India has taken the initiative in offering outsourcing solutions and has provided an extensive range of outsourcing services to countries around the world for the past couple of decades. Outsourcing to India is these days seen as the world’s principle outsourcing solution.

The country has a large pool of educated, technically skilled, English speaking workers that increases in number every year. Utilizing these workers has allowed India to provide value for money services that of are of an equal quality to those available anywhere else.

They use the latest software, technology and infrastructure and they have shown themselves to be technically superior when compared to other nations that supply outsourcing solutions.

Outsourcing to India is an option for a whole range of services, examples being: software development; data entry; communications; transcription; internet marketing; content creation.

When deciding on an outsourcing company, the following should be considered: track record; references; stability; credentials; samples; communication.

– Track Record. Learn everything you can about the outsource partner’s experience, the various types of companies that they have provided services for, and the number of assignments that they have completed successfully. Find out if they have particular experience in delivering the required services at the scale that your business needs.

– References. Before finalizing an agreement with an outsource company, request that they provide some references. These will allow you to find out more about the level of quality in the services that they offer, how timely their deliveries are, and what their customer support services are like. They will also give you an insight into issues such as their level of responsibility and turnaround time.

– Stability & Credentials. Ensure that an outsourcing company is secure financially. It is also worth finding out about their managers and directors (Are they well qualified? What experience do they have?).

– Samples. Viewing samples gives you a good insight into an outsourcing company’s technical expertise and quality of output. They allow you make certain that the service provider fully understands what you require and if they have the right people, processes and technology to handle your project.

– Communication. Ensure that potential service providers can communicate well in English and check what hours and days they will be available to contact and by what methods of communication.

More : India Outsourcing – A Free Guide

Many experts believe that a successful supply chain management is based on the efficient logistics inventory management of inventories and inventory control. Different industries manage their inventories in a different way. Certainly, different companies incur varying inventory costs depending on the inventory management they employ. This is a very crucial understanding because these will influence your decision whether you want a large or small inventory.

 

In a way, food companies are quick to embrace a logistics inventory management strategies to reduce costs compared with the agribusiness industry. Almost two decades ago, several food manufacturers and grocers launched the Efficient Consumer Response to divert their concentration from controlling logistical costs to examining supply chains.

 

The industry also realized then the importance of customer service as a crucial competitive differentiation point for firms which are focused on value creation for end consumers. Learning to characterize inventories into two distinct categories, such as cost reduction and improving customer service for the system to be effective.

 

The idea is to have a balance of inventories and solve the problem of maintaining a large inventory (which can lead to huge expenses) as against having too little inventory (which can also result to lost sales).

 

Most companies believe that reductions in inventory could result to reduction in costs in supply chain management. A significant drop in inventory costs have been reported by many companies since 1982 totalling 60% reduction, as well as a 20% drop in hauling costs. Because of the experience in cost reduction, many companies have resorted to push for inventory-reduction strategies in their supply line. But first, these companies must understand the principles of an effective logistical strategy, such as product demand, inventory costs, and supply chain capabilities.

 

For an effective logistics inventory management strategy, a company must use one of the three general approaches to management inventory. The first step is to watch inventory levels, including the most commonly used inventory control approach used by most retailers. Also, most manufacturers are focused in maintaining their production sechedule and flow management to monitor inventories. Third, a number of firms (for the most part those processing raw materials or in extractive industries) do not actively manage inventory.

Because of globalisation it is becoming more important for organizations that operate internationally to canvas opinion across a number of geographic regions.

The English language may have established itself as the world’s preferred business language but it would be nevertheless naive for those who speak English as a native to jump to the assumption that communicating in English is always the best solution.

There are a number of online survey websites that to some degree offer multi-lingual facilities and some that can even offer comprehensive multi-lingual facilities at no additional charge, but before embarking on what can be a very rewarding path there are many considerations that should be taken on board to ensure that when published the survey is presented professional in all your target languages.

Language Ability

A person who is quite confident and comfortable with conversational English may not be so confident, or even have the ability, when it comes to reading English and often, words used in conversational English differ to those used when English is written.

If the intention is to seek good intelligence it is important to appreciate that despite the great strides that many people make in learning English as a second language it is one thing to speak English and quite another to really understand the language.

If a significant number of your potential respondents are not native, but nevertheless English speaking, consider the level to which they generally speak and understand English.

Although English is used here as an example the same applies for languages such as Spanish, French and Portuguese whose historical reach is similar to that of English.

Machine Translation

Anyone who has had any experience of using a machine language translator will have probably already discovered the limitations of such facilities; language is simply too complex for many of the publically available automated language translators.

A simple test you can conduct to prove the point is to take a sentence and translate it using a machine translator from English to the target language and then take that translation and translate it back to English.

Not only are you likely to experience the problems associated with machine translators but you are also likely to begin to appreciate that it may also be an example of the type of confused meaning that those learning English could equally experience.

Human translators

For serious translation human involvement is essential so that the correct meaning of the question is conveyed but it is paramount to ensure that the person who is tasked with the translation is comfortable in both the translated and translation language.

Take the following which is has been reproduced verbatim from the back of a Chinese bootleg DVD.

