We have a new opportunity for a German-speaking Account Manager to join our Birmingham, UK office to handle translation projects for a diverse range of clients from quotation stage to final invoicing. We are looking for an Account Manager with fluent German to native standard. Extensive client and supplier liaison is required as is proofreading of smaller projects. As an account manager you would also be responsible for increasing your client portfolio, so an aptitude for sales and developing customer relations is essential.

A graduate in translation studies, modern languages or similar, the successful candidate should be a fluent German speaker and have outstanding written and spoken English. You should share our passion for language and delivering a high quality service.

Key attributes for this post are: organisational skills, a desire to exceed client expectations, a keen eye for detail, adaptability and a high level of IT skills. You should have a professional attitude, be self motivated and able to work equally well unsupervised or as part of a team. Experience in a similar role is desirable but not essential.

Whilst your administrative and organisational skills are of paramount importance, your attitude and approach are of equal value. We are looking for a hardworking and conscientious individual with a positive outlook and cheerful personality; someone who is calm under pressure and who strives to deliver the best possible service to their clients.

If you wish to apply for this position, please email your CV and a covering letter to Jasmin Schneider, Operations Manager no later than 27th February 2012.

Jasmin Schneider

The Translation People

Concorde House

Trinity Park

Birmingham, B37 7UQ

Tel: 0044 121 635 5065

jasmin.schneider@thetranslationpeople.com

www.thetranslationpeople.com

The Translation People are recruiting a German-speaking Account Manager is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

A bear-hug from the Governor of Massachusetts was the last thing businessman Steve Wilde expected when he announced his company was expanding into the US and opening a Boston office.

Governor Deval Patrick’s friendly, if unorthodox gesture, came as Steve, Managing Director of Manchester-based The Translation People, attended a formal function during a visit to the city to formalise the new business venture.

Steve said: “It was certainly a surprise, especially as it was at a reception in the historic State House in front of hundreds of guests. But it sums up what a warm reception the Bostonians gave us throughout the trip.”

It also demonstrates that businesses in Boston are eager to welcome investment from the UK and deal with North West firms.

“It’s only a week since we opened the Boston office and launched the dedicated website, but already we are receiving genuine enquiries,” said Steve.

The Translation People provides business-to-business translation, foreign language typesetting and interpreting services through a global network of linguists. Since its acquisition in 2007 and subsequent rebrand in 2008, the company has enjoyed year-on-year growth and now, as well as its headquarters in Manchester, it has offices in Glasgow, Birmingham, London, Bonn, Paris and now Boston, with clients in 32 countries worldwide.

Steve is already planning a return visit to Boston in a few weeks to follow up the contacts he has made.

“There is such synergy between Boston and the UK,” said Steve. “We decided to have a presence in the city after winning contracts with two new major US clients. We have a strong reputation in the UK and aim to build on that.”

During the trip, organised by Liverpool Chamber of Trade and Commerce, Steve met a number of small and medium size companies ready to expand their businesses globally but needing expert help in setting up and managing non-English language websites.

“We have a particular expertise in this area,” said Steve. “We have our own dedicated sites in German, French and Dutch and I believe there is an extensive pool of potential new clients for us in the Boston and New England area as well as the rest of the States.”

The Translation People opens office in Boston, US – and celebrates with a hug! is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

• Documents are submitted via the system rather than by email or ftp
• Translators can either work within the system or offline
• Reviewers can be set up to check and edit the translations in the system
• Final delivery of files is completed through the system
• Maintenance and Management of Translation Memories

The main benefits of this system (and others like it) are that the translation workflow can be regulated and customised, ensuring optimum productivity. Because of this, Globalsight’s benefits are particularly evident if there are pre-defined steps that must always be followed when a translation project is commissioned. For example, if there is a preferred translator in place for a particular client, then automated email notifications can be set up so that the translator is immediately notified once the project has been submitted by the client. This can be extremely useful if the client is in a different time zone to the translation agency and translator: the agency sets up automatic notifications for the preferred translator, ensuring the translator can start work as quickly as possible by logging into the system as soon as the notification has been received. The agency will also set up a process to automatically prepare the files for translation (for example if they are in a non standard format) and analyse them against the Translation Memory, which is also contained within the system.

The system also enables client reviewers, such as employees, to log onto the system and check the translation in Globalsight’s review facility, without the need for specialist tools or software packages. This is especially useful for translations in non-standard formats which would normally require the software to be installed on the reviewer’s machine. In the same way as outlined above, once the translator has finished his or her work, an automatic email notification is generated for the reviewer, ensuring that there are no delays in progressing to this stage. The system can either be set up so that the reviewer can edit the translation directly or make suggestions for the translator which he or she can then accept or reject. The system then updates the corresponding Translation Memory with the final translation and this is stored within Globalsight. This process ensures that there are no duplicate versions of the translation and the Translation Memory, which will remain in the system to be used on future projects.

