What Is Client Review?

Client review is offered to the client as a step in the translation process to help catch consistency, terminology, and translation issues prior to delivery of the project. During the client review process, your in-house or contract reviewer has the opportunity to assess the completed translation and make any changes necessary to accommodate your specific terminology needs.  

 

Typically, client review is done after translation, which is an early step in the timeline of a project. It can be done again after a document has been translated, formatted and proofread, but this comes later in the project timeline. This second review step allows a client’s reviewer final control on both translation and document appearance.

 

Client review is a complimentary service provided to our clients, as long as it takes place immediately after the translation step. If the client review takes place after formatting, there may be additional fees involved in updating the translation memory and inserting the changes into the final formatted document.

 

A qualified reviewer should be a native-speaker of the target language and have a solid grasp of the English language. It can be someone who works directly for your company, or a contractor who has in-depth knowlegde of the industry and has been hired for this specific task. This individual understands the topic of the translation from your company’s point of view and can offer suggestions to enhance the translated document by customizing it to match your company’s terminology.

 

The reviewer will be sent a user name and password to log in to our U‑Proof system. U‑Proof is an online tool developed by The Geo Group that allows reviewers to edit translated text in a two-column format. A Quick Start Guide and video tutorial are available on the main U‑Proofpage under the GeoSoft section of our website. Keep in mind that client review is not a license to rewrite the source document or change the style of the document. Heavy editing during client review often introduces grammatical errors into the document and also disrupts consistency in terminology. If your reviewer finds him/herself making many changes to a document, we encourage you to contact your Geo Group project manager so that any problems can be discussed and dealt with in an efficient and timely manner. To download a PDF guide and/or watch the helpful U‑Proof tutorial, please click on this link: www.thegeogroup.com/help/uproof_howto.php.

 

The Geo Group offers client review as a free service to ensure that your company’s preferred terminology is being used in your translated documentation. Our translators are native speakers of the target language who carry degrees and in some cases are accredited by nationally recognized associations. Some of these degrees or accreditations are in translation and linguistics; however, we choose translators and editors that also specialize in your field of interest. When we deliver a file for review, you can be assured that it will be a technically sound translation. Of course, there is a generic glossary of terms that is used in every aspect of any industry, but often there are many ways to express the same word or idea. For example, the word “boss” could easily be interchanged with “supervisor,” “manager,” “lead,” etc. This may or may not be an important difference, but letting your reviewer analyze the translation before it is delivered gives you the opportunity to make those revisions and express your preferences.

 

Your in-house reviewer most likely has a full day’s worth of job responsibilities to deal with in addition to this new task. Giving your reviewer ample notice as to when they will receive the document for review may help him/her plan ahead for this task. Also, work with your Geo Group account executive to plan a schedule that will allow time for your reviewer to analyze the translation. Other clients have found that financial incentives for their in-house reviewers have ended their review woes. Clients that have chosen to pursue this option mostly do so with employees who review translations on a regular basis.

 

After every review, our translation team updates the translation memory that has been created especially for your company. This memory will be used for future projects to ensure that the same terminology is consistently used in all of your documentation. As projects continue, your reviewer should find that fewer and fewer changes need to be made because the corrected terminology is retained from past projects. This also allows a significant cost-savings feature to be applied to future translation projects.

 

Yes! Providing reference material at the beginning of a project will allow us to begin customizing your translation from the start of the job.  A fully translated and approved glossary of terms will also go a long way toward creating a smooth client review.

 

Anything that provides context for the document. Examples of reference material include:

 

For software projects:

 

The Geo Group also offers editing, which some clients choose to add to a project in place of a client review. During an edit, a separate translator who specializes in the subject matter will review the text to enhance word choice and phrasing. It is always helpful to have a second set of eyes review a document, in any situation.

 

If a client has a project that entails only translation and editing, then the final step is to package and deliver the reviewed and corrected text to the client in a format that is easily accessible. If there are other services required, such as formatting, then those services are carried out after client review. As soon as all applicable services have been completed, The Geo Group will package and deliver all of the documents and files specified.