Roles are often unclear. In-country reviewers are usually not dedicated to proofreading translations. Folks in charge of managing their company's translation efforts do so on top of an already-full work schedule. To make matters worse, clients and vendors often do not see eye to eye. This lack of planning and communication causes delays and cost overruns, especially in environments that demand rapid product deployment and are faced with fast-changing technology requirements.
Services provided are often sketchy, leading to expensive and time-consuming change orders.
There is no standard format for quoting translation projects. There is no one easy way to solving all translation problems. Nevertheless, proper planning, communication, and vendor selection will drastically reduce stress, improve turnaround time, and keep translation costs manageable. The solutions presented here are not intended to be all-inclusive. They will not be appropriate to every company in every situation.