Globalsight also offers the possibility of tracking the status of projects and monitoring what stages have been completed, so the client contact who has placed the project can see how the translation is progressing and if any translators/reviewers need a gentle nudge to ensure the deadline is met.

Globalsight is the latest in a wide range of CAT tools available to our team to ensure your project is produced and managed efficiently.

Globalsight is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

The Client Portal offers a user friendly interface with quick and easy access to all of your projects. The main features of the portal are as follows:

• Updating of client contact details
• Managing account security settings
• Requesting quotes and uploading files
• Tracking quotes (both current and past), viewing/approving or declining them
• Tracking projects and monitoring their status
• Retrieving translations and uploading reviewed files
• Communicating with your Account Manager through the Message board

Whilst we are still more than happy to receive communications and project requests by email, we feel it is important to allow clients who want a secure platform for submitting documents (which are sometimes larger than permitted by email) and who want to have visibility on the status of their projects around the clock. Moreover, through fully trained Crystal Reports specialists, we are able to create customised reports detailing a wide variety of information about client quotes, projects and invoices. For more information on our client portal, please contact Jasmin Schneider, our operations manager, on 0121 635 5065 or jasmin.schneider@thetranslationpeople.com.

Launch of Translation People’s Client Portal is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

The Translation People’s business in Germany has seen dramatic expansion this year with client numbers in the first 4 months of 2011 up by more than 80% compared with the same period last year.

The Translation People director, David Nichols commented “we have experienced a strong build up of business in Germany in specialised sectors such as medical, pharmaceutical, transport and engineering where the need for precision in translation and tight delivery turn round times is critical. Many of our customers are vying for important export business and find that multilingual presentations and literature in their customers’ languages help considerably in winning export contracts. With the continuing weakness of Sterling against the Euro, our clients also find our prices very competitive compared with those of other European suppliers.”

The German economy overall has rebounded strongly from recession and some forecasters now expect a period of sustained growth lasting up to 10 years. Germany recently announced a record export performance enabling it to retain the coveted number 2 position amongst world exporting nations, just behind China.

The Translation People’s operation in Bonn is headed up by German national Patrick Hobus, who has extensive knowledge and years of experience in the translation industry in Germany. Patrick, in his role as German business development manager, enjoys support from a highly qualified team including project manager Denise Sauer who moved from her home town near Frankfurt to join The Translation People last year and native Bavarian Jasmin Schneider, who oversees the company’s operations.

Commenting on the location of the new office, Jasmin Schneider said “Bonn is ideal for us as it benefits from the proximity of airports in Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt and also from excellent direct rail links with German and European cities. Situated on the banks of the Rhine, it is famous for being the birthplace of Beethoven and the seat of the Federal Government for 5 decades but it has now transformed itself into a thriving cultural and business city, home to such well known companies as Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Post, DHL and Postbank.”

For further information and advice on doing business in Germany, please do not hesitate to call us on +49 228 304 14016

The Translation People open office in Germany is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

When the management team first discussed the process to gain ISO certification there was a genuine sense that we could improve the way we operate and gain some quantifiable evidence that the service we provide to our clients was as good as our perception.

There were some fears at the outset that gaining certification would be difficult, longwinded and entail endless amounts of documentation but we hoped the result would be worthwhile. We chose BSI, who advised us on the process and they were optimistic that whilst there were many documents to write and much evidence to be gathered, the fact that we were well organized meant we should expect to achieve certification within approx 9 months.

Due to the sterling efforts of our Operations Manager, Jasmin Schneider, who adopted the role of Quality Manager, and our Glasgow Branch Manager, Sam Bennett who trained and qualified as a QA Auditor, work commenced quickly after the initial meeting with BSI.

Mapping out procedures and work instructions for the Quality Management System was a fairly major task but was completed in 3 months. The next stage of implementing any changes to the current way of working and then gathering data through audits and measuring KPIs took rather longer.

When BSI came back to do their external audit in November the auditor was extremely complimentary about the standard of our system and the evidence which clearly showed that the system was working. Basically all issues resulting from the data are reviewed at every monthly management meeting and if required corrective actions are decided on and put in place.

It really works! As one example we have flushed things out that we were unaware of previously and we felt that we had so few complaints before that everything was fine. Sometimes complaints do not surface unless you seek them out. Practically every survey response yielded 10/10 so we improved the system of gaining client feedback and targeted a much higher response level. We also logged all internally raised issues with suppliers as complaints so that they would be investigated and included in the monthly review.

