project Assistant(s) to manage resources and the quality of individual languages.
Language Lead is the chief editor and is responsible for linguistic issues, such as terminology and translator’s queries.
Translators do the initial translation. Editors will review 100% of the translations done by to ensure the highest levels of quality.
Proofreaders will simulate being an end userto double check translation quality and reception.
Resource Coordinator helps PM to select the most suitable translators based on their experiences, technical background, availability, and cost of labor.

Managing quality at every stage of the localization process

What matters in localization isprecision – executing proper procedure is the best way to accomplish that. The right approach to the project is bound to result in the development of a successful product. On the other hand, any attempt to execute the project without careful preparation is likely to have a negative impact on costs, deadlines, or product quality and in a worst-case scenario, all of them.

We adopt a professional localization process with features of quality orientation, resourceallocation, and technology orientation to ensure the success of localization projects. Below is a procedure for executing a localization project from top to bottom. Different emphasis should be placed on different stages for different kinds of localization projects.

Step 1: Project Kick-off.
Understand client requirement, define project scope with client and provide client with a cost effective solution. Confirm file list, workload, software tools and current versions, delivery specifications, as well as timeline and payment schedule; propose a quotation and project schedule for client approval, receive a formal Purchase Order from the client.

Step 2: Project Preparation
A project team is assigned to prepare the project kit, consisting of instructions, a check list, style guide and glossary for each language, and a time-table with milestones. Arrange training for translators/reviewers if necessary. Build up project hardware and software environment; foresee potential problems and find feasible solutions to avoid any unexpected setbacks.

Step 3: TEP Processes
Translations are carried out by translators who have related subject matter expertise and are native speakers of the target languages. Query reports are used to solve problems and share information promptly. Editors review 100% of the translations by comparing the target language against the source language. Maintain the TM (Translation Memory) on a daily basis. Proofreaders simulate the end user’s experience to check the readability and professionalism. Keep client posted on the progress and issues, as they arise.

Step 4: Quality Assurance (QA)
A built-in QA process is executed throughout the whole process to monitor the implementation of each step, as well as a randomdouble check of 10% -15% of the translated or reviewed files. We have a well-defined error catalog and severity level, and the QA report can automatically calculate the quality score and give a pass/fail result.

Step 5: DTP and Engineering
The in-house DTP department implements desktop publishing procedures if needed for the translated files. For website or software localization projects, technical engineers perform tasks such as dialog box resizing, website testing, webpage layout adjustment, etc.

Step 6: Project Sign-off
A sign-off meeting is held amongst the project team members. The project manager performs a final review of the project to make sure all the requirements have been satisfied with high quality. The finished files are submitted to clients per the format requested.

Step 7: Project Summary
The project manager and QA manager internally evaluate the project quality and performance of team members and vendors.

Our experts deliver the highest quality translation by making sure your product isalso culturally acceptable

EC Innovations’ QA system is imbedded into the entire project lifecycle, rather than focusing solely on translation quality. From the initial project preparation stage, through the TEP process, to the successful project sign-off, our quality assurance efforts are involved in every single step during the project lifecycle.

We use native speakers with qualified translation experience and knowledge in the target local countries to do the translation and editing. They are the key to ensure the translated content is culturally suitable. We also have subject matter experts as our consultants, who help us to proofread the terminology and cultural adaptation. If we find any sensitive issues on culture/religion in the content, we will report this to the client and provide a suitable solution.

Our QA Processes

We have a built-in,ISO17100:2015-certified QA system. Quality is ensured not only by sampling output but also by controlling the process. We use our quality metrics to track the quality of translations.

On top of the editor’s 100% review of the translated files, a separate QA process is executed to randomly check 10% -15% of the translated or reviewed files.
Project instructions and defined quality standards are referred to when checking the translation quality.
We have clearly defined error catalogs used as part ofa severity level system, and the QA report can automatically calculate pass/fail.
Make sure all the client’sinstructions are implemented and that finished work meets the quality standard
Double check the translated file list and its folder before delivery
Check for virus-free files and upload finished files to FTP server
Our QA process also checks the implementation of the project workflow
If it is document translation, document formatting (also known as DTP –Desktop Publishing) will be implemented and proofed.

All projects are assigned target language experts with experience in the subject of the content. ECI’s localization teams have extensive experience in technical documentation translation, marketing nuances and use industry-standard translation memory technology and target-language spell-checkers, enabling them to provide highly accurate and culturally acceptable translations.

Translator Resource for Best Quality

To ensure the highest quality possible, EC Innovations avoids the typical one-size-fits-all approach – there’s more to a good translation than just knowing the words, after all. We do not believe that an expert in medical device user assistance translation, for example, will necessarily be a good resource for translating a business intelligence user interface or a marketing brochure for a manufacturer.Therefore, in order to assure the highest possible quality, EC Innovations uses a rating system for all translators; but unlike many other localization companies’ rating systems, it assesses quality of work as it relates to particular fields and media. So a translator rated highly in marketing collateral but not as highly in user assistance material, will be used primarily for marketing collateral.

Improving the Process

We are a customer-oriented company. We regularly review our performance with our customers. We always make improvements based on suggestions and feedback from clients. We work closely with our clients to determine the best work-flow for specific projects and evaluate the process after a while to insure improvement.

1. Provide examples of previous translations that meet your quality expectations (plus examples of some that don’t).
2. Make sure that your in-country reviewers fully understand corporate style guidelines and have collaborated on the creation of approved glossaries.
3. Grant us to access to your staging server to review content in context—and to your web apps for reviewing and testing UI text elements.
4. Supply quality source content (it won’t improve in another language).
5. Give translators and in-country reviewers a reasonable amount of time to complete their work.
6. Communicate regularly with our project managers.
7. Work toward a long-term relationship with us: Quality improves the more familiar we become with your business, content, and terminology.
8. Assign a contact that we can reach out to for questions and clarification