[:en]Here are a few points comparing the difference between working on the vendor side and the client side of localization which might be helpful for you to get a better idea about the localization industry:
- Processes: It can be quite flexible on the vendor side. You can customize processes which are already in place to meet your clients’ needs. while on the client side, it’s not quite the case. It can be heavily process-driven as Colleen mentioned in article Project Management in Language Services: Vendor vs Client . Usually you have to follow processes which can’t be changed easily.
- Mentality: Working on the vendor side, you might constantly feel being pushed by your client, and therefore want to be trusted by them. Yet if you are working on the client side, you pay money and have expectations for the services and product. What you concerned most might be whether you can get the best possible from your vendor.
- Requirement: Working on the client side, it’s you who develop requirements and expectations. While on the vendor sides, you would have to try your best to meet those requirements. It’s like in salsa that one side is the lead and the other side is the follower.
- Relations with the linguists: If you are working on the vendor side, you have more direct contact with linguists, freelance translators. You work more closely with them and therefore have more control over the inner process, but if you work on the client side, usually you won’t be able to reach to translator directly and will rely on the vendor to deliver you message.
- Workflow: Speaking of the life cycle of a localization product, if you are on the client side, your work is very likely to be concentrated mostly on the very beginning and final part of a localization workflow. While on the vendor side, your work will heavily be concentrate on the main body of a localization workflow, like file pre, TEP, DTP and etc..
- Position: If we view the localization cycle as a food chain, you are more of an upstream if you are on the client side. You select vendors, you decide on the standards and develop requirements. If you are on the vendor side, you are more of downstream. You receive file from clients and pass it down to linguists. Then at the end of the project, you will often receive feedbacks from the client.
References:
Project Management in Language Services: Vendor vs Client
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