Reviewers for localized materials - are they required?

[Kwiatkowski Richard (ST-VS/DOC-La)]

We also send our material to a translation firm, and for the most part they do an excellent job. We are fortunate to have sales offices in many countries and we send the localized documents to a proofreader in each country for their review. The upside to this strategy is that the proofreaders are knowledgable about our technology and industry (my experience is that many translators are not technologically savvy - but they do not have to be). The downside, however, is that the proofreader step usually adds a few weeks to the translation process and must be tracked closely to avoid bottlenecks and to prioritize projects. 


>With kind regards | mit freundlichen Grüßen | Met vriendelijke groeten
>	
Richard Kwiatkowski
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Richard Kwiatkowski
Bosch Security Systems
Senior Technical Writer (ST-VS/DOC-La3)
850 Greenfield Road - Lancaster PA 17601 - USA
Telephone: +1 (717) 735-6538   Fax: +1 (866) 429-5380
richard.kwiatkowski at us.bosch.com
www.boschsecuritysystems.com 


-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+richard.kwiatkowski=us.bosch.com at lists.techwr-l.com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+richard.kwiatkowski=us.bosch.com at lists.techwr-l.com] On Behalf Of Localization Question
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 7:40 AM
To: techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: Reviewers for localized materials - are they required?

My company localizes its software using a third-party firm. For the most 
part, the service and quality seems excellent. However, there have been a 
few glitches and imperfections. I am wondering if we should be using 
reviewers or editors, who are, of course, fluent in the relevant language, 
to improve the localized documentation. The localization firm does include a 
reviewer.

So, three questions:
1)  Does your company get linguistic experts, or any other sort of expert, 
to review localized materials?
2) Is it reasonable to simply trust the localization firm to be doing a good 
job? My colleagues and I have edited materials and caught the odd error, 
despite a complete lack of fluency.

3) If you do have additional reviewers, how did you get them and what is the 
relationship to your company?

Thanks.

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