At aatranslations, we are guided by the Japanese concept of Kaizen, or continuous improvement. We take a highly systematic approach to the way we run our business, and we encourage contributions from all our stakeholders. Most importantly, every time we spot a problem or an opportunity, we record it, evaluate it and decide how we can make a permanent improvement.
Our quality system and philosophy is captured within our ISO9001:2000 system which is fully accredited under UKAS by the British Standards Institute (BSI) , (Certificate FS 522203).
Why is quality so important?
Creating original text whether for a contract, a website or an instruction manual takes time and effort. Translating original text into your chosen languages needs skill and care in order to preserve the meaning and style of the original text. A first rate translation helps grow your business and protect your brand, so it's worth putting some effort into.
The aatranslations difference
We believe that there is no substitute for working with a translator to assess their performance. Making sure that our translators have the right qualifications and experience is just the start of the process. Once we've accepted a translator onto our team, we check and rate every translation by every translator who works for us. Over time, this allows us to build a comprehensive, dynamic view of the performance of every translator.
At aatranslations, getting the quality of your translation right takes priority over everything else. All translations go through our quality process.
Here's how it works:
- Translation expertise. All our translators must meet our minimum criteria including relevant qualifications and professional experience; naturally, they must be native speakers of the target language.
- Relevant experience. In addition, we only use translators with proven experience in the relevant specialist area, e.g. legal, technical, marketing etc.
- Proofreading. All our translations are proof read by a second translator who meets the same criteria. This allows us to check the translation for accuracy and give the text a final "polish" before it is delivered.
- Feedback and rating. Finally, every translation is rated by the proof reader against a range of criteria; this allows us to build up a picture of the performance of every translator over time. Translators also receive feedback from the proof reader on every project.
In addition to these quality measures, aatranslations also uses a range of software technologies to highlight terminology which requires special care, and to keep your translations consistent over time.
- Accurate terminology. aatranslations uses specialist software to create and store online glossaries for customers who use specialist terminology and need to keep their terminology consistent. Our technology allows us to store your glossaries and apply your terminology to every translation we do for you, ensuring accuracy and consistency every time.
- Translation consistency. aatranslations uses Translation Memory (TM) software which allows us to store each translation we do for you. We then analyse each translation we carry out for you to see whether it contains any text which we have translated for you on a previous occasion. We always reuse any relevant text from previous translations, ensuring that your new translation is consistent with the previous translation.
- Preserving formatting. Our technology also allows us to work within a range of file types, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Quark, InDesign and html, without changing the format of your original document. This means that when your translation is returned to you, it will be in exactly the same format as your original. The only thing we have changed is the language!
English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swiss German — Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Flemish, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Kazakh, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Rumanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Welsh — Bengali, Cantonese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Farsi, Filipino, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Kurdish, Malay, Nepali, Punjabi, Tamil, Thai, Urdu, Vietnamese
