How To Reduce Your Localization Cost by Up To 40%: 30-minute Speed Primer For Translation Buyers

This is another little masterpiece from Robert Kloiber at Academy Translations in Australia.

The guide is 16 pages long, and like the other one (the guide to technical writing for translation), it is well-written and easy to understand for persons of any level of technical sophistication. It is a superb overview and learning tool for end customers, agencies and translators on how to approach the process of localization and what one's expectations should be. There are a few gaps in the current version - for me most notably the no mention of test scripts for reviewers to follow when checking an interface (as opposed to automated test scripts) and nothing about virtual machines as a testing environment - but all the information presented is spot on for establishing effective, efficient localization procedures and saving time and money. Translators who are considering getting into localization or localization consulting should have a careful look at this. (I won't get into the marketing issues involved in this - that's another can of worms.)

Robert tells me that he has other useful guides, which will be released "on a drip feed" on his blog (which is a work in progress at the moment). If they are of this quality, they are worth watching for!