Part 3: Three reasons why spend visibility is critical when sourcing translation services

Armand Brevig 25 Sep 2020 4 min read
Maggy Heimer

In this five part series, Armand Brevig, Managing Director of Procurement Cube, offers his thoughts on how procurement professionals can maximize their impact when sourcing global translation services.

In my previous article I talked about the importance of engaging with your stakeholders to understand and optimize the content journey. But how do you identify all the relevant stakeholders? As I mentioned in my first article, translation spend tends to be fragmented. So, in large organizations stakeholders are often scattered across the business.

 
To find out who these stakeholders are, you need to follow the money. That’s why analyzing and understanding your translation spend is so important. If you can find out which cost centers incur the spend, you will know who to talk to. 
 
But that’s not quite as simple as it sounds. Translation spend tends to hide within project spend. And to complicate matters further, translation spend is often inconsistently coded and named. The good news, however, is that you don’t need 100% spend accuracy. 80% will do, and you can get to that point by following these simple 3 steps:
  1. Run spend reports against the various translation related codes you have identified so far. Then also run a report against the names of the top 20 translation agencies in the world.
  2. Talk to the cost center owners who incurred the spend you identified in step 1. Find out if they know about other parts of the business that use translation services which your spend reports did not pick up.
  3. Reach out to those additional stakeholders identified in step 2 and anyone else you suspect could be using translation services.
 
Spend analysis not only informs you who the stakeholders are, it’s also an essential component when building a business case for your translation sourcing initiative. Management will want to know whether the sourcing project is worth the effort and what benefits can be expected. You can only provide a credible assessment of those benefits if: (a) you know the total spend; and (b) you have had discussions with key stakeholders about how the content journey can be optimized.
 
At some point you will also need to let the translation vendors you invited to the Request For Proposal (RFP) know what the spend is. They need to know whether it’s worth the effort of putting a bid in. They also need to know how the spend breaks down by your functional business areas to help them assess whether they have the expertise to support those areas. Translating for the legal department, for example, requires different skills than translating for the marketing department.
 
The larger the spend, the more attractive the opportunity is going to be for suppliers. However, be careful not to exaggerate. As I explain in my conversation with Jane Freeman in the video clip below, unrealistic expectations undermine the creation of a trusting and strong business relationship.
 
So, there you have it. 3 reasons why analyzing and understanding your translation spend is important:
  1. To identify all key stakeholders;
  2. To build a business case for the sourcing project;
  3. To allow suppliers to assess the opportunity and their capabilities to meet your needs.
 
Visit How to Buy Translation Services for more information, or read Part 4 in the series when we look at how to get ensure quality in your translation services. And if you'd like to learn more about this topic, why not watch RWS's Jane Freeman interview Armand, where they discuss best practices to help you avoid costly mistakes.