Capacity in General – Who We Are?

Posted On: 2/15/2019

Capacity in General – Who We Are?

In reality, language solutions can be more than simply described in any paper. So, this makes it a bit difficult to simply put who we really are as a translation agency operating since 2002. In the following paragraphs, you will find my attempt to describe our identity in this regard.

To do this, I’d like to use the concept “capacity”.  So, my question is "What are the elements of our capacity to offer language services?". 

I suggest that three factors may put a limit on our capacity: management, vendors and automation.

Management

The tasks related to project management are carried out by the project managers. So, our short-run capacity will be dependent on number/quality of the project managers. Even though the digital automation increases productivity, human factor is essential in project management for language services. To raise management capacity, we need to invest on new project managers.

Vendors - Key Capacity

Regarding Turkish language, around 50 specialized vendors have been working in our regular Turkish team. They are a fine selection of self-proven freelancers with whom we are collaborating for long such as the language consultants specialized in diversified types of projects, the simultaneous interpreters, the video transcribers, the dubbing actors and the studios. Our dedicated project managers have collaborated with this core capacity in thousands of projects so far. This part of Alafranga is more like a traditional translation company.

Vendors - Additional Capacity

If the technical level is compelling, we collaborate with the professionals to satisfy the engineers, the lawyers, the practitioner, the managers etc. who will be our clients.

We turn to our Additional Capacity in particular to identify the highly specialized technical translators. Around 4000 freelancers are registered in our Vendor Community Platform (as we call it "King Road").

As a sole user, this platform has been in application since 2010. It is our private property because we originally designed it.  Our database is live and updated, because the certified users have right to modify their details any time.

Our project managers can:

 o   quickly match the vendors in terms of technical & financial feasibility,

 o   quickly review the scores and project history of each vendors,

 o   quickly submit invitation notifications to the selected vendors,

 o   quickly monitor the other determinants and run testing procedures etc.

This part of Alafranga is more like an around-the-world global translation company.

Technology - Capacity Beyond

In addition to our human capacity, the specialized automation technologies that we are able to use put a limit on our capacity. For example, we may not support some file formats. I am thinking the automation systems are also a part of our capacity, because they raise the productivity of the project managers and language consultants.

Conclusion
Capacity has limitations. Our key capacity represents a traditional core whereas our Additional Capacity represents our extra capacity, indicating a new adaptation to the modern requirements.

Based on thousands of the projects that we have accomplished so far, our experience since 2002 plays significant role in understanding the facts of the demanding tasks in terms of technical and financial feasibility.

Author: Volkan Güvenç 
General Coordinator 
at Alafranga Language Solutions