Jasmin actually said “All these perfect 10/10 responses with no suggestions of what we could do better are nice but they don’t help us!”

The result is that now, despite previous excellent customer retention, a very low level of complaints and highly motivated staff we can, with clear evidence, say that we have still reduced complaints, very significantly increased feedback, improved our service, grown our business and our staff are as motivated as ever!

To any business genuinely seeking to improve its performance ISO certification is definitely not just a tick in a box!

ISO 9001 is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

Therefore, The Translation People were happy to attend the “Careers in Translation and Interpreting” event at the University of Birmingham, 21st February 2011. The purpose of this event was to give students an idea of the different opportunities the translation industry has to offer.

In view of the interesting guest speakers with different backgrounds, the careers day was very diverse and informative. Being a graduate from Aston University, Birmingham Account Manager Denise Sauer was invited to give a speech about her career path and her daily role in project management. Also, she gave students useful tips on how to enhance their CVs for future applications.

The Translation People would like to thank The University of Birmingham for the invitation and look forward to future career events.

The Translation People at the “Careers in Translation and Interpreting” Event at the University of Birmingham is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

By giving me the privilege to complete a work placement at their Birmingham office, The Translation People have allowed me to pursue my post-graduate objectives and to feed my curiosity about working in a translation company. From the very first day I was given the opportunity to work on translation projects and to complete a variety of tasks. These included translating texts from different sectors and genres, proofreading, formatting and quality checking translations against source texts, preparing texts for freelancers, populating translation memories and supporting the Account Managers with administrative and marketing duties as well as with recruitment processes. In addition, I contributed to the company website by translating some of its pages into Italian and I was given the unique possibility of participating in a SDL Trados 2009 training session, which presented me the functionalities of the software’s latest release.

All the Account Managers have been keen to show me the different aspects of working in a translation agency. Each of them has contributed to enriching my translation background and to strengthening my professional skills. Their dedication and genuine passion for translation will definitely serve me as a model for the future. I was also extremely impressed with the enthusiasm with which all clients’ queries were dealt with and with the Account Managers’ promptness in helping each other in order to complete each task on time. In addition, they have always been very patient and helpful whenever I asked questions and have given me precious suggestions about my career development.

Thanks to this experience I also discovered the multitude of career options that translation offers and that I had never considered before. This work placement has reinforced my ambition to pursue a career in the translation industry and has trained me to exploit in a practical context my knowledge of translation theories, for which I cultivate an immense interest. I have also learnt how important an eye for detail is in this profession and how selective an Account Manager must be when assigning translation projects to translators. This experience has been very intense and instructive and I am very grateful to The Translation People for laying the groundwork for my professional growth.

Anna Chiara

Anna Chiara thoroughly enjoyed her time with the Birmingham team is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

Much of the company’s focus in recent months has centred around our impending QA audit and the impending ISO certification. Here, our Quality Manager, Jasmin Schneider, describes the aims, challenges and importance of the accreditation.

Q. Why are The Translation People embarking on this process?

A. The fundamental aim of the process is to continuously improve our service. By implementing and formalising a process which focuses on our response to client needs, we are able to ensure that our service is completely in line with current requirements in the industry and the needs of our clients.

Q. What challenges have you faced in implementing the policy?

A. After the initial assessment we realised that our processes were fit for purpose, but they were not documented in accordance with the requirements of the ISO standard. It has been challenging to get all the paperwork in place but luckily our staff are highly organised and by working together we were able to overcome this challenge well within the set timeframe.

Q. What does the process involve?

A. We have had to standardise our processes across all offices through written procedures and Work Instructions. Extensive training has been carried out by the QA team to ensure all members of staff are aware of the aims of the Quality Management System and all the individual elements contained within it. The QA system is reviewed by the senior management team every month, and a review of our KPIs is undertaken during the same review meeting. An initial audit is booked in for the start of October and the full audit will take place at the end of the following month.

Q. Why is it important?

A. Aside from the inherent improvement to our service that the process will generate, it is important for our company to have the accreditation so that our clients know that their projects will be handled in a professional way in line with established quality standards.

The Translation People and ISO is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

The Translation People’s Manchester office recently relocated to new offices in South Manchester to support the company’s growth. With two new positions having been created in the company’s business development department and a huge increase in new clients in 2010, the new offices will give us a platform to continue our growth well into next year and beyond.

Steve Wilde, Managing Director of The Translation People, explains: “Our Manchester headquarters is driving international growth, as well as helping us to build solid working relationships with locally-based businesses that are seeking a global voice. The new offices give us the facilities we need to continue our growth.”

The Translation People’s Head Office has moved to larger premises! is a post from: The Translation People - Blog