We were hired by a company specialized in exporting certain agricultural products; they needed to translate their corporate brochure from Spanish into English. During the preliminary exchange to establish the style and terminology to be used, they mentioned that –apart from the brochure– they were putting together a presentation video, which they wanted to be bilingual (Spanish and English). Although we had been contacted only for the brochure, due to the fact it was urgent because it had to go to press, we made them see that if we tackled both tasks as a single project, it would be easier for us to get entirely into the subject and reduce costs, taking into account the volume of this project. In this case the translation memory –that allows to obtain automatically the translation of a text with a 100% accuracy – would provide us all the benefits that we use to obtain from this type of automation, as the communication style that is used in a text written on a sheet of paper differs from that of the audiovisual media. But the time invested in trying to grasp the corporate identity they wanted to communicate, and in the study of the subject and the terminology to be used, in order to put all that knowledge in a greater volume of words in the short term, would necessarily rebound into a greater productivity that would facilitate the cost reduction. Of course, we take into account the benefits provided by the glossaries and the translation memories for the tasks that this same client still wants us to carry out, with the resulting impact in quality and costs. But always a greater volume in the short term makes the impact more evident.