Vincent LaMarca job is to arrest kieelers, but this job is different. The suspect he is tracking is his own son. He a cop, LaMarca must tring the acclised to Justice. As a Pather, he must find wining actoce Robert De Niro, Frances Mc Dernad and James Franco. De Nice memorably plays LaMarca, burdened by tragedy and his failings as a father…and now putting his life on the line to do by his family and profession. “Do Nino has been sawing us greet stutt for30 years bou. But in this movie he shows us something nes.” The San Fancisce Chroniole Mick La’s Mick LaSalle wrote. Put another way: a greet actor rederines his greatness in City by the Sea.

In the above translation it is obvious that in some places a phonetic translation has been made and in actual fact the description of the movie as a whole is sufficient to convey the correct meaning, the main problem in this example is more to do with the spelling than the grammar and sentence structure.

Although perhaps an amusing example for someone who speaks English as a native it is in fact a good example of the problems and complexity associated with translations in general. It would be justifiable to surmise that the person responsible for the example translation is probably regarded locally as an expert.

The example is a Chinese attempt at an English translation, but their experiences should also be seen as a warning to the possible consequences of producing poor translations from one language into another and also the importance of ensuring that the person who is charged with the translation is properly qualified to translate and that the final translation is, where possible, independently verified.

Qualities of a good translator

Finding a well qualified translator can sometimes be further complicated depending on the subject matter of the survey. If the subject of a survey is related to a specialised field it can be of greater importance that the person responsible for the translation has some basic knowledge of the survey subject or there will be a risk that the translator will not fully understand what it is they are translating and, if the specialised field is technical or scientific, it may even be outside the scope of a well qualified translator.

Ambiguity

Even for single language surveys ambiguity can be a major concern, for multiple language surveys ambiguity can be one of the biggest obstacles to translation. Ambiguity should be minimized by ensuring that the source survey is made as clear as possible.

Ambiguity is not always obvious and can sometimes only come to light on a second or third reading, or by two people interpreting the same question differently. Sometimes the ambiguity of a question can go unnoticed and can lead to respondents answering a different question to that intended by the survey’s author resulting in flawed results that could be misleading and confusing.

Regional Differences

There are many regional differences even between English speaking countries. Although the differences between British English and American English are well publicised and can often be the subject of humour, they can also represent a major problem. Take for example the word ‘pants’, in British English the word ‘pants’ is interchangeable with ‘underwear’ whereas in American English pants refer to what the British would call ‘trousers’.

Surveys that are to be published across two or more dialects of the same language will need to address all differences and when translating a survey into a non-English language the person responsible for the translation must be fluent in the dialect of the English that they are translating, a British translation from a French source may be very different to what a US translator would do.

If it is accepted that there are in fact significant and potently problematic differences between established dialects of the same language consider the potential extent of differences between two very different languages.

A few online survey websites have the facility to cope with surveys where a same language dialect exists and will allow a single survey to be offered to a respondent, for example, as English/British, English/US, English/Canadian.

Dates

In the English speaking countries the convention of how dates are written differs, in simple terms those countries that historically have a British influence might write 5-July-2009 as 5/7/2009 whereas those countries that have an American influence may write the same date as 7/5/2009.

Although a survey can indicate the desired format, i.e. either by requesting the date to be written as ‘dd/mm/yyyy’ or ‘mm/dd/yyyy’ do not underestimate the human desire to always write a date in their own preferred format.

To some the problem of a respondent not writing a date in the required format may be firmly that of the respondent however, if the intention is to collate good intelligence then it is in the survey publisher’s interest to identify and then minimise any potential problem.

Because of a globalised workforce it is not even safe to make the assumption that if a survey is to be published in a particular country that the national convention will prevail. If a survey is conducted in a metropolitan city respondents are likely to be from different nationalities and may consciously or sub-consciously revert to type; in most cases the best solution is to always request dates to be either selected from a pop up calendar or written in full – i.e. 5 July 2009 where there can then be no question as to the actual date entered.

Clean eyes

Proof reading is very much a skill, the ability to force the mind to read what has been written and not what was intended is a difficult skill to master. A simple example of this is when people are asked to count the number of ‘F’s in the following sentence:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF MANY YEARS.

The answer is six but most people on first reading will usually answer between three or four.

It is recommended that when a survey is to be offered in more than one language that where practical, each translation is verified by more than one qualified person. Where resources are scarce then it would be advisable to have the person responsible for the translation to at least proof read the translation again after they have taken a reasonable break.

A good proof reader in any language will be looking to:

 

• Correct spelling mistakes and typos
• Correct grammatical errors
• Ensure that questions are clear and succinct

In addition to the basic proof reading requirements those responsible for translating surveys should also be able to confirm that the translation is tailored to the translated language and the question being asked is as close to the original as is possible.

Localization

When a survey is to be published across national borders consideration should be given to both the question and answer options. In particular care should be taken where reference is made to monetary values, unit of measures and if manufacturers and/or their products are referred to ensure that they do have a presence in the local country and that they use the same product name.

The Benefits

On considering some of the potential problems discussed here for publishing multi-language surveys it may deter some to offer multiple translations and to instead decree that all surveys will for simplicity be published in English, (or the dominant language).

It would be difficult to generalise as to the best decision but if the opinion being gathered is important then the quality of the intelligence is likely to improve if respondents are asked the question and allowed to answer in their native tongue.

Facilities

Many of the online survey websites support non-English surveys, a large number of those also support the survey’s system messages and control buttons to be displayed in the local languages and a few will even provide a solution to allow multiple translations of the same survey.