The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has developed a pan Government agreement for translation services. This page gives three real world examples of the agreement in action and highlights its ability to save the Government money on translation projects.

On each occasion best results were achieved by talking through the project with K International's team of experts before it began. This will provide us with the opportunity to highlight were you can save money on your foreign language projects. In the case below the National Probation Service saved 75% by doing this.

K International's team of experts can be contacted on 01908 572600, by emailing info@k-international.com or via our contact page.

Mott MacDonald

This company is a building contractor responsible for project managing the refit of new detention centres on the North coast of France. Working on behalf of the Borders and Immigration Agency.

As part of the refit project Mott Macdonald needed huge volumes of English documents (forming part of the original building specifications) translated into French for use by the French architects and tradesmen.

The project consisted of a collection of 30 Microsoft word files and 150 AutoCAD drawings, 150,000 words of technical translation in total.

As this was a Government backed project, Mott Macdonald was able to use the pan Government agreement for translation services.

This resulted in;

• a 60% saving on their translation costs
• access to K International’s technical translation unit
• a turnaround time of 4 weeks
• free project management and formatting
• translation memories saved and available for future projects

Being a low cost provider does not mean that quality of service will suffer. After the project this is what the Borders and Immigration said about us.

“ May I take this opportunity to let you know that we (Garry Calder of Mott McDonald and I) are very pleased about the level of service currently being provided by your Company. Charline Thénié (our project manager) is very professional and polite in her manner, she always interrogates and requests the context of each translation. The translations produced are technically excellent. ”

HM Prison Service

In partnership with the HM Prison Service we have developed a solution that allows a cost saving and better understanding of their foreign language material.

This takes the form of providing audio versions of induction and support material in 12 languages including English. This is played to (as opposed to read by) inmates on their first few days at a prison. The information gained in this process helps to improve the inmates understanding of how the prison operates.

The audio recording (picture below shows K International’s recording studio) was procured using the Office of Government Commerce’s pan Government agreement for translation services, by using collaborative procurement on this project it saved 25% on costs.

Making information more understandable and accessible to all people means that savings are delivered later on in the process as costs such as Interpreting or Telephone Interpreting are not as high. The Prison Service found that a better understanding of a prisoner's environment is better for everyone. After the project was completed we received the following feedback.

“ … the CDs you produced for us have been highlighted as best practice ... thank you very much for all your help… Since we have had audio versions of our induction material we have been able to make significant savings on telephone interpreting. ”

National Probation Service

The National Probation Service rehabilitates offenders given community sentences and those released from prison. The very delicate and important work that they do must be supported by a reliable translation service.

The first project that we were asked to produce consisted of translating 15 leaflets on subjects such as Aggression Replacement Training and Enhanced Thinking Skills into 8 languages.

On sight of the leaflets K International converted them all to a format that meant that they could easily be put through the translation process. This was done free of charge. This meant that the documents could be translated 75% cheaper than our nearest competitor.

After the project was completed we received very positive feedback, included below.

“ You have no idea how much K International is being praised right now, we have had nothing but bad experiences with translation companies who have never asked questions just assumed, which isn't good. I'm impressed with K International and word of mouth does go a long way. ”

All Services

Don’t forget that the pan Government agreement for translation services has been designed to allow the production of many other related services such as; Braille, Large Print, EasyRead, Voice-overs, Cultural Understanding, Proofreading and Design services.

If you work for the UK Government or work on a UK Government project and want to benefit from this arrangement contact K International’s Government team on 01908 572600, email info@k-international.com or use our contact page.